Chapter 2: Reunion (Part 1)

Everyone following this has had a stroke of luck. I've seen how people have been disappointed that the last wasn't a new chapter but a hiatus note and I felt kinda bad because this is the only story that only still had one chapter. So, since I had this done, I posted this as a "thank you" to everyone who reviewed and followed and favorited, because I wanted to thank them before I go onto hiatus.

I call most of this a bit of background information on their daily lives but you may call it useless fluff. Though some is important for the plot.

I don't think this is as nice to read as the first chapter, but I hope you all like it.

Reviews will be answered in the bottom author's note, unlike my usual.

Tranquility.

It was, without a doubt, the most valued aspect of Nagisa Shiota's world.

That… sounded skeptical.

Especially coming from a terrifying assassin such as Nagisa himself.

However, Nagisa's belief was thus. If he could sacrifice his own life to intimidation and bloodshed, only tainting himself with darkness, no one around him could ever be hurt.

That belief led him so far. Too far. There was no way out of the double life Nagisa Shiota lived now.

The life of a ingenious educator.

The life of a tainted assassin.

No one would had ever guessed.

And he would do his best to keep it that way.

The desolate town was true to the word. The streets would never be smooth as millions of rocks cluttered on its surface. It was a peaceful town. In a way filled of despair.

A disturbance in the pattern of rocks followed by the chilly air of a dangerous presence was what attracted the attention of the few occupants of this town of derelicts. Gazes of starving, desperate people crowded in the run down buildings bore into the cloaked traveller, but behind the hood, sharp snake eyes were only fixed on his destination. The only intact building in the midst of all the surrounding ones.

Quite a sight to see. The mayor's house. Azure eyes narrowed in disgust, ever so slightly.

Like a civilized man, he entered through the front door, and a few of the closer civilians' eyes widened in surprise. How was the door unlocked? Not a single soul saw the quick flash of metal slipping back within the cloak.

Not even a few moments later, a shrill scream echoed throughout the usually silent town, where loud noises were a rare occurrence. It was surprisingly masculine, despite the soprano pitch. Civilians, who had returned to their normal state of despair as soon as the outsider had entered the building, snapped their heads up once more, eyes glinting slightly with the last shreds of hope, wondering if that was the last that they would hear of the tyrannical mayor's voice as it was ultimately cut off with an agonized gasp.

An old lady huddled right in front of the town entrance slowly raised her head in confusion, once vibrant jade eyes dull. Her blurry gaze had been open for the last two years searching for outsiders just beyond the gates to sell her family's last precious amethyst heirloom to, just to flee this deteriorating town.

Others inevitably followed suit. The young boy with a deformed leg, whose parents had cast him away just as they finally escaped the town a month ago, ceased his everlasting sobs at the interruption. The adolescent girl crouching over her ill mother, desperate, yet helpless. The young man, barely eighteen and undoubtedly the strongest of all the occupants, trying to care for the rest.

A kind, good soul that most likely would had been able to escape if not for his overwhelming care of the rest of the town.

That man, Nagisa mused, admiring the compassionate man, would be a good leader for this town. He nodded to himself in approval before tearing his eyes away from out the window, instead gazing down at the blood that stained his polished blade, reflecting the eyes of a prepared killer.

The derelicts startled as a shadow appeared in the window of the mayor's bedroom. Gazes weary, a few of the weakest praying silently for mercy, wondering if this was how it was going to end. Has that man come to kill us all?

A bloody corpse thudded to the ground, a few hoarse voices screaming in terror. As the shadow faded back into the darkness of the room, another object landed on the rocky ground. Many crept out of their uninhabitable, makeshift houses, desperately clawing at the large bag, eyes widening and brightening at the treasure within.

People rejoiced. For once they knew the future. They knew that that night, the old woman would be able to escape the town, the young boy would be able to live in a suitable home, the adolescent girl would be able to cure her ill mother, and the young man would be able to begin to reform their town.

But the man they desired to give their thanks to was already gone, hidden in the depths of the forest, a faint smile playing on his lips.

"Smile… mission complete?" An almost mocking voice questioned over the earpiece.

He bit back his witty retort. The client almost seemed to be completely uncaring of the civilians' fates, despite being the government official requesting the job. He replied steadily, years of practice erasing emotion completely from his voice. "Yes, of course."

"Good… Mission tonight… Available?"

He smiled slightly as he prepared his reply. The one good thing about being a professional assassin. No one had the guts to tell him when to work. He pulled the shots.

"Sure. It better end before four though."

"What's after… four?" The conceited voice morphed into annoyed, static still causing it to be barely audible. Yet Nagisa's well trained ears could pick it up.

The aura turned dangerous, and could almost be sensed from the other side of the electronic device. "Just a gathering of some… colleagues."

That was the last of the mysterious Smile's voice that this certain client would ever hear.

Loud tapping noises refused to cease in the once quiet office building. Oh yes, it had once been quiet.

Before Karma Akabane had stepped onto the floor.

He could tell that his coworkers were irritated. That was his complete reason for doing this. He smirked as he analyzed their reactions.

One man near the window kept clenching his fists at every tap. Curious, he ceased for a moment, watching as he finally relaxed... before continuing at a quicker speed. The man turned red with fury, but the moment he recognized the tapper's identity, he sunk back into his chair, resigning to simply desperately trying to block it out.

A woman on the opposite side of the floor was twitching in complete aggravation. Yet she knew not to challenge Karma Akabane. After all, this is the man who could make the government security guard wet his pants with just one glare of mischievous bloodlust.

Yeah… it was an absolutely brilliant idea to just leave him be.

Sucks to be them, listening to his tapping while doing paperwork. He had finished all of his in the first hour, tossing it carelessly on his boss's desk, who wasn't even surprised anymore. His smirk widened as he tore his gaze away to inspect the pen he twirled in his hand. What if he added his pen to the mix-

"Still as annoying as ever, I see." A monotonous voice spoke up behind him, perhaps a hint of amusement laced within.

"Oh, hey, Sensei!" The redheaded trickster replied ever so cheerfully, not even bothering to turn around. "What brings you here?" His tone was completely relaxed, leaning back in his chair. Of course, he had known that Karasuma-sensei was here the moment he reached this very floor.

A few of the other officials tossed the tall man sympathizing glances, as if to say, You're the man that taught Karma Akabane? You have our condolences.

Obviously, they didn't know that the man excelled in just what his teacher had taught him.

Just imagine if Karasuma told them.

…Yeah, that would not end well.

Karasuma undoubtedly felt all the glances from across the room, but before he even had a chance to figure out what they were about, the redhead's smirk grew impossibly wider. ...Oh...

And so, he decided to not ask and completely ignore them. "You're going to the reunion tonight, aren't you?"

"Yep~ You coming, too? Isogai never sent you a text." His mercury eyes narrowed slightly, skills as sharp as ever.

"Are you all going to be there?" He deliberately neglected to answer the question.

"I don't know~ Why don't you ask Manami-chan?"

A sudden ominous presence provoked the former teacher to whip around to face a beautiful young woman. The woman startled a little at his surprised expression before smiling serenely, tucking a lock of curly dark hair behind her ear. She had long since shed her braids and glasses, revealing a gorgeous woman with cascading waist length hair and exquisite lavender eyes. Karasuma almost couldn't recognize her after the change, eliciting a miniscule reaction of surprise from the man. Another shock was how she managed to sneak up behind him without him being alert to her presence. "Hello, Karasuma-sensei. Don't you work on a lower floor?" Her personality was a huge change, too. Most of the unsure, unconfident Manami had faded, presenting the woman underneath.

"Y-yes. Yes, I do." Came the reply after a pregnant pause.

"Hey~ Karasuma-sensei was stuttering~" The teasing voice didn't miss this chance, though an emotion was carefully masked within that Karasuma didn't recognize.

"I was not."

"Admit it~ You were checking out my wife." Though he began in a taunting tone, by the end, he was warning.

"..." Stunned? Shocked? Well, nothing really described how Karasuma truly felt at the moment.

Manami squeaked in embarrassment, some of her old personality weaving back into her voice. "Karma-"

"Hey, Karasuma-sensei~ No words?" Karma cut off his wife, peering up at Karasuma's face with a smug yet serious expression. Seriously. How does that work?

Quite a bombshell, eh, Karasuma?

Ok. How the hell does this work?

Akari Yukimura was absolutely shocked. There was no freaking way this should have happened. It was simply impossible. Whoever thought of this must be delusional! (A/N: Aka, me!)

How could Akari Yukimura (who had arguably the busiest schedule of them all) be the first to arrive at the reunion?

So, of course, she simply stood there in the doorway, chocolate eyes round, mouth agape. Like an idiot, tee-hee. Rio Nakamura snickered from behind a desk.

"How…" The actress's mouth fluttered, unable to form complete words. It was priceless! Her. Face. Was. Utterly. Priceless.

Rio couldn't help it. She burst out laughing, clutching her stomach, about to pull herself up out of hiding when she banged her head mercilessly against the table.

Hearing the groan of pain, amber eyes narrowed, suspicious. "Rio-chan?"

That simply sent the diplomat into another fit of giggles. "I… cannot.. believe… that you actually… thought that you were… the first one… here." She gasped for breath as she finally managed to stand, tottering on unsteady legs. The blonde grinned, one hand rubbing the back of her head. "Yo."

"Rio-chan!" With an indignant huff, the actress pouted pitifully.

If Rio hadn't known that she was an actress, she would have totally fell for it. "Tsk, tsk. None of that, Kaede-chan! I was first here, so-"

"Were you?" A slightly amused voice interrupted the banter from the window, where a completely silent man was crouched on the windowsill.

"Nagisa?" The easy going girl ceased her taunting, genuinely surprised. "Since when were you here?"

"Since school let out." The blunet replied nonchalantly, suddenly in one of the chairs. "Hey, Kayano-chan." He greeted ever so calmly, with that signature gentle smile of his. "It's been a long time."

"H-hey." Admit it to yourself, Akari. You thought he was hot.

He had definitely changed for the better. Especially after slicing off his blue pigtails for a spikier fashion. He was also more muscular, needing at least some physical strength for his assassination training.

Unbeknownst to the actress, Rio Nakamura was analyzing them with a smirk, a devious plan forming in her ever mischievous mind.

Honestly. She's the genderbend of Karma!

Nagisa couldn't help but smile as old comrades that he hadn't seen in years came into the classroom, all seeming quite well.

Wait. Notice how he didn't specify that they came in through the door.

Yep. Itona came in through the wall. Again.

Megu blew up over that, whereas Itona simply stood there, a careless and bored expression evident on his face. Nagisa simply sighed, realizing that with this former class of misfits, all the work he put in into preserving the old, deteriorating building of Class 3-E definitely will definitely go to waste.

"Hey, Nagisa." A voice that brought back memories from so long ago greeted cheerfully as a hand clapped his shoulder, albeit a bit roughly.

"Hey, Karma." He replied, his "normal" facade once again neatly arranged over his face. He grinned, as if he hadn't see the man just a while ago. "How are you?" Peeking over his shoulder, he smiled a greeting to the official's more timid wife. "Hey, Okuda-san."

"Ah!" The woman startled at the call of her name before beaming brightly. "K-konbanwa, Nagisa-kun."

"Konbanwa." He nodded back politely.

"Oh, Kami. Is that Nagisa?!" Oh. He knew this tone of voice. He bit back a groan of exasperation and braced himself as he faced his old friend, now a baseball star.

Sugino's face was the same as everyone's after they saw him after graduation. Mouth agape, maybe some unsuspecting saliva dripping out, eyes widened in disbelief. You can endure one more of these. Nagisa reassured himself.

"YOU CUT YOUR HAIR?! You look so different!" Yep, here he goes again.

"Really? I didn't notice. Is it that obvious?" He recited dryly. He used the same comeback for everyone who asked.

Humans were simply astounding at making obvious observations, weren't they?

Wait… Koro-sensei would have done that too. ...Most likely. Let's include superhuman, artificial octopi to the list.

As Nagisa mentally calculated these "fun" facts while other students crowded around him to sneak a peek at this new Nagisa, his ears picked up something… foreign. Footsteps, heavy and many, hurrying to the mountain classroom.

They were still too far away for the others to notice, not even including the factor of how much noise smothered the atmosphere. Well… it didn't seem necessarily dangerous… and he wasn't on duty.

Nevertheless, he tensed ever so slightly, something only Karma would have picked up if he was glancing in his direction. Tuning out the chatter surrounding him, slitted baby blue eyes fixated on the door.

And in came…

You guys can ask some of my usual readers. I am pretty much the type of author who loves writing annoying cliffhangers.

I can't believe how much you guys liked the first chapter. I hope you all aren't disappointed and will continue to follow.

Anisademongirl: Oh, you found this fic! :) Thank you~ I rather like my new username~

owllover1111: Here's the next chapter, though I will be on hiatus after.

Xx-DarkCrimson-xX: Thanks, dude! I like your username :)

Palpex: Don't worry, Palpex-san! This is multichap for sure!

Sorariru: I couldn't stop smiling when reading this. Thanks~

Happy Doodle: Thank you~

Nagisa-x-Kayano: *stares at you disbelievingly* Are you kidding me? Of course there's going to be NagisaxKayano (or Akari, take your pick.)! That's like, my OTP! You, are one of my newest favorite people~ :) You don't need to ask that question!

I12Bfree: Aww~ You think it's well written? *sheepish* Well, arigatou. (I really do hope the beginning wasn't just a mood I had and I really hope you'll like this chapter.) And oh, the repetition! I got that idea from the end of The Crafty Cracker's Naruto fic, A Number of Complications. Anyone who likes Naruto, that's a great fic.

The 29th Student: Thank you for alerting me. I cried buckets. BUCKETS I TELL YOU!

FandomSupporter15: Thank you~

Meow: Yes, there are more chapters. I did my best to make sure not all students were OCs, hence Sakura.

Tempest the 1rst: Yes, I read your chapters. Sorry, I wanted him to cut it.

Ale: Yep~

So, now, I officially will be on hiatus. I just kinda felt bad since this was on hiatus after one chapter. One! But this is a cliffhanger, so it's not much better.

Oh, well.

See you all when I get back!

~Hana