Baka to Tesuto to Syokanju:Volume7 The Eighth Question

The Eighth Question

Please read the following passage and choose the wrong conclusion from the brackets.

Jim and Della were a young couple. Even though they're poor, they still loved each other.

Jim had a gift with him. It's the golden watch that's passed down from his family. And Della's treasure was the beautiful hair of hers.

Christmas was about to arrive, and Della wanted to buy a gift for her beloved husband. She cut off her beautiful hair willingly and sold it to the wig shop. She used the money she earned from the sale to buy a platinum locket for Jim to hang on his golden watch.

When Jim returned back home, he saw Della with her hair cut off...he wasn't angry, shocked, unhappy nor afraid, but felt complicated as the gift he bought for Della was that beautiful haircomb Della always wanted.[1]

(1) Because Della couldn't use the item he bought for her.

(2) Because he felt happy about understanding Della's feelings for him.

(3) Because the originally beautiful Della looked ugly now that her hair was cut, and Jim felt that it was a pity.

(4) Because Jim already sold the golden watch, and the gift Della bought for him couldn't be used anymore.

Kirishima Shouko's answer:

(3)

Teacher's comment

That's correct. This is a famous story about Christmas. The gifts both husband and wife got for each other couldn't be used, but they understood each other's feelings for each other. It's a heartwarming story, and sensei hope that the students can have their own wonderful families in the future.

Kudou Aiko's comment

(3) *Short hair's rather cute too!

Teacher's comment

The answer's correct, but sensei feels that your understanding seem to be a little off.

Either way, the question stated to 'note the wrong conclusion', so (3) is the correct answer.

Sugawa Ryo's answer

(Ku)risumasu' (Christmas) supposed to be the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth. THIS STORY IS DAMN WRONG FOR HAVING MAN AND WOMAN EXCHANGE IN SOME SICKLY AND ICKY SWEET EMOTIONAL EXCHANGE!!

Teacher's comment

There's no such thing as option (Ku).

“ALRIGHT EVERYONE! LISTEN UP! WE HAVE ONLY TWO CHANCES TO COUNTERATTACK! WE HAVE TO GET THE POINTS AND OUR TREASURES BACK!”

“““OOOHHHHH!!!”””

“WE MAY LOSE TO THEM IN SCORES, BUT OUR ATHLETICE ABILITIES DEFINITELY WON’T LOSE! WE MUST LET THEM SEE THE ABILITY OF US YOUTH!

“““OOOHHHHH!!!”””

“WE’RE GOING ALL OUT FROM NOW ON! SO…PLEASE ASSIST ME A MUCH AS YOU CAN! WE’RE GOING TO GET OUR TREASURES BACK! OUR MOTTO IS—”

“““GET BACK ERO-BOOK!!!”””

“TIME TO COUNTERATTACK! LET’S DO IT, GUYS!!”

“““LEAVE IT TO US!!!”””

As Yuuji rallied everyone like usual, everyone got pumped. That Yuuji finally did what he had to do. Seems like he’s finally ready to bring on his real ability.

“KONDOU, YOKOMIZO, HIDEYOSHI!”

Yuuji called out the first, second and third batter, and the three people that were called out walked to Yuuji in unison.

“It’s time to carry out the plan. You guys know that we can’t win if we keep this up. Even if we managed to get a base on balls or hit by pitch, it’s unlikely that we’ll get any points from them.”

We managed to defend quite well just now, but our offense is rather pitiful. Yuuji’s right. Even if we manage to get on base somehow, we can’t guarantee that we will be able to get any points from them.

“So right now, we can only bank everything on this plan. I want you people to drag the time on as much as you can.”

“Mn, I got it.”

“For our Ero—for the sake of our reference books, I will think of something no longer how much time I have to drag on.”

“But we can’t fail this time.”

All 3 of them nod their heads and agreed to take part in this operation. It’s a rare chance for them to step up, so of course they wish to have an outstanding performance, so they agreed to the delaying tactic. Every time this happens, I always feel that they’re members of class F.

“Ero book, ero boo, ero book…”

“Pillow, swimsuit photo, bathroom curtain…”

…They’re really members of F class…

“PLAY!”

The batter will try to delay the game without breaking the rules as each of them entered the batter’s bunting position. It seems like he wants to get a foul ball to waste more time.

“Are you ready, Yuuji?”

“Of course. I already gave instructions to those guys. Now we just need to wait for the time to arrive.”

“Is that so? Then we can only pray for the three of them to delay time as much as possible.”

“Yeah.”

I exchanged words with Yuuji as I prayed earnestly inside while looking at the situation on the field. Our opponents are the teachers. I don’t even know whether we can even delay some time.

“STRIKE! BATTER OUT!”

“Ku…!”

After recovering, I found that Kondou-kun was forced into a tight spot. Even after hanging on for so long, he finally took 3 strikes.

The next batter Yokomizo-kun went all out to fight, but the opponent landed some perfect fastballs in some nice locations, and he got struck out as well. Hideyoshi’s the only batter left in this inning.

But, our chance—still hasn’t arrived yet.

“It guess it’s about time…”

“Just a little bit. It’ll begin in just a while. Do your best, Hideyoshi…”

“FOUL BALL!”

Just when we were discussing this, the match continued. Hideyoshi continued to swung the bat to try and hit the fastball the teacher pitched.

Right now, the time on the school wall is 2.28pm. it feels like time just went by so slowly because there’s no second hand.

“Damn it. If only that teacher pitched 4 balls…”

“Based on that teacher’s personality, I think he’ll pitch rather carefully.”

The pitcher for this inning is the English Writing teacher Yamada-sensei. Though the pitches he threw weren’t so fast that we couldn’t react, his control is rather good. Looking at this, I don’t think we can expect a 4 balls walk.

“Can’t we hit it out?”

“Well, we can’t possibly hit it far. Besides, the shortstop and second baseman are that Terai and Ooshima.”

One is Terai-sensei who’s young and played baseball before, and the other is the health and physical education teacher Ooshima-sensei. We can’t possibly beat them with our abilities even if we do our best. Besides, the opponent can’t possibly throw four balls, so we can only pray for Hideyoshi to do his best and hang on…

“FOUL BALL!”

I don’t know how many foul balls has it been now, and right now, It’s 1 ball and 2 strikes. While the opponent can throw a ball, we can’t allow any mistakes here. However, with the teachr throwing that many pitches, Hideyoshi’s concentration should be at his limit.

“Not yet, not yet…”

“Hang in there, please, Hideyoshi…”

I can feel these anxious emotions climbing up our backs, but as we are only watching the match, the only thing we can do is to pray.

KLANG!

“FOUL!”

Every time the ball was pitched, cold sweat would break out of my back. Looking at how things stand now, it won’t be weird for Hideyoshi to be out at this point.

The palm of my tightly clenched fist is filled with sweat as I bend my upper body on the bench, earnestly waiting for the time to arrive fast.

“…It’s here.”

Suddenly, Muttsurini muttered.

“Uu!!”

Yuuji felt jumpy and turned around, looking at the loudspeaker hanging on the school building.

“...Zzu…zu…”

Some static could be heard from the loudspeaker as the sharp sounds reached our ears.

“IS IT HERE?”

Yuuji shouted out in excitement.

The next second, the audio broadcast could be heard throughout the entire sports arena.

“Right now, there will be a borrowing race in the center sports hall. All participants, please head to the designated area—”

“““IT’S HERE—!!!”””

Everyone cried out in unison.

After that, Hideyoshi was thrown out and finally ruled to be out. Now, it’ll be a switchover, but even so…we achieved our objective!

“Yare yare…looks like I managed to succeed.”

“Ahh! Hideyoshi! Nice going! Nice job too, Kondou and Yokomizo!”

Patting Hideyoshi’s shoulder as he returned to the bench, Yuuji looked extremely happy. We were waiting for this moment!

“Eh? What’s wrong with them? We got 3 outs on them, yet they look so happy.”

“Uu, who knows.”

“Those guys must be planning something.”

Several teachers feel amazed by our reaction. It’s true that our attack ended, but this is a trap for our next inning. We focused on the last inning, and we have to use that inning to get our final victory!

“Yoshii, Sakamoto. I don’t know what you’re happy about, but hurry up and get on field to defend!”

Ironman walked to our noisy bench and prompted us to hurry up and get ready.

“We know, but just wait.”

“? Wait for what?”

“You’ll see. I think they’ll be here soon.”

I smiled to Ironman who doesn’t understand anything and looked around. As expected, a few people are running over to us. They’re here! Our class F classmates!”

“What are those guys doing? Why are they rushing so fast—”

Ironman stared at the 3 students who came running here and can’t help but have a question mark above his head. At this moment, those students shouted at the supervising teachers who are on the baseball field.

“Endou-sensei! We’re having a borrowing race! Sorry, but please come along with us!”

“Eh? But I have to be in charge of the match here!”

“Just come along with us!”

“But—”

“It’s useless to talk further! An ordinary event’s much more important than the baseball tournament!”

“““—u?”””

I can see several teachers widening their eyes in shock. That’s right, this event was planned beforehand. This baseball match’s just used as a good chance to get along, and the other events are of priority.

“Ah, well…sorry senseis. I have to go first.”

“Hurry up, sensei!”

The teacher in charge of supervision in this match, Endou-sensei, got dragged by the hand.

“This can’t be helped. The teachers on the bench will have to—”

“Funakoshi-sensei! Please come along with us!”

“Takenaka-sensei, please!”

The other two teachers on the bench were called up, and the ones who called them were our F class members as well. With that, the teachers have no more additional helped.

“Sakamoto, that’s your plan, right?”

“Well, what do you think?”

“Stop messing around. Weren’t the people who came over all F class people?”

“Haha, that’s a coincidence, right?”

Of course it’s not. After knowing the lineup of the teachers, Yuuji already requested our classmates to borrow a few teachers away. I guess the paper they drew should be something completely different from what they needed to borrow.

“Ironman, there’s no other teachers left now, you know.”

“Can’t be helped. I’ll just have to ask the teachers in the previous few innings.”

“That’ll be against the rules. The rules were already decided that the ‘same subject can’t be used twice’. Didn’t you forget?”

“Then what do you want me to do? There’s no more teachers who can act as supervisor, and we can’t use any teachers who’ve supervised the previous few subjects. Are you planning on making us compete with 8 players?”

Ironman’s sharp eyes brush past our faces. He must have thought that we will use this to render the match useless. No no, who’ll do such a bothersome thing? Besides, we won’t get any benefit if that’s the case.

“I—Nishimura-sensei, there are other subjects that can be used to decide this, isn’t it?”

“What are you saying, Yoshii. The teachers who were able to supervise were taken away.”

“No. What I mean is that even if the supervising teachers were taken away, there’s another subject that can allow us to continue playing.”

This is the plan Yuuji thought of in the beginning. Using the sports meet exchange match’s programmed rules to let us continue this match, a way for us to win.”

“For the 5th inning, we’ll use physical education—we’ll win with our real ability!”

We’re not deciding this through marks, but using our own bodies. Physical education is able another subject the students need to learn. We’ll use this real baseball match to thoroughly crush the teachers.

“Alright, everyone. Put on your gloves! The 5th inning’s not going to be easy!”

Yuuji stretched his arm out and pointed at the gloves we borrowed from the baseball club beforehand.

Thus, it’s now the final inning. This is the only teachers-vs-students exchange match, and it will now begin for real.

☆