03 Lessons in Awfulness

[drakenguard]

Who: Yamato Hotsuin and Daichi Shijima hetried
Where: Daichi's room lol.
Summary: Yamato tutors Daichi. It's awful.
Warnings: Physics. Physics everywhere.



"Have you got all of that, Shijima?"

The lesson had dragged on for almost an hour, and Yamato was determined not to have a single moment wasted. In the small room, there wasn't much freedom for Daichi to relax either, as Yamato kept a close eye on him to make sure he was taking notes - or at the very least, paying attention. Every time Daichi's eyes began to glaze, Yamato would sharply rap him on the head with his book.

His heavy, tiny font, astrophysics book.

Sorry, Daichi.

Right now, Yamato was staring down at his unfortunate student, his face stern. Although he said questions could be asked at the end, well, his face gave off the vibe that he expected none.

Comments

[hetried]

"What?!"

Suddenly he is completely unsure about life and everything as he looks at the steps and then back to Yamato.

"What punishment?! Isn't corporal punishment illegal...?!"

[drakenguard]

Yamato simply stared at Daichi flatly. "Whenever I failed to meet the standards of my teachers, I was punished, and the same will happen to you. Now then."

He pointed at the stairs. "You are to run to the very bottom, then back up here, until I tell you to stop - or you throw up. Whichever happens first."

[hetried]

"What?!"

Daichi just, stared at the stairwell in disbelief. Then back at Yamato, then back to the stairs, and a bit of a back in forth still in disbelief before he answered. "No way, I'm not gonna do that! How the hell is that supposed to make me learn astrophysics?! All it's gonna do is make me exhausted!"

[drakenguard]

Yamato tilted his head. "If you fail to do well, you will be punished. Isn't that incentive enough to get you to work harder?"

He's not being patronising or anything here, Daichi. He's legitimately asking.

T h i s i s h o w h e w a s t a u g h t . . .

[hetried]

And suddenly Daichi never questioned his teachers ever again and really really missed public school.

"No way!! I guess that worked out for you, but I think I'd just lose oxygen to my brain and collapse from an exhaustion..." Half-dramatizing, half-totally serious. He really wished he could remember all that stuff Ms. Watari said about punishment and reinforcement now...

"Wouldn't it be better to just, y'know, study?"

[drakenguard]

"One cannot study continuously without breaks," Yamato said. Well, at least he acknowledged that breaks were necessary. "Plus, I cannot allow you to go unpunished for scoring so poorly. You had all of your notes on hand, and I had only recently told you the information. Your failure is inexcusable."

[hetried]

"Taking breaks doesn't involve running until you die!" Seriously man, you're not gonna die. Stop being so overdramatic.

"Aaaugh, how many times do I have to tell you?!" He let out a sigh of exasperation and started rubbing his head and running his hands through his hair, effectively making his hair even messier than it was before. "I'm not smart enough for this kind of stuff! Even if you give me all the answers, I still have to remember everything or know where it is... my brain doesn't work that fast!"

[drakenguard]

Yamato sighed as if in exasperation. "Your low self-esteem is incredibly grating at times, Shijima."

He uncrossed his arms and then, er, stepped right into Daichi's personal space, looming over him with the few extra centimetres (seriously, he is only like four centimetres taller than Daichi) he had on him.

"You are more than capable to learn, it will just take some hard work. Ignore whatever trash your low self-esteem is telling you and do as I say."

[hetried]

He shrunk back juussst...ever...so slightly... when Yamato was looming, because uh yeah, four inches can make a lot of different when you're, Yamato!!

"It's not a matter of my self-esteem if it's true you know...! I think I know how my own brain works!!"

Although the more he kept talking, the more he was feeling like this was an uphill battle. Sigh... "And I still don't see how running is going to help me learn physics!"

[drakenguard]

Yamato just looked unimpressed. "Physical exercise helps increase intelligence. There are numerous studies on this. It also helps to clear one's mind and improve their overall mood."

[hetried]

"It's not gonna improve anything if you expect me to run until I puke!"

Daichi admittedly had no idea if that physical exercise thing was really true or not (it would make PE sort of make sense, but he still wasn't a fan), but he was fairly certain that if he collapsed, he was going to forget way more than he remembered.

[drakenguard]

Yamato was beginning to adopt the same expression a mother with a troublesome child would.

"Fine," he finally sighed. "Just run to the bottom and back up again."

Next time you won't be getting off so lightly, Shijima.

[hetried]

Screw you Yamato, you're not his mom. His mom wouldn't be making him run up and down stairs like this!!

Daichi let out a groan, but nevertheless lumped down onto the stair right below him, running and jogging down the stairs. He was only on the Fifth floor granted, but that was still...quite a lot of stairs to get through, and while he was no slack, he was no Olympic athlete. So by the time he finally got back up to the floor of his apartment, he was probably breathing more heavily than he had during the entire invasion week. There wasn't exactly the nice courtesy of adrenaline and demon Dias to pick up his stamina after all.

Cue the mental refrain of 'He's gonna diiiieeeeeee...'

[drakenguard]

Yamato waited patiently, hearing the echoes of Daichi's footsteps against the stairs. He honestly didn't understand why he had been so upset at the thought of being punished. It was the obvious thing to occur if you failed, wasn't it?

He was broken out of his thoughts when Daichi finally returned. He was wheezing and muttering deliriously, and Yamato almost rolled his eyes at the dramatics. It had only been five flight of stairs.

"If you're having difficulty catching your breath, place your hands atop of your head."

[hetried]

Roll your eyes all you want, but his dramatics would continue! He did take the advice though, and sort of brought his arms up to flop his hands on top of his head while he leaned his head against the wall of the hallway.

Thankfully the arms-on-head thing did help, and eventually his heart rate and breathing rate came back to normal, though his dramatics rate certainly did not. "H... How can you even...study like this...?!"

[drakenguard]

Yamato tilted his head slightly. "Admittedly it is difficult in the beginning, but so long as you continue to succeed within the expectations laid out for you, there will be no more punishments of this sort."

Meaning, work hard and work well, Shijima, and there will be no more stair running for you.

[hetried]

"C-Couldn't you lower your expectations just a little...?"

It was a rather pathetic sounding appeal that Daichi was 95% sure wouldn't work, but then most of the things he did in his life he was 95% sure wouldn't work out and he did them anyway, so that's not to say very much for the laws of probability.

[drakenguard]

"No." Yamato's tone and expression became cold in an instant. "That breeds laziness and incompetence. You must always try to exceed past the limitations of your abilities if you wish to improve."

[hetried]

The instantaneous icey expression was sobering enough that Daichi immediately quit any remaining dramatics and impressions of exhaustion, even if the rest of his biological processes were still trying to catch up wit the stress.

Well, it's not like he didn't want to improve or anything, but... "Yeah, but some of us aren't ridiculous child prodigies you know. Can you even have limitations if you hardly know what you're doing anyway?"

The exasperation in his attitude ended up making his tone a bit more sarcastic than he would've preferred to use around someone like Yamato, but eh.

[drakenguard]

Yamato's cold expression thawed into one of mild exasperation. "Shijima, I am not expecting you to pass the tests or the lessons with flying colours. I am well aware that there is a very large gap between our levels of intelligence. In fact, I am being incredibly lenient with you."

Yeah. Yamato's lessons were a lot harder than this. He never got to use his notes during a test.

"But limitations are only discovered when you are tossed into the deep end of the pool. That test told me what your weak points are, and what we will work on because of it. Therefore we will focus on that more until you are up to standard." He can't believe he had to explain this...

[hetried]

Not...sure if he was supposed to feel insulted by that. Though it WAS accurate, so. And Daichi couldn't deny that Yamato had a point, as much as he wanted to just be a contradictory brat right now.

"Augh, yeah yeah... Isn't it dangerous though just to throw someone in the deep end if their limitations turn out to be that they can't swim?"

A+ keeping on topic right now.

[drakenguard]

Yamato suddenly smirked.

"Perhaps, but people learn surprisingly quickly when it's their lives on the line," he said, and promptly burst into amused chuckles, as if finding it genuinely funny. Oh Yamato, you and your bizarre humour.

[hetried]

Unfortunately, Daichi did not share this kind of sense of humor, as his arms flopped and he brought one hand up to clutch at his chest.

"I'd rather not get a heart attack from because you want me to learn how a black hole works...!!"

[drakenguard]

"Black Holes are simple to understand," Yamato said, his laughter swiftly cutting short as he reverted to his usual cold self. "Now come. We will continue from where we left off."

[hetried]

He wasn't sure if he'd rather have the laughter back or not.

"Yeah, maybe for you..." He grumbled mostly to himself, mentally turning over all the hole-esque and interdimensional concepts he was supposed to be learning. But nevertheless, it was back to his apartment they go. Though he may or may not have been dragging his feet.

[drakenguard]

"Walk properly, Shijima. You're not a child."

Yamato takes on the role of Daichi's mother. Oh boy. But they returned to the apartment, and Yamato picked up his textbook again, thumbing to the appropriate page in the books.

[hetried]

Yeah he thought he was older than Yamato but that's being proven wrong every minute.

He was going to half listen at least, sort of...dragging his feet less but still slumping along. And eventually, flopping back into the chair he had been sitting at early, grabbing one of the many textbooks he was apparently supposed to be reading.

[drakenguard]

"Now then. I expect you to do better this time," Yamato said, his expression severe as he stared at Daichi. "...I will be a bit more lenient this time, however. After the lesson we shall do a thirty question paper in one hour."

L-Leniency???? Guess Daichi did sort of get through to him after all.

That, or he realised he'd have to ease into the deep end for Daichi. How frustrating.

[hetried]

"Wha-- really?" He's not entirely sure he believes that at first!

But, Yamato wasn't going back on it, and even if the guy was just getting frustrated with him, it was a boon for Daichi! "Heh, you got it! 30 questions in an hour is something I can do!"

Hopefully. Whatever, he was actually looking at the books and not falling asleep.

[drakenguard]

Yamato's severe expression eased into a slight smirk. "Hm, you actually seem enthusiastic now."

Perhaps leniency wasn't so bad if it could coax such a reaction from Shijima - but he couldn't be too easy on him. He had to push him, after all.

[hetried]

"Well, I'm not exactly excited about more quantum physics and stuff, but at least that's something actually within the realm of possibility."

Daichi Shijima, master of yapping while still actually reading the textbooks and not totally forgetting what was on them a minute later. Improbable idiot or actual A student, you decide.