Arrive Like a Whisper

Today’s UN Training --- Keep Composure through whatever is thrown at you

How one composes themselves in times of adversity is a real testament to that person’s character, especially for world leaders in positions of authority.

Composure is a rung of the ladder to the top of the world, and all world leaders worth their mettle are professionals at it.

It’s an attribute that Tani focuses his intent on building and perfecting, fully knowing that his pathway to the top is going to be filled with adversity. If he were to allow himself to be rattled by the presence of an obstacle, he’d fall all the way down to the bottom rung and have to start from scratch. The sudden appearance of Anita the Foreign Girl is a perfect example of one of the many he is to expect going forward, handling her should be much easier than handling the issues of multiple countries at a time.

In public, and especially to his enemies, he’ll never waver in his pursuit to always portray an outward strength.

The people around him must always see that he’s in control no matter what is thrown at him.

Today is the day our ambitious high schooler gets to put that heavily practiced trait into action, because today starts the beginning of his job to make sure that Anita Pederson sees her senior year through to the end.

Today he finds out just how composed he truly is.

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Akihiro Tani takes a seat at his desk in his homeroom class. He is someone who is usually very conscious of his posture, but the presence of exhaustion has made its gravitational effect known on his shoulders.

He’s running on precisely 43 minutes of sleep, so even he can cut himself some slack after all the hard work he’s put in the night before preparing for Anita’s first day of school.

Yoshitaka-sensei begins taking roll call, the meek young teacher is struggling to gather the attention of the lively class in the process.

Tani looks at his pitiful teacher and can’t help but see why Principal Togashi decided to blame the bathroom incident on him. Even in a sleep deprived state Tani can sense the energy of a total pushover just oozing from the fidgety man.

Calling out the names of the students one by one, Yoshitaka-sensei eventually reaches our raccoon eyed student sitting at the desk closest to the window at the back of the class.

“Akihiro Tani.”

“Here.”

The teacher announces the next few names, and when the motions that are needed to go through to start the beginning of the day are complete, class starts in a drowsy murmur.

Tani is half asleep and is immediately disinterested in whatever lesson Yoshitaka-sensei is passively delivering. With his head resting on his hand, he gazes out of the window to his left.

Class 3-D is on the fourth story of the main building, and is one of the few classrooms that face towards the school’s entrance. His view consists of the gardens of the courtyard below that are peppered with sitting areas, intertwined by a pathway making its way out towards the main street a couple hundred meters away. He particularly likes this view, it affords him some greenery to escape the fluorescent lights of the classroom above his head. The contrast of the blooming sakura trees by the fence that line the property balance well with the buildings spotted out in the distance between the leaves, giving it an almost glistening effect given the time of day. The early morning sun is doing just that at the moment, and it almost lulls Tani to sleep.

But his tired eyes spot a luxury black car pulling up to the entrance of the school so fast that it rouses him like a shot of caffeine. The car doesn’t stop at the gate, instead it takes a sharp turn to the left and darts right into the school grounds.

“??”

Tani is sure that personal vehicles aren’t allowed to go through that gate, especially at such a speed. Zooming down the main pathway of the gardens, the wind of its rapid movement is shuffling the leaves of the trees its driving under.

If it had done the same thing just 20 minutes earlier when students were filing into the school, the JDF would have been called in to stop a terrorist attack.

Screeching to a halt, the car’s driver side door flings open and out comes a man in a black suit scurrying around the bonnet.

(Just what the hell am I watching?) Tani thinks to himself.

The few other students seated by the window are curiously looking at the spectacle as well, and this attracted the attention of the rest of the class. It only took a moment, and Yoshitaka-sensei’s lecture was completely interrupted by the rest of the class leaving their seats to huddle over each other, pushing and shoving in an attempt to get a better view of the lawbreaking luxury car.

The man in the suit tries to open the back door, pulls on it twice, and as if struck by a bolt of lightning, realizes that it’s locked. With the body language of an octopus falling out of a tree, he scurries back around the bonnet, unlocks the car, and then rushes to the back door and opens it.

A tidal wave of anticipation washes over the class, sweeping them up in a curious fervor.

Gracefully exiting the car is Anita Pederson.

The entire student body takes a collective gasp.

“It’s a foreigner!” one student proclaims.

“An actual Ojou-sama!?” another adds.

The class’s chatter starts with compliments of how pretty she is as she walks towards the entrance, and then shifts to jeering the luxury black car as it makes an eight point turn in an attempt to turn around, narrowly avoiding bumping into the trees of the garden. Faculty staff can be seen coming into the courtyard to intervene, but the car makes a swift escape off the school grounds before they could get there.

What first comes to Tani’s mind as he watches her enter the school is the fact that she has a chauffeur. If she's a rich girl whose parents pulled some strings to get the school to admit her despite not knowing a bit of Japanese, just what kind of power barons are they?

After another minute, the excitement of such an unusual event settles down and the students return to their seats. Still abuzz, Yoshitaka-sensei urges the class to keep quiet and pay attention.

But any chance of that happening is obliterated when the classroom door slings open, and in comes Principal Togashi and Anita Pederson.

The class erupts in groans of surprise and questioning whispers.

As soon as he gets into the room, Togashi's soft and friendly looking face stiffens callously before sending Tani a smug glare. Tani responds by lifting up his nose at him. Sparks immediately come crackling between the two, the old man and the devious student are like two feral cats in a dark alleyway behind a restaurant in a standoff for scraps of food.

Togashi clears his throat and hijacks the position of authority from Yoshikawa, who shrinks back towards the chalkboard.

“As you all know, we at Kokusai pride ourselves in our diversity, in the greater Tokyo area, our school is ranked 3rd in the amount of foreign students enrolled. With that accepting nature in mind, I hope you all welcome our newest student from Norway.”

He presents Anita, and she walks in front of him and addresses the class with a sheepish bow before saying,

“I’m Anita Pederson, nic to met yo!”

The class may not know it, but that cute jumble of a Japanese introduction was something Anita had rehearsed so many times she lost count. She gave it her best shot.

“Nice to meet you!” The class collectively welcomes her with excitement.

Feeling the warmth from it, she sends them an authentic smile that melts the hearts of the boys in the class and enthralls the girls.

To them, an actual angel has just showed up to class 3-D.

“Em.. uh..” Yoshitaka-sensei stammers behind his desk. “Principal Togashi, I wasn’t informed of this sudden development. I don’t have any translated work forms to give her.”

“Just give her the standard Japanese curriculum, Akihiro-kun will take care of the rest.”

“W-What? But we don’t even have an extra desk for Anita-san to work from.”

“No need to worry about that.” Togashi replies, so nonchalant about his kouhai’s concerns that it comes across more like bullying. “She will share desks with Akihiro-kun and can use your chair until we get her one of her own.”

Any attempt at outward disapproval of that request comes out in a bumble, and unable to actually articulate it out loud, he relents with a drooping of his shoulders.

It’s just like Tani sensed, this new teacher is an absolute pushover.

“Akihiro Tani!” Togashi raises his voice, pointing at him in the process. “You know what you have to do.”

Tani cringes at becoming the target of everyone’s attention as Anita rolls the teacher’s office chair to his side and takes a seat. The two will share a small desk from this point on, and are close enough to each other to basically be rubbing shoulders. The questioning whispers between his classmates and the glares directed his way make him uncomfortable, and being sandwiched between them and this foreign girl is enough to make him claustrophobic.

But he won’t show any kind of weakness in front of his classmates, and especially not the Principal, he has something to prove after all.

“I will take good care of Anita-san from this point forward.” he says with the tone of a salaryman, standing to his feet and bowing.

The Principal smiles at him as though finding pleasure in how much more difficult life will be for his best student, and exits the room.

Yoshitaka-sensei is left deflated, standing at his desk without a chair and without a clue as to what just happened.

As sudden as a popping bubble, as loud as a bang, the arrival of Anita Pederson is felt like a bomb exploding. Her presence and all that goes with it is firmly implanted within the class psyche. 45 Japanese students and 1 foreigner will be the new norm for their final year of high school.

Today's UN Lesson--- To be continued!