Tokyoites don't have martial virtue

Just then, Kyushu Makoto saw a familiar classmate leave dejectedly after looking at the results list.

"Oh?" Kyushu Makoto pointed at the person curiously and asked, "Is he in our class?"

"Mikazuki-kun, what's wrong?" Takashi Tang said casually, finding his name on the results list.

"Hey, I remember Mikazuki was a good student, right? How come he failed this time?"

"Huh? Koizumi and Fujii in our class also failed?"

Tang Zegui's expression was somewhat incredulous.

As one of the top students in the class, Tang Zegui had a fairly good understanding of the academic situation in his class. Logically, these three students were all high achievers; their concern shouldn't be about passing grades, but rather about ranking in the top fifty of the grade.

It's understandable that Koizumi-san became like this, likely influenced by the newspaper club.

But two other students also suddenly failed. What happened?

The first class in the afternoon was taught by the English teacher, and the main content was to review the exam papers:

"Fill in the blank, question 5: [I really want to stay at your house], the correct answer is 'stay'. Someone in this class wrote 'stay'. Please come to the academic affairs office after school; I need to talk to you about something..."

As the bell rang, the whole class relaxed noisily, and Kyushu Makoto got up to go to the toilet.

The English teacher happened to see Kyushu Makoto, so she took out a USB drive and handed it to him, asking, "Kyushu, could you please give this teaching material to Ms. Etori? I have to leave urgently today and don't have time to go back to the office to wait for her."

After school, Kyushu Makoto went to his office and happened to see Etori-sensei.

"That English teacher asked me to give this to you." Kyushu Makoto tossed the USB drive onto the teacher's desk, only to see Etori Jouko scratching her hair with a troubled expression.

"What's wrong? Is something on your mind?" Kyushu Makoto asked curiously.

"Hmm... We have three students in our class who were usually very good, but they all failed this time..." Teacher Jiangniao looked extremely worried, her eyes fixed on a table calculating class performance:

"At this rate, our class will soon be overtaken by Class One!"

Kyushu Makoto recalled the incident from earlier that morning and asked, "Was it Mikazuki, Fujii, and Koizumi?"

"Yes, it's them." Teacher Jiang Niao nodded.

"So what do you plan to do?" Kyushu Makoto casually sat on his desk. "What's the point of just calculating class performance here?"

"..." Teacher Jiangniao was about to say something, but hesitated and swallowed it back.

"How did you treat students who failed before?" Kyushu Makoto suddenly leaned in and stared into her eyes, demanding, "Tell me the truth."

"I...I will order them to suspend all club activities and part-time jobs until their grades improve." Teacher Jiangniao rolled her eyes guiltily.

"If they still can't improve, I'll have them take a break from school to repeat a year or drop out..."

Bang-!

Kyushu Makoto slammed his fist on the table, startling Etori-sensei, who shrank back: "Is this how you handle problems?"

"The school tacitly approves of this!" Teacher Jiang Niao said softly, sounding a little aggrieved. "Anyway, as long as it improves overall academic performance, no one will care..."

"Isn't this tantamount to abandoning the students?" Kyushu Makoto stared at her sharply, as if trying to pierce her soul.

"Me too, and so were my former students. As long as it maximizes your own profits, you don't care about the students at all... Is this your professional ethics, Edogori Jokiko?"

"..." Teacher Jiang Niao lowered his head, unable to utter a single word in rebuttal, and could only resignedly ask, "What do you want me to do, Kyushu-kun?"

"Use your unethical teacher's brain and think about how you can fulfill your responsibilities as a homeroom teacher and help those students who failed their courses," Kyushu Makoto said, arms crossed. "I'll give you three chances. If you get them all wrong, you don't need to come to work tomorrow."

Teacher Jiang Niao was so frightened that her whole body went numb, and she almost collapsed into her chair.

She gritted her teeth and tentatively asked, "Persuade them to transfer to other classes?"

"..."

"Should we tell them to find tutoring classes outside?"

"..."

Kyushu Makoto remained silent, which made Etori-sensei's heart beat faster and faster.

"You have ten seconds to answer." Kyushu Makoto glanced at his phone.

"Why, why is there a time limit?!" Teacher Jiangniao was on the verge of tears.

Finally, with only one second left, she blurted out, "Shall I tutor them privately?"

After saying that, Ms. Jiang Niao looked at Mr. Jiu Shu with a somewhat desperate expression.

"Hmm, that's about right. You've escaped with your life." Kyushu Makoto nodded in satisfaction.

Teacher Jiangniao breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed into her chair, utterly exhausted.

"First, talk to them privately and find out why their grades have dropped. Then, help them address the root cause," Kyushu Makoto instructed, his voice filled with disappointment.

"You can't even figure out something this simple? You're hopeless... Now that you know, just do it! You'll become an 'excellent teacher,' won't you?"

“I understand…!” Teacher Jiangniao agreed without any resistance.

......

The next day after school, three students whose grades had dropped significantly were called to Mr. Jiangniao's office one after another.

The first one is Koizumi.

"Koizumi-kun, would you be willing to tell me the reasons for your declining grades?" Ms. Etori asked cautiously. Kyushu Makoto had already connected with Ms. Etori's phone beforehand, monitoring her remotely.

"It's because of...the newspaper club." Koizumi was quite frank: "Lately, I feel like I've lost everything...I have no motivation to keep going."

Faced with such a self-deprecating answer, Ms. Jiang hesitated for a moment, then quickly adopted the demeanor of a caring older sister and said, "But Koizumi-kun has a long road ahead of her~ If you don't work hard now, won't you be wasting your life?"

"Hmm..." Koizumi lowered her head, feeling a little guilty.

"How have you been doing in class lately?" Teacher Jiangniao asked again.

"Well, my classmates are just deliberately ignoring me; they won't do anything drastic to me." Koizumi chuckled sarcastically as she replied, "Thanks to Kyushu for speaking up for me... Sigh, I never thought he'd be the only one willing to help me..."

"See? Even he doesn't want you to give up on yourself." Teacher Jiang seized the opportunity to encourage her, continuing the conversation: "Koizumi-san has outstanding talent; she can definitely overcome any difficulty!"

Hearing this, Koizumi felt a little relieved and gently scratched her cheek with her finger:

"Since the teacher has said so... well, I'll just consider it a response to Kyushu-kun's expectations. I'll do my best."

With a slightly more relaxed smile than before, she got up and left the office.

"Um... next up is Mikazuki-kun," Ms. Etori cleared her throat and called out to the door, "Please come in."

67. The Foolish Company

"So that's how it is... Father lost his job, and the family faced a crisis..."

After listening to Mikazuki's account, Etori-sensei wore a solemn expression and rested his chin on his hands.

"Mr. Edogawa, actually I'm planning to drop out of school soon and go find a job," Mikazuki said dejectedly, scratching his head.

“My dad is completely despondent, and my mom doesn’t want to go out and find a job either… We still have a mortgage to pay, and if things continue like this, we’ll soon be living off our savings.”

Teacher Jiang Niao took a deep breath and asked in a low voice, "But you dropped out of high school and are still a minor. What kind of good job can you find?"

Mikazuki was stumped by the question, and he bit his dry lips without saying a word.

"Actually, this problem isn't that difficult to solve." Teacher Jiang Niao rubbed his temples with his fingers and explained gently:

"I'll first help you find a part-time job through the school's channels that can temporarily cover your daily expenses, and I'll also help you apply for a 'special admission scholarship'... Well, actually, our school's 'special admission scholarship' is basically a 'poverty grant'~"

"I will also inform the academic affairs director about your situation and arrange for the school to speak with your family. You are a promising student; you should at least graduate from high school. What do you think?"

Listening to Ms. Jiangniao's long and rambling speech, Mikazuki was filled with astonishment:

"Teacher...you...you're really willing to go to this lengths for me?"

"It's no trouble at all, it's just a small favor for the teacher." Teacher Jiang Niao glanced at the phone that was still connected to the call, then tilted her head slightly and gave a kind smile:

"If everything goes well, would Mikazuki-kun be willing to come back to class?"

"Hi! It's my honor to study in Ms. Ebisu's class!" Mikazuki stood up excitedly and bowed respectfully to the teacher.

......

The third person to come in was Fujii.

Teacher Jiangniao remembers that he had good grades, came from a good family, was a member of the brass band, and had many friends at school. In popular terms, he was a "positive guy".

"Fujii-kun, is something bothering you?" Ms. Jiangniao asked.

Fujii-kun simply said with a straight face, "I guess I didn't sleep well before the exam... I'm sorry for making Edogori-sensei worry."

"Is it really that simple?" Teacher Jiang Niao could clearly tell that he wasn't telling the truth.

"Yes, I will definitely study hard next time!" Fujii nodded repeatedly, her tone calm and composed. "I'm sorry to have worried you, teacher!"

Teacher Jiang Niao could only sigh and say, "Then Fujii-kun, you can go back first. You can talk to the teacher if you have any difficulties."

"Thank you, Ms. Jiangniao." Fujii gave a perfunctory smile and left the office.

"..."

A moment later, Makoto Kyushu walked in.

"I didn't realize you were so good with words." Kyushu Makoto hung up the phone right there and then casually asked:

"If you're so good at comforting students, why do you still choose to be an unethical teacher?"