August. 20. 2023.
"And your fiancé, Karma?" Your lawyer continued. "Most people aren't able to answer this question; when they are, they're usually very fortunate... or the exact opposite."
"Well, if you asked me when I'd first met him... I would probably say the exact opposite."
December. 9. 2014.
You never liked Karma in your first year at Kunugigaoka. You had your reasons, definitely, but as the year went by, and you kept moving up in the ranks, you'd kept him off your mind until second year. Unless it was at the random times he'd pass by in the halls, or when you'd hear rumours about him. Or even your small encounters with him.
After you'd gotten bumped up to A Class, you had just stuck to studying, telling yourself there was no way out now.
The only issue was that you were terrible at studying.
You'd barely passed a test, and you had the lowest grade in the entire class. Out in a secluded part of the school, you squatted down as you looked over and analyzed and re-analyzed every small error you had made that culminated into the big mess that your test had become.
As your eyes were fixed on the paper, the boy who had come up to you and quickly snatched it out of your hand, hadn't registered in your mind until the paper was being read over by him.
"What is this? How'd you get up to A Class if you don't even know the basics? I wonder, how do stupid girls like you go up the ranks?" You couldn't bring yourself to look at him or speak up, instead glaring down at your shoes. "Mind giving me a show"-
You didn't know what else he could say. Or what else he would say.
Karma Akabane had beat him up too quickly and too well. You dug your nails into your palm as you stayed back. You didn't want to watch; but you had to thank him, even if you didn't want to.
You couldn't get yourself to do that, though.
"You didn't have to do that," you told him, as the two of you walked out of the secluded area. "I could've just left."
"You weren't watching him," Karma countered. "He raised his hand. He was gonna hit you before you even saw it coming. How couldn't you tell?"
You shrugged. "I was looking down."
"Still- people have a sort of presence; an intensified one when they wanna beat you up. Or kill you."
"Yeah, I could sense it from you, don't get me wrong," you huffed, looking around. "What were you even doing there?"
"Following that guy so I could beat him up anyways," Karma said, without a care in the world as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "He was picking on a senpai."
You'd never seen Karma as one to respect his elders. That changed your view of him for a little while.
August. 20. 2023.
"I have to ask... are you aware of his violent history? Excluding the assassination assignment."
You scoffed. "Yes, I'm very aware."
December. 11. 2014.
The next time you'd seen him, you had just jumped at the ruckus you heard in a classroom, and stopped by, curious as to what happened. But when you saw Karma walk out, with a self assured yet angry expression on his face, you didn't even need to peek inside the office to know what he'd done.
"Did you get transferred to 3E?" You called after him as he walked away.
He stopped at your question and turned around, raising his eyebrow with a menacing look. "Yeah. With a suspension. So what?"
You guessed he assumed that you wanted to insult him, but it was the opposite.
Grinning, you waved. "I'll see you there!"
April. 6. 2015.
Before you'd gotten accustomed to 3E, you had hated physical education. You'd already disliked it on the main campus. The competitiveness was high, and teamwork usually rarely involved you in it. You had been put into many sports classes and teams as a child; every extracurricular known to man, you probably did it for at least 4 years. But that didn't mean you were a prodigy like the kids in A Class.
At least back then, you'd have an air conditioner to wallow in.
Sports here were more relaxed than on the main campus; no one was expecting to get a sports scholarship, after all no one here could join a team while they were here. But everyone was encouraging and helpful, which made you much more comfortable.
When Karasuma had taken over the class for physical education, assassination training became the focus; and it was much more fun. Swinging knives with skill and precision seemed easy in theory, but was more complicated in practice. You found yourself practicing often when you were bored, despite not being completely sold on the ability for anyone in this class to be able to even get off one tentacle.
After all Maehara and Isogai had gotten their asses handed to them by a human. Sure, they only had a couple weeks of practice, but Karasuma couldn't get Korosensei either, and he'd trained at the stuff he was teaching for years.
As the bell rang, everyone walked back to the class, sweating in their gym clothes. Sugino groaned. "We have a quiz for sixth period."
"I know right," Nagisa agreed. "They should just let us go home after gym."
"The way back home is a workout in itself," you huffed, but turned back around when you'd noticed that Nagisa and Sugino had stopped.
"Nagisa..." Your head practically whipped forwards, recognizing the voice well. "Sup? It's been a while."
"Karma..." Nagisa muttered. "You're back?"
He smiled, but he quickly caught the sight of Korosensei, and rushed down the stairs and past the three of you to go up to him. "Oh hey! That must be the notorious Korosensei." He walked right up to him, clearly intrigued. "Wow, he really does look like an octopus."
"Ah, Mr.Akabane, correct?" Korosensei greeted. "I understand your suspension ends today. Welcome back. That said, tardiness is a no-no." His face turned purple, and a large X crossed his face.
Karma chuckled. "It's kinda tricky getting back into the swing of things. Oh, feel free to call me by my first name," he gave his hand out. "Anyways I've heard some good things teach. Nice to meet ya."
"The pleasures all mine," Korosensei answered, giving his tentacle out to shake Karma's hand. "Should be a fun and educational year."
Korosensei's tentacle exploded.
Karma quickly threw his strawberry milk away and brought out a knife from his sleeve, swinging at Korosensei. Despite being shocked, Korosensei quickly moved away, but was still clearly shaken up by what had just happened.
"Huh, you are fast, aren't ya?" Karma huffed sarcastically. He lifted up his hands; you couldn't see so well but he had strips of what appeared to be the rubber knife everyone was given, on his hands. "And who'd have thought these knives actually work. I just cut one into strips and tacked them on. Pretty elementary stuff chief. I'm disappointed that's all it took to catch you by surprise. But good jump," he taunted. "If you don't mind coming off like a 'fraidy cat." He walked over, closer to Korosensei. "What are ya, scared of me?"
The class watched this entire ordeal in shock, still processing the feat that Karma had just accomplished. He'd only been here a few minutes, but he was the first E Class student that had successfully hurt Korosensei.
It was a historical moment.
Korosensei's tentacle had regenerated by the time Karma had made it over to him. "I heard they call you Korosensei because you're supposed to be unkillable." He leaned in closer. Karma Akabane was a menace. Scary enough to make even Korosensei look afraid in this moment. "Oh come on. There's no way you can be this big of a pushover."
That made Korosensei mad. But he was still sweating buckets.
"Hey Nagisa?" Kayano asked, coming over. "What kind of person is this Karma guy?"
"Uh, he and I were in the same class our first and second year," Nagisa explained. "He was violent. So violent that they finally expelled him, shipped him here. E Class is where they send you when they don't know what else to do with you."
Karma had began walking away from Korosensei, nonchalantly playing with his knife.
"Thing is, under the circumstances, he may become a star student."
"Huh?" Kayano questioned. "What do you mean?"
"Weapons and blood are his passion," Nagisa explained. "Trust me, if anyone can kill our teacher, it's Karma."
As Karma walked up the stairs, heading back to the school, Isogai and Megu went over to your little group with Nagisa, Kayano and Sugino. "Not to be a bother, Nagisa, but do you mind giving Karma that quick class tour we were supposed to give him this morning?"
Before Nagisa could speak up, you interrupted. "I can!" You said quickly. "I know him too, I don't think he'd mind about who it is. It's only a quick tour right, I can get it done while everyone changes."
Isogai and Megu glanced at each other before agreeing with you. As you hurried up the stairs to go after Karma, Isogai turned to Nagisa. "What, does she have a crush on him or something?"
Nagisa almost burst into laughter. "No way! But she does know him. I think she's just interested in asking him about his future plans or something. Karma's a smart guy, but he's never looked down on people in E Class, or people with lower grades. Y/N's always resented his intelligence, but she's not dumb either; she knows how to use other people to succeed."
After Nagisa was done, Sugino lightly punched Nagisa on the shoulder. "You really give us good monologues dude. Keep it up."
"There's not much to show inside, honestly," you sighed as you led Karma to the faculty lounge. "It's pretty boring and old. Also no air conditioner, so that sucks. Anyways..." You stopped, turning around to look him in the eyes. "That was a great entrance, by the way. Very cocky and effective; Karma-like."
"Thanks," Karma grinned. "I'm surprised the rest of you are struggling so much with this. I got him in a couple of minutes."
"Yeah, well don't be too confident. Unlike the rest of us, you had the element of surprise as a new student."
"We'll see," Karma opened the fridge, grabbing a gelato with a grin. "Hey, if I can get him one more time by the end of the day, you'll owe me a drink, deal?"
Narrowing your eyes at him, you crossed your arms. "What're you planning on doing?"
He walked past you, going over to the door to head out. "Something that will get me a drink." He paused suddenly, as if he'd suddenly remembered something. "Hey, tell me about the past attempts before we head to class."
Taking the test was aggravating. The annoying sound of Korosensei punching the wall; making a squishy sound as he did so, made you rub your temple, unable to think about the words in front of you.
"Okay, that's enough!" Okano yelled. "Could you maybe stop that?! We're trying to take a quiz here!"
Karma had taken the seat to the right of you, behind Chiba. Once Korosensei had stopped with his tentacle nonsense, heeding Okano's request, Terasaka spoke up; continuing the distractions around you.
"You sure you know what you're getting yourself into, Karma?" Terasaka teased. "The jellyfish is sincerely pissed of at you."
Yoshida joined in. "You can't pay me enough to be in your shoes."
"If I was you, I'd stay at home with my head under a pillow," Muramatsu chuckled.
Karma turned to them, entertaining their conversation. "Course he's pissed, who wouldn't be if someone made an attempt on their life? Less the would be assassin who screwed up and pissed himself in the process."
Terasaka banged his desk, switching up his reaction to Karma's shit talking. When it was aimed at you it was pretty annoying. "I didn't piss myself! That attitude's gonna get your ass kicked."
"Quiet, please!" Korosensei yelled. "No noise during a quiz. Continue to talk and I will assume that you're cheating."
"Sorry Korosensei, my bad." Karma spoke up innocently. You stared down at your paper but you wanted to look over. He was clearly cooking something up. "No worries, though, I've already finished. I'm just going to eat this gelato if that's okay."
Now, that made you turn your head. Korosensei, once he realized, was aggravated again by Karma's behaviour. "HEY! THAT'S THE GELATO I BROUGHT BACK FROM ITALY YESTERDAY!"
"Huh?" Karma's fake innocent voice and expression pissed you off as well. How could someone pull it off that well? "Sorry, my bad, I just saw it chilling in the faculty lounge."
"This won't do young man!" Korosensei yelled. "I flew through the coldest layer of the stratosphere to keep that delicious treat from melting!"
"Yeah? So? What're you gonna do," Karma teased, before taking a lick of the icecream. "Hit me?" He was really egging Korosensei on. You knew you wouldn't be able to become a teacher. If you were Korosensei, you would've sent Karma into the Indian ocean.
"Of course not," Korosensei said, still clearly angry with his red face, walking forward, "I'll simply have it back and eat what's left, thank you very mu"-
His 'feet' tentacles exploded. "Anti-me BBs?" Korosensei said in shock, before Karma shot at him a few times. Korosensei easily avoided those, but Karma laughed very confidently. "Wow, that's twice in one day teach!" He got up from his chair, walking over to Korosensei slowly as he had his gun pointed up. "I'm gonna keep pulling the same old tricks. Class will get interrupted, our grades will slip." He pressed the gun to Korosensei's tie. "Let's be straight up though." Karma lowered his gun, looking up at Korosensei. "If you want this to stop, you can just kill me. Or anyone else in this class for that matter" He made a stabbing motion at Korosensei, which made you tense up, but looking closer you realized Karma had shoved the gelato into Korosensei's clothes, rubbing it in. "You've just gotta let go of wanting us to see you as our teacher." He let go of the gelato. It fell onto Korosensei's tentacles.
What a waste.
"Give us a taste of your ugly side," Karma advised, before glaring up at Korosensei. "Or you could make peace with all this; accept that I'll be the one to kill you." He walked away, dropping his quiz, letting Korosensei catch it casually. "Here's my quiz! Easy peasy."
Walking to the door, Karma smiled back at Korosensei. "Peace out for now, teach. What do you say we play again tomorrow?"
You huffed, quickly moving on and working on your test as everyone else stared at the door to sit in awe of the scene Karma caused. You did admit, he was good. But you were focused. You had things to do, and you were less distracted by his behaviour than the rest of the class was. After all, it wasn't much of a shock to you. You'd actually seen Karma get violent, with real people. When it was with a tentacled creature that you all had to kill, it wasn't that crazy.
Maybe you had been sensitized to crazy things after meeting Korosensei.
At the station, Sugino bid you and Nagisa goodbye as he went on his way home. You were about to bring something up, something about how your mom was picking up extra shifts at work all the time now but you couldn't when you both had heard voices behind you.
Mocking voices.
"Are you kidding me? Is that actually Nagisa? Look at that guy, all cozy with the E Class dumbasses."
"Ew gross," another one spoke up, as you tried to mutter to Nagisa.
"Come on let's just go ho"- "Gotta hand it to him, he's adapted to the crowd he's going to spend the rest of his life with."
"Hey, did you hear the news?"
"Nagisa, come o-" "Now that his suspensions' over, they shoved that Akabane nut over to E-Class."
"Oh dude, no kidding?" You grabbed at his sleeve, trying to pull the frozen boy away. "I'd rather be dead than stuck in a class with that freak"-
The sudden sound of glass shattering loudly made both of you jump and look back at the boys who were taunting Nagisa. They cowered away from Karma, who had a broken bottle in his hand. "Seriously?" Karma raised the bottle, threateningly. "Because I can help you out with that." Pointing the bottle at them, he narrowed his eyes. "It'll be messy; but real quick."
The boys ran away, yelling for their lives, very different from the cocky bastards they'd just been a few moments ago. You glared at them as they ran off, but quickly turned to Nagisa, who was walking over to Karma. You grabbed him by his sleeve, trying to stop him. Karma laughed, walking over. "Like I'd actually do anything right? I'm not gonna give up the once in a lifetime opportunity they've given me in E Class."
"Breaking a glass bottle in a busy subway station isn't really gonna help you with that," you commented, before pulling at Nagisa again. "We should go."
He ignored you, seemingly in a trance by Karma's presence, as he spoke. "Uhhh, hey."
"Yeah, hey Nagisa," Karma greeted excitedly. "Is it cool if I pick your brain for a sec?"
Karma went the same way as you and Nagisa did. Pressing your subway card onto the scanner, you grumbled to yourself about how late it was getting, but the boys were ahead of you, discussing Korosensei.
"Word is, you've been keeping notes on the octopus," Karma said.
"Um, well, yeah I kinda have," Nagisa nodded.
"Does he hate that nickname?" Karma prodded. "Us calling him octopus, I mean?"
"Now that you mention it, whenever he draws himself, it's always as an octopus," Nagisa commented. "And that's the skin he picks for his characters in every videogame. And, there's this thing he does in the sandbox."
You chuckled at the memory of the thing. Octopus trap.
"So no," Nagisa summarized. "I don't think he minds at all. In fact, I think it's like his personal avatar or whatever, you know? He loves it!"
"Does he? That's good." Karma's back was turned to you and Nagisa, but you could practically hear the grin in his voice. "Oh this is gonna be freaking epic."
"I know that look," Nagisa spoke up. "You're cooking up something really dark."
"I might be," Karma indirectly agreed, turning to face both of you. "It's fun, right? I was into this when I thought he was just a monster but..." He tilted his head up. "Now that I know what his personality is like..."
You clutched onto your bag, taken aback by the crazed look in his eyes. The train came speeding by, blowing everything harshly in one direction. "I finally get to kill an honest to goodness teacher!" He laughed obnoxiously. "I've been dreaming of this! Ever since my last teacher up and died!"
Patting your hair down after the sudden gust of wind you hadn't expected, you narrowed your eyes at Karma, who still had a glazed over look in his eyes. "Hey Akabane," you quickly called out as the subway doors opened. Nagisa looked back at you as well. "Wanna get that drink that I owe you?" You looked over at Nagisa, waving your phone. "My mom said she's coming way later. I'm gonna go out to get some food. Is your mom waiting for you at home?"
Nagisa sighed, his shoulders drooping. "Yeah. You have fun though!"
As he walked into the subway, you called after him. "I'll bring over something so she doesn't have to cook tomorrow!"
"Yeah, thanks!"
The doors closed slowly, and the train left as soon as it had arrived, leaving you with the cold breeze. Karma turned to you, raising a brow. "What'd you lie for?" You hummed questioningly. He looked over at your phone, then back to you. "You didn't even take it out of your pocket. Your mom didn't tell you anything."
"She told me a while ago, but we have leftovers in the fridge," you answered. "So I can stay out late, I was just lying about the going out for food thing- but I told him I'd get him something," you were practically talking to yourself at this point. Remembering Karma, you looked back at him. "You wanna get some food too?"
Karma smirked. "Yeah, I had to head to the market anyways."
He followed you as you headed into the subway going the opposite way to your home. It wasn't very crowded now. It was getting late, and it was way after school or work ending times, so both of you had gotten seats. He'd sat down first, sitting comfortably, so you were the one who decided to keep a fine distance between both of you, with one seat.
"So," you started. "What's your plan?"
"Why would I tell you," Karma taunted, raising his brow. "What, do you want in on the prize money? I mean I can help you out with a little, but a million is the most I'll give out to a dear friend like you!"
"No," you emphasized, glaring at him. "I just want to know what you'll do. You're known to enjoy torture and death. Maybe if I had an idea of what you're planning to do tomorrow, I can be a bit more prepared."
"We're in a class that's trying to kill a teacher," Karma spoke lower, leaning over to be closer to you. He narrowed his eyes on you. "What, do you think we can get away with this without violence? You wanna give the tentacled teacher a peaceful death, is that what this is?"
You rolled your eyes, leaning away from him, as you faced forwards. "That's not it at all." Crossing your arms, you huffed. "Fine, if you won't tell me, who cares."
You definitely didn't care. You had an idea of what his plan was, and it was further proved when he'd left for a bit in the market to find what he'd needed and came back with a heavily wrapped bag, that still reeked of octopus.
You weren't as smart as your father or your brother or even Karma Akabane.
But you also were not stupid.
April. 7. 2015.
You'd covered your nose and mouth as Karma came in during the morning, and plopped his dead octopus onto Korosensei's death. With a grin, he stabbed a knife into its head, right between its eyes.
Some of the class had protested a bit, but Karma shut them up after he'd stabbed the thing.
It was atrocious. As your eyes watered up a little, Karma had noticed and bent down, tilting his head mockingly as he looked into your eyes. "What is this? You keep proving me and my theory right. What's the use of a pacifist in a class like this? What, have you never had takoyaki before, never realized that you were eating a poor animal?" He quit his taunting, when you didn't respond, blinking tears away and coughing a little, still covering the bottom portion of your face.
You kept your head down, as did everyone else but Karma, when Korosensei came in. The atmosphere was gloomy. Yeah, everyone in this class wanted to kill Korosensei, but no one wanted to torture him.
"Oops, that's on me," Karma said, smiling happily. "Totally thought it was you, innocent mistake. I stabbed it, so I suppose I should get rid of it?"
Korosensei sighed, picking up the octopus and walking over. As he did, you used one hand to grab at your throat. "Yes, you should." Halfway to Karma's desk, Korosensei suddenly turned his tentacles into drills. He sped away and appeared back with many ingredients, including a missile.
Korosensei made takoyaki. You sneezed. "Bless you," Korosensei quipped quickly as he shoved some food into Karma's mouth. "Don't you know breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Your complexion tells me you haven't eaten. So please, help yourself to some of this takoyaki. I insist." Korosensei was clearly confident now, owning Karma after a day of being attacked by the boy. "You see, I'm a giver. I take care of things. Hungry students, would be assassins..." He lowered his voice, focusing on Karma. "Troubled teens."
Korosensei opened his mouth, in which the hot takoyaki balls steamed in his mouth. "Every assassination attempt is an opportunity for me to play my part. So by all means, keep at it. By the end of the day, if you're body and mind aren't aglow with health and knowledge, I haven't done my job"-
You burst into a fit, coughing, holding onto your chest with one hand, and clawing at your throat with the other. Your head fell onto your desk as you heaved heavily, trying to get some air into your lungs.
Everyones' heads turned to you. Nagisa stood up, eyes widening. "Sir, she's allergic to octopus!"
Korosensei rushed to your side, getting you up with an epipen he'd quickly gotten from the teachers lounge. "It wasn't on your record at all," Korosensei rushed, as he shot the epipen into your thigh, "Since when"-
You heaved, coughing up the Anti-Korosensei BB's onto the tentacle that Korosensei had used to inject the epipen with before taking a swing at the arm he held you with. He'd quickly raised his tentacle, holding your arm back before you could take a swing. You licked the inside of your mouth and spit at his hand, getting out the excess gunpowder that was in your mouth. It only slightly worked at melting a finger off, but Korosensei had jumped more at that, rushing back to his desk as he clutched onto his hand.
"My, my!" Korosensei put a hand over his chest, chuckling nervously. "What a terrifying assassination strategy. Using my worry for children's safety makes me blind to your malicious intent and fictitious symptoms."
"Actually," you grinned awkwardly, scratching the back of your neck. "I also used my knowledge of Karma's plan. I knew you'd be focused on him after he tried this little trick." Bending the knife in your hands, you smiled a bit more genuinely at Korosensei, tilting your head. "Keep your eyes on everyone at all times sir. Karma's not the only one who has tricks up his sleeve."
Nagisa tilted his head. "Aren't you actually allergic?" He asked.
"Definitely," you said showing off the epipen that you'd just taken out of your thigh, before looking back at Korosensei. "I think I'll have to go to the hospital sir."
While your attack was fun, apparently you had missed a complete 180 in Karma's attitude. Nagisa had come over to your home to tell you all about it; each attempt by Karma, including the jumping off a cliff, to every retaliation by Korosensei, from pink aprons to saving the kid from dying.
"We couldn't stop talking about your idea today!" Nagisa added. "How'd you even come up with that?"
"I used going out with Karma to the marketplace to figure out what he was up to. Karma didn't know I was allergic either, so I think the added shock helped with the surprise factor. The whole BB's in the mouth thing was the only shocking thing I could think of. And Karma's idea of just putting them on the ground made me realize I could do more than just shoot him with a gun. Mind you- they taste terrible!"
"Yeah, as anyone else would expect," Nagisa huffed.
August. 20. 2023.
"He's kind of inspired me with his creativeness," you chuckled. "We have a longer history, honestly, but when I first met him in first year I hated him. He was my motivation to get better. And even when he transferred to 3E, he kinda kept doing that, pushing my buttons and making me want to do better. He did it differently than how my father used to; he did it more encouragingly, knowing when annoying and teasing me would work as motivation. And then we stuck together throughout highschool, up until I left.
Honestly, I don't think there's another person in the world I'd rather be forced to marry."