Trial of the Misfits: Teacher Included (Part 2)

The children walked in loose clusters, proudly holding their fruit purchases like trophies from a heroic quest. Mutsuki walked behind them, the responsible adult of the group, looking like he needed to sleep for forty-eight hours straight.

Youchan watched him carefully. He’d used more magic than he admitted. He’d kept eight illusions running. He’d cushioned a falling human. He’d suppressed half a dozen near-explosions of yokai power. His steps were slowing and his shoulders were dipping. That idol posture slowly melted into the ojisan that he was.

‘Sensei,’ she whispered, drifting beside him. ‘Are you alright?’

‘I’m fine,’ he murmured, smiling weakly. ‘Just… tired.’

‘Ah~ I need to return the offering basket to the purification basin,’ Youchan said suddenly, pausing mid-step. ‘Please stay on the path. I’ll meet you all back at the shrine.’

She jogged lightly toward her shortcut portal torii. We never got the chance to eat together yet. Maybe I can start preparing something now. By the time Sensei gets back to the shrine, I’d have food ready for him!

The moment she disappeared through the portal, Mutsuki felt a wrongness in the air. Like magic holding its breath. He stopped and turned slightly to study the surroundings.

‘…Sensei?’ Honey asked.

Before Mutsuki could answer, the shadows beneath the cedar trees rippled. Three cloaked and masked figures stepped out. They did not announce themselves. They simply fanned out in a formation Mutsuki knew far too well.

Their auras faint but malicious in precisely the bureaucratic way exorcists and yokai hunters sometimes carried. His blood went cold, not from being scared for himself, but for his students’ disguises being revealed. He didn’t want the kids handwork to go down the drain.

One scoffed, eyeing him like a specimen. ‘So it’s true. You’re playing teacher now. How dignified… for a contaminated heir.’

The other, a woman with a sneer, stepped closer. ‘Using magic in public again, Mutsuki? Should we report that? Or is that “Maria’s problem”?’

He inhaled sharply, hand twitching toward a protective sigil, but he never got the chance.

Because the children reacted first.

‘STAY AWAY FROM OUR SENSEI!’ Honey roared, except it came out as a very threatening cub-growl
and he flung himself in front of Mutsuki like a little boulder.

Akashi bared his half-wolf fangs. ‘I’ll fight you. Right now. All of you.’

Sumire stepped forward gracefully, arms crossed. The air around her swirled into a cloud, water gathered like orbiting moons. ‘I would suggest you rethink this absurdity,’ she said sweetly.

Mon’s hat glowed ominously. ‘I’m not supposed to use this like this, but grandpa said on special occasions, I could. And this seems special enough.’

Gon squinted at the intruders, unimpressed. ‘Wow. Worst disguises ever. What are you supposed to be? Discount ninjas?’

Meow clung to Mutsuki’s sleeve but hissed like a cornered cat. Her tail puffed to triple size. Kishin trembled, but his little oni bat was raised in perfect defensive stance. Kojiro, visibly offended, spread his invisible tengu wings just enough to knock leaves from branches.

‘How dare you,’ he said in his small tengu dialect, ‘approach Sensei with such murderous aura. Filthy amateurs.’

Mutsuki was barely able to hold the illusion magic anymore. His knees shook.

Another cloaked figure barked a cruel laugh. ‘Look at that. Barely holding himself together. You’re dangerous, Mutsuki. A liability.’

The kids poised for a fight.

‘Sensei is tired cause he saved a human!’ Honey yelled.

‘Children! Settled down.’ he began, voice low, ‘step back. These people are—’

The intruders struck before Mutsuki could finish. A flicker of talismanic light surged toward him like a whip, but Sumire snapped her fingers and a wall of water erupted, dissolving it midair. Honey lunged with a full bear-bodied tackle that sent dirt flying. Akashi leapt beside him, claws extended, moving in sync like seasoned fighters. Gon and Mon teamed up in the worst, most effective way possible:

‘ILLUSION SMOKE!!’ Gon yelled.

‘MAGICALLY UNSTABLE CONFETTI!!’ Mon shouted.

The combination exploded in a sparkling, slightly sticky cloud that blinded the assailants.

Meow, eyes squeezed shut, accidentally tripped, but her falling foot landed on a loose stone, which shot forward like a bullet and struck one masked figure squarely in the knee. He stumbled.

Kojiro was on him instantly, delivering an elegant flying kick. ‘I told you,’ he muttered mid-air, ‘no one threatens my teacher.’

Kishin, shaking like a leaf, raised his bat and whispered, ‘Brave… brave… brave…’

His small aura flared and a shockwave burst from him, forcing the attackers two steps back.

Mutsuki could only stare. They were tiny, chaotic, and untrained for combat. And yet, they were protecting him with everything they had. He felt something in deeply his chest. A kind of warmth he didn’t know the name of yet.

‘Kids…’ he whispered.

The masked intruders regrouped, rattled but not defeated. One raised a hand, gathering a spiral of sealing magic.

A spell aimed directly at Mutsuki’s heart. He stiffened.

‘I’m not letting that hit him!’ Honey shouted.

‘I’m faster!’ Akashi barked.

‘I am more refined,’ Sumire argued.

They all moved at once, cornering Mutsuki and the kids. And that was when a voice cut through the air like a small, polite lightning bolt.

‘What,’ Youchan said behind them, very calmly but obviously annoyed, ‘is going on here?’

Every figure froze, including the intruders.

She stood with a fresh purification ladle in one hand, expression placid. Her aura was peaceful at the same time, absolutely terrifying. It’s like something huge was ready to breakthrough the serenity.

‘You know I will report this right?’

The masked assailants looked at each other and stepped away. They backed off and vanished into the woods without a sound.

Gone, just like that.

Youchan looked at the children. At Mutsuki. At the scuffed ground and faintly smoking grass.

‘…I was gone for two minutes.’

‘They attacked Sensei!’ Honey declared, pointing aggressively.

‘We defended him!’ Gon bragged.

‘Flawlessly,’ Kojiro corrected.

‘I tripped but it helped!’ Meow added.

‘I screamed inside my heart,’ Kishin whispered.

Mon raised his hat to show it was still glowing menacingly. ‘And I didn’t even use my emergency spell! Yet. But I would’ve.’

Sumire adjusted her hair. ‘I handled the brunt of the assault,’ she said, casually ignoring the truth of their cute teamwork.

Mutsuki opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened again.

‘Youchan… I’m so sorry… they… I couldn’t…’

She stepped closer and looked at him very gently.

‘Everyone is unharmed,’ she said softly. ‘That is enough.’

His breath hitched and he was unable to hide his sadness. The children swarmed him. Clinging, hugging, crowding, fussing.

‘I can fight more! I can keep going!’

‘I didn’t cry! I didn’t… well, I almost… but I didn’t!’

‘Sensei your sleeve is dirty.’

‘Do those people come here often?!’

‘Sensei, I’ll protect you always!’

‘Me too!’

‘ME MORE!!!’

‘No, ME MORE!!!’

‘Drink water Sensei.’

‘No, eat my apple!’

‘HE CAN EAT MY BANANA!’

Mutsuki’s knees nearly buckled under the sudden surge of emotion.

This…this must be what family feels like. Not blood, not lineage, not duty. But being loved back.

He swallowed, closing his eyes briefly. ‘Thank you,’ he murmured.

The enemies were gone. The danger had passed. And Mutsuki, for the first time, felt safer surrounded by these tiny disasters than he ever had among adults. Eight little yokai beamed up at him proudly.

Youchan watched the scene quietly, secretly smiling behind her sleeve as she guide them all back toward the shrine through the shortcut portal. I can see why the kids and Maria-sama adores him so much. Am I allowed to adore him too?

They made it through the torii and into the shrine just as the sky blushed pink with sunset. And together, sensei, shrine maiden, and eight fiercely loyal misfits, stepped back into safety.

After scene: Mutsuki passed out asleep and Youchan couldn’t dine with him again.