Disclaimer: Assassination Classroom and its characters do not belong to me.
Extra One: A Normal Day for Senior High Student, Shiota Nagisa
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
The alarm clock was not a loud one, its beeps sounded rather soft and halfhearted, as if the clock itself was unwilling to wake up so early in the morning. Usually, a person who wishes to be punctual would trade such a clock for a more obnoxious one; a lazy person, on the other hand, would keep such a clock as an excuse for oversleeping. However, the owner of this particular little ringer did neither.
Blue eyes shot open instantly at the first beep. One slender hand reached out and pressed the off button on the clock, shutting off its miserable whines. Shiota Nagisa sat up with one fluid but slow motion. Should someone happen to see this scene, they would just find a sleepy bishonen boy getting up and preparing for school. They would assume that this boy wasn't prone to grumpy mornings but was no early riser either. Of course, an observer with a more trained eye would notice that even though traces of sleep have not completely left the teenager's face, there was an alertness to the way he moved that suggested quick reaction should there be any hint of danger nearby. Not that a normal senior high student would encounter perils more hazardous than a failing grade or a persistent love rival.
Quickly donning his black gakuran and pulling his chin-length hair into a low ponytail, Nagisa appraised his reflection in the mirror. A neatly dressed teenager smiled back at him, harmless as a bunny rabbit. Blue hair a shade darker than it was two years framed a delicate face, accentuating two expressive eyes. While the boy's features were undeniably feminine, his posture and aura was definitely that of a male. Nodding in approval, Nagisa put on a frilly pink apron and began preparing breakfast, western sandwiches and milk. After satisfying his stomach for the morning, Nagisa left for school, grabbing his backpack and bento on the way out.
In senior two, Nagisa transferred to the prestigious Umenakou High School that was three-hour-drive's distance from his mother's house. In consideration that his bedtime was already severely compromised by his night job, Nagisa rented a flat closer to campus so that he could still have some resemblance of rest. While it wasn't exactly legal for Nagisa to be living alone before reaching eighteen, his frequent services for the government ensured certain privileges that were extremely convenient.
"NAGISA-SEMPAI!" called an extremely enthusiastic voice as Nagisa came in sight of the first crossroad. A tiny figure waved in Nagisa's direction with surprising force, jumping up and down as if afraid he might miss her.
"Good morning, Izumi-san." Nagisa smiled in greeting.
The girl finally stilled enough for Nagisa to take a good look at her. She was short, just barely brushing past 1.6 meters, dainty like a porcelain doll. Her short, bobbed hair was held back with a white Alice band, a typical student's hairstyle that matched her sailor uniform well. Large doe eyes peeked up at Nagisa from under her bangs. Luscious pink lips were raised in a pout. The girl wore makeup, so carefully applied that any man other than Nagisa would never have noticed.
"MOu~~~" The girl whined. "I told you a thousand times that it's fine to call me Kaede-chan, Nagisa-sempai. Izumi-san sounds so distant~~."
Nagisa paused, forcing back unpleasant memories. "How about I call you Izumi-chan then? I'm really sorry, but there was a girl named Kaede who I knew from Junior High and I don't want to confuse you two."
Izumi Kaede's face darkened for a split second before brightening up again. "Izumi-chan's fine for now, but one day I'll get you to call by my first name, sempai."
"Maybe." Nagisa smiled noncommittally.
The two walked slowly towards their school. Izumi chattered nonstop about the upcoming school festival. Her class was preparing a large scale murder mystery game. Participants are to enter a locked room in groups of three (max) and meet the 'characters' of the game and get to know them. Once the participants have spoken to every 'character', they are let into a second room, where the victim's 'corpse' is. The participants have a limit of fifteen minutes to observe the 'crime scene' and jot down the clues. Then, the participants enter a third room, where they can interrogate the 'suspects'. This time the time limit is twenty minutes. Finally, the participants are to name the 'murderer' and list at least three reasons why they suspect that character. The prize for finding the correct 'murderer' is a lollipop in shape of a spyglass. If the participants manage to find the 'iron proof' and include it in their list of reasons, they will get the chance to pick an extra prize from a lucky dip that includes plastic pipes, fake mustaches, rubber knives, and deerstalker caps. Of course, if the participants find the game too difficult, they can buy hints at the price of 100 yen each.
"The game is very well planned, Izumi-chan. I suppose you are the mastermind?" Nagisa smiled in appreciation. Turning a detective game into something that can be played over and over again by hundreds of people for a whole day was not an easy job, Izumi must have put a lot of effort into designing the three stages of the game. "But aren't you worried that the people who have played the game will tell others about the real murderer and the clues that they need to find?"
"Sharp as always, Nagisa-sempai." Giggled Izumi, jutting her chin smugly into the air. "But genius Izumi Kaede-sama has planned twenty different scenarios to use on rotation. No one can cheat me in my own game!"
Chatting casually for a few more minutes, Izumi and Nagisa separated by the staircase. Izumi stayed on the first floor where her classroom 1-A was while Nagisa headed for his classroom on the third floor. There were still ten minutes left before class began so the entire building was relatively quiet. Nagisa walked up the stairs, not too quickly and not too slowly, taking rhythmic steps that carried him smoothly to the third floor without making a single sound.
Stopping before his classroom, Nagisa gazed momentarily at the wooden plaque that read '3-A'. A soft sigh left his lips, so soft that even he could not hear it. Nagisa slid the door open and greeted the classmates who have already arrived with his customary smile. Setting his book bag on his desk by the window, Nagisa started to prepare for the day's lessons, a familiar routine in an unfamiliar classroom.
Once upon a time, Nagisa was a student of the lowest class of all. Once upon a time, Nagisa was desperate enough for attention that he often failed on purpose, making his already low grades lower. Once upon a time…
Nagisa shook his head and firmly locked back the memories that threatened to resurface, slashing them to shreds with a mental dagger. There was no point in dwelling on events that cannot be changed. There were more important matters to be taken care of.
Nagisa's cellphone buzzed. It was a text message.
LV: Shiidou Hakuma.
47
Divorced.
No children.
Tamatori Road No.14.
One week. 22:45
Make it an accident.
PS. You might find some interesting
information with this one. Contact
with THEM suspected.
Attached to the message was a photo of a forlorn, seedy-looking man in his late forties. His eyes avoided the camera and his shoulders were hunched defensively. This was a man who barely hung on at the bottom of the social food chain.
After a quick glance at the message, Nagisa deleted it. Understood, he typed back. Hesitating, he added another word. Thanks.
Class passed by like a breeze. Nagisa dutifully jotted down notes and answered questions whenever he was called, the perfect picture of a shy but hardworking student. He conversed with his classmates during break times as courtesy demanded, subtly manipulating the conversations so that he didn't need to talk much about himself. Nagisa was a student of Class 3-A, but at the same time he seemed detached from the class, as if separated by worlds.
This aura distance disappeared when lunch time rolled along.
"Nagisa-sempai~~~!" Izumi bounced into the classroom. The other students didn't even blink an eye; such an occurrence has happened every day since the start of the school year.
"Izumi-chan." Nagisa smiled with resigned acceptance. He guessed that it was true that everything has an exception. "Are we going to the roof again?"
"You just read my mind my psychic sempai. Come on! All the good spots will be taken if we don't hurry." Izumi dragged Nagisa out of his seat, displaying surprising strength for one as tiny as she was.
As it turned out, the best spots weren't all occupied. For some odd reason, even though the roof was already crowded with students, the north rail with the best view of Fujiyama was empty of people. A clean blue blanket was spread by the rail, just waiting for someone to sit on it. Without even the faintest hesitation, Izumi marched towards the north rail and sat down, pulling Nagisa with her.
Nagisa didn't comment. Instead, he began to eat his bento, a simple combination of rice, chicken, and picked radishes.
Waiting until after Nagisa swallowed his first bite, Izumi began to eat with delicate grace. Despite being held in an ornate wooden bento, Izumi's meal was no more extravagant than the one Nagisa was having.
"You don't have to force yourself to eat such a plain meal with me you know." said Nagisa quietly.
"But you wouldn't accept the bentos that I used to make for you, sempai." Izumi returned.
They ate in silence. Listening to the chatter of students around them.
A couple sat down by the south rail, directly across the blue blanket where Nagisa and Izumi sat. The couple displayed timid gestures of affection commonly seen in newly formed in relationships. The girl fed her boyfriend tamagoyaki from her bento, eagerly awaiting his verdict. She flushed with happiness when he complimented her cooking with exaggerated adjectives. Encouraged, the girl fed him a piece of salmon.
"You are a wonderful friend, Izumi-chan, but I don't think I can feel any more about you beyond a friend." Nagisa spoke up suddenly.
Izumi lowered her head, thick black hair forming a curtain to hide her eyes. "I know."
Nagisa felt Izumi's mental waves fluctuate violently before calming down again. There was a second of hate so intense that it could easily turn into a killing intent, but Izumi managed to reign her emotions in. As the hate wasn't directed Nagisa or anyone else on the rooftop, he decided to ignore it.
"I know that Nagisa-sempai doesn't return my feelings, but that doesn't stop me from liking you. My emotions are my own and they won't change because of any external influences. I have the freedom and right to feel and do whatever I want." Izumi gazed at Nagisa with determined eyes. "Plus, sempai not having romantic feelings for me now does not mean that sempai won't ever have romantic feelings me in the future. I'm going to do my best to win your heart over, just as I will do my best to have you call me by my first name."
Nagisa didn't reply. How could he? The last time he let a girl into his heart… He doubted he could ever feel that way about anyone ever again, but he didn't want to hurt Izumi either.
Thankfully, Izumi dropped the topic. Pretending as if the previous conversation never happened, she chatted enthusiastically one of the murder scenarios for her game that she was especially proud of.
"So the murderer is the housewife. Her motive is that her husband and the victim were childhood sweethearts and she was afraid her husband would abandon her for the other woman. Actually committing murder was an accident. When the housewife confronted…"
The afternoon passed just as quickly for Nagisa as the morning did, only speaking when the situation demanded, he was left mostly in peace. In P.E. class he displayed the physical abilities of an average boy, not too week or too strong to be memorable. Soon, the day of lessons was over. As Nagisa wasn't part of any club, he was free to return home.
Izumi stood waiting for him by the shoe cubbies. "Nagisa-sempai!" She waved her hand enthusiastically. "Let's walk home together!"
Nagisa couldn't help but sweatdrop. Did he even have a choice otherwise? Every day he tried his best to get Izumi to accept being normal friends with him but he might as well have been persuading Karma to give up on pranks. He couldn't even shake her off since they really were friends and he truly didn't wish to hurt her.
When the two finally went split ways at the crossroad, Nagisa heaved a huge sigh of relief. Walking quickly to an abandoned alley, he pulled out his cellphone.
"Hello, Fuwa-san? ...Yes, another target… Shiidou Hakuma, on Tamatori. I need his information… mmhnn, and his schedule for this week… The usual price then? … Thank you… Bye."
"Hey rich brat! Yeah, you over there! You're from that snotty school, Ume-something aren't ya?" A voice called from behind Nagisa.
Sighing, Nagisa hung up his phone and turned around. Two punks stood behind him. The one who had spoken up wore a red bandanna and nose ring, he looked even younger than Nagisa. The other man with purple highlights was older and better dressed. Purple's face paled when he caught a good look at Nagisa's face. The man kicked the younger delinquent in the back of his knees and forced him kneel, then he fell to the ground, too.
"Please forgive us, Shiota-san!" The man bowed, his forehead coming into contact with the filthy alley ground. One hand pressed harshly with on Nose Ring Kid's head and banged it, too, to the ground.
Nagisa surveyed the two kneeling before him, his smile cold.
Sweat trickled down Purple's chin, but he was too afraid to even wipe it away. Nose Ring Kid struggled against his grip; thankfully the boy's mouth was too full of dirt to talk.
"Are you running low on cash lately, Kitakawa-kun?" Nagisa asked, his tone full of warm concern.
"N-No." Purple trembled. "I was just taking my cousin to meet aniiki. We didn't mean to cause any trouble. The kid doesn't know any of the rules yet, please forgive him." He sank lower to the ground.
"If you're on your way to see Ryuuji-kun then I won't keep you." Said Nagisa gently. "Hurry. You don't want to be late do you?"
"Thank you. Thank you!" Kitakawa sprang up and dragged Nose Ring Kid away before he could do or say anything insulting. He thanked his lucky stars that this smiling monster was in no mood to deal with small fry like him at the moment.
"Oh, and Kitakawa-kun?" A soft voice called after the escaping duo. "Make sure that I don't see any of you for the rest of the year. My temper really isn't as good as it seems you know."
Kitakawa felt Death lock its eyes on him, ready to strike with it's scythe at any second. Speed faster than he ever knew he was capable of burst forth and Kitakawa sprinted away, swearing never to set foot in this neighborhood again for the rest of his life.
Back in the alley, blue eyes looked at nothing, wide and helpless like those of a lost child. For a moment, Nagisa thought he saw that woody hill by Kunugigaoka where Classroom 3-E once stood. Light pings of BB pellets hitting wood and swishes of knives cutting through air echoed in the distance. A yellow octopus creature beamed at him with its emoticon face. A red-haired boy sat on a nearby tree, reading a Sonic Ninja magazine; he winked at Nagisa when he noticed the blunette watching. A green-haired girl walked up to Nagisa, her guileless hazel eyes full of love. She held out her hand in invitation.
Nagisa took a step forwards, his hand outstretched. The scene changed. He was seven, in his favorite sushi shop with his mother and father. His father was handing him the soy sauce. Shiori was talking about the latest fashion while Yuta played with his little son. There were no dresses, no lies, no guns, no knives, and no fear. There was only little Nagisa, his loving parents, and sushi. He was happy. He was content. He was normal.
*Bzzz* *Bzzz* *Bzzz*
Nagisa blinked. He was no longer in the run down classroom of 3-E. He was no longer in that crowded little sushi shop. All there was before him were the gloomy walls of a dirty alley.
"Ah." He sighed, staggering back until he bumped against the wall behind him. "It was just a delusion." Nagisa slid an inch, his knees suddenly weak.
*Bzzz* *Bzzz*
Nagisa composed himself before answering the call. "Hello? … Ah, Fuwa-san. Quick and efficient as always… Thank you. Can you bring it to me tomorrow? …Yes, the usual time and place… Thanks again… See you tomorrow."
Thrusting his cellphone into his pocket, Nagisa drew in a long shaky breath.
"I can't go back." He whispered to himself.
Nagisa flicked his wrist. A greyish green rubber knife slid out of his sleeve. Fingering the blade's dull edge, he steeled his heart.
"I can't go back." He repeated. "So I must move onwards."
In the golden light of the setting sun, a slender boy walked on the street, his unusual blue hair swaying in the evening breeze. No one took a second look at him for there was something about the boy that made him seem transparent in the crowd. A slight smile played at the corner of the boy's lips, as if he had a pleasant day at school. However, if anyone would bother to stop and look— really look— at him, they would notice the mournful glint in those blue orbs, the mournful glint of someone who has lost something precious forever.
A/N: IMPORTANT! This story is NAGIKAE! Izumi Kaede is only an OC with a hopeless crush on Nagisa. There is no way in hell that I will ever let her steal Nagisa away from Kayano!
Ok, now that's over, I have a few announcements that are less important.
1. This is one of those extras that I mentioned in my first A/N. I'm a bit stuck on ReaNo so I wrote this to lure the plotbunnies back.
2. Yay! Kayano survived!
3. Izumi might appear in ReaNo's main storyline. Maybe, I'm not sure. What do you guys think?
4. This might very well be my last update for the month. School starts on the 23rd. T-T
5. Thanks to everyone reading ReaNo, especially those who have followed and/or favourited and/or reviewed. I'll write a complete thank you list after ReaNo is finished since I doubt anyone wants my A/N to be longer than the actual chapter.
6. Suggestions and criticisms are welcome. The more the merrier!
Love you guys!
RiverGhost