Chapter 6: Test

Hi~ Look who's back from the dead! It's Hana!

Sorry guys, for my long absence. I'm really busy so I'm not sure what the next time I update will be. Unfortunately, you guys will have to wait a few months again.

*sigh*

So… as soon as I sat here, ready to begin this chapter last June, I knew I would have a hard time with this chapter.

And I'm not kidding. I did have a seriously hard time with this chapter.

But it's a chapter nonetheless, right?

Oh, has everyone realized how I call Kayano "Kayano" in everyone else's POV, except her own? It's a point I wanted to make, since it might change throughout the story ;)

I went halfway through this chapter and then I realized everything was still in Karma's POV. Oops.

Ugh, and I also had to change a bunch of this because I stupidly forgot that I placed the story in winter.

Also, I forgot to note the six OCs that should be payed a bit of attention to as they are the main ones: Ume, Midori, Ayame, Jun, Isamu, and Haruto. I'll probably go deeper into them later. The rest of the characters are just part of the class.

…

Karma had been in a cranky mood since morning.

Of course, he would be. He hated it when his wife went on business trips, especially extended ones.

It was never pleasant to wake up to the other side of his bed being cold in the morning.

"Karma!" As he headed to the mountain, a feminine voice called out to him. He made no response, save slowing down his pace the tiniest bit to let her reach him.

Kayano, draped in a light coat, laughed softly, peeking at his face. "Still sulking?" She teased with mischief sparkling in her amber eyes. Needless to say, unlike Karma, she was in a good mood. Particularly because she had no need to awaken at four in the morning to listen to her manager's moody updates on the status of her songs or to shoot a scene. No, she prefered it this way. Waking up undisturbed at eight was nice.

Karma pouted, not at all suitable for a man of his age and status. Ah, but he could afford being a little childish at times, couldn't he? "You wouldn't understand, Kayano-chan." He very nearly whined.

"I know." Her eyes saddened a bit, but her cheerful mood did not dampen. "You really love her, don't you?"

His blush was faint, but still present. Despite his constant teasing at the love lives of others, even Karma was a bit flustered when speaking of his own.

"Ahhh~" Kayano let out a big sigh, reverting into a relaxed position and taking her eyes away from his face. "You're so lucky, Karma. When I look at you and Manami-chan… you guys seem so perfect."

"Oh, please." He scoffed, a bit embarrassed by her comment. "We're far from perfect. Too busy all the time." He pretended to not hear the longing in her voice as she praised their fortune.

She opened her mouth to reply, just as the clearing came into view through the trees. But that wasn't what stopped her reply. Karma watched calmly as she raised her arm, grabbing the hand that shot out towards her, and slammed the owner of said arm into the ground.

"Oww…" A small boy, who shockingly wore a t-shirt in the freezing weather, groaned as he twitched on the ground. "That really hurt…"

"Oh, god." Kayano herself seemed shocked that she had done that. It was all instinct. "Are you alright..." She struggled for the name. "Jun?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he glanced at Karma, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You knew I was there all along, didn't you?"

Karma smirked, shrugging nonchalantly. "Perhaps."

"Why didn't you react?"

"I found no need to. Kayano-chan sensed you the moment you lunged at her and I knew that she would react. I had no reason to butt in."

"Damn." The young boy broke into a smile, his grin full of excitement. "You're both good." He then called over his shoulder. "Akabane-san and Kayano-san pass!" He barely remembered to tack on the honorifics behind their names.

A small cheer of congratulations erupted from the small group of 3-E that had arrived early, including a bored Itona, an innocently smiling Kanzaki, and an amiable Isogai.

"Oh, Sugino-kun, you made it?" Karma teased with a mocking tone as they joined the group. "How ever did you manage?"

Sugino rolled his eyes. "Knocked Ran out of the tree with a baseball." He pointed at the short-haired girl who was rubbing a bump on her forehead.

"I see." Karma replied, mildly impressed. Why does he even keep a baseball on hand?

The minutes passed, each assassin passing the children's tests flawlessly as they entered the clearing. Terasaka practically shook poor Nana out of the tree.

"Hey, isn't this about it?" Kayano remarked as she glanced around. "Takebayashi-kun can't come, Manami-chan is away, and Nagisa probably isn't showing-"

"Who said?" A light voice asked calmly. Kayano jumped with a small shriek as Karma blinked when Nagisa practically materialized besides them. "Sorry, I'm late."

"Hey!" The children flocked out of hiding places around the edges of the clearing, all of them starting towards the new addition in disbelief. "We didn't see you come in!"

"Of course you didn't." Nagisa replied bluntly. He was completely calm when faced with the indignant children. "You had blind spots."

"No, we did not!" Ume insisted, her violet hair flaring around her as she shook her head. "We were trained to be scouts first, not assassins. We have absolutely no blind spots! Irina-sensei-"

"Of course. You were all very well trained. If you weren't in trees, then it would be a different story. However, since you were in pine trees and too many pine needles blocked your view of the incomers, you stayed on branches closest to the ground, but not too close. That left one crucial blind spot."

They were slowly beginning to catch on.

"Impossible!" Ume still protested vehemently. "We would have heard you if you leaped through the trees."

"Yes, I thought of that, too. You would definitely catch the rustling. So, I chose another option."

Jun blinked, his chestnut eyes widening in realization. "You-"

"You couldn't have leapt over the trees?" Midori burst out in disbelief.

"Just as a flock of birds was flying high overhead as well. Their shadows above me masked mine as I leaped. Besides, the trees aren't that tall anyways. They're easy to leap above if you're on one of the topmost branches."

Karma knew it wasn't that simple. He must have calculated the positions of all the children and the environment before leaping. No rustling, a quiet landing. Making sure all nineteen children wouldn't notice him.

How much of a genius was this man to achieve that with such ease? A small prick of guilt assaulted him as his suspicion for his best friend rose. He couldn't help it though. He was trained this way. His eyes narrowed as Nagisa explained his technique to the children, all listening with anticipation for his next word.

"Leave it to Nagisa for a dramatic entrance," Rio muttered with a sigh of exasperation as she stood by her fellow prankster. "He didn't take them down, oh nooo, he just had to sneak past them."

Karma snorted slightly with laughter.

…

"Alright, shall we begin?" Akari cut into Nagisa's explanation, her tone annoyed as he paused after a sentence.

His expression when he turned to her was surprised. "Kayano, I'm not done explaining yet."

"Everyone's going to kill you if you explain any longer. We're all bored out of our minds." She gestured behind her, specifically at Terasaka. "Besides, next time if you don't want to explain so much, don't try something so complicated! And just how long does it take to explain jumping over a tree?!" She exclaimed in exasperation, falling into a familiar friendly banter. The slight awkwardness between them from meeting again was finally melting.

He blinked in surprise at her outburst before smirking slightly, opening his mouth to retort. Like they were fifteen again. However, Rio beat him there.

"Well, if the two lovebirds are done bickering, shall we begin?"

"Rio-chan!"

"Nakamura-san!"

Both teacher and actress glared at her in protest, a light shade of pink dusting the actress's cheeks, something that Midori picked up on with a small smirk of mischief.

"Wait…" Itona said slowly, drawing the conversation away from the cheerful atmosphere to a more serious one. "Did anyone plan what exactly we're teaching them first?"

Silence. A flock of birds flew languidly overhead as all the adults exchanged looks with mild panic.

And unanimously all turned their heads towards Nagisa.

"H-hey! Wait, why me?" It was the first time he was flustered in a while, the shadow of his fifteen year old self draping over him once more.

"You're the one who chose the occupation of a teacher! And you even became director, so you must be good at it!" Rio announced cheerfully, pressure in his gaze. "You know what to do right?"

"You realize that teaching children how to solve for 'x' is very different from teaching them assassination skills." Nagisa deadpanned.

"So? We can all easily admit, even Karma, that you are the best assassin out of all of us. End of story." She added when he opened his mouth to protest. "Now stop arguing so we can get on with it."

He sighed in defeat before regaining his composure quickly as he turned back to the children. Akari watched him admiringly as he questioned the children on what they knew so far. He really was good at his job.

"I believe that the best way to figure out their abilities is to test them." Nagisa announced, turning back to his colleagues. Akari giggled quietly as anticipation arose in the eyes of some of her former classmates.

"What kind of test?" Fuwa asked excitedly, though it seemed that she already knew the answer.

Nagisa's smirk was enough to confirm it. "Of course, the classical. Cops and Robbers."

…

Nagisa could tell that the children had felt uncomfortable from the moment he had named the game. Not exactly because of the game. Because of the preying look in each adult's eyes was more accurate.

"Uh…" Chikako shifted uncomfortably before turning to whisper to Fumiko. "Why do they look so… animalistic?"

His smirk widened whereas Karma looked just about ready to burst with laughter. A couple of the women looked offended to be classified in such a manner.

"Shh! They heard you!" Fumiko hissed back, causing Karma to actually let out a snort of laughter.

"Nagisa, please tell me that we're going to be the cops." Karma laughed darkly, like he was ready to pounce. "Karasuma-sensei did a good number on us back in the day."

"Why not?" In contrast, the teacher's expression was nonchalant. "They probably need more work on their escaping skills than assassination anyways."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Jun muttered, glancing at Nagisa nervously.

"Who wants to be jailkeeper?" Rio asked, eagerness clear in her voice. Everyone could just imagine the devil's horns sticking out of her head.

"Hmm…" Nagisa thought for a moment, but his smirk only widened. "Let's not have one. I doubt that with twenty-five of us on chase they will be able to escape the jail. And to add to our handicap… sorry, Ritsu, but can you not help with this?"

"Understood!" The AI vanished from their screens, probably gone to check on other services she could provide on the internet.

"Right. Ok, shall we start?"

…

Yeah, soooo. Short and simple filler chapter to set the scene for the next one. Sorry. Next one will be Cops and Robbers, whenever that will be.

It's kind of scary that I now realize that this was published almost a year ago. Ugh, I'm so sorry that this is moving so slow. Really sorry, guys. Nothing I can do about it sadly. I have to keep my grades up.

I'll try to update my Hidden Agendas soon because that only has one chapter.

Reviews:

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Take care, guys and see you next time!

~Hana