Some Teacher: Second Semester!

(5.7) Endurance time!

"Excuse me." The older man whipped around in alarm and threw his wrench at Yatoni in one swift, fluid movement, and it would have hit the boy in the chest had he not been able to catch it. He silently thanked Nagisa-sensei for all that assassination training which had honed his reflexes so well.

"Nice catch!" He heard a female voice call from behind him. He turned to see a teenaged girl, his age or maybe a bit younger, sitting barefoot and cross-legged in the driver's seat of the purple tow truck next to the garage with the door hanging open. "Let me guess, your car broke down on the cliffside and you need a tow and a fix."

"Ay-yah! Another one?" The older man scowled and climbed off his step-ladder to snatch the wrench back from Yatoni. "Always so busy because of that damn cursed road. We don't have time for you today!"

"I can fix it myself, I just need a new cylinder head, model V6 internal combustion engine, and maybe something for my coolant system; I might just stick duct tape over the leak if it's not too big."

"You know how to fix cars?"

"Yeah."

"Can you fix this?" He pointed to the Porsche, eyes alight with curiosity.

"Pop the hood?" Yatoni requested, taking off his old, brown, leather jacket and walking over to the vehicle, and the man complied. The Porsche was one of their latest models, full of new innovations. The engine was minimalist electric, with an extendable solar panel which could be removed or transported along with the car in a slot on the underside of the hood for emergency charging.

You could tell just by looking at it that it was really advanced, but an engine was still an engine. He fiddled with the wires, the coolant system, the fuses, then he flicked his wrists a few times and turned to the man.

"Yeah, I can fix it," he said. "You got a soldering iron and some copper wire?"

"Yes, what's wrong with it?"

"One of the fuses has a faulty connection which stressed the engine until the onboard computer shut it down for maintenance so the entire thing wouldn't have to be replaced." They were both silent for a moment while the man frowned severely.

"I'll never understand this newfangled technology," he grumbled. "Since when do computers control cars?"

"Computers have controlled cars for over a decade," Yatoni said, not realizing that it was a rhetorical question. "So, about that cylinder head?"

"Have to special-order it for you, should be a day or two. Give it to you free if you work for me until it comes, plus I'll have Lei-Ling tow your car for no extra charge."

Yatoni looked at the little man, completely deadpan, weighing his options. If the part was going to take time to come, he'd need something to fill that time. Fixing cars was something he was good at, and he enjoyed it, everything from the purr of engines to the smell of motor oil. It wasn't traveling, but then, neither was blowing the rest of his trip money on a hotel room to mope in. It was something to do. He'd still have to find a place to stay, but it was a pretty good deal. "And you are?"

"Han Chen, I own this place. We have a deal or not?"

"Know of any place I can stay while I work here?"

— Warning: Tarantula Ahead —

"Dude! Check out this massive spider I found!" Misono said enthusiastically as soon as Ushiwara answered his front door. He pushed his way into the house and set the cardboard shoebox he was carrying onto the nearest table. He lifted the lid slightly and slid it just a few centimeters so Ushiwara could see without letting the creature escape. "He bit me and now I feel like a dead roach, but seriously, how cool is he? Isn't he just the most metal son of a bitch you ever saw?"