Chapter 24

March was just around the corner and so was the end of their high school. The students of section E tried their best to work out some plan during their winter break to kill their teacher, but it was of no use. After Kayano gained her consciousness that day, Koro explained what exactly happened to him and she finally got a closure about her sister.

But this made the whole class question the purpose of the job they were assigned to do. Sure, they were assassins but Koro already had a special place in their hearts. As if it wasn't already difficult, and now it was even harder.

In the vacation Y/N was distant with everyone, even Rio. She did leave them a message of not contacting her unless it was absolutely necessary. It worried all of them about why she was talking the way she was, but it was really her just figuring out her feelings. No not about Karma, ofcourse she knew what she felt. It was about everything that happened and if she even wanted to keep in contact with the rest of the class after whatever that was about to happen.

Today was their first day to school after the break, and she already had a lot in her mind.

"Thinking about that red hair?"

Y/N snapped out of her thoughts and quickly drank the fruit juice kept in a glass in front of her. Her breakfast was already cold and she realized that she didn't even pierce her food with the fork in her hand.

"No, it's just..." Y/N sighed, "school." Since her grades started getting better, her parents started behaving better with her. They felt proud to see the positive growth. And she didn't want to worry them about anything else. They were finally on good terms.

"Should I...go talk to your homeroom teacher about it?" her mother furrowed her eyebrows and asked. Call it a mother's instinct but she did notice the strange behavior from her daughter. Earlier Y/N used to take every opportunity she could to get out of the house and spend time with her friends. But this time, she did something very different. She came home late on the last day of her school. And ofcourse she said it was because of extra class or something.

But her extra classes never...ever took that much energy out of her. She looked exhausted mentally. She immediately dropped on the sofa and closing her eyes, she said, "I've got a request and please...don't say no."

Her mother caressed her head and asked, "What?"

"Can we go out somewhere during the winter vacation?"

She stopped caressing and looked at Y/N, who opened her eyes to look at her, "Where?"

"Some quiet and cozy place. Anywhere. I...need a break."

And they did. That was the most talkative she has ever witnessed her daughter to be, and she just wished Y/N would remain happy like this for the rest of her life. Something changed in her and she knew, whatever was going to come in the future, her daughter was ready to tackle it.

Currently, she observed her gobbling up the food, as if she was trying to escape the conversation. "Look I won't force you but....when you feel like you can't tell anyone, you can come to me okay? I know I get angry at you and scold you but that's because I want you to be happy. So tell me if something's going on, okay?"

"Okay," Y/N gulped and chuckled, "How do you know about the boy?"

"I've seen you look at his photos in the vacation. Is he...special to you?"

Y/N looked at her mother and asked, "I looked at my friends' pictures too."

"Yeah but your eyes were different when it was him," her mother sipped on her juice and said, "Introduce us later."

Y/N nodded her head with a blush on her face and concentrated on her food. Ofcourse her mother knew. She used to think that her mother had no idea about anything but well, where do you think her skills came from?

Her mother was perfectly capable of acting the dumbest parent on earth, all while keeping an eye on her daughter and knowing everything about her. But she didn't meddle. It was hard at times to watch her daughter suffer but pampering her was not how she was going to stand on her own feet in this harsh competitive world. But it came at a cost.

Her daughter didn't tell her anything nor she expected any kind of help from them either. It felt like those friends of hers were closer than she was.

When Y/N told everyone to not contact her, she also meant Karma. He was worried and almost looked like a puppy kicked off when she told him but, he understood her reasons. He gave her some time to think after she reassured her it had nothing to do with what he did.

Infact, Karma who was deprived of kissing her was slowly getting to know her and he knew what she wanted. She had her poker face back. That could mean literally anything when it came from her. But, he was able to understand looking in her eyes that it was not a good time to ask her out.

And he was right.

With all the things going on, she decided to just be alone in her own space for a while. She didn't know if it was going to work but she wanted to for once listen to her heart instead of thinking about everything logically, and try to understand if she was ready to face what was coming.

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"So do you think Nagisa called us here to confront about what you guys did in the forest before?" Rio poked her friend.

"Well damn I don't care if he did," Y/N said, "I don't know why but I feel like everyone secretly knows."

"Oooh wow I like the confidence!" Rio smacked her back.

Nagisa stood in the middle and announced, "I'm not even sure if that's possible but instead of killing Korosensei, I think we should try to save him."

"Save him? Like finding a way to keep him from self-detonating or something?" Mimura asked.

"Where do we start?" Okano asked

"Well I don't know yet," Nagisa answered.

Soon few students full of enthusiasm started to step up in favor of the idea and give their opinion. But Rio broke the conversation and said, "I really hate to be the one who spoils the mood but I'm against it. We are assassins and he's the target. That's out bond. Korosensei said so himself. I don't know about you, but I cherish that bond. Think about it but not killing him would defeat the purpose." And there it was. Another wave of students who opposed the idea stepped up.

Oh and Y/N was among them. "Are you kidding me? You think the government didn't spend their time trying to come up with a solution other than that? You think they would rather spend tons of money trying to find a way to kill him when they have resources to test and come up with a solution?"

"Y/N can you once not use your brain and instead listen to your heart?" Hinano said.

"I am listening to my heart," Y/N replied, "None of you actually know me that well but you have the guts to talk about how I feel? Give me a break, I know what my heart wants."

"That's kind of selfish of you," Kayano said.

"Oh yeah? I didn't belittle your feelings like you guys are doing. I don't know about you but my heart can't handle it when I start believing that we have time left but then it all goes downhill and I will finally realize that we didn't have the solution in our hands in the first place." Y/N scoffed, "Cause let's face it. All of you are doing whatever you want thinking about Korosensei, sure, but also based on your feelings. Based on what will make you feel better if it doesn't work out. We all are thinking that way. You think we want to kill him?"

"No but we owe it to him," Nagisa reasoned.

"Always the talented ones huh," Karma said and started walking towards him, "Figuring out the odds and in the end it will always work out. You sound full of yourself."

Karma and Nagisa started quarrelling with each other, which soon turned into a fight. Sugino, Isogai and Maehara tried to break it.

"Hey...you know you can stop him right?" Rio said.

"I know, but this has been going on for so long and needs to end. I've always had the feeling that there's some kind of tension between both of them even though they're friends and fucking hell, it's time they sort this out. Literally, grown ass men being petty over what happened when they were kids? Yeah, let them fight and release all the anger they've stored in."

"Yeah, but they're the most capable assassins. They can...kill each other."

"They won't," Y/N chuckled looking at the boys fighting, "They can't even kill someone who's a threat to earth. Besides, I know their friendship is just like ours. Except we fucking communicate and sort it out."

Korosensei then appeared to mediate the situation. He brought paintballs, guns and colored knives and requested that the class resolved the issue in a team deathmatch between those who wanted to kill and others wanting to save. The winning side's opinion will be the class's opinion. At their teacher's condition, the students clearly state their reasons for choosing their side.

"So Red Team?" Isogai asked.

"Did my words feel like I wanted to be Blue?" Y/N sighed. She already knew what she wanted to be. Well, it's the best option she had. Other than the fact that Nagisa's big brain could figure it out, nothing could go wrong.

She wanted to be the bait.

It easy to take advantage of the things their classmates knew about Karma and her. They would immediately think that she was the one Karma would give the most protection to considering her little skills in the field, and well their relationship.

Oh yeah, that weakness was going to be a strength now.

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Y/N suppressed her laughter and put a bandaid on his forehead. After an intense fight between the boys, both of them had to come to the medical room. While Nagisa got patched up quickly and left with his friends, Karma refused to let the nurse touch him. The nurse chuckled looking at his expression change to excitement when Y/N entered the room. She gave her the medicine and after some instructions, she left the students alone.

"Do you find me beat up funny or something?" Karma asked, supressing a smile as well.

"No but holy shit he beat you up good," she chuckled and sat beside him, "these from the patsy boy you teased everyday. See what happens when you don't communicate?"

"Well I knew he always had something up his sleeves," he said.

"Karma Akabane actually putting his fat ego aside and admitting defeat? Anyways, I hope you guys are on better terms now."

"You don't feel pissed because I lost? I mean...I did make things harder for you now right?"

"What? Oh no, it's okay. We gave out best. But...yeah, I'm still not in favor of saving him. I want to though. But I can't...just handle it."

"Okay.." he said and glanced at her hand and then looked down at the ground, "You still like me cherry? Or did you..change your mind?"

"Do I?" Y/N asked, "Look at me and say it."

Again.

The same way he felt before the vacations. One look at her and he knew.

"Ow," he hissed and flinched holding his jaw.

"Hold on, I applied medicine there. Don't touch,"

"He busted my lip and you were still harsh,"

"Oh," she said and looked at him worriedly, "Does it hurt more now?"

A smirk made it's way to his face, "You can kiss it better."

Y/N's face reddened with an amused smile, "Oh my god I thought you were serious."

"Oh I wasn't joking. It really hurts. Either kiss it better or-"

"Or you can have dinner at my place," Y/N blushed and slowly held his hand, "My mom wants to meet you."

"....Should I be worried?"

"No, you...uh, caught her attention."

"How?" Karma smirked and pulled her close, "Did you talk about me?"

Y/N quickly got down and packed up their bags, "Uh the nurse gonna be here soon and we are getting late. We should go before mom kicks both of us out."

"Ignoring the topic now, aren't we?" Karma teased her while they exited the room.