Chapter Text
Asano's seen many things in his life. He's seen the moon explode, he's seen a yellow alien octopus ball thing bolting through the sky, he's even seen his father cry. One thing he did not expect to see,
Was a 50-foot galaxy colored centipede swimming through the clouds!
No, no. It was all just in his head, right? Besides, nobody else is reacting to it, so maybe it was the mix of coffee and energy drinks that was misconstructing his train of thought.
Too bad the clouds in the sky begged to differ.
Okay. Sure, fine, whatever. It's almost as if the universe heard his pleas for the school year to be normal, and decided to make it even more abnormal than the last. He sighed and begrudgingly turned his attention back to his work on the desk, since someone had to get it done. Besides, a centipede flying through the sky isn't even a big deal!
Too bad it flew through his window.
Even worse, it sounded like it was calling his name.
"Asano,"
How did it know his name? Scratch that, why can it talk? Scratch that, why can it fly?
"Asano..."
And why did it vaguely sound similar to his father?
"--Asano!" Gakuhou snapped his fingers next to his face, which made him snap out of it. He shook his head and turned his attention back to his disappointed father.
"I said, are you absolutely sure you want to walk today?" He asks, already getting in the driver's seat. "They seem to be doing a lot of construction on the bridge."
Asano shook his head again and slung his bag over his shoulder before taking a sip of his coffee-energy drink thing. "No. I think I'll be fine."
"Are you sure? What if you get tired?"
"Do you know how many sports I participate in?"
"Well of course I do, I'm the one that signed you up for all of them." He answers with a hint of pride.
"Exactly, so what makes you think I'll get tired?"
"Point taken, but if you get kidnapped?"
"In broad daylight?"
"It's happened before."
Asano sighed and started walking as he unenthusiastically waved his hand. "I'll be fine, see you tonight."
After a few more seconds of sitting, Gakuhou said his goodbyes and drove off, leaving Asano to roll his eyes.
Truthfully, their relationship hasn't been great.
Okay, it never was, but recently, it hasn't been great. Not bad or anything, but not good either. Ever since the whole slap incident, and the exchange student incident, and the bomb incident, and the brainwashing-- after literally everything that happened last year involving the (ex)principal, their relationship has been awkward and strained on both sides. Sure, Gakuhou has been trying his best, but it's not everyday where a cold-hearted lunatic suddenly becomes a decent man with slightly more decent morals.
He guesses that the same could go for him as well though, since he stopped treating even the mere concept of competition like it was the holy grail, and actually became slightly nicer to E-Class. Sure, he did a few morally wrong things too, but at least he didn't brainwash, poison, slap, or bomb anyone or anything.
The halls were filled with excitement and chatter as the waves of students were passing by. The first year of high school was highly anticipated, as just about everything changed. Well, not everything, but enough changed. For one, the new principal isn’t a murderous psychopath, two, the building’s not on the hill anymore so E-class is now a part of main campus, oh, and three,
E-class is now training to be professional assassins?
What the fuck.
Other than that, the tense air that was strict competition and fear is practically gone, especially in the A-class. Now, not only did A and E make amends, but Kunugigaoka itself is now more laidback and doesn't see competition as life or death. So now, it should be fun, right?
"The goldfish goes back down in the water when it feels too much air in it's lungs, because fish need to breathe with water instead of air--"
The dark classroom's only light source was the boring documentary that droned on about fish. Clearly, the class was not happy, since half of them were sleeping while the other half was doing literally anything else. If anything, the only one that was happy was their homeroom teacher, who's unwavering attention was on the documentary in question.
"Watching paint dry is a funner documentary than whatever this is." Juno whispers. He put his head down on the desk and turned to the side.
"This feels like an unlocked torture method." Yuna mutters as she rested her head on her hand.
"Guys, it's not that bad! It's actually kind of fun to watch." Natsuhiko says as his glasses were glaring due to the screen. Of course, he got weird looks from the class.
"Coping, are we?" Seo asks before he buried his head in between his folded arms on the desk.
"I am coping extremely hard, this is disgraceful." He whispers, twitching impatiently.
"Why hasn't anything interesting happened? I would give everything to be anywhere else right now. It would definitely be better than being in the same proximity as this 'documentary'." Anaya rambles.
"Even the gym?" Chika asks.
"Especially the gym."
She must've wished unfathomably hard, because everyone turned to stare as the door suddenly burst open only to reveal Asano. He was drenched and covered in wet cement, his eyes were bloodshot from water, and his dark eyebags looked even worse than usual. Slowly, he silently trudged to his desk and dropped his bag before exiting the room, leaving gray puddles with every step. They quietly stared at the puddles on the floor for a prolonged period of time before Tsubara broke the silence.
"Huh. I guess that's the most interesting thing we'll see today." He says. He and the rest of them sighed after their teacher cleared her throat and pointed to the screen. The rest of the long agonizing minutes passed by, and when the bell finally rung, all of them scrambled like a colony of ants.
They walked into the cafeteria and sat next to each other at their class's signature lunch table, where the majority were doing everything but actually eating. Instead, Rukiyo was slingshotting peas into the trashcan (that was on the other side of the room!), somehow having perfect aim, Seo was having a milk chugging competition against Tsubara, and Asami was building a confetti gun. So nothing out of the ordinary.
"Don't you just hate it when the world keeps spinning around? It's the worst feeling known to man." Asano says sluggishly as he took another sip of his caffine drink.
"I'm assuming it's because of that?" He pointed to the heart attack starter pack that was in Asano's hand.
"That's one of the reasons." He chugged the rest of it until it was empty and threw it into the trash can, while Ren rolled his eyes and sighed under his breath.
"One of them?" Before he could finish his sentence, he sighed and rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time today. "Let me guess. Reason number two is because you forgot to eat, drink, and sleep?"
"One," Asano counted the reasons on his fingers. "That's four reasons. And two, I didn't forget to sleep. I just passed out for ten minutes or so."
"That's not sleeping--"
"Yes it is."
"No it isn't, and because of all of that, you kind of look like death because of your amount- or rather lack, of rest. Gakushuu."
They walked into the cafeteria and sat next to each other at their class's signature lunch table, where the majority were doing everything but actually eating. Instead, Asami was slingshotting peas into the trashcan, somehow having perfect aim, Seo was having a milk chugging competition against Tanaka, and Natsuhiko was mixing a different drinks. So nothing out of the ordinary.
"I don't think you have room to talk, Ren. You get less sleep than me, and that's saying a lot."
"Yeah, which is why I'm lecturing you about it." He got up and walked over to the cafeteria line before the other could get a chance to respond. Asano sighed and listened in to everyone else's conversations, but that didn't last for long, since he immediately got dragged into a conversation.
“What do you guys think would’ve happened if the sun exploded as well?” Anaya asks.
“Uh, we would’ve died?” Teppei points out, making a hand gesture as if to say ‘obviously’.
“Yeah, we would’ve died, but isn’t it kind of crazy that the moon explosion didn’t kill us? Since, y’know, tidal effects?” Natsuhiko asks. Some stared and pondered, clearly perplexed by Natsuhiko’s logic.
“Yeah,” Yuna blinked. “Natsuhiko’s right. How didn’t the moon explosion thing kill anyone?”
“Just like how an alien moving at mach speed didn’t kill any birds.” Asami chirps, slingshotting a pea into the trashcan across the room.
“So anime logic?” Watanabe asks.
“Anime logic.” Sato answers.
Silence passed around the table before it was broken after a short period of time.
“Do you guys think that we’re going to have another NDA to figure out? Or is this just…it?” Yuu asks slowly.
“Eh, doubt it. Watch D-Class have a NDA this time. Probably about, like, zombies or somethin’.” Sato says.
“So that would mean that by the time we’re…” Tsubara counted on his fingers. “Seniors, it would be our turn to have an NDA.”
"That's not how it works, babe." Sato mumbles, food muffling his mouth.
"And how would you know?" Tsubara turned to Sato, crossing his arms and waiting for an answer.
"Uhh..."
"Because they give NDA's to people that prove themselves to be trustworthy with agreements and secrets. They don't give them out just because." Asano explains, much to Tsubara's dismay and Sato's relief.
"So, that includes middle schoolers?" Yuna asks.
"I mean, I guess. Even though middle schoolers are the last people you would want to give an NDA to, but I digress."
"Yeah, I feel like they would say too much." Chika says, pointedly turning to the E-Class. They all glanced at the group, and turned their heads back around when Karma caught their gazes.
"I don't think they said anything. It was all because of Watanabe's stalker tendencies towards Kayano." Ren says.
Watanabe made an offended noise, gasping dramatically and putting a hand on her chest. "Excuse you? One, I don't have any stalker tendencies towards Kayano. I have multiple fan accounts of Kayano, theres a difference!"
"Uh-huh." They all mutter in unison.
"And two, it wasn't even because of me! In fact, I am the last person that would meddle in anything,"
"Oh, so we're lying now." Anaya mumbles.
"Simply because it's not any of my business!"
"Didn't you have a corkboard that had multiple strings and pictures of Koro-sensei, along with E-Class?" Tanaka asks.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean anything." She says, clearing her throat and flipped her ridiculously long ponytails that reach the floor.
"What doesn't mean anything?"
To say that almost everyone at the table jumped is an understatment. The redhead himself was standing at the end of the table, grinning that stupid grin and looking more smug than usual.
"What the fuck, stop doing that!" Teppei gasps.
"Sorry." Karma sounded apologetic, but his shit eating grin was telling another story.
"We weren't talking about much, we were just discussing about how nosey Watanabe truly is." Asano says, ignoring her protesting remarks.
"Oh really? Yeah, you are pretty nosey Watanabe!" Karma chirps before cackling at her frustration. "Then again, all of you are, so I guess it makes sense."
"We are not! We are the most-- uh.." Juno trails off before sinking in his seat. Luckily, Saito came to the rescue.
"The most observant class in Kunugiaoka! That's completely different from being nosey."
"Yeah! You guys are the ones that are nosey, right Asano?" Much to their concern, there was a gap of silence.
"Second place? You don't look too good." Karma tilted his head with confusion and concern, while the others turned to Asano, who was already getting up.
"I'm fine...I just...um--" He stutters as the world spun around with every step he made to the bathroom. Why was it spinning? Was it supposed to be? Is it because of that centipede, or that caffeine? He can't tell anymore.
Too bad he got his answer when he fainted on the tiled floor.
Ren went to look for Asano, only to find him in the nurse's office alongside the rest of the worried class. He was sluggishly sitting on the bed with his back against the wall, practically dozing off. At least the cement was gone.
"What happened?" He asks worriedly as he turned his attention to Chiyo.
"He fainted in the middle of the hall, most likely due to fatigue." She picked up the cup of caffine mixture before gently swiging it around. "Definitely due to fatigue."
Ren sighed for at least the thousandth time today, while the rest of them either groaned or shook their heads disappointedly.