Karma stared at the very old building with serious doubts in his mind about its safety. It was two stories tall with dank wooden walls and a roof made of at least 6 different coloured tiles. Clearly it had been fixed cheaply and repeatedly. He decided it was probably best to not breath too hard once he got close. The day was grey and made darker by the tall trees surrounding the clearing. Several faces peered out him through the narrow windows. A man and two boys stood at the doorway. The man was tall, with thick black hair and a stern look on his face. It would be so fun to break him.
"Welcome to the classroom." The man said. "My name is Karasuma. This is Isogai and Sugino.
"Whatever." He rolled his eyes and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Where do I sit? I need a nap."
"First, they'll give you a tour of the premises. Good luck." He turned to the boys. "Don't traumatise him on his first day."
The boy who was probably Sugino looked him up and down. "He'll be fine. Look at him! I'm sure he can handle himself. Lets go."
Karma approached as slowly as he could without making himself look stupid. He smirked at the annoyance on Sugino's face for making him wait.
"I don't think you need to worry Karasuma." He snapped at a red sweatband on his wrist. "This guy looks like an easy target to be honest."
Sugino kicked him in the shin. Hard. Karma stifled a wince.
"Aww, did I make you mad? Don't be sulky. You're supposed to give me a tour!"
Karasuma rolled is eyes and flapped his hands at them until they went into the building. Inside there was a very old, bare but spotless hallway.
"We could take your bags if you'd like." Offred Isogai. "It must have been tiring carrying them up that mountain."
Karma instinctively clutched his two duffel bags tighter. Did this guy take him for a fool? Like hell he'd just hand over his positions to some random person in the literal delinquents building.
"I'm not an idiot." He said flatly. "Start walking."
Isogai nodded and led him down the hallway to a dark closed off stairwell. The second he stepped inside the door swung shut behind him. Isogai and Sugino blocked the way upwards.
"What's this? A robbery?" Karma laughed. "Do you think I couldn't take the two of you?"
An icy cold hand touched his back and he turned so fast his head spun. He was met with wide glassy blue eyes set in a perfect dolls face. Long curls tumbled down past it's shoulders. The small pink mouth curled into a smile.
"It's nice to meet you Karma." One small cold hand touched his face. It was gentle until the small fingers flexed, digging nails into his cheek. Thin drops of blood welled up and stained its fingernails. He couldn't move. He couldn't move. Something icy cold was leaking into his chest and holding him captive. Nagisa leaned closer. He almost forgot about the two behind him, blocking any escape route.
"I so look forward to getting to know you. You'll let me, right? You'll let me find out everything I want to know?"
"Nagisa."
He smiled wider. "You know me? Already? Should I feel honoured?"
He'd been warned about Nagisa. Not in any official capacity. Just by the student assigned to lead him to the bottom of the mountain.
"Good luck." The D-Student had sneered down his nose at him. Karma barley restrained himself from caving his face in.
"Just follow the path up. Look for a crumbly rat invested shack, and you're there. If you somehow miss it just listen for the tortured screams. Easy."
He'd turned to go but paused and turned back.
"Hey." He shifted uncomfortably for a moment. "Just… there's this kid up there. Nagisa. Be careful around him. Don't touch his hair."
"What?" Karma envisioned a 6 foot tall psychopath with a dodgy mullet ready to rip his head off his shoulders. It could be interesting to break him. Something to pass the time in this hell hole at least.
"He shouldn't even be in this school but the principle took him on as a sort of charity case. He did all sorts of things before he came here. I heard he burned down a shop, one of those fancy boutiques. And he totally kills animals. We find the bones every so often, when we are on garden duty. Last year 4 guys went up there on Halloween to egg the place. He found us before we started."
He swallowed.
"They had to call a helicopter to airlift them to the hospital. They were out of school for months."
Karma had laughed in his face and started the climb.
"Just wait." He called over his shoulder. "You haven't seen anything yet."
Karma has assumed the majority of that was exaggeration. Still, rumours generally had a bit of truth in them.
But this guy?
He had to fully look down. He had half a foot on him. He shook off whatever weird unease had trapped him. Karma shoved him hard in the chest. Nagisa dropped his hand but otherwise didn't move. It was like pushing a wall. Karma slouched back to put some distance between them.
"I've heard of you, but I'm not worried. What's a psychotic midget like you going to do? Give me another cat scratch?" He ignored the gentle tickle of drying blood on his face.
"I'm bored. Where are we going?"
Isogai beckoned him upwards.
"Don't mind Nagisa." Said Sugino. "He's just not used to new people. Give him something sweet and he'll leave you alone."
Nagisa poked him in the back hard enough to make Sugino yelp. Isogai gave Nagisa a stern look. Nagisa smiled back sweetly, but agreeably kept a four step distance between himself and the group. He kept a distance once they reached the top of the stairs to another hallway.
"These are the bedrooms. Girls on the right boys on the left. You'll be number 4. I'm in here too" Isogai led him through a door to a room with 2 sets of bunkbeds. At the head of each bunk were shelves built into the wall.
"You have the left bottom bunk. Your uniform and P.E gear are already there. You can get changed now; we're supposed to wear it Monday to Friday. If you spend the weekends here, you can wear your own cloths."
"Four to a room? What is this place."
Sugino looked affronted. "We get it, you're used to a big fancy house with maids to wait on you. We all heard about you."
"No Sugino!" Nagisa leaned close and stared to loudly stage whisper. "He's too scared to be surrounded by people all the time! He's so used to being all by his lonesome since Mummy and Daddy don't love him enough to stay!"
Karma dropped his bags and swung at his face. Nagisa ducked so his fist just hit the door frame. He flexed his sore knuckles and prepared to swing again. Isogai stood in front of Nagsia, holding his arms up.
"Let's calm down. Ngaisa that was a horrible thing to say."
"It's true though. I read his file."
Karma knocked Isoagi over and leapt at him. Nagisa vanished under a bed. The space was too small for Karma to reach far enough to grab him.
"How the fuck do you fit under there?" Nagisa's laughter was the only answer.
"Sorry." Said Isogai. "I'll talk to him. He's not supposed to be going through the files in the teachers' lounge." He fished Nagisa out from under the bed and lead him out, one hand holding his arm tightly. "You can get changed. When you are done we can finish the tour."
Karma kicked his bunk bed a few times until he calmed down enough to get changed. The uniform blazer was hideous, so he kept on his soft black cardigan.
Only Sugino and Isoagi were waiting in the hall. They didn't comment on the edits to his uniform.
"Where's the midget?"
"Isogai is making him stay in his room and reflect on his actions."
Karma didn't get a chance to ask how Isogai made Nagisa do anything they were being whisked around to the bathrooms, showers and common room upstairs, as well as the classrooms and canteens downstairs. All were dilapidated but surprisingly clean. The canteen was bursting with students crowding around several long tables. They dragged him around introducing him to people. Karma didn't put in an effort to remember anyone, but his brain retained some knowledge against his will. He was sat down beside Isogai as Sugino abandoned them, sitting at another table. Two students dragged out massive bowls of chicken soup and stared serving it. It smelled good enough for Karma to try it, despite his mistrust of the kitchen in this building.
Nagisa ran in just intime to claim a plate and sat at Sugino's table. He ignored Karma completely and started speaking to a green haired girl called Kayano. He pushed the food around his plate and snuck most of it to Kayano and Sugino. Karma didn't care why. He filtered out the talking around him and tried to picture himself back home with his comics and Tv and bed.
After the meal he was confronted with Isogai, flanked by two boys.
"Your other roommates; Maehara and Terasaka.
"I preferred when we had two spare beds. Just us." Maehara wined good naturedly. "I liked our privacy. Terasaka doesn't count as a roommate, he's almost never there. He hangs out with Muramatsu's room."
Terasaka was large. But he looked easy so Karma didn't worry.
The room was less crowded now, but a few people were still talking. Nagisa, Sugino and Kayano hung back at their table and watched them curiously.
"You met Nagisa earlier?" asked Maehara. "What did you think? Is that what happened to your face?" Karma reached up to touch the shallow scratches. He'd almost forgotten.
"Well? First impressions? First thoughts?"
Terasaka laughed to himself. "I thought he was a girl when I met him. It's the hair."
Everyone stepped away from him sharply. Karma copied, confused until Nagisa came hurtling forward and threw himself on Terasaka. He knocked him over and punched him till his head flopped back. He wrapped his hands around Terasaka's neck and squeezed so hard Terasaka's face turned purple.
"Fuck! Isogai!" yelled Sugino as he, Maehara and Isogai ran and prised Nagisa off him. Isoagi and Sugino dragged Nagisa out. Kayano followed, screaming with laughter.
Marahara dragged Terasaka upright.
"Why do you always do this? We do not say those things when Nagisa can hear us. It's a whole thing. It's written on the teacher's lounge wall and everything."
Karma awkwardly inched around them as Maehara slapped Terasaka's face to keep him conscious.
"I'm going to bed early." He announced to the room in general. The room in general ignored him so he climbed the stairs alone.
In the upstairs hallway he met Karasuma.
"Still alive? Good. Don't go into room 9, Nagisa's sulking."
"I can handle Nagisa."
"Yes, well I can't handle another night of being woken up by screaming. Just go to bed."
The statement was just ominous enough to make Karma shut up and obey for once.
He changed and slid into his narrow bunkbed. He already hated this place.