Akari Yukimura wakes up to a (surprisingly) familiar place.
"The class' infirmary guys? Really?" Karasuma looks far from amused and so she snaps her mouth shut.
Irina "bitch-sensei" Jelavić is, as always, less stern than her male counterpart. "Considering you don't live at the address on your school file and that the hospital wouldn't have taken you in after your little disappearing act, we didn't have much of a choice."
"Ah," the girl's bland answer earns her a softened smile from the woman and a deep, what the heck has my life become, sigh from Karasuma. "Thank you."
A box of protein bars and a glass of water are shoved into her hands - something about insufficient nutriments and healthy diet. She hardly listens, twirling a green strand of hair between her fingers.
Green like balance and verdant fields and rebirth and pudding-loving girls like Kayano Kaede.
The teen's eyes make their way down, "As if I needed to feel even more insecure about my chest size Bitch-sensei, when a neckline looks good on you, you can be sure it won't look good when worn by teenage girls."
The blonde flushes at the ministry agent's nod and unimpressed stare at the clothes the student has on - Bitch-sensei's spare clothes, the woman then goes on about ungrateful brats and sex appeal.
Akari quirks her lips and pretends nothing has changed, pretends her teachers are not laying it on thick to avoid the fact that she killed a man and lied to their faces for almost a full year.
(hate, however, she wears like a crown)
Instead she clenches her fingers around the bedsheet that had been draped over her, counts to ten and pulls up the sweetheart neckline of the black shirt that is much to big on her.
(the knife cuts deep and it cuts true)
They're a weird bunch of educators, a weird bunch of good educators. She doubts she'll have the chance to have them as her own for long so she might as well enjoy it.
"So, Karasuma-sensei, are you going to make me wait much longer?" she chews thoughtfully on the treat she'd been given, oatmeal and chocolate chips, "I'm assuming they won't be sending poor little ol' me to a high security prison, something like juvenile or psychiatric maybe, right?"
Bitch-sensei blinks, mouth parting with actual shock, Akari doesn't quite understand why.
Had Korosensei not told them of how their little rescue mission of herself had ended up? Even then, the woman had changed her out of bloody clothes and gotten out the crusted blood of of her hair so of course she knows.
"Kid, you're not going to prison." Now, that she didn't see coming.
(heck she didn't see the whole 'surviving' thing coming)
She's not exactly suicidal, not to the point of wanting to end her own life, but well sometimes she's just...not so sure, about anything and she doesn't particularly mind the idea of dying.
Akari will smile and pretend she makes sense.
She nods and takes a careful sip out of the glass of water, "And why not?" she's genuinely curious, because trying to kill a being that looks nothing of a human, that has the power to destroy the earth, is one thing. Hunting down a man the way she did, is another - deranged or not.
(his throat splits wide open and all she can think is : finally, it's over)
"You-!" Bitch-sensei curses in a language that is not Japanese nor English, Akari finds it positively charming. "Stupid little twats, putting me in charge of children. Where's that octopus when we need him?!"
Karasuma looks just as uncomfortable, "Teaching, despite everything that's happened, Monday still is a school day."
Hazel eyes shoot wide open, "They-they're here?! Korosensei's fine?" Of course he is, just as unkillable as she had named him. January is not yet March, her stomach turns on itself at the thought of more time with her teacher - she doesn't deserve it, not even a little, but oh by God does she wants it.
Although the thought of facing her classmates again makes her want to ask Karasuma for that Juvenile center. (pretty please?)
There's a class full of teenagers just a few rooms down the hall, she's going to be sick.
"Yes, the octopus is fine - back to the matter at hand, no prison for you." Irina sighs, "No one that is not in this building knows of what happened, not all of your classmates are fully aware either."
(blood surges and splashes all over her clothes, her hair)
"You didn't tell the ministry?" Karasuma looks deeply uncomfortable at her prying gaze. "Even if I wanted to, the octopus wouldn't have let me. He...we feel like your actions were understandable, not justified, but understandable and a result of the education you have received in the assassination classroom."
Bitch-sensei puts a comforting hand on the teen's shoulder, squeezing slightly, "He was already declared dead months ago when Korosensei blew up the lab," when Aguri died. "There was no body left when the building from yesterday crumbled."
"That's...oh," she finishes lamely and tests the strength in her legs by standing up - her knees waver and she falls back down onto the infirmary's bed. "I don't think any of what I did was a result of the education I received this year."
Sweet, darling Kurahashi could start slitting throats and the green-haired girl wouldn't believe it.
She's obviously the one who's messed up, not the class nor the teachers.
"I guess I'll be on my way then?" there's no sign of her clothes, she assumes Bitch-sensei burned them, no proof, no case. "Do you think I could talk to Itona before leaving?"
"Leaving!? Oh hell no, I did not stay up here all night for you to just leave like that, girl," her favorite bombshell teacher sniffs, pale eyes narrowing. "I'm dragging you with me for the best period of the day, mine obviously."
Akari's breath caught in her throat, blood and Aguri and tentacled monsters flashing in her mind.
"No! I-I can't," a shiver runs through her at the thought, "I killed someone, what the hell is wrong with you people?! I'm not going back in there with the rest, I can't."
Karasuma's mouth pulls taut, "Don't you want to finish the year with them? Therapy sessions are mandatory obviously." Akari laughs hysterically, digging her knuckles into closed eyelids.
Does she want to? he asks, does she motherfucking want to?!
(of course she does)
"You want to send a killer who was on the brink of instability days ago in a classroom full of children? Why?!" She's suddenly taken by the urge to cry, she bites on her lower lip harshly. Yukimura Akari had dried her tears in favor of picking up blades to kill her sister's murderer long ago.
What is she supposed to do now? When Yanagisawa is gone for good and she's still here?
"Girl," the blonde woman's trail up and down her arm in a soothing manner. "Two out of three of your teachers are assassins, I can guarantee our count far outweighs your own and that you are no threat to anyone here."
Still!
"They'll hate me," she wants to give Itona his knife back and never show her face again - stable plans for the future are overrated anyways. "I...give me a day, please?"
Oh Aguri, what do I do now?
"Of course, but we can't leave you alone yet. If you go, one of us will have to follow." The English teacher then uncharacteristically puts on her serious face and tells the teenage girl about how her friends (and the stupid octopus) are worried.
She nods and fails at not showing how nervous the whole thing makes her feel - even if Akari is supposed to be too shattered, too numb for things like nerves.
She's drowning, water filing her lungs and killing her -
Akari-not-Kaede inhales sharply and tries to wrap the too big buttoned linen jacket around her, tighter around her middle, it still floats around her and has a too-low cut at the front. "What do you even want?"
Her voice comes out quiet, resigned and just a bit desperate.
(she wears hate like a crown and treats kindness like it's a death sentence)
There's no answer and she's helped up by Bitch-sensei and escorted to the bathroom - the window is big enough for her to escape, the phantom pain of tentacles bring her back to her senses.
Kayano Kaede is sweet and friendly and empty - she pauses at the thought as if struck by lightning, of course, Kayano Kaede is exactly what she needs.
So she ties her hair up in childish pigtails, washes her face and comes out of the bathroom with a smile splitting her face in half.
Both of her teachers look warry and almost hesitant to walk her towards the classroom. You wanted this, she almost sneers, I'm giving you what you want.
"Hi everyone!" she opens the door half a second after the beginning of the day's first break, the silence is sudden and heavy. She ignores it and skips over to her desk, as if she doesn't look like a girl playing with her mother's clothing and doesn't have her school textbooks.
(as if she has not killed a man in cold blood)
Bitch-sensei slams the door back open, "Wait a damn second! Slow, we agreed you would take this slow-" There's that all too familiar expression on the woman's face, the one that says you damned brats, always causing me trouble.
"Kayano-san," she'd told Korosensei to call her whatever he liked better that day at the hospital, "We're glad to have you back with us."
Her yellow freakshow of a teacher had said that the name he liked better was the one she preferred. Always making things difficult for her that one, how was she supposed to tell him she sometimes felt like Akari and sometimes felt like Kaede?
Kaede who was fake and so easy.
Kaede who didn't wake up crying out her dead sister's name and didn't let hate consume her very existence, Kaede who had two loving parents and many friends and a crush on Nagisa.
She flashes two rows of pearly white teeth, eyes closing as she does so.
"However, feel free to take as much time as you need." Kayano bobs her head happily, aware that Nagisa looks downright nauseous from next to her. "I'm not sure you'll be able to concentrate on your studies today, that's perfectly fine."
She sees her sister with a hole in her chest cavity, Yanagisawa's throat split wide open.
"Thanks a lot sensei, but I'm fine where I am! We still do have to kill you after all," She can tell they're waiting for her to say more, she does not.
"That's...ah of course, wait here students!" Bitch-sensei swears as the octopus disappears from sight out of the window, only to come back in a second later in front of Akari-Kaede's desk. The teenager carefully keeps her posture relaxed, a hand splaying at the back of her head, fingers digging into where her tentacles used to be. "There, this should make you cheer up!"
She wants to tell him there's no need for that, Kayano Kaede is always happy after all.
She's never actually annoyed or hurt or sad or anything that Akari is.
She finds that it's easier to play characters who are different than she is, that way there's less chance that she will slip up.
If Akari likes blues and purples, Kaede likes greens and oranges. If Akari Yukimura lives for people acting on screens and lazy nights in with her sister, Kayano prefers music and going out with friends.
The cup sitting on her desk seems to haunt her, the high-quality pudding she recognizes as the one from the bakery a street away from the main campus just sits there innocently as Korosensei looks at her for a reaction.
"Eh? Pudding! Oh, that's so nice!" she stuffs her face with a spoonful of the overly sweet treat, noticing how most of her classmates relax at her dimpled smile. Gotcha.
Sugar melts on her tongue like acid.
"She doesn't like pudding," a voice cuts in from a few desks away, one that makes her tense up slightly.
Maehara frowns, "What do you mean Itona? Of course she likes it, it's pudding, she's always eating some." Kayano nods at the boy's words, he sends her a look where it's like he's trying to match a face with her. Okano's the one to recall the whole pudding assassination, how she threw a fit when her hard work would soon be blown to bits.
"She doesn't like it," if Kayano was anything like Akari, she would frown and tell the boy to mind his own goddamn business.
She giggles, sweet and light-hearted and familiar, "If you wanted some you should just ask Korosensei, I'm sure he wouldn't mind getting you some!"
There's a hesitant chuckle, "Of course she's not sharing her own..." Her teeth clench at the tone, now there's actually a seed of doubt in their minds, thanks a lot Itona.
"Kayano-san, you didn't say that Itona was wrong?" Korosensei needs to stop listening to her every word like that, it's annoying.
She could (should) lie, and say pudding is her favorite like it's always been. She doesn't.
Kayano Kaede does love pudding after all, she says so and watches as faces around her fall into different levels of understanding mixed with horror. Karma, the infinitely curious boy, frowns, "So Kayano likes pudding, what about Akari?"
Bitch-sensei looks like she is on the verge of tears now or of ripping her hair out, something like hysteria taking ahold of her.
The teen thinks about how she could answer Karma's question, it's a rather complicated one after all - somewhat. "Akari cut it from her diet for her a movie and indulged for the first time in like eight months the dsy she saw her sister get impaled by a metal spike."
She remembers the exact taste of the sugar trap of a smoothie she had been drinking that day, there's artificial cherry flavor and vanilla on the tip of her tongue when she thinks about it.
"It's not so much as Akari doesn't like pudding because of the taste, it's that the taste is associated with bad things." She can't help it, no matter just how sweet what she eats is - it tastes like blood and dirt, she closes her eyes and sees her sister's body on the ground cradled by a less friendly-looking Korosensei.
She picks up the spoon and shoves the silky texture of bad memories into her mouth.
"Okay, that's it! Stop, Kayano you need to stop - !" It's like her head is under water, disconnected from her surroundings as Nagisa grabs the almost empty plastic cup and throws it to the other side of the classroom.
He goes to touch her, to do what she's not sure - shake her or hug her maybe, it doesn't matter because he decides against it and just stands there, hands frozen middair a breath away from her.
Akari has always been an actress, the only thing she was genuinely talented at - genius even, changing personalities and stories as if it was as easy as breathing.
The only thing she never had to fight tooth and nails to succeed at.
So why is it failing her now? Telling a whole classroom of this when she was such a good liar, had she spent so much time channeling Kaede Kayano that she was losing herself? Kaede who was an open book and wore her (fake - were they?) emotions on her face.
Korosensei's face is the same as ever as he looks down at her, but she senses something lurking there all the same, "You saw?"
Nothing much really - just a long metallic pole sticking out of Aguri for a second before she's sent tumbling down the pile of trash they were on, too far away to see her face or to hear anything they were saying.
Hara hides her face in her palms with a choked sob, Akari wonders why. Her mouth is not done betraying her it seems because she smiles a twisted smile, "It came out of nowhere - I don't even know why I thought it was you who had sent it, I was a dumb little girl really - " Fuwa cannot look anywhere in her general direction. "It was so fast, only slowed down a bit when it pierced her through."
Despite the velocity and mass that made for ideal projectiles, air still offers less resistance than flesh and organs.
She's not sure who leaves the room, but she thinks the one begging Korosensei to do something and stop just standing there, is Bitch-sensei.
"Oh God," that's Nakamura, more than just perturbed by the girl's wide smile that has not budged. Akari feels lightheaded, as if nothing around her makes sense, as if she's shattered.
She remembers reading about people snapping, when confronted with pressure that is too much to bear. Her sister's death left her with that building pressure, the need to get revenge, how funny is that her grief was not what caused her to snap - no, instead it was Yanagisawa's death, or her classmates seeing her as herself(?) and not a facade.
(head under water, she can't breathe, she's drowning-!)
She laughs at the thought and feels two different hands grab at her wrists, Itona on one side and Bitch-sensei on the other. She's sure their intent is to drag her out of the overpopulated class in which Korosensei has gone still, frozen in place.
"Okay, we get it! This was a bad idea, but come on Kaede you need to help us here, try walking please? Sh-shit!" The blonde's teacher's words seem to have the opposite effect to the girl who had let them drag her a few moments prior, feet hardly following the two.
Like a puppet that has had it's strings cut, she drops.
Itona swears - something she never heard him do, and picks her up mid-fall. Even with the tentacles removed, he's far stronger than anyone his height has a right to be and his grip on the back of her knees is firm.
Hazel eyes stare ahead without seeing and she hears panicked shouts coming from everywhere around her, her breath picks up and tears she had long given up on surge to the surface.
(Aguri, Aguri please-!)
"-anic attack, medical hel-!" a single hand comes up, the other squished between herself and Itona, pushing green hair out of the way like she had that day she tried to kill Korosensei. She can feel tentacles ripping their way out of her skin, screaming of hate and anger and dead sisters-
"-arma call the-" it's like watching a bad quality video with the sound and image cutting every few seconds. Blue flashes behind closed eyelids and red greets her when she opens them. "-encies! Now!"
She feels the familiar pain that causes her to drop pencils in class when it becomes too much, the pain that tears through her nervous system as it builds up the power she wants, the power she needs to achieve her goal.
Pain that has her smile so prettily as she gorges herself on sugar and think, I will rip your eyes out, I will crush your skull between my own two hands. You will die and I will dance on the grave you will never deserve.
The lack of pain when she slit Nagisawa's throat. No tentacles, no nothing. Just her.
Her bloody hand is snatched away by a manicured one, nails having dug into where the antimatter tentacles had been planted and dragged up to the side of her neck and down to her collarbone.
Tiny pearls of blood surge at the surface of angry red lines that decorate her skin.
(she never spent days in the sun with Aguri, never tasted the woman's homemade soup when sick, never spent nights crying over absent parents who might as well have abandoned them both, never-)
"It hurts, everything hurts!" She giggles like a madwoman now because pain is something she knows, something that's familiar and nice and helps with the blood dripping from tentacles and holes in Aguri -
She's not sure when she started crying, but her eyes sting while the rest of her body is numb.
(oh don't the stories make it sound so easy? living like this)
Soon, unconsciousness follows the numbness, one of her two saviors finally deeming her too much of a hassle to them both and a straight up danger to herself.
(oh pretty baby)
(don't let me down, I pray)