Chapter 15

Sentai

Asami walked the halls with icy eyes. Her colleagues avoided any sort of contact with her and scurried to their classes. Even the people who would greet her or wave in the hallway had just buried their eyes upon sight of her. Word had spread like wildlife on a dry day through the college about the incident with Korra. She kept composure as she entered her chemistry class, though her true desire was to spit in her professor's face.

He's the reason all of this has happened. She glanced at the death threats in her bag as she pulled out her notebook. She would be taking them to the Dean after class. At first, she was adamant about revealing the letters to Dr. Suri. Now, she started to have second thoughts.

What if Korra was right? What if telling the Dean what happened made them kill her?

The engineer bit her lip to fight back her tears. She could handle Korra leaving if she had to, but a permanent removal?

Not possible. I… I can't… She shook it off when Dr. Sentai appeared and crossed the front of the room in silence.

Asami examined his face, looking for any sort of hint of satisfaction about the whole situation. It was no secret he loathed Korra, and it was his name that came up in the death threats.

"Fuck with Sentai and you fucking die." She recalled one of the letters and quivered. But why? Why did so many people like Sentai?

He began to write on the board without acknowledgement to any of his students. There was a vat of mixed feelings in the room that led to an overwhelming haze of tension.

"Today, we will continue our discussion on organic molecules. Miss Sato," he paused until her eyes locked on his. If looks could kill, he would have died six times. "Come to the board and draw the structures for the compounds I tell you."

She didn't move a single damn muscle. Her arms were as crossed as her voice. "Why?"

Fire shot in his eyes. "Because it's part of your grade."

"If it's part of my grade, then it must be a part of everyone else's. I've named my molecules, it's someone else's turn to participate." She growled, in no mood for his games.

"You've named them, but you haven't drawn them."

"Neither has anyone else."

"Then you'll be the first."

"I'll go once everyone has named the same amount of structures as I have. It's all part of the grade, isn't it?"

Sentai scowled at her and crossed his own arms. The class sat in awe, their mouths hung open. No one would ever expect Miss Asami Sato to speak to a professor in such a way.

"Maybe we should ask Korra to draw some structures. Oh wait, she can't."

Asami grit her teeth and clenched her fists. The corners of her vision flicked red. She heard some gasps behind her at the statement. She also heard a few hushed chuckles. She turned to see the culprits but they stopped before they were caught. She met the brown eyes of a familiar face who sat near her in the front of the room, as well as many other pairs, all of which looked away upon contact.

He walked up to her and handed her the chalk. "Now draw. Or you fail the course."

The engineer rose to her feet and snatched it from him. Her eyes pierced into his but he refused to flinch. She stood at the front of the lecture hall, back to the class, and drew every single molecule he named without a flaw. The chalk screeched against the board, stabbing the ears of everyone in the room. She didn't care. She didn't care about a damn thing except getting out of this fucking class.

When the clock sounded, she slammed the stick of calcite in the tray, ripped her bag from the seat, and stormed out the exit.

(-)

A pound on the door startled the Dean. The knocker didn't even wait for permission to enter.

"Hello, Asami. How are –" He cut himself off when he met her eyes. Spirits.

"I have something to show you." She dropped her bag onto the corner of his desk and fished for the letters. Her heart skipped a beat. "Where are they?" She dug through with more severity. "Where are they?" She ripped her notebooks out one by one, shook them out, and kept looking. She even tilted her bag upside down to see if they would spill out from some unknown hiding spot. The engineer whipped her empty sack across the room and it smacked against the wall. "They took them, they fucking took them."

"Sit down, Miss Sato."

Asami's fiery eyes shot at his direction. She had forgotten where she was when her rage blinded her.

"I'm so sorry, Dr. –"

"Sit."

She slumped into the chair, the intensity escaping her face. Pull yourself together. Now.

"What did they take from your bag?"

The engineer sighed and dropped her eyes. "About a week before last Friday, Korra received death threats at her dorm and in her mailbox."

"And you were going to bring them to me on her behalf?"

Asami nodded.

"Why didn't you two bring them up beforehand?"

"We…we were afraid. The notes said if Korra told anyone, they would kill her."

"Well they nearly did, didn't they?" His voice rose, a hint of frustration escaping him. If he had known ahead of time, he could have prevented this whole ordeal.

She hung her head and began to wither.

"What did the letters say?"

She sniffled and fought for control. "All sorts of things. Ways they were going to hurt her. That they would keep hurting her as long as they could."

"Were there any specific names listed in these letters?"

Her eyes shot up. "Sentai. Sentai's name was mentioned. They said if Korra continued to cross him, they would kill her."

Dr. Suri leaned forward and rubbed his temples. "You wouldn't happen to have any more of these letters somewhere, do you?"

Asami shook her head.

"There's not much I can do then."

She felt betrayed. "But –"

"Asami, this is a very serious claim against a tenured professor of the college that has been here for quite some time. If I don't have physical proof, then the members of the board are not going to be convinced that Sentai had anything to do with this at all."

The engineer crossed her arms and glared.

"Now, you know I believe you. I believe what you're saying and what you're accusing. But a student's word against a professor's in a board case is a matter of hearsay. And in those situations, the professor almost always wins. It's not just, but that doesn't mean it's not uncommon."

Her whole body shriveled. She stared at the ground.

"I'm sorry, Asami."

(-)

She slouched out of the Dean's office with tears in her eyes. What am I going to tell Korra? She threw her bag onto her back and sulked down the hallway. How could I be so stupid? I fell right into that trap. Maybe someone I know saw whoever did it. She thought back to her scan of the students behind her in the lecture hall and those familiar brown eyes came to mind. Maybe Kuru saw something. He wasn't sitting too far away. Or maybe someone else noticed. Would they even tell me if they did? Or are they being threatened too? Her train of thought had distracted her from her physical route. Come on, you're smarter than this, Asami. She focused her eyes and found herself down an unknown corridor of the building. Where am I? She surveyed the area and halted on a name plate next to a wooden door:

Dr. Sentai.

Asami clenched her fists. She hated him, hated him almost as much as she hated the Fire Bender who killed her mother. All of the fury from the classroom, all of the rage from the letters being stolen, all of the suffering Korra endured because of that man, boiled to the surface. Her vision was red and by the Spirits, nothing was going to stop her. She threw her bag on the floor next to the entrance and kicked the door open.

"You." She growled, stepping up to the table where Sentai sat. His face was calm, but his eyes were full of fear. She slammed her hands on the left side of his desk and swiped them to the right, effectively shoving everything off of it onto the floor. Two beakers crashed against the wall and splattered its chemical contents. Papers flew everywhere.

"I know you're up to something. Something illegal in the college. And I will find out what it is. And when I do, I'm going to make sure you never teach here for another day in your entire life."

The engineer bent forward and downward to meet his eyes. Her palms were firm against the tabletop.

"And if a single hand is laid on Korra ever again, I will personally see to it that you don't take another breath without feeling the same pain she feels right now. I will not only end your career, I will make sure you never sleep without an eye open ever again."

Asami turned on her heel and slammed the door behind her without another word. She retrieved her bag, threw it over her shoulder, and marched out of the building. The cool air began to clear her mind until she realized what had just transpired. She started shaking.

What did I just do? What the hell did I just fucking do?