Red Assassination

Chapter 31 ~ Accident

"What'd I tell ya? Coolest short cut ever!" Okajima said as we all ran and jumped over houses to get to school.

"Not outside of class!" Kataoka objected.

"Relax, it's fine!" Okajima said. "After pole toppling, people would be surprised if we didn't do this." Well, it was fine, until Okajima and Kimura jumped off the building, landing on a poor old man on a bicycle. We all rushed down to check on him and thankfully he was alive.

"What was that noise? Are you guys alright?!" A silver-haired guy holding flowers spotted us. "I'll call for help!"

~~~~~

The old man turned out to only have a hairline fracture in his right femur. We all stood guiltily outside the emergency room with Mr. Karasuma as Koro-sensei suddenly appeared, very angry.

We tried to explain why we were running across the houses, but Koro-sensei swiftly smacked us all with his tentacle across the face. "I take full responsibility." Mr. Karasuma spoke up. "I knew the risk when I introduced a higher level of training."

"We're sorry." We all genuinely apologized.

"Perhaps you've grown too strong. You neglected to put yourself in the shoes of someone weaker." Koro-sensei said to us. "That makes you no different than your counter-parts on the main campus."

It stung to be called out like that, but what could we do? We messed up. It's the least we deserve. I was brought out of my thoughts as Koro-sensei suddenly ripped a textbook in half.

"We are now two weeks away from midterms." He said. "Consider yourself banned from studying. This isn't a punishment; there are just some other things to be studied first."

~~~~~

And that's how we ended up helping at a children's' school where the man we hurt, Mr. Matsukata, was the principal. The kids were nearly perfect, unlike the school building. It was cramped and looked like a tiny shed from the outside.

"So, what do you plan on doing here?" A pink-haired older girl sneered at us. "The least you can do is work off some of the oxygen you're sucking up." What is she doing here? She's not a child.

Anyways, it turns out that the school doesn't have the funds for improvements on the building; they can barely afford what they have now. "All twenty-nine of use are here for two weeks. I bet we could do a few things." I said.

"We can all divvy up the work load." Isogai said. "First we need a strategy meeting."

And so Ritsu made us blueprints of the new schoolhouse we were going to build for the children. It was going to take a lot of supplies and manual labor, but it was fine. While half of us started building, the other half of us tutored the children, myself included. I took the pink-haired girl from earlier. Her name turned out to be Sakura.

"So if you don't mind me asking, why did you drop out of primary school?" I asked her.

"What do you think? Bullying!" She replied. "As soon as kids that age learn how strong they are, all they want to do is pick on the weaker ones." Well she hit the nail on the head... "Don't tell me to stick it out like everyone else. The higher you go, the more dangerous it is. That's what courage gets you."

"Look at it this way." I said. "We get out strength from places like this. Instead of always looking down and being afraid, look up. Take it one step at a time. Start from where you are now and when you're ready, go for it."

~~~~~

Before we knew it, time flew by. We completed a whole new schoolhouse and helped tutor all the kids. I helped Sakura mostly and she actually started to seem interested in moving up to primary school.

To say that Mr. Matsukata was surprised at our new schoolhouse would be an understatement. It was in the layout of a cabin with the wood being from the forest where our own schoolhouse sits. There were multi-purpose rooms, classrooms, a library and a playground. There was even a garage where we built Mr. Matsukata a brand new bicycle, much safer for the older man. "This is too perfect!" The man exclaimed. "Your enthusiasm is actually a bit creepy! But what my kids need are mentors. If you haven't gotten through to them, this was all a waste!"

"Hey, (Y/N)!" Someone suddenly called out to me. "I came in second!" Sakura smiled as she showed me her test scores.

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed. "The other kids were too busy with their own tests to mess with you. We call that getting the drop on your opponent."

"So you'll teach me some more tricks then?" She asked, hopeful.

"Of course!" I smiled.