Nothing to Die For

Over the following weeks, it was plainly obvious to see that the Calligraphy Club's influence on Hayakawa was an overall positive one, yet Jacob could tell that there were still problems eating away at the girl. Her home life may have gotten less stressful, but the fact that she always entered 2-7 with such a hunger for rejuvenation told him loud and clear that she was still sailing in dangerous waters during her regular school schedule.

"Hmm, can't say I know much about what goes on in 2-4," Chinatsu told him during one of their morning jogs, "Yuu-chan and I are in 2-2, and 2-4 is just around the corner past the stairwell, so we don't usually have many chances to take a peek inside."

"Hayakawa mentioned something about 'the others' once," Jacob growled, sidestepping an absent-minded salaryman coming out of the cake shop with a bag full of sweets, "When she was talking about how her life was goin' downhill, y'know? I got the feeling these 'others' were the straw that broke the camel's back."

Chinatsu glanced at him before turning back to face the sidewalk. "What, you think she's being harassed by her classmates, Jake-kun?"

"That's probably putting it lightly," he said, frowning, "Remember how her suicide attempt happened before the school year officially started, but the news was really cagey about saying exactly when?"

"I think so, yeah?"

"I'm thinkin' Hayakawa was there during orientation," Jacob stated, sounding rather confident in his thesis, "And of course, she'd get her class assignment while she was there. I'll eat my shorts if she didn't look at those horrible, familiar names and see yet another year of torment and misery waiting for her, when she was already goin' through those tough times."

"Hm, that would make sense," Chinatsu agreed, before putting on a wide smile, "So, what's the plan? Gonna try to find their names and send threatening letters?"

"Nah, letters are too roundabout," Jacob said, "Think I'll just kick down the doors of 2-4 during Lunch and say I'll toss everyone out the window if anyone messes with Hayakawa again."

"Aww, you really care about helping her out, don'tcha? You're such a softie, Jake-kun," Chinatsu crooned, "And that's what I like about ya!"

Jacob chuckled. "Goin' soft, am I? Maybe I should threaten 'em with clamps and a car battery, instead..."

But in the back of his mind, Jacob knew something so over-the-top would never fly--at least, not with Katortoise breathing down his neck. He'd have to employ more subtle methods to threaten the unnamed tormentors, so that there'd be no doubt that punishment awaited further infractions, but with the required plausible deniability to not be immediately expelled. Sounded like a tough balancing act, and only time would tell if Jacob could pull it off. Sure, midterms were coming up and studying for them might be a good idea, but his classmate's mental health seemed a bit of a higher priority at the moment.

The next morning--Wednesday, May 24th--Jacob shuffled onto Kameda High's campus, groggier than usual. The plan he had decided on necessitated the making of a half-dozen onigiri, and so he woke up earlier than usual. But he was confident in his plan, and all that remained was to execute it. It was time to put his collective total of two hours of high-school Drama class experience to work!

After another morning that contained catastrophic Japanese Lit shenanigans, Lunch period arrived, and Jacob was off, the paper bag of onigiri swinging wildly in his left hand, stopping only to roughly open the door to 2-4, giving many of the students therein a rather big shock. What was the American doing here?!

"Hey, hey, Hayakawa!" Jacob called out as he strode inside, "Peanuts told me you like umeboshi, and I had some to get rid of, so I whipped up some onigiri for ya!" He plopped the bag on Hayakawa's desk in the middle-rear of the room, keenly aware of the impressed and incredulous stares from the kids all around him.

"W-Wow," Hayakawa said shakily, "Th-Thanks, Yangu-san. You're right--I do like umeboshi." She meekly opened the paper bag and partook of one while Jacob made an exaggerated, exasperated sigh.

"Hey, now, what're friends for, am I right? But lemme tell ya, it wasn't easy gettin' 'em to ya, Hayakawa," Jacob said, putting on airs of having overcome some kind of trial, "Buncha punks tried to jump me on the road this morning. Probably figured they'd have a numbers advantage, 4 against 1."

"That's horrible!" Hayakawa said, muffled by the onigiri, "Are you alright?!"

"Oh, yeah, I'm perfectly fine," Jacob said cheerfully, "But those thugs learned a valuable lesson today: Anyone who messes with me, my friends, or my friends' lunch gets shoved into traffic!" A few students gasped at this. Jacob pointedly looked all around at the faces of the other students in 2-4, spotting a few girls in the front-right who appeared more horrified than called-for when his eyes fell upon them. "'Course, they're fine--the road wasn't exactly busy yet--but like I said, an important lesson was learned this day."

Jacob turned to face those 3 girls at the front-right again, and their faces were pale and sweaty, and their eyes were wide with horror. Again, moreso than their peers. Yep. That had to be them. The 'others' who were now realizing their continued actions may have fearsome consequences.

"Well, that's good," Hayakawa said quietly, and as Jacob bid his farewell, he was pleased to see a smile on her face. That's right, kiddo. Things are gonna turn around for ya from here on out. As he made his exit, he gave the 3 girls at the front of the class an alarming death glare that, surely, would confirm to them that he knew what they had done, and that they would soon be the ones finding themselves unwillingly playing in traffic should they continue their harassment campaign.

***

In a move that was simultaneously quite surprising and not surprising in the least, Jacob was summoned to Principal Katou's office once final homeroom concluded.

"He said you'd know exactly why," Shimada-sensei said as she escorted him to the faculty offices and, eventually, to Katou's doorstep.

Once inside, Katou was pacing back and forth, all outward appearances indicating that he was less than pleased, his turtle face lined in concentration.

"I must say, I'm rather disappointed, Yangu-san," Katou said in a somber tone, turning away from him and Shimada-sensei.

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about," Jacob said with cloying innocence, "I just delivered some lunch to one of my club mates. Surely that's not against any rules, is it?"

"Three girls came to my office early this afternoon. Aizawa Sara-san, Ueno Michie-san, and Kitamura Ai-san of Class 2-4," Katou pressed on, hands behind his back, "All saying that you threatened to, and I quote, 'shove them into traffic.' What do you think about this story, Yangu-san?"

Shimada-sensei looked horrified. "You didn't! Young-san, that's a serious offense!" But Jacob grinned widely.

"That's just the thing--I didn't," he said, chuckling uncontrollably. "Sounds like they outed themselves, in the face of my brilliant plan."

"Indeed?" Katou seemed to be rather curious. "How so?"

Jacob clapped his hands together. "Well, it goes like this: I knew that somebody's been giving Hayakawa some grief here at school, given the facts about her incident earlier this year, so I whipped up a scheme to find out who that might be."

Shimada-sensei narrowed her eyes. "What kind of scheme?"

"Oh, you know. While dropping off some snacks for Hayakawa, I loudly told a bullshit story about being attacked in the street by a group of punks. Said I shoved 'em into traffic in self-defense, and said I'd do the same to anyone who messes with me or my friends." He shrugged, shaking his head with a superior grin. "Then I took a look around the room to see if anyone looked more nervous than they had any business being. And whaddaya know, 3 girls near the front looked like they were about to piss themselves in terror. And then they come running to you, thinking I threatened them directly? Heh. Sounds like guilty consciences to me."

Shimada-sensei's eyes remained narrowed, though her expression softened somewhat. "Hrm, well, I can appreciate your good intentions, Young-san, but that could still be interpreted as a threat. Katou-san?"

To Jacob's shock, when Katou turned back around, there was a huge grin on his face. An approving grin.

"Well, I, for one, am pleased by this result, Yangu-san," the old man said with suppressed triumph. "You see, the incident with Hayakawa Haruka earlier this year is one all educators dread, and I was powerless to determine its cause." He turned to look at his bookshelf. "But, it would seem that you and the other members of the Calligraphy Club have managed to isolate and identify many of those factors. Normally, Shimada-sensei would be correct and you would be penalized for your actions today, but..."

"But...?" Jacob prompted.

Katou turned and smiled at Jacob once more. "But, it would be remiss of me to punish you for a job well done, now, wouldn't it?"

When Jacob finally entered Room 2-7 around 4:40pm, he did so with the prideful swagger of sweet, sweet vindication. Not only were his good deeds recognized, but those nasty little bitches who've been making Hayakawa miserable are gonna have their day of reckoning when their parents hear about what their daughters have been up to recently. Who says being the good guy doesn't feel good sometimes?

But, it would seem, the other members of the Calligraphy Club had spent the bulk of the hour worried about their American colleague.

"How'd it go?" came Shinji-kun's simple response, tinged with nervous worry.

"We heard you'd been taken to Principal Katou's office..." Emi said, sounding rather fearful.

"Damn, what'd you do?!" Chinatsu asked, simultaneously concerned and impressed.

"Just got some praise for my good deeds," he replied with a sly grin. "All I'll say is that it should come as no surprise if Hayakawa's classmates treat her with a bit more respect from here on out."

Hayakawa herself turned a slight shade of red at this, and she returned a small, thankful smile as she fidgeted in her seat.

Though there have been many improvements to her station in life as of late, Hayakawa's battle was not yet over. Fortunately, with the mitigating factors largely dealt with, her new friends could rest pretty-well assured that she could handle the rest from here. Surprisingly, Yuuko seemed to be working as hard as Jacob had been to help Hayakawa, in her own way.

"Conditioner?" Hayakawa asked, holding the bottle in her hand like it was a mysterious object that fell from the heavens.

"Step #1 to getting out of any depressive slump is re-learning how to love yourself!" Yuuko stated confidently, "And I can tell right now that you're not putting a lot of love into your appearance these days!" She then went on a tear, about all the quick and simple ways one can project confidence and self-worth in their appearance. Jacob wasn't sure if Hayakawa was the kind of girl who cared all that much about primping herself up like Yuuko, but it was clear that Cream-Puff's heart was in the right place.

***

As May was drawing to a close, another pressing matter began to dominate the discourse in the Calligraphy Club: Midterms. Amid the shuffle, they had seemingly snuck up on everybody, and would be starting in just a few short days, on Monday the 29th.

"Aw, hell," Jacob groaned that Friday afternoon, poring over his copy of 'Kokoro' with a Kanji dictionary sitting open next to it, "Japanese Lit's gonna be the death of me, I swear."

Chinatsu leaned over, tearing herself away from her microbiology textbook. "Oh yeah, I read that last year. Never could follow the first half very well, but once you get to Sensei's life story, it gets real good, real quick."

Jacob laughed mirthlessly. "Yeah, well, sure, what I can read is pretty interesting, but that's the problem..." He held up his Kanji dictionary to illustrate his point.

"Ohhhh," Chinatsu ohhhh'd, "Yeah, I guess if you didn't grow up learning all the Kanji you could get your hands on, then Soseki's prose could be a real brick wall."

"Ah, perhaps we could study together," came Shinji-kun's baritone, scooching his chair closer to Jacob's desk, "I'm having some difficulty with English, myself."

And so, for the remaining hour, Jacob had a productive time absorbing unfamiliar Kanji and coming up with ways to memorize them.

"So what's this thing, here?" Jacob asked, pointing to one near the end of Chapter 35.

Shinji-kun regarded the Kanji as if greeting an old friend, which was ironic, considering its meaning. "Ah. That one can mean either 'betray' or 'sell,' or even 'show off.' But in this case, it's 'sell,' so this word is 'ureba.'"

"I see..." Jacob said, focusing. "So, 'summer' here--" He indicated the bottom half of the Kanji. "--is wearing a propeller hat, but he's gritting his teeth because he was betrayed by a bad sale."

Shinji-kun chuckled. "Is that how you're gonna remember it?"

Jacob shrugged. "Hey, man, whatever works, right?"

And so, over the weekend, Jacob spent many hours studying with Shinji-kun in the landlord's suite--"Huh. I'm kinda surprised, it's not much fancier than a regular apartment," Jacob had noted on his first visit--and while plenty of progress was made, Jacob had to contend with the fact that he was just gonna have huge holes in his understanding of 'Kokoro.' Ah, well. At least he was able to help Shinji-kun with his English troubles...or lack thereof, as the kid was simply second-guessing himself when he didn't need to.

"I dunno, man, seems like you've got it down pretty well," Jacob said, "You've got an accent, of course, but you won't be docked points for that."

Shinji-kun smiled. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to break out of my accent at some point in the future. For now, I should focus on retaining the material for the midterms tomorrow."

"Ah, shit, they do start tomorrow, don't they?" Jacob groaned. Japanese Lit may have been his worst subject, but Chemistry wasn't that far behind--it may look just like Algebra on the surface, but it was not nearly as intuitive and had multiple layers of complexity thrown in, for good measure. Blech.

Over the course of the next several days, the midterms struck without mercy. Well, except for Ohno-sensei's phys ed midterms. The written Health class exams were a joke, and Jacob took to the physical exams with gusto, guaranteeing an ace grade as he destroyed all the tasks, including pulling an impressive 2-minute kilometer run. It was exhausting, but it was worth it!

The Civics midterm was difficult, as Okamoto-sensei's class always was, but it was all old-hat to Jacob, who had to pass a similar test to earn his citizenship half a decade ago. The order of the eras and how long they lasted always tripped him up, but he consigned himself to earning a decent grade as opposed to a perfect one.

For all of his worrying about Hayakawa-sensei's Japanese Lit exam, it turned out to be far more forgiving than he had expected. By what he could have only considered to be a miracle, every question and essay dealt with material that Jacob had actually understood! He was even able to relax enough to realize that his surname was, indeed, Hayakawa, and now his assumption that Hayakawa Haruka's father ran a liquor store seemed even dumber in retrospect. Ah, well. At least it was all working out so far!

Unlock most other students--and, indeed, adults--Jacob was actually quite skilled at Math, and so Mizuhara-sensei's rather standard Algebra-slash-Trigonometry midterm was kind of a breeze for him. At least he could be confident that he aced two of his midterms!

But then Kubo-sensei's Chemistry midterm had to come along and screw it all up. Matching the elements to their mole-weight was annoying yet doable, but the seemingly-endless string of calculating the outcome of two compounds mixing together was pure madness. More than halfway through, Jacob had just given up, filling in responses such as 'a big-ass explosion' or 'a big-ass hole in the floor.' His only hope was that Kubo-sensei would have a functional sense of humor and give him correct marks anyway.

Each day ended with the Calligraphy Club commiserating and studying for their allotted time, except for Emi, who was apparently so advanced in her studies that the midterms were almost trivial to her. Jacob, Chinatsu, and Yuuko would surely owe a great deal of their success to Emi's aid, by the time the week was over.

"You've got to memorize the Periodic Table, Young-san!" Emi was saying emphatically. "I know it's a lot, but once you do, then calculating the results of a chemical reaction become so much easier!" He had no retort for this, so he grumbled and began glaring at the Periodic Table like it had insulted him gravely in the past.

***

With the end of the midterms came the advent of the summer uniforms making their appearance in the school. The switch consisted of little more than ditching the heavy jackets in favor of button-up shirts that featured the school emblem, but given how hot and humid the days had already become, it was a welcome change. The girls, on the other hand, got to wear neckties instead of ribbons. Spicy!

But the week-long wait to get the results of their midterms left many students feeling on-edge. Including Jacob, who was only just now realizing that his entire future livelihood would depend on passing 17 more exams like this one--8 more midterms and 9 final exams. And waiting a week for results after each one?! Now he completely understood the NEET phenomenon. He already wanted to chew off his own face, and this was only the first!

Friday, June 9th rolled around. The day that the midterm results would be posted. Both Jacob and Chinatsu were rather subdued during their morning jog, with the latter petrified that her Math scores would positively tank her overall rank.

"I just can't wrap my head around statistics," she bemoaned, "How am I expected to figure out percentages of percentages without a calculator?! It's not like I'll have to do this stuff without the aid of machines out in the real world!"

"Yeah, I hear ya there," Jacob replied, "If I had my way, we'd totally have calculators available to us, but the trick would be in putting everything in the right order. Y'know, closer to a real-life situation." He shook his head. "As for me, I know for a fact that my Chemistry midterm is gonna be a disaster. Now that's a subject where you just have to memorize or die."

Eventually, the school day began, and thus the countdown to the results being posted during Lunch break began. 4 hours remaining.

In Civics class, Okamoto-sensei (wearing a sky-blue cardigan even on such an oppressively-humid morning) seemed to drop some hints about the results, saying, "I was so surprised to see my first-years do so well this semester! Be sure to keep up the good work, everyone!" She then launched straight into a new section of their curriculum--Japan's relationship with the NATO Alliance--and Jacob became keenly aware that he wasn't quite as worldly as he would soon find himself needing to be. 3 hours remaining.

Hayakawa-sensei's Japanese Lit class kept pressing on through 'Kokoro,' and Shinji-kun's lessons on unfamiliar Kanji paid off, marking the first time Jacob had been called upon to read a section without embarrassing himself horribly! What an achievement! Fortunately, they would be entering the novel's second half shortly, and according to Chinatsu, this is when the book started getting really good. Jacob privately considered ordering himself an English-language copy, just to avoid the headache of shouting epithets at every brand-new Kanji. 2 hours remaining.

Mizuhara-sensei's Math class took a turn for the better, as amid his frankly sad and pathetic meme-laden projections, their next stretch of content would consist of...simple Geometry? Seemed like a pretty big step down in difficulty from Trigonometry, but sure, man. Jacob predicted that the Math finals in 8 weeks' time would be an absolute joke. 1 hour remaining.

Phys Ed was rather exciting, as Ohno-sensei announced that, starting next week, both the boys and girls would be meeting at the school pool on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for swimming lessons. Another win for Jacob--he'd been an excellent swimmer since he was 5 years old. Sure, the time spent in the pool would be restricted, but hey, better a little pool time in the summer heat than none at all!

But now it was zero hour. The trek back to 1-4 meant only a few minutes more until midterm results were posted. The crucial first hurdle to Jacob's intended goal of entering the workforce.

The classroom erupted into near-anarchy when a rather plain-looking faculty member descended the stairs from the second floor with sheets of paper in-hand, pinning the first-years' results spread out over six sheets of paper onto the announcement board across the hall. Once the man made his rather hurried exit, the hallway became a congested mass of wriggling bodies, each jockeying for position to see their results. Fortunately, Jacob was well-equipped for such a scenario, having a height and muscle advantage that allowed him to shove his way close to the board.

"Let's see," Jacob growled as he scanned the results. Unsurprisingly, Shinji-kun's scores placed him 2nd overall in their year, which was quite impressive. Jacob figured Yoshikawa would likely be the only one to outrank Shinji-kun, but he had been ranked 3rd overall. He took another look at the first-place winner. "Maeda Junko? Why do I feel like I've heard that name before? Hmm." Apparently, it was also someone from 1-4, so hooray for that. Jacob seemed to be surrounded by all the brainy kids. Perhaps it rubbed off on him? He scoured the rest of the list. Turns out he placed at the very bottom...of the top third.

"Aw, hell yeah!" Jacob shouted right there in the hall, garnering all kinds of looks from the surrounding students, some congratulating him for his hard work, others looking miserable and bitter that they couldn't feel quite so good about their own grades...

"Nice!" Chinatsu had said that afternoon, once the Calligraphy Club assembled. "41st isn't bad at all in a class of 140 or so." She puffed out her chest. "I managed to snag 16th among the second-years, and I gotta tell ya, the competition's fierce!"

"You should see Shinji-kun's ranking, though--he got 2nd!" Jacob said, "I knew the kid was smart, but goddamn!"

Shinji-kun couldn't help but smile and blush a little. "Well, it certainly wasn't easy, but I see it as both validation of my hard work and also a reminder that I could always improve my performance. All in all, a satisfactory result."

Emi smiled a sheepish smile. "I wish I could say I had the same level of success. I managed 4th in my year."

Chinatsu waved her hand dismissively. "Yeah, but you've got Literal Actual-Genius Student Council President Horii-san in your year, along with a couple other prodigies to compete with. I'd say 4th place in your year would be 1st place in either of ours!"

"Speaking of which," Yuuko said, suspiciously not revealing her own placement, "How'd you end up doing, Haruka-san?"

It turned out Hayakawa preferred to be called Haruka by the other club members, and she was looking much more well-cared-for these days, no doubt thanks to the improvements made in her life (and Yuuko's steady stream of gifted hair and body care products).

With a smile even more sheepish than Emi's, Haruka managed to say, "I-I got 3rd in my year." Her face went positively red as she was showered with praise on all sides.

"Damn, kiddo, you've got a good head on your shoulders," Jacob said, giving her a friendly 'punch' on the arm, "Bet yer old man'll be happy to hear it!"

It's been a few weeks since the Calligraphy Club actually made any real headway on perfecting their routine, but at the moment, it hardly seemed to matter. Spirits were high, summer was on its way, and Jacob was one step closer to getting that high school diploma. Things were finally looking up.