Hello everyone, its been a really long time. Things happened. On the side of Elissance and on mine. I nearly lost the ID of this account too. But here we are. If you wish to see the french and original version of this story, please, go to Zialema account.
So, here we go, enjoy this.
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July the first, time to put on the summer uniform…
"The skin is so bright… this time of the year is so hard for middleschoolers like us..." drooled slightly Okajima as he send a dreaming look at his feminine classmates as they took their seat.
"If you say so..." muttered Nagisa, unfazed.
"Ne! We didn't see Ace and Marco-sensei train today..." pointed one girl a little further away.
"I hope that Marco-sensei will accept to wear something without sleeve" sighed another with a dreaming expression.
And of course, the professors didn't agree…
"It's not good at all!" growled Koro-sensei with his most serious expression. "You can't let the season that expose the body distract you!"
"You can talk, octopus pervert!" roared the class.
With reason since the cover of his magazine that Koro-sensei was reading showed women wearing bikini.
Sugaya came in at this instant saying:
"I hadn't taken into account that we would wear short sleeves from today onward."
Everbody watched him. And everyone screamed…
"I didn't want for this left arm, sealed by the gods, be revealed to you..."
Understandable, seeing that he had a huge tattoo on his arm!
But everyone was looking at him seeming to say 'What did you do, Sugaya!?' What took you to do that!'.
"Don't shit your pants for that, it's henné," commented Ace as he slide inside the classroom, his left arm covered with a bandage and his elbow pad largely in evidence. That thing disappear after more or less a week.
"You got hurt?" asked Kayano?
"Nooope! Don't worry."
"Henné… though Karma before remembering. "That's something that is done in India, isn't it?"
"Oh, you know, Karma-kun?" inquired a girl as she moved off the way for Ace to join his place.
"Yeah, my parents are crazy about the culture from India. When we travel there, I always come back with henné tattoos."
"Yo-yokatta… I'm relieved to see that no student in this class is falling into delinquency…" sighed Koro-sensei.
He had been so panicked by this that he had taken out a collection of book on how to take care of adolescent and advise them, when they fell into crime.
"Like always, you're scared of this sort of thing..." muttered someone. "You care too much for appearances."
A snicker made all of them freeze.
"A tattoo in henné scare you so much?" asked Ace with a smile too innocent to be believable. The photos that Ritsu had shown had been on the bad angle for this…
Koro-sensei looked at Ace puzzled.
The brown haired boy removed his elbow pad to put it on the opposite arm, showing a small L tattooed, with a strawhat above it. Koro-sensei squinted his eyes.
The bandage around his arm was removed…
And the tattoo appeared.
And to end it, Ace unbuttoned his shirt and let it fall on the desk.
"Aaah, I breath..." he snickered.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Koro-sensei.
"That is for sure, this isn't henné," deadpanned Nagisa.
Since Kyoto, it looked like Ace had redone his tattoo on his back, and had the time to add one going from his heart to his ribs… looking remotely like a wing of blue fire.
"You're covered in tattoo, poor thing, it must have hurt like a bitch," commented Isogai as his threw an eraser at Ace's head.
The boy caught it when it came back by his forehead, to send it back to its owner.
"Nan, it's Marco that did this."
He showed the tattoo on his back as he said:
"This one, it's the traditional tattoo. Everybody get it when they join the crew. And it's the commander that paint it on their men.
He ignored Hazama's tentative to kill Koro-sensei, who seemed to be in a state of shock, to put back his shirt on, as he continued to speak:
"Frey-san, the first Second Commander, died when I was about thirteen or fourteen years old, so, when I joined the crew, that tradition was twisted, since the second float didn't have a commander anymore. This is why Marco had to do my mark."
"Ooooh…" said the class.
"And Cassandra-san got it too?!" asked Okajima with a perverted grin, imagining without a doubt where he shouldn't.
"Nope. It's not mandatory, but everbody has one… Cassandra is only a nurse, Oyaji always denied for the nurses to have one.
"And sensei?!" asked Fuwa as he grabbed Ace's arm.
"Ace, I took two hours to bandage your arm, who said to remove it, yoi?" said Marco as he passed by in the corridor.
It didn't mean he stopped, so he didn't see Ace stuck his tongue at him.
"Remind us how old you are?" demanded Sugino with a smile.
"Five mentally," confessed Ace, shameless.
He raised his head to look at Koro-sensei who had put his shivering tentacles on Ace's shoulders, after having redone at Mach 20 the bandage.
"Don't worry, Ace-kun… it's normal, at twenty, you're still searching for yourself… everything will be alright…"
For all answer, Ace put his shoulders on fire, making explode Koro-sensei's tentacles.
"I'm all right, thank you very much."
Sugaya called out to Koro-sensei taking out some material for henné.
"If you want to, I can make a beautiful picture in henné for you. I still have some."
"Nyyya! You would, really!?" said Koro-sensei deliriously happy.
Sugaya took out a little paper to test out the henné.
"Eh, it's like drawing with molten chocolate..." commented a girl.
And Sugaya immediately got to work on an excited Koro-sensei's face. He had always wanted to have a pseudo tattoo… and Koro-sensei's face began to melt. As the octopus began to panick, Ace threw himself at him to push him to the ground, but the target succeed in sliding between his arms to avoid Sugaya's knife.
"We tried," said Ace as he stood up.
"We could have done it if he had stayed still a little longer," sighed the budding artist.
"How did you melt his face?" inquired Karma.
"I powered some anti-sensei bullet to mix them with the henné," explained Sugaya. "I did predict that he would move because of the surprise and the pain, which is why I called Ace last night to ask for his help with this plan."
"It's interesting, Sugaya-kun, but as useless as a sting," said Koro-sensei as he regenerated himself, once he composed himself again.
And he went to mope in a corner, telling that he really wanted a henné tattoo.
"Sorry, I'll draw you one with the other, it's the good one," promised Sugaya.
Marco raised his head, groaning, from the map he was drawing and stood up, after Irina's scream.
"I'm going to see what happened, yoi," sighed Marco to Karasuma and Cassandra.
The blond continued to read the medical publication that she had in her hands and Karasuma thanked him with a nod as he went back to his report for the Ministry of Defense.
Marco went out in the corridor and went to find Irina who was standing the best she could at the door. The Phoenic looked at the class with a raised eyebrow.
"Actually, I think you can remove your bandage, Ace, yoi. By Oyaji's beard, it's a visual art class or what?"
Everybody had the arms, if not the legs for the girls in skirt, covered in henné and Koro-sensei had beautiful motif in form of flowers on his head, around his hat, and on his cheek.
"Well, once I had finished with Koro-sensei, everyone wanted to have one," explained Sugaya.
"I can see that, yoi."
"I'm so excited that I can't concentrate on the class!" grinned Koro-sensei.
And he called himself their homeroom teacher…
"Well, to see you drawing make me want to try myself," said Koro-sensei while Marco slid into the classroom to throw a better look at the art.
"I'm alright with this, but I already did it with everyone, there is no more blank canvas available. Ace already has enough true tattoo as is, no need to add to it with henné."
Ace stuck his tongue at them, from where he was sitting, on his desk.
Marco leaned back from his examination of Karma's arm when someone called him.
Koro-sensei had in one of his tentacle a tube of henné and show it to the phoenix.
"BANZAIIII!"
Marco almost face-planted when Ace jumped on his back to grab his hips with his legs.
"What are you doing, yoi?" demanded Marco.
"Don't move! Nice phoenix!"
The vein appearing on Marco's temple was a bad sign, but Ace was sharp. Quickly, all the buttons of the blond shirt were removed. When the older man tried to get rid of the brown haired boy, Ace's grip on the collar tightened and he let himself fall, taking the shirt with him.
"No more place for him either!" smiled Ace, proud of his bullshit, the shirt in his arms.
Indeed, in fact, on his chest, there was the emblem of their crew. But on his back, the golden skin was taken by a phoenix and a panther with flames, turning around each others.
"Good job, sensei… Who is your tattooer?" asked Karma as he observed the details.
"Thatch. I had a bad scar to hide anyway, and he was the only one I was letting near my back without feeling the urge to kill."
He took his shirt back and put it on, before slapping Ace in the back of his head.
"After, I think that if you want a really blank canvas…" Hiken paused.
Horns appeared on Ace's head who looked at Irina still dazed in the entrance of the classroom. When Karma followed his gaze, horns appeared on him too.
"What do you think about this one?" asked the redhead pointing at the English teacher.
"This one isn't bad," approved Sugino.
"A large surface like a canvas where we can paint whatever we want..." smiled Koro-sensei.
Understanding their intent, Irina began protesting as she took steps back, before her indoor sandals slipped on some henné.
Ziooof!
Boom!
And a bump for the teach.
"Well, Bitch-sensei fainted in happiness before you could even begin to work!" laughed Ace.
"Let's let her rest for now," said Koro-sensei. "And while she is sleeping, I'm going to take one arm. Sugaya-kun, you can take the other?"
"Ara, you want to have a competition with me?"
And they began to work.
"He is talented, isn't he?" commented Nagisa as he joined Ace, Karma and Marco.
"Very," approved Marco.
"There was a time when this talent put me apart from the others," retold Sugaya. "I had a tendency to draw on the back of my tests, which didn't do anything good for my bad grades. This talent, I was told, doesn't have any application in society. It's the reason why I was send to the Class E."
He moved away for an instant to admire the beautiful drawing he had done on the professor's arm. Several girls were jealous. The right side, on the other side…
Koro-sensei had done a mini manga with simple pictures.
"I'm not good at drawing, so, I put my best skill forth!"
"She won't be able to go out in public without long sleeve, yoi," sympathized Marco as he closed his shirt. It's the disadvantage with tattoo. She is lucky, in some time, the henné will be gone. If it was a true one, she would have to make a tattoo above it or ask for a very expensive depigmenting, yoi."
Sugaya tried to salvage it by decorating around it, but Koro-sensei had the idea to draw a mustache and glasses…
In the end, the result was horrifying, since she had henné from head to toes, and if you excluded Sugaya's work… it was pretty bad.
"Ouch, she won't like it..." groaned Ace. "It's as artistic as relying my freckles together."
"You want us to try!" proposed Karma as he gave him a smile, oh too innocent.
"Try and I will..."
Ace fell asleep on Marco who caught him without thinking.
"Ah, the lady is waking up," pointed out Marco.
Irina had, indeed, opened her eyes. She straightened, looked at her arms and her legs silently.
"It seems like she liked it," supposed Koro-sensei.
"I think that we should evacuate, yoi," whispered Marco.
Nagisa approved and went to open the window, allowing the class to run away, leaving the two artists alone to face Irina who was coming back, full of rage, armed with two assault rifle.
"DIE! I'LL MASSACRE EACH OF YOU! YOU RUINED MY FIRST MUCH AWAITED OUTING OF THE YEAR IN BIKINI!"
The students stayed sitting outside of the classroom against the wall, far from their angry teacher's sight as she chased after Sugaya and Koro-sensei.
"If Sugaya-kun had been the only one to draw, she would have been as angry," smiled nervously Nagisa as he watched all of that from the window. "Koro-sensei added unnecessary things at every steps…"
"Stay here, I'm going to pick up Sugaya," stated Marco.
"You're going to get killed," pointed out Kanzaki with worry.
"I am the Phoenix."
And Marco jumped by the window and quickly caught Sugaya to evacuate him, leaving Koro-sensei alone take care of the enraged blond.
"Fwuuuuu, that was a close one! Thank you sensei..."
Sugaya took back his breath with a smile.
He had always hated that his pictures were ignored or costed him pointed. But with Koro-sensei, they were noted and the professor even added a personal touch, like that time when he had done a portrait of Rembrandt on the back of a worksheet and the professor had completed it with some horns and a smoke to make him more scary and manly.
To be good at drawing didn't have to cost him a good note.
But here, they were all a little bit unconventional. To the point that it was normal.
"I like this assassination classroom," confessed Sugaya while Marco was going to give a hand to Karasuma to bring back the calm between Irina and Koro-sensei.
Ace was in a bad mood.
Very bad mood.
Like, there was a big black cloud above his head when he entered the classroom and sat at his place. There was such a scary aura that no one dared to talk to him and were watching him in worry. Like how you observe a bomb that you don't know how to defuse and which can go off at anytime.
"What is going on with him?" Nagisa asked to Cassandra.
"He got into an argument with Marco," explained the blond with a smirk.
"So, there are time where they don't get along," said Karma with a big grin. "Why? Because he took all the cover to himself?"
"Nope, there is no chance of that happening, it's would actually be hard to put a sheet of paper between them during the night. But you're close to the place. You even burn."
"Ooooh…?"
"Ace's narcolepsy interrupted at the worst time."
Nagisa watched Karma and Cassandra laugh of Ace's misfortune, without understanding. Karma sighed and threw him a glance heavy with unspoken words.
"Oh!"
Nagisa became as bright as a tomato.
Too much information! Too much information! Jump the ship!
"He understood, his brain just short-circuited!" snickered Karma.
Training.
"Today, we will focus on attacking someone who is dodging!" stated Karasuma to the class.
He put a hand on Ace's shoulder who was standing beside him.
"Ace will be your target for this exercise. You have to touch him! Let's show them. Use Haki, to compensate the fact that you don't have this individual's speed."
Ace nodded and let Karasuma blindfold him under the watching eyes of the students who were looking with interest.
They moved away from each others and Ace rolled his head on his shoulders to relax.
Karasuma attacked, and Ace easily dodged him, his face calm, without thinking about anything. His body moved alone following the indications of his Haki, folding naturally to not be touched by the teacher's knife.
"Thank you."
Ace nodded and let Karasuma push him toward the others.
"Let's begin!"
Everybody stood up and circled Ace who wasn't even in a position to guard himself and with a small smirk on his face.
"If one of you force me to use my hands or my feet to deviate the blade, you won one point," stated Ace.
"So, what are we waiting for?" asked Karma with a huge grin.
And everyone went to attack.
And like with Karasuma, Ace danced between the attacks, moving at the last instant from the trajectory to not be touched.
"Fixate the target!" yelled Karasuma. "Anticipate his movements!"
He rolled up his sleeves and observed attentively the movements of his students against the pirate.
"By doing that, you reduce his chance to dodge!"
Karasuma crossed his arms on his chest, still observing the exercise.
They were beginning their fourth month of training. He could sense in some more potential than in others, in the class.
Examples in the boys who were evident in his eyes as he saw them a little closer to Ace than the others: Isogai Yuma and Maehara Hiroto.
Ace had a small line on the corner of his lips and a frown in concentration.
This duo had excellent reflexes. And by attacking both together, they added to their potential.
"One point for Maehara and Isogai!" stated Ace as he jumped on their shoulder to project himself a little further away, to better dodge them.
"Come take a rest you two, you did well. You'll continue later," called Karasuma.
Ace avoid a blow to his back who could have touched him and turned around his attacker to lean on his back.
"Good try, Karma-chan!"
Akabane Karma.
Bored and idle at first glance, but there was malice in his eyes, and you just had to see his way of attacking to see the threat. He talk to you smiling as he stab you in the back.
Reason why Ace was laughing enough to break some ribs while his friend was trying to pin him with a smile.
Ace jumped back while Karma stopped moving. And he was right to do so, since he avoided an attack from a girl doing a headstand behind him.
"Not bad Okano-san!"
Okano Hinata surprised her opponent with her unexpected moves. Understandable since she was a member of the gymnastic club before ending in this class. Okano faded back letting the class representative try her chance with Ace. Kataoka Megu had the reach and the strength of her male classmates. They formed a good team.
"There is also Koro-sensei… he is the incarnation of the ideal teacher. We can't kill such a noble individual."
Vein on Karasuma's temple.
"Stop inventing my own though and move away from here, Target..." growled the brown haired man.
Koro-sensei snickered into his tentacles and walked off, allowing Karasuma to go back to his observations.
Other than those students, there wasn't any other that stood out, but the group as a whole had grown well.
Ace smiled in the attacks. It was a good training for himself. He will have to ask Karasuma if it was possible to move Ritsu. With her intervention, there would be more excitement to this training.
Danger.
Like a snake who slid in your neck, ready to kill.
Ace react immediately, without even realizing what could be attacking. He fell back on his back, sending his feet in the stomach of the attacker and stood back, his hunting knife out and taking off his blindfold in the other…
He opened wide eyes when he saw that he was one hair off Shiota Nagisa's carotid.
"Nagisa! Oh shit, sorry!"
He put his weapon away and helped Nagisa to stand up. No one else attacked, understanding that the training was on hold.
"What is happening here? Asked Karasuma.
"My Haki took Nagisa for a threat and I reacted instinctively… shit, you're alright?!"
"Yes, yes… just the breath short..." whispered Nagisa kneeling. "You seemed bored, so, I tried to surprise you..."
"To surprise me, you did indeed, a little more and I was cutting your throat!" Ace scolded him.
He put one hand on his heart, trying to calm himself. To have Nagisa under his blade had seriously scared him.
Karasuma observed Nagisa. His petite and thin constitution made him very agile for a boy, but he was still a student in the middle and had no physical characteristic which stood out… how did the boy actually passed of a threat to the Haki of a pirate?"
It was then that Karasuma noticed that someone who should have shown up at the screams was missing.
"Portgas… where is Newgate?"
"The crazy bitch or that damn flying pineapple?" asked Ace.
"Ace, language..." scolded Cassandra as she came forward to examine Nagisa.
"Japanese, Cass'. So, which are you asking for? Because if it's Cass', she is just beside me."
"Marco," cleared up Karasuma.
"You should see your mails, then. He received one from your government this morning, asking to see them immediately. He didn't say when he would be back.
Karasuma sighed.
Well, he would look at his mails, it wasn't like he was already waiting for an important mail already.
The bell rang and Karasuma walked away.
"You have even less opening than Karasuma-sensei, Ace, pointed Isogai.
The little redhead of the class walked toward Karasuma and asked him with a smile if he wanted to drink some tea with them after class.
"You're invitation is nice, but I still have work to do.
Like always.
"I feel like he's keeping his distance with us," commented Sugaya. "Even Marco-sensei is closer to us than that."
He swallowed when he felt the coming back of Ace's bad mood.
"I feel more like he put a wall between himself and us on purpose," pointed out Kataoka as he arranged his ponytail.
"He take great care of us, but maybe this is how far it goes. That all of this, it's his mission."
"Or he just want to protect you."
Cassandra glance with surprise at Ace who had sat down in the grass, head low.
"My adoptive grandfather is like him. I don't remember any mark of affection from him, and neither does Luffy. But we know that he loves us. If Luffy doesn't care, I have more time in my hand than I care to think about it, and I came to this conclusion. The man that pretend to be my grandfather has enemies. By trying to keep his distance with us, he hope to protect us. Either by making it so that we won't go on a vengeance trio if he is killed, or simply because he doesn't want any of his enemies to go after us to hit him where it hurt. There is also the fact that we are on opposite side, and that it is hard to balance work and family when you are a marine and the members of your family are wanted dead or alive in the whole world."
…
Cassandra crouched down and put one hand on Ace's forehead.
"You're not sick..." wondered Cassandra.
Ace pushed her back and stood up, arms crossed.
"All of this to say that we know nothing of Karasuma's life before the Class E. How many of them are there, outside, that would want to see him suffer? By staying distant, he may be trying to protect you."
"You're not included in this?" wondered Maehara.
"Why should I be? I was born and grew up in a world that wanted me dead the moment I came out of my mother's belly. I think I can pretend to be capable of defending myself from Karasuma's enemies. Did you understand me?"
"More or less," smiled Isogai.
Ace got a smile which melt in front of the man that had just come out of the old school.
Nobody understood why Ace was on his guard.
The man had a big box on his shoulder and a lot of other boxes in his arms, he was big and smiling.
"Yo, Karasuma!"he greeted happily.
"Takaoka?" recognized Karasuma.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"Another professor?" inquired a girl.
Karma heard a noise coming from Ace and looked at him. Ace had taken out once more his hunting knife from under his blue uniform t-shirt. Hiken hid the blade in his back, nervously passing his thumb on the sharp edge. Cassandra had stood up and crossed her arms on her chest, but from where he was, he could perfectly see that she had some scalpels in her hands.
"Hello young ones! My name is Takaoka Akira! From today on, I will work here to help Karasuma! I'm happy to meet you, dear students of the Class E!" greeted the man as he came closer to the students, still smiling.
Cakes. Cakes everywhere… cakes from a famous bakery… expensive products.
Takaoka had laid out all of this on a picnic blanket on which he was sitting cross-legged.
"Come on, eat! I decided to empty my wallet!" cheered the man.
The two Shirohige stayed on their own, sitting in the grass.
"You know what it remind me of?" asked Cassandra in a murmur to Ace.
Ace leaned his head to show that he was listening, without looking away from the man and the students.
"You may not have the speech from Garp, but when I was a kid, I was always told to never accept candy from strangers. I don't know why, but I associate this idea to this scenery."
"I can understand..."
The others were still admiring the sugary things in front of them.
"You know a lot about the subject," pointed a girl.
"Maaa, to not hide anything… I love sugar!"
And he stuck his tongue between his lips as he glanced away, still smiling, giving himself an adorable face. Which contrasted with his physical appearance that was worthy of a nightclub bouncer.
"You are the one who will give us our PE classes from tomorrow on?" asked Nagisa, one chocolate eclair from Hermès in his hand.
"Hai. By the Government demand!"
Ace took a good resolution.
He would skip this lesson.
"It's to remove some workload from Karasuma's back…"
Takaoka stopped talking when he saw a pink Koro-sensei drawling beside his head in front of the sweets.
"Oh! So you are the famous Koro-sensei! Eat, Eat! Even if we will kill you one day, na! Ahahahahaha!"
The difference between him and Karasuma couldn't be more evident.
Night and day.
"It looks like you are playing nice daddy!"
"Otou-chan?! Yeah, you can say this like that..." laughed Takaoka.
He took two students in a manly hug.
"We are in the same class, so we are a family, aren't we?"
"Tch. I saw enough… this is as sick as Akainu giving candy… I'm going to throw up," growled Ace.
"You're coming tomorrow?" asked Cassandra.
"Nope. Tell them the truth or lie, I don't care."
And Ace stood up.
"You decided to come eat with us?" Takaoka smiled at him.
He just received a cold glance from Ace.
"Come on, please your daddy!"
Ace stiffened and everyon knew that Takaoka had just said something he shouldn't have at this instant.
"ACE! YAMERO!" roared Cassandra.
Everyone threw themselves at Ace to keep him from doing something foolish. He was well on his way to stab his knife in Takaoka's head.
"Ace! Calm yourself! Oi! Mate! Come back with us!" called Karma grabbing his arms.
The boy made his arm disappear in a burst of flame and rushed at his target, before a scalpel stabbed his hand. The distraction was enough to allow Cassandra to caught up to them and hold Ace by the waist with Haki infused arms.
"In those cases, we would have a need for some kairoseki. Come on Ace, calm yourself."
Takaoka stood up and leaned toward Ace.
"You have a problem my boy? Tell your daddy everything!"
"AND DON'T ADD OIL TO THE FIRE!" roared the blond.
With difficulty, she pulled Ace far away from Takaoka with the welcome help from Koro-sensei and Karasuma. Once inside the old school, they put Ace on a chair, far from the window and Cassadra breathed deeply.
"Nyu? What happened, Ace-kun?" asked Koro-sensei.
Ace didn't answer. He was still as stiff as a rod on his chair.
"Ore wa Shirohige no musuko..." Ace hissed.
He repeated this sentence like a mantra, balancing back and forth.
"If I hadn't been there, Karasuma, this idiot would be a pile of bloody skin on the ground," stated Cassandra. "Ace got problems with paternal figures. Your colleague just chose the best switch to rise to the high place of his shit list. I'll accompany him home. I'm not sure if he will come tomorrow."
Ace was on his bed, his eyes unseeing, the next day. He knew that he should normally go to class, but it was out of question to cross the path of this shitface who dared pretend to be his father. Oyaji was irreplaceable.
As for Roger…
Ace sighed and turned on his side.
Strangely he preferred him to this bastard.
"Between two evils, you have to chose the lesser one." though Ace to himself.
This made him snort.
He was considering Roger as the lesser evil, when he was the dead Kaizoku Ou, compared to this guy doubtlessly weaker than him? So be it.
Anyway, the day was almost over, so…
Ace stood up groaning as he heard his phone ring.
He threw back the covers and dragged his feet to his things from last night. He searched his pockets and found it.
"Yeah, I listen..." growled Ace as he let himself lean against the wall.
"Yo, Hiken! You skip?!"
It was Karma, in all his Karma-attitude.
"If I go to class, I'm going to kill him. Why?"
"I'm also skipping, well, only PE. It's to know if I can come by your place. We can train together to compensate."
Ace though for a while.
Marco hadn't come back yet, Cassandra was at the school…
"If you want. It may be time for me to drag myself out of bed anyway. I'll see you soon."
"Perfect. I'm getting out right now, so, I'll give you the lesson."
"Thanks, I owe you one."
Ace hung back and stood up. He took some clean clothes in the closet and went to the bathroom. The afternoon appeared to be less boring than he though.
Cassandra stayed leaning against a wall, waiting for the start of the class.
"Everyone is here?!" asked Takaoka. "Perfect!"
Nagisa immediately took note of Karma and Ace's absence. If the teacher didn't have anything to say about it…
"From now on, it will be harsher than before," continued Takaoka. "But you will get good cakes at the end of the class!"
"In fact, you just want an excuse to eat a lot," pointed out one student.
"Not wrong, this is why I've got a little belly!" confessed the man as he tapped his belly.
This made the young ones laugh.
This guy was good. Worse than a snake. And she knew a lot about the subject since she had to study it deeply with the arrival of the Spades and the Quezacoatl that was Haiiro.
But she wasn't a kid…
She was used to the ploys of the Shin Sekai and the power games and others traps, be it from the marine or other pirates.
Karasuma was in front of the computer, as stone faced as ever. Irina watched him, puzzled.
"The situation is really fine with you?" asked the blond. "I have the feeling that he is doing too much. Akabane and Portgas skipped the class. And Cassandra-nee-san already has her scalpels out."
"He was in my commando in the Air Force. I was told that he was a much better instructor than me."
"Mmmm..."
"He knows better how to touch the heart of the students than me."
Karasuma continued to consult the file of his colleague, and fell on a picture of the man with some young shirtless soldiers smiling timidly at the camera, hands in their back. Takaoka was behind them, warm and caring figure.
"He should train them well. Maybe my method wasn't the right one. Unlike him, I kept my distance, instead of treating them like a family."
"Karasuma! We have a pirate who tried to kill him yesterday, should I remind you, and this man threw oil on the fire, instead of stopping he asked what was wrong! I though that Ace-kun was scary when facing Itona and Shiro, but there, it was far further than that! He hurt him and didn't even apologized! And I remind you that our nurse is also ready to put a blade in his throat after she would have cut his balls off! Tell me of even one time when they were reduced to such an extremity with you!"
Irina sighed and leaned on the desk of her colleague with her two hands.
"To treat them like a family isn't the best thing to do either. A lot of them have family troubles, even if they like it at the time, it will make them bitter."
"Maybe..."
Karasuma frowned as he noticed something strange behind the photo of the group he had under his eyes. He zoomed on the photo and stilled.
It was the same group, but from the back.
The back of the soldiers was lacerated and bloody, as if they had been wiped and tortured, and their hands had been tied in their back.
Irina stilled when she saw this from behind him and rushed outside of the room.
They had to warn Cassandra.
"Sa te, the content of your training will change," stated Takaoka. "So I redid your planning."
And he took out the mentioned before. From Monday to Saturday, their planning now had ten hours of class a day. The timetable went through the ranks.
"Usa daro?"
"Ten hours of class?"
"We have to train until nine p.m.!"
"It is the minimum," Takaoka told them still smiling. "With this, you will progress a lot! So, let's continue..."
"Wait! It's impossible!" Protested Maehara as he stood to go up to the teacher, his timetable in his hand. "Our note will lower with so few hours of classes! We won't be able to even relax! It's unfeasible!"
Smiling, Takaoka put on hand on Maehara's head…
BAM!
He kneed him in the stomach.
"It is feasible. You will do it," he said smiling.
He released Maehara's hair, letting him fall on the ground.
"I told you, we are a family and I am your father. And in all families, it is the father that give orders. Free to you to go! I'll substitute the defectors with new students But I don't want to do that. You are my family and I love you. I want all my children to stay and it is all together that we will save the Earth, na?"
Takaoka had began to walk around the ranks of the scared young students and was going to hug two students when a scalpel stabbed the ground just in front of him.
"Touch, those children, and I will show you how we do it in the Shirohige Kaizokudan..." threatened Cassandra, standing at the border of the race track.
She hold him at gun point with a scalpel in two fingers and walked toward Maehara. Irina came to join her.
"Watch my back," asked the older woman.
Cassandra rolled her blouse to kneel on the ground and pulled up Maehara's t-shirt.
"Is he hurt?" asked Irina holding Takaoka at gunpoint with hers.
"He will have a big bruise, but nothing else, except if he has cracked ribs. I don't have the material here to examine him more."
She understood the way this man was working. He give two things to his students. Affection and fear. Nine points of fear for them to run after his rare affection.
"Ora, ora! Who allowed you to oppose the authority of your father, misses?!" smiled Takaoka as he came toward them. "After all, those children will kindly do what their father asked them to do, ne?"
He hugged two children, one of them the little Kanzaki.
"Ne, that you will do what your daddy tell you to?"
Kanzaki threw a scared glance toward Cassandra and Irina, but took a deep breath.
She will have the courage to speak out.
She stood up and faced the man.
"I refuse. I want to follow Karasuma-sensei's class."
Takaoka licked his lips and…
Without understanding how, the slap he wanted to give to Kanzaki missed. His arm was intercepted and he froze up, a scalpel rather close to his right eye ready to stab it at any threatening move.
"Give me one good reason to do it, and I will happily do it. Bastards, I saw a lot on the Grand Line. You are as disgusting as Kizaru..." hissed Cassandra who had deviated the slap of Takaoka to push Kanzaki out of the danger zone and hold the crazy dangerous man under threat. As for your family, I don't want it. For one, we probably of the same age, so, you as my father, isn't doable. For two, for one of the same reason that made that Ac tried to kill you yesterday, nothing nor anyone can pretend to take Edward Newgate place as our Oyaji. And this man, criminal he may have been, had more love for his family in his heart than you will ever have. I saw this man, on a battlefield, pardon one of his son that had stabbed him!"
"Yamero, Takaoka!"
Karasuma had just came."
Casandra broke her position and stepped back enough to be safe from a sneaky blow from this man, keeping the students behind herself.
Karasuma examined Maehara that had straightened up.
"An X-Ray may be advised in his case, said Cassandra.
"I held back my blows, Karasuma!" smiled proudly Takaoka. "I won't hurt my own family!"
"Iie!"
A red tentacle from a furious Koro-sensei, really worked up, was put on Takaoka's shoulder.
"They aren't your family! They are our students!" told him the homeroom teacher. "What are you playing at when my back is turned, eh?!"
"You have a problem with this, monster?" asked Takaoka as he calmly turned toward him. "I am in charge of the PE class. And the punishment is also part of pedagogy! I have to train quickly assassins able to kill. It is normal to be severe. Except if you want to go after someone who did nothing to you… just because my methods are a little different…"
For the first time, Takaoka's face morphed a little, becoming scary, more so since he still had this huge smile on his face.
Veins were beginning to get bigger on Koro-sensei's face. They all knew that Takaoka had won.
Cassandra hissed.
"Oi! You fat son of a bitch, look a little here."
Takaoka turned toward Cassandra who had taken off her shoes. She threw her blouse to Isogai before quickly taking out six scalpels that she held between her fingers. The blades turning black under her infusion of Haki.
"Ooooh! You want to go there too, cutie?" Takaoka told her. "You would dare to make yourself culprit of murder by killing a poor man who did nothing to you? Not that your little toys can really do anything against me..."
"I am a pirate nurse, it isn't killing you that would demoralize me. Compared like shits I crossed path with in the Shin Sekai, you can pretend to be at the same level as Joker. Congratulation, Takaoka Akira, you just rival the King of Dressrossa, the Shichibukai Donquixote Doflamingo, in the grade of filth! But one thing is sure… you are inferior to Karasuma in what it is to be a teacher.
A grimace twisted Takaoka's face.
"Look like I just put my finger on something. I found a part of your problem. You have an inferiority complex toward Karasuma."
"You asked for it, sweetheart…"
Smiling, Takaoka made his fists crack and got ready to strike.
Karasuma held his arm back.
"Stop it. That's enough. If you want to blow off steam, I'm your man," Karasuma told him.
"I didn't need a savior, but I leave you the place," Cassandra told him. "I will, however, keep my scalpels at the ready."
"Karasuma… I guessed that you would intervene…" smiled Takaoka.
He pushed his arm back and said, with his good-nature and disgusting face.
"I told you, it isn't violence, it's pedagogy. I don't want to fight anyone here, and even less you. If we have to battle, it will be on the teaching field."
Cassandra stilled.
They had fallen into the trap of this man, and hadn't seen anything coming.
"Karasuma. Chose your best student that you trained. He will fight against me."
Oh shit. And Ace had chosen the worst day to skip classes.
Takaoka passed by Karasuma as he continued to talk and went to crouch in front of his military bag:
"If he can touch me once with a knife, I'll admit that your methods are better than mine and will go."
This gave a little hope to the young ones… which was broken immediately when the man brandished an anti-sensei's knife.
"Tadashi, we won't be using this knifes."
In one quick draw, he pulled out one knife as dangerous and sharp as Ace hunting blade. Knife that he stabbed into the plastic of the anti-sensei weapon, a totally demented look on his face.
"Since the one they have to kill is me, the knife we will be using is a true one. And don't chose the pirate, it would be cheating. Who is he anyway? I will be happy to confront myself to him, later..."
And he giggled crazily.
This man was utterly insane…
"True knifes! you're insane, they are not trained to kill human being!" protested Karasuma.
"Rest assured! If they scrap me, it will count as good!" assured Takaoka standing up. "I don't have a weapon, it is a huge handicap!"
Cassandra didn't like the way this man had raised his eyes, neither how he was licking his lips. This man had his place into a psychiatric asylum and nowhere else. She remembered the first time Kennichi had held a blade in his hands. Of his first blood. He was twelve and shook like a leaf during the first few training with sword, conscious of how dangerous the weapon was. Fifteen, he was unable to sleep during the night after he killed someone for the first time.
This man must know what would happen if someone that young held a blade weapon for the first time to attack someone. Reason for the proposition.
"Ja, Karasuma. Choose a student. Or else, they will have to obey me without a complain."
And he threw the knife which landed at Karasuma's feet.
Cassandra's cellphone rang at this moment. She opened it and frowned. A message from Ace.
"I'm coming the fastest I can with Karma. Ritsu send everything to me If we don't make it in time, tell Karasuma to chose Nagisa."
"Karasuma. Message from Hiken."
Karasuma took the phone, his brain thinking like crazy. He read it and closed it, giving it back to the woman. He was still thinking. He was in front of a Cornelian dilemma.
He leaned forward and picked the knife up.
On one side, there was chance that Takaoka's method allowed to train Assassins capable of saving the Earth.
He turned to look at the young boys and girls gathered behind him. Since he came here, he didn't stopped doubting.
Then, he hesitated to put those children in danger, when they didn't stand a chance.
He sighed. Ace guts had been, until now, a good guide, and he understood his choice.
So, he move toward the blue head of the boy so thin that he had everything of a girl.
"Nagisa-kun, you feel up to it?"
This surprised Nagisa and all the others. Why him?
"i gave you an assassination mission to save the Earth," Karasuma said. "I consider all of you as pros. And my duty as a pro is to guarantee you a normal middle school life. So, I won't force you to take this knife. If you don't, I'll do my best for Takaoka to assure you a normal life, except if he accept to face Portgas."
Nagisa looked at the knife held toward him blinking, then he raised his eyes toward Karasuma. He liked his gaze. He looked straight at him, in his eyes. Even in his family, no one did that. Nagisa didn't doubt that Karasuma was hiding a lot of things related to the situation and he had no idea as to the why he had chosen him, since there were boys a lot better prepared than him. Even Okano or Kataoka were more gifted than him…
Nagisa took the knife with a firm grip, surprising everybody. Cassandra raised a surprised eyebrow in front of his calm.
If this teacher gave him this knife, he could trust him.
He observed his reflection in the knife blade.
And he couldn't let what Takaoka had done to Maehara go. If Cassandra-san hadn't stepped in, Kanzaki would have went through it too.
He took a determined stance.
"Portgas and I believe in you," whispered Karasuma. "Can you do it?"
"I'll do it," assured Nagisa with a determination harder than iron.
He put the blade between his teeth during the time he took to stretch, while the students moved away.
"Karasuma, you utterly delusional…" snickered Takaoka.
Irina wasn't understanding either.
"Watch," encouraged Koro-sensei.
Everyone was doubting Nagisa's abilities to do it. There was no way for him to get a pro like this.
Kayano looked toward Cassandra when she put one hand on her neck and delicately massaged it.
"Everything will be alright, don't worry," reassured the blond as she observed the coming fight, without halting the massage.
Takaoka took his vest off and took a stance, leaving a lot of openings. Nagisa pointed his knife toward him. Takaoka's smile told him what he was thinking. It would be an execution. First the humiliation, then, he would be martyred in front of the class. Then, they all would be too scared of him and would obey him. But for Nagisa, it was a simple assassination. No demonstration of force, just touch him once. It was the key to victory Karasuma had whispered to him.
Takaoka licked his lips as he saw Nagisa still on his feet. The little blue didn't understand what it mean to have a true blade in his hands. He loved to see an amateur becoming white as he realized how dangerous the object in his hands was. The ability to take a life at the end of the blade.
Nagisa was a little bewildered, but Karasuma was right. He didn't need to fight to win.
So, he straightened up.
He just had to kill him.
Cassandra opened wide eyes when she saw Nagisa relax and walk forward smiling toward Takaoka, walking normally, as if he was going to school, without any blood-lust, nor any other thing showing that he was going to attack a human being.
Takaoka watched him do this puzzled, until Nagisa was just in front of him.
Ziouuuu!
The knife had burst forth and missed by just a hair Takaoka's throat.
This man realized that he was going to be killed when he stepped back to avoid the strike. He was so scared that he lost his balance.
It was a reflex for any human being, anyone would be scared to be killed. Even Koro-sensei.
This time, his huge silhouette played against him and made him fall backward. Nagisa threw himself at him, grabbed the back of his t-shirt and attacked.
Up front? No, he would have guarded.
The snake rolled around his prey to sink his fangs from behind, directly in the neck of the man who screamed in fear.
Nagisa passed behind, having him at his mercy, rolled around his dazed opponent the best he could, one hand on the eyes of the adult, his knife under his chin full of drawl, both of them sitting on the ground.
"Gotcha!" smirked Nagisa.
It was unbelievable, far more than what was imaginable. While leading a normal life, Nagisa would never have shown such a talent. The talent to approach his target without showing any hostility, before destabilizing it with the power of his blood-lust and without letting any stake destabilize him.
He understood why Ace could have felt threatened during training. He could have assassinated him if he had wanted to.
His talent had nothing to do with violence, or fighting, but in assassination. Can we really let such a talent bloom like this?
"Eeeh, the back of the blade count, right?" asked Nagisa as he began panicking.
"That's enough!"
Koro-sensei had grabbed the knife in Nagisa's hand.
"The fight is over, Karasuma-sensei."
Karasuma came back to Earth to see Koro-sensei eat the knife.
"Mattaku, you really need to be irresponsible to give a real knife to a student. What would you have done if he had gotten hurt?"
This made the tension come down and everybody congratulated Nagisa, who left a still shivering Takaoka in the grass.
Karasuma cracked a smile.
"If he had been in any danger, you would have intervened at Mach 20 and we had a nurse lacking in lab rat for her sadism. However..."
Karasuma looked at Nagisa who was in the center of his comrades. Maehara came toward him and slapped him.
"Why did you slap me!" moaned Nagisa.
"Wari, but I had some trouble believing that it was you. After what you did, I feel a lot better!" smiled the redhead as he hugged him by his neck.
Cassandra joined Karasuma who was being hugged from behind by Koro-sensei's tentacles.
"You still seem to be doubting, Karasuma-sensei," pointed out Koro-sensei.
"So what? Where is the problem?" asked Karasuma who didn't asked for the stuck parasite in his back.
"Iie!"
"Ohoh..." said Cassandre.
And she was right.
Takaoka had stood up and was rabid mad.
"Shitty kid! I am like a father to you! You dare defy me and be happy for some luck!? We will do it again! I will break you mentally and physically!"
Karasuma was going to intervene, but Koro-sensei and Cassandra held him back.
"I know that if we do it again, I would lose," Nagisa told him calmly. "But things are clear. Our homeroom teacher is Koro-sensei. In geography, we have Marco-sensei… and our instructor, is Karasuma-sensei. We won't give on this point. You pretend to be a father to us, but Karasuma-sensei's professionalism is much more genuine than your empty word. I thank you for trying to make us stronger. But I'm sorry."
And Nagisa bowed.
"Please go away."
Takaoka had pulsing veins on his face and his eyes were bloodshot when his eyes went over the determined students more or less in line in front of him.
Irina came see, puzzled, two boys and asked what she was.
"Our Bitch," Takebayashi answered her as he pushed his glasses on his nose.
"I'll kill you!" hissed the blond.
There was no bigger joy for a teacher to see his teachings approved like this, even with his own doubt. Too bad that Marco wasn't here to see it.
"Saa, Karasuma, you also must be honest with them, as they were with you," Cassandra told him.
Takaoka rushed, out of his mind, ready to put Nagisa in a bloody paste.
A slight noise came to the blue and without knowing why, he bent, leaning with as much force as he could on his legs… and almost kissed the ground.
Bam!
Takaoka was sent flying like a doll.
Ace landed lightly in front of Nagisa, watching the man fly further away, a foot print on his face and a broken nose too.
"Sorry, shrimp..." apologized Ace.
Nagisa's smile was forced, tears running down his cheeks like rivers.
"Oops, I had forgotten him," said Cassandra.
"So, mister-I-am-your-father. You face a little family rebellion?" asked Ace as he walked toward Takaoka who was trying to stand up. "I'm going to tell you one thing, kisama. I already have two fathers. The first gave me his name, his blood, and problems so big that ten lives wouldn't be enough to go around it all. The second gave me a place, love, a roof, and a family. This man, I hold his mark in my skin and nothing nor anyone will ever be able to take his place."
Ace threw the knife in his hand in the air, his silver eyes staring at his prey.
"Tell me which one you intend to take the place of, so that I know if it is the D. or the Shirohige that have to kill you. Roger is better than you. Which mean everything to me. Chose your death."
Takaoka rushed to attack and Ace put his weapon away.
Boom!
Karasuma had just put himself on the trajectory, and had greeted him with an elbow in his throat, sending him once more on the ground.
"I apologize for the problems caused by my colleague," apologized Karasuma. "Don't worry, I will negotiate with my superiors to become your teacher once more. Meanwhile, the one in charge of training will be Portgas."
"Since I don't have a choice." deadpanned Ace, falsely hurt.
This pulled a happy smile from his students.
"Iie!"
Takaoka wasn't finished yet.
"I won't tolerate it… I will see them first..." he hissed as he straightened.
"To negotiate won't be need."
Ace was as tense as a bow while Karma was arriving running and stayed there, breathing hard, exhausted.
Asano was here and was coming down from the old school, one hand in his pocket.
"I was curious to see the methods of the new comer. I saw absolutely everything."
He put one knee down on the ground and caught Takaoka's jaw with one hand with unsuspected strength.
"Takaoka-sensei, your classes are boring."
He showed a paper.
"Fear is need in education, but if you only inspire it through violence, you only are a lousy man."
Ace shivered, visualizing without any trouble a centipede come out of Asano's mouth with his calm speech and enter Takaoka's utterly afraid. Other centipedes joined the first one and Ace shook his head.
The vision disappeared to show that Takaoka had a letter of dismissal in his mouth. Asano stood up and wiped his hands with a tissue as he walked away.
"The Defense Ministry can't regularize anyone here without my say so. Here, I am the one who control everything, don't forget that."
And he threw his handkerchief on Takaoka's bag who was swallowing his letter angrily. He rushed toward his back, grabbed it and run after Asano.
"Bad idea," commented Ace as he crossed his arms.
And he was surprised when Takaoka went by Asano without attacking him.
"Good try, the prevision," smiled Cassandra.
"Ace… next time, don't leave me behind… what do you have as your legs?" panted Karma as he got back his breath little by little.
"Legs. Seventeen years of survival on an island, between the jungle full of bear, tiger, crocodiles, wolfs and others… and the slum happily called Grey Terminal, with his thieves, rapists, murderers, and pirates! Without mentioning Goa kingdom's authority, at which door the Grey Terminal was. How we made them run, Luffy and me, when we were kids, with our Eat and Run rushes. Oh, and without forgetting Garp and his crazy training. I'll pass the years as a pirate, there would be too much to tell which can be resumed with marines, kai-ô and pirates. Plus more or less hostile natives."
"Don't forget the bird jokes," pointed out Cassandra.
"Ah yes… bird jokes where Marco run after the joker until he catch him. And he run fast, when he doesn't go after you from the air."
And Ace stretched.
"So, if this guy is fired, it mean that you are the teacher again, right, Karasuma-sensei?"
"YATTA!" exclaimed the rest of the class.
While the children were partying, the adults (with Ace included) gathered a little further away.
"As always, this man has crazy flawless methods," commented Koro-sensei thinking about Asano.
"Imagine… that one of your student tell you that he wants to become an assassin. Would you train him without hesitation?" asked Karasuma.
This plunged them in a thinking silence.
"it wasn't my imagination then," whispered Ace.
Karasuma gave him the answer by shaking his head.
"He isn't yet conscious of this talent."
"I don't know what to answer," Koro-sensei told him as he played with some beautiful flowers he had found somewhere. "But a good teacher always have some doubts. He asks himself if he offers the best teaching to his students. But in front of his students, he must teach with confidence. Never show his doubts and impose himself."
He slid a blue flower between his teeth, before smiling at Karasuma.
"This is what make this job as a teacher so beautiful!"
He took out another flower, one white and slid it in Cassandra's hair. The pink one went into Irina's hair.
"Kennichi," whispered Cassandra.
"A problem with him?" asked Ace.
The two others watched her.
"Kennichi Yasei is the new Nibantai Taishou. Before, he was Marco second in command. He was also Ace's predecessor's nephew Frey Yasei. He was seven when he first stepped foot on the Moby Dick, after his mother's death, Frey's sister. We did our best to protect him. But when he was twelve, he decided that he didn't want to stay back anymore watching the ones he saw as family fight. Without being trained for it, he tried to take weapons and slid in the fray of a skirmish. Fortunately, his uncle and Marco succeed in evacuating him. Frey was livid after this. And Kennichi told him that it was the life he wanted. Frey wanted to send him to school, or at the minimum find a way for him to have an education, a family and a classical life, but the kid refused all of this to become a pirate. Oyaji wasn't sure to have made the right choice by accepting Kennichi in the crew… but when I remember the smile of the kid when at eighteen, Marco did his mark… I tell myself that we did the right choice, in the end."
The conversation was cut short by a girl who came closer to them with a huge smile, hands on her hips, the rest of the class behind her.
"It's because of us that you found back your job."
She threw her blond hair back and told him with a wink:
"We deserve a recompense."
"What a wonderful idea, Nakamura-chan!" approved Ace.
"It was the only good side to Takaoka-sensei!"
"I don't know anything about cake, but..."
Zoof!
Karasuma had made the mistake to take out his wallet and it was a victory for the students, Ace was throwing his prize in his hand.
"Sensei would like to participate!" stated Koro-sensei.
"Eeh, Koro-sensei? I'm not sure..." said one girl.
"He didn't do a lot, this time," pointed a boy.
"For Ace he can have a coffee for the kick he gave Takaoka and a chocolatine to not have made Nagisa into a blood paste. No, two, he is the one with the money. Karma almost made his spleen explode by running to join us, so, he can have a coca."
"Maa, thanks!" snickered Karma while Ace held his shoulder to not die from his laughter.
"Yaya! I was the one who made Karasuma-sensei understand the beauty of the job!" Koro-sensei defended himself.
"Cassandra-sensei did more than you, pointed out Hazama with amusement. "She was rather impressive as she kept Takaoka in check with her scalpels.
"And Irina?" asked Cassandra.
"We do need to give our Bitch some food!" joked Maehara sticking his tongue, making the class laugh and Irina swear bloody murder.
Koro-sensei tried to continue to justify himself.
"Give it up, Karasuma-sensei and come."
"In any case, I have all the money needed… I didn't know you were so rich!" smiled Ace.
Ace had opened the wallet and Karasuma raised an eyebrow, not remembering to have that much cash in it, but left the matter alone.
"Ne, Ace?"
"Mmm?" Ace looked to Nagisa who was on his side with Karma.
"You freed yourself a little by getting it off your chest in class. You could do it fully, no?"
Ace shook his head.
"Not today. It's too deep for that."
"Too bad, we tried!" said Karma taking the money from his hands.
It looked like Karasuma was beginning to like it in this class. Even if he had doubts, he liked to train those kids.