2 Chapter 2: Sixth Grade Tutoring Project

Ever since I was reincarnated, I always wondered about something.

Why here?

That is to say, why into a regular Japanese boy? Usually, when regular people like me get reincarnated, it is to some sort of fantasy world, with magic and wonder, or maybe a futuristic world, with aliens and laser rifles.

This world is just like my old world, The only difference is that some companies and products have different names. And even those aren't that creative!

McDonald's is WacRonald's, and Burger King is Burger Prince.

KFC is still KFC, standing for Krispy Fried Chicken instead of Kentucky. Not to be confused with Korean Fried Chicken though, that's a totally different thing.

I won't even be surprised if it turns out that the biggest difference between this world and my old world is that the Titanic never hit the iceberg, and that caused a chain reaction that changed popular brand names.

...

"Hey Ken," Oki called out to me. "What do you think about that whole junior teaching thing that's starting soon?"

Issei and I are once more sitting in Oki's room, watching DVDs on his computer. Something that has become a regular occurrence for us in the last couple of years.

We're already sixth-year students, on our way to finishing elementary school and starting the next big chapter of our life.

For them it will be a dream to finally go to middle school!

For me, it'll be a nightmare.

Puberty for the second time, how horrible.

"I think that as long as I do a good job tutoring our Kohai's, the extra credit on my score will give me the record for the highest finals score in our school for the next few years," And that most likely will be true.

Having the brain chemistry of a child really makes learning that much easier when you're actually putting in the effort.

Issei chimes in, "But aren't the juniors we're tutoring only a year younger than us? How much could we really teach them?" And that is a good point, not only are we still in elementary, but we're sixth graders teaching fifth graders. There's not much we can teach them.

That is except for the fact that I am the smartest kid in our school, thanks to my power of having a chemical in my child brain that lets me soak up information and knowledge like a sponge.

"Oh Issei, you utter fool," I say, pushing my glasses up a bit as I put on the act of an anime villain explaining his evil plan to the heroes, "I will teach my dutiful minion- I mean kohai, my dutiful kohai how to solve Pythagoras theorem, something they won't be teaching till middle school. I will no doubt get the highest final score for that!" I finish it off by swinging my arm upwards as if I'm flicking away an insect from my sleeve.

I waited for the awkward silence to end so the two children would start applauding me for my brilliant plan!

"That's dumb, anyway, I got this new game for my PlayBox, wanna try it out?" Oki, Never change. 

So the three of us started playing games on Matsuda's knockoff PlayStation.

...

"Okay students, you know what we're doing today?" Our homeroom teacher, Mr. Whatshisname said as we started our class. earning a reply of kids shouting about how excited they are to be teachers for a day.

"Okay, On your desk is a piece of paper," And true to his word, on every desk is an upside down piece of paper, "On the other side is the name of the student you will be tutoring for today, please flip your papers."

I flip my page and see the name of the fifth grader I'll be tutoring.

Nimura Ruruko.

"I don't know who you are, I don't know if you're smart or dumb, but know this. I will make you smart enough to pass your finals. That's a Motohama Ken Promise," I whisper as I look at the name of the kid I'll be tutoring today.

"And remember, be nice to your underclassmen, they look up to you." the teacher continued after everyone learned the name of who they'd be tutoring before leading us to the class where the kids we would be tutoring are.

After reaching the class and doing a quick introduction so everyone knows who's who, we get started.

Ruruko is a short girl, shorter than the average fifth grader, her most distinctive characteristic outside of her height is the pair of striped green stockings she wears.

"Hello, My name is Motohama," I introduce myself as I sit down on an extra chair next to Ruruko "I will be tutoring you on how to do math easily," I explain slowly, trying to act like how a babysitter or a nanny does to a small child, which might seem rude for the unenlightened, but is actually a clever trick to make myself approachable.

You see, to young kids, everybody older seems big and scary. Some people might think back to their days as elementary schoolers, how sixth graders always looked like the mature adults you thought they were until you age a few years and find out that sixth graders are just stupid little kids.

And it continues as you age, those who are older always seem more mature, which they obviously are. It is just that by the time when you reach that age, you yourself have matured without realizing it, making it so that all the kids younger than you seem dumber and immature.

Because they're children.

Although I guess I don't have much to talk about in regard to maturity, I have all the maturity of a 17-year-old high school graduate.

This makes me bring up something I never liked about reincarnation stories, The MC dies at 22 or something, and then lives another 16 years in the new world, but he acts and treats himself like he's 38, using words like mental age or mental maturity.

That way of thinking, that Mental age growing by adding the years of your new life to your old life, is something that I always hated. It's a way for authors to make their protagonist seem older than he actually is without any of the growth necessary.

Maturity, or mental age, or whatever you want to call it, will always be that of the oldest you were, If you were 22 when you died, you will have a 22-year-old maturity until your new life lives past 22, then the age of your new life become the mental age of yourself.

A sixteen-year-old doesn't know how to be a 30-year-old, he doesn't have the knowledge and practice, and he doesn't know how to pay taxes or fix a car, or how to handle an argument. 

Just because you lived 16 years twice doesn't mean you think and act mature like a 32-year-old, that just means you were a 16-year-old for 17 years.

But I'm going off-topic, I'm introducing myself to the kohai that will give me the highest score on the finals exam.

"Hello Motohama Senpai, I'm Ruruko Nimura, but everyone calls me Ruru." She calmly introduced herself to me.

We spent the next two hours going over her old math homework and trying to finish it up, before moving on to learning ahead on her school curriculum.

Whenever Ruruko had trouble, I pointed out what she did wrong and gave her tips on how to fix it.

By the end of the day, she started calling me Boss-Senpai.