Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Akabane Karma does things because he can, some people say.

Akabane Karma does things others don't want him to, so others argue.

In reality, Akabane Karma does things because he has to.

Most of the time.

-//-

He has three sisters. Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis are their names. They hold great power over the living, deciding their moment of birth and death. They take their duties with pride, and teach him to do the same.

At first, there's no need for him to exist. All souls find their way to Stynx by themselves. The gods of the underworld send them to either Tartarus or the Elysium fields, depending on the deeds of their pasts. After a while, Pluto deems them ready to repeat the circle and sends them away.

This way of doing things exhausts them, so the Fates ask for assistance. So the Lord of the Underworld allows them to pick one of any of the souls in his kingdom, and raise it as a handler of souls.

This is how he came to be, he imagines. But it doesn't matter if he's wrong. Fate is a force more powerful than any and all gods.

 "Little brother." Lachesis calls him. He follows her voice, standing in front of her moments later. "You must go into the human world. Fix the scales corrupted by the hands of men."

He accepts.

"The Oracles are waiting for you."

The word of the Dates isn't absolute - Death, however, is, - and Oracles know when someone upsets the balance of the world. They inform the Fates -or, in this case, him- to take a path of action.

Under their guidance, he does the unthinkable: he writes down his name into his Book of Souls and slowly, he sheds his human-like appearance as he steps into the Eternal River. Each soul has a name to always follow them, for him to recognise them, to separate them from the myriad of humans who share the same mortal name. However, the only name he was ever given was the one he currently wore. He knew no other; so he wrote down his divine name.

-//-

Christmas finds Akabane Mirai in a hospital in New Delhi, India, giving birth to a boy with attention-drawing, bright scarlet hair and shining golden eyes.

IIt must be fate, she muses, for me to give birth to my boy today, here.

Her husband agrees with her decision to name the little boy Karma.

Chapter Text

He remembers nothing at first.

That is, of course, natural. No one holds memories of their past lives when they're born. It takes a lot to unlock said memories, time, patience and practice. Some souls never get to remember their past.

And they always forget before they reincarnate again.

He's different, of course. Things come to him slowly, flashes of people and places he has no memory of. He's three when he starts noticing the faint but colourful lights surrounding those around him. By five, they become more bright, seemingly solid enough for him to touch.

He's scared, confused. He seeks his parents for advice in that fear. He's afraid because none of his friends can do that, but his parents both smile at him. They ruffle his hair lovingly.

"You're special." they tell him. They don't explain, but he can feel how proud this thing makes them. The colour around them is a bright gold.

-//-

He's seven when he first sees a woman on the street, hiding in a corner. The colour around her is a faint grey, and she's trembling in a tattered old dress. He takes his scarf from around his neck and offers it to her. She stares at him, confused at first. Then she smiles, and mutters her thanks with her head lowered.

He lies to his parents that the wind took it away.

Each day that passes, he never neglects to bring something for the lonely woman to eat. No one seems to notice her or, if they do, they don't seem to care.

Her colour darkens every time he sees her. Darker and darker, until it becomes a shade of black found in the feathers of a raven. She doesn't speak, her smiles becoming scarce.

Until she lays on the street one day, and no colour surrounds her.

-//-

Junior High can be a pain sometimes to Karma. Mostly because of the colours that people surround them with. By that time, he had remembered his true identity, his purpose here, how his abilities worked. He wasn't sure if this school was supposed to be the grounds of where he'd work for his 'mission' or if he had to search. He hoped not; the system their school operated on was one that bred an unhealthy kind of competitiveness, and that was putting it mildly. "Study hard so you won't be put with the losers of class 3-E. The losers of the 'End Class'." Ironically, and judging by the colours of their aura, the most miserable were the supposed elite of Class A. Most likely because of the stress.

Good thing he was in Class D, right?

Yes, it was a good thing. He had a friend there, a boy with the name of Shiota Nagisa. It started out well, of course. Nagisa was nice company, because he was so much different than the rest of their classmates. He was hardworking, sure, but he was also kind and warm, average grades but also not willing to abandon everything for the sake of studying to achieve great grades like the rest.

You're getting attached, Karma.

He shakes his head.

Spending his free time with Nagisa like that when he's supposed to be on a mission... He shakes his head. This needs to stop. He needs to find a way for it to stop. Even though he doesn't want to, he has to.

He has grown distant from his parents ever since he started in junior high, and it wasn't his fault or attempts. It just happened. And now, he's left alone, with his worries, his fears, his mission that he doesn't know where it begins and where it ends.

Even gods have monsters hidden within them, and he's no exception.

The devil within Akabane Karma is a violent one.

-//-

He's going to die.

He's going to die and it's far from his time.

The one who gets beaten is supposed to live. The abuser has little time left. I can see it.

There's only one way to turn the tides. Karma closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and smiles.

The bullied upperclassman stares at him in horror, recognising him and his reputation. He's afraid, Karma thinks which is, after all, natural. He's afraid that he'll join the bully, him, the most violent person in school.

The horror is replaced with confusion at first, surprise, then it settles in relief.

Karma smiles. The older boy disappears from his sight.

-//-

I've done the right thing. So why is he telling me off?

The one I was beating up was going to die anyways!

You sick bastard! Are you calling yourself a teacher?

I'm going to show you when you die! I'll have you reincarnate as a cockroach, or a leech, since this is who you really are in this life!

He doesn't voice any protests or his inner thoughts. As a human, he's not supposed to talk about the things he knows, besides, everyone would say he's crazy. Then he'll be forced into an asylum and perhaps he won't be able to complete his mission. He takes silent satisfaction as he carves the pathetic teacher's true name in memory; what he has prepared for that soul is something better not described.

His decided punishment is suspension and being demoted to Class 3-E by the start of the next school year.

There's only good things about that. He gets to make his distant with Nagisa lasting, and he can search for what the hell it was that the Oracles predicted and send him after for.

-//-

The moon explodes and Karma knows.

Whatever caused it, he needs to destroy.

And his time is running out.

Chapter Text

"As a member of 3-E, your mission is to kill him."

"I don't mind, after all, I always wanted to kill a teacher."

I'm used to shape lives after all, not ending them. New experiences are always something to look forward to.

-//-

For a group that was supposed to be dragged down, the filthy criminals of the micro-society that was their school, the 3-E students looked like they were having fun, even in the dire situation they were in. They were tasked to kill a seemingly unkillable monster. Karma has seen truly unkillable creatures though. Gods are more enduring, but still not immortal. Those who live outside of time are trully unkillable, because time washes over everything and nothing can stop it.

He observes the yellow octopus from this distance, not far and yet not close. The form might not be human, but the creature carries a soul, he's almost sure of it. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he focuses in that single eye strain of yellow, and he senses it. The pull of a soul. If their teacher is some kind of demon he has never seen before, he doesn't know, but he doubts it. If that was the doing of a god, he wouldn't have been sent here. Therefore, there was only one logical explanation.

This was a human's doing.

Seriously. What was the reason of it? Didn't humans had enough of violence, they wanted experiments as well?

Exhaling, he opens his eyes and looks around. There's no one he knows from his previous class, however, he's seen their faces around campus, most of them at least. Until, of course, his eyes trail on his fragile-looking form.

Shiota Nagisa.

Nagisa looks exactly like the last time he saw him, with the exception that his hair were tied in a pair of cute twintails, still not able to erase his effeminate charm. The boy has troubles of his own, all of them do, otherwise, they wouldn't be here. It doesn't take much for him to know that, after all, his true identity is that of a god that deals with souls. Of course he can tell.

He wonders what's the best aproach to his new classmates other than grabbing onto their one common link, the boy with the sky resting in his head.

There is none.

And so he approaches, with confident stride and his signature smile.

"Hello, Nagisa-kun. It's been a while."

 Said boy stares at him in awe, appearing in front of him, seemingly out of nowhere, perhaps as if he was some sort of god (Karma laughs because he has no power over matter) but he ignores him. What's most important right now is his target.

Kill him and you can get back home.

And so he tries, with just a simple trick of cutting a knife and sticking it to his hand. With a seemingly innocent handshake, the right hand-tentacle thing (whatever it is, Karma has no need to know) and at that, he can't help but smile out of pure joy. The octopus jumps a few meters back with its inhuman speed. It's going to be a challenge, and having a strong opponent is always exciting.

"I heard they call you Korosensei because you're supposed to be unkillable." he directs his words to the yellow creature. In that moment, no one in the world exists but them, the victim and its killer. "But, could it be? That you're actually such a pushover?"

The teacher's face is red with anger and the readhead can't help but feel pleased with the result.

I'll show you how it feels like to be killed.

-//-

"Hey, Nagisa-kun. Does Korosensei gets insulted or upset when you call him an octopus?" he asks Nagisa the same day after their classes end. He had attempted a few times to 'kill' their teacher, managing each time to cause an injure, but not being fatal. Wars are won when your opponents give up. They give up when their morale is low. And how to lower morale better and safer way to lower morale by humilliating them?

"I think it's the opposite." the blue-haired boy replies. "He makes many jokes about it, I guess it's more like his trademark."

"Huh. I see. That's interesting."

"Karma-kun. What are you up to this time?"

"Nothing much. It's just that, I only wanted to kill a teacher."

-//-

It had been a disaster. All his attempts to humilliate the damn octopus not only had failed miserably, but he got ridiculed in the process. He had to think of a way to end it, and fast. Couldn't risk the chance of the planet blowing up by the end of the year.

The world under his feet, at that egde he was standing, it seemed large, even though he knew it was tiny. The world is seemingly endless, and yet this little rock, full of life, was a part of great importance to the balance of the world.

Karma was always a reckless god. Reckless and michievious, sometimes even he stood too close to death. Few appreciate him for the way he spends his time, and Death had been one of them. Faceless they might be, but heartless they are not, and so he knows that, even if this insane plan of his 'fails', reuniting with a friend will be the outcome of the worst-case scenario.

"So, just to make sure, you are a teacher, right, Korosensei?"

"That's right."

"And as a teacher, you'd risk your life to protect one of your students."

"Of course. I am, as you said, a teacher."

A ghost of a smile finds its way into his face. "That's a relief. Now I'm sure I can kill you."

And lets himself fall.

Which death will you choose?  If you come to my rescue, I'll shoot you and kill you. If you don't, regardless if I die or not, no one will see you as a teacher anymore. One way or another, this will be my victory.

Amazing, isn't it? This small human life of mine, flashing before my eyes!

Ah, onee-sama will be angry at me if she sees me home so soon, without doing what I was sent to.

His fall is halted out of the blue, and he finds himself in a sticky situation.

Quite literally.

"Congratulations on your attempt, Karma-kun. You should know this: As a teacher, letting you die isn't an option. Feel free to take a leap of faith like that any time you wish."

I'll acknowledge this: You're more of a teacher and a human than those on the main building, Korosensei.

Maybe it's still not the right rime, but when it comes, I'll kill you then.