Karasuma resisted the urge to sigh heavily as yet another female student came over to ask an utterly inane question, bending over just a touch too low (or perhaps exactly as far as she had intended) revealing a sizeable amount of cleavage.
She was the third that day.
He understood the logic, truly, he did. The girls thought the boys were too immature to deal with and instead turned their attentions towards the only adult man, the only human one anyways, in the vicinity. It didn't help that the assassination classroom set up was unorthodox enough to create an environment that lent itself to experimentation and not rigorous studies and discipline. But still . . . he held back a shudder as Hayami Rinka bumped into him "accidentally" for the sixth time that month.
"I'm so sorry, Karasuma-sensei!" she squealed (her voice was girlish but her eyes were those of a predator's), "I wasn't looking where I was going."
Karasuma watched her saunter off, her hips swaying and her impossibly short skirt (that had to be against the dress code), inches from exposing her butt. He wanted to say that kind of behavior was completely abnormal for high school aged girls . . . but quite frankly, it wasn't. None of them were as interested in him as they pretended to be; they just wanted to test their limits with someone who there was no risk would return their "affections." It was probably even a good thing that they were learning seduction skills as many of them would likely become professional assassins after graduation (even if he didn't like the idea, they were almost of age and allowed to do what they wanted with their lives); Karasuma just didn't like being the one all the girls practiced on.
Although perhaps it would be unfair to say all the girls. There were, after all, more than a few female members of the class who never felt the need to flirt with him, wear incredibly inappropriate clothing (which was ridiculous in the amount it distracted the boys in the class), or act in any over-sexualized way they'd seen portrayed on television.
Megu Kataoka, for example, took her place as idol to girls and boys, both in Class E and out, very seriously. She was a paragon of excellence and maturity, working as hard on school work and reigning in the other girls in the class as she did on assassination. Karasuma wished there were just a few more students like her in the class.
One of the other less-than-flirtatious (thank goodness) girls in the class was a bit . . . odd. Rei Nanatsuki, either the most boring high school girl he'd ever seen, or a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a mystery and all rolled into one black-haired, black-eyed, solemn-faced girl who was somehow friendly with everyone and no one in the class at the same time. Rarely smiling but never coming across as brooding or sullen, Rei was utterly average at everything from grades to combat ability. Sometimes, Karasuma wondered if it was all an act, if she was more skilled than she was letting on, because there were these flashes . . . but no. Rei wasn't like Nagisa, a coiled viper waiting to strike; she was just normal. The expression of surprise on her face when Karasuma twisted the knife out of her grip in combat lessons, her unsteadiness in high places, her slight fear of swimming: her personality seemed very real. He didn't think she was pretending. And even if she was, what reason would there be? She had nothing to gain from hiding her skills.
Karasuma had barely noticed her initially, only starting more intense observation after the class' game of cops and robbers a few months ago. The students had come up with an intelligent plan, luring him too far out into the forest to get back before one minute was up, while the remaining students stayed underwater, ready to ambush Koro-sensei. It wasn't until everyone was back that Karma pointed out, with his typical cheshire cat smile, that Rei Nanatsuki was missing. It was then that Karasuma realized he hadn't tagged her even once. Ritsu used her software to track Rei's phone and the class traced her to the top of a tree, hiding in the foliage. Somehow, she had managed to completely escape even Karasuma's eagle eye. That was when he had begun observing her.
But after months of looking for a spark of ability, Karasuma was forced to concede that Rei really was a normal girl. Whatever talent she'd exhibited in cops and robbers had obviously been a fluke. It was unfortunate, but not everyone in the class could have some special hidden ability.
Karasuma noticed himself zoning out (as much as was possible for someone as alert as himself) and forced his thoughts away from Nanatsuki Rei. It was time to make an announcement. He stood at the front of the class, leaning against the teacher's desk. The bell rang and the students' chattering died down as they took their seats.
"I have an important announcement to make," Karasuma said, his calm tone belying his irritation. "The government has decided that more training is required for all of you to reach the level where you will be able to assassinate Koro-sensei, and as a result, they have arranged an infiltration mission for you to take as a class."
"Ooh where Sensei? And what kind of infiltration mission?" Yuzuki Fuwa chimed in, excited.
Karasuma clenched his teeth imperceptibly. It was the kind of mission he didn't think they were ready for, not yet anyways, but as a government order he didn't have a choice but to help them carry it out. "You will all be posing as twenty year old college students in order to infiltrate a nightclub and gain valuable infiltration about a yakuza circle. I will, of course, be there to assist, but the purpose of the mission is for you to learn independence and plan the execution yourselves." He threw a manila envelope on the desk with a thump. "Here's the mission information. Plan intelligently."
Akabane Karma immediately strode up to the front of the room and pulled the files out of the envelope, scanning them. His grin widened with each flipped page. "Alright everyone, here's what we're gonna do . . . " he began. Karasuma left the room. He decided to come back after they had finished planning. He had been forbidden by his superiors to influence the students or disrupt their planning process and he didn't think he'd be able to resist shutting down some of the more truly idiotic ideas that would undoubtedly be brought up in the meeting.
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Two days and a lunch of takoyaki later, Koro-sensei was quite a talented cook (although it probably helps that he could get all of his ingredients fresh from a market and bring them back to school in less than a minute), Nagisa came to find Karasuma. "We're ready," he said calmly, as he began to walk back to the classroom. Karasuma followed with a steady pace. He hoped the plan was good. If not . . . well . . . the government had ordered him to follow it either way. They wanted to test the students' skills, after all. Not his.
Karma and Kataoki laid out the plan calmly and rationally. The class would enter the nightclub together as a large college party and then split off into pairs that were presumably "dating," at least as far as the nightclub guards would ever find out. If a pair found an opportunity, they would try to slip into one of the hallways (where patrons technically weren't allowed to enter) and snoop around for any information on the yakuza targets.
It was a good plan. The cover stories were perfectly ironed out and completely plausible and there was low risk to the majority of the class. Just one piece was missing.
"Where do I fit into this plan?" Karasuma asked, knowing it was a requirement of the government that the students keep him nearby to help in case of an emergency.
Karma's already wide smile grew even wider as his eyes lit up with mischief. "Well Karasuma-sensei, an adult supervising a bunch of college kids at a night club would be a bit suspicious, don't you think?"
Karasuma nodded briefly, agreeing with Karma's assessment of the situation.
"Luckily," Karma continued, "You look just young enough to be in college yourself, one of our senpai's, you know? You get to pretend to be one of us. You'll be paired up with Rei-san over there," Karma pointed at Rei, looking all together too pleased with himself, "After all, we wouldn't want any of our more "enthusiastic" female classmates getting distracted, neh?"
The girls didn't seem too disgruntled at having Karasuma stolen away from them for the mission. They must have realized he wouldn't be any fun on a mission. He would be, as usual, all business, even when acting like a carefree college student. His eyes tightened at Karma's decision to "pair him up" but it was the students' mission, he reminded himself. He had to follow the plan, no matter how undesirable it may be.
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A week later saw Karasuma standing in the Class E's room at ten o'clock at night, wearing a t-shirt and khakis. He felt unnerved by the casual state of dress, but the class had insisted he look the part of a college student for The Plan, and he had grudgingly agreed. Rei showed up five minutes later in a black t-shirt and jeans.
"Rei-chaaaaaaan," Rio Nakamura whined, "You can't go to a club looking like that. You look like you don't even care about your clothes! And makeup! Where's your makeup?"
Rei just blinked at her.
"Fiiiine Rei-chan," Rio sighed, "You're so lucky I brought my makeup and an extra pair of clothes with me just in case. After all, you want to look extra cute for Karasuma-sensei if no one else, riiight?" she winked saucily. Karasuma resisted the urge to groan. Rei smiled noncommittally.
Rio made a sound of derision and dragged Rei out of the room to inflict upon her the horrors of makeup and teenaged fashion. Karasuma was not envious. Gradually, the rest of the students began to filter into the room. Rio returned, Rei following behind her calmly. Okajima let out a wolf whistle as she stepped forward, "Damn girl, you clean up niiiice."
Okajima's sentiment was echoed by a few more boys in the class as well as a number of girls, although not quite as crudely. Karasuma had to concede the point. Rei's plan hair had been pulled out of her eyes with a diamond, butterfly barrette, and her eyelashes looked notably darker, emphasizing the piercing black of her eyes. A pink, shimmery gloss of some kind covered her lips and her plain shirt and jeans had been replaced with a tight black tank top with a bedazzled skull on the front and a pair of strategically ripped jean shorts. She looked almost as cute as Nagisa that one time he'd dressed up as a girl, and almost as pretty as Kanzaki-san did daily. Not the prettiest in the class, certainly, but also not as plain as she appeared on a day to day basis.
Karma grinned (a little too close to a leer for Karasuma's comfort) at Rei and her new look once before adopting a business-like air. He managed to keep a straight face for all of two seconds before it split back into his trademark wide grin. "Alright everyone. Let's move out."
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The nightclub was bustling with people. "You all know the plan, split into pairs and begin," Karma murmured, putting his arm around Nagisa and leading him away. Initially, there had been some confusion and even repulsion (mainly from Terasaka) at the idea of two guys dating, but Karma had been adamant that a bunch of kids from a less than supervised university would be likely to have a whole range of interests and sexual orientations, and the lack of a gay couple would make people more suspicious.
Karma might have succeeded in convincing the class those were his only motives (despite the weakness of his argument) if right after his little speech he hadn't pulled Nagisa to his chest and said, "Well, even if you disagree, Nagisa can still go as a girl and my date. He's certainly cute enough. Right Nagisa-chaaaaan?"
Nagisa had just sighed resignedly. Karma hadn't fooled anyone about their relationship, not that he had been trying particularly hard to conceal it. Nagisa had had to put up with extra giggles from the girls and awkwardness from the boys for a few days after that. But after, people had just accepted his and Karma's sort-of relationship. That didn't mean it wasn't still embarrassing when Karma started making innuendo after innuendo in the middle of class though.
Back at the nightclub, Karma led his maybe-boyfriend off to the bar. "It's the perfect chance to drink since the government provided us with fake IDs and everything," he whispered in Nagisa's ear.
"Karma," Nagisa sighed, "We have a mission. If we get drunk we could get sloppy and let something slip. We're not just here to have fun."
"Oh I know that," Karma laughed, twirling Nagisa around, "But it's not like we'll get drunk from just a beer or something. Besides, it will help us look more normal."
It took another ten minutes of coaxing but Nagisa eventually agreed to try some beer. The embarrassing part was when the bartender had demanded his ID with a scoffed "You have to be at least 20 to drink, and kid, I'll be damned if you're even twelve."
Nagisa pulled the ID out of his pocket, blushing furiously, while Karma intimidated the man with a glare. Two minutes later, they had to two bottles. "Get ready to party," Karma laughed, smiling like a shark.
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Karasuma had rarely felt uncomfortable on a job throughout the course of his career. He had trained, fought, and killed, all with barely a thought, other than overwhelming urge to get better, stronger. Now, here he was, in a nightclub with his students, trying to act like he was still in college. And Rei had him so, so confused. He'd thought he'd had her figured out and then BOOM. The second they entered the nightclub, it was as if Rei had shed her skin and become a completely different person. Her cheeks were tinged pink, as though she were drunk, although Karasuma knew for a fact she hadn't so much as touched alcohol that night, and she had led him out to the dance floor, stumbling and giggling, so utterly girly and vapid and not herself. Was she truly that talented an actress?
As they stood on the dance floor, she swayed to the music, latching on to Karasuma like some sort of feminine amoeba (although he supposed that was normal girlfriend behavior) and laughed at perfect intervals as though they were having an incredibly funny conversation. Karasuma found himself completely swept up in her pace as she dragged him over to a door leading to one of the restricted hallways they needed to access. Under the pretext of flirting, Rei slipped a bobby pin out of her hair and brought her wrist behind her back, picking the lock. Karasuma heard a click and Rei shoved the door open and pulled them inside.
Within seconds, Rei was back to her normal self: calm, impassive, and distinctly unfeminine in her movements. Karasuma didn't show his disorientation from the sudden change, but he was seriously starting to doubt his assessment of the seemingly average class member. Rei stopped moving, looking at Karasuma expectantly, and he realized that it was his turn to take the lead. She'd gotten them into the restricted area with surprisingly impressive acting, now it was his turn to look for information. He scanned the hallway and saw a locked door at the end of the hallway. He could see that the bolt was made of steel, a considerably stronger lock than would be expected for a supposedly unimportant room. He turned to Rei. "There," he murmured, knowing she understood which door he was referring to. Rei nodded and pulled out a more sophisticated lock pick than the bobby pin that had been in her hair. Karasuma's eyebrows rose but there was no time to question her about preparedness now. It was time for action. Phase Two of The Plan was about to begin.
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Nagisa nearly toppled over from the dizziness he felt. "Only one bottle?" Karma laughed, "You're such a lightweight Nagisa-chaaaan." Nagisa wanted to answer but the room was spinning much too fast, so he settled for leaning into Karma and closing his eyes. Karma rolled his eyes as his kinda-boyfriend fell asleep on his chest. Nagisa really didn't tolerate alchohol well. He should have known. Karma's smile at Nagisa's cute sleeping face turned dangerous as he thought of an interesting plan.
Karma slung Nagisa over his shoulder (the poor boy would have been so embarrassed if he'd known) and walked up to a security guard. "Excuuuuse me," Karma drawled, "But my boyfriend's a bit of a lightweight if you know what I mean, and stupid Maeri-chan," Karma gestured at Kataoka, on the dance floor with Yukiko Kanzaki (they'd argued that if there was gay couple it was only fair that there would be two girls together as well), "doesn't want to go home yet. And she's the one with the car! Is there anywhere we could go? Just until Maeri is ready to leave of course."
The security guard looked ready to bluntly refuse Karma's request but one look at Nagisa's adorable sleeping face and Karma could feel his resolve weakening. "Erm . . . I'm sorry sir but you really can't—"
"Please?" Karma cut the man off. "It will just be for a little bit, I swear. Less than an hour. I don't want to have to wake Na-chan up. He'll feel so sick!"
"Alright, fine," the guard grumbled, irritated. He unlocked a door leading off the dance floor with a key from his pocket. "You two can wait in here."
"Here" was a small room with two chairs and a couch with some cushions on it. "It's normally for VIPs to get some privacy," the guard explained, "But since no one's using it tonight I suppose you two can, as long as you don't make a mess."
"Thank you so much Guard-san," Karma smiled as he strode into the room and shut the door behind him. "And don't worry about any mess, we'll be veeeery careful. Scout's honor."
The guard rolled his eyes and walked away, obviously done with the conversation. As soon as Karma was sure no one was near the other side of the door, he gently laid Nagisa's sleeping form on the couch and stacked the chairs. At the top of the wall was an air duct. Perfect, Karma thought, as he pulled a screwdriver from his pocket and began loosening the bolts on the grate.
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Karasuma felt very satisfied as he crept back towards the main room of the nightclub with Rei. They'd found a wealth of information in the desk about multiple Yakuza, probably enough to satisfy the government. All in all, it had been a successful night.
Karasuma suddenly tensed as he heard voices coming from the other end of the hallway, just around a corner. All of the doors around them were locked and it was too late to pick the locks. Shit. There was nothing they could do. He would just have to knock out the men and hope they didn't get a chance to sound the alarm as he did. Rei had a different idea.
As the voices (and the men they were attached to) rounded the corner, Rei shoved Karasuma against the wall with a surprising amount of strength and pressed her lips to his. Karasuma was too surprised to move for a moment, to the point where he made no move to push her away and ask what the hell she was thinking.
"Oi, what are you doing in this area?" one of the men asked angrily, as he spotted them.
Rei whipped around, cheeks flushed, lips swollen, hair disheveled, and a blush quickly spreading across her face. She was the perfect picture of someone who'd snuck off into a restricted area to make out with her boyfriend in private. That was why she'd kissed him, Karasuma realized, it established the perfect alibi. His eyes narrowed imperceptibly. Something about Rei was off. No one was that good an actor. No high school student, at least. It was all very suspicious. But he didn't have time to think about it now. He would deal with the matter once Class E was safely back in their classroom.
"I'm—I mean—I, no we, we were just . . . umm . . . I'm sorry, we were just leaving," Rei stammered, grabbing Karasuma's hand and running out the door. Karasuma looked over his shoulder as they left. The two men were watching suspiciously, but not enough to go after the two supposed teenagers who'd gone somewhere they shouldn't have. Good.
As soon as they made it back onto the dance floor, Rei pulled out her cell phone and sent a text to the others to alert them that they'd gotten the necessary information and escaped safely. It was time to leave.
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Karma's phone buzzed in his pocket just as he got to the last bolt on the vent grate. "Aww man," he whined to himself, "I wanted to be the one to discover the information this time. Although the fact that it was Rei . . . interesting." Karma smiled, his teeth a sharp, white curve in the darkness. He hopped down from the stack of chairs and picked up Nagisa, carrying him bridal style this time, as he deftly placed the screwdriver back in his pocket. "I can't wait to see what we found out," he snickered, opening the door and walking back out on to the dance floor, ready to leave.
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Back at school, everyone was buzzing with excitement. High from the adrenaline of the night and ready to debrief one another.
As Karasuma and Rei headed back towards the classroom he used the cover of darkness and Terasaka's loud boasting to pull her out towards the forest. Rei looked up at him, vaguely curious, "Where are we goin—"
She was cut off as Karasuma slammed her into a tree. She winced in pain as he twisted one arm behind her back and glared at her menacingly. "I was willing to let it go at the night club, but I've run out of patience," Karasuma said coldly, looking at her with suspicion. "Who the fuck are you?"
A/N: PLEASE REVIEW. I BEG OF YOU! ONEIGAISHIMASE OR HOWEVER YOU SAY IT IN JAPANESE. What's that? You say I sound desperate? I am. But for constructive criticism not praise. I love it with all my heart and soul. Tell me what you thought. What you like what you didn't. ESPECIALLY WHAT YOU DIDN'T. Thanks. I hope you like it :)