"Hey, Isogai," Nagisa picked up his phone with a smile. "What's the matter?"

His old friends' happy and soothing voice came in through the speaker, sounding matured and calming. "Hi, Nagisa! I'm glad you picked up, it's been a while, hasn't it?"

Nagisa nodded, walking into the teachers' lounge of Paradise High. "It's been ages, yeah." A few teachers stared at him in disbelief. None had expected him to turn up again - a trainee teacher dealing with Class 3-5 should've been a massacre!

"Well, I've been ringing up the rest of E-Class," Isogai said brightly, "And we're gonna take a visit down to the old campus next month. It's been cleaned up recently, so it's not for work, but since Kayano's finished all her shoots for her upcoming film, and she couldn't make it last week, she wanted us to all take a walk around, for old times' sake."

The idea of it sounded amazing. Nagisa couldn't think of anything he wanted more right now than to be with E-Class, on the mountainside, running through the forest and diving into the pool with his old classmates.

"We've even managed to persuade Itona and Karma to come out and join us! Nakamura is the only one who can't make it because she's got a big meeting on the scheduled date, but everyone else will be there! What do you say?"

Nagisa thought for a second. "What day is it gonna be?"

Isogai replied, "Friday, the twelfth."

The trainee thought for a second. "I'm sure I can make it. I mean, I've got a class now for my training, but a substitute won't be hard to find."

"Hey, that's epic! Congrats, Nagisa! How long have you been teaching them for?"

"I started yesterday," Nagisa replied, sorting out his bag as a staff member handed him coffee. He mouthed 'Thank you,' before continuing his conversation with Isogai. "They're a bit of a handful but I'm sure I'll manage."

There was silence on the other end of the line. "Nagisa..." Isogai said softly, so softly it was hard to hear. "Are you going to do what he did?"

Now it was Nagisa's' turn to fall silent. He stood quietly, raising the coffee to his lips, and not answering his old friends' question.

"Nagisa, you can't train them like he trained us. He was incredible. I'm not saying you're not amazing but you're not him.."

"Well, it might be the only way to get through to them," Nagisa replied. "They're like a bunch of multiple Terasakas. I can handle that."

The concern in the voice of the ex-class president was unmistakable. "You're not making it a... real one, are you?"

Nagisa laughed awkwardly but honestly. "No, no, of course not. It's all pretend."

"Good... I'm glad. After all, he didn't raise us to risk our lives like that. Anyway, if you can't make it next month, just give me a call, okay?"

"Sure thing, Isogai," Promised Nagisa. "Hopefully, I'll see you then."

"Stay safe, Nagisa!" Isogai wished brightly, before hanging up.

With a warm feeling, Nagisa smiled down at his phone, taking another sip of coffee before preparing to properly start the day.

.:*:.

As he walked down the corridors, he knew three things were for certain when he opened the door into Class 3-5. Firstly, Futaki would've set a trap for him. It wouldn't be by the door, in fear of a classmate setting it off, but it would be in around his desk and the blackboard, so it would only catch the teacher. Secondly, a group of students were probably going to try and storm him the moment he shut the door. This means that they'd start moving when his back is turned, so Nagisa knew what to expect. And thirdly, none of these would succeed.

The trainee teacher approached Class 3-5 and opened the door without stepping in first. Quickly the room turned silent and Nagisa scanned the room briefly but thoroughly. His chair had a thin wire, barely visible, attached to it and Futaki was hunched across his desk, with one fist clenched like he was holding something. Everyone was in their seats. Just as he had predicted.

Perfect.

Nagisa smiled warmly. "Good morning, class! I hope you're all well-rested. Today, we'll be finally starting with some more educational subjects now that the room is cleaned up."

He turned around to shut the door and heard three chairs scratch across the ground, followed by the sound of running footsteps. With no need to turn around, he dodged the first attack and pried the weapon from the attackers' hand. It was a hard, firm knife, but a plastic one. It didn't look anything like the ones he had used, but Nagisa adjusted his grip accordingly.

Carefully, he shot his elbow back into his attacker and ducked the next swipe that came for him. Nagisa blocked the next one and then kicked it out of the students' hand. Before they even had time to react, he swept it off the floor and then dealt with the final attacker, by pushing him back with a shove and toppling him over onto the teachers' chair by ducking onto the floor and sweeping the students' feet from underneath him.

From across the room, as the final attacker fell into the chair, he glanced up to see Futaki say, 'No', loudly, accidentally letting go of the wire he held in his fist. Instantly, the student in Nagisa's chair had a foam knife thrown into his chest by a contraption hidden amongst the paperwork. The tip of the blade bounced against his chest and landed in his lap harmlessly. If that had been a real knife, he'd have been dead.

Nagisa turned to the four students out of their seats. Futaki, who had jumped up when his trap failed. Yoshida, with a hand pressed tightly to his ribs. Aozora, who still looked around for his knife. Fujikawa, who was staring dumbly at the foam knife on his lap.

With a sigh, the trainee teacher walked up to Fujikawa and picked up the final two knives. He gave all four of them a disappointed look. "You call that an assassination attempt?" He asked them.

Futaki glared at Yoshida. "You messed it up! That would've been a perfect kill!" He growled angrily, his voice close to shouting.

Yoshida straightened up, pretending his ribs weren't in pain as he stared down Futaki threateningly. "Your little trap just caught the wrong person, Futaki. You could've told us, you know."

"You could've told me you were going to run around like a bunch of mindless criminals with no tact," Answered Futaki, forcing his voice to be cold and calm as he gave Yoshida a look of disgust.

"We had a plan," Sneered Yoshida.

"A terrible one," Futaki sneered scorningly.

Aozora scrambled up off the floor. "No, you!" He said as if it helped back up Yoshida's' argument at all. Yoshida gave him a withering look and Aozora smiled awkwardly.

Fujikawa stood up from the chair. "At least we worked as a team, Futaki."

Nagisa raised an eyebrow. "You call that, 'working as a team'?" The students looked up at their teacher. "Not a single knife hit their target, Futaki has essentially killed Fujikawa, and, need I tell you, numbers do not make up for a lack of creativity." He turned to Yoshida. "You could have had the whole class swarm with knives but it would have as much chance of working as hitting something that clocks out at Mach 20."

Yoshida scowled down at the teacher and then turned on his heel, marching back to his desk angrily. Futaki glared at him as he walked past but he sat down quietly. The other two students moved back to their seats too, looking embarrassedly at their hands.

In the silence, Domen thoughtfully looked across at Futaki, who had returned to gazing expressionlessly ahead, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Y'know, Futaki, I always thought you were mute," He said snarkily. Futaki turned to look at him blankly. "Looks like you've actually got a personality under that little emotionless show you've got going on." The boy just stared at Domen and Domen grinned. "Who knew you'd actually be able to raise your voice, too. I thought, if you ever did speak, it would be the weak, little whimper of a coward."

Futaki narrowed his eyes dangerously, staying still but tensing up in his seat, and Domen laughed at him.

"Don't get all riled up about it," He taunted meanly. "It would suit you, anyway."

"Domen," Called the teacher from the front of the classroom, not turning around as he wrote a list up on the blackboard. "I advise you to stop antagonizing your classmate. Unlike you, he's actually put some effort into assassinating me." He glanced over his shoulder, looking his azure eyes onto the student witheringly. "You better try harder if you ever want to live your own life."

The way he said it was bone-chilling. A shiver ran up Domens' spine and he silently backed down.

Nagisa turned back to face the class. "As none of you know what teamwork is, this month is going to educate you purely on communication and social abilities. In this world, you need connections and you need people. Assassins don't go around murdering any old people. They get contracts, they talk to friends of the target and, sometimes, they even engage the target in conversation." He pointed at the board, clicking the chalk against it to draw everyone's' attention. "And this is how we're gonna do it."