Memories of the Past

Chapter 3: Teaching Time

Nagisa Shiota was resting in the teacher's lounge of Paradise highschool after a long day of teaching his students and fighting for his life. He loved his job a lot, but he felt specifically like it was a little more dangerous than the average teacher. However, he was up to the challenge. Usually, his morning would consist of waking up, getting prepared, eating breakfast, and heading to school where he would be constantly bombarded with a flurry of punches, pipes, and bats all while reading a textbook and taking attendance. But despite all that, he wouldn't trade his job for the world. "Hey professor Shiota, can you help me on this?" Nagisa looked up. One of his students was peeking through an opening in the door while pointing to a problem on his history homework. "Yea, give me a few moments and I'll be right with you Hibiya." The student then left the presence of Nagisa leaving him once again alone with his thoughts. But it didn't take long, considering he didn't want to make Hibiya wait "Well, better get going."

Nagisa entered the tattered classroom and spotted Hibiya sitting at his desk. It was quiet, deathly quiet. The sheer intensity of the room was enough to make a man scared. Nagisa knew what was up though. Through the open crevices of cabinets and lockers were sounds of teenagers heavy breathing. He could tell that a surprise attack would be inevitable, but decided to act like nothing was wrong for the time being. "Alright Hibiya, what's the problem?" Nagisa said while grabbing a chair. But as he placed it and sat at the front of his students desk, the floor suddenly caved in on him. While falling he noticed a bucket that was directly above him, and concluding that there was some kind of sticky substance inside, rushed to get out of the small pit. "Crap" he said while pulling himself up. The green gooey liquid grazed his shoe as he barely hauled himself out of the pit. Suddenly the students who were in the lockers burst out and started yelling while attacking their poor teacher. Nagisa used his small stature and training he received in middle school to quickly weave through the incoming attacks all while trying to explain to Hibiya how WW1 started and the causes of it. By the time he finished, both him and his students were exhausted. "Oh, I think I got it, thanks Professor Shiota!" Hibiya said while collecting his things. "Yea,...... no... *gasp* problem......." Nagisa said between pants. "Wow, your really amazing Shiota" Nagisa looked up from the floor to see his coworker Nagisa Kanzaki standing by the door. She was a fellow teacher who started working at Paradise last semester. Due to Nagisa having a name that was more commonly used for girls, he had many acquaintances with the same name as him who were of the opposite sex. That, and with the addition of having the same surname as one of his old friends, it made it hard to address his fellow teacher. She was not at all related to Yukiko, but just happened to have the same last name because it was so common. She taught the class whose grade was right under Nagisa's (Shiota) class. As a bonus, their two homerooms happened to be right across from each other, making it easy for the two to hang out. "Oh, thanks Nagi." He said. They both decided that it would be ok to address her with a nickname because of the confusion it would create if they didn't. Kanzaki held out her hand to help the exhausted boy up and brought him back into the lounge. Once they were finished and settled, they started to talk a bit. "I'm surprised you're able to put up with your students like you do. I guess that would be an understatement considering they are legitimately trying to kill you. Why don't you tell me how you do it." It took a while before Nagisa responded, but after finally recovering from the assassination attempt his students tried to pull he finally said something. "Well, It was my choice honestly. I told them that before their graduation, they're gonna have to kill me."(Nagisa) Kanzaki was suddenly taken aback as she tried to process what her fellow teacher just said. "Wait, wait, wait, you want your students to kill you?" she said. Nagisa responded with a "Yea, that's right." The female teacher suddenly dawned a scared expression on her face. "Ok, I may not know much about you or your past, but please don't die, you just started working here last year and I bet I have so much to live for!! Your students may not realize it themselves but they depend on you!" she said frantically. Nagisa could see that the girl had misunderstood and aimed to correct it. "Oh sorry I didn't mean it like that! I mean, I kinda did but they're not gonna be able to kill me that easily." He realized that he wasn't doing much better and tried to get an explanation out. "Wait, let me explain!" Kanzaki calmed down and started to listen to Nagisa's explanation. "Back when I was in middle school I was one of the twenty-eight students of Kunugigaoka junior high's class 3-E, and as you probably know from the news, our teacher was basically a monster. Well, The thing is, he wasn't the monster that everyone thought he was. He was the kindest, smartest, and most dedicated teacher anyone could ever have. Despite all the awful things the media said about him, he wasn't whatever they claimed him to be." "wait, so you're telling me that you're part of the class that had a giant lazer fired on their campus a few years back?" Kanzaki said. 'Wow, that's what you remember about our class?' Nagisa thought. "Anyways, our teacher didn't only teach us things we knew in school, but also how to be assassins. Not only for killing, but also all the challenges we face." "So let me get this straight, you want to turn your students into assassins? Don'cha think that's a little intense?" Kanzaki said with a raised eyebrow. "No, not exactly, i want them to be able to "kill" anything that challenges them in life. I wanna shape their minds into something that is ready for anything that comes their way." Nagisa responded. "Ohhh, I guess that makes sense, but still, why do you want them to try and kill you?" Kanzaki asked. "Umm, it's just part of the way I teach, I can't exactly explain it, but it's kind of like motivation for my students. Plus it keeps them and myself sharp." "Jeez Shiota, you're the most intense teacher I've ever met." "well, I guess you could say that." After that sentence Nagisa looked at his watch. He still had a lot of papers to grade and a lot of sleep to get. If he wanted to survive another day with his students, he had to get at least eight hours of sleep, or else he might get killed. "Alright, I'll see ya Nagi, I gotta still have plenty of grading to do." "Ok, see you Shiota!" With that Nagisa left the room and headed to the doors of Paradise high. As he was walking to his car he felt a vibration emanating from his pocket. He took out his phone to be greeted by a text from Karma. "Hey you free any of the next weekends?" it said. Nagisa thought about his future weeks and how they were going. He was busy next weekend and was going to his parents for the holidays the following. He figured that new years would be the best time since school was out, and he had nothing better to do. "Umm, I can't come next week or Xmas, would new years weekend be ok with u?" "Oh sure that's fine" Karma sent back. "Btw this isn't for me. Kayano wants to meet up with u, she wants to tell u something important." Nagisa was surprised when he read that. 'Why didn't Kayano just text me on her own?' he thought. He texted Karma asking why Kayano didn't just ask him herself. "Oh her phone died a while ago so she wanted me to tell you that she wanted to meet up." That was very suspicious to Nagisa, especially since the message was coming from Karma no less. However, he let it slide and typed "Alright, I guess I'll see her then." It never did occur to the young teacher that Kayano was with Karma, and usually that would mean something bad, or at the very least something embarrassing was about to come up.

As Nagisa climbed in his car he checked his person to see if he had everything. "Lets see, keys, wallet, bag, homework.....oh shoot." Nagisa realized that he left his vest back in the teacher's lounge. He quickly got out of his car, put on his jacket and rushed back outside. As he was nearing the stairs he saw Kanzaki stepping down. "Oh hey Shiota, you left your vest back in the lounge!" she said as she walked towards him. "Oh thanks Nagi!" Nagisa said while receiving his vest. After that he started walking back to his car. While doing so he felt a large piece of paper in his left chest pocket that wasn't there before. "Hey Nagi! Did you put this piece of paper in here?!" He yelled across the lot "Ummm, no, you sure you just forgot you put it in there?!" she replied. Nagisa was sure that it wasn't there before, but after thinking about it, he thought maybe he did just forget. "Ok, maybe you're right, sorry about that!" "It's fine, you're cool!" Nagisa walked to his car and proceeded to open the door. He got in, ignited his engine, and drove away to his house. "I'm home!" he yelled as he entered his humble abode. "Welcome back son!" his dad yelled back. After getting back together, Nagisa's parents were able to rekindle their relationship and start anew. Though he thought it was strange, his father insisted on changing his surname to Shiota so that it wouldn't be hard for Nagisa and Hiromi to adjust. Of course, Nagisa insisted that everyone called him by his first name so that he could change it to his fathers last name. But things didn't always go to plan. Nonetheless, he was happy that both of his parents reconciled with each other. After greeting his mother Nagisa entered his room. He decided to take a look at the paper that was in his vest, just so he could remember what he put. But it wasn't something he had put in his vest. It was inserted there by someone else. The paper was actually an envelope. Nagisa ripped open the top and found there was a note inside. The note itself was many times smaller than the thing that was holding it. Nagisa took the note and read it. "We're still alive," it said. Nagisa read it twice over, a third, and a fourth. What did this mean? Who was still alive? Who placed this inside his vest? As these questions went through his mind, he was interrupted by his mom when she called him over for dinner. "Coming!" He said. Nagisa placed the note in his desk where he would look at it later, and figure out just who gave him this note and who was still alive. After eating his dinner, Nagisa headed back up into his room to start grading. It was already late and he still had a lot of paperwork. He decided that the note would have to wait. For now, he had to get his grading done so that he could get some rest for the following day.

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