5. Greet

Korosensei's laugh was oddly nostalgic. It sent shivers of delights down Nao's spine, but the bits that tinged at his shoulders, leaving their mark for just a moment longer, felt a tad melancholic. It was laughable and contagious, so much he didn't bother trying to act surprised toward the 2-metre tall octopus.

A two-meter tall abomination, with an uncomfortably round face, a stupid long graduation-robe-looking thing with a stupid wide tie at his neck, matched with a tiny graduation hat.

"It is very nice to meet you, Kunomasu-sensei," he had introduced himself, greeting the younger with his grin of impossible proportions.

"The pleasure is mine, sir," Naomasa smiled back, lifting his head up. Turning to Mr Karasuma, Naomasa bowed and greeted the government agent as well.

Naomasa was below average in height for his age, but he stood well normal as an adult. Despite that, Korosensei's height was towering and dominated the classroom. Naomasa couldn't help but be spiteful that he had to be shorter than Karasuma, too.

"Kuma-sensei, are you alright?" someone spoke up from the back.

"Well, I don't seem to be dying, so I think I am?" Naomasa returned the question, "Kimura ran all the way up here with me on his back, so I think he'll need a little longer to recover from that."

Kimura Masayoshi held up a shaky thumbs-up of reassurance.

"Kuma-sensei, don't you find that-- thing, uh, Korosensei-- weird at all?" Maehara Hiroto wasn't sugarcoating himself-- his referral of the teacher as a 'thing' made the Octopus sob.

"I couldn't decide if I should freak out or faint in shock," Naomasa's answer was bright, beaming and immediate, "so I decided to just let it be."

Shiota Nagisa couldn't help but chuckle in resignation, "Kuma-sensei's as carefree as ever, huh."

"I prefer to refer to myself as a cliche-hating anomaly," Naomasa seemed to boast of himself, a hand at his chest, "and I dislike overdramatic conflicts. They take up too many sentences for no development. Not a wise literary device to implement in a story."

"Are you having a lesson all of a sudden?" Yada Touka pointed out.

The class erupted into a strained laughter-- hesitance was in the atmosphere. Why was Kunomasu Naomasa sent up here? They had no way of knowing. And Naomasa couldn't offer an answer better than the fact it was simply one of Asano Gakuho's whims.

Naomasa was out of place in the assassination classroom. Most of them were sullen 'failures' of the school that was supposed to no longer have anything to do with this teacher-- Nao wasn't going to partake in the E-class discrimination up here-- but that didn't mean it wasn't true. Now, Nao would have to be a part of the discriminated.

And well, he had to figure out ways to deal with it.

"I was a little nervous, but I've taught most of your normal classes in the previous years, haven't I?" Nao took a spot at the teacher's table, speaking up and catching the attention of the students that didn't really feel too up to the situation, "although the environment's been altered a little, I know that in truth none of you have changed much as who you are."

This made a few lift their heads in interest.

"Well, it seems there are a few unfamiliar face as well--" Naomasa chuckled, casting a glance at Kayano Kaede-- a green-haired girl who wore her shoulderlength hair in high twintails-- "everyone calls me Kuma-sensei, so I hope you'd call me that too. It's a little late, but I'll be taking over Modern Lit and Japanese from today onward, do go easy on me!"

Korosensei's infinite tentacles slithered messily as he picked up Naomasa's book back, a comb, hair gel?? and a tie-- 

"Well said, Mr Kunomasu, we all do look forward to having you around henceforth!" he grinned, and in the next instant his tentacles were just zooming around Naomasa at a sonic pace.

Nao's hair had gotten messy on the route up, but Korosensei had fixed it so neat it actually felt very uncomfortable. But to Nao's dismay, a tie was fitted into his neck.

A mirror was held before him, as if Korosensei was trying to say so so how do you look how do you look, amazing, aren't I?

The Octopus' grin looked smug and proud, as if he was waiting for a word of praise.

"Thanks very much, sir," Nao's hand went casually to the tie, pulling it away from the button-- Korosensei's soft squishy cold tentacle materialised at Naomasa's grip, holding him from taking it off. 

Nao's other hand reached up, tugging the tie downward-- Korosensei reached something like ten of his tentacles to stop his attempts, "Noo, please keep it on!"

Karasuma pinched the bridge of his nose, ailing a headache as he realized there wasn't going to be a nice civilised interaction around.

The students watched, too baffled to do anything else. I mean, do you usually see a teacher fighting with an octopus over a goddamn tie?

"Let me take it off, dammit!" Naomasa snapped, and with one burst of strength, he won over ten weak squishy mollusc arms, gripping the soft fabric of the tie with lowkey anger as he face the octopus.

"I'm not putting on a tie," he growled, seething, "thanks for your kind gesture."

The Octopus, face turning blue in sadness, sobbed in the corner, "I thought it looked good on you," he whined, "you didn't have to reject it so hard..."

Naomasa's bright and beaming demeanor now shattered in the eyes of the students, Karasuma was utterly confused about this new character. The fact that he had little reaction to Korosensei was off in itself-- but Karma didn't react much to the teacher either, so... Not to say that Karma is normal in any way.

But someone getting along with Korosensei to engage in a quarrel like this was a first. Even Karasuma wanted nothing but to put a knife in the irritating Octopus.

"I'll wear it, if it's a little less warm out, alright?" Naomasa sighed, "if I wear this now, I'd get a heat stroke."

Now he's trying to console the octopus, everyone was taken aback.

He crouched down beside the large yellow abomination, looking over it regretfully like it was a spoiled brat that needed care. 

"Stop being so down, I'll give you some candy or something, geez!"

  ー  

Karasuma was a government agent. He was tall, strict, and his hair was spiked upward strangely, I hope it's gelled, I don't know. He always wore a suit, complete with a tie-- Naomasa had given up on the suit jacket and vowed never to wear that thing again-- despite the weather.

"Huh? I'm getting this too?"

Naomasa held the strangely weighty knife in his hand-- it was green, felt smooth as plasticine but had the consistency of rubber. 

S.A.A.U.S.O.

The words were white and printed on the flat of the blade, a strange marking that probably meant something to the military, but Naomasa didn't know what it meant. 

He gripped the handle carefully, rubbing his finger on the bolster, the heel, the grip and the guard-- he held the edged of the knife and bend it like a ruler to see how far it'd go, but it seemed like he could coil it into a swiss roll and it's still work fine.

"Huh? you know what that is?" Karasuma seemed baffled.

Naomasa flinched-- "I- I uh, read it in the briefing report the government sent me!"

Sure enough, he had gotten a short acknowledgement of what and who exactly Korosensei was-- a strange Octopus that appeared not a week or so ago, claiming to have destroyed the moon-- and consequently, threatened to blow up the Earth in the coming march.

It was unknown why he even willingly came up to Class E, but the government had little option but to take that chance at the risk of planet Earth.

Even if it meant making Junior High Students become assassins, they had to.

"Do these really work on him?" Naomasa asked, referring to Korosensei-- "toy green daggers."

"Personally, I'm not too sure why it works," Karasuma mumbled honestly, "but he gave it to us, and nothing else works, so we're taking it."

Naomasa placed the Anti-Sensei Knife on the desk.

"So, do you hate me, Mr Karasuma?" Naomasa asked, "I came out of nowhere, interrupting government efforts, creating a hassle for your work. A nuisance, aren't I?"

Karasuma was silent.

"It's fine, you can be honest," Naomasa chuckled, "I have no skills, nor can I handle any form of sport due to my condition. There is virtually no way I can contribute to this assassination."

Naomasa looked out the window, finding nothing but the quiet. The nature. The emptiness, the solitude, and the separation of Class 3-E.

Now, he was a part of that-- he found it hard to sink in. As much as the whole assassination thing was hard to take in, the fact that he was sent into this old campus meant it was a devastating, terrible demotion.

He thought being a teacher was his calling-- maybe now, he realized he had failed in that too.

"You may have been out of our plans, but in my personal view, you are no different from any of the students that were caught up in this issue unwillingly," Karasuma spoke up, picking up the knife and walking toward Naomasa again.

Karasuma pushed the knife into Naomasa's hand meaningfully-- with one strong gaze that did not really mean anything deep, Karasuma excused himself and left the room.

Naomasa burst into laughter.

"Too serious!" he guffawed, "Mr Karasuma's way too serious!"

Holding the Anti-Sensei knife in his hand, Naomasa touched the tip, felt the spine-- and sighed. He guessed there was no helping the situation, then.

But maybe, he felt a little better about himself now.