Karma's P.O.V.
I munched on a strawberry Pocky stick as I walked up the hill to the off campus location that 3-E had their classes at.
Semi lost in thought as I ate my snack, I didn't hear the person come up behind me until they grabbed onto my arm suddenly.
Reacting without thinking, I grabbed them and flipped them over my shoulder, the same move Shuu had used on me last night.
But this person wasn't prepared at all for my attack and instead of landing on their feet gracefully like I did, they let out a pained, "Oof...ow..." when they hit the ground.
I came to my senses when I recognized the blue hair.
"Jeez, Nagisa. You know better than to sneak up on me like that." I said, lowering a hand to help him up.
"Yeah but you went overboard, Karma-kun." He complained, rubbing his head. "Why are you so jumpy?"
"Sorry." I said simply.
He walked beside me as we approached the old campus.
"Where's your jacket, Karma-kun?" He asked me.
"In the wash." I lied.
"That's odd, what's he doing here?" Nagisa didn't pay much to my answer as we arrived in the clearing in front of the school.
I was surprised too, when I saw what he was talking about.
Asano, the better one, was standing in front of the steps to the school.
A couple of our classmates were surrounding him, jeering at him and giving him a hard time.
"What are you doing here, principals pet?" Terasaka growled, his arms crossed. "Not satisfied to make fun of us back at the main campus, you had to come see how much of a dump this place was in person?"
"I thought you were smart, Asano." Itona said, monotonal. "Why would you come to a place where we all hate you?"
I had to give Asano credit, he didn't seem affected at all by the insults and taunts being thrown at him.
I walked over. "Hey, give the guy a break. I don't hate him."
Everyone stopped and stared at me.
"Karma, you're joking right?" Maehara asked, his voice soft. "Out of all of us, shouldn't you be the one to hate him the most?"
"Why?" I asked, giving them all each a stern gaze.
Everyone looked away uncomfortably, no one could give me an answer.
The bell rang then, and most of them seemed relieved to use it as an excuse to run inside.
Asano stepped up to me, and I saw he was holding a wrapped box. His face was emotionless as he held it out to me. "Here."
I smiled, placing a hand over my heart. "Aw, Shuu, you shuu-den't have!"
He scowled, and I saw a light blush bloom across his cheeks. "Just take it, baka."
I did, accepting it with both hands.
It looked like he wanted to say more, but he cast a side look at Nagisa, who was staring at him with big blue eyes.
"Nagisa, why don't you run in and tell professor bitch I'm going to be a little late, I just need to talk to Asano for a second." I said cheerfully.
"Uh, sure Karma." he said, clearly confused and wanting an explanation. But I just gave him a blank smile until he finally ran inside with the rest of my classmates.
Asano let out an annoyed sigh as soon as we were alone. "I hate your classmates."
"They hate you too." I opened the lid of the box, and was surprised to see my jacket and scarf had been washed and folded neatly.
"I forgot to give them back last night...so...my apologies." He mumbled, bowing slightly with his hands at his sides.
"I would have preferred chocolates, Shuu," I said, closing the box. "It's almost Valentine's Day, you know."
He scowled at me, his striking violet eyes shining in the sunlight. "I needed to talk to you as well."
"I gave you my phone number," I reminded him, setting the box on my side and holding it in place with my arm.
"I needed to talk to you in person." He said, stepping closer.
We were less than an inch apart. He was to my side, and his breath tickled my hair as he whispered into my ear. "Someone from the main campus went missing last night."
My eyes widened and I pretended it wasn't from him being so close. "What? Who? Why?"
"You don't know him, Miyoko Yukino. A second year student. Apparently he had won a writing contest, along with a few others, and was supposed to meet everyone this morning at the buses for a two day trip as the prize for the contest but he never showed up. I overheard my father talking about it this morning. They're trying to cover it up so it doesn't get out to the public." He said softly.
His hair smelled like oranges.
"That's horrible, but what does it have to do with me or us?" I asked.
"He went missing in the woods. Just a few feet away from the tunnel." He said, gazing at me with his striking eyes.
My heart dropped to the ground.
"The beast..." I whispered.
He nodded solemnly. "I haven't told anyone about this, and you can't either or they might suspect you in some kind of foul play." He said.
I smirked. "Shuu, I'm always being suspected of foul play."
He glared at me, and I was struck by how ferocious his stare was. "I'm serious, Akabane. You can't get into any trouble for a while. There's too much going on for you to get suspended again."
I laid a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down Shuu, I won't do anything stupid."
"That'll be a day to mark down in the history books." He muttered.
I glanced down and saw a red mark on his otherwise pale hand.
I reached down and grabbed his hand, holding it up for closer inspection. "What happened?"
He snatched his hand back before I could take a good look. "Nothing, none of your business."
"Damn, sorry for being concerned," I snapped.
He just held his hand and glared.
"I'm late for class, so unless you got anything else to say, get out of my way, Asano." I said, glowering.
He seemed surprised to hear me call him that, but he regained his composure. "See you later. Akabane."
He started walking down the hill, and I watched him go.
I didn't want to leave on awkward terms, but I was already standing out by talking to him and defending him in front of my classmates. If I ran after him now, I'm sure Nakamura would jump to conclusions and say we were a couple or something.
So instead I shook my head to get my frustrations out and marched inside.
As expected, everyone stared at me as I walked to my seat in the back.
I knew they had all watched my meeting with Orange, but I acted like I didn't care and took my seat.
"Ah...well, back to conjunctions." Professor Bitch said, holding up a book.
Gradually the class faced the front again and started to pay attention to the lecture, but I turned my gaze to the window.
I couldn't see Shuu anymore. I would have to text him later. Strange things were going on, we didn't have time to be mad at each other.
Honestly, me and Gakushuu Asano even talking to each other was a strange thing in itself. Probably even more strange than a missing student and a monster.
I felt someone looking at me, and turned my head to see Nagisa watching me.
I raised my eyebrows in acknowledgement at him, and he gave me a smile, but I could tell it wasn't one of his normal smiles.
I resorted to doodling on my homework for the rest of class.
-
Asano's P.O.V.
The note came during third period.
I took the small white piece of paper from the messenger girl and she blushed when our hands brushed.
"Ah, sorry, Asano-san." She squeaked.
I gave her a warm smile. "It's fine, Junko. And please, just Asano is fine."
She bowed again. "Right, have a pleasant day, Asano-sa...Asano."
And with that, she hurried away.
I rolled my eyes after she left and opened the note.
Not surprisingly, it was from my father.
Report to my office immediately.
Great. The last person on Earth that I wanted to see.
I stood up from my desk and, after showing my teacher the note, I excused myself from the class and headed down the hall to his office.
I knew what he wanted to talk about, too.
I gripped my injured hand, softly trailing my fingers over the red handprint he had left on me this morning.
I jumped off the last step, and hurried to the kitchen. I had just taken Karma's clothes out of the dryer and folded them into the box. I wasn't sure how I was going to return them to him, might just have a delivery person run over to the old campus.
"-can't let the media know a student went missing on school grounds!"
I stopped and quickly his behind a wall.
That was my fathers voice. A student went missing? On school grounds?
I held my breath, eavesdropping.
"I don't care how you do it, Shoto, just do it. Or I'll make YOU disappear."
What the hell was going on?
"A few feet from tunnel C. Yes, that's the one in the woods, you moron. Miyoko Yukino was his name. Is. Is his name. Whatever happens, the media CANNOT know a word about this, do I make myself clear? Good."
I risked a glance and peered around the doorway.
My father was sitting at his desk, one hand clutching a phone tightly, his other was buried in his hair.
It was the most I had ever seen him being anything but cool and collected.
His head snapped up and our eyes connected before I could duck.
"Asano." He snapped. "How dare you spy on your father!"
"I-I wasn't, father-" I stuttered out, backing away.
He advanced faster, however, and grabbed my arms roughly. "How long were you listening?! How much did you hear? Answer me!"
"You're hurting me!" I cried.
He scowled and threw me away from him. I stumbled and barely caught myself in time.
I held my hand up and gripped it tightly, trembling.
"Useless." He muttered.
I glared to avoid letting the tears show. "The only thing useless here is you pretending to be a father!"
Immediately I knew I had fucked up.
He slowly turned to face me, his dark eyes smouldering with contempt.
"How...many...times," he started, slowly, making his way over to me.
Run! Just fucking run, you idiot! I screamed to myself but I was frozen in fear.
"Do I have to tell you-" his hand shot out and gripped my hands tightly. I managed to yank one out of his grasp, but that just made him tighten his hold on my other. "I am NOT your father, I am your master!"
"Let go, please, let me go," I begged, my back against the wall. I slid down to my knees from the pain my hand was in. "Please father, you're hurting me..."
He gave me a cold glare in reply.
"What's going on here?" Miriam came around the corner, a basket of laundry in her hands.
"Asano tripped, I'm just helping him up." My father said, suddenly all smiles. He had let go of my hand as soon as she had entered the scene, and was now offering his hand down to help me up.
I didn't want to, but I knew I had to play along. I took his hand and he helped me to my feet.
"Thanks." I grumbled.
"Hurry up or you'll be late for school." He said, walking away.
Same to you, you work there.
I ran to my room and grabbed my backpack and the box of Karmas clothes. Shoving the box into my bag, I hurried to pull my uniform on and ran down the stairs.
I was out the door before the first tears started to spill.
Staring at his door now, the memory of this morning was still too fresh in my mind, well as the pain in my hand.
I almost had a heart attack when Karma noticed the bruise. Good thing he couldn't see the handprints on my arms or I would have some real explaining to do.
"Lets get this over with," I mumbled, pushing the door open.
It shut softly behind me with a click as I walked to the middle of the nearly bare room.
All he had was a desk and a chair in his massive office. It overlooked the whole school, and I knew he spent most of his time spying on the teachers and students. The hypocrite.
There were no pictures of me on his desk.
He swiveled his chair around to face me. His elbows rested on his desk and his chin on top of his hands as he stared at me with cold eyes.
I kept a neutral look, but inside, my heart was pounding.
"How is your hand?" He finally asked.
"Injured. Thanks." I replied.
"Maybe don't eavesdrop on your poor father next time, and accidents like that won't happen." He said.
Anger flared up in me but I bit it back. That would only make things worse. I just wanted to get out of here.
"We need to discuss what happened this morning," he said.
I waited for him to continue.
"I need to know exactly what you heard this morning, Asano." He said coolly.
"Nothing, father." I said.
"DON'T LIE TO ME ASANO." He shouted suddenly, slamming his hands on his desk.
I jumped back in surprise.
"I-I only heard a little bit! I swear!" I trembled. "A student went missing on school grounds, that's all!"
He contemplated my answer.
"If word of this gets out, it'll ruin this schools prestigious reputation. My whole reputation. Your reputation."
"I know that, I wasn't planning on telling anybody." I answered calmly.
"Friday night, you said you saw a monster?" He asked.
I was caught off guard.
"I-I...I think so. It was a big, black...beast." I said.
He gave me a stare. "What happened, exactly?"
"I saw it in the forest, and it startled me so I ran away. I didn't get a good look at it." I said, heart hammering wildly.
He regarded me for a few moments, and it felt like a decade before he finally dismissed me.
I gave a short bow and hurried to the door.
"And Asano," he called before I could open the door.
"Yes, Father?" I hissed.
"Put some ice on that bruise, you idiot."
Glaring, I let the door slam shut behind me.