Hello everyone, it's Satsuki :) I am very sorry for letting you wait for so long, many things happened and I was in a pretty bad state and ended up not so well. I really apologize for not being able to properly explain, but I don't want to drag my problems here so I just want you to know that I did not forget you, that I will continue writing and that I will do my best keep updating.
Please be patient and forgive me.
Thank you very much.
Karma's P.O.V.
Usually I would blame my reluctance to wake up on the fact I played games until two a.m. Or that I was not an early bird. This time I'm blaming it on the punding pain in my skull, sharp stabbing in right shoulder. I'd literally kill a man to attain the bliss of oblivion, to forget what happened just moments ago, but damn, I couldn't.
Also, it seemed that someone was shaking with me.
I wanted to scream at them and say that I know I gotta wake up before that mad assassin finds us and makes a teeangers soup outta us but instead, a groan escaped my lips.
"Akabane! You goddamned ass!" I got greeted by amethyst eyes of my older brother. Do not get fooled by his choice of words, he was worried shitless about me.
"Can you hear us, Karma-kun?" Nagisa-kun's face got into my view and somewhere in my subconsciousness, I realized that for some reason, I was the last one to come to. Why, it made me feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Yeah, loud and clear." I sighed and tried to sit up, stopping when the aching shoulder reminded me that no, I was not using my arm any time soon. I was pretty sure that I served as a pillow to those two when falling. Seriously though, why the right one? Why not the left? I needed my right arm.
"We need to get out of here." I used the bluenette's help and stood up, cursing under my breath at the realization it was hard to keep myself upright. I must have hit my head because it was still hurting and foggy. Gakushuu only had a few scratches on his arm and messy hair, though I suspeced he might have hurt left leg (seeing that he put less weight on it). Nagisa-kun had bruised cheek and a torn piece of sleeve, exposing a few scratches. Other than that, nothing serious. Thanks god.
Looking around, I analyzed the situation. Apparently, we landed in the middle of nothing but trees, trees and trees. The sky was still kinda dark but it appeared to be about two or three a.m. About four hours after the attack on hotel, three hours after having fallen down from that cliff. I was starting to hate cliffs, by the way. But the fact that we haven't been found yet meant that this place was really huge and the chances of us surviving bigger.
There was weight on my pants and I remembered that I still had the knife and Koro-sensei orb in the pockets. The octopus didn't utter a word, I supposed he knew that Gakushuu was here as well.
Which also meant that we couldn't rely on his guidance.
"I agree, we should find a place to hide-"
"-from what? Who was that guy? What does he want? Can someone please explain what the hell is happening?!" Asano-kun suddenly interrupted, his face with a frown and eyes darting from one place to another as if searching for any potential harm. He must have been pretty on edge.
Nagisa-kun glanced at me, unsure of what to say. I myself had no idea how to answer. We couldn't tell him, could we? That our class was actually an assassination class, that our teacher was our target, that he was the target of all the assassins on this world. First of all, that was against the rules. Second, he would either think we went nuts or go nuts himself. Third, being the mother-hen-stupid-overprotective-idiot brother, he would make me leave the class. So nah.
"Who knows? Let's just find a way to keep ourselves alive first, then care about the details." I waved my hands and dismissed any more questioning looks from him. Not that I succeeded though.
"Stop lying, Karma. You know exactly what's happening. Tell me now." he snapped, stopping me from turning away.
"Look, we don't have time for that. Just listen to me and-"
"I do not plan on blindly following you, kid. I demand an explanation right this moment. Who is that crazy guy and why is he after you?! Is it because of that round thing you held in the restaurant?" His face got closer and I was starting to feel like a small child again, being integorrated by his parent after having done something wrong. But I did nothing wrong. I was trying to protect them. To protect him. So why did they go after me? I could have managed it somehow, without getting this moron into any danger.
"Gakushuu, I can't-" I choked out silently, but got saved when a certain runt spoke up. Damn I completely forgot about his presence. He was too good at making himself go unnoticed, as expected of the assassin genius.
"Guys, there's no point in arguing about this. Let's just... move for now. Okay?" He suggested with a weak smile in attempt to loosen the situation up a bit. I was glad he tried to keep cool despite us being in deep shit.
"Just by the way, since when are you two calling each other first names?" he wondered out loud. Ok, you know what, I wasn't glad he saved me from the strawberry blonde anymore. Having two secrets and two people who had something to do with those two secrets was a hell.
"Oh you see..." I was trying to think of something but my head still wasn't working right. Gakushuu was just as surprised as me, doing his best to make up something credible. No good.
"Didn't you call him nii back at the hotel? What was that supposed to mean?" Nagisa-kun started laughing nervously, as if it finally dawned on him.
"What? No, you heard wrong!" I stopped him. "I said... I said gee, you know? Like geez, shut up."
I felt the amethyst eyes piercing me repeatedly, followed by a look of misbelief. Something between: Seriously? You couldn't think of anything better? and What the fuck were you thinking?!
Yeah right. What the fuck was I thinking.
Oh see, I wasn't thinking. I rarely do, if it comes to my actions.
Either way, there was no point in regretting it now. We had more important things to focus on. The assassin for example.
"We should find a place to hide," I stated, looking around in search for anything that could provide us with shelter. We needed to last twenty four hours. We could do that. Of course we could. I was the mischeivous genius, Nagisa-kun the assasination genius and Gakushuu... Gakushuu was the genius genius.
For God's sake, I must have hit my head pretty hard to admit that.
"We searched around while you were out, there's nothing." The blue headed boy informed me. "I suggest we go further."
"Good idea," and with that, we went who knows where.
To be honest, I didn't have any particular plan. The most important thing was to stay alive until Koro-sensei transformed back, took care of the assassin and then we would return to the hotel.
The problem, however, was my brother. What was I supposed to do with him? What was I supposed to tell him? Even at this moment, I was barely fighting off the flow of questions he wanted to ask me, could I keep him in dark for another day? And if yes, what then, when Koro-sensei returns back to his octopus self?
I was thinking of drugging him, but I didn't have my equipment here.
Now that I thought of, what was the formula and the ingredients for the drugs?
Could I even make one that would make him forget everything?
Hell, I couldn't remember. My train of thoughts was too slow. My vision was swimming and there was a strange buzzing in my ears. No one was talking so I had time to go over my body, checking how everything was working. As mentioned, the right shoulder was killing me. Not dislocated nor broken, I could kinda move it but it hurt a lot. I think it was beginning to swell so most likely a sprain. My other limbs worked fine though.
Anyway, taking the headache and the upcoming nausea into account, it was safe to assume I got myself a nasty concussion. Great. Just. Great. Wonderful. Marvelous. As if being chased by a madman wasn't enough.
"You have been awfully silent for some time now, usually you'd not stop talking," My brother suddenly whispered and I only a few seconds later that he said it in Latin. He was walking behind me with Nagisa-kun behind him.
I didn't answer.
"Your steps are clumsy and inconsistent."
I refused to provide him with any information.
"Your pace is unusually slow, I suspect even Shiota Nagisa knows something is off."
Ugh, I most certainly didn't need a mother-hen Gakushuu to deal with at top of this all.
"You are injured, aren't you?"
"I'm fine."
"I don't trust you."
"Such a shame I don't care."
For a moment, I thought he would give up. How naive of me.
"Stop," he ordered but I did not comply. "Karma, I'm serious. Stop, I want to have a look at you."
But when he saw that I had no intention of doing so, he pretended to slip and grabbed my arm to 'steady himself'. A very usual strategy of his. Unfortunately, he was right handed which means that he reached out his right hand and grabbed my right arm.
I hissed at the sudden sharp pain, black dots invading my vision and tears building up. The whole world spun around in agony and my knees buckled. If it were not for the two there, I would have hit the ground hard once again.
"Karma?!" I caught them shout, not sure though if it were my brother or Nagisa-kun. "What's wrong?!"
Nothing's wrong, just give me a minute to compose myself I wanted to say though in fact, the only thing that came out of me was a moan.
"He's injured," the statement was clearly from Gakushuu. His voice sounded regretful and somewhat panicked, which I was quite happy to hear. He deserved to feel bad for bugging me.
"I'm fine." I groaned, opening my eyes (they were closed?!) and trying to sit up (I was lying?!). Both of them helped me up.
"Karma-kun, tell us the truth. Where did you get hurt?" Nagisa-kun's voice was gentle and his gaze firmly fixed at me. Gods, this was annoying.
"I just hit my shoulder and this moron here just had to tug it. Other than that, I'm fine." I pulled my best "totally okay" voice and tried to get up only to get shoved down once again by my brother.
"Concussion, isn't it?" he declared to my dismay, his expression disapproving. "It's not that dark anymore yet your pupils are dilated. You walked as though you were dizzy and wince every time you move your head."
And here it was.
I made a very long, exaggerated sigh, rolling my eyes (big mistake).
"We're taking a break, going any further with this idiot would slow us down anyway, not to mention his state would worsen," the strawberry blonde told my classmate, a calm and cold mask on.
"How very considerate of you, Asano-kun," the mocking tone was hopefully apparent enough. We were back to the enemy roles after all. Besides, I was annoyed.
The older boy grimaced in disgust: "Don't fancy yourself so much, Akabane, I need information from you. And although I'd love to leave you here to die, it's wisest to stay together at this moment."
With that, they let me stand up and we walked to the biggest tree we could find. I leaned on it, not escaping the concerned glances from both of them.
"Well? What now?" I asked, not angry anymore but still uncomfortable.
"Good question, I don't dare hope there is a cave or something of that sort to provide us with a shelter," the A-class student folded his hands.
For a long time, we didn't utter a word. I glanced towards Nagisa-kun who had that troubled face of his.
"What?" I asked.
The teal headed boy looked up, a little bit puzzled.
"What's wrong? You have that gloomy expression of yours," I explained, still eyeing him. "Speak."
Nagisa-kun sighed: "I'm worried about the class. What if the assa-" he stopped abruptly, realizing that Gakushuu was listening as well. "What if that that man returns to the hotel? What if he hurts them?"
Oh, that?
What a silly concern.
"What for?" I snorted.
"He could take them hostage and threaten us to-"
"How?"
"I don't know, but he could-"
"How?"
My friend stayed silent, scrunching his eyebrows.
"He has no way to reach us. Which means that even if he tried to blackmail us, he wouldn't even have how to tell us that he is blackmailing us. The end. Chill."
"I have to agree. Also, by now, the students should be more or less fine. The drug wasn't that strong, apparently," Gakushuu added, his cold mask not sliping even once. He looked just as annoyed and disdainful as ever. Oh wait, he didn't have to pretend that.
"How can you be so sure, Asano-kun?" the blue haired boy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
Pretty much obvious, if you ask me.
And yeah, my brother really was irritated, most probably by how stupid everyone else was: "You are fine, aren't you?"
"Yeah, more or less."
"You also inhaled a bit of it and you have been alright for some time now, so I suppose the others can cater for themselves just fine."
Nagisa-kun seemed to be satisfied with that answer so my brother turned to me: "You should rest for now, you look ready to drop dead."
That remark surprised me: "Thank you very much but I'm fine. Anyway, where is all that kindness coming from, Asano-kun?" I asked sarcastically.
"Kindness my ass, I told you a while ago that I need information and that staying together is the best thing we could do to survive," he snorted.
"If you needed information, you could go and interrogate Nagisa-kun."
"It's easier to do so with an injured person, they can't run away."
For a while, we just stared at each other. I wasn't only being stubburn, just to be clear, I really did not want to slow us down. I could walk, although a little bit dizzily, but still. And at this time, we needed to find a hideout and maybe even something to defend ourselves. So no, I was not letting them get hurt because of something as stupid as concussion.
"Shiota Nagisa, if you would, can you please walk around here and make sure there's nothing dangerous nearby? We will be staying here for some time so it's better to know the terrain in case something happens," Gakushuu suddenly ordered, his tone irrefusable.
My classmate looked way too reluctant and he shot me a glance. I assured him that it's alright so he calmed down a bit and went on patrol.
After he was far enough, my brother started in Latin: "I know you aren't as well as you say you are, Karma. Rest up and after an hour, I will wake you up and we will go."
"I can cope with it, we need to find a safer place," looking into his amethyst eyes, I insisted.
The strawberry blonde sighed, his eyebrows furrowing: "I'm not buying it. I understand your intentions but you need to understand that just as you are worried about us, I am worried about you. Now sit down, you are pale like a ghost."
"Gakushuu-"
"Sit down."
And I complied, knowing that in this state, I couldn't win. Honestly, my head was hurting bad enough as it was, I didn't need a full blown war with my elder sibling.
"One hour. That's all I'm asking you for," he demanded and I knew very well that he was only trying to help me. I thought it over. One hour was quite a lot. Meanwhile, the assassin could find us. And taking a nap with a concussion was most certainly not a good idea - it left you groggy, slow and tired. Extremely tired.
I knew, I had a concussion twice already. I was growing used to it, maybe.
"Karma. One hour. You need it, you know you do. And if you won't take it easy, I will force you. I can do it and I will."
Yes, I was aware of the fact that he would be willing to knock me out cold.
So I didn't have much of a choice, did I?
"Half an hour," I demanded, not taking a no as an answer.
Gakushuu rolled his eyes but nodded: "Fine. Now, sleep."
It turned out it was quite easy, because as soon as I relaxed a little bit, black dots invaded my vision.
Asano's P.O.V.
Idiot.
That's all I'm saying.
I was crouching just in front of him and looking for any sings of problems. Karma was pale, slightly sweating and his breathing rather inconsistent, but he didn't seem to be injured seriously, thank gods. I touched his cheek to check the temperature, just for sure, and to my pleasure, it was also fine.
So I stood up and took a deep breath.
Despite seeming calm, I was quite disturbed. I had no idea what happened. Absolutely no idea. This island was a private island of our school, so there couldn't have been anyone without authorisation here.
Another thing is - what was it that the man wanted? The redhead took out something small in the hotel, it was round, but other than that I saw nothing else. I was blocking it with his own body, deliberately, so that I wouln't see. He was hiding something and it had to do something with that madman chasing after that.
I looked at the sleeping boy - he didn't have a bag or anything of that sort so I assumed he had that orb in his pocket. Carefully, I reached out for it and-
"Asano-kun!"
I immediately stopped and turned around to see a certain blue haired boy walking towards us. It seems he didn't notice what I was trying to do.
"Shiota," he stood up, acknowledging his presence.
"I found a large tree a bit further from here, I think it's a good place to stay for a while so-" he stopped when he saw Karma unconsciouss, and a panicked expression appeared on his face: "What happened?!"
"He got dizzy so he sat down and fell asleep," I replied calmly and looked at my baby brother.
The E-class student weakly nodded: "Is that so,"
I was still watching the redhead. "Yes," the rise of his chest, his peaceful face...
Indeed.
Such an idiot.
