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It was not often that Nagisa had to ask Karma for help.
(Save for the multiple times he had to tell Karma to grab something in the top shelf for him. It was so unfair that his boyfriend was so tall while he himself had only grown a centimeter since middle school.)
However, he was getting desperate. While he had known to expect nothing short of chaos after teaching 3-E for nearly three years, he never thought that it would be this difficult to get through to his newest group of students. After almost four months of struggling to get his students to mingle with each other and to do the work he assigned them, Nagisa finally was forced to accept the fact that he was no Korosensei, no matter how much he had already done for his previous students and how hard he had tried to emulate the yellow octopus’s teaching methods.
So yes, he had a problem.
And yes, he really needed Karma's help.
After all, who could be better at improving the lives of the particularly stubborn delinquents than a hardworking bureaucrat who had once been notorious for skipping class and getting into fights? While Karma was no Korosensei either, perhaps it was time to introduce a fresh perspective into the matter.
If the busy bastard even agrees to help me in the first place, that is.
His fingers crossed and his heart settled, Nagisa quietly snuck into the study where his boyfriend was working. It was time to wrangle the devil himself.
The aforementioned devil, as it turned out, was in the middle of signing some forms. The pen elaborately danced across the sheets of paper as he repeatedly formed his signature, each and every loop and flourish pleasantly familiar. Nagisa watched, entranced, before walking up behind him and then standing on his toes to properly kiss him on the forehead. "Hey."
Karma, humming contentedly in response, took one of Nagisa's arms and then lightly pressed his lips against the inside of his wrist. His gleaming gold eyes, however, still remained focused on the papers in front of him. “Hey, babe. Do you want something? I can cook dinner for the both of us if you're hungry. I'm just filling out some paperwork right now.”
Nagisa's heart melted at the other's warmth, but as much as he adored Karma's cooking and how sweet Karma could be, it would unfortunately have to wait. “No, uh, I'm not hungry right now. I do have a favor to ask, though."
His boyfriend's brow momentarily furrowed with concern, and he turned around in his chair to look properly at him. "What's up, Nagi? Is something wrong? You usually don't act so stiffly with me."
"Oh, nothing's wrong," Nagisa quickly assured him. "It's just...I know this is probably too much to ask of you, but could you take two weeks off to work with my students? I've tried my best to get them to develop a strong bond, but none of my attempts have been successful. I thought that if I could get someone else to help them understand each other..."
Karma raised an eyebrow, the worry that had been on his face now long gone. “Oh? And you think I could be of assistance? What’s wrong with the current PE teacher? Didn't they manage to get the students all sorted out yet?” He jestingly made some punching motions with his fists.
Of course. Nagisa sighed as he tried to come up with something convincing. “Karma, please? If anyone was good at utilizing his fellow classmate’s strengths, it’s you. While I am good at finding my targets' weaknesses, you’re undoubtedly the best at figuring out where other people's talents lie. I think the kids could learn from someone like you.”
The redhead stopped punching the air to instead smile in the warm way he only ever did when they were alone, and Nagisa felt his brain grind to a halt. So much for trying to be persuasive. "Thanks for the praise, but I didn't say that I wouldn't help, did I? I'll see what strings I can pull to get the time off."
Nagisa blinked once, twice. “Wait, what?"
“I'd do anything for you, Nagi. I expect lots of cuddles in return, though.” Karma suddenly leapt at Nagisa and pulled him into a gigantic bear hug. “I'll be missing two weeks' worth of work, after all. I'm a very busy man, and you’re lucky my secretary is capable. You definitely owe me ~”
Damn him. “Fine, whatever. Thanks for helping me, Karma,” Nagisa replied as he wiggled out of Karma’s embrace.
“Whatever?” Karma wailed dramatically in an attempt to tease him. But then he hugged him again and began to smother him with kisses.
“STOP THAT!” Nagisa managed to shout in between giggles. “Karma, you’re gonna kill me by being too overly affectionate!”
“Hehe, you’re way too cute ~”
“Hey, did you know we are getting a new PE teacher? He’ll be here for just our combat unit.”
“Oh, who?”
“I have no idea. Apparently he's really good at fighting.”
“Ha. That's why he's here to teach us, right? Still, he seems like someone I’d like to meet.”
Kaede was intrigued by the rumors spreading around the class, and wondered whether this new teacher would be anything like Shiota.
As if he had been summoned by Kaede’s thoughts, Shiota then entered the classroom. For once in their lives, the students were deathly quiet.
“Welcome class. Before I take roll, I have someone to introduce to you guys. Meet Karma Akabane, who will be working with you all on combat and self defense. Some of you guys may already know him.”
"Karma Akabane? Isn't he Shiota-sensei's boyfriend? He's the bureaucrat who was on the cover of that magazine last month, right?"
"Yeah, I remember him! He models in his spare time, so that’s why he was on the magazine. I heard he’s wanted by several agencies."
"I’ve heard that he's looking to get into a higher position in the MITI. I just wish I knew exactly what office he’s going to be aiming for. He’s rather mysterious, right?"
"That's true, but he does have a really high approval rating, especially when you consider the fact that some politicians wouldn’t be too keen on working with a gay man. I’m sure he’ll manage to get support from others no matter what office he wants to hold. Besides, if he truly wants to move up he’ll have to announce his interest soon."
”So he’s good at fighting?”
Kaede wondered what Shiota could possibly be thinking. Having a man like that teaching them combat seemed pretty strange.
But then Akabane came into the room, and Kaede turned his attention back to the front of the classroom to give him a once-over.
Shiota’s boyfriend was tall and rather handsome, his red hair gelled and neatly parted to one side. Instead of the standard PE uniform, he was wearing a maroon dress shirt, dark jeans, and a causal expression that suggested he felt at home in the classroom. It was no wonder, really, that modeling agencies fought over him, and he was most definitely a brilliant bureaucrat based on what Kaede saw on the news. When it came to fighting, however, Akabane's appearance explained very little. He was lean — as expected of a man in his profession — and looked relatively harmless (though he did not appear as even half as innocent as the teacher standing next to him).
Several students looked amused when he bent down and whispered something in Shiota’s ear that made the other blush.
This is ridiculous. Kaede scoffed, feeling underwhelmed. “Doesn’t he work for the government and model? What can he possibly teach us about how to fight?”
“Oh, I-uh...You’ll see that there's more to him than what meets the eye.”
This caught his attention. If Shiota thought so highly of him, there must be something incredible about the man.
Now that he was thinking about it, there was something off-putting about the new PE teacher’s eyes. They were the color of molten gold, which would have suggested warmth if not for the fact that they had a certain sinister quality about them. There’s definitely something off about him, just like there is with Shiota-sensei.
“If you say so,” Kaede responded nonchalantly, though he still kept an eye on Akabane.
Whispers now filled the room, and the man laughed. “You must be Kaede-kun. I’ve heard about you.” He gave him a smile that widened as he then spoke to all of the students. “You guys can call me Karma-sensei. I hope you all are ready for this afternoon. Training isn’t going to be light.”
There was no doubt that underneath the handsome face was a surprisingly sadistic personality.
“Uh oh,” Grace whispered from the desk next to him. The ginger-haired girl had been his best friend for several years, so it was no surprise that she shared his qualms regarding their new PE teacher.
“What are we going to do about him?” was Kaede’s hushed reply.
“We have to try to kill him before we have PE. That way we won’t have to train with him.”
She was certainly insane, but he could not argue with such a straightforward idea. “Good thinking. I’ll poison him.”
“Nice.”
Shiota then started taking roll, and the two fell silent. Karma was long gone by the time they began their English lesson — he was probably getting ready for their training and changing into his PE uniform — but Kaede noticed that he had left his water bottle behind, the blue container sitting unattended on the front desk. If I could just get to his water bottle. As the clock ticked by, he anxiously waited for lunch to come, knowing that with his classmates (and most importantly Shiota) gone, he would have the opportunity to poison Karma’s drink.
Finally, the bell rang and dismissed them for lunch. Grace quietly wished him luck as their classmates filtered out of the classroom. After ensuring that everyone had left, Kaede then pulled out a vial of poison out of his school bag. He carefully opened Karma's water bottle to find that it was filled with...Is that strawberry milk? His nose wrinkling at the overly sweet smell, he shook his head and then poured the poison into the drink.
He was about to screw the cap back onto the bottle when he realized that he was not alone anymore.
“Oh no, that’s not going to work.” The suave voice made Kaede shiver. Gold eyes glinted as a silver blade was brought to the delinquent's neck. Now that Kaede was being held in Karma-sensei's tight grip, his legs dangling off the ground due to their height difference, there was no mistaking the muscles underneath the blue uniform or the man's abnormal strength.
He cursed himself for getting into this mess.
“I highly suggest that you not attempt to kill me in such a paltry manner. I will not fall prey to one of your petty traps.” The knife still held against his neck, the boy watched with horror as the man grabbed the water bottle and casually downed the entire beverage before shaking it to demonstrate that not a single drop was left. “If you're going to assassinate someone like me, know that a simple poison won’t work.”
Sweat dripped down Kaede’s forehead. “Wha-What? Are you unkillable or something?”
“Perhaps.” Karma chortled as he finally let go of Kaede.
Without a second thought, the boy ran out of the room as fast as his legs would carry him. The other students were outside the building, already done with their lunch and dressed for PE. Their blue uniforms seemed to blend into the sky in Kaede’s panicked eyes, but he managed to locate his friends. “Guys, guys! The PE teacher is a sadistic psycho!”
“Huh?” Grace asked, more than a little confused by the abject terror on his face. “I thought you said that you were going to poison his drink.”
“I did, but he caught me. He put a knife to my neck and then drank all of his strawberry milk before telling me that I would have to try harder if I wanted to kill him.” Kaede turned a bit red from embarrassment.
Everyone looked positively alarmed. “What!” My thoughts exactly. While his classmates talked about Karma, Kaede quickly scarfed down his lunch before he changed into his PE uniform. What am I going to do about Karma-sensei?
“What are you guys talking so excitedly about?” Shiota asked, looking as innocent as ever despite the fact that he was currently holding a knife in each of his hands. "Don't leave me out!"
"Sorry, we were talking about the new PE teacher. Your boyfriend," one of the students teased. "When are you two gonna get married?"
"Yodai-kun!" Shiota scolded good-naturedly at the boy. "We'll get married once it's legal, I guess. We never really talked about it, but Karma did mention that he’d love it."
Kaede then spoke up. “Karma-sensei is freaking crazy.”
The teacher rolled his eyes and laughed. “Yeah, he’s...he’s like that sometimes. He’s fairly sweet, though, once you let him in.” What the hell is wrong with both of them? They are a couple straight out of hell!
“That’s because you’re insane yourself, Shiota-sensei!” everyone reminded him.
“Who’s insane, now?” Karma asked, entering the conversation and wrapping an arm around Shiota’s waist. A vaguely threatening aura rolled off the redhead, making it clear that he knew exactly what they had just said.
“NOBODY!” the students all immediately amended.
Shiota looked peeved. “Stop trying to scare everybody, Karma!”
The man stuck his tongue out childishly. "Whatever. It’s not like I’d actually kill them, right?”
Kaede felt a certain chill at these words, but Shiota smiled. “I’m going to head back, all right? I have some assignments to grade. Kaede-kun, did you do your homework this time?”
As if. Karma had the gall to look amused as Kaede determinedly shook his head.
The teacher kindly shook his head. “Well, you have until Friday morning to turn it in. I hope you’ll decide that doing so would be worth the effort, but I’ll go ahead and grade everyone else’s while I wait for yours. Bye!”
“Good luck, Sensei,” Karma responded, stressing the last word in a way that made Shiota chuckle slightly. The man laughed, too, as the blue-haired teacher made his way back inside the school, but once Shiota was gone he turned to address the entire class, his hands rubbing together rather ominously in anticipation.
“Let’s go do some drills, all right?”
Before the students had the chance to voice their many fears, they were all standing in the field with their training knives in their hands. And that’s when everything Kaede thought about Karma changed.
“Weak stance,” Karma observed as he walked through the rows of students, easily knocking one of them over with a single hand. He just as easily grabbed the knife out of another student’s hand. “You must be able to protect yourself." He toyed with the blade of the knife he had just stolen for emphasis. "And that means understanding that your opponent will at times be both highly skilled and highly trained. When going against such a person, a fight can be won or lost from your opening move, so if you come in all weak and flimsy —” He swung the knife at yet another student, who tumbled to the ground in an attempt to protect himself. “— you will lose.”
The class began to converse in hushed murmurs.
“Combat is a blade, just like any other skill. It is your job to polish it, sharpen it, and use it well. I wasn’t the best assassin during my time in class 3-E, as that honor went to your teacher, and I was ranked fourth in marksmanship.” He gave a little laugh when a few students grumbled about how that is not bad at all. “And while I was really good at fighting, I was definitely not as strong as some of the assassins I’ve had to face."
Kaede's eyes widened. He fought several professionals when he was in middle school? Then he is really, really good at combat. What the hell...
"However, I was smart and trained a lot. And thus, I was extremely good at using my strength and the resources I had available.”
Egotistical much? Kaede rolled his eyes and was about to say that he wanted to leave when something unexpected occurred. Karma went to the front of the class and surprised everyone by getting in a fighting stance, facing the students with a mischievous smirk.
“So...Now show me what you’ve got.”
So he is, in fact, crazy. Interesting.
Everyone charged, but Karma was able to evade all of them so easily that Kaede thought he could have done this in his sleep. He probably could, actually. While Kaede would never admit it in a million years, this man was cool.
“Hmmm...You all can do much better than that. And while you’re attempting to use your individual strengths, you're forgetting a very valuable resource.”
Murmurs of confusion as the students got back in position were the only responses Karma received.
“Each other. You all attacked me individually and didn’t even think about working together. Strength isn’t just physical ability. It’s your talent. A good assassin can accurately utilize each of their teammate’s skillsets in order to successfully complete their missions. Obviously, though, this would require some sort of bond to have been formed between the teammates prior to the mission, right?” Karma’s eyes gleamed as he scanned the rows of students. “But that shouldn’t have been a problem, seeing how you’ve all been in 3-E for so long. Surely you’ve gotten a taste of everyone's strengths and weaknesses?”
Everyone looked a bit embarrassed, and the PE teacher shook his head and smiled. “Thought so. We’ll need to work on changing that. Everyone has their own talent, and we’ll work together to find out what each person here is good at. That will be our goal in the combat unit. We won’t be learning to punch each other senseless, but learning to fight with our opponent’s strengths in mind. For some of you, your strength would be physical ability.” His gaze rested on Kaede for a second before moving on. “For others, it could be stealth and one-hit attacks.” Kaede thought about Shiota and his well-hidden bloodlust. "Even if a person doesn't have a talent for assassination, it doesn't mean that they aren't useful or skilled. Some people are good at observing situations from afar. Some people love to learn and can use their knowledge to do all sorts of science and tech-related things. Some people are friendly and can easily form a bond with their target."
The man smirked. "It's important to remember that it's not so badass to look down on people as it is to look them in the eye before beating them up."
He’s utterly terrifying but amazing. Coolest. PE. Teacher. EVER.
"Kaede-kun talked to me after PE today. He said that you are a really good teacher," Nagisa informed his boyfriend as the two were driving back to their apartment after Nagisa had finished cleaning up for the day. "He also told me that I was great at teaching, too, which is really strange because he never complimented me before."
Karma grinned. "Interesting."
"He reminds me of you before Korosensei taught you."
The redhead laughed. "Yeah, he does remind me of my old self. He better not waste his talent by being full of himself."
I wonder what his lesson had been about. "I hope he won't after your lesson today, as he really seemed to have taken it to heart. I wish I had been there to see you teach. Maybe I'll watch you tomorrow if you don't mind."
This elicited a small laugh from Karma. "Of course you can watch me. And I'm glad what I said meant so much to him." A slightly smug smirk adorned his face.
Nagisa smiled. "Seriously, thank you for agreeing to do this. It means a lot to me, too."
His smirk grew. "You still owe me cuddles, though. Maybe something a little more?"
“Ah, of course." Nagisa's voice turned drier than dry. "How could I forget, Karma?”