Chapter IV.LIII (4.53) - Parent Teacher Conferences

  “You’re coming with me,” Taroe grunted as Kizu entered the ex-Elite’s home.

  “What? Why?” Kizu’s mind quickly went over what crime he might be guilty of. Had the former Elite found out about him and Ione trespassing at the aquarium? Or maybe it was something worse like a new World Dungeon entrance that needed to be sealed up using Kizu’s artifact bell.

  “Parent teacher conferences.”

  “That’s not for a few more days,” Kizu replied, confused.

  “Not your Parents’ Day,” Taroe growled. He scratched his beard and his bushy eyebrows knitted together. “Your niece.”

  “Anata has a Parents’ Day?”

  “Obviously. And unless you’re keen on scrying up Otochi for a visit, that duty falls on me. And I’m subjecting it to you because you’re the one who forced me into this mess.”

  Anata had never mentioned needing to meet with her teacher. But Kizu’s last midterm for the quarter had been completed earlier that day so he had a relatively open schedule. He had just been planning to experiment a bit more with Sojan’s ichor. The knife was running on the remaining dredges and would deplete that any day now. And he still needed to complete his plan to get Chiame out of Ione.

  “We’re going now? You’re not giving me much of a warning.” Thankfully Kizu thought his academy uniform should hopefully be formal enough.

  “Not my job to micromanage you.”

  Kizu sighed and followed the grumpy ex-Elite out the open door Kizu had entered just moments earlier.

  When they arrived at the schoolhouse porch, Kon raised his head from where it rested on crossed paws and growled a greeting at them. Mae’s brother followed her to school everyday and sat outside, guarding the schoolhouse until they finished their studies. The idea had been floated about him attending alongside Mae, but Kizu had never even seen his humanoid form and the school had a strict ‘No Pets’ policy.

  “Not time yet,” Kon growled.

  Kizu often walked Anata home after classes. But usually not for a few more hours.

  “Glad I’m not the only one out of the loop,” Kizu said. “I’m here for parent teacher conferences.”

  “That’s why there’s so many adults.” After that realization, Kon placed his head back on his paws and resumed glaring at people passing by.

  They stepped through the doorway and into pandemonium. Children were crying while parents argued amongst themselves. Anata, Mae, and Rui were in the corner of the room playing a card game with a copy of Ione’s bestiary cards. Their poor teacher, Ms. Reads, cringed while very clearly being berated by an angry mother in a sound bubble off in the corner of the room.

  “I should learn that spell,” Kizu muttered to himself. He saw professors using it all the time. It clearly was a useful spell.

  “Talk to Ignis about it,” Taroe said, hearing his comment despite the noise all around them. “He’s the sound mage at the academy. Better teacher than me.”

  Kizu made a mental note to ask Professor Ignis about the spell in their next private music ranking meeting. And that also reminded him that he needed to start practicing piano regularly again.

  “Mr. Taroe!” the teacher called, stepping out of her sound bubble. “Please come over here!”

  The mom inside the bubble made no move to exit as Kizu and Taroe approached. She glared at the ex-Elite as they stepped inside. Only then did Kizu finally notice the boy clutching at her skirts, hiding behind her.

  “Mr. Taroe, this is Ms. Harrow, Dean’s mother.” The teacher motioned at the woman.

  “Dean is the brat behind her?” Taroe surmised.

  “Excuse me!” The woman’s face turned red. The teacher flinched beside her. “How dare you!”

  “Eh.” Taroe gave her a flat, unimpressed look. “Don’t go getting your wands crossed. They’re all brats.”

  “It all makes sense now! This is the girl’s parental figure?”

  “Please,” Ms. Reads pleaded.

  “It’s no wonder that the foul demonic spawn acts the way she does. That girl has been terrorizing my boy since the day of her arrival. The first day she convinced that ruffian boy to punch Dean! Physical violence in the classroom! And it’s only gotten worse since they added that Kemon bitch to their gang. All they do is ”

  Taroe scratched at his beard. “You sure have a lot to say.”

  “Did you actually just call a child a ‘bitch?’” Kizu bristled and stepped forward.

  The woman turned her glower to him. “And who are you? What right does a child like you have to criticize me?”

  “I’m a human being with morals?” Kizu proposed. “Though someone like you might not find that concept overly familiar.”

  “The boy you’re speaking to has saved more lives than you’ll likely ever see,” Taroe said. “Speak to him with respect, or not at all.”

  Kizu blinked in shock at Taroe’s defensive words. The man remained stone faced as he faced down the angry mother.

  “How dare you!” A bit of spittle splattered on Taroe’s cheek as she screamed at him. “You believe a boy not even graduated from school deserves more respect than me? How. Dare. You.”

  Taroe turned his head to face the cowering teacher. “This lady accuses my daughter of bullying her son?”

  “Y-yes.”

  The lady in question stepped between Taroe and the teacher. “I don’t just—”

  “Silence.” Taroe waved a hand and a smaller bubble of silence appeared around the mother’s head. Somehow the woman’s face turned an even darker shade of red as she screamed in the bubble. She tried to move to the side but the bubble followed her. Taroe ignored her and focused on Ms. Reads. “Explain.”

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  “She made Rui hit me!” the boy, Dean, behind the angry mother whined. “What you’re doing isn’t fair! Let my mother speak! You’re silencing her!”

  “No,” Taroe said. “I was speaking to your teacher. Not you. Be silent.”

  “Mother says I’m a victim—”

  Taroe's eye twitched and with a wave of his hand, created another bubble of silence. Furious at their treatment, the mother scooped up her son and stormed out of the schoolhouse.

  “Definitely related,” Taroe muttered.

  The teacher, finally able to speak without interruption, told Kizu and Taroe about Anata and Mae’s antics. Since Anata’s arrival, the class had divided, with Rui being the only previous student in the class to actively socialize with Anata after the first day. The three of them had created a clique and spent a lot of the classes goofing off in the back of the classroom.

  “The other day one of them swapped out one of the brooms in the cleaning closet,” Ms. Reads said, regaling them with anecdotes about Anata’s mischief. “When it came time to clean after lunch, one of the other students fell over when he grabbed the broom. It flew into the air and smacked into the ceiling.” Ms. Reads gestured at a divot that scarred the wooden ceiling. “These sorts of pranks are not only disruptive, but also dangerous! We’re lucky nobody was hurt.”

  Kizu purposefully kept his eyes forward. He didn’t need a divination spell to foresee the discussion Taroe would be having with him about securely storing his many enchanted objects.

  “How are Anata’s grades?” Taroe asked the teacher.

  The teacher hesitated. “They’re…top in the class in every subject,” she admitted.

  “Good. Has she disrupted Rui’s studies? Interfered with his grades?”

  “Well, no, actually they’ve improved quite a bit….”

  “Tell me exactly what you think the problem is then? To me, it looks like Anata is a boon to your class. She’s helping students who come to her. Meanwhile those jealous of her intelligence are attempting to retaliate. Then coming to you with twisted stories when their retaliations don’t work out like they thought.”

  “You are missing the context of the situation,” Ms. Reads insisted. Her gaze went beyond them, out to the students and parents in the room. Boys and girls sat on the floor and played games with sticks enchanted to be sticky, trying to stack them. Other children read books and drew pictures. Parents chatted with one another while waiting for Taroe’s meeting to conclude. Without Dean’s mother, a bit of the chaos in the room elevated.

  “I don’t know your students,” Kizu said, speaking up for the first time since the mother’s screaming. “But I do know Anata. And she’d never bully someone.”

  The teacher massaged her temples. “Every parent says that.”

  Taroe snorted. “That, I believe. Fine. What would you like me to do?”

  “Just…talk to her?” the teacher pleaded. “I admit she’s an incredibly intelligent student but she doesn’t respect me or her peers. That tension between her and the other students is a problem.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Mae is her cousin, so you’re niece? My notes say she’s staying at your home while her mother is disposed of.”

  “Close enough to correct,” Taroe said.

  “Close enough…” Ms. Reads repeated, confused. “Well, um, you’re looking after her as well. Do you mind if I’m bluntly honest with you?”

  “I prefer it.”

  “Mae is not the brightest student in the class. I suspect she might actually be using Anata to cheat on quizzes. I tried separating them but then they caused significantly more problems with the other students. Mae is extremely dependent on Anata for everything.”

  “Hm. To what extent? Give me an example.”

  “Yesterday in class Mae refused to make her own chalk drawing and insisted on working with Anata on one.”

  “That seems pretty mild,” Kizu said.

  “She broke down in tears when I partnered Anata with a different classmate for a gardening project,” the school teacher continued. “She refuses to play or even watch any game unless Anata wants to join. Last week we had a shortage of rice in supply and she broke down in tears last week when Anata had a different lunch given to her. She follows Anata everywhere, won’t even use the restroom unless Anata goes with her.”

  Kizu thought back to when the two had first met. Back then, Anata had been the one following Mae around. A strange reversal in roles. He glanced over his shoulder at the two girls sitting at a table in the back. Anata caught his eye and quickly returned to her card game, looking a bit guilty, but Mae remained utterly oblivious to his gaze as she continued chatting.

  Kizu considered that brief interaction. Anata was smart enough to know that the school teacher wasn’t happy with her. Mae didn’t care. And Rui was so concentrated on trying to understand the cards that he didn’t notice.

  “Is Mae’s fox acting up at all?” Kizu asked. Kon’s behavior had been one of his primary concerns going into this meeting. He was surprised it hadn’t been brought up yet. Not even the angry mother included it in her rant.

  “Kon?” Ms. Reads asked. “Oh no. He’s been perfectly obedient. I’m impressed Mae has him trained so well. He sits on the porch and waits for her everyday.”

  “Good,” Taroe grunted. Clearly the Kitsune boy had been a concern on his mind as well. “Has Mae mentioned her mother at all to you?”

  “No. She’s mum on the topic.” She hesitated, then reluctantly continued. “I had to take Dean and Mimi aside a few weeks ago as they’d begun to spread rumors about Mae’s mother. We don’t get as many Kemon here as humans and Tainted.”

  “Rumors?” Kizu asked.

  “They…well, it was quite rude but I put a stop to it.”

  “What did they say?” Taroe pressed, a scowl growing on his face.

  Ms. Reads chewed her lip. Despite the sound bubble, she still lowered her voice to barely more than a conspiratorial whisper. “They believed her mother was a monster from the World Dungeon sent to end mankind.”

  Kizu blinked. It took effort to keep his face blank. But then he realized that was probably the wrong approach. He should probably be surprised. Just not in the way he currently felt. Thankfully Taroe’s snort covered for him.

  “Where’d that hairbrained idea sprout up from? Some idiotic storybook?”

  “I pressed Dean about it and he finally admitted it was a dream Mimi had.”

  “A dream,” Taroe repeated flatly.

  The teacher tugged on a lock of her hair. “I know…it’s just silliness from students. But it was spreading across the class until I clamped down on it. Since then, Mae’s been scoring worse and worse grades as well. I tried to discuss it with her, but she went unresponsive until I dismissed her. The underlining problem with both Anata and Mae is their casual disrespect. Both for my position and for their peers.”

  Kizu bit back a retort about whether or not the lady deserved respect. It sounded to him like she was just allowing all the students in the classroom to ostracize his niece while blaming Anata for everything that happened. But he knew better than anyone that Anata struggled with obedience.

  “I’ll talk to her,” Kizu said. “Both of them.”

  Ms. Reads’ frown deepened. “I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand your role here. You’re her minder? Professor Taroe’s assistant? I know you often walk her home after school.”

  “He’s in charge of the brat,” Taroe said bluntly. “If he thinks his words can get her to act better, he’s welcome to talk to her.”

  “I…understand.” Ms. Reads did not seem to actually understand, but that was fine. She moved on to discuss the individual subjects Anata and Mae were studying. Then she finished it off by telling them about a field trip the school had scheduled for in a couple months.

  They were cut short when someone marched into their bubble of sound and clamped a hand on Taroe’s shoulder. “You’re under—”

  Without warning, Taroe pivoted on a heel and slammed a fist into the newcomer’s face.

  Constable Kimura collapsed backwards, knocking aside several desks and sending everyone in the room to their feet. In the school house’s doorway stood Ms. Harrow, looking utterly scandalized.

  “Ah, shit,” Taroe grumbled. “Guess it’s time to go play babysitter to the adults in the room. Kizu, you take care of the actual children.”

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