Harvey wasn't as tall as the rumors suggested, which was only surprising as the rumors didn't say he was very tall at all. He had lost his arm in an accident involving piranhas and crocodiles a few years ago, and had since then replaced it with a mechanical one, full of test tubes, gas canisters and a lot of salt, which he referred to as, "the good shit." needless to say, he wasn't considered "normal", to be expected from the fifth best teenage assassin in the world, but it was surprising how normal he came off compared to other assassins, of course, other assassins ate food off of guns, obsessively grew flowers, and upgraded their wheelchairs to the point where they had to be surveyed by the military whilst on a mission that was not approved by the government, however, he was still considered eccentric at the very least.
None if this was noticeable, however, when he was in his element, he ordered the paramedics around like it was second nature, and skillfully took care of answering Corey's questions via phone too, while never missing an opportunity to add in a "that's what she said" joke, it was clear why he and Corey got along.
The medical helicopter touched down at the union house, where Y/N was transferred to her room, rather than risking a hospital, "doctors ask too many questions" was the main reason, however, the union let Karma stay with Y/N, as long as he could keep her calm.
Y/N looked like she was on deaths door. Her face was paler than normal, with a tinge of green, yet her cheeks were a vibrant red. Her fingers were stone cold but her forehead had a major fever, she was too weak to lift her head yet her fingers clasped Karmas with a grip too strong to break away from, but after hours of different assassins coming and going, she finally began to visibly recover.
The first sign was the fever receding, soon enough her voice had healed enough for her to cuss out anyone near her, and soon enough Corey was cursing satan and asking him why he didn't just let her die, before putting on Finding Nemo for the fourth time.
"Now, what did I tell you about deadly poisons again?" Asked Harvey after saving Karma from having to watch that God forsaken movie again. Y/N groaned, leaning her head back into her pillow,
"If you're using cyanide, put it in something almond flavoured, it helps disguise the.... something"
Harvey just rolled his eyes, "correction, what did I tell you about ingesting deadly poisons"
"It tastes best with turmeric in it."
The conversation was going nowhere, luckily Corey showed up with a plate of sandwiches, piled so night you couldn't see his face behind it, Harvey picked one up and inspected it,
"What kind of knife did you use to cut the bread! It looks like you tried to shred it to pieces!"
"chainsaw" Corey deadpanned
"A chainsaw can't-" before Harvey had finished speaking, Corey pressed a button and various weapons came out of nowhere, guns unfolding from the back of his chair, all aimed at Harvey,
"One more word and I will blow you-"
"That's what she said, but seriously, what the fuck did you do to the bread?"
Before Corey could confirm or deny that he had actually used a chainsaw to cut the bread, a knife hit the wall in between the two boys faces, quivering just inches away from their noses,
"Drat..... missed" somehow, everyone had forgotten about Y/N, a rare occurrence, seeing how happy she was to play around with knives, "If you two are gonna fight, take it outside, the last thing I need right now is two morons in my room while I try to sleep."
"that's what-" another knife appeared millimeters away from Harvey's face, "alright, alright, I'm going, jeez."
once they had left, Y/N leaned back with a huff. Karma didn't know what came over him, but he ran his finger through her hair softly. To his surprise, she didn't pull away, instead letting him continue, even relaxing into his fingertips as she drifted into unconsciousness once again.
This dream wasn't as nice as the last one, hell, even the fever dreams were nicer. But this was normal, expected even, after all, Y/N L/N hated feeling helpless, she even hated pretending to be helpless, and so she refused, even though it limited her options as an assassin, she refused to be helpless, she could act stupid, ignorant, threatening or dangerous, but helpless always hit just a little too close to home. She hated the feeling because it was the only link she had to him that she couldn't get rid of, the way he could destroy her confidence with only a disinterested glance. she didn't crave for his attention the way her brother did, but instead surrounded herself with her studies, with a diligence you could only find in a naïve child, a child so naïve, she thought that she could find a father in a cold blooded assassin.
The Reaper had left her behind many times, it was almost his trademark. he never punished failure, whether to be cruel or kind she never knew, but she knew the effect it had all too well, a way of making her feel so worthless, like she wasn't even worth the time it would take to reprimand her, the memory of his cold eyes every time had been permanently burned into her memory, whether he had changed the locks to leave her out in the cold, or taken the car forcing her brother to walk back in penance for making a mistake during training. he was quick to point out faults, but never how to correct them, yet neither could bring themselves to hate him, he was a god in their eyes, and so they endured. they endured the long nights out in the cold, they endured every little test and punishment, and in due time they reaped the benefits. their names became almost as widespread as the Reaper's: The Reaper's Scythe, and The Reaper's Cloak, children who's skills matched those of adults, monsters even worse than their mentor, for where he regarded killing with apathy, they reveled in it, Cloak's victims were tormented for hours until their deaths, and Scythe's being found with many major stab or gunshot wounds, all inflicted before the killing blow. The Reaper was their god, and they simply existed as helpers, and that was how it continued for so long.
Until his Scythe failed him for the last time.
She remembered the first day she met Corey, a collaborative job, easy enough, but it was clear that he was a little too trigger happy, and not in a good way, the job went smoothly and she assumed that that was it, that they would never meet again.
The next time they met she was starving and tired, and The Reaper was long gone. He offered her a way out, a way for her to survive, and even thrive. From that day on, she helped him, they established a Union so that no one else could be exploited and then left behind like her, and he gave her, and everyone else who came to them for aid, a safe space. And for that she would forever be in his debt, but she would not be his Scythe, his friend, or assistant sure, but from that day on, she vowed that she would be a weapon for no one but herself. she would not spend her life in someone else's shadow ever again.
Yet The Reaper's eyes still haunted her dreams, his voice, belittling her still remained in the back of her mind. she would never truly be free of him.
The scene in her mind changed to that of E class, and Koro-Sensei. She still didn't trust him, but at least he was sincere, and he hadn't left any of his students behind yet. In a way, he was like her, she remembered the way he had talked about an old student of his, and how he talked about the treatment and transformation he had gone through with such sadness in his eyes.
.
.
.
Y/N jolted awake with such a start that Karma nearly fell off the bed, "Reaper!"
"no.... Karma."
she glared at him, "That's not what I meant and you know it" she walked over to her biggest corkboard, the first one she had started, so that she could make him pay- she never thought it would be used this way, but then again, her life had been nothing but the unexpected. She looked over all the clippings and reports she had gathered over the year
"hey Karma? I know this is a lot to ask, but can you distract the others from coming in for a while? I-I need to check something." Karma was ready to refuse, but something about the look in her eyes stopped him, it was like she was.... sad, but also.... angry, and scared. He nodded, shutting the door behind him, only to come face to face with his teacher.... at his students house.... which was totally not creepy at all. He slashed out with his knife but the octopus avoided it effortlessly Koro-Sensei looked at him and sighed,
"May I go in?" it wasn't like him to be so serious, but Y/N had asked him to keep the others from coming in,
"I'd love to, but little miss killer queen said to not let anyone in, so-"
"I know, I think i know what this is about.... just let me in for a bit, and if she still wants me to leave, ill do it." he shrugged and stepped aside, but made sure to leave the door slightly ajar to listen in.
Koro-Sensei had done a lot of things wrong in his life. As the Reaper it had been easy for him to assume there would be no consequences, he had never thought that he would have to face Y/N again after what he did to her.... he hadn't given her a second thought, and that had been his downfall.
This is payback for what you did to my sister.
those were the words Cloak had uttered to him before walking away, before leaving him in the hands of Yanagisawa, but even after all that, he knew that the pain inflicted on him did nothing to help Y/N, so although it felt as though he had paid his penance, he knew that there was no way he was anywhere close to making it up to her. Taking tensive steps towards her, he realized that he was afraid. In the dim light, she looked so fragile, like she could break at any second.... and he didn't want to hurt her again, but he couldn't face her, which was why he felt so ashamed for his relief when she didn't turn around.
"A year and a half ago the style of the Reaper changed."
"Y/N-"
"Shut up." she turned around now, her eyes seething with barely controlled anger, "this is how its going to work. I'm going to talk, and for once in your life you are going to listen." he said nothing, but gestured for her to continue, it wasn't like he could say anything anyway, there was a lump in the back of his throat, like it was closing up, he didn't trust himself to speak without crying, so listening was the only option,
"A year and a half ago the style of the Reaper changed. it was more flashy, as if the person doing the killing began liking the glamour of it more... or, maybe it was a different person altogether, one who preferred shooting a tiny bullet from their finger to a reliable weapon, like a knife or a gun. at the same time, activity in a lab in Kunugigauka increased. Six months ago, the moon exploded, quickly followed by the lab, in which several people lost their lives, including a scientist there, who also taught class 3-E when she wasn't working."
Augury
"soon after this, some alien shows up, taking credit for the moon, and asks to take over 3-E. they're unkillable, but they were born human, so it makes sense for them to come from the lab, who had reports on altering the human body to give it..... enhanced properties." Koro-Sensei had seen his pupil gouge out a mans eyes and shove them down his throat, he had seen her torment countless men and women as if it was a game, she was the person who laughed all throughout a horror movie, yet she had never been more terrifying than this moment, when she stepped towards him, with such a look of hatred in her eyes that he couldn't move a muscle. All the government and their military-grade weapons he had laughed at, yet he was frozen to the floor as Y/N walked closer and closer to him,
"so, the reaper disappears, the lab gets a new test subject. the test subject breaks out, and you take over one of the scientists part time jobs. I know who you are, and that's why i have to ask- what the hell are you doing teaching at a junior high school?"
"I-I promised Augury that I'd help her students, that I'd-"
"YOU DONT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE STUDENTS!" the change in volume caught him off guard, he cowered away, protecting his face, but the truth was, she was right. Before Augury got through to him, he had been exactly the way she had described, he had taken two innocent children, and made them into killers only to betray one, and then be betrayed by the other,
"hah, I had a whole list of things I was gonna say to you when I tracked you down. I was gonna yell, and scream at you, but... you're just so.....pathetic. you're not worth my time, you're not even the Reaper, you're some sad old man who tries desperately to help hopeless kids to soothe his conscience so that he doesn't have to feel guilty about the one he abandoned." Y/N walked over to the door, she wasn't even mad now, she couldn't be. she had expected the reaper, but all she found was a shallow husk of his regrets. But at least now she was sure. She wasn't the Reaper's Scythe, she was just Scythe. She was the best teenage assassin in the world. And she would not be exploited and then discarded again. At the last second she turned around, standing in the middle of the doorway, "oh, and FYI, you were a monster long before Yanagisawa was done with you."
and then she left, leaving her teacher alone.
irony really was a funny thing.
A/N I'm sorry its taken so long to update! I had a load of exams coming up, not to mention Christmas and my Birthday! luckily terms ended now so I might be able to update more (yes I know I said that last time, but still) also I finally got a laptop for my birthday, meaning writing will be a lot easier too! anyway, Merry Christmas!