An Assassin's Respite

Kari's First Day of School

Kazuna was waiting downstairs for Ria and Kari to finish getting ready. He was waiting for what felt like an eternity before they finally came down. Kari was in her school uniform, which was a blue skirt with a white button-up and red jacket that had gold buttons.

"So... um... Mr. Kazuna, do I look ok, or do I look strange?" Kari asks.

Kazuna crouches down, places a hand on her head, and gives her a warm smile.

"No, you don't look strange, you look very pretty," He answers.

Kari gives him a grin that spreads from cheek to cheek as she happily skips out the front door.

"W-what about me?" Ria asks with a hopeful smile, but Kazuna had already followed Kari out of the house, so Ria was left there with a pout on her face.

Kagura was waiting by the front gate per usual and greeted them with a smile.

"Hi Kari, don't you look cute," She states. 

"Mr. Kazuna says I look very pretty," She exclaims as she spins. 

"Hmm," Kagura grumbles.

She looks towards Kazuna, wondering if she should ask him how she looks, but the look on Ria's face made it clear that it may be best not to bother.

"So Kari, what school are you going to?" Kagura asks.

"Burst academy," She answers.

"Oh, so you're planning on going to GA then, huh?" She assumes.

"Mhm," Kari replies with a nod.

"Following Kazuna, are we?" Ria teases.

"Yep," Kari replies, unaware of Ria's tone.

"Tch," Ria grumbles.

"Didn't you follow Kazuna here?" Kagura asks Ria.

"N-no, I was looking for him. He promised to always be by my side, so I was making sure he kept that promise," Ria says in defense.

"Oh, really?" Kagura asks while side glancing at Kazuna.

However, Kazuna seemed to be tuning them out and appeared to be watching for something.

"Kazuna? Are you alright?" Kagura asks.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, just keeping an eye out," He answers.

"For what?" Kagura asks.

Kazuna simply nods towards Kari, and Kagura instantly realizes what he was talking about. Kari was walking so happily in front of them that she had forgotten that there were people still looking for her despite Kazuna deterring them. 

"Are you sure they'll still go after her, I mean, you did do quite the number on them, and they were arrested by special agents afterward," Kagura notes.

"But it wasn't their boss that had been arrested," Kazuna states.

"How can you tell?" She asks.

"Kari said there were other children, so clearly, whoever has them in captivity must be pretty strong and intelligent to avoid special agents. The four guys I ran into weren't all the strong and definitely weren't smart enough to run an operation like that," He answers.

Kagura looked at him in amazement. Everything he said made sense, but even so, she wouldn't have been able to gather so much from so little. He continued to impress her not just with his strength, but with his intellect as well. They continued their way to school with Kagura keeping an eye out along with Kazuna, but they made it to Kari's school without an incident.

"Alright, Kari, this is where we part ways," Kazuna says.

"You'll pick me up from school, right?" Kari asks while fiddling with her hands.

"Of course," Kazuna assures her. 

Kari smiles as she waves goodbye and runs into her school.

"We should hurry to school as well, or we'll be late," Kagura says.

Kazuna turns from the school as he, Kagura, and Ria head to their school.

Kari, after entering the school, opens her backpack and takes out her schedule.

"Um, room 307. Where-?" She says to herself as she looks around the massive opening cathedral of the school.

She must have looked really lost as another student came up to her and tapped her on her shoulder. Kari jumps in surprise and turns to look in the direction of where she was touched and sees a female student.

"Oh, sorry if I startled you. It's just, you looked lost, and I thought I should help you out," She explains.

Kari loosens up.

"Well, um, I need to find this room," Kari says as she shows the girl the paper with the number of her homeroom.

"Oh, room 307, that's my homeroom," She exclaims.

"Then, you can show me the way?" Kari asks.

"Mhhm, we can go together," She adds.

"Together?" Kari repeats.

"Yeah, oh, I should introduce myself, my name's Sakura, Sakura Nakamura. What's your name?" Sakura asks.

"K-Kari, nice to meet you," She answers, a bit nervous due to Sakura's blunt approach.

"What a pretty name. Anyway, we should hurry on, homeroom will start pretty soon," Sakura notes.

Kari nods as she follows the peppy Sakura to their homeroom. Outside of their homeroom was their teacher Hina Takahashi.

"Oh, Sakura, it seems you've run into the transfer student before I did," Ms. Takahashi notes.

"Yep, she was lost at the entrance, so I helped her find her way here," Sakura states.

"How nice. Why don't you go ahead and get in your seat," Ms. Takahashi says.

Sakura nods as she runs into the classroom.

"Kari, wait here for me to call you in while I make sure that everyone is settled down so that you can properly introduce yourself," Ms. Takahashi states.

Kari nods, and Ms. Takahashi enters the classroom. After a few seconds, Ms. Takahashi waves her in. Kari slowly makes her way into the classroom and looks over to the students. Her heart was racing as she gazed upon the numerous pairs of eyes that were following her. She was doing everything she could to keep her legs from shaking. She reaches the chalkboard and writes her name on it.

"M-My name is K-Kari K-Katsuchi. I-It's very n-nice to m-m-meet you," She stutters.

The class claps after her introduction, which helped ease her nerves a little.

"Okay Kari, why don't you take the seat next to Sakura since you have already met her," Ms. Takahashi suggests.

Kari looks in the direction that Ms. Takahashi was pointing and sees Sakura waving her over. She sits next to her as Sakura gives her a cheerful smile. She didn't know why, but she felt at ease around this girl. Usually, she was cautious around new people, but Sakura's innocent cheerfulness seemed to keep her at ease. 

"So Kari, you must be something special to be able to transfer to BA when the school year is nearly over," Sakura states.

"I'm nothing special, really, the special one is Mr. Kazuna," Kari says.

"Mr. Kazuna?" Who's that?" Sakura asks.

"Oh, he's my guardian. He's the reason I was able to get into this school," Kari clarifies.

"Really!? Then he must be something special too," Sakura points out. 

"He really is," Kari says with a smile.

"Hey, can I meet your guardian? My parents aren't special agents, and I've always wanted to talk to one," Sakura says with stars in her eyes.

"Well, he isn't a special agent yet, he goes to GA. But he's really strong and cool," Kari says.

"Even so, I still really want to meet him," Sakura says.

"Then I can introduce you after school if you want," Kari suggests.

"Really?!" Sakura says before letting out an excited shriek.

Ms. Takahashi shoots her a look, and she covers her mouth.

"We can talk more at lunch," She whispers to Kari.

Sakura would spend the better part of the school day asking Kari questions about Kazuna, but Kari didn't mind it. She enjoyed talking about Kazuna, and it made it easy for her to talk with Sakura. She noticed that Sakura was careful not to be overbearing. When they were listening to the teacher or when she was giving her a tour of the school, she focused on those things so as not to flood her with too much. At the end of the school day, Sakura and Kari headed for the front entrance. 

"When is Mr. Kazuna going to be here?" Sakura asks.

"He'll be here as soon as school ends for him. What about you?" Kari asks.

"I usually walk home since I live nearby," Sakura answers.

Kari and Sakura talk about things they enjoy doing in their free time and the food that they like to eat. After a couple of short minutes, Kazuna shows up.

"Mr. Kazuna!" Kari shouts as she rushes towards Kazuna.

"Hey, how was your first day?" He asks.

"It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, and I made a friend," She says while turning towards Sakura.

"Oh, and you are?" Kazuna asks.

"Hello, m-my name's S-Sakura N-Nakamura," She says with a stutter.

"It's nice to meet you, Sakura. Thank you for taking care of Kari," Kazuna says. 

An embarrassed expression covers her face. Kari looks past Kazuna and sees an entourage of people.

"Mr. Kazuna, who are they?" Kari asks.

"Oh, that's right, you've only met Ria and Kagura. The girl with the long blonde hair is Yua, and that guy is Matt," He says.

"So you're Kari. Aren't you quite the cutie," Yua says.

"T-Thank you," Kari says while hiding behind Kazuna's legs.

"Don't worry about it, she's a little shy around new people," He tells Yua.

"She really is a lot like you," Kagura states.

"Really? Anyway, Sakura, do you walk home? If so, you can join us if you'd like," Kazuna offers.

"Really!?" She asks excitedly.

Kazuna gives her a nod as he starts to head home. Sakura grabs Kari's hand and drags her from Kazuna's side to join her in the front. 

"Mr. Kazuna seems as cool as you said. He just has that look," Sakura whispers to her.

"I told you, although, I think Mr. Kazuna has too many lady friends," Kari says.

"What's wrong with that?" Sakura asks.

"Oh, umm, nothing," Kari says.

The two girls walk together, talking between each other, and Kazuna watched with a calm expression. To think that Kari had started barely able to talk to anyone and not thinking she was worth anything, and now she's going to school and enjoying a walk home with her friend. He clenches his fist. It made the eyes that he felt watching him seem more troublesome.

"I swear, on all the strength I have, that Kari will be able to enjoy a normal life," He says to himself while looking in the general direction of the glare he felt.