Yusuke Urameshi covered a yawn with his hand—a big one. As a textbook delinquent, skipping class was a basic skill.
On that front he was very qualified; he hadn't set foot in school for over ten days. He'd only come today because his mom's nagging got unbearable.
"Come to school," sure—but he hadn't even brought a book bag. Clearly he had no intention of behaving in class.
There was another reason he came: ever since that day, he kept replaying Charles's moves when he taught those punks a lesson.
Those motions were simple but effective—techniques clearly honed to take an opponent down as efficiently as possible. And there were definitely parts he couldn't understand yet.
What bothered Yusuke most was that, as he was now, he couldn't even see the gap between himself and that man!
He'd lost count of how many times he regretted not seizing the chance to fight Charles that day.
Sarayashiki Municipal Junior High—that was the school Yusuke attended.
"Sarayashiki" wasn't a normal name; it came from one of Japan's three famous ghost stories, "Banchō Sarayashiki." But in a world where humans and yokai coexist, it wasn't so strange.
As Yusuke walked in, he couldn't help wondering what had been going on at school lately.
In his view, the girls in class were boring—every day it was celebrities and trends, or gossip about school stuff that had nothing to do with them. He could never figure out what went on in their heads.
Today was the same, but the topic a lot of them were discussing was a teacher.
"Hey, have you had class with that new teacher yet?"
"Mm-hmm, he's super handsome, that teacher."
"I wonder when we have swimming—wanna see him in swimwear. I heard he's got a great body!"
"Me too, me too! Also, a student from the next class, Hanai, got hurt during class, and the teacher carried him to the nurse's office. And it was a princess carry… a princess carry!"
"Eek, should I fake an injury in P.E. next time? I want a princess carry too!"
…
Yusuke just found them noisy, but he mentally noted the new teacher.
No way was he sitting through class. Even though he was at school, Yusuke decisively cut, grabbed a nap in the shade, and caught up on sleep.
When he woke up, he didn't even know what time it was.
Just then, he heard voices from the athletic field not far away.
"Somebody having P.E.?"
Yusuke stood up, dusted himself off, and headed over. He suddenly recalled what he'd heard that morning and got curious about what kind of new teacher the school had.
And at first glance, he was stunned. Wasn't the person leading everyone through warm-ups the very man he couldn't get out of his head?
No mistake—that distinctive scarf was something he'd never seen anywhere else!
That's right, Sarayashiki's new P.E. teacher was Charles!
After Stella talked him through it, Charles woke up the next morning and found his mana flowing much more smoothly.
So the two of them immediately put their "enjoy the journey" plan into action. Because there were too many things they wanted to try, they decided to draw lots for what came next.
They wrote ideas on slips of paper and each drew one.
Charles drew "be a teacher," which Stella had written. Her own schooling wasn't even done yet—who knew why she wanted to be a teacher.
Stella drew "be a yakuza boss," which she had also written. She sure loved Japanese pop culture—why would she want something like that?
Charles couldn't figure it out, but he still put on the suit Stella prepared and went to apply.
Becoming a teacher in Japan isn't easy, and someone like Charles without papers was out of the question. Thankfully, there was the all-purpose hypnotic magic.
Thus Charles smoothly joined Sarayashiki as a new P.E. teacher.
There wasn't much choice. Among junior high courses here, having a mage teach science and math would just be mocking this world's scientists.
He could converse in English thanks to his European princess of a girlfriend, but that didn't mean he could teach it.
As for Japanese language arts, Charles couldn't appreciate the beauty of the written language here.
Oh, and history… yeah, he didn't want to end up firing a Dragonslayer ultimate at Mount Fuji mid-lecture.
In the end, the only thing he could reasonably teach was P.E.
After all, besides being a mage, Charles was a martial arts master from Shenlong Temple; his knowledge of the body and athletics was unquestionably excellent.
That's what he thought at first… then he discovered teaching was not that simple.
What really gave him a headache were the girls' P.E. classes. Whenever he demonstrated, it felt like their brainwaves veered into realms he couldn't comprehend.
Especially after he carried an injured girl to the nurse's office—somehow, every class after that, someone fell down.
Could you imagine an entire row of students wiping out on the track?
At first he thought they just didn't want to do P.E., but the fake falls were so half-hearted—did they really think they could fool him?
After he told Stella about it when he got home—by then she'd already beaten the neighborhood punks into obedience for four blocks—she laughed herself silly.
Charles, face dark, got his answer from Stella.
Only after he started having other students take the "injured" to the nurse's office did that nonsense finally stop.
But things didn't improve much. To get closer to Charles, they'd deliberately mangle the moves he'd already demonstrated several times—just to make him correct them hands-on.
Call it the classic "mess up so the coach has to attentively fix it up close" routine.
Apparently Zhou Yu didn't have a good time of it back then, and Charles couldn't handle this kind of popularity either.
Stella wasn't happy about it, either. At first she was fine; now she was worrying about those fox spirits trying something outrageous.
In the end, the unlucky ones were the punks. A Stella in a bad mood hit very hard, and the local hospitals had a surge over the next few days.
Another headache for Charles was the cold shoulder from other teachers.
Who among colleagues would like someone younger, better-looking, and more popular than themselves?
Beyond sighing at the undeserved misfortune, it didn't affect him much.
The dean of discipline, Takenaka, was a good person—he even tried to smooth things over between Charles and the others, though nothing came of it.
Charles remembered Takenaka was one of the few who would be sad about Yusuke Urameshi's death. He was a proper teacher and unquestionably a good man.
And so, after several days on the job, Charles still hadn't seen Yusuke Urameshi or the other member of the main duo, Kazuma Kuwabara.
That's when it hit him—both were delinquents. Odds of running into them roaming around outside were better than finding them in school.
Not that Charles had taken the job because of them; he hadn't. He chose Sarayashiki simply because it was close to home.
He hadn't expected to see Yusuke today. After patiently explaining the long jump form to a girl one more time, Charles looked over at the approaching Yusuke.
"I've been looking all over for you!"
Yusuke opened with that, drawing everyone's attention.
Before Charles could speak, one of the girls snapped, displeased.
"Hey! We're in class right now. Don't cause trouble, okay?"
It wasn't easy getting a moment to be closer to the handsome teacher—how could she let someone interrupt? Thinking of that, her temper flared so much it even startled Yusuke.
He recovered quickly, glared at her, and said, "Enough already. I'm here for this guy."
"It's Urameshi!"
"You mean that absolute worst delinquent?"
"What does he want with Mr. Charles?"
"Don't tell me he's jealous of Mr. Charles, so…!"
…
Hearing the murmurs, the girl realized who she'd just yelled at. Her burst of courage shrank away, and she nearly burst into tears.
Charles sighed, stepped forward, and shielded the girl. That back instantly filled her with a sense of security—she felt like she'd stumbled into a fairytale and nearly swooned with happiness.
Unaware of the little girl's thoughts, Charles looked at Yusuke and said, "You must be Yusuke Urameshi. Sorry, I'm teaching right now—let's talk after class."
Yusuke was a "celebrity" at Sarayashiki, so it didn't surprise him that Charles knew him.
Now that he knew Charles was a teacher here, he wasn't in such a rush. Clicking his tongue, he headed to the edge of the field—but kept his eyes locked on Charles.
Charles sighed again. Protagonists really are a hassle!