Date Assignment

Chapter 1

It was an ordinary day on the mountain located near the Kunugioka Junior High School. A weasel scurried out of the bushes and headed for the small river. After reaching the river's edge it began drinking leisurely.

However, the refreshing moment didn't last long. The weasel had just risen its head in alert when it immediately rushed into hiding as Karasuma and the students of Class E ran out of the woods.

"Hurry up!" Karasuma shouted to his students as he leaped across the river. "It's almost like you're letting me escape!"

Just then two students, Sugino and Okano, rushed from the sides towards Karasuma. Both of them were holding an Anti-Sensei knife with blade painted with yellow paint in their hands that they aimed at their teacher. But Karasuma just stopped for a moment to grab their wrists, twisted them and shoved the students behind him, causing them to collide with Kataoka and Maehara. Karasuma continued forward, without a drop of paint on his clothes.

"Are you alright?" Isogai asked as he, Kayano, Hara and Nagisa stopped next to their classmates who were grimacing in pain while rest of their classmates continued chasing Karasuma.

"Everything is okay," Sugino answered after he had stopped rubbing his forehead he had hit when colliding with Maehara.

Okano, Kataoka and Maehara assured too that they were fine, so without further delay they went after others.

However, Kataoka stopped when she noticed that her shoelaces were open, so she knelt on the ground to tie them while her classmates continued running.

Nagisa and others had run for a while when Isogai suddenly stopped and glanced around quickly. "Hey! Where's Kataoka?" he asked from others, making them to stop and turn their attention to him.

"That's strange. I wonder what has made her fall behind?" Okano noted with surprised expression.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Maehara assured confidently. "Let's continue or Mr. Karasuma will scold us."

Just when they were going to continue forward, students heard an exclamation. Startled, they turned their heads in the direction of the sound.

"Was that-?" Nagisa started to voice the question everybody had in their minds.

"Kataoka!" Isogai gasped before he ran in the direction they had come from.

It didn't take long for Isogai to get to there. When he heard sounds in front of him, Isogai stopped running and sneaked closer, using the forest as a cover. When you were a student of the assassination class, you'll never know what was going on beforehand.

Isogai learned the reason behind the commotion after he had got close enough to see Kataoka hanging upside down from a branch. She had bent her upper body forward in order to reach a snare tightened around her ankle with her hand. Although Kataoka's situation was unpleasant, Isogai was relieved that it wasn't as bad as he had feared.

"Kataoka," Isogai addressed her as he stepped out of the cover of the trees.

Isogai's voice startled Kataoka so that her upper body flopped down. When she saw her fellow class representative approaching, Kataoka exclaimed quickly: "I'm alright!"

"Are you sure? You aren't feeling pain in your ankle?" Isogai asked.

"Yes. I'm okay," Kataoka informed sharply while she tried to bent again in order to get the snare removed. In her mind she scolded herself for her tone but Kataoka didn't want Isogai see how red her face was with embarrassment.

"Let me help you," Isogai offered as he positioned himself below Kataoka.

"I'll be fine, thank you," Kataoka assured when her fingertips finally got a grip on the snare. "Now move aside, please-"

Just then the branch where Kataoka was hanging broke with a snap. Kataoka exclaimed as the gravity did its job and she fell on Isogai, causing both of them to fall on the ground.

For a moment the class representatives were just laying on the ground until Kataoka got carefully up on her hands. "Ow… Sorry about this," she groaned.

"I-It's alright…" Isogai answered as he tried to get up on his elbows, only to stop suddenly when he almost hit Kataoka's face with his own.

Then there was very quiet. Neither of them could say anything as they stared at each other's blushing faces that were only inches apart. Isogai swallowed nervously. Kataoka seemed like she didn't know if she should move away or do something else.

"Finally," somebody gasped aloud.

Kataoka and Isogai flinched and turned their gaze quickly in the direction of the voice to see their classmates standing a short distance away from them. Maehara and Okano were smiling eagerly while Kayano and Hara seemed excited. Nagisa and Sugino's small smile was apologizing but it also said 'I knew it'.

But the worst thing was that Korosensei was standing nearby, his face completely pink, and writing notes in his notebook.

Class E representatives scrambled to their feet with even redder faces. Isogai avoided looking at others while Kataoka grabbed her knife from her pocket and glared at the octopus-like teacher who put her notebook in his robes with innocent smile.

Nagisa and others stepped out of the bushes and walked to Kataoka and Isogai.

"Are you two okay? No broken bones or anything?" Hara asked.

"I'm okay," Isogai told quietly.

Kataoka stared sternly at Korosensei for a moment before she lowered her knife with sigh. "I'm alright too. I'll probably just get some bruises," Kataoka answered. She put her knife back in the pocket and glanced at Isogai from the corner of her eye. Isogai looked awkward as he stood a little farther away from them while grinning Maehara was patting his shoulder.

Suddenly they heard approaching running steps and soon Karma, Okuda, Nakamura, Mimura, Okajima, Yada, Takebayashi and Kurahashi arrived.

"Here you are," Karma stated as he stopped in front of Nagisa and Sugino. "What did we miss?"

Nagisa smiled awkwardly as he tried to think what to say. "Well-"

"Just a romantic moment between Isogai and Kataoka," Korosensei told cheerfully, causing the said students blush again.

"What?!" Okajima, Okuda, Yada and Kurahashi gasped.

"For real?" Mimura asked as he and Takebayashi stared at Kataoka and Isogai.

Karma just rose his eyebrows slightly with a hint of amusement in his expression.

"No way! I completely missed our class representatives' passionate moment," Nakamura sighed in disappointment.

"Nothing like that happened!" Kataoka and Isogai shouted.

Isogai then began explaining quickly: "Kataoka was caught in a trap. I tried to help her but the branch broke and she fell on me because I was standing below her."

"Oh, a classic scene. Girl gets into trouble, boy tries to help and they end up sharing a romantic moment," Korosensei sighed dreamily.

Isogai covered his face with his hand while Kataoka glared at their homeroom teacher again. "Korosensei. I swear-"

"What's going on here?"

Karasuma approached them with the rest of Class E students. After stopping he gave a stern look to the students standing in front of him.

"What are you doing here? There is still half of the class left and none of you has managed to hit my vital spots yet," Karasuma snapped as he pointed his thumb at one of those white markings on his clothes that marked the vital spots.

"We're sorry, Mr. Karasuma," Kurahashi apologized. "We noticed that some of our classmates weren't following us, so we went to look for them. Kataoka was caught in one of our traps."

The special agent's stern expression relented a little bit. "I see," he stated before turning his attention at the female class representative. "Are you alright, Kataoka?"

"Everything is alright, Mr. Karasuma. I can continue the class," Kataoka assured.

"Good. But if you feel any pain, then stop running and let somebody know so we can take you back to school for treatment," Karasuma instructed. After he got a nod in response from Kataoka, Karasuma turned to face other students. "The class continues now!" he announced.

"Yes, Mr. Karasuma!"

Kataoka knelt on the ground to open the snare's knot while her classmates continued chasing Karasuma. Both of class representatives were hoping in their minds that the embarrassing moment between them would be forgotten.

Unfortunately their homeroom teacher was Korosensei. After Kataoka had gone to follow her classmates, the octopus-like supercreature began chuckling to himself.

To be continue...