"Up and at 'em everybody!" Karma shouted to anyone who wasn't already out of their tents. "We've got pancakes ready, come and get it!"
"Ugh, what time is it?" Marihara groaned, pushing herself up. Her long, cranberry hair was a gnarled mess, and it stuck to her face where she had slept on it until she ran her fingers through it absently. She poked her head out of the tent to check the clock on the side of the schoolhouse, but without her glasses on, she couldn't read it. "Too fudgin' early, that's what time it is."
"It's almost nine," Hinata teased as he walked past the girls' tent, still in his pajamas. "And did you just say 'fudging'? What are you a mild-mannered grandmother?"
"Oh eat me," Marihara said grouchily as she withdrew back into the tent and buried her face once more in her pillow.
"Kinky. I'm gonna have to pass this time, though," Hinata responded without missing a beat, and Marihara stuck her hand out of the tent to flip him off in kind.
"Get a room you two," Sujimura said, rolling her eyes as she left the tent herself, hair and makeup already immaculate, as she'd woken up nearly two hours before to start her beauty routine, much to the annoyance of many of the other girls.
"I will literally murder you in your sleep for that insolent suggestion," Marihara drawled, her voice muffled slightly with lethargy.
"Entertaining as this is, I think that's enough kiddos," Karma said with a smirk. "If you want breakfast you have to get up and get it now because otherwise you're SOL."
"What's SOL?" inquired Misono.
"Shit outta luck," Karma and Fumei answered immediately, both being familiar with the American phrase.
"Hey Karma, can you not cuss out my students please?" Nagisa said sweetly, though it was clearly an order, not a request.
"It's only nine am, and they're already threatening murder, making lewd comments, and cussing each other out just fine," Karma pointed out, expression decidedly skeptical. "I don't think I'm making much of a difference at all."
"You can't really argue with that, Nagisa-sensei," agreed Saishuu with a shrug.
"See!" Karma grinned, patting Saishuu on the shoulder. "This kid knows what I'm talking about!" Nagisa merely sighed and shook his head.
"Alright class eat up," Nagisa said above the noise of sleepy teenagers. "We've got a plan today, so once you've eaten get ready. We'll be doing a lot more physical and active stuff, so keep that in mind, and don't wear jeans." A few of the less athletic students groaned, but others were thrilled by the news.
After a hearty breakfast, and a few extra minutes of ablutions and preparations, the students were gathered in the sandy clearing outside of the school building in loose fitting clothes and tennis shoes. Karma and Nagisa stood before them looking pleased.
"I trust you all brought your knives," Nagisa said, at which many students drew the fake weapons from various places on their person. "Good, because this morning, you'll all be doing some sparring. Pair up everyone!" The students all found partners pretty quickly, except Kiya, who stood back and watched the others with a blank face.
"You're not going to find a partner Kiya-san?" Nagisa asked her when he noticed this.
"We have an odd number, we can't split into pairs evenly," Kiya explained, not making eye contact. "Besides, I don't really know anyone that well."
"I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that you've come to class a grand total of three times so far this year. Four if you count the day you showed up only until you got your tests back and then left."
"Touché," Kiya admitted.
"Would you like me to assign you to a group?" Nagisa offered. "It won't kill you to make a friend or two, you know."
"You mean in a classroom full of assassins, making a friend won't kill me?" she said pointedly. "I do have one friend."
"You mean whoever gives you the homework every day?" the teacher guessed. "Who is it anyway?" She didn't answer.
"I really don't understand why no one will tell me," Nagisa groused. "I mean it's not like I'm going to get them in trouble for helping their classmate not fail." Kiya remained silent. "I'll put you with Asui-san and Satori-san, does that work?"
"Okay..." Kiya scanned the group of her classmates, who had already started sparring. "Which ones are they?"
"Asui-san is the girl with the pale pink hair and the paperclip jewelry," Nagisa said with a sigh, pointing her out. "Satori-san is the one with bright green hair and yellow dress."
"The one who looks a bit like a squash?" Kiya asked.
"That's not very nice, Kiya-san," Nagisa scolded seriously. "You should learn to recognize your classmates. Solitude isn't always necessarily an advantage." Kiya huffed slightly, and flicked her tongue across her lips briefly before making her way to the two girls Nagisa had assigned her to.
"Hello, I'm Kiya-san," she introduced herself to them stoically, and the two girls stopped sparring to look at her quizzically.
"Yeah, we know who you are," Asui said, half laughing at the absurdity. "Do you know who we are?"
"Not until moments ago," Kiya said, then continued before embarrassment could overtake her. "Nagisa-sensei assigned me to your group for sparring."
"So that's why you would deign to associate with us lowly peasants," Asui inferred sarcastically. "We're honored, I'm sure."
"I'm sorry if you feel that way," Kiya said, still not meeting anyone's eyes. "I'm not very good around people."
"Whatever." Asui shrugged. "I've kinda been waiting for a chance to fight you, so this works out." She turned to the other girl. "Mind if I take first crack at her, Hina-chan?"
"Go ahead," Satori consented softly, speaking for the first time since Kiya arrived.
Asui had no trouble matching Kiya's speed, or vice-versa, but she didn't really have the strength to do much damage to Kiya. When it was Satori's turn, she had the opposite problem. She was strong enough to return Kiya's attacks, and even bock a few, but not quite fast enough to keep up for long. Even so, Kiya was actually a bit surprised at how well the other girls worked her over, and she was definitely feeling it by the time Nagisa-sensei called a break.
"Alright, now that you're all warmed up, each group is going to take a crack at Karma!" Nagisa announced, and his friend looked at him, eyes wide.
"Sorry, what?" Karma asked. "I didn't agree to this."
"Oh Please," Nagisa rolled his eyes. "You've been wanting to fight them since we started. You're not doing a very good job of hiding it. Try not to break any bones."
"Alright, fair enough," Karma admitted.
"You'll be attacking him in your groups," Nagisa explained to his students. "You can keep practicing until I tell your group to go if you'd like, or you can rest for a bit. Any questions?" Hinata raised a hand. "Yes, Hinata-kun?"
"What exactly is our goal when we attack him?" Hinata asked.
"If you can land a hit on him," Nagisa and Karma side-eyed each other and smirked conspiratorially. "You get an 'A' for the rest of the trip. Pro tip: try to surprise him. Anything else?" Nothing. "Then plan your assassination strategies, let's get started, shall we?" Karma tossed his jacket to the side and cracked his knuckles in anticipation, amber eyes agleam.
"Hey guys, I think I have a plan," Kiya said to her teammates. "It's pretty simple, but I think it has the greatest chance of success."
"Ok, what is it?" Asui prompted.
"Asui-san, you and I will keep his attention," Kiya explained. "Mostly we just dodge. All the other groups have only two people, which means he probably won't be expecting a third. So, Satori-san, you sneak up behind him, as quietly as possible, and take a stab at him."
"Fake him out and take advantage of our extra number, huh?" Asui nodded approvingly "I like it. But what do you think, Satori-chan? You up for it?" Satori gave a determined nod.
"It's settled then," Kiya said. "What should we do until it's our turn? Spar some more?"
"I'm more inclined toward the 'rest up a bit' idea," Asui contradicted, shifting her weight uncomfortably. "I'm not all that great with endurance, so I'm already kinda tired out. It would be best, for me at least, to pool all my strength together for the main event if you catch my drift."
"Alright, let's watch the others then," Kiya suggested. So that's what they did. The first group was Hinata and Ippantekina, and to no one's surprise, they tried to attack Karma head on, and were deftly knocked on their asses as a result.
Next up was Ken and Katsura, who really didn't stand a chance at all against the much more powerful man. Kirasaya and Shirota went next, attacking Karma from both sides at once with all their combined strength, Karma blocked and dodged, and after a few moments managed to knock Shirota off balance and into Kirasaya.
After that came Fukara and Marihara, neither of whom were all that athletic, but both were quite smart, and perceptive. They went for even the slightest chinks in Karma's defense, but were still soundly defeated. Then, finally, it was time for Kiya's group to shine.
The first part of their plan went flawlessly. Kiya and Asui approached alone, and dodged Karma's attacks as best they could, though there were a few close calls. They kept their eyes on the more experienced fighter as Satori approached from behind, to keep his attention away from her.
Before Satori could deliver the blow, however, nerves got the better of her, and she tripped over seemingly nothing at all. Karma heard her, and took advantage of her poor footing to kick her feet out from under her and make her fall to the ground, her teammates following not long after, distracted trying to see if she was okay.
The Ryouma twins went afterwards, and held their own for much longer than any of the other groups, but didn't even come close to landing a hit on the scarlet-haired assassin.
Misono and Ushiwara tried a similar tactic to Kiya's team, with Misono drawing attention away like a champ, even taking a couple of hits, but refusing to go down while Ushiwara snuck up from behind with near-impossible silence. Karma was on guard against a second attacker, though, and so when Ushiwara made his move, Karma was able to divert the boy's momentum into his teammate, taking them both down at once.
Sujimura and Mirikitani hardly seemed to try at all. It was like they had given up after the failures of everyone before them. Mirikitani threw a weak punch, and Sujimura tried in vain to distract Karma with flirtation, and they were both pushed back with almost no effort at all on Karma's part.
True to his name, as he often was, Saishuu went last with Fumei. There was an audible cry of "fuck it," from both students, right before they ran in, metaphorical guns blazing. Fumei reached Karma first, and had surprisingly little trouble dodging his first blow, but she had to back away from him. By that time, Saishuu had gotten there, and Karma deflected him, tossing him to the ground, then turned to Fumei who was coming in for her second attempt.
When next Karma blocked Fumei's attack, she grabbed as tightly as she could to Karma's arm, but she was very short, scarcely up to the man's chest, and extremely lightweight as well, so Karma simply lifted her off the ground with one arm and started shaking her like a rag doll as she clung uselessly to his arm.
Suddenly, Karma felt a sinister presence at his back that made him gasp and swung blindly with his free hand, catching Saishuu in the jaw, who was apparently the source of that eldritch aura. He recognized it as bloodlust, somewhat similar to Nagisa's, but as he looked at the boy now, he didn't notice even a trace of it on him. Of course, the assassin's most precious tool is best when carried concealed.
Karma peeled Fumei off of him like a barcode off a book, and flung her aside as gently as one can fling anything. That was it. None of the students had succeeded on landing a single hit, though a few had come fairly close.
This must've been how Mr. Karasuma felt. Impressed, but also smug and superior. Actually, probably not, Karma thought. Mr. Karasuma isn't exactly the smug and superior type.
[Finally, a chapter of decent length. I was starting to think they had gone extinct. Love y'all.
<3 Raaor!]