Chapter Text
Two days later found the End Class practicing with their ‘Anti-Koro’ weapons in earnest, alternating between knife training and marksmanship while Korosensei sized them up and gave them pointers on how best to kill him.
Gakushu was starting to feel a little out of place, what with how naturally the rest of his classmates were taking to this bizarre situation.
The idea of killing a teacher was not foreign to him, but to actually try- and to be encouraged to do so by the teacher himself- certainly was.
It made his fingers feel stiff when he unloaded the magazine into the rough center of the target.
“Wow!” The brunette- her name was Yada- exclaimed beside him. “You’re practically a natural with that, Asano!”
Gakushu glanced over to the target and tsked lightly. Two of the bullets were in the middle ring. An 83% accuracy rate wasn’t cause for praise, but he still nodded to Yada and watched her flit off to the next marksman in order to shirk her own assignment.
Kataoka on the other side of him set her own pistol.
“You seem remarkably skilled with both the pistol and the knife, Asano,” she said cooly, yet inquisitive, “did you have prior experience?”
Gakushu nodded. “My father thought it pertinent to teach me self defense shortly after my fifth birthday. Too many creeps, apparently. He stopped after I turned seven and was able to take martial arts classes.”
Kataoka got a troubled look on her face, so he took that time to reload, taking the empty magazine out and placing it in the pocket of his gym pants.
He made a move to replace it when he felt a hand start to rest on his shoulder.
Operating on years of instinct, he kicked back against the assailant’s leg and whirled around to kick them in the chest, pushing the barrel of the gun against their head with a sobering click, click, click.
Akabane Karma stared back at him with huge eyes and a conflicted grin, sat back on his own ass with one hand outstretched in an aborted motion and a juicebox crushed under his other, the barrel pressed solidly between his eyes.
“Ah.” Gakushu said, dumbly.
“Asano!” Korosensei screeched, a little late to the fiasco for a creature that brags about being twice as fast as hypersonic spacecraft on the daily. He let the tentacle pluck the pistol out of his hands and deposit it safely on the stand behind him.
“Your reaction time is admirable,” Korosensei admonished, “but your trigger discipline is simply fatal! Imagine if that was me! Or worse, if it was loaded with real bullets?”
Gakushu let Korosensei berate him some more, his eyes not leaving Akabane even as he stepped back to let the redhead right himself.
Though Korosensei was speaking, Gakushu could practically hear the chairman’s cold censure over his lack of ammo awareness.
Akabane cleared his throat, apparently not swayed by the alien octopus, but more so Gakushu’s ironic inadequate training in weapons combat basics.
“Wow,” Akabane purred, “What, not even a sorry? I didn’t realize you cared so little for my life, Asano. Makes me feel sad, y’know?” He faked a sniff and leaned into Gakushu’s arm.
He huffed, shaking the other off of him before turning back to the gun. Gakushu’d just slapped the new magazine into the pistol when he finally processed Akabane being there.
“Isn’t it Wednesday, Akabane?” The aforementioned terror turned to look at him openly, “What the hell are you doing showing up just now, after you’ve been three days late?!”
He leveled a glare at Akabane, and Akabane responded with a smirk.
The redhead leaned in closer to Gakushu, about to answer, before the flailing octopus flashed right between them.
“I concur, mister Akabane!”
The boys both recoiled on instinct.
Korosensei raised a slimy tentacle hand in a squishy sort of finger-point.
“I understand that your suspension ended today, young man, but you’re still several hours late for class! tardiness is not allowed here, I'm afraid!” Korosensei’s head turned purple at that, a cartoonish ‘x’ symbol across his face.
Gakushu felt his stomach turn a little bit watching it, but he couldn't really look away, not when Akabane just laughed a little and held out his hand to the octopus man amicably.
“Aw, jeez, I’m sorry, teach. It’s been difficult to readjust, I suppose. Feel free to call me by my first name- Karma.”
Gakushu knew a little bit about Akabane’s sadistic streak firsthand from back when Akabane was still in 1-A.
He and Akabane would eat together sometimes, and the other boy would bring his own lunch and let his classmates try some of his only to laugh when their faces turned red from whatever mix of spices he’d put in there.
It happened like clockwork every time. He and Akabane would be sitting desk-to-desk until a classmate asked a naive question and Akabane would get this… glint in his eye.
A glint in his eye that he had right now as Korosensei reached to reciprocate the handshake only to have the appendage melted straight off.