Disclaimer: I do not own Assassination Classroom.

XXVI.

I was glad when I stood in front of our home's door. Class trips were for sure enjoyable, but I needed quiet and silence before anything else and staying in a room with at least ten different people was anything but quiet.

Letting out a small sigh, I stepped through the doorstep and called out, ''I'm home.''

Immediately, I was answered with a ''Welcome home'' and a hug. While my dad had taken Karma and me from the station, my mom had stayed home to make dinner. Of course, Karma would be coming later too. God knows what the guy would do, simply because he was too lazy to cook himself some food after the whole ordeal.

''Hello, Sayo-chan. How was the trip?'' Crinkling my nose at the name, I looked at my mother's face. My mother would never let that name go. Really... I felt like complaining a bit but held my mouth because this was a lost cause.

''It was very nice. Thank you for all the pocket money.'' I hugged her back briefly, before pulling myself out of her grip and grabbing a packet from my backpack. ''Here. I bought some tea from the brand you two like so much. And there are some Kyoto specialties inside there too.''

''It was no big deal, dear. You know you don't have to get us souvenirs, right?'' Despite her words, she took the offered item and inspected the wrapping.

''I know, kaa-san. But you won't take the money back nor did you want something from Kyoto, so I took the liberty of buying you something.''

''We would never take back the money we have given you,'' my mom answered, looking just slightly scandalized at the thought of doing that.

''I know, that's why I buy souvenirs.'' I grinned wryly at her expression. Parents never changed and I was damn lucky to have such good ones in both lives.

''Come on, Kana. You know how stubborn our girl is. She's your daughter after all.'' My dad came in with the rest of my luggage. Bless him and his strength to carry the damn thing. I hated how much you always had to pack for trips, it was simply too much to be true.

''Oh, be quiet, Yuu. I know you only want to eat cookies again. And how come that she's suddenly just my daughter?'' She narrowed her eyes at him. The man just returned her gaze with a grin and dragged an arm around her.

''She's just as beautiful and bright as her mother. That's what I wanted to say,'' he saved himself gracefully and my mother huffed, somewhat appeased. As much as my father could get my mother calm down, he was sometimes the reason for her do to that in first place.

I laughed at my parents' open show of affection. They were really sweet, and I was only hoping that I could find someone like that in the future. Suddenly, I felt the weight of the years than was upon my shoulder and was I having a midlife crisis?

Because my thoughts were becoming clichéd in more than one way, another cliché had to pop up.

''Am I intruding something?'' A smiling Karma stepped through the door and regarded the scene with an amused expression.

''I don't know, but until those two are done let's go into my room. I'll just get this suitcase upstairs.'' Just when I grabbed the handle of the one side, Karma grabbed the other.

''What, Sayo, vanishing without your knight in the shining armor?'' he mocked me jokingly.

''What knight?'' I shot back just as quickly. ''I only see a pretty princess, trying to be a hero.''

''You are truly a horrible damsel in distress, I must admit that, but I'm surely not a princess.'' Karma struck out his tongue but didn't let go of the suitcase. I rolled my eyes at him.

''Let's just get that thing up.'' I was half-aware that Karma could force me into another conversation about my recent night terrors, but this time I was more ready for that, and I could see that I needed help. While there was no way, that I would go to some kind of therapist, because they would just declare me as crazy, talking to Karma would be better than anything a psychologist could come up with, because I knew Karma and he knew me.

''Did you actually pack your things away? You were back awfully fast,'' I remarked, while stowing my own stuff away. I had enough dignity not to show him my underwear, but he knew surprisingly lot about my wardrobe. Probably better than myself because I had no sense of fashion. None.

He watched me from my bed, before answering.

''Yes, kaa-san. I was just faster than you, slowpoke.'' I threw a brush after him, knowing he would dodge.

''Mom's almost done with dinner. I think we have about fifteen minutes.'' Because I was going to let him decide whether to talk about my freak-outs or not. Though it wasn't going to be solved with just a bit of talk, because I knew I was just suppressing everything, despite being okay with reincarnation. My night terrors were just reflecting everything.

Especially when I just started to remember everything, I knew about Assassination Classroom, and it was just the story that I was living in.

My breathing had accelerated a tiniest bit. Only slightly above average, but Karma apparently had enough reason to worry about something like that.

''Sayo...'' His hand clamped down on my shoulder. ''Let's calm down and talk, yeah? We're skipping dinner.''

Ah... So, we would talk. I took a deep breath and focused my swirling thoughts on Karma. Right, Karma was there, so I couldn't freak out yet. He could help me.

''Yes, let's talk.'' We sat down on my bed, while I searched for one plush animal that I could squish to death.

''So,'' he began. ''You're having night terrors. Several. Without telling me.''

I winced at his cheery expression. Cheery Karma was not a thing that I really liked. It always spelled trouble and often meant he was mad.

''Yes,'' I answered in a small voice. Karma was being tactful in my way. Meaning he was going to bulldoze through everything like I did, because skirting around the issue gave me room to make excuses and run away.

''And you will tell me now, right?'' His grin had vanished, and I relinquished.

''Yeah, so I'm going to tell you why I'm having them because I know why.'' It was not really a progress, because I wasn't telling anything meaningful yet. ''Right, you still remember that reincarnation thing?''

He nodded to show me he did.

''Apparently, I read some manga back then. It was called Ansatsu Kyoshitsu. Funny title, isn't it?'' I let Karma connect the dots on his own because it was damn obvious. ''Anyway, the story is mirroring my life. With a few changed details because I'm not there. You know, it feels like I'm simply taken out of the picture and the story's being told without me. Or I'm just being squeezed in this tale.''

And the thing, that scared me so much lately, surfaced. I buried my head in my hands, while speaking.

''And when I'm sleeping, I forget who I am. I still think I'm a university student, still think I'm 25 and not Sayori. Not your childhood friend, not a member of class E.'' I swallowed, feeling so, so lost. ''I-I'm afraid that one day I won't remember anymore. Each and every time I go to sleep, there's the chance that I'll forget everything. I don't want to forget this life. Not my parents, not our class and especially not you.''

Falling asleep always felt a little bit like dying. This phrase felt appropriate.

It was so cruel of me to say things like that, while knowing that Karma liked – maybe loved – me and I didn't return his feelings. If I were selfless, I would set a clear line, but I clearly wasn't and there was no way that I would let this friendship go. This was unfair of me, but I was a selfish person.

I noticed that I was going around in circles.

A pair of strong arms circled around me, embracing me tightly. My heart stuttered for a moment before continuing like usual.

''Sayo, you're not going to forget everything because I'm not going to let you do that.'' I looked at his stubborn, determined face. Karma looked so serious and for the first time I asked myself when he had grown up so much. ''If it's necessary I'll remind you every day. You are Sayori and I'm not going to let you forget that.''

Any word that I wanted to say was stuck in my throat. I felt so reassured by his words, by his promise and in that moment, it was just him and me and I felt so fucking save, which felt almost impossible.

''Thank you,'' I croaked out hoarsely.

Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for not leaving me. Thank you for everything.

I felt a bit like strangling someone. While I had told Karma about my psychological problems, I had not gotten out a word of the coming events that I remembered. After the redhead had been gone, I had doodled down notes in a mix of all languages that I had even the tiniest inkling of.

The result had been a mind-boggling timeline of events that were unbelievable, dangerous, and very movie-like. I had included any assassination attempt that had gone even a bit well and written down the assassins that had staged them.

Whereas I had known that this class was dangerous and life-threatening, recollecting everything was kind of an eye-opener.

There was a scientist, who had executed human experimentation, a mentally unstable military officer, and an insane assassin, which wasn't the only insane one.

I bit my lip while thinking about that. All of those events required a lot of planning on my side, because there was no guarantee that they would replay in the exact same way as before and technically, we could get seriously injured of not killed.

Of course, I had to hide, burn, or do something with those notes, before some kind of genius found them and decoded everything. Namely the principal and Koro-sensei. Or that scientist. I was sure that he was hailed as a genius too.

I didn't have any technical equipment that was good enough for that nor did I have enough money to buy said equipment.

Someone touched me from behind and everything I could do was freezing up and then lashed out with my elbow, because that's what I have always done, except I didn't, and my head was fucking spinning-

''Hey, Sayori-san! It's just me, Sugino!'' Then he rubbed his arm.

Today was one of the rare occasion that Karma wasn't with me. At least not now, because he was at the supermarket and had told me to go ahead because he had business. Which meant basically, he was planning some kind of genius prank, in which he would only let me in when he was certain that he wasn't going to embarrass himself because the last time went oh so well and I had to drag him bag to his home to get him cleaned.

Yes, I did not want a repeat of that, but walking alone was odder than expected.

''Morning, Sugino. I'm sorry for hitting you,'' I greeted him, apologetic. What the hell was that? Normally, I didn't freak out like that or at least I didn't hit but kicked. It hadn't been the usual thought of 'fight, need to defend' but another like panic and instinct.

''No big deal. I guess I can't blame you for that reaction.'' He smiled at me. ''You hit hard. I think I'm going to bruise.''

''Well, I should feel sorry, but I'll be mean and say suck it up. But then again, I'm a bit sorry.'' I could see Nagisa and Okajima behind him and raised a hand to greet them.

''Such a heartfelt apology. I think I forgive you.'' The baseball player grinned at me.

''Yeah, I know I suck at apologizing. Too much pride and shit.'' But I was apologizing a lot lately, which frustrated me immensely. Something in my brain had flipped and any remains of my past personality, memory or behavior was mixing with my current one.

I didn't think that I would have overreacted that much when I had insulted Karasuma-sensei, nor did I try to kill my classmates like that. It was frustrating to be truthful and very unsettling.

Especially since those two personalities were somewhat different. I suppressed a grimace, because my old self had been a bit of a coward and insecure when I had been younger. There were a lot of traits that didn't sit with me well now, that had been normal first.

''Ah, Sayori, did you hear? We're getting a new transfer student,'' Nagisa asked me, unintentionally saving me from my consuming thoughts. Thankful, I answered him.

''Yeah, I read it in the e-mail he wrote, but do you know specifics?'' I only asked because they probably had from the looks of it. Also, there was something niggling in the back of my mind. A picture of a black box with a girl's face firing with dozens of machine guns.

I hid a grimace at the image. Things were going to get annoying again, just after our class trip. Though I was silently amused at how Karasuma-sensei probably had to have introduce our new classmate to the principal.

''Yeah, I asked Karasuma-sensei for a photo and look!'' Proudly, Okajima held his phone display in front of my eyes. Looking at the picture, a pair of red eyes stared right back at me. The girl on photo had light purple hair, pulled into two long pigtails and her expression was rather flat. A pity, considering that she was almost cute. And also, a supercomputer.

I felt somewhat stupid. Despite having thought about events that were likely going to happen in the future, I hadn't wasted a thought about anything that was going to occur this week.

We would probably never have any normal transfer students. They would either be assassins in disguised or have some kind of other ulterior motive, since transferring a civilian into our class ran into the high risk of exposing our secret, money or not.

''She looks... normal?'' I attempted to please Okajima's eager expression and not to let any of my knowledge for from his deflating posture I decided I had failed in satisfying his curiosity but didn't give anything away. ''You look disappointed, Okajima-san.''

''Yeah... I thought you had maybe more details...''

I did. I just wouldn't tell him anything further.

Schooling my features into some sheepish looking once, I apologized, ''Sorry, Okajima-san.''

''It's okay, Sayori-san,'' he answered, his eyes darting around to search for the person that normally was near me. ''Huh, where is Karma, Sayori-san? Aren't you two usually joined at the hip?''

I grinned wryly at his question.

''He went for some last-minute shopping. That guy was probably just too lazy to pack lunch.'' I would happily make him one, after being asked but since he didn't ask, I didn't make some. It maybe had to do with the fact I would lecture him first before helping him, but I would have a good reason to do so.

''Ah, so you went ahead? Should we wait for him?'' Nagisa chimed in, acting like the polite person his mother had brought him up to be. The truth was, that he was a totally cheeky person.

No, he actually wasn't that cheeky, but I was only thinking stupid thoughts again.

''I don't think we need to.'' I smiled just so that my eyes were closed.

Today was just not my day, though I had those often lately.

While my classmates were gawking at the black box in the back of our classroom, I paused a moment before deciding it wasn't worth it to overreact and sat down on my chair.

Even though the voice coming from the computer gained a reaction from me.

''Good morning,'' a robotic voice greeted us. ''I'm your new classmate. Jiritsu shikō kotei hōdai is my name. Nice to meet you.'' Autonomously Thinking Fixed Intelligence.

I couldn't see her face from my position, but from my classmates faces something unbelievable stupid had happened. Just in the moment when I wanted to make some comment about how her social skill were rusty, Karma stepped into the classroom with something in his hands.

Like the horrible person he was, my childhood friend glanced at the supercomputer, looked at our classmates faces and laughed at them. Still chuckling, his long legs strode (that tall asshole) towards me, and he help out a bag of vegetable chips in front of my nose.

''Hey, guess what was on sale?'' He grinned at me with his probably most boyish grin, and I couldn't help it, but the corner of my lips twitched just a bit.

''Is that your apology for dumping me for shopping?'' I answered instead and snatched the package from his hands.

''Maybe. Am I out of trouble now?''

''Maybe,'' I replied back. ''But if you're continuing to neglect your nutrition, we will have words. And you're going to talk to my mother.''

''Ouch, so cruel. I'm just lucky that your mom loves me.'' He sat down on his seat. ''So, what for a surprise box do we have here?''

''Our new classmate,'' I said with utmost seriousness. ''She's a bit shy, so don't overload her with information. Because it would be really a delight to see her face on the screen again.''

I glanced at the display on the box. No reaction, huh? I guess bad humor didn't affect robots. But it affected everyone else because I could hear several groans. Thoroughly amused, I squashed down the urge to say ''Your expression conduct your love for me''.

I would probably get hit.

''Okay, I forgive you for that and I'll get away with buying store-food for once. Deal?'' Karma sneakily took the chips away again.

''Right. You give me that back and will bring lunch with you again. Then we have a deal.''

''But that's really annoying. And troublesome,'' Karma protested, mostly just to annoy me. I gave him a dry look, my head tilted to the right.

''Dear, either you do that, or you will end up with a bad health. I'm not having any of that today.'' Realizing that I sounded like my mother, I pulled a face. Apparently, the adult hidden inside me appeared when I was in a particularly bad mood. ''If you had asked, I would have done that for you, but-'' I shrugged.

''Wait, I would have gotten lunch from you out of this?'' He looked slightly surprised, then got a sheepish look on his face. ''Is there still a chance for that?''

I deadpanned at him.

''Are you two really going to continue to ignore the pink elephant in the room? Because it's really not funny,'' Maehara's voice interrupted, sounding just a bit confused.

''What for an elephant, Maehara-san? The box there is our new classmate. Done.'' I was just not getting worked up because I was too lazy to spend energy as well as any emotion on the madness that was our life. I couldn't really help but think I was getting too used to this.

So, while Karasuma-sensei was struggling to make the introduction of our new classmate a serious affair, I trying to stick a new plan together. Well, trying to kill our teacher this early was merely testing the waters if I was honest.

We had only a bare amount of that what we could call his weaknesses and while the ones we had were useful in some way; it wasn't exactly enough to stick a thoroughly deadly plan together that would actually work.

Pondering over the detail whether the anti-sensei material was scentless, I took out my knife to inspect it. The normal models were based on normal hunting knives, just more flexible and greener. There were Latin letters inscribed on the side in wide, showing the acronym S.A.A.U.S.O and its meaning underneath.

It was quite useless to print that onto the knifes and even the bullets.

I looked up, only to see Koro-sensei laughing at Karasuma-sensei and in that moment I kinda pitied the ministry agent. He was stuck between being the man who represented us for the government and a teacher of our class. It seemed to be a truly stressful job and I could respect him for that alone.

Maybe our class should get him a present for his birthday or something like that.

It was truly amusing that the government was cheating like that for signing the AI in as a student. Maybe it was a good move, but they should have learned their lesson long ago and done more because there was no way that our teacher wasn't going to find a loophole in this.

I could see this blowing up right in front of her faces because this was not deep enough, too superficially planned. But of course, it blew up in front of us first in our Japanese lesson.

Koro-sensei was just writing on the black board and for once I was paying attention because the literature had been interesting. Since I was staring ahead the noise of something airtight opening, sucking in the surrounding air, and a cracking noise before hundreds of bullets were fired.

''What the-?!''

I was probably the luckiest one in the class and got hit the least by any bullets. Sitting two seats right from it (her?) was a good place not to be shot at. The others weren't so lucky.

Hara and Sugaya were taking the full brunt of her attack and the others in front of them had it no better. The fire lasted for about one minute of a lot of screaming and hiding and it annoyed the hell out of me.

I was not the perfect Japanese girl with all the courteous mannerism and behavior, but it was ingrained to from before and now that affecting your surroundings in a negative way was plain rude and the whole shooting annoying and very stress inducing.

And that was me only after one of those. I really didn't want to know how I would react after the lessons were over.

Of course, immediately after a number of read-out-loud calculations another attack followed, just with more weapons. And to everybody's surprise a bullet hit, splattering Koro-sensei's tentacle, which he had used to deflect a bullet and as a result staining the blackboard with yellow blood and bits.

The severed limp on the blackboard sizzled and what for a biological material corroded when cut off from their sustaining energy source?

I was overcome by a load of inappropriate question for this situation and stopped myself before my thoughts spiraled into a mess that would distract me too much.

She had hit him. Hit him faster than one of us ever had. Just like Karma. Just-

Her guns were interesting to look at. Several shot- and machine guns, which were probably all full-automatic, and not to mention there were more than before.

And our new classmate was so nice to tell us that her whole shooting would heighten her chances to kill Koro-sensei from 0,001% to over 90%.

On our costs.

Yeah, no, that's not happening.

She continued shooting.

Every.

Fucking.

Lesson.

At the end of the day, I was visibly annoyed. So annoyed that Karma very subtlety pushed another bag of snacks in my direction and patted my shoulder.

''Calm down,'' he mouthed at me, staring pointedly at my twitching leg.

I took a deep breath and reached out for the bag. Okay, I could do this. This-

Another round of shots started.

''OH GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!'' I threw up my hands, then grabbed my bag. ''Okay, that's it, you fucking piece of scrap!''

Standing up, I hurled the bag at the AI and hit one of the machine guns with it.

The AI stopped firing and it seemed like the whole class paused for a moment. The tension that had built over the day spiked and waited for the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Well, it seemed to start with me.

''Interruption during firing pattern #106 by flying projectile. Calculating angle. Projectile not from target. Outside influence by student.'' The screen flashed and I could see its (her) face again. ''Please do not interrupt my mission. The probability of killing the target will be lowered by interruptions. Percentage lowered by 0.003%. Compensation by adding more shots to another day. Calculating-''

''Like hell you will, you metal tin. Can your goddamn calculations and listen to me. You're not going to endanger our education by shooting like a madman at Koro-sensei. I could care less that you can save the earth, but if you keep fucking shooting, I will scrap you myself.'' I had started to walk toward the AI and was now almost nose to nose with the screen.

Or under the screen. I cursed my lack of height for the nth time. Why did I always have to be reminded of that at the most inconvenienced times?

I gritted my teeth, willing those thoughts to go away.

Someone touched my shoulder and I spun around to face the possible threat-

Ah, it was only Koro-sensei, his expression turning into a displeased one. I grimaced at that. Being scolded by him was really not my favorite thing. He always tended to exaggerate.

''Sayori-kun, what have I said about violence?'' I could hear him disapproving by the wriggling of his tentacles. Illogical? Yes, but it was true.

''Not to do it?''

''Right, now would you please apologize for throwing your bag at your classmate? That was not really nice.'' Koro-sensei turned to the box. ''And you Jiritsu shikō kotei hōdai should stop shooting in the lessons. You endanger the education of your classmates and Sayori-kun was right in that, even if she shouldn't have told you that so rudely.''

My right eye twitched, while I tried to squash down the need for any violent action. The tentacle was still on my shoulder, warning me that I should calm down or Koro-sensei would do that for me.

So, when the bell rang, I was taking a deep breath, picking up my bag and walked out of the classroom. There was really no way that I was able to hold a civil conversation over those fucking attacks. Sensei had to be satisfied with what I was doing now.

Oh god, I was turning into a fucking diva. What was I? Five? Why the hell was dealing with my temper so difficult? I really ought to have learned that lesson on my last life already.

Frustrated over everything and nothing, I stomped down the trail.

Not my day.

''Hey, Sayo! Wait for me,'' Karma's voice shouted from somewhere behind me. He was casually strolling towards me. At least he looked like he was. His strides were longer than his usual ones, giving away how much he wanted to catch up with me.

''Hurry up, you slowpoke. I will leave you behind,'' I threatened, but there was no heat behind it. It sounded more exhausted than I was and that surprised me.

''How much you wound me. Leaving me behind despite all our hardships? I'm hurt.'' He was finally walking beside me. ''How about a date at Hanare's? I still owe you some desserts.''

I frowned. Nice, another problem of mine is surfacing. I hated that I was giving Karma hope all over again and not acting on it, but I didn't want to do some kind of mistake when I still wasn't sure about him and too selfish to stop. I wanted family, but I would think about it in ten years or so.

''Karma,'' I started, stopping to look clearly at his face. ''I know that you like me, but I'm not interested in dating, and I don't want to give you hope like that. I'll maybe consider doing it in ten years, but not now.''

He gave me a wry smile, that clearly showed he was familiar with this subject. I felt like an asshole.

''I know how you think about it, but I just have to make sure I'm there in ten years when you consider it. Anyway,'' he resumed walking. ''Who else should I ask to date me? Every other girl is dull in comparison to you.''

I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it again, cheeks feeling just a little bit warm. Smooth bastard.

(Well, you like it, don't you?)

I looked at Karma, saw his serious expression and thought, 'Well, he deserves a chances.' Maybe he would be successful.

''Fine,'' I gave in and threw my hands up in exasperation. ''You're a stubborn bastard. I got that. Go on and woo me. Let's see how miserable you will get.''

''Who still says today 'woo me'?'' Karma snorted and took my hand. ''Does that mean I can take you out on dates?''

I didn't deign him an answer. At least my mood had lifted.

The next morning proved to be interesting. Apparently, Koro-sensei had tried to talk sense into the AI in our classroom, but before it (she?) could have acted on it, Terasaka had bandaged her with tape, and we had a quiet day.

The day after was even more interesting. The dear AI got a make-over and a name. Way to go.

A full body display, an advanced voice, the ability to mimic emotions. Also, her eyes had become blue instead of red. I snickered at the science-fiction change.

It was impressed how much you could change a single robot and the part of me that loved to poke and prod at anything new demanded of me to take everything apart and look at it. But I was too inexperienced at engineering and didn't have the means to do so.

Honestly, I was skeptical of that change, since her original programmer could reverse that change easily, but for the time being sensei had found a loophole.

''Sayori-san?'' The newly named 'Ritsu' addressed me at the end of the day. I felt immediately pleased that she had used my first name, since I pretty much insisted everyone in our class doing that.

''Yes, Ritsu-san?'' As long as she would stay civil, I would too. That meant no rapid fire from her and me not bitching.

''I've been meaning to apologize to you, Sayori-san. You seemed to be really the one, who was bothered the most by my constant firing and I'm sorry that I had been so rude.''

To say I was stunned was a bit of an understatement. Of course, sensei had programmed a conscience into her. I bit my lip, trying not to blurt out anything tactless, because I was so fucking good at it.

''Look,'' I tried to begin. ''You don't have to apologize to me especially. Your... assassination attempts bothered the others as much as me. They are just too polite to say anything. I was just rude and overreacted. Don't- Don't just apologize to me but rather everyone.''

I tried to recall anything of the manga that could help with this situation or any background information on Ritsu, but for once my mind was quiet and the memories stayed away.

I couldn't do anything else but treat her as a person of her own and not as a thing.

''Thank you, Sayori-san.'' The smile on her face looked pretty real, too. I wondered how long it would stay like this.

''It's nothing to thank me for.''

When I saw Ritsu back at her original state it was hard not to be disappointed.

She had been nice, while Koro-sensei's programming had been in her system. Pleasant to talk with since she could adjust her language according to the personality and intelligence of the other person.

I hadn't interacted a lot with her, but I had been told once that I sometimes took things to close to my heart. It wasn't as bad as before, but I felt a faint sense of loss at her reprogramming.

''Hey, Karma. Do you think that was it? It's kind of sad.'' In response Karma put his chin on my shoulder.

''Who knows? Maybe Koro-sensei's magic will work once again.'' And he pulled me into a loose hug, sensing my sorrowful mood.

''You're right,'' I whispered and stared at the AI sadly. Dead like all so many.

Sometimes I wished I could just stop my head from turning over possibilities and scenarios. Rationally, I had the background information that Ritsu wasn't going to stay like this and actually become a real member of our class, but doubts stayed doubts.

At the beginning of our class the AI started up with her blank expression, preparing for another attack like the days before.

Instead, the screen went white. Then black.

Confusion was going around in the class. From my seat, I could see that the compartments at her side weren't moving and from my classmates' faces the screen didn't seem to do much more.

I bit my lip and exchanged glances with Karma.

This was... unsettling and not in the script. What had changed?

Ritsu remained unresponsive through the whole morning. Karasuma-sensei had decided that he was going to contact the government and the programmer should she not react until the end of the day. It made me more anxious than anything.

Our lunch break was spent with discussing what was happening.

''Do you think she crashed?'' Sugaya asked and pointed with this drink at the unresponsive box. The atmosphere had been more somber than tense. Nobody had really a clue about anything, but we all couldn't do anything but wait.

''Maybe. It could be that during the removal of sensei make-over some parts were damaged,'' Nakamura answered him nonchalantly, though she kept gazing at the corner.

''That's unlikely. If she were damaged in any way, they would have taken her with them,'' Kobayashi piped in.

Maybe she was reprogramming herself, I thought silently but didn't contribute anything. False hope was crueler than no hope at all.

''Then how about we each of us write her a post-it, so that she can look at them and come back again?'' Kayano suggested to lighten the atmosphere.

''What would that archive, runt? It's just a robot. Nothing will change from that.'' Terasaka was blunt as always, but maybe he was right. His words seemed to take effect in a few of us, leading to some putting their head down.

I hesitated for a moment, but -

''Let's do it anyway,'' the words left my mouth before I could regret them. ''It's better than doing nothing at all.''

Soon 28, including sensei, little, colorful post-its were sticking on Ritsu, but there was still no reaction.

In the last lesson of the day no one hoped for a miracle anymore. The AI hadn't responded to anything yet. Talking, singing or even the extreme case of me making bad puns (''Hey, I'm shocked that you aren't talking to us. You should get whatever it is out of your system soon.'') It was quite depressing.

What else had I changed?

I was listening to sensei talking about parabolas just for the fun of it and to distract me – Math was always the same. Really – when I heard faint rumbling from beside me.

Well, about damn time.

It was sappy, idiotic, and clichéd, but Ritsu was back online and seemed not only to be the version that had been made by Koro-sensei but she held flowers in her arms.

''I am very sorry for worrying every one of you, but I promise this won't happen again.'' And then she launched a whole speech about being rebellious and understanding the worth of teamwork.

I didn't really see the use behind everything, but she had been reprogramming herself the whole time and downloaded useful information about us and our abilities, so that it had taken a long time. Something about the reception in our classroom.

I wasn't even aware that our building had Wi-Fi.

''Well, Ritsu-kun. It's good to have you back and welcome to class E once again.'' Sensei's face gained green stripes, though there was something relieved in it. ''Maybe you will have more luck now in killing me. All of you, make sure to make our wonderful Ritsu an ally. She is really a true assassin like all of you.''

Maybe she was maybe she wasn't. I was more ecstatic that she had even come back, and I was sure now that she was definitely more than just a simple robot.

''Nice to have you back, Ritsu-san.''

''I'm glad to be here.''

Okay, I'm not sorry for this chapter nor for the crappy plot. I finally got this out of my system and bah! Seriously, RL is a bitch and my class is breaking apart. During the last weeks.

Okay, back to the story. I'm trying to diverge from the canon and changing things. Complain to me if it's crappy. I need opinions.

So, my beta isn't contacting me, so this is not beta'd. I proofread but my grammar's horrible.

A question that's bothering me: Do you expect me to reply to your reviews? I'm serious. I don't know whether I should or not.

I'm also writing some one-shot about Karma and Asano switching bodies.

Thanks for reading, fav'ing and following. Reviews are really the best, so thank you.

-Yuki