It was a pity, but Sister Mio liked the fragile Natsuhi of the past, while the current her was completely different.
"Want to see me cry? You'll have to see if you have the ability for that..."
Thinking of this, Natsuhi smiled confidently. Who was the hunter and who was the prey remained to be seen.
Once the competitive spirit of a boxing champion was ignited, it wasn't so easily extinguished.
Sure enough, just a few minutes into the English class, Hayase Mio began her "performance."
"Now, let's go over this short essay on the 'Age of Enlightenment.'"
Hayase Mio's tone was calm and her expression natural, her gaze precisely locked onto Ito Natsuhi in the back row, a gentle smile hanging on her face.
"Student Ito Natsuhi, please read and translate the third paragraph."
Here it comes!
The entire class turned their gazes over, eager to watch the show. Many knew that Natsuhi was an idiot when it came to English, so wasn't Teacher Mio intentionally 'making things difficult' for her?
"Is this considered launching an offensive? This woman is too impatient!"
Natsuhi raised an eyebrow, glanced at Rinka beside her, and stood up calmly.
At the same time, Hayase Mio on the podium had already thought of the script for what was to come:
"Come on, read it stumblingly like before, then look at me with pleading eyes, and translate it in a jumbled mess..."
"Finally, because of embarrassment and grievance, your eyes will turn slightly red... Ah~ just imagining it makes one look forward to it so much."
"After class, I'll call her to the office under the guise of 'tutoring' to properly 'comfort' her..."
Thinking of what was about to happen, Mio couldn't wait, her eyes looking at Natsuhi with burning intensity.
"Freude schoener goetterfunken" (Joy, beautiful goddess of light)
"Tochter aus elisium" (Daughter of Elysium, bright light illuminating the earth)
"Wir betreten feuer trunken" (We enter, drunk with fire)
The fluent and standard English pronunciation rang out like a broadcast, clearly echoing in the classroom.
It wasn't just reading; her tone even carried an understanding of the content and proper inflection.
After finishing the reading, Natsuhi put down the textbook and, almost instinctively, performed a simultaneous translation into fluent Japanese, handling even a few obscure technical terms perfectly.
The whole room fell silent; in an instant, the class became like a library where you could hear a pin drop.
Is, is this still that Ito Natsuhi whose English test scores always hovered around the passing line?! How is she like a different person?
And her expression was so calm and confident, as if this was just a small problem for her?
System: "Holy crap, is your English this good? I always thought you were the type with terrible grades."
"Uh... actually, you guessed right. My grades are terrible in everything except English..."
This was actually entirely due to work. As a boxing champion, she had to fight matches all over the world, and fluent English was an essential passport. After getting used to hearing it, she learned it naturally.
As for the grades in other subjects... it just depends on how good her luck is...
After Natsuhi finished translating, she even glanced provocatively at Mio. "Whatever tricks you have, bring them on."
The smile on Hayase Mio's face stiffened for a fraction of a second after Natsuhi finished reading.
The script she had carefully prepared was shattered completely before it even started.
"How is this possible?! When did she...? No, it must be a coincidence. This section is relatively simple!"
"She must have just happened to have read this passage."
Surprise and unwillingness instantly overwhelmed that twisted anticipation; she had trouble accepting the scene before her.
Ever since that last trip to the office, she found that she couldn't forget the way this girl looked when she cried.
"Mm, the translation is... very good. It's clear that Student Ito has put in the effort."
Barely maintaining her composure, Mio quickly flipped through the lesson plan and found a chapter involving complex philosophical concepts and a large number of obscure vocabulary words.
"Then, please try translating this excerpt from 'A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.' This will be very helpful for understanding our next unit."
This was clearly an unreasonable challenge beyond the curriculum.
Even the top English students in the class frowned slightly.
It was really putting Natsuhi in a difficult position; even if she couldn't answer, the teacher wouldn't say anything, right?
Rinka's gaze toward Natsuhi held a bit more playfulness; she also wanted to know if Natsuhi could maintain that same composure.
And Saki in the front row squeezed her fingers in worry.
"Heh, still not giving up?"
Casually flipping to the page the teacher mentioned, Natsuhi spoke up again. This time, not only did she translate fluently, but she was even able to use simple language to summarize the core ideas of this obscure text!
"In summary, this text mainly explores the essential differences between the'Sublime' and the 'Beautiful' in the mechanism of emotional arousal..."
"What is she saying? I don't understand at all, but it just feels so impressive..."
Most of the class was dazed, not knowing if Natsuhi had really answered correctly or if she was just spouting nonsense.
They all cast their gazes toward Mio, awaiting her response.
"When did she become so good?! This feeling of throwing a full-strength punch into cotton..."
She had originally wanted to make things difficult for her, but now, she herself was being put in an awkward position by this sharp counterattack.
"Good... very good!"
Hayase Mio was practically gritting her back teeth, squeezing out an even more "gentle" smile.
"Student Ito's progress is truly impressive. Please sit down."
"No way... she really got it all right!"
"I couldn't even understand that article..."
"Ito... when did her English get so good?"
Saki in the front row instantly relaxed her tightly clenched hands. She almost wanted to turn around immediately and give Natsuhi a big thumbs up, but hindered by classroom discipline, she could only press her lips together tightly, her shoulders trembling slightly from excitement.
"The way she retorted to the teacher is also so cool..."
Thus, she started fangirling to herself...
Hayase Mio took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, but her gaze toward Natsuhi became even deeper and... more intense.
Her competitive spirit was also completely ignited.
"Interesting... too interesting! Becoming harder to deal with, and even more 'worth' destroying!"
"The crying Student Ito is beautiful, but this confident, shining Student Ito who makes me suffer... destroying her will surely bring an even stronger sense of accomplishment, right?"
After this defeat, Mio developed an even greater interest in Natsuhi.
"It seems I'll have to think of some more 'interesting' games. A calm expression doesn't suit you, Student Natsuhi..."
"Whew~ good thing she teaches English. If it were other subjects, I would have definitely been handled."
After acting cool, Natsuhi let out a big sigh of relief and plopped back into her seat.
Seeing that Sister Mio hadn't given up her malicious intentions, she didn't dare to be negligent and honestly listened to the lecture.
During the rest of the class, Sister Mio didn't bother Natsuhi again; perhaps she was pondering other plans.
After all, the two of them still had to spend a semester together...
— — — — So sleepy...
In physics class, the tap-tap-tap of the chalk couldn't wake Natsuhi up. Looking at the chalkboard full of formulas and English letters, she nodded her head frantically.
"What is this person saying?"
Just like the students in the previous English class, she recognized the words coming out of the physics teacher's mouth, but why did they sound like alien language when put together?
"Alright, I'll give everyone five minutes to review. We will have a pop quiz next, and I will hand out the papers."
The voice wasn't loud, but it exploded in Natsuhi's ears like a thunderclap. She hadn't heard a single word of what the physics teacher had just said.
"Wait... a test?! Is it really that sudden?"
"By the way, students who fail this test will need to stay after school for'special tutoring'."
Just as Natsuhi's scalp tingled, the physics teacher pushed up his reflective glasses again, which had an inexplicable sense of oppression in Natsuhi's eyes.
That was the terrifying suppression power that teachers had over bad students!
"Damn, this won't do. Yui is waiting for me to go home; I don't have time to stay after school!"
"System, do you have any smart pills? Help me out!"
She was as pathetic now as she was cool just a moment ago...