Specimen T-04

Part 17~Hirome

"How is he?" Karma leaned against the back wall as Koro-sensei finished tending to Nagisa's wounds.

"He'll be fine. It seems it takes more than a few claw marks to hurt this assassin. It's mostly emotional exhaustion." Koro-sensei brushed Nagisa's hair out of the way before tucking him in. "He'll be up and moving again tomorrow."

Karma and Keiji shared a sigh of relief as Keiji kicked his foot. "I'm sorry. I wasn't any help. I didn't do anything."

"It's fine," Karma dismissed, looking out the window. "She's not the easiest person to deal with. Everyone freezes the first time."

"I think it's important you tell us all the information here, Karma." Karasuma crossed his arms as Karma refused to look at him. "We want to stop this from happening again."

Karma sighed, standing up. "Fine, but not here. Nagisa's a light sleeper."

Karasuma led Karma and Keiji to the teacher's lounge, where Ms Vitch was waiting, looking at the missing poster. "So, how about you tell us what happened?"

Karma stole a seat, sitting down and leaning back. "What do you want to know?"

"Let's start with why this lady was screaming you down in the corridor."

"Fine. She just showed up. I don't know why she was here or anything. All I knew was whenever she is here, it's trouble, so I told Nagisa to go out the back and was going to hold her off for as long as I could, but... well, you saw how Nagisa was coping."

Ms Vitch hummed, putting the poster down. "Why didn't you tell us Nagisa ran away?"

"To be fair to me, I didn't even know he was here until I arrived. If you want to talk about Nagisa's life prior to him running, I can answer. Otherwise, you'll have to ask Nagisa or Keiji."

Koro-sensei turned to Keiji. "You knew Nagisa ran away?"

Keiji nodded, fidgeting with his fingers. "We both sort of did. It's how we met."

"Do you have somewhere you're living? Are you in danger?"

"Oh, no, we're fine. We... found somewhere to stay, and a bunch of our friends are helping us. No danger here."

Koro-sensei nodded. "I wish you two would have told me. I could have helped you."

"Trust me, you've helped us enough already."

"Keiji, Karma," Ms Vitch hesitated before asking, "is Nagisa trans?"

Keiji and Karma let out a soft chuckle. "No." Karma took over the explanation as Keiji nodded along. "Nagisa's mum was raised by really strict parents. She couldn't do anything. Short hair. Modest clothes. That stuff. So, she wanted to give her daughter all the things she couldn't have. The only problem is that she didn't have a daughter. So, she forced Nagisa into that role. I think somewhere down the line, she genuinely forgot Nagisa was a guy. You could always tell which days she was worse just by Nagisa's attitude. How he spoke, how he carried himself, how badly he flinched. The school did nothing to help, and eventually, Nagisa ran away."

Karasuma sighed, a frown on his face. "I'm not sure how long we'll be able to keep her away from Nagisa."

Karma stopped leaning back, the chair hitting the floor with a snap. "We can't let her take Nagisa. You didn't see him back then. You don't know what she does to him."

"Do not worry, Karma." Koro-sensei grinned, placing a tentacle on Karma's shoulder. "We won't let her take him."

Ms Vitch grinned, holding the missing poster. "And I know how."