XXXIV.
Hot summers were awful. Sweat made your clothes stick to your skin, you started to become one with your chairs until you wanted to stand up and then it freaking hurt to remove yourself from the surface if you hadn't covered the bare parts with any clothes. Skirts were a bitch to deal with.
I had seriously half in mind to just skip school and just chill with Karma in his house but then we both remembered we had practically Sonic the hedgehog as our teacher who would probably hunt us down if both of us didn't attend so that was kinda a moot point. Neither of us could be bothered to deal with the incoming ordeal should we miss class because of our laziness.
It did mean though that we both couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the class nor to really come up with anything to kill Koro-sensei seriously these days. Despite our teacher being sluggish in the heat we, as in the whole class, were just as sluggish as him, if not more so. It was truly just a sad state to affairs.
Summers reminded me vaguely of university classes in the heat and despairing over assignments while the sun was beating down on me. Weird feeling.
"Sayo, want some ice cream after this?" Karma was idly looking outside the window where the heat waves were simmering under the sun.
"Well, if you're treating me, I'm not saying no," I answered lazily, listening with half an ear to the conversation Kimura and Kurahashi were having about the pool.
We had mandatory swimming lessons during class, but it was really inconveniently placed between other classes meaning we had to go down to the school building and up the hill again for our usual lessons. For obvious reasons everyone hated the way to the pool and back.
"Looking forward to me in swimming shorts, Sayo?"
"Well, what if I am, Karma?" I replied back easily, just to hear him splutter behind me. Sometimes that guy was a bit too easy to tease despite his usual suaveness with everything else.
"Woah, guys, keep the dirty talk down!" Maehara jumped in from the side.
"Maehara, don't speak as if you haven't been talking about us girls in our summer uniforms like godsent gifts." Which prompted a hit from Okano before I even finished my sentence.
"Evil…"
"Speaking of swimming lessons," I turned towards our class teacher, who was also becoming one with his podium desk due to the heat. "Koro-sensei, are you in charge of supervising the class or is Karasuma-sensei?"
Technically speaking, swimming was part of the P.E curriculum but I was a bit unsure about the details of this one. We also hadn't seen Karasuma-sensei today yet, which wasn't that unusual when he was the spokesperson for the long-term mission for killing our teacher.
Also, since we had the conversation with Koro-sensei about his weakness towards water we hadn't had a good chance to use it, since we had been either really busy or the weather wasn't suitable for our plans. It had been hot and sunny for good while now.
"Good question, Kitani-kun. Normally Karasuma-sensei would he supervising but he is currently away so it's going to be my job to look out for you this P.E. lesson." Despite his quite honestly pathetic appearance his answer was still clear.
"Then you wouldn't be opposed to ferrying us down to the pool, would you be, sensei?" Karma asked the question out loud before I could even voice my idea. I could vaguely see Maehara giving us thumbs up at the suggestion.
Of course, the idea seemed to be quite attractive to everyone in class and they were soon begging our teacher to play taxi for us in the upcoming lesson.
"Everyone, slow down! Sensei isn't your personal taxi! And I can't promise your security mid-air when some of you could possibly think of killing me during the journey. Or when some would not agree to fly with me."
"Stingy!" Loud complaints echoed throughout the classroom; the hopeful mood once again killed by our teacher.
"I will make you a better deal, my dear students!" Koro-sensei suddenly looked a lot more energized. "If you would please all follow me om your swimming gear?"
Eyebrows raised, but our teacher had already disappeared. Time for me to gather the others. Swimming gear meant water and we couldn't let this chance go to waste.
"Everyone! We don't have that much time, but don't forget to bring some of your guns and knives! We gotta explore how vulnerable sensei actually is towards water."
"Yukiko, any idea what he's planning?" I nudged Kanzaki's shoulder once we actually went into the changing rooms. Sensei even complained about us being too slow, but I would bet my share of his bounty that he had heard everything.
I wanted to pick Kanzaki's brain about the matter but couldn't help but think that her brain was definitely getting overheated with her outfit. The girl even had her hair down in this kind of weather.
"Also, how can you not put your hair up in this heat?!"
"I'm kinda good with the heat as long as we are not moving, I guess? And maybe he found some shortcut to the pool for us. Hopefully, we can just cool off," she answered when she opened her blouse to change.
"That's a really cute bra," I commented idly when I did the same. I was dreading putting on my swimming googles, but there was no way I could see without my glasses.
"Thank you, Sayo. Are you looking for some lingerie to show Karma?"
I choked on my own spit when I heard that.
"Yukiko… Why?"
Stepping outside was hell. And it promptly caused many to hiss from the heat wave rolling over everyone. Urgh, just why was it so hot…
Trotting through the forest, we followed our teacher who was cheerfully leading us towards the wilderness with seemingly no real destination in mind.
"Remind me again, why are we doing this? Going down to the pool seems like a better idea right now," Kayano grumbled, when she wiped the sweat from her forehead from the pretty intense path we were wandering on.
"Who knows? Maybe sensei found some good place instead," Nagisa answered, looking just as winded as Kayano did.
Seemed more like he didn't just find a good place, but actually built one himself. Before our sight was a pool with long and luxurious swimming lanes and probably everything you needed for a public pool. There were even loungers!
We stood there befuddled not quite sure if the image in from of our eyes was quite real.
"Sensei, you're insane," I mumbled, when I actually was actually ready to accept the reality of the situation. It was a surprise every time when he pulled something like this. Made me also unsure every time that we would succeed in killing him when he showed his inhuman abilities.
I got a mischievous wink at my mutterings and grimaced. Right, superhuman hearing. I wanted to test that one, right?
"What are you waiting for, everyone? Get changed and then we can start the lesson!"
We didn't waste any time, eager to escape the scorching heat of Japan's summer and quickly chucked of our tracksuits. Well, most of us. Terasaka's group didn't seem to be in a hurry, especially when their "leader" seemed to hiss at the notion of even interacting with anything that had something to do with Koro-sensei except for half-heartedly killing him.
I rolled my eyes at the rebellious attitude. Sometimes I forgot that everyone here was a teenager, including myself, especially when particular unexplainable mood swings overtook me.
Soon enough the quickest ones were jumping into the pool, splashing water about everywhere and yelling at the sudden change of temperature.
Feeling just as enthusiastic about the pool I went up to one of the starting blocks on the head end of the pool and dove in. It was probably a quite clumsy start, but I really didn't care when the water promised a nice cool down. After a few strokes I was at the other end of the pool and finally stopped to observe my surroundings, after wiping my googles roughly.
Many had just dived right in just like me while some others were slowly easing into the coolness of the water, but at some point, everyone had trickled in, which was a signal for Koro-sensei to start the lesson.
Our teacher himself was wearing a full body swimming suit and a cap, while he had a diving bord in one of his tentacle's grasp. He blew into his whistle, making the people nearby cringe at the loud noise.
"Okay, everyone! Today is going to be mostly a free lesson since sensei is really a bad model for showing you how swim." He wiggled his appendages as an explanation. "I'm asking all of you to adhere to the safety regulations you would have at a normal pool and please do swim a bit if you're able to. Have fun!"
"Hai, sensei! Thanks for the pool!"
All of a sudden, a hand snaked around my waste, pulling me away from my spot the edge of the pool. I screamed in surprise.
"What the f-"
"Na, na, na, Sayo, no cursing here," Karma said closely to my ear, making me squirm when I could feel his breath tickling my skin.
"Karma, I swear to god-"
FWUEEEEEEEET
We both startled at the loud whistle noise, causing Karma to almost lose his grip on my waste and making me flail at the sudden lack of hold in the water.
"Karma-kun, Kitani-kun, stop flirting in the pool and start swimming! No indecent behavior in public!"
"Excuse me, you overgrown octopus! I was making moves!"
I felt the distinct burn of my ears and cheeks growing red, but there was no telling if I was actually feeling secondhand embarrassment from Karma's statement nor if it was actually the close proximity of a not so very closed redhead right next to me. Not that me in googles looked particularly attractive anyway, but they were necessary.
Or you know, it could be the fact that we were being called out by our teacher in front of the class. I still had the ability to feel a little bit of shame.
But despite that, Karma having grown up with me definitely had done nothing for his sense of shame. We were a very shameless pair I had to admit.
Freeing myself from the other's clutch I dove back into the water in hopes of cooling down a bit but also escaping the attention.
Being submerged under water reminded me a bit of the time when my doctor had told me to exercise like this for my asthma. I had done my fair share of swimming lessons and even went swimming in my free time back then before doing taekwondo and swimming became both a little too bothersome to take at the same time.
Maybe I should have stuck with swimming instead of taekwondo, then the dojang wouldn't have suffered then. It had been a dumb move to get involved with other delinquents when I was actually still doing taekwondo.
Karma's grinning face ripped me out of my thoughts when I thought about slowly coming up again. This class did sure wonders for my stamina and also my lungs despite my asthma. Which I had the suspicion to be panic induced anyway. It was not the most ideal thing to have with a life like ours.
The other boy mimed a whistling notion with his hand to his mouth and pointed upwards. Intrigued, I tried to listen to what he was trying to tell me and indeed, our teacher's frantic whistling could be heard through the water. Talk about loud.
I grinned at the sound and motioned for us to resurface. My air was getting kinda low.
We reappeared to a lot of noise and complaints from Koro-sensei. One complaint was-
"Kitani-kun, Karma-kun, stop with your flirting, I thought you drowned!"
A question formed in my head.
"Hazama-kun! Don't just read at the side!"
Why didn't he fish us out when he normally so active to prevent us from doing stuff he didn't like? That just confirmed that water was even a bigger danger to him than initially thought.
I turned to Karma with an idea on my lips. I gave Kurahashi the signal to start splashing our teacher in 10 minutes. Time to proof my hypothesis.
Megumi felt ecstatic.
They had a pool near their classroom now! One that she could possibly use whenever she wanted! She would have to ask Koro-sensei first, but Megumi couldn't imagine him denying her. In the worst case she would bribe him with food.
(The bitter thought, that her passion for swimming had gotten her into class E in first place, lingered in her had for a moment, but it was immediately disturbed.)
She felt around for her barrette, which she had prepared in case that she needed a quick weapon in hand for another spontaneous assassination. She was glad Sayori had actually questioned sensei more once they had discovered his weakness to humidity. It had given her heads up to prepare herself and now it was time to use that.
Splashing alerted Megumi to something approaching her.
"Kataoka-san? I gave Kurahashi-san the signal. In 9 minutes from now on she will go and splash sensei. Karma went to alert the others to ready their guns." She discreetly motioned towards the others on the side readying their stances.
"The others near sensei are keeping him distracted, but I want to dive with Karam towards his chair to startle him and attack him. Once we do that everyone else will start shooting or in Kimura's case attack from behind. Do you think you can hold your air long enough to start a surprise attack from underwater once he plugs Karma and me out of the pool?"
Megumi grinned. For a plan thrown together within 30 minutes with everyone that sounded like a quite good idea.
"Count on me Sayori-san." She tapped her barrette. "I think I got a good idea how to get him."
"Nice," the other girl replied, grinning back as cheekily. "I knew I could count on you and your swimming skills."
Koro-sensei's scream took everyone's attention, which immediately let to the fact that everyone drew everyone's attention towards the highchair the alien was sitting in.
The light haired, beetle-loving girl of their had splashed water towards their teacher, setting everyone in motion.
The bloodlust in the air was now near tangible, increasing with every second that passed once the scream had grabbed their attention.
Seconds later two figures suddenly burst out of the water, each person grabbing one to the highchair's legs and pulling the chair into the pool.
The chair dropped like a domino, felled by the force of the two.
"GAAAAH!"
Hell set loose. The students nearby jumped into the water to splash their teacher with more water to hinder him more with the liquid in his tentacles. The ones who had somehow hidden the guns on their body started shooting at the slower than usual moving limbs and actually managed to gaze them.
Amidst the chaos, their octopus like teacher grabbed the two perpetrators out of the water, most likely to either scold them or not let them get injured by the highchair floating between them. Those tentacles were pretty soon injured by the other students nearby, making it really hard for him to grasp them.
"Kitani-kun! Karma-kun! You behaved way to recklessly just now! What do you think would have happened to you, if the chair had fallen on you two!" the teacher scolded them while sluggishly dodging their furious swipes at his appendages. Both of them had also pulled the knives from their mouths out to start attacking.
"Nah, sensei, we thought you would protect us!" Karma answered cheerfully while glancing a tentacle with his knife.
In a flash another female figure appeared out of the water, cutting off the one tentacle that had been holding Sayori. The girl dropped back into the water but seemed to be prepared enough to resurface again a moment later.
Everyone at the scene was shocked enough to startle at the sudden motion but caught themselves quickly enough to start attacking again. The students responsible for the frontal assault regrouped within that time frame, but left crucial seconds unattended, which elevated some pressure on their attack.
Normally, their teacher would have taken advantage of that, but he didn't, which didn't go unnoticed by everyone in the class. In everyone's mind a sudden thought formed.
We can actually kill him
And due to that though the bloodlust increased even more, their focus now solely on killing their target in from of them and eventually that focus bore fruit.
Hayami nodded at Chiba and Okuda, remembering the study session they had with Sayori and Ritsu, and tried to replicate the situation of the attack that had once also splattered a smaller tentacle in class.
And they succeeded.
The satisfying splat of a tentacle getting obliterated rewarded their ears and elation rose up in their chests. That was what they had trained for. What they spent hours on to achieve.
Koro-sensei, noticing that his students were getting closer to their goal than ever, had no choice but to do something he hadn't had to do in this class. He actually retreated.
Silence filled the clearing after the super sonic boom of their teacher fleeing actually faded into nothing. The wind pressure forced everyone near their teacher's old spot to cower, but they recovered soon enough.
Stunned disbelieve filled the pool with all the students speechless at what had happened. No one quite dared to break it, but then…
"WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, WE DID IT!"
Sayori flinched at the shouting, making Megumi's lips twitch upwards even more than already, despite her own urge to scream with others. The raven had drawn up a pretty impressive plan, which had really shown how well their classmates could work together. She could feel the camaraderie within their ranks growing thanks to this.
No matter how mischievous Karma and Sayori were as a pair, they did some good and reliable work in the class. Only if they wouldn't give her grey hair with their behavior. As the class representative she sure felt responsible for them.
"Well, pretty impressive, Sayori-san! I gotta admit, this was probably one of our best attempts," Megumi laughed, swinging an arm around the shorter girl. The other grinned back, just as happy as everyone around them was.
"Everyone did their part well. Especially you, Kataoka-san! You sure made me fall for your dive attack! That was so great." She waved toward the group at the other end of the pool. "Hayami-san, Chiba-san, Okuda-san! That shooting was top class! You were so awesome!"
The unit waved back cheerfully, giving her thumbs ups and thank yous as an answer.
Everyone's cheer translated back into a far more exuberant class than usual. Maybe it was fate, that Kayano fell into the pool only once they stopped trying to get their teacher when the chaos from before should have definitely bowled over her lifebuoy.
Well, no time to rest as the class representative. At least she could swim again.
"Woah, that was disgusting," a voice pulled her out of her thoughts and Megumi flinched immediately once she recognized who had said it. The feeling of shame and embarrassment swept through her mind when she realized what the other person had said.
"Did she just- lick your hand? What was that for a creep?!" The person's voice jumped another octave. "Wait a moment, I have some alcohol wipes here. That definitely needs to be sanitized… Kataoka-san?"
"Hahahahaha, sorry, Sayori-san, please give me a moment, haha." Amidst the shame she had previously felt Megumi couldn't suppress the bout of laughter escaping her mouth. "That's such a Sayori thing to worry about."
Nonetheless, she accepted the alcohol wipe. If she thought about it a bit longer, having someone lick her hand, was seriously unhygienic.
"Thank you, Sayori-san."
"Don't sweat it," the other girl answered, not commenting on her last sentence. Apparently, she didn't want to know what Megumi meant. "That was some weird shit she did. Are your books okay?"
Megumi looked back at the table. Sayori had pulled her books away from the puddle and Karma had rightened the glass, but the notes splashed by her iced tea were inevitably ruined.
"Well, probably not." She tried to mop up the mess with a napkin but gave up quickly. "But it's nothing important. Those are just exercises for Tagawa. I can write them down anytime."
"Well, okay then," Sayori shrugged and sat down where Tagawa had been sitting a while ago. "I'd be lying if wasn't curious, but it's your business. Want to order something? Karma's treat!"
"Maaah, Sayo, don't offer my to pay. Pay yourself," Karma protested half-heartedly but was already flagging down the waiter of the café.
"But you promised, boyfriend dearest."
"You only call me your boyfriend when you want something from me." Despite that the color of his ears were clearly matching his hair perfectly. Megumi had to smile. It was sweet of them trying to cheer her up.
"No need, but thank you both," She glanced over the booth divider to the three unwanted peeping toms. "And I don't think I'm going to be able to not explain what just happened. You two might as well join, but thanks for the consideration."
But then the waiter appeared and didn't particularly want to explain her sob story in front of a stranger and many other potential eavesdroppers.
"Let's maybe go outside for this."
"Well, maybe it was a good thing sensei was being nosy." I could definitely see how that whole Tagawa situation was seriously detrimental for Kataoka's self-esteem and probably her mental state. Sensei was right on the dot concerning the codependency.
(Not that I could really talk about codependency, but our case was a bit different.)
"But I can do without the animation of myself married to an abusive husband, sensei!" Kataoka protested immediately, making every one of us crack a smile despite the rather alarming situation the tall girl found herself in.
"I have to agree, sensei, the parasitic relationship between some oceanic creatures would have been enough," Karma tacked on, all of us nodding in agreement.
"Let sensei have his creative freedom! Also, you guys can relate to social situation better when I actually give you examples from real life. Just animals swimming will be less effective," our teacher whined, wiggling around his tentacles in a melodramatic fashion.
"Well speaking about swimming, Sayori… Are those marks around your eyes still from your googles? Our swimming lesson ended already a few hours ago!" Nagisa butted in, effectively ignoring our teacher's antics.
He had pointed out the rings around my eyes, which had been there from the moment on I took off my googles. Karma had had a good laugh already, once I wore my glasses, which had now a rounder design, enhancing the panda bear look.
"Well, stop googling at me, Nagisa!" Cue the groans. "Hah, that was just served on a silver platter. But if you must know, yeah my skin kinda get imprints and bruises quite easily and they don't fade away that fast."
"Quite a panda-stic look, no?"
"Karma, I swear to god-!"
"Everyone! Don't ignore me! Listen to my solution to Kataoka-kun's problem! We will teach Tagawa-kun swimming within all means! We'll meet at 10 pm at our classroom. I will pick up everyone beforehand and assign you your rolls."
"…If that doesn't sound fishy."
(Three guesses who said that one)
"There absolutely nothing fishy here! Feel free to dive into our fish land!"
At least, if we had to cosplay as some strange mercreatures I could definitely let my puns swim freely (haha, that was good). I was feeding off the annoyed energy everyone was exuding from my puns, which were getting better and better or worse depending on whom you asked the question.
The fact that I was making bad puns and dad jokes during the whole time probably helped convincing Tagawa that this whole thing was a dream dredged up from somewhere within her mind. If I wasn't used to our teacher's brand of chaos, I surely wouldn't believe that this was our reality. I was certain I had some kind of reputation within Kunugigaoka Junior High, but puns were surely not it.
I wondered if Asano would be more annoyed or amused by my sense of humor. His reactions would be hilarious.
"I definitely spend too much time with you, Karma. I haven't been so eager to see people suffer since I met you," I said as a non-sequitur, as we watched Kataoka and sensei put some weird and convoluted swimming lesson together that involved too much cosplay, a bucket and more inspirational speech than necessary. Our teacher was such a drama queen.
"While that was kinda out of the blue, I do like having so much influence on you." He grinned back cheekily, and it was a bit unfair how well he pulled of the merman or fishman costume Koro-sensei had given them all.
"Well, we just go along swimmingly. There's no way you wouldn't sweep me away in the current that's your sadism."
All those jokes probably deserved all the water to my face, but it didn't mean it would deter me from making more of those.
Hi, hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's a lighthearted one, but I liked the vibe of this.
Leave me a review if you liked it. Thanks for reading and have a great day.
- Yuki
