Shizuka Kamitani

Shizuka Kamitani is a middle school science teacher at Morinomiya Academy, the mother of Hayato and Taka and the ex-wife of high school chemistry teacher Taizo Hebihara.

Appearance
Shizuka is a slender woman and has a similar appearance with her son, Hayato. She has short black hair in a pixie cut and narrow eyes with light colored irises. She wears earrings with a long-sleeved blouse and skirt.

Personality
She has a general laid-back and very easygoing personality. She has a large amount of patience when dealing with her talkative and misbehaving son, Taka, sometimes gazing at him as a loving mother would, but becomes assertive and angry when she is rubbed the wrong way especially by her teenager son, Hayato, or ex-husband, Taizou. She has a tendency of hitting Hayato on the head when he does something foolish or disagreeable. Like Hayato, she extends this treatment to Usaida at times when he's slacking off on the job.

She is an expert with children and finds both Kotaro and Ryuuichi to be cute and charming in particular, which she claims to be "unlike her own sons."

History
Shizuka met her ex-husband Taizou when he was her teacher in high school. When Shizuka ended up in the school's health office after fainting because of her lack of nutrition and eating, Taizou strictly and sternly forced her to eat a bento lunch he actually made for himself, saying that he thought her lack of eating was due to her wanting to possibly lose weight. Shizuka, feeling guilty about eating his lunch, offered for him to share it with her. She thought that his choice of having sweet tamogoyaki in his bento was an odd thing in contrast to his personality. This sparked Shizuka's romantic interest in Taizou. At some point after in their lives, the two married and had their first born son Hayato, but they divorced shortly before their second born son Taka was born (implied to be due to their clashing personalities), leading Hayato to resent him and refer to him as only his "birth father" while Taka has yet to learn his identity.

Taizo Hebihara
Shizuka once had quite a crush on Taizou. She saw that beneath his harsh demeanor lied a warmth of a caring individual, and eventually they married. However, the relationship grew continuously strained as time went on. Taizou came to see her as a loudmouth, while Shizuka grew aggravated with his endless blunt criticism. They divorced some time after Taka was conceived.

The separation is not an amicable one. Whenever they encounter each other, Taizou still criticizes all of her perceived mistakes as a mother, but she tends to shoot back that raising their sons wouldn't be so troublesome if he were more involved.

Hayato Kamitani
Shizuka has little patience for Hayato's stubborn and disrespectful attitude. She does not approve of his tendency to resort to violence to persuade others, completely missing the obvious fact that he picked up the habit from her.

Hayato does not express his emotions, but Shizuka can tell when something's troubling him when he becomes withdrawn. Alas, she's often at a loss when it comes to helping him, thanks to Hayato's unwillingness to confide anything to her. At times like these she worriedly turns to Ryuu for assistance in finding out how Hayato is coping with his personal struggles.

Taka Kamitani
Taka often proves to be a handful for Shizuka. He's disobedient, often refusing to go through with things that are good for him, like eating vegetables or brushing his teeth. Shizuka is not above tricking her younger son into believing he's going someplace fun in order to get him whatever treatment he needs. Taka is also prone to throwing tantrums whenever he doesn't get his way, which is often, as Shizuka refuses to spoil him with expensive toys.

Despite Taka's behavior, Shizuka finds it difficult to discipline him the same way she does Hayato. Not only is she usually busy with work, but she has a soft spot for Taka that emerges during certain moments. She relies on Hayato to serve as a big brother and a father figure to ensure Taka gets disciplined at all.

Trivia

 * She shares a voice actress with her son Taka.
 * Her name "Shizuka" means quiet, even though she is loud and assertive.undefined