August. 25. 2023.
"So..." Karma continued. "Besides the whole Okuda thing, let's talk more about ourselves. What did you think about me back then?"
"I can't... really put it all into words I guess?" Karma looked at you, encouragingly, or as encouragingly as he could look. "I didn't really like you."
Karma put a hand over his heart, feigning hurt. "How disappointing. And right after I admitted how much I used to like you."
"Shut up," you chuckled, punching his shoulder playfully. "You know, you kinda stole Nagisa from me?"
Karma raised his eyebrows at you. "I stole Nagisa?"
"See, I cared less in our third year," you explained quickly. "But in our first year, you practically took away my only friend. And, even though you always hung out with Nagisa, your grades never slipped. It took me having no friends at all and throwing myself into studying constantly to reach your level. And it was only junior high. You just made me feel dumb, too." You noticed Karma's more shocked expression, and shook your head rapidly, placing your hand on his arm. "But everyone who was smarter than me did!"
"How'd you feel in high school?" He asked.
"Way more confident," you answered, reassuring him. "I'd reconnected with my family too; my dad was more like Korosensei and he was a good teacher, and I had you too. I had that confidence thing you told me about and got through it all, didn't I?"
"No way I made you feel dumb all throughout junior high though?" Karma asked, "Even in Korosensei's class?"
"Around midterms," you answered, before grinning cheekily. "Obviously finals was a different story."
Karma still blushed at that memory, and elbowed you lightly, looking away from you. "Shut up about that. It was one time."
May. 25. 2015.
Korosensei's entire method of giving everyone a Korosensei to help them study was definitely useful, but it was distracting at first. Your Korosensei was helping you out with math; it was always your worst subject. While being focused, Korosensei was stabbed in the face by none other than Karma, which made all the doubles look morphed as well.
He yelled at Karma, telling him to focus, as you quickly worked through a question you'd just figured out. "Is this right?" you asked.
"Well done Y/N!" Your Korosensei congratulated you.
Karma looked over at the questions you were doing and chuckled. "Come on Y/N, you just got that? What happened to Ms. A Class?"
"Shut up," you grumbled, before continuing to do your work with a tighter grip on your pencil. Korosensei made sure to lecture Karma a bit more for putting you down like that. Karma did actually feel bad. He'd expected you to say something back, or at least have a childish response. Not to say 'shut up' wasn't childish, but you seemed really disheartened.
As everyone left to head home, Karma hung back, as you worked on a couple more questions, waiting for Nagisa to finish his cleaning duties. Noticing that it was just you and Karma in the room, you looked up at him, raising a brow accusingly. "What, you going to make fun of me again?"
"No," Karma drawled out, sliding his chair over to sit with you. "I wanna help. These are all wrong." He felt a bit bad when you immediately deflated, blinking in shock as you tried to figure out how everything was wrong. "Look, you missed one small step, but it's math. Nothing is small, so if you miss even one thing the entire thing goes haywire. Remember this part, and then you'll do fine."
"Okay," you nodded, before remembering a question you were struggling with. Quickly flipping to it, you pointed it out to Karma. "I was working on this during lunch, and I could not figure it out. Like I don't understand what it means in b? How am I supposed to do that?"
"Yeah, the wording makes it tricky, but what it really is asking is something similar to what you did here," Karma explained, pointing to another question, one you'd already answered correctly. "There's just a tad bit more detail, which you would explain with that concluding statement. You get that?"
"You're good at this," you grinned, looking up at him.
He shrugged, "I'm good at math."
"Okay, I know this might not be covered on the exam, but I was looking further and I saw this concept... I think I sort of get it but"-
"Explain it to me then," Karma interrupted you, leaning back in his chair. "What you think you know." You nodded, and did as he asked. He helped you fill in the gaps.
You had sort of gotten lost in the discussion with Karma. Asking him questions, studying with him, having him correct you; all those things actually worked! You always thought he was a genius that wasn't able to explain how he thought, but he helped you understand everything a bit more.
The conversation was cut short, however, as the classroom door slid open. Both of you lifted your heads up to see... Gakuho Asano. The principal.
"Sir," you stood up, bowing. Karma didn't follow your lead, staying in his seat as he stared back at the Principal who seemed to have his eyes fixed on Karma. A moment later, the man smiled, tilting his head.
"Sorry to interrupt you two students. Studying up for midterms, I see," he commented, glancing at your papers and books. "It's nice to see some dedication in this classroom from gifted students. It was upsetting to see both of you fall this low, with such grades, after all."
You looked down. "Y-Yes sir. We're doing our best."
"Well." At the conniving tone, you lifted your head up to make eye contact with the man who narrowed his eyes at you. "Good luck on your exams," he said, before making his way out.
Well, shit.
"He's one creepy guy, huh?" Karma commented, once the door was slid closed again. As you began packing your things, he looked up at you, confused. "What's up?"
"Nagisa's probably done with cleaning," you muttered. "And my moms' home early today. I should head back."
Karma stood up as well, grabbing his bag off his desk. "Yeah? Wanna stop by a store to get some take out? I'm kinda running out of groceries at home to cook with."
Your phone suddenly started buzzing, making you jump. "Woah," Karma said, noting your more on guard behaviour. "What, creepy principal really freaks you out that much?"
Shaking your head, you told him to be quiet as you answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Come to the main building. As soon as you can."
Karma narrowed his eyes on you as your eyes widened and your breathing seemed to quicken at the person on the other line. He tried grabbing your phone, but you quickly pressed your phone to your chest, keeping it away from him.
"I have to go," you rushed, grabbing your bag. "Let Nagisa know not to wait up, yeah?"
"Who was that?" Karma asked, shoulders tense. "I'm not dropping this, y'know?"
You sighed, about to open the door. "My dad." Looking up at Karma, you smiled brightly. "He's picking me up today! Said he'd treat me to something."
"Oh," he said, his shoulders drooping. "Alright," Karma waved. "Have fun."
May. 29. 2015.
The day after exams, the class was in a gloomy mood. While the results hadn't come in, they were expected, and would not be happily welcomed in the next couple of days. You had pretty much kept your head down the entire time for most of first period, unable to face anyone in the class.
"Y/N," Korosensei chided, fairly half heartedly. "Could you please put some effort into paying attention."
You shook your head, with your head down. Most of the class understood how you felt, and respectfully kept their eyes on their own desks or at Korosensei.
Everyone was gloomy. Disheartened. Felt like failures.
And it was all your fault.
You'd finally lifted your head up once the lunch bell had rang. Karma opened his mouth to talk to you but you were quick to get up and head out of the class. Kayano looked back at Okuda, mouthing, "What's wrong?" Okuda shrugged, shaking her head, as she looked back at the door, where you'd left, leaving the door open.
Korosensei's mood wasn't the best either, but he followed you, closing the door behind him, and letting the students quietly chatter.
"I don't know what she's so upset over," Terasaka spoke up first, acknowledging your reaction. "We're E Class. It was her fault for raising her hopes up."
Karma scowled, about to bite back at Terasaka's words, but Yada stood up. "Hey! We all thought we had a chance here! And we did!"
"Yeah!" Kurahashi added, her voice a little shaky. "It was a surprise attack... you can't blame anyone for being upset over it."
As they spoke to your defense, and began to chat quietly, Karma stood up and left as well. No one was surprised by that; of course he wouldn't want to sit in the gloom of the classroom, where everyone was staying glued to their seats, only talking to those around them.
Karma noticed a creak in the door of the teachers lounge. Smirking to himself, he set his sights on taking something from there, after all it might make the gloomy class more bearable. His hand was about to push the door open when he heard voices from inside and stopped himself.
"Y/N... it isn't your fault that this happened. This school just has a sneaky Principal who will do anything for you all to fall."
Karasuma spoke up as well. "That entire school is praying for your downfall. This surprise attack was something even we didn't see coming; don't beat yourself up over it."
"That's the thing." You balled up your fists, looking straight at the ground. "It is my fault."
"I understand why you'd feel that way"-
You interrupted Korosensei with a shout, surprising both him, Karasuma and Karma as he eavesdropped. "No! It was my fault!" You looked up at Korosensei, shoulders shaking as you fought back tears. "Principal Asano had me take a test at school, and I couldn't- I couldn't say no. He assessed my skills and what I was confident in. It was because of me, that he realized we were prepared. It was because I took that test that he decided to cover new material at the last minute and cause everyone to fail!"
Karasuma shook his head slowly, clearly hesitant to speak as tears were streaming down your face by now. Korosensei handed you a tissue box with one of his tentacles, while he used the other to pat your head.
"Whether you took that test or not," Korosensei said. "That man would've snuck in those questions that we'd never covered. And that is no fault of yours. So, please, do not think of yourself as the reason that your peers are upset."
"But..." You chewed at your lip, holding back tears. Shaking your head, you did your best to smile up at your teachers. "No. It's nothing. Thank you, sirs. I'll head back."
June. 01. 2015.
You did so bad.
You knew you wouldn't do well.
But it was this terrible? Even you didn't think you could do this bad.
Karma's whole show of his grades and teasing Korosensei brought up the entire classes mood, sure, and you did your best to play along to not ruin the mood. But deep down- or really, right on the surface- you couldn't understand the class' optimism.
On cleaning duty that day, after school, you and Terasaka were the ones who had the responsibility. As he grumbled, not doing very well at his job, you scolded him lightly.
"Is it just me," Karma asked, as he stuck behind with Nagisa in the classroom, waiting for you to finish up so you could all head home together. "Or does she still seem upset?"
"I mean," Nagisa commented. "She was in A Class before she got dropped here. I don't think any of us were ever that high up... so don't you think that this hurt her pride more than anyone else?"
Karma shrugged, tilting back in his chair. "I don't know... it just feels like something else."
"Do you wanna go check up on her?" Nagisa asked. "She should be done soon... although, Terasaka might be holding her back." Karma stood up, agreeing. When they'd left the classroom, they were surprised to see Terasaka cleaning alone, grumpily. "Hey Terasaka? Where's Y/N?"
He huffed. "She got called into the teacher's lounge by the octopus. If you're stopping by, tell them to hurry up, yeah?"
The two of them walked over, but the minute Karma heard cries, he held Nagisa back from interrupting. Nagisa looked over at Karma apprehensively, but stayed to listen in.
"I just think-" You hiccuped. "I feel bad. Because I should've only felt upset that I hurt my classmates, right? But I can't stop thinking about myself. How I should've done better, how I could've studied more... and sure, we didn't know the material, but- but Karma did it right? He passed with fantastic marks! He's second in the grade, to Gakushu! I just... I feel so worthless."
"Does this relate to anything with your family?" Korosensei asked. "I do understand that it is a little complicated."
You nodded. "My... my family," you hesitated, continuing. "They're just..."
"Take your time, Y/N, dear. Take a deep breath."
You did as he said, taking a moment before speaking. Korosensei almost teared up at the desperate, lost expression in your eyes. "My family is filled with geniuses, sir. So how come I'm not one? Why am I the one who's always left behind? I mean... I'm glad I'm here now, don't get me wrong. But why can't I be more like my father? Or even my brother?"
Korosensei sighed. "I understand that it feels as if you've been thrown off to the side. That's essentially the entire point of this class. But, just because your family seems to be a certain way to you, doesn't mean that you are leagues below them. You are gifted in your own way. As much as I do appreciate the skill of taking an exam, your grades do not define you the way this school - and your family - may have groomed you to think. Everyone who knows you, knows you're a smart young woman. Of course you fail, that is inevitable. But one thing that sets you apart from many people, is that you have always kept trying. If you fall, you get up again. That isn't something that comes easy for people. Your family may be filled with geniuses and prodigies but once they learn the taste of defeat, and they will, it will be harder for them to stand up. They'll be looking up to you at that point.
And you, if you choose, can help guide them."