Here's a parting gift I shall be giving before my short leave of fan fiction for my exams, which start next week. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
The life of a junior-high student was always jam packed, especially at Kunugigaoka. Where a week after midterms, there is a two day school trip to Kyoto. After exams it was actually considered a great time for some rest and relaxation, away from regular schooling but that was not going to be the case for Aria. Having been caught by her principal breaking the schools rules and going up to the satellite campus, where she discovered something interesting yet extremely confidential. So much so, that she was interrogated by the Ministry of defence and then after given a notice of transfer to the E-class right after the school trip.
'It's not like I won't have a lot to do here though.' Aria reminded herself.
After midterms, Aria had been confronted by Gakushu Asano about her part-time job-which she was not allowed to have as per the schools conduct. Although Aria managed to get out of being blackmailed, it didn't change the fact that Gakushu now knew where she worked. Obviously she had informed the manager of this development and in order to avoid future problems, Aria decided to resign. She did not take Gakushu for someone who would put on the kid-gloves for any matter. If she was caught there again, it wouldn't just be her on the line but the entire establishment as well. She had been met with some protest-especially from Ritsu, but the situation was understandable.
"And so to avoid any further inconveniences for either of us, I am quitting." Aria said, having given a brief, straightforward explanation on why she was resigning to her manager.
"I understand Aria-chan, I am sorry to hear this but I would be more than happy to write a letter of recommendation for your next employer."
Aria smiled "I would appreciate that very much."
Ritsu charged into the employees changing room, where she saw Aria clearing out her locker and nearly finished as she threw in the last of her things in an old backpack.
"Aria, is it true you're quitting?"
Aria turned around to face Ritsu, "That's right."
That subtle answer was not enough for Ritsu, who threw her hands in the air "Can you please explain why?"
It wasn't as if Aria didn't see this coming, but she hadn't counted on Ritsu behaving so dramatically. However Aria explained to Ritsu that she was quitting because someone from her school had found out about her job and it would have caused a lot of trouble for the café if she kept working here.
Ritsu's expression darkened, a deep frown lining her face "Was it that guy you were talking to a few days ago and went home with? He was wearing your school's uniform but I assumed you were okay with him because of how you were acting and I saw the two of you get in a car together so-
"You were watching me." Aria stated raising an eyebrow.
"To be honest I thought he was your boyfriend." Ritsu admitted, rubbing the back of her head.
"He is not, he was just a classmate," Aria assured before throwing her bag over her shoulder. "Besides, you can't date till you're eighteen."
Ritsu rolled her eyes, hands on her hips "Who told you that?"
Aria paused, fixing the strap of her bag and turning her head to glance back at the girl.
"My brother."
Aria spent the time she had away from school to focus on finding a new source of income. It was not easy for a junior high student to get a job-especially one that would pay enough to (barely) live on. However, thanks to her manager's recommendations and Ritsu keeping an eye out for any openings for her. The third day she had found a job at another café, a little ways further than the last one and she was going to have to take a different train, but the pay was similar to what she was earning before.
'Good thing or I might've needed to take a second job.' Aria snickered before glancing at the small table in the middle of her room, instead of having the regular ornamental decorations on the table to start conversation, she had scattered weapons.
"Here are the details," the women said, handing Aria a thin folder. She had been moved from the interrogation room to another. Just as dimly lit as the previous one but a change in furniture, with a comfortable couch rather than a steel chair.
The first page of the file was a picture of the tentacle create she had seen at E-class satellite campus (and at the convenience store at one point.). He was holding up a number plate, posing to the camera; taking a mug shot of his own will. Initially the being didn't give a name to put to its smiley face, but the students had named him Koro sensei; a play on words meaning 'un-killable teacher'. An 'unknown' super being, able to move at the speed of Mach 20.
"That's 24696 kilometres." Aria said to herself. As she read further she found that he had confessed to destroying the moon. It had happened recently, when the moon had been reduced to more than half, its crumbled parts drifting around in space for everyone from earth to see. No one was able to explain this phenomenon, but now Aria knew-along with barely a handful of the world that it was Koro sensei. He claimed that at the end of the year, he would be doing the same to the planet. There was only one page, explaining Korosensei's weakness to a particular substance that they had used to make weapons to use against him but the details about what kind of substance was too vague to analyse it.
Aria looked down to the display of green rubber daggers and pink rubber pellets, they wouldn't harm humans but they would work on him, breaking through the cells.
Then she went on to the E-class's assignment; one that they could not bring out of the classroom. An assassination assignment, to kill Koro Sensei who was acting as their teacher. If they killed him before the end of the year then they would be rewarded ten billion yen.
While things were making sense to Aria now, she still attempted to theorise the reason behind this 'teacher's' motives to allow an assassination. Apparently, the Ministry of Defence weren't certain of his motives either. There was an agreement that while the students were allowed to attempt to assassinate him, he could not harm the students in anyway.
Theorising things for herself, Aria was able to come with scenarios that this being would want to teach and let the students attempt to assassinate him but there were something thing's you couldn't know by simply looking at words on paper. She was going to have to find out for herself. When she analysed something; it was like putting a puzzle together, she just had to look at each piece carefully and figure out where to place them, looking not only at the tiny part of the picture but at the shape and size of the piece itself. However, this was different. It was as if she had been given the pieces belonging to different puzzles.
'Tomorrow.' Aria thought, examining the rubber knife in her hands. She looked out of the window to the battered moon in the sky. She would be joining the E-class. She was going to be part of an assassination class.
The walk up the mountain was just as long as the first time Aria had gone up there. She had a meeting with the principal that morning, making sure that everything was in order and confirmed. After that, she left for the satellite campus, but had taken her time in getting there so that she wouldn't have to give personal introductions until the formal one in front of the entire class was made by the teacher. It was already a little past eight, which meant that everyone would be in homeroom by now. That was when Aria chose to finally walk up to the small building, planted right in the middle of a clearing on a mountain. Contrasting with its environment.
After entering through a short hallway, Aria now stood in front of a room she had seen from behind a window on the outside. There were several desks crammed in, the small room which was acting as a teacher's room. Sitting on one side of this desk was Irina Jelavic, reading through some files and on the side opposite to Irina was Todaomi Kurasuma, reading through some papers at the desk before turning to stare at the screen of his laptop. Aria remained quiet for the past two minutes while they worked in silence, but knowing that they probably weren't going to notice her for another four, she knocked against the wooden door frame to get their heads to turn in her direction.
Karasuma stood up, "Oh you're finally here. Did you have trouble getting up the mountain?"
"No more trouble than getting down last time I was here." Aria replied smiling. She picked up on Karasama's stiff posture turning even more rigid and Irina's eyes seeming to light up with interest. "Speaking of which…" Aria shuffled through her skirt pocket as she approached Irina, putting an envelope on the desk. "For the dry cleaning."
"That's not necessary-
"The hell it isn't. Those suits aren't cheap!" Irina said, opening the envelope and finding just enough to actually pay for the suit. "You're in the clear kid."
"That's good, I had a feeling we wouldn't be on good terms given how loud you were screaming after falling in that puddle. Irina-sensei."
Karasuma glared at Irina, his left eyebrow twitching. He then gestured for Aria to follow him out of the room. "Alright, then. Let's get you to class before she charges you for the heel she broke as well."
There was a plate hanging over a door painted 3-E, a large section of windows following the hallway showed the inside of the classroom with several students. She had kept an eye out for Nagisa, but clearly didn't sit near the back which was the only view she was getting from her angle.
"You've already been briefed." Karasuma said, keeping his eyes on her. He was clearly very weary of her. Smart in Aria's opinion. "Also, there is another…transfer student who is already in class."
Aria didn't miss the way Karasuma used the term 'transfer student', so loosely it was as if he was having difficulty maintaining the words. Like it was foreign or mismatched. Perhaps for the situation-the student? It didn't matter. She was more concerned about herself right now. Having to meet her new teacher-not to mention Nagisa was also in this class.
She felt lighter; knowing she would at least be able to see a friend despite the circumstances.
"I understand." Aria replied, holding her school bag in front of her. Karasuma slid open the door and stepped in with Aria waiting out in the doorway. She could see the yellow creature-Koro sensei, standing behind a desk at a blackboard. Just from where she was standing, Aria could confirm that the rumours of the E-class's place of priority for the school was Karasuma had taken a piece of white chalk to write on the board.
"Good morning everyone, as you know there are two new transfers entering today." Karasuma held up his hand and gestured for Aria to enter as he moved to the side so that the students could get a clear view of the black board as well as the names that were written on it.
Aria counted only five steps before she stopped and turned to face the class, her face with the same grin. "Hello, I'm Ariana Tsukimi but I'd prefer if everyone just called me Aria."
Everyone watched her and Aria in turn observed all of the students in the class, in the instant she had taken a look, there were three that caught her attention. At the back, there was a boy with his arms resting behind his head as he appeared utterly uninterested, though his eyes said otherwise-the same boy she met that one night. Then she looked to her right where she saw Nagisa sitting. He was completely speechless, his mouth hanging open but no words coming out. Then there was the large black box that was placed at the back…
"Nice to meet you Aria-san." Koro sensei said, moving over to her. He held out a tentacle towards her.
She continued to smile as she took it without signs of hesitance or problem. "Same to you Koro sensei."
Pointing another tentacle, he gestured to a clear desk at the back. Right in Nagisa's row and only two desks behind the boy. "You can take your seat over there."
Aria nodded before walking towards her seat, passing Nagisa she grinned at him widely. He obviously would have a lot of questions but they weren't going to be answered here and now. When she took her seat, she looked next to her where Karma was sitting. He stared at her, smirked and then turned back to the front.
Karasuma then went on to introduce the other transfer student. Though the transfer student he was addressing this time wasn't actually human. It was an artificial intelligence called the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery. From Norway. The screen on the box showed a girl with lilac hair and red eyes. Koro sensei seemed to find it amusing that a machine was joining the class-ironically enough. Although Aria already figured that the reason this particular student was joining was for the sake of the assassination of the teacher and she was right. The other transfer student was specially equip with weapons to assassinate Koro sensei but because she was a student-under the agreement Koro Sensei had made with the government, he wouldn't be able to harm 'her'. This Fixed Artillery would It was better for her like this. Less attention and expectation would be drawn to her. Would have been more likely if she didn't already know two people in the class.
Almost Immediately after Koro Sensei started with his first lesson of Modern Literature, Aria saw a paper ball being thrown at her head from the corner of her eye and caught it before then. She unwrapped it to read a rather neat handwriting on the crumpled paper.
Didn't think I'd be seeing you again Glass-eyes.
Aria raised an eyebrow at the nickname-though it fairly suited her. Her eyes did appear scarily transparent. She turned to Karma and saw him smirking. He pointed downwards, gesturing for her to reply. Scribbling quickly a message, she sent it back to him, watching as he caught it with one hand. Unwrapping it.
I was thinking the same. Especially under strange circumstances again Tomato."
Aria knew he was finished reading because his face scrunched up at the tomato nickname-it was stuck with her. Karma sent the page back to her.
Yeah. It's almost too coincidental. Meeting a weirdo like you again.
It didn't take Aria long to see the angle Karma was playing at. He wanted to know the story behind how she ended up here. She tossed the page back when Koro Sensei turned his back, she took notes while Karma read the note.
Not really. It's not as if I counted on running into someone mischievous like you again.
The paper conversation seemed pointless in Aria's perspective, they were literally tossing words at one another. It was impersonal small talk. Although it was an interesting cycle, once it started, neither would know when to stop and would pull at strings to respond to the next person.
While Karma was writing a response, the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery surprised everyone when 'she' brought out four shot guns that appeared from the sides of her box, all on flexible stands and pointed directly at Koro Sensei. She fired with two machine guns and four shot guns. All firing BB's at the same time. Everyone could hear how it hit the back of the wall at incredible speeds, bouncing off and littering the floor full of them. Everyone had ducked their heads down to avoid getting hit by one of these, although it wouldn't kill then at the speed it was going it would definitely bruise them at least. Then there was Koro Sensei who would be hit by this, but his speed kept him from being hit, he was blurring-creating several after images that wouldn't go away because he kept coming back into its place but sometimes in a different pose-though position was more or less the same.
That's what she saw at least.
Aria sat directly next to the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery, so she didn't have to worry about getting hit-although she may require a hearing aid at the end of this year with how loud the firing was.
Karma didn't seem to mind the firing as much as the other students because he threw back the paper to her. Despite the chaos, she proceeded to read the note-as if the classroom didn't sound like a war zone.
Planning on stealing my catch again? Though it looks like the digi-girls got the upper hand right now. Really glares out your arrival.
Aria threw the paper back to Karma
I didn't steal your catch the first time, it was purely coincidental-just like this. I don't go fishing for delinquents. It's a hassle and it's unnecessary. I don't go looking for trouble and grin at the sight of it-which I'm guessing is the exact opposite of what you do.
"Use of firearms during class is prohibited!" Koro Sensei exclaimed through the noise, but with a smile that outmatch Aria's she couldn't tell anything just from his face now. "Also-Aria, Karma please stop passing notes!"
"Sorry Koro Sensei. You were occupied so we didn't think you'd notice." Aria raised her voice a little to get above the firearms. The students were a little too occupied to make any comments, since they were more concerned about keeping their heads down and not getting shot at the back of it.
"Well I did!"
"How are they passing notes in this war zone!?" someone exclaimed in the front.
Aria caught when Koro Sensei used a piece of chalk to knock back one of the bullets before they hit him. His speed was unlike anything she had seen before. But she could still see him.
At Koro Sensei's mention of a class rule. For a moment, the machine retracted her weapons and appeared on the screen, her expression as blank as a sheet of paper. "I'll be careful." The screen went black again, but the bottom half of the 'body' was reacting now. "Preparing attack. Recalculating trajectory. Correcting angle. Entering auto-evolution phase: 5/28/02."
'She can evolve,' Aria concluded, watching the screen begin streaming green printed words and numbers-codes, like credits from a movie.
Then she noticed another change-one in Koro Sensei's face as he waved a piece of chalk between his tentacles. His face was still yellow, but stripped with green going around it. "Tsk, tsk, will you ever learn?"
A tone that bordered on nothing less of arrogant. He clearly wasn't bashful about his abilities.
'So if that's the case, why teach?' the question may have seemed unrelated, but it didn't make sense to Aria. Why would a super being, who could travel all over the world, doing practically whatever he wanted, worked-as a teacher of all things-for a class of discriminated students? She wanted to know the answer but she doubted she could ask anyone here. They probably thought the same thing and haven't been able to come up with anything.
When the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery, resumed attacking again. She landed a hit this time. Aria saw two BB's flying towards Korosensei, he blocked the first one with the chalk again, but that gave clearway for the second bullet to hit his tentacle. Aria watched as it sunk through and expanded the yellow substance that was Koro Sensei's skin and turn it into a gooey blob on the floor, some also splattered against the board. All because the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery, added a second gun to her attack. She then gave a calculated output, the probability of killing Koro sensei in her following attacks were less that 0.001 percent but calculating her probability of killing Koro Sensei before graduation-marking the end of the year-
"Is more than 90%"
Aria caught the paper Karma had tossed at her again, unfolding it.
If you're not hunting like the rest of us. What's your end game?
Aria sent the page back.
I don't have one.
Karma didn't send the paper back after that. The rest of classes went just Modern Literature had, with one of the two new transfer's actively making an effort to put an end to their teacher. She continued to add new guns with her new calculations. Because Koro Sensei had to keep avoiding the thousands of bullets that were seemingly coming at him all at once.
At lunch time, the entire floor had BB's scattered from every corner of the classroom. Koro Sensei left the room as he couldn't exactly walk around and had asked the class to clear up the mess left by their classmate. Which no one was too happy about but Aria had another matter, which was coming up to her desk now.
"Hey Nagisa!" Aria held up her hand, grinning at the awe struck boy that seemed to be able to process that she was actually here as well-now that he didn't have bullets flying over his head.
"Aria-what are you doing here?"
Resting her chin on her hand, Aria tilted her head. "My curiosity got the better of me, I did something wrong and now I'm here."
"Hey Nagisa, you know her?" a short girl came up to the desk, she had green hair tied in pig tails and hazel eyes. Just like when she first saw Nagisa, Aria though the girl was cute.
"Yeah." Nagisa replied, turning to the girl. "She's a friend."
"Hi, I'm Kaede Kayano, nice to meet you Aria!" The green haired girl stared at Aria and then her eyes lowered and stopped at the centre…of her chest and her face fell. "Or not."
"Is there something wrong with my chest?" Aria asked, noticing where her eyes had landed.
Kayano pointed to her chest, "Wait how old are you?!"
"Fifteen." Aria replied calmly, still smiling at Kayano.
"How!?"
"If you're referring to my chest; I can't say. It might be my diet-or possible genetics." Aria said, looking down at her chest.
"That's so not fair!" Kayano whined, squirming. "I'm jealous."
"Well you're really cute." Aria said back, holding up a finger. "I bet no one's mistaken you for a guy before like me."
"Really?" Kayano asked, stopping her rant.
Nagisa slapped a hand over his forehead; Kayano has always had issues with girls who were…well endowed, but he didn't think that Aria would encourage her by responding to all the ludicrous and quite frankly a little racy questions. Yet Aria remained unfazed. And he didn't even get to ask Aria everything he wanted to!
"That's surprising, so you know Glass-eyes Nagisa." Karma said, walking to the desk, his hands in his pockets.
Kayano turned to Karma, "Glass-eyes?"
"Yeah." Karma pointed to Aria. "Cause she looks blind."
"Karma!" Nagisa exclaimed. First it was Kayano asking Aria questions pertaining to her….assets and now Karma calling her Glass-eyes and the worst part-these were his friends so he would have hoped for them to get along better but first impressions usually said a lot and right now; he didn't like what these impressions were giving so far.
"What?" Karma asked, grinning mischievously.
"What this about glass eyes?" another voice asked.
Two more students came in to gather around Aria's desk. The girl who asked the question was a blonde with small blue eyes. Karma pointed to Aria, jabbing his finger in the air.
"Is the new girl blind?" asked a tall boy with wavy orange-brown hair.
"No." Aria said, shaking her head. "I just look as if I am."
"Nakamura, Maehara, you're being rude." The boy next to them said, he had dark hair slightly spiked from the bottom and pale gold eyes. He gave a warm smile. "Sorry about them Aria-san."
She shook her head, "I wasn't offended. It happens a lot and please just call me Aria."
Nodding, the dark haired boy held out his hand. "I'm Isogai Yuma and this is Nakamura Rio and Maehara Hiroto."
Aria smiled, taking Isogai's hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too little lady." Maehara winked at her.
Nakamura placed both hands on Aria's desk and leaned forward, grinning back at her. "So; Korosensei said that you and Karma were passing notes."
Aria shifted her head to Karma, "Tomato passed it first."
There was an array of snickers as Karma clenched his teeth in a threatening grin; which was why everyone was trying not to laugh out loud in case he decided to get them back. Karma was notorious for his mischief and bad behaviour but Aria didn't seem to get the message.
"Tomato?" Nakamura asked, biting her bottom lip as he shoulder shook.
Aria nodded. "We met before."
"How?" asked Maehara, holding a hand over his mouth to hide his smile but his eyes gave him away.
"He tried to fight me." Aria said bluntly.
Karma shrugged, answering before anyone would ask him the annoying stereotype about fighting girls. "I couldn't tell she was a girl-she was cross dressing."
"That was not my intention, that's just how I dress." Aria retorted. Leaning back against the chair. She saw someone go up to the other 'transfer student' and knock on its side.
"Hey you wouldn't happen to come with a vacuum miss Fixed Artillery?"
Of course there was no response.
"I doubt that's the case, unless of course Fixed Artillery also counts cleaning devices." Aria pointed.
A boy with short spike bluish hair and pale blue eyes called over to the group that had gathered around Aria's desk, interrogating her. "Hey are you guys going to help us clean this up?!"
"So wait, Karma you attacked her?" Nakamura asked, sweeping some of the BB's into a dustpan that Aria was holding, crouched down. Everyone decided to continue their conversation while they helped clear the classroom of BB bullets.
"She beat up some high schooler's." Karma countered, he leaned back in his chair, balancing on the two back ends.
"And you were upset because you wanted to do it yourself, though it's not my fault you were too slow." Aria said and although she didn't mean for it to sound like an insult, Karma took it that way and tried hitting her in the back of the head with a BB, throwing it but she caught it quickly.
"Nice reflexes." Kayano praised, holding out one of the dirt bins so that Aria could toss the BB's in them. Nagisa was sweeping another corner of the room, but could still hear and join in on the conversation.
"Thank you, though it's mainly because he didn't throw very hard-or fast."
Nagisa grimaced, Aria was painting a target on her back for Karma's shenanigans. He was already looking ready to attack her for real. "Aria…"
She looked to Nagisa, smiling. "Yes Nagisa?"
"Oh that's right, you said you knew Nagisa too!" Kayano exclaimed, her face presenting mild curiosity, but looked cute to Aria.
"We took the same train together after school" Aria said, standing up. "Then we started spending time together."
"Nagisa, didn't know you had it in you!" Maehara commented from across the room, whistling which he then got berated for by Isogai.
"Actually Aria," Nagisa interjected, "How exactly did you end up in E-class? You're from the A-class right?"
Everyone stopped, the brooms paused, the BB's stopped rolling around on the floor and the light breeze could he heard entering the classroom through the windows-all for only three seconds.
"SHE'S FROM THE A-CLASS?!"
Aria had given her explanation to them as bluntly and honestly as possible. That she had just transferred to Kunugigaoka, had initially been placed in the A-class and that it was not her grades that got her sent to the E-class but it was her sneaking onto the satellite campus after the principal because she was curious about the class Nagisa came from (it wasn't a total lie).
"So they caught you on the grounds?" asked Sugino Tomohito; the boy who had called the group to help with the cleaning. The class had managed to clear up all of the BB's and after, they went outside to gather in a circle on the clear field in the mountains-which Aria found really captivating. The satellite campus was nowhere near luxurious in comparison to the main campus and while main campus did have beautiful gardens and flower beds, they were all man-made. She found a natural environment to be her preference to charm. It was Nagisa, Karma, Kayano, Isogai, Maehara, Sugino, Nakamura and two other girls that had joined in on the conversation. Manami Okuda, a girl with short pigtailed braids and rimmed glasses that covered dark purple eyes and Yukiko Kanzaki, a girl with long straight black hair (different front Aria's wavy black hair) and light brown eyes.
"I wasn't exactly caught 'on' the grounds." Aria bit into her jam bread, a smug appearing in the corner of her mouth which she didn't bother to wipe away as she continued to explain to the group. "Actually, I ran but Karasuma sensei and Irina sensei chased after me."
"We call her Bitch sensei, Glass-eyes" Karma corrected, taking a sip of strawberry yogurt.
Aria made everyone laugh when she told them she already paid for Irina's dry cleaning since the seductive assassin had a face plant in a giant mud puddle while chasing after Aria. "I was already a few meters away but I could still hear her screaming."
Nagisa leaned forward, his legs crossed like most of the group. "So did Karasuma sensei catch you?"
"No, actually-
Karasuma and Irina watched the students on the field, chatting together in their circle. Although there were a number of them, the main focus was clear, all eyes were on Aria when they talked.
"She seems to be getting along with everyone." Irina commented crossing her arms. "It's a bit strange; the first impression I got from the kid was completely the opposite. She talks too brashly."
"I don't think it's careless, it's more like bluntly." Karasuma said back. He had watched and listened to the interrogation video they had of Ariana Tsukimi when she had been taken in. Her behaviour in the situation was calm, too calm for someone who had been sedated and 'kidnapped' and then interrogated. She wouldn't succumb to the mind wiping process as they had hoped and the way she spoke to them-it was like she already knew what to expect, what would come next. She had predicted no actual harm would come to her. She basically toyed with them, unintimidated and it didn't look like she was faking it either. Then there was the matter of her speed and parkour skills; she could back it with a gymnastic or athletic background and they had done a thorough back ground check on the girl. She was clean. A normal girl. Only matter was that she lived on her own, but it wasn't that unusual.
So why his gut telling him something was off with this girl?
Koro Sensei materialised behind the other two teachers and they knew because they could feel the after wind brush against their backs. "While I know she's knew. She has given no signs of wanting to assassinate me."
"What are you talking about stupid octopus?" Irina hissed, getting out a rubber knife from her back pocket.
"She doesn't have any bloodlust."
"Wait, so the Ministry of Defence actually took you from your home and interrogated you!?" Isogai asked, mimicking most of the group gaping at her now.
"Sedatives…" Karma murmured before looking at Okuda, "You could make those right?"
"Y-Yes, if I had the right chemicals." Okuda replied, not bothering to ask what Karma's motive would be to use sedatives. Though Nagisa had a pretty good idea with that wide grin Karma was giving Aria. He sure hoped she wouldn't call Karma, Tomato anymore or he might actually act on his dark thoughts.
"No!" Sugino exclaimed, waiving his hands around. "Don't do it Okuda. Karma and sedatives cannot ever give a good reaction together!"
Nakamura was lying flat on her stomach on the ground, peering up to Aria. "Then what happened?!"
Aria told them that she woke up, handcuffed to a chair, interrogated on what she knew. She was asked why she didn't tell anyone about seeing Koro Sensei before.
"I didn't really think about publicising this, although I became more curious since he was at the satellite campus and Nagisa was here too."
Nagisa rubbed the back of his head, it was a world-wide secret where only a select were aware of Koro Sensei's existence so of course he couldn't tell her and she understood that.
At the end of lunch Aria had disclosed to the group about how she ended up in E-class, keeping out the details of what she deemed unnecessary information.
The brief lunch break and gathering had given the group some peace from the mechanised transfer student, so much that they seemed to be taken by surprise all over again when she started attacking Koro sensei during every single lesson period for the rest of the day. And at the end of it, they had to clean up all of the BB's before going home. So no lessons were able to take place.
However despite this, there were several complaints from the students who were unhappy about not being able to work. The atmosphere around them was different from the A-class, there wasn't a tension between everyone when they spoke to one another-a motive to dominate the other.
At the end of the day, Aria walked down the mountains with Nagisa and Karma. Unfortunately for Nagisa he ended up walking in the middle between the two while they bickered all the way to the train station. Aria now had to take a different train to get to work, so she had separated from Nagisa and Karma. Sitting on her own, she took the time to read. When she got off of the train, she followed direction drawn for her on a map. Ritsu had helped her get another job through a friend of hers who knew a place where she would be able to apply as a waitress. Apparently her friend's brother worked there and he was in junior high as well. Ritsu had given her the forms to fill out and after, she handed them back and waited for her response. Thankfully, she was accepted.
KUNIGI-KAZE was printed on a sign outside of a café with small windows lining around the building. When Aria entered, taking a turn, seeing several booths set up all around, with fern bushes set on top acting as a barrier, separating the booths. It was bigger than her previous work space, her shift would be longer but the pay was slightly increased so she didn't mind. Even if it was also a little further away from home-but the same went for school.
"Welcome," Aria's eyes widened slightly when she saw a familiar boy, dressed in a waiters uniform, black pants, white button up shirt with a black vest over and an apron around his waist.
"Isogai, you work here too?"
Isogai nearly dropped his tray when he met Aria's pale eyes-there was only person he knew by far with eyes like that and he had just met her today. "Aria-san!"
"Aria," the dark haired girl corrected, removing the 'san'. "So you work here too Isogai?"
Isogai frowned, "Wait, did you just say too?"
After Aria explained she would be working here as well, Isogai took her to the manager's office to get her ready for her first shift. After covering the last administration matters she was given her uniform. It was similar to Isogai's, but the past was replaced with a knee length skirt, but the same shirt, vest and apron. Since Isogai was the first employee to bring Aria in, he was offered by the manager to show her 'the works' around the café. He took her on a short tour, explaining where to find everything and so on but because she had worked in a café before, there weren't many questions.
"You know we're not allowed to have part time jobs right?" Isogai asked. It obviously wasn't meant as a threat but he seemed concerned since Aria said she was new to the school so she might not know all of the rules.
"I do." Aria replied, she tossed a dishcloth over her arm, holding a notebook to her chest. "But it's kind of all I can do for money."
"Me too." Isoga admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "This is actually the reason I was sent to E-class because I broke the school conduct."
'Least you weren't blackmailed.' Aria thought, but that was one thing she preferred remain a secret. Gakushu wouldn't be able to bother her in E-class. She enjoyed the prospect of distance from someone who could make her worry.
"But if the school found me out one more time…"
"Don't worry. I haven't told anyone about working here either and don't intend to." Aria swore.
Isogai's shoulders seemed to go lax as he breathed out a little too long. "Then we'll keep it between us; Aria."
She held up her hand, clenched in her fist aside from her pinkie. "Promise?"
He hooked his pinkie with hers, grinning. "Promise."
Since there was no homework that evening because of all of the disruptions during lessons; Aria was able to come home, bath and sleep straight after which gave her the following morning to wake up early and arrive to campus a few minutes before the first bell. When Aria entered the classroom, she greeted several of her new classmates who had called out to her before taking her seat. Across from her, she could hear the ripping sound of tape. One of the students she had not become acquainted with yesterday, a bulky boy with short brown hair dyed blonde around the sides; was taping up the machine. She knew his name, Ryoma Terasaka.
"Think that tapes going to keep her from pulling out the guns." Aria didn't look at Terasaka when she spoke and had already taken out a book to read.
"I've had it with this damn thing." Terasaka said, pulling the tape around the box again. "I don't care about classes, but I sure as hell can't stand its noisy shooting!"
Aria rubbed the side of her head. "Truthfully, being right next to her is not ideal right now. You should take the tape around until most of the sides are covered so she can't take out her guns."
"What does it look like I'm doing!?" Terasaka snapped, pulling the tape around the machine box again.
"Taping up the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery, because she annoyed you." Arai stated
"Smart ass." Terasaka grumbled.
Aria calmly flipped to the next page of her book, "Objectively I am smart but my ass doesn't have anything to do with it."
There were a few snickers around the classroom, but Terasaka didn't comment back to Aria after that.
At exactly eight am, the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery had booted up; after checking setting and ready to begin 'her' assault on Koro-sensei, when she stood up and found her vision obscured by a line of tape and unable to take out her guns, the openings all restrained. Everyone was watching her, already seated for first period.
"Koro Sensei, I cannot take out my guns like this. Please remove my restraints." There was only a stoic mechanical voice behind the stoic digitalised face.
Koro Sensei rubbed the side of his round head, "Well, I don't know."
"Is this your doing?" she asked. "Clearly it is harming me, in violation of our agreement."
"Wrong!" Terasaka threw the left over roll of tape at the the AI's body. "It was me. You're a pain in the ass anyway you look at it. Learn some common sense before you start firn' away ya box box of bolts!"
Some other students chipped in their agreements with the machines behaviour and because the restraints remained on her; lessons were able to go on as per normal-although Aria didn't thin, it was normal when students continued to attempt to assassinate their teacher. Aria was determining for herself whether or not she was going to allow herself to become involved in these assassination attempts. Nagisa had given her a brief of some of their previous assassination attempts. They tried using fire arms all at once but that failed, then Sugino attempted to kill him by pitching a fast ball embedded with BB's in them; then a smaller group attempted to catch him off guard and Koro Sensei ended up taking their guns and replacing it with tulips (which they girls had been growing so they made him replant everything.) When Karma came into the mix and he seemed most likely to be able to kill Koro Sensei-but even with his tricks there weren't enough to catch the octopus-like creature off guard long enough to land a strike. Irina aka Bitch sensei, also arrived in order to defeat Koro Sensei but failed to. Then they were supposed to use their trip to Kyoto and team up with professional assassins to take him out but as Koro Sensei was still alive, that had also clearly failed. Nagisa also mentioned that he had started listing all of Koro Sensei's weakness, whatever he could find, the smallest details although Aria didn't bother to ask for them.
Starring up at the ceiling with peeling paint in its corners, Aria rolled onto her side. Starring into darkness as if she could see the world. Her hands hanging in front of her. Koro Sensei's methods of teaching were different when compared to the other teacher's-different but not in a way that it was any less promising. No matter the change in atmosphere moving from A-class to E, despite no longer having to look over her shoulder. It didn't change the fact that there was an assassination happening right in her classroom. Her classmates, including her friend were playing the part as assassins while going about their days as if the world wasn't in their hands. There were still a few months left, but like everything else, there was a deadline that would draw in closer with each passing day and when you counted them down-you'd come to realise your life span has just shortened in an instant.
"Just can't,"
She had been taught a lot about taking lives but not much about how to live your own. Assassins were meant to eliminate people that became problems for others. Not petty problems that would be solved with time, but the kind of problems that would stop the world-or in this case-end it. Some would call it noble, a great sacrifice. But to Aria, murder is murder and living a life with the purpose of taking others was not living.
"And yet…" Aria held up her hand to the moonlight glaring through her window. Her hand shook, twitching and threatening her. "I'm getting restless already…"
The third day came as a surprise to everyone when they walked into the classroom and found some new modifications done to the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery. Her small screen had been replaced with a full body screen that allowed her entire body to be captured in the school uniform, her eyes had been re-coloured to blue and she was able show all kinds of emotions-including sad when Terasaka called her a box of bolts. Koro Sensei had emptied his pockets for the upgrades to make the AI seem more…human. Koro Sensei upgraded her for the purpose of having her work together with the rest of the class instead of alone.
"If you want to kill me, I imagine she'll be a formidable ally."
'I actually don't get this,' Aria thought, looking at the fixed artillery. It was only two days ago she was firing arms at Koro Sensei through every period and now she was sneaking answers to the students and getting scolded for it. Through the day, she played board games with the students, showed them her ability to make sculptures using special plastic inside of her and more.
"Koro Sensei does realise that these upgrades are more likely to end his life." Aria stated.
Turning her now fully articulated box, Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery was facing Aria. "Yes, but Koro Sensei said to me, 'I'm your teacher first and target second.' He wants me to learn to work with my classmates and develop my skills. So until then, I shall hold off on any assassination attempts on my own."
Aria gave a small smile. Another puzzle piece had just made itself known to her eyes and she would be putting it in place.
Everyone decided that the Autonomous Intelligence Fix Artillery was too much of a mouthful and decided to shorten it, taking Autonomous, translating to jiritsu.
"Ritsu" Aria said, thinking of her former co-worker.
"That's it!" exclaimed Yuzuki Fuwa, a girl with short purple hair and a love for anime and manga. "Ritsu."
"Crop out." Commented Ryunosuke Chiba. A boy with dark hair and bangs that covered his eyes completely.
"It's cute!"
Nagisa walked in between the gap of Aria and Karma's desks; so that he could talk to both. "Seems like things are going to work out after all."
"I wouldn't be too sure." Karma commented, his hands in his pockets. "She's just following Koro Sensei's programming. It's not like machines have free wills of their own. Wherever she goes from here, is up to the guys who built her."
Aria walked over to Karma's desk, her hands behind her back. Leaving the group of students to keep Ritsu's attention. "I can't say I completely agree with that statement. We have wills of our own but it's not like our brains can't be hacked and hard wired as well."
"Sure, but we've got the capacity to use our wills to resist those kinds of things and endure." Karma pointed back. He seemed rather amused by the conversation they were starting.
"She's able to learn on her own. That's enough to develop." Aria said, her expression a bit distant. "You can say it's all according to programming, but human instincts are basically the same." Aria said, looking at her hands. "Emotions, reactions, behaviour, memories stored away that we just can't forget, we struggle to go against them using our will and yet-we still can't resist our own programming."
Aria slid her hand at the back of her neck until she touched the smallest bumps of ink etched into her skin. She didn't know when she been tagged, they would sedate you before doing that but when she woke up, they showed her the number, red and fresh but now it was faded in as if it always belonged there. As thought it was always a part of her. Even if she could forget, that number would always be there to remind her.
What she was, who she was, is-
"Nothing."
Nagisa raised his head, "You say something Aria?"
She smiled; although it did not reach her eyes (not that you could tell)
"Nothing."
That melancholic atmosphere trailed after Aria until the next day; she came to class and found that Ritsu, had been restored to her former state. Her creator had discovered that her new upgrades had her deciding that she wouldn't be working alone anymore with consecutive attacks on Koro Sensei. Therefore, they restored all of her former programming and defaults. The LCD screen was removed and replaced with a smaller one. Karasuma came in that morning and warned Koro Sensei that upgrades would now be considered 'harm' and Terasaka was no longer allowed to restrain her anymore or he would be responsible for any damages.
When Aria saw Ritsu's restored red eyes, the passive expression, she felt her stomach give a terrible twist.
"Listen 62. Don't ask questions, that is not what we are training you for. You cannot look at the world and see it as everyone else. You must remove all colour from your vision and focus on your target. You are a Phoenix, you are a weapon. There is no such thing as choices for someone like you."
Aria clenched her hands tightly around the cover of her book; losing track of Koro Sensei's lesson. The classroom filled with anxiety, knowing that with Ritsu's default programming restored, they were probably going to be looking at another day long assault. However when the sides of her box's parts broke apart to where her guns should have been, instead of a spray of bullets, came a spray of flower petals, all in an array of different colours. Holding out four bouquets.
"I promised to make flowers. Koro Sensei made 985 improvements to my body. My master judged most of them irrelevant to the assassination, removed them and restored my factory defaults." Ritsu said. "But what I learned from the E-Class, I decided for myself that my ability to cooperate was essential to assassination. So before it was deleted, I hid it in the corner of memory inside a related piece of software."
Koro Sensei sounded impressed, "Excellent! Ritsu this must mean...
"Yes" Ritsu's face appeared on the screen, her eyes returned to blue. "Yes, I have defied my master of my own will!"
Everyone seemed impressed by Ritsu's development. Aria watched as the plastic petals scattered on her desk, she pinched one between her fingers and rolled it around. Aria smiled, looking back to her book. 'I really am just like a machine after all.'