So yeah… I planned to get this done a long time ago, but writers block, Nano, other stories, the holidays, general sloth, and other stuff got in the way. The Assassination Classroom anime kind of got in the juices flowing for a bit, but then sloth took over again, not to mention video games. I have been working on this story for months now but it didn't want to end, not that it means it's gonna be good, just that I'm long winded. But now I'm back and hopefully more stories will come out.
Summer was ending soon, it was still warm out, but the signs were all there. Mornings getting colder, days getting shorter, and the like; it was enough to depress a person, especially since it might be the end of the Earth's last summer. Such thoughts put a lot of pressure on the members of Class E who were tasked to kill the best teacher they ever had to save the world. After the whole Takebayashi it was a whole lot harder, after all it was hard to make the world seem important after being treated like garbage by the whole school and the Chairman's underhanded methods.
During the weekend Koro-Sensei told them to take their day off to recharge a bit so that they would bright eyed and bushy tailed on Monday when they returned to kill him. The students of Class 3-E all went about to do different things outside of the school where they could just be kids again instead of the outcast assassins they had been forced to become. The some like the delinquents of the class slept in late and did something simple and fun like play basketball or go biking.
Others like the sniper duo wanted to continue to improve their skills so they did made good use of their time and played paintball. They were laughed at when they showed up, after all they were middle schoolers and everyone else playing was adults. After the first few minutes though, only Chiba and Hayami were free of paint and it quickly devolved into a duel between Class E's snipers. On the line was a simple bet between the two of them, the winner would decide on the next activity they did. In the end it was close, but Hayami won. Chiba might have had the edge in long range combat because he was a better sniper, but the cheap paintball guns they rented at the range didn't have the same capabilities as the military airsoft guns they received to kill Koro-Sensei. When shot from too far away the paint pellet would veer off course and miss its target. While he could compensate for the handicap eventually, against someone like Hayami he knew he wouldn't have the time and instead took a gamble that failed when he changed their battle into a mid-range fire fight. Hayami had the advantage with shorter ranges and the handgun paint guns she used were her specialty and it became her game. They left the range that day and went to dance, Hayami it demanded as her prize. Chiba had lost the match and had a blue splotch of paint on his shirt, not to mention the bruise that was already forming but didn't actually seem to mind.
While a lot of the other students of the class took their time to enjoy themselves like Koro-Sensei said, Isogai had to work. Technically he didn't have to, he wasn't even really supposed to since he was still in middle school, but helping his family came first regardless of what the school could do to him. And luckily, it was far enough from the school that rarely anyone came that would recognize him, at least that's how it had worked out so far.
Still, luck had an odd relationship with Yuuma Isogai since birth. It had blessed him with talent, looks, brains, and personality while trapping him into a poor family where he had little chance to escape the poverty he had been born into. He had been able to attend Kunugigaoka, one of the country's most prestigious schools only to be knocked down to Class 3-E when he was caught attempting to work hard and raise his family out of poverty against school regulation. Such had been Isogai's life and he had always bore it without complaint, and that day would be no different.
Isogai didn't mind his work at the café, it wasn't at all hard not to mention the customers and staff adored him so he made good money even without tips. In fact he was already nearing the end of his shift, he had been asked to come in early to set up before the morning rush so he would have off the rest of the afternoon in less than an hour. Class 3-E's male rep wouldn't have minded working the whole day if he had too, but he did what the manager/owner wanted without question. In truth the manager didn't even really need the Ikemen to come in early, the elderly matron who owned the café simply wanted the young man to enjoy what he had left of his summer instead of toiling away. She had learned early that it was simply easier to get him work different times so he could enjoy the day instead of telling him to take a day off.
"Come on, let's go to this café, one of my friends from another school came here once and said that the food was really good and one of the waiters was really cute," the, 'oh too familiar voice,' of Nakamura rang out from the outside.
"Oh no," Isogai sighed flatly, he didn't really mean it. He knew what was happening and what would happen; after all he knew his luck. The bell rang and he played his part, "hello, welcome, what may I do for your today," he said giving his classmates his classic nice guy smile.
"Isogai," Kataoka more surprised than anything.
She had been enjoying a nice afternoon of shopping away from the school and being a normal girl with Kayano, Nakamura, and Okuda. They were lucky that they had received their training from Karasuma-Sensei since going shopping with the hot-blooded Nakamura was like going to war itself. Still, the English ace had managed to lead them to a lot of good sales so they could all call it a victory. It wasn't until they ran into a group of girls from the main building of their school that they ran into trouble, which came in the form of girls from the main building. She had seen around back when she was in the main building and a few times when she helped Kokona but she didn't know their names.
It quickly devolved into regular Class E bashing, but maybe a bit cattier, if Kataoka read the whole situation right. It was always awkward for her since she was always on the outside of the bashing. Aside from the more general group insults thrown at all of Class E, none of the girls from the main building tried to slight Kataoka. After all how could they, since she was tied for in 7th over all grades in school and was widely known as one of the best athletes as well. Not to mention, that she was considered one of the best looking girls in the school, most of the girls wanted her to be their 'big sister,' if not something more. At least one of the girls throwing heated glances at her during the argument between main building girl's leader and Nakamura, and not the same heat at that.
Kataoka didn't know why she had the ability to attract lesbians or turn most girls at least bisexual for her. It was a curse she had had since elementary school, growing up she had been taller than all the other girls and stronger, as strong as the boys if not stronger. She was the one all the other girls in class turned to stop bullying instead of the teacher since Kataoka actually got results. That was when she developed her own little posse of other girls fawning over her, fighting over who could carry her books, doing anything for a pat on the head. In hindsight it seemed rather obvious, but they were only little girls back then, the love confessions didn't start until middle school. It wasn't like it was horrible and she was flattered by the attention, but when girls left their boyfriends for her believing her to be their one true love and crashing when she turned them down, it got grating. If she was a boy, or gay, or bisexual, or anything to do with being sexually attracted to women Kataoka would have loved her situation, but since she wasn't and didn't her ability to attract women always created awkward situations for her.
Still even without her intervention Nakamura managed to send the girls from the main building away with far cleverer insults than they could have thought up. While she may act like a perverse thug who wields insults like cudgels, she was far more subtle than that. After all she was the top score in English during the last big exam and could convince others to do things that they would later swear they didn't want to do with only a few words. No, Nakamura was truly the most eloquent speaker of Class-E, save for perhaps Kanzaki who is far less malicious with her words.
So with a huff and a few insults that didn't have the intelligence or fire of Nakamura's the girls from the main building fled in frustration abandoning the prize they had been fighting over. Before they left though the girl that had been eyeing Kataoka managed to stuff a card with her number on it and told the swimmer to call her sometime before returning to flee with her friends. Truly it would have been an odd situation if they were not members of Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka middle school.
Even though she had won the fight, ever the firecracker, Nakamura was still a bit charged from putting the main building girl in her place. "Come on, maybe we should go to the bad parts of town and pick fights with thugs," she suggested with a slasher's smile.
"How about we don't," Kayano said shiver slightly.
"Yeah I vote no too," Okuda said also slightly nervous.
"That's right," Kataoka said remembering their stories at the hotel during the school trip to Kyoto. "The two of you ran into some trouble with thugs from another school right?"
"Yeah," Okuda said nodding furiously, "they were high schoolers and it was really scary. Kayano and Kanzaki got the worst of it though, I managed to hide," she squeaked out the last part sounding ashamed.
"It was horrible for all of us Manami," Kayano said encouraging her friend, "I would have hid too if I had the chance." The sweets lover was trying to sound brave, but the incident clearly still bothered her, "good thing Sensei was there otherwise we would have been in trouble."
That had kind of killed Nakamura's mood, "I wasn't serious," she said kicking the dirt a bit like a toddler.
Sensing the black cloud starting to hover over them Kataoka did what any leader would do and tried to raise the moral. "Come on everybody, that's enough of that," she said clapping loudly waking everyone up. "No more talk of bullies and thugs. It's a nice day and it's not even noon yet, we won't have that many more so let's enjoy this one," she said hoping it didn't sound too cheesy.
The girls looked at her for a second and then started laughing, not hurtful laughing but it managed to make the class rep blush. "You are too cute Kataoka," Kayano said giggling, but the negative attitude infecting them seemed to clear up.
"Hey I have an idea," Nakamura said with a snap of her fingers, "it's hot and we've been shopping for a few hours, let's take a break and go get something to drink."
"That does sound like a good idea, I wouldn't mind something to drink," Kataoka said diplomatically. It wasn't even noon yet, but sitting down and chatting with friends was hardly the worst thing in the world.
"I'd be fine with that," Kayano said, she didn't have the stamina of Kataoka or Nakamura and she was more than happy enough to sit down.
"I'd be okay with that too," Okuda said quietly, she was still so shy when it came to voicing her opinion. "Where should we go though?"
Nakamura scanned for what was around until a café caught her eye. "Come on, let's go to this café, one of my friends from another school came here once and said that the food was really good and one of the waiters was really cute," she said pushing her friends into a café nearby.
"Oh no," "Isogai," and now you're caught up. "Hello, what may I do for your today," Isogai said trying to maintain his composure, but his nervousness was still visible to his classmates.
"Table for four I guess," Nakamura said taking the lead, she didn't know why Isogai was working there, but he was nervous even for him so she didn't want to press it in the door way. He'd be more fun to tease at the table. She was a bit disappointed that the guy her friends from other schools went on and on about was just Isogai. Not that he wasn't good looking or anything, but she saw him almost every day and Nakamura knew he wasn't her type. Her girl Kataoka had a thing for her fellow ikemen and Nakamura wasn't one to step on a friend's toes. 'Isogai would look good in a skirt though,' she said to herself as she checked out his bum when he brought them to their booth.
She wondered why he was working here in a nice, but kind of small café that old ladies go to. Old ladies tend to be sweet to ikemen like Isogai, but then don't always tip well. There was no denying that Isogai's family was poor, it was just him and his mom after all and a part-time job probably helped keep expenses down. Still, if he needed money he could make more money by working at a maid café, Nakamura wondered, but different strokes and all that.
"Here are some menus ladies," Isogai said passing out four menus to his classmates, the worry was clear on his face but he was able to maintain a professional front. He knew that they wouldn't snitch on him, they were comrades after all and friends. But when he first saw people from Kunugigaoka he had a flashback to the last time he was caught working a part-time job.
"Isogai," a soft and quite voice called out to him as he turned to leave to see other tables while they thought about what they wanted. "Why are you working here," Kataoka asked her face full of worry, as the female class president of Class 3-E she knew as much as he did the trouble he could get into if the chairman found out he had a part-time job. Have a job was the reason he was forced to become a member of Class-E in the first place, if he got caught again… she didn't want to think about it. "You know how much trouble you could get into," she didn't want to sound preachy, but she was worried about him… as friends should be.
Letting out a sigh he turned back towards them, the manager didn't mind most of the time if his staff spent time talking to customers, in fact he complimented Isogai on his rapport with them. Happy customers meant they would come back, so an ikemen's skills were perfect for being a server. "I sort of need this job right now," Isogai wasn't exactly embarrassed by his low economic status, everyone knew and he wasn't ashamed of his life. But sometimes the troubles piled up all at once and his poverty status was in full affect so he tried to hide things away from his friends.
Noting his tone and not wanting to confront him about what he was doing in front of the other girls she reluctantly relented. Instead of interrogating him she merely sighed, "I will have a lemon tea please, and whatever you recommend for a snack. Nothing too heavy, if you would," she said handing him her menu. Her tone said that they weren't done talking about this, but she was willing to wait until later. The other girls scrambled to decide what they wanted since they were too busy watching their friends like a soap opera and they thought they would have more time to decide. Eventually everyone managed to place their order and things calmed down, "alright," Isogai said writing everything down with a far more sincere smile now that he wasn't the center of attention. "Your orders should be right out along with a honey toast cake for the table," he said, "if there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to ask," giving them a small bow and walking away.
They remained quiet for a certain amount of time before Nakamura decided to break the silence, "alright, we're all thinking it, but if no one's gonna say it I will," she said with an air of finality. "Isogai makes a good waiter, but if he worked in a maid café he'd make more money," she said nodding making the other girls cough to catch their breath.
"That is not what any of us were thinking Nakamura," Okuda managed to squeak out.
"Well now you are and you can't tell me I'm wrong," the English buff challenged her friends.
"No we're not," Kayano said red faced and lying, she was, probably not as much as Nakamura, but it wasn't that safe for work either.
"He'd look good in a maid outfit, but I think he would look better as a butler," Kataoka said absently as she observed the ikemen serving table to table with his charming smile glued to his face. She could imagine one day in the future, after they killed Sensei and got the reward. Most likely Isogai would be among the group to finish him off, but if he wasn't and she was, she could see herself hiring him as a butler and pouring her tea every day. Realizing her three friends were staring at her she blushed and stammered, "w-well he would."
"Damn our class reps a dirty girl," Nakamura said with a cat's grin.
"It's not like that," Kataoka shouted loudly drawing the eye of everyone in the café, including their waiter. Her face stained red she buried her face in the table hoping her embarrassment would kill her quickly.
"Okay fine, you can have your butler, but after we get rich killing Sensei I'll buy you a maid costume for just in case stuff," Nakamura said as if that sentence was something you said every day.
Not wanting to fight Kataoka just groaned again and asked, "can we just stop talking about this?" The other girls took pity on her and just smiled before changing the subject to other stuff, what they were going to be learning next semester, what shops they should go to next, any plans on killing Koro-Sensei that they thought up recently, typical teenage girl stuff. It brightened Kataoka's mood, but every now and then she could feel her eyes drift to the handsomely dressed Ikemen.
When Isogai arrived with their drinks and cakes, they thanked him without interrogating him, though Kataoka always seemed to be staring into his soul every time they locked eyes and Nakamura did call him Sebastian-sama for some reason. He didn't question it though since he knew they would get the answers out of him somehow. So instead of worrying he opted out and simply made polite conversation that was a bit more intimate since they were his friend's not just customers.
The tea was wonderful and the cakes were tasty while not being heavy, the shop was excellent, Kataoka could tell that it wasn't just the handsome waiter that drew customers in. 'I'm sure it doesn't hurt though,' she grumbled in her head. Whenever Isogai moved to wait on another table of girls their age they cooed at him, pushed their chests out, and complimented him with the subtlety of a hammer and it made her mad. The only thing that held her back was that Isogai wasn't flirting back at all, he was polite and kind like he always was with that smile of his, but he never gave the indication that he was anything but their waiter. Kataoka knew that she didn't have the right to be jealous since they weren't anything but friends, but she couldn't help it.
Eventually the bill came and the girls were ready to end their break, so they paid their bill and said goodbye to Isogai. He was glad they choose then to leave, ten more minutes and his shift would be up and they could have walked out with him. 'That would have been a nightmare,' he thought to himself as he served his last customers and moved to hang up his apron. "I'll see you tomorrow Tena," he said to his manager as he left.
"Have a good night Yuuma," Tena his grandmotherly manager, called to him, "try to have some fun today, you don't want to look as old and withered as me before you get to high school."
"If I looked as pretty as you do now when I'm in high school I might have to quit this job and work at a maid café," Isogai said jokingly, but the sincerity in his voice bled through enough to make his manager smile.
"Please you're already too pretty to work in a maid café, if you looked as pretty as I do you'd never leave with your virtue intact Yuuma. Now get out of here," she said branishing a towel threateningly. "It's a beautiful day out, go and enjoy it," she said giving her blessing in a snarky old person way.
Giving one last wave Isogai went out the back entrance like a good employee, only to be ambushed by Kataoka who was sitting in the alley waiting for him on the stoop. This was not the first time that Isogai was ambushed by a girl from his school, this would not be the last time he was ambushed at his job by someone from his school, this was however the first time he was ambushed by a girl from his school at his job. It was also the first time that the girl who ambushed him was a girl he had feelings for, even though she was probably the third to last person he wanted to see right now. The first two would be Asano and his father, that would just be awful if they found out.
"Hey Isogai," Kataoka said causally, "pull up a seat," she said patting a spot on the concrete stoop beside her.
His first instinct was to run, Karasuma Sensei had taught them to do so when faced with an adversary that wasn't Koro Sensei. Their octopus teacher wouldn't do any harm to them, but a human or animal opponent would and as assassins they were meant to assassinate not fight. Unless you were you know, Karma or Nagisa, someone like the former loved to fight and the latter was surprisingly deadly in battle. But then Kataoka was dangerous in a bunch of ways, she wasn't going to be deadly right now so Isogai decided to talk to her but he remained standing in front of her. "Hello Kataoka, I thought you would be with the other girls," he said trying to make the conversation lean away from the topic he didn't want to discuss.
"They went on ahead, when I talked to that nice lady who you work for and she said you would be off the clock in a little bit if I wanted to wait outside. She also told me that she liked me more than the other girls who asked about you so she let me stay," she said with a grin. "Since it would only be a short wait I told the other girls that I would catch up after I spoke to you," for some reason her face redden a bit, but he didn't want to mention it.
"Dammit Tena," Isogai lightly swore under his breath, he didn't mean it but it was still annoying.
"I told you we were going to have this talk," Kataoka said, "I did wait until after you were done with work."
"I know, and I'm grateful, but that doesn't mean I want to have it," Isogai said even though they knew they needed to.
"I know," Kataoka said with a sigh, "listen, okay. If it was something else, something that wouldn't get you in trouble like this I would just leave you alone and mind my own business. But Isogai, this is what got you sent to Class E in the first place, if someone saw you you could be expelled," her tone was gentle yet firm, she didn't want to attack him after all.
"I know the risks Kataoka," he said harsher than he wanted, he instantly felt sick when he saw the hurt in her eyes. "Look I'm sorry," he said sincerely, "I do know the risks and I know you're just worried about me. I appreciate it, but I don't have much choice, my mom's sick, she's been working two jobs to support us and she collapsed from exhaustion one day."
"Oh my god Isogai, is she alright," Kataoka asked, hurt feelings instantly forgotten when Isogai brought that up.
Smiling warmly Isogai said, "yeah, she's fine now, but she has to take it easy for a while so she had to quit one of her jobs. She shouldn't even be working the one she still has for at least a week, but she's kind of stubborn like that. Things have always been tight at my house since it's just the two of us and now they've gotten even tighter… I just need to do something so she doesn't overwork herself again," he said finally sitting down next to her. "I'm sorry I got mad, it's just that between my mom getting sick and being terrified that I could be found out any moment and expelled, it's just been a whole stressful situation."
"You don't have to be such a stick in the mud Isogai," Kataoka said with a giggle, "you're only human, even super humans like Karasuma Sensei get angry sometimes, I'm sure mere mortals like the two of us are allowed to get overwhelmed sometimes."
At that moment Kataoka didn't look like a mere mortal, she looked like a goddess, he didn't say anything though, it would have sounded stupid even coming from an Ikemen. "Well I'm still sorry Kataoka, you're always helping out others and I know you are only trying to help me, I shouldn't take my problems out on you."
Kataoka decided to make a comforting friendship gesture, at least that's what she told herself as she laid her head on his shoulder. She had seen the female protagonist in a manga Fuwa had lent her do this to the male lead when he was having a hard time. It was strictly platonic of course, though that didn't stop her from blushing as she did. "It's okay Isogai, like I said you're allowed to be stressed. I want you to know that I did have reasons for questioning you getting a job, especially since it's the reason you were banished into Class E with the rest of us idiots."
"Y-you're not an idiot Kataoka," the Ikemen managed to squeak out, it was true that her grades slipped back in the main building. But now that she didn't have to help Tsuchiya with her school work she was back at the top of Class E and practically the school, she was tied for seventh overall with Takebayashi.
"But I was Isogai," she said with a smile taking her head off of his should and shook his head when it looked like he was about to argue, "don't say I wasn't Isogai because I was. I was stupid because I let Tsuchiya use me as her work horse so she wouldn't get sent to Class E while I fell to Class End. But I've gotten better thanks to Koro-Sensei and you guys, so don't feel bad about agreeing with me, because we're supposed to get better at things at this age." She paused for a moment before meeting his eyes again, "just be careful okay, I know that you're working for your family, but you could still get in trouble and expelled if someone from the school catches you."
"I will," Isogai promised. He knew he couldn't break a promise to Kataoka even if he wanted to, it was just that sometimes intentions aside circumstances just line up so that things happen and cause you to break them.
"It's just that you're an important part of the class Isogai," Kataoka said looking down, "we need you if we're going to kill Koro-Sensei."
"I'm not that important," he said attempting to shrug off her worry. "I mean it's not like I'm going to try and be expelled, but if I'm caught I'm sure someone can replace me and take up my slack."
"No one can replace you Isogai, no one," she said with half fury in her eyes, but the sincerity of her statement was clear. Coughing and taking a moment to compose herself, "what I mean is that you're one of the leaders of the class, people like you and listen to you when you speak. Not to mention you're the best in the class when it comes to knife work, losing you would be a huge loss to our total forces as an assassination classroom. So don't forget you're an important member of our class and important to me," she said before realizing what she said. Her eyes went wide as she stared into Isogai's and her face burned hot.
"D-did you just," Isogai started, but Kataoka didn't let him finish.
"Anyway," she said starting to back away since she didn't want to have this talk right now, "the girls have been waiting for me, if I don't hurry I might never find them. I guess I'll see you in a few days when school starts," she said walking out of the alley they were talking in quickly.
"Kataoka," Isogai called out after her and she stopped before slowly turning around, she was embarrassed enough as it was she didn't want it to get worse. When she looked at him he was standing up straight and looking at the ground, his face was probably as red as hers, the damn ikemen had to top everything everyone did. Still, he looked determined, "you're important to me too," he said meeting her eyes and her heart swelled. "Have a good night," he said with a wave so she would feel free to leave the awkward moment behind them.
"Yeah," the girl who was more mermaid than school girl said after swallowing the breath she didn't know she was hold, "you too." And she ran to catch up with the other girls with the summer sun still overtop.
P.S. The Chiba Hayami part was just shameless fanservice on my part because I like the ship, it doesn't have much to do with the story itself but I hope you enjoyed it either way.
P. S. S. I want to apologize for anyone who was uncomfortable with the last chapter and the forced crossdressing. I realize that it makes some people uncomfortable, I kind of find it funny because they are just manga characters but I still I am sorry if there were people who didn't like it and was offended. I will probably not be making a second part to it kind of because of this and also because the recent chapters with Nagisa's mom… well I will leave it at that to avoid spoiling anything, but it left a bad taste in my mouth so I will not be continuing it.