A/N: Chapter 2 is up! I am really into this. Akabane Karma is bae omg.

"Did you find it, Yukiko?" I asked, watching on with Kayano as the noirette rifled through her school bag.

"I'm certain I put it in my bag, but I just can't find it anywhere," Dispiritedly, she accepted the dictionary-like guide book that Koro-Sensei offered her, zipping up her bag and cradling the huge tome in both hands. "I think it must have fallen out."

"Are we really gonna have to carry those things?" Kayano whispered, voicing my inner thoughts and staring in horror at the large volume, her eyes as round as saucers.

"One should be enough, no?" I asked lightly, patting Koro-Sensei's limp tentacle in consolation. "We'll take turns to carry that one."

He was a sickly shade of grey, as compared to his normal poisonous yellow, and it worried me – though Koro-Sensei's reflexes were as sharp as ever, dodging the knife that I aimed at him. Riding the bullet train had really taken a toll on him. Well, that made two of us, I thought grimly, as our little group left Koro-Sensei at the hotel and proceeded to go 'sight-seeing'. I'd sat with Karma on the train ride to Kyoto, and he'd tortured me endlessly the whole way there. It had been too late to change seats, and Karma's teasing had left me exhausted ( not to mention desperate for the train to stop ).

"Ne, ne, Aina, want a drink?"

With an innocent smile, Karma offers me his water bottle, and I accept it gratefully, looking up from my notes to take a swig of the contents. I'd been studying for the past one hour, and having a break couldn't hurt. Thanks to Koro-Sensei's notes, I was now able to talk rather fluently with my new classmates, and my Japanese marks had shot up. Despite his monstrous appearance, the guy was an excellent teacher, much better than my last one had been.

"Ah, thank you Karma – BLEARGH!" My bright smile melts away the instant I taste the noxious liquid, and I choke and gag, but manage to swallow, fire scorching its way down my throat. "What the hell was that stuff?!"

"Horse jizz~!"

"Excuse me?!"

"That's what it's called on the Internet, but it's actually beer and milk! Tasty, isn't it?" With another smile, his eyes twinkling mischievously, Karma grabs the canister before I can chuck it out the window, snickering at the outrage that is as plain as day on my face. "Want to try some more?"

"NO!"

"Remind me never to sit with that devil again . . ." I muttered under my breath, glowering at said boy, who looked like a cat that had gotten the cream, sauntering along beside me without a care in the world. "Pezzo di merda . . ."

"How mean! Calling me a piece of shit!" Feigning hurt, Karma dramatically clasped at his chest, milking it for all he was worth.

"How'd you know what that means?" I queried, blatantly ignoring his antics with a snide roll of my chocolate brown eyes. "Last I checked, you didn't speak Italian."

"I asked Koro-Sensei to teach me Italian! Since you were always muttering some suspicious stuff under your breath, I wanted to know if I was being cursed!"

"I'm not a witch! Geez!"

Looking aside with a pout as Karma started cracking up, my eyes roved over the cobbled walkway, past the red-roofed shops and wooden clapboards. I stared with undisguised interest, pulling out my camera to snap a few pictures – both of the scenery and of my friends, who laughed and posed when they caught me snapping pictures of them. I'd never been to Kyoto before, and even though we were here on business ( of sorts ), I couldn't resist acting like a tourist for a few seconds. Mother would be happy to see the pictures, and she'd be even happier to know that I had settled into life at Class 3E.

"This place is deserted. It's kind of creepy."

Hugging my bag to my chest, I kept pace with Karma. Yukiko, Manami and Kayano were chattering up on ahead, with Nagisa and Sugino in the center. Karma and I brought up the rear, talking in low tones as we strolled down the empty streets. It was a weekday, but even so, there wasn't a single person here, which set me on edge and sent a chill racing down my spine.

"Scared, Aina?" Karma taunted, laughing when I glared. "But they're really into it, huh – Hey, doesn't that say Sayamoto Ryoma?"

"Uh – If you say so." I consulted the Koro-Sensei guidebook, nodding in affirmation. "Yeah, the 1867 Ryoma Assassination took place at this spot."

My Japanese ( and many other things ), as Koro-Sensei was so fond of pointing out, still needed work. Paging through the guidebook ( and wrinkling my nose at the awful octopus drawings, which dotted nearly Every. Single. Page ), I started reading about the route we'd taken. We'd started off near the Sanjusangendo Temple, but apparently, if we kept walking to Ohara, we'd be able to soak up a bit of the city's blood-stained past. ( That smiley octopus at the bottom of the page seemed incredibly inappropriate. )

"Kyoto might look peaceful, but this place has seen so many assassinations. There was the Kinmon Incident, the Severed Head Incident -"

"Severed head Incident?" Nagisa echoed uncertainly, blanching when I pointed out that particular bit of history on the book's page.

" – Which is kind of ironic if you think about it right? Since we might be able to get Koro-Sensei in a place like this - "

"Okay! Next is Yasaka Shrine!" Kayano pumped her fist into the air, nearly giving Manami, who was standing nearby, a black eye.

"Ehh . . . Enough already. Can't we take a break? I want to drink Kyoto's sugary sweet coffee."

At his plea, I twisted round to look at Karma, who hung back slightly, dragging his feet. He'd been so quiet I'd thought he'd been plotting something ( maybe he'd been thinking up new recipes for Karma Juice ), but it turned out that even Karma got tired, and I offered him a sympathetic smile. A grid of torn muscle fibers, swollen and blotchy at the microscopic level, came to mind. If we were lucky, only a single-digit percentage of the cells in our arms, legs and torso would end up like that tomorrow. Sometimes, I wished anatomy class had been less graphic.

"Well . . . I know a good store!" I piped up, pressing my bottle of ( real ) mineral water into Karma's hand. "My older brother said their coffee was the best he'd ever tasted! The owner'll give us a discount, so if you want to take a break, I could take you there."

Karma's eyes lit up ( he must have been really tired ), as though he'd just discovered the lost city of Atlantis. Still, he took a gulp of water before handing it back to me. The cap hadn't been screwed on tightly, and a few droplets landed on my outstretched palm. With a sigh, and a flick of my wrist, I readjusted the cap, taking the chance to take a sip of my drink before I shoved the closed bottle back into my bag. The conversation around me seemed to have stopped, and I looked up with a scowl.

"What?" I demanded, upon feeling three females ogling at me. Manami's eyes were wide, Yukiko seemed rather giggly, and Kayano's face was flushed a pale shade of pink. The boys, however, seemed just as puzzled as I felt, and Karma arched an eyebrow. "Is there something on my face?"

"Well, Aina, wasn't that an -"

Before Kayano could finish her sentence, she broke off abruptly, nearly tripping over her own two feet as she struggled to avoid colliding with the trio of burly students, who had swaggered down the pathway, lecherous smiles plastered on their faces.

Then someone grabbed me from behind.

I started to scream, but a hand clapped over my mouth. It smelled like soap and it was big enough to cover the lower half of my face. I thrashed, but the arms holding me were too strong. Change of plans. I clamped my canines onto the hand, which snapped back. Curses echoed around us as I elbowed myself free, crumpling to a sitting position on the floor.

"Ow!" A rough voice cried, right before I was yanked up by the hair, a death grip reestablished around my neck once more.

"Shut up and keep her mouth covered. The boss won't notice if one goes missing."

A strip of dark cloth covered my eyes, and a new pair of hands tied it at the back of my head. I struggled to breathe. There were at least two hands on my arms, dragging me forward, and one on my back, shoving me in the same direction, and one on my mouth, keeping my screams in. Three people. My chest throbbed. I couldn't resist three people on my own.

"Nagisa, Karma, they're taking the girls away! We have to -"

There was a muffled exclamation of pain, and Sugino's voice died out abruptly. Karma and Nagisa were yelling, but there was a sharp smack as something heavy hit the ground. And Karma's voice faded away too. I redoubled my efforts to escape, twisting and writhing frantically as my heart took off like a frightened baby bird's.

"Mmph!"

The sharp squeal of tires and the acrid smell of exhaust fumes told me a car had arrived. The color ( what was left of it anyway ) drained from my face as I realized the implications of what would happen. These punks weren't content with ruining our vacation and picking a fight with our friends. No, we were in for something worse. I thrashed, and their rough skin grated against mine, but I knew it was useless.

"Geez, shut her up already!"

He raised his hand and slapped me harder than I had ever been hit before. Everything went white, and my ear started ringing. My neck ached from the force of his hit, and my jaw screamed painfully.

"Knock her out, idiot! Not rough her up! I want her face intact!"

"You do it yourself, then!"

Before I could respond, a meaty fist collided with the back of my neck, and I landed hard on the ground. The impact jarred my bones, and I tasted iron in the blood trickling into my mouth. I heard Kayano scream just once before I blacked out.