Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. Some quotes are from one of the translated versions of the Assassination Classroom manga.

A/N: Karma is referred to as "Akabane" before he's officially introduced. This is because Chiba and Hayami, the main "narrators" of this story, have not met Karma yet, and therefore would not know his preference to be called by his given name.

The cold morning light barely shone through the broken windows of the rundown campus. The entire class was silent, heads bowed down and fingers gripping their weapons.

Flump, flump.

The soft pats on the floor sounded, getting closer and closer, like the impending footsteps of death.

Something slid to the door and creaked it open. A monstrous yellow creature slithered to the teacher's desk, his tentacles waving as if sending out a warning.

"We'll start homeroom," the creature began in a cheerful voice, beady eyes roaming over the class- his class. "Whoever is on duty, issue your commands."

A brief silence followed. It was a loud silence, ringing of tension and fear and anticipation.

"S-stand!"

At Nagisa's words, the entire class stood up, chairs scraping noisily against the wooden floor, their guns aimed towards their target.

"At attention!"

Chiba's fingers locked onto the trigger. His heart was pumping quickly, and he forced his eyes on his target- the perfectly round yellow head with a placid smile.

This was it. The official beginning of a new era, another identity as an assassin.

"Bow!"

The bullets flew, hurtling towards the creature, who continued to smile, then dodged them with infuriating ease. Chiba worked furiously, squinting at the flash of yellow in front of him. He was careful not to shoot his classmates.

None of the bullets had hit the creature yet. Chiba's eyes narrowed in determination. He and Hayami had spent the most time practicing shooting out of their classmates, so they should have the best chances of scoring a hit. Besides, at least he had some experience in seeing how fast the creature could move, as he briefly fought with him as Black Cat.

As if to frustrate them further, the creature took up the challenge of taking the attendance in the midst of gunfire.

Dammit! Chiba thought as bullet after bullet missed the creature. He didn't expect the creature to be killed on the first day, but at the looks of it, they needed to work very, very hard to kill him by graduation.

After the agonizingly long yet short roll call finished, the exhausted class collapsed. Chiba stared at his rifle. Apparently their tactic of "simultaneous automatic firing at the target" didn't work, and according to what the creature had said, their plans were too simplistic and lacked individual thought. He sure gave a lot of killing advice for someone who was a target for assassination. Chiba didn't know what to make of this immensely powerful creature who kept on claiming he wouldn't do any damage.

Chiba took a quick glance at Hayami. He was beginning to feel some sort of shame from always looking at Hayami, but he convinced himself this time he was only looking at her to see her reaction to their first assassination attempt. Hayami was shaking her wrist. She didn't seem to be doing much better than him.

"Class is starting," the creature continued in an obnoxiously bright voice. "Let's tidy up the gun barrels and bullets."

The class collectively let out a soft sigh, but tidied up nonetheless. The old wooden floor was littered with pink bullets, and the students had to maneuver carefully as not to trip over them. Chiba was deep in thought, trying to analyze how a bullet could go faster. The wind direction and speed was of course crucial, and as the gun model, but even if these conditions were perfect, there was no way the bullet could be faster than the reaction speed of the creature. Unless the creature happened to be distracted-

"For you."

Chiba blinked, and stared at the broom in front of him, than up at the hand and body that was holding it. Short purple hair and cut bangs, and narrowed eyes judged him curiously.

Ah. He knew her name. She was Fuwa, a rather… quirky manga fan who had a habit of exclaiming weird things. An enthusiastic fan of the superheroes (and oddly enough, the akumas too).

Another awkward second passed, and Chiba finally reacted. He took the broom, uttered a quick "thanks", and spun away immediately, embarrassed by the whole ordeal.

"I don't even know why the author wrote me in this," Chiba distantly heard Fuwa mutter. Oh, she was weird all right.

Chiba started to sweep the bullets away, which wasn't really tedious if the entire class was doing the same thing. Chiba instinctively avoided the area where Fuwa was, which was coincidentally where Hayami was. Probably better to avoid them both as Chiba knew he would do something stupid and Fuwa would make some comment on "emo manga boys".

Sometimes Chiba wondered why things had escalated to this point. Things were already hectic with his superhero duties, and now he had to lead a double - triple life. Well, he couldn't complain. After all, the class would be rewarded with ten billion yen if they succeeded in killing the creature. Chiba was by all means not a greedy or materialistic person, but he knew that was a gigantic sum of money. After all, they were class 3-E, the bunch of misfits; they surely wouldn't get a good job or a good life with their current state.
After the class swept the bullets away, the first lesson started. To Chiba's surprise, the creature didn't seem like a bad teacher. Unlike the teachers at the main campus, he engaged with his students instead of droning on. He also seemed to genuinely care for them (despite his claims to destroy the entire Earth a year later), and forbade them from using guns in class as the bullets might hurt themy.

Yes, the lessons were somewhat easygoing, but Chiba was constantly on the edge, terrified that the creature would discover his identity.

Chiba knew the creature claimed he wasn't on Kochou's side, but those few simple words could not win Chiba's trust. Ladybug probably wasn't anyone he knew in civilian life unless Chiba was very, very blind, so he was comforted that he didn't know Ladybug's identity. He couldn't (and wouldn't) sell her out, but his family and literally everyone he knew in his civilian life could be in danger. This was a risk he and Ladybug had accepted the moment they chose to take their miraculouses.

Every time the creature walked (read: slithered) past him, Chiba instinctively shivered. The creature had promised the government not to harm the students, but there was no guarantee for anyone else. Therefore Chiba had to do his best to stop the creature before he found out his secrets. He had to protect his loved ones at any costs.

Even if it meant he had to be a killer.

The lunch bell rang after several periods. They were a bit like Aguri's lessons, fun and interactive, and ultimately less stressful than the lessons on the main campus. The creature announced he would "quickly pop over" to a bakery in France for some fresh pastries, and immediately zoomed off at Mach speed, leaving the class alone.

Hayami's sharp green eyes roamed over the class. They all seemed to be overwhelmed by the strangeness of their new creature, an example being Maehara, who was rubbing his eyes dazedly. Nakamura was sprawled on her desk, idly swinging her legs.

"That was one hell of a lesson!" Nakamura muttered, yawning in between her words.

"There's no way we can kill that thing!" Okajima exclaimed from Hayami's right. Several students nodded in agreement.

Hayami couldn't say Okajima was wrong, but she couldn't say he was right either. They had just had the creature for a day, and she knew their first assassination was admittedly a basic one. As superhuman as the creature seemed to be, he had to have some weaknesses, like how she, as Ladybug, was weakened by cold, and Black Cat by water. Interestingly, from her seat, Hayami could observe Nagisa jotting down notes in a small notebook during class. Sugino mentioned Nagisa was marking down facts about the teacher, which they could later possibly use to their advantage. So maybe, maybe, their ridiculous assassination mission might not be as ridiculous as it seemed.

"Hello, may I have everyone's attention please?"

Pairs of eyes snapped to Isogai and Kataoka, the class representatives, standing behind the teacher's desk, with serious expressions on their faces. Most students hushed down, the exception being the gang of students known as the "Terasaka gang" near the back. Maehara boisterously "shhh"ed them and they finally, albeit unwillingly, quieted down.

"I know we're all hungry for lunch, but we need to discuss something important during our target's absence," Kataoka began.

Isogai faced his class squarely. "Should we ask Ladybug and Black Cat for help?"

Enthusiastic murmurings broke out among the class. Surely they were wondering why the heroes had a part to play in this. Hayami felt a little dread creep down her spine.

"Karasuma-san told us he had informed our local superheroes of our new threat," Isogai explained. "And the superheroes had agreed to assist us if we ask them. They said they would not do anything unless other innocent civilians are involved. Additionally, Black Cat believes his Cataclysm can kill the creature with one touch."

"But he's not fast enough," someone mentioned.

"That's probably true," Kataoka agreed. "But we think it would do us good to have a meeting with them as to establish closer connections. What are your opinions?"

"Question!" Maehara piped up. "Won't we get less reward money if the heroes help us with assassinating the creature?"

"Oh, come on," Okano snapped. "The world is ending, and money is your only concern? It's not like they'll take all of the reward money."

"I, for one, think it's beneficial for us to meet with Black Cat and Ladybug," Yada said with a smile. "It's always better to have someone to back us up."

"I agree! Maybe we can cooperate to kill the creature together!" Kurahashi chimed in.

Nakamura furrowed her eyebrows. "As much as I'm a fan of them both, I'm not too keen on them interfering with our business. This is our task, not theirs. We get to deal with the creature and the reward money, okay?"

"Imma stop you right there," Okajima spoke up immediately. "The heroes are the only known confirmed magic users that'll help us. At least we'll have something supernatural against the superhuman. They are a valuable asset, and it wouldn't do anyone any harm if we met up with them." His eyes were wide, challenging Nakamura.

"They may be good at defeating akumas, but how about killing?" Nakamura fired back. "Y'know, if we let the heroes help us, we might as well partner with every single organization in the world to kill the creature. Our 3-E, our assassination classroom, will feel kind of pointless. Do you want that, huh?" she spat out the last sentence.

Throughout this conversation, Mimura's eyes flitted from Nakamura to Okajima, to Nakamura again. As if he couldn't take it anymore, Mimura quietly said, "Please stop arguing, both of you!"

Surprised by the pleasant Mimura's uncharacteristic behavior, the duo abruptly stopped talking, and shot each other somewhat apologetic looks. The class sank into a thick silence.

"Let's not argue among ourselves," Isogai reminded the class in a clear, authoritative voice. "Anyone else have anything to say?"

"I guess we can meet up with them," Nakamura said. "But who's going to do the job?"

Isogai and Kataoka shared a look. "We're both going, and we think a few more students can join us. The meeting will probably be held after school. Who's free and interested?"

"Can I go?" Kimura spoke up unexpectedly. When faced with the curious looks of his classmates, Kimura said, "I want to know what they'll do if our teacher threatens the civilians."

Most people in the class knew that Kimura's parents were police officers, especially now that an unfortunate scandal concerning Kimura's father, a policeman, had arose. It was on the newspapers, but no one really mentioned the incident in front of him as Kimura seemed uncomfortable with it.

"Sure," Isogai smiled genially at Kimura.

Nakamura's hand raised up lazily. "I want to go too," she stated. "I promise I'll behave and not ask stupid questions."

The two class representatives exchanged a look. "Alright, but don't speak rudely to them," Kataoka finally said.

"Oy, Rinka-chan." Hayami suddenly felt someone poking her arm. She glanced down at the blonde in front of her, who had turned around to whisper. "You wanna go with me?"

"Sorry, but no." Hayami's answer was short and direct. No amount of pestering from Nakamura or anyone could persuade her to join a meeting with the superheroes aka. herself. She knew she had to escape quickly after school without anyone suspecting where her civilian identity was.

Hayami was already nervous about the meeting. She'd managed to act professional around adults, but kids of her own age? And her very own classmates that she knew? Hayami had to try hard to prevent the conversation from going awkward.

The class' discussion ended quickly, and they were told not to talk about it in front of their teacher. Soon, when the creature returned, class resumed as normal.

Everyone was a bit sleepy after lunch, even the superhuman creature. When he tasked them to do some work, he sat on a chair and became very still with a sleepy smile on his face. Hayami saw Nagisa quickly scribbling a few words on his notebook. She shot a glance over the classroom and realized she wasn't the only one who'd spotted the chink in the creature's armour. Hazama had hidden a pistol on her lap, but she would probably be scolded if she shot.

A slithery sound from the front woke them with a start. The creature stood up and began to patrol down the aisles. The atmosphere instantly changed from a quiet, sleepy one to one full of danger and tension. Nagisa immediately slipped his notebook back into his drawer and ducked his head. Hayami's muscles stiffened and she turned back to her work.

The creature started to approach her row. Remembering the creature's acute sense of smell, Hayami's breath caught in her throat. She dearly hoped her perfume was enough to muffle her Ladybug scent. The last thing she wanted was her identity exposed to one of the most, if not the most powerful being in the world.

The creature caught Okano's flying knife with a grin and casually avoided Nakamura's stabs, all done at Mach speed. Hayami gulped upon seeing his flawless response to stealth attacks. As the yellow creature went past her, Hayami swore she felt that infuriating beady stare on her head, or more specifically, on her black earrings. Then that feeling quickly vanished and the creature moved on. Hayami suddenly had the urge to touch her earrings to make sure they were still there. Her dastardly imagination began to conjure up visions in a frenzy; her mother and her friends' lives being threatened, her earrings being stolen, and helplessly watching Black Cat fend for himself against a ladybug miraculous bearing Kochou-

A cough in the room brought her back to the land of the living.

For a second or two, she completely forgot what she had been doing. She stared at her piece of paper, hunting for a memory. She had been so distracted by her wild and untrue scenarios! There was nothing to worry about at the moment. Her identity was still safe and her miraculous still belonged to her.

The rest of the school day sped past them. A couple ambitious students tried to shoot the creature the moment class ended, but the creature avoided them with a bright grin and instructed the students to clean up the bullets.

"I guess it's not use," Nakamura sighed and tossed her gun back in her drawer. "We need a new tactic. He's simply too fast."

"What are we gonna doooooo?" Okajima whined.

"I think we need to observe our target for a while before we act," Isogai said. His calm, authoritative voice caught the attention of the class, and managed to bring some steadiness in their chaotic lives. Isogai turned to face the class. "I'm going out for some knife work practice. Who's with me?"

The first week of school had always felt strange and surreal to Hayami. It was a bridging period between holidays and school, and even the most prepared had to struggle to get back into their working mode. There were new classmates and new students to get used to, and new things to learn. Hayami felt like she was thrown into an alternate dimension where neither rest nor work existed, just fast-paced yet slow lessons.

This confusion was further emphasized with the coming of their weird octopus teacher and their assassination classroom, complete with flying bullets and angsty delinquents.

They all fought for some stability, but with the unpredictable creature and his unorthodox teaching methods, it was difficult make sense of everything. Soon they just kind of rolled along with their situation.

After a while, Hayami found herself settling into a schedule. Schoolwork, shooting practice, akuma fights, rinse and repeat. She even got into her old habit of looking out for more depressed students to hopefully prevent them from being akumatized.

As Hayami looked around the classroom, she realized Takebayashi was still as gloomy as always. Hayami suspected Takebayashi had always had a negative aura around him even before his akumatization. But he seemed to be doing fine.

Nagisa became Nakamura's new victim, and was constantly teased by her. Although Nagisa sometimes yelled in protest, he didn't seem to be really affected. The short, sweet-looking Nagisa also seemed susceptible to bullying, but thankfully his best friend Sugino was always there for Nagisa. Hayami didn't have much to worry.

There was a new student in their class too, a cute, cheerful girl by the name of Kayano Kaede. With her bubbly personality, Hayami wasn't worried about her not fitting in at all. Kayano quickly became friends with Nagisa and Sugino, and had pretty good relations with the class representatives. In fact, her rapid progress with her peers was making Hayami feel self-conscious, as she was miles behind Kayano despite knowing over half of her classmates before 3-E.

As Hayami looked further, she glimpsed Terasaka staring at the creature with much interest, a little smirk on his face. It seemed like a plan was brewing in his head.

Hayami didn't like to admit it, but she was a little scared of Terasaka and his gang of friends. They were always so loud and brute-like to her. Perhaps their raw power could be beneficial to assassinations, but Hayami didn't want to interact with them outside of work. She had always instinctively kept her distance. They seemed to be the example of a typical delinquent gang. And Hayami didn't want anything to do with delinquents. She hoped they won't harass and bully her and her classmates.

Another figure she was afraid of was absent. She knew who that empty seat behind Chiba belonged to. Everyone in the class knew.

Akabane Karma.

The infamous delinquent with godly grades and an infuriating personality. Hayami heard he was suspended because he got into a fight with the seniors. The rumours claimed he was violent and extremely talented at fighting. Above all, he was known for his sadistic and malicious personality. He was essentially the devil.

Like Terasaka and his buddies, Hayami could see the killing potential in Akabane. Problem was, the whole class was terrified of him.

Hayami didn't want to think of what would happen when Akabane joined their class.

The shrill sound of the lunch bell invaded her ears, followed by a collective clatter of books and pencils on the desks. Excited murmurs stirred in the class like a warm spring breeze, and many of them reached into their bags for their lunches.

Their yellow-headed teacher closed his textbook with a grin. "It's lunchtime! Sensei's going to China to eat Mapo tofu. If there's anyone that would like to assassinate me, please call my cell."

Once the teacher went out, the students started to rearrange their desks so they could eat with their friends. Several students started to comment on the creature's teaching capabilities, and all thought he was a pretty decent teacher even when they were trying to kill him. Hayami privately thought the same, but she was still a little afraid of the creature. Out of pure habit, Hayami brushed a casual finger towards her earrings to make sure they were solid. It was probably a stupid and over-the-top move, but Hayami wasn't going to take any chances. She slipped Tikki some chocolate wafers in her bag and took out her bento.

The rest of lunch passed uneventfully (the only moderately interesting thing was seeing Yada stutter a bit when Kataoka talked to her). Hayami decided to walk around the campus to see if there were any good spots for sneak attacks. She wasn't keen on having someone tagging alone, so she went solo.

Hayami stepped on the planks and winced when they creaked under her feet. The campus was really rundown and they didn't even have an air conditioner. With the added spring humidity, everything felt soggy and icky. Hayami ran her hands over the walls and looked up to the wooden beams above. She wondered if they were stable enough to support a person (like Okano) so they could drop from the ceiling and attack the creature.

"Despite what they look, the wood's still in pretty good condition."

Hayami spun to see Chiba behind her, who had apparently read her mind. He was holding a long ruler in his hand.

"My father works in a construction company," Chiba explained. "He taught me about safety and the different conditions of building materials. I tested some of the supporting beams a few days ago and they were okay. Some planks and parts of the ceiling were rotten though."

Chiba reached up and tapped the wood with his ruler. "See? They're not soft or flaking or brittle. I took some photos and asked my dad, and he said the wood seemed to be of a high quality, so that's why it's still standing now. I would still need to do some calculations to find out if we can hang something from those beams."

"Wow. That's impressive." Hayami was genuinely surprised by Chiba's extensive knowledge.

"A-ah, I'm just doing what I can to help the class." A nervous Chiba waved his hands in vague way.

After Chiba left, Hayami glimpsed a flash of light blue outside the building. She peered through a window and saw Nagisa outside. But that wasn't what concerned her.

Nagisa was talking to Terasaka and a few of his friends. There was a slightly nervous look on his face. Alarm bells immediately rang in Hayami's system, and she instinctively clutched the window ledge, white knuckles showing her anxiety. Was Nagisa in danger?

She watched as Terasaka's face loomed threateningly in front of Nagisa. Terasaka brandished a rubber knife right in front of Nagisa's eyes. Was Terasaka threatening Nagisa? Then Yoshida and Muramatsu, Terasaka's buddies, walked around and blocked Hayami's view. When they left, Hayami could see Nagisa staring at a small bag dangling from his hand. Before Hayami could suspect what it was, their teacher zoomed in front of Nagisa and greeted him. He was holding a missile in his hands, which was unexpected but Hayami was starting to get used to the absurdity of their teacher.

Hayami still did not fully trust the teacher, but she believed he did care for their class and would help the students. Perhaps Nagisa could tell their teacher about whatever that had happened with Terasaka.

But still, when Nagisa walked passed Hayami, Hayami felt the need to make sure he was okay.

"Nagisa?"

He turned. "Hayami-san?"

Nagisa's eyes had always looked so calm and cool. If he had been scared by Terasaka, he didn't show it.

"I saw you with Terasaka and his friends outside. Did something happen?"

"Ah, it's nothing." Nagisa smiled. "He just wanted to talk about assassination." When he caught sight of Hayami's expression, he hastily continued, "There's nothing wrong, please don't worry."

"Alright," Hayami said. She wasn't really convinced, but she chose not to pry.

The last lesson of the day was Japanese. Normally, Hayami liked this lesson as it was one of her best subjects. But today, the teacher assigned them some interesting classwork.

"Let's try writing Tanka poems based on a theme," the creature blithely waved its tentacles as if to show off their flexibility. "Please end it with 'tentacles' in the last seven syllables."

The entire class stared at their octopus teacher, wondering if they'd heard him correctly. But knowing their teacher, he would probably assign something as ridiculous as that.

"Once you have written one, bring it up to me. I'll check it for proper grammar and spelling and to see if you were able to express tentacles in a beautiful way," the teacher continued, either blissfully ignorant to his pupils' stunned reaction or simply chose to ignore it. "Those who can finish can go home for today!"

Hayami idly wondered how one could express tentacles in a beautiful way. "Is 'tentacles' a seasonal word?" she mused under her breath.

"Who knows," Okajima muttered back.

The class lapsed into silence, the only sound being the scritch-scratch of pens. Hayami was aware someone (Kayano, probably) had asked a question, but she had tuned out most of it. Hayami was too busy brainstorming up a poem about tentacles.

Hayami heard a chair being pushed back, then their teacher saying "finished already, Nagisa-kun?". Hayami's first thought was wow, he's fast, then she looked up and immediately saw that jarring green knife hiding behind Nagisa's work. Assassination. So it was another attempt. Instantly, Hayami tensed in anticipation.

Smart of him to do that after lunch, when their teacher's face turned pink and became sleepy. Hayami wondered if that was what Terasaka had told him at lunch. But Nagisa had probably figured it out way before Terasaka.

Nagisa took steps towards the unsuspecting target. By that point, Hayami assumed a good portion of the class knew what Nagisa was going to do. She could feel something swelling in their tiny classroom, as everyone silently cheered Nagisa on and waited with bated breaths-

He struck.

Of course, the teacher dodged. But before either of them could react, Nagisa flung out his arms towards the teacher, almost as if hugging him…

Then the explosion.

An ear splitting explosion of pink bullets that rained down on the students like hail. Hayami's superhero instincts got better of her and she immediately ducked under her desk. Her heart pounded in an erratic fashion. What had just happened? What did Nagisa do? The sound of an explosion was almost enough to trigger her to transform, but she saw Tikki by her feet, her blue eyes staring at her, conveying a single message: don't.

Unexpected boisterous cheer rose from a gang of students. "Alright, we did it!" declared Terasaka triumphantly and leapt out of his seat. Hayami's raging green eyes snapped towards the offending student. "That ten billion is ours!" he continued to cheer. Muramatsu and Yoshida followed Terasaka to the front of class, whooping. Fury rose inside Hayami, her veins trembling with hot anger. She stood up without even realizing it, too consumed by her emotions. How dare they-

"Hold on, Terasaka, just what did you make Nagisa hold on to?!" the usually good-mannered Kayano barked, her hands clenched into tiny fists.

"Hm?" Terasaka turned and smirked wickedly. "A toy hand grenade."

The effect his words had on the class was instantaneous. Many of gasped in shock, refusing to believe someone would put one of their classmates in grave danger.

"It's just that I used gunpowder to give it a kick in order to shoot out three hundred anti-sensei bullets at an insanely fast speed," Terasaka continued, almost proud of his terrible actions.

"But won't that hurt Nagisa?" an almost unfamiliar voice broke out sharply. All eyes snapped to the speaker. Hayami was surprised to find out it was Chiba. He usually spoke in such a soft and quiet tone and it was so uncharacteristic for him to raise his voice. It was a bit scary.

Terasaka shrugged, seemingly nonplussed. "It ain't enough power to kill a human."

Unspeakable disgust trembled inside Hayami. So it didn't matter so long an innocent classmate wasn't dead? What if he was hurt? Traumatized? Hit on the head? Got into a coma? Did any of it matter to Terasaka?

Terasaka looked around the room, grunting at their faces. "Come on, I'll pay for his medical fees."

"It's still not right to do that," Hayami spoke up dangerously, ignoring the stares from everyone "You're just taking advantage of someone."

"Pfft!" Terasaka chortled, obviously unbothered. His lazy, arrogant eyes roamed over Chiba and Hayami. "Who do you think you are, superheroes?" He then strode towards Nagisa. A curious transparent sheet of something was on him.

Hayami finally saw Nagisa. He seemed to be alive and uninjured, and covered by some membrane?

"By the way, sensei molts about once a mouth," a disembodied, eerily familiar voice floated towards them. Everybody turned to see their teacher sticking onto the ceiling with an expression they had never seen him wear before. As he explained how he managed to save Nagisa in the same serious, eerie voice, Hayami felt herself instinctively recoiling from their usually cheerful teacher who now reminded them of the immense power he had in his grisp.

The teacher's face was terrifyingly pitch black, face contorted in fury, with veins popping out on his head.

The teacher then zoomed off and returned with a huge gust of wind, a pile of something in his tentacles. As they spilled out of his grip, the class realized they were the nameplates from their houses.

A paralyzing chill went down Hayami's spine. So this creature knew where she lived… and he knew where everyone in this class lived… there was no escape.

"Due to my agreement with the government, I cannot inflict harm on any of you," the creature boomed. "But if you come to kill me next time using the same method as just now, I don't know what will happen to anyone who isn't any of you."

The nameplates clattered to the ground. Hayami was starting to feel ill. She knew she would never stoop as low as to intentionally have someone be seriously hurt for assassination, but now she clearly knew the teacher was overwhelmingly overpowered and could crush everybody she had ever loved in less than a second.

The creature continued his threatening speech. "Your friends and family… no, maybe I will eliminate everyone on earth except for you."

Hayami's scared eyes roamed around the class. They all had similar terrified and frozen faces. And that was the moment they all knew what they were really getting into. With a certain degree of satisfaction, Hayami saw that the Terasaka gang were all pale and trembling hard with unadulterated fear.

Thankfully enough, the creature calmed down and went back to his normal blithe self. He advised them to use their hidden strengths to kill him, and then to purely show off, told them if any of the students could kill him, they could go home early. But according to the infuriating green stripes on his face, it was virtually impossible. He was just saying it to annoy them.

"An unkillable teacher…" Kayano thought out loud, tapping her chin. "Ah. For your name… how about Korosensei?"

"That's a pretty good name, Kayano," Isogai smiled encouragingly. Other students also nodded, agreeing with Isogai. Hayami privately thought it was a good name too, but she didn't nod.

"So Korosensei it is!" the newly named creature declared with a flourish. "Nice to meet you all!"

Yeah… Korosensei. Hayami turned the word over in her mind. A little smirk graced her lips. I hope we can kill you soon...

Black Cat wasn't looking forward to meeting the representatives of his class.

It wasn't like he disliked them or had anything against them, but he knew it would just be super awkward.

A week or so had passed since the official start of school. No one had made much progress, but they were all doing their best. They were taking Korosensei's advice of making use of their talents, such as when Sugino tried a baseball assassination, but somehow ended up being felt up (Black Cat wasn't too sure of the story either, having heard it from Sugaya and Okajima).

The class had scheduled the meeting half an hour after school ended, which gave Chiba plenty of time to run away and transform. But as he had nothing to do, he was currently sitting on a rock in the forest next to the 3-E campus. The quiet trickling of the stream beside him lured him into a peaceful trance, and he idly wondered what Ladybug was up to. She was probably still at her school (wherever that was) as there were still fifteen minutes before their meeting time.

His baton suddenly rang. Black Cat swiped the screen to see Ladybug calling him.

"Hello?"

"Ah, Black Cat? Good; you're already transformed."

"Are you coming?"

"Yeah. Are you at the forest behind the campus?"

"Yes, I'll send you my location."

The call ended. Black Cat observed his surroundings, and wondered if an assassination in this forest would be feasible. In fact, it would probably be encouraged as the forest provided shelter and camouflage. Black Cat had a sneaking intuition that Sugaya could definitely pull camouflage off. It certainly was useful to have a skilled artist in their class.

A whooshing sound in the trees caught his attention, and he looked up to see Ladybug. She landed gracefully by him. Black Cat wished he was as agile as her, but even with his stretching practices, he was still nowhere near her. But Ladybug did say she had an advantage as she had been taking dance practices ever since she was a kid.

"Good afternoon," Ladybug said.

"Good afternoon," Black Cat greeted in return. There was a short pause as he hunted for a conversation starter.

"I guess your school's pretty close to here." Ladybug sat down next to him in the shade.

Wow, she's starting small talk, Black Cat thought. "Not really, but thankfully the teacher let out us early. How about you?"

Ladybug hmmed. "Same case. So, I think our views towards this creature and the assassination hasn't changed."

"We'll give the same statement," Black Cat agreed. "Do you think they already have a plan for us up their sleeve?"

(In fact, Black Cat already knew the answer. But he wanted to see what Ladybug thought of the situation.)

"Well," Ladybug said skeptically. "I don't know. Maybe they have a vague idea. Maybe they just want to see what we think."

Ladybug started to play with a few pebbles she found to the stream. Black Cat had known some time ago that Ladybug liked to fidget when she was bored or agitated. For example, he had seen her tear the paper wrapping off an empty packet of juice during patrol. And when investigating akumas, she often subconsciously fiddled with her yoyo. Black Cat thought it was a good way of getting rid of nervous energy and preparing for attacks at the same time, but unlike Ladybug, his instinct reaction to stress was to freeze and observe.

Ladybug tossed the pebbles in the water, each one making a refreshing splash sound. Black Cat's eyes absentmindedly followed the trajectory of the pebble.

Ladybug must had realized he was watching, as she awkwardly stopped her movements and folded her hands over her lap. She also purposely turned her head to the other side, so Black Cat couldn't see her face.

Funny. Black Cat discovered sometimes Ladybug liked to intentionally avoid him. Maybe she felt embarrassed? Maybe she was nervous around him? Black Cat wasn't offended by it though, as he knew Ladybug respected and liked him. But it still made him a bit on edge. Did he do something to make her uncomfortable? Like when they first met, she was a bit wary of him, and probably thought he was kind of creepy.

Black Cat couldn't understand Ladybug. In retrospect, he was terrible at understanding people in general. At times, Ladybug could be really nice and smile a lot around him, and even pet his head. But other times, she seemed determined to ignore him and turned away from him, both physically and metaphorically. They still worked great as partners and honestly, Black Cat was already grateful for that.

When the time was up, the two heroes approached the campus. Other than the group of Isogai, Kataoka, Nakamura, and Kimura, Karasuma, the government officier, was also there, arms crossed and silently watching over them like a hawk.

Black Cat shivered slightly when he felt Karasuma's eyes on him. He somehow had the feeling that Karasuma was seeing through his mask and on the verge of figuring out who he was. He trusted Karasuma, but he didn't want his identity to be so easily found out.

The meeting went by smoothly. True to her word, Nakamura behaved in a more polite way, although she still slipped back into her teasing self occasionally. The heroes fell in step with the other classmates and let Isogai and Kataoka conduct the meeting. Talking to his classmates in costume felt rather surreal to Black Cat, so he avoided eye contact with them. However, it was interesting to note their different reactions to being around him and Ladybug.

Black Cat could see Kimura was a big superhero fan although he tried to tone it down. Kimura's eyes practically lit up and he bounced on the soles of his feet excitedly throughout the meeting. And there was something about the admiring tone in his voice that gave him away. Black Cat supposed Kimura, the son of police officers, would feel strongly towards the concept of justice.

Nakamura, like always, acted casually as if she had personally known the heroes for a long time. Nevertheless, she was still rather enthusiastic and made little comments on the heroes' supposed romantic relationship. They ignored her.

Isogai was a bit more familiar with them as the heroes had asked him for help during the Evillustrator incident. He was friendly and polite, which made Black Cat feel at ease with him. Kataoka was pretty much the same, but she was more practical and direct than Isogai. Black Cat suddenly had a weird feeling that Kataoka would make a pretty good Ladybug in an alternate universe.

The heroes basically told them what they had decided earlier on and asked if there was anything they could do to help.

Nakamura had then pointedly, bluntly, asked the heroes not to snatch their reward money. Kataoka stepped hard on Nakamura's foot. Kimura coughed tactically to hopefully muffle the blow.

"We don't want profit. We don't want the reward money. The greatest reward is the safety of the people," Ladybug said smoothly. It was a ridiculously cheesy and generic reply, but it was honestly what they felt.

"Spoken like true heroes," Isogai marvelled. "Anyways, we haven't quite figured out how to kill Korosensei- that's the name we gave him- but we'll contact you if we think you can be of assistance."

"One question," Black Cat said. "How exactly will you communicate with us?"

Kataoka turned to Karasuma, and nodded briefly. "Karasuma-san will organize potential meetings for us."

That made sense to the heroes, as they both remembered how Karasuma had informed them about Korosensei's existence on behalf of the government.

"I think that's about it," Kataoka finished brightly. "Do you have any questions?"

They didn't, so they said goodbye to the students and left the campus. The late afternoon sky was faintly misty, with an air of humidity hovering above the ground. Black Cat's stomach suddenly rumbled, surprising the two of them.

He smiled sheepishly. "Guess I'm a little hungry."

"Me too," Ladybug replied. She spun to her partner. "Shall we grab a bite?"

So many things were happening at the same time. Korosensei was a fun and quirky teacher, and most the class' grades improved under his teaching. Chiba was touched by the genuine care and patience the teacher showed to all of them. Korosensei never got exasperated or frustrated when a student couldn't understand the simplest of concepts. Korosensei was willing to use his time to craft individual questions for each and every one of his students. And Korosensei was always encouraging and kept a sunny disposition, which greatly cheered up the dreary atmosphere in 3-E.

It was pity they had to kill him.

Ever since Karasuma came to teach as their PE teacher, Chiba felt more… professional. Granted, Chiba knew he was nowhere near a professional, but Karasuma's lessons gave him a clearer direction to what he was supposed to do. Like how he and Hayami stayed back for shooting practices now, as they had assigned themselves (and had been assigned by everyone in general) as the snipers of the class. Karasuma saw the potential in his two students and immediately suggested them to work together to better develop their skills. According to Karasuma, Chiba had the stability and accuracy, while Hayami had the flexibility and reflexes.

Chiba was understandably terrified yet ecstatic at the prospect of working with Hayami in the long run. He was going to spend time working productively while being with Hayami the whole time! They might even get to know each other better! While Chiba had zero (0) thoughts or fantasies on asking Hayami out, he was keen on being closer friends with her. He hoped his crush on her would be watered down so he could act normal around her, but knowing his history, his feelings would probably just intensify.

But there were more problems then assassinations and crushes and sniping. Akabane Karma, the person (was he a person or a demon? Chiba couldn't tell) supposedly sitting behind him, would return from his suspension. According to rumours, Akabane had been informed of the assassination and used to be friends with… Nagisa. Yes, Chiba found that surprising. How could someone as calm and nice as Nagisa be friends with that malicious delinquent?

Chiba witnessed Akabane's first assassination attempt, the deadly handshake. Chiba couldn't believe Korosensei actually fell for it, even if it was just for a second. Despite his nefarious personality, his smarts and ruthlessness could actually greatly help with their assassination.

Thankfully, Karma (Chiba felt awkward referring to him by his given name) didn't seem to care for him, or any other students in general. But Chiba still had to deal with Karma's crap every period, ranging from sudden gunshots behind him to saying something vaguely intimidating during class. Despite Chiba's terror, he wished Karma would sit down for one second. They were at school to learn, not to make weirdly dramatic comments on how one would kill their teacher. But Chiba had to admit, it was entertaining to see Korosensei deal with Karma, and Chiba basically had a front row seat to all of their antics. His favourite had to be when Korosensei made takoyaki out of the dead octopus Karma used a prop. Perfectly fine seafood should not be wasted.

Karma didn't make any attempts to speak to Chiba, which was fine by him. Until one chemistry lesson.

Chiba had always felt awkward in his chemistry group. He got along fine with Hayami and Okajima, but Hayami and Okajima did not get along with each other. Okuda, the genius chemist, was very, very shy, even shyer than Chiba himself, which was quite a feat. Okuda seemed to be quite terrified of everyone, especially Hayami for some reason. Chiba did his best to be encouraging, but everytime he spoke, Okuda would look away fearfully. Chiba soon gave up to make the situation less weird.

Things got weirder when Karma entered. Everybody instinctively avoided him, but Karma acted as nonchalant as always. He struck up a conversation with the most unlikely- the withdrawn Okuda, and they talked for a short while about poisons. It quickly ended when it was apparent Okuda didn't like talking much.

As the group prepared the apparatus for an experiment, Chiba noticed Karma chilling by the side. He was decidedly uninvolved in the group. Before Chiba could decide whether to reprimand him or not, Karma said, "Hey, Chiba-kun, that's your name right?"

Shocked that the devil was speaking to him, Chiba nodded mutely.

"Ah, I noticed you finished your math quiz rather quickly." They had maths before chemistry. Karma leaned casually on the table, eyes fixated on Chiba. "What did you think about it?"

Chiba couldn't believe it. A civil, normal, math-related conversation with the dangerous delinquent?

"It was okay," he answered honestly. "I wasn't so sure about question 8 though. I got a really weird number."

"Same for me," Karma replied, and Chiba looked up, regarding Karma with new interest. "I hadn't seen that question type before, and it was a bit challenging, but it didn't take me long to figure it out. I got- lemme see- 0.371 or something."

"Hey! I got 0.371 too," Chiba couldn't help but say. Something inside him made him ask, "What method did you use?"

They idly chatted about maths and shared their methods. Chiba had tried several methods before he got the answer, while Karma had only tried one and it was much faster than any of Chiba's methods. Chiba steadfastly kept to the traditional methods he had been taught, while Karma opted to break out from the box and think from another perspective. Chiba had to admit, despite everything else about Karma, his flexible approach to math was admirable.

From that moment onwards, Karma and Chiba occasionally discussed difficult math problems and pooled their ideas together. Chiba was still wary about Karma, and tended to avoid him, but at least Karma was okay when they talked about maths.

Chiba let the practically impossible task of managing Karma to the class representatives, but Karma was still as unconcerned as always. Chiba guessed they would have to bear with Karma for the time being.

With various events busying him at the same time, Chiba almost forgot about the true danger- the danger of Kochou or a certain powerful being discovering his identity.

That thought crashed down on him again when he, as Black Cat, leapt into his room after patrol. He detransformed with a flash, then heard an awfully familiar voice outside his window.

"Good evening, Chiba-kun."

Human and kwami spun to see Korosensei, who was smiling genially as always. Korosensei spoke again-

"Or should I say, Black Cat?"

Plagg dropped his Camembert.

"So, you know."

Hayami stared at Korosensei with arms crossed. Tikki peeped out nervously from her shoulder.

"Ah yes, Hayami-san, I know you're Ladybug." Korosensei busied himself with sweeping dust off Hayami's room. He had suddenly appeared after Hayami finished patrol, and had caught her detransforming. Hayami couldn't deny anything.

"It was a valiant effort to disguise your scent with perfume," Korosensei grinned and said. "I'm proud of you. But, alas, I found out your identity anyway."

Hayami was still frozen with shock.

"Don't worry, I'll do my best to protect you and Black Cat from akumas and Kochou. Of course, I want you two to learn something from the akuma fights, and I don't want you to be overprotected, so I'll only intervene in critical moments."

"Wait," Hayami found herself saying. "You know who Black Cat is too?"

"Nurufufu… there are many things you don't know, young grasshopper." Korosensei looked possibly mischievous now.

Hayami sighed. "What are going to do about my identity?"

"I won't tell anyone or take your earrings, because as your teacher, it's my duty to protect you." Korosensei finished shining Hayami's desk and he hummed, satisfied. "But… if you want to be safe…"

Neon green striped over his face, and Korosensei sniggered, "You'll have to kill me. Then, the secret will die with me."

Of course. Hayami glared at her teacher, knowing even if he was right in front of her nose, she still wouldn't be fast enough to hit him.

"Ahh, no need to be so serious!" Korosensei started to pinch Hayami's cheeks in a motherly way. "Y-you know I won't really hurt you, right? Right?"

Hayami remained silent throughout Korosensei's treatment. "But anyways, thanks for agreeing to help," she finally said.

"Of course. Anything for my dear students." Korosensei tipped his hat and sped away. Hayami rubbed her forehead; it had been a long day. Or night. Or whatever.

"Please tell me I hallucinated all of that," Hayami muttered to Tikki as she flung herself on her bed.

Tikki smiled wryly. "I'm afraid that was all real, Rinka-chi. But it's not a bad situation! You have arguably the world's most powerful creature on your side and even as your teacher! You'll probably learn something cool from him!"

"Thanks for that." Hayami burrowed deep into her blankets and fell asleep almost immediately. Only Tikki was awake, thinking.

Korosensei had said "anything for my dear students".

Students.

Plural form.

Korosensei knew. He knew everything.

Thankfully Hayami hadn't caught onto that.

Pain.

It was sharp, prickling, burning pain.

A new sort of agony that seared through her skin and throbbed from her bones, splitting every cell apart and reforming them into something new.

It was pain, pain, physical pain, emotional pain.

Worst part of it all? She had to endure it. Every day, every hour, every second.

But it would be worth it.

Kill him, the tentacles screamed into her mind every time she saw him. The impulses, the urges, shaking and trembling in her lithe body. Kill him!

Be patient, she had replied. The time will come.

For now she had to wait. Put on the facade of a good little girl. The harmless sidekick, standing in Nagisa's shadow.

Time would pass, and she would find her chance.

But time would not wash away her anguish.

Her grief, her fury, her desire for revenge, they would not be gone.

All those negative emotions, churning and brewing inside her, until they were bubbling and about to burst inside of her-

She had to wait.

Bury her feelings.

Wear a mask.

But she would not forget.

"This is for you, onee-chan."

A/N: *wipes sweat off forehead* This was one hell of a chapter to write… like when you simultaneously want to write about the love square and akumas but also keep the very essence of Assassination Classroom and develop the background characters.

My favourite thing about this chapter is Chiba's views on Karma. He went from "oh no Karma is so scary" to "shut up Karma I'm done with your crap" in like three seconds and I LOVE it.

I don't really have much to say except school is working me like a machine. Next chapter will be an akuma chapter, soooo be prepared for some sweet action!

Also, I don't know if I'd said this before, but I genuinely love the reviews you guys leave here? Like? Everyone's so supportive and into this AU and actually giving me a lot of ideas. When I feel sad, I just go to the reviews and be like "hey, someone likes and cares about my stuff!". Thank you all so so much! ≧∇≦

Now, replies to reviews:

Autistic-Grizzly: Aww thank you XD I'm glad you like my Plagg. You got your answer this chapter ;) and yeaaah Korosensei is so much fun!

DreamDuelist: Aaaaa thank you so much! Tikki knowing about creation like how Plagg knows about destruction is a really interesting concept, but what would Tikki know about? Healing? Fixing stuff? Lol I'll see what happens :D Also yeaah Okajima's sort of creepy, I think it was established in canon that he does have a good sense of smell (I remember one scene in anime Koro Q). And of course Korosensei's going to ruin perfectly fine romantic moments (even if he lives for said romantic moments, lol). I guess things did get a bit more "interesting" when Karma came in this chapter. Hope you liked it!

ToadetteIsMyCaptain: *chanting* RINCAT RINCAT RINCAT asdfghjkl thank you! Also to your "we're so close to them finding out their identities"... *coughcough*... can't say much :D

Guest: Thanks! I've always thought not having Karasuma interact with the sniper duo in canon was kind of a waste. The three of them are so similar - they're all hardworking, serious, responsible etc.

Ship-the-ships-I-ship: Thanks! I'll try to update sooner but no promises, I'm pretty busy now

XoMidnightXo: Lol what's the point of a Miraculous Ladybug AU with no puns or love square? Hehe hope your questions about Korosensei and Karasuma are answered in this chapter :D

Thanks for reading! Please kindly review if you have time! :D