The next morning I groan, very sore from last night's punishments. I drag myself out of bed to get ready for the school day. I go into the bathroom and inspect my stomach. Of course, there is a large bruise already starting to form where he kicked me. Almost half of my face is red from his slap. Wrapping gauze around my chest to minimize the size of my boobs, I get dressed in my school uniform. I put on that familiar black wig that I've gotten accustomed to wearing over the years. Pulling out the concealer, I use it to cover up the large handprint on the side of my face. I pack my school bag, strap my knife to my hip, and quietly leave my house.
I walk down my front steps and see the person who has become the second bane of my wretched existence, Karma. As soon as he sets his gaze upon me, his lips pull into that cocky smirk again. I really must have been a terrible person in my past life to have to go through this. All I want to do is to shout at him, to tell him to get lost. Instead, I brush past him, trying my best to ignore him.
"Aw, not even a greeting?" He fake pouts, slinging a single arm around my shoulder.
I freeze, my blood turning cold as my father's words from the previous night echo in my mind. I shove him away from me with the entirety of my strength. Please don't smell like him, please don't smell like him. I think over and over as I rip off my school blazer. I bring it up to my nose and breath deeply.
Shit…. Shit…. SHIT.
While it's faint, the smell of him lingers on the piece of clothing. Completely taken over by fear and anxiety I throw the blazer to the ground. I drop into a squatting position, tucking my head into my legs. What do I do? I can't go back home smelling like Karma. He won't kill me, I know that, but the fate that will come to pass will be far more devastating.
Wait, Karma is still watching. What are you doing? You can't lose your composure like that in front of other people. I mentally scold myself. I stand up and smooth out my uniform. I pick up my blazer and wipe the dirt off and put it back on. I'll just have to figure out that situation later. I dig through my bag pulling out my whiteboard and marker.
Don't ever touch me again unless you want to meet an early demise
Holding up the whiteboard for him to see, I flash a fake smile in his direction. Before he can even manage a response I turn and restart my trek to school. This boy is nothing but trouble. He really is going to be the death of me if I'm not careful. From behind me, I hear Karma burst out into laughter. Just ignore him, don't give him the satisfaction of a reaction. He jogs to catch up to me.
"Man, you really lost your shit there for a moment, didn't you?" He comments almost joyfully.
Deep breaths Akari, just ignore him, he's not worth your time. You still have to figure out a way to get his stench off your clothes before you get home. He lets out a soft sigh.
"So, you really intend on never speaking? How boring," He mutters, slightly annoyed by my stubbornness.
My voice would betray my secret, it sounds too girly to be able to pass as a boy. As long as I have to pass as a male, I'll never utter a single word. We continue silently down the sidewalk.
"Hey, Karma! Hey, Akari!" I hear a familiar voice call out and Karma and I both stop.
I look in the direction of the voice and notice Nagisa walking toward us. I smile brightly as he approaches. If circumstances were different, I might've befriended Nagisa. He seems like such a nice boy.
"When did you guys decide to walk to school together?" He asks innocently.
My eye twitches slightly. Right, Karma says he lives in the same area, meaning he's going to be walking home with me too.
We live on the same street, unfortunately
I hold up the whiteboard for Nagisa to see. He lets out a nervous laugh after reading what I had written. I quickly wipe away the words so Karma won't see what I wrote.
Do you want to walk the rest of the way together?
I hold up the whiteboard in Nagisa's field of view once more.
"Yeah, sounds good," He responds.
I flash another smile and start walking again. Nagisa walks next to me and Karma trails closely behind.
So has anyone been close to killing that thing?
I hand the whiteboard to Nagisa to read.
"Yeah, Karma got the closest to killing Koro-sensei, but he couldn't get his guard down enough to kill him," Nagisa answers, handing the whiteboard back.
I see, I guess Karma does seem like the type to kill somebody. The rest of the way to the school Nagisa and I converse while Karma follows quietly. We eventually get to school and class proceed regularly, with the damn creature helping us to study. Soon lunchtime rolls around.
I leave the school building and venture into the surrounding woods. I have to figure out a way to get Karma's smell off my clothes. I've been able to smell it on my blazer all day. What a shame, it's quite a pleasant smell too…Wait! What in the hell are you thinking about? Shaking my head trying to clear away those invasive thoughts, I pull my blazer off and throw it on the ground. Maybe I can just go without it? Out of the corner of my eye, I see a small creek. I pick up my blazer and walk over to the creek. I toss it in and it quickly becomes soaked.
"Now I gotta say, I don't think I've ever seen someone purposely throw their clothes into water," I hear a voice behind me say thoughtfully.
I don't even have to turn around to know who that voice belongs to. You're the reason I had to throw my blazer in the damn river. I sigh and bend over to pick up my blazer out of the water. Before I can retrieve it though, I feel a hard shove on my back. I fall into the creek face first, becoming soaked myself. I quickly get back on my feet and turn to face Karma. I glare at him wanting more than ever to choke the life out of him.
His smirk turns into an almost solemn look when he sees my face. It takes me a couple of seconds to process why his expression changed so quickly. The mark on my face from last night's slap. The makeup must have come off when he pushed me into the creek. I let out a long sigh, I can't go back to class with the punishment I must endure clear on my face.
"Hey Karma, did you find him yet?" I hear Nagisa's voice call out a little distance away.
"Nah, I guess he didn't come this way after all," He calls back while walking in the direction of Nagisa's voice.
Did he just… cover for me? For some reason, that causes my chest to feel strange with a sensation I've never felt before. I pick up my blazer and walk away towards the path to lead home. Dripping wet and pathetic-looking I start walking home, deciding that it would be easier than trying to explain to the teacher why I'm wet and have a slap mark on my face.
After a while, I finally make it home. My father is at work so I can safely get changed and clean up the mess I'm making before he gets home. I change out of my wet clothes into clean, dry ones. I throw my school uniform into the dryer and towel off my fake hair and wipe up the water I dripped onto the floor. Since all my stuff is at school, I might as well start working on dinner. The rest of the night passes uneventfully and I luckily get by without a beating by lying about school being let out early.
The next morning I get ready as I usually do, taking an extra moment to inspect my face. Most of the handprint has faded, but there's a small bruise now. I'll just say I was clumsy and hit my face on something if anyone asks. I think with a heavy sigh. I exit the hell hole I call home and walk down the front steps. Of course, who would've ever guessed that he'd be waiting here? I think to myself sarcastically as I see Karma waiting for me. I approach him and give him a small bow. When I stand back upright he holds out my whiteboard and marker. I lock eyes with him. Does he want a written thank you? I think as I grab them from Karma.
Thanks for covering me yesterday, I owe you one
As he reads my message a devious smile appears on his face. Then it hits me, I fell right into his trap. Of course, he knew I would say something like that.
"Cool, in that case, then you have to actually speak when we're alone," He says without even a second of hesitation.
I cast my gaze to the ground. I can't agree to that, he'll know right away that I'm not a boy. He'll know that I was born a mistake. I shake my head furiously in response. If I speak even a single word, he'll ask way too many questions. He sighs, sounding annoyed that his plan didn't work.
"Fine, I'll let it go today, but I'm not giving up until I hear you speak," He states nonchalantly as he starts walking away from me.
I trail wordlessly behind him, relieved that, at least for now, he'll stop pestering. We meet up with Nagisa and walk the rest of the way to the old schoolhouse together. Life continues on, with our pseudo-teacher helping us study for the midterms and Karma pestering me every once in a while about talking to him.
The day of the midterms comes and for the first time, I go into the main campus building.
"This is going to be a piece of cake," Karma says casually.
Does he take anything seriously? That thing is going to leave if we don't rank in the top 50.
"That's easy for you to say Karma, you've got the best grades in the class," Nagisa replies, somewhat deflated.
Just try your best and it'll work itself out
I hold my whiteboard out for Nagisa to see. He lets out a nervous laugh.
"Thanks for the encouragement," He replies with a smile.
I give a slight nod and we enter the exam room, not long after the test is underway. The first test is math and I take a moment to look it over. They're teaching the students this level of math? That damn octopus teacher hardly went over this stuff. They'll be able to answer some of these questions, but this is hardly fair. If the math test is like this…. No, I need to focus and I'll have to tell that thing about this later.
I get through all of the tests with relative ease. After the tests finish the lot of us gather outside of the building.
"That was hardly fair, how did they expect us to answer those questions?" A boy with black hair and grey eyes, whose name I've come to learn is Tomohito Sugino, questions in defeat.
"Yeah man, that was seriously brutal," Yuma Isogai, a boy sporting dark brown hair and orangy-yellow eyes, adds.
While I didn't have that hard of a time, I could share their sentiment. This test was obviously rigged to keep these students from excelling. Despite being a monstrosity, that octopus would never set his students up to fail. So, who is it that doesn't want these kids to do well? I stand in silent contemplation.
"What are you over here thinking so hard about?" Karma asks, startling me out of my thoughts.
I'll tell you later, I need to speak with that teacher about it first
I show him the whiteboard. He looks at me and for just a second, an expression that I can't read flashes across his face. However, instead of asking any more questions he just gives me a nod. A few hours later school ends and instead of heading out with the rest of the students, I stick behind in class.
"Did you need something, Akari?" The yellow octopus inquires.
I watch the rest of the students leave the classroom before I dare to say a word. After I confirm all of them have exited the classroom I finally say what's been bothering me since the test.
"I need to know what's going on. While I think you're a vile creature, I cannot deny that you're an excellent teacher," I start my voice cracking a bit from lack of use. While it has been quite some time since I've heard it last, it sounds just how I remember it to be. Soft and gentle, slightly deeper than some of my other feminine peers, but still distinctly a woman's voice. "About today's exams, the questions they tested on were beyond what you have yet taught," I continue trying to put my thoughts into words, it's been a while since I've spoken. "Something about this doesn't sit right with me, it's as if someone is trying to keep my classmates from excelling," I finish, feeling slightly better that I was able to express my worries.
"Thank you for sharing your concerns," He says softly while resting a tentacle on my head. "I'm already well aware of what happened today, you don't have to worry. Even if the test results come back and they didn't get in the top fifty, I won't be leaving. It's clear to me now that I was not looking at things the right way." He adds, trying to quell my concerns.
Despite my disdain for him, for some reason, his words put me at ease. I slap his arm away from me.
"I see, I'll take you at your word then," I say as I exit the classroom.
I stride outside and find Karma hasn't left for home yet. Was he….. waiting for me? That thought makes my chest tighten. What the hell is wrong with my chest? Maybe I'm sick. I brush off the feeling without a second thought. As we make the hike down the mountain, he springs the question.
"So what was it that was bothering you earlier?" He inquires, clearly determined to get an answer this time.
The difficulty of the exams was bothering me. Those questions were much higher in level than what our peers were prepared for. The octopus said he was taking care of it, so I'll leave it to him
After taking a moment to read what I had written he seems to be satisfied with my answer. He talks about various things on our journey home and I happily listen. Over the past few days, my mindset has slowly changed from trying to avoid making any friends, to wanting to be closer with my fellow classmates.
A few days later the test results come in. A silence falls over the class as they see the results of the exams.
"Good job you two," The yellow octopus commends as he hands Karma and me our tests back.
I look through the tests. 98/100 on all but one test, with English being 100/100. I wasn't worried about myself in the slightest. I have been tutored in many subjects, with the expectation I would never fail. I go to tuck my tests away in my bag but before I can they are yanked from my hands. The thief, of course, is Karma. After looking through all my test scores he tosses the papers back on my desk, scattering them everywhere. If you wanted to look at my tests you could have asked, and not thrown them everywhere. I think, slightly irritated by his behavior.
"I failed you all. I underestimated the lengths that the principal would go to keep E class down. I truly don't deserve to be called a teacher," The octopus man sulks, his tentacle making squishing noises as it hits the solid wall.
I roll my eyes. He's so dramatic, I even warned him that the results wouldn't be good. I tug on Karma's sleeve and flash the green knife we were given to kill this creature. I then quickly nod my head in the yellow teacher's direction. He smiles, understanding what I was insinuating without me even having to say a word. He grabs his tests and strolls up to the teacher and proceeds to slam his tests on the teacher's desk.
"Your teaching wasn't a complete waste, you should be more worried about not getting killed," Karma declares confidently.
I take that as my cue and throw the green knife at the teacher's large, round, yellow head. He dodges it quite easily but Karma follows up with a couple of swings at him.
"Hey, knock it off you two, I'm trying to have a serious moment!" He shouts in distress while dodging Karma's swings.
I can't help but laugh at the scene I've created. Karma stops his fruitless attacks on the poor yellow teacher as soon as he hears me laugh. Out of the corner of my vision, I see Nagisa and green-haired Kayano, who I've also grown close to over the past couple of weeks, turn to look in my direction. An evil grin spreads across Karma's face and he rushes back over to my seat.
"Awe, look who's all grown up and showing emotions," he coos jokingly while trapping me in a noogy.
The rest of the class laughs at our antics and the mood seems to lighten considerably. The rest of the day continues without incident and a part of me I'd hidden away for years seemed to come out for just a moment.