Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Let the World Hear Your Voice

Lying on his bed, Kyosuke Hojo looked at the ceiling and began to review the day.

The biggest gain, of course, was getting to know Nishimiya Shoko. She was such an adorable little girl, truly a treasure in the world. But how could he fulfill her wish or change her fate?

Although this thought seemed a bit self-serving, he couldn't help but think that way, as her original fate might have been quite tragic. From any perspective, he needed to carefully consider it.

Wish...

Befriending people?

Recalling the scene after class when Nishimiya Shoko approached others with her notebook, Kyosuke Hojo guessed.

No, it couldn't be that simple, otherwise, it would have been accomplished today. Given the way the little girl had been treating him today, they must have become friends by now.

Learning to speak? This seemed more plausible and practical.

Based on his observations and inquiries with Nishimiya Shoko, Kyosuke Hojo knew that she could hear sounds at a normal volume, but she needed slower speech speed due to lip-reading, and she was unfamiliar with certain tones.

For example, dialects and standard language share many similar pronunciations, but they differ in tone. If someone speaks slowly, you can barely understand, but if they speak quickly and urgently, you can't.

So, if Nishimiya Shoko learned to speak, the issue of listening should naturally resolve itself.

Furthermore, after returning home, Kyosuke Hojo had asked his mother to consult a friend who was a doctor about the possibility of improving Nishimiya Shoko's condition through medical means, such as using cochlear implants.

Although he didn't know the specifics of Nishimiya Shoko's situation, upon hearing that she was in the sixth grade and still used a hearing aid, the doctor gave a preliminary assessment — cochlear implants were not feasible, and further evaluation was required for other options.

Kyosuke Hojo had already considered how to teach Nishimiya Shoko to speak during the day. Based on his observations, she could already clearly pronounce simple words like "thank you" and "goodbye." This further indicated that teaching her to speak was feasible.

His preliminary plan was to start with the Japanese phonetic script, Hiragana. Regardless of how others had tried to teach Nishimiya Shoko, he decided to treat her as if she were learning a foreign language from scratch.

As for the fact that Nishimiya Shoko couldn't accurately recognize his pronunciation, he intended to let her observe the placement of his tongue and feel the vibration by touching his mouth when he spoke. He didn't believe that every detail would be exactly the same, resulting in different sounds. Of course, if such a situation did occur, he would think of other solutions.

Based on his observations of Nishimiya Shoko's hearing condition, this method was feasible.

As for why Nishimiya Shoko's family hadn't taught her, Kyosuke Hojo had a preliminary guess from the notebook.

Most likely, there was some teaching, but not much. Or perhaps, due to her hearing impairment, her family had given up on teaching her to speak and resorted to using sign language or writing for communication.

Another guess was that her family didn't have enough time or patience for this. After all, she was a hearing-impaired person, not just someone learning a foreign language from scratch.

In any case, no matter what, he would start teaching her to speak from tomorrow!

He set a small goal: to teach Nishimiya Shoko to sing "Monster Narrative Poem" properly!

As for changing her fate, Kyosuke Hojo had speculated about that at school too. Perhaps the "protagonist's" original fate was to be bullied in school, and the bullies were Ishida Shoya and his group.

Regarding this, Kyosuke Hojo believed that with him around, such a thing would absolutely not happen.

Ishida Shoya wasn't actually a bad kid; he just hadn't received the right guidance. Luckily, Kyosuke Hojo was confident in this area. He believed he could help Ishida Shoichi and the other two delinquents understand that bullying was wrong behavior.

Oh, speaking of that, apart from running, should he also learn some skills to increase his combat power?

Whether he faced Ishida Shoya and his gang, Shimada Tomohiro, Hirose Kazuki, or dealt with potential murderers in the future, or even convinced his mother that he could protect himself, he needed sufficient combat skills.

So, what to learn?

Boxing? No, unarmed skills were too dangerous. It was better to carry a steel pipe.

How about Japan traditional kendo? Yes, that seemed good. It was appropriate to learn neon traditional kendo after coming to Neon. He would start learning it after that.

A quiet night.

As usual, he exercised with Sakura, and the small girl was full of energy, talking all the way.

"Kyosuke, we have PE class this morning. We must play to our heart's content!"

"Didn't you forget? Our class also has PE at the same time."

"Hehe, of course I know that. So, are you asking if I want to play together?"

Sakura was just as cute as always. She was wearing a blue knitted sweater that slightly covered her thighs, a white T-shirt underneath, and gray shorts with round-toed shoes.

It was the second semester of sixth grade, and the Kanto region's weather was just right for such clothing. As the temperature rose at noon, they could take off their sweaters. Kyosuke Hojo was dressed similarly.

"Kyosuke, see you later in PE."

At the classroom door, Sakura waved a notebook in front of Kyosuke Hojo.

Lifting his head, he saw Nishimiya Shoko standing up in the front row, her small round face with a bobbed hairstyle was full of happiness.

She had prepared this sentence in her notebook last night. In fact, since school ended yesterday, she had been looking forward to today's school day.

This was a feeling she had never experienced before. In her previous school, there was no one to help her, no one to protect her from bullying, and no friends. All she had were pranks, lost indoor shoes, and hurtful words on her desk.

But things were different now. In school, there was Kyosuke Hojo, who not only refrained from bullying her but also protected her. When he spoke to her, his black eyes were so gentle. Of course, there was also Suhara, who was sitting in front of her, a new friend.

As for the others, although she had met some classmates yesterday and they had introduced themselves, Nishimiya Shoko could sense that they didn't truly want to be friends. They were probably curious or had some other reasons.

Like Kawai Misaki, who seemed friendly but emitted a negative vibe.

"Good morning, Nishimiya. You can call me by my name directly from now on."

Without receiving the notebook to communicate, Kyosuke Hojo slowly spoke each word with clarity. He needed to train Nishimiya Shoko's

listening and speaking abilities. He believed that few people had spoken to her so slowly and clearly before, causing her to struggle with this aspect. Thus, more practice was necessary.

"Really? Kyosuke-kun?"

Indeed, Nishimiya Shoko could understand speech delivered like this. Excited, she responded immediately.

"Speak a bit more slowly, Shoko. Rushing won't lead to clear speech. Since we're already friends, isn't it normal to address each other by our names?"

Kyosuke Hojo continued to speak slowly, enunciating each syllable clearly.

"Okay!"

Nishimiya Shoko smiled happily.

As Kyosuke Hojo hadn't started his class yet, he intended to discuss the matter of teaching Nishimiya Shoko to speak with her beforehand. After all, no matter how good his intentions were, it would be in vain if Nishimiya Shoko wasn't willing.

"Shoko, did your family teach you how to speak?"

As soon as he spoke, Kyosuke Hojo realized the ambiguity and quickly clarified.

"I don't mean the linguistic aspect of speaking, I'm referring to the act of making sounds while speaking."

"Yes, my grandmother has been teaching me."

Nishimiya Shoko was still communicating using her notebook.

"Then why can't you communicate normally with others now?"

"My grandmother has been trying her best to teach me, but she also needs to take care of my and my sister's lives, as well as teach us sign language, so she doesn't have much time."

There was no sense of disappointment on the little girl's face, only a slow sense of gratitude. For her and her sister, her mother worked hard to earn money, and her elderly grandmother still took care of them despite her age. This was already enough.

"What about your parents?"

In fact, Kyosuke Hojo had already deduced something from her words, but he needed to confirm.

"My parents divorced when I was little. My mother works late every day and can only come home late. My grandmother takes care of me and my sister."

The young girl's face carried a serene smile, without a hint of discontent or complaint about her life.

Kyosuke Hojo fell into a slight silence. Truly a protagonist indeed; he thought, the expression was just fitting.

"I understand. There's something I'd like to ask for your opinion on."

"What is it? I'll definitely help!"

"I hope you can learn to speak with me."

"What? I think I misheard. Kyosuke, can you please repeat that?"

Nishimiya Shoko wrote on her notebook. Her expression was complex, showing shock and confusion.

"I said, I hope you can learn to speak with me."

"..."

Kyosuke Hojo's words had left Nishimiya Shoko wide-eyed, seemingly unable to believe them. Had I misheard? She thought.

"I said, I hope you can learn to speak with me." Seeing the expression on the little girl's face, Kyosuke Hojo repeated himself.

It's true! Kyosuke actually wants to teach me to speak! But why? Why is he so kind to me? Not only willing to be friends and protect me, but now he wants to teach me to speak?

Nishimiya Shoko covered her mouth in disbelief, her large eyes filled with astonishment.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to? If you don't want to, at least let me teach you how to sing 'Monster Narrative Poem.'"

"I want to! I want to!"

Nishimiya Shoko responded excitedly. Her words were hard for Kyosuke Hojo to understand in his current stage of teaching, but he could still gather from her expression that she was willing.

"In that case, let's start today. I'll teach you after each class."

"Okay, okay!"

Nishimiya Shoko nodded her head eagerly.

The first class was math, and as usual, Mr. Takeuchi was the teacher. Kyosuke Hojo, also as usual, dozed off.

When the class ended, Nishimiya Shoko gently pushed Kyosuke Hojo's arm, who was sleeping on the desk. Her touch was so light that it was unclear whether she was trying to wake him up or not.

"Oh, class is over. Sorry, Shoko, I wasted a bit of time. Next time, just wake me up more forcefully if you want. Sorry about that."

Kyosuke Hojo rubbed his eyes and realized that kids really did need more sleep to grow up quickly.

"It's okay. If you still want to sleep, you can go ahead, Kyosuke-kun. Also, I took notes, would you like to use them?"

Nishimiya Shoko shook her head. How could she be so rude to Kyosuke Hojo? If he hadn't mentioned starting the lessons after class, she would've just stared at him until the next class.

"No need, I've already covered what Mr. Takeuchi talked about."

"Kyosuke-kun, you're amazing." After writing this sentence in her notebook, Nishimiya Shoko looked at Kyosuke Hojo with her bright, sparkling eyes.

"Haha, let's start learning then. We'll begin with the Hiragana syllabary."

"Yes, yes."

Nishimiya Shoko nodded vigorously, her eyes showing determination.

"Firstly, watch my tongue. You need to place yours exactly like mine when pronouncing the sounds. When making the sound, your tongue should touch your bottom teeth..."

Kyosuke Hojo followed his planned instructions, step by step. Since Nishimiya Shoko already had a solid foundation, she quickly caught on, becoming proficient in both hiragana and katakana. In just one class period, she had learned two pronunciations.

His plan was to teach her ten pronunciations each day, so that she would be able to finish in about a week. After that, they would move on to learning words, which would be even easier since Nishimiya Shoko was in the phase of being able to write but not read.

Calling it not being able to read wasn't entirely accurate. Nishimiya Shoko could write the corresponding Roman characters for the Japanese words. She just couldn't pronounce them properly or consistently.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the class, Kyosuke Hojo put away the impromptu lesson plan he had written.

"Let's continue later. You can also review during your classes. I can help you catch up on what you missed."

"Okay, thank you, Kyosuke-kun."

Nishimiya Shoko put away her densely written notes. Almost every word Kyosuke Hojo said was meticulously recorded.

Kyosuke Hojo didn't sleep during this class. Even if he could sleep at this point, he wouldn't be able to, so he opened his textbook and began working on exercises from the entrance exam outline for Toujou Junior High School. This school was the middle school division of Toujou High School, which ranked among the top three high schools in Tokyo and was one of the top ten middle schools in the city. What was even more crucial was that this middle school offered boarding facilities.

This was his goal for today, set by his mother in the morning. If he could get into this school, he could stay alone in Tokyo. But he would still have to stay in the boarding facilities.

Originally, Kyosuke Hojo didn't care about the middle school he attended. After all, he was a systematic person. As long as he could obtain a useful reward at any time, he believed he could easily resolve university entrance issues.

However, now that his mother had spoken, he had no choice. He didn't want to go back to Hokkaido; he had determined, based on

his limited knowledge of anime, that Tokyo was where the "protagonist" frequently appeared. Therefore, he needed to stay here regardless.

As Kyosuke Hojo and Nishimiya Shoko continued with their studies, Ueno Naoko's heart was filled with turmoil.

"It's true, guys are defenseless against girls who look pitiful and are quiet."

Having watched Kyosuke Hojo earnestly teaching Nishimiya Shoko how to speak after class, even letting her touch his face, Ueno Naoko almost snapped her pencil in envy.

Damn it, I want to be treated like that too! Should I take some exercises and ask Kyosuke to help me? But what if he refuses? Will he think I'm a troublesome girl?

Ueno Naoko transitioned from frustration to distress. Ah, why is this so annoying? It's all because of that Nishimiya Shoko; she stole my Kyosuke away.

Ueno Naoko was unaware that her resentful gaze toward Nishimiya Shoko was being observed by Ishida Miyako at the neighboring desk.

Seeing her close friend Ueno Naoko's irritated expression towards Nishimiya Shoko, and remembering the criticism he had received from his mother last night, Ishida Miyako began to formulate a plan for revenge.