Nothing Special

Sensei?

April 2008

"Smile for me, c'mon!"

You reached your arm up to put one over Nanami's shoulder, and you smiled widely. Nanami rolled his eyes but he forced a closed lip smile for the picture, giving a thumbs up.

"Perfect!" Satoru gushed. "They look so cute!"

"Yeah, they do," Shoko agreed, chuckling. She chose not to mention that this was a tradition for all six of you. Taking pictures under the sakura blossoms started during their first year, when Satoru, the boisterous boy he was, saw a pretty tree after he'd picked up Shoko with Yaga and Getou, and made Yaga take a picture for them.

He ended up taking a picture when the next year of students came in, and he did the same when Ijichi showed up alone.

Shoko was surprised he was continuing this.

The shock subsided when she realized he wasn't planning on taking a picture with her, even if it was a selfie.

Noticing this, Nanami decided to take it into his own hands. As Satoru and Shoko looked over the picture of their precious third years, Nanami took out his phone and snapped a picture.

The two hadn't noticed, so Satoru was still smiling down at his phone, and Shoko still had a sad hint to her face, but the two of them looked beautiful nonetheless.

"You better be at your best this year," Nanami said under his breath.

You nodded, putting away your phone. "Only if you are, too."

Satoru came skipping over to the two of you, papers in hand. "Yaga's principal now, so we have some geezers substituting for us."

Shoko was at his side as well, looking over the papers you'd gotten. "Who's this teacher? The year three substitute? It's a Zenin."

Shoko was admittedly amused as Nanami and Satoru averted their eyes quickly, from you to their papers.

She watched you clench your jaw, looking over the name. "Naoji. He's my oldest brother."

"Are you gonna go?" Satoru asked, eyebrows a little furrowed in worry for what the class would be like for you. It didn't take dating a Zenin or even being friends with one for most people to know that women weren't treated the best in the Zenin Clan. None of the three big sorcerer clans had a good reputation with their respect for women, so for the Zenin Clan to be at a low level, even compared to the other two clans, cemented how terrible the misogyny ran in their family.

Y/N, however, often avoided talking about it. The typical response from you would be that you  were treated fairly well, compared to the other women.

"Of course I'm going. You guys seem like you're making a big deal of this in your heads. He's only a substitute. He won't be here long, and really guys, my brothers don't treat me all that badly."

"Let go! Let go! Let go! Please Ji, you're hurting me!"

"Fathers' orders."

"How many brothers do you have?" Shoko asked after she called Ijichi over, taking some change out her wallet. "Can you get me some soda? Thanks buddy." She turned back to you. "I know that one annoying one, the one who likes Satoru."

"God I hate him," Satoru grumbled.

"That's Naoya. He's younger than me though. The other seven are all older. I never really talked to all of them that much."

"So do you know the substitute well?" Nanami asked, wondering if you could have a bad relationship with the eldest brother that could make you uncomfortable,