Chapter Text
Ah yes, the beginning of another school year. Well, it was essentially another term, given the nature of the academic structure within the country, but a new year nonetheless. The old students had filed out, making way for the new ones. It was difficult, really, being in charge of so many people already failed by the system, being the only thing standing between their unexpected success or expected failure. It came down to the teaching methods, or the overall atmosphere. So far, so good. Numerous failings as expected, but from the information provided quite a few had managed to enter the next level of education; and that in itself made the hard job just a little bit more worth it.
After debating whether to make an impression now or just rock up in the usual attire you opted for the former, deciding to give the new kids a ‘kick in the teeth’, if you will. There was a lack of age difference after all, and you needed to remind them who exactly was in charge. Plus, your rare bout of feeling attractive kicked in, and it wouldn’t hurt to embrace the ‘sexier side’ of your fashion collection. So here you were, rocking it up in a wonderful pleated jumpsuit with black, floral patterned platformed trainers to match. Hey, heels weren’t your thing, and it kept you comfortable knowing you were wearing something appropriate yet informal. Topped with a long black cardigan and your backpack, you headed out to the destination.
It was the same as always, somehow run down and barren, despite the months, if not years of effort you had put into refurbishing it. At least one of the classrooms had been made accessible enough; one of your ‘art projects’ from the previous year being to redecorate the walls and pick out new seating for the students. They had chipped in, of course, given it was their environment and could technically be ticked off as their cleaning time, which kept them and the administrative staff happy, even if they wanted them to not succeed. The boards and posters around the area would need replacing, and the wonky sink in the men’s toilets needed taking care of, but at least the main areas were usable. Okay, the staffroom had a missing window and a few personal belongings from your time spent camping out in there, and the outside areas were rather overrun, making PE a chore, not to mention affecting the mood during the hot seasons, but overall it was nice enough.
So, arriving a few hours before the sun was even properly rising over the hillside, you had completed the trek up to the building and prepared for the day, ensuring everything was in order. The chalks were nicely lined up, the desk was prepared, the usual first day talks were prepped and accounted for, and the weather was lukewarm, giving an overall sense of calm and relaxation. Yes, it was going to be a pleasant session. Nerves kicked in, as per usual, but quickly dispersed once the day eventually began. You always got this way, fretting over the tiniest details until it hurt, only to be surprisingly calm and collected once they arrived.
Oh, if only you had known of the events ahead. You would have stayed at home; chosen the extra breakfast option; wasted a few extra minutes debating which outfit to actually wear; or merely played the innocent lost tourist once the events unfolded. Your Japanese did still sound fairly broken, despite your years being situated here, so it would have been easy. But alas, you didn’t, and you remained in place. For the one moment in your life, you did not back down. You just had to stand up for yourself, didn’t you?
It began at around 7:30am. The day did not officially begin until 8:30, but you didn’t mind in the slightest. It was the first day after all, and the students were bound to be a bit late given the walk to reach the place, not to mention a lot had probably given up all together. It pained you, how the system failed to provide for these children, how their entire lives were somehow determined by one incident. It was why you had taken up this position after all, to show them it wasn’t all doom and gloom at the end of the tunnel. You had lived through it yourself, after all.
Naturally, the sound of voices took you by surprise. Given how much time remained until lessons officially began, you did not expect any of the students to be so eager. The surprise heightened upon recognising the voices were distinctively low, indicating they belonged to a group of adults rather than children. One in particular was the most striking, a strange gravely type of noise. It almost didn’t sound human. When the door opened, naturally those behind it were as taken aback as you. No one expected anyone to be present, given the nature of the environment. They were two men and a woman, all dressed in black, and the one leading the group addressed you first, stern tone matching his gaze.
“Say, what are you doing here, snooping around the classroom? And you’re not in uniform either.” He grunted, sharing a glance with his companions. “Wow, these kids take this class less seriously than I thought.
“Excuse me.” You snapped. “I’m the teacher.” Stifled laughter erupted from the other two operatives, which abruptly ended with your pointed look in their direction. The leader’s eyebrow rose, voice sceptical.
“You’re the teacher?” You nodded, huffing. “You’re [Last Name]?”
“Yep, that’s me! Although I’m glad you know that. Means you’ve checked in with the officials first and are meant to be here. Hey.” You raised your arms in defence at his quizzical look. “You could have been here for who knows what, and I don’t exactly feel like getting bumped off anytime soon.”
The other two shared a glance and a mumble whilst the other nodded, outstretching a hand.
“[Last Name]-san, I am Karasuma, here on official orders from the MOD.” You shook his hand, your own eyebrows raising.
“MOD?” He nodded, your hands parting after a few moments. “But… What on earth does the Ministry want with this run down class?”
“That… Would be thanks to them."
“Them?” Suddenly the atmosphere had become rather eerie. Anything the Ministry wanted to ‘relocate’, or whatever they were doing couldn’t be good. “Who is t--” It is quite extraordinary, really, how the mind does not process something whilst distracted by something else. For only then, when the query was almost asked, did you finally recognise the tall figure that had been situated behind the trio for the entire duration of the conversation. How you had missed them, you would never know, given their stature and distinctive skin tone, honestly, how had you missed the giant yellow figure? Heck, they did not even appear human, with protruding tentacles in the place of arms and legs. Their round head tilted downward, small inky irises shining, mouth formed into a teeth showing grin. They didn’t possess a nose, or ears. Who were they, Voldemort’s twin? And they weren’t wearing pants either. Weird. But speaking of inky irises, how long had they been glancing over at you like that? When your eyes met, their grin quirked upward even so slightly, the shine becoming more prominent. “I… Take it you mean them.”
“Yes, I do. Their reason for being here will be announced when everyone arrives, but until then, we can tell you directly.” Your eyebrow rose on its own accord. “They are taking over as teacher.”
It was astounding, really, how that piece of information had your mind reeling whilst the inhuman individual had done very little to it. “What?!” You hissed out, making the two operatives involuntarily flinch. “But… But… You can’t! You can’t just take away my whole career in a matter of seconds. Come on, if you know my name then you’ve probably gone over my files.” Karasuma’s stern expression softened somewhat. “You can’t just leave me high and dry like this, I—Also why have they turned blue?”
True enough, the figure had gained a blue tint, sniffing as they rose their hand to wipe away a non-existent tear. “Your situation makes me sad.” They croaked out, making your heart perform a strange flutter on its own accord. “But she’s right, you can’t just take this away from her Karasuma. Let her stay. ~”
“Actually, she is.” Both of you faced Karasuma intently, his stern expression back in place. “You will be sharing the teaching duties. [Last Name]-san will cover more sessions as a supervising aid, but look after more of the other details.” He raised his hand before you could protest. “From what I’ve read, from what you’ve achieved… We are not going to remove you so easily. Besides, the Principal flat out refused.”
You sighed with relief, failing to acknowledge the figure change back to their original shade of yellow. “I’m so glad, really. Thank you.” Karasuma nodded, looking rather relieved himself.
“Yes, and I will be taking over the Physical Education, if that’s alright--” He was cut off by your sudden relieved laughter, making everyone look rather perplexed.
“Oh dear, I have no trouble with that at all.” Laughter seizing, you elaborated. “PE’s one of my worst areas. I can’t tell you how many times I got outrun by my own students.”
Once that was cleared up, and the other two dispatched themselves, Karasuma allowed you to show the figure around, not that there was much to see, so long as they did not leave the premises. Your remark as to whether it was due to them ‘heading off to assist Godzilla in a rampage’ was met with a small smile and laughter from said figure, who remarked that said lizard was currently on holiday, thus unavailable for help. So here you were, gesturing around the barely furnished staffroom whilst attempting to hide your leftover belongings with a flush.
“So yeah, this is where I hang out. Eat some snacks, nosy about on the internet, do some other stuff. To be fair I’m only in here ‘cause of the working kettle.” You jabbed a finger towards it, their gaze following the action. “Other than that I’m always in the classroom. Or I come in here to bring out the rusty heater during the winter period. Makes the classroom smell like burning copper, but hey, it keeps them warm.” They hummed, flicking their vision back down to you.
“You’re not going to ask?” Your confused expression must have amused them, for the grin twitched yet again. “As to why I’m here?”
“Oh, no.” Waving their comment off with your hand you continued. “Besides, I’ll find out soon enough, when all the students get told. I’m kind of glad though, really. Takes the pressure off being a ridiculously young, female teacher if you’ve got someone else for company. ~”
They hummed again, sounding pleased. Probably due to the fact you had not commented on their gender or appearance being the reason for the attention being taken away. “So…” Clearly they had not engaged in conversation for quite sometime, or didn’t know exactly how to word their sentence. Either way, the small pink hue they had formed on the top of their cheeks was rather adorable. “How do you feel about the… Moon incident?”
“Moon incident?” They nodded, grin dissolving into a thin, straight line. Perhaps your confused approach to the query had put them off. “Ah, sorry, that’s not the question I was expecting.” Well, at least the eyes had regained some of their original gleam. “… Eh, what happened happened.” You shrugged, looking out of the window towards the sky. Sure enough, there it was, barely visible among the pale blue. “Whoever did it did it for a reason, like a statement almost. I mean, it hasn’t botched up the weather, which I thought it would. Moon’s meant to control the tides and all that shit. Got people talking though, spread the word and all that. The panic was ridiculous, I swear. But eh, I’ll just have to adapt to a 30% moon rather than a whole one.”
Thankfully they looked content with your response, grin returning, albeit smaller than before. “Yes, I guess that is true. And the moon does help control the tides, but only a small proportion of it is needed to do that.”
“Huh, really?” It was then you realised, shaking your head in apology. “Ah jeez, sorry, I didn’t even realise I babbled over into English. The mother tongue raises its head every so often—Wait a minute, you speak English?”
“Hmm, I can understand it more than I speak it. I’ve done quite a bit of travelling.” Their look was one of smug pride at this point, eliciting a chuckle from you.
“Ah dear, well I haven’t. Moved from the homeland over here and that’s about it really. School trip’s always set us back a fortune, so we never really bothered.”
They went to say something else, but the intrusion of Karasuma halted that. The lack of a clock in the room and actually being absorbed in conversation with another being had caused you to lose the track of time. It was already 8:30.
The students’ expressed their shock towards the figure more than you did, wide eyed and open mouthed glances aimed in their direction whilst they remained rather placid, grin in place. What did shock you, however, was the fact that they had caused the moon incident. It explained why they had questioned about it; clearly they wanted to know where their companion for the next school year stood on the situation, but the final announcement really had your head in a spin. If any of the students failed to eliminate the figure, then they would cause the same damage bestowed upon the moon to the Earth, thus wiping out everyone. If they did succeed however, then well, it was pretty clear that everyone would survive. But teenagers, transformed into assassins? It also explained why Karasuma was taking over as an assistant teacher, but you were still expected to teach them the basis in order to survive in the world, which was rather daunting in itself.
Once that was done things settled into a sort of calm, the information processed by the students whilst your own mind boggled. It was then that one, a seemingly timid appearing female with glasses and pigtails piped up. “But, what about [Last Name]-san? All I heard about before joining this class was I’d be in the hands of the lovely [Last Name]-san.”
Thankfully nobody seemed to notice the light blush coating your cheeks, save for the figure who began lightly chuckling, the eerie yet unique sound rather pleasing to your ears.
“She will still be covering lessons, naturally, given the reputation she was formed during her duration here, but the primary focus will be on the assassination, so good luck.”
Karasuma glanced around the room, finally meeting your eyes out of the corner of his own. The distinctive shine in them reminded you that it wasn’t just the students at jeopardy here, or their education. You would be near the figure given your standing in the classroom, meaning you were at as much risk as they were. The next academic year would test you, in more ways than you could ever imagine.
“All of you.”