13

Nagisa knocked on the door. He heard a quick clutter from the inside of the teacher's lounge.

"Uh Sensei?" He stared at the wood grain on the solid door confused.

"Yes!" The octopus stammered.

Nagisa began to open the door to behold a crazy Koro Sensei, speedy tentacles flying every direction slamming papers in drawers inside the office part of the teacher's lounge. His head green and sweaty, obviously completely startled.

Just before he had been reading a girly magazine, a nude, and he didn't want Nagisa knowing that! He didn't want to be caught! Red-handed!

Nagisa quickly pulled out a gun and swiftly turned in the doorway, sensei's black robe swishing around, and Nagisa popped off three quick snaps from the gun, the bb's shooting towards the teacher.

Two missed, and the one that could of made it... didn't.

Sensei (as always) easily avoided it.

"Catching me off guard! On my toes! Nice job Nagisa!"

Of course.

Nagisa sighed, putting the gun back into his backpack.

Koro Sensei phased over then to where he had a tea-set set-up, and a hot kettle, brewing fresh tea. It smelled floral, like rose buds.

"Do you like tea?" He was already pouring Nagisa a cup anyway.

Taking that as an invite, the blue-haired teen walked inside, and Koro Sensei pulled out a chair for him as a gentleman would on a proper date. The door closed shut behind Nagisa's small frame, it was an old building and the teacher's lounge door had a habit of closing on it's own anyway.

It was just a teacher/student meeting, but the professor still insisted on being as welcoming as possible. Aside from pulling out the chair, he ushered for the teen to sit.

Nagisa had sought him out.

"Go ahead and take a seat." He plopped a sugar cube into the tea he'd poured for his student and a bit a pure white cream. "Try it this way! I promise! It's really good! The English drink it this way! Like a latte."

"Okay. I'll let it cool off first."

Sensei nodded and seated himself, putting his cup of tea close to his face to sniff the scent of it. "So, Nagisa. What's this impromptu meeting about?"

"I think you already know Sensei." His backpack plunked to the floor.

"Seeing we've already discussed the competition earlier..." He took a sip, his tentacles spindly around the fragile ceramic handle. "I'd say that it's about a certain event today."

Nagisa took a quick sip too, his lip barely pressing to the edge of the cup. He sat it down really quick. It was still too hot.

"Did you make sure to inform your mom that you were staying after today?"

"I did." His tone seemed to elicit a certain sense of absolute-ness.

A thought crossed the teacher's mind that... if it wasn't serious, then he wouldn't of stayed after, let alone call his mother to tell her that he would be 'extra' late. Nagisa was one of the more diligent students, never was he late, never was he sick.

Even if he was sick... he hadn't noticed.

He felt that Nagisa was the type that even if he was ill, he'd somehow still show up to school. He'd manage that. He always got back home on time too. He always made his bus, if not a few after. Nagisa was scheduled and disciplined.

That's why it floored the professor when Nagisa came up to him after everyone left, even Karma, who was always last, and asked him to have a personal one-on-one.

It was out of the ordinary for him.

Why had he thought that he could get in a quick nudey mag peep?

His face got a bit sweaty at that thought.

Nagisa noticed, but didn't say anything, instead he jumped into the brunt of what he was thinking, a fingertip tracing the edge of the cup: "I'm feeling some animosity about a few things."

Instantly Koro Sensei stopped being so self-concerned about his 'incident'. Something was going on with a student, and that meant... he was most concerned. More concerned for his students, than he was for himself.

It seemed lately... quite a few of his students were having issues. A wave effect was happening and he wanted to know what was going himself.

"I'm concerned..." The blue-eyed boy contemplated. "about Karma."

"Hmm. I see." He sipped. "Why are you concerned?"

Nagisa hadn't really thought about that specifically. He tried to sip his tea again, and sat for a few minutes quietly running through interior thoughts. Finally he found a good answer. "I have two reasons."

Koro Sensei opened his eyes back up. They had closed in quiet silence, just awaiting, sniffing his tea, he plopped another sugar cube in.

"My first reason is because... Karma is my friend." It came off as kind of possessive. "He doesn't hang out or associate himself with anyone else that much in E Class."

"Ahh. True." The yellow ball nodded. A smile.

"We've been friends for about a year. I know Karma. Not extremely well, because he keeps to himself at times, but I know him well enough." His voice grew a bit more wavy. "He... was uh. Kind of... my first friend."

Koro Sensei's face went pink with love. "Nagisa, I get it." His face then turning back to a normal crayon yellow.

"Yeh." He got shy all of a sudden. Obviously sharing that embarrassed him for some reason. It was the fact that he expressed to Koro Sensei that he was kind of protective over Karma for that reason. "But the second reason is because he keeps to himself."

"What do you mean?"

"The whole time I've come to know Karma, I've come to know him as a trouble-maker. My mom at one point in time even insisted that I shouldn't be friends with him anymore."

"Ahh. And why's that?"

"Well..." Nagisa finally was able to take a full-on sip, swallowing gently. "Karma... after a few months of getting to know him last year, I realized he had begun showing me his true colors."

"It usually takes a few months yes, for those true flags to fly."

"Right. For the masks to come off." He nodded. Sensei knew what he meant. "After I began to see Karma for who he really was, I realized there was a lot more to him that met the eye, and I still don't understand it entirely."

"What'd he do that made you realize these things?" Koro Sensei sucked the rest of his tea down and began pouring himself another steaming hot cup.

"It was after about 3 months worth of time, after studying and hanging out with him, that we got cornered in an alley by some not so friendly people, just some muggers, who were determined to steal our wallets."

Sensei nodded.

"That was when Karma leapt forward and dove into them." He gulped into the 'latte-like' sweet drink. "Like an animal, he beat them down."

Silence. Listening.

"Afterwards, he told me 'that he'd never let something bad happen to someone like me'."

"That's ironic seeing as how talented you've become at assassin training."

Nagisa blushed. "Thank you." It was true. It was kind of ironic, he had no doubt that he'd be able to protect himself on his own now rather than relying on Karma to beat the crap out of someone for him. He was no longer a small, short, fearing kid.

"But that's Karma. At his source even though he may do things that are harsh, his intentions are usually pure."

"I'm not so sure about that. That's what I'm getting at Sensei." He looked out the window, to the dirt trail, leading down the mountain in thought. The sunset was beginning to show in the sky, the half moon starting to glow faintly high above the horizon. "I sometimes think I understand, but then, sometimes I don't. And this time around, I'm not so sure of the intentions."

De-ja vu again for Koro Sensei.

He had just said to Karma a few days ago: I'm not sure of the intent.

He immediately knew. Nagisa and him were on the same page, about the same subject.

"You're referencing a specific someone. A certain 'Zumi-kun.' " Koro Sensei looked Nagisa in the eye.

He nodded, his gaze averted to looking into his tea.

"So. What about Zumi-kun do you find bothersome in accordance to Karma?"

"He's been bugging her."

"That I do know, he is aware that I know."

"He is?" Nagisa looked at the sensei again and stopped his sip.

"I informed him, yes." He plopped three more sugar cubes into his new cup and readjusted his 'elbows' on the table. "I wanted him to know, I do have a plan to teach her, and I refused to let Karma go on thinking that he was getting away with something."

"Hm." Nagisa mouthed.

"What's the matter with that?"

"Nothing's the matter with that. You're our professor. It's just... what I'm unsure is the intent behind bugging her."

"Ah." Sensei sighed, smelling the fragrance again, some birds began singing outside, a night time carol for sleep, cooing in the trees in the far tree line. "I mentioned that to him also."

Nagisa looked stunned. He was the one that realized it this time. Koro Sensei and him. Same page.

"So then." Nagisa put his cup down, and sensei immediately re-filled it with hot steamed tea. He un-rolled some lemon cookies from a package as well, also from England. 'Thank you.' Nagisa mouthed wordlessly.

"Our thoughts are the same Nagisa-kun." He smiled. "Obviously we both care for Karma, even with him being kind of a black sheep."

"Well. I care for Zumi-kun too. I don't know her, but..." He searched for the right words, grabbing one of the cookies. "She's new. You know?"

"Aw yes. New. She needs molding, like all of you here. In her own way."

Nagisa nodded. "I don't want Karma bugging her for the wrong reasons."

"Well, Karma is his own human being. He does what he does. I've warned him and informed him."

"And that's great. I just, I know Karma to be a taunting person. I want to know if it's play... or if it's something else."

Koro Sensei head changed to green in alert of that statement. "NRUJUJHU!" He laughed loudly as if he just realized something grand. "You mean?!"

"Yes."

"So Karma might be?"

"That's the thing, I don't know."

"Has he dated before?"

"Uh no. I mean, I don't think so."

"So..." Now sensei was the one searching for words munching on a cookie, face turning pink again. "Does he like her?"

"I don't know. But I know if that isn't the case... I don't want her to fall victim to Karma's play. At the bus stop about three weeks ago I told him that I was watching him." Nagisa crunched down on the cookie. "He knows what that means."

"It must mean you know him better than anyone else, you know his game."

"Right. It does." Nagisa nodded. " 'I know you.' That's what it meant. 'I know what you're doing'."

"But do you really?"

"I thought I was sure. But after today... and how he reacted to Terasaka reuniting with her. I mean, I obviously didn't know either, nobody did. But, it was like..."

"He looked like he was dying." Sensei cut him off.

"Try sitting aside him." Nagisa sipped again, scratching his head.

"I could hear him grinding his teeth from the stairs." The octopus pointed to his head. "Super sonic hearing."

Nagisa nodded... again.

Of course.

"Do you think it's because he likes her though?" Koro Sensei hushed.

"I don't want to bet on it." Nagisa concluded. "But I want to bet on it. Does that make sense?"

"You've never seen him act that way?"

"No." Nagisa sipped. "And I've watched him play around with a lot of people."

"How?"

"Oh. He has his ways. Some of it is annoying... even to me."

"Like what?"

"The constant bugging. That's the one that gets to me the most. He'll make comments that mean absolutely nothing. Just forcing himself in the presence of someone else to get them to say stuff just to get him to leave them alone."

"Hmm, that's what he had been doing."

"Yeh. I realized he stopped... because of Terasaka. He knew about it already. Somehow. And he seemed so mad about it."

"He knew about what?" Koro Sensei looked confused.

"About 'Saka asking her out."

"What!?" His face again pink. His sonic hearing hadn't caught that!

Nagisa realized he mustn't of known. "Well, Zumi cut Terasaka off before he could even get there."

"Ahhh. NRUHJUJU!" He laughed loudly, boisterously. So Terasaka was going to ask out his childhood crush! HOW CUTE!

"She's really bright." Nagisa concluded. "She picked up on what was going on before 'Saka even got the chance."

He nodded pink, sipping tea.

"But the problem sensei..." He tried to bring his teacher back down to reality. "is that Karma might like her."

"Oh the DRAMAAA!" He exclaimed so loudly.

"Sensei. Please." Nagisa actually seemed like he was begging, embarrassed a bit for Karma, even though he wasn't there.

"Oh yes! I can see it now!"

"Please." He tried to settle him.

"Okay, okay!" He was still pink, but listening at least. Thoughts of soap operas consuming his mind.

"I just... I don't know if Karma knows whether he does or doesn't."

Sensei went green on alert, and instantaneous change. "Hm. Plot twist."

Nagisa almost rolled his eyes. He didn't want to, because that showed disrespect, but he felt like he wanted to. The sensei was stuck in la la land, and making puns. Truthful puns, but puns all the same.

"Star stuck lover Terasaka smitten over his childhood sweetheart that he thought he lost..." Sensei spurted. "But on the other end... a teen falling, a young red-head, with a classy haircut..." He chuckled as he accentuated that part. "not understanding what love is."

"I guess." Nagisa sipped. Koro Sensei was one for outbursts, and this was far more tame than ones before, so it didn't bother him.

"Do you think that Karma knows what love is Nagisa-kun?"

"Romantic love, or just love in general?"

"Either."

"Honestly, I know he loves his mom."

"His parents are divorced right?"

He nodded. Sipping.

Koro Sensei munched on a cookie, scratching his chin, and putting on a pair of sunglasses for effect. "Maybe it's time for an investigation."

"What?"

He pointed a tentacle mellow dramatically, booping Nagisa on the nose. "An investigation into Karma's mind."

"That seems futile." Nagisa mumbled out as the tentacle booped, then moved away.

"Nothing's futile my dear Nagisa-kun. Even exploring a student's feelings, if Karma is confused... I'm his professor. I'm here to hear him out, like I'm here to hear you out. Like I'm here to hear anyone out who needs it. I'm here to fix it, to line it up. To roll it out."

"But is that fair?"

"How so?"

"To Terasaka."

"How do you figure?"

"If we try to help Karma somehow, and I'm not sure how..." Nagisa sipped the last from his cup. "Help Karma understand, if that even is how he feels, or if he really doesn't... is that fair to 'Saka? He might really like her."

"Well. The way I think about it..." He took those ridiculous police glasses off. "is that Terasaka is a plain fellow. He likes what he likes, he hates what he hates."

Nagisa nodded. Yes. True.

"Karma not so much." Koro Sensei stated something to Nagisa, realizing a new kinship between them was forming. "Nagisa, Karma admitted to me that he was confused."

Nagisa's mouth fell open.

He... did?

"Confused how?"

"I'd suppose about the whole Terasaka liking her thing. But maybe, it's deeper than that. He didn't further explain even though I asked." He noted that Nagisa looked astonished. "I know. I know how you're feeling. You're surprised and awed. Karma never shares his true feelings. But I assure you Nagisa, it seemed that he didn't even know he was sharing. His mouth... sort of just blurted it out."

Nagisa shut his mouth. "So. Sensei, it looks like we have a 50/50 chance of destroying Terasaka's happiness at the sake of helping Karma understand whether or not he truly is feeling 'feelings' for Zumi."

"Nagisa, don't think of it that way. There are too many out-lying factors that could effect that."

"Hm?" He looked up, munching on the last cookie, it was getting dark out pretty quick.

"She could tell Teraska no... you know."

"Oh." Nagisa noted, that was right, initially she did seem put-off and did tell 'Saka 'no'. But now? After realizing they were lost childhood friends?

"Right. Zumi-kun is also her own human being as well. She makes her own decisions."

"So what do we do?" Nagisa munched.

"Help Karma. It might result in him being more open in the future about things rather than so closed off. I'm going to help you Nagisa, I'm doing it for you. You're concern for Karma is obvious. I'm also going to do it for Karma's well-being and his future's sake."

"But we can't let him know, because..."

"Because if there's any chance of him changing... then we can't. You do want him to change right? Is that it?"

"Not exactly. I like his personality. It is who he is. You know?"

Koro Sensei nodded.

"I just... I have never seem him have this much expression about anything... ever. I'm his friend, I don't guard his feelings or his heart, or whatever. I'm not gay." Nagisa had to throw that in there, just for clarity. "I like girls. Don't think that."

"I wasn't Nagisa."

"Okay."

"You're just a good friend, and your buddy is showing expression about something, and confusion... and as any good friend does, he wants to solve it for him. You want to help, but knowing how Karma is... he'd reject it if he knew you were 'helping', because he might not want the help. He's stubborn in that way. The issue is I don't even think Karma knows he is in the need of help. He is confused, that he knows, but he doesn't seem like he is actively working on it."

Nagisa nodded. "I sought your help, and your thoughts because... you seemed to be the only one who'd understand. I now know I made the right decision."

"You can always count on me. I assure that."

"Can I count on your for one more thing?"

"Yes! Of course!"

"Can you fly me home?" Nagisa crunched his mouth in. "uh... ahha. Sorry. I'm kind of late now."