Disclaimer: If I were as talented as Amano Akira-sensei to have created KHR, I am sure I wouldn't have to work anymore. My dream of being rich would have came true.

A Teacher's Dream

Arita Aguri had a vision when she first decided to be a teacher, a vision to befriend each and every one of her students, and to help even the weakest of them be the best they could be. With her goal in mind, Aguri was overjoyed when she finally landed a job as a English teacher of Namimori High School, but recently, Aguri could feel this dream of hers slowly slipping away - ever since a month ago, when she was assigned as the substitute homeroom teacher of class 1A and met a student named Sawada Tsunayoshi.

Aguri heard that the original homeroom teacher of class 1A was in some sort of serious accident, and with the lack of staff, she landed herself the role of substitute homeroom teacher for the class, despite being a newbie teacher with no more than half a year of teaching experience.

Her job as substitute homeroom teacher had began smoothly. Class 1A could be said to be a fairly average class, with a few outstanding students, a sports star or two, some students who were a little slow academic wise, and of course, the mischievous students, along with their victims. Aguri had thought that the little teasing and bullying in her class was nothing to worry about, seeing as it's something present in most classes regardless of level. It didn't mean Aguri didn't care, she just thought that she could slowly deal with each of her students' problems. And it was progressing really well in her opinion. She had noticed that there were three students in class who were being bullied on a regular basis and in just a month, Aguri had managed to talk to two of them and they now had more confidence in themselves. With that, the bullying had lessen considerably.

But that's where she had hit her roadblock. The third student, was none other than the aforementioned Sawada Tsunayoshi. From what she had found out, Sawada had been the target of bullies since middle school, maybe even before that. The reason was basically due to his clumsiness and poor academic scores, earning him the nickname of Dame-Tsuna. When Aguri looked up Sawada's past results, she was surprised to see that in his first year of middle school, Sawada's test scores were almost always close to single digit, meaning that he had actually improved quite a lot to his current borderline passing scores. Despite the improvement, Aguri had notice that most teachers had basically given up on Sawada, some even going as far as joining in on the teasing and, at the time, Aguri couldn't help but be puzzled by their actions. But after talking to the boy, Aguri might just be beginning to understand.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was very different from the other two victims. Firstly, though all facts suggested otherwise, Sawada simply didn't feel like a victim to bullying. Since there was no way Aguri could just cure his clumsiness, she had figured that, as a teacher, the best thing to do would be to raise his grades. And that was what she offered to do, but Sawada had straight out, though politely, refused her offer.

At first, she had thought that it was because of an inferiority complex, due to the feeling that no matter what he did, there's no way that he could improve, but, after a few tries at getting Sawada to accept her offer, Aguri began to wonder if that wasn't the case. On her fourth try, Sawada mentioned that he already had a home tutor and on the fifth try, Sawada's argument went along the line of not having time for extra lessons, though he failed to provide any valid reasons for his argument. To Aguri, it almost sounded like Sawada was trying to find excuses to push away something he found troublesome.

Now, after the Nth try, Aguri was starting to think that the reason other teachers had given up on helping Sawada, was because he himself doesn't want to be helped.

Oh, no, no, no! A teacher CANNOT think like this!

"Juudaime!" Just then an almost-shout from the courtyard outside caught Aguri's attention. Looking out the window, the teacher saw the school's infamous genius delinquent as the source of the shout. What surprised Aguri wasn't the fact that Gokudera Hayato was still in school after school hours, or that a bright smile had took the place of his characteristic scowl, but the indication that he was actually waiting for someone.

Even though Gokudera wasn't a student in her class, even a new teacher like Aguri had heard of the infamous delinquent. Despite his apparent intelligence, Gokudera's bad temper and unsociable nature had made him a common topic of discussion among the teachers. And needless to say, none of these discussions held him in high regards. For a student who always kept others at more than arm's length to have someone whom he was not only happy to see but is willing to wait for, was definitely a huge surprise.

What came as more of a surprise though, was the actual person in question.

The young teacher openly stared as Gokudera Hayato ran up to the supposedly friendless victim of bullying, Sawada Tsunayoshi, the former's face beaming like a child seeing Disney Land for the first time.

"Yo, Tsuna." Aguri did a double take as the school's new baseball star walked up to her student at a considerably slower pace than his companion, wondering why she had not notice the presence of Yamamoto Takeshi before. "You took quite long this time. Did the new teacher ended up giving you detention or something?" Upon hearing those words, Aguri felt an indescribable chill down her spine. It must be her over-active imagination, but Aguri though she saw a glint in Yamamoto's eyes that felt like the ever friendly baseball star is ready to kill whoever dared to give Sawada detention.

"Tsk, Baseball Idiot. Always stealing my line." Gokudera inserted, glaring at his classmate with an intensity that would frighten even the local yakuza.

"Don't worry, Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto." Sawada replied to his friends' worry. "Arita-sensei only wanted to help me with my school work."

"As if Juudaime needs any help with that." Gokudera grumbled, apparently unhappy about something. Aguri briefly wondered the strange nickname Gokudera had given her student. "Juudaime, you should just show them what you are truly capable of!"

"Gokudera's right, Tsuna. You shouldn't let those idiots continue to bully you like this." Yamamoto agreed, words contradicting the cheerful smile still on his face.

"And waste all the effort I have put in so far?" Sawada sounded as if he could have stopped the bullying at any time, but the idea of which sounds unreasonable. "Both of you know the reason why, and I even managed to get Reborn to agree to my current lifestyle. I want everyone to be able to enjoy normality as long as possible." Sawada lamented, as if this normality he spoke of was an item he had only managed to borrow for a short period of time, precious beyond measure.

"And you two really don't need to always wait for me." Sawada continued, suddenly changing the topic. "I can take care of myself."

"There's no way I could let Juudaime walk home alone." Gokudera looked fiercely protective as he said that, making Aguri wonder yet again at the strangeness of the whole situation. "It's my duty to wait for you."

"That's right Tsuna." Yamamoto smiled his usual cheerful smile, but the same protectiveness coloured his eyes. "What are friends for, right?"

The rhetorical question brought a smile to her student's face, a smile so bright and angelic, that it brought a slight blush to her face. And if Aguri had just been maybe ten years younger, she would have fallen in love with the brunette.

Her own ridiculous reaction aside, the teacher wondered why she had never noticed how absolutely charming Sawada Tsunayoshi could look, and came to only one conclusion. Regardless of how absurd it sounded, Sawada had intentionally hid it from the world. If only he had shown that angelic smile of his to the school population just once, Aguri was sure that more than half of the school population, boys and girls alike, would rush to form a fan club for him.

Okay, Aguri was getting ahead of herself and imagining thing. But at the very least, Sawada should then be able to make a few friends in class and maybe that would in turn, lessen the bullying!

Just you wait, Sawada Tsunayoshi, someday, I will definitely make all the bullying stop!

The young teacher almost ran from the office's window, when the main occupant of her train of thoughts suddenly looked up at her, as if she had just shouted her thoughts at the top of her lung. And the look in the brunette's eyes, almost told Aguri that he knew exactly what she had been thinking, making her blushed even deeper with embarrassment at being caught.

As she watched the trio walked out the school gates, with Sawada reassuring the other two that everything was fine, Aguri's determination grew at the challenge her student had presented her as their eyes briefly met. She might not know the whole story, but as a teacher, she would not stand by and watch her student continue to get bullied.

Twenty-six years old and single, with nothing to do after work or on her weekends, many would say that the new teacher at Namimori High, Arita Aguri, has no life. What was worse was that, even as she tried to fiddle on her laptop, Aguri still couldn't get her mind off school, or to be more specific, a specific student of hers, by the name of Sawada Tsunayoshi.

Don't get her wrong, she wasn't fascinating about anything strange! Aguri is a teacher. She was just concerned about her student's wellbeing.

After the scene she saw yesterday, Aguri could safely conclude a few things. First, Sawada was not as friendless as he appeared to be. Second, Sawada might not be as helpless as others thought he was. And third, there's a lot more to Sawada Tsunayoshi than meets the eye.

But that's where she got stuck. Regardless of how hard she thought, Aguri could neither come up with an explanation to the situation, nor a solution to the problem. And there's how the troubled teacher found herself walking through the streets towards Namimori Shopping District, trying to walk off her troubles like the day before, wondering if today's walk would be as effective as yesterday's. After all, it's not every day you run into a delinquent who was trying to steal a little boy's money. It was the karate training she had when in high school, that had helped her keep the delinquent from stealing from the little boy and, in turn, effectively kept her mind off her mysterious student as a result.

And she was absolutely right about the effectiveness of the day's walk.

The sound of laughter brought her out of her thoughts, and curiosity made her walk towards the source of it.

"Wahahaha! You can't catch the great Lambo-sama, Bakadera!" A child with wet messy black hair and golden horns sticking haphazardly out of either sides of his head, ran out into the house's backyard, turning only to stick out his tongue at the person chasing after him.

"Shut up, you stupid cow!" 'Bakadera' came into view, and Aguri was shocked to identify him as Gokudera Hayato. "Are you trying to destroy the house while Juudaime is out!?" Taking in the exterior of the house. Aguri noticed for the first time the surname written on the nameplate - Sawada. The surname might be a common one, but her teacher's instinct told Aguri that this was indeed the house of Sawada Tsunayoshi.

"Mou, Lambo-kun." A female voice joined the fray and Aguri was once again stunned at seeing the popular school idol, Sasagawa Kyoko, coming out of the Sawada residence. "You shouldn't keep explosives in your hair while you shower. It could be dangerous." Aguri was sure she heard wrong. There's no way, the school idol could be talking about explosives as if they were a child's toys. "You know Tsu-kun doesn't approve of that." And when was Sasagawa so close to Sawada? They might be in the same class, but Aguri had not even seen them talk to each other.

"Gupyaa!" The child call Lambo exclaimed.

"Don't worry, as long as you admit your mistake, Tsuna won't scold you." The reassurance came from none other than Yamamoto Takeshi, but, since when was he there!? Just like the day before, Aguri had not noticed his presence until he had spoken up. This just doesn't feel right. "It's the kid you have to worry about." At that, Lambo's face visibly paled, and Yamamoto laughed.

"Hahaha. Yamamoto-kun's just scaring you." Sasagawa laughed along. "Reborn-kun went to help Dino-san with Family matters. He won't be back till tomorrow." Dino-san? Wait, wasn't 'Dino' the name of the teacher she's substituting for?

"I, for one, wish that Reborn-san is here to fix this stupid cow." Gokudera added. "He's always causing so much trouble for Juudaime that I am surprise the local police haven't come knocking."

"Well, the police's easy enough to handle." Yamamoto must think that the police won't do much to such a young child, Aguri was sure. Otherwise, that statement would sound suspiciously like something someone related to the organised crime would say. "As long as you don't get any unrelated people involve, neither Tsuna nor the kid will do anything to you." What Yamamoto said sounded almost like a warning, and as the baseball player's eyes briefly turned to where she was standing, Aguri started feeling extremely uncomfortable in her current position. "Not like there's anyone here for you to involve though, ahaha."

"Yakyuu-Baka." Gokudera faceplamed.

Aguri was almost certain that Yamamoto had notice her listening in on them, but maybe it was just her guilty conscious playing tricks. In the first place, she was the one in the wrong. She shouldn't have eavesdropped, intentionally or not. Better be on her way before someone really notice her.

"Is she gone yet?" Lambo asked.

"Ya." Yamamoto confirmed.

"That was the teacher substituting for the Bulking Horse, right?" Gokudera asked. "How long was she there anyway?"

"Yup, that's her." Yamamoto answered. "She's been there since Lambo came running out into the yard."

"That long!?" Gokudera exclaimed, shocked. "Why didn't you warn us earlier, Yakyuu-Baka!?" Gokudera scolded, but Yamamoto just laughed it off.

"Well, it's not like Arita-sensei actually saw or heard anything." Kyoko assured. "She doesn't seem the type who would make the connection, even if she heard anything significant."

"Maybe." Gokudera replied. "It's fortunate she didn't actually hear the stupid cow's grenade goes off, since Reborn-san decided to sound-proof the interior of the house."

"Recently, that teacher seems to be keeping an eye on Tsuna though." Yamamoto stated.

"She's not suspecting something, is she?" Lambo panicked.

"Don't worry." Kyoko ensured. "She noticed that Tsu-kun has always been bullied and is just trying to help."

"Not like Juudaime actually needs the help." Gokudera defended. "But, I would be grateful to her if she can actually put a stop to the bullying."

"That's true." Yamamoto confirmed. "A teacher's intervention might actually be able to put a stop to the bullying without Tsuna having to do anything that can be considered not 'normal'."

Okay. Maybe Aguri's previous assumption about the day's walk wasn't complete correct. Maybe meeting delinquents during walks can be a daily occurrence.

And not just any delinquent.

The one standing before Aguri right now, is the exact same delinquent she met the day before. Coincidence? I think not.

And why is that so, you ask? The answer couldn't be more obvious. The three big thugs flanking Delinquent A, the way all of them seem to have been looking for someone as Aguri happened to walk by, and the stare all of them now gave her which pre-empted her upcoming fate, all but pointed to one conclusion.

Delinquent A and his three 'little' friends, were here for revenge.

And Aguri has absolutely no idea how she was going to get out of the situation alive. She might have had a little karate background, but against so many people, the little training she had would do her absolutely no good.

"Konnichiwa, Sensei." The mockingly respectful voice of Delinquent A only served to reinforce Aguri's death sentence. "Your lesson yesterday was simply too wonderful." And the smile that doesn't reach his eyes was not helping the atmosphere either. "When I told my friends about it, they insisted on meeting you." Okay, that confirms it. Aguri is so dead.

"Well, you see, most of us from Momokyokai did not receive much education. That's why we are dying to attend your class." Thug A cracked his knuckle, as he took his time walking toward the cornered teacher, putting just the right emphasis on the word 'dying' to inspire fear. Oh, no. She did not just provoke the yakuza.

"Ya. Why don't we start our lesson, right, this, moment?" Thug B followed his companion's example, dragging out his sentence on purpose.

And Thug C just chose to be the silent, yet scary type, moving in front of the others, and closing in fast on her personal space.

Aguri closed her eyes and prayed, 'Oh, please. Whichever god, Buddha, or deities' out there, please, please heed my prayer. Please don't let this end too badly.'

"Arigato, sensei." Delinquent A added from where he was standing at the back.

Aguri braced herself for the impact...

"Wh...who are you?" Eh?! Opening her eyes, a head of messy brown hair came into her line of sight. "Ge-get out of the way, chibi." For some reason, the thugs seemed extremely shocked. Come to think of it, no one else was in the vicinity the last time she checked, but maybe Aguri was just too busy to notice the brunette's presence.

"Then, would you mind not hurting Arita-sensei?" The voice that replied was one Aguri recognised! W-was the one in front of Aguri, Sawada Tsunayoshi!?

"What did you say?" The tone Delinquent A used to reply was one of disbelieve, and Aguri could totally understand, as she shared the same emotion. Even though these delinquents might not know that this was the person known as Dame-Tsuna, a bully magnet, the boy was still petite in built, not someone who would speak to four delinquents so calmly.

"I asked you to let Arita-sensei go." Sawada stated, lifting his head to look directly at the delinquent in front of him.

"Ha. Haha. Ahahaha." Delinquent A started laughing, apparently finding the situation hilarious, and was soon joined by his friends. "You asked. Hahaha." The four could not even be bordered to look at the small boy in front of them as they continued to laughed at the latter's choice of words, and Aguri couldn't even blame them for ridiculing her student. There's nothing Sawada could do about the four delinquents surrounding them, three of whom almost twice his size, even though he had bravely stood up for her.

"I really don't want anyone to get hurt." Sawada continued calmly, and even though Aguri couldn't see her student's face, she could clearly hear the sincerity from the brunette's voice. How could Sawada still be so calm in such a situation, when he couldn't even stand up to his usual bullies?

"That's right. Haha." Thug A replied between laughter, too caught up in their joke to notice Sawada's calm mannerism and tone. "Just forget about that woman and you won't get hurt."

"My apologies, my wording must have been easy to misunderstand. What I meant was," Sawada started politely, before taking a deep breath and continuing in a more serious tone. " I don't want to hurt anyone." Was it just Aguri, or did Sawada suddenly sounded slightly more mature?

"Huh?" The delinquents finally stopped laughing and looked up at the brunette in front of them, while Aguri worried about her student's sanity.

"What the-" Looks like they finally noticed Sawada's calm demeanour. "Are you mocking us, brat?"

"Of course not." Sawada replied plainly, looking directly at Delinquent A, making the latter's eyes widen a little.

Something about Sawada seemed to have shocked the delinquent leaving the latter speechless for a moment before he regained himself. "W-what are you guys waiting for!?" From the look on his face, Delinquent A could barely keep the stutter out of his voice. "Attack them already!" Aguri had no idea how she could still analyse the situation so calmly when she was in such immediate danger. Now that she stop to think about it, Aguri realised that, despite how the situation has escalated, the young teacher felt significantly less anxiety as compare to before her student's appearance. It's almost as if the petite brunette emitted a sense of safety and protection. Or maybe it's just his calm demeanour rubbing off her. Not that it matters, if both she and her student are just going to get beaten up in the end regardless of their composure.

Aguri was brought back to reality as the trio screamed their battle cry and charged towards them as per Delinquent A's instruction.

Ignoring the approaching danger, Sawada took a deep breath and turned his body slightly to face Aguri saying, "Please pardon my act of violence this once, Arita-sensei." That was when the young teacher saw it - the thing that had left Delinquent A speechless for a moment before. It was hard to explain what was so astonishing about the sight before her, but the slight change has made the familiar face of her bullied student almost unrecognisable. Gone were the wide innocent chocolate brown eyes that usually accompanied the small smile that he sometimes show her when she offered to tutor him, as if suggesting that he was contented with his life as it was. In their place, were almost luminous eyes the colour of sunset, narrowed due to the frown that graced his brows, as if contradicting his request and showing displeasure at the mere suggestion of violence.

Before Aguri could even comprehend how ridiculous her student's request had sounded - not because she would not forgive his act of violence, since his motivation was to protect her, but because there was no way this petite victim of bullying could win a fight against three well-built men almost twice his size - Sawada had once again closed his bright eyes in concentration and turned back to face their attackers.

Aguri had never been a believer of miracles, but the next few seconds, Aguri was sure, could be labelled as such. As one of the thugs threw the first punch, Sawada's head snapped up and began his counterattack, movements so fast and precise that Aguri was sure she would have missed them if she had not been staring intently at her student. Sawada Tsunayoshi displayed none of the brute force the three yakuza members possessed, but he effortlessly redirected all of their attacks, making sure none of their punches connected without even needing to move much at all. Had Aguri missed the precision with which the brunette pushed his attackers' fists away from his person to make them miss their target, or the way he used the men's brute force and weight against them to make them fall, Aguri would have thought that her student was a psychic with the ability to control his opponent's movements at will.

Ten seconds later, found one Sawada Tsunayoshi standing in front of a stunned delinquent with three big thugs unconscious on the ground behind him. The look on the delinquent's face and the obvious trembling of his entire body, were both indications of how much Sawada had just scared him with his short display of power. Aguri sincerely believed that the Yakuza who was acting all high and mighty just moments ago was about to pee his pants, if he had not already done so.

"If ordering around a few muscleheads' the best you can do," Sawada began, head held high in a way that made him superior to the other male, despite being the shorter of the two and his polite tone. "It's no wonder your father worries about the future of your clan, young master of Momokyokai, Momozono Moriaki-san."

"How- wha-" The delinquent's shock expression confirmed his name as Momozono Moriaki, and Aguri briefly wondered how her student know the Yakuza member's name or his position within the clan. "Wh-who are you?"

Instead of answering, Sawada simply showed the delinquent his right hand where, Aguri was surprised to see, two rings suddenly adorned his fingers, one larger than the other, connected by a single chain. The larger ring rested on the brunette's middle finger, while the other was worn on his little finger. The design was so intricate and the colour so brilliant that the teacher wondered why she had not noticed her student wearing the rings before this moment.

Despite how shocking the sudden appearance of those intricate rings on Sawada's fingers were, Aguri failed to see the reason behind the renewed fear evident on Momozono's face at the sight of them, unless there was a special meaning behind those rings of Sawada that the high school teacher was unaware of. Come to think of it, her student had shown the Yakuza member those rings as an answer to the latter's question regarding his identity, and since Aguri doubt that those rings contained the brunette's name on them, they must signify a certain position that could inspire such fear in their attacker, who happened to be the heir to a Yakuza syndicate.

Wait. Sawada couldn't be a part of the Yakuza now, could he?

But, but, it was well know that the Yakuza Momokyokai controls all of Namimori and its surrounding area, so, other than the leader of Momokyokai himself, no one should have more power than the heir to the clan. What exactly did those rings of Sawada signify?

"Your father should be aware that I despise such abuse of power, especially when it involves civilians." Sawada said coldly, and the gently breeze brought along with it the confirmation that the Yakuza heir had just peed his pants. "Consider this a warning."

"H-ha-hai. D-decimo-sa-sama." Momozono stammered out, turning to run away from the brunette the first chance he had.

Sawada watched as the delinquent run away from him and let out a deep sigh, muttering under his breath "Am I really that scary?", before turning to face Aguri.

"Are you alright, sensei?"

Aguri had fully intended to thank Sawada for saving her (she was never an ungrateful person after all), and despite the thousand and one question swimming around her head, the first words that came out of her mouth was, "How can you still be bullied if you are that strong?"

"Hehee." Sawada laughed? "Well... I am Dame-Tsuna after all." That doesn't answer any questions. It just give rise to more questions! "I guess that just made you more confused huh." Did Sawada just read her mind? "No. I did not just read your mind." Eh!? "Your facial expressions and body language told me everything, sensei."

...

"Ah. Maybe I do owe you some explanation." Sawada said with an embarrassed smile, coming to some sort of decision. "My house is just around the corner. Would you mind accompanying me there, Arita-sensei?"

Doing a house visit during the weekends just goes to show that she had no life at all. No. This was not a house visit. But still...

Arita Aguri couldn't believe where she was, regardless of the number of times she thought about it. Nor the people who happened to be here. Or even how she got here.

After the almost-disaster, the English teacher somehow found herself back at the Sawada household. This time, inside the house, and the people she happened to see just now, were all still there.

"Arita-sensei, please have some tea." Sasagawa offered, acting the part of a host despite being a guest in Sawada's house herself.

"Ah. Thank you." Aguri replied, started out of her thoughts.

"You are welcome." Sasagawa smiled back. "Sawada-san, Tsuna-kun's mother, is out at the moment, but please make yourself at home."

"Arita-sensei, sorry to keep you waiting." Came Sawada's voice as he re-entered the living room with his two friends. Upon reaching the house, her student had shared a look with Yamamoto and Gokudera, before excusing himself to talk to the two, leaving Sasagawa to play host to the young teacher.

"Ah! No, it's-" Aguri began politely as she turned around to face Sawada, before remembering that she was not just here as a guest being treated to some tea. The afternoon's encounter had left her with too many questions, and both as Sawada's homeroom teacher (substitute or not) and Arita Aguri, she's here for some answers. And she's determined to get it.

As if sensing his teacher's determination, Sawada smiled briefly as he took a seat opposite Aguri. "I guessed I owe you some answers." Sawada started, almost repeating his earlier statement. Aguri noted that while Sasagawa had also taken a sit to the side, Gokudera and Yamamoto had remained standing, taking a position behind Sawada, to his right and left respectively. "Where should I start?"

Aguri knew the question was rhetorical, but still repeated herself. "How can you still be bullied if you are so strong?" Well, since she was already here, she would get to the bottom of this mystery. It's now or never.

"Like I said, I am Dame-Tsuna." Their conversation seem to be going nowhere. She would never get any answers if it's just going to be a repeat of their earlier conversation. "What I meant was," Sawada continued before Aguri could voice her displeasure, seeming to have, once again read her thoughts. "Dame-Tsuna is a no good bully-magnet, with two left foot, who can't even pass a test to save his life." The brunette stated almost jokingly. "That is a fact to the classmates who had known me for most of their life." Aguri acknowledge her student statement with a nod, wondering about the point he was trying to make. "In fact, for most of my life, it was my reality too." Sawada added. "It was already enough of a shock to those classmates of mine when Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto, and sometimes even Kyoko-chan, started hanging out with this friendless Dame-Tsuna back in middle school." At this, her student pointed to himself. "If Dame-Tsuna suddenly loss his no good personality altogether, how much more of a shock would that be? After all, people don't usually just change overnight. Everyone would start getting suspicious. That's why I decided to give everyone some normalcy, to maintain the status quo."

Sawada had been acting all along. For some reason, the sudden realisation did not surprise Aguri as much as it should have. It somehow seems to make perfect sense and no sense at all, at the same time.

"Suspicious of what?" Aguri decided to ask. At that, Sawada's eyes widen slightly, realising a little too late that he might have said just a little too much, before quickly regaining his composure.

"Of how Dame-Tsuna can suddenly become not Dame anymore." Sawada said, not really answering the question. At Aguri's raised eyebrow, the brunette heave a sign and continued, "Can't we just leave it at that?" A shake from the teacher's head made Sawada continue, "Haven't you heard of the saying, 'curiosity killed the cat'?" The brunette's tone was conversational, but Aguri could almost hear the plea behind the question. A plead for her to not question any further.

Aguri couldn't help but notice that sometime during their conversation, her student's eyes had once again adopted the colour of molten gold. Looks like it was really not the trick of the light. Those eyes captivated her, and the more she look into them, the more she found herself willing to give in to the brunette's request. Those eyes reflected the utmost sincerity behind her student's words - the desire not to let any harm befall his teacher because of him.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to strengthen her resolve, Aguri insisted, "I am not a cat, so I don't think that saying implies to me." To get her point across, Aguri had stared straight into those sincere eyes of the brunette, and the slight wavering of his glowing pupils told the teacher that her reply had stunned him. That's one victory point for Arita Aguri.

A small chuckle from Sasagawa Kyoko brought the language teacher out of the little victory dance going on in her head and the female brunette spoke up for the first time since Sawada rejoined them in the living room, "Arita-sensei is almost as stubborn as we were back then, isn't she, Tsu-kun?"

With a sigh, Sawada looked toward Sasagawa and replied, "Don't remind me, Kyoko-chan."

"Haha." Yamamoto laughed and directed his attention to the female brunette. "At least sensei didn't start a strike like you two did."

"Che, Yakyuu-Baka. There's no way she can start one." Gokudera scolded. "Unlike last time, we don't need her to do the housework for us."

Last time? Strike? Housework? What are these teenagers talking about!?

As if sensing her silent question, Sawada said, "What happened last time is irrelevant." And to direct the teacher's attention away from his companion's strange words, the brunette added, "I understand your concern, sensei, and I will give you as much explanation as I can." Which means that Aguri would not get the whole truth. "Like I said, I used to be really useless. What changed me was the appearance of my home tutor when I was thirteen. His training methods are really Spartan, and, as much as I hate to admit it, his torturous tutoring was what helped me improve at a tremendous rate. Many things happened after I met him." The brunette chuckled softly at this, as his eyes became coloured by nostalgia. "I made friends with the most unlikely people, and learnt many important lessons under situations I could never have overcome without him. Basically, by the last year of middle school, he has helped with catch up with all the school work and more." A silent snort from Sawada's silver haired bodyguard indicated that there's a lot more to the story then what Aguri was told.

"But people are resistant to changes, and such a sudden change in a person everyone viewed as a failure would not be easily accepted." Sawada's face was once again serious, with a slight tinge of sadness as he continued his explanation. "Denial could easily manifest as jealousy or even anger, and the end result would not be pretty. That why, sensei, I would rather continue to be Dame-Tsuna to protect those close to me." The brunette's eyes locked onto his teacher's as he addressed her, the sincerity that shone through convinced Aguri that, even though part of the truth were hidden from her, Sawada was not lying about his resolve to protect.

"And that's all for today." Arita Aguri said as the familiar sound of the school bell echoed through Namimori High, indicating the end of the school day, and the start of the weekends. "Don't forget to study for the mock test next Monday." The substitute homeroom teacher reminded, as her students started to pack and leave the classroom.

As her eyes fall on a certain brunette who was taking his own sweet time to pack up, Aguri couldn't help but lament on the past one week, which was just... unbelievable. It had began as any other weeks, but had ended with many unexpected encounters and little discoveries about her student, Sawada Tsunayoshi, together with certain changes.

Sawada still got almost half of his homework wrong, eat his lunch alone, and trip on thin air more often than not. What changed was his attitude and reaction towards being bullied.

"Yo, Dame-Tsuna." A loud thud, a chorus of laughter and the sound of her student's nickname caught the teacher's attention as Aguri walked along the corridor on her way back to the staff room, and she turned to look out the window toward the source of the voice.

Sawada was sprawled on the floor surrounded by four others, three of whom outright laughing at the state his is in, and the outstretched leg of a certain Kaneda Osamu next to him, suggested that his classmate was responsible for the brunette's predicament.

"Your uselessness is so irritating." Kaneda said in a cold voice as he looked down on the pathetic form of the brunette before a smirk formed on his face. "Well... you can at least be a little useful by being our punching bag."

As Sawada looked back apathetically at his classmate, Kaneda's smirk turned into a frown as anger coloured his face, and the bully threw the first punch. Shock replaced his anger as the fist which was expected to connect with the brunette's face, meets the brunette's palm instead, pulling the watching teacher's lips up in a small smile.

"If that's what it means to be useful," Sawada started, staring straight into his bully's eyes. "Then I would rather remain useless."

"Da-Dame-Tsuna, will always be Dame-Tsuna." Kaneda teased, trying to remain superior despite his shock, earning agreements from the other three bullies. "Just continue lying there and rot. Unlike you, we are busy people, and don't have the time to deal with your uselessness." Despite his arrogance, Kaneda seemed to have lost his interest in bullying his classmate after Sawada's little rebellion. "Let's go, minna."

As the bullies left, Aguri continued on her way back to the staff room, with the contented smile still in place. Thinking back on the end of their conversation in the Sawada residence last week.

"Fine. I will be satisfied with your explanation for now." Aguri replied to Sawada's determined stare. "But there's still one thing I can't accept." Sawada's relief turned to slight confusion, urging Aguri to continue. "I can't accept my student being bullied."

"Well..." The brunette answered, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "That sort of comes with the package."

"It does not!" Aguri insisted, leaning forward and slamming a hand on the table between them for emphasis. "You can continue to be clumsy, barely pass your classes, and I would even overlook you coming late for classes more often than not. But letting yourself be constantly subjected to bullying, is unacceptable."

Sawada was about to argue, when he was surprisingly interrupted by Gokudera. "I have to agree with this woman here, Juudaime." All Aguri could do was stare back in shock, not even able to berate the delinquent for referring to a teacher in such a rude manner.

"We have had this discussion too many times to count, Gokudera-kun." Sawada replied, without even looking back at his friend.

"But Tsuna, you can continue the Dame act but just stop the getting bullied part, that's all." Yamamoto inserted, supporting the teacher's cause. "It won't compromise the normality you worked so hard for."

"And I don't think Arita-sensei would relent otherwise." Sasagawa added, her eyes communicating some unsaid words, as they looked straight into Sawada's. "Isn't it better to just give in to Sensei's only request in exchange for her trust?"

Sawada looked into Sasagawa's eyes just a moment more before coming to a decision and turned back to face his homeroom teacher. "I can't promise anything, but, I will try my best, Sensei."

Even though Sawada said that, he had kept his promise, and Aguri is contented with just that.

Unlike her other students, Sawada Tsunayoshi is a special case. Arita Aguri's dream might be to help each and every one of her students to be their best, but in Sawada's case, Aguri was sure that, under normal circumstances, she would never see the brunette's best. However, to be able to help her student out even a little, that too, is a teacher's dream.

Word Count: 6700 words

Konichinya! Kitty desu, and I am not dead. Yes, some of you have been asking me that.

To those who have been following my other story, Reunion with Truth, I promise I am still writing the story, just really, really slowly. I actually wrote this one shot last year, when I was trying to get over my writer's block, and had been too ashamed to upload this, since I had not done so with my main story.

Please do leave a review to let me know what you all think. Depending on the response, I might write a sequel to this^_^

Published: 11 May 2016