6. Bonds

"Kayano Kaede, was it?"

Naomasa approached the girl as she sat down by a tree, a short break during PE class. Perhaps because the girl knew she was sweaty and probably stank, she inched aside as the teacher came to sit beside her.

"Kuma-sensei," she addressed.

Unlike the rest, Kayano Kaede had only transferred into Kunugigaoka for a short period of time. Even so, she had fallen into Class E under the same notoriety as everyone-- low grades? rebellious behaviour? It would be insensitive to question.

"So," Nao made himself smile, opening a lollipop to enjoy, "are you enjoying school?"

Typical teacher question, but Nao really didn't know a better way to start a conversation. Well, Kayano was a conversation bringer. She'd make something happen.

"Uhn!" her response was spirited, "everyone's a little strange, and Korosensei's the weirdest of them all, but it's not a bad class."

Her smile was gentle, a slight curve. Her hair fell gently at her shoulder, clustering at her neck in its strange, teal shade. Nao thought of her as an adorable girl-- after all, she was small, petite, and had a charming personality.

If he didn't know better, that is.

"Is that so?" Nao felt happy for her.

I want to think that your smiles, at least, were real, Kayano.

"That's right, Ms Sakurai told me she was making pudding today," Nao spoke up, pretending to be talking to himself.

"Pudding?!" Kayano's eyes lit up, alarmed.

Nao chuckled, leaning over a little, subtly closing the distance between them. "You want some? I'll treat you to a few tomorrow, our secret!"

"Really?" Kayano was delighted.

"I smell a secret!" Korosensei materialised before them, eyes glittering diamonds making the two simultaneously shriek in absolute horror.

  ー  

Akabane Karma was a little difficult to approach.

He didn't have a good experience with teachers-- what with the dumb hierarchy of Kunugigaoka and all-- so although he viewed Naomasa as 'the better of the pack', Naomasa was still considered a member of the two-faced badgers in school.

Carrying a stack of books down the hallway during lunch, Naomasa spotted the red-haired boy in the distance, sipping on a pack of strawberry milk.

Their eyes met for a brief moment, in pure coincidence-- and oops, Karma couldn't just ignore him now, could he? Reluctantly, Karma approached the brown-haired teacher and offered his help.

Nervous but grateful, Naomasa accepted the offer.

"Hey, sensei, what did you do to get up here?" 

Naomasa was surprised that Karma was the one to bring up a conversation. As casual a question it seemed, Naomasa feared that his response would be accountable for Karma's impression of him forever.

Karma hated teachers-- because in this world of discrimination, the law was to glorify those with good grades. Justice was to protect those who lagged at the end. Law came over justice in this world-- and Karma came right in the face of that reality.

A 'teacher' dies the moment they fail in the eyes of a 'student'; that was the belief Akabane Karma held firmly in his heart. Unfortunately, Naomasa had already crossed the line when he raised his hand against a child.

"Board Chairman Asano acknowledged me as a teacher-- an educational professor," Naomasa admitted regretfully, "but he saw me unfit for his regime, thus, he sent me away."

That was one reason Naomasa had concocted after deep thought.

Asano Gakuho was a man that was hard to read. He removed his own obstacles with his own power, and created solutions with only words. He saw issues quickly and thought up ways to overcome them-- and no matter how crazy, how underhanded it seemed, he would play it out personally. 

Maybe Naomasa was just a piece of the puzzle. Or perhaps, Nao was just one of many little obstacles Asano cleared away without thinking much of. Naomasa had no way of knowing.

"Being a teacher's a little harder than I thought," Naomasa chuckled, scratching his cheek bashfully, "after all, I'm forced to be an adult no matter the situation."

Naomasa had a point. He was going somewhere with this. 

He forgot about it halfway through his speech-- and had no choice but to leave it as it were. Lost thoughts never came back to him, after all. There was no reason to chase after it so desperately.

"Well, I just did what I thought was just," Naomasa believed, "sorry if I rambled."

Karma remained silent-- but Naomasa noticed the hostile look in his gaze had softened. Perhaps Karma was genuinely uninterested now-- but Naomasa wanted to think that Karma had understood his teacher just a little better.

They entered a classroom, settling the books down on the teacher's desk.

"Thanks for helping me take these in, Akabane," Nao called to the boy as he excused himself, "also, I swiped the wasabi and mustard in your pocket because they're dangerous."

Karma flinched, hands shooting to his pocket-- his back pocket, his blazer pocket-- gone. His unfortunate, absolutely only there for random purposes harassment weapons were gone.

He swung back toward the teacher, horrified-- Naomasa, catching his gaze, raised the two tubes of spicy seasonings from his hands to prove his point.

"Dangerous," he emphasized, "so they're confiscated."

Karma could only chuckle dryly in response.

  ー  

"Oh, Kuma-sensei, what're you looking at?" 

Shiota Nagisa-- a blue haired, angrogynous-looking boy with his already-short hair bunched up in twintails similar to Kayano's. As adorable as that seemed, Naomasa liked to think of Nagisa as a more masculine form of endearing. 

"Hi, Nagisa," Naomasa sighed, leaning over the windowsill as he gazed to the outside scenery, "I'm not looking at anything, I'm just thinking."

Nagisa took a spot at the window beside the teacher. School was out for the day, so most were heading home now. Someone was trying to stab Korosensei outside, and a few of the class punks were yelling at each other for spilling a sandwich on the ground.

"Kuma-sensei, even you have worries?" Nagisa laughed lightheartedly.

"Yeah, the author's concerned that if I don't find a solid role to play in this story soon, readers are gonna get bored and leave," Nao mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Everyone has their downtime moments," Naomasa told him, considering the blue-haired boy carefully, "I believe you would understand that very well, Nagisa."

Nagisa's smile fell, as if Naomasa's words had struck a discomforting nerve. He was disturbed-- but there was no way his teacher would know so much about him, would he? It wasn't as if people spilled stories of their life to anyone else.

Naomasa and Nagisa knew little about each other, yet they held a deep bond to each other as teacher and student.

"Korosensei's a great teacher, isn't he?" Naomasa turned his gaze to the octopus waving at the students going down the hill, "he's dependable, smart, and he knows just how to bring about the best in everyone."

"Even though he's an octopus," Nagisa chuckled, bringing out a notebook from his poocket and jotting down something new in his list of Korosensei's weaknesses.

"Even though he's an octopus, indeed," Naomasa echoed in agreement. 

  ー  

"Good morning, Kunomasu-sensei!"

Ms Sakurai was fortunately not freaking out, but there was a monster in her shop.

Naomasa had always known Korosensei's disguises were atrocious, but seeing it in person made Naomasa question the octopus' sanity.

Korosensei's miserable excuse of a camouflage into civilisation included a fake nose, a flat wig, sleeves, and gloves. And changing his skin colour to a human-ish beige, that's it.

Mind I remind you of his stupid perfect transmutation-circle worthy round face?

"I thought I would take precedence to pick you up on the way to school, you see," Korosensei smiled, his tentacles not moving like arms, his movement not looking like he had legs as he slithered his way forward.

Naomasa's face was utterly pale, mortified, baffled-- 

"Terrible," he spat, "I've never thought I'd ever be able to see something so much worse than my Math grades in high school."

"So mean!" Korosensei wailed, "is that the first thing you say to me today?"

"You need to work on that disguise, sir," Naomasa's face was unable to return from the state of horrified.

Naomasa left the Sakurai Florist's, following Korosensei as they walked toward school.

"You are settling down quite well in the class, Kunomasu-sensei," Korosensei chuckled his strange 'nurufufu' sounds, "I'm very impressed."

Impressed, he says.

"Well, I've known them before I transferred into this class," Naomasa explained, "the Board Chairman sent me up that mountain because he believed you and Mr Karasuma would have issues warming up to the children, after all. I'm simply doing my job."

"And you do it splendidly, Kunomasu-sensei," Korosensei insisted, "you warm up to everyone in different manners, providing them with a very healthy student-teacher relationship that reflects the normality this Assassination Classroom lacks. As I believe that is vital for their growth as student, I must express my gratitude."

Naomasa couldn't help but laugh at that.

All he's done this past month was be himself on a bigger scale than when he was in the main building. Perhaps it was the restrictive atmosphere of the main building that disallowed the concept of fun to be understood.

In the main building, each moment spent without studying was important time wasted on meaningless activities. In Class E, time spent without books were time spent learning much more outside the world of books.

It gave Naomasa the freedom to be himself.

Perhaps this was the joy of Class E-- freedom. The carefree nature that came with being a youth was loss in the main building, because all they thought of was their future.

The main building taught their students with books and knowledge; Korosensei taught his class with experiences and memories. 

Naomasa knew which one he liked better, even as a teacher.

"To be honest, sir," Naomasa admitted, "I'm fairly sure things would turn out the same even without me. I believe.. I know that you can teach the kids much more than I can with just my measly experiences as an educator." 

Nao reached out for the sun, sinking into a smile that only spoke volumes of how little he was in the world. 

"You can-- no, you will do so much for them," Naomasa turned to Korosensei, "their lives will develop and they will grow into so much because of you-- I don't think my presence here will have much effect on their futures as a whole."

Naomasa didn't feel sad to admit that. In fact, his heart only told him how that was true and he possibly preferred it that way. 

"No one knows what the future holds, Kunomasu-sensei," Korosensei's voice was not uplifting. His smile was wide and curved upwards-- but it did not look happy. "Everything that people do have meaning in someone's life-- you may not see it yourself, but a little of you lives in everyone you've ever interacted with. It is those tiny fragments that shape the future of a person. You definitely play a part in their futures, Kunomasu-sensei. You shouldn't think otherwise."

Naomasa felt personally, deeply affected by those words.

And although they bloomed in a pain that felt like hurtful sadness in his chest, he knew in his head that what bloomed in his soul was not sorrow, but heartfelt joy.

"Thanks," Naomasa told him, "you really are a great teacher."

You really were a great teacher, Korosensei.