READ THIS!
No, the ban of ff has not been lifted yet on my country but I'm trying to update the chapters that I already wrote while I can. Again, sadly, no guarantee for future chapters after this one. Review any request/ideas that you have for this story and I'll try to include them and read them while I can.
Nagisa couldn't breathe.
Karma's red eyes were piercing, staring right deep into his own soul and Nagisa felt he was too exposed. But what made his heart stop was the intensity in those eyes, a fierce intensity of anger and hate burning like wild fire.
And everyone knows wild fire burns those who got close.
And Nagisa knew, he would be burned either way.
So he closed his eyes, looked away and didn't answer. But somehow, that was an answer itself because Karma immediately snarled and pulled his right fist back for a punch. Nagisa managed to dodge the first punch but in his haze of anger, Karma didn't realise that Nagisa was moving a little slower than usual, a little more sluggish than normal.
No, he didn't see any of those as he continued to land punches after punches while his target tried to evade them all. Nagisa didn't realise that somehow, they had moved from the middle of the room to the wall behind him. His eyes widened slightly when his back met the wall and knew he couldn't run anymore. From the look of Karma's dark smirk, he knew it too so Nagisa only braced himself for the pain to come as Karma pulled back his fist with an intent to hurt.
Only, somehow, it never did.
Because now stood in between Karma and himself was Asano Gakushu with his mouth set into a hard frown and eyes glaring at the red headed teen in front of him.
"Don't interfere, Asano!" Karma spat out in rage as he glared daggers at the son of the school director. But it didn't faze him in the slightest. Instead, his eyes only hardened and his hand that held Karma's fist tightened to the point that it went white.
"I refuse," Asano spat out.
"I was blackmailed by you, Akabane, to help Shiota-san. And that includes protecting him against you."
Both of their glares met and for a moment, none of them back down. Finally, Karma broke away first as he sneered mockingly and said with a hard tone,
"Since when did you become his knight in shining armour? Or does 'he' prefer me to call 'him' 'her' now?"
At this, he directed his glare at the teen behind Asano. Nagisa looked away and said with a soft voice, "Maybe you should go back, Karma-kun."
His words only further enraged the angry teen but when he saw Asano still standing protectively in front of him, his eyes narrowed before he sharply turned on his heels and stormed out of the room.
Asano stood his guard until he heard the sound of the front door being slammed shut. His tense stance relaxed and without uttering a single word, he too made a move to leave the room. But just as his fingers touched the metal doorknob, Nagisa's voice was heard from behind him,
"Thank you, Asano-kun."
Asano didn't respond and simply left.
Unknown to any of them, a certain yellow octopus was listening to their whole conversation with his skin turning a dark red and a slight dark grin on his usually smiling face.
The usually calm atmosphere on top of the mountain was replaced by the sounds of students grunting and puffing in effort to land a blow with their anti-sensei knives on their PE teacher. Unbeknown to them, their former classmate was watching them from the safety of the shadows in silence. School hours had long since passed but it had become the habit of the residents of Class E to stay back after class to train with Karasuma-sensei.
All of them wanted to polish up their skills, especially as the deadline to assassinate their teacher drew closer. Watching from a far, Nagisa could clearly see the fruit of their hard work. If before Karasuma asked all of them to strike him at the same time, now he asked only two to fight him at one time.
They could actually land hits with their knives now, evident from the small lines of red paint that littered Karasuma-sensei's body from the dripping paint on the tip of their knives. But none could touch his vital organs. He was far too trained to protect himself for them to make a fatal blow.
However, through all of this, Nagisa never did saw the flash of red hair anywhere.
"Nagisa-kun."
Nagisa was broken out of his musings when a familiar voice greeted him from behind.
A familiar voice that he had missed dearly.
An involuntary smile made its way on his face as he turned around to greet the person.
"Korosensei."
He gladly accepted the warm calm presence that always came with being near to Korosensei. His house had long ago lost its homey acceptance, leaving behind a cold silent atmosphere to greet him whenever he came home.
"Nagisa-kun, do you really wanted to change classes?"
The question was sudden but not unexpected. Nagisa didn't even turn his head to face his former teacher as he answered with a neutral tone,
"My answer doesn't matter, Korosensei. We only have four weeks left before graduation but before that, I will kill you and as soon as I do, nothing will tie me to this class ever again."
Korosensei didn't answer but suddenly Nagisa felt his hair behind his neck disappeared, letting a cool breeze lightly teased the exposed skin. Two familiar weights were felt on his head and he realised that Korosensei had tied his hair into their usual twintails in Mach 20.
"If you don't mind, Nagisa-kun, can you wear your hair like this for a while. Sensei miss his student very much," the teacher said with his usual grin on his face.
Nagisa didn't speak but a small nostalgic smile was on his face. It was peaceful as both of them were content of watching Class E training with Karasuma-sensei. A comfortable silence enveloped them and from the corner of his eyes, Korosensei saw the serene expression that he guessed was becoming quite rare these days on his prized assassin.
That's why, he hated the fact that he was the one who had to break the relaxed atmosphere.
"Nagisa-kun, sensei heard your conversation with Asano-kun and Karma-kun yesterday. Nagisa-kun, you do know that what your mother is doing to you is considered abuse and you can be taken away from her custody."
He had to give the boy credit. He didn't show any signs that the sudden topic made him uncomfortable. Instead, the calm expression remained intact. Briefly, he wondered with a tint of sorrow how many times this boy had experience to be able to show not even the hint of his true feelings because he highly doubted that Nagisa wasn't effected by the question as he seemed.
"I think you're mistaken, Korosensei."
An image of a snake coiled around him appeared, the snake slowly but surely trying to squeeze him to the point that he couldn't breathe. But Korosensei didn't panic. He simply evaded the knife with his Mach 20 speed with the grin never faltering.
"I'm afraid that you are no longer my teacher, and I am no longer your student. Now, we are simply target and assassin. You do not have to care about my life, and I do not care about this class," Nagisa said smoothly while trying to stab Korosensei without stopping.
Of course, Korosensei was still an inhuman being with the speed of Mach 20 and he was still the weak Nagisa from before. His attempt was easily stopped when his former teacher caught the knife with a white handkerchief.
"Yesterday, sensei saw Karma-kun and Nagisa-kun fighting."
Gently, he took the knife away from Nagisa and reached out his tentacles towards him. His instinct overcame him and he immediately tried to shy away from the touch but it was futile. Panic seized him when multiple tentacles held his limbs, trapping him in their mercy as another pair gently grabbed the hem of his shirt and slightly pulled them up, exposing his stomach.
His stomach that was far too thin for a boy his age.
"When Nagisa-kun tried to attack sensei, sensei saw your movement getting slower and that's when sensei's suspicion was confirmed. Nagisa-kun, is your mother starving you?" The tone he used was gentle and innocent but the dangerous gleam in his eyes told him otherwise.
A chill ran down from his spine and Nagisa was reminded that the one standing in front of him was the true God of Death, a true assassin who had killed countlessly before. But even with the fear screaming at him to run away in his mind, Nagisa refused to lose.
If he did, then everything would be ruined.
So he only flashed the God of Death an innocent smile, gently breaking free of the tentacles prison when Korosensei finally loosened his grip before he unexpectedly threw an anti-sensei knife at the teacher. Since a human's throw was painfully slow compared to his speed, he managed to effectively dodge it without a problem.
But he was not prepared when Nagisa fired off a few anti-sensei bullets from the gun he had previously strapped on his upper thigh. He barely managed to dodge the incoming bullets but a suddenly explosion of one of his tentacle made him stopped dead in his track.
Behind him, he had unknowingly walked onto a ground with BB pallets scattered all over the place. That was when he realised his student had thrown the knife to distract him so that he won't notice that the bullets were not aimed at him, rather, at the tree behind him. Seeing as the bullet were not made of metal, they simply bounced off from the tree, resulting them being scattered everywhere.
Korosensei didn't know what to think about the situation when he turned around just to be faced with two barrels on guns aiming straight at him at blank point range. He had expected something like this from the devious Karma, never from the innocent and gentle Nagisa.
"I think you still don't understand, sensei. I no longer have any obligations to answer your question, and you have no right trespassing into my home and interrogating me about my life. A target should just die, and do nothing more," Nagisa softly spoke, his bangs casting a shadow over his eyes, creating an illusion of a pair of glowing menacing eyes.
The eyes of a Reaper.
Again, the snake appeared for the second time but instead of the regular snake he saw earlier, Korosensei saw the most terrifying sight seen in a student.
Instead of the normal Nagisa, he saw him with skin the same pattern of a snake, half of his face was covered with the scales of the same design with a single snake that could easily be the size of an anaconda coiled around his body until its head was on his left shoulder from behind, its mouth opened to reveal sharp fangs waiting for its prey and eyes so black similar to an abyss staring straight at Korosensei. A similar pair of fangs adorned Nagisa's own mouth. His hair that was tied earlier had lost its hairbands, letting it flow gently behind him.
Korosensei was not looking at a student, he was looking at a Gorgon.
He had never felt this kind of fear since he left his career as an assassin. And despite having the speed of Mach 20, the fear he felt had frozen him onto the spot.
Never in his wildest dreams did he imagined someone so young could be this horrifying.
"But if you're really worried that much…" Nagisa trailed off and the image disappeared, leaving the normal Nagisa in its place.
"I'm just on a simple diet to get rid of the excessive fat. Maybe I might have taken it a little too extreme but it's not as near as starving myself. My mother has no part of this whatsoever."
The two guns disappeared from in front of his eyes as Nagisa carelessly shrugged.
"I know I won't be able to shoot you because of your speed, so I don't want to waste these bullets."
He turned around and was ready to leave the grounds of his former class but before he did, he left one last message to the homeroom teacher,
"But don't relax yet, Korosensei. Because I will kill you, no matter what."
With the last sound of fading footsteps, Korosensei was left alone, or so Nagisa believed. Behind the shadows of the trees, a silhouette stepped forward towards the standing octopus, letting the orange sundown casting its last dying lights on the figure, revealing a stoic Karasuma-sensei.
"It seems the lack of proper nutrients his age had dulled Nagisa-kun's usually sharp sense. He didn't realise that I was here and the students had been practising by themselves for quite some time now," Karasuma-sensei commented offhandedly but Korosensei didn't miss the hard eyes when he spoke about Nagisa's health.
"An act to throw me off guard from his current well being, using his bloodlust to convince me that he was far from being weak," Korosensei said with his grin slightly smaller than usual.
"That boy is truly gifted in the art of assassination."
They both acknowledged the talent hidden beneath those seemingly innocent smile, yet, none of them had to say anything to know that right in front of their very eyes, that talent that used to shine so brightly before, was slowly fading away until they feared that it would completely disappear.