Akari's Time (Assassination Classroom fanfic)

Interlude 1

Author notes: This interlude is about incidents happened 3 years ago. It will be separated into two parts, each explained with different POVs. Enjoy!

3 Years Before

Mamoru (note: if you remember the previous chapters, Mamoru is Akari's deceased mother.)

Mamoru believed she came to the world with luck in her blood. She was born to her father and mother who loved her more than themselves. She was given a lovely younger brother two years later. She and her family lived in a mansion inherited from her grandparents, served by maids and servants. She grew up as a beautiful young lady, with dark brown lustrous hair and eyes that looked like jades. Despite her upbringing was for her to be an elegant lady like her mother, her character contradicted. She hated acting all high and noble. She hated wearing dresses that tripped her once in a while. She hated wearing make-up that she believed was a devil's product to control women's hearts. She hated talking and acting like a noble when she hated being one.

One thing she didn't hate was her name. Mamoru meant protecting. Her intuition told her from the moment she was born, Mamoru was destined to protect someone. Someone so dear that she would do so with the cost of her own.

Mamoru sounded like a boy's name, but she liked it. The name had some tough personality in it. That's why she was a girl with boyish qualities—dauntless, insolent, straightforward, sharp-witted. She rather hung out with boys instead of girls because she couldn't resist their daily melodramatic acts. Boys were so confortable to be with because they were less dramatic.

The boys she hung out with, at first they were wary that she was a spoiled princess or a soft polite girl because she was pretty. But she was neither. Slowly they grew accustomed to her and accepted her as one of their bros. Mamoru loved them—the more platonic and friendly love, not the romantic one. But there was one who constantly drew her attention.

A troublemaker, she would call him. Because Mamoru was probably the only one in her gang who practiced martial arts, she was always there whenever he got in trouble. Technically, Okumura Akira didn't get into trouble because he was a delinquent. He was a knucklehead who rushes into situations without hesitation. He was the happy-go-lucky, chirpy, carefree, optimistic guy who believed conflicts can be solved peacefully. Not all though. Sometimes he just aggravated the situation and Mamoru had to save his ass. She thought guys like this were extinct—prehistoric dinosaurs that shouldn't roam in an era so dangerous.

Okumura Akira was probably the only one left of his kind. Mamoru hoped she never meet anyone like him again.

It was a long period till Mamoru realized she liked him. She didn't know how he felt about her. She was eager to find out. So she used cunning ideas to trick him to fall for her. It proved easier than she thought because Akira had long loved her but was too timid to tell. After all, she emanated the aura of a dominating woman who intimidated every suitor.

Akira went through a lot of hardships to prove their love was solid. Mamoru's brother, Shou, challenged him to a fight where Shou beat the crap out of the poor guy. Shou was a reigning champion in tae-kwondo while Akira was taller and scrawny but nonetheless weaker and more fragile. Despite being beaten Akira didn't give up—like his name, he pulled through.

His words resonated in her mind every day. "I'll never give up! I'll never give up on Mamoru because I love her so damn much!"

That's when Mamoru finally realized—the one she was destined to protect was him, Okumura Akira.

After a year, they got married. Thankfully, Mamoru was still lucky enough to be blessed with a daughter, Akari even if she was diagnosed unable to have one. Akari was a lovely little girl who inherited her mother's features and her father's personalities. She was happy-go-lucky, cheerful, optimistic and enjoyed food just as much as Mamoru did. She was the most adorable kid in the neighbourhood, earning plenty of affection from the neighbours. Mamoru loved her as much as she loved Akira. The moment the fragile baby sluiced out from her womb, covered in her blood, she knew—Akari was another she needed to protect.