Chapter Text
The past week or so had made Karma extremely on-guard. The reason? Obviously it was Asano. The ex-president’s presence was already something that made Karma constantly distracted, and with Asano acting all strange, it was even harder for him to relax.
For example, when he was chatting with Nagisa during lunch, he’d see Asano out of the corner of his eyes, staring at his laptop with bloodshot eyes, no lunch in sight. So he started waking up even earlier (he’d started waking up early to make it to class before Asano - he never got there before him, what the fuck was up with that?) in order to make an extra lunch.
He still spiked some of it with wasabi, peppers or, what Asano hated the most, extra sugar, but most of it was safe. That way, Asano got to eat lunch and he got to watch Asano’s face contort for just a moment at whatever Karma had messed with.
(Asano was suspicious at first, but quickly started to accept the lunches, easily picking out the part that Karma messed with and avoiding it. So Karma stopped trying to prank Asano through lunch, and gave him a normal lunch.)
That morning, Karma woke up around 4 in the morning (criminal, really, what the hell was he doing?). He whipped up the normal two lunches, shoving them into his schoolbag. But today, he knew he’d have to go the extra mile.
Asano absolutely despised strong flavors. Karma knew this since the first year in middle school, when he’d watch Asano avoid eating foods with strong flavors, opting for his lunches that usually consisted of a light salad and greek yogurt.
With the pudding assassination coming up, Asano was definitely going to be skipping breakfast. After all, who could reasonably have time to eat breakfast in between picking up large pudding molds and the excess inventory of ten different farms across Japan?
Karma checked his phone.
[3:29]
Daddy Issues: I will arrive at the base of the mountain at around 5 AM with all the supplies needed to be transported. Please plan to arrive at around 5:30 AM if you are assisting with making the pudding.
Like Karma always knew, Asano was a tryhard at everything he did. So as his rival (as the rest of his classmates had christened him), Karma was obligated to put a bit more work in too.
He pulled out a coffee pudding out of the fridge, making a quick sandwich with guacamole and scrambled eggs to bring to Old Campus. Checking the clock, Karma quickly set out of his house. At the rate he was working at, Karma would make it at the base of the mountain at 4:45.
(Karma knew full well that Asano would be there earlier than 5, and by getting earlier as well, he could probably convince Asano to eat some breakfast.)
It was still dark outside, the sky a dark blue that’d started lightening up a bit. Karma’s walk was much quicker than he’d expected without the traffic keeping him from jaywalking, and he was approaching the base of the mountain 5 minutes earlier than expected.
Asano was, predictably, already there, talking on the phone with his schoolbag set down at his feet. As he approached, Asano glanced over, eyes widening in mild surprise. He held a finger up, silently motioning for Karma to be quiet as he kept talking on the phone.
“Yes, the surplus is being used for charity, there is a project being done to use it for creating meals for the underprivileged. The calculations for untaxable income have been emailed to you.”
He paused for a moment, clearly listening to the person on the other line speak. Karma moved closer, reaching over to press the speakerphone button, receiving a brief glare at Gakushuu.
“...and this’ll be filed to the National Tax Agency by you? We don’t need to do anything else?”
“Yes, correct. It’ll be completed by the end of this week. Call me back if there are any other questions or issues. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be hanging up. The inventory is expected to arrive in 20 minutes at the latest.”
“Of course. Pleasure doing business.”
Gakushuu pressed the end call button, before turning towards Karma, clearly confused.
“Akabane. What’re you doing here? You’re practically an hour early.”
Karma felt a flicker of satisfaction in hearing how Asano’s voice softened when he was talking to him. It was almost jarring listening to Asano talk on the phone, his voice sharp and cold, eerily similar to the Chairman.
“I didn’t want you having all the fun, prez. Plus, someone’s gotta keep watch on you to make sure you’re not plotting to take down Class-E.”
Asano rolled his eyes, as he put his phone away.
“I’m actively helping the class right now. I didn’t know you had that little faith in me, Akabane.”
“Right, because committing tax fraud is helpful?”
He stared at the other boy, who averted his gaze. His arms were crossed, his voice a bit defensive.
“It’s not technically illicit tax fraud. Also, I’m just applying what we learned in class to assassination.”
Karma was about to punch this guy. They went over one class of tax fraud in English class (barely even a class, Bitch-sensei was just venting about getting scammed or something), and this was the excuse Asano was using?
He let out a scoff, rummaging through his bag and tossing the sandwich at Asano’s face, knowing fully well that Asano would catch it without struggle no matter how fast he threw it.
“Whatever. Did you even eat anything yet?”
Asano caught it with one hand, unwrapping it and sniffing it suspiciously. “No. Why are you giving me this?”
He smirked, one hand pulling off a piece of the sandwich, popping it into his mouth. Bland for his own tastes, personally, since he didn’t put any pepper or hot sauce in it, but that meant that it was perfect for Asano’s boring ass taste buds.
“Made too much. Don’t worry, I didn’t put any wasabi in it this time.”
For a few moments, Asano stared at Karma. Karma watched Asano slowly raise the sandwich up to his mouth, and take a bite, chewing it and then swallowing it without a single indication of whether it tasted good or not.
“It’s edible.”
“Why do you sound so surprised about that, eh? I’ve made plenty of great food.”
“...Perhaps when you’re not trying to actively kill someone with peppers. You know that you’re only being acquitted for Koro-sensei’s murder, right?”
“No one’s gonna die from a bit too much spice. I think you’re just too sensitive, prez.”
“You’re so flippant about everything. I envy your lack of giving a fuck.”
Karma let out a surprised bark of laughter as Gakushuu took another bite of his sandwich.
“Since when did the golden boy of Kunugigaoka swear? Wow, Asano, I didn’t know you were a secret delinquent!”
“I’ll leave that title to you, Akabane.”
The two of them lapsed into silence, Asano munching down on the sandwich whilst Karma went on his phone, checking out the E-Class group chat that was finally becoming active as classmates woke up.
[4:25]
Kunugigaoka’s Mom: i’ll be there at 4:55! see you all there! <3
President Poverty: I might be a few minutes early too!
Mistress Kanzaki: wth y is asano awake at like 3 am
Forever Flat: when do you even have time to sleep asano?? @Daddy Issues
Daddy Issues: My sleep schedule is irrelevant to this plan. The cooking supplies and utensils have already been transported up to the Old Campus. Anyone arriving early may need to help with transporting ingredients up the mountain.
A truck slowly drove down the road, catching both of their attentions. It stopped in front of them, and Asano picked up his schoolbag, tucking the half-eaten sandwich into it before handing it to Karma.
“Hold this for a second, please.”
Two men emerged from the vehicle, walking over to Gakushuu. They exchanged a few words, and Gakushuu moved over to the back of the truck with them. The two adults opened the truck doors, starting to take out pallets upon pallets of eggs.
“Here ye’ go. We’ve got another three trucks with the rest of the ingredients comin’ out, as well as a movin’ company to help. It’ll take us a while to unload it all.”
“Alright. You can drop everything off on the top of the mountain, in the clearing. Don’t go into or past the building, that’s private property. Some other kids will be here to help out as well.”
They nodded, and Asano turned back around, walking back towards Karma.
“Akabane, let’s go. We need to mark the safe route so they don’t get caught in the fake one.”
Karma blinked, frowning as he followed Asano, walking faster to step right next to Asano’s side.
“Fake trail? What do you mean?”
“The one with all the snakes and bees, of course. Don’t tell me you don’t know about the one for non-trespassers?”
If it weren’t for the way that Asano’s lips twitched slightly, Karma would’ve thought that Asano’s question was truly innocent. But no, that bastard knew full well that the rest of Class E went down the treacherous path without any knowledge of a safer route.
“You fucking-”
Karma launched himself at Asano, whose eyes widened as he stepped to the side, grinning fully now. Karma set down the two schoolbags on the ground, before reaching forward to punch Asano. He could vaguely hear himself letting out a laugh as well, as the asshole evaded him again, going in for a grapple.
The two of them went back and forth, tussling and kicking at each other, blocking and dodging each other’s hits, before being interrupted by an awkward cough.
One of the adults, now holding a large pallet of eggs, was standing in front of them.
“The path. Could you lead us?”
Asano separated himself first, clearing his throat and running his fingers through his hair. Karma let out a huff, grabbing the two schoolbags, not bothering with his own image out of spite. He wasn’t going to act like some pretty boy obsessed with his own looks.
“Yes, follow me. Apologies for the delay.”
The rest of the walk up the very nice, very peaceful trail (fuck, Karma’s never had such a nice walk down the mountain, even with the bees and snakes tamed by Kurahashi) was uneventful. Karma stuck to the back in case the two men needed help, whilst Asano led the little group up the mountainside.
Once they made it up, Karma headed towards Asano. But before he could speak, Asano turned away, pointedly avoiding Karma as he directed the men to set the pallets down.
“...Eh?”
Karma stood there for a moment, before letting out an angry huff as he turned away, walking over to the building. He dropped Asano's bag at his desk, before pulling out a permanent marker, doodling a chicken on it.
He knew that Asano was avoiding him because their little fight ruined his image (boo-hoo, Asano could easily fix his reputation anyways, no big deal). But still, it pissed him off when Asano avoided him as if he were the plague.
Karma remained there sulking for a bit longer, playing some random mobile game on his phone and picking on noobs to let out his frustration in the meantime. Before long, he could hear cheerful chattering as some of his classmates arrived at the top of the mountain.
“Wow, I never knew there was a hidden path! It’s great that you were able to find it, Asano!”
“I was just lucky. I only learned about it this morning.”
This morning? What a shameless liar. Karma stood up, stretching as he emerged from the building, surveying the small group. Isogai (obviously), Hara, Kataoka, and Takebayashi were now here, along with Asano.
“Finally here, eh?”
Isogai blinked, surprised as he gave Karma a grin.
“Karma, I wasn’t expecting you to be here so early! Honestly, I thought you’d arrive last.”
Karma stuck his tongue out at Isogai, emerging from the building and surveying the new pallets of eggs and milk cartons that were now laid out. Asano handed a carton of eggs to Karma without warning, his phone in his other hand as he typed furiously on it.
“If you all could transport the ingredients inside and set up mixing stations, that’d be great. I have to go back down to talk with one of the distributors.”
With that, Asano was already disappearing down the path, leaving the rest of them to stand there awkwardly. Luckily, all of the people present were great at taking initiative, and Karma was sent off by Kataoka to set up the desks into stations for mixing all the pudding ingredients.
Takebayashi followed Karma, and the two of them silently worked, pulling desks into groups, setting down mats with mixing bowls and utensils on each island of desks.
For a moment, Karma contemplated confronting the other boy. Takebayashi’s resentment towards Asano was pretty clear to anyone in Class 3-E. It was the same jealousy that formed in all of them when they saw the golden boy surrounded by his friends, popular in every imaginable way.
(He felt the same for quite a while, even if he’d never admit it. He wasn’t jealous of Asano’s popularity or academic success, but jealous of how Asano always seemed so motivated. Karma himself never felt a push to do anything, as if he were just drifting aimlessly through life. That was changing now, because of Koro-sensei and Asano’s presence in the class.)
“Hey, Takebayashi.”
The other boy startled for a moment, tinkering with some sort of device. Probably the explosive he was talking about last night in the group chat.
“Yeah? What is it?”
“You got a crush on Asano? Seems like you’re always looking at him.”
As soon as those words left Karma’s mouth, he felt his heart beat faster. That wasn’t exactly how he was hoping to approach the topic, but close enough.
“H-huh?!” Takebayashi balked, fumbling with his bomb and almost dropping it. “No, of course not! I don’t even look at him that often!”
Karma felt a smirk creep up face, as he stepped closer to Takebayashi. His voice held a teasing lilt to it as he spoke, cornering Takebayashi.
“Eh? So, are you jealous or something? Kunugigaoka’s golden boy, of course you’d be jealous of him, right?”
The poor kid seemed to shrink with every prod that Karma gave. Not that Karma cared.
“No, I- I’m not!”
Karma continued staring at Takebayashi. He let his smile widen, sharp canines showing a bit. His classmate trembled, gripping the explosive tightly (hopefully it didn’t blow up, that wouldn’t end well).
“Okay, fine! I’m a little bit jealous. But it’s not like it’s my fault. Before, Asano was on the Main Campus. The threat- I mean, his existence wasn’t really real, you know? But now, he’s always showing us up.”
Much to Karma’s alarm, Takebayashi started to tear up. (Fuck, this was not what he wanted. How emotionally repressed was this nerd?)
“I- I thought that I was improving with Koro-sensei and everything else. But I’ll never make it to Asano’s level. The Chairman was talking with me about bringing me back to Main Campus, and I was going to accept-”
Karma interrupted Takebayashi, indignation rising up in his chest. “Woah, what the fuck? You were going to leave us to go back to Main Campus?”
Takebayashi shook his head rapidly, holding the explosive device up to his face as if to block Karma. Not that he was gonna punch him.
“No! Of course not! My parents, they really wanted me to, they donated a lot, but- I declined in the end, after Asano joined our class. Compared to Asano and the rest in Class-E, do I really deserve to be on Main Campus?”
He sunk down onto the chair, continuing to sob. Karma, unsure of what else to do, pulled the explosive out of his hands and set it aside, maintaining a good distance away from Takebayashi so he didn’t have to get too close to the whole emotional mess.
“Y’know, Asano is the kind of person you shouldn’t compare yourself to. He’s unrealistic,” Karma started, trying to word everything carefully so that Takebayashi wouldn’t break down even more.
“No one else on Main Campus is like him. And anyways, I think belonging in E-Class is better than being down there. You said you were improving, right? That’s because you’re here now, with Koro-sensei teaching you. Focus on yourself and compare yourself with the past, not that psychopathic asshole.”
He sighed, moving closer to the door of the classroom. This was the kind of thing that Hara was better at dealing with, Karma felt exhausted with barely a few lines.
“Any-ways, I’m gonna go help the others. Try to figure everything out, would ya? Otherwise the rest of our classmates might come to the same conclusion I did~”
Takebayashi raised his head, eyes red but a shaky smile on his face as he defended himself.
“Come on, Karma, I don’t like Asano!”
Karma let out a flippant laugh, walking out of the school building and into the clearing, where several other classmates had arrived, helping with transporting all the ingredients. Nagisa was already there, unpacking one large crate with barrels of milk. (Karma didn’t even know milk came in barrels, where the hell did Asano get these connections?)
“Hey, the classroom’s been set up. Ingredients can be brought in now.”
Karma slunk away as the class started to work once more, all chattering as they slowly migrated towards the school building. He made his way around the side of the building, leaning against the outer wall and staring out into the lush forest. The sun was finally above the horizon, and the sky was a nice pale blue.
The whole Takebayashi fiasco unnerved Karma. He wasn’t close enough to most of his classmates to go through the whole emotional support thing, and it was probably partially his fault that Takebayashi broke down in the first place.
He sat down on the ground, taking out his phone and opening a mobile game. After all, the best way to get his mind off things was to bully others online. (He wasn’t actually in the mood to interact with others, so he mindlessly walked around the map, doing a bit of mindless farming.)
The sky slowly brightened, and he could tell that the rest of his classmates had arrived as well. If he strained his ears, he could overhear chatter and activity from inside the building. Strangely, the noise only made it feel even more silent outside.
Heavy, uneven footsteps on the grass distracted him from his game, and Karma stared disgruntled at the death screen on his phone. He turned to check who it was, only to see Asano looming over him.
(Asano’s footsteps never seemed to sound consistent. Half of the time Karma couldn’t even tell it was Asano’s footsteps when he was literally watching the boy walk around.)
“...Akabane. Come back inside. The pudding is halfway done.”
Karma sighed, leaning back against the wall. He looked up into violet eyes, staring into them for a while.
“I don’t feel like it. Sorry prez~”
Asano glared, before letting out a low sigh, moving to sit down next to Karma, glancing at his phone screen with a dismissive huff. Karma shut off his phone, tucking it away from nosy eyes.
“Takebayashi approached me earlier. Have anything to do about that?”
“Hm? Nah, I’m not close to him.”
Karma was curious about what Takebayashi and Asano talked about. His pride wouldn’t let him ask though, so he just pretended not to know.
Asano still gave Karma a glare. Maybe he should work on his lying.
“Fine. What’s with all the food you’ve been giving me then?”
Ah, shit.
Instead of answering, Karma stood up, stretching dramatically and avoiding eye contact with Asano.
“Well, I’m done with sitting around. Should we go back to the classroom now, Asano?”
Maybe Asano was feeling merciful today, because he let Karma off with a mere glare. He stood up as well, not looking back as he walked back towards the building. Karma had been seeing a lot of Asano’s back lately. He wasn’t sure if he liked it.
-
The rest of the pudding-making was uneventful.
Actually, that was a lie. At some point, Okuda had been banned from working with the pudding because she’d dumped water into a batch to replace the milk (something about how sugar dissolved in water versus milk), and three people had to restrain Terasaka from physically kicking her out.
At last, the pudding was completed. The entire class gathered around in breathless anticipation as the monstrosity was slowly unmolded, with Kayano at the forefront of it all.
Thankfully, it emerged perfectly. Some of the girls went over and made multiple tunnels into the pudding, extracting out tubes of pudding. Pale yellow, hollow tubes replaced the empty holes in the pudding, and the class regrouped back inside the classroom, carrying the large bowls of leftover pudding.
Kayano clapped loudly, leading everyone’s attention to the front of the room where she and Asano were standing. Much to Karma’s annoyance, they had practically been stuck to each other’s side the entire time, organizing the whole operation.
“Okay guys, so here’s the plan! Okano’s been keeping Korosensei at her gymnasium to ‘help’ her with assassination stuff, but she and Koro-sensei will be here super soon! We’ll show Koro-sensei the pudding and when he goes to eat it, he’ll eat through it and encounter Takebayashi’s bomb!”
Asano stepped forward, tapping a piece of chalk on a drawn diagram on the board.
“Koro-sensei will likely already know about the bomb due to his sense of smell. So, the purpose of the bomb is to make him spend as much time as possible trying to defuse it. While he’s distracted while doing so, we remove the tubes and throw grenades into the cavity where the bomb is located.”
It was a good plan, Karma mused. A flash of movement caught the corner of his eye, and he glanced down at Nagisa, who had his hand up.
“What if Koro-sensei just decides to avoid the bomb altogether?”
The green-haired girl’s smile widened, and Karma could almost feel a chill go down his spine.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered.”
Ritzu popped up on her phone, announcing in a peppy voice.
“Koro-sensei is now approaching! Everyone get in position!”
Everyone scattered, Asano picking up the bowls of extra pudding and tucking them away behind the desks. Karma made his way to the field, bringing two grenades with them and tucking them into his jacket.
Okuda, Sugino, and Hayami were sitting outside with him, all of them carrying grenades. Sugino had one in his hand, tossing it up and down like a baseball, but quickly hid it behind his back as the tell-tale voice of Koro-sensei emerged.
“Wow, you all made me something? How sweet~!” The octopus emerged from the building, accompanied by Kayano and Asano, the rest of the class trailing behind with angelic smiles.
“Yeah, so you should try it, Koro-sensei! Everybody pitched in to help make it!”
The octopus let out a cry of joy, and quickly dived into the pudding without much else of note to say. For a bit, the loud sound of Koro-sensei eating resounded in the field. Okuda beside him fidgeted nervously as they silently got into position, each of the grenade holders standing at one of the camouflage tubes.
Suddenly, a soft tap at his shoulders made Karma startle, glancing back to see Asano. Asano held up a finger to his mouth, and held out a gun, urging Karma to switch with him.
“I’ll take over the grenades. When Koro-sensei emerges, you shoot him,” he whispered, his hands brushing Karma’s as he pressed the gun into his hand. Karma nodded, feeling a buzz of his phone, Ritsu’s indication that they should remove the tubes.
Asano was already a step ahead of him though, removing the plastic tube with one swift motion to expose a tunnel into the middle cavern, where the bomb was.
A loud wail sounded on the opposite side of the pudding, and Karma tensed, about to run and see what happened. But a hand on his arm stopped him, and Karma watched as Asano held back a smirk.
“NOOO! MY PUDDING! KORO-SENSEI, DON’T GO TO THE MIDDLE, IT’S GONNA BLOW UP!! I CAN’T HAVE MY PRIDE AND JOY BLOW UP!” Kayano’s voice was a shrill screech, and Terasaka was standing behind her, pretending to hold her back as she cried out.
Asano pulled the pins on the grenades, shoving them into the cavern and pulling Karma’s arm, dragging them back towards the building.
“Akabane, move it!”
The two of them ran, and Karma could vaguely tell that he was letting out a manic laugh. The other classmates were fleeing back into the classroom as well, although most were giving him a wide birth.
The classroom quickly went quiet as they watched the pudding intently. A muffled explosion sounded, but the pudding seemed to remain unperturbed. Next to him, Asano murmured quietly.
“He must’ve molted.”
Sure enough, a few moments later, Koro-sensei appeared in the middle of their classroom, looking smug if not a little dishevelled.
“Well! That was quite a good mea-”
Karma lowered the gun, grinning sharply. As soon as he saw Koro-sensei appear, he raised the gun, pulling the trigger a few times as he aimed at Koro-sensei’s tentacles. The fruit of his labor was seen in the wriggling tentacles on the ground, and he could hear a hum of approval from behind him.
Maybe this assassination attempt wasn’t too bad.
The rest of the day passed quickly. Koro-sensei spent some time praising them all, then acted extremely betrayed when they revealed that his big gesture of saving the pudding so they could have some was all in vain (that was what the extra pudding tucked in the back of the room was for, Karma realized).
He spent some more time moping, and the field still needed to be cleaned up, so PE was delayed too. In the end, Bitch-sensei was tasked with teaching them. They had a weapon concealment class, apparently because “who the fuck thinks hiding a grenade behind their back is being inconspicuous? Yes, I’m talking to you Sugino, so you better be paying attention!”
As Karma made his way down the mountain (yes, using the new, safe trail), he suddenly realized that the coffee pudding he’d made that morning was still in his bag. Asano left the classroom before him, right?
He hurried down the path, but instead of seeing Asano, he saw four disappointments. Or rather, Asano’s minions. The Five Virtuosos, or whatever cringy name they were called.
Four Virtuosos? But without Asano, it didn’t really feel like the ‘Virtuosos’. Especially with the way those four were bickering, practically on top of each other as they fought. Sometimes, just like with Asano, Karma forgot they were also kids.
Karma slunk along the forestline, remaining out of view of the ex-Virtuosos as he spied on them, listening to them talk.
“Ren, I swear to god, we can’t just directly follow him! He’ll obviously be able to sense us!”
“Shut up Seo! I haven’t seen his face in an entire week! I didn’t even get to see his dad’s face to remind me of him!”
“Why the hell would you want to see the Chairman?!”
“I DON’T!!”
The four continued bickering, before one of them (Ren? Karma only remembered hearing Maehara complain about him in class) grabbed the other’s shoulders, forcing the others to follow him.
“Come on, guys! Let’s go to Gakushuu’s house and check in on him! He hasn’t been replying to us for three days!”
The three of them set off down the road, albeit not with a bit more bickering. Karma wondered how the hell they got anything done with all that arguing.
Oh right.
Asano.
Or Gakushuu? Karma didn’t realize that Asano was on first-name basis with the rest of the Virtuosos. To him and the rest of 3-E, it looked as if they were Asano’s little henchmen, and he’d never even seen them act so chaotic.
Karma snuck around, following the four as they made their way through the town. They were constantly bickering, and several times Karma practically developed cramps squatting behind a car waiting for them to keep walking.
Practically half an hour later, the four stopped at the entrance of a home in a moderately rich neighborhood. They were whispering, and Karma had to sneak even closer to eavesdrop on what they were saying.
“Teppei, you go first. The Chairman likes you the best.”
“Nuh uh! He just knows if he hurts me my parents will publicize it on TV!”
“Exactly! You’re the one he’s least likely to hurt!”
“Guys, the car isn’t there.”
“...Oh. So he’s not here?”
“Yeah! So move it, Koyama! You’re such a wimp!”
But before they could get far, Karma caught a glimpse of the front door opening, and Asano was in the doorway, still in his school uniform. He seemed mildly surprised, but grinned brightly at the sight of the four.
Speaking of them, they were immediately bolting towards Asano, piling onto him and nearly knocking him over. It was a tearful reunion, and that went both ways. Not only were half of the Virtuosos literally bawling while clinging onto Asano, the latter himself was teary-eyed as well. (At least, Karma thought so. His vantage point wasn’t the best.)
The front door slowly closed, and Karma was left staring at a closed door. He glanced inside his bag, where a carefully wrapped cup of coffee pudding sat next to his own lunchbox.
Well, it’d be creepy if he showed up at Asano’s door anyways.
Karma turned around, and walked through the streets, not even bothering to put on music for the long walk (his house was practically on the opposite side of town, back the way he came).
While he strolled along the streets, he thought back to Asano. It wasn’t like he never thought Asano had friends. But perhaps it was the distance that the prez had made between him and Class-E that made what Karma saw seem so jarring. Asano was supposed to be the untouchable type, unreachable in every single way.
Maybe that made him a hypocrite, after he’d mocked Takebayashi for thinking the same. He thought he was one of the people in Class-E that was closest to Asano, but he was still far, far behind.
The only thing that he could see was Asano’s back.
Karma shook his head, picking up his pace as he walked quicker, entering his own empty home.
If he was still far behind, it just meant he’d have to work harder to find his place next to Asano. And Karma was anything but a quitter when it came to him.