Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The class had been this close.

It had been their ultimate assassination attempt. They had pulled out all the stops to ensure that Koro-Sensei couldn't escape this time. And it should have worked.

Everything had gone to plan. They had accounted for every single one of Koro-Sensei's many abilities, pulled out as many of his weaknesses as they could, and yet it still wasn't enough.

For there was one ability of their teacher's that they hadn't accounted for. Because they hadn't known that it existed.

His absolute defence form. An ability that turned him into a tiny orb that also happened to be completely invincible. How were they meant to get around that?

That was a question for another day. For now, all they could do was head back to the hotel's restaurant, even if some of them found it a bit difficult to do so...

Still reeling from their unsuccessful assassination attempt, the class made their way into the restaurant’s outdoor area, and quickly picked out their seats. Most of the students just sat down, but a few of them practically fell into their chairs out of exhaustion.

After everyone had arrived, Karasuma and Bitch-Sensei headed inside, the former to contact his superiors in peace and the latter to grab a proper drink. Bitch-Sensei was meant to be supervising them, but she wasn’t about to let that get in the way of alcohol, and anyways, who was going to stop her?

The restaurant itself was silent, as there were no other guests besides the class, and no one really felt like chatting for various reasons. Some due to weight of their perceived failure, and others because of the increasing amount of exhaustion they were feeling.

After a few minutes, Chiba decided to do something. While he had kept silent up to that point, something was gnawing at his mind enough that he had to find out something. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket. “Ritsu?”

On his phone, Ritsu quickly appeared. “Hi Ryuu.”

“You recorded it right?” Chiba wanted to see if his gut feeling was correct.

“As faithfully as possible,” Ritsu confirmed. “I utilised high-speed camera filters whenever they seemed appropriate, would you like to see?”

Chiba knew what he wanted to see. “The second I fired, part of me knew that the bullet wouldn’t hit. It was like… I knew he couldn’t be killed.”

“I can only be approximate…” Ritsu started to do the calculations. “The time it took for Koro-Sensei to adopt his absolute defence form is unclear,” Ritsu began to explain her findings. “However… by my calculations, if your shot had been point five seconds faster, or Hayami’s thirty centimetres to the left, the odds of target neutralization would have increased by fifty percent, at minimum.”

“The whole thing was so easy in rehearsal, I was so sure of myself. I even fired from a less stable spot and totally nailed it,” Chiba said as he pulled up his hand, noticing that it was still shaking. “But then, when it was real I froze. It’s like my fingers got stiff and my vision went all blurry.”

“Yeah, same here,” Hayami agreed, just as disappointed in herself.

“I just, I caved under the pressure, you know.” Chiba thought back to the moment of truth. “Too much was riding on me making the shot.”

Hayami summed everything up, “the moment of truth was nothing like what we practiced.”

Chiba could only grimace at their failure. Everyone had been counting on them, and they had let them down in the worst way possible.

Among the rest of the students, Isogai looked like he was struggling to stay awake. “Ok guys, I think it might be time to head up to bed.” He sounded just as tired as he looked.

From another table, Kataoka was in agreement. “Yeah, we can debrief in the morning once we’ve all *yawn* had some rest.” It seemed she was quite groggy as well.

Terasaka turned his head to look at them from where he was sitting. “What, you’re calling it a night just like that? We did what we were supposed to, what else do you want? Granted, the octopus is still kicking but we’re on a primo vacation either way!”

Yoshida gave a groan. “Honestly, I kinda agree with them…”

Terasaka shot him a glare. “Not you too! Look, I know what you’re all saying, but what I’m saying is that we don’t have to go to bed right now!”

“Couldn’t agree more.” Okajima spoke up with a smirk on his face. “If some of you guys want to get some rest, that’s fine. But personally, I’m still hoping to catch an eye of some late-night swimmers.”

Across from him, Sugaya gave out a long and exhausted sounding sigh. “Do you think about anything other than boobs?” He put his head down onto the table, almost as if he had fallen asleep.

Maehara walked over to Isogai, looking at his best friend with a smile on his face. “Yeah dude, it’s too bad we failed but at the same time we’re on a tropical island full of hotties. We don’t have to hit the hay just yet.”

Isogai seemed extra exasperated by his friend’s antics. “You can see them all tomorrow, right now I just want to go to bed.”

Elsewhere in the restaurant, Nagisa chuckled at Maehara’s antics while Karma sat across from him with a bored look on his face.

But Nagisa stopped as he noticed that a number of his classmates were extremely tired, to the point where they looked a bit ill.

Having a bad feeling about things, Nagisa stood up to see if he should do anything, before he noticed someone walking towards his table.

Okuda walked up to the table, clearly struggling with every single step. “Nagisa, Karma, could one of you help me back to my room?”

Before either of them could respond, she suddenly collapsed next to the table.

“Okuda!” Nagisa made his way around the table before trying to help her. “Are you okay?” Karma also got up, ready to help if needed.

“I don’t think so…” Was the only reply she could give.

The other students noticed this. “Okuda, are you alright?” Isogai managed to sputter out as he got out of his chair and tried to walk over to her, but after only a couple of steps it was clear he wasn’t going to make it, with both Maehara and Sugino managing to get a hold of the class rep before he collapsed.

Maehara was now starting to panic. “Dude, are you okay?!” He moved his free hand up to Isogai’s forehead. “Woah. You’re burning up!”

“Am I? Huh, okay,” was all Isogai could manage to say.

Nagisa looked over to see this. “Isogai too?” Then, someone slipped out of their chair and fell to the floor with a loud crash. Nagisa was panicking now, what the heck was going on!

Karasuma then came running out to check on the students, having heard the commotion from inside. As soon as he did, he looked around and was shocked by what he saw.

A number of the students were in various stages of distress, while their shocked classmates were trying to help them.

Being held by his colleague, Koro-Sensei was just as horrified. What was going on, why were they all sick?!

Karasuma ran over to a horrified looking waitress. “Call an ambulance stat! This is an emergency!”

The waitress immediately gave him some bad news. “It’ll take them a while to get here, the nearest E.R. is on the mainland.” Neither teacher was happy with this answer, but they couldn’t do anything about it.

Just then, a phone started to ring. Karasuma recognised the ringtone as his own and pulled his phone out of his pocket only to see that the call was from a withheld number. He hesitated for a second before he accepted the call.

“Hey teacher man,” an unknown voice answered. It was deep, and obviously filtered. “I’d say your students are in a bad way right about now.”

Karasuma was shocked. How did this guy know his students were sick. “And who is this?” He replied, not hiding the distrust in his voice.

Meanwhile, Kayano noticed that something was up with Ritsu as well. “Oh no, Ritsu!”

“Take it easy, friend. There’s no need for you to know who I am,” The mystery caller continued. “Just know that your squad of snot-nosed brats aren’t the only ones trying to kill the mark.”

Karasuma thought about that for a second. This guy was also after the bounty, that much was clear. But what did the kids getting sick have to do with that? He then realised exactly what the connection was, and could barely keep his voice even as he put the dots together. “You’re telling me you’re responsible for making them sick.”

The caller gave a small chuckle. “Heh, you’re good. But they’re a hell of a lot more than sick.”

Ritsu was being forced to play the phone call audio on everyone’s phones, allowing them to hear the caller’s next words clearly.

“Their bodies are hosting a lab-manufactured virus.” The caller explained as the restaurant continued to descend into a state of chaos.

Nagisa and Karma had managed to get Okuda up, with Nagisa leaving Karma to guide her into a chair while he went to help the rest of his classmates.

Sugino had similarly left Maehara to deal with Isogai, Maehara now extremely worried for his friend, while he went to help Kanzaki deal with Yada and Okano, the former doubled over in pain and the latter flopped backwards in her chair. Over at another table Nakamura was helping Kataoka keep herself awake, the vice-rep struggling to do so herself.

“Incubation period is around nine hours. Symptoms vary but the end result is the same.”

The students who were still standing looked around when they heard a very distressed sounding noise, trying to figure out what it was. The puddle of sick that was pooling around Kimura’s feet gave them their answer. Hara tried to help her queasy looking classmate, who was clutching at his stomach.

At the other end of the restaurant, Terasaka was trying to get Yoshida up whilst Muramatsu checked to make sure his friend hadn’t banged his head when he had fallen. Hazama looked on, completely shaken by what she was seeing.

”After about a week, the cells rupture and vital organs become jelly.”

Kurahashi and Kayano were both trying to help Takebayashi whilst he held onto the table he had been sitting at like his life depended on it. Meanwhile Mimura had managed to get Fuwa back in her chair, his classmate having immediately rushed to try and help before crashing to the floor and needing to be helped herself.

Okajima kept shaking Sugaya, but the prone artist just wasn’t budging, having fallen asleep from the exhaustion. Nagisa wasn’t sure whether to help him or stop him, having no idea what to do.

Chiba and Hayami both looked on at the carnage unfolding with horror. They were too stunned to do anything, their usual cool demeanours shattered by what they were seeing.

Karasuma could only watch on in horror as the caller continued. “The only known antidote is also lab-made. Lucky for you, I’m its sole possessor. Trouble is, I’m lazy. If you want it, you’re going to have to come and get it yourselves.”

Karasuma motioned for Nagisa and Kayano to come over to him.

The caller explained his terms as the pair did so. “There’s a hotel on top of this island’s highest peak. Bring me your precious cargo and we’ll chat.”

Karasuma peered over to look at Nagisa’s phone, allowing him to see a map of the island, including the hotel in question. He then pulled up the bagged Koro-Sensei and glanced at him.

His colleague looked back at him, neither of them under any illusions about the ‘precious cargo’ the caller was referring to.

“Top floor by the end of the next hour. No tricks, and because you seem like the sort of man I wouldn’t want to tangle with, send proxies. I want two students. The shortest boy and shortest girl. Out of whoever’s still standing of course.” Karasuma looked over at Nagisa and Kayano, the two students who fit those requirements.

The agent could barely keep his composure, trying hard to not lash out at the caller. But if the caller noticed he didn’t say anything about it. “There’s a concierge desk across from the elevators, have them go there. If all goes well you’ll have the antidote and I’ll have the bounty. Now, this should go without saying, but contact outside help or show up late and boom. The antidote goes bye bye. The infected die!”

Everyone still standing flinched at the bluntness of those words, not wanting to image that scenario.

As if sensing their unease, the caller added, “hey, you guys were fantastic. With the target immobilised the hard parts done, I can’t thank you enough. Lady luck is definitely smiling down on our cause.” And with that parting statement, the caller hung up. As if to emphasise how bad things were, the moans and groans of the sick students soon filled the air.

Unable to keep his composure any longer, Karasuma slammed the Koro-Sensei ball onto the table in front of him in rage.

Koro-Sensei, having not expected this, began to splutter. “Uh, Karasuma? Not to complain, but I do believe that you could be just a little more gentle…”

Karasuma wasn’t listening though. Of all the times for some psychotic bastard to sabotage them!

A few minutes later the students, with the help of the staff, had been able to set up some makeshift sickbeds and get their infected friends laying down and hopefully somewhat comfortable in them.

Once that was done, everyone (including Bitch-Sensei, who had made her way outside to see what was going on) tried to figure out what to do next.

“Mr. Karasuma!” Agent Sonokawa ran outside to tell her superior the bad news she had gotten. “I’m afraid they’re not cooperating. Even when we play the government card, the hotel owners maintain they have the right to protect their guest’s identity.”

“Naturally.” Karasuma hadn’t expected anything else.

Koro-Sensei wasn't happy about it though. “That is completely intolerable, there are lives at stake here!”

“But it's not surprising,” Karasuma explained as he turned to his colleague. “The resort our mystery man chose is a known site for all manner of illegal operations.”

“Remote, shady history, it bears all the trappings of an ideal rendezvous point,” Bitch-Sensei confirmed.

Karasuma nodded before explaining the issue. “The owners have connections with higher ups in the government. Law enforcement knows to leave them alone.”

Karma let out a sigh. “So basically there’s no way of knowing who the prick is before we meet him.”

“But can we really be sure that there even is an antidote?” Muramatsu grumbled. “If there isn’t…” He looked over to the sick students, concern etched on his face.

“Hey, don’t be like that,” Yada managed to admonish him from where she was laid down. “I’m sure everything is going to be fine, so drop the negative attitude.”

Muramatsu scratched at the back of his head. “I guess so?” It was clear he was still troubled. “If you’re sure…”

Terasaka did not seem to agree though. “We can’t just do what the asshole tells us to do! I mean c’mon, use the runts as a proxy?” He started pounding on Nagisa and Kayano’s heads. “Send these two runts in to close the deal and we might as well lay down and die right now!”

He calmed down slightly and stopped pounding. “Okay, that was rude. I’m sorry, I’m just pissed off that someone’s got us by the balls.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder towards the sick students. “And not to mention, one of my friend’s life is in danger!”

“Well at least you care about me…” Yoshida managed to weakly comment.

Terasaka slammed his hand down onto a table. “I vote we ignore what the jackass wants us to do, get everyone to the hospital, and forget this ever happened!”

“That wouldn’t be a good idea…” Takebayashi managed to croak out from where he was laid. “If the virus is manmade, then a hospital would be useless, they wouldn’t have enough time.”

Terasaka turned to look at the sick nerd in disbelief. “Are you serious?!”

“Unfortunately.” Takebayashi let out a weak sigh. “There’s nothing any of you can do…”

Hara walked over to the sick students, having gone into full mother mode. “It might be best to try and ease their symptoms instead. Takebayashi, do you have any medical supplies handy?”

“There should be some basic supplies in my bag, and I’m sure the hotel has some as well.”

Hara nodded. “I’ll get started on you guys. Nagisa, Kayano, it may be best for you to start getting ready to head to the rendezvous point.”

“That can’t be the only way, can it?” Terasaka looked defeated.

Nagisa tried to think of anything else they could do, but their hands were tied. He looked over to Koro-Sensei. If he could move, then they might have had a chance, but with him immobilised, they were stuck. Why did their earlier attempt have to go so well?

Karasuma also turned to look at the Koro-Sensei ball. “At the end of the day this is all happening because of you.”

Bitch-Sensei decided to add her own two cents. “Gotta wonder if these kids will be willing to surrender their quarry so easily.”

Karasuma put one of his fists up into his face as he tried to figure out a solution. But they only had one hour, and there was no way he would let any of the kids die. What the hell could they do? But he was dragged out of his thoughts by a chipper voice.

“I think I might have a solution,” Koro-Sensei finally spoke up, sounding cautiously optimistic.

A loud chime then went off on Nagisa’s phone, surprising both him and Kayano in the process and causing him to get out his phone.

Ritsu then appeared on the device. “Koro-Sensei? Everything is ready sir.” She gave a wink.

“Excellent. Ritsu’s finished the prep work I asked her to do. If the healthy students could step closer please, be sure you’re wearing something that you don’t mind getting dirty.” Koro-Sensei’s grin only seemed to get bigger.

The students who were still standing did as Koro-Sensei asked, huddling around his orb on the table. Karasuma and Bitch-Sensei did the same.

Koro-Sensei looked over his students and quickly took stock on who was available and who wasn’t. “Okay class, we’re going on an infiltration mission.”

“Are you insane?!” Karasuma objected, immediately seeing the fact that his colleague’s plan was going to be dangerous for everyone involved. “I can’t let you put the kids in danger like that. An infiltration mission is too risky.”

Koro-Sensei kept smiling. “Mr. Karasuma, I fully understand your concerns and trust me when I say that I wouldn’t be suggesting this unless I thought it was genuinely the best option. However, when it comes to your objections, I think it would be best to let the kids themselves decide.”

He looked at the students still standing. “Before you decide boys and girls, I just want to make sure that you know that you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. If the majority decide against it, then I am more than happy to allow Nagisa and Kayano to use me as an equivalent exchange for the antidote.”

“You’re serious?” Bitch-Sensei asked in surprise.

“Absolutely. While I do value my life, if it came down to me or any of the students, I am willing to give it up in a heartbeat.”

Karasuma thought about it for a second, before giving a begrudging nod. “Very well then.” He turned to look over the assembled students, a wide range of emotions across their faces. “It’s up to you guys.”

Unsurprisingly, Terasaka was the first to speak up. “An infiltration mission? If it means that I get to give the asshole who did this what he deserves then count me in!” Muramatsu nodded in agreement.

“Agreed,” Maehara said with a nod, making his feelings clear. “We can’t just sit here and hope for the best. Our mystery man has already poisoned us, who’s to say that he’ll stick to his word?!”

Mimura didn’t seem as confident. “But at the same time, if we slip up during the infiltration, then our chances of getting the antidote end right then and there. It’s not a guarantee either way, but we need to consider which way has a better chance of success.”

Nakamura seemed to be weighing up the options. “That’s true, but at the same time I’d rather take action myself, but that’s just the type of person I am.”

Hayami added her own opinion. “Even if we choose to go down the infiltration route, do we really have the skills to pull it off? I mean, I know we’re probably better equipped than just about any other group of students if they were in the same position, but would that be enough…” It was clear that the failure of the earlier assassination attempt was still weighing heavily on her.

Okajima crossed his arms. “Yeah, but it wouldn’t be just us. We’d have Koro-Sensei, Mr. K and Bitch-Sensei, right?” He looked at the three teachers for confirmation.

“Well, I will be there no matter what, but I’m not sure how much help I will be in my current state.” Koro-Sensei gave his own answer. “Mr. Karasuma, Ms. Irina, what about you two?”

Karasuma closed his eyes for a second, before sighing. “If you kids choose to do so, I can’t stop you from attempting this mission, but I can make sure you have my help. So yes, I will be there.”

Bitch-Sensei didn’t answer, looking like she was thinking it through.

Karma gave his own opinion. “I want to go.”

Kayano decided to ask the obvious question. “Really, why?”

“It’s simple. You and Nagisa will have to go no matter what, so if you two have to, then I have to go to make sure neither of you pipsqueaks end up in trouble,” Karma noted with only a small grin.

Neither Nagisa or Kayano looked happy at the use of the word ‘Pipsqueak’.

Sugino didn’t look happy about Karma's choice of words either but spoke up anyway. “I hate to say it, but Karma’s right. I know I would feel better if all of us went rather than just the two of you.”

That seemed to resonate with everyone. The facts were that Nagisa and Kayano would have to go no matter which option they went with, the difference would be between them going alone or going with everyone. And they weren’t about to leave their classmates in the lurch like that. With everything laid out the table, the students made their decision. Whilst not everyone was confident, the decision itself was unanimous. They would go on the infiltration mission.

Koro-Sensei gave a quick count before continuing. “Excellent. Okay then, here’s the plan…”

“Actually Koro-Sensei…” Before the teacher could continue, Hara spoke up. “I think it would be best if a couple of us stayed behind.”

Terasaka shot her a furious look. “Are you insane?! Half of us are already down, and you're suggesting we make the number of students going smaller!”

Hara turned to look at him. “Actually, I think that a couple of us should stay behind to help care for our friends.”

“That is a great idea Hara.” Koro-Sensei hadn’t thought of that himself, so he was glad that his student had thought of it. “I’d assume based on the fact that you were the one to bring it up that you would rather stay behind?”

Hara responded with a nod. “It’s not like I don’t want to go on the infiltration, I do. But somebody needs to keep our friends comfortable, relieve their symptoms, and make sure they don’t get worse, and I am willing to do that.”

“Very well then,” Koro-Sensei confirmed before looking around. “Would anyone else be willing to stay behind and help Hara?”

A few of the students looked at each other before Kanzaki spoke up. “…I think I’ll stay and help as well.”

“That would be great, Kanzaki. Any reasons why?” Koro-Sensei inquired.

“I want to help my friends, simple as that.”

“An admirable reason. Anyways, if that is sorted.” Koro-Sensei didn’t want to delay his students. “Hara, Kanzaki, could you two get started on helping your classmates out?”

The two girls nodded, exiting the crowd to start their work as soon as they could.

“Ok then, if there are no more interruptions.” Koro-Sensei paused for a second, but everyone remained quiet. “Then here is what we are going to do…”

As Koro-Sensei started explaining, Karasuma started to look around and figure out which students were still standing, having not had a chance to think about that.

In the centre of the students, standing right in front of his colleague, were Nagisa, Kayano and Karma. To the left of the trio were Sugino, Nakamura and Maehara, with Chiba and Hayami standing together at the left end. On their right were Okajima, Kurahashi and Mimura, with Terasaka, Muramatsu and Hazama standing together at the right end.

There were twenty-six human students in the class, ten of them infected with the virus whilst Kanzaki and Hara were staying behind to try and help them. That left fourteen students, alongside himself and Irina to infiltrate the hotel.

Honestly, those were terrible odds. But at the same time, they weren’t going to get any better, so they would have to do.

After making final preparations, taking a couple of minutes to steel their nerves as well as have some final words with their sick friends, the fourteen healthy students who had chosen to go on the mission, and their three teachers, gathered up inside of a trio of government cars to take them to their destination.

Eventually the three cars got around to a road at the side of the mountain, the hotel looming at the top of the peak. Karasuma got out of the first car, Nagisa, Kayano and Karma soon following him as they looked up at the sheer mountain wall that now stood in their paths. All of them knew that it would be a steep climb.

The other healthy students came up behind them, and after looking up the cliff face, Okajima gulped. “Geez, that sure looks like a climb.”

Another chime alerted the student, all of them either pulling out their phones or looking over to someone else’s phone to find out what Ritsu wanted to tell them.

Ritsu appeared on their phone’s, holding a set of 3D blueprints of the hotel. “I’ve successfully infiltrated their network. These are the proprietary architectural schematics of the premises complete with guard post locations.”

The blueprints then expanded to take up the whole of their phone screen’s. “The highest concentration of security is stationed in and around the main entrance, where it’s functionally impossible to enter without passing by the front desk.”

The screen then shifted to a point around the side of the hotel. “However, there is an alternate point of entry along the buildings side, just at the top of this ledge. The terrain doesn’t permit easy access, so security, whilst present, isn’t as strong.”

Even with the plan set out, the students still weren’t certain they could pull it off. But someone else was there to help give them confidence.

“You don’t want the madman to have his way do you?” Koro-Sensei asked his students the question. “Courage, children. Ten of your classmates are ill. Two others have been left behind to care for them.”

This made everyone think about their friends, all of them struggling with the virus, the reason why they had to complete this mission.

“And that leaves the rest of you to operate on their behalf. You must sneak in, surprise our mysterious adversary, and steal the antidote.”

With the mission laid out in front of them, each and every one of the students looked up the cliff, towards the hotel where their enemy waits.

Chapter Text

As the students continued to size up the cliff face, one of their teachers decided that it was too risky.

Karasuma pulled up Koro-Sensei, making sure to have eye contact. “It’s too dangerous. Whoever the hell this guy is he’s a pro. This scenario’s been planned out to the last detail.”

“Perhaps the wisest course of action would be to simply hand me over, is that it? Unconditional surrender?” Koro-Sensei calmly responded to his colleague, causing Karasuma to flinch back slightly. Koro-Sensei directed his next words towards the students. “The choice is yours, boys and girls.”

The students were focusing on the cliff face they would have to climb in order to begin their mission.

“I’m… not certain we can do this,” Hazama managed to get out.

A couple of the students were looking at their own hands.

“This does look difficult.” Mimura could barely see the top.

“Ten to one they plummet to their deaths before they’re halfway up.” Bitch-Sensei made what she thought about their chances known.

Karasuma didn’t want to admit it, but they were stuck. He couldn’t put the students, both those present and those sick, at risk. They would have to play by the enemy’s rules. “Nagisa, Kayano… I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to—”

But before he could continue, Karasuma was cut off by the sound of climbing.

Nakamura had started climbing up the cliff. “What are we waiting for? We’re not scared of a little climbing, are we?”

“Yeah, this cliff should be child’s play compared to training.” Sugino followed Nakamura’s lead.

“Truth,” Hayami agreed as she and Chiba followed them up, the rest of the students quickly following behind.

The human teachers both looked on with surprise, whilst Koro-Sensei chuckled from within his ball.

Nakamura paused her climbing to turn around and speak directly to Karasuma. “However, while we can handle this cliff just fine, we are currently leaderless, and with an unknown foe coming up I do think we need a commander. The position is yours sir, if you want it that is.”

The rest of the group had already made solid progress up the cliff face as well. They were spread out across the cliff, all of them looking towards their teachers with determination on their faces.

“Help us make this bastard pay! Show ‘em what it means to mess with E-Class!” Terasaka shouted down at Karasuma.

“Look at that. Clearly these are no ordinary teenagers,” Koro-Sensei spoke up, snapping Karasuma out of his shock. “You have a fifteen-member special forces unit at your beck and call.”

Bitch-Sensei was confused as she looked between the students and her fingers. “Wait… I only count fourteen?”

A chime sounded from Nagisa’s phone, who held it up to show their fifteenth member.

Ritsu gave a wink. “Probably because you forgot to count me!”

“Don’t take too long to make a decision, time is of the essence after all,” Koro-Sensei urged.

After thinking about it for a moment, Karasuma made his decision before moving closer to the cliff. “Alright, listen up! First, we make it up the summit, and once we make it to the hotel our objective is the top floor. This is a stealth mission so our best weapon is that we have the element of surprise.”

From the cliffs, the students all listened intently to their teacher. “I want you guys to use the same hand signals and linkups we’ve been training with in PE. The only difference is the identity of our target. You have five minutes to learn the map and figure out what the best route up the cliff for you is. After that, it’s go time. Do I make myself clear!”

“Yes, sir!” The students gave their answers to him.

Back at the hotel restaurant, Hara and Kanzaki were doing their best to try and relieve some of their classmates’ symptoms. Kanzaki had finished getting an icepack onto Okano’s forehead.

The girl in question let out a weak sigh. “Thanks…”

“Don’t mention it.” Kanzaki got up before looking at her phone to get the time. It had been about twenty minutes since the rest of the class left on the mission. “They only have fifty minutes left to do this.”

Kanzaki then shook her head. It wasn’t her job to worry about the others. For now at least what she needed to focus on were her classmates lying ill in front of her.

“Here.” Hara gave her some more icepacks. They melted quickly, so needed to be replaced every couple of minutes.

“Thanks, I’ll get them on now.” Kanzaki began to once more change the icepacks, only able to hope that her classmates would be able to succeed.

Back on the cliffs, the students were all making good progress on their climb.

“Some of us are definitely doing better at this than the others, if I do say so myself!” Maehara called out to Sugino, the pair having broken slightly ahead of their classmates.

“Yeah, but all of us are making good progress,” Sugino agreed. “Could you image how high Okano would be if she was here?”

“Yeah, she would be destroying all of us right now!” Maehara chuckled before looking down. “But hey, at least we’re all doing better than those three.”

Down near the bottom, Karasuma was trying his best to make his own way up the cliff while Bitch-Sensei was fully living up to her name as she clung onto him. Koro-Sensei was also being carried by him.

“You’re being too shaky!” Bitch-Sensei continued to complain. “Be more careful, I don’t want to fall off and become mush! Are you even listening to me?!”

“Mr. K is really carrying the slack for the other two, isn’t he?” Maehara noted with amusement.

“Yeah, but clearly one of them is being more of a load than the other…” Muramatsu grumbled with distain.

Bitch-Sensei still wasn’t done. “This dress costs more than you earn in a year, so if it gets damaged I swear to god…!” Karasuma appeared to be doing his best to tune her out. It didn’t look like he was being successful at it.

Koro-Sensei looked up at his students with pride. It wasn’t easy as he kept getting flung around, but he was managing the best he could. “Let no one say that my students don’t have exception balance.”

Karasuma managed to hear him over the one-woman racket. “You’re welcome for that. I have them scale the mountain face just behind the school as part of their training.”

Koro-Sensei thought back to earlier in the evening. “Well, that explains why they were so good with those flyboards.”

“Will you old biddies stop gossiping and actually start to climb?!” Bitch-Sensei broke into their conversation with the subtly of a wrecking ball. “Aren’t we supposed to be on the clock, do you know how much damage all this holding on is doing to my manicure?!”

“Remind me again.” Chiba turned to speak to Kurahashi. “Why did Bitch-Sensei decide to tag along?”

Kurahashi sighed a bit. “Well, you know how she is. She didn’t want to be left out. For being such a good assassin, she really doesn’t do well alone.”

Terasaka looked down towards Bitch-Sensei. “Well, I wouldn’t mind her coming along so much, if she wasn’t literally being an anchor to the rest of us.”

Elsewhere on the cliff, Karma moved upwards at a rapid pace, leaving Nagisa struggling behind him. “Karma, wait! Slow down.”

Karma seemed amused as he paused for a second. “Uhm, if you hadn’t noticed we’re on a tight schedule here.” He started climbing again.

“Fair point.” Nagisa steeled himself. “Alright, let’s do this!” He started to pick up speed as he climbed.

Karma also quickly climbed past Kayano, making sure to give her a quick warning. “Watch out for that sharp rock.”

Kayano stopped herself just before she grabbed it. “Whew, that almost turned out ugly.”

Slightly further down, Koro-Sensei was giggling at the free entertainment that was Bitch-Sensei. “What, are you implying that I weigh too much?! I’ll have you know that I am as light as a feather. Work those guns, don’t tell me they’re just for show!”

Karasuma stopped for a moment, having run out of patience. “The less you talk and distract me, the quicker we will go! Is that clear?”

Bitch-Sensei seemed to think about it for a second before finally staying quiet. As soon as she did so, Karasuma quickly picked up speed.

As Nagisa continued to follow Karma, he pulled himself onto a large overhang and rested for a second. But there was something on his mind. Whoever their enemy was, he knew about Koro-Sensei, so who could it be?

Eventually, everyone made their way up to the top of the cliff, Kayano and Nagisa being the last to make it up. The pair quickly sneaked over to the fence where the rest of the group were hiding.

Seeing that everyone was here, Karasuma pulled out his phone. “Ritsu, I want you to run a final check on our infiltration route.”

“Right! Displaying interior map now,” Ritsu stated before disappearing off the screen, a 3d model of the hotel appearing on the screen in her place.

Ritsu’s voice could still be heard as she explained her findings. “Analysing data. All elevators require a unique passcode for every floor. Stairs are thus the better option but there is a catch. Each stairwell is located a fair distance from each other and the stairs are all quite long. There are several locations where we risk being detected.”

“Huh, so the hotel is laid out like a TV station,” Chiba commented.

“Wait, what do you mean by that?” Kayano asked.

“Most TV stations are deliberately designed with complex layouts, in order to prevent terrorists from taking them over easily,” Chiba explained, clearly knowledgeable on the topic.

Kayano took that in. “Huh, interesting. You sure know a lot about it.”

Chiba looked slightly embarrassed. “I have an interest in architecture, that’s all.”

Hazama chuckled at that. “But it is ironic that these types of buildings are usually meant to keep the bad guys out. Here, they just let them in.”

“The side door is locked,” Ritsu informed them. “Give me one moment.”

A series of clicking noises informed the group of Ritsu’s success. Karasuma went up to the door and pulled it open.

“We don’t have much time, so let’s move people.” Karasuma gestured for everyone to go through.

“Yes, sir.” The rest of the group quickly followed him through the door.

The group soon found themselves just outside of the hotel's lobby. There were a number of security guards wandering around, as well as a piano in the middle of the room.

“Why the hell do they have so many damn security guards?” Karasuma hadn’t expect that many guards as he looked around the corner.

Nagisa didn’t like the look of it. “I’m not sure we can sneak past that many guards.”

Karasuma thought about going ahead with only a small group, but quickly decided against it. There was more safety in numbers, especially when going into enemy territory blind. But the question then became, how do they all get through.

Bitch-Sensei didn’t seem to be phased though. “C’mon, what are you waiting for, you guys can sneak through no problem.”

The students started to look at her funny.

“Have you lost it?” Terasaka was the first to pipe up. “There’s no chance we can just sneak through, especially with you walking around looking like you’re on a frickin’ runway.”

“Yeah, no offense Bitch-Sensei, but I’m pretty sure you stick out more than the rest of us,” Mimura pointed out.

“And how are we meant to sneak past any of the guards? There are too many of them,” Kurahashi agreed.

Bitch-Sensei smirked and started walking out from the corridor. “Just leave this to me kids, trust me, you’ll be absolutely fine.”

The students couldn’t believe their eyes. They all secretly thought that Bitch-Sensei was crazy, but this took the cake.

Karasuma was surprised as well, but he knew that whatever his colleague had in mind, she knew what she was doing.

“Gulp.” Even Koro-Sensei wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.

As she walked towards the piano, Bitch-Sensei started to shake around and stagger a bit, intentionally messing up her hair in the process, making it look like she was just a bit confused and drunk.

She then walked into one of the guards. “Oh, sorry about that…” Bitch-Sensei moved her hair out the way, making herself blush whilst doing do. “You can blame the mini-bar in my room.”

The guard she walked into also started to blush, albeit for a different reason. “Oh, uh… Don’t worry ma’am, no harm done.”

“Wait a second, is that…” Bitch-Sensei turned her gaze towards the piano. “That’s the piano I’m performing on next week. I decided to come here early to try out that ‘tourist’ thing I’ve heard so much about.”

“I wonder if she’s any good?” One of the guards asked his coworker.

His fellow guard gave a chuckle. “Well, she can definitely tickle my ivories any time she wants.”

Bitch-Sensei then walked towards the piano and sat down on the stool. “Hey, you wouldn’t mind if I played a few bars, would you? After all, I do need to know that it’s in tune and getting into the groove should sober me up a bit. Pretty please? You boys wouldn’t mind a bit of Chopin, would you?” She continued to lure the guards in.

“Well, I… I think I will need to check in with the front desk—” One of the flustered guards tried to stick to protocol, but Bitch-Sensei grabbed his arm.

“Oh, they won’t mind. C’mon, help me out here, it will be a private concert and I could always do with a bit of audience feedback.”

The guards grew more engrossed. “Us? Give you feedback?”

“Of course.” Bitch-Sensei began to warm up. “Since you work so hard, you deserve a chance to play critic. Help a lady hone her…” She let her words sit in the air for a second. “Technique.”

Bitch-Sensei began to play the piano. And play it she did.

As she began to tickle the ivory, the guards were quickly drawn in by the melody. And they weren’t the only ones.

“…Who knew Bitch-Sensei could play like that?” Maehara was seemingly entranced by her.

“It just makes her even hotter!” Okajima was definitely entranced.

“Ah, what a classical combination of melody and seduction.” Koro-Sensei was just as drawn in as everyone else, if for a slightly different reason.

“Huh, really?” Nagisa held up the ball of teacher to confirm whilst Bitch-Sensei continued to play.

If he wasn’t stuck in ball form, Koro-Sensei would have nodded. “That, boys and girls is a textbook example of an assassin who has multiple blades. She is using both her charms and her music to bewitch the eyes and ears of all those around her.”

And it was definitely effective. All of the guards around her were completely spellbound by her playing.

“She has everyone’s eyes on her.”

From the corner of her eye Bitch-Sensei noticed the guards at the far end of the lobby hadn’t moved yet. “Awe, are you guys a bit shy?” She then turned towards them, giving them a glance of her most prized possessions in the process. “Come over here, make sure I’m playing correctly.”

Bitch-Sensei then allowed the guards to gather around her, and as they did so she flashed a signal at the class. They all recognised it from training. Twenty minutes, so get moving.

Nagisa quickly became alert as the group sneaked their way around the lobby towards the stairs. For a moment, even they had been spellbound. Just when you think you’ve got someone figured out, they pull out a hidden blade for nowhere.

He then noticed something that made him sigh. Maehara and Okajima were having to be dragged along by Sugino and Mimura respectively, the pair (unsurprisingly) more spellbound than the rest of the class.

Nagisa shook his head as he reached the stairs, the last of the students to make it through.

Kayano smiled after doing a quick count. “We’ve all made it through the lobby.”

Okajima seemed to be almost drooling. “But seriously though. She’s hot, she’s got a large pair, she knows how to act sexily, and she can play the piano? If it wasn’t for her attitude, she would be the perfect woman!” Hayami delivered a swift kick to his shin. “Ow!”

Hazama seemed to be thinking. “I wonder what other skills the Bitch has been hiding up her sleeves.”

“There is always more to a book then what you see on the cover, kids,” Karasuma pointed out to them. “A good assassin is always hiding something. Sure, she is immature and gets on your nerves, but the woman who teaches you English is one of the deadliest women alive.”

Koro-Sensei then giggled, getting the class’s attention. “See class, even when I have none, you’re in good hands.” His pun made Karasuma groan and the students smile.

“Well… Let’s go.” Nagisa got everyone back on track.

“Right,” Kayano agreed as everyone made their way up the stairs.

As she continued to play the piano, Bitch-Sensei had full confidence in everyone else to bring the mission home. She would be just fine on her own.

The group managed to make quick progress, passing the first couple of floors with little issue.

As Ritsu gave them a location update, Karasuma quickly took stock. “Ok, now that we’re through the lobby we should be in a good position. If we get stopped we'll just say that we’re guests. Nobody should think we’re out of place.”

Sugino wasn't sure that would work. “Are you certain sir? Would there really be that many junior-high students staying here?”

“Absolutely," Karasuma confirmed with a nod. "This place is going to be filled with the protected scions of the upper class, wasting their time away without a care in the world doing who knows what."

“Which is why you’re going have to do your best to blend in!” Koro-Sensei exclaimed. “So it’s time to walk the walk and talk the talk, give me your best ‘rich kid’ faces please children.”

The entire group pulled their own faces to, honestly, disastrous results.

Nagisa looked like he was trying to do his best Koro-Sensei impression. Karma on the other hand was barely trying to do anything, which made his impression the best. Kayano kept opening and closing her mouth very wide, whilst Terasaka looked like he was suffering from something.

As for the rest of the class, it did not get any better. Kurahashi was pulling the fakest smile she could muster and Maehara was literally holding his nose. Hayami was giving everyone the stink eye whilst Chiba looked like he was going to mug someone.

Sugino looked like he was trying to be the villain in a Saturday morning cartoon and Mimura looked like he’d eaten too many lemons. Muramatsu looked like his face was carved from stone and Nakamura seemed to believe that sticking their tongues out was something that rich kids did.

Finally, Okajima had managed to make himself look even more like a pervert, and Hazama somehow made herself look even creepier than she normally did.

“Those are perfect, class.” Koro-Sensei sounded genuine, but Karasuma disagreed.

“You’re all overdoing it just a little gang,” the agent made his thoughts known.

“Perhaps it would be best to reel it in just a little bit.” Koro-Sensei seemed to be enjoying things if his green stripes were any indication.

“This is a serious mission!” Karasuma admonished his co-worker.

Koro-Sensei’s face returned to its usual yellow colouration. “But, it has occurred to me that we have no idea what our enemy looks like. Even posing as guests, if our enemy knows what we look like, we’re vulnerable to an attack. It would be best if we make sure to stay vigilant.”

“Whatever!” The students gave their best ‘rich kid voice’ a shot, and to be fair it was definitely better than their faces.

Chapter Text

Whilst the healthy students were starting their journey through the hotel, back at the restaurant, Hara and Kanzaki were hard at work trying to do whatever they could to help their sick classmates.

“Oh, that does feel better…” Isogai was able to feel the coldness of the new ice pack that Hara had given him. “You two are lifesavers.”

Hara smiled at the comment as she moved to check on Fuwa. “Please, it’s nothing. We’re just trying our best.”

Yoshida leant up to speak, even if doing so was clearly putting strain on him. “Yeah, well, what did you expect? That’s the class mom for you.”

Hara turned to look at him. “Even still, you should be lying down and resting. I don’t want any of you to make yourselves worse.”

Yoshida complied with a sarcastic, “yes mom.”

Meanwhile, Kanzaki was filling up another ice pack for Kimura. “Their temperatures aren’t going down much. If I remember correctly, if we let their fevers go for too long, it could cause them brain damage.”

Hara nodded in agreement. “Well, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen then.”

Kanzaki adjusted her face mask for a second before nodding back. “Agreed.”

Hara prepared another ice pack. “I just hope that the virus doesn’t spread to anyone else.”

“I don’t believe that to be all too likely.” Takebayashi suddenly spoke up, causing the two girls to look over to him.

“Takebayashi, are you certain?” Kanzaki wanted to know what he meant.

Takebayashi tried to push up his glasses but was barely able to move them an inch. “While I’ve been laid here, I’ve had some time to think. The fact is that neither of you have come down with symptoms. If I was to guess, this virus was spread orally.”

Kanzaki thought about that. “So, you think that the virus was in something you ate?”

Takebayashi took a long breath before continuing. “Or something we drank. Either way, it means that the virus is unlikely to spread to anyone else. That’s what I hope at least.” He took another deep breath as he finished.

Hara went to over to change Takebayashi’s ice pack. “Well, I guess that’s something…”

Kanzaki frowned. If Takebayashi was correct, that meant that someone managed to not only poison their classmates, but had gotten the poison into something they’d ingested. Who could have done that, and when could they have done it?

The healthy students were making steady progress through the hotel. As they passed through another corridor, a couple of guests passed them by without a second glance.

Mimura was surprised by how well things were going. “I’m not sure how, but I think the other guests think we’re staying here as well, none of them are looking at us for more than a second.”

Chiba had been thinking about that. “This place does have a reputation. People usually come here to keep a low profile, so they likely just think we have some sort of secret, which is technically true.”

Kayano, who was walking with Kurahashi, gave a smile. “You know at first I was sure everybody here would be a problem, but getting to the top floor has turned out to be surprisingly simple so far.”

Kurahashi shared a smile with her. “I’m just glad we have Mr. Karasuma with us.” She sighed. “I feel a lot safer knowing that he’s in charge.”

The group found that the hallway led out into some sort of central room, with hallways going from all four directions.

“Well so far, this is turning out to be a piece of cake,” Terasaka gloated. “It looks to me like the guy didn’t expect for us to actually try anything.”

Karasuma could tell that the delinquent was about to try something, and tried to stop him. “We’re not there yet, don’t get too cocky!”

Terasaka wasn’t about to listen though. “But the clock's ticking, so I say we just storm the joint!”

“Yeah!” Muramatsu seemed to agree with his friend.

“Wait!” Karasuma tried to stop them, but it was too late.

The pair of delinquents suddenly broke from the rest of the group. Hazama shook her head at them as they started running straight towards a man seemingly not paying them any attention.

After staring at the man for a couple of seconds, Mimura knew there was something familiar about him. “Wait? Is that…?” He realised exactly where he’d seen the man before. “Terasaka! Stop!”

Karasuma, immediately knowing that something was wrong, rushed forward towards Terasaka and Muramatsu, the pair having stopped right in front of the man at Mimura’s warning to look back at him, taking their eyes off the man in the process.

The man started to reach towards his face as Karasuma managed to fling Terasaka and Muramatsu behind himself to safety.

Just in time too.

The man pulled up a mask around his mouth and pulled out an odd canister, releasing the contents straight at the now wide-open Karasuma.

“Gas!” Karasuma managed to get out as he knocked the canister away from his assailant.

“Oh shit!” “Mr. K!” “Are you alright sir?!”

Their foe pulled down his mask, making eye contact with Mimura in the process. “What gave me away? One of my main selling points is the fact that I keep myself as innocuous as possible, so how did you recognise me as a threat, mushroom head?”

Mimura answered his challenge. “Well, if I remember correctly, you were the one who handed out the complimentary drinks to us when we first arrived.”

Everyone thought back to when they had arrived on the island earlier that day.

The stranger, dressed as a waiter, handed each of them a complimentary drink. “Tropical Juice, compliments of the house. Enjoy.”

The rest of the group realised that Mimura was correct. It was the same guy, no doubt about it.

Mimura continued with his deduction. “But the question then becomes, if you were working for the other hotel, then why are you here? It just doesn't make any sense.”

Nakamura realised what he meant. “Yeah… you’re right!”

The enemy then started to laugh. “Ha! You’ve got a good eye, I’ll give you that at least.”

“So you must be responsible for making the others sick!” Kayano concluded.

The man didn’t seem phased by the accusation. “And what reason is there to accuse me? On tropical islands like this, illnesses are a dime a dozen. What proof do you have that my drinks had anything to do with making them sick?”

Kayano realised that the man had a point. “Ah. Well. Dang it!”

Nakamura then had a thought. “Wait. Everyone must have gotten the virus at the same time, right?”

Karma nodded, wondering where she was going with this. “Considering that everyone became ill at the same time, I’d say that’s pretty likely.”

“And I’m pretty sure that the only time everyone was together before they became sick was when we first got here.” Nakamura smirked as she pointed towards the man. “When you gave us our drinks.”

The man only raised an eyebrow. “And you’re certain that there wasn’t any other time you were together?”

“Well, we were all together for dinner,” Hayami added hesitantly.

Nakamura shook her head. “Nope. A couple of us skipped dinner, I’m sure of it.”

But Mimura shook his head as well. “I don’t think that matters Nakamura. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that the only ones who skipped dinner were me and Okajima, as we needed to finish the editing on our video. But since neither of us have gotten sick, dinner is still a viable option.” Just behind him, Okajima nodded in agreement.

Nakamura frowned at that. “Oh yeah… I guess that’s true.”

Seeing that he had seemingly won the argument, the man gave another laugh and turned to leave. “Well in that case, how about you track down the chef that served you dinner. Maybe you could ask them about keeping your friends alive.”

But Mimura caught something that the man had said. “Hey, sir?”

“Yes? Do you have any more questions?” The man asked smugly as he turned back around.

Mimura seemed to be thinking about something. “Yes, actually. I do have one question for you.” He locked eyes with the man. “Why do you think our friends are dying?”

The man was surprised by this question. “What do you mean?”

Mimura was now looking confident. “Well, you just said that we should track down the chef and ask them about keeping our friends alive. But it’s not like any random illness is a guaranteed death sentence, so why do you think that they’re dying?”

“Well, that’s…” The man stopped as he realized his mistake.

“The only way you could be so confident that our friend are in danger of dying was if you knew what they were poisoned with.” Mimura pointed towards the man. “And the only way you’d know that was if you were the one poisoned them in the first place!”

The man was shocked as he realised it was his own slip of the tongue that had managed to reveal him.

“Whoa, that was some good sleuthing there,” Nagisa complimented.

Mimura looked embarrassed. “Well to be honest, Fuwa helped me out quite a bit. She told me before we left that she suspected the waiter, and to keep an eye out for him. So once I saw him, I just had to put the pieces together.”

Sugino seemed to think about that. “So, we could consider this a joint effort from both you and Fuwa?”

Mimura gave a nod. “Yeah, pretty much, though it was clear that the sickness was starting to get to her. She kept saying ‘Bye Nero’ or something like that?”

About twenty minutes earlier, Mimura kept trying to talk to the sick Fuwa, but the otaku clearly had other plans.

“Buy Neuro, buy Neuro, buy Neuro!” She kept repeating. “Yeah, I’m talking to you there, reading this flashback. So what are you waiting for, go out and buy Neuro: Supernatural Detective, all volumes available now.” Meanwhile, Mimura looked extremely confused and worried for his classmate.

Even though he had been exposed, the poisoner started to chuckle as Karasuma fell to his knees, the poison having taken effect on him. “I can’t believe I was so careless as to be exposed by my own words, but well done. Shame it’s just a little too late to matter.”

“This man is a master of poisons, children,” Koro-Sensei advised from within his orb. “He knows everything about what poisons do and how to apply them. Do not take him lightly.”

The poisoner looked over at Karasuma, smirking. “Not to brag about this, but the gas your teacher inhaled is one of my own creation. All it takes is one breath to practically paralyse someone. And lucky for me, it disperses immediately in fresh air, so I don’t have to worry about any aftereffects.”

Seeing that he was no longer focused on them, the students began to move around the room.

The poisoner once again turned to leave. “But none of that matters. Honestly, I thought that the deal the boss offered you was a fair one, but I guess you kids value the bounty more than your friend’s lives." His words caused the students to scowl from their various locations, not that he noticed. “And since this is a pretty clear sign that you aren’t willing to negotiate, I’m going to have to go and tell the boss that the deal is off.”

Karasuma made sure to give a look of defeated horror. Even from his current position, he could see what the poisoner had missed.

The poisoner put a hand up, as if to say farewell. “Oh well, you win some you lose some—”

But as soon as he fully turned around, the poisoner saw that he wouldn’t be leaving so easily, as Chiba, Terasaka, Nakamura and Maehara all blocked the entrance to the corridor.

The poisoner could only stare in surprise. He looked around to see if he could escape through a side corridor, only to find that the rest of the students had done the same and had blocked the side corridors.

“The first rule when coming up against an enemy,” Nakamura started.

“Is to scout the exits, block their retreat,” Maehara continued.

“And cut off their communications!” Terasaka finished with a smirk, ready to fight if he had to.

“Exactly as you taught us, right sir?” Nakamura asked their teacher, who was smiling.

“Sorry, but it seems you exposed your true colours just a bit too early. If you had just kept hidden you could have easily informed the man that hired you about our arrival.” Karasuma was somehow able to get up, albeit it was clear in both posture and voice that he was still struggling. “Now you’re surrounded and outnumbered, so how about you just come quietly?”

The poisoner was thrown off balance but put his mask back on and turned to once again face Karasuma. “You can still speak, huh? The first rule when facing numerous enemies is that if you cut off the head… Then the body dies! Observe!”

The poisoner quickly pulled out another canister of poison. But before he could do anything, Karasuma launched a swift kick straight at his head, knocking him down to the ground.

The poisoner couldn’t believe how Karasuma had still been able to move, even after inhaling the gas. But it was clear that Karasuma had used up any spare energy he had in order to attack.

He watched as Karasuma tried to continue standing, but he could tell it was a losing battle. As he started to let unconsciousness take him, the poisoner hoped that, once all of this was over, he would not encounter Karasuma again.

Karasuma then also collapsed to the ground, unable to stand any longer.

“Mr. Karasuma!” Was all most of the students could cry out, but a couple of them were more focused on the other fallen body.

“Hey!” Terasaka bellowed out, pointing towards the poisoner's unmoving form. “We can deal with Teach in a second, how about we make sure that this a-hole is down for the count!”

While Terasaka, Muramatsu and Karma all made sure to tie the man up, with the former two putting a table over their defeated foe, the rest of the students made sure their teacher was okay.

After a few minutes, the class were finally able to relax for a second. But they were still worried about Mr. Karasuma.

“Are you certain you don’t want us to leave you here sir?” Sugino, who was currently making sure that Karasuma was upright, made sure this was the case.

Karasuma gave a weak sigh, having already answered this question multiple times already. “Yes, I’m sure. All I need is half an hour and I’ll be fine. Just don’t get yourselves into the same situation again, I won’t be able to protect you going forward.”

Okajima couldn't believe his teacher. “You say that as if anyone else in your position wouldn’t be completely unable to move for a couple of days. Seriously, you’re inhuman!"

“You do give off those super soldier vibes, sir,” Kayano agreed.

The group of students continued their journey down the corridors, Karasuma now being propped up by Sugino.

Nagisa was carrying Koro-Sensei while he tried to get his thoughts straight. Sure, Mr. Karasuma was inhuman, but even he had his limits, and with him incapacitated for the time being, that meant that none of their teachers could physically help them going forward.

And while they might have taken out the person who was directly responsible for poisoning their classmates, chances were that he wasn’t the only hostile lurking within the hotel. Could the group defeat another professional like him, all on their own?

“Woo-hoo! Summer vacation is finally in full swing!” Koro-Sensei decided to speak up with an orange sun across his face, very clearly not reading the room.

The thought on everyone’s minds was unanimous. Did he seriously just say that?! Everyone started to point straight at their overly happy teacher with thunder on their faces.

“Nice to see that you’re handling the situation well in your armoured transport, sir!” Sugino couldn’t help but snark. Next to him, Karasuma wasn’t saying anything but if his expression was any indication, he agreed with Sugino’s sentiment.

Nakamura also had something to say. “How can you be so positive right now, summer vacation is the last thing on our minds!”

“And if you haven’t forgotten, 10 of our friends are currently dying!” Maehara protested as well.

“If he wants full swing, give him full swing!” Everyone asked Nagisa at the same time.

Nagisa, who was currently holding their teacher and felt the same way as his classmates, duly obliged, rocketing the bag containing Koro-Sensei around, said teacher screaming as he was swung around wildly.

After a couple of seconds Karma grabbed Nagisa by the arm to stop him. “Hey Terasaka, could you pull your shorts open for a second? I’m gonna cram Mr. have-a-nice-day down your pants to give him a more accurate view of the situation.”

“Like hell you are!”

Nagisa removed his arm from Karma’s grip, before holding up Koro-Sensei to ask him a question. “Okay, I’ll bite, why does it feel like summer vacation now?”

Koro-Sensei took a second to recover before answering. “It’s because my students are acting independently of me and my colleagues. That’s what summer vacation is all about. It gives students an extended break from the monotonous routine that school provides, allowing them to become more independent, learning to think and act on their own.”

The group started to calm down as they listened to his explanation. While he could have just said that without being all cheerful, he wasn’t wrong.

Koro-Sensei seemed to be glowing with pride towards his students. “If any other group of students were in this situation, then they would honestly stand very little chance, but you and your classmates have all the tools you need to succeed. This is no ordinary summer vacation, but instead a vacation fitting of a group of assassins. Myself, Mr. Karasuma and Ms. Irina have all helped you polish your blades as much as we can, now it’s up to you to use them.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the hotel, a strange conversation was taking place.

A man was preparing a bowl of ramen. “First you start with primo seafood stock. Make sure you don’t skimp out on the green onions, or the minced garlic. Then, just add a dash of steel!” The man thrust the barrel of his revolver into the ramen, splashing it everywhere.

He then brought the gun up to his mouth and put it straight in. “It’s the best way to soup up a gun, as when the broth seeps down the barrel it becomes cold,” the man commented, his words slightly muffled by the weapon in his mouth.

The person he was talking with chuckled as he scratched at his face. “Well, that certainly gets my blood curdling. I’m assuming that the gun’s not on safety?”

“Eh, I know what I’m doing, so just relax.” The man proceeded to shove the gun back into the ramen. “And it’ll still shoot when the time comes. A good firearm needs to have a good personality. A good mix of the four most important flavours. Sweet, savoury, sour, and fatal.”

“Well, you certainly have personality,” the other man commented. “And so do your friends.”

“Don’t judge us,” the first man countered as he stirred his dish with his gun. “When you’ve been in the game as long as we have, you tend to become a bit eccentric. It’s almost a mark of being a good assassin, shows you’ve become desensitised, become comfortable, you get me?"

The assassin thinks about one of his partners as an example. "Look at Smog. He loves all of his poisonous little concoctions, to the point where his lab is genuinely one of the best in the world for those types of substances. Nobody else has such a wide variety of deadly toxins.”

The other man already knew that. That’s why he hired Smog in the first place. He didn’t have much experience with deadly poisons, so it was far easier for him to hire an expert who knew all the worst ones instead.

"Truly a man after my own heart,” the other man noted with a sadistic edge to his voice as he took another scratch at his face. “But what about the third man I hired, Grip. Is he a bit of a weirdo too?”

“Oh, Grip?” The man with the gun clarified. “Yeah. Honestly, he might be the most out there between the three of us, and that is saying something..."

Chapter Text

As the group of students made their way up a couple of floors, they eventually found themselves needing to cross through a walkway with large windows in order to make it to the next set of stairs. The only problem was that as soon as they peered around the walkway’s walls to look for any danger, they quickly saw that they were not alone.

A man was standing within the walkway, obviously waiting for something or someone. He was looking away from the windows and leaning against the glass, not focusing on anything but just standing out in the open.

The students stopped at the start of the walkway, keeping close to the wall, unsure of what to do about the elephant in the room.

Okajima decided to break the silence. “So, that guy is totally suspicious, right?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Nagisa agreed.

“He’s not a regular guest, that’s for sure,” Muramatsu noted as he peered at the man. “Seriously, he’s just standing there, kinda menacingly.”

Still being helped to stand by Sugino, Karasuma was doing a quick scan of the area. The walkway was wide open, meaning there was no way to sneak through, and he could already tell that the man standing in their way was dangerous, and confident enough to not rely on surprise.

Karasuma frowned. He really wished he had brought a real gun right now. He’d brought a BB gun, naturally, but since the target wasn’t affected by bullets, he hadn’t thought about packing any real heat. Even with himself immobilised, it would be better to have than have not.

While the students tried to figure out exactly what to do, the man, Grip, pushed his hand straight into the glass window of the walkway, causing it to crack. This snapped the students attention straight to him.

"Boring," Grip stated lazily, like cracking a window was but a simple task for him. "I can hear your footsteps people. I didn't take this job to kill a bunch of amateurs, aren't you supposed to be led by some sort of military guy, or did he get taken out already, hm?"

Karasuma tensed up, worried at how easily this assassin had noticed them coming.

Grip continued on with his monologue. "I guess the gas got to him. Smog live or did they kill each other like the professionals they are? Come out where I can see you, hm."

With their positions compromised, the students had no choice but to step out of the shadows. They could only wonder how much strength this guy had to be able to crack a window like that.

But they had also noticed something else strange. None of them were going to mention it, but the way this guy was speaking, it was…

“Dude. What’s with the all the stupid 'hm’s'?” Karma broke the silence with a tone of curiosity on his lips.

Everyone else screamed internally. Why did Karma always have to say what they were thinking out loud!

“It’s how samurais used to talk, hm,” Grip answered Karma’s question. “I read someplace that they did it to sound intimidating. And honestly, I like the way it makes me sound a little more dangerous.”

The group started to realise that this guy was definitely at least a little off. But that didn’t make him any less dangerous.

Grip started to crack his fingers by moving them around, the grizzly sound fully audible. “This is actually the first time I’ve decided to try it, hm. So if you’re not impressed I can simply kill you all to make it a clean slate.”

Koro-Sensei decided to ask a question on his mind. “You seem to be focusing on your hands, sir. It wouldn’t happen to be the case that they are your only form of weapon, would it?”

Grip was happy to explain. “Do you know how easy it is to get past security when you have nothing to hide, hm? Weapons can be nice, but usually these babies are all I need. Heck, I could crush someone’s skull with them if I wanted to.”

More than one member of the group suddenly felt like they needed to protect their heads in some way.

Grip smirked as he saw the fear in their eyes. “And the funniest thing is that, once you get this good, you start to crave a real challenge, hm. I’m still a killer, don’t get me wrong, but I really wanted to test myself.” He stared at the still immobilised Karasuma. “But instead I’m left with Smog’s leftovers.”

He then pulled out a walkie-talkie from his pocket. “Well, I would just kill you all, but since you all know that I’m here, it would probably end up too messy, hm. I guess I should probably just tell the boss that the deal’s off.”

Most of the group started to panic, but Grip didn’t seem to care. “Oh well, hopefully he allows me to kill you anyway—”

Before Grip could activate the device, Karma suddenly swung a potted plant straight at it, knocking it out of Grip’s hand and smashing it into the window.

Karma seemed even more cocky than usual. “Really, so you just decided that we aren’t worth your attention? Because if you ask me you don’t look like anything special, and if you really think causing some crack in a window is a show of dominance, then it looks like I win.”

Karma turned his head towards the now much large crack before turning back to Grip, a casual smirk on his face. “And didn’t you go through an entire monologue about how you wanted to have a good fight. Come on, I’m always willing to put my money where my mouth is, but are you?”

The other students were surprised at just how casually Karma was taunting the assassin. Karasuma knew he needed to rein the boy in. “Karma! Please, don’t engage with the—”

“Not so fast Mr. Karasuma,” Koro-Sensei cut off his colleague, catching everyone’s attention in the process. “Look, Karma’s chin is down.”

Sure enough, Koro-Sensei was correct. Nagisa was the first to figure out what he meant. After all, he’d faced Karma more than enough times during P.E. to know that he usually kept his chin up.

Koro-Sensei explained what he meant to the rest of the group. “Karma typically enters a fight with his chin angled upwards. It shows distain, he’s literally looking down on his opponents. But not this time. Sure, he may be acting just as confident as he usually does, but his chin, his posture, his eyes, they all show his true emotions. He’s alert, on guard, making sure to lock his eyes with his opponents. He is not underestimating them in the slightest. Remember, he got too cocky during finals, and ultimately his ego paid the price. But failure is a lesson in its own right, and one that I believe Karma has taken to heart.”

As Koro-Sensei finished his explanation, everyone looked at Karma like they were seeing him in a new light.

Karma gave a small chuckle. He didn’t think he was that obvious. But at the same time, he stayed focused on the assassin standing in front of him.

Grip seemed almost impressed with Karma. “You know what, hm?” He took off his jacket and allowed it to fall to the floor, before taking a fighting position. “You’ve got yourself a fight.”

Koro-Sensei gave Karma some final encouragement. “Karma, go and give him everything you’ve got. You’ve already proven yourself the best fighter in E-Class, but this time you will be dancing with a much greater foe. Are you sure you can win?”

Karma almost wanted to laugh. “Of course I am.”

Nagisa knew that Karma wouldn’t start a fight with someone unless he thought he could win. But was he being overconfident, or did he actually have a chance?

As the two combatants began the motions towards their duel, the small crowd of onlookers could only speculate on what was going to happen next.

Sugino turned to his friend. “Nagisa, you know Karma the best out of all of us. Do you think he can win?”

And that was a good question. Because Karma was certainly strong, but was he strong enough to take out an expert, one capable of killing with a single blow?

Nagisa mulled on this for a few seconds. “I’m not sure. On one hand, the enemy certainly has the upper hand strength and skill wise, but with Karma, anything is possible.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Sugino noted to himself.

Finally, the duel began. Karma tried to strike first, rushing straight towards Grip, swinging the plant he had been holding at him. But Grip countered by grabbing the trunk of the plant within his hand.

“After all that talk about a good fight, the first thing you do is try and use a weapon, hm?” Grip questioned. “Really, is that the best you can do?” He then exerted a bit more force and crushed the plant’s trunk in two. Most of the onlooking group stared wide-eyed at this, but Karma didn’t seem perturbed.

“Well, it was worth a shot.” Karma moved backwards slightly, adjusting his posture in the process. “Guess I’ll just have to do without.”

Grip then made his own move, charging towards Karma and immediately coming out swinging. But Karma wasn’t fighting back at all. The opposite actually. He was dodging and blocking all of Grip’s attacks, playing purely defensively.

Karma’s smirk seemed to grow with every successful block. While he would normally try to end a fight quickly, against his current opponent rushing in would only lead to one outcome, so he had to play defensively. Whilst it might seem impossible to win without fighting, a certain teacher had taught him that as long as you made yourself impossible to hit, victory was possible.

From the sidelines, the rest of the group watched intently, mesmerised by the fight going on in front of them, keeping a close eye on what Karma was doing.

“So, he’s gone for the defensive approach. Interesting strategy,” Hazama mused to herself.

Maehara nodded as Karma dodged another strike. “Yeah, but so far at least it appears to be working.”

Nagisa was wondering about when had Karma learned to be so defensive, it was the opposite of his usual fighting style.

But Koro-Sensei knew where he had seen those moves before. “I believe that most of these techniques come straight from your own playbook, Mr. Karasuma.”

“That appears to be the case, yes,” Karasuma confirmed, but he was surprised. He hadn’t taught those moves in class, not to Karma or anyone else. Self-defence wasn’t exactly a top priority for an assassin, especially when up against a target who would never respond with violence.

He thought back to a previous lesson, where he used the same defensive techniques that Karma was now using to protect himself from some of the students attacks. But the only way he could have learned those moves was through observing him.

To be able to learn so much just from watching someone was incredible. Even in a classroom of assassins, Karma was a cut about his peers when it came to his talent for fighting.

Karma continued to weave around Grip’s various strikes, blocking some blows and dodging others. But he couldn’t keep dodging and blocking forever, and if he tried to attack he would just be leaving himself wide open. So what was he going to do?

Grip stopped his barrage of attacks, not impressed by Karma’s strategy. “What are you playing at, hm? If you can’t even attack, then you have no chance of getting past me.”

“Really now?” Karma smirked once more. “For all you know, I could just be holding you off long enough for everyone else to go on ahead without you being able to do anything about it.”

Grip stared at him, not looking impressed. “Well, it’s to looks to me that your friends didn’t get that memo, hm.”

“I guess that’s true.” Karma quickly changed his posture, cracking his knuckles whilst getting into a fighting stance. “But I thought we had a samurai’s agreement, right? So come on, let’s fight like men. No weapons allowed, no funny business either. Sound fair to you?”

The rest of the group continued to watch the fight unfolding in front of them. They could tell that Karma was confident, but did that mean he thought he could win?

Koro-Sensei seemed to be chuckling. “Well, it looks like this battle is about to reach its climax. I can’t wait to see the final result.”

Grip seemed open to Karma’s challenge. “Hm, that’s a bold declaration. Looks like I might finally get to fight a true equal, which is something I’ve long yearned for, hm. Fine then, I agree to your terms.”

And thus, the battle resumed, only this time both Grip and Karma were going all out in their offensives, sending punches each other’s way.

After a couple rounds of this, Grip decided to finish things. He let his guard down slightly, allowing Karma to land a couple of blows on him, trying to make him think he had an opening.

And Karma took the bait, sending a kick towards Grip’s leg. The assassin wasn’t really phased by it, but he made it seem like he was, grunting and staggering backwards before kneeling with his back turned, as if he was trying to recover. But he was actually smirking, and knew that this was too good of an opportunity for his opponent to pass up.

Karma knew that victory was in sight now, and so he rushed towards Grip, ready to beat him down…

Exactly as Grip wanted. He revealed the gas canister he was holding in his hand and pointed it over his shoulder, sending a spray of the same gas that paralysed Karasuma straight into Karma’s face.

Karma immediately fell towards the floor, Grip grabbing him by his hair. “Say goodnight, hm.”

The rest of the group watched this happen with shock and, after a second, anger. After all he had said about wanting a fair fight, the assassin had taken out Karma with an extremely dirty trick.

But Koro-Sensei had noticed something. Sure, he didn’t know exactly what he had seen, but he had a feeling that things were not quite as they seemed.

“I’m not really the biggest fan of long fights, hm.” Grip looked at the canister in his hand as he got up. “And for all of his eccentricities, when it comes to poisons Smog really knows his stuff.”

He turned his head towards the now prone Karma. He had to admit, the kid was far better than he expected. But he was naïve to expect a professional assassin to play by the rules.

Nakamura looked at Grip with distain. “I didn’t realise that using poison gas was in the samurai code of conduct.”

Grip just shrugged at her. “Now hang on a second, I only said I fight mainly bare-handed, not that I only fight without weapons. In the world of assassins, if you rely on one thing exclusively, the only thing you’re going to end up with is a bullet between the eyes, hm.”

He pulled up Karma by his face, lifting the seemingly paralysed boy off the ground. He started to turn towards his downed opponent, properly basking in his victory over the sadistic student, now completely unable to move. Or at least, he should be.

“A simple sneak attack, hm, but one that can’t be seen coming in the heat of battle, giving the victim no chance to—” Before Grip could finish his explanation, Karma suddenly pulled out a canister of his own, and before the assassin could do anything, he found his own face covered in thick gas.

Grip was forced to breathe in the poison in disbelief, and immediately started to feel its effects and forcing him to drop Karma. “How did—how did you—manage that? Hm?”

From the sidelines, the entire group reacted with shock. What the heck had Karma managed to pull this time!

The gas cleared, showing that Karma had a handkerchief over his mouth, pulling it away to reveal a devilish grin. “Well, I guess great minds really do think alike. After all, we both planned the exact same trap.”

Grip was stunned, both figuratively and literally. “How did—how did you not—breath in—any—any of the gas—hm? You—should be—paralysed—it was—it was a point blank—shot?” He staggered up a bit and managed to grab a switchblade hidden in his shirt, before lunging straight at Karma with it.

But weakened by the gas, Grip was just a bit more sluggish. And that was more than enough for Karma to make a quick dodge and grab Grip by the arm. He then used his hold on Grip’s arm to take him down and shoved him to the floor, Karma using his own weight to keep Grip pinned as the assassin started to cry out in pain.

“Hey, Terasaka!” Karma started to give orders. “Can you and the rest of the guys who aren’t holding anyone get over here? What are you waiting for, we’re going need the numbers to keep him down.”

Terasaka sighed for a second. “Yeah alright, fine.” He then rushed in with a grin. “You’ve been yanking this creep’s chain all along, haven’t you!” He then proceeded to help pin Grip down, with Muramatsu, Maehara, Chiba, Okajima and Mimura all quickly following, completely crushing Grip in the process. “You knew that he wasn’t going to fight fair, so you never planned to either, am I right?”

Karma responded with a smirk before turning his head back to the rest of the group. “And Nakamura, I know you’d never leave home without some quality pranking supplies, so you wouldn’t happen to have any tape handy?”

Nakamura gave a grin before producing a roll of tape. “Right here!” She threw it over to the group, Maehara catching it in his hand.

Karasuma made sure that his students would get the job done properly. “Make sure that you tape him up securely. He might be immobilised, but he could still easily break free if you aren’t careful, so stay on guard.”

“Yes, sir.” “Of course we will.” “You take us for some kind of idiots?” “That’s ironic coming from your mouth, Terasaka.” “What’s that supposed to mean!”

After a couple of minutes, the group of boys stood up to admire their handywork.

The end result made Grip look like some kind of mummy, tape pretty much covering him entirely from the neck down. The assassin kept ‘hm-ing’ to himself whilst Karma played with the now used up cannister.

Karma then turned his head to look at his defeated foe. “Y’know, this stuff really is quite useful, I swiped it off that friend of yours when we tied him up. Real shame it can only be used once, but at least I made it count.”

Grip seemed to mull Karma’s answer over. “But, hm… how did you know to protect yourself. You must have held your breath, but how did you know that I would use something else besides me hands?”

Karma smiled brightly. “Because I knew that you would. It was so obvious you were going to try something that I was prepared for literally anything except you just using your hands.”

Grip took his words in. “Hm… Was I that obvious?”

Karma shrugged. “Deep down, I think you really wanted a fair fight. But at the same time, your boss probably ordered you to take us down by any means necessary and since he’s the one writing your check whatcha supposed to do?” Karma went and sat down in front of Grip. “I wouldn’t have done anything differently myself. And since I knew that you would try to do something underhanded, your hands were the very last thing I was on guard against.”

Kayano nodded in understanding. “I see… I wouldn’t have thought of that myself.”

“I don’t think any of us would have,” Nakamura agreed.

Nagisa smiled. It seemed that Karma had actually changed for the better.

Koro-Sensei decided to explain what had happened. “Karma’s always succeeded before, and so that was why midterms were such a reality check to him. Because he failed. Big time. And so, even if he didn’t want to, he had to go and a take a good look at himself in the mirror and ask, where did I go wrong? And what he realised was that, ultimately, he wasn’t on a pedestal, high above everyone else, he could no longer look at an opponent and think ‘They’re below me’.”

Karma looked almost embarrassed at his teacher’s words, but as usual, he was right on the money.

Koro-Sensei couldn’t be prouder of Karma than he was right now. “Because of this, Karma had to alter his perspective and force himself to see them as an equal, and go into battle with that mindset. This allowed him to not underestimate his foe and prepare for every eventuality. Remember this, boys and girls… You will always fail at some point or another. But what matters most is not the failure itself, but what you do after it.”

Everyone thought about his words for a second, with a certain pair of snipers putting quite a bit of thought into them.

“Karma… I know you’ve taken this lesson to heart. I’m very excited for what your future holds.”

Seeing that the orb was finally done talking, Grip took that as his time to get his own words in. “Hm. You managed to beat me at my own game, young warrior. I might have lost this time, but that bout was a thrilling experience, and if we ever meet again on the battlefield—”

“Hang on a second, I’m not done yet.”

Before Grip could finish, he was cut off by a red head with devil horns.

“After all, the fun’s only just getting started,” Karma said with a smile on his face, holding up a pair of tubes that seemed to have ‘Hot Mustard’ and ‘Wasabi’ written on them.

“What do you mean by that, hm?” Grip suddenly felt like he was about to have a really bad time. “And what are those things in your hands?”

Karma was more than happy to answer his question. “Oh, these? They’re mustard and wasabi. Perfect for sticking up people’s nostrils.”

“What, Hm!” Grip really hoped that the boy was joking, but the horrified reactions of the rest of the group told him otherwise.

Everyone else was now extremely concerned. What was Karma about to do to this poor, poor man.

Their concern did not ease up in the slightest as Karma proceeded to grab a bag labelled ‘useful things’ from where he had somehow managed to stash them in Terasaka's backpack. In fact, this only caused everyone to become more concerned.

But Karma didn’t seem to notice any of this. “Well, at first I had to keep my guard up around you and be all serious.” He managed to clamp a device around Grip’s head, with clips pulling his nostrils and mouth open. “But now you can’t do anything, I get to have some fun! Oh, and don’t struggle too much, unless you want to rip your nose off of course.”

The now confirmed sadist continued to empty the bag, revealing it to be full of various condiments. Or as Karma seemed to be using them, torture implements. “Now let’s see, you’ve got your jalapeno’s, your hatch chili’s, your ghost pepper’s, those are a real kick in the balls, right? And a pinch of garlic for hard health.” Karma had the biggest smirk on his face as he prepared to attack. “Well, what do you think, hm? Show us the willpower samurai are famous for.”

Karma shoved the tip of the tube of mustard straight into Grip’s open nostril and squeezed hard. Grip gave the best scream he could in his current state of agony.

“So uh… I noticed… Karma’s still a sadist,” Nagisa remarked as he and the rest of the group stared blanky at the public torture session unfolding in front of them.

Koro-Sensei just kept smiling, albeit it was clear it was forced. “I'm very concerned about what his future holds in store.”

“I would ask who the hell walks around with this sort of stuff, but you’re you…” Terasaka muttered as he stored the ‘useful things’ into his backpack for safekeeping. “And can we get a move on? If we stick around doing this then someone will catch us.”

“And when they see a brute like you, they’ll call for security,” Karma teased.

Terasaka brushed it off. “Ha ha, very funny.”

Chapter Text

As the group made their way up the stairs to the next floor, Ritsu decided to give them an overview of the area that laid ahead of them. “Attention everyone, next up is the hotel's terrace. And while the stairs to the VIP floors are close by, there is a catch.”

Hayami checked the map on her phone. “The bar floor. This could be a problem.”

Ritsu brought up a diagram of the floor’s layout in order to better explain the issue. “Whilst the stairwell is close by, just inside the lounge area, there is a door in the way, and it only opens from the inside. So in order to get through, someone will have to go through the bar so they can unlock it and let everyone else through.” She showed what they needed to do on screen.

Karasuma started trying to think of something. The last thing he wanted to do was split the kids up, especially not within the bar floor, that was just asking for trouble. If he had recovered a bit more, then he would have done it himself, but for now he still needed Sugino’s help to stand.

And they couldn’t all go in, they were far too large of a group. Going through the corridors had been fine so far, but in an open area with lots of security, a large group moving all together would be incredibly suspicious. So what could they do?

Mimura also pondered this. “I don’t think we’ll all be able to get through the bar undetected. We’ll stick out like sore thumbs.”

“Yeah, but we don’t have much time. At least some of us will have to go through,” Chiba pointed out.

“Then you guys and the teachers can just hide here whilst we do the hard work.” The boys looked up to see Nakamura standing on the staircase, the rest of the girls just behind her. “We can sneak through the bar no problem. You guys might stick out, but us girls won’t be anywhere near as suspicious.” The other girls nodded in agreement.

Karasuma didn’t agree. “No, I can’t allow you to go in there alone. Underaged girls at a bar might be less suspicious, yes, but it would also be a lot more dangerous. You girls are all more than capable, but I can’t put you at risk like that.”

“But what other choice do we have? Not unless someone has any better ideas?” Nakamura tried to argue, but the glare Karasuma gave her told everyone that he wouldn’t be moved.

But Karma seemed to be thinking. “Okay then!” Everyone turned to him to hear what he had to say. “In that case, plan B it is.” He then turned to look at something, everyone following his view to find that he was looking directly at Nagisa, who was caught by surprise.

A bead of sweat rolled down Nagisa’s face. Why did have a bad feeling about this?

Sugino turned back to Karma and eyed his classmate suspiciously. “Karma, what’s plan B?”

Karma responded with a smirk, which didn’t assure Sugino in any way. “You don’t have to worry about it. All you need to know is that my excellent idea will allow Nagisa to infiltrate the bar with the girls.”

Nagisa realised exactly what Karma was thinknig. “Karma, please don’t tell me that your plan is what I think it is.”

But before Karma could respond, Karasuma shook his head again. “No. Even with Nagisa with them, that would mean there’s only six of you and who knows how many potential hostiles in there. If there was one or two more of you then maybe, but unless anyone has a better idea, the least dangerous strategy at this point might just be for everyone to go in and try not to risk it.”

Koro-Sensei also had an idea. “Well, Mr. Karasuma, perhaps we could send a couple more of the boys into the bar with them. If they're willing, of course.”

Sugino motioned for Nagisa, who was currently holding the Koro-Sensei orb, to come over so he could speak to the teacher. “Not to be rude sir, but if Karma’s plan is what I think it is, then none of us besides Nagisa will be able to pull it off.” He quickly realised what he just said. “Uh, no offense bro.”

Nagisa cast him an exhausted look. “None taken.”

Koro-Sensei only chuckled as he gained his green stripes of confidence. “I wasn’t implying we would follow Karma’s plan, actually. In fact, I personally believe there are two other boys currently with us who can blend into the bar atmosphere slightly better than the others.” The students could tell that Koro-Sensei was looking at the students he had in mind, but couldn’t tell who he was looking at.

Whilst Karasuma didn’t like the situation in the slightest, he couldn’t think of a better option. After a second, he made up his mind. “As long as you two tell the rest of us whatever ideas you’ve cooked up and I don’t think they are too dangerous, I’ll allow it.”

“Are you sure sir?” Everyone turned to Sugino, surprised that he had spoken up. “I mean, do we really have to follow both plans? I say we just follow Sensei’s plan, it sounds to me to be the safer option.”

Nagisa saw the lifeline Sugino was giving him, recognising that he was trying to stop Karma’s plan in its tracks.

Unfortunately, so did Nakamura. “I’m sorry Sugino, but now that Mr. Karasuma’s mentioned it, I don’t think I’d feel safe with just two guys with us. I think we need to have Nagisa there to protect us girls.”

Nagisa and Sugino both scowled at Nakamura, not surprised that she was perfectly willing to go along with Karma’s scheme.

Even Karasuma could tell how much Nakamura was over-acting, but they didn’t have time to argue about it. “The more people going into the bar area, the safer it will be for everyone. So we’ll follow both plans, and that is final.”

Sugino gave Nagisa a look that clearly said, ‘I tried’.

Nagisa let out a long sigh as he handed Koro-Sensei over to Mimura for safe keeping.

Inside the bar itself, a bunch of young men and women partied as hard as they liked, dipping into the pool, getting wasted at the bar, swaying on the dancefloor to loud electronic music being played or even just lounging under the stars, with far too little supervision and far too much money to throw around.

As for this group of rich kids, they were having meaningless conversations.

“The sky looks nice tonight,” one person said to no one in particular.

“True…” Someone else replied.

“The CEO knows how to make things cool,” another guy noted.

“Definitely,” the girl he was speaking with agreed.

But there was someone who was just watching on, bored out of his mind. A young man, around the same age as the students of E-Class, looked over the dancefloor, holding a drink and a weird cigarette in his hands.

He had to thank his mom and dad for getting him a room here. They’d even found a bunch of ‘friends’ for him to play with. As if they really wanted to spend time with him, all they wanted was money.

The boy sighed. This was depressing. Somehow, despite how bad last year was, this shit was the lamest, vacay, ever. But he then noticed something odd. A group of six girls suddenly entered the bar, none of them looking familiar. He decided to keep an eye on them, hoping that they might provide some excitement.

The small group of girls made their way into the bar with no one batting an eyelid at them, not looking out of place at all. But one of the ‘girls’ seemed to be trying to hide in the back for some reason.

Nakamura decided to take the lead. “Nagisa, you know that you can’t protect us from the back, right? Be a man and come out to the front to protect your poor little female classmates please.”

“No! I didn’t even agree to this!”

Kayano tried to reassure him. “It’s not that bad.”

Before Nagisa could give a response, Nakamura decided to force his hand. “Yeah, you look great! It suits you!” She pulled Nagisa out into the open.

He’d been dressed up to look like a girl. He was wearing black boots and leggings, a tartan skirt, a sleeveless black dress with pink straps, a red choker and a matching pair of armbands, and a pair of pink bows tied into his hair.

With his already small stature and pair of pigtails, you wouldn’t know Nagisa was a boy unless you already knew him.

“So this is my life now…” Nagisa was currently regretting his own existence.

Meanwhile, the young man saw Nagisa and was immediately spellbound as he took a deep breath and blushed. Who was that blue-haired hottie?

Hazama tried to reassure the poor cross-dressed boy. “Look at it like this. In places like these, having a guy around is always going to be safer. But at the same time, guys are also going to be given a lot more suspicion, which is why the cavalry is coming in just behind us. But until then, you’re the closest thing we got,” she finished with a shrug.

Nagisa did not feel reassured. Especially because Hazama had called him ‘the closest thing we’ve got’ to a guy. What was that supposed to mean?!

Kurahashi tried to reassure him as well. “Well, I for one think you look very nice as a girl, Nagisa.”

Hayami wasn’t as charitable. “But while you may have the look down you don’t have the act down. You need to act naturally, or you’ll get us all caught.”

Nakamura was clearly enjoying things just a bit too much. “C’mon dude, it’s all part of the plan, so just act like a girl.”

Sure, it did feel to Nagisa like it was all of part of Karma’s plan to make Nagisa hate him, but he decided to be charitable. “Is it really?”

“Don't worry about it, you look great Nagisa!” Ritsu decided to chime in, not being able to read the room.

“Don't you start as well!” Nagisa spluttered out before deciding to change the subject. “Anyway, where did you even find these clothes?”

Nakamura, having been the one to find them, answered him. “Well, I found them by the pool, and since no one else was using them, and they appeared to be in your size, why not? Just to make sure, your size is extra small, right?”

“Oh come on!” Nagisa could only wonder how his life had managed to lead to this humiliating low.

As the five girls (and one boy) started to walk through the bar, the young man decided to follow after the small group. Whilst he hadn’t seen any of them before, that girl with the blue hair in particular appeared to be new to the scene. He just hoped she wouldn’t give him any meaningless platitudes.

As the young man wandered off to head after his newfound crush, he missed a pair of boys coming through the same entrance that the girls used, one clearly more in his element than the other.

One of the pair looked around before sighing to himself, clearly unsure of what to do. “I still want to know why Koro-Sensei decided that I’m one of the best suited for this. At least with you it makes sense.”

The boy walking next to him, hands behind his head, gave him a cheeky smile. “Aw, you really think that dude?” Maehara let his arms fall back to his sides. “Well, I would be lying if I said I’ve never been on any dates in this sort place, so I should be able to blend in easily enough.”

Muramatsu looked over at his companion before groaning. “Exactly. You make sense. Of course you blend into this sort of place easily enough. But how do I suit this atmosphere in any way, shape or form?”

In response to his question, Maehara seemed to get thoughtful for a second. “Well, if I had to guess, whilst I fit in with the slightly drunk playboy types that hang around here when they have nothing else to do, I guess Koro-Sensei must think you can better blend in with the shady thug types who are cruising for someone to take home with them whether they want to go or not.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!”

Maehara put a finger up to Muramatsu’s lips. “Shush dude, you’re going to blow our cover! All you need to do is act like you think you own the place and I can guarantee no one will question you. Now, we should probably try to catch up to the girls, right?”

The two moved further into the bar to try and find their classmates within.

The main group were making decent progress through the bar.

“Ok, let’s keep moving people, we don’t have much time,” Kayano made sure to remind everyone.

Nakamura seemed to disagree. “We do still have some time though. We don’t need to rush through immediately.”

Nagisa felt like he knew why she thought that. “You’re only saying that because you want to keep me in this dress for as long as possible, don’t you?”

“What? No, of course not,” Nakamura said with a particularly devious expression.

“Hey there!” A hand suddenly touched Nagisa on the shoulder as they seemed to greet him, causing Nagisa to look back to find a young man grabbing onto him. “How you doing you cutie. How about a drink… On me of course.” The young man started to flirt with Nagisa.

Nagisa kept himself composed, but there was no way in hell he was going with this complete stranger.

The actual girls all looked at the young man with glares, clearly not happy about the obstacle that had just appeared.

Well, almost all of them.

Nakamura looked like Christmas had come early. “It’s time for your first date Nagisa!”

“Wait, what?!” Nagisa couldn’t believe what he had just heard. “Didn’t Mr. Karasuma specifically tell us not to split—”

“You need to act natural,” Nakamura whispered into his ear. “Right now, the most natural thing for you to do would be to go along with it. Once we’ve reached the lounge we'll come and get you, but for now, uses those feminine charms of yours.”

Nagisa sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, Nakamura did (unfortunately) have a point. “Fine, fine, I get it. I’ll destroy the last shreds of my dignity.”

“That’s the spirit!” Nakamura stated in a tone that Karma would have been proud of as Nagisa walked over to the boy.

“So, your name is Nagisa. Cute name, I’m Yuuji!” The boy, now known to be called Yuuji, started to talk with Nagisa as the two walked off together.

Once they were out of Yuuji’s eyeshot, the girls continued with their progress across the bar, soon seeing a staircase up to the second floor.

“If I had to guess, that staircase will probably lead us to where we need to go,” Hazama noted.

“Most likely.” Hayami, having studied the map before they entered, was pretty sure that was the case. She took her phone out to confirm.

Ritsu quickly appeared on the device with a nod. “That’s correct, the door is on the upper level.”

But before they could go any further, a pair of suspicious looking punks came up to them, blocking their path in the process.

“Hey ladies. It looks like you’re alone tonight, how about we give you some company?” One of the men started to try and chat up the girls.

“Yeah, I promise we won’t be any trouble,” his partner agreed. It was immediately apparent that neither man would take no for an answer.

Nakamura opted to try and take a cautious approach with her words. “Well gentlemen, whilst I’m sure it would be fun, I’m afraid we’re already spoken for tonight.”

The men didn’t look convinced. One of them looked around. “Really? I don’t see anyone else around. C’mon, don’t be shy.”

Nakamura was starting to get a very bad feeling about the situation. “I’m so sorry, we really must decline. We have to… um…” Before she could come up with an answer, one of her companions decided to intervene.

Kurahashi stepped up to the men with a smile on her face. “Well, that’s because our dads wanted to give us some time to ourselves, and we can’t really argue with them.” She pulled out some kind of pin. “But now they want us to head back to our rooms, so sorry about that.”

“Well, I’m sure we can twist your papa’s…” Before he could finish his sentence, the punk took a good look at the pin Kurahashi was holding, and immediately his eyes went wide open.

His friend had noticed the pin as well, and was just as terrified. “That… That pin belongs to the Shuei Syndicate, one of the smallest and most dangerous Yakuza in the country!”

Kurahashi looked as innocent as possible. “Well, daddy did say if someone ever bothered me that I should show them this pin. I don’t really get it though? After all, it’s only got his company’s logo on it. That shouldn’t be threatening, right?”

The men were sent into complete panic. One of them tried to plead with the girls. “Well, I’m sure we don’t have to get them involved, we just wanted to chat, honest!”

It was at this exact moment that Muramatsu managed to catch up to the group of girls. “Hey, there you guys are,” he started before seeing the pair of punks. “Uh, are you having any problems here?”

The men had also now seen Muramatsu. They could tell just by looking at this guy’s face that he must be a member of the syndicate tasked with keeping an eye on the bosses’ girls. To be given such an important job at his age, he must be a real piece of work!

The two men made a very quick decision. “Oh no, everything’s fine, we were just leaving now. Bye!” And with that, both of them scarpered off, much to the confusion of Muramatsu.

“Do I want to know what just happened?” He decided to breach the question as the group started making their way to the stairs.

Kayano was the one to answer. “Oh, it nothing. I think those idiots mistook you for some Yakuza thug, that’s all.”

This only puzzled Muramatsu even more. “And how did they come to that conclusion?”

Kayano thought about how best to explain it. “…Because Kurahashi implied we were all the daughters of Yakuza bigwigs just before you came up to us?”

Muramatsu looked at Kurahashi for a second, looked back at Kayano who nodded, and then looked back at Kurahashi, who gave him her usual smile, once more.

Hazama look amused by the situation. “Hey, look on the bright side. Your ugly mug actually came in handy for once.”

Muramatsu wasn't sure what to make of that comment. “Is that meant to be a compliment or an insult?”

But Hayami noticed that someone was missing. “Quick question. Where is Maehara?”

Muramatsu immediately sighed to himself. “Well, he said it would be easier for both of us to blend in if we split up, so I decided to make my way over to you guys. However, it seems that he decided to blend in by doing what he does best. Or worst.”

He pointed over to another part of the bar. And while the girls would like to think they were surprised by what they saw, they really weren’t.

“Woah, you’re such a charmer.” “Yeah, so much better than any of these other dead-weights.” “Where have you been my whole life?”

From the centre of the small group of definitely at least slightly drunk girls, a certain womaniser was where all the attention was.

“Well ladies, what can I say, I do have a talent for getting the girls,” Maehara answered, causing the girls around him to giggle.

The girls of E-class were all in agreement in their thoughts. Of all the times to flirt with girls, why now?!

“Okay, so which one of us is going to grab that idiot when we’re leaving?” Nakamura decided to ask.

Hazama looked disgusted. “I say we just leave him behind.”

Kayano sighed. “I’ll get him. But he’ll be the one to get Nagisa when we need to retrieve him.”

“Agreed.” All of the girls (and Muramatsu) nodded as they started to head towards the stairs…

Chapter Text

Nagisa was having a really bad time.

Sure, he’d had plenty of bad times, but it really felt like the world hated him right now. The big reason for that was the person sitting across from him, who had fallen for his ‘disguise’.

“C’mon, take a sip! It’s all on me, so you don’t have to worry about paying me back. This is the real good stuff as well.” Yuuji placed a couple of glasses of what Nagisa was near certain was alcohol.

“I’m too—” Nagisa quickly made himself sound more feminine. “I mean, I don’t really like alcohol, and anyways I’m too young.”

“For real?” Yuuji seemed disappointed, but quickly perked up. “Eh, not my money.”

Nagisa hated every second of this, but he just had to stall for as long as possible. The girls would rescue him once they found the exit. Hopefully. Mr. Karasuma wouldn’t allow them to leave him behind. But he still needed to stall for time. “Anyway, aren’t you my age? How did you get the barman to serve you?”

Yuuji couldn’t believe that question. It really must be her first time in a bar like this. “Oh, trust me, they don’t really care about that sort of stuff. As long as you have the cash, they’ll serve you.”

Thinking of another topic, Nagisa changed course. “Okay then… So, what brings you to this hotel. Are you here with friends?” Nagisa really hoped the answer to that question was no.

Yuuji took a sip of his drink. “Well, if you really want to know, I’m here on my parents’ dime. Their way of getting me out of their hair for a few months. Hey, can you keep a secret?”

Nagisa wasn’t sure how to react to that. “Uh, sure.”

Yuuji leant towards him. “My dad’s a famous TV personality. Trust me, you know who he is. Paparazzi hound him everywhere, he can’t get away with anything, at least in public. But when the cameras aren’t rolling, he’s a pest towards just about any women he works with.” For some reason, Yuuji thought that this was a funny thing to talk about.

Nagisa couldn’t help but note that Yuuji’s father sounded like a complete scumbag. It didn’t help that his unwanted companion was making some very crude squeezing gestures. “That doesn’t sound like he’s someone you should be looking up to.”

Yuuji realised that he had messed up in front of his date. And sure, he didn’t look up to his dad, not like he’d given him much reason to look up to him, but that wasn’t important right now.

He needed to do something cool, and quick. But Nagisa obviously didn’t like alcohol, so that was out. The next coolest thing to do was… smoking! That right, he still had those special, extra-cool cigs, Nagisa would find those very cool, wouldn’t she.

Yuuji pulled out something that looked similar to a cigarette before putting it straight into his mouth to try and look cool. Sure, he didn’t have a lighter, but he didn’t need one for these cool babies.

Nagisa immediately had concerns. “If you’re too young to be drinking, then you definitely shouldn’t be smoking.”

Yuuji cast a confused glance at Nagisa. “So what, are you the surgeon general? And anyways, this isn’t a regular cigarette. It’s something a lot cooler than that, I just got into them.”

Nagisa shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. Whether it’s a regular cigarette or something else, it’s not cool to smoke it.”

Yuuji took the cigarette out of out his mouth. “Really? What, did your teacher tell you that they would kill you if you smoked them or something?”

Nagisa took the opportunity to grab the cigarette out of Yuuji’s hand. “Actually, my teacher said that whilst he wasn’t qualified to say how they were for adults, he did tell us that we were far too young to be trying them, and that smoking is not cool.” He thought back to the lesson on that topic.

Koro-Sensei was telling the class all about the substances that they should not be partaking in.

“I will not be having any of my students smoking, drinking or taking drugs. You’re all far too young. If even one of you went down that dark path, I think I would kill myself in shame!”

“Really?” Karma seemed to smirk at this before he turned to his classmates. “In that case, could a couple of you guys go and rob a liquor store? All you’d need to do is have a couple of drinks in front of Teach and the 10 billion is yours.”

Koro-Sensei was mortified at the redhead’s words. “Karma, do not encourage your classmates to drink!” Most of the class laughed at their teacher’s panic.

But Yuuji didn't agree, and he showed this by suddenly slamming his fist into the table, making Nagisa flinch. “What does he know? Do you know how hard it is to be me! I’m stuck in my father’s shadow, and if I want to score with someone, I have to act cool all the time, and I can’t even succeed at that! You girls don’t know how easy you’ve got it. All you need to do is look nice and you’re set.”

Nagisa didn’t know what to say to that. He knew that girls definitely didn’t have it that easy.

Whilst Nagisa was suffering, the group of five girls (and one Muramatsu) were making their way through the upper level, talking about what had happened with the pair of punks.

Nakamura was holding the pin Kurahashi had used. “So this pin originally belonged to Bitch-Sensei?”

Kurahashi smiled. “Yeah, she actually had multiple, so she gave one to me and one to Yada. She’s got tons of pins though, from just about any profession you could think of. I’m pretty sure they are her trophies of victory, but they can also be useful in the field as well if used correctly.”

Muramatsu could see what she meant. “Like how showing those punks that pin made them think that I was a Yakuza thug, right?”

Kurahashi nodded. “Pretty much.”

Kayano looked towards her classmate. “You and Yada really do look up to Bitch-Sensei a lot, don’t you?”

“Well, Yada is definitely more of her protégé then I am, but she has so many interesting stories, and been in so many interesting situations, I just can’t help but respect her,” Kurahashi confirmed.

Nakamura smiled as well. “Maybe we really should give the Bitch another chance…”

Muramatsu had been keeping an eye out for where they needed to go. And he managed to find it. “Hey, I think that’s the exit.”

The girls turned towards where he was looking, and sure enough, it was the exit, but there was a guard posted in front of it.

“A security guard. We should have seen that coming, but how do we get past him?” Hayami tried to think of a solution.

Nakamura also thought about that for a second before deciding on the best course of action. “It might be best for us to fully regroup now. Kayano, you go and kick Maehara in the nuts and then have him retrieve Nagisa from his stalker, okay.”

Kayano gave a nod. “On it!”

As she went to collect their remaining members, the rest of the group decided to try and figure out how to deal with the guard.

“Do you think we could just take him out?” Muramatsu pitched an idea.

Hazama immediately shot it down. “I doubt any of us would be able to take him out on our own, and chances are that he has some form of communication with other members of security. One slip up and we’d be done for.”

“So the best solution would be to distract him in some way, right?” Kurahashi asked with a thoughtful look on her face.

Nakamura nodded. “Yeah.” She then furrowed her eyebrows. “The only question is, what sort of distraction?”

Kayano quickly made her way through the bar, making sure not to bring any attention on to herself until she managed to find where Maehara had got to. And once she did, she was not happy.

Maehara was sitting at the bar, still surround by multiple girls. All of the crowd seemed to be some form of six sheets to the wind, whilst Maehara had somehow managed to get himself a beverage of an unknown concoction in front of him.

Kayano could not believe what she was seeing, or at least that’s what she was telling herself. And those were definitely a different group of girls than a few minutes ago, weren’t they? And she really hoped that Maehara wasn’t drinking alcohol right now. Even he wouldn’t go that low, right?

Kayano shook her head at that thought. Right now, she needed to focus. First, she needed to think of a way to get Maehara away from the gaggle of girls without arousing too much suspicion, so what to do, what role should she play…

Then she had a brainwave. Annoyed girlfriend! Not only would it give her an excuse to drag him away, but it would also make the girls think that he was a two-timing idiot, which wasn’t even wrong.

Kayano was lucky that the bar area was slightly dipped down in the flooring, as it allowed her to be able to reach out and grab Maehara’s ear. “And what do you think you’re doing! I can’t believe you, trying to hit on other girls like that!”

Maehara was surprised, but hearing Kayano’s voice made him realise that he needed to play along. “Oops, busted. Sorry to have led you on like that ladies, but I’m afraid I’m actually already taken. No hard feelings right?” He managed to spin a smooth web of lies out of his words.

Even though they were drunk, the girls were still sober enough to realise that they had seemingly been played, and so sent a frosty look Maehara’s way before immediately turning away like he didn’t even exist, allowing Kayano to drag him away with little issue.

As she continued to drag Maehara away, Kayano decided to get a couple of answers out of him. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?”

Maehara for some reason decided that a casual smile would be the best response to that. “What can I say? Love waits for nobody.”

That was not the correct thing to say, but Kayano decided to push him on another thing that was more pressing. “Also, were you drinking over there?!”

Maehara actually looked shocked for a moment but then gave her a frown. “No, I wasn’t. It was non-alcoholic, trust me. I’m not that stupid.”

Kayano wasn’t fully convinced. “And how did you get it in the first place?”

“Oh, one of the girls got it for me after asking me if I wanted a one.”

“And you just accepted it?” Kayano was really hoping Maehara hadn’t.

Maehara didn’t seem to see the issue. “Well yeah, what’s the worst that could have happened?”

Kayano couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “It could have had drugs in it! Koro-Sensei specifically warned us, don’t ever accept drinks from strangers!”

“I thought that only really applied when it came to girls, right?” Maehara decided to continue to act like an idiot.

“No! It applies to everyone, especially in shadier establishments like this!” Kayano released her grip on Maehara’s ear as they reached the staircase. “Anyways, you’re going to go and retrieve Nagisa, as that was the only thing close to a punishment us girls could think of. And I swear, if you try and flirt with another girl…”

Maehara finally seemed to get the hint. “Ok, ok, I get it.” He was somehow still smiling though.

“And just so you know, Nagisa is over there.” Kayano made sure to point out where Nagisa was currently suffering.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get him back before you know it.” Maehara gave a thumbs up before taking off.

Nagisa was still trying to figure out what to say to Yuuji when he heard a familiar voice call out from behind him.

“Hey, Nagisa!” Maehara walked up to the table, making Nagisa realise that he had been sent to help him. Hopefully.

Yuuji eyed the other boy with suspicion. “And who are you?”

Nagisa realised that it was now up to Maehara to come up with a reasonable lie. His classmate was always good at talking to girls, surely he could come up with a reasonable lie to fool someone like Yuuji…

“Oh, I’m Nagisa big bro. Sorry about this sis, but mom and dad want us back in our hotel rooms now so you’re going to have to say your goodbyes to your new friend here.” Maehara smiled, confident that his lie would work like a charm.

Nagisa and Yuuji both stared at him for a second.

Yuuji was suspicious. Because he knew enough about science and stuff to know that siblings usually looked similar to each other, and Nagisa’s ‘big bro’ didn’t resemble her at all.

On the other hand, Nagisa was annoyed. Because not only did they not look like each other in the slightest, but he was also older than Maehara! By four months!

Yuuji was the first to speak, suspicion in his voice. “How can you two be related? Neither of you look anything alike.”

Before Maehara could open his mouth again and potentially make things even worse, Nagisa tried to salvage the situation. “Well, that’s because we’re… half-siblings. Yeah, we share the same father but we both take after our mothers a lot more.”

Maehara grasped Nagisa’s words and ran with them. “Yeah, that’s it! Technically we are half-siblings, but we’re so close we usually don’t think about the distinction.”

“Yeah, we are. Anyway, sorry about this but it looks like I have to go now.” Nagisa decided a quicker exit was better for everyone involved.

Yuuji was shocked at how blunt Nagisa had just been. “Wait, really? But I hadn’t even shown you—”

“Bye!” Nagisa had already walked off with Maehara.

But Yuuji wasn’t going to let the girl of his dreams go that easily. He hadn’t even managed to show her his coolest moves… He proceeded to chase after Nagisa as he saw her and her ‘brother’ head up to the upper floor.

“I hate all you of right now.” Nagisa made sure his feelings on the situation were known to everyone else once the group was fully together.

Nakamura brushed away his concerns. “Aw, it was fine. Honestly, you had the easy part.”

Maehara tried to help him out. “Yeah, after all you only had to seduce one guy.”

Hayami shot a glare at him. “You didn’t have to seduce anyone, you idiot, you just did so anyway.”

Nagisa could tell that Maehara had done something to get the girls annoyed at him, which didn't surprise him in the slightest.

Hazama decided to stop the ongoing arguments. “Can we get back on point. While you two were being rounded up by Kayano, we ran into a bit of a problem.”

“Can I at least change before we deal with it?” Nagisa was done at this point, he just wanted to get a move on.

Unfortunately, the world had seemingly decided to try and humiliate the boy for as long as possible. “Hey, all of you wait up!” Nagisa blanched as he realised that Yuuji had decided to follow them for some reason. “I still haven’t shown you the ace up my sleeve. Check out my dance moves!”

And then Yuuji started to… Well to call it dancing would be an insult to the concept of dance itself. He was swaying his arms around like a spasming octopus, occasionally making weird pointing gestures, all whilst wearing the stupidest grin on his face. He knew that no girl could resist such epic moves.

Nobody except anyone with working eyes, that is. Every single member of the group wondered what the hell they were looking at.

Muramatsu was confused, considering he had no idea who Yuuji was. “Uh, quick question. Who’s this guy?”

Hazama answered her friend. “Oh, he’s just Nagisa’s stalker.”

Yuuji continued his ‘dance moves’ until one particular move caused a resounding clinking noise. He looked over to see what the noise was caused by, and was immediately frightened.

Yuuji had knocked directly into someone else’s arm, causing the contents of the glass the guy was holding to spill onto his jacket. “You brat, do you know what you’ve just done!”

Yuuji immediately knew that he had just messed up badly. “Wait… No, I’m—”

“What was that!” The man grabbed Yuuji’s shirt and pulled him closer.

“I really didn’t mean to spill your drink.” Yuuji tried to apologise.

The man looked furious. “This jacket cost a million yen! You’re going to have to compensate me, big time! I want your address, right now!”

The small group all watched on, not sure exactly what to do.

Nakamura watched the confrontation. “So… Do we help this guy or not?”

But Hazama realised how they could use it to their advantage. “Hang on a sec, just leave this to me.” She gave an evil looking smile, causing the others to shudder as she started to move toward the angry man and his hostage.

The man continued his tirade. “If you add the emotional distressed caused by having to watch your ridiculous dance moves then that adds up to 3 million! If you pay up immediately, me and my friends might only break half your bones!”

“Wait, my dad will pay you, just let me get him on the phone for a second!” Yuuji tried to plead.

“Likely story pal. Now give up the cash or I’ll…” The man suddenly felt someone tapping on his shoulder. “Yeah, what the hell do you—” As he turned around, he immediately froze at what he saw.

Hazama was looking at him directly at him whilst giving the scariest face she could muster, creepy organ music seemingly playing around her. “Hello,” she breathed out in an eldritch tone, one that would make a grown man flinch.

Or in this case, faint, the man turning pale and immediately dropping to the floor unconscious. Behind Hazama, her classmates were trying their best to keep themselves together.

The only one who didn’t seem to be in distress was Muramatsu, who looked at his classmates oddly. “What? I mean she’s being scarier than usual but she’s not as bad as she used to be.”

Maehara gave him an incredulous look. “That just sounds like you’ve been desensitised to it!”

Hazama just looked back to the rest of the group and smirked. “What? It worked, didn’t it?”

The group quickly moved the man to a slightly different spot whilst Yuuji just looked on in a strange mixture of confusion, shock and fear.

Kurahashi decided to be the one to get the guard’s attention. “Hey, sir, this guy just collapsed for some reason. I think he might need to be checked out by a doctor or something?”

The guard, upon seeing the unconscious man, rushed over. “Thanks for pointing that out, I’ll get this guy the help he needs.” He grabbed the man and pulled him up while shaking his head. “Guess some people still don’t know their own limits…”

With the guard checking on the man, the doors were completely undefended.

“There’s our chance, let’s go!” Nakamura made sure to alert everyone that they needed to make a quick move.

Yuuji tried to speak, but Maehara stopped him before he could by putting a finger up to his lips. “Oh yeah, can you not tell anyone that you saw us here. We’re sorta not meant to be in here and we did just save your life so…” He winked at the boy.

Nagisa came over to Yuuji, having decided to try and part some advice. “You’re probably feeling humiliated right now. But the best way to be cool is to try and be yourself.”

Yuuji was now blushing at the boy he believed to be a girl. “Nagisa…” He then crossed his eyebrows for a second. “Just to make sure, that guy’s not actually your brother, is he?”

Nagisa smiled a bit. “Thankfully not. But if we ever meet again, I hope I can meet the cool dude you really are. The real Yuuji, so to speak.”

“The real me, huh…” Yuuji thought about that. Who was he, really?

Having hopefully given Yuuji something to think about, Nagisa headed towards the door with the rest of the group.

Luckily, the lounge area was deserted, allowing them to rush through it quickly. The victorious group of eight made it out of the bar area entirely and unlocked the hallway doors for the other half of the group to get through.

“I’m sorry to have had to send you all into such questionable territory. Nobody gave you any trouble I hope?” Koro-Sensei immediately checked that his students were okay.

The group shook their heads, Nakamura deciding to speak for the rest of them. “Nah, don’t worry. We were fine.”

There was still one absence, but Nagisa soon rejoined the group, having quickly gotten changed back into his regular clothes.

“Woah, you changed fast didn’t you?” Kayano observed.

“Not quickly enough…” Nagisa grumbled.

Kayano noticed that Nagisa was a bit down. “Hey, what’s wrong? We succeeded at what we needed to do.”

Nagisa sighed. “Yeah, sure, but did you guys really need me in there? Or any of us guys for that matter? It seems that all we did was get in your way. You girls did everything this time.”

“Well, it’s actually pretty simple.” Karma strolled up to them before revealing that he had managed to snap multiple pictures of Nagisa in full dress. “Look at all these awesome new pictures I was able to take.”

“Karma!” Nagisa yelled at his friend, clearly embarrassed. Most of the other students laughed at the poor boy, though Sugino shook his head in disbelief instead.

Kayano laughed as well, before shaking her head fondly. “No, I think that, even if you didn’t help much in the way of getting through the bar, you’ve managed to set someone on the right path.”

(Back in the bar, Yuuji decided to leave both his drink and his cigarette's on the tray of a passing waiter, neither object seeming cool anymore.)

Kurahashi decided to be positive as well. “And I wouldn’t say that none of you three helped. Muramatsu made sure that no one bothered us."

“Oh, uh, thanks?” Muramatsu didn’t think he had done that much.

“And I’m sure that I helped as well, didn’t I?” Maehara asked with a tone that suggested that he was waiting to be praised as well.

The girls gave him an ice-cold glare, before Hayami decided to do something. “Maehara.”

“Yeah?” The boy replied back nonchalantly, walking towards her.

Hayami gave a curt smile. “Here’s how much you helped.”

Then, without warning, she sent a fierce kick straight between Maehara’s legs, shocking the members of the group who hadn’t been there. Maehara let out a small whimper before collapsing to the floor in pain.

“Hayami?! What on earth just possessed you to do that?!” Koro-Sensei was freaked out by the (seemingly) unnecessary violence.

“Trust me, he deserves it. I probably wouldn’t have done it, but he just had to act like he actually helped in there, so…” Hayami explained, the rest of the girls nodding behind her.

The rest of the group realised that whatever had happened, Maehara had done or said something stupid, most likely related to girls, that had almost put the mission in jeopardy. Because of course he had.

Okajima decided to help his fellow enjoyer of women back up. “Wow dude, whatever you did in there must have been really bad.” He seemed to be enjoying the fact that he wasn’t the one who the girls wrath was directed towards for once.

“That’s rich coming from you!” Maehara shouted with a wince, clearly still in pain. "And I guess I got a bit carried away, but was that really necessary!"

Nakamura shrugged. "Probably not, but you can't blame anyone other than yourself."

Maehara grumbled, knowing that he had let the atmosphere of the bar get to him.

Chiba was concerned. “Are you sure you should be taking out any more of our group?”

Hayami waved him off. “Relax, he’ll be fine in a few minutes. And it’s not like he hasn’t experienced this before.”

Chapter Text

Whilst the main group were making their way through the hotel, back at the restaurant, a certain artistic student was having the strangest dream…

This was the weirdest dream he'd ever had. Sugaya would fully admit that he was used to strange dreams, but this took the cake.

It was just red, red everywhere as far as the eye could see, and it was hot. There had been bursts of cold, but every time it eventually got drowned out by the red once more, a flurry of heat and pain and other things, until the next cold burst appeared.

Honestly, it was more a nightmare than a dream.

But what was causing the cold? He would find out the next time, he would. It was his dream, he had to know what the answer was, his dream would create the answer for him…

There!

It was cold, it was really cold, and Sugaya had to reach out, he had to touch it, and he grabbed it, he actually did, and he moved it, and for a second the cold was gone from his dream, it was now in his hand, he could feel it…

Only for the cold to be removed from his grip and put straight back where it was. Only instead of seeing red, his dream had for some reason changed to what looked like Kanzaki’s face. “Please don’t remove that.”

Sugaya realised that he was awake again, just enough to recognise that he was seeing Kanzaki, who was giving him a sad smile from above.

“Sugaya, you’ve woken up,” Kanzaki said quietly, sounding both surprised and a bit happy. “That’s good, I was starting to get worried.”

“What time is it…” Sugaya hoped he hadn’t slept in too late, he wanted to enjoy the beach just as much as everyone else.

But why was Kanzaki in his room? Had he even made it to his room? The last thing he remembered was Okajima going on about swimmers, and he wasn’t in his room at that point. Did he pass out in the restaurant? And why was Kanzaki worried about him?

She looked at her phone. “You were sleeping for about half-an-hour, maybe slightly longer.”

That surprised Sugaya. If he’d only been taking a nap, why had his classmates not woke him, instead laying him down on the ground, because he knew that he’d been sitting down before he fell asleep.

Kanzaki then left him, seemingly to deal with something else. Sugaya still wanted to know what was going on. “What happened?” He hoped someone would be able to answer. And to his surprise, someone did.

“You got poisoned…” A new, hoarse, slightly Kimura-sounding voice said from next to him.

“And how do you know that?” Sugaya asked the strange voice.

“Because we all did dude… Uh, not again—” The voice was cut off by what sounded like someone being sick.

Okay, something strange was going on, and Sugaya needed to find out what.

He managed to just about turn his head to the side, finally seeing that it was indeed Kimura who had been speaking to him, his friend looking a lot worse for wear. He was also clutching a bowl, and while Sugaya was confused about what was going on, he could guess what that was for, considering what he had just heard.

“Kimura, are you okay?” Sugaya noticed Hara coming straight over to check on Kimura, making him puzzled. Hadn’t Kimura just said that they were all poisoned, whatever that meant? He then remembered that Kanzaki had helped him and didn’t seem sick either, confusing him even further.

“Honestly, I think it was a bit less this time…” The fact that Kimura said this time meant it wasn’t the first time he'd been sick, and Sugaya now really wanted to know what was going on.

He decided to ask again after Hara left, having given Kimura a new bowl before doing so. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“We were poisoned earlier by someone after Koro-Sensei,” Isogai called out from somewhere. At least he thought it was Isogai, his voice sounded just a bit off.

“So that’s why I’ve been feeling awful…” Sugaya had just put it down to his nightmare, but a poisoning made more sense. “Anyways, how long until it clears up?”

“That’s the thing.” Sugaya turned his head to the other side to find Yada, the normally upbeat girl looking dreadful and clutching a bag of ice to her head. “It won’t on its own. We need an antidote, or else…” She didn’t need to say the last part.

“Maybe I should just go back to sleep.” Sugaya tried to, but before he could, a hacking shout cut him off.

He was pretty sure it was Yoshida. “No way! If we *cough* have to deal with this, you do too!”

“Let him sleep if he wants.” Kataoka, if he was right, also sounded awful. Just how many of his classmates were sick?

“Is everyone okay!” Hara and Kanzaki returned, having heard the shouting.

“We’re fine…” There was some irony in the fact that Isogai was saying this whilst slowly dying from being poisoned, but Sugaya couldn’t really apricate it. “Yoshida just got a bit rowdy, that’s all.”

“Well calm down then. You’ll feel better if you’re resting.” Hara was clearly in full mother mode, and considering that a bunch of people (including himself) were badly ill, Sugaya couldn’t blame her.

He then decided to try and get a full view of the area, and manged to lift himself up enough to see that there was probably around ten of his classmates lying around ill, including himself, while Hara and Kanzaki checked up on everyone.

Hara noticed him leaning up. “Sugaya, you woke up.” It wasn’t a question, more of statement.

“Sorry, it slipped my mind for a second,” Kanzaki said in a way that sounded like she was going to tell Hara but forgot. “He woke up when I was changing his ice pack.”

Sugaya lowered himself back to the ground. “Yeah, I did. Anyways, where’s everyone else? Kimura said everyone was poisoned, but I only see a few of us?”

Kimura groaned. “I meant everyone here…”

That made more sense. Sugaya should have figured that out, but it didn’t matter now.

Hara answered his question anyway. “They’re trying to get the antidote you need. They don’t have long, but I have confidence in them.”

Back in the hotel, the group were making their way up the stairs, away from the bar floor.

“…Aw, c’mon Nagisa, you looked lovely in that dress. I think you should wear them more often, they suit you.” Karma was enjoying his favourite pastime of tormenting Nagisa.

Nakamura was enjoying it as well. “Agreed. But don’t worry, if you need to know anything about being a girl, I’d be more than happy to teach you.”

“For the last time, no, and can you two knock it off!” Nagisa really didn’t like dresses, for many reasons.

From his position at Mr. Karasuma’s side, Sugino decided to try and step in on his friend’s behalf. “I agree, can you two just stop with the jabs? You both know how much Nagisa hates people talking about that.”

Kayano tried her best to help as well. “And if it makes you feel any better Nagisa, being able to convincingly disguise yourself is an excellent skill for an assassin to have.”

Nagisa didn’t want to see that as a positive. “I guess so…” He still wasn’t happy.

“She is right though. But you do need to work on your ‘boy’ impression.” Karma delivered another jab.

Nagisa really hated his friend sometimes. “Can we just stop talking about this!”

Karasuma decided to just shut the whole conversation down. “I agree. If you have to, you can talk about this later.”

“Or never again…” Nagisa quietly muttered.

“We’re starting to get to the final phase of the operation.” Karasuma got everyone’s attention before bringing up his phone. He was starting to regain his strength, a few more minutes and he'd be able to stand on his own. “Ritsu, give us an update.”

“Yes sir. Around the next corner is the entrance to the VIP floor. The guests staying here don’t rely solely on hotel security, they also hire their own.”

As the group peered around the corner, they saw that a pair of shady looking men were guarding the stairs.

Terasaka quickly clocked the situation. “So those meatheads are private security then. Safe to assume they’re going to be better trained than regular security guards.” He then flinched slightly, like he had just felt a small amount of pain.

Hazama noticed Terasaka flinching, but dismissed it as not being anything important.

Mimura nodded in agreement. “They definitely fit the part of hired muscle, that’s for sure.”

“The only question is whether they were hired by our mastermind, or if they're just unrelated extras.” Karma raised an interesting point.

“I’m not sure that the difference matters that much in this case,” Kurahashi pointed out.

“Yeah. Either way, we’ll need to take them down if we want to get through,” Terasaka concluded with a small breath.

“Terasaka is correct, class,” Koro-Sensei explained from within his orb, still being held by Mimura. “And I also think that the extra equipment that he brought along will be most suitable for that task.”

Terasaka scoffed. “Great, you’ve got x-ray vision in this form as well, is that it?” He then grabbed his backpack and started to rummage through it.

“You’re going to have to take both of them down at once, or else they will call for backup,” Karasuma warned.

“I know, that’s why I’m going to set a trap.” Terasaka kept looking through his bag, before turning to Karasuma, or rather, the person who was helping him. “Sugino, I’m gonna need you to go out there and lead them to us.”

Sugino was confused by this. “Wait, why do you need my help specifically?”

Terasaka grunted as he finally found what he was looking for. “Because whoever's luring them in needs to be fast enough to not get themselves killed. And discounting the half-dead flirt over there.” He turned to look at Maehara, who was still recovering from Hayami’s attack. “I’d say that you’re the fastest person here.”

Sugino thought about that. It actually did make sense. “Okay, fair enough. But still, how am I supposed to get their attention?”

Karma then glided over. “Actually Sugino, I think I might have an idea.”

“Never a good sign.” Sugino could already tell that he was probably not going to like whatever the demon spawn was about to tell him.

Karma was offended, or at least he pretended to be. “Hey, I’m not that bad, am I? Anyway, here’s what I want you to do…” He started to whisper something as he quickly took over the duty of being Mr. Karasuma’s prop.

A minute later, the two guards were watching the hallway when they saw Sugino walk up to them. “Hey kid, what are you doing here? This isn’t a place for you to be, so if you know what’s good for you, scram.”

Sugino seemed to have an unnatural cockiness to him. “Huh, what did you meatheads say? Well sorry, but I don’t tend to listen to shaved gorillas, but if you guys know any humans with actual brains I could talk to, that would be great!” As soon as he finished, Sugino immediately turned around and started to not so subtly walk away.

It took a few seconds for either of the guards to figure out exactly what he had just said. But then they did. And they were pissed.

“Hey! Come back here and say that again you snot nosed punk!” The guards immediately started to chase after the now running Sugino.

Sugino was also pissed, only at a certain redhead. Because once this was over, he was going to kill Karma for somehow managing to get him to agree to this.

The guards were definitely gaining on the boy, but not as much as they would have expected. “This kid’s a bit faster than he looks.” “Yeah, but he can’t outrun us forever, we’ll catch him soon.”

Sugino managed to get past the hallway entryway where the rest of the group were hiding, and before the guards could continue their pursuits, they encountered an unexpected force.

“Let’s do this!” Terasaka gave the signal as he prepared to strike.

“Right!” Muramatsu agreed as the pair rushed around the corner, catching the guards by surprise and quickly tackling them to the ground. The pair were holding stun-guns, which they pressed straight into the guards' necks.

The guards screamed, but only for a moment before they were knocked out by the voltage.

“Woah, those are stun-guns!” Nagisa did not expect Terasaka to have a couple of those on hand.

Terasaka was making certain that the guards were down for the count. “Wanted to test how the octopus responded to electricity, but I know that these babies will knock a human out like a light.”

Hazama had a question. “Wait. How did you managed to afford a pair of stun-guns?” She knew that they wouldn’t have been cheap, and Terasaka didn’t exactly have much money to throw around.

Terasaka looked sheepish for a moment. “Well, you know…”

“Nicely done,” the mysterious man known only as Shiro stated. “Here, you earned it.” He gave Terasaka a wad of cash for his efforts, the delinquent smirking at his reward.

“I managed to recently find myself with extra cash from doing a couple of odd jobs, that’s all.” The way Hazama’s eyebrow slightly raised told everyone that she didn’t believe him.

Karasuma, however, was looking at the defeated guards with suspicion. It felt like they were oddly familiar, so where had he seen them before?

Koro-Sensei looked at the downed guards, pleased with his student’s quick thinking. “Excellent work Terasaka, but could you and Muramatsu please search their pockets?”

Both delinquents did as he asked, the rest of the group wondering what he wanted them to look for.

“Unless I’m mistaken, these gentlemen should be carrying something a bit more… lethal.”

As he said that, both Terasaka and Muramatsu found what Koro-Sensei had been looking for, and held them up in order to show the rest of the group. When they saw what the pair had found, everyone let out a shaky breath.

Because they were both holding up guns. And not BB guns like what the class used to try and kill Koro-Sensei. These were real guns, with real bullets.

“Indeed,” Koro-Sensei confirmed in a serious tone. “Chiba. Hayami.” The pair turned their heads towards their teacher. “I believe that you two should carry these.”

Chiba and Hayami both let out surprised gasps. Why was he asking them to carry guns, they were just junior high students! Sure, they knew their way around fake guns extremely well, but real guns?

Sensing their unease, Koro-Sensei explained his decision. “Unfortunately, Mr. Karasuma hasn’t yet recovered from his encounter with Smog, not enough to handle a gun at least. In terms of firearms, you two are the best we have.”

Chiba looked uncertain. “But are you certain about this, especially after we screwed up earlier?” He thought about the failed assassination attempt, which by that point felt like it had happened ages ago, but it had actually been a little over an hour.

“And while messing up with the BB’s was bad enough, if we mess up with these…” Hayami was feeling the same way, concern etched onto her face.

“However!” Koro-Sensei caught their attention again. “I expect you to follow one rule. No matter the circumstance, do not shoot to kill.” He emphasised this by replicating on his face a pair of Kanji symbols that roughly meant ‘Don’t Kill’.

Chiba and Hayami both grabbed one of the gun from Terasaka and Muramatsu, trying to keep their hands from shaking as they did so.

Koro-Sensei did his best to encourage them. “Don’t underestimate your skills. You are both more than capable of using them without causing harm.”

Chiba opened the barrel to count how many bullets he had to work with. But he was still unsure, after all his teacher was asking them to work with live ammo.

Hayami looked at her gun nervously. They screwed up with airguns, and now they had to use the real things?

Koro-Sensei could tell the pair of snipers were hesitant, and he knew why. But at the same time, he decided to wait to give them his lesson for a little bit longer.

It was Mimura who broke the uneasy silence that had descended on the group. “I don’t want to rush anyone, but we are still on the clock here.”

This snapped Hayami out of her doubt for a second. “Right.” She then turned towards the stairs. “We’re still on track to meet our deadline, but we can’t waste any time.”

Terasaka could agree with that. “Couldn’t have said it better myself, let’s go and give these punks a good clobbering.” No one noticed the beads of sweat that were starting to roll down his face.

“So shall we proceed, children?” Koro-Sensei spoke up once more. “Based on what we’ve encountered so far, we can assume that while they are elite, our enemy’s presence here is actually relatively modest. By even the most conservative of estimates we’ve thinned their ranks by half. And so, I suggest we start making progress at once!”

“Yes, sir!” The group started heading toward their next destination, knowing that the clock was ticking ever closer to the deadline.

As the group proceeded higher into the hotel, Ritsu gave them information as needed. “Okay team, continue to proceed with caution. There’s a VIP only emergency staircase that will take us straight up to the top floor. In order to gain access to it, we will need to sneak through an empty concert hall that’s right up ahead.”

Meanwhile, Karasuma was starting to feel his strength come back to him, enough for him to be able to walk on his own at least. He also reclaimed the Koro-Sensei orb from Mimura.

The group slowly made their way into the concert hall Ritsu had mentioned, being as stealthy as possible, but before any of them could get anywhere near the stage, they all heard the distinct sound of footsteps walking from the opposite direction.

With a high chance of it being a hostile, the group were forced to hide behind the various seats of the concert hall. As soon as they did so, they got the first look at their newest foe.

A man strolled out onto the empty stage. Honestly, he was starting to really dislike this job, it was leaving a real bad taste in his mouth. He had thought he was going to be killing a superbeing, but it appeared all he would be doing was playing cat and mouse with a bunch of twerps.

To everyone’s confusion, the man proceeded to put the barrel of a gun into his own mouth.

But he preferred it that way, helped him to wash away the bitter aftertaste of murder. He then looked around the room, not seeing anyone but able to make out the sound of people breathing. At least these kids were smart enough to hide.

The man removed his gun from his mouth and smirked. This was going to be fun.

Chapter Text

Somewhere in the hotel, a man was sitting in front of a desk with a trio of laptops on it, each laptop showing different angles of the same scene.

All of the footage was of the restaurant, where the brats who were poisoned continued to lay about in various stages of sickness, whilst a pair of their classmates tried to do their best to help them.

“It’s a shame that they set those beds up like that," the man noted in disappointment. “It means that I can’t actually see them all suffer, even with all the different angles I set up.”

On the screen, the man saw one of the suffering brats throw up. He let out a howl of laughter at the entertainment in front of him. And the best part was, this was only the opening act.

“Oh well, getting to watch most of them suffer will have to do for now. The more I think about it, the more I realise that I should poison kids more often.” The man let out a cackle at the thought before scratching at his cheek. “Maybe once this is all over, and I’ve got the reward money, I’ll make an investment in fresh-faced runaways.”

The man did wonder how the rest of the brats were doing. He hoped that a certain blue-haired runt in particular was still on his way…

He laughed at his future plan. Ah, revenge will be so sweet…

Within the concern hall, all of the students were still hidden behind various seats as their newest adversary looked out at them.

On the stage, the assassin, known as Gastro, was counting how many breaths he was hearing. If he was correct, there was fifteen people here, and subtle differences in their breathing made him pretty certain all but one of them was a teenager. Most likely, everyone who hadn’t been poisoned was here.

Gastro decided to address the hidden crowd. “So, everyone who isn’t sick decided to come along? Good. The more targets there are, the more likely I am to hit someone.” To make a point, he suddenly fired a shot into one of the lights.

The sudden burst of sound caused the students to flinch. They all knew what gunfire sounded like, but it reminded them that they were likely up against an extremely deadly man.

Gastro knew he had scared them. That was exactly what he wanted. “Just so you know, this room is soundproof, so nobody’s coming to your rescue.” He started to twirl his gun around his fingers. “C’mon, you’re all just kids, none of you have the guts to shoot me down. Surrender like good little boys and girls and I might take you on a field trip to see the—"

Before he could continue, a bullet flew in between his hand and his head, barely missing him.

From her hiding position, Hayami winced at the near miss. She’d been aiming for his gun. That was the second time she’d screwed up her aim tonight.

Gastro had not expected them to have real guns. They must have swiped them from the guards. He’d been thinking of these kids as, well, kids. But they weren't, they were trained assassins. He might as well give himself every advantage then. He pulled out a remote and pressed a button on it.

The lights at the back of the stage suddenly turned on, sending a bright barrage of light towards the group, forcing them to avert their eyes away from the stage.

Even Karasuma was forced to look away for a second due to how bright they were. He knew that those lights were going to make any attempts to shoot at the assassin that much harder.

Gastro then threw the remote behind him, making sure that none of the students could go for it. “Whilst I had my doubts at first, this job is started to look like a banquet!”

As Gastro began to cackle, everyone else was still trying to adjust to the lights. But they were just too bright!

Chiba tried to look around the seat he was hiding behind before he grimaced. Those backlights were going to make getting a good shot from his position extremely difficult. Not impossible, but certainly not easy.

Meanwhile, Gastro prepared to get to work. “This is going to be better than an all you can eat!” He then fired his gun out into the audience.

The bullet hit straight between two seats, implanting only a few inches to the left of Hayami’s head.

The usually unshakable sniper was rattled, and flung herself further behind the seat she was using as cover. How had he shot through such a small gap like it was nothing?

Gastro explained how he was so accurate with his shot. “I never forget an enemy’s position once they’ve fired, it’s a trick I acquired in the army. The best way to describe it would be as a sort of battlefield synaesthesia. With it, I can echo-locate the source of any hostile gun fire with perfect accuracy, as well as check the condition of my own gun by taste.”

He demonstrated this in action, his saliva dripping onto his weapon. “Now then, assuming you guys aren’t stupid, there should be another gun out there somewhere…” He removed his gun from his mouth to look around the concert hall. “So where are you?”

“Hold your fire for now, Hayami, wait until the right moment.”

Gastro scowled at the new voice. At the same time, Hayami took Koro-Sensei’s instructions in.

“And good decision to not follow her up, Chiba.” The boy in question was surprised by his teacher's praise. “Our opponent doesn’t have a lock on your position, we can use that to our advantage. I’ll be keeping an eye on the shooter, so just wait for my signal.”

Gastro was confused by the new voice. Because this guy, whoever he was, sounded like he was talking from right in front of the stage, but who would be so stupid as to…

He then looked down to see Koro-Sensei, who was currently laughing at him from the seat closest to the stage. From out of Gastro’s sight, Karasuma was hiding behind the same seat, Koro-Sensei having asked his colleague to place him onto it.

“Do you want to die!” Gastro tried to shoot the teacher, but the bullets just bounced of his shell. “Why would you just appear in the front row like that!”

Koro-Sensei just continued to laugh, as if the bullet were tickling him. “So, it’s one seasoned marksman against a small group of adolescent assassins? Our modest advantage will, I think, be quite enough.” Koro-Sensei split his mouth into a wide grin, before he started to give out orders to the students.

“Kurahashi, run four seats to the left. Terasaka, move six seats to the right and hand your bag over to Okajima.”

The students did as their teacher asked, moving quickly enough to make sure Gastro didn’t have a chance to snipe them. The assassin waited to see what they were up to.

“Ok, now there’s a blind spot. Kayano, head two rows down and through the gap, on the double.”

“Karma and Nakamura, each of you move six seats right. Hazama, two seats left.”

“Nagisa, move four seats right. Maehara, move seven seats left, and Okajima, head towards the back row whilst they are doing so.”

“Now, Mimura, Muramatsu, swap your positions.”

The students followed Koro-Sensei’s instructions as soon as he said them, all of them fast enough to avoid being shot at.

Gastro wasn’t impressed. It looked impressive, sure, but the only thing the shuffling was actually doing was revealing the kids' positions to him, their teacher even throwing in their names for free. He’d already committed everything to memory. And whilst these kids could probably keep it up for a while, they were ultimately still on the clock.

But Koro-Sensei was only just getting started. “Alternate naming scheme! Student thirteen, move four seats left.” Sugino did exactly as Koro-Sensei asked.

Gastro hadn’t expected the mix-up. But he still knew where they were, he’d just have to be quick to see who was moving.

“Now, students one and twenty-four, rush to the closest aisle seat.” Karma and Muramatsu did exactly what Koro-Sensei asked them to do.

“Student three, move one seat to the right and start your preparations, as soon as possible please.” Okajima did so, and thankfully there were enough supplies lying around at the back that, when combined with the stuff in Terasaka’s backpack, made his work possible.

“Students eleven, eight, and seventeen, all of you move two seats right.” Nagisa and Nakamura both did so, wondering why Koro-Sensei had thrown in that third one.

(Back at the restaurant, Kanzaki suddenly sneezed.)

“Students seven and twenty-three, hold your phones through the seat gaps in order to allow Ritsu to help Chiba.” Kayano and Mimura held out their phones between the nearest gap in the seats. This allowed Ritsu to see the stage, the AI making a fake camera with her hands.

Gastro was starting to get confused. Koro-Sensei decided to up the confusion even more by starting to use codenames, making sure it was obvious enough to his students which of them he was referring to.

“Karma’s Right Hand, move down to the row in front of you. Ramen Head, you do the same.” Nakamura and Muramatsu quickly dashed one row closer to the stage.

“Hot And Cold, go five seats to the left. The Guy Who’s Dated Everyone, five seats right.” Hayami and Maehara headed in opposite directions, even if the latter thought his codename was harsh.

“The Student Who Checked Out Takebayashi’s Favourite Maid Café, Only To Discover He Kind Of Liked It, discombobulate the target by kicking up a racket!” Gastro had to do a double take at that ‘codename’.

Terasaka repeatedly slammed his fists into the seat in front of him. “You rat bastard! That’s nobody’s business but mine, how’d you even know!” He was genuinely furious as well as more than a bit embarrassed.

Elsewhere in the room, Hazama made a mental note to ask Takebayashi about that later.

Koro-Sensei continued to bark out orders, making sure that Gastro had no idea what was going on.

“Curve Ball, take a position five seats to your left and be ready for my signal. Miyama Lover, move as close to the front as you can.” Sugino and Kurahashi did as their teacher asked, even if the former wasn’t certain what his teacher meant until he checked his phone, Ritsu warning him in advance about Koro-Sensei’s plan.

“Mr. Pervert, as soon as you’re done, move two seats to the left and tell Ritsu. Air Guitar World Champion, angle your phone upwards if you could." Okajima was nearly done, he just had to make sure everything stayed together. At the same time, Mimura tilted his phone as asked, allowing Ritsu to get a good look at the stage lights.

Gastro was completely lost at this point. He could make a guess at where some of the kids were, but with how much they had been switched up he hadn’t been able to focus. He needed to figure things out before the kids could strike.

Koro-Sensei heard a small grunt from Karasuma, meaning it was time to execute the plan. There were quite a few moving parts, but Ritsu had secretly informed everyone of the specifics. “Okay Chiba, it’s time for the moment of truth. Get ready to make your shot. Once I’ve given the command, fire at will.”

Gastro frantically tried to figure out Chiba’s location. Surely they must have moved at some point, but they hadn’t before the switch away from names. But, if he used what he knew about their positions, and some logic, he could figure it out.

“Hayami, be prepared to follow up if you have to. Focus on preventing the enemy from dodging.” Koro-Sensei continued to give his instructions, before deciding it was the right time to give his encouragement to the two who needed it the most. “Now, a word of advice to our cool-headed sharpshooters who flubbed the assassination attempt earlier today.”

Both Chiba and Hayami gave a quiet gasp at being reminded of their earlier failure.

Koro-Sensei knew it was a bit harsh to remind them of it, but he felt it emphasised the point he was about to make. “Don’t let one failure overshadow the skills you’ve worked so hard to cultivate. Even the best of us fall short of our abilities from time to time.”

The pair both thought about that. They knew it was true, but to mess up at such an important time? That’s what made it truly sting.

Koro-Sensei knew what they were thinking, and pushed on with his words. “Both of you maintain a façade of stoic nonchalance, but you feel burdened by the confidence your classmates place in you all the same. Few would guess at your true inner anguish, but it’s there, hidden just beneath the surface.”

Hayami cast a downwards gaze, thinking back to when her mother inquired about her failing scores…

“You’re alarmingly calm for someone with these grades, young lady. Or should I have known better than to expect you to care?”

Chiba sighed, thinking back to when he had overheard his parents talking just outside his bedroom, his mother on the verge of tears…

“He won’t explain himself, it’s like he can’t be bothered. I don’t know my own son anymore.”

Koro-Sensei made sure to reassure them. “Remember, you’re not alone in this, you don’t need to bear the pressure on your own. And even if you miss the shot, there’s a fallback strategy. We’ll hot potato the gun and continue shuffling everyone until we strike again.”

The fact that they most likely didn’t have the time to do that trick more than once at most was left unsaid by those who figured that out.

Koro-Sensei knew this as well, but that wasn’t important right now. “You may not realise it, but every single person in this room has tasted the agony of defeat before. Sure, there is pressure on you, but your classmates are in the exact same boat, do not forget that.”

But while Koro-Sensei had been giving his pep talk, Gastro had been given more than enough time to get his bearings. He was certain that everyone had moved at some point, and whilst he didn’t know where everyone was with confidence, he did remember one instruction that had been quite interesting.

“Curve Ball, take a position five seats to your left and be ready for my signal.”

Gastro smirked at how easy it was. The teacher had messed up by telling the student to wait for his signal. He had counted fourteen kids, and eleven of them had moved before their teacher had stopped using their names, meaning there was only three options as to who this Chiba could be.

But one of those three was the first shooter, Hayami. That left two students, students' eight and thirteen, and whilst he had no idea where the former was, he knew the latter was ‘Curve Ball’, and when combined with the order the teacher had given them, it was near certain that they were the second shooter. And he had a pretty good idea of their location.

As Gastro looked at the seat he believed to hiding his quarry, he did note how the students’ breathing had gotten heavier, like they were nervous, cooking some sort of plan up. But whatever they were planning wouldn’t matter once their shooter was taken out.

Koro-Sensei was still calm though. He could tell that the assassin was confident, but hopefully it was because he had fallen for his bluff. “Well then, if everything is ready, it’s go time.”

Gastro could taste the combination of victory and the barrel of his gun, at one with his weapon.

“Curve Ball, now! Stand up and shoot!”

Too easy! Gastro pointed his gun and waited for the kid behind the seat to stand up.

Only for no one to appear.

A few seconds passed, and Gastro started to wonder why they hadn’t stood up yet before realising that the shooter wasn’t confident in their abilities. The orb’s pep talk should have made that obvious.

As if to prove his point, he heard a voice call out from within the seats. “Crap, he’s not going to do it.”

“What do we do now?” Another voice whispered out.

Gastro chuckled, relaxing his arm slightly. He really overestimated these kids. “Guess you value your life. Smart kid, your teacher shouldn’t have put so much faith in—"

“Mr. Pervert, now!”

Wait, what?! Gastro hadn’t expected another order. He had to think quickly, where did he think ‘Mr. Pervert’ was hiding? He remembered where, and started to point his gun towards a seat in the back row.

But his moment of relaxation had cost him, and while Gastro was able to see something appear from behind the seat, before he could get a shot off he found himself blinded by a sudden bright flash.

“That’s where you need to aim.” Ritsu gave Chiba the final calculations. It was a tricky shot, but she knew he could make it.

“Got it.” Chiba jumped out from where he’d been hiding the whole time, and after adjusting his aim for a second, fired. If someone had been able to look closely, they might have been able to catch a rare glimpse of Chiba’s eyes whilst he did so.

As Gastro regained his sight, he was able to see a bullet whizz right past his head, completely missing. He gave a nasty laugh before looking towards where the bullet had come from. “Decent shot, but your aim still needs a lot of improvement.” He took aim towards Chiba. “Shame you’ll never get to improve—”

The stage lights suddenly slammed straight into Gastro, wounding him in the process. Chiba’s bullet hadn’t been aimed towards him, but towards the bracket holding the stage lights up.

But while he was wounded, Gastro wasn’t down for the count, and enraged by Chiba’s dirty tactic, he tried to aim his gun towards him once more.

But before he could, a second shot rang out, and this time Hayami’s aim was true, her shot knocking Gastro’s gun straight out of his hand.

Hayami breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally.”

Having lost his weapon, Gastro slumped over in defeat, the pain overcoming him.

Seeing their victory, the students started to emerge from their various hiding spots. Terasaka and Muramatsu raced over to the stage. “Let’s tie him up before he recovers!”

Just behind everyone else, Okajima emerged from the back of the room holding his camera on a makeshift pole, the flash that blinded Gastro having come from it. “Alright, I knew it was a good idea to bring this baby along with me. Perversion for the win!”

“Here, here!” Nakamura chorused in agreement.

“That’s one way to put it,” Sugino noted with a deadpan tone before taking a second to catch his breath. He wasn’t particularly happy that Koro-Sensei had decided to use him as a red herring to drop Gastro’s guard, but it had worked, so he wasn’t going to complain too much.

As he watched them tape up Gastro, Karasuma couldn’t help but be impressed by his students. “That was a real white-knuckle ride. All of them kept it together, and I know many pros who couldn’t manage that.”

Koro-Sensei couldn’t help but agree with his colleague. “With the right balance of opportunity and motivation, anyone can expand their horizon by moving out of their comfort zone. But more often than not, we can’t do so on our own.”

As the group finished restraining Gastro, Chiba and Hayami got up onto the stage.

“We need someone to challenge our complacency, and force us to draw upon resources we never knew we had. And that is one of the main reasons I decided to become a teacher. I wanted to spark their potential whilst giving them both the opportunity to succeed, as well as the motivation to do so.”

Karasuma was honestly more amused than anything else as he watched the students chat about their victory. These kids had just gotten through a shoot-out and yet they were acting like they had all aced a test or won a sports competition.

As everyone else celebrated, Chiba and Hayami looked at each other. After a moments pause, they hit their elbows together in celebration, both of the normally stoic students smiling.

Karasuma shook his head fondly as he watched his students continue to celebrate. Despite everything that had happened that night, every single one of them was still fully confident in themselves.

Chapter Text

A guard was standing on look-out, having been ordered by his boss to make sure nobody went up to his room. For a split-second, he felt like someone was trying to creep up behind him, but before he could turn around, a hand grasped around his mouth and pulled him backwards.

“Looks like I’m recovering nicely,” Karasuma noted as he strangled the guard into unconsciousness. “I’ve gotten a good portion of my mobility back, I’d say I’m up to about half strength.” He dropped the unconscious guard to the floor before peering around the corner to get a better view.

“If this is you at half strength, you must be the world’s strongest man or something,” Sugino noted with a hint of awe.

“It makes him more like some sort of demi-god!” Kurahashi was not hiding her crush on her teacher in the slightest.

The students then went up to the edge of the corridor to look into the next room, making sure to hide themselves behind Karasuma before doing so.

Nagisa spied a set of now unguarded stairs in the room ahead. “Those stairs will lead us straight to the top floor, right?”

“That’s what Ritsu thinks at least,” Kayano confirmed.

Karma was keeping an eye on the time using his phone. “We are really starting to get close to the deadline though, so I think its best that we get a move on.” The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

“Actually children. Before you do so, a thought has occurred to me.”

Everyone turned to Nagisa, who was holding Koro-Sensei once more, to listen to what their teacher was thinking.

After looking back at the events of the last hour, Koro-Sensei had come to a surprising conclusion. “Specifically, I believe that our mastermind is not properly attuned to the resources at his disposal. In fact, I’d go as so far to say that he has not used a single one of his hired hands correctly.”

The group let out a surprised breath, not certain what their teacher was getting at. The assassins had tried to kill them, isn’t that what they were supposed to do?

But Koro-Sensei’s words had more nuance than that. “So far, all of our foes have been used as lookouts or glorified bouncers, which whilst useful to have, are not roles that assassins should be playing. If our mastermind had aligned the men we’ve accounted with their skillsets, they would have been truly fearsome.”

“He’s not wrong,” Hayami noted, thinking back to how the shooter had shot into the tiny gap between the seats. “That last guy was a sharpshooter, but instead of sniping at us from afar, he walked out to greet us.”

Hazama crossed her arms, deep in thought. “And Karma’s foe didn’t act like an assassin should either. If he had, he would have kept to the shadows. Instead, he stood out completely in the open.”

“You do have a point,” Karma agreed, and while he hadn’t thought about it at the time, the assassin had acted more like a hired brawler than a pro-killer.

Mimura realised that this even applied to the poisoner. “And if you think about it, the poisoner gave all of us a drink, right? So why didn't he poison more of us?”

Chiba nodded, seeing what he was getting at. “And if he had poisoned even a couple more of us, then the infiltration would have become nearly impossible.”

“Yeah, you’re not wrong there.” Maehara wasn’t sure he wanted to imagine that scenario. After all, who would want to image getting poisoned?

Karasuma thought about this as he rummaged through the downed guard’s uniform as he tried to find something. Why hadn’t he seen it before? Because both his colleague and his students were absolutely right, the mastermind had not been thinking like an assassin at all.

And that was because he wasn’t one. Whoever the mastermind was, they knew about the existence of the target without being an assassin. That list had very few names on it, pretty much all of them either world leaders or directly answering to the Japanese government, the sole exception being Chairman Asano.

But if it was a leader or official, why poison the kids? It made no sense, they didn't need to do that to obtain the target, the higher-ups would happily hand him over if someone had a good enough plan to take him out.

And for all his of attempts to screw them over, the Chairman wouldn’t do this either. Because a bunch of kids, E-Class or not, suddenly dying all at the same time would tarnish his precious school’s reputation.

But then, who could it be? A rogue agent, perhaps with connections to one government or another, after the bounty? But if so, who could be sadistic enough to pull off this scheme?

Before Karasuma could continue to think, he found what he was looking for on the unconscious guard and pocketed it, grabbing the man’s gun as well. With his search concluded, he stood up to address everyone. “Alright, new plan. Terasaka, Muramatsu, Sugino, I want you three at the front…”

But as Karasuma started to speak, Nagisa instead turned his attention towards Terasaka, having noticed that he seemed to be acting just a bit off.

Terasaka noticed the other boy’s look. “What is it? C’mon, spit it out.”

Nagisa reached out a hand to Terasaka, and could immediately tell something was wrong just by touching his arm. “Hang on, you’re burning up! Wait, are you—”

Terasaka put his hand over Nagisa’s mouth before he could blurt it out to everyone. “Just be quiet! I’m fine, it’s just a small bug, I’ll have it out of my system in no time…”

“So, you’ve been sick the whole time?” Both Terasaka and Nagisa turned to see Hazama staring at the pair.

Terasaka panicked. “Wha— No! What on earth would make you think that?!”

Hazama gave him a look. “Please, you’ve been acting slightly off for a while. Muramatsu might be too dense to notice it, but I figured out something was wrong.”

Terasaka grunted. “I’ll be fine…”

Nagisa looked at him with concern. “Are you sure? That virus is supposed to be deadly!”

Terasaka knew Nagisa was right, but he didn’t care. “Dammit, Mr. K almost died ‘cause of me! If I hadn’t been such an idiot, he wouldn’t have gotten gassed. And if you’ve been keeping score, that wasn’t the first time my antics almost cost everyone their lives.”

Both Nagisa and Hazama could tell he was referring to when Shiro tricked him into blowing up the pool.

Terasaka then pointed at Nagisa. “Heck, I nearly got you serious injured within the first month of term for crying out loud! And besides, if I drop out now, I’d just be putting the mission in jeopardy. I’m not going to do that, no matter how sick I am.”

Hazama stared at him, genuinely surprised by her friend’s outburst. “Huh, I didn’t expect that.”

Nagisa was still worried. “You really shouldn’t go any further.”

Terasaka made his feelings clear. “Just try to stop me.” He then turned away from Nagisa to continue to listen to what Karasuma had been saying.

Nagisa wanted to try again, but before he could, Hazama put a hand on his arm to stop him. “You won’t be able to change his mind. That’s just how he is, once he gets something in his head he won’t let anyone stop him. He’s too stubborn for his own good but I have to admit, he has guts.”

Nagisa couldn’t respond to that and instead turned to try and catch the tail end of the plan.

After finishing up his orders, Karasuma looked at around at his students. All of them were looking at him with grim but confident looks. He’d trained them well. “Have I made my instructions clear?”

“Yes sir.” The students nodded before they all got into position and started to head towards their destination.

After a few minutes the group found themselves just outside of the mastermind’s room.

Karasuma peered into the room to look out for any trouble. He could see someone, presumably their mastermind, sitting down in a chair, facing away from the door and looking at what appeared to be a trio of laptops.

He squinted to see what was on the laptops, but froze when he realised what they were showing. It was footage of the restaurant, the sick students being shown from various angles. He immediately recognised that if the mastermind had eyes on the restaurant, that meant he almost certainly knew that the group had decided to come after him, and likely had known all along.

The mastermind suddenly let out a harsh laugh, clearly enjoying what he was seeing on his laptops.

This made Karasuma realise just how sick the mastermind actually was. Because it appeared that he was finding enjoyment in watching kids, his kids, suffer from the virus he had given them.

But it appeared that the group did have one advantage. As while the mastermind likely knew they had infiltrated the hotel, it didn’t appear that he knew they were right outside his room, meaning they still had a chance to sneak up on the twisted a-hole and take him out before he could fight back.

After taking a couple more seconds to properly recompose himself, Karasuma gestured for the rest of the group to come forward. The students began to sneak in quietly.

As they did so, Koro-Sensei noticed that they were employing the use of Namba, a walking technique said to have been favoured by ninja’s due to how quiet it was. The kids really had learnt a lot. Even when on the clock, his students preferred to stick to the silent approach to assassination, rather than going in all gun’s blazing.

The students made their way into the room undetected, fanning out a couple of steps away from the mastermind, Karasuma standing just in front of them.

Koro-Sensei knew that the mastermind was sitting in the chair in front of them. It was about time they met face to face. He did hope that his students would be able to take this man down. After all, if he hadn’t been stuck in his absolute defence form…

A dark colour clouded the orb. He would have dealt with him personally.

At the same time, Karasuma was analysing the situation. The first thing he noticed was a suitcase next to the mastermind, an explosive device taped to it. Odds were good that the antidotes were being stored in the case. If the mastermind went for the detonator he saw on the table, then things would turn ugly. But that just meant he'd have to shoot the mastermind in the arm before he do so. He pointed his gun at the chair before signalling to the students to move closer to him.

Quickly and silently, everyone got into position, all ready to jump in as soon as they received the signal. Karasuma took his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the floor, Ritsu appearing on his screen with a determined look.

Getting his aim steady, Karasuma prepared to give the order. Once he did so, Ritsu would send a silent buzz to everyone’s phone, which would be their signal.

After a second, he gave a nod to Ritsu. All of the students received the silent signal and were about to jump into action. But before they could…

“Argh, this itch. How it burns so much no matter how much I quench it.”

Everyone paused, not wanting to make a sound in case the mastermind was just talking to himself, not aware that they were about to pounce.

But some members of the group had a very bad feeling that they had heard his voice before. But from where?

Karasuma, however, knew exactly who that voice belonged to. And a lot of pieces started to suddenly click into place.

He wasn’t an assassin. He knew about Koro-Sensei. And, crucially, he had a motive to poison the kids. A ridiculous motive, but a motive all the same.

“But what most people would call sensitivity is what I like to call hyper-vigilance. Make’s me so much more aware of the world around me.” The mastermind scratched away at his cheek before throwing something up in the air.

The group was shocked as they watched a ton of detonators fall to the ground like a bunch of landmines. There was no doubt now, he knew they were there.

“Did you really think it would be so easy? And as you can see, when it comes to details like detonators, I’m a big believer in redundancy.” While they couldn’t see it, everyone got the feeling that the mastermind was shaking his head in a condescending manner. “I wish I didn’t have to go this far, but I knew that you brats would try something. I can’t say I’m surprised, but I can say that I'm disappointed. And you should all know that the most important rule when it comes to a family is to never disappoint your dad.”

Nagisa looked on with surprise as he figured it out. It couldn’t be, but there was only one person who would call themselves that in relation to the students. But had his voice always been so sinister?

Karasuma decided to bite the bullet and confront the man who was behind all of this. “Before we came out to this island, I reached out to four professionals, only for all of them to have suddenly disappeared. Three of them were assassins trained by Lovro. But the fourth was an old colleague.”

The mastermind started to get out of his chair, the students who hadn’t realised his identity being shocked as they saw who it was.

“Who, as it turns out, had gone MIA after embezzling funds from the ministry of defence.” Karasuma could barely withhold his rage towards the mastermind, who was now standing up.

“Dammit! What the hell do you think you’re doing, Takaoka?!”

And sure enough, standing in front of them, the man who had caused everything that had happened that night, was their former PE instructor Akira Takaoka. But the scratch marks on his face were new, and had his eyes always looked so crazy?

The reaction of the students was a mixture of shock, horror, anger and disbelief. They had known their former instructor was crazy, but trying to kill their classmates? That was another level all together.

Nagisa was shocked, having never considered the possibility of Takaoka being the mastermind. But both Kayano and Sugino immediately became concerned for him, hoping that the madman didn’t have anything cooked up for Nagisa specifically.

Karma wasn’t as scared as his classmates, having taken one look at Takaoka’s fake dad routine and deciding to skip his future classes, but he knew enough from his friends to know he was bad news. Terasaka, on the other hand, was pissed, and it was only the minefield of detonators in his way, and a sudden feeling of fatigue, that stopped him from trying to rush the bastard down.

And whilst many of the group were horrified to see Takaoka again, two of them were particularly scared. Kurahashi had to hold back a scream, remembering how Takaoka had tried to attack her, while Maehara had unconsciously moved his hand to his stomach, like he was feeling the man ram his knee into it all over again.

Takaoka had a crazed smiled as he glanced over their horrified faces. “Oh, what naughty children you all are, trying to sneak up on your poor father like that. Did I not raise you better?” He scratched at his cheek with one hand, but was still holding a detonator in the other. “It seems you all still have so much to learn about manners. Guess it’s summer school for the lot of you.”

Nagisa still couldn’t believe it. “Mr. Takaoka? But why, how could you do something like this?”

Takaoka gave a laugh. But it wasn’t a joyous laugh, it was a cruel laugh befitting of a madman. “Wouldn’t you like to know. Wouldn’t all of you like to know. But that would be a reward, and naughty brats like you don’t get rewarded… So here is what you kids are going to do.” He picked up the suitcase containing the antidotes.

Karasuma was immediately on guard, but with the detonator in Takaoka's hand, he knew that any aggression would likely not end well.

Seeing how powerless his old colleague looked made Takaoka feel proud of himself. “All of us are going on a family trip up to the roof. I’ve got something very special planned, and your dad would be very disappointed if any of you didn’t come. But don’t worry, I’m willing to excuse any illness related absences.”

He then laughed at his own joke, the students shifting from horror to anger as they realised what he meant. The fact that he was willing to joke about their friends, who were currently suffering entirely because of him, made their blood boil.

But Takaoka didn’t care, and started to walk away before stopping, a thought occurring to him. “You know what? Children like you deserve a break every now and then. I’ll give you ten minutes to come up to the roof, and then I’ll show you my surprise. And if you don’t show up, well, I don’t think I need to tell you the consequences.”

Having said everything that he wanted to say, Takaoka walked out of the room.

As soon as he was gone, Terasaka let out a strangled cry. “Goddammit! Who does that asshole think he is, hanging us all by the fucking balls like that out of petty spite!”

“Language, Terasaka,” Koro-Sensei half-heartedly chimed, being careful to not show his own anger in the process.

Nakamura thought about something Karasuma had to said to Takaoka. “Uh, sir? What were you saying about reaching out to Takaoka?”

Karasuma sighed, realising how that could sound, and decided to explain what he meant. “Before we left for the island, I attempted to reach out to Takaoka, hoping that he had reflected on his actions after his dismissal.”

Kayano gave her teacher a blank look. “No offense, but it sounds like you were being way too naïve, sir.”

“I see that now,” Karasuma had to admit. “However, when I did, it was discovered he had suddenly gone MIA, and after the ministry did some investigating, they found evidence of embezzlement. But by that time, Takaoka and the money were long gone.” He then grimaced, wondering just how much his former colleague had lost it.

Hazama decided to ask the other question on everyone’s mind. “So, what do we do now? As far as I can see, we don’t really have any other option then doing what the lunatic says.”

“Right,” Nagisa agreed, and started to make his way towards the stairs. “We don’t have much time we need to head up to the roof as soon as possible.”

But before he could continue, he found himself surrounded by Kayano, Karma, Sugino and Maehara, the rest of the students also surrounding him.

Kayano looked worried. “Nagisa, you know that whatever Takaoka has planned it’s most likely going to be aimed at you, right?”

Sugino nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, whatever he’s cooked up is almost certainly going to involve you. After all, in his mind he probably thinks that everything that's happened was your fault.”

“Which it is absolutely not by the way.” Kayano didn’t want Nagisa to beat himself up for it, knowing him well enough to know he would be blaming himself for Takaoka’s actions.

Nagisa knew his friends were only looking out for him, but he couldn’t let anyone else get hurt because of what he did. “But what other choice do we have? If we don’t go and confront him, then our friends are going to die.”

Maehara jumped into the conversation. “But at the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to hurt you. And let me tell you from experience, if he gets you, it will hurt.”

Karma looked over to Maehara in confusion. “But I thought it was Nagisa who fought him, when did he beat you up?”

“Karma!” Kayano admonished him. “If you don’t remember, Maehara got a knee to the gut from him!”

Maehara raised his hand to stop her. “Don’t be too hard on him, Kayano. He wasn’t there when it happened, remember…”

Takaoka looked over the class as he produced a stack of papers. “Ok then, along with your new regimen comes a new schedule!”

The students looked at the schedule before noticing something very wrong with it. Scratch that, everything was wrong with it.

“What!” Maehara cried out, seeing the problems with the schedule. “No way!”

Okano called out one of the problems. “We have ten periods now?”

Nagisa was also aghast. “We train til nine pm?!”

“That’s the idea little grasshoppers.” Takaoka seemed to think that the schedule was a good idea. “Don’t be glum, think of the payoff. This curriculum will turn you into lean mean killing machine!” He emphasised this by clapping. “You’re gonna love it!”

“Wait, hold up, hold up, this is ridiculous,” Maehara spoke up before walking up to the instructor. “First off, this is school, we gotta think about grades too.” Takaoka touched the back of his head with a dopey smile. “I mean c’mon, we can’t go by this, when are we supposed to study…”

Suddenly, Takaoka reached out and put his hand on Maehara’s head. And then, still smiling, he flung his knee straight into the boy's torso, forcing him to spurt out saliva.

He held up Maehara by his hair. “Rule number one. We don’t do can’t.” He then dropped Maehara to the ground as the rest of the class looked on in shock, Isogai in particular wanting to help his friend. “Rule number two. We’re a family and I’m the dad. Show me a family were dad ain’t in charge and I’ll show you a family in crisis.”

“I guess. But that doesn’t mean it was a nice thing to say,” Kayano only partially conceded.

Sugino decided to get things back on track. “What we’re trying to say, I guess, is that we’re worried about your safety Nagisa.” He then gave a small smile. “You know you can count on all of us to have your back. Right guys?"

“Right!” The rest of the students agreed.

Nagisa smiled, happy to know his classmates were willing to help him. “Okay then, let’s go.”

Seeing this, Karasuma took a deep breath before moving towards the stairs. “In that case everyone, let’s head to the roof. But I want to make this clear. Do not, and I repeat, do not engage with Takaoka unless you absolutely have to. Do I make myself clear?”

Whilst none of them said anything, Karasuma could understand that his students had heard him clearly and understood his orders. All of them looked at him with cold determination.

They were ready.

The group started to make their way to the rooftop, only able to wonder about what horrors would await them there.

Chapter Text

Soon, the group made their way up to the roof of the hotel, the cold wind chilling them all. Takaoka was waiting by some stairs that led up to a platform with a bridge that connected it to a helipad.

Karasuma tried to find reason in his former colleague. “Have you lost your mind?! You embezzled funds from the ministry, used the money to hire deadly assassins and infected ten junior high students with a fatal virus… I can’t believe you would do all of those things, so why!”

Takaoka looked completely calm, which was unnerving. “You speak to me like I’m insane, old friend. But I assure you, I’m perfectly sane. Though I do suspect that that world saviours are often believed to be mad. And before you ask, yes, I did have a plan to take out the target. All I needed was the pair of runts I asked for.”

The rest of the group turned their gazes to Nagisa and Kayano, who both felt like they weren’t going to like whatever the madman said next.

Takaoka had shifted his gaze as well. “It was a good plan too, but you’d have never tried it. I wanted to use what’s her name, Kayano?” The girl in question gave a soft gasp, but he didn’t seem to notice. “To be the fair, the who didn’t matter too much, I just needed one of you kids. But anyways, she would’ve have been the key part of my master plan.”

Takaoka felt almost giddy as he pictured everything in his head. “Okay, so, the bathtub in my room is full of those anti-sensei BB’s. My plan was to tie the girl up and stash her in there with the target, entombing the tub with concrete for good measure. The only way for the octopus to escape would have been to blow up the whole thing, including the girl!”

Kayano put her hands to her mouth at the thought. That would not have ended well for her in the slightest.

Takaoka was still rambling on, a deranged smile plastering his face. “But we all know he wouldn’t do that! He told you all earlier, he puts the lives of you kids above his own! So, I’m certain he would have just let himself dissolve rather than kill one of his oh-so-precious students!”

The students looked at Takaoka with horror and disgust. They were unable to comprehend how someone could think up such a twisted assassination attempt.

“You’re sick, you know that right?” Okajima sounded absolutely disgusted at what he had just heard.

“And all this over petty revenge.” Kurahashi was almost lost for words. How could someone be so cruel?

Even Koro-Sensei was shocked. He had seen some diabolical attempts on his life before, but what Takaoka had come up with was on a whole other level. And the worst part was, its cruelty would have been its success. He would not have hesitated for a single second to put Kayano’s life ahead of his own.

“I won’t lie, when I realised that you all were coming for me, it sure made your dad quite disappointed. I thought I’d taught you better than that, it really broke my heart.” Takaoka had sounded disappointed, but his voice became sinister once more. “And that doesn’t make me very happy, which you’ll want me to be if you care about the lives of your friends.”

Koro-Sensei had become fully black, rage flowing through him, all of it aimed towards this horrible man. “You can’t believe you would ever get away with this madness?!”

Takaoka gave a wild smirk. “Really? From where I’m standing, I hold all the cards, and if I did take you out? The governments of the world would treat me as their saviour! Well, whatever happens, I think we can all agree I’m being quite generous, especially after the way all of you brats treated me…”

“Hey, did you hear about Takaoka? He managed to get run out of that junior high school he was assigned to.”

Takaoka felt his cheeks burn.

“Really? But I thought that was going to be his chance to get the top job? Well, I guess that proves once and for all he’s not leadership material, if he can’t even control a bunch of children. Not that we didn’t already know that.”

Takaoka scratched his cheek, trying to stop the burning.

“But did you hear about Karasuma? From what I heard, the same students that rejected Takaoka respect him a lot. I knew he was the real deal.”

Takaoka scratched again, why wasn’t it going away!

“Yeah, that’s for sure.”

The burning, it wouldn’t stop no matter how much he scratched! And it was all his fault…

Takaoka continued to scratch away. “Now, whenever I think back to the humiliation you all caused me, my skin burns so bad I can’t sleep through the night! I hope you're proud, boys and girls, because you’ve condemned daddy to hell!”

The students couldn’t believe that this grown man was ranting at them, blaming them for everything. But this man literally held their classmates lives in his hands, so they didn’t dare to respond.

“My future is gone! My evaluations are down the toilet! I got demoted to desk duty! Everyone is gossiping about me! All of you, every single one of you, are to blame for this! Especially you, Nagisa!” Takaoka pointed at the student in question.

Nagisa gasped at the accusation, having already suspected that he had caused everything. The rest of the group steeled themselves, more than ready to defend Nagisa if necessary.

Takaoka had long been waiting for his revenge. “You’re the one who caused this grave injustice in the first place, and as your dad I order you to accept your punishment!”

Chiba then realised something. “I get it, he asked for the shortest students to deliver Koro-Sensei because he knew that Nagisa would be one of them.”

Karma piped up, having seen a potential flaw in Takaoka’s plan. “I have a question then. What would you have done if your assassin had poisoned Nagisa?”

Takaoka brough his hand to his chin, as if he was thinking. “Well, when I hired Smog, the only instruction I gave him was to not poison the blue-haired runt. Other than that, it really didn't matter to me whether he poisoned two of you or twenty, though I did have a preference towards the higher end…”

Nagisa felt awful. And why wouldn’t he be, if he hadn’t humiliated Takaoka, then none of this would have happened. No matter how you looked at things, everything was his fault.

“Oh, I see.” Karma stepped forwards, making sure that he was standing between Nagisa and Takaoka. “You never cared about saving the world, did you, you just wanted to settle an old grudge. But would beating up a small fry like him really repair your ego? Wouldn’t you be more satisfied if you fought someone my size instead?”

Terasaka moved next to Karma, ignoring the strain it put on him. “Look here, you crazy son of a bitch, Nagisa beat you fair and square! You seem to think that you’re all that but all I see is a sore loser! And if you had won? We’d still despise you, and the Chairman, despite how much of a bastard he is, would’ve still fired you regardless!”

“Exactly!” Sugino joined the pair, genuinely pissed and more than ready to protect his friend. “You’re saying all of this is Nagisa fault?! You’re the one who attacked us for stepping out of line! You’re the one who lost by your own rules! You’re the one who couldn’t accept that, and you’re the one who’s currently using the lives of our friends as bargaining chips!”

Everyone else glared, all of them thinking the exact same way.

Takaoka looked at the group with pure fury. “I don’t remember asking for your opinions! I don’t care what you think about me, but let me remind you that I could destroy the antidote at any moment! Are you willing to let your friends die just to protect one puny runt?!”

Whilst they hated it, the students knew he had a point. Karma, Terasaka and Sugino held their ground, even if they didn’t look as confident, while the other students could only avert their heads in shame.

“That’s what I thought.” Takaoka grinned before returning to look at Nagisa. “C’mon short round, daddy’s waiting for you. So let’s go up to the helipad and have a one-on-one conversation.” He started to make his way to the stairs.

Kayano tried to put her hand onto Nagisa’s arm. “Nagisa, there’s got to be a better way than this. Don’t let him order you around like that.”

But Nagisa pulled it out of her grasp. “But what choice do we have?” He then handed Koro-Sensei over to her.

“Well, what are you waiting for?!” Takaoka yelled from the bridge.

Nagisa turned back to look at the group. The look on everyone's face told him they didn’t want him to go, but he had no choice. “If I try to ignore him, he’ll destroy the antidotes. The best option is to play along for now and try to calm him down. If I do as he says, then he might be willing to just give them to us.” Nagisa continued to walk to the stairs.

Karma knew it wouldn’t be that easy in the slightest, there was no way Takaoka would just let them have the antidote. But the worst part was that Nagisa was just letting him have all the power. This was bad. Really bad.

Karasuma hated what he was seeing. “Please be careful Nagisa.”

“I don’t like where this is going…” Kayano mumbled with worry.

While he didn’t say anything, Koro-Sensei very much felt the same.

“Well, I say we follow them,” Terasaka whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear him, even if it sounded unsteady.

With an unspoken agreement, the rest of the group followed the pair up the stairs.

Once they got up to the platform, the group saw that Takaoka and Nagisa had already crossed the bridge to the helipad itself.

Nagisa was walking over to the centre of the structure, Takaoka watching him do so. The wind blew harshly around them, the only sound within the silence.

Nagisa looked calm, but also apprehensive, as the wind started to blow at his hair and jacket. He stopped in front of a knife, identical to the one he had used in their previous dual.

Just a few steps away, Takaoka was standing with the suitcase placed next to him. He was also holding the detonator out, looking ready to use it.

As soon as he saw this, Karasuma pulled his gun out and pointed it towards Takaoka. “Don’t even think about it!”

“Stay right where you are, tough guy!” Takaoka yelled over to them. “Sorry old friend, but I’m under no illusions that you wouldn’t try to interfere the second you felt like you had to. I only want to talk to Nagisa, so I’m afraid I’ve had to use some extreme measures.” He then pressed the button on the detonator.

A pair of explosions occurred on each side of the bridge, causing it to collapse.

Nagisa turned his head around as he and the rest of the group let out shocked gasps. Without that bridge, there was no way for any of the others to reach him.

“A bit extreme, sure, but necessary to guarantee some alone time.” Takaoka threw the detonator over his shoulder. “Now no one can get in our way. It’s time to get down to business.”

Nagisa turned back to Takaoka, shock still etched onto his face.

Takaoka gave a twisted smile. “Now, I know revenge is an ugly word, but I’d say it’s quite appropriate.”

Nagisa stared him down. “I didn’t come here to have a rematch with you sir. I came here to talk.”

Takaoka turned his head to the side. “I know that. After all, you can’t cheat your way to victory this time. Let’s be honest, I could kill you right now if I really wanted to.” He spread his arms out. “But I don’t want to do that. I want to savour my victory, play with my food, so to speak. So here is what I want you to do.”

Everyone prepared themselves for whatever horrible thing Takaoka was about to ask Nagisa to do.

Takaoka pointed at the ground. “Get on your hands and knees, and give me a sincere apology. Say sorry to me about how you cheated in order to beat me, since you had no chance of doing so with your own skill.” He was holding another detonator, this one almost certainly connected to the suitcase.

Nagisa complied after a second, sitting down on his knees. “Mr. Takaoka, I’m sorry—”

Takaoka stomped his foot. “I don’t believe you! And I said hands and knees, not knees only. Do it correctly, touch your forehead to the ground, prove to me that you are actually, genuinely, completely sorry for all the trouble that you have caused me!”

Nagisa paused for a second before looking at the suitcase.

He was doing this for his friends.

Nagisa proceeded to do as Takaoka asked, practically bowing at his feet. “I’m sorry that I cheated sir. I did it because I knew I couldn’t beat you fairly and for that, I’m very sorry.”

Takaoka stared down at Nagisa. “That’s a start, but you did more than that. Not only did you tell me to leave, you also said that Karasuma is a better teacher than me. Seriously, you would rather have that workaholic deadbeat over me! The audacity!” He pressed his foot onto Nagisa’s head, pushing it closer to the ground.

The rest of the group could only watch, transfixed by the horror show playing out in front of them.

Takaoka started to grind his heel into Nagisa’s head. “I was only doing what was best for you kids, hell, I even gave you sweets! When has Karasuma even done that for you! I sacrificed so much to get to that position, I deserve some respect, especially from a bunch of worthless brats!”

“We should have respected you sir,” Nagisa pleaded. “You were only trying to do what was best for us, but we coldly rejected you and humiliated you. I’m sorry, both for my own actions and the actions of my classmates. We don’t deserve anything from you, but even if you can’t find it in your heart to forgive me, please forgive everyone else.”

Takaoka laughed as he removed his foot from Nagisa’s head. “Y’know, I’m actually starting to believe you. That sounded like a genuine apology, well done Nagisa, daddy's to feel better already.”

Nagisa looked up at Takaoka with hope in his eyes. If he kept this up, maybe everything would be okay.

“But I get the teensiest feeling that you’re not being fully sincere. I think you still need another lesson, just to make sure it sinks in.” Takaoka picked up the suitcase, the main learning tool of his final lesson.

Karasuma’s gut suddenly felt like a stone had been dropped through it. He didn’t want to do anything rash, but he had suddenly got an extremely bad feeling about things.

“Before he went out and infected your classmates, Smog showed me some pictures of what happens to people infected with the virus. And let me tell you, the effects are spectacular! Boils over every inch of their bodies, faces like a bunch of grape, it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!”

The rest of the group were horrified just imaging his descriptions. But none of them noticed how Terasaka had started to look just a bit ill…

“And, I think your friends will be perfect examples of that!” And without any hesitation, Takaoka threw the suitcase into the air.

Nagisa tried to lunge after it, but he knew it was too far out of his reach.

Everyone else realised what Takaoka was about to do. Karasuma tried to stop him. “Please, no!”

Takaoka pushed the button.

The suitcase exploded into millions of pieces. Even over the sound of the explosion, everyone felt like they could hear the sound of glass breaking. Of the vials containing the antidote being destroyed.

And just like that, the only chance of saving their friends had gone up in literal smoke.

As the suitcase was blown to smithereens, every single student could only stare in on horror at the sight. Each of them tried to process it, but they couldn’t. How were you meant to react to seeing something like that, something so cruel in every way?

Even their teachers didn’t know what to feel, neither of them having ever seen such abject cruelty as what they were seeing right now.

But there was one person on the roof who felt quite differently. Instead of being shock and horrified, this person couldn't be happier.

“Ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…” Takaoka broke out into full laughter.

Nagisa looked on in complete despair, panting heavily as whatever remained of the antidotes scattered into the wind.

Takaoka pointed a finger straight in Nagisa's direction, the widest smile on his face as he continued to laugh and laugh. “Yes! That's it, that’s the face I really wanted to see!”

Nagisa couldn’t respond to what Takaoka had just done. The fact that he'd just effectively murdered his friends, and laughing about it, absolutely crushed him.

Takaoka stopped laughing, but his tone was still hysterical. “You know, you should make a scrapbook of everything you did on the island! Include all the highlight. The sun, the sand, the screw-ups, and of course, the fireworks show! I’m thinking you could include a before and after, on one side, a photo of your smiling friends and next to them a picture of their bloated corpses!”

Nagisa glanced back towards the rest of the group and locked his eyes on Terasaka. It was clear he was really starting to feel the virus, and now with the antidote gone, there was nothing Nagisa could do to change that.

But Takaoka didn’t care, he continued to ramble in glee. “And don’t forget to give it a snappy name, maybe something along the lines of ‘Nagisa’s Book of Boiled-Over Faces!’.” He laughed some more, as if he had just told the funniest joke ever.

But Nagisa wasn’t listening to him anymore. He hugged himself tightly, and could only hear the pounding of his own heartbeat as his despair quickly turned into a cold anger. The man laughing in front of him had just sentenced eleven of his classmates, eleven of his friends, to die a slow and horrible death.

Then he saw it.

The knife, identical to the one that had caused all of this in the first place. It was still lying in front of him, glistening in the moonlight.

Nagisa knew what he needed to do, what he needed to use the knife for.

Takaoka paused his laughter as he heard the sound of metal scraping against something hard.

Nagisa had picked up the knife, and dragged its blade along the concrete closer to himself. Once he stopped, the only sound that could be heard was his own uneven breath.

The rest of the group looked on with shock, and every single one of them could tell that something in Nagisa had just snapped.

Nagisa drew himself up to full height, blade pointed towards Takaoka. His eyes were focused, his intent clear for all to see. “I’ll… kill you…”

This was what Takaoka had been waiting for. His chance to take revenge. “That’s it… C’mon, sonny boy, come at me.”

The rest of the group became horrified as they realised what was happening, and what was about to happen.

Koro-Sensei could barely whisper at what he was seeing. “Oh dear lord no…”

And on the helipad, Nagisa was ready to enact vengeance. His eyes were completely focused, like how a snake zeroed in on its prey just before it pounced.

“I’ll… Kill you!”

Chapter Text

The moon, in all of its permanent crescent of glory, shone down onto the hotel roof, where two opponents were about to engage in battle.

Nagisa stood on one side, quiet but determined, his bloodlust clear for all to see.

And Takaoka stood on the other, still grinning like the madman he truly was, the way that someone who doesn’t care about what happens next does because they already knew that they'd won.

Separated from the pair, the rest of the group watched on, a flood of different emotions, from fear to anger to fright, all of them concerned about Nagisa’s safety. They were now nothing more than involuntary audience members to what was about to unfold.

“…I think Nagisa’s finally snapped,” Maehara vocalised what they were all thinking, silently horrified by his own words.

Muramatsu had to agree with that, as much as he hated to do so. “Yeah, he definitely has. Sure, we all want to kill the bastard, but I think Nagisa might just actually, well… Do it.”

Kayano decided to ask the other two people who knew Nagisa as well as she did a question. “Karma, Sugino, have either of you ever see Nagisa like this?”

Sugino immediately shook his head, not taking his eyes off of the pair standing on the helipad. “No. No, I haven’t. The closest I’ve seen to him being angry before was when he thought he was standing up to teach for me. But even then, he didn’t act like this. Karma, you remember anything?”

Karma seemed to ponder the question for a second before he also shook his head, looking genuinely troubled. “Nope. Nagisa’s always been the one to try and stop me from going too far. But if I was up against him, then I would be very concerned for myself.” The fact that Karma was willing to admit that told a lot about the situation.

“I wish someone could try and stop this,” Koro-Sensei murmured in despair. “But at the same time, I know that nobody can. Not anymore.”

“Tch.” Terasaka wasn’t going to just give up. He managed to struggle his way down to the roof proper, no longer at eye level but closer in terms of distance. With all of his remaining strength, he managed to throw one of the stun-guns he had been carrying.

It had just enough force to hit Nagisa in the back, the projectile enough to, temporarily at least, snap him out of his bloodlust.

Terasaka took multiple deep breaths, every movement sapping at his strength. “Get over yourself dumbass! Don’t think I missed the look you gave me when he blew up the antidote. Screw that, I don’t need your pity!”

Nagisa kept his back to his classmate, no indication that he was listening.

But Terasaka knew he was. Because Nagisa always listened to his friends. “Quit wasting your time worrying about other people and focus on yourself! And besides, look at me, I’m still standing, ain’t I! Think it about, the virus must be a lie, I’m going to be fine, and so is everyone else! That a-hole is messing with you, don’t fall for it!”

“Wait a second.” Muramatsu may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he wasn’t stupid. “You’ve been sick the whole time, haven’t you?!”

Hazama nodded whilst crossing her arms. “He has.”

Okajima couldn't believe what he was hearing. “Seriously! How the hell have you made it this far!” The rest of the group thought similarly.

But Terasaka didn’t care about what his classmates thought, even as Muramatsu and Maehara ran down to help him. “Murder is murder, it doesn’t matter how much of a piece of shit they are! He isn’t worth it, all he wants is for you to give into your bloodlust! You’re better than him, and you always will be!”

As Terasaka paused to take a breath, Koro-Sensei jumped in, speaking faster than he usually did so as not to waste a single second. “Terasaka is right Nagisa, killing Takaoka will not accomplish anything. Blind rage is not a moral guide. I know how you’re feeling, but murder is never the answer!”

Takaoka growled, but he didn’t stop Koro-Sensei just yet.

“And I think there is a strong chance that he’s bluffing about the antidote, he has the most to benefit by doing so. He could by lying about destroying all of the antidotes. Or about the virus being fatal. For all we know, he didn’t even use the virus in the first place!” Koro-Sensei was hoping against hope that one of those things were true.

Nagisa still hadn’t moved, but he was listening, Terasaka’s and Koro-Sensei’s words starting to break through to him.

Koro-Sensei was nearly done, his message to Nagisa clear. “In order to confirm anything about the virus itself, all we need to do is consult the poisoner tied up downstairs. But in any event Nagisa, I beg of you to not stoop to Takaoka’s level. You don’t need to kill him, all you need to do is render him unconscious!”

“Shut your mouth, you’re ruining my fun!” Takaoka stormed past Nagisa to address the rest of the group directly. “I want my rematch to be a proper fight, and the only way for that to happen is for him to come at me with everything he’s got, bloodlust running wild! If that’s not happening, how am I meant to humiliate him! And if I can’t do that, how am I going to patch up my own self-esteem!”

Koro-Sensei ignored Takaoka. “Nagisa, please don’t use that knife, use Terasaka’s stun-gun instead. The words of a friend matter far more than ones spoken by an enemy! Resist the urge of your bloodlust, weigh up your options, and ask what within yourself does this man have claim on!"

Nagisa remained where he stood, but his rage had started to cool. But he then heard a thud come from behind him, causing him to turn his head to see what it was.

“Urgh…” Terasaka had finally run out of stamina and collapsed to the floor, Muramatsu and Maehara both rushing to help him.

“Oh crap!” Muramatsu immediately tried to help his friend up. “Geez! You’re hotter than a stove, how on earth were you still standing?!”

“Yeah, I don’t think any of the rest of us could have handled having the virus, let alone make it this far,” Maehara agreed.

“I don’t care. It’s like I said… I’m gonna be fine.” Terasaka managed to find enough energy to point his finger towards the helipad. “Don’t look at me. Look at them…” He still had one thing left to say to Nagisa. “The octopus is half right… But you don’t resist the bloodlust… you control it.”

Terasaka’s words were the final thing Nagisa needed to hear to fully snap himself out of his anger.

Takaoka growled as he noticed the boy pick up the stun-gun. But he started to smile as he saw Nagisa slide the non-lethal weapon into his belt.

Terasaka noticed what Nagisa had done. Why was he putting it away? But then, he remembered something. Was he going to try and do that?

Nagisa took his jacket off and threw it behind him. The jacket fluttered away in the high winds, leaving him with just his tank top. But he was still holding the knife.

“Okay, now we’re talking…” Takaoka removed his own jacket.

“Uhm, question sir.” Kayano was worried as she spoke to Koro-Sensei. “Why did Nagisa choose to put the stun-gun away?”

That… was a good question. Koro-Sensei couldn’t find an answer.

Takaoka smiled as he looked over at Nagisa “I see that you decided to go for the knife. That’s my boy! Hey, you want to know a secret?” He then held up three vials, each containing a pale liquid. “The octopus was actually right, I didn’t destroy all of the antidotes. So here’s the deal. If you come at me with everything you’ve got, and your pals keep a respective distance.”

At the bottom of the helipad, Chiba and Nakamura had been trying to see if there was another way up. The pair paused as they heard Takaoka’s words, not wanting to make things even worse.

Takaoka looked at the antidotes in his hand. “Then I might be willing to give you those last few dosages. But if I feel either of those conditions aren’t being met, then the last possible chance for your friends to survive will go bye bye. Everyone infected, including the big lug over there, will be dead meat.”

Most of the students winced, knowing that Takaoka was completely serious with his threat. He’d already blown up most of the antidotes, he would absolute destroy the last few if he felt like it.

Takaoka made sure that his former co-worker in particular knew the rules. “Hear that, Karasuma! It’s just me and the boy!” He then put one of the vials in his mouth. “This stuff takes a month to cook up at best. Sure, there isn’t enough for everyone, but saving some is better than saving none!”

Koro-Sensei knew that there had to be some other way, he just needed to find it. But he also needed to tell his colleague something. “Mr. Karasuma.”

Karasuma looked over to him in surprise, wondering what he wanted to say.

“I don’t want to ask you to do this, but if at any point it looks like Nagisa’s life is in jeopardy, then I want you to shoot Takaoka. And whilst it pains me to have to say this.” Koro-Sensei’s smile seemed to wither. “If you have to shoot to kill, please do.”

Karasuma didn’t like that his colleague felt he needed to say that to him. Because for all of his faults, he usually had a sixth sense about where things are heading. So for him to not only tell him to shoot, but to kill Takaoka if he had to, meant they were in deep trouble.

Of course they were. You couldn’t look at this situation and think things were going well. On the helipad, Takaoka and Nagisa were both shifting into fighting stances, one a muscular former special forces operative, the other a scrawny teenager. If that didn’t illustrate how badly things were going, nothing did.

So far that night, the group had managed to take down three professional assassins. But they had done so by outsmarting them, not outfighting them. But Nagisa couldn’t do that now. Takaoka was forcing him to play by his terms, and if he didn’t, then things would go south even more than they already had.

As the seconds ticked away towards the duel, every single person on the roof knew that, whatever happened next, this would be the final act.

Karasuma was keeping his hand firmly on the gun, not wanting it to slip from his grasp if he did need to use it. Kayano was standing to his right, still clutching Koro-Sensei, with Sugino standing just behind her, both of them looking extremely worried about Nagisa’s safety. As for Koro-Sensei, even his perpetual smile had dimmed, no trace of his usual exuberance.

Further to the right, Hayami was doing her best to hide her emotions, but her fear was still noticeable. Okajima was right next to her, not hiding anything, a look of panic visible on his face.

To the left, Mimura looked worried, unable to take his eyes off the helipad, whilst Kurahashi had huddled up to Hazama in terror. Hazama seemed to be letting her do so, looking genuinely rattled.

Down below, Maehara and Muramatsu were trying their best to keep Terasaka comfortable, that being the best they could do for him right now. Terasaka had been able to hide being poisoned from them for almost the entire hour, but now it was painfully obvious.

Karma had joined them as well, knowing that Nagisa was more likely to hear him. His face showed no emotion, but his eyes were a storm of terror and fear.

Chiba and Nakamura were the furthest down. The two were still next to the helipad, but with Takaoka’s threat, they weren’t going to try making it up again. They couldn’t even see the helipad itself, but they honestly didn’t want to.

And finally, there were the two people on the helipad, the predator and his prey. But who was which remained to be seen…

Takaoka motioned for Nagisa to come closer. Nagisa began to do so, slowly walking towards Takaoka, no fear in his eyes.

And then, the battle began.

Takaoka immediately went on the offensive, rushing in and delivering a powerful kick to Nagisa’s chest, causing him to be flung backwards due to the force. Nagisa managed to get up quickly though, albeit still winded by the attack.

“No response?” Takaoka questioned as he made up the gap between them. “And here I thought you might actually try and fight me. Daddy is really disappointed, you know.”

Nagisa responded by rushing in, trying to slash at Takaoka with the knife. Takaoka just dodged and grabbed him by the arm, before sending him back with a headbutt.

Karasuma could instantly tell that Takaoka wasn’t fighting like the madman he was, but rather the special forces soldier he used to be. Even his insanity couldn’t block out years of elite military training. If anything, his skills were only being tempered by his madness, making him even more deadly.

Takaoka balled his fist and rushed in to deliver a punch straight to Nagisa’s face, causing the boy to stumble away to try and make some distance. But it wasn’t enough as Takaoka quickly followed up with a second punch before delivering a kick to Nagisa’s back.

Kayano was horrified. Takaoka was destroying Nagisa, and she couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t, no matter how much she wanted to.

Karma was keeping his eyes entirely on the battle, but his didn’t like where what he was seeing. He should have followed after Nagisa. There wouldn’t have been any consequences for doing so, considering that Takaoka blew up the antidote anyways, and if he was up there then Nagisa would at least have a chance.

Karasuma watched as Takaoka delivered blow after blow to Nagisa, dominating the fight. He had the advantage in every aspect. His skill, training, physique, weight, even his will to fight was superior.

Takaoka paused in his beatdown. Nagisa fell to his knees exhausted and bruised.

Hayami scoffed as she turned to Okajima. “This was never a fair fight…”

Okajima nodded, agreeing with the obvious. “Of course not, it’s a trained soldier versus a junior high student, in no universe was this ever a fair fight!”

Nagisa stayed on his knees, trying to regain some strength. He had to wait for the right moment…

“Don’t tell me you’re giving up already? Don’t tap out just yet, daddy still has something else to show you.” Takaoka went to grab something from his discarded jacket. “After all, it wouldn’t truly be a fair fight unless we both had a weapon, right?” He pulled out a second knife, identical to the one Nagisa was wielding.

Most of the group paled as they saw Takaoka do this. He’d already caused more than enough damage with his fists alone, but with a knife, things could turn ugly for Nagisa, fast.

Takaoka then started to stroll towards Nagisa, flipping the knife around in his hand. It wasn’t the same knife, the octopus had eaten that one to dispose of it. But it was identical to it, to the one that appeared in his nightmares every single night, always accompanied by that demonic smile.

He thought back to source of his madness, his first encounter with the snake demon. He could still remember the exact moment everything came crashing down. His career, his image, his mind, all reduced to rubble in an instant by a smiling brat and a lucky swing!

Kayano knew she had to intervene somehow, but she couldn’t, she couldn’t reveal that now, Koro-Sensei was in his absolute defence form, it would ruin all her hard work…

As Takaoka moved closer, he noticed that the brat was starting to stagger back onto his feet. But he was already beaten, and soon he would lose. Because this time, there was only going to be one person getting destroyed, and it was going to be that little pipsqueak!

He stopped and pointed his knife straight at Nagisa. “I’m going to split you from groin to grin while savouring the screams of your friends! I’ll sever your hands and feet and hang them like trophies! Hell, maybe I’ll behead you and mount it on my wall! That’s what a hunter does to their prey, right?!”

Sugino turned towards Karasuma, panic evident on his face. “Uh, sir? I know it’s not up to me, but you’re gonna need to shoot him before he kills Nagisa!”

“Yeah, shoot him Mr. K!” Kayano cried out in agreement. “Please, you have to! If you don’t then Nagisa will die, Takaoka means every word of what he just said! So please—”

“Stop,” Terasaka interrupted Kayano as Muramatsu and Maehara tried to keep him steady. “Let Nagisa handle this. He’ll be fine, just you watch.”

Karma looked back toward the delinquent and shook his head. “No. Nagisa is losing, he’s losing and there’s nothing he can do about it. At least if I was over there, he’d have a chance.”

“You sure about that?” Terasaka was actually smirking. “Maybe you shouldn’t be ditching training so much. If you hadn’t, you might know that Nagisa still has one last trick up his sleeve.”

While Karma was confused, Muramatsu seemed to have an idea of the ‘trick’ Terasaka was referring to. “Wait… You’re talking about that, aren’t you?”

“Yep.” Terasaka was smiling, even while still clearly in pain. “If Nagisa is going to do what I think he is, then this is far from over. Just you all watch, he’s about to pull out the big guns…”

As he got up, Nagisa thought back to the conversation he'd had with Lovro…

Nagisa was sitting on the ground, listening to what the aged assassin was telling him. “This technique, it never fails?”

Lovro stared down at him, wanting to make certain his words were taken seriously. “Don’t be fool, it only looks easy.”

At the other end of the field, Terasaka, Yoshida and Muramatsu all watched what was going on.

“Therein lies the beauty. I’ve used it many a time in field. Nothing compares for getting out of pinch. The technique only works under certain conditions however. Three criteria must be met.”

As he looked on at Takaoka, Nagisa recalled the criteria.

“First. Have at least two weapons ready hand.”

He had the knife in his hand and the stun-gun in his belt. That’s one.

“Second. You must be pitted against an expert.”

Special forces soldier turned military instructor. That’s two.

“Third, and most important. Your opponent must already know what it means to face death.”

That one was the easiest to confirm. Nagisa opened his eyes. They seemed to glow, a small smile on his face. Excellent. They were three for three.

Seeing Nagisa’s face, Takaoka flinched backwards. Why was he suddenly looking so confident?

Nagisa started to walk towards his prey, his face never changing. He had been waiting for someone to be his guinea pig, and Mr. Takaoka had so kindly volunteered…

Takaoka was starting to panic. What was the brat doing now!

Nagisa thought back to what Lovro taught him once more.

“You must understand the nature of this move,” Lovro told Nagisa as he helped him to stand up. “It’s something of a paradox you see. Conditions aren’t often favourable, and while I call it an insta-kill technique, in all honesty that is a misnomer. Employing it doesn’t mean your opponent will die instantly, particularly when their defences are impregnable. That said… If you find yourself baited into a corner, and at some point, you will, do this correctly and it sets the stage for an instant kill.”

Nagisa wanted to learn more. “That sounds pretty useful. How does it work?”

Lovro began to tell him. “From a stand still position move quickly. As far as you can, as loudly as you can…”

Nagisa continued to stalk towards Takaoka. He made sure that every footstep echoed in the wind.

Takaoka was scared. He pulled himself back, holding his knife in a defensive position. “What are you doing?! Stay back!”

Nagisa got close to Takaoka. He had to be careful, the trick was to do it just after dropping the knife.

He saw that Takaoka’s eyes were frantically sweeping over him. That was good, especially since his eyes kept darting to the knife. Once he got close enough, Takaoka would only be able to focus on the blade.

Nagisa saw the exact moment Takaoka locked in on the knife. The trick was to drop it so that, for just a second, both the knife and Takaoka’s gaze would be caught in mid-air.

He dropped the knife.

Takaoka could only watch as the knife fell out of Nagisa’s hand. It had all of his attention. He wasn’t watching what Nagisa was doing at all…

Nagisa rushed in and clapped.

It was just a regular clap, nothing special about it. But to someone who was incredibly paranoid and not expecting it? It was destructive…

Inside Takaoka’s field of vision, all he could see was the blue hue of Nagisa’s eyes. The clap reverberated around his skull, obliterating his defences in the process.

He started to fall backwards. What… was… that?

But Nagisa wasn’t finished. In a split-second, he pulled out the stun-gun from his belt. Now was the time for an assassin to strike, to bring out the crucial second blade!

He sent the stun-gun straight into Takaoka’s armpit, launching thousands of volts into him.

Takaoka let out a pained cry. He couldn’t believe it, it couldn’t be! The runt had got him again?!

He fell to his knees. Nagisa stood in front of him with the stun-gun, still on guard.

There was utter silence on the rooftop. Besides the two combatants, everyone else was in a state of shock at what they’d just seen. Nagisa had done it. He had actually won.

Koro-Sensei couldn’t believe the move his student had just pulled off. “Woah.”

Even Karma was speechless. What the actual hell had Nagisa just done…

Nagisa was breathing heavily, exhausted but victorious. He hadn’t expected the technique to be that effective, but it had really proved itself.

“That’s it, that’s how it’s done…” Terasaka looked proud despite his illness. “All he needs is one more strike and he’ll be out like a light. Go on, tase the psychotic rat bastard, end this once and for all!”

Takaoka whimpered as Nagisa put the stun-gun under his chin and forced him to look straight into his eyes.

Nagisa thought about what Takaoka had done. This man had taught him bloodlust. He had taught him that sometimes, it was good to get angry, but that there were other times where you needed to stay calm.

He’d also taught him about the importance of having friends who could pull you out of your own head, stop you from spiralling. And it was thanks to him that he knew what it was like to be in a real fight, even when facing the most experienced of opponents.

Now, he was a horrible man, who had done some truly horrific things, there was no denying that. But despite that, he had taught him some important things, so he did deserve some respect, as strange as it may seem. Because, despite everything, he was a teacher…

Nagisa’s cheek muscles started to twitch.

Takaoka realised what Nagisa was about to do. “Please, no!”

Nagisa had even learned something about himself during all of this, thanks to Takaoka. The corners of his mouth started to pull upwards…

Takaoka was frantic. That was the last thing he wanted to see, especially not now. “No, please! I don’t care what you do to me, just don’t do it with that—”

Nagisa gave him a small smile.

Takaoka lost it. “No, not that smile! Oh god, that smile is going to haunt me until I’m put in the ground. Please, please, just scream at me, shout at me, I don’t care what else you do, just do anything else!”

“Mr. Takaoka… thank you for everything.” Nagisa said honestly. Then he activated the stun-gun.

Takaoka screamed for a second, but then it was over. He lost consciousness and hit the ground with one final thud. Drool started to leak out of his mouth in a small puddle.

There was still a question of what to do when it came to antidotes. But that didn’t matter right now. All that mattered right at that moment was that Takaoka was defeated.

It was over.

Chapter Text

As Nagisa stood over the unconscious Takaoka, the rest of the group continued to look on in complete shock, none of them being able to process what had just happened.

Nagisa had actually done it. He'd managed to defeat Takaoka, and with a single move to boot. But the shock wore off quickly.

Okajima was the first to react. “Yes!” He let out a cheer, and that set the rest of the group off.

“Nagisa actually did it! Get in!” Mimura said what they were thinking.

“Holy crap, he actually managed to pull it off!” Sugino couldn’t believe it, but he certainly wasn’t going to complain.

“He sure did…” Kayano was in complete agreement, feeling both surprise and joy.

Karma just smiled. Sure, he was still scared, but he wasn’t going to think about that for now.

“What did I tell you! Of course Nagisa won!” Terasaka was using every last bit of energy he had left, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him.

Everyone else cheered on in celebration. Because in that moment, regardless of everything else, the person who had poisoned their friends had been defeated.

Nagisa took a deep breath and looked upwards at the crescent moon, staring directly at the thing that had started everything, all those months ago.

Karasuma was still focused though. The mastermind may have been defeated, but the situation was still dire. “Hang on a second gang. Takaoka may be down for the count, but we still need to figure out what to do now, especially since we don’t have enough antidotes to cure everyone. First things first, can someone go and find another way up to the helipad?”

Their teacher’s words put a slight damper on the students' spirits, reminding them that, even with Takaoka defeated, it didn’t change the fact that their friends were still sick, and that most of the antidotes had been destroyed. But they weren’t going to think about that right now.

“Yes sir!” A few of the students started to scramble to find another way up.

Karasuma watched the students spring into action. There had to be an emergency ladder somewhere. But he had other things to worry about.

For example, the antidote. Takaoka had three vials of it that could be used, but there were ten, no, eleven students who were infected with the virus. Even if they only had to use half a vials worth of antidote, that was still nowhere near enough. Hopefully Smog would give them some good news, because otherwise… Karasuma didn’t want to think about that.

But that could wait for a second. First, he needed to make a few phone calls...

Nagisa hadn’t moved since his victory, keeping watch over the unconscious Takaoka.

“Those were some good moves out there.” Nagisa turned to see Karma walking up to him, the rest of the group making their way up to the helipad as well.

“Nagisa, are you okay!” Sugino rushed over to make sure that his friend was not hurt, physically or mentally.

“Yeah, nothing that won’t heal,” Nagisa assured him. He would definitely have a couple of bruises, but nothing worse than that.

“Nagisa, you don’t know how proud of you I am.” Koro-Sensei was still being carried by Kayano, his smile beaming across his face. “Even I had no idea how things would end, you truly surprised me in the best way possible.”

“Thanks sir, but we still need to figure out what to do about the virus. We have a few vials of the antidote.” Nagisa held up the vials, having grabbed them from Takaoka. “But nowhere near enough for everyone. Sure, I may have won, but if some of our friends still die, then—”

“Don’t think like that, Nagisa,” Koro-Sensei stopped him from spiralling. “We’ll figure something out, trust me. I will not be letting anyone die, that is a promise.”

Everyone else was still worried about the virus. Now that the initial joy of victory had worn off, the reality of the situation was setting in.

Karasuma got off a phone call before walking over to them, wanting to help his colleague reassure the students. “He’s right kids. We will figure something out. But first, we need to get off this roof. You guys stay here and wait for the chopper, whilst I go and get Smog. Since Takaoka had a full list of passcodes for the elevators, I should be able to retrieve him quickly.”

“Good luck with that,” a voice that sounded like Gastro spoke up from behind them.

Quickly realising who the voice belonged to, the group gasped before looking over to the other side of the helipad, the three assassins all standing there.

“And by the way, you don’t need the antidote,” Gastro muttered while holding his gun in his mouth. “Trust me, that’s the last thing you brats need to worry about.”

The student got into fighting positions, more than ready to engage the three pro’s head-on if they had to. It wouldn’t be easy, but they would try.

Karasuma stood in front of the class, more than ready to protect them if necessary. “The man who hired you has been defeated, you don’t have any reason to fight us. I’m almost fully recovered from the gas, and these kids are far stronger than they look, or have you three forgotten that? I suggest you back down before you get hurt."

“Okay.” Gastro shrugged.

“Yeah, we’re far tougher than we…” Muramatsu stopped to make sure he heard the assassin correctly. “Wait, what did you just say?”

Gastro removed the gun from his mouth. "Yeah, don’t worry about it. And your teacher is absolutely right. There isn’t a revenge clause in our contract, so it’s all null and void.” He sounded a lot more cheerful.

Karma didn’t trust the assassin. “And what about that threat you just made?”

Gastro seemed confused. “What threat?”

Karma gave the assassin a cold look. “You just said that the antidote was the last thing we needed to worry about. That sure sounded like a threat to me.”

Gastro looked sheepish. “Oh, that? That wasn’t a threat. The antidote really is the last thing you need to worry about. After all, it would only be useful to you if anyone was actually infected with the virus.”

“You take us for schmucks?!” Terasaka wheezed out as Muramatsu helped him stand. “Hey a-hole, if nobody has the virus, then why am I sick!”

Smog lifted up a canister of something. “Well, I did use a virus, just not the one you think I used. You know the bug that you get from eating oysters on the half-shell? I gave you a perfected version of that old war horse, it’ll have flushed out of your system by this time tomorrow. Sure, it’s unpleasant, but it's certainly not fatal.”

He then lowered the canister and held up a sealed test tube in his other hand. “Now, this sucker is what the boss wanted me to use. If I had used it? Honestly, your classmates would be screwed. But since I didn’t, you don’t have to worry.”

Grip then continued the explanation. “After the boss hired us, the three of us talked it over and hatched a plan. What the boss had in mind, it seemed too harsh, we figured that the hand-off would play out just as well if you thought you were in danger, rather than that actually being the case.” The group noticed he didn’t say ‘hm’ even once.

“And since a nasty bout of food poisoning can leave you feeling like death warmed up, it was a win-win!” Smog finished with a cheer.

Nakamura didn’t fully trust them. What the assassins had just told them seemed too good to be true. “But, aren’t assassins first and foremost contract killers? Isn’t directly going against the orders of your boss likely to make you less trusted and make you lose money?”

Grip turned to look at her, a small smile on his face. “Not quite, sweetheart. Sure, money is important to us, don’t get me wrong. But there’s this little thing most of us have, it’s called moral standards. We probably have less than the average person, but we do still have them.”

“Usually, the client’s need are the top priority. But there are certain lines we won’t cross…” Gastro thought back to when he overheard Takaoka.

“We blow the antidote up!” Takaoka rambled on. “Right in front of their shocked, bedraggled little faces! How sweet the moment will be when all hope is lost!”

“Just so you know, the boss never actually intended to give you the antidote.” Gastro actually seemed a bit disgusted by what he was saying. “The only scenario where he didn’t blow it up would have been if you incapacitated him before he could have done so.”

The fact that Takaoka always intended for his students to die caused the very last tiny shreds of Karasuma’s positive feelings towards him to disappear. How had nobody noticed just how insane he actually was… How had he not noticed?

“So it was either kill a bunch of innocent kids, and try to live with ourselves for doing that, or we take a small hit to our reputations by not doing so. Pretty easy decision in terms of ethics. And anyways, we’ve come back from worse, so we’ll be just fine,” Gastro finished explaining.

Everyone was shocked by this turn of events. Not only were their friends going to be okay, but they had never been in any danger of dying in the first place.

“Sure, that means the job is a wash, but at least we’re not going to called kid killers.” Smog then threw a bottle of tablets towards Nagisa, who caught it in surprise. “That bottle contains a supplement. Give some to your friends and have them got soon good rest. Honestly, they should wake up tomorrow feeling better than they did this morning.”

Just then, a pair of government aircrafts, the ones that Karasuma had called for, started to approach the helipad.

Karasuma wasn’t letting his guard down. Not until everyone was safe. “I hope you don’t mind that I won’t believe you until every single of my kids are up and healthy, gentlemen. And you three still have a lot to answer for, so I’m going to have to detain you.”

Gastro looked up towards the aircraft. “Eh, we don’t have a job for the week or two, so I guess that’s fine? As long as we’re not detained for too long, wouldn’t want people thinking we’ve been snuffed out.”

Soon, the first aircraft landed on the helipad, this one to take both the unconscious Takaoka and the three assassins back to the mainland for questioning. A pair of government agents wheeled Takaoka, now restrained in a straitjacket, into the aircraft before the three assassins started to make their own way into the vehicle.

But before they could, a certain devil had something to say to one of the assassins.

“Oh, so you don’t want a revenge match, even after what I did to you?” Karma noticed how Grip’s lips were all puffed up, undoubtably as a result of his earlier torture. “I thought that samurais had this really long code of honour, and if you don’t get your revenge for being defeated by wasabi, don’t you have to fall on your sword or something?”

“One of the key pieces of the samurai code is to not kill someone weaker than you if you don’t have to” Grip explained as he suddenly put his hand onto Karma’s head for a second before walking past him. “So, I’ll just wait until the day comes that someone puts a bounty on head. The way you act, it will happen eventually, hm, and that’s when I’ll strike.”

Karma was stunned as Grip joined his co-workers in the aircraft. As soon as he did, the aircraft started to take off.

“The same goes for the rest of you!” Gastro shouted down as the aircraft started to take off. “You want a rematch, become a good enough target for us to take the job! Once you do, we’ll give you an assassination attempt that you’ll never forget! Mainly because it will be the last thing you ever remember!”

The students had to protect themselves from some bullets that Gastro had thrown out of the aircraft, his last parting gift before the aircraft disappeared.

Nagisa picked up one of the bullets. He wasn’t sure if they had left them with a warning or a compliment, it was hard to tell.

But with that out of the way, Karasuma made the final preparations for their own departures.

Back in the lobby, Bitch-Sensei felt her phone buzz from within her secret compartment. A single buzz meant that the students had made it out safely, meaning she needed to make her own exit.

Luckily, that was the easy part. “Hey, I just realised I would really like to try skinny dipping in the ocean by that other hotel. Could one of you gentlemen be so kind as to give me a lift?”

The enamoured guards fell for it hook, line and sinker. Bitch-Sensei smirked as they started to fight over who would get the honours.

At the same time, the second aircraft made its way down to the helipad, this one to take the students and the pair of teachers back to their own hotel. One by one, everyone made their way onto the aircraft, and once they were secure, the vehicle started its short journey back.

And just like that, the infiltration mission was over. And no one else at the hotel would ever know of the events that had unfolded that night.

Once they were safely in the air, Nagisa decided to thank the one person he really needed to. “Hey, Terasaka.”

“Yeah?” Terasaka mumbled, looking slightly better now that he was able to sit down.

“I owe you big time. If it wasn’t for you yelling at me, I think I would have made a really bad decision,” Nagisa admitted. “So, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s already hard enough to kill the octopus without one of us being taken out of the equation. I was just doing what was best for the mission, that’s all.” Terasaka tried to downplay it, but it was clear that he cared.

Nagisa looked around. Kayano gave him her sweetest smile, Sugino nodded his head, and Karma let out a light chuckle.

He saw that everyone else was smiling at him as well. They were exhausted, but they were alive. And their friends would hopefully be fine, which was even more important. Whether he realised it or not, all of the class had his back.

Nagisa smiled as well. “If you say so.”

“I’m just glad that everything is over,” Maehara stated with exhaustion.

“And at least no one died,” Hazama added just a bit too calmly.

“It does feel like everything we did was for nothing in a way.” Mimura raised an interesting point. “Since no one was in actually in danger of dying, you know?”

“I’m just glad that everyone's going to be okay.” Kurahashi was clearly relived by that.

Koro-Sensei decided to help his students with that question. “You say that in hindsight, boys and girls, but you had no way of knowing that everything was going to be fine. Your classmates appeared to be in danger, and not a single one of you hesitated to come on this mission to save them. You should be all be very proud of what you’ve accomplished today.”

Everyone thought back to the events of the last hour or so. It had truly been the most intense hour that any of them had ever been through, and a few of them hoped that would remain the case for the foreseeable future.

And now, they were going back to their hotel to tell their friends that they were going to be fine.

Soon, the aircraft started to descend, having reached its location…

Chapter Text

Back at the restaurant, Hara and Kanzaki were still doing all they could to help their sick classmates.

It hadn’t been easy, but they had managed to prevent the worst symptoms from reoccurring, for now at least.

Hara let out a small breath as she looked around. “Well, everyone’s fevers seem to be going down, which is good.”

Kanzaki nodded, but she was still feeling anxious. “Yeah, that’s true. But we still need the antidote. Without it, nothing we’ve done will matter. Everyone should be back soon, right?”

Hara tried to keep her friend’s spirits up. “Yeah, and that means that we’ll soon have the antidote.”

“You’re certain they’ve got it?” Kanzaki wasn’t quite as confident.

“Please, I know they have.” Hara had a feeling that everything was going to be fine.

It was at that moment that everyone heard a loud noise, like some sort of aircraft was coming towards them. And it sounded like it was getting closer and closer.

“What’s that?” Even with a sickness hampering her, Okano could still hear something.

“Beats me…” Kimura mumbled from his own bed, thankful to have not thrown up for a while.

Sugaya grumbled. “Ugh… whatever it is, can it stop before it gives me a headache?”

Agent Sonokawa decided to go outside and look. She quickly came back in. “It’s an aircraft, one of ours, which means it most likely contains your classmates.”

Hara and Kanzaki looked at each other.

“You go out and greet them while I stay to make sure nobody suddenly declines,” Hara instructed.

“Okay.” Kanzaki quickly agreed, the pair nodding at each other before she went outside to greet them.

Kanzaki waited just outside the restaurant as the aircraft landed on the beach. After it had completed its landing and had come to a full stop, the back door of the vehicle opened up.

Once it was fully open, she was able to see her classmates coming out of it. As soon as she did, she let out a sigh of relief.

All of her classmates had relieved looks on their faces, meaning that they’d most likely succeeded in their mission.

Maehara was the first person to come up to her, but only for a moment. “Hi!” was the only word he said to her as he raced towards the restaurant, clearly in a happy mood.

The rest of the class soon followed. Kanzaki was more than happy to see them. “Can I assume that everything went well?”

Kayano was the first to respond. “Everyone’s going to be fine, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“You have the antidote then?” Kanzaki decided to make sure, but what else could they mean?

Nagisa seemed to be somewhat hesitant before answering. “Well… Not exactly.”

“Huh?” Kanzaki hadn't expected that answer.

Nakamura walked over, happy to explain. “Yeah, so, it turns out that the person who poisoned them didn’t actually give them the fatal virus that their boss wanted them to use, so everything is fine?”

“And I’m going to assume that Maehara racing towards the restaurant is because he’s going to tell everyone that?” Kanzaki was more relieved than anything else.

Sugino’s eyes widened as he realised what could go wrong. “Yeah, someone should probably go and make sure he doesn’t get his information mixed up.”

“I’ll do it,” Nakamura responded cheerily before jogging towards the restaurant.

It was at this point that something else caught Kanzaki’s attention, and she looked over to see the last few people exit the aircraft.

“You don’t need to help me, I’m fine!” Terasaka tried to protest from within Muramatsu’s grip.

But for once, the lacky wasn’t listening to his boss’s orders. “Dude, even if you’re going to be fine, you’re still in a bad way. I’m not going to have you make yourself worse by straining yourself any more than you already have."

“I managed to climb a cliff face already tonight! If I can do that, then I’m pretty sure I can make it back to bed on my own two feet!” Terasaka still tried to protest, even if the fact that he was struggling to get out of Muramatsu’s rather lax hold said otherwise.

Exiting next to the pair, Hazama shook her head. “And that is one of the many reasons why you shouldn’t. You’re probably more exhausted than anyone else right now.”

Terasaka finally shut up and allow himself to be helped. He was still grumbling but he couldn’t find an argument,

Kanzaki looked on in confusion. The way the three were talking, it couldn’t mean what she thought it did. “Is Terasaka—”

“Yep!” Karma didn’t even let her finish her question.

“And he still went on the mission?”

Karma nodded. “Uh-huh.”

Kanzaki honestly didn’t know what to make of that.

Inside of the restaurant, Hara and the sick students were waiting for news.

“It’s definitely them, right?” Yada wanted to be sure.

It was the ninth time that Hara had to answer that question, but she was more than happy to do so again. “It is, I can see them all now. In fact, I think Maehara is running straight over here.”

And sure enough, a few seconds later the boy in question came barrelling into the restaurant, clearly both exhausted and happy. “Everything is okay, you’re all going to be fine!”

“So you were able to get the antidote?” Isogai asked his best friend.

Maehara closed his eyes and scratched his head. “Well… Not exactly.” He opened his eyes to see that everyone was staring at him.

Kataoka decided to ask the obvious question. “Maehara… What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, the antidote got blown up, but don’t worry about it,” Maehara said far too casually, forgetting to mention the part where it had turned out that they didn’t need the antidote.

Everyone just stared at him for a couple more seconds…

“What do you mean the antidote got blown up!” Yoshida managed to shout out.

“But doesn’t that mean we’re all going to die?” Okuda was mortified, hand over her mouth.

“You better have a good explanation you moron!” Despite the fact that she was currently laid down in a sickbed wheezing, Okano still looked like she was about to get up and maul Maehara.

Isogai really didn’t want to deal with his friend’s flippant attitude right now. “Ugh, please tell me you’re joking.”

And as for Hara, the classroom mom was fully living up to that title. “You have 10 seconds to tell us exactly what you mean by that.” It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order.

Maehara realised that he had managed to say something wrong and started to panic. “Uhm… well, that’s…”

Luckily for him, before he could be murdered by the momma bear standing in front of him, he was saved by a certain prankster.

Nakamura slung her arm over his shoulder. “What Maehara here actually meant to say is that the reason why you don’t have to worry about the antidote getting destroyed is because none of you were actually poisoned.”

This calmed the sick students down, but they still had a few questions. Takebayashi leant up to speak. “But if we weren’t poisoned, then how are we sick?”

Nakamura removed her arm from Maehara’s shoulder. “Well, you were poisoned, just not with anything lethal. You should all be fine by this time tomorrow, if the person who poisoned you told us the truth at least.”

Maehara jumped in, hoping to not make things worse this time. “Yeah, that’s what I meant. Apparently, you all just have the world’s worst bout of food poisoning.”

All of the sick students let out a sigh of relief. They had been starting to feel better, but to find out they’d hopefully be okay?

“So, we should be fine? Great.” Kimura was more than happy to hear that the worst was behind them.

Fuwa sprung up with a sudden burst of energy. “I knew that you guys would succeed! Well, technically speaking you didn't get the antidote, but if we really don't need it, I'd still call the mission a success!" She immediately laid back down into her bed, seemingly tuckered out.

The other students looked at the otaku for a second with confused.

Hara shrugged that off before she smiled. “Everyone’s going to be fine? That’s great to hear.”

It was at this point that the rest of the victorious students started to pile into the restaurant as well, wanting to be finished with the day.

Soon, everyone had gotten settled down, pooling around the various tables that dotted the restaurant once more, having been moved aside earlier so they didn’t get in the way while treating the sick students.

“So, this should help?” Kataoka asked from where she was sitting, the ill students having managed to sit down with help from their classmates. She was holding one of the supplements that Smog had given to Nagisa, and had a glass of water in front of her to wash it down.

Karasuma nodded. “It should.”

“But you should all still get a lot of rest though.” Hara was still making certain that all of her classmates would be okay. She then turned towards her classmates that had been on the mission. “And that goes for you guys as well, you’re just as exhausted as they are.”

“Trust me, I think we’re all well aware of that,” Mimura noted. It was a testament to their training that everyone, healthy or sick, had managed to stay awake up until this point.

After everyone (including a certain delinquent) had taken the required supplement, the conversation then turned to the infiltration itself.

Yada had just finished taking a supplement when she spoke up. “Uh, this may sound like a weird question, but who poisoned us?”

The students who were not part of the mission were surprised when everyone who had, with the slight exception of Nagisa, quickly grew cold. Whoever was behind everything had left a very negative impression on their classmates.

After a few seconds, Hayami decided to answer her question. “Well, I’m sure you all remember Mr. Takaoka…”

The students who hadn’t been there were thrown into uproar at the mention of their former teacher.

“Mr. Takaoka did this?” Kanzaki whispered in horror. She seemed to be scared just by hearing his name, memories of his fist no doubt flashing into her mind.

“That asshole? He was the one behind all of this?!” Yoshida shouted what all of them were thinking. They had thought they were done with him after the chairman had sent him packing.

“He sure was,” Sugino muttered darkly. “All of this was an attempt to get revenge on us, particularly Nagisa.”

“I mean, I knew he had a few screws loose. But I wouldn’t have thought he’d do something like this?!” Kimura spluttered out. Seriously, who responds to getting fired by trying to kill the students he had ‘taught’.

“But don't worry, Nagisa dealt with him, so he won’t be a problem going forward…” Karma added rather ominously.

All of the students who had stayed behind turned to Nagisa with shocked looks on their faces. The way Karma had just said that, it sounded like he had…

“What?” Nagisa was confused, before realising what Karma had insinuated. “Oh, he’s not dead. I defeated him, sure, but I didn’t kill him.”

The students who hadn’t been there still looked like they didn’t fully believe him on that one. Some of the ones who had been there didn’t either, even though they knew Takaoka hadn’t been killed.

Nagisa quickly decided to change the conversation. “Anyways, it’s not like I’m the only one who did anything, everyone did their part. The only thing I did was take down Takaoka at the end, I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the others.”

Karma suddenly came up just behind Nagisa with a demonic smirk on his face. “Well, you did also dress up as a girl.” He quickly took out his phone and brought up a picture of that for everyone to see.

He hadn’t even opened his photos. It was his phone’s wallpaper.

“Karma!” Nagisa was mortified, but it did break the tension that had been built up. The rest of the class burst out into laughter, some a lot more playful or exasperated than others, but laughter all the same.

“You guys…” Well, Nagisa wasn’t exactly laughing, but the joy of seeing everyone smiling again brought a small smile to his face as well.

A few minutes later, the talk had shifted to what had happened in general, with the students having broken into smaller groups to chat.

Isogai was making sure that everyone was okay. “So just to make absolutely certain, everyone is fine? No one was hurt, right?”

“Well, I think Nagisa will have some bruises in the morning, that’s for certain. But no one else was seriously hurt.” Maehara tried to tone down his usual energy, not wanting to irritate his still groggy friends too much.

“Well that’s good to hear.” Okano was similarly relieved. She felt like Maehara wasn’t telling them something, but it was probably nothing. Right?

Nakamura suddenly decided walk over to the table and interject into the conversation. “Hang on a second. Maehara, didn’t you get hurt pretty badly?” Her tone sounded concerned on the surface, but had more mischievous undertones.

Maehara realised what she was referring to, and tried to make sure that his friends didn’t hear about that. “Well, I’m all better now so I don’t think I needed to bring it up…”

Okano was quick to realise that Maehara actually was trying to hide something, and that rung multiple alarm bells in her head. “Wait. Maehara, did you get injured? And if you did, why didn’t you tell us?”

Maehara tried to defuse the situation. Mainly because Okano was giving him a death stare. “Well, it wasn’t really that bad, and I’m all better now—”

But Nakamura interrupted him to try and go for the kill. “Well, actually, I’m pretty sure the reason why he isn’t telling you is because—”

“Nakamura.” Before she could reveal anything, Isogai stopped her. “I can already tell that whatever you’re about to tell us is going to give me a headache. So can you at least wait until I’m recovered enough to actually have the energy to deal with it?”

Nakamura pouted, but decided to allow him this small comfort. “Aw… okay, I’ll tell you two tomorrow.”

Elsewhere, the three delinquents were sitting around the same table, Muramatsu informing Yoshida of what had happened. “…And that’s how I somehow ended up as part of an infiltration team into a bar full of rich kids.”

Yoshida found the story funny. “Yeah, no offense dude, but I really can’t picture you in a place like that.”

Muramatsu could agree with that. “Honestly, I still can’t, and I was actually there…”

“Ha! So you somehow managed to have a pair of hardened criminal mistake you for a Yakuza thug!” Terasaka on the other hand was having a lot better of a time hearing about his minion’s woes. “Goddamn, I didn’t think your face was that scary!”

Muramatsu scowled, but Yoshida instead turned his attention to Terasaka. “Anyways, Terasaka. I might just be seeing things due to the virus, but you look just as sick as the rest of us.”

Terasaka panicked, hoping to keep that under wraps. “Uh, no, that’s just you imagining things, absolutely nothing else, and don’t you forget that!”

Yoshida wasn’t buying it. “Why are you getting so defensive about it then?”

Before Terasaka could continue, Hazama, who had sat at another table with Takebayashi, spoke up. “It’s because he’s been sick the whole time.”

She said that fact loud enough for everyone who hadn't known to hear it, making them turn towards Terasaka.

Yoshida couldn’t believe what he just heard. “You went on the mission despite being just as sick as the rest of us, are you serious!” He then turned to Muramatsu. “And why didn’t you stop him!”

Muramatsu put his hands up in a defensive position. “Woah, hey, I didn’t find out until we had already made it to the rooftop! Trust me, if I had known before that, I would have stopped him.”

But unfortunately for Terasaka, before Yoshida could continue his tirade against him, another student came over.

“Terasaka?” The student in question turned to see Hara staring at him, clearly not happy. “Are you going to tell me that you went on the mission, despite having the same virus that left ten of your classmates extremely sick?”

Terasaka already knew that whatever he said, he was going to get an earful. “Well… Yeah?” He decided honesty was the best policy, for now at least.

But Hara did not like that answer. “Of all the stupid things you have done, this has to rank as number one! I didn’t think you could do anything worse than what you did with the pool, but this is a new level of recklessness, even for you!”

Terasaka tried to stop the tongue lashing. “Hey now, that’s not true…” But it was a losing battle, Hara going full overprotective parent on him.

Over on the next table, Hazama smirked before going back to what she had been about to do. “So, Takebayashi?”

“Yes?” He had been wondering why Hazama wanted to speak to him.

Hazama gave the thinnest of smirks. “What’s this I hear about Terasaka going to maid cafés?”

Takebayashi start smiling. “Ah, so Terasaka’s finally decided to admit his fondness for the maid. I knew he would come around eventually, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Terasaka managed to hear Takebayashi even over Hara’s shouting, and he was pissed by what he heard. “I didn’t admit to anything, it was the damn octopus! When he turns back to normal, I swear I’m going to kill him!”

Muramatsu chuckled. “Yeah, good luck with that. It’s not like we’ve been trying to kill him all year or anything.”

“Shut it!”

Over in a corner, Fuwa had, despite her sickness, managed to force Mimura to sit at a table with her.

“So, was I right about the waiter?” She really wanted to confirm if her deductions were correct or not.

Mimura was slightly overwhelmed by her energy, but he still nodded. “Well yeah, he was the poisoner.”

“I knew it! I just knew that that waiter was suspicious, I could just tell!” Fuwa was triumphant. She knew that the waiter had stood out too much, had been acting suspiciously, of course she was right to suspect him of being a bag guy, her instincts were as sharp as ever!

Mimura on the other hand was confused as he realised something. “Hang on. If you thought that the waiter was suspicious, why did you still drink the juice he gave you?”

Fuwa gave a smirk. “Because if I didn’t, then that would’ve ruined the author’s plan to change things up from canon.” She then looked up towards the sky. “Which is why you decided to write me having the poisoned drink in the first place, right?”

That’s exactly right Fuwa.

“Um, Fuwa? Are you okay?” Mimura was worried about her. “I mean, I know you’re still under the effects of the virus, but still…”

Meanwhile, Sugino, Okajima, Sugaya and Kimura had somehow ended up sitting together, the four of them chatting.

Sugaya was resting his head on his hand. “Honestly, the thing I’m most surprised by is the fact that Okajima somehow managed to not jeopardise the mission by being a pervert.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Okajima tried to act shocked and offended at the accusation.

“You know exactly what I mean.” Sugaya twisted the knife a bit further.

Sugino shrugged, willing to defend the pervert for once. “To be fair to him though, he actually managed to find a non-perverted way to use his camera to help us.” He turned to the final person sitting around. “Anyway, Kimura, I’ll be honest, I really wish you were there with us.”

Kimura was a bit surprised by this. “Really?”

Sugino seemed to be annoyed about something. “Yeah. You see, at one point, Karma hatched a plan that included me having to run away from a pair of guards. No offense, but if you had been there, then I probably wouldn’t have had to do that.”

“Yeah, you probably wouldn’t,” Kimura agreed before realising something. “Wait, what about Maehara? He’s faster than you, so why didn’t he do it?”

Okajima chuckled. “Well, he wasn’t able to run at top speed at the time.”

This made Sugaya speak up. “Why not? Was he doing something else?”

Sugino crossed his arms and leant back into his chair. “I don’t know the full details myself, but what I can tell you is that Teach, for some reason, thought it would be good idea to send him unsupervised into an area with all of the girls.”

Sugaya was starting to understand. “I’m going to assume that it didn’t end well for him?”

Okajima jumped in, clearly more amused by what had happened than anything else. “I don’t know for certain, but I’m going to say no. Especially as Hayami tried to make sure he couldn’t have children afterwards.”

Sugaya and Kimura both winced, understanding exactly what Okajima meant.

“But hey, I got to see the ice queen herself deliver due punishment, so I’m not complaining!” Okajima seemed to be having lewd thoughts again.

The other three could only stare at him blankly.

At another table, Kurahashi was happily chatting away to Kataoka and Yada, making sure they knew every single detail of what had happened.

“…And that’s how I was able to use the Yakuza pin’s that Bitch-Sensei gave us to scare off some thugs!” Kurahashi finished informing the two about what happened in the bar.

“Really? That’s good to hear.” Yada was smiling, just happy that everything was going to be okay. “And the way you were able to just convince them that it was real? I don’t think I could have done it better myself.”

Kurahashi tried not to blush. “Aw, c’mon now, you’re way better at me when it comes to negotiating.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, you’re just as good at it.” Kataoka was also smiling. “And the way all of you girls were able to handle yourselves in there is impressive.”

Yada nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you and the rest of the gals really showed the boys what you could do!”

Kurahashi laughed. “We sure did. Girl power for the win!”

Kataoka smirked. “They couldn’t have done it without you five. Or should I say six, if I assume that Karma’s picture was taken around that time?”

Kurahashi chuckled, having forgotten to mention that part of the infiltration. “Technically, it would be eight, but you’d be right to think that about the picture. Nagisa looked really cute in that dress, you weren’t able to tell that he was a boy.”

Yada seemed to get an idea. “Maybe we should ask Bitch-Sensei to give Nagisa some advice?”

All three of them quietly chuckled, knowing that Nagisa probably wouldn’t take too kindly to that.

Kanzaki had finally managed to sit down, glad to be off her feet for a few minutes.

Okuda was sitting with her. “Kanzaki, I really can’t thank you enough. You and Hara both did brilliant taking care of us all.”

Kanzaki tried to downplay her own role. “We were only doing our best, you and Takebayashi were there to help us, we can’t take all the credit.”

Okuda shook her head. “But you can. We could only give you some advice, you two did everything yourselves.”

Kanzaki didn’t know what to say. “Well… Thanks.”

“I’m just happy to see you feeling better.” Karma strolled over to the pair.

Okuda was surprised. “Really Karma? Thanks.”

“No need to thank me, after all.” A pair of devil horns seemed to appear on Karma’s head. “If my preferred poisoner gets taken out by someone else, where am I going to get my own stock from?”

Okuda giggled at the redhead’s frank admission, whilst Kanzaki looked on nervously.

At a table away from the others, the class sharpshooters were sitting together.

Hayami had been looking at everyone else before turning her head towards Chiba. “Your shooting was incredible back there.”

“Really?” Chiba wasn’t certain. Sure, he had managed to hit his mark, but it wasn’t that impressive.

Hayami disagreed with that assessment. “Absolutely. You were the one who got the perfect shot on the stage brackets, after all.”

Chiba didn’t want her to think like that. “But you were the one who shot out his gun.”

Hayami pushed back. “Yeah, but I still needed two shots to pull that off. You only needed one.”

Chiba seemed to ponder this. “I guess so. But don’t sell yourself short.”

Hayami nodded. “I won’t.”

The two then sat in silence as they watched their classmates animated chatter, more than happy to see them doing so.

Nagisa was deep in thought, still shaken by everything that had happened. He’d almost killed a man today, in cold blood. And he had almost done it because of a situation that had only got to where it was because of him…

“You’re really going to try and beat yourself up, aren’t you?” Nagisa was snapped out of his thoughts by Kayano, who had sat down beside him.

“Yeah, well… In some ways, it is my fault that all of this happened.” Nagisa was beating himself up over it.

But Kayano wasn’t having any of it. “No it absolutely isn’t Nagisa. The only person who is at fault for any of this is Takaoka, don’t let his words get to you. He was always an insane asshole, you just sent him over the edge.”

“But that’s exactly what I mean!” Nagisa snapped back. “If I hadn’t defeated him the first time around, he wouldn’t have snapped and poisoned everyone!”

Kayano decided to try and reason with him logically. “And? Even if he beat you the first time, the chairman would have fired him anyways, and considering how insane he was, he would probably have still blamed you for that and tried to get revenge. No matter how you slice it, none of this if your fault.”

This actually seemed to get through to Nagisa. “Yeah… I guess you’re right…” At least, somewhat.

Kayano sighed. She just had to hope Nagisa wouldn’t blame himself…

In a corner away from the students, Karasuma sat down as well, Koro-Sensei resting on the table in front of him.

The currently spherical teacher was spinning things into positives, as per usual. “I’d say that, everything considered, this trip has been a success.”

“For you perhaps.” Karasuma didn’t feel as generous. “I’m still thinking about Takaoka. To think I ever considered him a friend.”

Koro-Sensei decided to try and help. “Well, sometimes we can be blinded by the past, and not notice when others have negative feelings towards us, especially if they’re not overt. Don’t beat yourself up for not noticing sooner.”

Karasuma had to agree with his colleague for once. “I guess you’re right.”

“And anyway, you’ve still got me and Ms. Irina! We’re your friends, right?”

Karasuma gave a hard stare at the ball. “Don’t push it.” But it did make him think about his other colleague. “Actually, speaking of Irina, where is she? I gave her the signal nearly thirty minutes ago.”

As if fate had heard him speaking, the very next moment a final face strolled into the restaurant.

“Please, at some point do try and call! I’ll be waiting! Bye!” Bitch-Sensei was acting extremely bubbly, but as soon as something appeared to leave her eyeshot, her face morphed into a scowl. “Seriously, how stupid can some people be? The number I gave him was obviously fake, why did he spend five whole minutes trying to convince me to stay the night with him.”

Karasuma got up to meet with his fellow teacher. “Irina, good to see you’ve made it back in one piece.”

Bitch-Sensei smirked as she leaned on the table. “What, did you think I couldn’t? Were you prepared to ride in on a horse in shining armour if you learnt that poor old me was trapped by a bunch of muscleheads?”

Karasuma immediately turned away from her. “As I said, good to see you in one piece.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean!” Bitch-Sensei tried to catch Karasuma’s attention once more, but failed.

Karasuma took in the situation, noting with relief that the sick students were already looking better. He had a couple of things to do. First, he asked Mimura for something, which the student quickly ran to get for him.

He then got everyone’s attention. “Okay class, I think it’s time for you all to finally get some shuteye. I suggest that you all sleep in tomorrow, and we’ll all meet up on the beach in the evening. Is that clear?”

“Sir, Yes, Sir!” The class answered in affirmation. (Or at least the healthy students did. Their still recovering classmates mainly just nodded instead, and Karasuma wasn’t going to push them.)

It was at this moment that Mimura brought him what he requested, before all of the students finally headed up to their rooms, ready to put this rollercoaster of a day behind them.

Chapter Text

The following evening, after a long day of rest, Nagisa found himself sitting on the beach, waiting for his classmates to join him.

Out on the water, there was a large metal structure, having been set up by the government earlier in the day. Closer to the shore, Karasuma was ordering a few other agents around, trying to make some last minute preparations before Koro-Sensei returned to normal.

Kayano walked up behind him. “Man, that was a really crazy day yesterday, wasn’t it?”

Nagisa turned to look at her. “I’m just glad everyone’s okay.”

Kayano put her hands on her hips. “Well, I’m just glad that you’re okay.”

Nagisa had the decency to look chided. “Me too.”

Kayano sighed. “You really are a trouble magnet Nagisa. All of us worry about you sometimes, we really do.”

Nagisa gave a small chuckle in response.

The rest of the students were starting to make their own ways to the beach as well.

“Good morning!” Kurahashi called out to Okuda and Kanzaki, who were walking down to the beach together. “Well, I guess technically it’s good evening.” She turned to Okuda specifically. “But anyway, how are you feeling?”

Okuda responded with a smile. “A lot better, I don’t even feel like I was sick.”

“Though I do wonder why we all had the same idea,” Kanzaki added, noticing that they were all dressed identically. “After all, what were the chances we all decided to wear our PE uniforms?”

“Well, we are the only one’s here. Might as well be comfortable,” Nakamura pointed out as she walked up to them.

Fuwa seemed to have an answer of her own. “And besides, if we all wore something else, then the author would be compelled to describe what we are wearing, and the word count would likely balloon!”

The rest of the girls were confused by this statement.

Nagisa and Kayano were still watching the structure when they heard the sound of heavy running, turning back towards the beach to see what was going on.

“You are dead meat, you absolute moron!” Okano was now fully recovered, and she was celebrating by dishing out some justice at top speed.

“Hey now, I can explain! It was for the mission, honest!” Maehara tried to plead as he ran away from her.

But it wasn’t going to work. “Don’t even try to go there, it had nothing to do with the mission! You were just being an idiotic, womanising, scumbag!” Okano was seemingly breaking her own speed record.

Maehara tried to outpace her. “Hey, c’mon, it’s not like you were in any danger or anything!”

“When you were flirting like an idiot, you thought we were dying! Just because we were fine in the end doesn’t make your actions okay!” Okano seemed to only get faster, quickly closing the gap between pissed-off hunter and prey.

“Wow, Okano is really pissed at Maehara, isn’t she?” Kimura noted as he, Sugino and Isogai all made their way over to Nagisa and Kayano, Isogai having a quite annoyed look on his face.

Kayano quickly figured out what had happened as she turned to Isogai. “So… I’m going to assume that Nakamura was able to tell you and Okano everything?”

Isogai seemed to be a bit more terse than usual. “Yep. I wish I could say that I’m surprised. Hiroto is my friend, he’s my best friend, and he always will be, but why did he think it was good idea to start flirting in the middle of the mission?”

“Well… that’s Maehara for you.” Nagisa didn’t have much sympathy for his classmate, considering how he’d almost managed to screw things up for him in the bar as well.

Soon, the entire class had made their way’s down to the beach, all of the previously sick students now feeling a lot better. Once everyone was there, their attention turned to the metallic cuboid out in the sea.

“So…” Karma walked over to Nagisa and Kayano. “That contraption is currently trying to contain Koro-Sensei until he transforms, right?”

Nagisa nodded. “Yeah. I think they’ve put him in a pool of anti-sensei liquid for now. It won’t work but at least he’s being contained until then. Once he’s returned to normal, it’s back to the drawing board. Mr. Karasuma’s spent all day orchestrating it.”

Nakamura didn’t see the point of it all. “It does just seem like a bit of a waste, since it won’t work.”

Mimura seemed to know something. “Well, Mr. K did ask me for the files to our movie last night, which should at least damage Koro-Sensei mentally, assuming he’s being forced to watch it.”

“Did Mr. K get any sleep last night?” Kimura asked in bewilderment.

“I don’t think so,” Chiba murmured. “And considering how we’ve been sleeping for most of the day, I don’t know how he does it.”

“Especially when you consider that he had to deal with that poison as well!” Kurahashi exclaimed, not even trying to hide her crush on him.

“Wait, Mr. K was poisoned as well?” Yoshida asked, a bit confused.

Hazama nodded as she kept an eye on the structure. “He was, but not with the virus, something else entirely.” She pointed to Terasaka and Muramatsu. “You can thank those two idiots for that.”

“I know I messed up, okay!” Terasaka yelled back while Muramatsu looked away in shame.

“No but seriously, he’s awesome,” Sugino stated in awe. “What’s his secret, ‘cause if I can be anything like that ten years from now, I’ll be set!”

Isogai hummed in agreement. “He certainly gives us something to look towards.”

“Bitch-Sensei is pretty awesome in her own way too,” Hayami said before pausing for a second. “…If you look hard enough.”

“She sure is!” Yada admitted, happy to be positive about her mentor.

“I mean, in a way, you could also say that about those assassins from the hotel as well,” Okajima tried to add to the conversation.

“Really? In what way?” Kataoka asked her classmate.

Okajima had a suspicious smile. “Well, you obviously weren’t there, but the way they were just so confident in their abilities and loyal to their morals, it’s what every guy should aspire to!”

Kayano could tell that Okajima’s words held another meaning. “You’re only saying that to make it seem like it’s okay for you to be a pervert, aren’t you.”

“No!” Okajima tried to defend himself.

Sugaya added his own two cents. “Personally, I’ll be happy as long as I don’t end becoming like Takaoka. I think I’d rather become just about anyone else.”

“Even the chairman?” Mimura questioned.

Sugaya thought about that for a second. “…He’s not tried to kill me yet.”

Isogai decided to sum up everyone’s opinions. “Really, I think that’s what growing up is all about. You need to know who to look up to, and who to ignore. Sometimes it’s obvious, but other times, it can be difficult for various reasons.”

“Wise words as always.” Okano walked up to the rest of the group, dragging a defeated Maehara by the leg.

A large explosion suddenly rang out around the beach, causing everyone to gasp as the ground shook.

“Was that…?” Chiba immediately looked towards the structure.

“It looks like it,” Hayami confirmed, having done the same.

Takebayashi pushed his glasses up. “Assuming that it is similar to what happened during the assassination attempt, I would guess that explosion is the signal that Koro-Sensei has returned to his original form.”

Kimura decided to ask the million-dollar question. “You think they…?”

A pillar of smoke started to billow upwards from the structure, and a couple of seconds later, a familiar silhouette could be seen flying through it.

Nagisa shook his head. Like there was any doubt. It was worth a try, but it was never going to work.

Karasuma just sighed.

A rush of wind and a giggle behind them told everyone of their teacher’s return.

“Unfortunately, it appears that I am still in one piece,” Koro-Sensei noted quite smugly, before he bowed his head slightly. “Children, you all had to suffer in the shadow of my cowardice, and for that, I do apologise. But consider this. Not only did you manage to fend off some fierce foes, you did so with style.”

Nagisa smiled at his teacher. “It’s okay, sir, it’s good to have you back to normal. No offense, but I think most of us—”

“Good morning!” Kurahashi cut him off to greet Koro-Sensei before realising something. “Wait, sorry, good evening!”

“…Prefer this form,” Nagisa finished.

“Yeah, lot easier to kill,” Terasaka added with a smirk, the rest of his gang nodding in agreement.

“I can agree with that. And a good morning, or should I say good evening, to all of you as well,” Koro-Sensei greeted to the rest of the class. “Now that I’m back to normal, how about we get this vacation back on track?”

Nagisa smiled. “Sure!”

Sugino walked up to them. “Not to spoil the fun or anything, but I don’t think there’s enough time to do much. We go home tomorrow morning.”

Koro-Sensei panicked. “You’ve got to be joking! Surely there can’t be so little time?!”

Sugino looked at him with confusion. “It was a two-night stay, remember?”

Koro-Sensei flailed his tentacles around. “Well, why haven’t any of you prepared any activities? I couldn’t due to my immobility, but you kids could have at least enjoyed the sunshine!”

Isogai came up to his teacher as well. “No offense sir, but half of us did spend most of the day fully recovering from the virus.”

“And the rest of us were making up sleep after yesterday,” Sugino pointed out.

Koro-Sensei held up a bunch of summer items. “But we’ve barely had any fun in the sun! I knew that we wouldn’t be able to cram in everything, but even now I’m back to normal we won’t be able to do half of what I wanted to do!”

“Of course.” Sugino sweat dropped. Trust their teacher to go way overboard.

“Well in that case, we can’t waste a single second children!” Koro-Sensei began to zoom around, setting up various activities. “Getting to spend summer vacation with your Koro-Sensei is a once in a lifetime experience, we don’t have a second to waste!”

A flurry of Koro-Sensei afterimages began doing various summer activities. A bunch of them were breaking open watermelons with sticks with blindfolds, whilst others were building a sand version of the Tokyo Skytree.

Another afterimage zoomed through the sky to write a message of ‘We Love Summer!’, a few more were playing an intense game of beach volleyball, a couple more were eating large ice creams, one was just lounging around, and a group of them seemed to have gotten confused and were trying to have a bobsleigh race.

“C’mon, join in! We need to milk this chance for all it’s worth!” Koro-Sensei tried to eat a piece of watermelon, but before he could do so he had to pull his head to the side to avoid a sudden pellet. He shouted at the culprit. “What are you doing Karma!”

Karma smiled as he held up his gun. “I’m just taking your advice Teach. We don’t have a single second to waste, might as well try whilst you’re distracted.”

Koro-Sensei let out a laugh. “Well played my boy. By waiting for the target to put their guard down, your chances of a successful assassination increase considerably—” He screamed as Terasaka, Yoshida, Muramatsu and Hazama all started to fire on him as well.

“Now this is what I call summer vacation!” Terasaka hollered out.

“Never a bad time to try and kill him, right?” Karma walked back towards the rest of the group. “Hey Nagisa, do you want to empty a few rounds? Who knows, you might even get lucky.”

Nagisa gave a soft chuckle in exasperation. “No thanks.”

Nakamura looked at the chaos with a cocky grin. “Well girls, I say we should have some fun as well.” Most of the girls (not including a suddenly confused Kayano) seemed to agree with her.

Kataoka nodded. “There’s no time like the present. Who would we be if we didn’t make the most of things.”

Kurahashi cheered. “Yeah, let’s have some fun!”

And so, with no regards as to how it would affect their male classmates, the girls removed their PE uniforms to reveal that they were wearing bikini’s underneath.

Kanzaki looked out at the ocean. “You know, after everything that’s happened I think I’m up for a little dip.”

Nagisa looked at the girls in confusion. “Were you wearing them under your uniforms the whole time?”

“And why didn’t anyone tell me?!” Kayano shouted, still wearing her PE uniform.

“Splash attack!” Kataoka cheered as she and Hayami threw water at Okano and Kurahashi, the pair taking it in good fun.

“You can’t run forever!” Nakamura chased after Yada, who squealed as she held her bikini top protectively.

Meanwhile, Okuda was showing Kanzaki some cute seashells whilst Fuwa created a sand Koro-Sensei.

Koro-Sensei, having escaped from the delinquents fire for now, was overjoyed at his student having fun. “Yay, splash attack! Me too! Me too!”

“Sure thing!” Kurahashi cheered as she and Kataoka threw water towards their teacher.

Koro-Sensei laughed for a few seconds before realising something. Because despite being an octopus creature, water happened to be super-effective against him.

He screamed as he zoomed further back onto the beach, far away from the water. “On second thought, I think it would be much better to stay over here!”

“Aw…” Kurahashi sounded disappointed.

Kataoka sighed. “Worth a shot.”

Meanwhile, the reactions of the boys were a mixed bag. The non-perverts amongst them (just Nagisa and Isogai) were trying to be respectful. As for their classmates…

“Now this is what I came on vacay for!” Maehara seemed to have fully recovered from Okano’s wrath, but if he kept acting the way he was, that could easily change.

“Well, the view is nice.” Sugaya made a picture frame with his fingers, though whether he was talking about the evening beach or the girls was anyone’s guess.

“True,” Mimura agreed, much more obvious about what he was referring to.

Sugino was trying to look like he wasn’t being a perv, but was staring just a bit too closely, especially at Kanzaki. He felt his crush intensify.

Kimura wasn’t actually paying any attention to them, instead preferring to scarf down pieces of watermelon with Hara. Considering that he had lost the contents of his stomach the previous night, he was eating anything he could keep down at that moment.

The reason why Koro-Sensei had been able to escape the delinquents’ attacks was because when the girls had revealed their bikini’s, Terasaka had stopped shooting and for some reason, couldn’t take his eyes away from them, just staring blankly, not even blinking.

On the other hand, Yoshida and Muramatsu both watched closely for a few seconds before Hazama, who had elected not to join her classmates in the water, knocked their heads together. “Ow!”

No one knew where Chiba was looking, the boy’s fringe making it impossible to tell. He was thinking about how a certain gunslinger looked very hot right now.

Takebayashi just pushed up his glasses without saying a word. They may be 3D girls, but they would have to do.

Karma just watched on with a smirk, not really being perverted, just watching.

And finally, Okajima was… well, Okajima just couldn’t take it anymore. “Yes! This is what I’m talking about, this is how it should be!” He started to run towards the girls. “Here I come ladies!” He quickly took off his clothes.

All of his clothes.

“Geronimo!” Okajima shouted as he started to jump into the ocean, manhood visible for all to see.

When the girls saw that, every single one of them reacted in the proper manner.

They screamed in disgust. “Pervert!”

Except Nakamura. “Huh, somehow it’s even smaller than I thought it would be.”

The girls decided it would be best to immediately destroy Okajima. This also had the added benefit of making sure that none of their classmates would follow in his lead.

“Hey, don’t take too long. We still have to watch the fireworks display later!” Koro-Sensei called out to the murderous swarm. “Please, it’s the one thing that I really wanted to see!” He waved his tentacles around frantically, now holding a bunch of lit sparklers. “Okay, it’s actually one of about three hundred things, but I’m thinking of the time here!”

The entire time, Karasuma and a couple of agents had been watching from further up the beach, extremely annoyed.

“Why did I think that would work,” Karasuma grumbled in irritation. But deep down, he knew he had never thought that.

One of the agents turned to him. “Should we make another attempt sir?”

Karasuma put his hand on his head in exasperation. "Don't bother. Pack away your demolition equipment, you're free to head out."

"Yes sir!" The agents saluted him before moving to take the structure apart.

Before Karasuma could go and help them, a bitchy tone sounded from behind him.

“What, so you decided to have a day at the beach and didn’t invite moi?” Bitch-Sensei came up to him, wearing the same bikini? she had worn the previous day. “A girl’s got feelings y’know, ones that are hurt really easily.”

Upon seeing Bitch-Sensei, the boys couldn’t believe what she was wearing

“Is that a bikini?” Isogai asked in genuine disbelief at what he was seeing.

“No dude,” Maehara snickered. “I’m pretty sure it’s a cry for help.”

“Isn’t this the sort of stuff you brats like, shut your pieholes!” Bitch-Sensei yelled at them before turning back to Karasuma. “How about we ditch the brats with the octopus, okay? Let’s just have some alone time, just you and me. There was this very quaint little spot just up the way and—”

“No thanks.” Karasuma started to walk away, much to Bitch-Sensei’s shock. The watching boys started to laugh.

“Thanks for reminding us why we call you Bitch-Sensei.” Takebayashi rubbed salt into the wound.

Sugaya looked over her with an artist’s eye. “Seriously, that’s bikini’s not aesthetically pleasing in the slightest,”

Mimura really wanted to drive the point home. “I don’t think even Okajima would find it appealing, and that’s saying something.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean! Ow!” Okajima tried to comment, but the girls weren’t letting him get away that easily.

But, with every comment, Bitch-Sensei got angrier and angrier.

“You brats don’t understand the first thing about beauty!” She screeched like a banshee. “You want me to be a bitch?! I’ll be a bitch!” She started to zoom after them at lightning speeds, the boys running away just as fast. “Seriously, I’ve had it up to here with you little shits!”

From the sidelines, Nagisa looked on in amusement, but felt something on his head, stopping to see that Koro-Sensei had rested a tentacle on it. “You’ve done well my boy.”

Nagisa gazed up at his teacher before staring out at the ocean. He had, hadn’t he? Despite everything that had happened, he'd been able to defeat Takaoka. It was strange how far they had all come. At the start of the year, they were just a bunch of hopeless students, designated by a cruel school system to be worthless.

But now? They were assassins, constantly honing their blades in order to kill their teacher, being poisoned by malicious foes and going on infiltration missions in order to save their friends.

Nagisa turned towards Koro-Sensei. None of that would ever have happened without him showing up. He’d given every single one of them purpose, not just to assassinate him to save the world and get mega-rich from the reward money, but to genuinely believe that they were more than what society said they were. That they were worth something.

He looked over to all of his classmates, all of them (except Okajima) were laughing and smiling, just like any other group of teenagers at the beach. But they were not like any other group of teenagers. After all, no other group of teenagers were also a group of trained killers.

So, there was only one thing he wanted to say to him.

“Thank you, sir.”