Some Teacher: Second Semester!

(6.4) Lunch time!

"Hey Okanna!" Shirota called out to her after class the following day. "A bunch of us are doing a study group at Matsuraiken this weekend, wanna come?" She still hadn't found a good opportunity to take out Nagisa-sensei. He was always on guard because of this horrendous extra-credit project he'd given his students, which was making it nigh impossible to find an opening. Not to mention he was always with people, and she hated having to kill witnesses.

"What's Matsuraiken?" she asked. Though her stress levels had been increasing quickly over the past two days, she still had to maintain her cover as friendly student and get along with her classmates.

"It's a noodle shop in town," Shirota answered. "They've got really good food, and it's peaceful, and the owner's really nice and helpful too, so it's a great place to study, or just hang out. Even if you don't come to the study group, you should go there sometime, just to try it."

"Sure, I'll come to the study group," she agreed with a shrug. "Text me when and where."

"Sweet!"

—

Saturday afternoon, when Okanna arrived at Matsuraiken, there were already several 3-5 students there. Nine of them spread out across two booths and a small table, as well as another person Okanna didn't recognize.

"Who's this?" she asked, gesturing to the lean young man in a baggy, burgundy, pullover hoodie who sat in the corner next to Shirota. She slid in next to Kirasaya, across the table from him, Shirota, and Saishuu and placed her bag on the floor.

"Oh, that's Hakushaku; he's Shirota's boyfriend," Kurra teased from behind her, his elbow propped up on the back of her bench as he looked over from the other booth, where he sat with Marihara, Hinata, and Yatoni.

"He is not," Shirota corrected. "Kuku's just a friend, and I invited him because he said he had nothing better to do."

"I like this place," Hakushaku added in a much softer voice than Okanna had been expecting, since he looked as much like a thug as Shirota did. Kurra ignored him and responded to Shirota.

"You literally call him 'Kuku', and he lets you, but alright." He scoffed and turned back to his own table to slurp his noodles over his homework condescendingly.

"Dude's got a point," Fuyu interjected from the nearby table, where he and Fukara were sitting across from each other and quizzing each other on English vocab words.

"Whatever, man." Shirota dismissed.

"Oh, hey, Okanna!" Katsura's voice greeted, and she looked over to see the girl in question standing by their table with an apron around her waist. "Do you know what you want to order, or do you need a menu?"

"Uhh . . ."

"Katsura works here, but she's gonna study with us once the lunch rush is over," Saishuu explained.

"Okay . . . um . . . surprise me, I guess?" she told Katsura. "I prefer hot noodles over cold, but other than that, I'm good with whatever."

"And do you want tea, or soda? Something to drink?"

"Water's good."

"Great! I'll be back soon!" She didn't write anything down, but Okanna assumed that hot noodles and water was easy enough to remember. She leaned over and pulled her math homework out of her bag.

Knowing what she now knew about this exceptionally unusual group of students, Okanna couldn't help her anxious feelings as she sat among a group of assassins in training, all working on something as mundane as homework, all helping each other understand subjects they struggled with, all perfectly content to let their friends copy questions they already understood and didn't feel the need to do by themselves, all figuring out answers in groups or pairs and cheering when they got the right one.