"Hurry up," her mother snapped. Sayuri Watanabe may have been taller than her mother, but she'd never been able to keep up with her when she was in a hurry.
Sayuri had never been to this part of Matsuba β she'd never had a reason. Not that it really mattered. It looked like any suburb in practically every other city in Kanto, the vast sprawl of cities that made Tokyo the biggest metropolis on Earth. She'd never been to Kansai, but guessed things were the same there.
This far from the rail station the houses were no more than two stories. Each little plywood box a little different to its neighbour, but the inhabitants living out the same take on the modern Japanese dream.
To Sayuri, it was a nightmare. Neat hedges and pristine walls marked the boundaries to lots only a fraction larger than the houses that sat on them. You could open your window and touch your neighbour's house in some of them. You wouldn't even have to lean out. Sayuri thanked, well, something, for small mercies. At least that was one advantage to having a bedroom next to the railway β your view at least extended across the tracks.
Her mother seemed to know where they were going. She'd surprised Sayuri by demonstrating that she had worked out how to use the navigation function on her cell phone. The older woman scanned the names of a laundry-house and yaki-tori joint and took a sharp left. Sayuri's battered shoe didn't quite make the turning and slipped from her foot. She had to hook back to pop it back on. That earned her another barked "Don't be so slow!"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Mister Yokomoto, please accept our apologies for Sayuri's poor performance in this year. We are very ashamed." Yuko Watanabe spoke very rapidly, her hands on her knees, not able to face the teacher.
"Mrs Watanabe, please. Don't apologise. It is your daughter that should be apologising. I believe it is her own choice that her grades have suffered. I know Sayuri's type, I see it every year, and if she chooses not to work then you must understand, we teachers, and you as parents, have little choice. Other children maybe we can influence. But not Sayuri."
Yuji Yokomoto observed the girl before him. She was not that bad β class four had at least half a dozen worse. But she was impressionable. Sayuri, when she'd been a freshman, had been a diligent student. Not a genius, but conscientious and hard working and capable of adequate grades.
But then she'd fallen in with the Copacobana Sweet, a self-styled gang of black skinned, blonde-haired hell-raisers that had driven teachers to distraction since Middle School. Hence the figure before him now. At eighteen, her grades in freefall, Sayuri Watanabe had made it clear that she thought continuing her education a distant memory; somebody else's ambition. Sayuri wore her skirt ultra short: it would not have taken Yokomoto much effort to get a good look at her panties if he'd been so inclined. Her school shirt loosely tied at the waist revealed a hint of flat young stomach. Her skin was dark from weekends spent visiting Tokyo's finer tanning salons, her make up a garish mix of colors best left, in the eyes of Yokomoto, to a child's coloring box. She was a model of a manga sex doll and Yokomoto knew other teachers that would respond to such stimulation.
"But Mister Yokomoto, she will not be told what to do. What can we do? A child must learn the value of a good education."
"Yes Mrs Watanabe. They should. But children today are not like we were. What do they know of working together for the good of the country? I'm afraid that there is nothing I can do to help. Sayuri must decide for herself if she wants to apply herself in order to gain."
"Sayuri." Her mother turned to her and glared. "Apologise to Mister Yokomoto."
"Mister Yokomoto. I'm. Sorry. For all the problems. That I've caused you. Please do not worry about me."
Yokomoto did not bother responding. The girl was clearly under duress and didn't care.
"Oh Mister Yokomoto! How can I demonstrate to my daughter that she should make the most of the opportunities her father and I are willing to give?"
"Did you go to university Mrs Watanabe?" The older lady shook her head.
Yokomoto held up a bottle of cold tea, "Drink? Mrs Watanabe? Sayuri?" Both women declined.
The teacher sat back in his arm chair. "Sayuri will not understand the loss of the opportunity until it is too late. Do you have a job?"
Mrs Watanabe nodded, "I work at the local drugstore a few days a week."
"A fulfilling job is it?"
"Work is work."
"Hmm. It is and it isn't. Please excuse my rudeness, but I am sure that it is not very well paid."
"No. We are lucky that we have Sayuri's father to provide for us."
"Mr Watanabe is a good man. He works hard, I'm sure" Mr Yokomoto stood up and wandered across the room. He made a show of brushing a few motes of dust off the small shrine in the corner.
"Tell me Sayuri, would you want good grades?"
"Eh? I mean, sorry, Mister Yokomoto. How would that be possible? Sure I want good grades, but there's things to do."
"Hmm. No. You could not get good grades on your own. You don't seem to have the attitude. However I could. I'm a teacher."