Venomous Deception ✅

Chapter Two

Asato had a terrible headache and his vision was starting to blur. Iori Maeda-sensei was undoubtedly a genius with mathematics—He's a Doctor of Mathematics, right? he thought. Haha said he got his Ph.D before he turned 20–but Asato's homeroom teacher of class 1-2 did almost nothing to make any of his lessons engaging or enjoyable. He would recite his lectures in a steady, monotone voice while facing the chalkboard and writing out formulas. Maeda-sensei would spend almost all of the period with his back to the class reciting advanced mathematics from memory. Rarely did he rely on the textbook.

"Understood?" Maeda-sensei droned, finally turning to face the class. He was a man in his mid-twenties with a crew cut and a steadily expressionless face.

"Yes," the class responded wearily.

"Sensei," Asato interjected, standing up with his hand raised. "Could you please repeat how you found tan0°?"

"Certainly," Maeda-sensei responded bluntly. "Tan0° is opposite divided by adjacent, but this formula is tan45° so you need to find tan45° before you find tan45°—"

NO! Asato almost shouted as Maeda-sensei turned to face the board again. Instead he made a noise of dismay. Someone chuckled to the southeast of him, but Asato didn't look their way. He stood there wringing his hands as Maeda-sensei erased his own work and proceeded to repeat the entire solution breakdown in lieu of actually answering Asato's question. He even rewrote the work tracing the lines he had just erased!

I'm struggling. I'm really struggling with this, and this isn't helping me! And I know that it will only get harder the deeper into the school year! I NEED to understand math to become an astrophysicist!

The school bell chimed before Maeda-sensei was even finished rewriting the problem, and the students cheered for the end of the school day. "Wait!" Asato shouted as Maeda-sensei began erasing the board again, but the cheers from his classmates drowned out his voice.

"There are no announcements, it is end of school day," Maeda-sensei announced dully. "Start cleaning now." He collected his teacher'stablet and his belongings and left without another word. Asato stood there gaping, his chest tight. Wha...But he didn't answer my question!

"You okay, Asato?" Aguni Ono asked him worriedly. Unlike Asato he hadn't dyed his hair and it was slicked back and stiff with excessive hair gel.

Asato nodded to him wearily. "I'll go to the teacher's room later before kendo club. He'll HAVE to help me then!"

Aguni nodded. "I'll let the Captain know you might be late."

"Thank you."

"Is it true the Shirahime girls are coming here later?!" Rokudo Yamashi exclaimed. Asato glanced up with mild interest as he started to move his desk with the rest of his classmates.

"That's the rumor," Tama Kubo said. "Yoshinaga said he got a text that 20 of them are going to walk here after cleaning!"

"Damn, we'll be at club then," Aguni sighed as he pushed his desk alongside Asato's.

"How come they're coming here?" Ran Komatsu asked. His platinum blonde head was bent over his cell phone, openly texting despite it being during school hours.