Finally finished the 4th chapter^^ Took longer than expected, but I do hope you'll like it. As always I really have to thank you for your reviews and favoriting and following my story. Ah, besides I have decided to change the cover, it's a picture drawn by myself and colored(pretty bad) but I wold like to know if I should keep this or change it(maybe a version in which Karma looks cuter . totally failed at it^^)
So then, Class 3E has decided to split up and keep the 'children' in sight. It should be best way to take care of them and they should also be able to at least go outside. Our first task was to make preparation for our 'study camp' and get the others fitting cloths.
My group consisting of me (obviously) Yada-San and Fuwa-San was taking care of Karma-Kun. His parents are nearly never home, so we had no problem to get there. He also ensured us, that there wasn't any other one, meaning his butlers and maids, at this time. Which made things even easier. At least one good thing about us having to take care of Karma-Kun.
As the bluenette walked behind his classmates he couldn't actually stop his sweat dropping. Yada was literally driving Karma crazy (even more than his own big cloths, which made it hard for him to walk properly. And that really means something). She was the only one of the girls to come along being almost magnetic to Karma's cuteness. She was insisting the whole time on, to hold Karma's hand. To which the said boy only got pissed and tried to make her stop.
Unfortunately, with his body the way it was now, he couldn't do a thing.
"Come on Karma" pleaded the girl, "I wanna hold your hand. Look it's so small and cute! And besides I love children!"
"I am not a child! And not cute!"
"Besides, Karma I think we should get you glasses and a blue school uniform" commented Fuwa, studying the little redhead.
"I am not gonna cosplay Conan!"
"You're right, we need to do something about your red hair first"
"Shut up!"
The little boy turned around to look at the bluenette. He shrugged and smiled sweetly telling him the unspoken sentence: I can't do anything. Sorry.
Karma sighed in annoyance. He was actually more frustrated about the fact, that out of all it had to be him to be this small. Hell, wasn't Nakamura enough? He could swear the blonde had taken pictures of him and will take even more.
When Yada tried again to catch his hand he dodged and ran back. Hiding behind Nagisa. "Man, that's not fair Karma!" complained the ponytailed girl as the other one stuck his tongue out. After all Nagisa was the only one right now not to tease him. He hoped it at least. "Nagisa got to even carry you", added Yada.
"Yada-San that was to catch Karma-Kun before he could run away." Explained Nagisa exasperated. "But can we trust him to stay by our side?" asked Fuwa, which made Nagisa think about it.
"Hello?! How far should I be able to run with these?" asked Karma pointing at his cloths. True, that one was a convincing argument.
Nagisa smiled softly. "True that" he said when he grabbed Karma's hand, "but let me help you walk better." Karma was ready to object, but up on seeing Nagisa's smile and an expression that really meant to help him and not mock him, he let Nagisa lead him.
Maybe I can let my guard down. But it was still embarrassing to be held like a kid, so his blush wasn't stoppable. Ever since he got back to this age, his face was more of the time red than his usual color. Nagisa enjoyed this sight. He and Karma were after all friends since their first year, but he never got to see Karma's childhood pictures when visiting, not even when he asked. And he never got to see a side of Karma other than his arrogant and violent one.
By the time they were already walking through the city, heading towards the train station. It was evening, soon the sun will set. The students tried their best to ignore some people's staring. Apparently they gave confused looks at seeing Karma wandering by with his oversized cloths. The redhead fought back the urge to let out his usual sharp tongue.
Now that they were in a more public place it was even more embarrassing to hold hands. And run around like that. He could even hear people, especially women sneaker and murmur something like cute. Which nearly drove him crazy. Not even his parents had ever maid he was cute or anyone at his home, so what was wrong with all of them. No one was so crazy about little kids, except for Yada, so at least these people kept away from him.
Nagisa didn't miss the deadly glare his redheaded friend gave. He thought about comforting him, but what could he say, without making the situation worse?
Karma closed his eyes inhaling and exhaling heavily to calm down. He forced his hand out of Nagisa's grip and, even though his pants almost forbid him, he increased his pace. (It could have been quite amusing to see the little redhead holding desperately on his pants so that they would not slip down, if it wasn't for Karma's bad mood)
"Karma-Kun, what're you doing?" asked the blue head surprised.
"I can walk by myself." Just as he said those words he bumped into a person. Bigger than him. Much bigger. And someone they shouldn't have met. Oh no.
Meanwhile Kataoka and Hayami were almost at Isogai's house. Since the Ikemen didn't live far away from school they decided to go there first. They had only problems on how to get Isogai's stuff out. In his state he couldn't go in and just take them.
"So how are we going to do this?" asked Hayami in her usual calm voice. Kataoka thought for a while. Due to their training for assassination they had got a few chances to get what they needed without being seen. "We could sneak in and take his stuff", mumbled she while thinking if this was really good. "But wouldn't his parents be wondering why he didn't came to pick his clothes and stuff up?" asked Hayami. Kataoka nodded. "That's the problem."
"Plus my house only has only one floor" added Isogai, "and not many rooms, in fact my parents and me we sleep in the same room."
Oh right, they shouldn't forget that their famous class rep is actually the poorest student among them, despite his good looks and all these things that made him look rather like someone with wealth. But who could have guessed that their situation was that bad?
"Wait, what about Maehara's sleepovers at yours?" asked Kataoka surprised.
"What do you think why he was only once there. And me being at his house mostly."
Their attention turned back wards suddenly, hearing a loud thud. Behind them Chiba ran again into a sign, which was blocking his way. With his hands covering his eyes he obviously couldn't see that coming. His face was red with embarrassment.
"Chiba-Kun why don't you put your hands down?" asked Kataoka sweat building on her forehead. He shook his head. "He doesn't like to show his eyes" explained Hayami, while helping him up.
Kataoka just sighed and dropped the topic. They were finally at Isogai's house, which was indeed very small. She just casually walked ahead. "You guys just wait, I'll do something."
Not seeing any reason to object the other ones hid behind a house of Isogai's neighbors and waited. After a short while Kataoka came back to them with a bag full of old clothing and some books.
"How did you get these?" asked Chiba after glancing at her for a second, before covering his eyes again. "I just said that Isogai wanted me to pick his stuff, since he was busy." Her friends stared in disbelieve thinking how easy it was to get Isogai's stuff.
"Besides there were still cloths from your younger days so I picked most of them up that should fit you, why do you even have them?"
"My parents always thought to keep as much as they could. If I had have a younger brother or sister they'd have gotten these" explained the shorter male. "When being poor you use things as many times as you can." He looked to the side, a little bit depressed, "but there never came another child."
"Oh sorry for asking" Kataoka felt a little guilty making her friend depressed and was patting his shoulder to cheer him up. It felt a little strange though, the usually her sized boy felt so small. "Oh, you don't need to be, we were actually glad there wasn't another one" replied Isogai all of a sudden with his usual ikemen smile.
Immediately Kataoka stopped patting his shoulder and turned her attention to the others. There were more things left to do.
"Next one is Chiba-Kun" said Hayami, to which the others nodded and went on, ignoring Isogai for the rest of their time outside. Who was apologizing, but no one was listening.
On the other side of the town, Kayano's house was a little bit further away from their school, but the group decided to go there first. Kayano told them that she was living alone, her parents bought her an apartment and would support her in terms of money. Due to their work they need to stay outside town, but really wanted her to attend Kunugigaoka and so she lived here.
Despite her current situation, Kayano was rather cheerfully walking through the streets, ignoring her clothes. Close behind her Okuda and Kanzaki. The bigger girl was interested in knowing how Okuda felt being younger than usual. She made sure not to make the situation uncomfortable and the shorter female didn't seem to mind. Her mind was actually focused on helping with the research later on, after all Okuda felt guilty and wanted to make up for that.
Maehara was still complaining about his looks and that he won't be able to go on any date, besides Sugino had to call up to cancel his date. He and Takebayashi were silently following, there wasn't anything they would like to talk about, but every once a while they'd finally snap and tell Maehara to just shut up.
Nakamura was looking at her phone. The devious smile on her face told everyone that the little blonde was up to mischief. Curiously Kurahashi tried to glance at her phone. "What're you doing, Rio-Chan?" asked the orange haired girl.
"Nothing" Nakamura snickered, "Just looking forward to go back to the class." Finally Kurahashi saw the screen with a picture of Karma when he was embarrassed by being called cute in the class. And that made it clear that Nakamura was going to tease the poor boy a lot, maybe she will give him true terror. "You shouldn't tease him too much Rio-Chan" said Kurahashi smiling, "He's already bothered a lot."
"But he deserves it", replied the blonde, "and we need to take advantage of him, as long as he's like this." Surely Nakamura wasn't actually the only one thinking like this. With Karma's current state nearly everyone wished to keep him like this, cute and little and not that much of trouble, well they thought he wouldn't be so.
But obviously no one was going to say it out loud. Well Nakamura maybe, but others did care about his feelings. "I wonder were this all is going to" murmured the orange haired girl, "I wonder if there's more behind our situation."
Back to Karma who bumped into someone. Actually not just someone. He stared up in shock as the violet orbs were glancing at him with a confused look. The roan hair not to be mistakable. Oh jeeze, this was the last person they wanted to see, really.
His friends were frozen in their spot as Asano's gaze didn't change. "Akabane?" he blurted out, which made the others flinch, they looked at each other, seemingly expecting any help. Ignoring the situation's seriousness Karma felt embarrassed standing in front of his rival who was literally towering over him with his prideful attitude, while Karma was small and weak.
But he managed to force back a blush, he looked down at the ground. "Is that you?" Now what to do? Yada was the first to snap out of it. She quickly ran in between them, using the moment to pick Karma up and started to laugh.
"Eh, Akabane?" she repeated with false amusement, "Asano-Kun we all know that Karma is our age." She pointed at the redhead in her arm, "but here that cutie is much too young. See!" She ignored Karma's offended mumble at the cutie part trying her best to keep her act.
Asano looked at them. Not believing in her words, though it really sounded crazy. How should Karma be that little kid?
"Asano-Kun how can you even think that? There's no way this one here is Karma-Kun" added Nagisa, trying to help Yada convince the roan haired boy. "Yeah It's not like we did something to make them…." Before Fuwa could end her sentence, which he stupidly blurted out in panic, Nagisa held a hand to her mouth. "Please Fuwa-San we all know he's not Karma."
"Why does he look so much like Akabane?" asked Asano. "Isn't it obvious?" asked Yada back, before she gave an answer she whispered another question into Karma's ear, "Are both of your parents redheaded?"
"My mom only."
"He is a relative of Karma's, from his mother's side." She lied. "That could be, but how can a relative look exactly like him, just in a chibi version."
"Who are you calling chibi, damn Number Two!" shouted Karma back in anger. "Number Two?" repeated Asano with a raised brow to which Karma realized his mistake and slapped his mouth shut. Shocked students behind him. Yada flinched getting confused with the situation.
"As far as I know only Akabane calls me 'Number Two'" said Asano, "that annoying bastard" he added quietly.
"O-of course he heard Karma talking about you, he's after all his cousin!" replied Yada with a nervous laugh. Asano still confronted them with disbelieve which grew, when he looked clearly at the small redhead. "Ok, so he's Akabane's cousin" he repeated, Yada nodded hastily and so did the other two in the background. "Why's he wearing clothes clearly too big for him?"
Silence. Nagisa cursed, how could they have forgotten about his clothes? "Well…" started Yada, not knowing how to continue. What could she tell him? The situation keeps getting more irritating. "If I am not wrong these belong to our school uniform. Why is he wearing them?" besides he was sure that these clothes are Karma's, even though his black blazer wasn't among them. There was something wrong with the E-class and he knew it.
"Ah, erm you know…" Yada looked to the side desperately trying to get an excuse for that. It wouldn't be good after all, if Asano finds out about their current situation. He'd definitely want to know where the chemicals and so forth came from and may even go investigate their classroom and this is obviously out of question.
"I made him wear Karma's clothes" said Yada. Asano didn't buy that, of course. He was looking at her with the silent question why?
"I I wanted to see how he'd look in them. Isn't he cute." Stretched out her arms showing him Karma closer, the redhead needed to cooperate, swallowing his own pride and said: "Asano-Nii-San, we need to get home now." Said the redhead with big eyes. Perhaps he tried to behave like a kid, so Asano had to drop his ridicules thought of him being a little kid. After all it would be the worst, if the roan haired boy was to take advantage of his state. No that better not happen! Nagisa could not believe what he was saying. How much pride did he swallow? Poor Karma.
Then Karma started grinning deviously, "So please stop being stupid." A vain popped inside of the roan haired boy. He was shocked hearing the smaller ones first sentence, but now this cheeky reply got him back to what he thought earlier. "You little…"
"Obviously you're only Number Two, how can you even think that I am Karma?" he was literally using his appearance as an advantage now, since they were in public he could tease Asano without the other one talking back or even get violent. It wouldn't do well to his popularity after all if he argued with a small kid let alone be violent towards it.
"Your parents haven't taught you manners, have they?" said Asano with a forced smile, "how about I teach you then." He ruffled Karma's hair, rudely, to which Karma grumbled annoyed. Yada motioned her friends to leave, if the conversation goes on like this, they'll have a hard time to keep their act. Besides she wanted to get away before Asano could ask where Karma was or what the name of his 'cousin' was.
"We have to go now, his parents must be worried already" excused the brown haired girl and ran off. Nagisa and Fuwa gave him a little smile excusing themselves as well, ignoring the other's shouts for them to stop. Luckily, the train arrived just in time, they boarded. Once settling on the seats they all sighed in relief. For the moment they were save.
"You shouldn't have provoked him, Karma" scolded Yada who had placed Karma in her lap. "This could have ended worse" added Nagisa. The said boy ignored their scolding and was sulking. It wasn't helping at all, that Yada got him in her lap, after carrying him.
"See I knew we should have at least got you glasses" said Fuwa, not considering that the moment wasn't good for her anime and manga obsession. "Like he would have been fooled by that!" replied Karma angrily.
"We could have at least tried it."
Nagisa motioned her to be quiet for now, seeing how upset his redheaded friend was. He smiled turning back to him, "well at least you're getting out of these." He took the lower part of Karma's shirt in his hand showing him what he meant. "And for now there won't be any embarrassing encounters" added Yada, "well at least until we're back to the class."
It didn't take long to until the train stopped where Karma usually exited. From the station on his mansion was about five to seven minutes away. In the meantime, the redhead kept close to Nagisa, feeling more comfortable with the blue head than the Otaku and children Lover. To his relief neither Fuwa nor Yada started any annoying conversation or tried to suggest him anything stupid.
Soon they stood before a huge gate. Grey colored and decorated with mini sculptures (angel like). Opening it they were on a passage that cut the breathtaking garden into half. Arriving at the brownish-red colored door, which was huge as well. Karma reached into the pockets of his pants, luckily his keys still were in them. He passed them to Nagisa so that the bluenette can open it. He himself was too small.
After opening the door they stepped into a huge hall, decorated with colorful carpets (whole floor), oversized furniture and many rooms. Opposite to them at the other end of the hall was a huge stairway leading to the second floor.
Karma led them to it and went upstairs. There were pictures of different tourist features, such as the Eifel Tower or the Statue of Liberty and many more. Nagisa guessed that the persons visible on them were Karma's parents, they after all do travel around. So they send pictures to their son at least huh? There were also portraits and little sculptures made of clay. Resembling different animals. They didn't seem very professional though, maybe Karma or his parents made them.
His room wasn't far away, one of the first rooms on this floor. Entering it Nagisa noticed that Karma's room wasn't that crazy decorated. Actually it was rather simple, big but not extraordinary. His bed was placed near the windows on the opposite side of the door. It was pretty big though. From where he stood Nagisa looked to the left, Karma's desk, which was full of books and games. It was directly next to another window, besides the windows were also big.
Next to Karma's desk was a dartboard with different pictures on it, each pinned with a dart that was holding a little note. Most darts were thrown on a big picture of Koro-Sensei, but there were also pictures of Asano Gakushú and Terasaka. Above the dartboard was another board, scribbled on it were the notes: Assassination Ideas, pranks needed to play, how can I provoke the best? And so forth.
Nagisa narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of a picture of himself, also pinned to the wall. For some reason there were notes written down. It read: "drag it out… just to be sure…." Before he could clearly see, what was written there Karma turned the dartboard around, the part with the pictures on it facing the wall. He definitely realized what Nagisa was staring at.
"What was that about, Karma-Kun?" asked Nagisa. Drag it out? He was annoyed, thinking Karma made even at his home plans for Nagisa's gender change, and until now he thought that Karma was always just joking. Somehow that was disgusting. The redhead laughed awkwardly. "We still need to get stuff done, don't we?" He changed the topic of their conversation, hurrying to his cupboard and searching for clothes.
Surprisingly for his classmates, Karma still kept his childhood clothing in there. He pulled out yellow shorts and a deep blue shirt. "I'll go get changed, you guys wait here." He said leaving for his bathroom. The others noticed that he only took out these pair of clothes. So Yada went to his cupboard to take more to pack them in.
After taking some different pairs out, she found something strange in there. There were stuffed animals, like those you would gift a kid. Why were these in Karma's cupboard? When taking them out, she noticed that the toys were in a rather good condition, like being somewhat used or so.
Yada had no idea that Karma would have ever liked these kind of things. "Look guys what I found." The brunette held the little toy out to show the others. Who looked at it in shock.
Just in that very moment Karma came back into the room, dressed in proper clothing. Like time was being frozen, all eyes on him, he stared in question at the offending object in Yada's hands. After a long beat of silence he finally spoke. "I-it's not what you think!"
"Then why do you have these?" asked Nagisa curious. "I wanted to throw them away, b-but the maids told me not to, since they contain memories and all that shit! They put them in there probably." Karma looked anywhere but his friends.
He blushed slightly, ever since he'd shrunken only things happened that put his pride to a very low level. Never had he ever felt so humiliated.
Seeing how uneasy Karma was towards the current topic, Nagisa changed it. "Well that doesn't matter anymore, we still have to get back to class E." They nodded in agreement and Yada put the stuffed animal back into the cupboard.
"B-besides, could you keep this for yourself?" asked Karma nervously, it was embarrassing to pick up the topic again, but it would be much worse if some other class members were to find these out. Especially Nakamura.
They all smiled at him when assuring him that they won't. It made him happy, to be able to trust them, even though he was still a little bit suspicious.
After that we finished getting some stuff of Karma and packed everything and went to our own homes to get ready. Until all preparations were done, it was already deep in the evening, sun had already set long time ago. We finally headed back to our classroom. Where Koro-Sensei had already prepared a lab to research Karma-Kun and the other's current problem. Up until then we didn't realize how much problems kids could be.
