"Alright people." Nagisa called the class to order. "The results are in, when I call your name, please come up and take your graded exams. This will also be how I take roll." He glanced at the scores as he handed each student a stack of papers covered in red marks.
He had very mixed emotions when he handed back more and more tests, none of which had a score lower than a seventy five. He was ecstatic that his students did well, but he really didn't want to have to wear a dress to school. When he called Kiya's name, she took her papers and immediately left the room. All of her scores were above a ninety; he was proud of her, since she must have done a lot of independent study to do so well.
When he got to Fumei's tests, he had to stop. He felt like he was going to sob with defeat. She had almost all 100s, except for a 97 in Home Ec. of all things. Looked like he wouldn't be getting any homework from her after all. When she came up to collect her papers she gave him the most self-satisfied smirk he'd ever seen in his life, and he lived with Karma, the king of self-satisfied smirks.
By the time he'd handed back every test, most of the students had compared scores, and they were all looking at him with those creepy smiles. The same ones Nakamura and Karma always wore, and for the same reason.
"Do you need someone to take you dress-shopping, Nagisa-sensei?" Marihara asked. "Because I'd be happy to help you out there."
"No actually," Nagisa sighed heavily. He didn't remember doing that so often before he got this job, but he seemed to be sighing all the time now. "Karma's taking me, because he loves watching me suffer."
"Does that mean he actually did escape, then?" Misono asked. "You said he would, but I was still kinda worried about your friend, I mean he did get kidnapped."
"Yeah, he escaped," Nagisa confirmed. "You remember that?"
"Nagisa-sensei, that was literally yesterday," he said obviously.
"Heh. Oh, before I forget: I need to talk to Kirasaya-san, Shirota-kun, Kurra-kun, Saishuu-kun, and Fumei. Will the five of you please come with me out into the hall real quick?" They followed him out of the classroom.
"So I guess Karma-san ratted us out, huh?" Shirota guessed.
"Uh-huh." Nagisa was not amused. "That was incredibly dangerous, not to mention a completely unnecessary risk. And Kirasaya-san, you promised not to tell anyone, and then you told four people. That's not what 'I won't tell anyone' means!" he scolded.
"I swore them to secrecy first," Kirasaya defended, as though that made things better. "And they don't care, they're not gonna tell anyone."
"That's not the point, Kirasaya-san," Nagisa said. "You betrayed my trust." Kirasaya looked down, ashamed. "That said, I'll try to make this a lesson to you. Firstly, don't take unnecessary risks. Secondly, listen to people who know what they're talking about. And thirdly, don't give your names to your teacher's significant other when they catch you doing something that will get you in trouble. I should think that last one was obvious. Do you understand?"
There were some nods, and a couple "Yes, Nagisa-sensei"s. Then he let them return to the classroom.
He taught a few lessons. Exams were over, and they'd had their day of rest, so Nagisa had decided that it was time to get back into the swing of things. In the spirit of getting back in the swing of things, Fumei fell asleep on her desk, and snoozed through the last two class-periods.
Nagisa decided to leave her. He was still a bit sore about his ignominious defeat when he saw her near-perfect test scores. When the end-of-school bell, and her classmates footsteps as they left the room, failed to wake her, however, he decided he had to. He stepped quietly over to her desk and poked her on the back of her shoulder. The moment he did, she snapped awake and fell out of her chair, onto the floor looking absolutely terrified.
Fumei had been peacefully sleeping, then, with absolutely no warning, she was violently stabbed through the back of her shoulder. She fell out of her chair as she woke up, and looked frantically around the room for her attacker. Suddenly, the pain dissolved, and she stared in utter horror up at Nagisa-sensei, who stood over her with his index finger extended.
He poked me?? She was panting and her glasses had fallen off, so he could see the fear and incomprehension in her widened, cloud-grey eyes.
"Are you okay Fumei?" he asked, concerned.
She didn't answer. Instead, she snatched her sunglasses, and her school bag, and raced out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her. It took her mere seconds to get out of the building, then she got her bike and rode as fast as she could, not paying any attention to where she was headed. She felt panic overpowering her mind and body, and she couldn't think straight, which was a completely new feeling for her. All she knew was that she had to get as far as possible away from her teacher.
When she finally stopped, she found that she was in front of the condemned building where Karma had been held captive the previous day. Still not really able to think clearly, she abandoned her bike by the shrubs and went in. It appeared that the kidnappers had already cleared out after their massive failure yesterday, so she was alone. Trembling and breathing erratically, she collapsed against the wall farthest from the door and hugged her knees to her chest.
Figuring she must've had a bad dream, and just wanted some space, Nagisa didn't try to catch up with her. He locked up the classroom, and walked home. An hour or so later, Karma arrived and they sat close together, snuggled up doing work on their computers until Nagisa's phone rang.
"Hello?" Nagisa answered.
"Hello, is this Nagisa-sensei? Fumei's teacher?" asked a worried sounding woman on the other end of the line.
"Yes, this is he," Nagisa confirmed.
"This is Fumei's aunt," the woman told him. "She was at school today, wasn't she?"
"Yes." Nagisa's eyebrows furrowed. "Why, is something wrong?"
"She hasn't come home yet." Her voice was growing more upset by the moment. "She hasn't contacted me to say that she was going to a friend's house, or going out someplace, and she always tells me these things. I called Kirasaya-chan, and she has no idea. It's been hours. You don't happen to know where she may have gone, do you?"
"No, but I'll help you look for her." Nagisa said.
"Thank you so much." Fumei's aunt said hysterically. "I just hope nothing terrible has happened to her."
"Don't worry, we'll find her." Nagisa hung up, then went to grab his coat and put on his shoes.
"What's up Nagisa?" Karma asked, putting down his computer as well.
"That was Fumei's aunt." Nagisa explained. "Apparently Fumei's gone missing, I'm going out to look for her."
"I'll help." Karma stood up and grabbed his own jacket. "I've met her, so I'll know her when I see her. We can split up and search twice as fast."
"Thank you Karma." Nagisa planted a quick kiss on his cheek before rushing out the door and heading in the direction of the school, figuring that as good a place to start as any.
Karma slipped his shoes on, and headed in a different direction. It was a long-shot, but he had an idea of where she may have gone. A place most people wouldn't dare to look for her. After several minutes of running, Karma reached his destination, a little short of breath, but no worse for wear. That's where he was pleasantly surprised upon seeing a bike, leaning against a bush, unattended, right in front of the old condemned building where he had met the girl.
With a triumphant smirk, he opened the front door and sauntered in. With a minimal amount of looking, he found the missing girl, hugging her knees to her chest, sunglasses folded and placed next to her, and her long dark hair cascading around her as she trembled like a chihuahua, her expression horrified. She heard his footsteps, and her head snapped up.
"K-Karma?" She stuttered incredulously.
"Hello Fumei." Karma responded. It seemed that no one used honorifics with her, and she didn't seem to use them much either. "Are you alright? You're shaking?" She didn't answer. "What's bothering you?"
"Variables." She took a shaky breath. "No. More like incalculables, actually."
"What do you mean?" Karma slowly sat down next to her.
"Something I can't adjust for," she attempted to clarify, still in a panic. "Something so irrational, and so unexpected, and unexplainable, that I can't factor it in, and it's throwing off all my figures."
"I know what an incalculable is," Karma said gently. "What is the variable exactly?"
"... Nagisa-sensei." Fumei whispered after a moment, her voice even shakier, if that was possible.
"You're going to have to be more specific." He chuckled softly.
"He stabbed me," her voice was getting louder, but more panicked.
"He stabbed you?" Karma was clearly skeptical, but he didn't react to her change in mood, and remained calm.
"He stabbed me," Fumei's voice dropped back to a whisper. "It was only with his finger, but it felt like I'd been run through with a knife. I'm sorry, I know that sounds crazy, but I—"
"It's not crazy." Karma said seriously, not looking at her.
"What?" she asked weakly.
"I know exactly what you're talking about." He looked straight ahead. "I've felt it before, back in middle school. I was so confused and freaked out by it, I hardly talked to Nagisa at all, for months. So yeah, it's not crazy. And I actually get why you've been sitting here having a panic attack for the last couple hours."
"What is it?" Fumei asked, not sure if she even wanted to know the answer.
"It's Nagisa's bloodlust," he answered calmly.
"His what‽" she practically screamed.
"It's gotten a lot stronger since middle school, but he's gotten a lot better at controlling it, too." Karma explained. "Sometimes, though, he forgets, and it slips out. Sorry."
"'Sorry?'" She practically yelled. "I thought bloodlust was just a concept, I didn't realize it could actually do..." she struggled to come up with a word. "That!" Karma just laughed at her outburst. "You're insane, you're completely insane. You can go, I'll just hide here until they collapse this building on top of me because people with that amount of bloodlust not only exist, but are fucking teachers!" She pulled her knees in even closer and hid her face in them.
"Wow, that's the first time you've cursed this whole conversation." Karma commented, ignoring her request for him to leave. "I only met you briefly, but I pegged you for the type who uses profanity constantly." Fumei said nothing.
"Did you know I'm taking Nagisa dress-shopping after work tomorrow?" Karma was trying to make small talk to calm her down. "Got any suggestions? Generally he looks good in red, although I guess I'm biased since I think Nagisa looks good in anything." She still didn't respond.
"You're really gonna drag this out, huh?" Karma sighed. "How about I tell you some embarrassing stories about Nagisa? Maybe then he won't freak you out so much. Yeah?" She didn't say anything, but he saw her tilt her head slightly.
"He had long hair up until he started college because his mom wouldn't let him cut it, so he looked even more like a girl." Karma started. "Once, back in middle-school, we made him wear a dress to get into a party with the rest of the girls in the class, and he got hit on by the son of some TV announcer. I still have pictures actually, wanna see?" Fumei was actually starting to calm down a little, and she lifted her head a bit when Karma took out his phone.
Karma showed Fumei the screen. On it, there was a picture of a girl who was probably in middle-school. Her light blue hair was in pigtails, and she wore an off-the-shoulder dress with a black bodice and a red plaid skirt as well as a black choker and cuff around her wrist. She was blushing furiously, tugging at the hem of her skirt, probably thinking it was too short, and she looked like she was yelling at the photographer.
"Wait..." Fumei stared. "That's Nagisa-sensei‽ He's adorable! Shit, he really did look like a girl. I mean he still does, but wow!"
"Right!" Karma enthusiastically agreed. "This picture was my background for a long time. Anyway, he turned the poor guy down, lucky for me, but a few weeks later, he found Nagisa again. He came to the school festival, which we were doing a restaurant for, and Nakamura made Nagisa wear the skirt from her uniform and go talk with the guy in the hopes of making money off him. It actually worked for a while, until Nagisa told the poor kid he wasn't a girl. The look on his face was priceless."
Karma laughed, and Fumei chuckled a bit too. "They parted on good terms, though. Turned out he was a well-known food blogger. He gave our restaurant a glowing review, and we had so many customers the next day we had to close early." There was another long pause.
"We started dating our third year of high-school." Karma started a different story, since it was obviously helping Fumei calm down. "My school got shut down, and I transferred to his. Even seeing him every day again, it took what felt like forever before I finally asked him out; he got so flustered. He turned me down at first, but he gave in after a couple weeks of asking. Actually, guys asked him out all the time that year, and not just me, either.
"There was a pool going in Nagisa's class. They would go to underclassmen and say, 'I dare you to ask that third year girl out,' and point to Nagisa. And of course he looked like a girl, and he still had long hair, and he was adorable, and so a lot of them would do it. And for every person they got to do it, they earned a point, and they kept track of which students had how many points; it was pretty elaborate.
"So all year, these first and second year boys would go up and ask him on a date, and he'd have to explain to them that he was a guy. Sometimes, he even had to unbutton his shirt to prove it to them. It annoyed the living hell out of him, and he was pissed when he found out what his classmates were doing."
Fumei laughed. "Yeah, I'd be pissed too in his position."
"Yeah." Karma smiled. "Hey, you're all unfolded, you feeling better?"
Fumei realized that he was right. At some point, her legs had moved away from her and were sprawled out on the floor. Her breathing was steady, and no longer ragged, and she had stopped trembling. "I guess I am, thank you Karma."
"You should call your aunt," he suggested, standing up. "She's worrying her ass off about you." He held out a hand and helped her to her feet.
"You're right." She picked up her sunglasses and her school bag, then dug out her phone and turned it on.
36 missed calls from: Aunt Mae
4 missed calls from: Bakakemi
17 unread messages from: It's Snow
6 unread messages from: Last
12 unread messages from: Aunt Mae
2 unread messages from: Snow King
71 unread messages from: Bakakemi
"Jeez Akemi," Fumei muttered as she looked at the notifications on her lock screen. She tapped the message notification from her aunt.
To: Aunt Mae
I'm sorry I worried you. I'm on my way home now.
The response came almost instantly.
From: Aunt Mae
thank god! are you okay?
From: Aunt Mae
did someone find you? where were you?
To: Aunt Mae
I'm fine. Nagisa-sensei's roommate found me. I'll be home really soon.
From: Aunt Mae
be sure to tell them thank you. and give them a big hug from me.
To: Aunt Mae
Yeah, fine.
Fumei turned to Karma. "My aunt says to give you a hug, but I don't like hugs, so..." she bowed deeply to Karma. It was something she almost never did. She disliked traditions and formalities, but she felt that he was deserving. "Thank you again." Fumei hated people, but even in the short time they had been talking, she'd grown somewhat fond of Karma.
"It's no problem," he assured her. "Now get going. I know for a fact that Nagisa assigned homework, and if you don't leave now, you're not going to have time to do it."
Fumei scoffed, then waved goodbye as she left the old building and rode her bike to the little broken-down house that she lived in with her Aunt Mae and Uncle Ed, who were actually her third-or-fourth cousins, but aunt and uncle were easier to say.
"Thank goodness you're back!" Aunt Mae gathered her up in a hug, and she tensed with discomfort, luckily it didn't last long. "If you'd've been gone much longer, I'd've had to call Ed. But I didn't want to worry him if I didn't have to, you know how he gets."
Uncle Ed was from Texas, and that's where Mae had met him, when she was studying abroad. They moved to Japan after they got married to take care of Fumei when her parents died, but his Japanese was a bit broken, so they spoke English at home. Texan English to be precise, which had a strange accent, and a lot of contractions, and quite a bit of cussing sometimes, too.
"Yeah, Sorry Aunt Mae," Fumei apologized. "It won't happen again."
"It had better not!" Aunt Mae scolded. "Now do your homework, and make sure your friends know you're okay, I'll have dinner ready soon." Fumei nodded and went to her room.
It was very small, and there was a crack in the window, but it was cozy, and it was home. She changed, then pulled out her phone again and clicked on the message notification for Shirota.
To: Its's Snow
'Sup?
She moved onto the next one, from Saishuu.
To: Last
Hey, Saishuu, I'm fine, and back home, no need to worry. I'll see you at school tomorrow.
Next she clicked Kurra's.
To: Snow King
2 messages‽ WTF bitch, I was gone for 4 whole hrs!
Finally, She clicked on the one from Akemi, which had gone up since the last time she checked.
To: Bakakemi
Holy shit! 78 messages‽ What the hell! I was only gone for 4 hrs. Way to overreact.
From: Bakakemi
Srsly? No 1 new where u were 4 4 hrs Bitch-chan! and u r mad i cared that my bff dropped of the face of th earth?!
To: Bakakemi
Bitch-/san/ if you please.
To: Bakakemi
And chill. I'm fine. But there's no way in hell I'm reading 78 messages of your god awful text speak. I'll see you tomorrow.
From: Bakakemi
Whatever. C u 2mrw.
She sighed. The guys had all texted her back.
From: Snow King
Y do I text u at all? We rn't even rly friends.
From: Last
I'm glad your ok.
From: It's Snow
Youve been gone for four fucking hours and all you say is sup What the fuck Fumei I was worried about you Where the hell did you go What the fuck happened to you Why would you scare me like that
Shirota's response surprised her, and not because of the distinct lack of punctuation.
To: It's Snow
I'm perfectly fine. Something happened that spooked me and I needed some space, but I'm home safe now. I didn't realize you cared so much.
From: It's Snow
Of course I care Not that youd understand how that feels you apathetic fuck
Fumei didn't know how to respond to that, so she didn't. She'd see them all at school the next day anyway. She plugged her phone in on her desk, and went to set the table for two since Uncle Ed was out of town on business until the weekend.
[So there you go. Good, long chapter. End of arc one, plus preemptive narrator switch to the one for arc two. Hope you enjoyed the whole arc at once, because it'll probably be quite a wait before I finish arc two. (Although I'll probably publish an in-between chapter or two (probably more Karmagisa centric ones) if I think that it's taking too long.) Also, if and when I do finish arc two would y'all prefer it if I published it...
1) all at once like I did for this arc.
OR
2) one chapter every few days like a normal WattPad-er.
Vote now, in the comments. Love y'all.
<3 Raaor!]