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It had been a rough few weeks for Isogai, to say the least.
His mother's health had taken a turn for the worst again, which meant he was back to working at the café. Which was fine, he's done it plenty of times before. And sure, Korosensei had been drilling them harder for the upcoming exams, but again, he never made them do more than the average student is capable of.
So while he might feel a bit worn down from that plus taking care of everything at home and homework, he knew it was just a small rough patch that he could power through. So he kept his focus at school, he smiled through his shifts and he made sure to do his homework without complaint.
And when he had been hit by a wave of inspiration for a plan to kill Korosensei involving the school's sprinkler system, obviously he wasn't going to wait to flesh it out, what was an extra hour or two a night?
He soldiered on, because what other choice did he have? Even if his schedule had become quickly packed - Wake up, school, work, make dinner, clean up, homework, study, plan an assassination, repeat - it was nothing he wasn't used to. So what if it was becoming more difficult to pay attention in class, he'd just go over the material again at home. It was difficult, but it was only temporary. He just needed to get ahead on the bills and get through exams and he'd be back to his typical workload in no time. And once that happened then he'd take the opportunity to have a nice, long nap.
Apparently he hadn't been doing as great a job of staying put-together as he'd thought, as Maehara was quick to comment one day as they walked to school together.
"Hey man, is everything alright?" Maehara had asked as the two walked (well, Isogai supposed he was more trudging) up the hill to class E's building "You seem a little drained lately."
Isogai, not one to burden others with his own responsibilities, was quick to give him a bright smile "Oh, yeah I'm fine. It's just been a bit of a long week is all," he replied lightheartedly.
Maehara looked at him without saying anything for a moment, which made Isogai squirm. It was almost as if he were analysing him. "How's your mum been?" He eventually said.
Isogai paused, running a hand through his hair before responding "Oh, you know.." he trailed off in lieu of a proper answer.
Maehara let out a breath and stopped walking, putting a hand on Isogai's shoulder and turning to face him. "Hey, you know if you ever need help with anything, or even just to talk, we're all glad to help you out, yeah?"
Isogai felt awkward with the attention on him. Of course, he knew that. But it's not like there was anything his classmates could do to get him out of being poor, and he didn't want to bring the mood down with things that he's very much used to. So he didn't reach out, it was easier to just keep it to himself.
He did his best to look reassuring as he gave Maehara a response "I know, and I will if that happens. Thanks though, I appreciate it."
If Maehara had any doubts about his sincerity he didn't mention it, and the two were relatively silent the rest of the way up the hill.
The rest of the morning was uneventful as Korosensei ran them through history, what particular events he was discussing were beyond Isogai however, as he struggled to stay focused on his words, his eyes making a valiant effort to close and never open again. But he was fine, it was only for a little bit longer, no big deal. He simply shook his head to wake himself up a bit and did his best to at least write something in his notebook so that the notes that had been rapidly deteriorating over the past weeks would hopefully be at least legible.
"Well I'll be off for now, there's this café in South Korea that I've been dying to check out!" Korosensei announced cheerily before darting out of the window as he usually did for their lunch break.
Once he was gone, Isogai straightened up the notes he had been taking for his plan, stood up and turned to face the rest of the class "Hey guys," they all turned to him as he spoke "I have an idea to take out Korosensei."
He properly had their attention at that, most of them smiling encouragingly, curious as to what he had in mind.
"I-" Isogai paused, as he had a sudden surge of what felt static in his head. He blinked, cleared his throat and did his best to ignore it as he continued "I think.." His hands started shaking, and he gripped his notes tighter in an attempt to stop that. He saw dark spots creeping into the corners of his vision as the static intensified. Some of his classmates gave him odd looks. The room felt hotter. He pulled at his collar "Sorry, uhm.. I think that Korosensei-"
The spots multiplied at an alarming speed, and then Kataoka's lips were moving, asking him a question, he thought. Except no words were reaching his ears, which could only hear the sound of blood rushing in his head. She took a step towards him and he tried to stutter out his own words, to ask her to repeat herself.
But before he could, the ground was suddenly rushing towards him. No, that wasn't right, he was the one rushing to the ground as his legs buckled beneath him. He surprisingly - or maybe concernedly - didn't feel anything as his body hit the wooden floor of the classroom, landing on his side. He vaguely heard someone shout something, though he couldn't figure out who or what.
He felt like he was in a weird space between conscious and not, unmoving but aware of the floor beneath him. It was strangely peaceful, all the sounds of the world, and by extension his problems, reduced to a muted murmuring around him. He was so tired, he thought, when suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder and he was turned onto his back.
"..gai. Can you hear m… …Isogai?"
Maehara's voice. Isogai's eyelids fluttered, and suddenly he was lucid again as his friend came into focus, a panicked look on his face.
"Mae..hara.?" when he tried to speak the static-y feeling in his brain increased. He felt light-headed despite the fact he was lying down.
"Are you okay?!" Maehara exclaimed, clearly relieved to see him conscious "What was that??"
Before Isogai could even think about how to answer that question, he heard hurried footsteps coming from the corridor somewhere behind him, and then a new voice - Nagisa's, he was pretty sure "There, sir!"
"Give him room," A third voice spoke, and suddenly Maehara was ducking out of Isogai's line of sight to be replaced by Mr. Karasuma, who kneeled down next to him with a serious look on his face.
He tried to sit up, to get a look at the room around him that wasn't the ceiling, only to be firmly pushed back down by his teacher "Stay down for a minute." Mr. Karasuma ordered sharply.
"Ok.." Isogai responded, his voice now something meek. He was starting to feel embarrassed at the whole situation, he was sure to be causing a scene. His cheeks burned at the thought.
He watched as Mr. Karasuma looked away from him, assumedly at the rest of his classmates "Everyone, step outside for a few moments."
Then the room was filled with the sound of the others leaving the room, and Mr. Karasuma elevated his legs on a chair as fainting procedure dictates.
He then kneeled back next to him "How do you feel?" He asked, his voice kinder than before.
Isogai took a moment to think it over "Dizzy, sort of." He mumbled.
"Is this the first time this has happened to you?"
Isogai silently nodded.
"Did you feel weird at all before this?"
"Yeah.. there were, uh, black spots in my vision?" Isogai felt awkward as he spoke, at the situation in general.
"How about before that? Did this come out of nowhere?"
Isogai didn't respond, instead avoiding eye contact with his teacher, unable to bring himself to lie.
"Isogai?" Mr. Karasuma pressed, suspicion lacing his voice.
"Uhm…" Isogai felt shame rise in his chest, hesitating before admitting "..I was also tired.."
"You were tired?" Mr. Karasuma repeated back to him, and Isogai felt silly for saying it.
"Y-yeah.." He stuttered out "I've… I've been busy lately.." He didn't dare say more, he wasn't sure how Mr. Karasuma would react to him having a job, or whether or not he'd tell the main campus' faculty about it.
Instead of asking any follow-up questions, Mr. Karasuma sighed. "I see," He said quietly. He looked at Isogai "I can call your parents, and they can come get you-"
"No!" Isogai sat up suddenly as he exclaimed. Only to be hit with a tidal wave of vertigo and being pushed back down onto his back by a firm hand. "My mum- she wouldn't be able to come, she's kind of sick.." he explained. Kind of was an understatement, but he really wasn't in the mood to get into all of that right now.
Mr. Karasuma looked at him for a moment, before running a hand through his hair as he thought about what to do next. Clearly this wasn't the sort of thing he signed up for when he got his job with the government.
"..Okay. Do you think you'll be able to stand?" He asked.
Isogai took a moment to think about it before responding "…I think so, yeah."
He ended up sitting in a chair in the faculty lounge, as Mr. Karasuma wasn't a fan of the idea of having him walk all the way down the mountain to get to the nurse's office on the main campus. And going home on his own was definitely out of the question. He had been given some juice to bring his energy up, which he was absently sipping at every few seconds. Mr. Karasuma had left to teach the others P.E, and so he was left alone with Bitch-sensei, who was silently typing away at the computer, sparing a glance his way every now and again.
Isogai was silently looking at the floor when he heard the sound of the door opening.
He looked up to see Korosensei standing in the doorway, staring right at him.
"Isogai," He greeted kindly "How are you feeling?"
Isogai let out a nervous laugh "Fine now," He replied with a smile. His hands still shook, and he put down the glass he was holding so it wouldn't be as obvious.
Korosensei nodded at him, before turning to Bitch-sensei "Miss Irina, would you mind giving us a moment of privacy?" he asked.
Isogai turned his gaze back to the floorboards as she stepped out of the room. He knew that this was inevitable, that as soon as Korosensei caught wind of the earlier incident that he would get involved, it was in his nature. He knew that they would have to have… whatever conversation this was going to be before he could go home.
He heard his teacher pull a chair up beside him, and for a moment neither of them said anything.
"…So," Korosensei broke the silence "Mr. Karasuma told me what happened earlier."
"I figured," Isogai replied shyly.
"Mhm." he could practically feel Korosensei's eyes on him. "You want to tell me how this happened?" he asked gently.
Isogai found himself struggling to get the words out "…My uh, my mum is sick again, so I had to pick up some shifts, and then there's also all the extra exam prep, so I, uh.." It felt silly when he said it out loud, like he was making a scene over something that really shouldn't be that serious. He clenched his hands into fists, focusing on the feeling of his nails against his palms to ignore the shame.
"I see.." There was more silence, as Korosensei carefully thought out a response, Isogai was sure.
"You know, you should have come to me when things started to be too much for you, we could have worked something out." He eventually explained, voice still so even and kind.
Isogai curled in on himself at that "I'm sorry, sensei." He whispered.
Korosensei let out a heavy sigh next to him "No, I am also to blame for this, I should have noticed that you were struggling long before it got to this point."
That got Isogai to snap his head in his direction, horrified "No, Korosensei! It was my decision, this isn't your fault-"
He was cut off by Korosensei raising a tentacle to his mouth. He shook his head as he lowered it "No, it is my duty as an educator to make sure my students are taking care of themselves, and I take that job very seriously. Education may be important, yes, but it will never be more important than your wellbeing."
"I know, but.." Isogai trailed off. If he wanted a shot at getting into a good high school, he needed to do well in junior high. If he wanted his family to keep the apartment, he needed to work. And if he wanted the world to still exist by the end of the year, he needed to kill Korosensei. He couldn't afford to stop, he had to do it all.
"I know what you're thinking," Korosensei started speaking again. "You have a responsibility to those around you. But-" he brought a tentacle to Isogai's chest "-You also have a responsibility to yourself. If you keep running yourself into the ground like this, you'll only end up burning out. And that won't help anybody."
Isogai cringed at that, turning away from Korosensei to avoid looking him in the eyes. "That's easy to say, but I don't know what else I can do…"
He felt the weight of a tentacle fall on his shoulder "That's why you ask others for help. I'm sure we can work out a middle ground where you don't have to sacrifice your sleep and all of your free time. Sometimes you have to stop looking at the bigger picture for a moment and instead focus on what you do have the power to change. When you do that, sometimes what seems like an impossibly difficult target becomes much more easy to kill.”
He gave Isogai an encouraging smile, and, while his problems definitely weren't all solved, he was no longer alone in it, and that alone was enough to ease his worries somewhat. That maybe this wasn't all so hopeless.
"Thanks, Korosensei. It means a lot."
Isogai let out a sigh as he finished putting the dishes from dinner away. Korosensei had dropped him back at his apartment after their conversation, and while he couldn't ditch his shift, he did get to crash for a bit beforehand, which was better than nothing.
He checked the time. It was just past seven, which he thought was still a bit early to be heading to sleep. His eyes caught on the pile of textbooks that had been left on the table. Korosensei had told him not to worry about studying tonight, that he'd help him figure out a more doable schedule for it the next day. That didn't stop him from feeling a twinge of guilt for avoiding it, like he was doing something wrong.
He shook that thought out of his head. No, he could find something else to do with his time.
He was distracted by the sound of the doorbell ringing. He approached it with caution, as he hadn't been expecting anyone. That was quickly forgotten, however, when he opened the door to see his classmates standing there, all of them crammed into the small hallway.
"Guys?" Isogai's eyes flicked between them all, confusion knit on his face. "What are you doing here?"
"We wanted to make sure you hadn't up and died," Karma responded cheerily, earning an elbow to the arm from Kayano for it.
"We wanted to see how you were doing, man." was Maehara's less-concerning response. "Y'know, after earlier.."
"Oh." Isogai felt his face heat up at the reminder that they all saw him pass out in front of them. "I've been better," He replied sheepishly "But getting through it."
Nagisa stepped to the front of the group "We were wondering if you wanted to hang out with us for a little while? We'd watch a movie, something chill."
"Oh, uh.." Isogai glanced back into the apartment, to his mum's bedroom door. "I don't think I can really go too far tonight.."
"Don't worry about that!" Maehara said cheerfully "We have something set up outside,"
Isogai raised a curious eyebrow "What does that mean?" he tilted his head to the side.
"Come out and see, idiot." Terasaka said gruffly.
"I'm pretty sure you're the idiot here, Terasaka." Itona commented in his usual monotone.
Isogai couldn't stop himself from letting out a laugh as Terasaka and Itona started bickering. "Okay, give me a second," He said, before grabbing his keys, a hoodie, and slipping his shoes on. He then followed them out into the hallway.
The group led him out of his apartment building and around the side, until they stopped in the small area of grass that sat behind it. In the open-ness, a projector and a sheet had been set up to create a simple screen. There was also a few blankets and pillows laid out in front of it to sit on.
"Oh, wow," Isogai said in awe. To be honest, when they said that they had "set up" something for a movie, he had half been expecting them to all crowd around one of them holding a phone as they played it on that. "You guys really set this all up for me?"
"Of course!" Maehara grinned, wrapping an arm around Isogai's shoulders "You're one of us, and we look out for each other. End class forever, right?"
Isogai felt a smile spread across his face, and he had to blink to stop himself from tearing up at the gesture. He was really glad he ended up in E class. "Thanks, guys."
"Well let's not just stand around here, come on!" Kayano took hold of his and started dragging him towards the blankets, and everyone else was quick to follow.
Isogai barely lasted ten minutes before he was passed out cold.
It was the atmosphere that got him - the movie playing softly in the background as his friends surrounded him, some whispering to each other, others goofing off and some watching the movie in silence. It was nice, and relaxed him in a way he hadn't felt in a long time. It was with this feeling that the total exhaustion from the past few weeks that he had been trying so hard to ignore hit him like a sack of bricks.
It was a feeling that took him by the shoulders and pulled his body to the ground, enveloping him like a hug as his eyelids slid shut, the movie and the voices of his classmates serving as a white noise that dragged him into the depths of unconsciousness.
"That was quicker than I thought it would be," Maehara commented as he waved a hand in front of Isogai's face to no response "He's out."
"That doesn't surprise me," Kataoka replied, sitting with her hands braced on the ground behind her as she leaned back "He's looked wrecked for the past while now. I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner, to be honest."
Nagisa, who was sitting with crossed legs next to the group, sighed "I just wish he would have told someone what was going on." He looked at their class representative forlornly "We could have tried to help."
"I'm sure he knew that," Maehara assured him, looking at his friend with an exasperated, yet fond smile "He's just also stupid and altruistic. But now that everything's out in the open, hopefully he'll be more willing to reach out if it happens again." He gently brushed some stray strands of hair out of Isogai's face.
Nakamura hummed in agreement "Yeah, especially after Korosensei gave him a talking to. He's good at that sort of thing, remember how he convinced Karma to actually study?"
"Hey, why are we still bringing that up??" Karma exclaimed in a fake-outrage, though his cheeks did turn slightly pink at the memory. "But yeah, I suppose the octopus can be quite assertive when he wants to." While he acted disinterested, there was an amount of respect to be heard in his voice.
"But more importantly," Karma continued as he reached into his pocket. "Now that he's asleep, we should take advantage of it, yeah?" He took out a sharpie and effortlessly twirled it between his fingers as a malicious grin spread on his face.
"Dude, no." Sugino chided, looking at Karma in disbelief.
"Aw, no fun." Karma dramatically sighed and picked at the grass next to him "Can we at least put his hand in a cup of warm water?"
Sugino then launched a pillow at his face, causing a few of the others to laugh, and it wasn't long before they went back to watching the movie, though with less talking among them as not to wake their classmate.
Once the movie ended, most of the class started packing up while Terasaka carefully picked up the still-asleep Isogai bridal-style, and he and Nagisa brought him back to his apartment. Getting his shoes off and into his room involved some slightly awkward manoeuvres, and the two had a brief panic when he started mumbling something incoherent in his sleep after Terasaka set him down, but thankfully he didn't stir.
"Sleep well, idiot." Terasaka said as Nagisa pulled the sheets over Isogai, and with that the two were able to slip back out of his apartment without much issue.
The group then said their goodbyes to each other and went their separate ways after that.
When Isogai woke up the next morning he had no recollection of how he had gotten back to his bed, but the day ahead no longer seemed as daunting as they had been before, and a warm feeling filled his chest.