Author's note: In case it wasn't clear from the description, this is a follow-up to my short story collection, Judecca. It picks up where Judecca's finale arc ends. It will not be impossible to follow if you haven't read Judecca, but there will be quite a few references to past events and the odd canon contradiction here and there that will likely confuse you if you haven't. So, go read it. Right now. All of it. (Or at least chapters 45-52, 68, 73, 78 and 100-104)
March 16
High above the forested mountain behind Kunugigaoka Academy, a black helicopter hovered, surveying a scene of destruction. The old shack that used to pass for a school building at the top of the mountain was gone, consumed in an explosive flash, leaving only a roiling cloud of dust.
"Can you see anything?" Tomohito Sugino asked into his headset, connected by wire to the helicopter's intercom. He stood next to a special spot light, looking through a scope attached to it, trying to see through the cloud.
"Nothing." Chiba said from his prostrate position on the floor below. He had the better eyes, and the better scope on his heavy sniper rifle, but even he couldn't make anything out. Both boys wore their standard uniforms.
Sugino was trying to stay steady in the open helicopter cabin, but his leg kept jerking anxiously. "It must have worked. Right? We'd have seen him if it hadn't?"
"Wait for the call." Karasuma's voice came over their headsets from the cockpit. "We can't interrupt them."
With a huff, Sugino pressed against the eyepiece harder. Finally, a gust of air pushed some of the cloud of dust away. He sucked in a breath, almost losing his aim. He could see them! A bunch of people, surrounding Nagisa... and something big and black on the ground. Could that be...?
Chiba's hand shook as he reached up to tap the comm button on his mic. "I see it. The robe is empty. Repeat, the robe is empty. Nagisa is okay."
Sugino pulled back from his scope, jaw hanging open and blinking dazedly. His friend was safe. And his sensei was dead. He didn't feel relieved, though. He felt cold. He looked down at his right hand – his pitching hand – and clenched it. There was a lot he had to thank Koro-sensei for. Right then, he didn't feel like he'd shown his gratitude enough while the octopus was alive.
There was movement in the front of the helicopter, drawing Sugino's frowning attention. Karasuma was saying something that he couldn't hear. "Confirm status. Is the target dead? Respond, over." The man looked back over his shoulder and switched back to the intercom. "Something's wrong. The radio's getting nothing but static. I'm going to take us down."
"Wait. Something's happening." Chiba suddenly breaks in.
Sugino quickly put his eye back to the scope and looked around the area. He couldn't see anything.
"Chiba, report." Karasuma ordered.
"Movement in the forest. I-" Suddenly, Chiba's hand left his headset and flew to the trigger of his rifle.
Sugino was able to take over from there. Nobody in class E could miss the camouflaged shapes emerging from the treeline behind his classmates. "A bunch of people just came out of the forest. Looks like military. And what's...? Shit! They've got a crowd suppression weapon!" They'd learned about every weapon system under the sun in their quest to kill their teacher. The gray octagonal dish meant to focus intense sound waves that disturbed the bodily fluids in a crowd of rioters was one of many they'd studied and never even bothered with – their target could move at mach 20 – but they still remembered.
"Are you sure?" Karasuma was trying to keep his tone even, but Sugino could hear the note of surprised and uncertainty in there.
"Yes." Sugino gritted out between his teeth. They were under attack. Again. There was no way in hell he'd let this happen, now of all times. "Chiba!"
"I know." The long-banged boy was already loading a massive normal bullet from the rack of bullets on the side of his rifle.
"Hold, Chiba!" Karasuma shouted to them.
But he was too late. With a deafening bang and a flash of exhaust out the RT-20's rear tube, Chiba sent the 20 mm round straight into the base of the sonic weapon, blasting it to pieces and knocking the dish to the ground.
Sugino's fist clenched triumphantly, but he kept his eye in the scope. He wanted to confront Karasuma directly, but it was more important to watch his classmates scatter as the three girls, Okano, Kurahashi and Yada who were on guard duty came to their rescue with another sonic weapon to disable the charging soldiers. "Karasuma-sensei, what is going on!?"
The soldier's hands were tight on the helicopter's control stick. "I haven't been told anything about this. I've been out of the loop ever since..." He didn't have to finish the sentence. The time he'd had to commit treason to prevent an atrocity was a bitter memory. And probably the direct cause of what was happening. That was enough to convince Sugino that he knew nothing, but did that really mean he was on their side, now that it was probably the government itself coming after them?
That question would have to wait, because Karasuma spotted something else to be concerned about. "Heads up. We've got two contacts incoming, at 11 and 5 o'clock."
Both boys raised their heads from their scopes to see what they'd missed. Sugino stepped towards the cockpit. Sure enough, the radar screen was showing two blips coming towards them from the direction of the back of the mountain. At the same time, Chiba scooted towards the front, already taking aim at the first incoming helicopter. Both were Black Hawks, like the one they were using, but with one difference: these were both armed with side missile pods.
"Chiba, hold fire." Karasuma ordered as Sugino moved into the copilot's seat, plugging his headset into the radio unit.
"Attention, unauthorized gunship. Touch down immediately and surrender yourselves into our custody. You will not be given a second warning."
Sugino's face was twitching with repressed anger at this injustice. So they saved the world, and now what? He looked over at his teacher with his head lowered. "Karasuma-sensei... They're gonna make us disappear, aren't they?" Would they actually shoot them down? Now that they didn't need them any more, they just might.
Chiba's unshakable voice came from the back, only it didn't sound so unshakable any more. "Karasuma-sensei, I think I can... take out the rotors on both targets before they fire."
Sugino's head jerked back to look at his classmate wide-eyed. That would cause them to crash, but at this altitude, and with the fairly dense trees below, they might be able to survive. He turned back to his teacher to see his answer. But Karasuma wasn't giving any. He was staring hard at the control panel, eyes wide from the tension in his brow. Just the fact that he wasn't telling them no, go ahead and surrender, it'll be okay, was more than enough proof of how bad things might be. This was not how things were supposed to end.
"Karasuma-sensei!" Sugino unthinkingly yelled, making the speakers in his headset complain. He needed his teacher to give the okay. Chiba wouldn't take the shot on his own, and Sugino wasn't ready to tell someone to do something like this. But fear of death lets people find resolve they didn't realize they had.
"Attention-"
Sugino's hand flew to his mic. "Do it, Chiba! Do it! Do it!" Before he even spoke, he felt lightheaded with guilt.
Chiba felt like his insides were full of biting ants. He had already aimed, taken into account the downward force of the rotor blades, and all other factors. All he did next was what he was told. That was the only thing that let him pull the trigger once. The first bullet flew, and he was already kicking with his legs to change his firing angle from 5 o'clock to 11 as he scrambled to load bullet two. His heart pounded like it never had before. Not even when facing Gastro. The first helicopter was hit, the shaft of metal holding the rotor blades shredded by the massive bullet. Instantly, the rotor popped straight up, and the craft plummeted like a stone.
Open the bolt action, eject the cartridge, load the bullet, close. Aim. Chiba's entire body crackled with adrenaline as he lined up the shot on the incredibly small target. But it was too late. The back of the first missile lit up with fire and roared towards them. There wasn't enough time to think. Driven by animal reflex, he shifted his target down, and hit the missile dead center in mid-flight. It exploded right in front of the enemy's cockpit, shredding half of it. It twisted violently in the air. After only a second, the rotor blades released, and the pilot ejected.
Chiba kept watching through his scope as the damaged helicopter turned and fell. When its side faced him, he could see through the open side doors. He was afraid there might be men inside, falling to their deaths. Instead, there was nothing. The helicopter was unmanned except for that one pilot. Quickly, he scooted forward and looked down at the other one, held aloft at a slant by the trees. There was nobody coming out, but it looked like it only had one pilot as well, and he was still moving about in his seat.. He released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Nobody had died... except Koro-sensei, that is. He lowered his head down onto the deck, suddenly exhausted and emotionally weary.
Sugino and Karasuma both sat as still as statues in the cockpit. "Chiba?" Sugino finally asked.
"It's okay." The quiet voice said. "It was just the two pilots. They're both alive."
Two sighs of relief, one big, one small, were drowned out by the noise of the engines. Sugino looked over at his teacher with a small smile. The man didn't return it. He just stared almost blankly out the front. "We have to regroup with the others." He finally said. "I'll put us down on the track field."
Sugino's smile turned to a frown, and he nodded. This was just the beginning. Of what, he had no idea.
Eight armored men were sneaking in half-crouches through the forest on the far side of the mountain from the school. They kept close, training their eyes in every direction, including up, watching out for an enemy that could come from literally anywhere, and knew the terrain far better than they did. They were once one of five teams, but now they were the last. The others had all fallen out of contact. Considering who they were after, all of their nerves were on a razor's edge. The forest was not still. There seemed to be movement everywhere and nowhere. And they were constantly followed by eerie noises they could never find the source of.
They weren't even properly armed. Their orders were to take their targets in alive, so instead of rifles they were armed with guns capable of firing multiple taser shots. One of them, in the center of the formation, had a large backpack radio jammer with multiple antennae sticking out of it. But they had really been counting on their crowd suppression weapons to win this. Now they were in it deep.
They were being careful, but there were just too many angles to cover. One close to the middle passed too close to a tree, and looked back the way they had come. When he turned forward again, he was met with the demonic grin of a red-headed boy who already had one hand on his gun. "Hi." The grin said.
Karma kicked up his knee, knocking the gun up into its owner's chin. With a bit of footwork, he spun around behind the man and wrapped his injured right arm around his neck, kicking the leg out from under the jammer man next to him at the same time. With his good hand, he wrenched the tazer gun around and jerked it in the man's hands, causing it to fire two shots into the jammer and the man wearing it. Then he knocked the back of the first man's knees, taking him off balance and pulling him backwards with the arm around his neck hard enough to wind him when he hit dirt.
The man behind them in formation immediately aimed his gun at Karma, only to be immediately taken out by Yoshida lunging from behind and tackling him at knee level, flipping the man right over his back where Muramatsu grabbed him and slammed him to the ground on his front, then pulled his arms around behind him.
Isogai and Maehara attacked together from the front, taking on two more. Both managed to get one shot off before the boys were on them. Maehara, the faster of the two, dodged completely. Isogai just got a single metal barb just barely caught on the edge of his uniform, not even piercing through to his skin. The guns were dropped as soon as the two reached melee range, and defensive fists came up. But the boys only sent a few token punches their way. Then they switched, crossing over to the other's opponent. Isogai went in front, and kicked one of them in the side of the knee hard, twisting his leg and making him kneel. Maehara grabbed the other by the arm and elbow, pulling him around to where he and Isogai could flip him on top of his partner. Finally, Isogai cupped his hands together to boost Maehara into a jump, and he body slammed the two. The anti-ballistic ceramic plates in their armor weren't meant to handle a blunt impact like that, and transmitted the full force through both of their bodies.
Man number six took a single gymnastic kick to the neck from Okano and was down for the count.
Seeing their last comrades taken down in seconds, the last two turned tail and ran together. They didn't make it far. Terasaka appeared from the bushes at a full run and rammed both of them, grabbing and carrying off one and completely flooring the second. Both their guns with skidding away. The downed one scrambled for his weapon, when a pair of tennis shoes and rolled up pant legs blocked his way. He pulled back and rose to his feet, taking out a knife to face down this blue-haired boy still in his school uniform, with eyes that held such killing intent it was like his gaze alone would reduce the man to chum. The boy too had a knife in his hand, and the man prepared to get into a fight with him, when the boy raised his knife hand, and dropped the weapon to the ground.
Minutes later, the assault team from class E returned to the emptied pool Koro-sensei had constructed for them the previous summer. Fifteen soldiers with their arms zip-tied in front of them were already down in the basin, while most of class E looked down on them and guarded them with their own weapons. The beaten men couldn't tell who was most frightening, but it was probably the tiny bookish girl with the glasses and pigtails, drumming her fingers together and glaring at them intently, like they were vivisection subjects. Not that that was what Okuda was thinking about, but it wasn't too far off the mark in terms of unpleasantness. The air was hot with the anger of the students.
Isogai and Maehara brought their targets and dumped them in with the rest. Terasaka, Muramatsu and Yoshida were able to drag along two each. With these latest additions, that brought the number up to twenty-three, and a bit later when Karasuma, Sugino and Chiba joined them with the two downed pilots, that made it twenty-five. After making his deposit, Sugino ran over to Nagisa and gave him a supportive pat on the shoulder, but was only met by a blank look in return before Nagisa turned and walked away to find a perch in a tree.
Karasuma strode up to Isogai. "What's the situation?" He said, glancing over to their gaggle of prisoners. None of them looked too badly injured.
"Right after Nagisa killed Koro-sensei..." Isogai started with a little flinch. "These men attacked us without warning. We haven't got any answers out of them yet, but we think this is all of them. At least, that should be all the radio jammers." He looked over his shoulder at Mimura. The film-loving boy had his cell phone out, and gave Isogai a thumbs-up. Isogai took out his own, and Ritsu immediately popped up on the screen.
"Hello, Karasuma-sensei." She said. "I was worried when I couldn't reach any of you. All cellular radio frequencies have been jammed for the past hour until now."
"Has anyone come for you, Ritsu-san?" Isogai asked with a concerned frown.
Thankfully, the AI just shook her head. "Bitch-sensei and I have not been disturbed, however, she will be moving my core to a different safe house shortly, as whoever targeted you may already know about this one. Have you discovered their affiliation yet?"
Karasuma glared hard at the captives, and gestured for Isogai to follow him as he walked over and dropped down into the empty pool with them. One in particular he headed towards, who looked less frightened than the others, and pulled up a flap on his arm covering insignias for his rank and unit. Karasuma knew them by heart. "The 1st Airborne Brigade of the JSDF."
Above them the members of class E exchanged glances. That was Karasuma's old unit. Supposedly the elite of the Japanese military. But then, Japan hadn't really been in a war in decades. Karasuma may have been super-human, but these guys obviously weren't. That didn't matter, though. The important thing was that, yes, this was the government they were fighting. That meant that easy ways out of this situation probably didn't exist. The captured soldiers started squirming as they sensed the kids' anxiousness. They had no idea what would happen next either.
"What's your name, lieutenant?" Karasuma asked the man he'd approached, identifying him as the leader of the group.
The man met his gaze levelly, apparently not bothered by the significant bruise that was forming on the side of his face. "Suzuki, Major Karasuma."
Karasuma narrowed his eyes at the fact that this man knew who he was. "What were your orders and who sent you here?"
But to that, there was no answer. Suzuki just lowered his head to look straight forward.
From above, Terasaka butted in with a sneer and a thumbs-down. "If you're not gonna talk, how about we just off a couple of you? See if that loosens your tongue."
"That would only makes things worse for you!" One of the men declared.
Sugino stepped up to the edge of the pool with his arms crossed. "How the hell is it gonna get worse, if you're already planning to make us disappear forever to cover all this up!?"
Suzuki was disciplined, but this accusation made him blink in surprise and sit up straighter.
Isogai raised a hand, stopping Sugino, and looked down at their captives stolidly. "We don't know that that's what they intend. But at this point we have no choice but to assume the worst. In which case, we will have to kill you." He was bluffing, of course, but not by much.
"You wouldn't!" Another man said.
An eyebrow rose on Isogai's face. "Really?" He half turned and pointed to Nagisa, sitting in the branches of a tree with one leg dangling, facing away from them. "See that guy up there? The teacher who raised us like his own children for the past year was murdered without hesitation by him. They call him the New God of Death. He would absolutely slit all your throats if he had to." Again he was bluffing. Again, not by much. Karasuma looked at Isogai. Even he was slightly surprised by his interrogation technique.
Suzuki finally gave them a bit of information. "Our orders were to take you in alive. Only that."
Isogai pinned him with a deeply unmoved gaze. "We figured that much out ourselves. Who gave the order, and where were you going to take us?"
Suzuki buttoned his lip again. He was being really quite frustrating, and even Isogai's nerves were frayed by the events of the day. Fortunately, that's when a bit of help came.
Yuzuki Fuwa cleared her throat, sitting down on the edge of the pool and pulling Isogai's attention to her. "Well, this does seem to be a problem. But all that means is that we have to change our thinking. Then the answer will become clear. We already have all the information we need to begin with." She leaned back on one hand and closed her eyes with a smile, holding up a finger. "First, the place they were going to take us. They only brought two helicopters, with a total passenger capacity of twenty-eight. That's barely enough to hold you guys, let alone us. That means you'd have to take us there on foot."
"Or by car." Hayami pointed out, standing with her arms crossed a quarter of the way around the pit from Fuwa.
Fuwa shook her hand. "No, no, my dear Hayami. Cars would be too conspicuous. They'd need to have multiple guards in each car in case any of us tried to escape, and there wouldn't be room for more than a couple of us. That means they'd need too large a number to go unnoticed, or they'd have to use a bus. But a bus with rows of seats would give us too much cover unless they paired one of them with each of us. There aren't enough of them for that. Going on foot is the only way to ensure they'd have us covered well enough even though they're outnumbered. So, our destination is a reasonable walking distance from here, in a location owned by the government. Oh, and it has to be somewhere in the countryside. They can't have us walking around town in a big mob surrounded by guards. Ritsu, what do you think?" She asked into her cell phone.
On every screen, Ritsu closed her eyes in thought. "There is one location that meets those criteria. Ten kilometers from here. Recently established. Purpose unknown."
The soldiers tensed, making Fuwa smirk in triumph as she looked down her nose at them. "Next the identity of the one who gave you your orders." She raised a palm to them. "No, no, don't tell me. It'll be so much cooler this way. You're from the government. Specifically, our government, not one of the others involved in our project, or they'd have sent their own special forces for this mission. It would also have to be someone in the know about the assassination, who wasn't killed by Koro-sensei a few weeks ago. That narrows it down considerably. It's not a member of the military, or else they'd have authorized you to come for us in much larger numbers, and with a better plan to boot. For someone outside of the military chain of command to send you, the few he could scrounge up, he'd have to be highly placed and very influential." She grinned victoriously, and pointed an accusing finger at the lieutenant. "Of course! There can be only one culprit in this case! The Minister of Finance, Nobuhiro Utsunoyatougeeeee!"
Isogai only had to take one look at Suzuki's shocked expression to know that Fuwa's deductions were correct, as usual. He turned and walked away from the prisoners, dismissing them entirely.
"Well done, Fuwa." Karasuma praised her. She just shrugged happily.
Once Isogai and Karasuma got lent a hand to help them climb up from Megu, they called over Kayano and the four of them huddled up to speak quietly out of earshot from the prisoners.
Karasuma spoke first. "We shouldn't follow up on these leads today. We don't know how long it'll take to resolve this, so we need to get all of you somewhere safe that we can use as a base."
"We'll have to split up. Groups of four or five should be fine, but any more than that and we could be noticed." Isogai looked to Karasuma for approval, which he got with a nod. "So we'll leave here and meet up at Bitch-sensei's new safe house, wherever that is."
Kayano raised her hand slightly. "We're going to need money." She looked down and bit her lip. "To support all of us, we may need to use that money." It didn't need to be said. The money they'd just received that day for neutralizing their classmate, Itona, who had the same power that Koro-sensei did.
Megu's shoulders drew up. She scowled with both anger and sadness. "We all agreed we wouldn't touch that money."
Isogai looked down. He was angry too. "We don't have the luxury of being picky. Especially since..." His fists clenched. "We can't even think about receiving our true reward right now."
Just then, multiple shouts from the prisoners in the pit drew their attention away from the conversation. All four of them froze at what they saw. Nagisa standing there at the edge of the empty pool, perfectly still, perfectly blank, just staring down at the prisoners as they recoiled.
"Nagisa!" Karasuma shouted. There was no indication he was heard. He took a step in the assassin's direction. "Back away! Now!"
Nagisa looked up, turning his head in Karasuma's general direction for a long moment. Finally he did as he was told and left the pool side, wandering out into the forest. Nobody followed him.
The four leaders looked at each other. All of them were shaken by Nagisa It may not have seemed like much, but that behavior was a major red flag considering what he'd done earlier that day, and what he could do in the future. It went without saying. He'd have to be watched.
Kayano cleared her throat a little, and tried to get them back on topic. "What do we do if our assets get frozen?"
Isogai twitched. "Then we'd know it's definitely Utsunoyatouge. Of the people in the know about all this, only he would have the influence needed to make that happen." Not through the legal system, not without revealing everything to the world, but he could pull strings with the banks. It did sound like a real danger. Isogai had met the man once, and he didn't like class E at all. But he also didn't seem the type to come up with a plan like this. He shook his head and tried to put on a smile. "Don't worry. With all of us working together, we'll have this taken care of in plenty of time to start high school."
All of their cell phones suddenly beeped, indicating Ritsu urgently needed their attention. They all got theirs out, and her voice came through Isogai's. "Board Chairman Gakuhou Asano has just announced that all of your test scores for the year have been invalidated due to systemic cheating, and that you all destroyed the class E school building after you were caught."
The silence that fell between the four of them was deafening.