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At first glance you might think Tatsuya was the one with all the good grades at Sungarden. He was, after all, seemingly very fond of tutoring the younger kids and had always been in the top few of his classes. But this year, to the welcome surprise of Hitomiko, even Nagumo and Suzuno were doing fairly well. Not the top of the class but certainly not the dead last bottom like the former year. Oh no. The bottom was reserved for someone else.
Reina, who had initially struggled with math, was nearing the top three of her class this year as well. That could be chalked up to her determination, but there was one other person in Sungarden that was to blame for everyone’s sudden dedication to their education.
The drill sergeant Midorikawa Ryuuji.
“There’s a saying I’m rather fond of-“
“Here we go again,” Nagumo grumbled, taping his pencil on the desk.
Midorikawa shot him a look and he immediately shut up. Suzuno snickered beside him only to be given the same glare and he too quickly snuffed out his giggles.
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today! Now, were my lessons not clear enough the other day?”
Nagumo and Suzuno avoided looking at the green haired boy. It wasn’t that he had been unclear, it was just they hadn’t been paying that much attention. A decision that they were slowly starting to regret.
A low growl made them snap to attention, sitting up straight in their seats.
“You were very clear!”
“Crystal! Detailed to the decimal!” Suzuno quickly added.
“So clear we could see through it- ow!”
Suzuno had given Nagumo a swift kick under the table. They’d seen through Midorikawa’s explanations alright.
But maybe a little bit of flattery would-
“You didn’t pay attention to a word I said did you?”
Gulping, they knew they were dead when Midorikawa pulled out and flaunted two crumpled test sheets, one labeled with a 67% and another with a 65%.
“H-how did you?” Suzuno began before Nagumo suddenly lept out of his seat to lunge for the papers.
Midiorikawa, who was expecting the outburst, swiftly side stepped the boy who tripped and fell face first on the ground.
He crouched to meet the tulip head’s level, and proceeded to wave the 65% in front of him.
“Must have fallen out of your backpack.”
“Like hell it did!” Nagumo tried again for the paper but the green haired boy pulled it out of his reach, the other plowing into the ground again and crashing into the wall.
—-
Downstairs a little girl was tugging on Tatsuya’s sleeve timidly but with a sense of urgency. He looked down and smiled at her worried face, already knowing her question as the earthquake above them proceeded.
“Don’t worry, Midori’s got this, right Reina?”
Reina glanced up from where she had been helping another kid and nodded to the girl. “He’s surprising tough despite his appearance.”
“No, no,” she shook her head, chewing her lip. “Nagu, Suzu...”
“O- ooooohhh,” the two teens sweat dropped. They didn’t have the heart tell her the two clowns, and current favourites, were about to be demolished.
“T-they’ll live,” Tatsuya stuttered then mumbled under his breath quietly. “If Midorikawa doesn’t find out about their test scores.”
Reina grimaced, having just managed to catch that. “Um, nothing school related ever escapes his knowledge.”
Another thump.
“Should we check on them?”
Reina scowled at Tatsuya’s suggestion. “I am not going up there. If you want to check in you can do it yourself.”
—-
By now Suzuno had joined the fray, hoping that with Nagumo distracting Midorikawa he could sneak in and snatch his own paper back. There was no such luck. He soon found himself in a tangled heap with a smooshed tulip in his face threatening to suffocate him.
A sharp crack drew the squabbling boy’s attention to the only other occupant of the room.
They froze.
With a dangerous glint, Midorikawa cracked his knuckles, slowly strolling closer to the sweating teens.
A scream shook the building.
—-
When dinner rolled around Tatsuya greeted Midorikawa as he entered the dining room, smiling normally. The two muttering zombies behind him were less normal but not unheard of and certainly not worth questioning.
“How was your afternoon?” Tatsuya settled on, placing another plate on the wooden dining table as he made his way around with the stack.
Midorikawa lightened up. “Oh, it was very productive!”
Tatsuya shot a quick sympathetic glance towards Nagumo and Suzuno who were too zoned out to notice.
“Letters are numbers... they equal something now....”
“Math isn’t English... it can’t be... math nouns...?”
The two continued on like that for the rest of the evening, no one could manage to snap them out of it. Not even a batch of Reina’s revival cookies. But above all, no one questioned the cheerful Midorikawa.
—-
Kira Hiroto was annoying to say the least. He had no regard for his school life whatsoever and his ‘high and mighty’ persona had riled the whole team up from the start of the soccer club.
Midorikawa was done. Completely and utterly fed up with the boy that Tatsuya seemed to have endless patience for. That delinquent deserved to be kicked off the team. As he continued rambling under his breath he failed to notice the person in front of him and walked straight into Hitomiko.
“Ah, I’m so sorry!” He started fretting nervously but Hitomiko put up a hand to stop him.
“I need to ask a favour from you if I could.”
Midorikawa tilted his head. “A favour? Sure I guess?”
“Great. I need you to tutor someone who, at their current pace, is not going to pass this year. Do you think you can get them up to speed?”
This was new. It must be someone outside Sungarden for Hitomiko to request his assistance.
He smiled. “Of course!” A slacker huh? Not when he was done with them.
—-
Hitomiko had set it up for whoever he was going to be tutoring to come to Sungarden later that week, something about “providing inspiration to the others”. Whatever that meant.
Opening the door to the study room, he froze. Then immediately turned around to go right back out.
“Ha! They think you can get me to study? My sister has clearly lost it! You’re just that scrawny midfielder that can’t seem to butt out of other people’s business and follows Tatsuya around like you’re glued to him or something! You can’t do anything on your own yet somehow here you are, wasting my time.”
Midorikawa clenched his teeth, he did not have the patience to deal with him of all people. “I have a name you know!”
Hiroto scoffed, leaning back in the chair to toss his feet up on to the table. “Clearly not one worth remembering. So a nameless nobody is gonna attempt to tutor me, the great God Striker? Everyone’s just so pent up about study this and that, it’s honestly pathetic. Leave now and I’ll tell Hitomiko you at least tried.”
The green haired boy was about to lash back angrily, taking in a deep breath to yell, but to Hiroto’s surprise he let it out slowly and bowed his head. He... submit? Wow, this kid really was a joke. Guess he could leave now though. As he began to stand something caught his eye. A dark aura began to shift around the other boy, tendrils leeching out and snapping against the floor. The door slammed shut.
“H-ha-haha,” Midorikawa reached a hand up to cover his face. “Ahaha.”
Hiroto narrowed his eyes. What was wrong with this kid?
Midorikawa’s head lifted to stare straight at Hiroto who shifted slightly at the sight of dark glowing eyes. “There’s a saying I’m rather fond of: ‘In order for you to insult me I would first have to value your opinion’. Now why should I value the opinion of a boy who goes around claiming to be the best, on god tier level, when he can’t even be bothered to sit down, listen, try anything at all to even make it look like they care? Hitomiko asked me to tutor you and that, Hiroto, is what I am going to do whether you like it or not!” He slammed a paper down on the table. “I saw your 34. Now sit down, shut up, and get a pencil out to take some notes!”
Hiroto sat. He couldn’t get his brain to even comprehend the green haired boy’s attitude change. H-he was always so cheerful, like a puppy that if you kicked would scamper on back behind Tatsuya.
Wait. Why was his hand shaking?
Midorikawa glared, causing Hiroto to jump and fumble out a pencil. He should say something, leave, call this whole thing pointless. But when he went to take a breath the other boy’s gaze forced him back.
“Question 1. Read it.”
—-
Tatsuya winced at the conversation on the other side of the door where he and most of the older kids in Sungarden had gathered. Midorikawa had never ripped a strip off them the way he was now doing to Hiroto.
“M-maybe we should leave them to it....”
“Wait, you’re not going to step in for him this time Tatsuya?” Nagumo asked, having been on the receiving side of a much calmer Midorikawa when compared. He now thanked the stars for it.
Tatsuya shook his head. “He kinda had it coming. But maybe someone should say something to Midorikawa later about toning it down just a bit.”
The group groaned out a bunch of “Yeah right”’s.
A buzz went off and Reina glanced down at her phone.
“Oh no.”
“What?” Everyone asked cautiously.
Reina swallowed. “T-there’s a quiz tomorrow I totally forgot about. T-that was my reminder.”
“Ah!” The rest jumped, staring at her in absolute horror.
“I forgot about that as well!” Saginuma began to panic, clutching his hair frantically.
A chorus of scared “Same”’s followed and after a quick shared glance they bolted to grab their books.
—-
Midorikawa emerged much later, followed by a dead eyed Hiroto.
“I think we’ve made some headway, if only a little. Same time tomorrow?”
Hiroto began to protest. “I-I actually-“
A sharp head turn cut him off and he quickly agreed.
“Great!” Midorikawa cheered happily, clapping his hands together. “See you tomorrow then!”
Hiroto quickly bolted from the boy to find Hitomiko, he was done and just wanted to go home and get away from that crazy kid.
Midorikawa strolled into the living room to find his friends huddled over their Geography books.
“Oh, have I been missing study time? Sorry guys, I can help you out now if you want.”
“N-no, that’s ok Midori,” Reina waved her hand. “We’re just going over a few terms and double checking our work.”
Nagumo and Suzuno attempted to make themselves as small as possible and look extremely focused.
Midorikawa smiled brightly, eyes lighting up. “I can’t wait to see your guy’s test scores! I’m really proud of you all!”
“It’s all thanks to you Ryuuji,” Tatsuya managed to smile back, hoping it didn’t look fake. It was because of him, and they did appreciate the boy’s help, but they could have done with a little less... yeah. It didn’t need to be replayed. They were motivated now all right. “I think we’re all set for the rest of the year!” There really wasn’t much of it left thank goodness.
They knew they weren’t really all set because of exams but after tonight it was unanimously agreed that mandatory study time was added to the Sungarden schedule to avoid the wrath of the midfielder.
“Alright! Still let me know if you have any problems, I’ll gladly help. Next year will be great, I know it!”
Once Midorikawa had headed off to brush his teeth and get ready for bed, the rest let out a pent up sigh.
“Tatsuya...”
“Yeah. I’ll go check on Hiroto.”