Karma's question was still spinning in circles inside his head. ——What do you really think of me, Nagisa? That voice from the rooftop yesterday. The tone was impossible to read—was he teasing, or was he serious? Nagisa had been pulling that memory out and pushing it back in repeatedly while climbing the mountain path on Friday morning. The only sound was his shoe soles treading on damp fallen leaves. (If I'd just answered properly back then...) But he hadn't answered. The words had gotten stuck in his throat, frozen in place, and then Koro-sensei had poked his face through the window from outside——and that was the end of it. He remembered his own back as he'd said "Excuse me" and bolted into the hallway. It had been pathetic. That much he knew. The old school building's courtyard came into view. Class E's old campus looked the same as always today too. Wooden walls over forty years old, an ancient blackboard catching the weak morning light, the sound of creaking floorboards. And somewhere in that ordinary routine, Karma would be there. Nagisa had no idea what kind of face he should make when talking to him. --- The assassination training began right after second period ended. The Class E back mountain training grounds had grown thick with greenery as late May approached. Target boards and obstacles were strung between the trees. Morning light filtered through the leaves, creating dappled shadows on the ground. The students were split into pairs and positioned as usual. Nagisa and Karma's pair was in the wooded area on the east side of the training grounds. Karma had his back against a tree trunk a short distance away. Nagisa was observing Koro-sensei's movement patterns from about three meters away. The distance should have been unchanged since yesterday. And yet today it felt farther. Because Karma hadn't said anything. They hadn't exchanged a single word since morning. (It's not exactly awkward, but...) Nagisa kept his eyes away from Karma while checking on him from the corner of his vision. Karma's red hair swayed slightly in the breeze. He was staring off somewhere with a bored expression. Then the bushes rustled. "...Hm?" Looking closer, the bushes on the other side of the old school building's fence were rustling in a way that seemed off. The movement was strange for wind. Nagisa's observant eye caught it. (Is someone over there?) A lens of binoculars glinted in the shadow of the bushes. When Nagisa confirmed it, his brow furrowed. Binoculars. Who was that? But he figured it out quickly. The way they were hiding in those bushes, and that faint "about to cause trouble" aura——it was Maehara. No doubt about it. (What's that guy doing...) Maehara didn't seem to notice that Nagisa had spotted him, keeping the binoculars firmly pointed in their direction. Observing the Nagisa-Karma pair. Intently, at that. In that instant, Koro-sensei zipped through the trees at Mach 20. The signal to resume training. Nagisa kept Maehara in the back of his mind and moved closer to Karma to confirm their strategy. "[whispers]Which direction today?" Karma turned around. After a beat, he answered in a voice lower than usual. "[whispers]From the south. I'll be the decoy." He leaned his face close to Nagisa's ear to whisper. Nagisa's heart skipped. ——From beyond the bushes, he thought he heard the sound of something being written down. --- Lunch break came. The hallway of Class E's old school building got slightly warmer at noon. The wooden walls absorbed heat. Nagisa had finished his lunch and was gazing out the window. "Nagisa——" Maehara Yohto came running down the hallway with a grinning face. Tall, always saying unnecessary things. In Nagisa's mental evaluation, Maehara was filed under "nothing good happens if you leave him alone." And there was the binoculars incident from this morning. Nagisa took a step back. "[sarcastic]What." "So like," Maehara lowered his voice and checked his surroundings before smirking. "You like Karma, right? It's so obvious." Nagisa stopped. "[cold]...What are you talking about." "I mean, I was watching the training this morning, and the second he leaned his face close to your ear, you totally froze. That redness isn't assassination tension." "You were spying with binoculars." "Of course I was looking. I mean, you two were pretty close, right? So I mentioned it to the class and apparently Isogai was thinking the same thing——" "[angry]Don't say unnecessary things." "If you don't like him," Maehara grinned. "Then prove it. Let's make a bet on whether you can keep your cool in front of Karma during this afternoon's training." Nagisa looked at Maehara's face. He was grinning. Genuinely enjoying himself. (If I refuse, that's admitting it.) The logic unfolded in his head. Refusing = proof of agitation. Maehara would interpret it that way. And then he'd blab it to the whole class even more. There was even a chance Koro-sensei would hear about it. If that happened——a blackboard full of love quotient analysis would be waiting. He couldn't find another option. "...What are the terms of the bet." "If your face doesn't turn red by the end of training, Maehara loses. If it does, you lose. Simple, right?" "[serious]Got it." The moment he said it, Maehara's face lit up. "Nice! I'm looking forward to it." Maehara headed back down the hallway. Watching his back, Nagisa felt regret spreading through him gradually. (Why did I agree to that?) It was too late now. --- Before afternoon training began, Nagisa took a deep breath. Three times. (Calm down. Keep your composure. Just regulate your heartbeat the way you do with presence concealment.) The wooded area on the east side of the training grounds. He entered the same location with Karma as his partner for this afternoon too. Nagisa could feel Maehara's gaze on his back. Somewhere in the bushes. Waiting with binoculars ready. The moment he became aware of that, unnecessary tension spread through his entire body. (Don't think about it. Don't think about Maehara being there.) Karma was confirming Koro-sensei's movement patterns from a short distance away. This afternoon's Karma was quieter than this morning. Was he still dwelling on yesterday's question in the empty classroom? Or was he simply concentrating? Nagisa couldn't read what Karma was thinking today more than usual. Koro-sensei hooked a tentacle on a distant tree branch as the signal to begin training. Nagisa was about to activate presence concealment. Close his eyes. Regulate his breathing. Thin out his presence—— In that instant, his wrist was grabbed firmly. "[whispers]This way. It's Koro-sensei's blind spot." Karma pulled Nagisa's wrist. He was dragged toward the old school building's wall. The sudden contact made Nagisa's thoughts go completely white for a moment. The temperature of Karma's fingers transmitted through the skin of his wrist. Karma's hand was slightly cool, but it had a certain strength to it, gripping Nagisa's wrist firmly. (Ah, no good.) By the time he thought that, it was already too late. He could feel heat gathering in his face. His ears. His forehead. The more he tried to stop it, the more it wouldn't stop. From beyond the bushes, he thought he heard the sound of something being written down. Nagisa turned his face away. But turning it away didn't hide the redness from view. There was no way to explain this shade of red as training tension. He could tell himself. He caught sight of the bush direction from the corner of his vision. Maehara had lowered his binoculars and was slowly giving him a thumbs up. (This is the worst.) Whether Karma noticed Nagisa's change in complexion or not, he was checking Koro-sensei's movement patterns against the wall as if nothing had happened. His hand had already let go, but the memory of its temperature lingered on Nagisa's wrist. "[whispers]Nagisa, are you ready?" "[serious]...Yeah." As he answered, Nagisa heaved a grand internal sigh at himself. --- "You two, your lack of coordination today was even worse than on the first day," said in the classroom after school, holding a tablet on the tip of a tentacle and showing the data. His yellow face was smiling, but his tentacles were twitching. Full sensor mode. Nagisa's data was displayed on the graph. The line for his heart rate had spiked sharply right after training began. No matter how anyone looked at it, there was no way to explain that spike as "training tension." "Your presence concealment timing was completely off. Usui, were you thinking about something else?" "[cold]...Not really." "Fufu. Then, why don't you two discuss this a bit more in a calm place?" A tentacle moved swiftly. He vanished at Mach 20. All that remained was the single line "Please use one of the unused classrooms today ♪" and the quiet air of the old school building stretching down the hallway. Nagisa took a deep breath. (The teacher definitely understands everything.) --- The unused classroom deep in the old school building had evening sunlight streaming through it. Unused desks had been pushed to the side, and the remnants of the previous lesson's writing remained faintly on the right edge of the blackboard. The beginning of the words "Love Quotient——" was left uncleaned, and the moment Nagisa saw it, he looked away. Karma was sitting by the window, gazing outside. The evening sun made his red hair look slightly orange. Nagisa stopped near the entrance. He didn't know where to sit. Or rather, he didn't know if he should sit at all. Silence fell. A bird called once outside. Other than that, it was quiet. "Nagisa," Karma spoke quietly, still looking outside. "What do you really think of me?" Something caught in Nagisa's throat. The tone was the same as yesterday. Impossible to tell if he was teasing or serious. But today it was slightly lower than yesterday. That made it feel all the more real. He knew he had to answer something. The more he thought about it, the less words would come. "I think of you as a comrade" was wrong. "You're a classmate" was even more wrong. "I like you" was absolutely impossible to say. Five seconds. Ten seconds. In the silence, Karma slowly turned his gaze toward him. Against the light, his expression wasn't entirely clear. But his eyes were unmistakable. There was something mixed in besides his usual smirk. It was frightening. The premonition that if he faced that eye color head-on, he could no longer maintain his composure. ——Then something moved outside the window. A yellow sphere poked its face out from the window frame. "[gentle]The atmosphere between you two is very nice. Do you think the discussion of improvements will progress smoothly from here?" Koro-sensei's face peered in with a full smile. His tentacles draped over the window frame. The possibility that the teacher's love-detection sensors were measuring his heart rate right now became vividly real in Nagisa's mind. His heart rate at this very moment had to be even higher than during afternoon training. It was being recorded as data. It would be displayed as a line graph on the blackboard, with a number written below the words "Love Quotient:". The possibility was rapidly increasing. "[scared]Excuse me." His body moved on its own. He walked toward the entrance. Grabbed the doorknob. Pulled——the momentum made his shoulder bump against the door frame. It hurt. But he couldn't stop. He stepped into the hallway. His feet were moving quickly. (I ran. I ran away again.) Walking down the hallway, regret came in waves. Karma might have been asking seriously. Both on the rooftop yesterday and in the empty classroom today, that tone in his voice didn't seem like just a joke. And yet he'd run away again. He hadn't even tried to answer. At the end of the hallway, Nagisa stopped. He turned back. The classroom door was left slightly open. Through the gap, he could see Karma alone i