Lesson Learned

A/N I really needed to get this chapter out of my head, so here it is. 

***

It only took three days to learn all the tasks she'd been given...well the majority of them anyway.

Mitsuko dumped the bag of objects on Koro-sensei's after class. "It's done."

"I can see that." Koro-sensei looked amused, lifting up the finished Rubix cubes and then the notepad full of illustrations.

"Since Art can be subjective and you didn't provide a reference, the drawings may not be the exact quality you wanted," she told him as he looked through each one. "I experimented with different styles."

"They're wonderful," Koro-sensei said, smiling wider. "You really did these in three days?"

"12 hours to be precise, but there's room for improvement, I guess." She shrugged again. "I already had a fundamental skill in Art so it wasn't that hard—I still don't understand why you wanted me to master cards, but I'm pretty much a pro at Solitaire now, so..."

"The objective was to have fun, Mitsuko," Koro-sensei said, placing the note-pad down.

She raised an eyebrow. "Right, sure."

He looked through the bag and pulled out one of the scarfs she'd made, making her grow on edge. "How did you find knitting?"

"I was..." Mitsuko swallowed thickly, fidgeting slightly. "Unable to properly master it yet, but I am still working on it and  advancing."

Koro-sensei perked up. "I see." He looked at the scarf and chuckled. "So...you enjoyed it?"

"I never said that," she replied quickly.

Koro-sensei laughed. "But you haven't denied it!" He teased, poking her head.

She glared at him. "Screw you." She whacked his tentacle away. "This whole thing is dumb, and it's not going to work."

"Hm." Koro-sensei straightened up. "Well, I disagree." He took the knitting needles out from the bag. "A hobby can be more than just another skill."

 "I...okay, I get that point but mastering a lot of skills is important," she said, shrugging. "It's important because that's how you become the best and if you're not best then you're just...ordinary." She swallowed, feeling uneasy. "And if you're ordinary then you might as well spend the rest of your life in a cubicle being a corporate slave—it's mediocrity."

"Success isn't measured by your position in life, Mitsuko," Koro-sensei told her. "As I'm sure there many corporate slaves who consider themselves a success."

"Yeah, well that's because they're settling, they're not really happy," Mitsuko argued.

"And how do you know that?"

She grew flustered. "Because, because—who the hell would be happy?!" she snapped. "For what? Letting other people control you? To be weak and ordered around like some monkey?" Mitsuko shook her head, looking disgusted. "I'm not letting anyone do that to me or...I'm not going be like that."

Koro-sensei stared at her curiously. "And why is that?"

"I..." Mitsuko clamped her mouth shut, swallowing.

Koro-sensei sighed, scratching his bald yellow head. "I know you're stressed about finals. You're in a very difficult position with your father and brother." He patted her shoulder reassuringly. "But they're not the ones taking the test, you are. I know you can do this."