Some Teacher

(3.7) Sparring time!

"Touché," Kiya admitted.

"Would you like me to assign you to a group?" Nagisa offered. "It won't kill you to make a friend or two, you know."

"You mean in a classroom full of assassins, making a friend won't kill me?" she said pointedly. "I do have one friend."

"You mean whoever gives you the homework every day?" the teacher guessed. "Who is it anyway?" She didn't answer.

"I really don't understand why no one will tell me," Nagisa groused. "I mean it's not like I'm going to get them in trouble for helping their classmate not fail." Kiya remained silent. "I'll put you with Asui-san and Satori-san, does that work?"

"Okay..." Kiya scanned the group of her classmates, who had already started sparring. "Which ones are they?"

"Asui-san is the girl with the pale pink hair and the paperclip jewelry," Nagisa said with a sigh, pointing her out. "Satori-san is the one with bright green hair and yellow dress."

"The one who looks a bit like a squash?" Kiya asked.

"That's not very nice, Kiya-san," Nagisa scolded seriously. "You should learn to recognize your classmates. Solitude isn't always necessarily an advantage." Kiya huffed slightly, and flicked her tongue across her lips briefly before making her way to the two girls Nagisa had assigned her to.

"Hello, I'm Kiya-san," she introduced herself to them stoically, and the two girls stopped sparring to look at her quizzically.

"Yeah, we know who you are," Asui said, half laughing at the absurdity. "Do you know who we are?"

"Not until moments ago," Kiya said, then continued before embarrassment could overtake her. "Nagisa-sensei assigned me to your group for sparring."

"So that's why you would deign to associate with us lowly peasants," Asui inferred sarcastically. "We're honored, I'm sure."

"I'm sorry if you feel that way," Kiya said, still not meeting anyone's eyes. "I'm not very good around people."

"Whatever." Asui shrugged. "I've kinda been waiting for a chance to fight you, so this works out." She turned to the other girl. "Mind if I take first crack at her, Hina-chan?"

"Go ahead," Satori consented softly, speaking for the first time since Kiya arrived.

Asui had no trouble matching Kiya's speed, or vice-versa, but she didn't really have the strength to do much damage to Kiya. When it was Satori's turn, she had the opposite problem. She was strong enough to return Kiya's attacks, and even bock a few, but not quite fast enough to keep up for long. Even so, Kiya was actually a bit surprised at how well the other girls worked her over, and she was definitely feeling it by the time Nagisa-sensei called a break.

"Alright, now that you're all warmed up, each group is going to take a crack at Karma!" Nagisa announced, and his friend looked at him, eyes wide.

"Sorry, what?" Karma asked. "I didn't agree to this."

"Oh Please," Nagisa rolled his eyes. "You've been wanting to fight them since we started. You're not doing a very good job of hiding it. Try not to break any bones."

"Alright, fair enough," Karma admitted.

"You'll be attacking him in your groups," Nagisa explained to his students. "You can keep practicing until I tell your group to go if you'd like, or you can rest for a bit. Any questions?" Hinata raised a hand. "Yes, Hinata-kun?"

"What exactly is our goal when we attack him?" Hinata asked.

"If you can land a hit on him," Nagisa and Karma side-eyed each other and smirked conspiratorially. "You get an 'A' for the rest of the trip. Pro tip: try to surprise him. Anything else?" Nothing. "Then plan your assassination strategies, let's get started, shall we?" Karma tossed his jacket to the side and cracked his knuckles in anticipation, amber eyes agleam.