Sakuragi arrived at school before Karma did since he was still sleeping when she left.

When she went inside, she saw something that surprised her. Ms. Autonomous was talking animatedly with the other students like she was a regular student. She smiled slightly.

That’s good. She went over to her desk and sat down. Ms. Autonomous looked towards Sakuragi. “Hello, Sakuragi-san!” She chirped.

“Good morning, Autonomous-san.”

“Call me Ritsu!”

Sakuragi’s eyes widened. “Okay. Call me Hanako then.”

“Sure!”

Sakuragi plastered a smile across her face at Ritsu. She could feel the other students’ eyes boring into her but she ignored it, opened her notebook, and waited for class to start.

…

As the other students were participating in gym, Sakuragi scrolled through her feed on her phone as she sipped a juice box.

“Hanako-san?” 

Sakuragi looked up. “Hm?”

“Why aren’t you in gym?”

“Well, Ritsu-san, they’re worried that I might hurt someone.”

The avatar on Ritsu’s screen tilted her head. “Why would you hurt someone? You’re very nice.”

Sakuragi sighed. “You’re one of the few that still think so.”

“What do you mean?”

“You see…” Sakuragi explained the story of how nobody trusted her anymore except for a few. Once she was done, she looked up at Ritsu, who was strangely silent. “Do-do you hate me now too?”

“No…”

Dryly, Sakuragi replied, “That didn’t sound very convincing.”

“No really!” Ritsu exclaimed. “You sound sorry about it, and I was watching your interactions with the students.”

“…Thanks, Ritsu.”

“Anytime, Hana-chan!” Sakuragi bit her lip and focused on her phone, trying not to cry. Kayano used to call her that all the time.

…

Kayano stared blankly at the others talking and laughing while they played assassination badminton.

My tentacles are killing me. She thought. Ever since the whole Sakuragi thing, they’d been hurting all the time. She’d been crying almost all the time because of how much the betrayal hurt, which came as a surprise. I thought that kind of thing didn’t hurt me anymore.

Kill Koro-sensei. Kayano winced. Not now. Pain started circulating throughout her body. She stiffened, tears appearing at the edge of her eyes.

“Kayano-san?” She looked up and saw Kanzaki staring down at her worriedly. “Are you okay?”

Kayano managed a shaky smile. “Y-yeah-“ a bolt of pain shot through her and she whimpered. “Just period cramps.”

Kanzaki sat down next to the shorter girl. She put an arm around Kayano and pulled her close. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Is there anything I can do?”

Kayano forced a cheery smile. “Maybe get me some chocolate, hehe…”

Kanzaki smiled. “I’ll go get you some.” She stood up. “See you later?”

Kayano nodded, and Kanzaki walked away. Kayano sighed. I need to do something with whole mess, and soon.