Outside deep in the woods of the old campus, Koro-Sensei was lounging in a sun chair while he read the morning's newspaper.
Koro-Sensei sipped his drink while he read. "Hmm, the moon is all they're talking about in America too. Slow news today I guess." He sighed and slurped his drink. "Oh well."
"There he is." A drop of sweat trailed down his cheek. "Chilling out back before the first bell without a care in the world after visiting Hawaii at Mach 20 to pick up a drink and an English newspaper on the way here."
Sugino looked over his shoulder. "Nice, good work, Nagisa. Thanks, I owe you one."
"Good luck man," I said and Nagisa nodded along with me.
Nagisa nodded with a small smile. "You're welcome." He was crouched behind him with a notebook in hand. "Best of luck, Sugino."
"You got it," Sugino smirked, holding up a baseball with anti-sensei pellets glued on. "Ten billion yen here I come."
Sugino got in his stance and then whipped the ball as hard and as fast as he could. The ball sailed through the air, towards Koro-Sensei's head. Then suddenly we heard a voice from behind us.
"Top of the morning to ya!" Koro-Sensei cheered.
We all yelped and looked over at his seat, which was now obviously vacated. And then back at the yellow octopus man.
"A baseball embedded with anti-me bbs? Clever! I'll give you points for using something quieter than the standard air rifle. But the weapon of choice was too slow. And a quick trip to the storage shed gave me, pardon the pun, a handy solution!" Koro-Sensei said as he help up Sugino's ball in a baseball mitt.
Sugino yelped in shock while Nagisa and I just stared at Koro-Sensei with a deadpan expression.
"Are you kidding me?" I asked nobody in particular. Koro-Sensei just walked away and laughed.
"Tik-Tok children! Graduation will be here before you know it," he teased, leaving the three of us alone.
It was quiet for a moment before Sugino let out a sigh.
"So much for my fastball, big shock there I guess," he muttered and Nagisa looked over at him in concern.
"It was a good throw," he said and Sugino sighed. Lamenting his failure.
"Don't beat yourself up about it, I couldn't do better in my wildest dreams," I said, clapping him on the back and walking ahead.
I had a strange feeling that today was gonna be weird.
____________________
"So Sugino's plan failed huh? What went wrong?" Hayami asked, I raises an eyebrow and looked at the vermillion-haired girl.
"The ball was too slow," I replied and she nodded. I let out a sigh and leaned back in my seat as she turned back towards Koro-Sensei.
Ever since Nagisa's suicide bomb Hayami had been being way too nice to me. Before that, she was constantly chewing me out for not pitching in, but now she was acting like we've been friends since the first day.
It was super weird and super confusing.
I shrugged and pulled out my pistol, and then I fired at the spot right beside Koro-Sensei's head. The octopus didn't even bother to move and just kept staring at the board.
I cursed under my breath and Hayami turned around again.
"Did you miss?" She asked and I shook my head.
"Nah, we're playing chicken," I replied and she raised an eyebrow. "I fire as close as possible to him and see if I can get him to dodge. If he dodges, I win,"
She just nodded and turned back to the front of the room.
Then suddenly the lunch bell rang and Koro-Sensei perked up, walking towards the window.
"Well that's lunch, I'm gonna head out!" He said.
"Tofu from China?" Isogai asked and Koro-Sensei shook his head.
"Actually I'm catching a ballgame in the big apple," he replied before exploding out of the room.
And I took that as my cue to leave as well.
____________________
"Hey Sora, wait up!" Hayami called out, running up behind me. I turned toward her and raised an eyebrow.
"You need something Hayami?" I asked and she looked away toward the ground.
"You wanna eat together?" She asked and I narrowed my eyes.
"Okay, what the hell is going on with you!?" I asked and she recoiled a bit.
"I'm just trying to be nice," she said and I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, but why!? A few days ago you couldn't even stand to be in the same room as me. But now you follow me around like a lost puppy! What the hell are you trying to pull here!?" I shouted and she stepped back in shock, her eyes wide and downcast.
I took it too far didn't I? Dammit. I sighed and tried to find the right words to say but she stopped me.
"I see," she muttered before turning around. "I'll just leave you be then"
She then ran off in the opposite direction. I wasn't gonna pretend that I didn't feel terrible but I could tell she needed space right now.
I would apologize later.
Yeah later.
Later.
____________________
It had been about thirty minutes since I decided to be an idiot. I pulled out a rice ball and began to eat while still thinking about what had just happened.
There had to be a reason why Hayami was being so nice, something that I had missed. I thought about it for another minute before slamming my head into the tree.
"Ow," I muttered and then I heard footsteps.
"She wanted to say thank you," a familiar voice said. I turned toward the source and saw Koro-Sensei standing before me "Are you alright? That looked painful,"
"It was," I said and leaned back. "So why did she want to thank me?"
"You protected her," he said and I glanced at him. Then I remembered.
When Terasaka set off that grenade I had shielded two people from the blast. One of them was Sugino, someone I regarded as one of my closest friends.
The other one was Rinka Hayami.
I leaned forward and buried my face in my hands.
"I screwed up," I moaned and Koro-Sensei sat down next to me. And placed a tentacle on my shoulder reassuringly.
We sat there in absolute silence for a moment, neither one of us moving or speaking.
"Why do you two not get along anyway?" Koro-Sensei asked and I sighed.
"There's not really much of a reason, we've just never clicked," I replied and he nodded.
"You should go find her," Koro-Sensei replied. "You need to apologize for what you said to her, and then you need to listen to her thanks."
I stared at the creature as he spoke.
"No assassin can kill me on their own, and you two are some of my most promising students. Hayami is one of the best shots in class, and you're easily one of the most gifted young minds I've ever had the pleasure of working with. The two of you together could be an unstoppable team," he explained.
I just nodded and let out a sigh, setting out to find the vermillion-haired girl.
____________________
"You okay?" I asked, finding the girl sitting in the grass outside.
"What do you want?" She spat and I sighed, sitting down next to her.
I waited for her to move away, but she just sat there silently. We stayed silent for another moment before she glanced at me.
"Well? I'm waiting," she said and I sighed.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you," I said.
"And?" She asked.
"And you don't need to thank me," I replied.
"And?" She asked again. I just stared at her and tried to think of what else to say.
"And you're really pretty?" I asked, only to receive a kick to the gut.
"Why the hell would you say that so suddenly!?" She shouted and I groaned.
"I thought you wanted me to!" I shouted and she put her hands on her hips.
"Why would I want you to call me pretty!?" She asked and I shrugged.
"I don't know!" I shouted, we both went silent and stared at each other before bursting out into laughter.
Our laughter only grew and grew, to the point that we were both on the ground gasping for breath.
"Man, we suck at this," Hayami joked and I shook my head.
"That's the problem with our age group, we never have any idea what we're talking about," I joked back and she laughed again.
And that was the story of how I became friends with Rinka Hayami.
And it happened here.
In our Assassination Classroom.