anatomy

Chapter 2

"Hey, Emilia!" a voice calls out to her. She turns to see Erika running up behind her while she walks home. "Hey, wait up!"

She stops, and when Erika catches up to her, she says, "Were you trying to run off before I could ask you what you thought?"

"Huh? What I thought about what?" Despite her thoughts resting solely on her new teacher, she forgets that Erika had previously warned her about him.

"Dr. Kishitani, of course!" she replies. "What did you think about him?"

"Oh! Oh, I thought he was really nice," says Emilia. "He's actually kind of cool."

"Cool?" With that, Erika groans. "Oh, no, not another one! Between you and Yumachi, I swear..." She shakes her head, laughing. "No, but seriously, he's a nice guy, if you do your work on time and don't go out of your way to piss him off. I mean, at least, as a teacher. A lot of people are super creeped out by him, but, then, you've got people like Yumachi, who idolize him."

"I don't see why anyone wouldn't like him," says Emilia, without really thinking. She doesn't know why, but she feels herself starting to blush after she says it, as if she just said something she shouldn't have. However, Erika doesn't react to that, and instead asks her more questions about her day.

While she makes conversation, her thoughts still linger on Dr. Kishitani, and she wonders why she can't take her mind off her teacher. She doesn't know why she feels so embarrassed to think about him so much either, or why she's already so excited for her seventh class the next day. But she is, and after she and Erika go her separate ways, she spends the rest of the evening trying to distract herself.

~X~

The next morning, she wakes up in an incredibly good mood, and it takes her a moment to realize that it is because she's excited about going to school for once. Or, more accurately, she's excited to actually start classes, and excited to actually start her anatomy class. She's curious about Dr. Kishitani's teaching style, and she's curious about how the other students react to it.

Of course, she has her other classes to get through first, and she finds that most of them are similar to things that she's had before. It's certainly going to be an easy year for her, and she finds herself raising her hand a lot to answer questions or ask about something relating to the topic that she's remembered. Her teachers are pleasantly surprised, and warm up to her quickly.

The same cannot be said for her classmates, and already, they see her as her former classmates did; as a showoff or a kiss-ass, someone that they have no interest in befriending any time soon. There is a sort of stigma that comes with being the one who sits in the front and laughs at the teacher's jokes and always has something to say and always knows the answers.

By the time her final class of the day has rolled around, Emilia can tell that she's starting to earn that stigma for herself again, but as soon as she steps into Dr. Kishitani's classrooms, she finds her worries fading to the back of her mind. She makes her way to her seat, the same as the day before, and waits for the bell to ring and for the strange, intriguing man to start to teach.

"We're going to start our unit with basic definitions and terms in anatomy," he says, after he's taken attendance. "I'm going to assume that most of you remember the basics from biology your sophomore year, and if you don't...well, that's your fault!" He chuckles before moving on, and Emilia finds herself covering her hand with her mouth to hide that she's laughing with him.

Sometimes, he asks the class if they know what something means before he tells them, and always, she raises her hand to answer, even though he was not looking for any of them to actually answer. He seems very surprised that she knows most of what he is teaching before he is teaching it, but really, this is just because she's had the class before. Still, the tone in his voice when he tells her that she's correct gives her a sense of pride she hasn't felt before, and she can't stop smiling throughout class.

Before she leaves for the day, Dr. Kishitani calls out to her, asking her to stay behind for just a moment, and a few classmates laugh to themselves over it. She does her best to ignore it, remaining in her desk as he comes over to speak to her.

"You knew almost all the answers in class today," he says. "That was very impressive. Most students don't come into this class with prerequisites." At that, he chuckles much like he did in class, and she laughs with him more openly this time. "Have you been studying independently?"

"To be perfectly honest, I took anatomy last year, at my old school," she admits. "I asked if I could take it again here, and I was allowed to. It's all very fresh in my memory, that's all."

"Ah, that's right, you're new to this school. I hope you're adjusting well," he says. "But, in any case, I think this a little bit more than having it fresh in your memory. You took the class last year, which means it's been an entire year since you learned the basics. Most students have a hard time remembering stuff just over the course of the summer, so I still have to say I'm impressed with you."

She feels her face flushing, and suddenly has a very hard time looking directly at him, though it's already impossible to make eye contact. Whatever the case, she looks down at her desk and quietly says, "Thank you."

"I look forward to see your work in my class this year," says Dr. Kishitani. "I hope you continue to settle in at the school well, and I hope you have a good senior yeah. That is, it is your senior year, right? I'm sure that's what I read on your questionnaire."

"Yes, it is," she replies.

"Oh, by the way, speaking of that questionnaire...I rather liked your paragraph on mythical creatures, and how you worded your refusal to not believe in anything until there's concrete proof that it doesn't exist. Someday, I hope the two of us can have a longer discussion about life's mysteries, but for now, I doubt you want me to keep you after school for too long. I'm sure you have lots of important things you'd like to be doing right now!"

Though she wants to say no, and tell him that she'd much rather keep talking to him, she has a feeling that that probably isn't something she should be so eager to tell him. In fact, she has a feeling that she simply shouldn't be that eager to want to spend time with a teacher, and she really doesn't even understand why she's thinking along those lines, so she keeps her mouth shut about that. Nodding, she stands up and puts on her backpack, and wishes him a good afternoon before heading out the door.

As soon as she's far enough away that he can't see her, a grin breaks out across her face, and her steps feel a bit lighter.