Volume 21 - CH 3

FEBRUARY 5, 2023 ~ FROZZENDETH

Aria the Scarlet Ammo chartered a British Air Force carrier jet, and set off on her way back home.

It was only six hours by going through Hawaii, but the jet was only a two-seater.

With the female pilot and Aria flying in tandem, I was left behind. It was as if it was Suneo’s cousins car. Do you hate me or something?

Abandoned in Florida, Nobita had to take a low-cost flight from Orlando, alone and at his own expense, and returned home 18 hours later. Even though I was able to rest for a few hours at the Boston airport, where I had to land for layover, there was no way for me to get rid of my fatigue by sleeping on the benches at the terminal. (TL Note: I am not sure on the exact reference as I have not seen the show, but I can make a guess from what I have read online. The reference here and the previous paragraph is to Doraemon, specifically Suneo Honekawa, who in an episode has a Porsche 911 Carrera, a two seater. Nobeta is someone who Suneo bullies, and thus I suppose did not let him into the car. If you can explain this to me, feel free to DM me on Discord.)

In the end, I arrived at Narita with my whole body sore, but thanks odds are to the authority from the British House of Lords, I managed to pass through immigration with ease. Should I have had to come as Cromaetel in such a state of exhaustation, I would have certainly reached my physical and mental limits and collapsed… I never want to have to dress up as a woman again… I am honestly grateful to the Holmes family for their help here. Regarding my previous resent to Aria, I will consider her help here and the balance will be zero.

And so, once I returned home to Japan…

From Narita I went straight back to Butei High. Not my dorms though, but instead the general education building. With my honed animal like instincts, I knew that going to the dormitory was dangerous right now, and anyways despite my efforts to patch up my tardiness, I was just keeping up with attendance requirements. If I missed even one more day, hell even an hour, I would have to repeat this year no matter what my grades were like, and in April I would be in the same class as Fuuma and Mamiya, which would not be good for my health.

And so, I opened the sliding door with my exhausted body and entered 2-A’s morning class.

“… Good morning.”

Since it was so early there were not many classmates, but regardless I greeted them, albeit weakly.

Muto, who was reading a magazine about cars, raised his big hand and said “Oh, it has been a while, huh?” To my classmates, I was just the “guy who is usually around and sits there”. My presence makes little to no difference and it does not matter normally if I am here or not.

Also, the reason why there are not many people here, besides the time, is because the second half of the 3rd semester is called “absenteeism”… a period of time where students who have enough absentee days left to advance to the next grade don’t attend as they don’t have to. This period of time is basically a remedial period given to Butei High students who were unable to attend class due to work.

So there was no Lisa, Watson, or Shiranui here right now, let alone Aria. Riko, who I thought would be here, wasn’t either. That is a relief, this should be relaxing.

I had left some of my textbooks in my locker just in case something like this happened, so today I can take my classes as is. Oh, I have some loose-leaf notebooks that can be used for any subject… I will use them, then.

Well, right now I am glad. It is good to know that I can still receive a normal education, even if it is at such a low level.

My final exams are approaching, and for me, who did not take most of the classes in the 3rd semester, this is a good opportunity for me.

And so today I attended LHR by Takamagahara-sensei after such a long time, chemistry with Chan Wu in a different classroom, English by Nangou-sensei again back in 2-A, and civics by Tsuzuri-sensei who was smoking as if it was a normal thing to do in a classroom… And… fuaa…

I am getting sleepy.

(… Hey, get back to normal already, damn jet lag…!)

The time difference between Orlando and Tokyo was minus 14 hours.

It is 11:00 am JST now, but my internal clock is… Well, I am not sure what the exact time is as it would be difficult to calculate in my head, but the point is that for me, right now, night and day are reversed.

For my, right now, midday is midnight.

“… tsuu… tsuu…”

I tried to resust the urge to sleep by pressing using my fingers to keep my eyelids open, and pricking my thigh with my mechanical pencil, but I… I’m… ZZZzzz…

“–KUORAA TOHYAMAAAAAA!” (TL Note: KUORRA is a sound effect a lot of animes use as an exaggerated way to get someones attention. I kept original as I could not think of anything to capture the same attitude other than “HEY” which imo didn’t match the original.)

–Doga!

A metre long blackboard ruler flew at me like a windmill sized shuriken and hit my head so hard that I flew off my chair–That hurt!

When I jumped up,

“You must be quite bold to fall asleep in my class, huh?”

Tsuzuri-senseit was coming down from her podium with a ruthlessly angry expression on her face, still holding a cigarette (?) in her mouth after tearing apart an English-Japanese dictionary with her bare hands.

This was scary. Super scary.

Putting aside her unavoidable personality though, Tsuzuri was a beautiful woman with a sharp face.

When such a ordinarily beautiful lady gets angry, their face becomes sharper and scary.

“Umm, no, I was not sleeping, rather I was just taking a long time to finish blinking…!”

“You were snoring like a pig!”

Guiii! Tsuzuri grabbed me by the hair and forced me to stand up. It was a mysterious hold she has on me, as no matter what way I turn my head I could feel pain everywhere. Naturally though, if I did not turn my head, it did not hurt…

Holding me by my hair, she forced me to walk out of the classroom on my own.

“Stand in the corridor! Here, hold a bucket in each hand full of water!”

“Ouch! That hurts!”

Ju! Suddenly, something hot was put on the back of my head, and a laced short boot with heels was kicked into my groin–

Ouch, when people are hurt above and below their shoulders, they tend to slouch forwards! After Tsuzuri’s attack, my entire posture was messed up.

I fell onto my back at her feet, and she crossed her arms and glared down on me. To finish it off, she decided to step on my stomach with one of her feet.

Damnit, Tsuzuri-sensei. If you were going to throw something it could at least have been chalk, I would have even been fine with a black board eraser. That metre stick could have killed me if it hit me in a certain way. And telling me to “Stand still!” while actively stepping on me in contradicting yourself!

And after all that, now this. Standing in a hallway with a bucket of water in each hand. Corporal punishment this ancient was last seen in the Showa Era.

Corporal punishment however, which was naturally rare in general and banned in school, is openly allowed in this violent school.

(Right now, I am powerless, but someday… Someday… I will anonymously visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education…!)

My head might have been blurry, but…

To be frank, being alone in a hallway for me can actually be a good time.

That is because, by nature, I am a person who like being alone.

“…”

I was just standing there, not even thinking…

My head was empty, devoid of everything…

I am temporarily freed from all negative emotions, such as all the terrifying experiences I have had related to Aria since April of last year.

It was as if I was meditating with my eyes open, it was spiritual.

Outside the sash window, Class C students were walking, probably because their class had ended early.

I could even see Nakasorachi, a Connect student, squatting down and watering the flower bed next to a water cooler.

I couldn’t hear anything though because of the bullet proof window.

(…)

Quiet.

This silence is truly priceless to me.

It might have actually been a good thing that I was kicked out of the classroom. Thank you Tsuzuri-senpai.

I cannot express my thanks to her though. I cannot quite understand it myself, nor do I wish to, but at this school there are some boys who actually want to be punished and so deliberately make some of the more beautiful female teachers, such as Tsuzuri or Ranbyou, angry at them hoping to be punished. When they inevitably get slapped or kicked, they usually say “thank you very much!” What is it about this school in particular…?

Although I was standing and my eyes were still open…

My brain was resting since I was so absent minded, thinking about nothing. I was so relaxed that even my drowsiness from earlier had eased up.

After school, I went to the schools department store and chugged down a cocktail of Redbull and a bottle of Sleepyhead, which had been sitting, covered in dust, on the shelf with an expiration date that was just a few days away. Finally, managed to defeat my jet lag.

Now, what was this doping for?

Because I had to study, of course. It was easy to forget that I was still in school with how often I skipped class, but even at a school this twisted I had to maintain good grades.

This past semester I had been fighting underground battles with I.U and its members as well as the Scarlet Goddess and so have not had a chance to study. My academic performance is so bad right now that I can not even keep up with Aria’s tutoring. At the end of the second semester my grades temporarily improved due to my time spent at a general high school, but all through third semester I barely attended class which has naturally caused a significant blow to my academic performance.

Even not too long I couldn’t attend the class I wanted to, having been forced to stand in the hallway with a bucket in each hand.

(Even if I manage to attend enough days to go up a year, if things continue like this, there is a good chance I will just fail the general subject exams.)

With Butei High already being such a low grade school when it comes to its education quality, failing a year here is a guarantee way of being labelled an elite of the elite idiot in the future. Butei high is so bad that it is a highschool that is said to be more advantageous to drop out of and maintain only being a Junior High School graduate when looking for a job than to have that school on your record and being strained out by the first piece of an academic background filter.

In any case, with the final exam so close, I have to study right now even if it is a long and brutal process.

And I, who was impatient to start studying, was at the end of the connecting corridor of the general subjects building–

I visited a room called the self-study room, a room that I had never entered in the two years since I entered this school.

Since this was a pure study room,

“… sorry to disturb you…”

I could not even read the atmosphere and decide what to say when entering such a room, and so I entered while speaking in a low voice…

“…!”

“…!”

There were only two people in this room, both girls.

They both looked at me with their eyes wide and round.

I was the one, though, who rolled their eyes.

“… Moe, Kikuyo…!”

I rolled my eyes because it was Mochizuki Moe and Kikuyo Kagataka who was studying there.

This was quite a surprise to me.

I had met the two of them when I left Butei High and attended a general high school, a civilian highschool off of Butei Island. Now, however, they were sitting side by side in the dark red sailor uniforms of Butei High… Moe and Kikuyo.

“Tohyama-kun!”

“Tohyama.”

Rattling, they stood up from their seat in unison as if competing for some reason.

Then, both girls trotted over, one grabbing my left arm and one grabbing my right,

“I am so happy! You still remember me!”

“Good. I was worried when you didn’t come to school for such a long time.”

Both of them were relieved to see me. Moe’s bob-cut hair, which was naturally a little brown, and Kikuyo’s almost blond hair, which was tied up with a flower ornament, were pulled close to each other. Moe still had her pure and innocent smile while Kikuyou still had her tsun and pouty face with her true feelings hidden deep inside.

“I remember everything about you Toyama-kun, too. I remember every single day, I am not lying!”

Mochizuki Moe is an ordinary good girl who was born into an ordinary family. She was the class representative at Higashi-Ikebukuro High, a general highschool that she attended. But because of a certain bad man, she had become misplaced in life and transferred to Butei High.

Moe still had a slim and shapely but soft constitution that gave off a feeling that she has never trained before or worked out. Tucked into her brand new gun belt (it seems that she is still reluctant to hide it under her skirt) was a pistol, a black Browning High-Power, that is clear that she has never used before. Her plump and completely bare thighs are exposed, however. She resembles Shirayuki, Lisa, and Nakasorachi in that she is part of the “Poisonous to my eyes” club.

“… Where have you been, actually… I will refrain from prying. Welcome back.”

Kikuyo Kagataka, who was now averting her eyes and straightening her bangs even though she is approaching me, was a former member of the Kagataka clan, a crime syndicate, or in other terms, a Yakuza family. The syndicate itself has been disbanded, but she was the last head of the family while still being a high school girl.

Partly because of the environment that she was raised in, despite being a highschool girl she has grown up features and acts. Even now, because she is looking away from me, it is more like she is showing off, her hair parting on the nape of her neck has a strange sensuality.

Moreover, at highschool Kikuyo doesn’t seem to wear her high heels so she is a little shorter than usual. In comparison from my initial impression, she has become cute. She acts sexy and mature, yet she is a classmate and on top of that looks cute and occasionally lets her cute side through. This is not good.

Moreover, from Kikuyo, the scent of her perfume, Hypnotic Poison, could be smelled, and it was so good it seemed to melt me. Back when we were classmates at Kanagawa Butei High, I had once said to Kikuyo “You smell nice”, not knowing that it was her perfume, and for some reason ever since then she has worn it.

However, I have been around the world enough to not just run away from them hissing because I saw them again. I did, however, back away slowly from them, though.

Yup. Up till now, everything was fine, but…

(…!)

Puyon. Despite all this time, all my training, my skill as Butei is lacking, severely. On my pectoral muscles, my left arm, I could feel something like a bag of water, soft, and warm… it was wrapped around my arm… It was the healthy breasts of the glamorous Moe enveloping my arm…! It is gonna happen at this rate…!

“–Hey…! Uh, my arm, leg go…!”

This is…

Kaname, Lise, and the other girls have used it, is a method that only girls can do to restrain girls. I call it, the chest vise.

Because of the “specifics” in what a girl uses to restrain, any attempt to roughly pull out your arm would, instead of releasing you, ultimately result in a self-destruction.

This chest vise typically is done by somebody unconsciously, such as now, but according to Aria, who has witnessed Kaname doing it to me and thus shot at me 27 times, she lectured to me that it is not something that a girl can do unintentionally. From Moe who is now in extremely close contact,

“I am so happy to see you again…!”

As if she had not heard my request to let me go, she spoke to me with tears of joy in her eyes.

“……!”

I cannot get her to let go, and even though I shouldn’t… For some reason I cannot help but look down at Moe, who has a considerable volume of a bust. Oh, oh no. My arms are completely buried and wrapped in her warm and soft chest…!

“… what is going on here.”

–Puyo.

Whoa!

I let my guard down, and this time a torpedo struck my starboard side!

On my right arm she is not as big, so my arm is not caught this time, but it is being pressed against me… Kikuyo’s chest. What’s more, she is hugging my arm and is keeping it close, her earlier shyness gone.

I was caught off guard because Kikuyo’s breasts are on the smaller side, only one size larger than Aria’s pushup breasts. And yet… it is squishy and soft. It would seem regardless of size, all girls breasts are soft and squishy.

This is less of a vise and more of a push… a chest press… Just what kind of strange factory am I stuck in?

“Ah, hey, Kikuyo! What is up with you– Just let go of me already!”

“…”

Kikuyo, who puffed out her cheeks and her eyes were as angry as mine despite her good looks… Is silently staring up at me. Neither of the two girls would let me go.

Actually, now that I think about it, doesn’t Kikuyo know about my hysteria mode? Wouldn’t that make her insane to put me into this breast factory?

(Today I was forced to hold buckets in the hallway and now those arms are part of a chest factory, today is a rough day for my arms…!)

If, if I hysteria mode in a deserted study room like this… it will be more than just a big deal. I might have come here with the intent of studying to ensure my future, but at this rate, I might just end up ensuring my bloodline.

… Endure. Endure it, Kinji. Up until now, I had endured by counting prime numbers, but recently, by recalling the mathematics textbooks in my mind, I was able to escape from reality to an even higher degree…

(… That’s it!)

Sorry hysteria mode, but I am a miracle worker.

My “Castling Turn”, which involves spinning myself like a screw, which I had used for Aria and Reki on the Shinkansen, was released once again for the first time in six months, let me break out of their grasp, and with Hidden Forest I was able to escape from between them.

Then, almost as if I was in an action movie, I rolled across the ground and took a passive stance on one knee at a short distance.

Moe and Kikuyo, who were now suddenly holding the others arm in their chest with a “?” above their head suddenly burst out into a blush and moved away from each other.

“–I have a favor to ask of you girls! Please, help me study for the final exam!”

I held up the loose leaf notebook I brought and lowered my head on one knee. (TL Note: Think of a knight offering up his sword to his king.)

Whenever I study with Aria, Aria-sensei would strangle me should I answer incorrectly, and this was not a short strangle but something that was genuinely life threatening. Watson is always asking me for strange rehabilitation session in the middle of my studies, and while I have no proof on this, I suspect that Shirayuki is snooping around my room while trying to teach me while I study. Reki has no redeeming qualities when it comes to teaching, and Jeanne is naturally difficult to talk to. Riko is completely out of the question. Whenever Shiranui and I study together, the idiot girls from Connect make strange rumours about us, and the thought of even asking Muto for help is ridiculous, his grades are somehow worse than mine in some subjects.

In other words, it was hard to find the right person around to teach me and help my study. That is, until now.

However, Mochizuki Moe…

I had heard that she was ranked 71st in the Kenshin Seminar’s national mock exam this winter, and that Masters expects her to be the first student to graduate from Tokyo University after graduating from Butei High… With a kindness comparable to the Gods and Buddha (excluding the Scarlet Goddess and the Fighting Buddgha), she immediately agreed to help me study.

“Last time when you came to my house to study, I am sorry for just being a nuisance. At that time, I was in a rush because of Yada-san… But when I came to Butei High, I learned it was not just Yada-san. There are many rivals, such as Lisa-san from Ambulance, Hotogi-san, and Jeanne-san, as well as those girls in your own class. Each of them are one-of-a-kind.”

While whispering, Moe in the second half spoke in Tsukami’s Lines that didn’t make any sense in the second half, but… (TL Note: I apologize but I cannot figure out wtf a Tsukami Line is, I cannot even figure out if it is a reference to media, language, culture, etc. I am 100% lost on this one. Original word is ツカミのセリフ, feel free to say something if you know what this means.)

“So now, in my own way, I have decided to become the one for Toyama-kun. I am sure that I will be the number one girl… I am sure that I will be the most useful girl for Toyama-kun. If I am not, I wont be able to compete at all with the other girls.”

“Ah, um…”

I don’t understand why Moe was competing with Yada and Lisa while I was gone…

“That is why I will improve Toyama-kuns grades. Butei university, no, it won’t even be a dream but reality that you can attend Tokyo University! First though, I will help you with the final exams. If you study with a plan in place, your grades will only go up and won’t drop again.”

Anyways, at least her last words here were reliable!

Masters motto was “Remember with guts” Those who don’t will be punished with an iron fist!” Their idea of positivity was more in-line with the old Japanese military mentality.

Moe, who was sitting at a long maple-grained desk with a big smile on her face tapped the chair next to her.

“… I’m saved. I am not really motivated to do this kind of factorization and other things that wont help me in the future…”

While making excuses for not studying until just now, I took a seat. Moe,

“This will help you in the future! It will help on next week’s test and also in your university entrance examination!”

With sparkling eyes, she spoke such grandiose things.

You are so confident, acting just like an adult.

Furthermore, Moe-san,

“Motivation is not something you have to fill up with before studying. It is not something you get after you are done studying, it is something you learn as you study.”

I have a habit of lazing around until I get motivated, so this was a revolutionary theory to me.

“Is, is that so?”

“What you call “motivation” is merely a pleasure for working. It comes from the part of the brain called the Nucleus Accumbens, and it is stimulated when working. Once it is stimulated by work, it releases more motivation in a positive loop. It cannot be stimulated unless you get started working, though.”

Moe-sensei seems to be a completely different type of tutor than Aria-sensei, who threatens me with a pistol to force me to study. She does not have the personality of the older generation, she is truly a modern girl.

(Indeed, that is true though…)

Once I get into a flow a little after I started studying or working on something I didn’t like, I did not need to “wait for more motivation”… Because I had already started. Once I started, it was easy to keep going.

But, but…

“But to even start… you need motivation to start, right?”

“Yup. You need it.”

“But motivation does not just appear, and even when I want to study I cannot just “start”… It is kind of embarrassing to admit, but a lot of the time when I want to study, I end up procrastinating and browsing the net or just take a nap.”

While scratching the back of my head, I blushed and confessed that I was such a useless person…

“That is nothing to be ashamed of. It is just a normal thing.”

Moe shook her bob and denied my internal claims.

A normal… thing?

But if I hate studying and don’t want to do it, isn’t that an internal weakness of mine…?

“It is Toyama’s “brain” and not his “heart” that makes you hate studying.”

“… brain?”

“Yes. Your brain is not just your mind, but an organ of the body that seeks to survive. It is an organ that is completely indifferent to anything other than the survival of you as a biological individual. Because of that, it is sensitive to “safety or uncomfortable things” as well as “wasting time and energy”, and so instinctively doesn’t want to do something that will not give an immediate award. Studying is a reward in the future, not right now.”

–Moe’s story that she joined Ambulance was confirmed just again.

The way she spoke… it was as if she was a NHK specialist, or a scholar, and her argument was more uplifting than the “guts” focus from masters… She made me comfortable to ask her questions.

And to me, who was listening to Moe,

“She says some interesting things, doesn’t she? That was one of the first things she told me as well when we started hanging out.”

Kikuyo smiled wryly and headed to the coffee machine with a paper cup.

“…”

I looked at the back of her neck, specifically where her hair split at the nape of her neck, her hair so shiny that it did not match her sailor suit, and once again I couldn’t help but notice that she really was wearing a sailor suit…

“That is why the brain doesn’t like studying, to put it simply… Therefore, how can we start doing something that we don’t like? If you can grasp that, Toyama-kun, and figure it out, you will be able to study with ease.”

Gui, Moe leans against me and tries to draw my attention back to her.

As she looked up at me from such a close distance, Moe’s breasts, which were soft and elastic like pudding, changed shape as if to burst from her sailor blouse as she pushed them against me. I cannot even begin to imagine how big they must be.

I remembered the scene where my arm was buried in her soft chest until just a short moment ago… so, as to try to hide the fact that I was conscious of Moe’s breasts,

“I, if I want to start something I don’t like… What should I do?”

”With a serious demeanour, I returned to the topic of Moe-sensei’s “Motivation Lesson”.

“You just have to set goals.”

“… that is it?”

“Yes. That is all. Toyama, what is your current goal. Why do you want to study?”

“I want to avoid red marks at the end of my term.”

“… A red mark at this school, Toyama-kun… Ah, yes. I understand. You have until the end of the term. Your goal is to avoid failing… If that is the case, for example, you only need to focus on this part of the chemistry work…”

And then, Moe-sensei opened my reference book, which was brand new and had not even been opened yet, and began checking boxes with a red pen.

Apparently, that meant that if I studied those parts in particular, I will at least not fail it for the time being.

Similarly, some boxes did not have a red checkmark.

Because of that, I was able to grasp just how much I had to study to ensure that “at the end of this term, I would not have a red mark”.

Nonetheless, this was still a considerable amount of work to do for each of my subjects.

I did not have the motivation to do all this at once, however…

“With this amount of work, that has to be done by the start of the exam season, than… If you work hard for about 3 hours a day, you will be able to get through all the subjects in time.”

3 hours once day. With that, I can make it.

I am actually starting to feel a bit motivated.

“Toyama-kun, your face is starting to look a bit brighter.”

Smiling.

Moe looks at me with her good girl smile that further lights up the way forward for me.

As I gaze at Moe, who really looks to me like a goddess of salvation, I get a feeling of worship…

“This plan is shifting his thoughts from the macro to the micro, right?”

… With black coffee in hand, Kikuyo cut into the conversation.

It would seem that Kikuyo is also a student of Moe-sensei.

Moe-sense must truly be the Bodhisattva, a goddess of mercy, to teach me, a human who apparently is become less human, and a former Yakuza girl, how to study.

(Once a day for 3 hours is fine… For now, I should go back to the dormitory, rest for a bit, and study 3 hours before going to bed.)

As I was getting ready for that,

“It is not the time to relax, Toyama. Now, let me guess… just now, you thought to yourself that you were going to go home, take a break, and then study for 3 hours before going to bed, right?”

Giku. (TL Note: Pretty much a sound effect version of “uh-oh”, or “i was caught”.)

Kikuyo. As expected of a former outlaw. You are good at seeing through scheming people, but also, why are you sitting right next to me now?

With my escape plan now exposed, I exchanged a “damn it!” glance to Kikuyo who responded with a “I knew it!” Now, she was sitting basically right beside me, Kikuyo on one side and Moe on the other.

“Um, uh, 3 hours is still a high hurdle for me.”

On the other side, Moe-sensei pulled out a notebook with a schedule and timetable on it.

Naturally, Moe-sensei’s body was shifted again and now touching me, and the chest of her blouse inevitably jumps into my field of vision again.

“Ah, ahh… Big, not alot. Hurdle.”

It seems to be persistent that they are touching me, but Moe’s big breasts, which are currently pressed into a ready-made size sailor suit and so partially squished against her, would easily havea deviation value of 67 even when compared to women who are older than her. On top of that not only are they big, but for a Butei girl, they are a valuable weapon as proven by the earlier chest vise she put me through due to how soft they are.

A women’s breasts can be described not only by their size, but also by how soft they are… Moe’s breasts are not just firm, but they also have a watery, liquid feel to them, that evokes motherhood… She is like Shirayuki and Lisa, but category wise, she is closer to Nakasorachi…

This type of girl is too dangerous in terms of hysteria mod. Since hysteria mode is an ability meant to leave behind descendants in the first place, it activates easier for those with big breasts, those who can easily raise babies.

As I begin to think of such things, I felt like I was about to remember how it felt to touch the breasts of some girls that I have in the past…

(No… Now…!)

Shaking my head left and right, I shook the skin-colored orchard of memories from my past.

Furthermore, I want to close my eyes in order to not be conscious of the large fruit that is there now. Moe-sensei has written my sturdy schedule in my notebook.

It was strange to be silent right now, so I tried to narrow my field of view consciously to only look at my notebook instead.

“The plan is to shift from macro to micro. First you decide on an overall goal, then break it down into smaller goals. Then you divide studying into a week, then one day. Each study period at a time is further split into 30 minutes, then 15 minutes, and so on until you set a goal to achieve every 5 minutes. What do you think Don’t you feel that the hurdles to start studying have been lowered?”

The things that I should learn within 5 minutes, which Moe had marked in the reference book with her red pen…

It was little. Very, very little.

It was such a small amount that I could probably do it in 3 minutes instead of 5.

As expected of me, I should be easily able to beat this level.

“… Ah, ahh.”

“Okay, five minutes. Let’s memorize this part.”

“Is 5 minutes okay? We have 3 hours today…”

As soon as I was concerned about that, Kikuyo leaned over from right next tome…

“First of all, don’t focus on that, Toyama. For now, you should aim to complete 5 minutes of work.”

She took out her cellphone, activated the timer function, and started it, saying “Yes, well, good luck and do your best!”

And so, thinking that I had been deceived, I started my 5 minutes of work…

I started going back and forth between my textbooks and my notes. I was studying.

–Pipi. At the 5 minute mark, the timer sounded from Kikuyo’s cellphone…

“Alright, its over. Good work, Toyama.”

“…”

When Kikuyo told me to stop working, I looked up and…

“So? How do you feel? Are you motivated now…?”

I did not even have to reply to Moe, who was looking at my face with a slightly varied look, whether her studying theory was valid for me or not… Certainly, somehow…

I noticed that I felt like I could easily continue studying for about another 30 minutes.

I felt like it would be a waste to stop in the middle right now.

If this is what you call “motivation”, then you have certainly achieved your goal.

“Ahh…” (TL Note: I know that by now I have put “Ahh” quite a few times. Here, this is meant to be like “I understand”, and is accurate to original.)

“Good! I have many more tricks, but for today, just remember to “set a goal and grasp the total required work” and then “break it down into small pieces, lower the hurdles to get started, and make a schedule to follow”. Well then. Next, do your best for another 25 minutes.”

And so, with Moe’s help, I went through a cycle of studying for 25 minutes and then resting for 5 minutes several times, and finally, I was eventually able to study for more than an hour, and eventually I managed to get through the 3 hour study period.

… It worked. Moe’s “Study in Motivation” worked for me. (TL Note: I was getting various translations for “Study in motivation”, but given the context and the fact that it was even possible, I am confident that this is a joke about “A study in Scarlet”.)

“If you decide on a limit of 3 hours a day, don’t study more than that even if you are in good shape still. Make sure you still have some motivation for tomorrow. Just like money, if you don’t spend it slowly, you will be inclined to waste it all at once. Take breaks to ensure you are rested instead of trying to push through. Let’s study together tomorrow again in the study room.”

Moe-sensei made a gesture of a small bicep, shaking her fluffy bob cut hair in the process and smiled brightly at me.

Her process was very advanced, taking into account my personal free time and even the motivation I will have available tomorrow.

This was a far cry from the teaching methods from Masters whose only order was to “study like you are going to die!” I think Masters should be abolished and let Moe be a teacher here.

When Moe went to the bookshelf to begin her own studying, Kikuyo sees her off…

“Alright, good work.”

Kikuyo brought me a coffe. And then,

“From now on, even a Yakuza member won’t be able to function with an education. Toyama, Moe will teach you how to study, and then you can attend school properly, right? After graduating, I will start a family from scratch, and make you the first president. You will be the president because you are the only one who can surpass me.”

According to her, she is leaving my studies up to Moe in the hopes that in the future I will revive the Katagi family.

Or rather, Kikuyo, were you cooperative with my studies for that reason?

“I have refused this before, but I will refuse here again. While I couldn’t care less about this, the Toyama family is a family that loves justice above all else. The day that I sign up as a gangster, never mind a president, that would be the day that my brother or sister would end up shooting me…”

–“tsu”, suddenly–

Kikuyo frowned as she watched me speak.

It was as if she suddenly realized something.

“What? I told you before, I don’t plan to become Yakuza again.”

“… Well, we can talk about that later, than.

Kikuyo, who still looks attractive in her sailor suit, pouts her mouth and looks down at her desk, and then…

She looked and flashed me a discerning look.

And then,

“Be careful.”

She spoke in a low, husky voice.

“Of what?”

“I don’t know. This is just my intuition, but your back is covered in soot.”

“… What? What do you mean?”

When I made a face that I didn’t understand, Kikuyo-

While making a face at an angle, wondering whether to say anything or not…

In a whispered voice, she told me.

“– I am getting the same feeling. That feeling I had just before papa was killed.