Our Teacher is a Yakuza Princess

Chapter 30

Graduation day dawned, and part of 3-D showed up at the classroom, waiting until they were called. Everyone noticed who was not there.

"Yo!" A voice came from the doorway.

"Minami!" The class greeted him. He gave high fives and teased Kuma as he made his way in. The smiles disappeared when Minami saw the empty desks.

He glanced at Shin. "They're really not coming?"

"Afraid so." Shin answered softly. A depressed quiet settled over the room.

Minami, being Minami, tried to cheer everyone up. "Well, at least we all have a lot to look forward to! Uchi! I heard you got a job at a great construction place, right?"

Uchi smiled ruefully and sat down, "Actually, not anymore. It got revoked."

Shin narrowed his eyes. "You job offer got canceled?" He repeated.

"Why?" Minami asked.

"The store that got their sign destroyed is a good customer of the company that offered me a job." Uchi grinned tightly. "They think I'm a member of the same gang as Noda and the rest. So anyone from Shirokin must be eliminated to keep them happy."

As various curses rumbled through the classroom, Yankumi skidded through the door. "Uchiyama!" She called as she went up to his desk. "Is this true?"

Uchi tried to laugh. "Oh, you know already, Yankumi?" He looked around the room. "But don't tell them anything, please. They may mind." He was regarded with multiple looks of disbelief. "If someone I didn't know had done it, I would have crushed him. But it was done by my friends, so…"

Before he could finish, Yankumi marched back to the door. When the boys called after her, she turned and said, "I cannot let it go."

As she walked out, Shin waited all of two seconds to run after her. With that look in her eyes, he didn't really know what she might do. Pushing past all of the arriving parents and bowing teachers, all of 3-D ran towards the construction company's headquarters, ignoring the Vice Principal shouting after them. They ran and ran, and finally arrived at the stockyard. But as they rounded a corner, everyone suddenly stopped. There, in front of the owner, were all eight ronin students.

"Please!" They heard Noda ask. "Please do not cancel Uchiyama's job offer!"

"We destroyed the sign."

"He has nothing to do with us."

The owner looked at the gathered boys and said, "I still can't accept it. If he's a friend of such violent students, our customers will think he's the same. Therefore, we had no choice."

Noda swallowed, then looked up determinedly. "Though we are low-life students, Uchiyama is different. He loves his mom more than anybody, and he wants his mother to work less. He said he'd be a carpenter to help her."

"He thinks of his friends before himself."

"He doesn't talk well, but he's a good-hearted guy."

"Please reconsider!"

"Please! We beg of you!" And they all bowed deeply.

"Isn't today your graduation? How come you snuck out of it?" The owner asked, puzzled.

"Because he's our friend." Noda answered, then met the man's gaze. "Because we're friends. Please, would you please reconsider?" Again, they all bowed in supplication.

Shin, who couldn't stand by anymore, ran to join his friends. The owner looked rather alarmed at seeing over a dozen teenaged boys run up, but then looked even more confused when Shin said, "Please reconsider," and bowed as well.