2025-07-22: Dance, Curse
- Log: Dance, Curse
- Cast: Yua Ooshiro, Ichika Kawase, Myunghon Yeo's student worker Gumiho, Jun Kashihara, Hyousuke Suzuki
- Where: Kasugayama - Gym
- OOC Date: 2025-07-22
- IC Date: Wednesday, June 13 2012
- Summary: Yua realises the dire situation at Kasugayama, with the only Health and Physical Education teachers giving a damn being specialists like herself and the Muay Thai teacher Eiji Muto. She decides to fix it! There's just one problem: she's not, technically, a REAL teacher...
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Ooshiro-sensei runs a dance class once a week at Kasugayama (and beyond!), in the afternoon after everyone's brains are faltering from all that learning. It's run under Health and Physical Education, but her classes are heavy on the PE -- they're learning how to dance! She's teaching them a popular routine from a song which is making the rounds, taking time to have them think about the movements they're making and how they can safely perform them. Except... last week, she showed up to class with a wrist brace. She still tried to go through class as normal, but, well, it's harder with that movement restricted. She tried to turn it into a teaching moment about how they should make sure not to push themselves too hard, though their questions as to what happened were all sternly shut down.
(Some cruel students barked at her after she slipped into 'wan' as a pronoun instead of 'ware' when telling them to mind their own business; she rewarded them with detention, because that wasn't a dog sound, it was just Okinawan.)
But today's classes run on a Wednesday, and she's shown up to them without that wrist brace! Mats are laid out in the gymnasium for each student, and there's an ancient-looking boombox at the front of the class to play the required music. As always, their teacher is dressed in a skirted ballet leotard and matching black pointe shoes; her left eye is covered by a black eyepatch, her right hand is covered by a slip of fabric stretching from ring to bracelet, and her teal hair is up in a bun. As class begins, she claps her hands together. "All right! I know we took it a little easy last week, but today, I'm back in action! My apologies for the disruption, but I'm sure your regular teacher still offered you good lessons, yes?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika doesn't really tolerate the kind of cruelty that involves making fun of someone's pronouns. It's not something she likes.
But today...
Ichika is in her gym uniform, obviously. They actually have those! But her hair is back, clipped into a ponytail (don't even try to get one of those hairties around her hair--it's a bad idea).
And the very, very tall Boss is... watching Yua. Only to say--
"That's..."
A student from behind her chimes in, "Our usual teacher doesn't do anything!"
Ichika says, "That."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon Yeo isn't here, because that would be weird. They've already had to infiltrate one high school, two just makes you a Premium-grade creepo. Instead, who's here is:
Gumiho, a blue-haired first year who's kind of known for picking fights at the drop of a hat. She also has a legendary special skill when it comes to fights, something like an Ability that make her the protagonist of a manga or anime. Unfortunately, said ability is:
SPECIAL TALENT
When Gumiho gets into a fight, Gumiho loses.
Despite this, she still really wants to become a Boss one day. She's not content, in her words, "being a Mid-Boss or a Random Encounter... ho ho ho! Just you wait." Today, though, she's standing next to Ichika with her arms folded and nods in turn as someone chimes in behind her.
"Yeah, that guy's a real loser. What's up with that?"
She might've challenged Ichika too. She'll win one day... one day! Just you wait, Ichika Kawase!
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Jun likes Ooshiro-sensei, but he also doesn't involve himself in the student politics of Kasugayama High. He is an observer, there to learn more about the human condition. Ooshiro-sensei is a teacher and has the authority to defend herself, also--so while he did give those students a flat, unimpressed stare when they barked at her, he let her handle it herself.
A student coming to a teacher's defense would probably only make it harder for her, anyway.
It's good that her wrist has recovered, at least. Jun did wonder about what happened, but she made it clear she didn't want to discuss it, so he didn't ask. He, too, is in gym class, in his gym clothes, more engaged than usual considering he hates gym.
He gives her an ironic little smile when she talks about the 'regular teacher.' Another student says what they're all thinking, and Jun gestures towards them with one flat hand, as if to physically echo Ichika's one-word follow-up.
Is their regular P.E. teacher a loser? Well... He's certainly not a winner. He gives Gumiho an ironic little smile of her own, but waits to see how Ooshiro-sensei takes charge given the circumstances. It ought to be educational in a number of ways.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke was no stranger to exercise. His figure was proof enough of that - toned muscles and scant few ounces of wasted fat were the hallmarks of it. Anyone that knew about his afterschool training sessions with Muto-sensei knew that he was no stranger to practising moves and routines until performing them was as natural as breathing - he was fairly certain that the man would have had him run laps until he was blue in the face if he dared to slack off for even a moment during training. What he *was* as a stranger to, however, was dance.
Though he hadn't wanted to admit it, he had been a little nervous about trying it last time. After all, it was something new that required no small amount of skill to do properly, from what he had gathered, and there was ample opportunity to look like an idiot. That did not come to pass, but not because he had any natural talent - it was because the teacher that had headed up the lesson was about as far a cry from Muto-sensei as a teacher realistically could be.
"Is it always like that?" He asked, leaning over a little to Ichika, and to the stranger near her. "Muto-sensei's pretty strict."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Oh, Yua is very strict, in her way -- particularly with anyone she deems to be lazing around in her class. But her insistence on proper technique and effort is wrapped in kindnesses and support; she insists on calling students out for straining themselves and teaching them the proper way because she doesn't want them to be hurt. She insists on them giving their all because she believes they can do it.
But the students tell her just what they're thinking about the teacher who handles most of their education, and Yua gasps, aghast. "What? Is it truly that bad? But that simply won't do!" She stomps a foot, as she declares: "It's unacceptable! No wonder you don't know how to move properly, if, if -- no one ever taught you!"
Her hands swipe down, as she fumes: "Ooooh, just-- just wait right here!!" With that, Yua runs out of the gymnasium, back towards the teacher's lounge.
So, uh, do they just... sit around?
Maybe start a riot?
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Wouldn't know," Ichika admits to Hyousuke. "I haven't had him." Though she could do well in martial arts; she has a little self-defense training. ...Aside from having Secret Powers. Still...
"Uh?" The other student says as Yua moves out of the room, and Ichika shakes her head. "I kind of had a feeling..."
Ichika remembers when Yua showed up with that wrist brace. She didn't like it then, and she still doesn't like it now, even if the brace is gone. It worried her.
Still--
"OK, OK," Ichika says. "Be nice to this one. If you're gonna be an ass, leave before she gets back."
She'll wait!
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Gumiho has a grin in turn to Jun, but looks back to Ooshiro-sensei as she... storms off. She might've seen him defend himself once or twice and thought: that was totally radical. Mad props, peak respect. "Oh! I wanna learn some killer moves from Muto-sensei," Gumiho excitedly chimes in to Hyousuke and Ichika. "I wanna know how to dodge punches. I keep taking punches to the face, and that's a bad start to winning fights."
Just how many concussions has this seeming 15-year old received to the head?
She scratches her hair as she shuffles in place for a few seconds, though. "So did you guys have Ooshiro-sensei's classes already? This is my first time. What's she like?"
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Starting a riot at 'Cuss High' is harder than one would think, too. There's so many Bosses who are invested in maintaining order--just, their own sort of order. There may be fights, but an outright riot is unlikely.
"She's very sweet," Jun says to Gumiho. "She's brand-new to teaching, so she's still flush with the desire to do right by students." He says this in a positive way; he's seen other teachers who started out wanting to do well and got burned out. When Ichika tells the others to be nice, Jun nods in agreement.
He laughs a little as Gumiho eagerly talks about wanting to learn killer moves from Muto-sensei. To Hyousuke, he says, "I wouldn't say it's always like that. It really depends on which teacher you get."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke blinked a little at the display, unsure of how he was supposed to react. He had been at the school long enough to get a handle on the general attitude of the teachers there, but this was... not something that he had predicted, even with that information. Once he'd processed it, however, he shrugged nonchalantly, and turned back to Ichika with a casual look plastered across his face.
"At least someone's taking it seriously." He said, looking between Ichika and Jun, his flat tone tinged by a hint of resignation. A question formed in his mind as he finished speaking, but it caught in his throat and was quickly forgotten when Gumiho made clear her desire to learn from his teacher. He offered about as wry a smile as a person of his temperament could manage, and chuckled lightly. "He's always got spots open, but only if you take his lessons seriously. Otherwise, you're gonna be running laps around the school. So many laps..." He shuddered, presumably at some unpleasant memory, before continuing on. "How about I introduce you? I've got a lesson after school today. You could come with!"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Rrrrrrh....!!!"
Yua appears soon afterwards, carrying both a couple of heavy-looking shopping bags (full of textbooks!) and dragging a whiteboard into the gymnasium, which rather leaves her hands full. If only there were a guy in class with big muscles who could help out--!!
With any help she receives -- "Merci," she asides, in surprisingly fluent French -- she'll get that whiteboard in front of everyone, and the bag of textbooks at the front of the class. "There!" She declares, triumphantly. "Now, take your textbooks," and she picks up one herself, blinking at a title she definitely hasn't read for the first time.
("Human Body Systems". It's straight to the point and as boring as any textbook is.)
"And turn to page, errr... no, the heart hardly matters here... wait, that's a gall?... something, something... there! Four five seven! Movement starts in the skeleton, you see?" But Yua pauses, looking from the book, to her class, to the book, back to her class.
"... wait a minute," horror dawns on her, "have your teachers... gone through any of this with you?"
Or did they skip right past it all, just like she did...?
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
One day... Gumiho will... probably not beat Ichika. But she's tried! That counts for something.
"...I didn't get you in the face, did I?" she wonders of Gumiho. "I try not to go there. Encourages people to mess with your makeup."
Jun explains, and Ichika thinks that's good enough. To both, actually.
"See?" Ichika says, nodding to Hyousuke. "You can learn something." Pause. "Don't use it to come at me again, though. It won't do you any good."
When Yua returns... Ichika does not move to help with the textbooks. She is not a guy with big muscles. Instead she opens her mouth and closes it. "Uh," she says, "What about dancing?"
She dubiously takes a textbook. She flips it open.
"..."
She glances away. She's not going to answer this one.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"Naw, you're a right honourable one, Thorn Boss!" Gumiho says with gumption and spirit. "I'm gonna learn that mean little hook you got, and then... it's re-challenge time!"
Hyousuke warns that if she wants to learn from Muto-sensei, she'd best be serious. "Reckoncourse I'd be serious! I'm not gonna stop until I become a Boss in this school! Check it out, I've already thought of it and all. I'm gonna be..."
Gumiho kind of jazz-hands and says, "Kool Boss. But, with a 'K', for Kasu, you see? How kool is that?? Ho ho ho!!" There was a different pun here in the original text.
Jun tells her that she's very sweet, and that seems to get a look of enthusiasm from her. "Hmm... I get it. Somethin' about this school definitely drags your soul down, like that other PE teacher." Maybe it has something to do with the air raid shelter down below.
She jumps a little as Yua arrives and remarkably, she goes to help out and then is attacked by-- "Whoa!! What's that, French? There's a Frenchlady where I work..." After it's all laid down and distributed, though, a certain kind of horror passes over her.
Wait...
When did PE class suddenly become boring book stuff again? "Uh-- hey, Ooshiro-sensei, you're talking about the Skeleton Dance, right?! It's about... poppin' and lockin'!"
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Jun has an understanding of human movement, and some studies in martial arts... but he really isn't the type to want to run laps around the school, so he remains mysteriously silent during the talk of Muto-sensei's teaching style. Instead, he chuckles softly at Gumiho's chosen Boss title.
"Very kool," he says indulgently. (It's the role of third years to be kind to first years. ...or to haze them. But Jun dislikes that sort of thing.)
But Ooshiro-sensei is soon back, and with lots of textbooks in tow. Jun blinks in surprise, accepting one without issue and flipping it open. (He is also not a guy with big muscles. He is small and lean and beautiful.) "You were able to get these awfully quickly. You didn't have any trouble, sensei?" he comments--ah, so that's what he was surprised about.
He starts reading from the beginning at first. That isn't really how a textbook is used, but he's interested. He only flips forward when Yua gives a specific page number, interest in his one uncovered eye (the other shaded by his long, dark bangs), and starts to read from there instead.
"P.E. teachers here tend to be all about learning by doing," Jun tells Yua without looking up. So... that's a 'no,' then.
...at least he's doing the reading...?
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke's expression soured a little upon realising that she was in it to be a stronger gang leader. He suppressed the worst of it, but there was no chance that flicker of disdain would have escaped anyone paying close enough attention. After going silent for a moment to regain his composure, he nodded sagely - or, rather what he hoped looked sagely - and faced her with a stony look in his eyes. Or, rather, what he hoped was a stony look. Despite his distaste for gangs, he simply couldn't bring himself to act even remotely harshly in front of Gumi. It was like trying to tell off a puppy.
"Then you and me gotta meet up somewhere after this. I'll show you where we train. Just bring a towel and some water. You're gonna need 'em."
Hyousuke's eyes seemed to light up - albeit only a little - upon sighting something that he knew he could actually do without looking like a complete and utter fool. Something as intricate and skilful as dance? Beyond him. Something that a well-trained chimp could do? That, he was confident in offering his help with. Striding forward with a rather inordinate amount of confidence for someone that was simply going to carry a heavy load, he flashed Ooshiro with an eager smile.
"Let me." He said, that same confidence clear in his voice. He didn't wait for more than a split second once given the go-ahead - his hands were on the handles in short order, and with remarkable ease, he hefted all he could carry into its appropriate position.
Before he could spend any amount of time basking in the glory that he had no doubt earned, his greatest foe once more rose to challenge him - reading. It was bad enough when he could tell what the book was talking about, but most of the subjects covered by the pages he flipped to were things beyond him. The basic principles on some pages, he understood. Muto-sensei had impressed that much onto him during training, if only to make sure he didn't have to deal with the hassle of a student pulling a muscle on his watch. But the rest was all Greek to him.
He didn't think to answer Ooshiro's question. He was a recent transfer, so he had no authority to speak one way or another. The fact that he was squinting at the book as if the entire thing was written in Latin spoke louder than words ever could, though.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"They were just sitting in the lounge!" Yua exclaims, clearly frustrated, when Jun asks about the textbooks. "Now I think about it, I really don't think they moved out of that spot since I first came here!" That wasn't that long ago, at least -- she just started this month -- but it's a grim verdict, carried all the more by the way Hyousuke seems to regard the book like it might bite him.
Still, her students are worried about when they're going to get to dancing. "Oh! Well, that's important, too, but -- don't worry! Don't worry, I'll figure it out!" Yua assures Ichika and Gumiho, waving a hand. "But I must do something..! It's not just the Skeleton Dance, you see, but the entire principle of how humans move! We must know what a ligament is in order to understand why we need to treat our joints with care, no?"
At no point has Yua thought, in her entire mission to take on the lack of care at Kasugayama's core, that this is a terrible idea.
The fact is, though, this is kind of a terrible idea...
... because Yua Ooshiro is not a teacher.
She didn't go to teaching school for years. She didn't attend placement at school in order to learn under teachers with experience. She hasn't studied child psychology or human development. She barely even scraped together enough Ds to graduate herself.
What she got was a month of a crash course in how to fake the paperwork and make herself blend in as someone with a specific job she knew enough to advise on -- teaching dance.
If her handlers could see her, now, their hands would bury so far into their faces that they might become hand-faced freaks over the sheer mortification of how much she is blowing her cover. Just because she understands the musculoskeletal system doesn't mean she knows how to teach Health and Physical Education.
"So," she starts, looking at the book. "So... er..."
And Ichika and Hyousuke and Gumiho might recognise intrinsically, at least, the horrified expression one wears when one is called on in class to explain something they don't understand. ... and Jun surely knows that expression, even if he wouldn't struggle with it so much.
"Okay," she straightens up. "Okay! So." Flick, flick. "Page four six two. Okay. So, muscles sit in bones in a certain way, they're attached, er --" glance down, "it's the insertion point, yes. These points are like anchors, and they let your muscles move your bones in their joints and sockets. So -- right -- okay. Sockets, yes, we should start with sockets. There were a lot of you struggling with that... so, sockets are like -- like nests for your joint, right? And --"
Yua turns to the whiteboard, and draws a stick ending in a circle with another half-circle around it. "Your shoulders and your hips are what we call 'ball-and-socket' joints. It means that they can move like a ball inside their socket, and they have a wide range of motion -- you know range of motion? I was just telling you last week! Your arms and legs can only move so far without hurting yourself. But the reason why you can swing your arm in a big circle like this," as she demonstrates, "but you can only move your elbow in and out like this," and again, "are because the joints are different. Does that -- make sense?"
Yua grasps the side of her head. "Oh, no," she sighs, staring down at the book. "No, this is all wrong... oh, how are you meant to do something like this?!"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"...Pretty kool," Ichika agrees with Jun. She shouldn't encourage her, but she's just so cute! Even if she is going to re-challenge her. "Good luck."
Ichika doesn't plan on doing laps around the school. No, thanks.
...She may reconsider as Yua actually starts teaching, though. At least Hyousuke was able to help with the textbooks, even if now that means she has to worry about a textbook. She opens her mouth and closes it.
"..." Ichika's face slowly slides into a : as the lesson continues. She thought this was going to be something she was good at. But at least, there is the range of motion...
"Are you sure, uh..."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Well, Gumiho is, if nothing else, entirely honest about her desire to become a Kasu High Boss. There isn't a single ounce of guile in this young girl. If you asked her what guile is, she'd probably describe an American soldier with an exaggerated flat top haircut. (She wants to learn his moves too. She likely never will.)
"'kay! That's a promise, boss!" You can hear the lower-case b that she uses, as opposed to when she addresses Ichika by Boss.
She does light up and has a bit of a waku-waku expression as Jun absolutely nails the three-musical-note option, grinning, "I knew you'd understand, Kashihara-sempai!" She laughs to herself for a moment, hands on her waist.
But Yua starts to try to explain musculature and movement. Yua is also not an experienced, qualified teacher, who hasn't developed the rigours of psychology or human development. But it turns out... this lack of qualification isn't really an enormous impediment in someone who hears the sentence:
'We must know what a ligament is in order to...'
'what a ligament is'
'ligament'
'ligma'
Gumiho starts snort-giggling into herself for no apparent reason. By the time she recovers, she's clearing her throat. "Oh. Um. Insertion points. Sockets and... Balls..."
Oh no, she's trying SO HARD to not giggle. I'm sorry, Ooshiro-sensei, but this one might be a lost cause. But then she says: "Um, that makes sense! Like, my arms are kinda stubby, so when I throw a punch, I just come up real short! I gotta understand how to stretch 'em to throw a longer punch! That makes a whole lotta sense, Ooshiro-sensei! I'm learnin'!"
Is she...?
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Jun grins back at Gumiho. She's very cute. It's always so rewarding when your cute kouhais respond positively to you. "Well, you make it so easy to understand," he replies graciously.
It's good of Hyousuke to step up on the physical labor. He knows his role well! As for where Yua found those textbooks, though, well... Jun can only give her a sympathetic look and keep his mouth shut. At least they were only neglected.
But her suggestion does intrigue him. Jun is an intellectual--a rarity for a Cuss High student--and he's genuinely interested in learning more about the human body, especially from someone as lithe and flexible as Yua, so he takes the time to look up from his reading.
...So it really is sad for both of them that Yua doesn't actually know how to teach. The look on her face is... illuminating, though he at least assumes she's simply gotten stage fright, so to speak, rather than inherently not knowing what she's doing. He gives her an encouraging smile and nods her on to continue. His attention is all on you, sensei! And, well... she does her best. Maybe it's not very good, but... Jun had tempered expectations of her anyway.
Gym teachers.
"Yes, it makes sense," he encourages her, politely ignoring Gumiho giggling at ball-and-socket joints. It's less easy to ignore Ooshiro-sensei interrupting her own lesson, and his smile fades in favor of a concerned look, followed up by a worried glance towards Ichika. He's trying to be supportive, but...
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke recognised the look. That much was obvious by the way he stared at Ooshiro. First was the vaguely surprised blink as she started speaking, and he dragged his eyes away from the doubtlessly fascinating textbook. Then came the look of dawning realisation, followed in turn by something a little more focussed. He wasn't a teacher, not by any means, and he certainly didn't know enough about the human body to teach a lesson on joints and ligaments and other such things. But he knew enough to tell that Ooshiro was not doing a particularly stellar job, and if he was honest with himself, he was getting secondhand embarrassment just watching Ooshiro. It was enough to have him commit his entire braincell to figuring out a way to resolve the situation.
In an act of uncharacteristic eagerness to learn something other than how to knock a man flat onto his back, Hyousuke flipped furiously through the specified spots in the book, eyes darting across the page in search of something he understood well enough to actually speak about, even if only for a moment or two. Perhaps that would be enough for their teacher - a lover of excruciatingly bad jokes, it would seem - to collect herself, and blag her way through enough of the lesson that things could continue without issue. Part of him was also worried that Muto-sensei would catch wind of him achieving little in that PE lesson, and have him make up for it training, but that much was kept quiet.
"Wait, so if the bones move about so much, what's keeping them in place? Is that the ligma... leggarment... legume... muscle things you were talking about?" It was painfully obvious he was just reading from the book, and not even particularly well. He stared at the page more often than he even looked in Ooshiro-sensei's direction, and he struggled to pronounce the word that his finger was pointing directly to. However, it was question nevertheless, and one he hoped was easy to answer.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua doesn't need actual qualifications, at least, to tell she's losing some of her students with her hamfisted attempts at EDUCATION. Just look at Ichika!
Thankfully, Hyousuke has a question. Yua latches onto it like a woman drowning, which, figuratively speaking, she is. "Li-gu-munts," she sounds out for him, helpfully. "Ligaments connect bones together, alongside tendons, 'ten-duns', which connect muscle to bone. So, you..."
Gumiho starts giggling, and Yua goes beet red. "T-t-that's not..." NO ONE TAUGHT HER HOW TO DEAL WITH IMMATURE TEENAGERS! Thankfully, Gumiho says something about stretching, even if Yua doesn't completely get what she's saying. "Uh, that's right! You need to stretch properly, or you'll damage yourself! Mild stretching helps to, you know, warm your muscles up, get them used to movement, so they don't get surprised, like -- like this! Follow, like so!"
And lo, Yua demonstrates the stretching she's showed them in classes prior. "What we're doing here is gently acclimatising the muscles to movement! Encouraging them to move, so that when we move, we don't hurt ourselves! And one, and two..."
It's as she descends down for another stretch that Yua realises she's actually stumbled on a good trick, entirely accidentally.
"S-so -- we're going to demonstrate movements today, so that we understand how we're moving!" Yua sits down on her mat, legs stretched out in front of her, and extends her foot towards the wall. She then pulls her knees up, as she says: "The knee is on a hinge joint, just like a door. So we can pull it towards the back of the body, or extend it out to the front of the body. Can you feel you you can bend your knees quite a lot towards your back, but only extend them out so much?" She demonstrates on a leg, holding it up as she streeetches it out. "That's because of other bones stopping the hinge joint, to stop you from 'overextending'. Have you ever had a situation where you pushed yourself too far and had a sprain or a strain?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika waits through the matter of 'teaching'. Gumiho may be giggling to herself, but Ichika is not laughing. Instead, she kind of grows a little more uncomfortable over time. After all, it doesn't really occur to her that Yua just doesn't know what she's doing; the idea that a teacher could be as poorly-read as Ichika herself just isn't on the radar. She obviously must be explaining fine and Ichika just isn't getting it.
So when Jun encourages her, Ichika nods along. "Right," she says.
But that concerned look from Jun makes her think... Yua must be nervous, that has to be it.
It seems that when she gets back into stretching, though, she gets more confident again. Demonstrations!
Ichika sighs in clear relief when they move towards that, and looks back at Jun with a 'it's fine' sort of look.
"Yeah," Ichika answers about pushing too far. She has done that. But she sits down to start stretching!
"Ligaments," Ichika repeats, "and Ten done."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"Hmm hmm o~ That's my romantic dream," Gumiho sounds so proud of herself, when Jun tells her she makes it so easy to understand. Someday, she'll jump off a cliff in service of it.
What *does* keep bones in place? Gumiho's heard her buddies talk about flesh sacks and meat puppets, but it doesn't quite gel together until Hyousuke starts talking about it and Yua talks about... stretching! "Oh yeah! Now I'm with you, teach!"
Now that they're off the books and into something involving physical activity, the lights in Gumiho's head are back on and someone's home as she dutifully... stretches! One, two, three... hold, and release! And then they proceed onto the topic of the knee, and mimics Yua's movement with her knees, pulling them into herself.
"Yeah, teach! I'm just trying to pull off some moves and then -- ouch! My leg's just giving way on its own without someone going to town on it!"
Is... is every example with this girl just going to be tied back to a fight experience? Is Fisticuffs the only mode in which she understands anything?
(Yes.)
"Hmmm. I get it! So that's what a 'warm up' is! It sounded scary, cause I want to be cool, not warm, but... now I'm getting it, Ooshiro-sensei!" She grins at Ichika. "Now that I've learnt the secret to warming up, watch out, Thorn Boss!"
(Ichika is still going to handily beat her up for 2 xp. and 40 yen.)
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Jun nods approvingly at Hyousuke's question. He might have trouble reading and saying the words, but he's being thoughtful and trying to ask good questions and help Ooshiro-sensei build up her confidence (which is clearly the issue here). Between that and how he instantly volunteered to help hand out the textbooks, it speaks well to his character.
Ichika's discomfort... is very understandable, though. He comes to the same conclusion as her for the same reason as her. Why would either of them think that a teacher--even a fresh-faced newbie who's on a unique program--wouldn't actually know how to teach? Sure, her technique leaves much to be desired, but it makes more sense to think that it's a psychological issue than an issue of learning.
More classes will clarify that. But for right now, Jun's giving her the benefit of the doubt. To him, the world is still normal.
And as a dancer, it makes sense to him that Ooshiro-sensei would click her own personal training, and what she's been told so far about Kasugayama students, and decide to teach through doing, specifically stretches. Jun watches her demonstration, then obediently sets his textbook aside to join in.
"You're doing great, sensei," he encourages her again. "This is very easy to understand." Just look at Gumiho, finally understanding what it means to 'warm up'! ...Honestly, Jun thinks it's a little too low level, but... between her and Hyousuke, and how Ichika seems more comfortable now too... it might be just the right level...?
Oh well. Such is the reality of Kasugayama High. He'll review the textbook and study further on his own later, like he always does.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Ligaments and tendons, that's it," Yua repeats, for Ichika, both confirmation and correction.
"But when we come to our feet, we can bend them and stretch them like our knee, just like this," Yua goes on, "but we can also move them in and out, like this! See? And that might seem kind of like your shoulder, since you can rotate it all around, but it's actually trickier this time. Actually, the only joints you have with that complete range of motion are your hips and your shoulders! So, what's with your ankles...?"
Yua move them in and out, as she explains, "there are actually multiple joints in the ankle. That's why it's so easy to sprain it! There's a hinge joint that lets you move up and down -- and a second joint which lets you move from side to side. That's not quite the same as our wrists," she straightens up, as she moves her wrist about, "but wrists have a similar range of motion. And our thumbs are unique! They move like nothing else in the body!"
(Yua's wrong, on that point. There are two saddle joints in the human body. ... but the second is the sternoclavicular joint, and frankly, she just doesn't know as much about her core as she does the bits at the end.)
"So now, let's get up and try out those balls and sockets," Yua encourages them, as she stands, stretching out her arms to stretch her shoulders as she bends from side to side. She notes that Hyousuke is very good at this part of class. "Warmth is good for your muscles! But if you do end up hurting something, you want to apply ice, okay? Because ice helps with the swelling. Can anyone tell me what the RICE method is? It's in all caps, so every letter is its own trick!"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
A romantic dream... "Really?" Ichika wonders. "Being a Boss is..." She considers. "Well, it's kind of romantic," she allows, considering that she is one and is seeing one now and then.
Ichika keeps up with the stretches, and notes what kind of training Hyousuke seems to have been doing. She already had a good opinion of him, but now--
"Warming up is important," Ichika confirms. "I used to do sports, so..." She's familiar with a lot of stretches.
Jun encourages her and Ichika nods. "It is. I think I'm getting it..."
Multiple joints in the angle. Hmm. "Huh."
A pause, "I don't know what the RICE method is," she says. "But I know to put ice on something." She starts to stand up.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
See? Even Jun's getting into it! He's a brainiac, he probably knows super-stretches! He'll get so warmed up, he'll be a colossal, tiny sun! That's how he wins fights, clearly. One day, she'll become a tiny sun too, and then she'll win fights. The logic absolutely checks out.
Unfortunately, this is about as far as Gumiho gets, because she gets stretching, but Yua's explanation about joints and ankles and muscles and wrists and balls and sockets goes WHOOSH so any factual inaccuracies go similarly out the window because nothing got absorbed in the concrete-like texture that is her brain at present. Still--
"Hey! I know ice! I love ice! I love eating ice cubes!" Gumiho yells.
... honestly, if this first year walks out of high school learning to just remember to stretch to not injure herself out of PE class, that's more than their player's ever learnt out of PE class anyway, so well done, Yua Ooshiro.
"Rice? Umm-- umm, hmmmmm," Gumiho strains that half-a-braincell, now that Hyousuke has faded into the background. Still, Ichika says she doesn't know, so this is her chance to get one up on a Boss!
"Oh! Oooh! It's, um, you know, you gotta eat well after doing a lot of exercise, because your body, like... it's going 'owwie' from fights, and then food's like, 'I gotchu, fam! Eat me and you'll grow big 'n' strong!' and rice's the backbone of a healthy diet! Right??"
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
When Jun does his own reading after class and learns there's actually two saddle joints... Well, he won't immediately assume Ooshiro-sensei didn't know. But it will stick out to him. There's dumbing it down for your class to make sure they understand the basics, and there's outright giving them incorrect information in the name of keeping it simple.
Jun can't approve of the latter. This might be Kasugayama, but it's still a high school.
...students like Gumiho notwithstanding.
Jun diligently works through Yua's stretches. (Hyousuke is really nailing those stretches! He might well end up focus on doing nothing but that for the rest of the class...) He dislikes gym class and doesn't care for overly physical activity, but he does recognize the importance of being limber. He doesn't win the fights he does by never doing any exercise. He stands with the others for the next round, noting what she recommends for muscles.
The RICE method, hm... He chokes back a snort at Gumiho's guess, instead turning his smile on Ichika to avoid making Gumiho think she's getting laughed at. "What sort of sports did you do before?" he wonders--out of real curiosity, too. As tall as she is, he'd guess there's several she'd be excellent at.
"I believe I've heard of this before, sensei," he says. "It's Rest, Ice, Compression, and... Elevation, if I recall correctly?" With potential laughter under control, now he smiles at Gumiho. "But your guess makes a lot of sense too."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"That's right," Yua smiles, to Ichika, as she continues with her stretching. "And warming up isn't just important for sports, but anything you're doing with your body!"
Yua pretends not to hear those asides about being a Boss, because if she hears the wrong thing there she's going to have to start handing out detentions and then the entire system collapses. It's fine, Ichika's trustworthy, she's surely not saying anything bad to Gumiho. Instead, when she talks about her experience with ice --
"That's the 'I'!" Yua tells her, encouragingly. "So you're one-fourth of the way there!"
Gumiho, on the other hand...
Give Yua a little credit: she manages to keep her composure and not giggle, even though she really wants to. That's -- so CUTE! But no, this is a high school, Jun's right on that one. She has to treat her pupils seriously. "It is important to eat properly when you're exercising heavily," she says, diplomatically. "When you're moving a lot, you're burning more energy, and you need to replenish that energy so that your body has the fuel it needs to grow stronger. That's why athletes like eating a lot of protein! And rice is very healthy! But... I'm looking for a different answer with injuries. Would anyone else like to try?"
And oh thank god, Jun's here. (Yua is completely ignorant as to the bombshell she's left for herself in these textbooks. If only she read more of them. Most of these lessons were imparted to her on the dance floor...) "Kashihara-kun is correct!" She smiles, brightly. "When you injure your body with the wrong kind of movements, resting the area is really important to let it heal. Ice will reduce the swelling, and compression with a bandage helps that, too. So does elevation -- which means lifting the limb above the level of your heart. Of course, if you do get hurt dancing... or doing anything else," not that she's officially supposed to acknowledge all the youth violence going on here, "you really should go to a doctor, okay? I know, I know, I don't like doing that either, but you need to know how something is hurt to know how to make it better!"
She claps her hands together, facing the class. "So! Now we're all warmed up, let's go through our routine, paying close attention to how we're moving through it...!"
Using the technique of actually doing things to teach them how it works is genius, and Yua can't imagine how it would ever come up short in her lessons. The musculoskeletal system is the only one they really need to learn about, right?
... it really isn't, but luckily, she can kick that can down the road for later. Later, after she's... forced herself to read a lot more books to somehow pretend she knows what she's talking about.
And she needs to pretend to know what she's talking about, because she first thing she does when she's done with class is march right down to the principal's office to give him an earful about what she thinks about the students' education. It's an argument which ends with her declaring she'll just come to Kasugayama more often to teach them more things--!!
And somehow, this trick to get herself more hours actually works.
(No one really wants to fill in their hours at Kasugayama...)
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ice...
Ice cubes are pretty nice to eat. But, Gumiho gets one over on her and even if it's not entirely correct it is kind of true. Ichika sighs. Then, she answers Jun, more evenly, "Tennis. ...I wasn't that good."
That might be the low self-esteem talking. But Jun explains, and when he does, it makes sense, even moreso with Yua's further explanation. She is of course aware that warming up is important for more than just sports, but...
"Above your heart," Ichika confirms of elevation. "Is that... because of... blood flow...?"
Something like that.
Ichika will dance, though, and even pay attention to how hse's moving!
...It's better than the last PE class for sure.