Target Acquired - VOLUME 1

CHAPTER 9 - "Shinobu Time"

"How come you grew, like, a foot, and I only grew half an inch?!" I exclaim, crushing the report I was given from the school nurse. Shinobu laughs as we both turn the corner away from the clinic. 

"I only grew a few inches, Meg," he corrects. I roll my eyes. These papers are so rigged! How come all the mean tall people, aka Karma and Asano, get to be 5'9?! Well, Shinobu's 5'10 apparently, so he must be extra mean!

"Well," Shinobu adds. "I'm overweight, if that helps." I stop and look at him. Seriously? Now that I think about it, his build is somewhat of a younger version of Karasuma's. Like adoptive father, like adoptive son, I guess.

"No, you're not," I argue, continuing to walk. He shakes his head and hands me his paper, pointing at a line. It reads:

Weight: 134 lbs.

"How does that make you overweight?" I ask, giving him back the paper. Last time I checked, Asano's like 140ish, and Shinobu's not only taller but more muscular than him. "In fact, you're way underweight!"

"How?" Shinobu questions. Is he... offended?

"You should be at least one-forty," I explain. "Since you're frickin' jacked. Muscles weigh more than fat, you know."

"Sure, 'Korosensei'," Shinobu responds sarcastically. I giggle, and we walk together the rest of the way back to the E-Class with more typical conversations.

~

Tick. Another second passes by in Mr. Asano's office. He has this habit of getting caught up with work, so he forgets whatever he calls me here for. It always makes the situation super awkward. I yawn and glance over at Asano. We make eye contact, and he quickly looks back down to his laptop. I feel my face get a bit red at the image of those cold, passionate purple eyes...

"Oh, Megumi," Mr. Asano says, breaking the silence. I straighten up and walk to his desk, causally asking, "Yes?"

"Do you mind if I see your health report?" he questions politely, smiling what appears to be  a genuine one, but I don't think I'll ever be able to tell. I nod and skim through my school bag, searching for the single piece of paper. After an intense search, I locate the target and...

"Here!" I exclaims, slamming the paper down on Mr. Asano's desk. He looks at me with slight confusion but picks up the paper and begins to read it carefully.

"Calm down," Asano mutters to me, typing quickly on his laptop. I turn to him but am not greeted with that lovely face of his. I stick my tongue out at him and turn back to Mr. Asano. He starts to give me my paper back but hesitates, saying, "This all looks good except for the weight and height." Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Code red! I'm getting disowned for sure! I knew I never should have gotten that seventh scoop of ice cream two nights ago, but I was hungry and sad!

I take a deep breath and shoot a scared look at Asano. He looks up and shrugs slightly. I look back at Mr. Asano and calm myself down before asking, "What seems to the problem?"

"Let's see, you seem to have barely grown at all in the last six months - height wise and weight wise," Mr. Asano replies calmly.

"Oh," I sigh. False alarm. "Well, I guess I haven't reached a growth spurt yet!"

Asano chokes and says, "Yet?", under his breath. I glare at him. How dare he?! Korosensei told me that I'm special! He's just jealous that he's boring and tall!

Mr. Asano hands me back my paper and reassures me, "It's completely fine if you stay this... size forever, Megumi. I'm just a bit surprised you didn't gain any muscle from training with the Ministry, I suppose."