I didn't realize how long it was since I posted the first chapter. I've been busy with school so it took me awhile to write this. Well, I've started on chapter 3 a little so it should be up within a month (I hope). Thanks for the follows and favorites so far!

The whole class was a mess, including its teachers. After Class 3-E's homeroom teacher whisked away part of the mountain to leave a perfectly rounded track, he continued to ask the impossible. A single blade is easier said than done, let alone two blades. But something in the way he said it made it seem motivating. After seeing his own efforts, it made them believe that it was really possible. Had anyone said that 3-E was to score in the top 50 of the school months ago, it would've felt like an insult instead of a joke.

So where did that leave the whole class after school? Studying. Everyone left the classroom with determination evident on their face, some even asking Korosensei for extra tutoring if he had time. The day before midterms became much more quieter and boring as everyone went off on their own. As for Kazuha, she stayed back in the classroom after hours.

"So, why are you here?" Kazuha glanced at Karma who was leaning on the classroom's open window sill. The redhead had a seldom look, his hands remained unmoving in his pockets. He should've been bored, he didn't have anything to distract him, yet he made no complaints at all.

"I'm keeping you company, Kazuha-chan" Karma smiled all too innocently. Kazuha looked up from her notebook and turned to Karma. She sat near the back and a desk away from the window, allowing her to talk at a normal level. Then again, the class was completely empty besides the two, so it wouldn't have been difficult for them to hear one another.

"Shouldn't you be studying too?" she looked at him suspiciously, a slight frown threatening her pale face "Or are you a genius who just happens to have everything memorized?"

Karma shrugged "I'd like to keep my studying low-key" his expression softened as he looked away along with his posture. He was enjoying the quiet small talk "Besides, you look like you need more help"

She gave him a pout, showcasing her more childish persona. She would've disagreed but in all honesty, she was having trouble with the science homework Korosensei specifically gave her. It was by far her worst subject, the only subject that she had to study more for in order to even get an average grade. As for other subjects, she was above average, some better than others, but she didn't excel specifically at one. The only thing she excelled at was music, but after not practicing for months, she began doubting her abilities.

"Is it obvious?" she cracked a smile followed by Karma who nodded. Unexpectedly, he pushed himself off the ledge and made his way next to her. Facing the same direction as her, he leaned down to get a better view at the questions she was given. His left hand pressed against the top of the desks, supporting him as he didn't move

"You'd be better off asking Okuda-san or Takebayashi-kun to help" his brows furrowed slightly "But you can do this-"

He began explaining the work to her. His gaze was so focused on the notebook that he seemed to not notice how close he was to her, or maybe he noticed but didn't care. It seemed likely he would do something like this in order to gain a reaction out of her. Normally, she would've given him a sarcastic remark, or listen to him helping her in the least, but instead she stared at his face.

In that second, it hit her. It hit her how much he changed since first year, even second year. His face had chiseled out as he lost the little baby fat he had before, he gained some muscle too, evident that his body had toned out in the short time they hadn't hung out. But the biggest difference was something in his gold eyes. Maybe she was over thinking things, but she was sure it had something to do with the support he had gotten from Korosensei.

In a way, she was jealous.

She barely noticed when he stopped talking and had turned his head slightly towards her. He seemed surprised too as his eyes widened slightly. It was silent for a few seconds, as if they were having a moment, but neither of them turned away or flushed red.

Karma's eyes flashed in amusement, the corner of his lips tugging upwards as he grinned

"See something you like?" his head tilted slightly

"Has your self-esteem fallen so badly you need me to compliment you?"

"You're not cute at all" this time, Kazuha smiled. She let out a small laugh that mixed almost a sigh before turning away to look back at her notebook, slightly regretting not paying attention. On the other hand, Karma's gaze was still fixated on her face. He looked taken aback slightly when he too realized how much she had changed since he had hadn't seen her. Since returning from his suspension, he hadn't actually spent any alone time with her, nor had he ever been so physically close to her.

"Are you wearing makeup?" he suddenly asked. It was more than curiosity, he honestly sounded surprised

"Just a little concealer" she began writing in her notebook, pretending that Karma wasn't near her at all

"Why?" another small laugh escaped her lips.

"Why?" she repeated "Karma, it's not weird for girl's our age to wear makeup"

He had to admit it was true, but he just found it strange. She normally wasn't interested in things like makeup, especially since he could recall her stating that it was a waste of time.

"I'm just surprised" he looked down at her notebook, watching as she wrote down the answer for one of the simpler questions "I never really noticed since we haven't hung out like this in a long time"

"Did you miss me that much?" Kazuha smiled teasingly. Despite not looking at Karma's face, she could tell he had a similar joking expression.

Karma suddenly pulled back, startling Kazuha by his jump. She looked at him suspiciously as he stared at the classroom door and let out a sigh. His head tilted down when he did so before pulling an anti-sensei gun from the inside of his black blazer. He brought up his free hand and placed a single finger over his lips, receiving a silent nod in return as he quietly walked over to the sliding door.

She wasn't specifically surprised when he fired past the door, nor was she surprised that Korosensei stood on the other side, much more amused than the two victims of his stalking. After two shots being fired and a cry of surprise from the octopus, the door fully opened and Korosensei flew past Karma to stand in the front of the classroom.

"How rude!" Korosensei leaned onto the stand he usually used "I was checking up on how my dear students were doing!"

"Hmm" Karma turned around, his usual innocent smile plastered on his face "Then should I read out whatever you have written in this notebook?"

Karma pulled out a regular notebook, the cover had some title on it but Kazuha couldn't see from where she sat, plus he quickly placed the book down to open the first few pages

"NYUAAA! Karma-kun! Wait!" he panicked, and when Korosensei panicked, his reactions were slowed down greatly. Honestly, he could've just grabbed the book from Karma

"Just kidding" the boy stuck his tongue out childishly. He quickly flipped through some of the pages of the stalking journal and stopped when he found what he was looking for. Without hesitation, he ripped the page out

"Noo! My hard work!" tears streamed down Korosensei's face

"You should've let me read it" Kazuha commented when Karma began to rip the page into smaller pieces. Karma shrugged when he tossed the book back to Korosensei who caught it with ease.

"So, why are you two here after school when your midterms are tomorrow?" Korosensei asked on a more serious note. Karma jumped onto the nearest desk and sat quite comfortably on it and shrugged

"I was studying" Kazuha answered honestly. In reality, she was, but she was also heavily distracted when Karma began talking to her. Well, she was the one who started the conversation first actually.

"I see" Korosensei nodded in approval. Something told her that he would've been okay with almost any answer he gave her "Do you need help Kazuha-san?"

She was surprised how normal it felt for Korosensei to address her by her first name. She disliked being called Isayama so she told anyone that was above an acquaintance of hers to call her by her first name. Obviously that excluded almost every teacher and main building student she knew.

"No" the lie came out smoothly "I just finished"

She didn't miss the questioning glance Karma gave, but even so, he didn't say anything.

"I see" Korosensei gave another approving nod "If you have any problems, just call me" this time, Kazuha nodded. She watched as her teacher turned towards the closest window up front and opened it at a regular speed. In an instant, the yellow super being disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a gale of wind to sweep through the classroom. His interruption was brief and strange, but it was probably purely coincidental. She doubted Korosensei would bother trying to invade each and every one of his students' private lives.

... Well, maybe not.

"Karma" the red head was already looking at her from the front "Are you going home anytime soon?" The boy in question let out a near silent hum, mentally going through the possibilities of any events he had planned. Well, it's not like he would have anyone to actually be around for the day. Almost everyone was studying, him included, but definitely at a lower key.

"Not really" he leaned back onto his hand that supported him on the desk. He watched as Kazuha smiled a little, just a little, almost as if she didn't want him to know her thoughts. She quickly grabbed her single science textbook and accommodating notebook, swiftly stuffing them into her school bag that hung on her left of the desk along. She pocketed her writing materials along with it before standing up.

"Then let's hang out like old times" she had a full on grin now. Her eyes twinkled with amusement that Karma couldn't reject. Rejecting her request when she had such an expression would be the equivalent of breaking a kid's toy before stomping on it. "It's not like you have anything better to do anyways, right?"

Karma gave a short, quick laugh. It was basically his answer of acceptance. He never expected her to neglect her studies like this just in order to mess around. Maybe it was this attitude that landed her in Class E.

"Where do you want to go?" Kazuha shrugged before walking past the desks in front of her

"The usual is fine" she replied nonchalantly. She made her way to the door as Karma got up and followed closely behind her.

The usual consisted of wandering around the town for however long they felt. They would window shop and pick up whatever food they craved at that moment, usually sweets on Kazuha's part. They talked about anything, no real boundaries were set between one another. The mention of family was usually avoided though. When it was first mentioned, Karma had no problem with explaining that his parents usually weren't home. Nagisa on the other hand, seemed awkward with the topic. It was understandable. His parents are divorced, but he's being optimistic about their relationship, believing that it will eventually fix itself.

As they made their way down the mountain, they started talking about the upcoming Kyoto trip. It was a nice casual talk that took their minds off of midterms. This was why she enjoyed being around Karma. He didn't take many things seriously, so they were always carefree around one another. It was a perfect, platonic relationship.

For Kazuha, it was a temporary escape from reality. Sometimes, that's all she ever wanted.

The class was silent. Even the rambunctious Korosensei was dead silent. The only one that was talking was Karasuma who spoke in his usual serious tone. His brows furrowed slightly though as he questioned the person on the other line. He was evidently angry, furious maybe, on the behalf of his students whom probably lost any kind of motivation.

The previous announcement of getting all of Class E to the top fifty sounded like a joke at first, but the honest trust that Korosensei had placed on them made everyone serious. For them to be ridiculed so easily, it was like a stab in the back.

The highest scores of the class were still outside of the top fifty. It wasn't necessarily strange for Class E, but it still hurt. Kazuha had scored just barely over 300 points, ranking her 112th place out of 186. Now she didn't regret putting full effort into studying the day before. Somewhere deep inside, she had already prepared for disappointment, but she wouldn't deny that she felt bitter.

"This is my fault" it was the first time in the past few minutes where Korosensei spoke. By Karasuma's expression, it didn't take a genius to understand that he couldn't help with what the school had done. "It seems I took this school's system too lightly... I can't bring myself to face all of you"

Kazuha hoped he was exaggerating. It was too abnormal for Korosensei to be this upset... As if he too, were taking on the sadness for the whole class. No one really spoke up to deny him. Well, maybe people were thinking of what to say. No one blamed him, that much was obvious, but no one felt that it was their place to comfort him.

That was until an anti-sensei knife flew up from the back.

Korosensei cried in surprise at the final moment before the knife would have hit, letting the knife bounce off the blackboard. A pair of footsteps followed closely as Karma's taunting voice cut the tension

"You sure? If you couldn't face us, then you wouldn't be able to see me coming to kill you"

"Karma-kun!" Korosensei cried. If he was sad or angry, no one could really tell since it was quite comedic "Sensei is feeling depressed right now-"

Karma's nonchalant expression and movements seemed to have shocked Korosensei when he unexpectedly threw pieces of paper in his direction, letting the octopus pick it up midair with ease as he didn't even need to use his speed. When he let out a small gasp as he stared at the papers, almost everyone instinctively went up to see what was going on. Kazuha was no exception.

Karma had scored near perfect on every subject, giving him a total of 494 points.

She had sort of expected Karma to take on a cocky expression when others began muttering, but instead he was somewhat consoling their teacher. It was his last few words that caught everyone's attention

"But I have no intention of leaving this class. An assassination is much more entertaining than returning to my previous class"

It was a mutual feeling for this class. It was an unspoken agreement between everyone.

Korosensei began looking panicked

"So what are you gonna do?" and thus, Karma's teasing began "Everyone didn't make it into the top fifty spots, so are you gonna run away with your tail between your legs like you said you would?" he pulled out another knife and stuck out his tongue. Korosensei must have forgotten his previous sulking because now an anger vein was evident as he fell for Karma's trap "When it comes down to it, aren't you just afraid of being killed?"

At this point, everyone seemed to magically be cured of tension and sadness as a simultaneous thought ran through all their heads. That was when everyone followed Karma's example and started teasing Korosensei. Many students were laughing, a few were holding in their laughs as mostly the people in front made remarks. Kazuha tried stifling a laugh as it was genuinely comedic how Korosensei turned a bright shade of red

"NUAA! There is no way I will run away! I'll pay you all back double at the end-of-term exams as revenge!"

He continued throwing pointless 'threats' as most people returned to their seats. With something so simple, the class was back to its usual light hearted atmosphere. The midterm wall didn't faze anyone now.

And so... the day continued on like any other. But it didn't end with just school.

At the end of the day, Kazuha wasn't surprised at all to see Nakamura Rio walk up to her almost immediately. The blonde had grin on her face, and that was never a good sign for whoever was around.

"What's with that look?" Kazuha questioned, almost regretfully

"How rude" Rio pouted childishly, turning her head away from her. Kazuha smiled slightly, an amused expression evident right before Rio placed an arm over her shoulder "You know, I'm still super upset about the midterms" she started. Almost immediately, Kazuha could see where this was going

"And what can I do to make you feel better?" she replied with a sigh, deciding to play along with Rio's game. Rio's face lightened up as she too, could tell that Kazuha had her figured out by now

"Well you see, I'm also low on money" Kazuha made a hum of understanding "So let's go to Chiffon"

The brunette shrugged, a smile tugging on her lips

"Is that all I am to you? A discount?" Rio laughed

"Of course not" she teased, bringing her other hand up to mess around with Kazuha's long hair. Kazuha let out a squeak that also mixed in with a laugh as Rio ruffled her hair for a few seconds

"You guys are going to Chiffon?" another classmate asked. Rio paused her teasing as she looked up

"Ohhh! Kayano" Rio looked slightly surprised to see the short, green haired girl. "That's right, wanna come?"

"I never said whether I was going or not" Kazuha muttered before being silenced as Rio pushed her head down to mess up her hair even more

"Really?" Kayano exclaimed, starting to sound more excited than curious like before "I can come?"

"Of course" Rio finally broke her hold on Kazuha.

She didn't mind taking her friends there, especially since she hadn't visited in awhile. Chiffon was a trending cafe, specializing in sweets like La Hermes. The two of them shared a few similarities, but in the end, La Hermes didn't serve in house.

"You guys are going out?" another person joined in now, well actually two. The three girls' attentions were then moved to Karma and Nagisa who had casually walked towards them from behind Kayano. Kazuha had taken the two of them to Chiffon before, but not often. It just happened to be along a common walking strip near the station.

"Yep, and Kazuha-chan's gonna treat us"

Kazuha sighed. There was no point in arguing otherwise. It wasn't like she was low on money either, but she'd still rather not pay for five peoples' food.

"Then I guess we better tag along, right Nagisa-kun?" Karma innocently smiled, directing it towards Kazuha smugly. Nagisa had an apologetic smile, definitely wanting to go but wouldn't outright say it.

"Alright, alright" she surrendered. They had bought her a few things before too, so it was a fair trade off... somewhat.