Baka to Tesuto to Syokanju:Volume6 The Sixth Question
The Sixth Question
Please read the following passage and answer the question.
“Where did Sadakichi go?”
Jihei asks, and Tasuke shrugs as he answers,
“To Okiku. He wants to express his 10 years of love to her with his self-proclaimed specialty of Poetry[1].”
After hearing Tasuke’s words, Jihei cannot help but frown,
“He wants to touch her heart by singing a love poem? I can already guess the outcome.”
“Yeah. Blame that guy for being ‘____’ despite being so bad at it’.
Question 1: Please fill in the common saying in the blank with the correct answer and explain its meaning.
Question 2: What is the ‘outcome’ highlighted in the text? Please write down the outcome Jihei and Tasuke’s expects.
Himeji Mizuki's Answer:
1: ‘<passionate> despite being so bad at it
It means that he does not know he is bad at it, but is extremely passionate about it.
2: Sadakichi’s singing is really bad, so the expected result is that he will not get the girl.
Teacher's Comment:
Correct answer. This common sentence structure ‘despite being bad…’ has other forms of usage, like ‘act like he is good at it’. Either sentence can be used to describe that the person is actually rather bad in some things, and from this, we know that Jihei and Tasuke expect Sadakichi to fail.
Yoshii Akihisa's answer:
1: ‘<stubborn> despite being so bad at it
It means that he will work hard for something no matter how stupid it may look
2: Sadakichi may be bad at singing, but Jihei and Tasuke expect that he will get Okiku's heart after seeing him work so hard to sing.
Teacher's Comment:
This answer cannot be considered the correct one, but sensei here does not hate it either.
“Yo, sempais, kept you waiting.”
“You’re too slow already, Sakamoto. The kouhais actually made us sempais wait.”
“Sorry about that. We had to deal with some unexpected happenings, so we came late. I suppose your time is rather precious since you’re so busy everyday, sempais.”
“Of course! We 3rd years are unlike you stupid guys with rotten brains.”
Yuuji and I step into the final checkpoint, and the Toko-Natsu pair are giving us sneers. That’s a relaxed expression shown only when they think they’re in an advantage.
However, it’s obvious why they would be so relaxed. Their physics scores are tops amongst the best class in their year, and actually broke through the 400 point marks. In contrast, Yuuji doesn’t even have 200 points for physics, and I don’t even have 70. Anyone will feel that we’re in a disadvantage here.
“Speaking of which, didn’t you guys say that you want to go ‘one-on-one’ yesterday? You should be ready to bet on something, right?”
The crewcut-sempai gives a taunting look at Yuuji and me, seemingly certain of his victory. The Mohawk behind him (Tsunemura) is cackling viciously , seemingly thinking that we never thought of betting in this straight up duel. Or are they thinking that Yuuji and I will go back on our deal or even tell us off badly. Are they thinking that way?
“You can if you don’t want...but you have to kneel down and ad—”
“Alright, we agreed to it anyway. Let’s have a punishment game for this duel.”
““NAR!?””
I grin as I answer, and the Toko-Natsu pair give a weird cry in response to this unexpected answer.
“Is, is that so? Since you guys say so, so be it!”
“It’s decided then. What punishment will the loser get?”
“Well…how about ‘the loser has to agree to whatever the winner asks for’?”
““Wha, what are you saying…?””
The Toko-Natsu’s expressions change drastically. They probably never thought that I would dare to say such things.
“What twisted plan are you thinking about here…?”
“Aren’t you being too confident here?”
“What do you say?”
“This should have something to do with the camera Sakamoto just used to get someone in the classroom to ‘call the world history teacher over here’, is it?”
Oh, so those two did notice the footage caught by the camera.
“Well, don’t think so much, sempai. The summoning system has been rather weird recently, so calling in the world history teacher is just a matter of precaution.”
Yuuji waves his hand as he answers,
“…Well, never mind. We don’t know what plan you guys are scheming, but you’re just trying some petty tricks. Let’s begin—summon!”
“We’ll definitely send you crying for your mommies. Summon!”
The Toko-Natsu glance aside to check that the physics teacher Kimura-sensei is still around before calling out their summoned beasts.
After calling out, the pattern arrays appear like usual—
“What? What’s going on? Why isn’t anything showing up?”
“What the heck is this? What’s going on?”
The pattern arrays never appear, and of course, the Toko-Natsu’s summoned beasts never appeared.
“Oya, that’s really weird. Did the system really malfunction?”
Kimura-sensei, who’s standing not too far away, tilts his head as he says,
“Don’t worry, sensei. There’s a little mishap, but it seems that it’s just for physics. It can’t be helped then. Let me use the history teacher I called in for precaution sake to decide this duel.”
“What? Sakamoto, you bastard…”
“Hm? Do you still have any problems, sempais? Aren’t you rushing around because you’re so busy? It’ll be really sorry on our part if you have to waste time waiting for another subject’s teacher to arrive. Ah, looks like the world history teacher has arrived.”
“You two bastards…you must have done something, right!?”
Yuuji’s attitude of treating others like idiots is turning Tsunemura-sempai red with anger.
“Relax sempais. We’re switching subjects, but I won’t call out my summoned beast. This is your battle with Akihisa, and your advantageous situation hasn’t changed.”
Yuuji’s stare turns towards the physics teacher Kimura-sensei.
I suppose there’s no need for me to explain it here, do I? As what our opponents said, this is all Yuuji’s strategy.
Instead of challenging the sempais to a duel in physics, when Yuuji and my scores won’t even reach one-third of their total scores, we might as well challenge them to a duel of world history, where our scores are more similar. For this, Yuuji used his platinum bracelet and caused an ‘interference’ to negate the physics summoning field.
“You bastard, how did you…”
“Didn’t I say that I won’t be taking part? You’ll only be facing Akihisa, so there’s no need to be so scared, right? Sempais? Or are you scared of fighting us 2 on 1 if it’s not your specialty subject even if it’s against us trashy opponents?”
“…Damned bastard…!”
Once he create the summoning field, Yuuji won’t be able to carry out a summon. In other words, this duel has to be done by me against the Toko-Natsu pair. However, even if we do so, the differences in our scores will go from 3:1 down to 2:1. It’s slightly easier, but the fact still remains that we’re disadvantaged.
“Just what I wanted! Since you dare to say so, bring it on! Don’t forget our wager!”
“You guys shouldn’t be forgetting, damn you! Sensei…!”
“Ahh, yes yes, I get it.”
Once Yuuji call out, the world history teacher who was called out at the last minute, Tanaka-sensei, grants us the permission to fight. I thought the physics teacher Kimura-sensei would interfere with this, but he doesn’t do anything here, so things are still going according to Yuuji’s plan.
“““Summon.“”””
The Toko-Natsu and my summoning call echo.
This time, the summoning is different from before as the patterned arrays appear in front of us. Soon after, summoned beasts that are different from the cute versions before appear in the middle of these arrays.
A class, Tsunemura Yuusaku, World History 144 points
And
A class, Natsukawa Junpei, World History, 135 points.
What appeared from the Toko-Natsu pair’s summon are the Gozu and Mezu we saw before. Unlike the physics battle we saw from the monitor before, they aren’t wearing the golden bracelet now.
F class, Yoshii Akihisa, World history 123 points.
My summoned beast is the Dullahan with the head tucked under the armpit, its right hand waving the heavy sword. If I have to say what its greatest weakness, it’s the head tucked between the left arm and the body.
“So we’re left with the year’s average…looks like we lost quite a bit of points over here. The prelude battle yesterday could be avoided.”
“Tch, all because we were sent flying by that bespectacled guy…”
The Toko-Natsu pair had a battle against Kubo-kun and me yesterday. Because of the attacks we landed on each other, both of us lost quite a few points. Their summoned beasts were sent flying by Kubo-kun’s summoned beast, and I was beaten by that crewcut-sempai such that my score dropped to the year’s average. However, I have to thank Kubo-kun. If he hadn’t helped me back then, the situation now would definitely be tougher.
“Alright, Yoshii. It’s time for us to put an end to this battle. You guys wanted to change the subjects, so don’t call us despicable for going 2 on 1.
The crewcut-sempai (Natsukawa) Gozu waves the hammer in its hand and attacks me. I definitely won’t be able to dodge or take this hit if it were physics, but I’m no longer in a situation where I’m taking a beating after this change of subject.
“Woah…!”
I straighten my body at the fastest speed possible and slam the weapon in my hand hard. The opponent does the same thing in response, and our swords clash. In fact, my dullahan’s power will increase the less I have to move. If I don’t move too much, I can put the head on its neck, and I can use both hands freely.
“Gu…u…!”
It’s a back and forth battle of strength, and after clashing for a while, I can hear the crewcut-sempai groan. If this continues, we can make them lose balance—but the opponent’s no easy prey.
“…UWah!”
The Mezu that was standing beside Gozu suddenly attack me. The Gozu immediately uses its body to slam the Dullahan without a further thought.
The Dullahan hasn’t landed as the Gozu raises its hammer to strike. I use the sword as a shield to block the Gozu’s attack head on, but my pitiful summoned beast that was sent flying is still blown far away.
“Not—good…!”
As I was sent flying away, the Dullahan’s head breaks away from its body.
The hands that were left empty hurriedly grab the head that was separated. I barely managed to protect my weakness, but I can’t avoid the damage that’s caused when it landed.
“Looks like you have quite some reflexes besides barking there, Yoshii!”