Now I'm working on three other AssClass fics. All probably lengthy oneshots (Maybe one will be multi-chapter). Anyway, here's chapter 10.
Nagisa dreaded going to school on Monday. At lunchtime the grades and rankings for the midterms would be posted. He arrived at work with a chill running down his spine in spite of the oppressive heat and humidity of late May.
After what felt like the longest morning ever, lunchtime finally rolled around and a voice on the intercom announced that grades were posted. Nagisa froze for a second, caught his breath, then exited the room, headed to the front of the building. His students followed him, some with more confidence than others. Some shuddered, some grinned, some seemed to have no emotions to speak of.
He was still shorter than most of the students, so he would have had to push to get to the front to see. But Nagisa didn't want to be too aggressive, so he hung back until he could get past a trio of students who left, clearly dejected about their rankings.
Time seemed to move very slowly as Nagisa took baby steps forward. I did the best I could to prepare them, he thought, dodging an arm that unintentionally swung back at him. And their grades have been improving a lot recently. Azuki got a 79 on last week's trigonometry test, Takemura's grade in English has risen by 38 percent since finals of his second year, Banno really surprised me the other day with his knowledge of how ice cream is made... Nagisa silently prayed to his teacher. Koro-sensei, please let them have done well, I just want them to improve, that's my job, and... Yukimura-sensei? Er, can I call you Aguri? Can I pray to you to too? I mean, I would have been your brother-in-law, so I would think it'd be okay for me to ask for your- The cute little bluenette's train of thought was abruptly stopped when he walked face first into the board showcasing the achievements of this year level. Nagisa craned his neck to look.
He scanned the list. Not methodically, just to search for his students' names. And he found them. Hayata Banno, 88th place (Out of 100). Konosuke Takemura, 81st place. Kentaro Toshima, 51st place. Hiro Izumoto, 86th place. Ichiro Kagato, 85th place. Kimiya Shisaki, 62nd place. Kotori Kasegawa, 77th place. Moritaka Hamada, 80th place. Yoshio Azuki,82nd place . Mamoru Kazama, 78th place. Yukito Tsukuda, 65th place. Shigeki Aida, 68th place.
Nagisa felt in a daze. A hand, seemingly out of nowhere, patted his shoulder. He looked up. It was Shintaro Nakagawa. Of all times to rub it in. He patted Nagisa's head gently. "Sorry about your first exam season." He smiled condescendingly. "But I'm sure you'll figure out how to deal with them soon. Your class, I mean."
Nagisa felt himself start to fume. How dare use this to try to intimidate me, he's just still paranoid about the storage room incident... Nagisa debated how to react. He chose to play it cool with a bit of passive-aggression. "Haha, I'm not afraid of a challenge."
I can't let this asshole get to me, Nagisa repeatedly told himself. I have to react in a productive way, one that will benefit my students... A certain octopus came to mind yet again.
Nagisa stood at his desk in the front of the classroom. There wasn't a sound in the whole room. Class 3-5 knew what was coming. And they were surprised.
"Oh well! We'll try again next time!" Their sensei beamed. It reminded them of the time he put Kagato in his place on his first day here. "Now, open up your textbooks to page-"
An eraser came flying at him. He swatted it without even looking up. Its owner spoke up.
"Dude, didn't we have a deal? You'd stand still and let us hit you-" Azuki began.
"Excuse me?" Nagisa titled his head. "I said I'd stand still fifteen seconds per student who made it into the top 50. None of you did. So you'll be back to assassinating me the old-fashioned way. No handicaps. You didn't keep up your end of the bargain, why should I?" 3-5 silently cursed their classmate for bringing it up. It stung to hear, but they knew that what their sensei said was true.
"Dammit Toshima, you just missed our opportunity. Why couldn't you have studied a bit harder?" Kagato dared to be the next person to speak up.
There was dead silence again. Nagisa inhaled. "Don't you dare blame him for your shortcomings. Especially when you didn't do any better."
Every teenager in the room was tense. They then stood up and bowed at a 45 degree angle.
"We're so sorry Shiota-sensei!"
"We'll do better next time!"
"Please calm down!"
Nagisa chuckled a bit. "Take your seats, class." They reluctantly did so. "I'm disappointed, but I'm not angry with you. It was admittedly a bit ridiculous of the administration to expect that kind of improvement in such a short amount of time. And you all did show some improvement-"
"Yeah, I finally cracked the top 90!" Banno announced with joy.
"See! It's a little victory, but we'll take it." If Nagisa were Koro-sensei, his face would have a dark red circle on it right now. "We still have a lot of time left to dominate the top 50." All the tension seemed to have left the students' faces, and many sighs of relief were breathed. "But I want you to understand the ramifications of this. We're not getting the money to fix our room, and I'm not giving you that handicap. And that's no one particular person's fault, it's everyone's. We just couldn't meet the requirements set, and that's fine. We'll have to accept it and work harder next time."
School was done for the day. Nagisa was packing up when he received a visitor. "Hello, Shiota-san? It's me, Principal Gakuto Akino."
Nagisa immediately bowed once he heard the voice. "H-hello."
Principal Akino walked right in, closely examining the items on the shelves. "You remember the letter I sent you a while ago?"
"The one about the repairs? Yes." Nagisa knew where this was going.
"I just wanted you to know we are men of our word. If you want to appeal our decision to withhold the funding feel free to formally do so, but as of now, that money is not yours." It was like talking to Principal Asano all over again.
"I understand that." Nagisa distracted himself by stuffing his bag full of papers that didn't need to be graded.
"Maybe if you can surprise me on the this semester's finals..." Akino paused before exiting the room.
Nagisa stood for a moment, debating whether to take the principal up on his challenge again.
It was now the first of June. Nagisa and Akari couldn't believe how the last few months had flown by. This particular evening was very hot and humid, and they sat on their balcony accompanied by Mr. Yukimura. Nagisa had gone inside to get them some more tea, and Akari followed him to "help". She pulled him closer, and gave him that look again.
"We should tell him. Now." She whispered.
"Alright." Nagisa breathed deeply.
Akari beckoned her father to join them inside, careful to shut the door tightly behind, while Nagisa carefully arranged mochi in the bowl on the table.
"So, we have news," Akari began, holding Nagisa hand subtly under the coffee table.
"Your daughter and I are dating and I live here with her." Nagisa didn't even wait for his father-in-law to respond.
"I thought you said you had news." Mr. Yukimura snickered, picking up a mochi.
"You know!?" Akari gasped.
"It's obvious. Remember I was young once too."
Nagisa gulped. "And there's something else..."
Akari squeezed his hand. "We're expecting."
Nagisa didn't even have time to witness Mr. Yukimura's reaction, he shot up so quickly and ran to his daughter, once again with tears streaming down his face.
"Are you sure?"
Akari hugged her father. "Yes, we're sure."
"I finally have some grandchildren..." Mr. Yukimura trailed off.
Nagisa handed him a tissue. "Here, Mr. Yukimura."
"Call me Satoshi. Please."