Daygon Yuuki: *sniffs the air* Hmm... I don't smell fish...
ynius: And thank you for reading this!
Cloy552: THE STAGE IS ON!
Autistic-Grizzly: Hmm... I wonder...
allanimfreak73754: Your baby? Okay...?
Liana: Thank you! I did not really expect this fic to be nice!
Kittenskwok26: Here's the next update!
geekgeraldine: Thank you for the compliment!
As promised, here is the fourth chapter! Also, a belated Happy New Year to you guys! A note, updates will be much slower now since I have school taking up most of my time. Of course, I will try to stick to my schedule and update once every two weeks. However, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter of Crystal Tears!
Chapter 4: Seizure
Koro-sensei was worried. Karasuma-sensei reported that Nagisa was sick, Bitch-sensei said that the neighbors heard screaming at night.
It doesn't seem right.
No shit, octopus.
Koro-sensei had decided. He'll go to see Nagisa himself.
So here he was, standing in front of Nagisa's house in his human disguise.
He knew that he shouldn't do this, that he might put his student in danger. He knew that he is risking his identity of being an assassination target should he be found out.
But his favorite student comes first.
Koro-sensei was about to ring the door bell when a movement caught his attention.
One of the house's windows were opened. A teal head climbed out the window and jumped down onto the lawn. Stumbling a little, the figure made to climb over the fence.
By then. Koro-sensei had taken off his disguise and camouflaged himself with his surroundings. He knew who the teal head was, it was quite obvious. Nagisa.
What was the boy trying to do, especially in his condition?
It was then Nagisa managed to climb over the fence. Getting to his feet, he ran away. Curious, the camouflaged yellow octopus followed him.
It seemed that Nagisa did not have a destination in mind. He just kept running and running. His hair which was untied blew madly in the wind. It was only until his legs gave out that he finally stopped. Koro-sensei, who was still camouflaged into the surroundings, stopped to take a good look at his student.
It was just liked what Karasuma said, Nagisa was still sickly pale, though now there no blankets covering him, Koro-sensei can see his entire body frame.
Nagisa had grown thinner within the three weeks of absence. There were tears welled up in his eyes. The most shocking thing is, the cuts that could be seen all over his body.
How did this happen?
Cautiously, Koro-sensei un-camouflaged himself. He approached the crying teal head and took a deep breathe.
"Nagisa?"
The boy looked up, his eyes wary. For a split second, he seemed like he was ready to run away again.
Instead, what he did next surprised the yellow octopus. Lurching forward, Nagisa wrapped his arms around his teacher. His emotionless mask dropped and he began crying into his teacher's robes.
Koro-sensei for the first time, was stunned. Awkwardly, he returned the embrace, not before adjusting the boy in his tentacles into a more comfortable position.
"Nagisa," Koro-sensei said, hesitantly after a while. "What happened?" Nagisa buried his head into the octopus' robes. "I-I can't"
This confused the teacher. "Can't what?"
The teal head tightened his embrace around his teacher. "I-I can't tell you."
This upsetted the octopus more but he didn't show it, for Nagisa seemed to be in need of him.
Gathering the crying boy in his tentacles, he shot off back to Kunigigaoka High School.
Nagisa opened his eyes. Odd, he didn't remember falling asleep. He searched his mind, trying to recall what happened to him. That was when he remembered.
His mother. Running away. Koro-sensei.
Where was he? Nagisa glanced around, taking in his surroundings. He was in an unfamiliar territory. He began to panic. Just where was he?
Just then, a bell rang and Nagisa jumped. He paled at the sound.
"Be a good girl, alright?"
Heart beating wildly, Nagisa began to search for a way out of the room.
"I promise, you, nothing will go wrong."
No! Tears began to appear in Nagisa's eyes as they darted around the room.
"You are mommy's obedient girl, right?"
Nagisa let out a faint whimper as he curled up in a corner. He did not hear the creak of a door as it opened. He did not noticed the people coming into the room.
Karma stopped writing his composition. He glanced around the class, noticing that everyone was still engrossed with their work. Then he settled to watch Koro-sensei till the school bell rang. He watched as Koro-sensei looked up from his book when the school bell rang.
"Class dismissed. You may all go home now. Be alert to your surroundings and be careful," he said, not as cheerfully as before. He paused. "Karma, can you please stay back?"
Karma blinked. Why for? Even so, he stayed back until there was no one except for the octopus and himself in class.
Koro-sensei turned his head to stare at Karma. "Follow me."
Clueless as he is, Karma followed his teacher to a part of the building he'd never been before. A door could be seen, with Karasuma-sensei and Bitch-sensei standing at the front.
Karma watched as the three teachers made eye contact with each other, as if signalling something.
Then there was silence.
"May I ask what's going on?" Karma asked, awkwardly.
The teachers made eye contact again.
"You are his best friend..." Karasuma-sensei started, but faltered as he glanced at the other teachers.
Bitch-sensei huffed impatiently, she opened the door and pushed Karma in. "Then you might be able to explain why he is this way!" she exclaimed as she too entered the room along with the other teachers. The door then swung shut.
Even though it has almost been a month, Karma still recognized the teal blue hair that belonged to Nagisa. The boy was huddled in the corner of the room. His hair had grown longer in the month and now spilled past his shoulder as it is untied. As the teal head hugged his legs to his his chest, head buried in between, Karma could not help but notice the numerous cuts all over the tealnette's arms.
A wave of anger swept through Karma as his hand moved, gripping Nagisa's arm tightly. "You did this to yourself, didn't you?"
"You did this to yourself, didn't you?"
Nagisa trembled at the ferocity of the voice and let out another whimper.
"Nagisa, are you alright?"
This time, tentacles enveloped him and Nagisa felt himself relaxing slightly to the embrace.
"Answer me!"
Nagisa let out a strangled sob as he hug himself tighter.
"Karma, we brought you here to find out what happened to Nagisa, not scare him!"
He hiccuped as he lifted up his head a little. A yellow tentacle blocked his view as he opened his eyes.
"He's opening his eyes!" Bitch-sensei's voice sounded, and it made Nagisa relax a bit more. "Remove your tentacle if you please, octopus, or I'll remove them for you."
As Koro-sensei shifted his tentacles, Nagisa blinked a few time to get used to the sudden brightness. A familiar voice was murmuring to him, assuring him that everything is fine.
"It's your mother, isn't it?" another familiar voice asked, in a much softer tone than before.
Nagisa blinked again, his vision slowly clearing. Why was Karasuma-sensei standing in front of him?
"O-Okaa-san?" he croaked, his voice cracked.
"Yes, it's her, am I right?" the same voice asked again.
Where did the voice come from? Nagisa turned, there was Bitch-sem... Koro-sensei... His breathe hitched. Karma...
It was in an instant. He tore away from Koro-sensei's tentacles and headed for the door. He ran out from the room and just kept on running.
"Nagisa!"
He ignored the voice calling after him. His instincts telling him to just run, and ran he did.
"Please, come back!"
Why was he running in the first place? Why would seeing Karma...?
"Nagisa!"
"Nagisa-chan~ Be a good girl, alright~?"
No! He must run away! He must not be caught! Tears once again sprung into his eyes as he ran blindly. He did not notice the group of teenagers walking in front of him.
-SMACK-
"Nagisa?"
"Is that really... you?"
Panic shot through him. He was caught? How? No! He began to whimper.
"Please..."
He flinched at the sound of hurried footsteps. Oh, he was in so much trouble now...
"It's time for your punishment, you useless daughter!"
"No!" he began to scream. "Please, I promise! I'll be a good girl! I promise! Please!"
There was a sharp intake of breath.
"Nagisa..."
Tentacles enveloped once more that day as he panicked. "Don't worry Nagisa, everything is alright," a soothing voice murmured into his ear again. "I promise you, everything will be alright."
And then darkness engulfed him.
And that's it for the fourth chapter! Things are certainly building up now! Once again, thank you all for supporting this fic and I certainly appreciate it! Till then, ja~!
Yours,
BlueSkyBlue,
a.k.a. Otonashi Hayuka