Hello again fine people. Happy fourth of July to my fellow 'Muricans, and happy belated Canada Day to my friends up north (since I forgot to mention it last chapter). For now, expect an update every 2-3 days, but can only keep that up 'til late August because then I go back to school. Responses to reviews:

no name: My intention was for a third-person limted narrator, and the sentences in italics are Nagisa's thoughts and feelings. I tried to make that more clear in this chapter, please tell me if it's still confusing.

iamn00bish and NTYTekHTTYDFan: Thank you, I am definitely enjoying writing this. Not much Nagikae in this chapter but I promise oodles upon oodles of it in the next few.


Nagisa's first week at Paradise High eventually came to an end. His students must have realized that "assassinating" him would require more complex attempts, because their attempts abruptly stopped, and they always seemed to be whispering to each other in small groups, as if discussing some sort of covert operation. That or they were really thoughtful about last night's homework. Well, either was a good development.

Nagisa had also met many more of his colleagues. Turns out they weren't as bad as he initially thought. Fuyuki Shibata, the drama teacher, was quiet and soft spoken, the math teachers all had a great sense of humor, and the vice principal was stern but seemed to care a lot for the students. Nagisa had gotten a hold of the principal and put in a request for funds to fix the room. He had not heard back yet.

It was Friday evening, and the twenty-two year old was grading the essays he assigned earlier in the week. Hamada did indeed write about his 'beef' with the art club president, and how it made him an outcast. Unfortunately, he ignored the 'resolving' part. Add 'problem solving' to my list of lessons to teach... He thought. The other essays were not dissimilar. Talk of kid stuff, like punching their brother for taking their favorite toy and mommy put them both in time out. They must have had some sort of major conflict in their 17 year-old lives. Why else would they be in the special placement class? This was where the school dumped its "problem children". Nagisa was all too familiar with that.

I don't know what I expected, Nagisa rubbed his temples. Of course they aren't ready to open up to me. I'm new to them, and they don't respect authority to begin with. I have to try harder. Nagisa felt like a fool.

Nagisa sipped his oolong tea. He cast a glance at Kayano, who was leaning on the couch reading a letter from a fan. Or at least she was. Seeing Nagisa upset, she moved towards him and started rubbing his back. He felt at peace. "I'll be okay," She assured him. "I remember the first time I disappointed someone..."


April was now upon them. It was warming up outside, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. The seasonal birds had returned but the school's occupants had not yet gotten used to waking up at six a.m. The extra daylight hours the previous month had left everyone restless; all obligations had been fulfilled yet there was still time to be filled. Before he started working, Nagisa used to fill his time by starting new lesson plans sitting outside in the park, smiling when families with children and dogs would walk by, but that was now a thing of the past. There was no time left for that. Daylight would now be spent indoors, in off-white hallways and a room that was falling apart from the inside out.

School began again after a weekend spent going over lesson plans. Nagisa again took up the task of getting to know his students, and this again was a Herculean effort. They were still resistant to his attempts to teach them, as if they thought he was giving them misinformation to cause their downfall. Nagisa frowned in homeroom when Tsukuda refused the help he offered to go over the history test he failed. The blond didn't even hesitate in saying no. Nagisa had to make the tutoring session mandatory to get him to even consider coming. But even among these, one student stood out.

Kotori Kasegawa. She took the Chemistry exam Wednesday and earned a grade of a thirty. Out of one hundred. Nagisa stood in front of her desk on a break between classes.

He took caution, having heard about her infamously terrible temper and foul mouth. "I recommend you stay after today. To discuss your progress in science." He said with the friendliest smile he could muster.

Nagisa had tried to be discreet about it, but that was not going well. Kasegawa shot up out of her desk.

"I-I'm not coming!" Her meltdown caused the whole class to turn around and see the catastrophe unfolding.

"This is for your grade, Kasegawa. Everyone has had tutoring they've been asked to come to-"

"And I know none of them have showed!" Angry tears burst from her eyes. Nagisa knew he had stepped on a landmine, but he had to try to help her.

"That's their problem, this is yours."

"This is such fucking bullshit! I'll punch you if you bring it up again!"

Nagisa suddenly got a flashback to something Karma said to Terasaka about hating Koro-sensei years ago. The "assassin" switch was now on. He smirked.

"You're allowed to do that here."

She stared at him. It was probably only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity to Class 3-5 as they awkwardly watched this meltdown.

Kasegawa finally had enough and stormed out of the room, but not before taking her reaching into her desk to grab her phone and a cloth-looking pouch- probably erasers or gum or something. She threw Nagisa one final spiteful look and slammed the door on her way out. Nagisa was dumbfounded. None of the class reacted that badly to being told they had extra classwork. At most they got slightly defensive.

Once again the class shocked Nagisa with their reaction.

"Don't worry about Kotori, she does this to everyone." Kagato actually even dared to look at his sensei as he said it.

"Yeah. She'll calm down and be back tomorrow, normal as ever." Hamada, who seemed to be in her company a lot, concurred.

"... So, can I have her seat for today?" Asked Aida, as her desk was farther towards the back of the room.

Kasegawa indeed did not show up for the rest of the day. And she indeed did come back the next day, seemingly back to her normal self, or what passed for normal in this place. She sat at her desk all the next day, twirling her hair and staring out the window, and most of all refusing to make eye contact with Nagisa. Still not paying attention in class. Nagisa had to do something for her. And the idea of exactly what came to him shortly before lunchtime.

He tried again at lunch, pulling her outside the room. "Kasegawa?"

She stared at the floor. "...Yes? Are you going to-"

"I'm going to help you. I'm your teacher, after all."

She refused to meet his eyes. "And how to you plan on doing that? I've been at this school two years and they put me here for a reason. Because no one has-"

Nagisa handed her a pen. "I see you didn't bring one today. Anyway, think of taking these tests as an... Assassination." Nagisa thought back to what he told Sakura years ago.

"..." She began to have that get-me-out-of-here look.

"You go in with an arsenal of weapons, wait for the right moment, then make your kill." She seemed to be following the metaphor. "But just like how an assassin can't make his kill without preparation, you can't pass a test without being prepared either. And you can be prepared by studying ahead of time. Okay?"

There was still no response from the student. Nagisa went on "I'm going to give you this study guide for the next exam. I'm going to recommend you study a bit every night-"

She grabbed the booklet and began to storm into the classroom, but stopped in the doorway for a minute. "Asshole."

You think I can't handle a bit of verbal abuse? Nagisa thought with derision. You haven't met my mother.

Kasegawa turned around to plunge the pen into her teacher, only for the petite blue-haired man to catch her arm, stopping the instrument a mere four inches from his face.

"... Good. You're taking this seriously." Nagisa was pleased.