[Just a heads up: most of the students' names are just mix and match ones that I took from other anime, so if you recognize them that's why. No, this is not a crossover. I just didn't want to come up with twenty+ brand new names without any real knowledge of what's common or uncommon in Japan.]
The students of Paradise High School's class 3-5 all stared in stunned silence at their new teacher-in-training as he stood by his horribly vandalized desk, one hand on the roll book, the other on his hip. He smiled casually at them, somehow both cheerful, and bone-chilling.
Then he started to call roll, and the thought at the forefront of every mind was: What the hell kind of teacher is this‽
"Yuri Asui." He began calling their names one by one. Each time a name was called, the student would respond with 'here', too stupefied to object, to say or do anything else. "Kida Fukara, Mahiru Hinata, Harushi Ippantekina, Rin Katsura, Shouto Ken, Akemi Kirasaya, Aiko Kiya, Yoha Kurra, Asuna Marihara, Riku Mirikitani, Kyo Misono, Fuyu Ryouma, Natsu Ryouma, Hinami Satori, Yukine Shirota, Yuna Sujimura, Fumei Tsuyo, Chikara Ushiwara, Kaito Yatoni, Saishuu Yukki.
"Good, everyone's here."
Nagisa turned his back on the class and erased the obscenities written on the chalkboard to write his name in neat, white characters.
"I am Nagisa Shiota," he introduced, "but I prefer people to use my given name, so you may call me Nagisa-sensei. Are there any questions before we begin?" A single shaky, curious hand went up. "Yes mister..."
"Misono... er... Nagisa-sensei..." supplied the wavering voice of a boy who had tiny braids in his scruffy purple hair, and spikes in his ears.
"What was your question Misono?" Nagisa asked politely.
"Well..." he struggled to get the words out. "I think we're... all probably wondering... what was that you just did? And what did you mean by 'you have until graduation'?"
"What I meant," Nagisa attempted to clarify, "is that you have until graduation to kill me. You may make as many attempts as you like, and if you succeed, I'll make sure you all automatically graduate. Though hopefully you'll be able to graduate with the help my teaching and not just by killing me. Otherwise it would be a serious failure on my part."
Most of the students were too taken aback by what he had said to take notice of what he hadn't. And even the few who did notice that he'd avoided answering Misono's first question were too afraid to push it, despite their curiosity. What was he keeping from them? What had he done, and how how had he done it?
"What do you mean 'kill'?" asked Kiya, a girl with choppy black hair and sharp, winged, lavender eyes that shone with interest. Her tongue flicked over her lips absently. "You don't mean literally, do you?" Nagisa considered her question for a moment.
"No," he decided. "I doubt the school would approve of that, and—" he cut himself off just before he said something he evidently didn't want the students to know. "Well, let's just say there's someone who would be pretty pissed off at me if I told you to actually try to kill me.
"So how about this: if you put me in a position where I wouldn't be able to stop you from killing me if you actually wanted to, you pass. The student or students directly responsible will get an automatic 'A', but, like I said, you can try as many times as you want, so other students can succeed, and get the grade, even if they're not the first."
He crossed his arms over his stomach, chalk still in hand, pleased with the conditions he'd managed to put together without time to think of them in advance.
"Deal?"
There was some slow nodding, hesitant agreement among the students. Clearly he was insane—that was pretty much a given—but most of them thought it was a pretty good deal. 'Kill' the teacher and get an automatic 'A'. There was really no losing for them.
A few had reservations about a teacher who would encourage murder, but those reservations quickly fell to the wayside when they weighed the risk vs. reward of the situation.
The offer was really too appealing for a class of students who resented teachers as a group—for giving up on them, for condescending to them, for showing nothing but disdain and disappointment toward them—to pass up.
"So all we have to do is 'kill' you and we get a 'get out of school free' card?" The monotone question came from Yatoni, a boy who smelled like gasoline, with a dark undercut and a perpetually blank expression, looking for confirmation.
As soon as Nagisa-sensei nodded, flashing his all-too-unsettling smile, Yatoni shot a rubber-band from his finger. It sailed through the air towards Nagisa, and would have hit him right in the face, had he not caught it. The rubber-band was clasped in Nagisa's closed fist before they even saw his arm move, and all he did was shake his head.
"A rubber-band is not a lethal weapon," Nagisa chided. "And if you shoot someone from the front, it shouldn't be from so far away, especially with low velocity ammo. It's always better to snipe from behind, or from a place your target can't see you. Catch them unawares and take them out before they know what hit them."
Nagisa wrapped the rubber-band around his hand, hooked it on his finger, aimed it at Yatoni, and let it fly right back in one swift motion, hitting his student between the eyebrows with enough force to create a small red mark.
Yatoni's face scrunched up and his shoulders shot up to his ears before he went completely stiff.
The class stared in amazement, glancing back and forth between Yatoni and Nagisa, as Yatoni took a deep breath and shook his hands, his shoulders slowly sinking down. He picked up the rubber band and twisted it around his fingers, snapping it a few times. That seemed to bring him back around.
One student, a girl named Kirasaya who wore a long white ribbon in her hair around her tarnished-silver half bun, and beaded bracelets on her wrist, was particularly curious about her new teacher. She had questions.
Who was it that would be pissed at him if he told them to try and kill him? A parent? A sibling? A wife, maybe. He didn't look nearly old enough to be married, so maybe a girlfriend, but then again, he had to be older than he looked. How did he know so much about killing people? What had he done to Ippantekina to make him freeze like that? Where did he learn these things? What even was he?
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from blurting out her questions. The opportunity would come along soon enough. Eventually, she'd get her answers.
After that, Nagisa insisted on going around the classroom for introductions. It felt a bit juvenile, especially since the students all knew each other from around school in the previous two years. But on the other hand, none of them had ever had a teacher care enough to try to learn all their names on the first day, let alone things like their favorite colors and foods, and what they liked to do in their free time.
The students left that day with very mixed feelings, and an overarching wariness about the strange person now teaching their class.
But Nagisa felt like he knew them well enough to start, and he looked forward to learning from them as much as he hoped they would learn from him. He wasn't sure if he was entirely ready to teach them all, if he could get through to most of them, especially the more stubborn or jaded ones, but he was certainly ready to try.
[In case y'all're confused, here's a list of the students and their genders. (List is subject to change.)
*First Last (gender)*
Yuri Asui (female)
Kida Fukara (male)
Mahiru Hinata (male)
Harushi Ippantekina (male)
Rin Katsura (female)
Shouto Ken (male)
Akemi Kirasaya (female)
Aiko Kiya (female)
Yoha Kurra (male)
Asuna Marihara (female)
Riku Mirikitani (male)
Kyo Misono (male)
Fuyu Ryouma (male)
Natsu Ryouma (female)
Hinami Satori (female)
Yukine Shirota (male)
Yuna Sujimura (female)
Fumei Tsuyo (female)
Chikara Ushiwara (male)
Kaito Yatoni (male)
Saishuu Yukki (male)
You'll learn more about them as the story goes on.
I don't expect you to memorize this list. I included a list so you don't have to memorize it. It's for you to screenshot or refer back to when you're confused.
Originally I put the last name first, like they do in Japan, but honestly, I just got sick of doing that. I don't live in Japan. Most of y'all probably don't either. I'm obviously not writing this in Japanese; I'm writing in English so I'm doing it the English way. Also as I re-write, I'm taking out most of the honorifics for the same reason.
The last major change I made was changing Kurra's first name from Yukio to Yoha, since I thought three students with 'yuki' in their name was too many. I'm revising this series chapter by chapter, so you may notice it mentioned as Yukio in later chapters, but that's just because I haven't gotten to them yet.
Love y'all.
<3 Raaor!]