Alright, here we go. Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times, CAUSE THIS IS THE FEELS COASTER!!!
Text here, but a very nice and easy to read PDF is attached, and also includes the previous bits with some added polish.
Part.pdf (Size: 91.46 KB / Downloads: 7)
“So yeah. That is all for noun and verb stresses. For the noun you stress the first syllable and for the verb you stress the second syllable.”
“Wow, that really is simple!”
For the next two hours, Benjamin sat with the girls and coached them through the English part of their homework. He couldn’t do much for them in the subjects that pertained to Nihongo, and in mathematics he was only able to help so much - their Algebra was much more advanced than he’d ever seen. However, once the blue-haired girl, named Mizuno Ami, began to show Benjamin how the rules worked, he began to pick it up at a lightning pace.
“You certainly seem to belong at that school of yours, Ben-kun,” said Ami with a warm smile that made Ben blush a bit. “I’ll look forward to seeing you in college sometime soon.”
“Aww, I’m not that good. I mean I don’t think I will skip grades.”
“Smart, handsome and modest!” said Aino Minako, the other blonde haired girl who wore her hair straight. “Hey girls! We should teach him things he needs to know!”
“Things like what?” asked the gorgeous and astonishingly tall Kino Makoto. Ben kept finding himself distracted by her hair pulled into a ponytail that was like a waterfall of lustrous brown waves.
“The things he’s gonna need to know to flirt with the girls here! He’s not used to Japanese girls, you know!” replied Minako with a wink.
“Mina, how could you say something like that?” said Hino Rei primly from her spot at the table. She then favored Ben with a warm look that made him feel like he was sitting by a nice fire. “He’s such a sweet little gentleman as is. All he needs to do is tell a girl how pretty he thinks she is and she’ll be at his mercy.” But then, Rei’s face grew somewhat dark as she began to admonish him. “Though you better use that power of yours for good, kiddo. I won’t put up with you breaking hearts left and right.” Suddenly that cheerful fire had become a forge.
“Hai Ojou-sama!” squeaked Benjamin with fear that wasn’t entirely feigned.
All the girl’s jaws nearly hit the table, and then everyone, except for Rei, exploded into laughter and scandalized squeals of delight.
Rei recovered her wits and gave the boy a look that clearly stated that it was on now.
“Oh you’re gonna get it!” she growled playfully as she made a go at Ben. “C’mere you little brat!”
Ben didn’t fight too hard - he knew he was gonna wind up getting his medicine one way or another - so he only made a token struggle as Rei pinched his cheeks and tugged on them, causing the girls to laugh even more.
Benjamin noted that she didn’t really tug all that hard.
Unnoticed by everyone, though, one of Rei’s purifying spell tags had slipped out of her pocket. Without even seeing it, Ben brushed his hand over it.
Laughter suddenly turned to panicked shouts when the spell tag ignited in a tall plume of flames, burning into ash quickly enough that nothing else had a chance to catch fire.
“What did you do!?” cried out Rei in alarm.
“I don’t know!” replied Ben quickly. “I just felt a piece of paper there and suddenly, POOF!”
“No way!” said Minako. “You gotta have a lighter or something on you.”
“No, I don’t! Honest!” cried out Ben, fearful that he might suddenly be ostracized for something he didn’t do. He then hurriedly turned his pockets all inside out. “Here, look!”
All he had on his person was a few hundred yen in coins, and nothing more.
The girls all looked at each other. They had no idea what had happened, but it was obvious to them that Benjamin was just as shocked as they were.
Usagi, being the girl with such a huge heart that it was out of proportion to her tiny frame, smiled at Ben.
“It’s okay, Ben-kun. I think we’re all pretty sure you didn’t do it.”
Ben looked around the table nervously, but saw that all their faces were now stating to melt into comforting smiles. He sighed and relaxed, seeming to sag in on himself.
“Sorry,” he said quietly. “I was really worried. You’re the first friends I’ve made here.”
Usagi couldn’t help herself. She darted around the table and grabbed the young boy up into a big hug, surprising her friends and Benjamin as well in the process. Ben froze up as he saw Usagi coming, but after she wrapped her arms around him, burying his face in her shoulder, he relaxed and hugged her back.
It was the first time Benjamin had ever hugged a girl other than his mother and his sister. Usagi was warm and soft, and Ben could smell her through her clothes - a bit of her natural smell combined with faint hints of the soap and shampoo that she uses.
Usagi herself found that she liked the feel of the boy. Not that she still didn’t have a thing for that tuxedo guy - HUBBA HUBBA! But she felt how truly small Benjamin was just then. And the way he had stiffened… Usagi instinctively realized that the boy had been terribly hurt before. She suddenly felt a nearly overwhelming urge to protect him from the world.
“I want to be your friend forever, Ben-kun. Actually, I kinda wish you were my brother instead.”
Her friends all tittered - it was no secret that Usagi constantly quarreled with her younger brother. And admittedly, he tended to start a lot of their arguments.
“Maybe you can trade him to my family in exchange for me?”
Usagi laughed and held Ben out at arm’s length as she asked, “Your family can’t possibly be that bad.”
Benjamin looked down. He didn’t want them to see the tears that were starting to form in his eyes.
Suddenly, the girls were all around him. Rei was the first one to lift his face and look into his eyes.
It was like staring into a mirror for her.
She was certain that the reasons were different from her own circumstances, but she knew a what it looked like when someone who was supposed to be close to you committed a terrible act of treachery.
Rei could not help herself. Despite her usual disdain for men, she pulled him into her arms and held the boy tightly to her shoulder, her own heart aching as she felt him force sobs into sniffles.
“You’re safe here,” said the older girl. “Your onee-samas will protect you.”
Ami was the next to approach, steadying the boy and dabbing at his face gently with a handkerchief. She knew that what she was about to do would be painful for the boy, but she also knew from her advanced placement pre-medical courses that something like this could not be left to fester. The boil had to be lanced.
“Ben-kun,” said Ami in her gentlest tone. “Please. Tell us what happened.”
He swallowed. He didn’t like talking about it. He didn’t like having to think about those things. But his therapist had told him that talking about it with people he can trust was the best thing for him to do - it was unhealthy to keep these things bottled up.
And with Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako, Ben felt like he had found his tribe.
And so he told them about his father. The horrific emotional whiplash from the times the man had cried over his shoulder to when he would send him skidding across the kitchen floor for spilling milk.
And his brothers. Unable to respect him because their father seemed to take every opportunity to belittle him in front of everyone else, and then turn around and demand that Ben be a leader to his brothers. A Sisyphean task if there ever was one. The acts of cruelty - utterly ruining his things and killing his pets. For Usagi, her tribulations with her own brother paled in comparison. He might tease her and mess up her room. But he never went out of his way to actively find and destroy something precious of hers, let alone try to do any harm to Luna!
And then the fights! It was horrifying to hear about such young children finding the kitchen knives to threaten and menace their older brother with over a disagreement. They all began to marvel at how someone so kind and energetic and generous could have come from something like that!
They all took turns holding him, telling him that everything would be alright. That his big sisters were there for him.
Ami spotted the cards on his lanyard and realized that someone was going to need to call the academy. She took that upon herself to borrow the ID and emergency contact cards from him and make the phone call.
Right away, Kaori came to the shrine.
With only a whisper she pardoned herself as she entered Rei’s room and immediately went to Benjamin, who was latched onto Makoto at that moment. He was no longer sobbing. But the feelings of newfound belonging warred intensely with his horrifically mauled sense of self-worth, carrying back and forth in waves. He wouldn’t sob, but fresh tears would come and stain his face again.
Kaori cooed comfortingly at him and dabbed at his face with a tissue as she pushed his tousled bangs out of his eyes. She had never seen the poor child like this before and it tore at her heart strings to see it.
She spoke briefly with the other girls as well as the old priest that kept the shrine. There was no doubt about it - Benjamin felt safe here in the company of the other girls. Therefore, Kaori felt safe in letting the boy stay the night at the shrine.
Rei would stay with him for the moment. The others would all make mad dashes back to their homes and return with pajamas, provisions, toiletries, and changes of clothes. Kaori did the same on Benjamin’s behalf, pausing only to drop a few tiny pellets into Hannibal’s tank. She smiled as the colorful little fish took to it with gusto, and then left with an overnight bag for Benjamin.
After she dropped off the bag (as well as his medicine and a firm reminder that he needs to take his pills in the morning), she departed for the Academy once more to be with her daughter and husband and to make sure their young boarders got into their beds as well.
Makoto made dinner for them, and Benjamin perked up somewhat once her stellar food crossed his lips. The girls all cycled through the bath - not enough time for a proper soak - and Ben had to reassure them all that he would be alright on his own. The blush on his face said everything else and the girls all smiled at this.
They arranged the futons in the spare room next to Rei’s. It was very crowded, so Rei offered to let Usagi sleep in her room.
Benjamin was already worn out from his emotional roller coaster ride. He had no trouble falling asleep while Minako sang a ballad softly next to his futon.
“What are we going to do?” said Makoto as they gathered in Rei’s room once Ben had nodded off. “I feel like we just adopted him!”
“We practically did just that,” said Ami. “We said we’re his big sisters now. And in his emotional state he latched onto that. If we were to simply abandon him now… I can’t even imagine what it would do to his heart.”
“He needs us,” said Rei quietly. “This is so strange. I know that we serve a purpose and a duty as Sailor Senshi… but I have never thought I would feel the need to protect a single person like this so strongly. For good or ill, he is our brother now.”
“Does that mean we’re family?” asked Usagi. “Because that sounds like that makes us a family.”
“Yes. We are a family now,” said Minako with a quiet sort of conviction.
“But what is that gonna mean for us?” wondered Usagi. “I mean, I know it’s not like he’s gonna be living with us now.”
“No, he has his own life,” said Ami. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be a part of it. And I think that this means that we’re probably going to have to get to know his real family.”
There was a short moment of silence as they all mulled that over. Meeting a family composed mainly of what sounded like raving lunatics was a foreboding proposition.
“His mother sounded pretty nice,” said Makoto in an attempt to break the ice.
“And he does have a half-sister,” added Minako. “I’m sure she’s not real bad since he said she’s just a annoying sometimes.”
“We shouldn’t dwell on that now,” said Rei. “His family can wait. Besides, he said they’re all getting therapy now, right? Let’s just leave that part to the professionals and worry about things we can do to better his life now.”
“Well, I think that’s enough for today,” said Minako. “I don’t know about you girls, but Venus needs her beauty sleep.”
“Bwwaaagghh,” groaned Usagi. “Best. Idea. Ever. Girls, lets get to sleep. Ben-kun’s already zoned out, and so should we.”
With that, everyone agreed and Minako, Makoto, and Ami all began to shuffle there way to the next room where Ben was sleeping.
As Usagi laid down in her futon just after turning the lights out, she felt the anxiety well up inside her heart.
“Rei?”
“Yes Usagi?”
“Did we do the right thing?”
“It won’t be easy,” said Rei. “But I think it was the right thing to do. Get some sleep, Usa-chan. Ben-kun will be there in the morning, and so will we.”
“Good thinking,” said Usagi just as another yawn took her. “Goodnight Rei.”
“Goodnight Usagi.”
So, give it to me straight. How bad is it?
Text here, but a very nice and easy to read PDF is attached, and also includes the previous bits with some added polish.
Part.pdf (Size: 91.46 KB / Downloads: 7)
“So yeah. That is all for noun and verb stresses. For the noun you stress the first syllable and for the verb you stress the second syllable.”
“Wow, that really is simple!”
For the next two hours, Benjamin sat with the girls and coached them through the English part of their homework. He couldn’t do much for them in the subjects that pertained to Nihongo, and in mathematics he was only able to help so much - their Algebra was much more advanced than he’d ever seen. However, once the blue-haired girl, named Mizuno Ami, began to show Benjamin how the rules worked, he began to pick it up at a lightning pace.
“You certainly seem to belong at that school of yours, Ben-kun,” said Ami with a warm smile that made Ben blush a bit. “I’ll look forward to seeing you in college sometime soon.”
“Aww, I’m not that good. I mean I don’t think I will skip grades.”
“Smart, handsome and modest!” said Aino Minako, the other blonde haired girl who wore her hair straight. “Hey girls! We should teach him things he needs to know!”
“Things like what?” asked the gorgeous and astonishingly tall Kino Makoto. Ben kept finding himself distracted by her hair pulled into a ponytail that was like a waterfall of lustrous brown waves.
“The things he’s gonna need to know to flirt with the girls here! He’s not used to Japanese girls, you know!” replied Minako with a wink.
“Mina, how could you say something like that?” said Hino Rei primly from her spot at the table. She then favored Ben with a warm look that made him feel like he was sitting by a nice fire. “He’s such a sweet little gentleman as is. All he needs to do is tell a girl how pretty he thinks she is and she’ll be at his mercy.” But then, Rei’s face grew somewhat dark as she began to admonish him. “Though you better use that power of yours for good, kiddo. I won’t put up with you breaking hearts left and right.” Suddenly that cheerful fire had become a forge.
“Hai Ojou-sama!” squeaked Benjamin with fear that wasn’t entirely feigned.
All the girl’s jaws nearly hit the table, and then everyone, except for Rei, exploded into laughter and scandalized squeals of delight.
Rei recovered her wits and gave the boy a look that clearly stated that it was on now.
“Oh you’re gonna get it!” she growled playfully as she made a go at Ben. “C’mere you little brat!”
Ben didn’t fight too hard - he knew he was gonna wind up getting his medicine one way or another - so he only made a token struggle as Rei pinched his cheeks and tugged on them, causing the girls to laugh even more.
Benjamin noted that she didn’t really tug all that hard.
Unnoticed by everyone, though, one of Rei’s purifying spell tags had slipped out of her pocket. Without even seeing it, Ben brushed his hand over it.
Laughter suddenly turned to panicked shouts when the spell tag ignited in a tall plume of flames, burning into ash quickly enough that nothing else had a chance to catch fire.
“What did you do!?” cried out Rei in alarm.
“I don’t know!” replied Ben quickly. “I just felt a piece of paper there and suddenly, POOF!”
“No way!” said Minako. “You gotta have a lighter or something on you.”
“No, I don’t! Honest!” cried out Ben, fearful that he might suddenly be ostracized for something he didn’t do. He then hurriedly turned his pockets all inside out. “Here, look!”
All he had on his person was a few hundred yen in coins, and nothing more.
The girls all looked at each other. They had no idea what had happened, but it was obvious to them that Benjamin was just as shocked as they were.
Usagi, being the girl with such a huge heart that it was out of proportion to her tiny frame, smiled at Ben.
“It’s okay, Ben-kun. I think we’re all pretty sure you didn’t do it.”
Ben looked around the table nervously, but saw that all their faces were now stating to melt into comforting smiles. He sighed and relaxed, seeming to sag in on himself.
“Sorry,” he said quietly. “I was really worried. You’re the first friends I’ve made here.”
Usagi couldn’t help herself. She darted around the table and grabbed the young boy up into a big hug, surprising her friends and Benjamin as well in the process. Ben froze up as he saw Usagi coming, but after she wrapped her arms around him, burying his face in her shoulder, he relaxed and hugged her back.
It was the first time Benjamin had ever hugged a girl other than his mother and his sister. Usagi was warm and soft, and Ben could smell her through her clothes - a bit of her natural smell combined with faint hints of the soap and shampoo that she uses.
Usagi herself found that she liked the feel of the boy. Not that she still didn’t have a thing for that tuxedo guy - HUBBA HUBBA! But she felt how truly small Benjamin was just then. And the way he had stiffened… Usagi instinctively realized that the boy had been terribly hurt before. She suddenly felt a nearly overwhelming urge to protect him from the world.
“I want to be your friend forever, Ben-kun. Actually, I kinda wish you were my brother instead.”
Her friends all tittered - it was no secret that Usagi constantly quarreled with her younger brother. And admittedly, he tended to start a lot of their arguments.
“Maybe you can trade him to my family in exchange for me?”
Usagi laughed and held Ben out at arm’s length as she asked, “Your family can’t possibly be that bad.”
Benjamin looked down. He didn’t want them to see the tears that were starting to form in his eyes.
Suddenly, the girls were all around him. Rei was the first one to lift his face and look into his eyes.
It was like staring into a mirror for her.
She was certain that the reasons were different from her own circumstances, but she knew a what it looked like when someone who was supposed to be close to you committed a terrible act of treachery.
Rei could not help herself. Despite her usual disdain for men, she pulled him into her arms and held the boy tightly to her shoulder, her own heart aching as she felt him force sobs into sniffles.
“You’re safe here,” said the older girl. “Your onee-samas will protect you.”
Ami was the next to approach, steadying the boy and dabbing at his face gently with a handkerchief. She knew that what she was about to do would be painful for the boy, but she also knew from her advanced placement pre-medical courses that something like this could not be left to fester. The boil had to be lanced.
“Ben-kun,” said Ami in her gentlest tone. “Please. Tell us what happened.”
He swallowed. He didn’t like talking about it. He didn’t like having to think about those things. But his therapist had told him that talking about it with people he can trust was the best thing for him to do - it was unhealthy to keep these things bottled up.
And with Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako, Ben felt like he had found his tribe.
And so he told them about his father. The horrific emotional whiplash from the times the man had cried over his shoulder to when he would send him skidding across the kitchen floor for spilling milk.
And his brothers. Unable to respect him because their father seemed to take every opportunity to belittle him in front of everyone else, and then turn around and demand that Ben be a leader to his brothers. A Sisyphean task if there ever was one. The acts of cruelty - utterly ruining his things and killing his pets. For Usagi, her tribulations with her own brother paled in comparison. He might tease her and mess up her room. But he never went out of his way to actively find and destroy something precious of hers, let alone try to do any harm to Luna!
And then the fights! It was horrifying to hear about such young children finding the kitchen knives to threaten and menace their older brother with over a disagreement. They all began to marvel at how someone so kind and energetic and generous could have come from something like that!
They all took turns holding him, telling him that everything would be alright. That his big sisters were there for him.
Ami spotted the cards on his lanyard and realized that someone was going to need to call the academy. She took that upon herself to borrow the ID and emergency contact cards from him and make the phone call.
Right away, Kaori came to the shrine.
With only a whisper she pardoned herself as she entered Rei’s room and immediately went to Benjamin, who was latched onto Makoto at that moment. He was no longer sobbing. But the feelings of newfound belonging warred intensely with his horrifically mauled sense of self-worth, carrying back and forth in waves. He wouldn’t sob, but fresh tears would come and stain his face again.
Kaori cooed comfortingly at him and dabbed at his face with a tissue as she pushed his tousled bangs out of his eyes. She had never seen the poor child like this before and it tore at her heart strings to see it.
She spoke briefly with the other girls as well as the old priest that kept the shrine. There was no doubt about it - Benjamin felt safe here in the company of the other girls. Therefore, Kaori felt safe in letting the boy stay the night at the shrine.
Rei would stay with him for the moment. The others would all make mad dashes back to their homes and return with pajamas, provisions, toiletries, and changes of clothes. Kaori did the same on Benjamin’s behalf, pausing only to drop a few tiny pellets into Hannibal’s tank. She smiled as the colorful little fish took to it with gusto, and then left with an overnight bag for Benjamin.
After she dropped off the bag (as well as his medicine and a firm reminder that he needs to take his pills in the morning), she departed for the Academy once more to be with her daughter and husband and to make sure their young boarders got into their beds as well.
Makoto made dinner for them, and Benjamin perked up somewhat once her stellar food crossed his lips. The girls all cycled through the bath - not enough time for a proper soak - and Ben had to reassure them all that he would be alright on his own. The blush on his face said everything else and the girls all smiled at this.
They arranged the futons in the spare room next to Rei’s. It was very crowded, so Rei offered to let Usagi sleep in her room.
Benjamin was already worn out from his emotional roller coaster ride. He had no trouble falling asleep while Minako sang a ballad softly next to his futon.
“What are we going to do?” said Makoto as they gathered in Rei’s room once Ben had nodded off. “I feel like we just adopted him!”
“We practically did just that,” said Ami. “We said we’re his big sisters now. And in his emotional state he latched onto that. If we were to simply abandon him now… I can’t even imagine what it would do to his heart.”
“He needs us,” said Rei quietly. “This is so strange. I know that we serve a purpose and a duty as Sailor Senshi… but I have never thought I would feel the need to protect a single person like this so strongly. For good or ill, he is our brother now.”
“Does that mean we’re family?” asked Usagi. “Because that sounds like that makes us a family.”
“Yes. We are a family now,” said Minako with a quiet sort of conviction.
“But what is that gonna mean for us?” wondered Usagi. “I mean, I know it’s not like he’s gonna be living with us now.”
“No, he has his own life,” said Ami. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be a part of it. And I think that this means that we’re probably going to have to get to know his real family.”
There was a short moment of silence as they all mulled that over. Meeting a family composed mainly of what sounded like raving lunatics was a foreboding proposition.
“His mother sounded pretty nice,” said Makoto in an attempt to break the ice.
“And he does have a half-sister,” added Minako. “I’m sure she’s not real bad since he said she’s just a annoying sometimes.”
“We shouldn’t dwell on that now,” said Rei. “His family can wait. Besides, he said they’re all getting therapy now, right? Let’s just leave that part to the professionals and worry about things we can do to better his life now.”
“Well, I think that’s enough for today,” said Minako. “I don’t know about you girls, but Venus needs her beauty sleep.”
“Bwwaaagghh,” groaned Usagi. “Best. Idea. Ever. Girls, lets get to sleep. Ben-kun’s already zoned out, and so should we.”
With that, everyone agreed and Minako, Makoto, and Ami all began to shuffle there way to the next room where Ben was sleeping.
As Usagi laid down in her futon just after turning the lights out, she felt the anxiety well up inside her heart.
“Rei?”
“Yes Usagi?”
“Did we do the right thing?”
“It won’t be easy,” said Rei. “But I think it was the right thing to do. Get some sleep, Usa-chan. Ben-kun will be there in the morning, and so will we.”
“Good thinking,” said Usagi just as another yawn took her. “Goodnight Rei.”
“Goodnight Usagi.”
So, give it to me straight. How bad is it?