Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Swim of Things ❯ Chapter 23 ( Chapter 23 )

The Swim of Things

By

Ret Nuh

 

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It was the end of August and Coach Kirika Kumara was standing next to the school's pool. She had her coaching swimsuit on, a stopwatch in her hand, and a whistle hanging around her neck. The administration for the regulation of school athletics had changed their decision on captain's practices and now schools were allowed to start official practices a week before school started. While this was big and welcomed news for the coach she really wished they had made this decision a while ago. They just sprung it on everyone last week and there was no way she was going to be able to pull her team together in that short of time.

 

The first people she knew were going to be missing was all the ones that went off to various swim camps as this was the last week for most of them. And since she was the one who pushed those girls to attend those camps, some of which cost good money, there was no way she was going to call any of them back. That was a fifth of her squad gone right there. Then when you factored in that this was a popular time for family vacations the number of girls dropped even more. And finally you had the girls that were still working at their summer jobs, that in itself took another chunk of girls out of the equation. (A/N: This is not as weird as it sounds. It happened to me my junior year of high school. I was sitting on my ass enjoying a week of doing nothing before soccer started and my coach called me up out of the blue and told me to get to practice because we were allowed to start a week early.)

 

Right now as she was standing there with a whistle pursed between her lips she didn't even have half the squad in front of her. And as if that wasn't bad enough she was missing the most important part of the impromptu captain's practice. Her actual captain. “So are you sure you don't know where Asuka is?” the coach asked a sleepy Rei who was just sitting at the side of the pool dangling her feet in the water.

 

Rei shook her head no. “I asked Misato but all she told me was that Shinji and her left early this morning and they wouldn't be back till some time Friday evening.” Rei then let out a big yawn as she was so very tired. She didn't get home till late last night and the last thing she wanted to do right now was swim. But being she was one of the seniors on the team she knew she would have to show up. Sometimes responsibility was a pain in the ass.

 

Coach Kumara looked over at Hikari “She didn't tell you where she was going either?”

 

“Nope” Hikari answered. “I got the distinct impression she doesn't want anyone to know where Shinji and her were headed off to.”

 

“I wonder if that's why she has been dodging me the last couple days I tried to call her?”

 

“Most likely” Hikari told her coach. Truthfully this morning was the first time she had heard that Asuka was going to be gone too. She got an email explaining that Shinji and her were going to go on a little trip together and that she should pass along a sorry to the coach for her but apparently the plans for this trip had been made a month ago and they couldn't back out of it now. She also mentioned that she didn't bring her phone along with her so there was no point in trying to call her.

 

“Well since you're the one in front of me right now” the coach said looking straight at Hikari “you're the new captain for now.”

 

“Ok” Hikari said as she figured this was going to happen. “But I have to leave early tomorrow and Thursday for work and I probably will be late for the afternoon practices on both those days too.”

 

“Fine” and since Rei was sitting there “Then you can be captain when Hikari's not around.”

 

“Sorry but that won't work” Rei told her yawning again. “I'm only going to be able to make the morning practices this week. I have to work in the afternoons.” Technically that was not going to be true for Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons but she had already made plans for those afternoons and she wasn't going to change them now. On one of them she was going to go visit her beach and on the next she was going to go out shopping with Misato for some new school clothing and supplies. And maybe a trashy romance novel or two if she found some that she liked at the book store.

 

The coach let out a little “Damn” and then looked for another one of the seniors. “Hey Kei. You going to be able to make it to all the practices this week.?”

 

“Yeah coach” she answered.

 

“Good. Then you're the captain when Hikari can't make it” she told the girl.

 

“Where's Asuka?” the girl asked. “Isn't that supposed to be her job?” If she didn't have to be she didn't really want to be the captain.

 

“Yes but apparently the little brat ran off with her boyfriend somewhere and won't be here this week” Coach Kumara answered.

 

“Fine then” Kei said taking the job. “But I wish my boyfriend would do something like that.” That comment wasn't really aimed at the coach or any of the other girls around actually. It was aimed at her boyfriend sitting in the stands as she personally thought that sounded like a really romantic thing to do.

 

With that all out of the way the coach yelled out “All right girls, everyone into the pool!” and swimming season was officially started up again.

 

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Even though the start of practice was a surprise it didn't stop boys from showing up and watching from the stands. It almost seemed like there were more of them up there this year to the coach. Then again it was like this at the start of every year. A lot the new boys were first years and there just to look at the girls. Eventually the number would dwindle down as they realized for the most part they didn't have a shot at any of the girls they were looking at. Along with that blow to the ego there was relatively little interaction allowed between the people in the stands and the girls swimming as the coach would throw a glare at anyone making too big of an nuisance of themselves at her practices.

 

But there were exceptions to this rule. There was Touji but he was gone right now as he was still working. You had the boyfriends of the girls on the team but in general they only talked to their girlfriends and didn't say much to the other girls. And then of course you had Kensuke. Just like last year he was there right up front and also like last year he was doing something that got the girls attention. But unlike last year it was the totally wrong attention as he was pissing some of them off right now. Funny thing about it though was it was not what he was saying but more along the lines of what he wasn't saying.

 

Originally Kensuke wasn't going to show up at practice at all but his place was too quiet and that kept distracting him. He wasn't able to concentrate on his studies and just needed someplace with some noise. So he went to swim practice where he knew there would be people. But he didn't show up at practice empty handed, he brought a couple study books with him. And right now he was going over one while he sat on the bench. Also right now one of the girls was flaunting herself right in front of him and growing madder with every second he didn't respond. She ended up stomping off angrily as the boy never even looked up from his book.

 

This was actually the fourth time this happened and it was starting to interrupt practice in some minor ways. The coach decided to put a stop to this odd little turn of events before it escalated to the point where some girl chewed him out. She walked over to the stands and called out “Aida.”

 

That snapped Kensuke out of his study daze and he looked down. “Yes Mrs. Kumara.”

 

“If your new style is to play hard to get, I got news for you. It isn't working” The coach said. “More than anything you are making my girls mad.”

 

Kensuke gave his old teacher a strange look as he said “Huh?” He didn't really understand what she was talking about.

 

“You know the girls are trying to get you to flirt with them like last year, right?” she asked.

 

“Oh… um sorry Mrs. Kumara, I guess I wasn't paying attention.”

 

Whatever he was reading must have been pretty damn interesting for that to be true and Coach Kumara asked to see it.

 

Kensuke passed the booklet he had down thru the bars. “I got a really good opportunity over the summer to get into Tokyo-4 University. If I can get qualifying grades on my entrance I'm almost definitely in.”

 

“Well congratulations” Mrs. Kumara told him. Remember, she was a teacher before she was a coach, and Kensuke was one of her old students so she was glad to see him succeeding. “Which of the colleges are you going to try and get into?”

 

“Engineering” Kensuke answered.

 

“Ok then you are going to want to concentrate mainly on the sciences and mathematics. Those are the most prominent subjects covered on those exams.” Like any student that came to her she was trying to give Kensuke a helping hand.

 

“Thanks” Kensuke responded as he was appreciative for the heads up. He then asked “Can you look at question three for me? I can't get what the back of the book says the answer is.”

 

“Sure” Mrs. Kumara responded and looked over the problem quickly. She was surprised at how high level his exam book was. Usually most of the students that took college exams didn't get to these kind of books till near the end, right before they were about to take their tests. “Where did you get this book from?”

 

“Rei.”

 

“Wow” Mrs. Kumara said shaking her head. “I always knew that girl was smarter than she let on… Well anyway I'm probably not the right teacher to help you with the high-level physics stuff. My degree was in History and Language. Why don't you go look for Mr. Fuchizaki, he specialized in the sciences when he was in college.”

 

“Thanks again Mrs. Kumara” Kensuke said and then asked. “You don't think he might be around right now?”

 

“Oh I'm sure he is, just look up in the teacher's office. More than likely he's going over his lesson plans for the start of school next week.” And with that Kensuke was off in search of some help. Coach Kumara gave him one final wish of good luck in his efforts and went back to her girls.

 

But as she was walking back a couple of them came up to her. “You didn't tell him he had to leave, did you?”

 

Coach Kumara chuckled to herself a bit as that came out sounding pretty sad. Kensuke might have been a more integral part of some of these girls' egos than he thought. “No, he just needed a little help with a physics question. I'm sure he'll be coming back soon enough.” The coach then said something that made some of them mad “But you girls are going to have to lay off him. He's got a hard road ahead of him so he needs to study.”

 

The coach then walked off and went back to timing some of the girls as they swam. The same girl that asked her if she chased off Kensuke then went up to Rei. “You ruined our hentai!”

 

“What?” Rei asked lost as this didn't make an ounce of sense to her.

 

“Well before you became friends with him he used to be all flirty and stuff” the girl explained. “But now he's all serious about school and isn't as much fun to play with anymore.”

 

It was at times like this that Rei really couldn't understand her fellow teenagers. She gave out a questioning sorry and returned to swimming as she did not know where this girl was coming from.

 

Hikari on the other hand did and went over to talk with the girls. Basically she told them this was the way it was going to be and not to blame Rei. It wasn't her fault and what Kensuke was doing was because he wanted to.

 

Those girls didn't like to be told that as for a teenager change was a bad thing and it was clear that their hentai really had changed. He was the rare safe kind of hentai too. He never said anything too crass, most of the time what he said was flattering, if you didn't feel like it that day he would stop with the comments if you asked him to, and best of all he wasn't some creepy looking dude you had to worry about as he was all talk and no action. That last part was probably the biggest thing that got him allowed to do the things he did in the past. He was a safe guy to be around as he respected women an awful lot.

 

All this combined together to form a weird situation. The coach ended up being wrong about what she said, playing hard to get was working in his favor romantically wise even if he wasn't purposely doing it. Then again maybe it was because he wasn't doing it on purpose that a couple girls started thinking they may want to get to know Kensuke Aida a little better. After all Kensuke flirting may have been a good thing and if one of those girls could get him to only flirt with her exclusively that might be even better. Sort of a bragging rights thing. Plus there were girls thinking about the future now. Kensuke seemed to have a bright one if what he said was true and that may have influenced a thought or two.

 

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Asuka felt bad about ditching practice so she and Shinji came home from their private vacation a little early and she attended the last part of afternoon practice on Friday. She was immediately met with a “Well, well, well if it isn't my delinquent captain. You better have a very good excuse for skipping out on me this week young lady.” She also went after Shinji. “And you too.” The coach had gotten very used to someone else cleaning up after the girls and writing down the numbers as she timed them. Going back to the old ways was not a welcomed experience to her.

 

“I am really, really, really, sorry coach” Asuka started as she knew she was in for it. It didn't take much thinking to realize the coach might be a little disappointed in her. “But the thing is Shinji and I made these plans a while ago… Even before I knew we were going to have practice this week.”

 

“And you couldn't reschedule?” the coach asked.

 

Asuka shook her head no. “Shinji and I couldn't afford much so we did one of those econo-class vacations. It was strictly no refund no reschedule. I really did try but the travel agency kept telling me no.”

 

“Ok I will accept that explanation” Coach Kumara said. She wasn't going to be too hard on her captain as this was a surprise to everyone. And because Asuka did say that she tried to accommodate and change the date of her vacation she got complete forgiveness. She also got asked “So where did you two go?” as the coach was curious.

 

“Well we wanted to go someplace to relax before school got started up and all so we went over to one of those hot springs resort in Kawaguchiko” Asuka explained.

 

“My family and I have done that before” Kumara said. “The views of Mt. Fuji from that town are beautiful… and those hot springs are to die for.”

 

“Tell me about it” Asuka said thinking back to her experiences. “The whole time I was there I was thinking I don't ever want to leave.”

 

“I can understand that” Coach Kumara said with a understanding smirk. “But that does leave me with another question. What have you been feeding that boyfriend of yours? He seems taller this year.”

 

“That's because he is” Asuka smiled with a smile that indicated she was very happy of that fact. As for Shinji he hemmed and hawed as he blushed. He still found questions like that a trifle bit embarrassing. “Isn't it awesome!?”

 

“I'm sure to you it is” Coach Kumara answered sort of uneasily. It was obviously the relationship between her captain and her team manager had grown leaps and bounds since last season. She had detected this first during the summer with how close the two seemed to be but after learning they just went on a private vacation together she knew what they were doing. “Just be very careful with how you show you're happy ok?” she added on. “I don't want to have another accident that makes me never to trust another manager again, ok you two?”

 

“You don't have to worry about that” Asuka answered with a little blush and while talking quieter. She knew the other girls on the team were trying to listen in and she wasn't too keen on them hearing what she had to say about the matter. And it was obvious by Shinji's even redder reaction that neither was he.

 

The nervous reaction itself was enough to settle Coach Kumara's nerves but she liked what Asuka said next even more. “After more talking than I want to admit to the whole baby thing won't be an issue till I'm in my twenties, most likely late ones at that. So you don't have to worry as I'm still taking those monthly shots religiously.” Obviously there had been a breakthrough in that area but it was one that was placed far off into the future. And at this point in her life she wanted to keep it out front and not really talk about it.

 

“Good to hear” the coach said. “But I have one more question. Where's Horaki? She was supposed to be here today.”

 

“Wellll….. about that” Asuka said sort of pulling her coach even further away from the other girls. “This is a huge secret that you're not allowed to repeat.”

 

“Oh God. Please tell me that big lug of a boyfriend and her didn't go and do something like elope?” The coach was genuinely worried about this.

 

“Funny you should mention that” Asuka smirked while also whispering. “You know that Rei works in a really fancy restaurant?” The coach nodded her head yes to that. “Well about two months ago Touji went to her to get him reservations for the place. But he swore her to secrecy and she was absolutely not allowed to tell Hikari about it. The day he wanted was tonight.” Asuka stopped speaking for a second and looked over her shoulder, the girls were encroaching.

 

The other girls were devilishly interested in what was going on now. Asuka and the coach were being very secretive and they wanted to know why. Unfortunately they didn't get what they wanted. But what they did get was both their coach and the team captain to order a set of 4x4 sprints and to do it right now before that set got turned into a double set. There was much whining and grousing after that as Shinji took the stopwatch from the coach and proceeded to start the drill.

 

Asuka and her coach were then able to get back to the secret conversation. “Also Touji has been working a lot this summer trying to make as much money as he can. I mean I barely even saw him this summer. And then there's the fact the he has been going out shopping with Hikari's big sister quite a few times. I know for a fact that Hikari and her older sister have the same ring size as they wear each other's jewelry all the time. I'm not saying I know what's gonna happen it's just that when you add two and two most of the time you get four.”

 

“Wow” Coach Kumara said. “Can't say I'm totally surprised but still wow.”

 

“I know, I feel the same way. I mean I have been teasing her about all this for a while now but I didn't think it would actually happen before school started.”

 

“She's not going to drop out of the swim team or anything like that is she?” the coach asked.

 

Asuka shook her head no. “She probably isn't going to be around for this weekend's practices or anything but I doubt she'll do anything drastic. Even if Touji does propose to her tonight they're not going to actually get married till after they get out of high school.” And just because she knew the coach was thinking it she added on “And don't worry about babies. Yes Hikari wants a bunch of them but she has heard enough horror stories from her father about having babies and trying to go to college at the same time to wait until after she gets her degree.”

 

Now that was a huge relief to coach Kumara and she wiped some sweat off her brow. As responsible as Hikari looked and seemed to her she still wondered about that woman. She just looked like someone who wanted children.

 

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Asuka's reappearance worked out very well with Hikari's disappearance as she was right about Hikari not being around the next day. But someone else made their appearance on Saturday, Yuma. She was freshly back from her swimming camp and boy was it noticeable. It was so noticeable that it scared the life out of her. She beat Asuka in a fifty-yard sprint, kept up with her in a hundred, and was the closest to Asuka's time in the two hundred amongst all the other girls except Rei.

 

The funny thing is she kept apologizing to Asuka every time she swam with her and got to the end first. Even when she didn't beat Asuka but just came close to her time she apologized too. She was really afraid Asuka was going to be mad at her now.

 

“You don't have to apologize Yuma. If you're faster than me, Good. We need that kind of speed if we want to get to nationals.” Asuka had to say that about a half dozen times before it finally sunk in and Yuma stopped apologizing.

 

Truthfully Asuka was a touch irked about not being the fastest one on the team anymore but she figured this would happen eventually. She had been a swimmer long enough to recognize certain things. She had a lot of ability and some talent, Yuma on the other hand had a lot of ability AND a lot of talent. It was only a matter of time before that girl who always called her “Miss Asuka” and followed her around everywhere she went in the pool passed her as the top swimmer.

 

Personally she was hoping Yuma wouldn't get to that point till near the end of the season but pickers can't be choosers and she knew that now. And it was true what she was saying about needing speed to get to the nationals. She did not want to loose again come tournament time and it was looking like Yuma might be the key to making that a reality. Plus she knew by having someone faster than her on the team it would only push her more and make her a faster swimmer. She very much judged herself as being too complacent with being the fastest before and that was what lost her that edge she used to have. Now it was up to her to get it back.

 

They weren't practicing for very long before Asuka took title back though and she cast an eye upon Yuma for that. She wanted a battle but by halfway through practice Yuma was too tired to keep up anymore. The only thing that probably kept her from getting sentenced to repeated laps to build up her endurance, as it was still very much lacking in both the coach's and Asuka's opinion, was the fact that she was trying her hardest to keep up even though she was tired. It was good to see that kind of perseverance in the girl. Eventually she got rewarded for that perseverance and was allowed to sit along the side of the pool with Rei and Asuka.

 

Asuka also had an alterative motif in this as well as she was testing how long it took for Yuma to get her energy back. “So are any of your friends going to try out for the team?”

 

Yuma shook her head no. “Kohama plays soccer and Tamiko doesn't want to try out for the swim team this year.”

 

“Why not?” Asuka asked as the more members they had the better. Funding of teams and clubs was balanced upon the thin edges of membership.

 

“I guess she just doesn't wanna….” Yuma answered.

 

Just by the body language that Yuma was using Rei and Asuka could tell this might not be the true answer. And the way she said it was rather evasive.

 

“Doesn't she like swimming anymore?” Asuka asked.

 

“No, no she still really like swimming” Yuma said as she didn't want it to sound like that. “It's just that well…” Yuma didn't want to say anything bad about her friend so she didn't finish.

 

Rei though could figure out what Yuma was trying to say. “She's worried about making the team?”

 

“More like she knows she won't” Yuma answered looking down. She really wanted her friend on the team but it was going to be a long shot for her to make it.

 

“Is she sorta slow or something?”

 

Yuma nodded yes to Asuka's question. “She barely made the middle school squad last year and she said she really hasn't got any faster because she has been concentrating more on her softball playing than anything else. She says she likes that sport better anyways.”

 

“There's nothing wrong with that” Asuka commented. “If she's good at something else she should concentrate on that then.”

 

“I know” Yuma sighed as while that was the right answer it was not what she wanted. “I just wish she could be on the team.”

 

Asuka could understand where Yuma was going with that statement. She wanted one of her friends on the team because that way she would have company. That was pretty much the same situation she was in when she was a first year as well. She only joined the swim team originally because Hikari was on it. “You know there is a way she could be on the team if she's interested” Asuka told her. “It won't even matter is she's fast or not.”

 

“Really?!!”

 

Asuka nodded yes. “At the end of practice yesterday Shinji and I were talking to coach and she asked Shinji if he wouldn't mind taking on an apprentice of sorts for the managerial job. She has grown comfortable having one again and she wants to set up a system where a senior manager will teach a younger one to fill their role when they graduate. That way she doesn't have to do it every year.”

 

“Wouldn't Tamiko have to be a second year student to do that?” Yuma asked as that was how things usually went. First years were the newbie's and they rarely got any responsibilities at all.

 

“Nope” Asuka answered. “She was clear that she wants a first year as she wants a girl that will be around for a while. But there is one thing about all this, if you do ask her she can't say a word about it to anyone. This position is top secret.”

 

“Why?” Rei asked as keeping this a secret kind of hampered the ability to find someone.

 

“Well, when coach gave Shinji the job there were some negative side affects… Basically a whole lot of other boys thought they stood a shot at getting the job and coach is still getting pestered by them as with the season starting back up again a lot of them think the job's back open and they're eligible” Asuka explained. “She has gone back to her `no boys' stance on this sort of thing…”

 

Asuka got interrupted by a smug “I wonder why?” from Rei and a giggle from Yuma.

 

She ignored it though and continued on “… as I was saying, if word got out that there really was a position open there would be no end to the amount of boys that showed up looking for the job. So she told Shinji and me that it was up to us to find someone. It has to be someone who she can trust, someone who isn't afraid of hard work, someone who's dependable, and of course someone who is a girl. You still think Tamiko would still be interested?”

 

“I'll ask her this afternoon after practice” Yuma said excitedly. If her friend said yes she would be very happy.

 

“I bet Tamiko would make a good manager. I deliver to her parent's bakery all the time and she always seems to be working hard.” This positive opinion did not come from Rei or Asuka but from the stands.

 

“You weren't supposed to be listening in on that conversation you know” Asuka responded to it. “You better keep your trap shut.”

 

“I will” Kensuke answered. “But on one condition.”

 

At first Asuka was going to turn around and rat tail him as he was not allowed to be making conditions but she stopped when she saw him showing her a study booklet through the railing. “Is the answer three?”

 

Asuka walked over and took a closer look. Rei got up and looked as well. Sadly both girls looked up at him and shook their heads no. “The answer is seven” Rei regretfully told him.

 

“Seven?” Kensuke asked confused.

 

“Seven” Asuka confirmed. “You need to start over from the beginning.”

 

Kensuke let fly a loud “Son of a Bitch!” and then snatched the book back and started erasing.

 

Asuka let out a believable “Sorry” as she didn't want to tell him he was wrong but he was. She then turned around and said “That's enough rest for now, let's get back into the pool.” And while pointing at Yuma she added “And you better beat me this time.”

 

That of course made Yuma a worrywart once again. Keeping up with Asuka and Rei didn't seem like it was humanly possible at times as they both had amazing amounts of endurance.

 

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Hiring Tamiko for the junior manager positioned worked out pretty well actually. She gladly accepted the position and showed up for the afternoon practice to start her training. To her this was a good thing as she would be able to hang out with a friend after school now. And she wasn't even scared by the work aspect of all this as truthfully it was nothing compared to what she would have been doing if she wasn't busy with a school activity.

 

Her parents ran a bakery and while it was fun to work at in the summer when she had friends to hang out with, when they left to go back to school it stopped being fun. Mainly because she had to pick up the slack from the loss of summer workers and spent a whole lot of time back in the kitchens working the bread ovens, along with serving customers up front, and also cleaning up. This was a family run business so she was expected to help out. And to make it worse all this was to be done on top of her homework. If you asked her she would tell you she was getting off easy.

 

Right now she was in the weight room and Shinji was explaining how she was supposed to help the girls. She was also given a t-shirt that told her exactly who she belonged to as it was just like the one that Shinji wore last year. As for him, this year he got a new version of the shirt straight from the captain of the team herself. It still said “Manager' on the front and `T4 HS Girls Swim Team', complete with the `Property of' over the back part but now there was extra on it. Asuka was still Asuka and she added `Asuka Langley Sohryu and if she feels like sharing also' between the words Property of and T4 HS Girls Swim Team.

 

As for the girls swim team they were coming out of the locker room and making there way over to the gym right now. But waiting outside the door to the girl's locker room was Kensuke. He was waiting specifically for Rei or Asuka, luckily for him they came out together along with Yuma and a couple other girls.

 

“Asuka, Rei just one more question.”

 

“Sure” Asuka said holding up and grabbed the workbook that Kensuke was holding up. Giving him a hand was no big deal to her and also it stroked her ego as it made her look smart. She looked it over quickly and then said “Good job, you got it right this time.”

 

Kensuke let out a “Sweet” as he just nailed one of the harder questions. He then waved at the two and said “See you guys later” as he started to leave.

 

But before Rei and Asuka could say bye one of the other girls spoke up “Hey Kensuke hold up for a second.”

 

“Yeah Yuriko” Kensuke said turning back around.

 

“What're you doing later?” she asked.

 

“I'm going over to Rei's place to study” Kensuke answered, apparently totally missing the way the girl asked that question.

 

“Oh” the girl said dejectedly and then added on a glum “See you later then.”

 

“Yup, bye” Kensuke answered and took off.

 

Asuka got a little chuckle out of that and nudged Rei while she kidded “You little heartbreaker.”

 

“He's only coming over to study” Rei clarified and gave a little glare at Asuka as she shouldn't be teasing like that. It wasn't very nice.

 

The girl though asked “Why's he going over to your place to study?” as it did sound kind of odd to her.

 

“Because I gave him all my old study guides and test booklets.” It was the least Rei could do for him after everything that had happened.

 

“Plus Rei has his cat now so he comes by to visit it, or at least that's what the two of them are telling people” Asuka added on with a smirk. She was just being her usual self and creating a touch of trouble.

 

“You're simply impossible sometimes” Rei said looking at Asuka as that flip remark at the end was uncalled for. She perfectly predicted Asuka would chuckle at that and looked over at the girl that had just asked Kensuke out. “Please ignore her. Like usual she's being a pest to everyone. And please forgive Kensuke, with all that has happened lately he seems to have grown a bit… dense.”

 

“A bit dense?” Asuka scoffed as they entered the gym. “I have leaned against hundred year old oaks that weren't as dense as he is.” Asuka then walked up to Shinji and gave him a little peck “Hey Shin-kun.”

 

“Hey kätzchen” Shinji responded back. It may have taken a couple months of using the name after he told her he loved her, plucking Asuka's petal, spoil the living daylights out of her, and even a very romantic trip to a hot springs resort but Shinji finally got the right to use his pet name of choice. The flip side of this was that only Shinji could use this name. If anyone else called her that they would get a punch in the mouth. She was quite clear about that.

 

“You will never believe this but Kensuke just totally blew a girl off who asked him out” Asuka told him as they walked away from the others towards a treadmill. “And the baka didn't even know he did it.”

 

“Yes he did” Shinji whispered back though.

 

Asuka looked at him strangely. “How do you know?” She was there when it happened after all and Shinji wasn't. How could he know?

 

“I've seen him do it before” Shinji answered. “As much as he flirts and all he's a pretty picky guy. If he blows off a girl that means he doesn't want to date her. But he always does it in a way that makes him look stupid, that way her feeling don't get hurt and more than likely she won't ask again.”

 

“I wouldn't think a kid like him would be picky” Asuka said.

 

“It has to do with him not wanting to go out with a girl that is only interested in him because he's a curiosity ” Shinji explained. “It has already happened to him once or twice before and he even went out with a girl that only wanted to date him because it would make her father mad because he isn't Japanese looking.”

 

“I hate girls who pull shit like that” Asuka commented and sort of understood what Kensuke just did a little better. It was all making sense to her now.

 

Their conversation then got interrupted as Tamiko yelled out for help. The girls on the swim team did not give the girl a chance to get into the swim of things and instead threw her in the deep end right away as about ten girls were asking for something at the same time and they all wanted it done now. “I better go help her.”

 

“Oh yeah” Asuka chortled. “Right now she looks like a wounded fish surrounded by sharks.”

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

On Sunday there was only going to be morning practice. With school starting up tomorrow Coach Kumara gave them the afternoon off to enjoy their last seconds of freedom. It also gave her the afternoon to memorize the new class list she was given and go over some last second preparations for the start of class tomorrow but the students didn't need to know that part.

 

At the end of practice Asuka asked all the girls to hold up for a second as the coach pushed a TV into the locker room. There were several moans, groans, and bellyaches about this. They thought Asuka was going to make them sit down and watch video of them swimming in an effort to get them to improve. Asuka had started doing this about halfway through the season last year after she heard that it was what one of the well known swimming schools did. None of the girls enjoyed this as Asuka went full-bore into it and scrutinized every little aspect of swimming she could.

 

Even Yuma regretted telling her about what her big sister's school did. She also kept her mouth shut about being the one who did that, if the other girls found out she might find herself taped to the back of the diving board.

 

Asuka though silenced the girls. “Don't worry you little crybabies, this isn't footage from practice. I'm not going to start that up till after the new people join.”

 

That comment was of course followed up by many groans. But her next statement changed those groans to looks of wonder and curios.

 

“A lot of you have been wondering about what the coach and I have talking about in private lately.” Asuka was then handed a DVD that Rei had pulled out of her backpack. “This also will explain why Hikari has been missing the last couple days. Oh and one little warning. If any of you have a secret crush on Touji or shoujo-ai feelings for Hikari, you might not want to watch this.” She got an admonishing shake of the head from Rei for that last part but she didn't care, she thought it was funny.

 

Needless to say all eyes, even the coach's, were glued to the TV screen after that intro. And when Asuka hit play they were greeted to a scene at a very fancy restaurant. This video had been made with a little help from friends as when Touji requested some help from Rei with getting a table he also said he wanted to discretely record what was going to happen as well. So on the table across from the one Hikari and Touji would be at sat a video camera with a wine menu camped over it so it wouldn't be noticeable. And it did a good job of recording what it saw as soon after it started you saw Rei leading both Hikari and Touji to a table and sat them down at it. Rei bowed politely to them and then disappeared from the scene as she walked off. Quiet a few eyes were lifted as they noticed how nicely dressed the two on the apparent date were. Hikari not so much because everyone knew she liked to wear nice clothing but a definite yes on Touji as he was decked out to the nines wearing a suit. Not exactly something you would imagine a guy like him even owning.

 

Asuka then pressed fast forward. “Let's just skip all this date stuff and get to the nitty gritty shall we?”

 

Even on fast forward you could tell it was a very romantic date though. Finally when Asuka stopped fast forwarding you saw Touji get up from his seat and walk towards Hikari. He then got down on one knee and took a little jewelry box out of his coat pocket. It was at this point that you could hear the two as the constant din of other dinners quickly silenced itself as their attentions were drawn to what was happening. “Hikari Horaki. Will you marry me?”

 

Touji only had to wait a second to get his answer and it was a jubilant “Yes!” And when he slipped the engagement ring onto Hikari's finger you could see tears of joy running down the brown haired girl's cheeks. She then jumped into his arms and the two embraced. The sound then went away again as the clamor of restaurant patrons clapping overwhelmed their words. But it wasn't hard to tell what was said as you could read Hikari's lips oh so clearly. “I Love You.”

 

There was a lot of clapping in the locker room after that too along with many ohhh's and ahhh's and even a misty eye or two as that was so romantic. “Now that everyone's up to speed on what has been happening you guys happy?”

 

The overwhelming answer to that was yes but also there was a couple “Why didn't you tell us this earlier?” as the date on the camera showed that this happened on Friday so they should have known about this yesterday.

 

Asuka had an answer for that too. “One, I didn't tell you guys because then you would've all called Hikari and I doubt she wanted to be disturbed. And two, because I didn't get a copy of what happened till this morning.” Asuka was looking straight at Rei when she said that second part.

 

Rei though freely admitted “I don't know how to burn DVD's. I had to wait for Kensuke to come over on Saturday night to show me how before I could give anyone copies.”

 

“I know how to burn DVD's” Asuka said. “Why didn't you just come over and ask me?”

 

“I did” Rei replied with a smirk. “But Misato said you were too “busy” to come over.”

 

“Oh yeah” Asuka said in an upbeat tone as a huge grin came over her face and she remembered why she was too busy. And while keeping the grin on her face she told the other girls “My bad.”

 

\\\\||||////

*********** OOO ***********

////||||\\\\

 

Noriko Amano, or Mrs. Amano as her students called her, was looking over her class list. She let out a sigh “This year is going to be a real challenge.”

 

One of her best friends and a fellow teacher, Kazumi Takaya was sitting next to her. “I'm sure it will be ok. I know that class has a reputation for being complex but Kumara and Ohta said they enjoyed teaching them despite it all.”

 

Obviously Mrs. Amano was the teacher who got the packaged set of children, i.e. the Marduk children. This was such an unusual thing as every other time students were randomly assigned to various classrooms. And for the most part this was still true of the student body but in this one special case a group of students were always kept together.

 

It was no secret what kind of tragedy happened to all the kids in this group, they all lost their mothers in an accident, but you always suspected that there was more to this. Unfortunately all you could do is suspect as asking anything led to a dead end. There simply were no answers out there. Even the school board didn't know why they had to keep this class together, they were simply told to do it by the people who set up and funded this particular school. To argue it was to basically say you were quitting your job, so no one ever did.

 

“Well at least according to Ohta one of the bigger problem students has been taken out of the class” Mrs. Amano remarked as she looked over her class roster and notes.

 

“Really?” Mrs. Takaya questioned. “I thought they never split up those kids for any reason.”

 

“Well from what I've been told he was never really part of the group till after third impact” Noriko answered remember what was said in the special meeting she had concerning her upcoming class. “He was put in with them afterwards but apparently he didn't mesh too well with them.”

 

“I hope it isn't an odd kid out sort of thing” Kazumi said with concern. “I always feel so bad for those kids. The other kids treat them so meanly at times.”

 

“Not in this instance” Noriko replied. “Apparently he's a bit of a con artist and has made a bad name for himself with most of the females in the class. He even got in a bad fight with ones of the males as he made a move on his girlfriend during their first year here.”

 

“Oh, one of “those” kids” Kazumi said doing a complete 180 on her stance. “What's his name? Hopefully he wasn't sent over to my class.”

 

“Kaworu Nagisa” Noriko said after looking at her notes.

 

A second later she heard an “Oh no” escape from her friend's lips.

 

“You got him, didn't you?”

 

Kazumi nodded her head yes. “You sure you don't want him back?”

 

“Positive” Noriko answered. “I've got enough on my plate as it is. Just look at all these notes on my students I got from Kumara and Ohta.” She then waved a pretty good stack of papers at her friend.

 

“Are they really that difficult?”

 

“Well not really” Noriko said back. “Half of the stack is about which things I should avoid talking about in class. According to what I have been told I'm not even allowed to bring up anything about the Angels, Evangelions, Third Impact, or anything related to any of that.”

 

“And you're complaining about that?” Kazumi questioned. “I would love it if I didn't have to say anything about that stuff.”

 

“Yeah, I guess you're right. I hate trying to explain things too.” This had to do with the fact that students still routinely came up to them with questions on what happened. Unfortunately the teachers knew as little about the situation as everyone else. Or if they did know something they didn't say it as what really happened was best left to be forgotten.

 

“You know I think I remember Ohta talking about another smart girl is in that class besides Sohryu now” Kazumi commented. All the teachers in the school knew about Asuka. Not only was she a bit of a troublemaker but she also made many claims about being smarter than the teachers in the school. Some teachers took offense at this and would challenge her or reprimand her for improper boasting and that is when Asuka would get detention. Not because she would boast but because she would take them to task and embarrass the teacher with her smarts. As for Rei, she was the newest wunderkind. But she was much more respectful and quiet so she didn't have the problems that Asuka did.

 

“That would be Rei Ayanami” Noriko answered. “Apparently she was smart enough to get into Toyko-4 University on her first shot. And get this, she only started studying for the entrance exams two semesters before she took the test.”

 

Kazumi looked at her friend with complete disbelief. She personally had started studying for college exams two years before she had to take them and she didn't even get close to getting into a top university. “That class is so weird.”

 

“But very fun.” That was added on by a teacher who walked into the teacher's office. “And don't be too scared of Sohryu and Ayanami. Asuka is much better behaved than she used to be and by the end of the year Rei will be a girl that you will rate as one of your favorite students ever.”

 

“What about the rest of them?” Noriko asked Kirika Kumara.

 

“They vary like most classes. Some of them are very smart and will go onto the best colleges while others are just hoping to graduate high school.” Kirika then wrote down a phone number and handed it to Noriko Amano. “If you want the best description of each student, call her.”

 

Noriko looked at the name on the piece of paper as well as the number. “Hikari Horaki… wait that's the girl who I was told was going to be the class rep?”

 

Kirika nodded her head yes. “She has been the rep for that class since their middle school days.”

 

“That's unusual” Kazumi said as she had never heard of a situation like that before. Usually someone would be a class rep once maybe twice in their school life, not the whole time.

 

“I think it has to do with stability” Kirika said back. “They're very comfortable with her being their voice and she does have a mother hen type of attitude. I think it just gives the other students a little bit of peace and reassurance that things will be ok for the school year in that aspect of their lives.”

 

Noriko could understand that. The reason all these kids were together was because they all lost their mothers when they were young after all. Stability was most likely a big thing to them now because they didn't have any when they were young. “I think I'll give her a call.”

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Luckily for Mrs. Amano by Sunday evening Hikari was taking phone calls and she agreed to meet up with her teacher. Truthfully if it weren't for her engagement she would have visited the school and initiated the meeting. She did that her first year with Mrs. Kumara and then again with Mr. Ohta last year. As the class's representative she felt that this was her responsibility.

 

Unfortunately for her she got the feeling she was the only responcible one as when she got to the school and opened the door to the teacher's offices she noticed several teachers sitting around a TV screen watching herself getting proposed to. “I see that brat has started handing out DVDs already.”

 

“Well…I…. Uhh…” her coach said and then just gave her a guilty smile. She was busted. “Congratulations Hikari.”

 

“Thank you” Hikari said back politely. “I had a feeling she wasn't going to keep what happened a secret.”

 

“If you wanted Asuka to keep it a secret you probably shouldn't be wearing that ring on your finger so proudly” Mr. Ohta joked.

 

That made Hikari blush a bit. Mainly because she wasn't hiding the fact that her finger was supporting a pretty diamond ring on it right now. She grew a little worried about that though as she asked “Do the school's jewelry rules cover this kind of thing?” She was worried that she might not be able to wear her new ring to school because according to the rules the only rings you were allowed to wear were school rings.

 

“Don't worry about it” her future teacher told her. “Engagement rings are a definite exception to the rule.”

 

That couldn't have worked out better for Mrs. Amano as now she was on very good terms with her future class rep. You could easily tell it too by the huge smile plastered on the tall girl's face. “So what do you want to know?”

 

And that was the start of an hour long or so conversation covering the students that Hikari was associated with. What impressed Mrs. Amano the most was how much detail Hikari was giving her. She was basically telling Mrs. Amano the best way to relate to each of these students and how to act towards them. Every one of them had own idiosyncratic quirks so you had to be able to teach in several different ways to effectively reach all of them. Then again this was no different from any other class she had taught but it was very nice to have a heads up. That would mean it would take her that much less time to figure out her students.

 

As for the types of students, she had the whole spectrum. From teens like Asuka in which she had to stand up to the girl and act more like an authority figure than anything else or the girl would walk all over her to ironically enough the exact opposite, Asuka's boyfriend. For Shinji she just had to teach normally and he would sit there and try his best.

 

After explaining what her class was like Hikari reached into her purse and took out a note pad. It already had a bunch of writing in it. She apologized for what she was about to do first. “I know this isn't the best time for this and truthfully I don't really want to do this but there are some issues I need to talk about. I have reluctantly taken a position that was offered to me by the student council beyond that of a normal class rep.”

 

“They finally got you” Mr. Ohta remarked. “So what position are you going to take?” There was some past history here as Hikari very much came off as someone who should be involved with such things. And he knew for a fact she had been asked several times but Hikari always refused any position she was given on the grounds of she didn't have enough time for it.

 

“Student vice president” Hikari answered.

 

“Wow” Mrs. Kumara commented. “They must have dangled one heck of a carrot in front of you to take that position.” She knew Hikari didn't really want any more responsibility on her plate than she already had also so there must have been a good reason for her to do it.

 

“Actually it has nothing to do with the other students in this school” Hikari answered. “I visited a professor at T4U's business school and asked him if I had what it took to get in. He liked my grades and he loved the fact that I was a manager of a sports team. He said it showed I had administrative skills. But he also told me that wasn't enough and I was still lacking in some areas. And regrettably just about every other student who will be applying will have class representative on their application so that won't stand out at all. He told me I need to have a high up position within student government to stand a good chance.”

 

“T4U seems to be running your little group of friends lives right now” Mrs. Kumara chuckled.

 

Hikari sort of shrugged her shoulders at that. “Just the way it is I guess. Now let's get down to business shall we?”

 

As Mrs. Amano nodded yes at that she realized why Hikari was always the class rep. The girl was incredibly responsible. She just got saddled with a job she didn't want and was only doing because she needed it for her future goals but here she was still being professional and serious about it. That is not something she could say she knew many other teenagers Hikari's age would be up to.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Finally it was the first day of school once again. For Asuka, Shinji, Hikari, Touji, Rei, and Kensuke this was their last year in high school as they were seniors. Top of the old food chain and all that other jazz. They, along with all the other Marduk children were assigned to classroom 3-B. This was going to be their scholastic home for the next year and Mrs. Amano was going to be their teacher. And just so that things weren't totally homogenous there was quite a switch up from which other students were with them from last year. This was good in some cases and also bad in others. Apparently one of the Marduk girls had a boyfriend who was among the others and now he wasn't in the same class as her anymore. She wasn't looking very happy about it as she moped at her desk. On the other hand a whole new set of others meant no more Mana Kirishima.

 

“So what classroom got stuck with her royal bitchiness?” Asuka wondered out loud as she walked into the room with Hikari and Rei.

 

“None of them” Hikari answered. “I found out yesterday that she isn't even going to our school anymore.” And then in a sort of mocking voice Hikari added on “Apparently us commoners were no longer good enough for her and she transferred over to one of the private schools.”

 

“Sweet” Asuka said with a big smile. One of the biggest pains in her ass was now gone. This new year was looking like it was off to a good start. And soon it would get even better as Hikari had another surprise for her, and Rei too.

 

Rei had let out a little breath right after Asuka said sweet. Sure Mana being gone was a good thing but she wished a different person would be gone as well. “If only Nagisa could be put in another classroom.”

 

“Wish granted” Hikari grinned.

 

The response she got back was two unbelieving “WHAT???” from her two friends.

 

“It's true” Hikari told them. “The school felt he might do better with a change of environment so they separated him from the group.”

 

The boys in the classroom were given a little treat because of that answer. Rei got a big smile on her face. The consensus among the males in the classroom was that Rei was a very pretty girl, and she only got prettier when she smiled. But also there was some heartbreak in all that as well. For as cute as she was, she was that much more unattainable. It wasn't like she was a snob or standoffish just very very shy around them. In fact out of all the boys in the school only three of them really ever talked all that much. Touji, Shinji, and Kensuke. Unbeknownst to the three there were a lot of guys who were really jealous of them for that fact.

 

Asuka was more vocal in her answer as she let out a joyous “Could this day get any better?”

 

Her answer to that was “You're in this class too Asuka, cool!”

 

Asuka turned around and saw two of her fellow cheerleaders standing at the door. “Hey Rini, hey Kotono. You guys in here this year.” Asuka then noticed what they were wearing. “Why do you two have cheerleading outfits on already?”

 

“The first soccer game is today” Rini answered.

 

“If I would've known that I would have worn mine too.”

 

Asuka's comment though was contradicted by the class rep. “You know the rules Asuka. No wearing the outfit unless you're personally cheering that day.”

 

The reply to that was “That rule sucks.” But the odd part about it was that it was not Asuka who said it. Sure she was thinking the exact same thing but she didn't say it. In fact it wasn't even a girl who said it but a boy. He was walking by the girls looking for which desk was assigned to him.

 

“Your opinion on this matter is not needed” he was told clearly and definitively by the student body's vice president.

 

“I think my Shin-kun brings up a very valid point” Asuka though argued. “It is a matter of pride. I think the cheerleaders of this school should be allowed to wear their uniform whenever they want as they promote school spirit. Maybe you should bring that up in the next student council meeting?”

 

“Just because Shinji indulges you in your dream world doesn't mean I will too” Hikari answered back clearly. In no way did she want to be Asuka's personal envoy to the school so she nipped that idea in the bud as fast as she could.

 

“Ah c'mon” Asuka joked. “I will give you one of my outfits if you do.”

 

“The worst thing about that statement is that as much as she's joking she is also serious” Rei commented.

 

“Well that was certainly brutal” Asuka half grinned at Rei while Hikari giggled. She knew damn well that Rei just zinged her good but in all honesty she knew she had it coming. But it wasn't like Asuka was one to dwell on the past so she quickly moved past the zing and started talking to Rini and Kotono again. “Wait if there's a game today why weren't Tani and Sumi wearing outfits? I saw them when I got to school and they were wearing regular school clothes.”

 

“That's because they quit the squad” Kotono answered with Rini adding on. “Tani went to the squad's advisor after the vote last summer and complained. When Mrs. Itou told her the decision was final she quit and told Sumi she had to quit too.”

 

“Which really sucks because Sumi was actually pretty good” Kotono finished up. The girl may have been a toady to a bitch but she was a good performer.

 

“Oh that's got to make Tia and you real happy” Asuka said cynically to Rini as that team they were in charge of needed all the talent they could get, even if that talent was a pain.

 

“Tell me about it” Rini answered with a roll of her eyes. “But you know I think Tia's gonna try and get Sumi back. She's in the same class with her over in A and Tani is in D so maybe without her around something can happen.”

 

“I suppose it's worth a shot” Asuka replied as she figured it wouldn't hurt to try. “So did Shika quit too?”

 

Both girls shook their heads no with Rini saying “But she can't perform this year.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“She blew out her knee at cheerleading camp this summer” Rini answered her. “She's wearing a brace right now but she said she has to have surgery on it in a couple weeks.”

 

“You girls are in trouble” Asuka stated as that left the cheerleading squad with rather few seniors teaching the ropes.

 

“We know” Rini and Kotono answered together. “And we even have more first years requesting to be on the team than last year.”

 

As Asuka was standing there she could tell what was coming next. They really needed her help and right after Kotono stopped talking about how many new girls were going to be around Rini said “I know we promised to leave you alone till after swimming season but we really need some help.”

 

Asuka just smirked at them. “I was going to drop by for a couple minutes after practice anyways.”

 

There were many thank you's for that from the two girls. Although in Asuka's opinion the ones they should be thanking was Coach Kumara and Tamiko Hasegawa. For it was because of the situation that involved those two that Asuka was even going to be around. With the new girl's swim team manager in training being a girl all of Shinji's responsibilities that involved the girl's locker room were taken away from him. It was just better off this way and it was going to be left up to Tamiko to clean up the place. So that simply left Shinji with only one job after he helped out the girls in the weight room, he had to launder the towels. That would only take him roughly a half hour so Asuka had already decided to wait after school for him.

 

While at first she was planning on hanging around with him in the school's laundry room, after Shinji warned her about the atmosphere in there though she quickly realized she had to make other plans. The laundry room tended to be a nice quiet spot where the managers of the sport teams could find solace and respite from the whiney jocks they were in charge of. Asuka clearly got the message that she would not be welcomed in there so she had made plans to visit the cheerleaders at the end of their practices until Shinji got done with his duties.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Near when the start of school bell would ring Rei went looking for her seat. She headed over to the far end of the room by the windows as with her surname starting with an A she was sure to be over there again this year. While it was nice that she could look at the window during class she was really starting to regret the surname that was picked for her. With summer wrapping up the temperatures would soon start to fall and over by the windows was the draftiest place in the whole room, and she still was not fond of being cold in the least. But an odd thing happened as she looked for her seat, it wasn't there. The seating order skipped her entirely as it went from a surname that started with As to one that started with Aye. This was a very peculiar thing till the teacher explained what was going on to her as she could see the girl was confused.

 

“Since Miss Sohryu and yourself are going to be coming and going during class I put you two over by the door” Mrs. Amano told her. “That way there won't be too much of a distraction involved.”

 

That was a rather smart idea in Rei's opinion and she bowed towards the teacher and told her “Thank you.” Inside though Rei was celebrating. She didn't have to sit by those stupid windows and freeze her cute little butt off anymore. Already Mrs. Amano was a great teacher in her opinion.

 

But as much as Rei liked this situation Asuka hated it. In the past she had always got to sit relatively close to Hikari, and since the start of Shinji's surname started one letter away from Hikari's him too. Technically her last name was Langley-Sohryu so she was seated where the L's would sit and that was usually only one row away from those two. But this new seating arrangement, even though it was the best for the class, was not to her liking. She was three whole rows away from Shinji now. Unfortunately there was nothing she could do about it though as this was the way it was going to be. In the past she would have said something, and quite vocally at that, but she had a looming threat hanging over her right now.

 

Misato knew that if Asuka was going to cause waves it would be at the beginning of the school year when everything was sort of up for grabs in the school hierarchy. And as much as she was proud of Asuka for not causing any major problems last year she wanted to be just as proud for her not causing any trouble this year. And the raven-haired guardian made that point quite clear to her before she left for school today. Asuka had to behave herself or she was going to get it.

 

And she had a lot to lose too as Misato let Asuka ease back on the level of her studies for the year. It seemed that ever since that discussion at the end of the last school year she had with Mr. Ohta she was growing fonder of the idea of maybe becoming a teacher. She felt good about herself whenever she helped Shinji do his work and she got the same feeling anytime she helped others as well. It was sort of a twisting of the old ego and pride of hers. Yes there was the aspect of that she knew something the other person didn't but along with it now was the idea that through her actions she could teach that same person how to do what they didn't know how to do before. And overall doing something like that made her feel good, sort of like she had more self-worth or something. And when she told Misato that she had these sorts of aspirations during the summer her guardian couldn't have been more proud of her.

 

But the side affect of this decision meant that Asuka had to start taking classes that were very much different from before. In the past she took classes that were heavy into the sciences but for being a teacher she needed to be more well rounded. So when Asuka signed up for classes at the college, gone were the science classes and in their place she was taking starter level classes in other fields. Asuka's classes for this quarter were a Classic Literature course (which she was taking with Rei), Basic History of Japan, Public Speaking, and Basic Japanese Writing Styles. Those first three classes were going to be a breeze to her but she was actually worried about that fourth one. She was still less than perfect with the Kanji and most other students had a leg up on her in that aspect as they grew up with the system of writing and she didn't. She was going to have to work for that class and she knew it.

 

And where Asuka would have to work on it was going to be different this year as well. Misato wanted to re-introduce the girl back into the college way of life but she wanted to do it slowly. If she threw Asuka right into it without most of her friends by her side this year she suspected the girl would burn out. So a compromise of sorts was worked out and Asuka would still go to the high school and be with all her friends during most of the day but she would also take off for a couple hours on certain days to attend her classes. At first Asuka was hesitant about doing this and asked if they couldn't stick to the old class by computer method but she softened her stance when she learned Rei was going to be doing this also. It just made her more comfortable to know that she wasn't going to be alone in attending the college on a part time basis.

 

As for why was Misato so proud of Asuka in becoming a teacher, well it was due to Asuka serving a great need. The population and birth rated plummeted every year between second impact and third so that is why the schools were able to get away with such a lack of teachers. But that steady decline didn't continue as after third impact the world was blessed with a baby boom of gigantic proportions. In one year the children born in 2015 would double those born in 2014. The year after that, the children of 2016, would triple those of 2015.

 

Quite simply the current education system of Japan was not ready for this explosion in students as most of the old teachers had been shown the door and only those that knew how to teach in earnest were allowed to stay teachers. This created a problem in that in two to three years there wouldn't be enough teachers to teach the young ones entering into elementary school. The solution to all this was that the Japanese government was greatly encouraging those in high school and college right now to go into teaching programs.

 

One of the ways they encouraged students was that they would comp much of your tuition and books if you went to college to become a teacher. In other words, you want an affordable college degree you became a teacher. And not only was your degree cheap but you were almost guaranteed a job upon graduation. That was if you graduated though as they didn't relax the qualifications for the degree. It was a cheap degree, not an easy one.

 

Right now though that guarantee was only applicable to elementary school teachers but as the children of 2015 and 2016 grew older the guarantee would extend to the higher up grade levels. This would work out nicely for Asuka as she wanted to be a high school teacher, it would be at that level that she figured her knowledge would be best applied. While there was still a few years in-between the mass influx of students vs. the historically small classes Asuka wasn't too worried about getting a job. While by the time she graduated from college you still wouldn't be guaranteed a job at the high school level that just meant your chances went down from a sure thing to very, very, likely as they were pressed for teachers too right now.

 

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After the bell chimed and school for the year was officially started Mrs. Amano introduced herself to her class. “Hello everyone I am Mrs. Amano. I hope you all had exciting summer vacations because I'm really looking forward to reading and hearing all about it… Because that will be the subject of your first writing assignment and along with that you will be reading those reports out loud to your fellow classmates.” She patiently waited out all the moaning and groaning from her students that followed her announcement. It was like this every year and no matter how special the class the reaction would always be the same. But she did have one change from the ordinary as she saw a hand raise up into the air. Thanks to the conversation she had with Hikari the day before she already knew how to handle the question she was about to be asked. “Yes Miss Sohryu, you have to do this assignment as well.”

 

“Ok” Asuka said. “Just making sure. But let me warn you right now, my report is so going to destroy everyone else's.”

 

“The point of these assignments is for me to see what levels your writing and public speaking are at” Asuka's teacher told her. “Not to brag.”

 

From back in the room came a “Fat chance of that happening.”

 

Asuka of course whipped around and hollered “Shut it you overgrown jock.”

 

“You wanna make me Red?”

 

“Any time, any place” Asuka said making a fist.

 

“All right you two that's enough” the teacher interrupted. “You will have plenty of time to talk to each other later but I still have some things to say.” What surprised the teacher the most was how quickly Touji and Asuka responded to that. They immediately stopped teasing each other and turned their attention back to her. Hikari was also right about the two in this aspect as well as she had told her teacher Asuka and him liked to jaw at each other during class, Kensuke as well, but you didn't have to worry about it because they would stop if you told them to.

 

“Ok now that I have everyone's attention again I want to let you all know that I will require you guys to do work this year. I know many of you will be using class time to study for upcoming college exams and the such but you will be required to complete one major assignment for me a week. I'm not a teacher who believes that just because you got to this point in your education that you get a free pass this year. I'm going to make you guys earn your diplomas.” There was a groan or two to that statement too but she just wanted to make herself clear. While this year wasn't going to be as hard as the previous and the tests were few and far between she didn't want them to think they could slack off. While she was there mostly to help those that were planning on going to college the few in the classroom that weren't needed to be sent off with a proper education as well.

 

After she had made her announcement she handed out a course syllabus that had all the weekly assignments on it for the first trimester. After that though she let the students talk among themselves for a while. This was after all the first day of school and she knew trying to teach some sort of lesson would be impossible. Their minds were mostly focused on gossip right now and what had happened during summer break. But there was one conversation that was about school that rose above the chatter. “I'm just letting everyone know, I will not be running this year's Culture Fest activity for our room.”

 

There was a whole classroom full of “Why Not?” as Hikari was always in charge of such things. Culture festivals, sport festivals, field trips, it didn't matter. Hikari was always the one who got the responsibility for them squarely put on her shoulders.

 

“Because with my role as Student Body Vice President I won't have time” Hikari told them clearly and definitely using her authoritative voice. “I have to run this thing on a school wide basis now. Someone else is going to have to handle this room.”

 

The teacher had to chuckle at overhearing that as there was quite a bit of sniveling that followed Hikari's statement. It seemed to her that the class was pretty dependent on Hikari running the show. That sniveling though quickly turned to fear as Hikari answered the floating question on who was going to have to do it. “Well whoever's going to be the assistant class rep will be in charge I guess.”

 

Immediately one of the most sought after jobs in the room turned into the most feared. In the past everyone in the classroom wanted to be the assistant class rep as it was a high title which involved no responsibility because Hikari always did everything. Now suddenly it sounded like this job was going to involve work and nobody wanted it. While it was obvious who the class rep was going to be the teacher did need to know who was going to be the assistant as she had a report to file for all such things as that. “Ok everybody the room is open to nominations.”

 

The teacher watched as ever student in the room started looking at every other in critical ways. And then it started, the nominations that were more like accusations than anything else. “Make Sohryu do it. She likes to boss everyone around anyway.”

 

“Like hell I'm going to do it!” Asuka yelled back. “I have college courses to take. I'm not going to be in charge of you spoiled brats too.” And then in typical Asuka fashion she went after the person who went after her first. “Since you're all high and mighty that you think you can nominate someone else why don't you do it?”

 

“But I got to study for my college exams” the kid whined. “I can't do it.”

 

And right after that there was a chorus of other students singing along with that very same excuse as why they couldn't be nominated. Hikari was just letting this go on as she was hoping that eventually the class would be able to work it out on their own but things didn't work out that way as people were really starting to piss each other off. No one wanted the job because it was going to involve real work.

 

One kid decided to go after Shinji as he was being quiet in all this. Shinji was still Shinji as other than his friends he wasn't all that outgoing. This was seen as a weakness and the kid put peer pressure on Shinji in an attempt to make him take the job. “Make Ikari do it. It's not like he has anything better to do.”

 

Shinji himself was about to tell the kid no but Asuka beat him to the punch. “You better fucking take that back Goto. He's got enough to do already with being the swim team's manager. The last thing he needs is for a scheissekopf like you to try and pressure him into a job because you're too lazy to get off your ass and do it yourself.” Asuka's extreme venomousness to that comment had two factors involved with it. One this was a boy who wasn't going on to college so he didn't have the same excuse as most of the others in the classroom. And two, this being the primary reason, if Shinji was made the assistant class rep that meant that much time less he would be able to spend with her. And we all know how good Asuka was at sharing Shinji with others.

 

Since this was getting a little too heated for her tastes Hikari got up and put a stop to all this. “Settle down everyone. This is not something you guys have to get into a fight over.” And using a little psychology she started “Ok, I know this seems like a lot of work but it really isn't. Plus things like this will look really good on the transcripts some of you will be sending off to the colleges. If you're worried you might not have enough extracurricular activities to get into your college of choice this is a good way to make up for that.”

 

Mrs. Amano was standing there thinking to herself `Wow! She's good at this.'

 

A lot of other students in the room were now thinking `Shit she's right. Do I have enough stuff on my transcript? Am I in enough clubs? Oh why didn't I join such and such club when I had the chance? Panic, Panic, Panic. I have to get into college!'

 

Hikari picked the first person to raise their hand and say “I'll do it.”

 

“Are you sure?” Hikari asked the boy.

 

He nodded yes while explaining “All I have on my transcripts are sports and I want to get into a law school. I think I need to do this or I might not get in.”

 

Hikari agreed with that. It was basically the same reason why she was the vice president this year so she decided “Ok Maisaka you are the assistant class representative.” And with that everything was over with. Hikari's word was basically law in this classroom.

 

As for Hikari's opinion she was glad of her choice. She knew the dynamics of the class was very fragile. There was an established group and then there were the other random people. Very easily this could turn into an us vs. them type of situation as the other people would feel like the group had ganged up on them and were pushing them around. Maisaka was the perfect person to diffuse this situation because he was one of the others. This way responsibility and control was spread around and things could be harmonious.

 

Like the teacher thought, Hikari was very good at this. She had been doing this for a really long time now and nothing that happened today was new to her. Well maybe not nothing, she was finding herself distracted by that rock on her finger. It just made her feel so good to stare at it and imagine her upcoming wedding.

 

(A/N: And that is the end of chapter 23. The whole teacher thing was to show that Asuka is starting to think about the future like most people her age. Life isn't as much here and now for her as it used to be so it was time for this in my opinion. And considering her talents I think being a teacher suites her. I Re-re-edited. Changed a few words around. Fixed some grammar. Broke up some of the bigger blocks of text. And expounded on some parts to make them clearer. Basically gave this a good once over to improve its quality. Hope you are all having fun.)