CHAPTER 1: 私は 潮田 渚 です

If you were to ask him 'what do you expect to do at high school?' that day, he would have said something complete ordinary. Doing homework, playing games, studying for tests, and maybe talking to what few friends he had. Something basic, easy to digest.

Yet instead, here he was, staring down a yellow octopus down at the center of his class. A pistol lay in his right hand, which dangled to the ground. His finger was rested on the trigger, yet he dared not fire. Nobody does. The octopus grins at him. He gulps.

The octopus tapped his book. "Attendance," it read plain as day.

"Alright! If we're all seated, then I shall call attendance. Yuuma Isogai!"

"Here!"

"Taiga Okajima!"

"Here."

"Hinata Okano!"

"Hey."

Names went on and on and on. He recognized a few of them: Kataoka was his class representative two years ago. Kimura was in his first class in the first year of junior high, before he entered Class E. Kurahashi is too bubbly for anyone not to notice.

It doesn't click just yet, but his name is called next. "Nagisa Shiota!"

It takes a shoulder tap from his friend, Sugino, for him to realize he's been called. "Uh, here."

The octopus frowns. "Shiota-san? Nagisa Shiota?"

The yellow gelatinous creature didn't hear Nagisa, that much was obvious. He hears a disgruntled grunt from Kataoka, and he sighs. He clears his throat- once, twice. It's too sticky. His throat feels crushed shut.

"Here!" He coughs out. The octopus nods.

"Understood. Sousuke Sugaya!"

"Heya."

He sighs and turns away, his attention lost, wandering away. It lands on the moon outside. It was bright, even with most of it gone. The crescent shape was sharp. It didn't feel round, anymore. It wasn't round anymore. He supposed it wouldn't look as bright either. He wouldn't be able to warble the night away.

How… disappointing.

There's no way this can be real, Nagisa thinks to himself. He's trembling in his seat. His hairs are standing on end- maybe if he pinches himself, he'll wake up. It has to be a dream. A fable. A fairy tale, he stubbornly insists to himself. Maybe if he kept repeating it to himself he would be able to chase it all away. It would all be fine. The moon didn't explode. The secret service wasn't in his homeroom. There weren't guns pointed everywhere. It was all just a dream.

The octopus dashes that in only four sentences. "Nice to meet you. I'm the one who disintegrated part of the moon. Next year at this time I'm going to do the same thing to your planet earth. Also, I'm your new teacher. よろしくお願いします."

"I hope we all get along."

What an awful joke, Nagisa decides for himself. He felt cold. The explanations of the jagged-haired man are mostly lost on him, save for a few details: Top secret. Kill their teacher. Special request from the government. Earn ten billion yen. Save the world. Yes, an awful joke. Nagisa definitively decides. He stares at the crescent moon.

The crescent moon stares back. He turned away from it and instead stares at his desk. He still listens to the instructions by the sharply dressed and styled man. He listens, but he simply doesn't absorb.

The only other words he makes out from the rest of the exchange is one, harsh, cold, true sentence.

"He doesn't see you children as a threat."

Us? A threat? Nagisa scoffs at the mere idea. He even agreed a bit with the octopus. What a joke. As if we could ever even amount to that.

The octopus takes off at Mach 20, leaving behind gusts of wind, thrown away debris, and twenty-five students behind. Some teacher, Nagisa thinks. But then, they were teenagers. They would be adults soon. He guessed it makes sense. Somewhat.

He shakes his head, reaching for his lunch as Sugino ambles up, coke and salad in hand. A weird combination, that's for sure.

"Thank God that's over," He laughs and pulls the tab on his drink. The can of coke hisses open in agreement, and Nagisa nods to third it; Science has always been his poorest subject, and he would never fully grasp it. Sugino exhales, relaxing. "Hey, do you have any extra food? I'm kinda… out. Well, besides this salad."

Nagisa chuckled, pulling out a bag of chips and handing it over. Sugino took it, tearing it open and scarfing down a chip. "Man. It's not actually that bad, now that we're in the same class, huh?" He wondered aloud. Nagisa nodded, ripping open a sandwich that he'd prepared earlier.

"Hey. Shiota."

He flinches at the voice. It's rough and coarse, like it wanted to strangle him.

Of course, the owner very well may want to. Terasaka loomed over both of them to his right, and his eyes were an envious jade green. They were malicious. He was malicious. Nagisa felt himself shrivel up. "Yeah?" He can barely manage out. Terasaka's grin shows up, wolfish.

"Could you come on out with me for a few minutes? I need ta' talk to you. One to one. C'mon," He says, prodding at the chair where he sat. Nagisa gulps. The smell of trouble just radiates off Terasaka, all six plus feet of him.

Thankfully he's not alone. Sugino's chair careens backward, the owner now standing up. "You got a problem with him, Terasaka?" leers Sugino, his voice hard. Terasaka gives him a glance- Sugino's nearly as tall as him- and his eyes glimmer in annoyance.

"What's your issue?"

"My issue might be your issue. It might not. Let me ask again: what's your issue with him?" Sugino said menacingly, his voice that hard, try-me-I-dare-you-to voice edge to it. "If you got an issue with him, then you've got an issue with me. Beat it."

Terasaka almost considers fighting- there's no teachers around, and the only one that's still in the room is that weird kid named Takebayashi- but he decides against it. Sugino might not be as tall, but he was nearly as strong. Not only that, but Nagisa still lingered off to the side, too. He snorts, almost like a bull. He flashes both of them a hard glare.

"Fine then," Terasaka stalks off without another word, and Sugino watches him with a disgruntled eye. Once he's gone, Sugino collapses to his seat.

"Goddamnit," says Sugino sourly. "Our classmates are assholes," He said aloud. Nagisa rather agreed with that, nodding as he bit into his sandwich again.

"Oh? Why's that?"

Nagisa hears the voice before he sees who it belongs to. The octopus appears in his vision, his wind trail soon to follow after as it whipped the loose debris in their room. Sugino jolts out of his seat as the octopus appears, his perturbance clear. His half-empty coke can clatters to the ground, spilling everywhere. The octopus grins obliviously.

"You think your classmates are… 'assholes'. Why?" He sounded baffled. It was odd something other than pure ecstasy to hear from a creature that perpetually smiled.

Sugino was all too happy to answer him. "We're all the deadbeats who can't get along. The problem kids. Duh," He says, looking at the spilled coke. He sighs in annoyance. The octopus angles his head down slightly.

"Come, now, it can't be that bad- "

"They call us the End Class."

Both Sugino and the octopus turn to face Nagisa, the owner of the voice. Sugino was a bit surprised; it wasn't like Nagisa to talk out of the blue.

Yet he did now. He was staring down, his bangs covering part of his dimmed blue eyes. "Class E. The worst of the worst. The lowest of the low. There's no way for us to get out of this class. We're stuck. The End. End of the line, end of discussion," He says, his voice not much more than a murmur. Of course, to him and everyone else, it may as well have been a scream.

He trembles a bit. "It is 'that bad'," Nagisa says simply, before turning around and quickly walking off, disappearing past the door frame. Sugino sighs again, this time in disappointment. "Well, fuck," He swears. "He's in a poor mood now," He says, turning to the octopus. He paused, looking at the creature, who stared down as if he were in an isolated bubble. Was he thinking?

… Nah. He had to have been imagining it.

He clears his head of the weird, strange thought. He chases it away for good measure. "Hey, octopus, don't you have something else to be doing?" He pauses, before adding on. "Also, what's with the missile?"

His lens is filled with green. Steady now, or else he'll ruin the shot, and it'll all have been for nothing. C'mon, just a little bit to the left.

C'mon… c'mon…

The shutter clicks.

The camcorder falls away from his eyes, and he stares at the pictures, flipping through the multiple copies. The flower's petals are bright and colourful, and he nearly smiles.

Nearly.

Mimura stands up and glances at his watch. Nearly the end of lunch. Nearly.

He sighs- maybe he should be getting back to his classroom after all. With how far he's travelled up the mountain, he probably had just enough time to make it back to the classroom before period 5 would start.

That's a good plan, he decides, pocketing his camcorder and walking back towards Class E atop the hill. It's not too far from him, he can see it just over the edge of the hill he's at the bottom of- it would take him around five minutes to walk up there.

The octopus flickers to life in front of him. The octopus grins widely.

He screams louder than he's every screamed before.

Leaping back, the octopus began to panic. "Hey, hey! Mimura-kun, don't panic! I'm not going to hurt you!" He says. Mimura's brain is slow to process this through his terror, but the reason eventually shines through. "On the condition that he does not harm you." Mimura distinctly remembers. He takes a deep breath and calms himself.

"What do you want, octopus?" He asks shakily, his voice still trembling a bit. After all, would you, if a giant yellow octopus appeared from nowhere?

Said octopus retained his smile. Like he always did. It was like he never startled in the first place. "Well, I was chatting with a few other of your classmates…"

Shit. What did I do? Mimura sucks in a breath. What could I have done? He ponders.

Thankfully he doesn't have to think very far down that train of thought. The octopus follows up. "And, I wanted to learn your opinion. What do you think of your class?"

Mimura blinks.

The question registers and he sighs in relief, doubling over and wiping his head.

Then the question registers again. "…Why?" He responds. The octopus tuts at him.

"Answering questions with more questions won't give you many answers when the time comes, you know," He advises sagely. It's good advice, although Mimura doesn't really recognize it yet. "Regardless, I had a few students complain of how they... 'despised' their classmates. Many of the students have told me such. Why?"

Mimura understands, just a little bit more. Enough so that his answer is filled with mostly honesty. "In my opinion? Well, uh, yeah. I sorta agree. It's because nobody really gets along in there, you know," He says rather nonchalantly. "A few of the kids are people you want to avoid. Terasaka, for one. Or Takebayashi. Or Hayami. Or even Fuwa. They aren't people you can really make friends with. They aren't really people anyone makes friends with. That's why they're usually alone. Nobody wants to try and talk to 'em" He says, shaking his head morosely. "That's what I think, anyway. It's just easier not to get involved with anyone else. Saves me a lot of trouble," He finishes.

When he looks back at the octopus, the octopus is staring down again, thinking. Thinking, thinking.

Finally, after a few moments, he speaks again. "Thank you, Mimura-kun. Your insight is valuable," He says finally, without a trace of the same, signature ebullience that Mimura remembers him to have. "Perhaps it would be wise to record some of that, somehow," He ponders aloud.

Mimura glances down at his camera, as the octopus speaks again. "Anyway, Period Five will begin soon, so please return to the classroom. See you there!"

And with a whiplash, a crash and a windstorm, the octopus is gone.

Mimura keeps walking, but he's no longer thinking about the class anymore, or his classmates, or how he was nearly there. Instead, he's staring at his camcorder. He's thinking. There is a few gigabytes left in his SD card…

Eh, he might as well.

He presses the record button, sighing simultaneously.

"Day Two…"

"Kayano-san! Kayano!"

Kayano looks up from her bag, her book search paused. An orange-haired girl whose name escapes her is running up, smiling. She smiles too. "Ah, hello, er…" She grins nervously.

"You forgot already? Tsk," The girl scoffs goodnaturedly, and the two share a light laugh together. "Kurahashi! Hinano Kurahashi," She fills in. Kayano smiles.

"Hello, Kurahashi. Can I help you?" She asks politely.

"Ah, well, not particularly. I was actually going to ask you that! You're new to the school, aren't you? I mean, Kunugigaoka," She elaborates.

Kayano smiles- but then, that's easy to do around Kurahashi. She's bubbly and bright and the absolute antithesis for a Class E member. You wouldn't even be able to tell; not by her orange curls, not by her dancing green eyes, not at all. It was a shame, really. "Ah, yes I am. I transferred this year, but it was quite the step up, putting it mildly," She joked. Kurahashi nods, her enthusiasm attempting to restrain itself.

"It's very, um… shocking? I'm not sure if that's a good way to put it," She begins. "I mean, with all of the students in the school and how poorly they treat us, it's rough. I mean, you didn't even get a chance at the other side of that fence!" She laughs again, and Kayano follows along. "So, if you need help or need anything explained, I'm all ears!" She finished.

Kayano is a bit astonished at the sincerity, and why wouldn't she be? Kurahashi's attitude was something of an oasis in a desert. In a group of miserly students, she was one of the few beacons of positivity that could fuel an entire classroom.

If only.

She shook her head, and a question came to her like she'd shaken it out of a mason jar. "Hey, Kurahashi?" The other girl perks up. "You've been in Kunugigaoka since junior high, right?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, was it as bad as now?" She asks. "I mean, I was heckled on my way to school earlier for being an 'End Classer'," She frowns. "Then they threw soda cans at me. Quite horribly, thankfully, but still," She says. An icy feeling washes over her at the lack of shock on Kurahashi's face. "Is that commonplace?"

Kurahashi laughs, though this one has a bit of sadness tethered to it. "Unfortunately, yes. Hm, how can I put it… ah! Do you see our classmate over there? Shiota-kun? The one with blue hair." She turns and sure enough, a boy with blue hair ties into a messy, spiky ponytail is sauntering past, looking quite troubled as he stares at an odd pouch, disappearing into their classroom.

"Yes? What of him?"

"Well… he's got a small scar on his cheek. You wouldn't notice it unless you were looking directly at it, but it's there. You can stare at him later if you wish, though I'm not sure how well that'd go." Kurahashi laughs, and Kayano smiles in spite of the somber mood. "But anyway, he didn't have that scar a few years ago. It was recent. The second week he entered Class E, I think?" She wonders.

Kayano felt her stomach begin to knot. For whatever reason, Kurahashi had begun looking off to the side. Distant. Troubled, even.

And that look never lead to anything positive.

"What happened?"

"Well, from what I've been told, he went to his locker on the main campus to retrieve his stuff. On the way out, he was confronted by two of his former classmates. Two of my former classmates."

She didn't want to hear the last bit of it. She really didn't.

But she was committed now. "And..?" Her stomach twists.

"They had words. And then they beat him half to death. Split his skin in quite a few places. Another boy in our class named Sugino chased them off, but it was all said and done. He was a bloody mess, in every way possible. It was awful, y'know? Staring at his blood when he walked in here? Thankfully we have basic medical supplies, but we couldn't deal with all of it properly."

Kayano felt like she was going to throw up. Her face was as green as the grass, and she felt bile rise up. "That's awful," She whispers. Kurahashi nods in agreement.

There was no smile on her face anymore.

"It is. Shiota-kun hasn't been the same since."

Sugino faces multiple challenges everyday. He has to climb a mountain everyday to receive his education. He has to maintain a good enough grade average to keep his parents satisfied. He has to keep his friend's spirits alive. To say his school life had difficulties would be putting it lightly, but this… this was on another level entirely. This was something that Sugino didn't even know if he could face alone. He wasn't sure if he wanted to face it alone.

"Let me get this straight," A kid near the front asks. "You want us to write a poem… that ends in the word 'tentacles'."

The octopus's face turns bright pink, a red checkmark printed onto its bulbous head.

"A good question, Maehara-kun! Correct! I will be checking your grammar, as well as your use of similes and metaphors. If you're done, you may leave for the day. How does that sound?"

"Fuck me," decides Sugino, who dislikes English as much as Nagisa loves it. There were too many rules and exceptions to wrap his mind around. Nagisa blinks.

"It can't be that bad," The ponytailed boy offers, pulling out a piece of paper. Sugino rolls his eyes.

"For you, maybe," He mutters grumpily. Nagisa fiddles with his collar, nodding.

Elsewhere, another student asks another very good question.

"Hey, octopus," asks a boy whose eyes are obscured entirely. "Do you have a name?"

That gives everybody in the room pause. Even the octopus. He tilts his head. "Hm. I don't think so. Why?"

"Because," responds Chiba, "You're our teacher. I'd prefer to call you something other than 'octopus' for the rest of the year," He says simply.

The octopus thinks. Then his grin widens. At least, Sugino swore it did. "You know, I don't actually have one! Why don't you guys make one up for me?"

"Is that really a good idea?" A blonde kid wonders. Nobody answers him.

"Well, after you write your poems, anyway. Keep that in mind," The octopus says.

And that's that. At least, that's what everyone thinks, and for the most part, it is. Nobody really thought up any assassination plots- at least, not yet. Maybe a feeble attempt or two from a student or two, but not much else. It's like we've lost any motivation to even try and save the world. Sugino thinks sourly.

And why wouldn't they? With everyone around them beating them down, why would they have any motivation? Why?

Some of them write, as diligently as they can. A few of them talk instead, about everything and nothing. Sugino isn't one of them. He has to do this homework, because he's one of the few that clings to motivation. Clings to hope.

How… disappointing.

He's three lines into his poem when Nagisa stands up abruptly, paper in hand. The octopus looks his way. "Ah, Shiota-kun? You're done?"

"Fucking hell, already?" He hears a kid- the stoner, Sugino thinks- say. Nagisa pays no notice, instead nodding as he walks up to the teacher. What everyone notices, though, is the knife in hand. Sugino can't believe his eyes.

Nagisa Shiota, the nicest kid he knows, is going to try and kill their teacher.

He doesn't think he's seeing things properly, but it is Nagisa's bushy ponytail bobbing back and forth. It's his grey-blue vest that's striding up to their target. It's his hands holding the green, S.A.A.U.S.O branded knife. He was going to try.

If only his attempt wasn't doomed to fail.

The octopus catches Nagisa's arm before it even comes close, the knife's rubber edge far away from the octopus' bulbous head. He tuts. "Now, that was a nice attempt, but I believe you'll need something a better attempt than that. After all, I DO travel at Mach 20," The octopus chides and wags his finger. Nagisa's head falls and his bangs tucks his eyes out of view from everyone else.

It was a nice try, I guess, Sugino thinks. He rests his head on his hand, smiling at the attempt.

And then Nagisa explodes.

"Ow!"

"Fuck- "

"What the hell?!"

A wave of pellets sends everyone ducking for cover, shielding their faces with their arms, their books, or their desks as they flung themselves like shotputs or burrowed like moles. Sugino cursed as he felt the sting of the pellets on his forearms, the shock of the explosion pushing him back.

It doesn't last long, and eventually there aren't any pellets left over. Only dust is left in its wake, as well as twenty-three confused students who look around, confused by everything that's happened.

However, it doesn't take long before all hell breaks loose when Sugino remembers that Nagisa lay at the hypocenter of the explosion.

His desk and papers go flying when he realizes this, sprinting as fast as he can. He's not the fastest sprinter by a long shot, but he does play baseball and makes it in record time, like beating out a throw to first base. The smoke is clearing up by now, and everyone else is starting to realize what happened too.

And they aren't monsters as to wish death upon the blue-haired boy.

"Is Shiota alright?"

"I dunno,"

"Hey, man, is he alright?!" One calls to Sugino.

The smoke clears, revealing nothing. Sugino's heart sinks.

And Terasaka cheers.

It's a loud whoop of jubilation, and everyone turns. He's bounding out of his seat, a transmitter of some kind in his hand as he rushes forward. "It worked! Holy fucking shit, it worked!" He cries out.

Those were absolutely the words that Sugino didn't want to hear. It sets off his switch. He levels a glare at Terasaka that could level a building. Terasaka doesn't flinch. "What the hell did you do?"

Terasaka grins. "I set Shiota up with a modified toy grenade. Stuffed it with gunpowder and those modified BBs… left a bit of a mess."

His grin sends Sugino over the edge. Roaring to life, Sugino charges the muscular boy with fire in his eyes.

"TERASAKA! YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!"

Someone slams into Sugino, stopping him from getting any further. It's a black-haired kid with golden eyes whose name he forgets, just like everyone else. "Hey, man, calm down!" He says, pushing him back. Sugino doesn't respond, his glare still levelled at Terasaka, who was walking towards where Nagisa had exploded.

"Getting pissed isn't going to do anything for us now," Another kid says- it's the one that the octopus called Maehara. Sugino swallows, and it feels like lead as it travels down. The heat slowly drains from his head.

"…Fine," He says slowly, relaxing a bit. Maehara turns to where Terasaka stands. The latter was smirking his malicious smirk as he walked over.

"Hey, no sweat. If Shiota got hurt at all, I'll just pay his hospital bills with that cool reward money, and-"

He stops. Sugino scowls at the interruption. "What?"

"…What the fuck is this?"

On cue, the other three boys turned to Terasaka. They walk forward.

Nagisa lies in front of them, seemingly passed out. His eyes are closed and he lays on his side, almost completely unharmed. But that's not the only thing that everyone is so interested in. Sugino feels his curiosity well up along with the relief.

"What is that?" The black-haired boy asks, leaning forward to grab it. It peels off of a semi-conscious Nagisa with ease, and he holds up a transparent, filmy substance for everyone to see.

"Is that…?"

Sugino gets no farther.

"It's my outer skin. I shed it once a month… it's quite resistant, as you can see."

It's the octopus. Well, at least, Sugino thinks it's the octopus. Instead of yellow, his face is pitch black. His face is nightmarishly monstrous. He feels his heart sink.

"…Terasaka-kun, you came up with that plan, didn't you?" He asks, voice eerily calm.

Terasaka's response is feeble, and the ash dies in his throat. "N-no, it was Shiota, I swear!" He says.

Sugino feels a bit of satisfaction at watching Terasaka so terrified, but it's buried underneath the terror bubbling in his own throat.

Before he, or anyone else, could properly react, the octopus vanished.

The gusts of wind signals his disappearance, his form gone and a mere outline.

But only for a moment.

He returns mere seconds later before anyone could properly question it, and he drops an object to the ground.

"What the hell is this?" Sugino asks nervously, looking at the thin, flat plate.

The colour drains from Terasaka's face.

寺坂

Terasaka.

"The… the nameplate from my house?" He asks. They all turn to the octopus, his figure still black.

"You see… I made a deal not to harm any of you," The octopus says in an eerily calm tone. "However…"

More clattering noises, as more nameplates drop to the floor. 神崎. 狭間. 吉田.

Sugino sees his own surname amongst the pile, and his heart sinks. He hears someone quaver in fear behind him.

"Should another assassination attempt like that be pulled one me…" The octopus trails off. "Well, let me remind you that everyone else is fair game. Your friends. Your family. Maybe I might even kill the entire world, except you… Do you understand?"

Terasaka does. Maehara does. Okuda does. Sugino does.

And Sugino has never felt more hopeless before in his entire life.

Nagisa stands up wobbly, shaken but otherwise fine. "There's no escape from this, huh?" Sugino says glumly. Maehara gave him an aside glance.

It's like we're stuck here, Nagisa conjured up. There's nowhere else to go. If we want to escape with our lives…

… We have to kill this octopus.

The knife in his hand feels heavier than ever. Terasaka gulps.

"Y-you're… you're one hell of a creature. You've got Mach 20 on your fucking side! We're just a bunch of sixteen-year olds with nothing going for us! Why shouldn't we use whatever ideas we come up with to kill you?!" He demands, his voice frail and crackly.

It was like a flip had been switched. The black drains away from the octopus, leaving the original yellow hue, something which Nagisa would never have thought he would enjoy seeing. The octopus grins. "I'm not saying that. Rather, your attempt was quite well thought out, in fact!" He turns to each of them.

His glance lands on Terasaka, and his face turns into an X. "But putting your classmate in danger… That's not acceptable. You're better than that."

"…Tch," Terasaka looked away.

"And you, Shiota. You offered yourself to carry the grenade, didn't you?"

A wave of shame washes over him. He glances at his shoes, trying not to catch Sugino's confused and upset face. The octopus turns to face the rest of the class.

"As for the rest of you… Well, I want you to come up with a plan that you can smile while doing! An assassination with pizazz! With style! And, most importantly…"

The octopus' gaze settles on Chiba. "Something you won't regret. That's what I'd like. An assassination without regrets. So…"

His presence looms over the entire class. "Who will do it? After all, I have no intentions of dying to any one of you, and I intend to destroy the earth by the end of next year. So, tell me then. What must you do?"

Nagisa plucks at the hairband on his left arm. He gulps and steels himself.

"We have to kill you before that happens," He says aloud. Everyone turns to look at the small, brave blue-haired boy. "B-before you destroy the world. I'll make sure of it."

The octopus's face turns yellow and green.

Stripes.

There were only a few kids left in the class when it came to him.

"…What's the word for unkillable?" Chiba ponders. A blonde girl nearby answers.

"殺せない." She responds with a confused frown.

Korosenai. Teacher. 先生.

He hums to himself. It's like a puzzle, he thinks.

"Hey, octopus, how does Korosensei sound?"

For fun. An Alternate Universe taking place in Class 6-E, rather than 3-E.
In other words, every single student has had two extra years to live. Two extra years to grow, two extra years in the Kunugigaoka system. There's a few pieces of canon twisted and pulled to let this happen- Class E was allowed to continue into the Senior Highschool, yet not all of them were classmates off the bat. Just an extra two years to grow, think and mature. They aren't the same now, obviously, although I hope I can emulate a version of them well enough.
Now, a question: how comfortable is this fandom with rare pairings? The chances of the 'popular' pairings in canon / this fanbase happening are pretty marginal here, so I'm wondering whether or not to include them at all. I'll set up some polls, or I could just be told through PMs if that's what you fancy.
That's all for now. Cheers.