Chapter 9: The Greatest Enemy of a Warrior… Midterms (Parts 1-2)

Prologue

— I didn't think I'd actually make it out alive…

I say while gently scratching my head.

The midterms are finally over.

When I get back to the pupusería, I see Seji-sensei packing some things into suitcases.

— Good afternoon, Seji-sensei. Why are you packing? Are you going on a trip?

Along with Chikara, they try to close a suitcase that was almost at its maximum capacity until they finally succeed.

After taking a deep breath, Seji-sensei answers my question.

— Don't you know? The second Sunday of November is the national pupusa day in El Salvador. As Reina-sensei's disciple, it's my duty to help with the eight-meter pupusa we plan to make and, of course, the legendary pupusa.

— Ah!

My eyes light up at those words, which come like a sweet breeze on a summer day.

Seeing all the master pupusa chefs gathered in one place, helping create these ambrosias, is one of the greatest experiences there is!

I unconsciously start to daydream and drool while Seji-sensei looks at me in a strange way.

I can't miss this great event!

— Hey Rasec, which country are you going to for the school trip?

That's right, we still haven't decided which country to go to… and the school trip is this weekend…

But I definitely have an idea.

— Heh… Seji-sensei, forget that I'm a member of the student council and, therefore, I have enough power to convince everyone to…

Striking an epic pose, I take a deep breath and say:

— Go to El Salvador for the school trip!

Seji-sensei, along with Chie, seem surprised, even Kibō.

— Rasec, I live in your diamond, and I'm just finding out now. — Kibō says quietly

— Shut up, Boki…

I've said it, the student council meeting will be after the grades are handed out… I don't know how I'll convince everyone to go to El Salvador.

But, for some reason, I know how to contact the lifelong president of that country directly… Nayiks!

He'll help me…

Chapter 9: The Greatest Enemy of a Warrior… Midterms.

Chapter 9, Part 1

Very early in the morning, I get up, take off my pajamas, well, the clothes I wore yesterday, to be exact.

I put on my most colorful outfit, a white shirt with dark blue pants.

I go downstairs and make coffee for both Seji-sensei and myself.

Seji-sensei sees me preparing his food as well, and his curiosity is piqued.

— Eh? It's six in the morning, what are you doing up at this hour? And, more importantly, why are you drinking coffee?

Trembling from the caffeine, I turn to look at Seji-sensei with wide eyes, revealing the huge bags under my eyes from staying up late last night.

— I'm really behind, Seji-sensei, with everything that's happened, I forgot many of my school obligations, and I also forgot to study for the midterms.

After saying that, with the cup of coffee in my hand, I go sit at one of the tables while studying the history of Japan.

— Wow, how irresponsible. — murmurs Chie as he enters the house drunk after spending the whole night outside.

When I finished my breakfast, I went to my room to continue studying what I still needed to.

Kibō seems to understand the situation I'm in and leaves me alone while he reads a comedy novel.

I'm really bad at everything related to Japan, who came up with the idea of putting kanjis into the writing system?

Wait, I think that was explained in the book I just read…

I slam my head on the table out of stress at the thought of it.

Damn it, I just studied that book, and I've already forgotten everything!

— Are you okay? — asks Kibō when he sees me hitting my head on the table.

From downstairs, I hear someone calling me, it's Seji-sensei.

— Rasec, your friends are here.

I get up from my seat, the big bump on my forehead obvious, and along with Kibō, we go down to greet them.

— Let's go greet them, Kibō.

— Yes.

Very tired and frustrated, I go down the stairs to the first floor to meet Miru-chan and Hiroki…

I see Miru-chan, Hiroki, and… Neko-chan at the door?

— Good morning.

— Good morning, senpai! Eh? Why are you trembling? — asks Neko-chan when she sees me.

She's expressionless, but all that caffeine makes me look at her with wide, terrifying eyes.

— What are you doing here?

— Eh?!

Asking her that while looking at her that way only made her nervous.

Miru-chan greets me and explains why Neko-chan is here.

— She was curious to see what the place you live in is like!

— Y-yeah, I came here exactly for that…

Yasuragi, Chikara, and Ai come out of their diamonds to greet us.

— We'll be there to cheer you on!

Yasuragi gets scared when she sees me.

— What are those bags under your eyes?!

— Forget about that. By the way, you're very quiet today, Hiroki.

— Shut up. I didn't even want to come. I'm here because I didn't study at all...

Hiroki doesn't seem to be in the mood, so I'll try not to bother him too much today.

— Anyway, then we can go to the dining room, put your books there and...

I didn't finish what I was saying when Neko-chan interrupts me.

— Let's go to your room instead! — shouts Neko-chan cheerfully.

— Eh? That place is very small and not very tidy, to say the least…

As Seji-sensei passes by with hot chocolate, he tries to convince me to take them to my room.

— Come on, Rasec, your room is the biggest in this house. You can all fit without any problems.

— S-Seji-sensei!

It seems I have no allies left! Unless Miru-chan and Kibō support me…

— It'll be fun to see your room, senpai! — says Miru-chan cheerfully.

— I don't care as long as we study. — says Hiroki very seriously.

— Hahaha, now you're cornered!

Damn it, the world definitely hates me!

I can't let them see the things I have in there…

— If you insist, give me a second...

With that, I run to my room to tidy up as much as I can.

Carefully and still trembling from the two cups of bitter coffee I drank, I take down the posters I have.

I remove my posters of Vocaloid characters and my favorite games, mostly featuring female characters as expected...

Desperately, I gather all the game boxes with anime girls on the cover and their discs and cartridges inside to replace them with games with relatively normal covers.

I was about to leave when I go back and take all the manga and light novels that could look strange from my bookshelf and hide them under the bed.

Finally, I leave my room, panting from exhaustion and with my hair disheveled.

— Ah… okay… you can come in… wait!

I had forgotten something important!

I go back into my room and with a lavender-scented air freshener, I start spraying the place.

Once finished, I come out coughing from my room.

— Now you can come in… ah…

Everyone looks at me strangely, but if they were me, they would understand why.

— Let's go, Chie, we're going to the pupusería. I'll bring you lunch when I come back.

Seji-sensei and Chie leave.

— Yes, thank you, Seji-sama!

— Excuse us.

My friends, and Hiroki... enter my room, for the first time in a long time, I turn on the light in this room.

I guess I should have removed the cobwebs… fortunately, it's not as dirty as I thought it would be.

Kibō approaches me and whispers:

— Hey, did you hide your hentai games and manga?

— Ah, Boki, don't say that! They're not hentai!

Desperate and still trembling, I look at him angrily after he asked me that question.

I wonder if this caffeine effect will ever wear off...

I see Hiroki from the entrance of my room looking at a poster of Kagamine Rin.

I forgot to take down that poster!

— It looks like the one in your room. — Chikara says to Hiroki.

— Yes, it's her, actually… — Hiroki responds very seriously.

I approach him from behind and ask:

— What are you doing?

— Ah, what do you care, idiot!

He leaves, and I discreetly take down the poster to put it away.

— Woohoo!

Very cheerfully, Neko-chan jumps onto my bed and starts bouncing on it.

— Hey, don't jump on the bed, or Seji-sensei will hit you with the chancla!

Neko-chan sits on the bed and says:

— When I was jumping, I felt something weird… also, what the heck is "chankura"?

I forgot they don't know what a chancla is, but for some reason, it's cute that they say it wrong.

— Let's stop with the weird words and start studying.

If we keep wasting time, we'll never get anywhere.

I should have studied when I had the chance...

Chapter 9, Part 2

Very tired and still trembling, I put the things I need on my desk, which is quite messy. Hiroki notices this.

— You should clean your desk.

— Shut up...

Seeing that the desk is quite small, I logically deduce that only one person can fit.

— Hey, Kibō, go to the downstairs storeroom with Ai, Chikara, and Yasuragi to bring the small breakfast table. I think you know where it is.

— Yes…

It seems that over time, Kibō has become more obedient...

As we waited for them to return with the small table, we started to get comfortable.

I sat at my desk and turned on my computer, Neko-chan took one of my electric guitars and sat in a corner playing a simple song while Nyakoshi watched her.

Miru-chan and Hiroki looked around my room, very confused, almost as if they couldn't believe it was really my room.

The first thing I did when the computer started up was change my wallpaper to a system default one; I don't need to say what my previous wallpaper was. Finally, I cleared my browsing history and opened a guest window. I guess I don't need to explain what was there either...

Then, they arrived with the table I asked for, struggling to carry it. I helped them set it down on the floor, and quickly, Miru-chan and Hiroki took their seats.

— H-hey!

— You stay at your desk!

Tch… the last thing I want right now is to argue with someone...

As I sat down, Neko-chan stopped playing for a moment and asked me:

— Senpai, do you have any songs written down here?

I smiled at Neko-chan.

— Yes, most of them are in Spanish, but you can try playing them.

— Awesome!

Neko-chan's eyes sparkled with excitement.

— They're in a folder under my bed...

Wait, what did I hide under the bed?!

Very worried, I watched her as she reached under the bed and pulled out one of my hidden manga.

I was stunned while she remained expressionless.

— S-senpai… what is this?

Miru-chan took the manga and looked at it.

— "Onii-chan no Hentai"… Ah!

Very embarrassed, I snatched the manga from her hands while Hiroki laughed at my misfortune.

— The songs are on the other side of the bed, Neko-chan...

Neko-chan covered her mouth with her hand, smiling and looking at me mischievously.

— Eh? I didn't know you liked this kind of stuff, perverted senpai...

— Eh… well…

Damn it, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't hide all the evidence!

— K-Kenji lent them to me, I didn't like them, so I put them under the bed to return them later.

— Don't make excuses. — said Hiroki with an expressionless face.

I returned to my seat while Neko-chan, now with the sheets of written songs, lay down on the big pile of dirty clothes in my room.

— Come on, let's start studying.

The spirits from our diamonds just watched us and tried to help us for the moment.

— Adolescence must be difficult. — said Yasuragi, quite depressed.

— Eh?! But they say it's the best stage of life! — said Kibō, surprised.

I looked at Neko-chan very seriously.

— Hey, don't do anything weird with my dirty clothes.

— I can't promise anything...

Finally, I focused entirely on studying.

Miru-chan helped Hiroki and me study while Neko-chan played the songs she found under my bed.

— Y-you don't know how to solve for X?! — asked Miru-chan, very surprised at Hiroki.

I think I don't know how to solve for X either… but any chance to laugh at him can't be wasted! But this is the exception, I don't feel like mocking him…

She came to help me with Japanese.

— No, Uraseku-senpai, the kanji is written like this…

Is that a kanji?! Do you see this: 龘?! I don't either! Are those forty-eight lines?! What's the point of knowing this if no one in life uses it?! I don't even know what it means!

Miru-chan returned to Hiroki.

— Remember that water with little calcium and magnesium is called "soft water"…

She's so smart… I must concentrate!

— I like water. — said Ai cheerfully while serving them orange juice.

While Miru-chan reviewed some things, Hiroki and I tried to help each other… tried...

— You're an idiot, Hiroki! The Earth near the equator rotates faster than the speed of sound!

— Who are you calling an idiot, idiot?! Besides, how fast is that!?

— Eh, ummh, I don't know...

— …

We were making progress little by little. Miru-chan didn't have to worry since she was the only one who really studied, and well, Neko-chan just came because she felt like it.

When we moved on to English, even Miru-chan asked me for help. In case you didn't know, I can speak English.

— Senpai, how do you read this word?

— Eh, it's read as "everyone"...

— Hey, idiot, how do you write the letter that makes the "O" sound?

— Do you call the person teaching you an idiot? Just make a circle…

It's very tiring to teach these kinds of things. Now I understand how Miru-chan has felt for the past hour…

— Uraseku-senpai, you seem to understand these topics a lot.

— Ah, yes… it's because I know a bit of English…

I don't know why I said "a bit," I guess some Japanese traditions are sticking with me, like not boasting about something and being humble, even if you're the best at something, or maybe I've always been like that...

— Amazing, I didn't know you spoke English!

Hiroki looks at us, very confused.

— You didn't know? But you've been friends for a long time.

— There are things about him I've only found out this year. I'd like to know what else you're hiding, Uraseku-senpai.

She said that while giving me a terrifying and threatening smile.

— Uh, sorry! I guess I should.

I'm really not an outgoing person, so they didn't get to know much about me.

Obviously, as time passed, we started to get tired. It was past noon, and there was no sign of Seji-sensei with our lunches.

Neko-chan fell asleep on my pile of dirty clothes, Miru-chan kept studying, and Hiroki was arguing with Chikara.

— You're an idiot, Hiroki!

— You don't even study, Chikara!

Those two sure make a lot of noise...

I lay my head on the table, feeling like smoke was coming out of my head, because that's actually happening.

My head was really emitting smoke, as if someone was grilling my brain.

Kibō, very worried, came and threw a fire extinguisher at me—yes, you read that right, he threw a fire extinguisher.

— Ouch! Idiot, that's not how you use it!

I yelled at Kibō angrily, but at least I appreciated that he was concerned and that he didn't knock me out...

In the end, the spirits of our diamonds, along with Miru-chan and Hiroki, formed a circle while drinking juice.

— S-Seji-sensei didn't come with the food...

After saying that, I slowly lifted my head off the table while biting coffee beans.

— He must have a lot of customers at the restaurant...

— Um... Kibō, bring me at least a churro, the one that tastes like bacon! And while you're at it, bring me some coffee...

— Uraseku-senpai, I don't think you should drink so much coffee... — Miru-chan said, very worried.

Kibō, along with Yasuragi, went to get the things I asked for.

I really don't know if it's bad to drink so much coffee in one day... I'll do whatever it takes to stay awake and study today. I hope it doesn't cause too many negative effects.

Um, what were the negative effects again? Anxiety, insomnia, nervousness...? It's not like I don't already have those... I shouldn't worry.