Chapter Text
Flashback to 10 years ago, the day the first letter was found.
"Ember-Senpai?" A voice asked. Small. Almost scared-sounding.
When Ember turned around, he found one of those weirdos from class 3-E. Of course, Ember wasn't one of the over-privileged idiots who thought of the students of class 3-E like that, and, in fact, he had rather gotten accustomed to looking after all the students in class 3-E, not that he wasn't well aware at this time just how... capable they were of defending themselves. But he also realized that the students of class 3-E weren't dumb enough to display their weapons on the main school grounds. KoroSensei would probably have a stroke if they did.
"Nagisa-Kun?" Ember asked, sounding surprised to find the blue-haired student standing tentatively behind him. Other students pointed and looked, whispering behind their hands, and laughing. But Nagisa seemed rather unperturbed, just looking up at the older student.
"Ember-Senpai, can we talk?" Nagisa asked. Ember looked at the smaller boy, wondering what he could want to talk about so badly. Still, after a minute's deliberation, Ember nodded and followed Nagisa into the shadows that the school cast onto the ground.
"Here. Korosensei said that if I wanted to be honest, I should... give you this." The smaller boy said, tentatively holding out an unsealed envelope with a piece of paper that had been neatly folded in half.
"Don't open it here," Nagisa warned, before darting away, leaving Ember both confused and curious at why Nagisa was acting so strangely.
Deciding to respect Nagisa's wishes, Ember pocketed the envelope, deciding he'd open it once he arrived home. He only had one more period to go, after all.
---
Later that day, after school, Ember was lying on his bed, looking up at the ceiling, wondering if now was the time to open the mysterious letter Nagisa had given him earlier. Deciding he wouldn't be able to take the suspense much longer, Ember got up from his bed and grabbed his jacket that was hanging on his desk chair, rummaging through the pockets of the coat before he found the envelope.
Extracting the envelope, Ember carried it back over to his bed before lying down on it and pulling the small piece of folded-up paper out of the envelope.
He unfolded the paper, and there he found neat, clean Japanese.
A translation of what the paper said would be:
"Dear Ember. I cannot seem to take my mind off of you. Not in a way that one might find weird, but more in a way that one might have a curiosity for a favorite sport or activity. It's never been easy being in the 3-E class. Most people bully us, especially me, for my feminine appearance, despite my male gender. When I first saw you stepping in to prevent some of your classmates from harming my friend and me, I knew you were different.
Normally, I wouldn't even have the courage to do this, but Korosensei has told me that the best thing for me to do is confront my feelings! So here it is! I love you, Ember-senpai!"
Ember was stunned. He wasn't even sure what he had just read. He set the paper down on the bed, his eyes wide as saucers. He just sat perfectly still for a moment, contemplating everything that such a short letter had just revealed to him.
Nagisa... liked him?
Interesting. Very interesting.
---
The next day, Ember went to school. But after going into his class, he raised his hand and waited for the teacher to acknowledge him.
When the teacher did, he said, "May I be excused, Miss? I think I left my book somewhere." The teacher nodded, and Ember got up from his seat. No one paid attention to the direction he was going, as he headed up the dirt road to where class 3-E was, sitting at the top of a mountain.
When Ember arrived at the old building, sliding the shoji door aside and walking into the building, his footsteps seemed to ring out as he passed through the wooden halls, and when he located the classroom door for 3-E, he paused for a second. Then, he felt a weirdly tentacle-like feeling hand rest on his shoulder. He turned around, and there was Korosensei.
"Ah, Ember. I'm assuming that you're here because of Nagisa's letter?" Korosensei asked, and Ember nodded, not sure how to respond to Korosensei.
"Come. Let me show you something." Korosensei said, opening the classroom door to reveal an empty classroom. The window on the opposite side of the room was open, and through it there was a direct view of the field. Upon getting closer to the window, Ember saw Nagisa and a group of other 3-E students Ember had seen hanging out together playing a kind of... volleyball game with a anti-korosensei grenade?
"He's become quite the student, but I'm afraid he's rather lacking when it comes to certain aspects," Korosensei said, standing next to Ember, looking through the window at the assassins-in-training playing around, their distant laughing and playing audible faintly from where Ember was standing.
"It's almost as if he's been distracted by Karma. Everyone can tell poor Nagisa has an infatuation with Karma. It's affecting his work, and I just can't let that happen!" Korosensei said.
"So that's why you encouraged him to give that letter to me?" Ember asked, and Korosensei nodded. Ember found himself both somewhat annoyed and, somehow, amused by Korosensei playing matchmaker.
Quick as lightning (and even faster), Korosensei disappeared from Ember's side, and then, in the blink of an eye, was standing right next to Nagisa. Ember watched as Korosensei bent down, whispered to Nagisa, and saw Nagisa blush a delicate pink. Apparently, Nagisa was rather flustered, because he walked unsteadily up to the school building, his head bowed, as if trying to hide his blush from his friends.
Ember walked outside to meet Nagisa, and the two sat down on the stone steps that led down to the field, where the rest of the class had resumed their rather dangerous game of makeshift volleyball.
"So... what's with the letter?" Ember asked, awkwardly.