COLLISION, assassination classroom

CHAPTER #010. TIME TO DECLINE!

Sometime later, Hajime was sipping on a soft drink while holding a fat banana plushie under one arm. Atsushi had a matching Kumamon plushie with Hifumi, courtesy of Hajime, and the trio of students were walking to the train station to head home. It was late afternoon, the skies a beautiful mixture of purple, orange, and dark blue. Hifumi was walking between the two male students, looking content at her black bear when a question came to mind. She side-glanced the brown haired male and pursed her lips,

"Ne, Hajime-kun," The aforementioned male hummed non-committedly. "No one is. . . bothering you at school, right?"

He raised an eyebrow at the odd question. "I doubt anyone would dare to try. What brought this on?"

Atsushi and Hifumi shared a look, before Atsushi sighed when the black haired female gestured for him to take over. "Some of your. . . victims from the lower sections have been talking lately. It's the same stuff as always, but the reactions have been different since you've been transferred. Apparently, it's different now that you're an End Class student." The silver haired male shrugged, "Not many care though since you were Class A when it all happened, but some might feel outwardly vindictive now that you're apparently 'lower than them'." Atsushi made quotation marks with his fingers on the words. Hifumi had a concerned furrow between her eyebrows as she listened to the explanation.

The brown haired male pondered over the words. He had expected it to happen sometime soon. It would explain the letter from a while ago, too. His reputation was being reconstructed ever since his suspension. Hajime waved around his beverage, "I doubt they'll do anything to me directly. Just because I was unexpectedly put in the End Class doesn't mean my leverage on them disappears. Besides," He gave the duo a closed-eye smile, "They were asking for it. I don't regret what I did. At least not enough to feel bad about myself."

Hifumi pouted, like she expected that answer from him. "Just be careful, alright?! Mou, you're not even in Class A anymore and you're still causing me stress!" She reached out and punched him on the shoulder. The male grabbed the spot she hit and feigned a wince, then laughed.

"Gomen, Hifumi-chan! I haven't picked on anyone since I transferred, so that's progress, right?!"

Hifumi hugged her plushie then huffed. "Whatever."

Atsushi, who had remained silent in thought while the two bantered, snapped his fingers as he recalled something. The remaining duo looked over at the silver haired male. "I just remembered, Hajime-kun, the monthly assembly is on Monday and Asano-kun told me he wanted to see you for something."

Hifumi reached out and pushed her index finger into the plump of his cheek. "That's something you should have told him before we left school, Atsushi-kun!" Atsushi cried out and grabbed her hand in an attempt to push it away, but ended up just holding it in his grasp. The two played push-and-pull while Hajime blinked in contemplation.

"It's fine, Hifumi-chan. I can just tell Asano-san I'll go visit him at school tomorrow." The brown haired male nodded at his decision, "It's probably just some student council stuff."

          The next morning, Hajime entered the main campus dressed in civilian clothing. He had an oversized white t-shirt tucked into black trousers and wore his cherry red high top converses that had seen better days. The brown haired male had done as said and messaged the student council president the night prior. There were hardly any students on site considering it was the weekend, so Hajime was free to stroll down the halls without lingering eyes on him. It had been a while since he entered the main building and the brown haired male was taking his time to enjoy his surroundings. He approached the student council room and slid the door open, stepping through with a smile on his face.