Saturday, October 10th
Karma is excited, but he's doing his best to reign it in. After all, Nagisa is right. This is just practice. Still, it's a new fight with fresh opponents and Nagisa on his team. He can't help but anticipate it.
As Karasuma picks two elite soldiers out of the line (an athletic woman with long black braided hair and a tall young wiry man), Karma nudges Nagisa. "What do you think? A straight out assassination or a fight to start with?"
"I think we should do an assassination first. Then we can do combat later when their guards are up?" Nagisa murmurs back.
"Sounds like a plan to me. First few kills are all yours." Karma grins. Fighting Karasuma was all very well, but he can't wait to see Nagisa take these operatives down. It's been too long since he's gotten to see a proper, Nagisa style assassination.
They all arm themselves (close range anti-tentacle weapons only) and take their places on the mat in the center of the room. Karma can see the special ops taking them in, sizing them up. He can tell they're being careful, avoiding a quick judgment after what they heard from Karasuma, but no one can be prepared for Nagisa.
Karasuma signals the start of the fight. Karma hasn't even bothered taking a fighting stance. He watches as Nagisa smiles benignly, like he would to his students. The dark haired woman advances on Nagisa, drawing her blade, but Nagisa just sidles up to her calmly. When the woman aims a kick at his ribs he steps to the side, barely missing the blow. His face is a mix of concentration, blankness, and slight surprise. He looks like he's not all there, like he's focusing on something else and hadn't quite expected to be capable of dodging the blow.
Before the woman can recover Nagisa's on to her. He gives her a grin like she's precious student or a dear friend or a lost lover that he hasn't seen in too long. It's enough to catch her off guard and he slips in for the kill.
Meanwhile Karma has been matching off with the other special op, distracting him from Nagisa. He has to admit that his opponent is quite good, but all that practice wasn't for nothing. And while he keeps the man occupied he watches Nagisa out of the corner of his eye, observing as the woman yields to the blade at her throat. Karma grins a little wider. Nagisa is truly unnerving. Overpowering even.
When he had first noticed Nagisa's unsettling capabilities he had been troubled. He hated to admit it, but he had practically abandoned Nagisa, unable to reconcile the feeling of not being in control. But after spending E Class with the boy, he's learned to appreciate Nagisa's skills. He respects Nagisa, and he takes pride in his friend's abilities.
It shows in how he drags his fight out, drawing the man's attention and giving Nagisa the perfect opportunity to stalk up behind him and take a knife to the soldier's throat. At the last second the soldier senses the attack and tries to retaliate, but it's already too late.
The second round goes much the same, except for a little more effort on Nagisa's part. After all the smile trick only works once, so this time he has to hold off the soldier for a while before he can find the right opportunity to unsettle the soldier and slip under his guard.
In the third round Karasuma decides to change things up by adding a third operative into the mix. Not that Karma's going to say anything, but he's pretty sure Karasuma picked the three weakest soldiers to make things a little fairer. Karma takes on two of the operatives, and while he weaves in between their attacks, Nagisa takes on the third operative, which is a bit of a problem because the soldier just happens to be the woman from the first round.
Nagisa is a skilled fighter, but after E Class he never worked on his combat skills like Karma did and these are special operatives, the best that the military has to offer. Without surprise on his side he's no match in physical combat.
Unfortunately Karma isn't able to keep an eye on him; he's got his hands full as it is. One of the soldiers has decided to try impaling him on the flexible green knife. Karma steps to the side and tugs the soldiers wrist, pulling him off balance and deflecting the blow at the same time, but the soldier uses the momentum to elbow him hard in the hip. The tension this creates momentarily detains Karma, long enough for the other soldier to move in for a headlock.
"Come on now, that can't be all you have?" Karma asks teasingly.
Before the soldier can get a grip, Karma manages to get his arm wrapped around the soldier's neck while he kicks his other opponent hard in the stomach at the same time. Karma quickly "slits" his opponent's throat and turns to face the soldier he kicked. They exchange blows for a little bit, both of them searching for an opportunity to knock the other off their feet. In the end Karma manages to get a foot behind the soldier's ankle and sweeps him to the ground.
He looks up to check on Nagisa just as Nagisa goes in for what appears to be a final, desperate attack. Despite his warning to Karma to keep cool, his own bloodlust is palpable, so thick that Karma can practically taste it. Karma can feel the woman's attention honing in on the weapon just as Nagisa releases his knife and brings his hands together. The match ends quickly after that.
An audible silence fills the room as the soldiers process what happened. For a few seconds no one moves and all is still. Then they stir, muttering to each other. Something has changed in them. They now look at Nagisa with curiosity and respect, and maybe a little admiration too.
For his part Nagisa doesn't react to their awe (he's had some practice with his students) and instead moves off the mat and takes a seat, panting. Karma watches the operatives with cold amusement, a slightly crazed look in his eye. Karasuma just observes them for a second, his face revealing nothing, before moving over to Karma and Nagisa.
"How are feeling? Are you up for one more fight?"
Nagisa looks to Karma, who nods. "Always, teach."
Karasuma nods and moves away. He picks out four people for their next fight. Because apparently three on two isn't challenging enough.
Before they start the match Nagisa leans in towards Karma and murmurs to him.
"I don't think an assassination is going to work this time."
Karma nods and offers Nagisa a hand to stand up. "I have your back if you have my mine."
Nagisa smiles and accepts Karma's hand.
They move to the center of the room and stand back to back as promised. They're surrounded on all sides and Karma knows that he and Nagisa are at a serious disadvantage. This will be a step up from what either of them are used to. But he and Nagisa have great teamwork and he trusts in their abilities. If anything the unfair numbers make him more excited.
He licks his lips and feels the weight of the blade. And then the fight begins.
He and Nagisa move quickly and fluidly, dodging attacks and counterattacking whenever possible. In between blows and snarky comments, Karma manages to get a lucky slash on an opponents arm, rendering it (for the sake of a realistic practice fight) useless. A few moments later Nagisa manages to sweep an operative while Karma covers for him.
They're doing well. Karma feels focused and in tune with Nagisa. When he senses an attack aiming for Nagisa's unprotected ribs, he steps in and blocks it. At the same time Nagisa throws his knife at the same attacker, eliminating him. They have to move quickly to defend themselves from the other three soldiers, but they manage the maneuver successfully.
This then gives Karma an idea. If he can pull the attention of their opponents and utilize his bloodlust properly, then he can give Nagisa the perfect opportunity to attack.
He gets a moment to try his idea a moment later when a soldier missteps and is momentarily off balance. He throws a punch at her, which she promptly blocks. While she's occupied he throws a kick at her neighboring soldier, then quick as lightning he drops both attacks and slashes at Nagisa's opponent, just barely missing. With reckless abandon he continues attacking the soldiers, completely letting out his bloodlust. He almost gets hit a few times but Nagisa blocks the attacks.
Then he feels it, the perfect moment. Two of the soldiers are zeroed in on him, completely taken in by his overwhelming bloodlust. The third is blocking Nagisa's attack, and Nagisa himself has one blade held close to his chest and the other extended towards the soldier.
Quickly Karma grabs Nagisa by the arm, crouches down, and rolls the bluehead off his back, dumping him feet first in front of the two surprised soldiers. If it had been anyone else they couldn't have pulled it off, but because it's Nagisa, and he knew that Karma was planning something, and he can both land on his feet and assess the situation at the same time, he manages to maximize the opportunity. Before they can adjust to his presence each of the soldiers have knives at their throats.
Karasuma calls the match soon after.
______
Well that was a lot of fighting.
I was hoping to have it not be so long so I could introduce Irina to the story and get Karma's initial reaction on Nagisa having to crossdress, but I kind of got carried away...
I did try to simplify the descriptions as much as possible so hopefully you could understand what was happening. If not please accept my apology 😅
I also changed something small in Karma and Nagisa's initial reunion. Basically Nagisa didn't realize Karma still considered him his best friend since they haven't been in touch too much and it made him happy.
Lastly, we're up to like, eight readers! Isn't that great? Thank you all for sticking with me :)
–Laika