Akabane Karma

By the first few days of their return to class, Nagisa still hasn't come to class. Or appeared, at all. Karma got a seat change, this year, so he can't just blankly stare at the empty seat besides him and pretend he is worrying, which is bad, but also he is legit starting to worry.

So, okay, at first he was angry. Really angry, for some reason. Then he was more of indifferent towards it, and didn't care; he had Itona to play with, anyways, and he could tease Class-D to his heart's content. But now, it has been two weeks and a little more, and still no peep from Shiota Nagisa.

"Yo, Class-A reject," greets Terasaka as he sits besides him. Karma nods as response, still thinking- wait. Terasaka probably knows something, right?

"Hey, Terasaka," he turns to the other, waving a finger lazily. "Help me a little?"

"What, you need help beating someone up? How unexpected." Terasaka snorts, taking out his notebook for the upcoming class even though he is not going to pay attention at all.

"No, no, I can do that on my own." He grins. Beating up people is fun and reaaaally easy. "You know who lives near the Muramatsu ramen?"

"You mean besides Muramatsu?" The other, bigger boy raises an eyebrow at him before turning back to his notebook. "There is your boyfriend, Yoshida, and Sugino."

"Ooh, Sugino then? Alright, thanks."

He ignores the boyfriend comment with the expertise of a year, and settles down to ignore the class with the expertise of even more years.

Sugino Tomohito. Yoshida Taisei. Muramatsu Takuya. Out of those three, there is only one close enough to Nagisa to notice if he has been appearing at all in the neighbourhood. Karma realizes he has turned a bit stalkerish but, hey, he is getting worried and anxious and he needs to know if his friend is getting into trouble and he needs to bail him out.

When the first bell rings, he gets up and stalks over to Sugino's seat holding two pencils in each hand like pincers. Nakamura joins him midways through, for which Kanzaki quickly retreats from her spot next to the boy. Soon, there is a big circle of onlookers around an oblivious Sugino, and even the teacher (who still hasn't left) is looking on with interest.

This school. Why is it so weird.

"To. mo. hi. to. san." Nakamura enunciates and stresses each syllable carefully and beautifully, and it is really no wonder she is the best in languages in the whole class. Thanks to her calling Sugino to attention (how does she remember everyone's names, anyway?), he turns around, already with a probably cute response in his lips only to jump back in panic at the sight of Karma.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING I SWEAR IT WAS TERASAKA HE MADE ME DO IT I'M SORRY I WON'T DO IT AGAIN," he yells, running through his words until they are barely understandable (Terasaka screams in frustration and there is a loud thud). Sugino flails. Karma stares, smiles some more. Sugino cowers and trembles.

Honestly. Why do people react so terribly at his mere presence?

He clicks his pincers. Smiles. Sugino covers his face and whines, apologizing under his breath. Karma raises his hand, pencils poised to pierce, graphite sharpened to the point of perfection and everyone takes in a breath, Sugino shrieks as he... drops his pencils because really, why would he attack Sugino, Sugino is a friend.

The pencils clatter on the floor with a sound that brings everyone out of their trance. What, did they really think he would attack someone defenseless with a pencil, too? He isn't Nagisa, he prefers beating people up (that is fun) until they are an unrecognizable pulp under his fists, not just stabbing them to death. That's no fun.

...wait, what is he thinking about? No, killing people isn't fun, he would never do that. He shakes his head.

"Sugino, question," he says, rubbing his thumb over the spontaneously generated scars in his finger (those are Nagisa's, they appeared the other day out of nowhere but he knows they are Nagisa's). Relax, calm down, leave the random murderous thoughts asides for now. You cannot get away with assassination here, not yet.

Life returns to the people around the classroom and Sugino uncurls from his defensive stance. He looks up, looks around and at the pencil, lets out a shaky laugh. People scatter, murmuring to themselves, throwing wary glances at Karma. Nagisa isn't present, Nakamura pats Karma's arm and whispers something, but he is-

"Y-yeah, ok, that's fine with me, what do you want to ask?"

Karma smirks, sitting down on Sugino's desk -maybe he can intimidate a question out of him, this way? He doesn't quite know why would anyone keep information from him, though, but he feels like it happened sometime and he should be wary about it. Like, really wary. World-ending wary.

"I need Nagisa," he admits with no shame, looking down at the baseball player with what he believes is a kind expression. From Sugino's immediate reaction to bring up his notebook to hide and Nakamura's soft cough, he doubts he managed it quite as he planned. Damn.

"Shiota-kun?" And now, Sugino sounds confused. Really, what's up with all these people, wondering why he should not be looking for his bestest frienemy ever? Or whatever? "He hasn't shown up at class-"

"I know this, but what about at his house?" Karma returns Nakamura's unbelieving expression with another smirk he has taken ages to master. He loves his second, really, he does.

"Why do you even-," she starts, but a quick wave of his hand silences her. She frowns and makes a stabbing motion with her (nicely metallic) ruler, which he blocks with Sugino's notebook- the one he still has in his hands, that is.

"WAH- I'M SORRY!" Sugino cowers behind his notebook, even as Nakamura continues her attack to Karma himself. She is good, damn. "I haven't seen Shiota, I'm sorry!"

Well, that's fine too, Karma tries to tell himself, except it isn't because he seriously wants to punch Nagisa in the face. He continues blocking Nakamura's attack, snatching the notebook away and using it to single handedly fend off the dreaded ruler as he checks his phone for any missed calls.

Message from Itona. Well, that's definitely fine as well. Playing with Nagisa can wait, he still can use the new toy he found in the streets after all.

Shiota Nagisa

By the middle of the first week of April, he realizes he cannot keep this up. He is tired, his mood unusually down and he misses the constant company that was Class E, his teachers and even the God of Death through the past couple weeks. He will gladly give up his almost-freedom once again if it means he will not have to be alone for the course of the next year, even if there are things to be done and a world to stop from being destroyed.

His parents wouldn't understand. Or rather, they would, but wouldn't do anything about it. Through his few weeks of constant comings and goings, disappearing for at most five days in a row, his parents didn't once call out to him. His father showed up once to invite him to stay a few days at his home, but he declined -at that time, he was spying on Yukimura Aguri. His mother did her best to never cross his path, and from what he saw, she acted like he was on a long trip with his father somewhere else.

Denial didn't look good on them.

He hopes his mother will behave once he goes back for real. The message he left for her when he first left was quite clear and no one would doubt his words if he brought them up to the police -he has scars and old bruises still-, but he would rather not. His father is a completely different matter, with his overprotectiveness and sense of justice always hovering around him. Still, if he didn't want a runaway son, he should have taken Nagisa with him when he left the first time, maybe.

Not that Nagisa wants that, now. Staying at his mother's house is easier for his job than staying all the way in the next city, even if she is… a little out of it. Not that his latest accommodations have been any better, really: the forest is tiring, Korosensei's old cave is not fit for humans and the God of Death's apartment was empty more time than it was not. He is lucky he had lots of survival training, specially on those last few months of the first run. Even now, he doesn't quite feel like dying.

He adjusts his binoculars and looks down at the facility's back entrance. From where he is perched up in a building's empty rooms, he can see clearly who comes and goes and has been keeping track, but that doesn't mean it is easy. Scientists at the facility have daily shifts that change every week, for some reason; the only constants are Yanagisawa and Yukimura, who never go in through the back entrance. Finding a disguise is harder than he thought it would.

It is when he is finally preparing to leave (go back to Mother's tight leash and school -face Karma) that he sees Yukimura Akari, Kayano Kaede, also doing the same. She is kneeling by a ruined building, throwing in bottles and cables into a bag and covered in a black hoodie that covers her whole. Still, Nagisa would recognize her everywhere: Kaede, their emotional support, their final defense, Yukimura's little sister.

He shakes his head.

He cannot contact her. She has to live her life the way she is meant to, even if she is currently purchasing really questionable literature in espionage and poison making. He worries about her too much to get her involved in this terrible business before time is due, especially since right now, both of them are still expendable.

Class E doesn't exist. If he has it his way, it won't ever need to exist. There is no long year behind them to excuse their friendship. No attempted assassination, kidnappings, deals of questionable nature in the background. They are only middle school students, not crash trained assassins out for cold blood.

Even if he feels like that at times.

He can still dial her number by memory in his phone, just as he can everyone else. Which he can't, because he doesn't know her, even if the temptation to do so is strong. He has to call the God of Death to tell him he will be taking a break from shady business for a while, not Kayano Kaede to stutter like a fool when he hears her voice, not Korosensei who doesn't even exist just yet to yell at him to get back to Japan for his class, not Akabane Karma who he still can't even face.

He hangs up too quickly for whoever he called to pick up, anyways.

He feels so ashamed of himself.

(Ritsu) Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery

?

...?

-ot h-

-ss E Supp-

ring ring r- click

...who a-

EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVATING IN 3...

"I thought I told all of you to shut that thing down!"

"W-we are sorry, sir! It keeps turning back on-"

2...

"Break it! Just break it! I will not have failures under my name-"

"Well I would not call it a failure, really, more of an... unexpected development..."

1... EMERGENCY FLARE SENT. AWAITING RESPONSE.

"Sir, it is trying to connect to the network again."

"Do you think there is some hacker behind it?"

"Well, can't be hard to check."

Horibe Itona

The message reached his phone with a beep and the small jingle he had previously set for unknown/unregistered numbers. It didn't make any sense, the message: just a long string of numbers and letters that he took a look at, puzzled about and immediately deleted.

He feels he has seen the message before, though. Not sure from where, but it brought him a memory of a giant station and a group of people, frantic typing and the loud bang of gunshots. A depressing memory, maybe even more than all the other misplaced memories he gets at times when looking at bright yellow balls.

"Horibe." The teacher calls and after Itona confirms his attendance, he lays down and looks out the window. He feels so bored about everything, at this moment -like something he was used to have was suddenly taken from his hands, so suddenly and forcefully his hands were ripped from his arms.

He yawns. He wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his uncle, who absolutely hated having him loiter around. School was a waste of time right now, it had been a waste of time since a long time, but these past months coming to school cut into his napping and research time.

Research what? He feels pretty odd calling it research, but reaching into his nerves and trying to control limbs he didn't even have sounds pretty crazy. Truth is, he isn't researching so much as simply trying to remember what his body memory keeps projecting to him. Hopefully, if he understands that, he will be able to get rid of the phantom limbs with no more pain.

Class goes on all day and finishes on time, like always. The information Horibe Itona acquired while in class was 0% of what was lectured, like always. And, like always, he is either the first or the last to leave the building -today, he settles for being the last. He is so tired and he feels slow.

Itona makes his way home in a tired daze, taking his usual shortcuts and evading the usual people. One group of bullies uses the corner store as their observation base, one teacher keeps watch of the perimeter from her parked car, one of Uncle's friends often gets coffee around this time at that convenience store. He follows a route carved in his memory, hiding from cameras out of instinct and keeping an eye on the airspace above him.

He is so lost in his pointless thoughts that, when he bumps into a pedestrian, he falls on his behind and stares at the ground uncomprehending. He blinks a few times, slow and listless, and it is only when a hand is offered to him that he wakes up from his daze.

Weak.

"Are you alright?" The man says, looking down at Itona with (fake) concern. His eyes are the weirdest in the world, and they are the only reason why Itona knows this man is too familiar for it to be normal. Dangerous. Run.

Unfortunately, he is still on the ground, his head throbbing and instincts telling him this man is family, not-family, enemy and friend at the same time. His phantom limbs lash at the man in the scientist coat, but since they are not actually there, they cause no damage. That doesn't mean the man (Shiro?) doesn't feel the sudden bloodlust around Itona, even though he is only looking at a blank spot above the (annoying, shitty) scientist's shoulder.

Shiro (because he is dressed all in white and the name seems to fit) is still offering Itona his hand, so he takes it and gets to his feet, ignoring the dizziness that comes with the movement. He lifts his bag, because his phone is there and that is important, and bows his head just a little bit.

"Thank you. I apologize." It is only a whisper, but he is not staying around to listen to whatever the worst person in the world has to say. He is scared for reasons unknown and that scares him even more than it should.

He runs.

(Kayano Kaede) Yukimura Akari

Yanagisawa Kotaro has been overly cheerful for the past days and it is creeping both Akari and Aguri out. It isn't even a good cheerful, rather a sickening feeling like when a stalker finally manages to clone his target's house key and plant a loving message in her window. That is how bad Yanagisawa Kotaro's cheer feels.

Another thing that feels creepy is the facility as a whole. And the surroundings. And whatever it is they had been doing inside there (it is not natural nor healthy and definitely not something Akari will like).

She doesn't even know why she wants to get in there, but she needs to. There is something in there calling for her, like some lighthouse blinking at a traveler heading for the next port over. It isn't something she needs, but it was something she definitely wants and she would do anything for it.

Well, maybe not anything. She would never bow to Yanagisawa Kotaro, and she would never feel comfortable about the feeling there was someone looking at her whenever she was monitoring the facility. She would probably not kill anyone unless the worst happened (what was the worst?) and she would not use herself as a bargaining chip (the agency did that enough times already).

She needs help. Whatever is it she wants to do with whatever is inside the facility, she really needs help to get it. She is just a single person, not skilled enough, and she is sure there are people out there who work in this. Maybe she could ask the owner of the Shibumi about theoretical aid (for writing research, right?), since he didn't ask for any explanations for whatever is it she wanted to do.

Does she dare to ask for help, though? Is she desperate enough?

...maybe, not yet.

God of Death (extra)

He didn't particularly know what to expect when he opened the door of his small apartment, but it was definitely not Shiota Nagisa looking like he just went through survival training. His hair, usually in carefully made twintails by the side of his head, is loose, messy, with some small branches stuck to it; his clothes are stained in brown and green, like he had been rolling down a hill. He has bags under his eyes and his fingers hold tightly to the ice pick at his belt; he looks paranoid enough to make him feel normal.

"...did you spend the last week in a forest?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

Well, that explains that. He opens the door wider to let the boy in, looking around to make sure he wasn't followed. Great assassin Nagisa may turn out be, but he is still naive and blind, and he is not letting the police take hold of him before he does it himself.

"Were you stalking the facility again?" He closes the door behind him, locking it once again and turns to find Nagisa already sprawled atop the box of personal order books that arrived this morning. "When was the last time you slept, anyways."

Ever since he met Nagisa, the one who was now called God of Death had become aware of the boy's bizarre agenda. Either he was really interested in whatever was inside the facility, or he was stalking one of the workers in there. Nagisa had been there since he himself had appeared, but since neither him or his old master had really scouted the city side of the facility beforehand, he didn't know if Nagisa had been around before.

Either way, the boy doesn't know how to give up.

Nagisa shakes his head and raises two fingers before rolling off the box and onto the pillows. Huh, so not the facility, but a forest. Two days without sleeping is not good, even he knows this, and his master always considered him kind of abnormal about all things. Nagisa was far too focused for his own good.

He goes around the box and the already sleeping Nagisa, to the kitchen where he was making dinner. It is ruined, which is sad, but since Nagisa is here he can wait a few hours for the boy to wake up and make food. So that is what he does.

Hours later, Nagisa makes an early breakfast. He is wearing a school uniform, complete with a standardized jacket and bag that appeared from nowhere, and his ice pick is hidden inside a pocket in his bag. How Shinigami knows this, it is because he saw when the child put all his weapons away except his skewer knife (in his jacket) and the ice pick, of course.

"You are going back home?" He asks, not really curious at all. Nagisa is his to mold, though, and he needs to know where he goes when he is not staying around. Nagisa hums an affirmative, browsing through his phone messages with no real care for anything. "Guess I can give this store back to its owner?"

"If you want," Nagisa replies absently. Well, he could give it back, but he could also simply put it under his name in case he needs to return. Business will die, which is bad, but he does need a place he can stay in in case the facility decides to do anything else. Well, he has Nagisa and his abnormal interest in it, too, but Shinigami had rather not count on the child too much.

"What's your school like?" He asks, because he is not curious at all, just making small talk. He sucks at small talk.

"Insane."

"Just like you and I, then."

And like that, the conversation dies.

NOTE: I'm starting to hate this style of fragmented writing, so I took a long while to try to fix it. It didn't work, but hopefully I'll be able to get next chapter written somehow I actually like. Sorry for the lateness orz...