The long awaited chapter 10, thank you all for waiting this long. I hope you don't get annoyed… yet...

Chapter 10

three weeks away from the scheduled confrontation between class A and class F. this friday, there was a test in japanese. Everyone had been studying and practicing, with the help of nagisa, even the lesser known, nameless members of the class learned quick. Although pretty much everyone knew the language as they were all japanese. Minami, while still learning, showed great progress. She'd been practicing and reading as much in japanese kanji as she could along with what Nagisa would suggest from time to time.

"Hey Nagisa, check this out" Minami caught the attention of her blue haired tutor, brandishing a sheet of paper with a one hundred percent circled on the top.

"I got 100% on my japanese homework. This is the first time I got that."

"That's amazing" Nagisa replied smiling happily. "But can you do that on the upcoming test that is?"

"Pft, no. there's no way I could do that, I barely got this far with your help Nagisa." typically, humility was a good thing, but self doubt isn't.

"Well Shimada-san. Let's keep doing our best until you can do the test as easy as this."

"Heheh, of course, I'll do my best. Although, there's something I have problems with in japanese, it's the tense of the verbs and objects being acted upon. I was hoping that soon you could help me with it."

"Sure. let me see it."

Shimada handed Nagisa another paper which seemed to be the second paper that was not stapled or connected to the first.

"The child stood his ground" Nagisa started reading (keep in mind, it's supposed to be in Kanji, but since not everyone's going to translate every single thing not in english, this is what I can do for you). "Shimada-san, you see, in this sentence the 'child' is the subject since they're doing the action. In this sentence, 'stood' is past for 'stand' meaning that the kid at one point was standing, but isn't anymore." Minami nodded in reply signifying understanding. The two sat side by side as Nagisa explained the confusing components to the best of his abilities before being called back by other confused students. One of those was Hideyoshi. Their subject of need, was history.

"Nagisa, I do not understand what I'm supposed to do."

The question was a short response prompt based on a historical event. However, what Hideyoshi was having problems with was what to write. The question asked "In this position, how would the figures react if you were in that time period?"

"Hideyoshi-kun, I think I see your problem, you don't know what to write since it's not asking about your actions nor your reaction. Think about it like a play or movie, when an actor has to improvise words, the others don't know how to respond properly and simply continue on with it. All you must do is plug yourself and any of the people you know into the given scenario."

'"Oh, okay, thanks a ton Nagisa-kun"

If he could, Nagisa would be moving at supersonic speed just to help his fellow classmates. After that day he was confident that everyone could get at least B's on their Japanese tests, although Minami was the biggest concern.

Before long, test day came.

"Alright everyone, begin your tests now." Ironman-sensei called out, ringing the metaphorical bell.

The room was silent, save for the light and heavy breathing the students let out. Nearly everyone passed through the reading portion and writing portion without issue. It seems that studying actually does mean something.. For the most part, reading wasn't hard ass long as one could find the subject and action for instance. Then came the fourth and final passage.

" 若い男の子が廊下を歩き、彼の後ろに血の染みを残しました。彼がかつて友人だった誰かに立つ前に。彼はもはや殺人に問題がなくなった壊れた男だった。彼の友人と彼の兄弟を失った男。 その男は子供に「慈悲」を申し出た。" (have fun google translating that using the phone.) "please write what you think will happen next and why."

Minami had trouble reading it at first since in Japanese. In some cases verbs would go in front of nouns and not, and on top of that characters could be entirely different words with only a single stroke difference. However, Minami could take a few key words and put together a acceptable level of understanding..

"The boy… a broken man…" she thought to herself reading the characters. "Or was it the broken child? Wait, is this the same character as the- no it's different. Oh no, it's all getting messed up in my head again!"

Minami began to panic not only on the inside. Those next to her, Himeji and Yoshii could both see her in their peripheral vision. Minami had her hands on her head and elbows on the short cardboard box.

"What do I do? This doesn't add up, or it could. What if I'm overthinking this? I get some of it. But if I'm misreading the characters then I'm done for."

She raised her left hand into the air, clenching it into a fist and hitting the cardboard. Suddenly, a small sticky note seemed to fall from the lip of the side of the box.

"Huh?" Minami was surprised by the sudden appearance of the paper, but picked it up anyway.

"Don't over think things."

there was no signature, nor did the handwriting look unique or memorable, but Minami had a good idea of where it came from. Yoshii was too much of an idiot to write it, Himeji never did anything like that since she frankly didn't read emotions well, and Yuuji didn't care that much. Minami did as the note instructed, she calmed herself down, her sweat stopped, and she could more clearly think about what she was reading.

"The boy walked down the hallway…" she read. "So the kid is… oh okay I get it. So that's what is happening."

Things pieced together, made more sense. Minami had a rough, but usable understanding of the question as a whole. Not only could she write out her answer, she could do it smiling.

Nagisa couldn't see it, but he could tell by her cease of erratic actions.

"Good, it worked." he thought.

The test ended not long after. Everybody got around sixty questions given the thirty minute time constraint. After all, tests at Fumizuki Academy had no limit to questions, only time. By the next day, the tests would be graded and presented. Hopefully everything went well.

After the test,

"Oohwee, that was a pain." Yoshii relieved that the test was over. Even with his extra lessons, he still didn't like tests. Though he was confident he got a decent grade on it. "I was so stuck on that first question, I was doing it for two minutes straight."

"The math question?" Yuuji inferred,

"...yes… that…" Yoshii didn't want to mention that the "first question" was actually the place where he was supposed to print his name. Oh the misfortune Yoshii had for signing his name when it mattered. Then again, no other could pull such a feat as Alexander the Great (that's a joke from the episode where his sister appears).

"Hey Shimada-san, how were you doing in the test, you looked stressed out." Yoshii asked.

"Oh, yeah~ I got kinda stumped, but I guess you could say I got some help" she gave a slight glance to the boy on the side, the slippery student teacher.

"Now that this test stuff is all done…" Himeji said holding a large pink box (snicker). "I made some snacks for everyone 3"

A heavy silence fell onto the gallery, a dense atmospheric tension rose into the second story of the school through every opening in every window and door. Nagisa had an acquired ability to sense the bloodlust that an individual emitted, be it a top class assassin, military, and even the average person. However, this was the first time he could feel the presence of a potent killer within an inanimate object, Ritsu excluded. This container clearly took longer preparation than what was brought to the pool.

"U-uh, that's awesome, uh… Nagisa!" the boys found their ledge and clung to it like there was no tomorrow.

"W-what? Oh, t-thank you very much Himeji-san"

Himeji opened the box releasing a much more powerful scent. If death had a scent, this would have been it. Even so, not doing anything would do damage to Himeji's feelings. Nagisa was faced with a life threatening choice: either bite the bullet or let someone else catch it.

and what good of a teacher would he be if he let anyone else bear hardships before him?

Nagisa picked up one of the sushi rolls from the box. To the naked eye, it was an ordinary snack. However, to an assassin, it was a handy tool for murder. Down the bomb went, Nagisa put the roll into his mouth and swallowed it.

*thud

Nagisa, and the others could almost hear the sound of his body fighting for it's life against the invader. Although he kept it from escaping, he could not hold forever.

"Himeji-san" Yuuji named. "Could you go grab Nagisa a drink? I think he looks thirsty."

"Oh of course! I'll be right back." and with that, the deadly pink haired princess left the room.

Like it was an explosive device, Yoshii leapt next to the box and closed it as fast as he could. Hideyoshi and Minami caught Nagisa's body as his legs gave way.

"Nagisa! Are you alright? Stay with us!"

"H…" Nagisa struggled to muster the strength to stay conscious, let alone use that energy to speak. "I… Lo- v..." Nagisa's vision started to blur and darken.

"We need that drink pronto!"

Minami rushed out of the room to find wherever the nearest vending machine was at, taking the wind with her. Within two minutes, which felt like an eternity, Minami had returned with a soda can.

"Toss it here!" Hideyoshi commanded.

Minami did as instructed and threw the can. It didn't matter if it got fizzy, this was urgent. The cap popped off and was inserted into Nagisa's mouth (snicker). The entire can went down in one take. After a full minute, Nagisa returned to his senses.

Nagisa coughed a bit, but was alive. Perhaps Himeji could use a few lessons from Muramatsu about lunch foods or Kayano about sweets. Needless to say, call were going to have to be made.

"Welcome back to the land of the living Nagisa" Yuuji said sarcastically. "You're alive enough to help in the war in two days"

"The war? But the summoner test was scheduled about a month from now."

"Not that one, I mean our fight against class B. it's been long enough for us to retry for a while now.."

"Nemoto-kun's class"

"Wait, why are we going up against class B? And who is Nemoto-kun?" Nagisa asked.

"Nemoto-kun" Yoshii started "is the bastard that almost got away with cheating on the test we took. A while back he tricked us into helping him get something he wanted, but we outsmarted him."

"Nagisa, it's all apart of the plan. You will soon see why we need to defeat the weaker classes one by we take on the big guns. I'll explain it another time. For now, we should all be heading home, the sun's lowering."

Everyone looked out the window, and suddenly realized there was a faint orange and red in the sky.

"Crap" everyone thought. The modes of transport everyone used I.E. trains, had all probably left the stations and they would have to wait for at least a half hour.

"See you all tomorrow" Yuuji said taking his belongings and leaving the room.

"Well guys, we should get going. I have to make food for Hazuki" Minami said as she also stood up.

Soon, everyone packed up their bags and left the building. All except for Nagisa and Yoshii, on his request.

"What's up Nagisa?" Yoshii asked puzzled.

"That Iron bracelet, can you activate it wherever and whenever you want?"

"Y-yeah, I think I'm the only one who can use it though, Yuuji and Hideyoshi once tried the other two, but they exploded. Yuuji said something about it having to do with our smartness."

"That's fine, I don't want to use it myself. But can you open a field?"

"Oh sure."

Yoshii raised his arm into the air and shouted "awaken". A grid designed box expanded to cover the entire room. It was like when Nagisa first fought Hideyoshi's sister Yuuko.

"Summon"

"Summon"

Both avatars appeared. Nagisa's avatar, which looked like a chibified version of him with snake-like details; and Yoshii's avatar, which had a black coat, brown fur tail, and a wooden bat. Aside from that, his avatar looked the same as him.

"What'd you want to do Nagisa?"

"I want to practice using my summon more. I only used it once so if I get better with it I may not lose to Kinoshita-san again."

"Hm, alright. Let's go then! I'm not holding back though."

The score difference was staggering. Nagisa, at 460 points and Yoshii at 89 points. The last test boosted both of their scores, but even so, at most it would take two hits to completely destroy Yoshii. Surprisingly, the delinquent looking avatar was extremely agile. It dodged nearly every attack Nagisa threw at it whether it was a linear lunge or a side swipe.

"Nagisa, in terms of avatars, no one is as fast as me!" Yoshii boasted.

It wasn't out of the realm of reasonability. Yoshii's avatar was often used for manual labor which meant Yoshii used his avatar on a near daily basis as opposed to the others who used them either in official battle or mock-training. Nagisa on the other hand, had only ever used his summon one time prior. While powerful to tear through the target, was meaningless if they failed to land a hit.

Just like a certain other situation.

"Perhaps a fakeout will work?" Nagisa thought to himself trying to conjure a plan of attack. Nagisa's avatar leapt forward to Yoshii's.

"That won't work!" Yoshii said as he commanded his avatar to jump back. He would have dodged the swift strike had it not been the entire attack. The knife within the sapphire hands of Nagisa's avatar flew out on a wire and pierced right into Yoshii's wooden sword, disarming him. On top of that, the wire went around it, wrapping up the avatar.

"Got him… did I always have the wire on my knife?"

The battle was already over. Yoshii's points hit zero after a slice to the neck. The avatar's neck. From outside of the room, there was rumbling.

"Oh no! I forgot!" Yoshii cried out. Nagisa was confused, but remembered what he was told. If a student's points were to fall to zero…

"Those who are KIA must take remedial classes!" Ironman shouted as he crashed into the room through the door. With just one arm, he picked up Yoshii and slung him over his shoulder.

"Save me!~" Yoshii pleaded, but nothing happened.

"...I… should probably apologize tomorrow."

The day ended. Nagisa took his own leave while hearing moans of pain coming from one of the classrooms. It sounded like someone really didn't like extra class time… he was probably going to hear those screams, or taste that "food" in his dreams for a week at least.

END