KARMA'S POV

I gave another glance down at the cellphone that was cradled in my hand, reading over and over again the texts that had been sent by Nagisa last night. That night.

Even though I had not been oblivious enough not to see it coming, this whole relationship felt so abstract, so surreal that I was partly convinced this was some sort of delusional dream that I would soon enough wake up from. Nagisa and I would still just be good friends, and we would still be going our separate ways in our separate schools.

I wondered what it would be like for us now. For the first time ever, I felt naive and uncertain as to what I would do.

Or, rather, I felt uncertain on whether I made the right choice or not. Don't get me wrong, I loved the guy and cared for him a lot more than I'd care to actually admit, but was it romantic love or just platonic love laced with gladness to see him again that caused me to answer yes to his confession?

I turned the cell off and shoved it into my pocket, sighing and leaning forward to rest my head in my folded arms, which laid on the desk I usually sat in at the back of the classroom. Seated next to me was Asano Gakushuu - what was he to me? An enemy? A friend? Both?

"Karma."

Karma...? I turned to look at the strawberry-blonde owlishly. Since when did Asano use my first name to address me?

As always, Asano had an overly serious look on his face. His stony heather-colored gaze rested on me intently. "I trust you are not meeting with anyone else today?"

"No, I'm not. Why, though?" I raised a brow. His behavior today was nothing out of the ordinary, but something just felt...off about him. Did something happen?

"I'd like you to come home with me after school. There's something I need to tell you."

Everything about this made my nerves go haywire, my mind whispering that something wasn't right about this and that I shouldn't go. Gakushuu was too serious today; even more so than his usual self, which is saying a lot.

But before I could decline, the look on his face turned from stony to pleading. "Please." he murmured, "It's urgent. It's about one of your old E-Class friends."

I felt myself stiffen, eyes widening just the tiniest bit. "Nagisa...?" I whispered, his name being the first to jump into my mind at his ominous words.

Gakushuu wordlessly nodded, staring into my eyes seriously. "So, will you be coming, or not?"

~o0O0o~

I could hear my pulse beating loudly in my ears as I seated myself on a soft velvet couch, hands clasped tightly together on my lap. Something bad had happened to Nagisa; if that were not the case, Asano would not be interested in telling me at all. I knew he absolutely hated the former E-Class - me included, I would guess - and only paid attention to the bad things that happened to them if he ever heard of such an event.

At those times, they were typically more about somebody failing at something, like Sugino losing a baseball game. Asano would usually be looking infuriatingly smug and amused. However...this time, he didn't look like he'd be laughing in triumph any time soon.

"Here." I blinked in surprise as my view of the coffee table was half-blocked by a slender arm placing down a cup of what looked and smelled to be some green tea. "You look almost nauseous; relax so I don't end up having to phone the hospital in case you have a heart attack before I give you the news at all."

Realizing I hadn't bothered to put on my usual sly and carefree exterior, I let my shoulders sag and quickly forced a poker face onto my features. "Thanks." I grunted under my breath, picking up the mug and gulping down the entire thing out of anxiety. I sighed and placed it back down. It did relax me, much to my surprise. The nagging fear still ate at me like a swarm of hungry pirañas, but I didn't feel so...tense anymore.

I looked over at Asano, who had patiently sat himself down on an armchair on the right side of the coffee table, watching me intently. "So, what happened? What happened to Nagisa? Tell me everything." I snapped, sounding a lot more rude than I had meant to.

He didn't seem to mind at all. However, I would have jumped at the chance to have to deal with an angry Asano rather than hearing what he had to say in the first place, had I known what it was.

"Karma...I'm sorry. Nagisa is dead."

I felt my blood go cold and a heavy weight drop down painfully into my stomach upon hearing those godforsaken words.

"...what...do you mean, 'Nagisa is dead'...?" I asked, voice trembling. I could feel my limbs very slightly growing weak and shaky, and lightheadedness just beginning to take over my thoughts. "He can't be..."

"My condolences." Asano murmured almost inaudibly, getting up from his seat and approaching me. I shoved him away once he was close enough, notably not as strong as I was supposed to be.

Getting up onto my feet, I walked over so we were seeing eye-to-eye. "You can't just tell me that he's dead and expect me to believe it so easily, Asano." I said, thinly veiling my hostility with a silky tone. "There ought to be proof when you tell someone something that sounds suspiciously close to some sort of sadistic joke."

The bastard didn't waver in his confidence, simply taking his phone out of his pocket. He opened up a news article dating from this morning.

The title read, "Teenager Murdered In XXX* District."

I felt my breath hitch, eyes widening to nearly twice their usual size. The article itself seemed to be blurred out, black dots and colors beginning to swim around in my vision.

The only words I managed to pick up were "...the body was found with its head missing and no murder weapon to be found..."

"...was later confirmed to be a teenage boy named Nagisa Shiota, 17 years old, who attended XXX* High."

"This...isn't true." I muttered, barely hearing my own voice. Gakushuu gazed at me with eyes filled with...what? Sympathy? Indifference? I turned away, beginning to stumble towards the door and vaguely noticing that my limbs had weakened considerably. "I...need...I need to go..."

What is happening to me...? I feel so strange all of a sudden.

Without registering what was happening, my knees buckled and I toppled forward, only to collapse into a warm but unfamiliar embrace.

The dark spots began to grow, swarming my vision until all I saw was black.

END OF CHAPTER

[ * Despite searching around on the Internet, I don't know which school Nagisa went to after graduating from junior high or where it is, so yeah... ]

A/N ~ Yay, finally an update after another couple months! I've been binge-writing since last Thursday trying to get this thing out, I don't think I have enough strength to write me jingle...

...but I'll do it anyways.

Fuck means sex, and sex [ttttechnically?] means love, so fuck you all and have a good day!

~ Moire ~