TITLE: THE FACILITY
SUMMARY: Koro-sensei is dead. The former students of class E are now the newest students at the Facility, a government run high school where the students were forced to learn to kill other assassins. When your lessons involve enduring torture, building immunities to poisons, and learning how to manipulate adults it can be almost unbearable... [Begins at an alternative ending to the show]
Changed to M now, because I feel like this Ch. called for it.
Chapter Three
Nagisa had never wanted a sick day more in his life. He had not been able to do the obstacle course (as was the assignment for the day) and of course Takaoka made a big show about Nagisa being lazy and weak. Same old shit basically, that didn't really bother him. He took his seat on the mat while the next set of three students went up to run. He was trying to breathe as little as possible to prevent the stabbing pains he would get if he took a deep breath, but it was making him feel a bit like he was suffocating.
When gym class finally came to an end they had to go through the proper procedures for exiting a room. Which meant each on being escorted out in handcuffs by two guards.
Karma went first, then Nagisa. He had a strange feeling that they were always escorted out in the order of who they thought was most dangerous. When the guards approached him Nagisa got to his feet placing his hands on the back of his head so it would always be in sight (again, this was all in accordance with what they were instructed to do).
"Wait just a moment," Takaoka said reaching over into his back with an extended limb. "Now, don't be upset. Daddy is hard on you because he loves ya. Let's take a picture, I have to go away on a trip and I won't be back until Monday. I don't want to miss you too much, so let's get a souvenir pic for Daddy."
Nagisa lowered his hands frowning. Yeah right, Nagisa thought to himself. He probably just wants evidence of the sorry state he put me in.
He threw an arm around his shoulders and held the camera up. Nagisa tried to avoid the camera by looking away, but when Takaoka noticed he purposely made his head turn towards the camera by grabbing his hair. He winced, a particularly painful throb erupted in his chest, and seeming satisfied he shoved Nagisa lightly away staring at the picture. He could see it too when Takaoka held the camera up to look at it. Man he did indeed look pitiful. The corner of his mouth had some blood on it, and he hadn't even realized that his forehead had a small cut too, it wasn't bleeding much though. Then with the look on his face and the fact you could easily see that he was handcuffed in the picture. Well, at least the picture should satisfy his torture fetish for awhile... Hopefully...
Putting his hands back on his head the guards escorted him out.
He was asked if he had to use the restroom before going to class. Nagisa lied and said yes and took the opportunity to to clean the blood off his face, he pushed on his chest very lightly and he gasped immediately. He was one hundred percent sure now. His ribs were indeed broken.
"Hurry up in there," snapped one of his guards outside, and Nagisa exited putting his hands back behind his head once again, and this always hurt because he lungs expanded when he did so.
He was escorted into the class where Karma was already seated with his feet bound to the floor, and was taken to his seat. They made sure his feet were securely fastened before they took the handcuffs off his hands. Then they left to retrieve the next student.
He was still really tired, and he put his head in his hands to try and trick his brain into thinking it was getting sleep. He knew this wouldn't actually work but...
"Does it hurt that bad?" Karama asked him. Karma was one row to the right and two rows behind him.
"A bit yeah," he answered. There was no point in lying.
"Pretend your sick, maybe the teacher will let you got to your room for the day..."
"I doubt it," Nagisa sighed. That did sound nice, but... It wasn't like he would get very good rest. They didn't really have beds in their (for lack of a better term) dormitories. It was more like a slab of plastic with a hard cushion that might as well have been plastic for as soft as it was. Plus you were bound to the bed by locks that would spring up from it with a push of the button from the overseers. Which kind of sucked for Nagisa who was most comfortable sleeping on his side or stomach. They were never given a blanket either because the heat in the room was regulated to what they believed was an acceptable temperature. But still, even that sounded better then sitting in class today.
One by one the rest of their class entered.
He winced when the light above him was turned on. The latches securing his arms were released and the computerized voice that awoke him every morning spoke: "Good morning Shiota Nagisa. Please put your arms in the air above you."
He rubbed his eyes first. His bed was directly under the room's main light so every time it was turn on it took him a minute to get used to it. He kept breathing slowly sure that any second the pain in his chest would erupt again. He reached down pushed very lightly on his ribs. No pain. He pushed a little harder. Still no pain.
"Please put your arms in the air above you."
How did he have no pain? He took a slow deep breath. No pain. He let it out quickly. Still now pain... How the hell...
"Please put your arms in the air above you."
"I hear you," Nagisa groaned doing as he was asked, and to guards entered handcuffing him before the rest of the latches pinning him to the bed were released. He sat up, with ease. Seriously... how?
The guards moved to the side of the door and a small compartment opened up sliding a tray of food onto the corner. It was probably the worst food he had ever had in his life, and the menu never changed. It was basically tasteless mush mixed with vitamin powders that they would need to stay healthy. He walked over and sat down eating the food he was given, every bit of him was still shocked that he didn't have any pain at all.
Well, maybe one of the injections they were forced to take each night had something in it to help them heal quickly. It was the only explanation he could think of...
When he finished he stepped back placing his cuffed hands behind his head so the guards could escort him to the shower room. He would walk in, they'd lock the door behind him. He had to put his hands in the hole in the door, and they undid the handcuffs. On the left side of the sink was a clean pair of clothes, so he took his shower quickly and got dressed. He put his hands in the hold so they could cuff him again, and then they escorted him to class. Since only two of the people at the Facility had inhuman modifications they took every precaution to insure the human guards were safe from them. Because, they were dangerous after all, and everyone at the Facilty knew it.
Most of them never looked at them. Some of them were very cold. Others were borderline abusive because they didn't handle power well, and that was obvious. The only people they really had any sort of relationship with was Sensei and Mr. Takaoka. And frankly he they didn't really want to have any kind of relationship with them. Their was little to no time to speak with the other students either. Gym time was about the only time they could sneak in some conversation, and again when they piled into their classroom. Other than that they were busy doing their work or they were in their cell-like dormitories alone.
It was... honestly... Kinda lonely...
When he walked into class he immediately looked at Karma's face. The bruise that he received the previous day was gone and he was bending his wrist forward and back as though examining something.
When his guard had secured him to the floor and left he spun around to look at him. "Karma my chest is healed."
"No kidding?" Karma frowned.
"And your bruise is gone."
"My wrist is healed too," he pointed out.
"Oh? Was your wrist injured? I didn't notice."
"Well, I tend not to draw attention to my injuries. I'm not a baby. Unlike you with all your awkward breathing. You just wanted everyone in class to notice you were hurt huh? Poor baby."
Nagisa frowned at his teasing, but he had more important things to worry about. "Do you think It's the injections?"
"Must be, nothing else would explain it…"
"I understand a few bruises, but to heal bone… If they have access to technology like that, why do we still have sick people? They could sell that stuff and make a killing."
"Governments profit a whole lot more from sick people then healthy people. Why charge someone to heal them once, when you can make more money of them by charging for treatments…"
Nagisa frowned realizing that way of thinking was indeed probably accurate. "They wouldn't profit from assassins who get hurt all the time…"
"Exactly."
Rinka was escorted in next, and after the guard left she turned to Nagisa. "Hey, how you feeling?"
"Great."
"No, seriously," she inquired looking a bit stern.
"Seriously, I'm fine, all better."
"I thought your ribs were broken…" she snapped eyeing him suspiciously as though he were lying on purpose.
"They were but they're healed now."
"Uh… A broken rib takes at least 6 weeks to heal, sometimes longer…"
"Well, Nagisa and I were just talking about it and we think it might be the injections we're given. The bruise on my face is gone too," Karma pointed out.
"That… That makes no sense."
"They are giving us stuff similar to the things they gave Koro-sensei right? Maybe we're starting to get his regenerative ability—" Nagisa suggested.
"His regenerative ability was almost instant, it wouldn't have taken that long to fix," she pointed out.
Karma shrugged at that. "Whatever, it's the best theory we have."
As more of the students came in more theories were being circulated.
"I don't think you were hurt that bad," Terasaka said. "Maybe you just thought you were."
"Or maybe he was faking," Muramatsu suggested leaning back in his chair with a smirk.
"He was barely breathing, you can't fake that!" Kayano pointed out.
"This coming from the girl who made us think she was weak and frail and a completely different person for nearly the whole school year," Chiba pointed out.
A few minutes after the last student came in their teacher entered. They simply called him Sensei because he never gave them a name to call him by and they did not like him enough to make up a name for him…
Nagisa immediately raised his hand. The man turned a slight frown on his face. "How could you possibly have a question, class hasn't even started yet."
"Sorry Sir, but… the injections we're being given. What exactly do they do?"
"We told you, this round improves your memories, and we're testing it by having you learn an entire language in a month…"
"Is that all?" he asked, and realizing that probably sounded rude he added, "Sensei."
"Why do you ask?" he lowered his papers slightly eyeing him suspiciously.
"I was injured yesterday, but I'm all better today. Within' twenty four hours my wounds healed when it should have taken much longer, so I just thought that maybe…"
"That is something you should be discussing with your medical practitioner, you see him this Friday."
Once a week a doctor would come to analyze their physical and mental health. Which basically meant a guy in a white coat would talk to them for ten to twenty minutes and leave getting paid in cash so their was no paper trail.
"But if you would rather not wait." He set his papers down and walked over to him. "Let us test it then…"
When he stopped at Nagisa's desk he took from inside his lab coat a knife. Not one like the kind they would use on Koro-sensei but an honest to goodness hunting knife. He set it on his desk. "I want you to slice open your hand."
Nagisa's eyes widened.
Everyone was dead silent at those words.
"What…" Nagisa looked up at him nervously.
"Slice it open, we'll test your theory. If you come in tomorrow with a healed hand I'll look into exactly what you've been given. Who knows, maybe the boys in the lab mixed some vials around that's always possible… But if not, then you will stop interrupting my class with pointless questions that aren't about the class at hand."
That settled it, he wasn't going to ask this teacher a question ever again…
"Well go on," the teacher urged. "You're the one who wants to know, this is your chance to find out, and this is the quickest way to answer your question."
"No thank you Sir, I don't want to know that badly…" Nagisa tried saying this politely, but there was an underlining tone of anger.
"Well, you can do it, or I will. And if I have to do it, I may take your fingers clean off. At least if you do it, you can decide how deep it is," he pushed the knife a little closer to him.
"Come now, we're not going to start class until this is done," he explained. He could see a few of the girls out the corner of his eye. They looked panicked. Terasuka looked like he would jump out of his seat if he could.
He slowly reached out taking the blade in his hand and put his thumb on the edge. It was really sharp…
"Make sure the cut goes clear from one side of your palm to the other, if the cut is too small we may not be able to tell how well it has or hasn't healed by tomorrow," he explained with a small smile.
"This… this isn't going to prove anything…" Okuda tried to reason. "Why have him get hurt when you could just look up which injections he has been given in your files on us…"
This wasn't about that though, and Nagisa knew it. An example was being made of him to prevent students from misbehaving in the future. A similar tactic to Takaoka. It didn't matter that this could easily be solved another way… He held out his left hand with the palm up, he specifically chose the hand he didn't write with, and he pressed the blade to it. Quick, and lightly… Like a paper cut…
He choose to hold the knife still and run his hand across it, rather than the other way around.
He clenched his teeth and made no noise. He slid his hand up the blade, and in the very next second he moved the blade so fast that it cut the teacher's arm. Their sensei jumped back and his skin moved (very similarly to how Koro-sensei's would) before the cut healed itself almost instantly...
"What—"
Nagisa calmly turned the blade around in his hand so the handle pointed towards their teacher so he could take it back.
"I had another question, since we're being given similar injections to what you and Koro-sensei were given I wondered if you would have the same restorative properties he had. I was right. But one main difference is real weapons couldn't hurt Koro-sensei, but they can hurt you. That's a very interesting thing to learn, and sorry about that," he added eyeing where the now healed cut had been before looking the teacher straight in the eyes. "But… This was the quickest way to find out…"
His eyes narrowed, two limbs shot out wrapping around his neck and hoisted him up as high as the chains on his feet would allow. Everyone gasped. "You know I really didn't peg you for the class clown, but that was funny. How about it class, we should all laugh together."
Nobody laughed.
"Ah, so no one then? C'mon, he pulled one over on your teacher. You can join in…"
Still no one laughed.
"Well, maybe it wasn't that funny after all…" he grinned. His grip on Nagisa's neck tightened. "You know, you and Karma are really the only students left who give me any real crap. I was able to beat and terrify it out of most of the other kids in the first week. The rest in the second. A teacher should always expect the occasional bad behavior, but when it occurs repeatedly from the same students over and over, then it's falls down to a bad student..."
*tonk*
An eraser had hit him on the side of his head and he turned to find Karma on his feet. He couldn't get any closers because of the shackles though, and the erases was really all he had to hit the guy with. "Let him down already, he's nearly unconscious!"
"Are you telling me what to do Karma? Well, I think both you boys have a lesson to learn. You're both going into solitary, you will leave when you agree to apologize to me and your fellow students for disrupting class."
He dropped Nagisa who in the fall knocked over his chair and proceeded to gasp for breath.
"Aw, solitary, I didn't even give up my number," Karma teased.
He walked back to the front of the class and pushed a button on the wall. "Please send four guards to escort Karma and Nagisa to solitary."
Paris was gorgeous, the hotel they had gotten was quite fancy. Irina thought that maybe her boyfriend was treating her, but then she found out that them being at this particular hotel was part of the mission. But at least their "roles," involved them pretending to be on their honeymoon, so she got to dote on him and (as she pointed out) he would have to be especially affectionate with her to keep up their charade.
So they decided to do a pretend date (which Irina was viewing as a real one) and they went out to another fancy restaurant.
It was the kind of place with fancy forks and multiple meals, and while they were waiting for desert to come he took her hand smiling. "My dear you look radiant in this light."
She felt her face flush, "Do I?" she asked giddily.
Then his eyes moved quickly to point her towards the next table where their target had just sat down, and within' ear shot of them no less. Oh… so that was why… She frowned for a second, but recovered quickly. After all, a pretend evening with the man she loved was better than nothing right? Right?
Dinner continued, and they acted like a love sick couple. Seeing Karasuma smile and laugh made the evening more than worth it for her, even if he was just acting.
She had done the whole, trip on her way to the bathroom and fall in the targets lap bit, so Karasuma could come over and apologize for his tipsy new bride. Which allowed Karasuma to strike up a conversation and one thing led to another and they had plans to play pool with the guy the following day. The day that they would assassinate him.
She squeezed Karasuma's arm tightly as they headed back to their hotel building. "Well, what would you like to do tonight?"
"Go to bed."
"Oh really, what would like me to do to you when we get there huh?"
"None of that, we'll be going to sleep."
"Wha! To sleep! It's our honeymoon!"
"For the last time it's not our honeymoon! We just started dating I'm not going to ask you to marry me this soon in our relationship."
"Oh…" she smiled slyly suddenly, "Does that mean… You will eventually?"
"Tsk," he turn away. "We have to get up early tomorrow to prepare, so there will be no fooling around."
"Ugh, no fun," she snapped, when out of the corner of her eye she spotted. "Hey, isn't that… Takaoka!"
Karasuma turned seeing him leaving their hotel building with a large suitcase in hand. He started attempting to hail a cab when he spotted them.
"Oh, Karasuma! It's been awhile…"
"Hello," he said in what was evidently a forced sense of friendliness. "I heard you were reassigned."
"Yup, me and the kids reunited again. Good times," he said cheerily.
"You're being good them though right?" Irina asked concerned.
"Well, now their Dad has to give them a bit of tough love now and then, but their warming up to me."
Irina felt all the muscles in Karasuma's arm tense and knew he was holding himself back from punching the guy.
"I gotta get heading out, I have a few more places to go before I can get back to them, but here," he took out his phone and hit some buttons. "I sent you some pics of the kids, so you know they're in good hands."
Karasuma didn't like that smile he had, and he felt his phone vibrate slightly in his pocket to let him know he had received a message.
"See ya around, the next time you see those kids you won't be able to recognize them. Trust me, I only train the best," he said waving as he got into a cab he had hailed. "Until then Karasuma."
"Look at them," Irina urged.
"No, c'mon. Let's get inside."
She pulled on his arm, "Look at them…"
"You know damn well what kind of pictures they'll be and it'll only make us want to go more, so no."
"…"
He turned heading inside without her, and after a few seconds she followed.
Once upstairs, she climbed into something skimpy, not because she was going to try and seduce him, but because she didn't really own anything that wasn't skimpy and got under the covers. He went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and prepare for bed. His phone was sitting on the counter blinking from the new email he had received.
They're not a part of your mission anymore. They have nothing to do with you…
He kept brushing, every couple seconds glancing down.
None of those pictures are going to be good…
He glanced down again. Then away again, then back again.
Damn it, he cursed silently to himself as he picked it up and opened the email.
From the very first photo he instantly regretted his decision. That asshole had sent his whole collection, and every student was in it at least once, but some were in it more than others.
The first photo was of Rinka, her hair and clothes soaked, her face flushed, she looked as though she had nearly drowned. Then Terasaka on the ground the guy's foot on his chest after he had clearly received a beating. Kurahashi's tear-stained face as she was kneeling on the ground, Takaoka tugging at her arm to pull her to her feet. He remembered how she had pleaded for his help when Takaoka had taken over the class initially. One by one the photos were getting worse and worse. Nakamura was being held close, her head turned away from him while he held her handcuffed arms out to show a number of bruises on them. Something else he noticed was that his hand was rather far up her shirt. He wasn't sure if it was up high enough to actually be cupping her, but it certainly wasn't appropriate. Hell, none of this was appropriate. Then there was Karma, he had clearly had the day lights beaten out of him, but had chosen to throw an arm around Takaoka and pose for the picture rather than giving him the satisfaction of forcing him to take one. That kid was crazy…
On and on until it came to a number of photos of Nagisa. One with his hands bound in handcuffs and Takaoka with a fist full of his hair forcing him to look into the camera. His lip was bleeding and his eye looked as though a blood vessel had popped in it so it was red on one section. The next Nagisa was trying to use one hand to push Takaoka away as he tried to get in the same shot. He wasn't bleeding in that one but he looked absolutely exhausted, as though he was going to collapse at any moment. Another where Nagisa was using bound hands to wipe some blood from his nose, and Takaoka was holding him by the back of his neck so tightly he could see the indent his fingers made in Nagisa's skin. That was the end… And then he noticed what the file was labeled…
Week 1
He took one look at himself in the mirror, and was almost disgusted by the sight. He threw his toothbrush into the sink with a clatter and pushed the door to the bathroom open so hard it hit the opposite wall.
Irina jumped and looked up as he walked toward her throwing the phone on the bed beside her he said, "Pack up, were going to go get those damn kids!"
"What about the mission?"
"Fuck the mission!"
She never heard that man say anything more beautiful in her life and she jumped up to pack.
Solitary consisted of a tiny room just barely big enough to sit down it. There wasn't any room to lay down so you had to stand or sit with your legs stretched out or pulled up to you. There was a small toilet in the room but nothing else. Not even a light bulb so when the door closed it was pitch black, which gave him the feeling that he had gone blind. The first few minutes he was in there Nagisa didn't think it was all that bad.
But shortly after it started to get hot in there. Extremely hot, and within a half hour he was sweating like mad. Of course solitary confinement couldn't just be solitary...
It wasn't long before he started feeling dizzy. Being in a room this hot was the worst thing he had had to deal with yet. At least with beatings and injuries, it would stop after awhile. But this heat just kept going and going. It got to a point where he didn't know if he was on the brink of falling asleep or starting to pass out. Was it even night time? Should he be sleepy right now? Maybe it was already morning? He would give anything for some water... No matter what he wasn't ending up back here again, regardless of what he had to do. No more being cocky, disobedient, or fighting back.
Then he froze mid breath... Really? he thought to himself. They broke me...
He didn't think he would be, but... here he was already thinking about giving up, not fighting back...
It wasn't as though they could fight back a lot, seeing as his family could be killed any day if decided to ever really try, but... He would still do smaller things now and then, like when he cut the teacher. Now, he didn't even want to attempt it anymore...
But Koro-sensei wouldn't have given up!
A small voice in his heart was telling him that... Not for anything... But, it was harder for them. They weren't super-human beings with nearly limitless powers & energy. Enduring beatings cruelty, injections, horrible food, the lack social contact, the upsurge in stress and the fear that any day here could be their last. They were weak. They were mortal. Physically, mentally they had limits...
...and Nagisa was pretty sure he had just reached his...
Thanks for the reviews guys. I included a poll where readers can let me know which characters they like the best, and I'll make sure to devote time to those with the highest votes. Since their class is so big, this is probably the best way to do it. Thanks again all. :) It'll probably be a few days before I update again, but at least anyone who wants to read has 3 chapters to hold them over.
