By Fate, We Meet Again

Nagisa Shiota had gotten used to being underestimated. It happened often enough that he barely noticed anymore. The first time a new student looked at him and asked if he was really their teacher, Nagisa had smiled and introduced himself again. The second time, he had laughed. By the third time, he'd started keeping count! “Nagisa-sensei,” one of his students said, leaning back in his chair with all the confidence of someone who had not yet learned to fear consequences, “are you sure you're strong enough to teach us?” The classroom went quiet. Nagisa looked up from the stack of papers in front of him. He smiled. “Strong enough for what?” The student hesitated. A few of his classmates snickered. “You know. To control us.” Nagisa tilted his head. “I see.” He placed his pen down. “Then I suppose we'll find out.” The student swallowed. Nagisa smiled a little wider. It was almost unfair. He wasn't intimidating in the traditional sense. He was still shorter than most of his students. He had a soft voice, an approachable face, and a habit of explaining things patiently instead of raising his voice. But he'd learned a long time ago that patience and weakness were two very different things. By the end of the semester, the students who had once called him small were among the easiest to handle. Nagisa privately called it taming. He wasn't sure his coworkers appreciated the terminology. “I've finally tamed them,” he'd said one afternoon. His colleague had stared at him. “...You can't say it like that.” “Why?” “Y-you make it sound like they were animals!" Nagisa had thought about it. “Maybe..." Then he'd smiled and returned to grading. Teaching suited him. That was something he had never expected to say with such certainty. His life was quieter than it had been when he was younger. There were no assassination attempts waiting around the corner. No secret missions. No impossible teachers smiling cheerfully while the entire class plotted his murder. Just lesson plans. Homework, parent meetings, students who needed help, students who pretended they didn't need help from a twig. And the occasional headache. It was ordinary. Nagisa liked ordinary. ♡ After everything that had happened in Class 3-E, he had developed an appreciation for things that most people took for granted. A quiet morning, a warm meal, a familiar routine. And, well... Someone to come home to. That last one had become increasingly difficult to ignore. Nagisa wasn't embarrassed by it. When one of his coworkers eventually asked him whether he wanted to get married someday, he had answered without hesitation. “Yeah... I do. To a person with burdens I can help with." The answer had been so immediate that she blinked. “Really? Nagisa-kun has some very simple wishes." Nagisa smiled. “I'd like a family.” “A family?” “Someday.” He looked down at his coffee. “I think it'd be nice... I want to see if my heart can open up for someone." His smile was gentle. Almost boyishly simple. “I'd like to make someone happy.” There was nothing particularly complicated about the dream. A wife, a home, children, perhaps. Someone who would be happy to see him at the end of the day. Someone he could make feel loved... his coworker ended up wishing him the world under her breath. He'd tried dating a few times. There had been pleasant conversations, awkward dinners, and people he genuinely liked. Nothing was wrong with any of them. Still, each time, something inside him had quietly whispered that he wasn't quite there yet. It simply felt as though he were waiting, for what, exactly, he didn't know. So he stopped looking so hard. Maybe eventually... he'd understand. ─── Across the city, Akari Yukimura was being told she had twelve minutes to eat lunch. She stared at her schedule. “Twelve?” “Thirteen, if the director runs late.” Akari looked up. Her manager smiled apologetically. “You know how these things are.” “I do... it's quite alright, though!" She picked up the container in front of her. Twelve minutes... she could work with twelve minutes! She had become very good at working with very little time. Her life had changed dramatically over the years. The girl who had once gone by another name had disappeared almost entirely from public memory. Akari preferred it that way. She had left that persona behind. The name was still somewhere in old records and old photographs, but it belonged to a version of herself she no longer needed to perform. Now she was simply Akari. And Akari was an actress. A successful one. Very successful, according to almost everyone around her. One production had become a major hit. Another had pushed her into an entirely different level of recognition. Her face appeared on posters. Her name appeared in interviews. People recognized her in public. Sometimes they recognized her voice first. That part still amused her. Her schedule, however, was less amusing. There were always scripts, meetings, someone waiting for her to finish one thing so they could start another. She didn't resent it. She loved acting. She loved becoming someone else for a while. She loved the strange feeling of stepping onto a set and knowing that for a few hours, an entire world existed because she was willing to pretend it did. So she kept doing it. She simply had less room for everything else. Things that didn't matter could wait. People who weren't important could wait. And there was one person she'd been waiting for herself. Nagisa. The thought appeared so naturally that Akari barely noticed it anymore. She had known where he was for years. She knew he had become a teacher. She'd heard little pieces of his life through their old classmates. Sometimes she saw his name in the group chat. Sometimes someone mentioned him. Sometimes, very rarely, she would hear his voice on a call. But she never interfered. Nagisa had found something he cared about. She knew what that meant. He deserved the chance to build his own life without someone from his past suddenly appearing and demanding a place in it. So Akari stayed away. Mostly. She still wondered... Whenever she happened to be near his city. Whenever she passed a school. Whenever someone mentioned teachers. Whenever she heard a familiar laugh somewhere in a crowd. She wondered whether she'd recognize him immediately. Years could change a person's face. Their voice was harder to forget. And Akari had never forgotten his. She had loved him for longer than she'd ever admitted aloud. That realization no longer embarrassed her. It simply existed, like something she had carried into adulthood without meaning to. Maybe someday they'd meet again, maybe they wouldn't. She had accepted that. At least.., that's what she told herself. “Akari?” She looked up. Her manager was watching her. “You stopped eating.” Akari glanced down. She had, indeed. She picked up her fork. “Sorry!" “Thinking about something?” Akari smiled. “Nothing important.” It was a lie. She knew it. Her manager probably did too. ─── That evening, Nagisa's phone buzzed while he was making dinner. He glanced at the screen. A message from the Class 3-E group chat. He opened it. Reunion☆☆☆ Someone had finally decided that enough years had passed. There were already dozens of messages about suggestions, arguments, and schedules. Terasaka complaining about the restaurant they had to eat at, and Hara insisting the food there is great. Yada insisting that they absolutely had to invite everyone except Okajima. Nagisa smiled. He scrolled through the conversation. Names he hadn't seen in years appeared one after another. Old memories resurfaced with surprising ease. He wondered how everyone had changed. Then he saw a name: Akari. Nagisa stopped scrolling. For several seconds, he simply looked at it. He couldn't remember the last time they'd properly spoken, but her icon was simply that of a cartoon pudding. He frowned slightly. That was strange... not because they'd had some falling out, but... life had simply happened. One year became two. Two became three. Nagisa stared at the invitation. Then, without really thinking about why, he typed: "I'll be there. Hopefully, I won't be distracted by late assignments. Hello, everyone♡" He sent it. Across the city, Akari's phone buzzed while she was waiting for her next scene. She glanced down. The reunion message was still open. She had been staring at it for nearly a minute. Then another notification appeared. A new message in the group chat... Nagisa: I'll be there. Akari's eyes widened. For a moment, she forgot about the set. She stared at those words. Then, very slowly, she smiled. “Akari?” She looked up. The assistant director was standing nearby. “Ready?” Akari locked her phone. Her smile remained. “Yeah.” She stood. “I am now.”