It's time for chapter two! Luckily, I was able to write a bit more than the previous chapter. Thank you for reading.
Chapter II: Baseball Time
It was a fine day for an assassination attempt. The sky was blue and there wasn't a cloud in sight.
In the middle of the forest, just at the back of the school was a small clear opening. There lies a certain yellow octopus with a bounty of 10 billion yen on his head: Koro-sensei. He was reading an American newspaper while sipping a drink on a relaxer in the shade of a nearby tree.
A few meters away from said octopus were three students, hiding behind some of the wildlife. They happened to be Youko and Nagisa, both blue-haired individuals and an addition of Sugino Tomohito.
Sugino has short, spiked black and dark blue eyes. Youko had first acquainted him in her second year when she had stopped by to watch a baseball game afterschool one day. They didn't talk much with each other back then until their third year in Class 3-E. Still, they're on a pretty good friendship with each other.
"Even in America, all they're talking about is the explosion of the moon." Youko heard the teacher talking to himself. "I'd really like a more interesting front page story."
Over with the students, Sugino read what Nagisa had told him beforehand in a low whisper, "It's his daily routine to relax behind the school building every morning before homeroom, with a drink and English newspaper brought while dropping by at Hawaii at Mach 20. Your information was spot-on. Thanks, Nagisa!"
"Sure thing." Nagisa replied notepad in hand.
"Good luck, Sugino-kun." Said Youko.
"You got it. That 10 billion yen is mine!" he said with confidence. He then proceeded by taking his pitching form and threw the ball rooted with anti-sensei pellets with full force.
The two on the sidelines watched as the ball drew nearer but then, all of a sudden, both their target and the ball had vanished in thin air.
"Good morning, Nagisa-kun, Sugino-kun, Sakurano-san!" An eerily familiar voice rang behind them. The three sharply turned just to find their target standing there unharmed. "Remember, speak up when you greet someone." He instructed.
"G-good morning, Koro-sensei." Nagisa and Youko greeted while Sugino was still trying to process what had just happened as he looked back and forth from the chair and the teacher in front of him.
"Embedding those anti-me BBs into a baseball? A fine idea! This way, there are also no sounds of discharge, unlike with an airgun." he praised, "However, I had all this free time to kill waiting for the ball to arrive, and if I touched the ball directly, my cells would fall apart… And that's why I went over to the equipment shed and got a glove." He finished while holding up a baseball glove with the previously thrown ball at its center.
Lightning had struck the trio. The only girl amongst them slapped her temple, 'Why didn't I see that coming?'
"I do hope you can kill me, before graduation that is." And with that he left. "Now then, time for homeroom."
"Yes, sir…" Sugino said with a grim tone. "Dammit. Guess my ball won't do the trick after all."
They looked at him worriedly but before he could think of another discouraging thought, Youko took the liberty of pinching his cheeks much to his surprise.
"W-wha ur ya doin'?" he manage to say.
She then stopped and said, "Cheer up Sugino-kun." Then persisting to pat his head. "There's always next time." She said with a bright smile.
This had cheered him up a bit. He turned red with awkwardness but it went completely unaware by Youko. "Y-yeah." Now his head was starting to race as he touched his head where Youko had last petted him, still red. The girl had already left, following Koro-sensei to class leaving an bright-faced Sugino and a Nagisa behind. 'I feel like an idiot right now…'
It was English period now, every time Youko glanced at Sugino, he always looked depressed despite what she had told him earlier.
She then continued to focus on the lesson.
"Sugaya-kun!" Koro-sensei called out. He stared down at his notebook that he had grabbed which she had noticed him doodle in a very serious manner of attention. "So close! But my features are a bit finer than that." He then showed the class the drawing of himself with another layer traced over it in red, most likely his own portrait.
Sugaya Sousuke is a tall and slender male with dark gray hair. He has a love and talent for art and has a calm demeanor. Though they are in the same class, she never really talked to him that much.
If she squinted hard enough, she could read, 'REALLY observe your subject!' on the top in red ink. 'When did he have time, to draw that? Also that looks nothing like him, especially the head…'
"Finer? How?!" Maehara howled.
Maehara Hiroto is a boy with wavy mid-short, orange-brown hair and matching eyes. He's a nice guy and without a doubt, a playboy. He never cares about being dumped though and isn't the type to pick on someone weaker than him. He is also honest and tends to react strongly to things. There has been a couple of times where he had tried to hit on her but nonetheless fails every time because Youko never seems to take notice of it and confuses with him just being a nice guy…
The bell then rings to call for the end of school as everyone had packed up and ready to go home.
"Now then, class, I have business to take care of today, so if you'll excuse…" Koro-sensei announced.
"Business?" repeated Isogai in confusion.
"Yes. I'm catching a game in New York." He answered as he slid open the window before vanishing, leaving a gust of wind and dust inside the classroom. Like always, the class had to take cover.
"There he goes." Yoshida stated the obvious.
Yoshida was one of Terasaka's friend and the son of a motorcycle company owner so he is very good with mechanics and engineering with vehicles. Youko doesn't like him that much due to him hanging out with Terasaka.
"What's his deal?" Terasaka complained.
Terasaka Ryoma has short, spikey black hair which is dyed blonde on the side. If anything, he was definitely her least favorite person in the class. He is a bully and enjoys picking on others as well as intimidating them using his big build and loud voice. He is quick to get angry and is very lazy.
"I'd be nice if he brought back some souvenirs for us, at least." Said Hinano.
Kurahashi Hinano was a girl standing at 149 cm and short, wavy orange hair with peridot green eyes. She is an energetic and positive girl, normally seen with a smile on her face. She loves anything that involves nature and excels in Biology.
"Who wants souvenirs from their assassination target?" asked Megu.
Kataoka Megu was the class's female class representative with long, gray hair usually kept in a ponytail. She stands at 5'7". She is excellent at both academics and athletics as well as leadership, being the best swimmer in the class with Youko coming in second. They sometimes competed in swimming races when they used to be in the main building.
"Something to eat, maybe. That way it wouldn't stick around." She shorter suggested.
"How oddly realistic of you."
"What could he bring back from New York?" Isogai wondered, facing to Maehara.
Isogai Yuma has somewhat spiked black hair and pale gold eyes to match, the class's boy representative, and described as being very attractive with a great personality to match. He is kind, cheerful, modest, and reliable. Like Megu, he has good leadership qualities and considered to be an ikemen for having both good looks and a flawless personality.
"Booze?" Maehara guessed.
"We can't drink Hiroto-kun." Youko reminded coolly, coming towards the two boys.
"Snacks would be best after all."
"Or a blonde beauty… whoo!" Taiga fantasized, drool leaking at the corner of his mouth.
Okajima Taiga is the biggest pervert of Class E, having short black hair in a butch cut and thick eyebrows.
"Right?" Maehara agreed.
Youko sweatdropped and then noticed Karasuma walking in. "Oh, Karasuma-san!"
The class's attention centered on him now. "How about it? Do you think you've figured out a way to kill him?" he asked.
"It's impossible, Karasuma-san." Isogai said.
"He's way too fast."
"You can't kill anything that flies at Mach 20." One complained.
"Exactly. It's impossible for any military force." Karasuma revealed. "However, for you alone here is a chance. For whatever reason, he insists on being a teacher. Left on his own devices, come next March, he'll blow the Earth up. One look at the moon, which has had a chunk sliced away, you'll understand…when that time comes, no one will be able to save humanity. He's too dangerous to be left alive. This classroom is the only place where he can be killed."
'We of E Class, the class of leftovers, have been given the chance to become the heroes who save the planet. But I just don't get it. Why is Koro-sensei trying to destroy Earth? Why at a time like this…did Koro-sensei come to be our homeroom teacher?'
During lunch time, like the usual, Youko tend to eat outside unlike most of the other students who preferred to eat in the classroom.
"Sugino-kun?" she spotted the boy sitting by himself on the stairs. "How come you're eating out here?"
The boy reacted to the call of his name, turning around the source of the voice. "Sakurano-chan?"
She softly smiled. "In the flesh. So how come you're eating here" she asked as she sat beside him.
His face then turned a bit sour. "Well…I guess I wanted some fresh air?" he said more like a question.
"Sugino-kun…" she stared looking at him in tad worry. "Are you still thinking about this yesterday morning's assassination attempt? It's nothing to be so upset about. It's only natural that we'd fail."
He sighed, putting away his lunch that was only missing a bit of rice at the corner. "You see…"
"I polished this up for you, Sugino-kun." A voice said. A yellow tentacle holding an anti-sensei baseball with a piece of cloth to avoid direct contact.
"Koro-sensei…wait…what are you eating?" the two students looked at their teacher weirdly. He was munching some…greenish brown…fruit? The top part was missing due to him chewing it away.
"A coconut I bought yesterday in Hawaii. Want a bite?" he offered.
"You're supposed to drink out of it." Sugino said, grabbing his ball out of Koro-sensei's hand.
"Besides our jaws aren't strong enough to eat through the shell." Youko added sweatdropping a bit.
"That was a good throw in yesterday's assassination attempt." Koro-sensei brought up, sitting beside Youko who was now in the middle of a yellow-colored octopus that was possibly an alien and a baseball-loving boy who was also her classmate. A weird combination once you include her; a girl that gave people an impression that she was literally born out of the sea. But this was Class E, or in general, a place for weirdos to hang out.
"Easy for you to say. If I think about it, there's no way I'd hit you at Mach 20, given the speed of my pitch."
"So you're in the baseball club?" Koro-sensei asked.
"I used to be." He said, becoming depressed again.
'He just had to bring up a bad memory.'
"Used to?"
Youko turned to Koro-sensei to explain, "You see, the E Class isn't allowed to be in clubs out at this satellite campus. Our bad grades got us here, so we're supposed to focus on studying. Although, there are also ways in ending up in Class E as well, such as breaking school rules or angering the teachers."
"That's some major discrimination."
"…But it's enough already. It's all right. You saw yesterday, right? My pitching is really slow." He said, throwing the ball up. "Because of that, batters hit tons of my pitches. So slow that I pitched nothing but strikes and was removed from the regular lineup. Pretty soon I lost interest in studying too and wound up in the E as in End Class."
"Cheer up Sugino-kun." The blue-haired girl patted him lightly on the back.
"Sugino-kun?" Koro-sensei called out. "Allow me to give you some advice, as your teacher."
'Uh oh…I do not like that face at all. And that glint in his eyes!' Her intuition yelled.
The octopus sprang all of his tentacles and forcefully grabbed him in the clutches of his tentacles, suspending him in the air helplessly. His legs were bent into an awkward position including his arms and there was even a tentacle gagging him.
"Sugino-kun!" she sprang from her seat followed by a cry from behind her.
"IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN I'D THOUGHT!" Nagisa shouted by the doorway.
"What are you doing Koro-sensei?! Didn't you swear you wouldn't harm the students?!" Youko yelled.
He gave out an amused chuckle. "Sugino-kun…that unique pitching form I saw yesterday? You're copying major-league pitcher Arita, aren't you?" he asked shocking the boy. "But you know, these tentacles don't lie." He set Sugino down on the grass. "Compared to him, the configuration of your shoulder muscles is out of whack."
This had struck a nerve in Sugino. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.
Even if the two didn't understand, Youko knew what he meant when he said that his shoulder muscles were bad. Her hands gripped into a tight fist with her head lowered so her bangs could cover her eyes. 'It means…'
"You won't be able to pitch his super fastballs with that body, no matter how much you try to imitate him." He answered much to their despair.
"How…" Nagisa asked. "How can you be so sure? Because we're misfits? Because we're in the E Class – the End Class? So why bother? Is that it?!" he snapped.
Youko stayed silent, bangs still covering the upper part of her face.
"Hmm, well…how do I know it's impossible?" he took out a newspaper. "Because yesterday I went to check the man himself."
"WELL THEN, MEVER MIND!" all three yelled in unison.
'And if you wanted to check for yourself, you didn't have to do it like that!' the girl mentally yelled eyeing the front page picture of Arita being suspended up on the pitcher's mound by tentacles the same way as he did with Sugino. She pitied the man since this had happened with all the baseball fans watching in the stadium.
"I got his autograph, too!" he revealed a signed autograph saying 'Don't screw with me, tentacles! – Arita' with tears streaming out from his eyes.
She was so close to face palming now… "You asked for an autograph in a situation like that?! Of course he's be pissed!" she scolded.
"…I see. So there's really a big difference in our abilities after all…" Sugino said getting back on track.
"On the other hand," Koro-sense reached out, "your elbows and wrists are much more flexible than Arita's." he said bending Sugino's wrist. "Train well and you could far surpass him. A comparison made by handling something with my tentacles is never wrong. There isn't always one type of talent. Please find an assassination method that suits your talent." He offered while heading back inside.
"My elbows and wrists…are better?" he repeated. "My…talent, huh?"
They smiled at him. Youko was really happy that he was able to cheer up in the end thanks to a little advice from their teacher.
It was a few days since the incident now. It was lunchtime again and the three were helping Sugino with his pitching.
Sugino got into a pitching stance. Youko realized that it wasn't the same imitation as the one he had used before. She silently smiled.
Then he threw it. At first, it looked like a typical straight thrown but then the ball curve downwards and then rolled up the grassy hill, landing near Youko's shoe. She bent down to pick it up.
"Wow, Sugino-kun! That broke so fast, it practically disappeared." She applauded as she ran towards to him to give him the ball back.
He chuckled embarrassed at her compliment, "I'm working on a curve ball that puts my elbows and wrists to good use! I can give you that and a slow straight right her and now. I'm sure they'd both just put him to sleep though. But I'll hang in there, Sakurano-chan, Nagisa – with both baseball and assassination both!"
"That's good for you then, Sugino-kun!" she cheered.
"Sugino…kun…" he slowly repeated, slight disappointment laced his tone.
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"W-well. It's just that when you call me 'Sugino-kun', it feels a bit off…" he trailed off. "Just call me 'Sugino', Sakurano-chan."
She childishly pouted a bit, "No fair! Then you have to call me 'Youko' instead of 'Sakurano-chan'. Okay? Sugino~."
He laughed, "Roger, Youko…man, now I feel like I can really survive my third year of middle school without regrets."
"You shouldn't say that, Sugino…" Nagisa lightly joked.
The trio laughed.
"Koro-sensei! I'd like to kill you, so could you come out here for a bit?" Sugino told the teacher that was correcting English assignments in the teacher's office at Mach 20 through the open window.
"Nurufufufufu. Haven't learned your lesson, eh?" he said with green stripes.
And…Cut! I don't really have much to say right now but until then, I'll try to keep low.
Again, thank you for reading this story. I appreciate it. As a return gift, I'm going to present you a little extra bit, think of it as a bonus:
After Sugino's second attempt to assassinate Koro-sensei had failed, class had started up again.
Currently though, it was the afternoon and school was already over. The classroom was empty until the doors slid open revealing a blue-hair, red-eyed girl lightly panting.
"I knew I forgot something." She muttered to herself. Youko walked to her desk and rummaged around with it until her hands touched a boxy object.
It was her phone with a little seashell accessory dangling off on the side. She let out a breath of relief. "I almost thought I had lost it. Lucky~ lucky~" she sang.
"Oh my, is that you Sakurano-san. How come you're still here so late." Koro-sensei wondered, walking in and standing next to her.
"I remembered that I forgot to bring home my phone and it was left here at school so I hurried to get it back. I presume that you're here to correct some papers?" she added.
He nodded. "Correct!"
…
"By the way, I've been wondering this for a while now." The teacher suddenly brought up. "You said before that those who wound up here are normally kids that have bad grades, troublemakers, or have broken school regulations but how did you end up in Class E? You're certainly not here because of bad grades seeing as how you're one of the smartest students here with straight A's. You're, by far, not a troublemaker no matter how you look at it. And I positively can't imagine you ever breaking a school regulation? So how, if you don't mind telling."
She shook her head, "It's alright, I can tell you if you want." She took a deep breath before telling him, "My reason for being here isn't anything special. The truth is, I came here after I heard a very close friend of mine was going to be sent here in his third year. He told me not to worry about and stay in the main building for my sake but…I decided to follow him into Class E. I purposely failed a major test and a few others quizzes until I was sent here."
"Sniff…that's so touching! You sacrificed your chance for a bright future just to be with your friend." Koro-sensei was in tears, wiping his dotted eyes with his handkerchief. "I'm such a proud teacher to have such an incredible student like you!"
"Koro-sensei you don't have to cry over it." She tried to assure him with no success whatsoever. "I should probably go home now too. Excuse me." She jogged outside before stopping at the door and she turned back at him one last time. "Besides…I promised him that I'll be by his side no matter what. And I intend to keep that promise." Youko said with a bright and confident smile that matched with her softened eyes that look like they were dreaming of nostalgia.
Youko continued to run home with the teacher watching her retreating figure.
'A promise, huh?' he thought.
