Sorry this is so late! Thank you for all the reviews and support, they kept me motivated to continue this through writer's block :)
"Nagisa! I don't believe it you're actually alive!" Nakamura cried, pulling Nagisa into a tight hug.
"He wont be for much longer if you keep suffocating him like that." Sugino said, but there was a wide relieved grin on his face. He kept looking at Nagisa like he wasn't sure he was real. "It's good to have you back, man, we were worried!"
Nagisa smiled at him- he really had missed these guys.
It was lunch break at 'school' (if you could even call this farce that). As soon as the yellow being of mass destruction left the classroom, Nagisa's old friends had pounced on him.
"How did you escape the vampire?" Rio questioned.
"Did you kill him?" Sugino asked.
"No- they would of announced it if the Red Devil had been killed." Isogai said, walking over. He ruffled Nagisa's hair. "Don't feel pressured into telling us about your ordeal if you don't want to."
"Really, it wasn't like that." Nagisa tried to say, he struggled to think of how to describe it to make them understand that the Vampires aren't always the bad guys. But they were like he was a few weeks ago, thinking 'Vampires are Evil, Hunters are good'. As if the world was all black and white.
It didn't make it any easier that everyone, even the people who weren't his friends, were listening intently to what he was saying. The room was deadly silent apart from their voices. Everyone was inclined towards him, watching him intently.
They all wanted to know what Vampire boy had to say.
Their faces were filled with either pity or scorn. Terasaka was nearly outright sneering at him.
"Excuse me, were you really kidnapped by a vampire?" Nagisa turned around to see a tiny green haired girl he didn't recognise. She looked up at him with with wide golden eyes. She looked a few years younger than the rest of the class.
"Ah- sorry, my name is Kaede Kayano, I just moved into this village. I'm meant to be in first year, but my hunting skills were so poor my teacher said I might as well be sent here."
"I- I'm sorry to hear that." Nagisa said, surprised. Teachers could throw students into E class during any stage of the academy, but it was usually only done at the end of the penultimate year. Kicking them out before was just excessively cruel, even by this academy's standards.
"Alright, cut the chitchat," Terasaka said, suddenly, his chair clattering to the floor as he stood up and made his way over to Nagisa, a threatening aura about him. He towered over the blue haired boy. "Lets not pretend otherwise- We all wanna know what happened. What was the red devil like? What did he make you do? Gory details, n' all!"
"Terasaka, leave him be!" Isogai scolded, trying to tug the brute of a boy away from Nagisa. But he was like a boulder that didn't budge.
"It's fine." The blue haired hunter said, looking up at Terasaka with strangely calm blue eyes- This guy wasn't as scary as Asano and definitely not as terrifying as the demon dogs. Nagisa could deal with this. "What happened was, the Red Devil- no, Karma, saved me. And he's trying to save all of us."
The class looked at him silently, dumbfounded, as if trying to work out if he was joking or not.
The blue haired boy continued.
"This academy has been using people, specifically those deemed 'worthless' in E class as experiments." He said, desperation seeping into his voice. He wanted to get them to understand, but he felt like he was yelling at a brick wall; They were all completely closed off to him.
"Nagisa... that's... " Isogai started to say, even he looked disbelieving. His eyes were full of pity.
"That's complete bullshit!" Terasaka declared, other members of the class nodded in agreement. "The squirt's been completely brain-washed by that Vampire. His mind must be as weak as his body."
"Don't be a jerk!" Kayano snapped at him. Nagisa sighed and looked the other way- he felt isolated, nobody believed him and they all thought he was crazy. Once again he was helpless to do anything.
Suddenly, there was a sound like a whip cracking, and the yellow octopus burst back into the classroom.
"Helloo boys and girls, I'm back!"
There was a mixture of groans and greetings from the class, who all shuffled back too their seats. Why would a monster be masquerading as a teacher anyway? Was he trying to collect their souls or something? It made no sense.
At the end of the day, Nagisa got up to leave. School was exhausting, but he had to admit he had learned quite a lot; Geography, History, Literacy. Things that weren't normally taught to kids after they turned eleven and entered the hunter's academy. But the yellow monster wanted them to have a 'second blade', so to speak.
"There's a whole world outside this village!" He told them.
"There wont be if you blow it up." Rio retorted.
A world outside of hunting. Nagisa had never really thought of it. He stepped outside the ramshackle building a little behind the other kids- Isogai, Nakamura and Sugino had been hovering over him a lot throughout the day, they seemed strangely protective. The blue haired boy wasn't complaining, it was nice that they cared about him, but if he wanted to find a way to sneak off and find Karma he had to loose them.
Despite everything though, Nagisa couldn't help but be a dissapointed in himself that he'd been put into E class. He had known for a while that he'd be put into E-class, but despite everything he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He's grown up seeing how E class students were stigmatised and outcasted. The negative associations were drilled into him at this point.
The hunter's academy took on pupils from the ages of 11-16. The lowest scoring pupils in their fourth year, were placed in E-class during the last trimester of the second-to-last school year.
It was called the 'trial period'. If the E class students managed to score within the top fifty pupils during the final hunting examination, then they could return to the main academy for the final year of school.
Of course, the E class pupils had such poor resources and trainers so most years went by without a single pupil escaping. Instead, they were doomed to spend their final year as outcasts, and once they graduated, they'd forever be marked as an inferior hunter, forced to do the most undesirable missions.
E-class served as a reminder for hunters of the consequences of failure.
"Hey. Pipsqueak." A gruff voice called out, breaking Nagisa from his train of thought. Blue eyes flicked over to see the Larger boy leaning against the side of the building, flanked by his two cronies Murmatsu and Yoshida.
Are they going to try terrorise me again? The blue haired hunter wondered, looking up at him. The guy was bigger than both Asano and Karma, but Nagisa didn't want to seem intimidated.
"Yeah?"
"You know we get a billion coin reward if we kill that monster, right?" The brute said, a greedy grin spreading across his face that was mirrored by his two cronies. "We have a plan. But we've decided to be nice and let you in on it." he put an arm around Nagisa as if they were buddies. The smaller boy cringed away. The look in his green eyes instantly set Nagisa on edge- This guy had bad intentions of some sort, he was sure of it.
"What is it?" He asked warily. "If it's something you don't want to do yourself it must be dangerous, right?"
Murmatsu and Yoshida chuckled.
"You heard what the octopus said; The whole plant's on the line here- you aren't willing to put yourself in a little danger for the sake of the whole world?" Tersaka grunted. Even though he knew he was being manipulated, Nagisa couldn't help the reflex of guilt. "Show a little self-sacrafice. I thought you was sayin' before you wanted to save everyone."
"I don't know.." Nagisa said, shying away from the bully. He would
put his life on the line to save others, but the blue haired boy wasn't sure he could trust any plan of Terasaka's.
The bully handed Nagisa something heavy and metal. "C'mon, at least allow me to explain the details..."
After Terasaka explained his plan, Nagisa left, a heavy weight around his neck. He wasn't sure what to do, exactly.
I'll talk it over with Karma at the place he promised to meet me after school.
He'll know what to do.
Just thinking about the flame-haired vampire made Nagisa feel more at ease. He would know exactly what course to take.
He walked to the edge of the forrest, which was currently bathed in a brilliant orange-gold from the sunset, and sat atop the stump of a large tree and waited..
And waited...
And waited...
The warm sunset colours melted away into a dark and icy evening. Frost started to coat the tops of leaves, and a fridged wind made Nagisa shiver. He was starting to feel abandoned, his earlier feelings of hope ebbing away.
A dark figure approached him. Instinctively, the blue haired boy stood up, a smile on his face "Karma- "
"It's dangerous to be out here this late." A voice that wasn't the Vampire's interrupted. It was Mr Karasuma, the Government official.
Nagisa looked at him, surprised slightly. He didn't know much about this guy but he seemed to exude professionalism and authority. "It's almost night time. I suggest you leave. We have informed your mother of your return and she is waiting for you."
The blue haired boy felt a flicker of fear at the mention of his mother. And even if he was hours late, Nagisa still wanted to wait for Karma. But with a Government official surveilling him now, it wouldn't be safe for him to meet the vampire.
"Okay." The Blue haired hunter complied, standing up reluctantly.
"Good choice." Karasuma said, fixing him a look with his coal black eyes.
Nagisa could hear his heart battering against his chest as he walked up to the door; How was it that he was just as terrified now as when he was confronting Asano?
His mother may only be a average middle-aged woman that Nagisa could likely beat in a fight right now, but in front of her he felt like the helpless child he used to be, weak and completely at her mercy.
Taking in a gulp of air and stealing his nerves, he unlocked the door and stepped through.
"Mother... I'm home." He said. He felt the fear grip his throat with icy hands, his voice came out weak and croaky.
"Nagisa!" His mother cried out; She had been waiting in the little sitting room by the door, tears grew in her eyes when she saw him. "That Government official said you'd be coming home! Oh! I missed you!"
She dived forwards and caught her son in a bone-crunching hug before he could do anything her shoulder, Nagisa could see the house was immaculately tidy, the scent of disinfectant hung in the air, there wasn't a single item out of was a bad sign. The more stressed his mother was, the more time she devoted to in her embrace, Nagisa almost gagged on the overwhelming smell of her perfume, and he could see her hair was thinning from over-washing.
He expected it when she suddenly pushed him away harshly, her expression no longer teary, but rather, a mask of rage.
"What were you thinking! Making your hard-working mother worry like that!" She screeched, no trace of the tender woman from seconds earlier. She grabbed a fistful of Nagisa's blue hair. "I do EVERYTHING for you! And this is how you repay me!?"
I have to calm her down.
"Mother, I'm sorry, I didn't- " Nagisa started, but was cut off when Hiromi started dragging him down the hall. He had learned how to subside his mother's rages, but nothing would appease her this time.
"Ungrateful little brat! Disobeying me and letting a vampire take you! What were you thinking!?" She ranted, as she dragged Nagisa by the hair down to the bathroom. "You could of been killed! You would of left me all alone after all I've done for you! You stupid child!"
The blue haired boy had no choice but to withstand the assault.
"I'm sorry." He gasped out again. Then realised his mother was holding him over the bath, which was filled to the brim with water. The stench of disinfectant coming from it was overpowering, making Nagisa dizzy as his mother held his head over it.
"I'm going to teach you a lesson. Let's see if this can clean your filthy soul, Nagisa." His mother hissed harshly in her son's ear, her grip on his hair tightening. All of a sudden, the blue haired boy realised exactly what Hiromi intended to do.
I could easily throw her off me. If it came to a physical fight, I know I could win.
The thoughts ran through the boy's head desperately, but his body refused to move as if he was genetically programmed to defer to his mother.
He surrendered himself to his fate, as his mother pulled him to the floor, then shoved his head under the water.
"I'm glad you've learned your lesson, Nagisa. You're just a hopeless child who doesn't know what he's doing. Don't worry, I'll always be here to guide you." His mother crooned, she smoothed his hair back as the blue haired boy lay in bed.
His eyes were still blood-shot and stinging after his punishment, and his body felt weak and exhausted. The now-sickening smell of disinfectant still hung in the air, making the boy's head reel.
"My poor little Nagisa. You must be so tired, aren't you?" Hiromi simpered. She was always like this; After a punishment she would turn into a loving but smothering mother, and dote over her child.
As soon as she finished repeatedly dunking Nagisa's head in the bath until he was on the verge of passing out, a switch was flicked, and she became a caring parent. She lead Nagisa to his room and helped him change into his bed clothes (a female night gown, he was too exhausted to protest.) and tied his hair down in bows.
She had always wanted a daughter. Yet another expectation of her's Nagisa couldn't reach.
"Well, good night, my sweet daughter." Hiromi said, Nagisa felt a rush of relief when she got up to leave.
"Good night mother." He replied obediently. Lying in bed wearing the night gown he despised, unable to stand up to his mother, Nagisa felt pathetic.
For a while, when he had been with Karma, Nagisa had started to feel as if did have power, as if his life was worth something, and he had the potential to do great things.
But now, he saw himself for what he really was; Worthless.
He thought about Terasaka's words earlier in the day; He was right. Sacrificing himself for the greater good was the only way Nagisa's life. could have any meaning.
The next day, class seemed to pass in a blur. Nagisa was shocked by how calm he could act when his pulse was racing, palms sweating, and his mind reeling with the possibilities of what could happen.
He could be badly burned at best, killed at worst.
But he couldn't prioritise his safety over the safety of the world.
The grenade felt cold and icy against his skin, a heavy weight against his chest like a tumour around his heart.
He had to do this.
Had to.
Had to.
Despite his fear, the blue haired boy managed to keep his wits about him, and continued to observe the lesson, looking for an opening.
"Any questions?" The yellow super-being asked, after explaining something about the maths lesson they were doing today; It was addition.
Kayano, the tiny green haired girl, raised her hand.
"Sensei, I have a question!" She called out, waving a hand in the air. She smiled when he turned to her. "What's your name?"
The being faltered. "Ah!? Well.. Uh.. That's." He stumbled over his words- So even super-beings got flustered. "My name isn't just something you tell people easily... Maybe you could think of a name?"
This was it- He was distracted - Now was Nagisa's chance.
The blue haired boy stood up out of his desk, a neutral expression on his face.
"Oh. Do you perhaps have a question, Nagisa?" The creature asked. The hunter didn't answer, he just calmly walked over to the octopus, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, and grabbed him around the neck, thrusting his weight forward so that the both of them fell back.
This was it.
He'd blow up both himself and the superbeing in the process.
He'd finally do something.
Nagisa couldn't help the bittersweet smile that came to his face, as a loud explosion filled his ears, and everything went black.
I'm sorry! I know I'm a bad author! First I take about twenty years to update, then this chapter is full of angst, Nagisa is getting bullied and abused, and Karma has mysteriuosly dissapeared (to be explained next chapter).
Also, sorry this mirrors the anime so closely, I promise the rest of the story isn't going to be like this, this was just my lazy way of introducing Koro-Sensei.
Review for more!