An Assassin's Respite

Kari the Genius?

The final few days of mid-terms was filled with written exams over what they went over throughout the year which included standard school subjects such as math, science, history, English, and etc. as well as going over certain things they learned about special agents and the rules and regulations surrounding them. Once the final day was finished, the students collectively let out a sigh of relief.

"Before mid-terms started, I didn't know whether the tests or the practical exams would be harder, but I can say that the tests were definitely harder," Matt says with his face buried into his desk.

"You wouldn't have struggled so much if you took studying more seriously and paid more attention in class," Kagura notes.

"Or if you weren't an i***t," Ria notes coldly.

"I'm sure you did fine," Kazuna says opting to be positive after he received two harsh remarks.

"I appreciate your optimism," Matt says while giving him a thumbs up.

Kazuna pats him on the back before heading out of the classroom. Matt was glued to his desk until everyone had left before he had the energy to peel himself away and walk home.

After a few days of entertaining school days, Ms. Saugoma had finished grading their tests and evaluating their results for the practical exams and handed them out at school Thursday. Matt stared at the papers that were his results with a look of dread in his eyes for a while before opening them. He read through his results before his look of dread turned into relief.

"I... I passed. Not only that, I did pretty well!" He says with a shout.

"See, I told you," Kazuna says.

Matt smiles as he continues to look over his results with a prideful smile.

"Kazuna, how did you do?" Kagura asks.

Kazuna shows her his results and her eyes widen as she reads through them.

"This... This is incredible!" She exclaims.

"Wait, let me see," Matt says as he peels his eyes from his results and snags Kazuna's from her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Dude, what are you some kind of cheat code?" Matt asks.

After Matt says this, everyone comes over to look at his results and they respond in a similar fashion.

"And I thought I did well," Shiba says.

"He really knows how to humble people," Akeno adds.

"Wow Kazuna, you're even cooler than I thought!" Emiko exclaims.

Kazuna had received perfect marks in the tests not getting a single question wrong, but what was really impressive were the remarks made about him in the practical exams. Ms. Saugoma along with Mr. Sautoro had written 'He is already capable of being a top special agent. There is nothing that we could teach him in our current curriculum that would be of use to him. In terms of strength, speed, strategy, and ability to think under pressure as well as other attributes, he is easily leagues above his peers.'

As everyone stared in disbelief, Kazuna let out a sigh.

"There's nothing to be surprised about or feel embarrassed about. I had already gone through a college level of education as well as work that was more fitting for special agents before the age of 10. Although it's good to stay humble and never become arrogant I am not one you should compare yourself to. I am an anomaly among anomallys. You all are very impressive for people your age and if you had gone through similar circumstances as me, you all could have performed similarly to me." He explains.

"I think you give us too much credit," Chiyo says.

"Rimi, would you mind showing them your results?" He asks.

Ria sighs as she hands over her papers. Kagura grabs them and looks them over with the class looking over her shoulder and a look of surprise passes over their faces once again.

"You're kidding," Matt gasps.

Ria's scores were nearly as impressive as Kazuna's although she fell behind in the practical exams a bit and didn't do as well with Japanese literature.

"What did you expect, I did grow up in the same house as Kachi." Ria scoffs.

"That's right, I guess I just overlooked it, but she did grow up with Kazuna. Of course, she went through the same type of training and education." Kagura notes to herself.

Kagura hands Ria her results back.

"Even so, it's still very impressive." She says with a smile.

Ria takes them back quickly while slightly blushing.

"Whatever," She says while turning to hide the smile that was trying to creep onto her face.

"Alright everyone settle down. I gave you some time to go over your result from your mid-terms so now I"ll be telling you what can do with that information as well as what we'll be doing for the last couple of weeks before the break begins." She says.

She pauses to give everyone time to get back to their seats and calm down a little.

"First, all of you did well enough to where none of you will have to take supplementary classes. But don't be content. You can still improve your grades and expand your knowledge, don't aim to be good enough, aim to be better. With that, you should also look over the notes I left from the practical exams and try and improve your skills. All of you have improved in your own rights, but there is still room for you to get even better." She states.

The students nod in response, a look of determination in their eyes and in the air. Ms. Saugoma smiles.

"I've got quite the impressive class." She says to herself as she continues.

"Since there isn't anything for me to cover for the rest of the semester, the last couple of weeks will be focused on your future. What type of special agent do you want to be? Do you still want to be a special agent? Where do you want to work and for what agency? Next year you will have more freedom as to what type of classes you take although you will still take your standard classes, you will no longer have to take a Japanese literature class and you can choose whether you take a math, science, or history class. English will still be a necessity as there might be times when you'll have to work and/or communicate with people from other countries and since English is the standard language used you will have to be at least somewhat capable of speaking it. The teachers for some of the specialized classes had time and are willing to allow you all to go and shadow one of their classes for a period. I'd encourage you to take that generosity and shadow as many classes as you want." She states.

The students once again nod in response, realizing that their goal of becoming special agents is getting ever so closer. With homeroom done, some students looked or the list of teachers that were allowing them to shadow and went to the one they want while others spent time training or studying. The end of the school day came quickly and they left school anxious but excited for the fast-approaching future.

When Kazuna went to pick up Kari, he saw her principal Mr. Tanaka.

"Oh, Mr. Kazuna, I've been waiting here to speak with you." He says.

"I see, is something wrong?" Kazuna asks.

"No, no. Quite the opposite actually. I'd like to talk briefly with you about Kari's performance on her mid-terms." He assures him.

Kazuna nods and tells Kagura and Ria to go ahead and head home as he walks into the school with Kari and Principal Tanaka.

"As I'm sure you know, students that attend schools whose purpose is to produce special agents go through two phases of mid-terms, practical exams, and tests. Kari's scores on the tests were pretty impressive for someone in her situation but only slightly above average when compared to other students. What really took me by surprise was her performance in the practical exams. She had an uncanny ability to remain calm in chaotic scenarios and her use of her power was already ahead of her peers. I found it quite impressive." Mr. Tanaka states.

"I see," Kazuna says while looking over to Kari who seemed to have an embarrassed look on her face.

"I see you're quite the little genius." He says with a smile as he pats her head.

A grin that spread ear to ear appeared on her face from his compliment.

"As I'm sure you know, I didn't simply come here to tell you she did well as you could have figured that out from looking at her results. What I really wanted to talk about is you possibly enrolling her into GA's early starters program." Mr. Tanaka states.

"Early starters program?" He asks.

"Yes. GA has a program where a select few students from BA are allowed to attend GA training classes after school. It's usually reserved for students in 8th or 9th grade and the students won't attend classes until after the mid-term break, but she has tremendous potential. I think her not being in the program would be a shame." Mr. Tanaka adds.

"I don't know," Kazuna says.

"I know you're very protective of Kari, but this would be a great opportunity for her. Especially if she is aiming to be like you." Mr. Tanaka presses.

"Kari, what do you think?" Kazuna asks.

"If it'll help me get strong like you, then I want to do it." She says with a fiery look in her eyes.

Kazuna looks at her for a moment before giving in.

"Fine. How long would she be staying after school?" He asks.

"Just an hour." Mr. Tanaka answers.

"All right. I've been neglecting my student council duties anyway so I'm sure that president Ayanami will be ecstatic about me becoming more active." Kazuna responds.

"Great, I'll go ahead and notify principal Asuka. I'll even have Ms. Asuka assign a teacher she can trust and make sure she keeps a close eye on her." Mr. Tanaka adds.

"Thank you," Kazuna says.

"No problem. It was great chatting with you." Mr. Tanaka says as Kazuna and Kari leave.

As they walked home, Kazuna could see that Kari was walking with a little more energy than usual. It seemed that being able to go to the classes at GA made her happy. Little did he realize that although she was happy about being able to take the classes, she was happier about the praise she received.