WARNINGS: boy x boy love, violence, occasional strong language, abuse and bullying in later chapters and I think that's it...

KARMA'S POV

Chapter One

I raised one skeptical eyebrow, taking in the information that sounded like a complete scam that had been spat from the mouth of the man before me - Gakuho Asano. The bastard psycho-father of a bastard control-freak of a student who was unfortunately an old classmate of mine. We sat a table away in his overly sized, irritably plain office, though if it was up to me, he would be several roads from me by now.

"This isn't some kind of joke is it? Or another of your twisted mind games?" I spoke, hardly respectful to the straight faced, sinister head of the school.

"I understand it's hard to believe, but you should be thankful you haven't been completely expelled; if it wasn't for this bizarre turn of events, you wouldn't just be in the E class, but completely out of my school."

That was right, I was being dropped to the E class. It was ironic, as I had only ever come in third place as my ultimate minimum score, usually scoring two and occasionally grabbing first place in the past at my other schools. I had been told that my narrow escape from expulsion was due to my skills being required in the end class, doubling as my punishment for knocking my teacher out last year. But I knew that this would have never been the case if my rival wasn't the son of this man. I sensed that in his voice and he knew I did. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to be kicked out when the next school was so far away from my home. I groaned, rolling my eyes and standing up, crunching the letter of notice between my finger tips.

"Is that all?"

"Yes. You may head home."

So I had lost my place as the publicised second smartest in the school, but weighing the options on a scale, being free from Gakushuu (knowing I'd still grab top marks and being given the privilege of causing some severe damage to a member of the school's staff) I couldn't say I was as disappointed as I would have thought.

One thing that no doubt, intentionally, went unsaid, was that the E class students had to wake up even earlier than the rest of us to head to school. I only figured this out the next day when at our lessons usual starting time, I found myself only having just reached the main campus with a mountain to still journey up.

A single glass told me that I wouldn't be on time for my lesson if I ran, so, with a sigh at a random student passing by, I decided there was no harm in me taking a stroll.

What exactly did they hope to achieve by placing the students so high up away from the other classes? Was that head teacher really sadistic enough to watch E class members suffer like this, or where these students so bad they had to be isolated?

They couldn't be that bad, could they? I had seen them in assemblies before, and honestly they appeared to be tired out, boring looking characters. But I myself was pretty bad, so me being an E class student said a lot about what the others could be like.

One thing was for sure, the fact that they made there way through this thick pathless trees on a slope, avoiding not only snakes, insects and the occasional rabbit, but also making this journey in their full school uniform proved that they had to be pretty tough to me.

"I'm finally here." I muttered to myself, stepping out into the clearing. I looked up, seeing a single story building that looked more like a cabin. It could have been a school maybe two centuries ago, but now, it just looked run down. And here I was thinking my school was quite well established. This building didn't even have a single brick on it.

"Wow." I deadpanned, kicking a snake that decided it would try and coil onto me. I walked up the wooden steps to the building, peering into a glass-less window.

That was when I heard a distant voice that sounded like laughter. "Niruhehehehe..!"

My expression turned grim. I was able to tell a human laugh from a non-human one. My eyes narrowed, realising that the building before me was silent, but coming from behind it, I couldn't mistake the sound of children nattering away.
Despite this, I could still here the worn down creak my footsteps made as I walked around the building to the where the sound was coming from.

Here it comes. I had broken a few rules by bringing my own weapons instead of the ones provided, as I clenched my fingers around my switchblade, back pressed into the wall. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I wanted to analyse the situation before I burst in like an idiot.

What was most noticeable was the eerie absence of a teacher. There were students everywhere, and whether or not this was part of their legal PE lesson, they seemed fully engaged in multiple forms of combat with the single yellow blow-up punch bag in the centre. My eyes narrowed, inhuman sounding voice still clear as the day. Then suddenly, the punchbag disappeared.

My eyes widened, stepping back, looking to see who had stabbed it and popped it, only to see it reappear not far behind them, sliding it's flexible tentacles over the shoulders of a small blue haired girl. No. That was no girl.

My attention was taken from the creature at an embarrassing speed. I knew my face was slightly pink as they looked the small, slim, uniformed boy with the light peachy skin, the kind eyes that were painfully hard to see at this distance and the bright, hair as blue as the sky above it. To me, it looked just like Nagisa Shiota. Of course, this was Nagisa's class now. I had nearly forgotten the brutal way he was told his news last year.

"Well done Nagisa~ I barely noticed you from that angle." A praising voice emitted from the balloon. I had to do a double take, eyes not wanting to but having to flicker from the tiny boy to the much larger yellow creature - the creature that was now at an angle where I could see a creepily happy, creepily still smile with tiny eyes looking back. This was the teacher we were trying to kill? This dressed up thing looked: inflatable, harmless, it looked like it would pop and die if I we could get it still, which with twenty something students would likely be easy.

I decided I'd had enough hiding at this point, walking forward while he was busy praising, stopping by each student to tell that the things they did well and the ways they could improve. He seemed a lot nicer than any of the teachers I'd known, and unlike them he didn't feel sickeningly falsely so.

While I was walking up, many students stared at me oddly, stopping and gawking blatantly. Good thing I hadn't attempted a sneak up. Eventually, I found myself standing face to face with the tall, round, grinning monster.

"Oh~ And who do we have here?"

"Karma Akabane, new student." I announced, keeping my eyes trained on as many of his flailing limbs as I could, without coming across as too wary. I threw my hands in my pockets, creating the image of being laid back, knowing full well now that I had the class' attention. There were a few I recognised, but most of them were new faces to me.

He laughed that odd laugh of his again,"Are you aware that you're a whole period late into the day?"

"Yeah, well I failed to to be told the fact that I'd have to wake up an hour early to get here so blame the Chairman if you want to put me in trouble for that."

"Is that so, well then class, let's welcome our new student into the assassination classroom."

When I moved my hand out to offer a shake, I kept my eyes lazily to the side, landing by chance on two wide blue eyes that look back it me so secretively, looking so enigmatic yet bright, I found myself being pumped with some form of courage. I'd never been one to show off intentionally, but at that moment, my body seemed to move on its own.

A tentacle slipped around my own limb, shaking my hand amiably when I gripped back tightly.

Suddenly, the octopus went quiet, the tip of the blade slipping down from beneath my sleeve, grazing the tip of his oddly textured skin and sending him into a panic. It must have been a fraction of a second later that he jumped back, only to be yanked forward into place as I used his limb as a bar, swinging myself forward and kicking him on the back, pouncing at him like a wild animal with a knife in my hand.

I heard the sounds of gasps and cries of how awesome my act had been from all directions, but I wasn't focused on that. The creature evaded me, so I struck at him again, and again and again, swinging until my arm grew tired and my body lost the energy to keep chasing after his ridiculous speed. I knew I had had struck him many times by know, so I though surely it must have been enough.

He flickered up, revealing behind him the blue-haired beauty that had caught my attention before I looked up to see him looking down at me with no emotions displayed on his face. That made me a little upset, but that was nothing compared to the curiosity I felt.

"Clever surprise attack Karma~ Unfortunately for you your little metal blade won't even scratch me oh and you should never let your enemy behind you." He spoke from somewhere out of my peripheral vision.

I elbowed back into where his flesh was aggressively, making a swipe at him only for him to grab my arm and grab my personal blade, carefully removing it from me.

"Now Karma, you shouldn't be bringing things like this onto school grounds, you wouldn't want to hurt another of your precious students would you?" He mused.

I shook my head in defeat,"Isn't it about time for third period?" He nodded his head in agreement, calling out to the rest that time was up, before disappearing to where was likely the inside of the class.

Willing to let it go there, I headed off in his train. But as I was walking, I caught sight of my reflection in some girl's mirror and was more than vengeful to see that my hair had somehow been brushed out of my face, my top button done, my tie pushed neatly up and my shirt tucked in.

He must have done that when my focus was on that boy...

I hissed as the blonde girl laughed at me flirtatiously. She was pretty, but as I headed into the run down building, my attention was once again claimed by someone I thought to be drastically pretty. He was by far the biggest distraction in the room even with a lethal monster present.

The boy sat in his seat quietly, looking out of the window with one hand over his mouth. Nagisa Shiota. Nagisa Shiota. Nagisa Shiota. In my head I wished for him to look back at me, but I found myself to be seated at the very back without a single glance from him.

The last time I had seen him, his stature was even smaller, his cheeks the slightest bit rounder and although his hair wasn't tied up the way it was now, I could tell that at was still long enough to drape down to his shoulders like the meandering of a river in a way that had made me stare at the aquamarine strands of silk more than I had looked at the board that year.

I smirked as I saw him, keeping my gaze just as trained on him as they had before, thinking thoughts of just as much admiration as last time, in my mind, I willed him to turn and face me so I could drown in his mirror-like eyes. But before I know it, our lesson went on without that glance.

When break came, I took my chance. A lot of people tried to get in my way, asking me where I was from and introducing themselves as well, after a series of one worded responses, I was finally free to go where I really wanted.

"Still hanging out with the girls I see." I teased, leaning onto the boy's desk. He was seated beside some green haired girl, but when he turned to face me, his expression was so unfamiliarly still I was momentarily caught off guard, wondering if this really was the same boy that I knew from before.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten me, how cold." Faux sadness took over my voice, and I knew I was successful when his eyes shimmered the slightest bit.

"I haven't spend a single day without having you cross my mind, Nagisa." I added, playing his sweet name off of my tongue like one would play an instrument.

The boy finally sighed, looking up at me with his cute lips slightly turned up in the corners,"No Karma, I remember you trying to break our teacher's arm last year."

I could have sworn I felt my breath stop when his eyes finally met mine like that, like the prize after the fight. I opened my mouth to respond, when the girl beside him let out a loud gasp.

"You really did that?" She looked at me in awe and slight fear, but I was glad to tell the story.

"Honestly that teacher had been pissing me off all year, but when he announced that Nagisa would be moving to the E class in such a diabolical way, I just couldn't keep my hands from ringing around his neck."

I meant everything I had said. His words from that day still echoed in my mind. The way he had almost happily walked by, saying he had to speak to Nagisa in private, only to stand beside him and announce the news so the whole class could here. So they knew who to pick on. If it was me it would have been different, but when it was Nagisa I just lost all respect for him.

"I would say it's a shame, but those who are vile and inferior enough to let themselves become so stupid deserve to be isolated."

I figured it must have been a shock to the boy - it certainly caught me by surprise. The teacher had been nothing but nice to Nagisa for the rest of the year, encouraging him, telling him to work hard and most of all teaching him that his appearance was something he shouldn't be ashamed of, giving Nagisa the confidence to become the person that caught me by a red thread.

I knew not to trust him - all teachers in this place wore a fake mask around students. For Nagisa though, I wasn't too sure.

I watched as Nagisa's still expression finally darkened in realisation. He practically jumped out of his seat, taking the teacher desperately by the sleeve of his shirt as his eyed looked up hopefully. I hated seeing that sadness, but there was no way to stop the laughing and daunting that had already begun.

He begged that their must have been some kind of a mistake, and begged for him to be able to take a re-test. The teacher he had practically idolised like a father had looked at him like he was dirt, slapping his grip into weakness, knowing that the class no longer cared to report mistreatment when it was to an abhorred End Class student. "It's like a said. You're the one to blame E class, and no one else can do anything about that."

The rest of it was a blur of my own resent. The students were laughing, cursing unpunished at Nagisa and shouting their own hurtful comments while the teacher walked back to his desk with a smug, gloating smirk on his disgusting face. He turned around to face, me, only to have the smile knocked right away by the bottom of my shoe as I sent him to the ground, slamming him down and twisting his arm the way you would to defend yourself from only the worst kind of criminal scum.

My attack unfortunately didn't break nearly as many bones as badly as I would have like, because that damn Asano brat sneaked his hand over my face while I was distracted enough to have me passed out from lack of oxygen and dragged back.

"You're joking right?" The girl, I later knew as Kayano looked up with eyes so wide you'd think they were about to burst.

"Not at all."

She turned to Nagisa, "You're really lucky to have a friend that looks out for you like that."

My gaze was, for the dozenth time that day, drawn to that pretty little face, waiting for his look of appreciation. Instead, his eyes were turned down almost sadly, making me wonder. Had I given him attention he didn't want that day making him hate me? Had people teased him even harder after that? Maybe he was just sorry that I ended up in the E class while defending him?

It seemed like I had peered into a deeper layer of his guarded eyes, one showing hurt, misery and depression. He made a face that stung me like we were somehow connected. Whatever it was that made him make that face, I decided I hated it. I decided I would end it.

I realised at that moment, that my main focus wouldn't be wasted on some teacher when there was a perfectly suitable way to pass my time right here in the form of Nagisa Shiota.

Stay tuned for more soon!