With an explosive crack, Korosensei managed to deflect the tentacles enough that they passed harmlessly over his head. "Listen to me, class," Korosensei said. "There is something I neglected to mention in my earlier lesson. A clever assassin may avoid confrontation for a while... but sooner or later the fight will come." I stared at Yanagisawa, standing next to the Reaper. "When it does, every last ounce of strength will be put to the test," Korosensei ground out. "In my case... That would be now!"
Chapter 21: Final Boss Time
(90 Minutes)
The Reaper let out a roar mixing anguish and hatred before launching himself forward, leaving a blast of wind behind. Korosensei shouted and launched himself headfirst towards the mutated assassin. When they collided in midair, a loud crack echoed through the air as the two of them recoiled.
Korosensei and the Reaper disappeared from our sights. Everything was simply a blur as an insane battle took place over our heads. Every single blow and collision created another sonic boom before one combatant or the other streaked off in a different direction.
At this speed, Korosensei and the Reaper were nothing more than blurs. Little streaks of color and brief flickers of forms while they changed direction. But still... I could tell Korosensei is being pressured. Overwhelmingly so.
It's telling that every time I can catch a glimpse of Korosensei, he's being chased by the Reaper.
I gritted my teeth, snarling under my breath. The Reaper, Two Point Oh, the Second Korosensei, the Flying Purple People Eater even if he isn't purple, it didn't matter what we called him, the numbers were pretty clear. His basic abilities were double that of Korosensei's, and as any veteran of MMOs could tell you, numbers were everything. Level-based multiplayer games were inherently unfair that way, and if even if this wasn't based on a level system the concept was the same.
If the Reaper could move faster than Korosensei, he could strike twice as often. Korosensei would have to block.
We were constantly buffeted by the winds created by the speed of those monsters in the air, trying desperately to keep our eyes on our teacher. I was lucky - I had glasses to protect my eyes from the worst of the wind. I could only imagine how everyone else was doing.
Suddenly, a streak slammed into the ground not too far from us, and we all covered ourselves from the flying chunks of dirt. "Korosensei!" Nagisa cried out.
With a shout, Korosensei launched himself out of the dirt - only for the Reaper to plunge down at high speeds, smashing into Korosensei again. Korosensei hit the dirt again, before launching himself in the air.
It was insane. Korosensei was simply fighting to stay alive, so he couldn't make any attacks of his own.
A particularly brutal strike from the Reaper sent Korosensei flying, skipping off of the ground like a stone; he was moving so fast from the combined momentum of his own flight and the Reaper's blows that his skin had hardened under the wind pressure. Behind him, Yanagisawa dashed up and raised his arms, pressing at his shoulders.
Suddenly, little spiked balls launched up into the air, colliding perfectly with Korosensei's form. A series of five explosions rang out, and at the end a smoking Korosensei fell to the ground limply.
Yanagisawa was here as well, and after replacing most of his body with tentacles, he was superhuman both physically and mentally. Those explosives... They looked like they came from inside his arm, generated by the tentacle cells maybe? I don't know.
The Reaper jumped high in the air before streaking towards Korosensei at insane speeds; a harsh breath ripped out of me as I realized Korosensei was stunned, lying in the dirt and unable to move.
Just before the Reaper slammed down on Korosensei's form, the octopus jumped away. The Reaper let out a loud roar.
"Sufficiently hopeless yet, guinea pig?!" Yanagisawa shouted, clutching dagger-like objects in his hand. He threw the throwing knives into the air, forcing Korosensei to dodge the deadly projectiles. "A little math theorem! Square the inverse of your tentacles, and solve for genius."
I blinked. "Look at that, the answer's dickbag to the Nth power," I muttered under my breath.
Because he was so busy dodging the throwing knives, Korosensei's attention wandered away from the Reaper. The ex-assassin didn't miss the window, two massive black tentacles stretching up into the air to wrap around Korosensei's waist. For the first time, we could see our teacher clearly - just before he was slammed downwards.
"Factor by the power of hatred..." Yanagisawa growled, "and you get superiority!"
A massive crash rang out as the shockwave of Korosensei's landing washed over us. I'm going to have hearing issues for weeks after this fight is over...
It was happening at speed of sound. I couldn't see anything clearly. But I could still feeling the boiling hatred inside Yanagisawa and the Reaper. They wanted vengeance. The Reaper had been granted insane power for a short time, and I doubt that Yanagisawa would remain human and in control for much longer himself - they'd both poured everything they had into trying to kill Korosensei.
The crater in our exercise field was massive and deep, Korosensei buried at the exact center. Yanagisawa and the Reaper approached slowly, watching the rubble as Korosensei started to pull himself out.
Y'know, I'm starting to get tired of Yanagisawa. He irritates me.
Now, I've dealt with monsters before. The Reaper isn't really the biggest one, or the strongest. Unfortunately, he is the fastest, and Future Step has taught me that being able to anticipate your opponent's moves won't help you in the slightest if you can't move fast enough to either be out of the way or block it.
So that means Yanagisawa is my target.
Nagisa flinched as a spike of bloodlust washed over him. He tore his eyes away from Korosensei and looked for the source, only to realize that Nick had changed slightly.
If he had to describe it, he would say that something in Nick had suddenly unsheathed its claws and was moving in for the kill.
Nagisa wasn't really quite sure what to make of Nick. His classmate had a cutting tongue and a wicked sense of humor - so a lot like Karma, in other words, down to their fondness for teasing him - but at the same time he'd seen Nick be kind and gentle with the kids at the Wakaba Park preschool. And then, when his girlfriend had appeared unexpectedly, Nagisa and the rest of E Class had been dumbfounded as the tough, aggressive assassin they'd come to know over the course of the year suddenly transformed into a doting boyfriend. It was almost a little eerie.
Nagisa knew that Nick was dangerous. He was probably the most skilled hand-to-hand fighter in the class - even if Karma was physically bigger and stronger, Nick won three out of four spars through technique alone. And his assassination skills were top-notch, to the point where Nagisa knew that he had a competitor for best assassin in the class.
This Nick was nothing like the patient, calm assassin. He was more like a deadly fighter, preparing to charge into battle. With a sching sound, a gleaming metallic knife appeared in Nick's hands out of nowhere before the boy launched himself forward insanely quickly. "Nick!" Nagisa shouted, but his classmate didn't even turn to respond.
By the crater created by Korosensei's rough landing, the Reaper roared. The loud noise covered Nick's approach perfectly, and Nagisa wasn't quite sure if he'd planned for that. Probably. He was their tactician for a reason, after all.
Nick skidded to a halt just behind Yanagisawa, and suddenly the perfectly normal reading of his mental state - it had been calm the entire time Nick was running forward - spiked erratically. With a shout, Nick swung his knife straight at Yanagisawa's neck.
Nick had killed before. He'd as good as admitted it to everyone, and Nagisa wasn't quite sure how to react to the revelation. In this case, though, he was almost glad that Nick was willing to strike lethally with zero hesitation.
Yanagisawa whirled at the last second, barely dodging the sharp edge of Nick's knife. Not pausing in the slightest, Nick parried Yanagisawa's wild retaliatory swing with a careful push and ducked forward, striking at Yanagisawa's arms and legs with well-aimed punches.
Nagisa realized with a start that Nick's movements were completely different than usual. Normally he favored quick strikes in and out, waiting for his opponent to leave an opening, but right now it was like he was unleashing a beast that knew only to attack. Each knife strike was fluid and brutal, leading into the next one while keeping himself guarded; he was using the knife in his hand like a sword, a dagger, instead of as a killing tool.
It was like his style was designed for fighting enemies bigger and stronger than him. Nagisa wondered where he'd learned it. But still… This was the power he hadn't shown when the two of them clashed. If Nick had fought like this, instead of asking for an assassination showdown…
The Reaper started to move, and Nagisa tried to shout a warning, but before the words could get out of his mouth Korosensei exploded from the crater and smashed into the Reaper. Instantly, the two of them were off and fighting again, the Reaper's tentacles pummeling Korosensei and creating sonic booms with every strike.
Nick was on his own.
I'm perfectly in control. That's the best part of this. I'm using my bloodlust, the viper is surrounding me, but it's not affecting my mind in any way. It's been unsheathed for now, but at any point I could just... put it away.
"Arrogant little brat!" Yanagisawa shouted at me, taking a swing with his tentacle arm. I casually tilted my body to the side and pushed down, redirecting his momentum and throwing him off balance. "I'm a genius! You're just some pathetic rat!"
"Corner a rat and it bites!" I shouted back at him. Considering my girlfriend, calling me a rat? That was a compliment. "You don't scare me! Do you want to know something about your big scary experiment?"
I flourished the knife I'd pulled off of Houjou. It was a nice knife, too; high-grade military steel, with a keen edge. "I've faced worse," I told him, ignoring the sonic booms behind me. If the Reaper tried to protect Yanagisawa, then Korosensei would be able to strike before I could be injured. Two on two is fair, assholes. Besides, the Reaper was so hyper-focused on Korosensei that his lust for vengeance and payback would blind him.
Tentacle Weakness Number One: Users become focused on one goal and that goal alone. Ignoring the goal causes pain.
"What do you mean?" he sneered. "Two Point Oh is my creation! Nothing could possibly stand up to its might!"
I chuckled. "Yeah, he's big. Yeah, he's scary. Faster, stronger, and on and on." I tilted my knife towards him, closing in slowly to raise the pressure. Yanagisawa whipped his arm out, and I stepped to the side, letting it hit the ground beside me.
The Reaper might be fast, but Yanagisawa isn't anywhere near his level. His top speed, from what I've seen, is roughly the same as the max speed I can hit in Alfheim; plus, his movements suffered from the same weakness as Korosensei – that being that his initial movements were slow and took time to reach top speed.
Tentacle Weakness Number Two: Initial movements are slow, then gain speed rapidly.
All things put together, as long as I stuck close to Yanagisawa and prevented him from gaining distance to build speed, he was simply faster than human. And I've dealt with faster than human before.
"I killed something like him on Floor 20."
"Wha-"
Before Yanagisawa could finish his question, I dashed forward and swung my knife. The bizarre statement had thrown him just as easily as clapping in the middle of the battle, and as a bonus I hadn't disarmed myself. The steel bit into his neck and I pulled, slitting his throat.
Tentacle Weakness Number Three: Easily distracted.
Tentacle Weakness Number Four: Moving at high speeds require focus.
Something was wrong. I knew it the second the knife moved. It didn't sink in deep enough. When I brought the knife back to bear, I snarled; the edge had been melted. Just like what happened whenever Korosensei consumed metal.
The tentacle cells. Of course. I'd forgotten. Because of the tentacle cells, Yanagisawa couldn't be killed except by Anti-Korosensei material - and I couldn't pierce his skin without steel. To make things worse, the regenerative properties were still present, the red line of my knife sealing up in no time at all as the tentacle cells rebound the split skin together seamlessly.
Shit. "Well this sucks," I sighed. I finally get a knife, aaaand it's useless. Fuck you, game.
"Hah! Do you see now? You can't beat me!" Yanagisawa boasted, pulling out more throwing knives and throwing them at me. Shino's bullets are faster than those things, and I slipped past the knives easily, closing in on him again.
I flipped my knife around to a front grip, perfect for stabbing. "I don't have to!" I snarled, thrusting forward at a surprised Yanagisawa.
The knife stabbed into Yanagisawa's mechanical eye. He shrieked as the prosthetic sparked and cracked, the delicate machinery destroyed by the weapon suddenly piercing it - the knife might have been useless otherwise, but it would still smash pretty well. I knew I wouldn't kill him, but I could at least shut down the Anti-Korosensei light it could emit. With another shriek, Yanagisawa batted me away, his blow connecting since I had no way of dodging.
I rolled with the blow, putting my recovery techniques to good use, but it still aggravated my ribs from Houjou's kick earlier. I coughed, tasting copper fill my mouth. A quick swipe of my tongue told me that I'd just bitten my cheek and that my ribs hadn't pierced my lungs, fortunately. Still, my work here was done, and I jumped back towards the class while keeping my eyes on Yanagisawa.
The asshole was clutching at his eye after the knife had been ripped out, spewing curses, and I grinned. There. Let some regular kid ruin his day and shake his unflinching hatred a little bit.
Unfortunately, my good mood didn't last long. Up in the air, Korosensei was still fighting the Reaper, and like before he was losing. He was beset on all sides by the Reaper's tentacles, barely able to do more than yelp and try his best to survive.
Everyone in E Class was watching the horrible sight; I saw Kurahashi covering her mouth, trying not to cry. Hayami clutched her rifle, but what good would it do? Beside me, Nagisa's pistol clattered to the ground seconds before the blue-haired kid fell to his hands and knees.
I might have been able to fight Yanagisawa, but only until I got hit once. I spat out a little bit more blood-colored saliva, frowning. I got lucky. That was the only reason; I was well-practiced in fighting monsters bigger and stronger than myself, with more-than-human abilities. But the Reaper...
He was out of my league. Out of all of our league. The one-sided fight he had with Korosensei, was in a dimension of its own.
All the training, all the hard work, there's no way it can help us now. It was pointless. Meaningless. Over by the school, Karasuma had his gun out, but all he could do was stand and watch.
As Korosensei was slammed into the ground by mach-speed blows, thoughts whirred through my head, but everything I came up with was impossible. We couldn't fight. We couldn't even run away. As it stood, we were just... deadweight. Something that Korosensei had to protect.
With a shriek, the Reaper sent tentacles streaking towards the panting and grounded Korosensei.
It's us, isn't it? Korosensei's biggest -
Korosensei's tentacles flicked the black tentacle to the side smoothly. Another tentacle was simply batted away as Korosensei's tentacles redirected it. He dodged the next one by the skin of his teeth, letting the black tentacle slip just underneath his leg tentacles.
Ritsu, held by Fuwa, gasped in shock.
In front of us, Korosensei was dodging the Reaper's blows. "He's dodging them!" Takebayashi gasped, adjusting his glasses. "Am I seeing things?"
"You bastard!" Yanagisawa shouted. I could see him trembling off to the side. What's the matter, genius? Your little toy broken? Can't shine your light anymore?
Korosensei dashed to the side. Immediately, the Reaper appeared behind him and struck - but Korosensei's tentacles snapped up around him, guiding the tentacles around his body. The Reaper roared in frustration.
"You're kidding me!" Fuwa cried.
Ritsu smiled. "Korosensei's using evasive moves with minimal energy!" she chirped. "And Nick stopped those blinding flashes!"
"Wait, what?" Fuwa asked, looking at me. "What did you do?"
I blinked. Had none of them seen what I did? Well, I guess they were all watching Korosensei... "I stabbed Yanagisawa," I said, holding up the mangled knife for evidence. The final stab had bent the tip, rendering it unusable, but it was a nice prize. "In the eye."
She stared at me. I blinked again.
"It closes the gap between them significantly," Ritsu continued, not really realizing that I'd done something completely insane. Either that or she just believed that I could easily pull off a feat that by all rights should have been impossible, which... I don't know why she'd have that much faith in me, even if she knew the truth of my identity. "He's analyzing and adjusting for his own weaknesses mid-battle! I'm not surprised," she said with a laugh. "That's our Korosensei."
Out front, Korosensei was effortlessly dodging the tentacles. Well, not effortlessly, but he was expending far less energy than the Reaper. At this rate, he might actually win through attrition. "You may chalk this one down to experience!" our teacher shouted.
After a second, the two superbeings burst apart, sliding away from each other. Yanagisawa jumped back, landing next to the Reaper. "I am the teacher," Korosensei declared, staring at the Reaper. "You are the student. I take full responsibility for your lapse. But first..." His head swiveled towards Yanagisawa. "Yanagisawa, I'd like you to leave. This is a place of learning, not a warzone. You have no business being here!"
Yanagisawa lowered his head and sighed. "You just won't let go of this fantasy of being an educator, will you?" he asked rhetorically. "Deranged little guinea pig." Suddenly he lifted his head and sneered down his nose at Korosensei, eyes - er, uh, eye - filled with malice. "Answer me this, teacher! Why do you suppose we chose this of all moments to launch our final offensive?" Without waiting for an answer, he snapped his fingers.
...Oh, fuck.
The Reaper suddenly dashed to the side, appearing in front of us. Korosensei gasped in shock as the Reaper's tentacles glowed red. Electricity crackled across the Reaper's arms as it charged up for its super move. I snarled, my eyes darting back and forth - but this wasn't Aincrad, and I couldn't interrupt the boss's charge move with a stun or skill. "You will protect them, right?" Yanagisawa sneered. "That is what a teacher's meant to do."
With a roar, the Reaper pointed its tentacles at us and unleashed a blinding beam of red electricity. The class shouted as the light started rushing towards us -
- and then everything exploded, sending up a cloud of steam and dirt.
As the dust cleared, we all straightened up from where we'd turned and covered our eyes futilely. If that had hit us, even with our protective uniforms we'd all be smears on the dirt; by the simple fact that we were still alive, that meant we hadn't taken a shred of the attack. Which means... Korosensei took the full-power attack of the Reaper entirely.
"Are you alright, sir?" Nagisa shouted.
In front of us, Korosensei was panting. His skin was dirtied and scorched, and his robes had become ripped from the force of the blast. The class started shouting in shock and panic at the damaged state of our invincible teacher. "Well, well," Yanagisawa crowed, "aren't you the model protector? You could easily dodge these blows if you had a mind to... Yet you stay for the sake of your poor defenseless charges." He looked over at the Reaper, who hadn't moved after its attack. A cool-down? Could it not use the attack again because of the energy required? "Now then," Yanagisawa said, "I believe it's time, Two Point Oh. Another, please!"
Well fuck!
The Reaper appeared on our right this time, threatening us with another blast of energy. This wasn't electricity; there wasn't any sort of ionization in the air, so we couldn't even divert the blow that way.
As Korosensei dashed in front of us, I knew that the only way we could survive the blow is if Korosensei absorbed it all again.
The beam struck Korosensei in the chest head-on, and he grunted. The smoke this time was even worse.
"And another."
The Reaper appeared behind us this time, limbs already crackling with energy waiting to be released. What the hells? Even the most unfair bosses in SAO had a cool-down period on its breath weapon.
Korosensei blocked that one, crying out in pain.
"And another!" Another crackle of electricity, another pained cry. "And another! And another! And another!" With each command, the Reaper struck at us again, forcing Korosensei to take the blows. I snarled at Yanagisawa; even with his ruined left eye, a trail of what I'm guessing is oil trailing down his cheek like a parody of tears, his face was filled with rapturous bliss.
The latest blow, Korosensei clutched the tentacles against his chest, trying vainly to prevent the Reaper from attacking more. He'd taken incredible amounts of damage, though, and he spat up yellow goop from his mouth - his equivalent of blood. "Korosensei..." Kayano whispered.
"Corral the guinea pig with his precious students, and this was all but a foregone conclusion," Yanagisawa said, smirking. "Sorry, boys and girls, you chose poorly. Showing up here tonight only increased the likelihood of his dying by our hands."
It was like his words had pierced into everyone's minds. Their expressions were shaken. Still, I did my best to keep a straight face, scowling directly at Yanagisawa. His ruined eye sparked, making him twitch a little, and I smirked.
A pistol clacked as a round was chambered. "Shut up, Yanagisawa!" Karasuma snapped, aiming the pistol at him. Yanagisawa turned, looking at the man with a frown. "I think we've all heard just about enough out of you."
Yanagisawa's lips curled up into a smirk. Suddenly, he lunged forward, appearing in front of Karasuma. With the speed he'd been able to build up, Yanagisawa's punch sent Karasuma flying, knocking the agent to the ground. "Shut up and enjoy the show, government dog," he shouted. Karasuma clutched at his ribs, trembling, and my own ribs ached in ghost pain. "I'm afraid at this juncture there's really nothing else you can do."
Karasuma had been knocked aside, trying to protect us. Korosensei was dying by slow inches, doing his best to protect us from the Reaper's attacks.
I think I'd figured it out a while back, honestly, because I didn't feel a shred of surprise. If that were the case, then I'd committed a cardinal sin and turned away from the facts as I knew them.
Like when Yanagisawa had blown up the dam and threated E Class's safety, back when we knew him as Shiro. Like when the Reaper had dropped Korosensei into a pit and threatened my classmates with death to force him to stay put.
"How does it feel?!" Yanagisawa sneered. "Watching your students quake with despair as they realize how much of a hinderance they've been?"
Korosensei's greatest weakness, beyond even his heart - the organ that, if struck, would kill him instantly.
Yanagisawa's eye was wide and his smile manic as he shouted, "Do you understand, now?! Your greatest weakness is -"
Korosensei's greatest weakness is -
- is us.
"THAT IS PREPOSTEROUS!" Korosensei shouted. Everyone flinched, staring at him in surprise. "You're a fool if you think I'll believe it's that cut and dry! These children, they've risked life and limb to save me! What they've gone through just to be here tonight is extraordinary! Their determination, their unflappable spirit... Students like these are the greatest gift a teacher could ask for! They are not a hinderance! They are not a weakness! They are my CLASS! And I am proud of each and every one of them!"
I flinched, gritting my teeth. It was... That was something I couldn't deny. Korosensei was proud of us.
Of me.
Korosensei was proud of me.
...I feel... happy.
His tentacles wrapped around the Reaper's black tentacles. "Call it what you will," Korosensei shouted, "but when the chips are down, I will give my life to protect them!"
The Reaper growled softly. "Yes, yes, that's all fine and good," Yanagisawa said, before pointing up at the sky. "So dutiful. And yet I'm afraid we have to deny you even that satisfaction. See, your strength will run out soon, at which point the children you're protecting... let's just say their future won't be as bright as you hoped!" His hands shook as the black veins spread and wrapped around his fingers. I think the tentacles were spreading, infecting more of his body and nervous system.
"Try it and I'll take the other eye!" I snarled. "With my gods-damned hands if I have to!" I will not let him touch my friends!
Yanagisawa flinched at my threat, before gritting his teeth and plunging deeper into the hatred that was fueling him. "Everything you've gained over the last year, you've gained by destroying our lives! I will ensure that it was all for nothing! Then and only then, will my revenge be complete."
He planted his hands on his hips. "Now then, let's continue," he said, his voice rough. "Where were we? Oh yes, of course. Mind that you play close attention -"
Suddenly a pistol cracked out. The Reaper moved his head out of the way of the Anti-Korosensei bullet aimed for the center of his skull.
Korosensei gasped in shock. "Idiot!" Karma shouted.
"What the-" Nagisa gasped.
I stared in horror. I hadn't been the one to attack.
No...
Kayano. She had drawn her pistol and fired, stepping away from the main group. As she skidded to a halt, she dropped her pistol and drew her knife. "Make a run for it, sir!" she shouted, dropping into a guarded stance. "Find a place to hide, you need to recover! I'll buy you some time!"
"Kayano..." Korosensei gasped, "what are you doing?!"
The Reaper lashed out with a tentacle.
Kayano, somehow, was able to get out of the way, and my eyes narrowed. Future Step? Could she have somehow tapped into it? That should be impossible... But Cardinal was running this world, so maybe...
At the same time as the tentacle moved, her knife flashed up. Behind her, a wriggling black tentacle slowly broke apart. The Reaper looked at the smoking end of its severed limb before it regenerated. "Ah," Yanagisawa said. "Even with the tentacles excised, your kinetic vision remains."
Yeah, okay, that makes more sense than her suddenly developing my particular brand of precognition. Still, if she could see the tentacles, something even I couldn't do, then she could predict where they'd go and be ready.
"No, Kayano!" Korosensei shouted at her. "Stop this at once!"
"It was all my fault." Kayano didn't even look back at Korosensei, keeping her eyes fixed on her opponent. "I brought us down. Because of me, everyone had to face the truth. We'd been like a family... and I ruined it. So please... just let me do this." She glanced at him over her shoulder. "I owe you one."
"You can't put this on yourself, Kayano," Korosensei said, still gripping the tentacles that the Reaper had struck him with. "Sooner or later, we would have all had to face reality! Your actions simply made us take stock and regroup!"
Suddenly, the Reaper thrust forward with his tentacles, sending Korosensei flying.
"Hm..." Yanagisawa said, holding up a hand. It was curled into a fist, except his thumb. "Two Point Oh."
As he grinned madly, he turned his hand thumbs-down.
"Kayano!" I shouted, starting to rush forward as I fumbled for my pistol. Damn it, why didn't I practice firing from the holster more?!
As the Reaper's arms crackled with electricity, Kayano dashed forward. When he struck at her, she saw the attack coming and jumped to avoid it, flipping in the air.
Landing on the outstretched arm, she jumped up again, easily reaching the height where she could plunge her Anti-Korosensei blade down, hopefully injuring the Reaper and earning Korosensei some time.
The Reaper's second tentacle shot up and speared her through the chest.
I staggered to a halt, staring in mute horror at the blood starting to spill through the air.
My jaw worked as I choked on nothing. Behind me, I could hear the class starting to react.
The wet thud of Kayano's body hitting the ground limply echoed in the stunned silence.
"Gyaahahaha!" Yanagisawa suddenly cackled as Korosensei kneeled over Kayano's body. "Unbelievable!" he laughed, helplessly gesturing in the air. "What are the odds of that? Having both sisters die right in front of me!" he giggled. "Gyahahaha! Tragic ends must run in the family, eh?"
Motherfucker has a death wish. My hands curled into fists as I started to unsheathe my bloodlust again.
"Gyahahah! Can you imagine? I kept her around as a replacement for her sister." Suddenly, all mirth and hilarity vanished as he stared coldly at Korosensei's kneeling form. "Too bad for me. Unfortunately, I have no interest in a bitch with a hole in her."
Sugou. This jackass. They were the same. And I was going to deal with them the exact. Same. Way.
Drawing my pistol and checking the chamber with deliberate precision, I started stalking towards Yanagisawa, completely ignoring the Reaper. If 2.0 wanted to fight me, I'd show him exactly why I survived the death game, even when my opponents had me out-numbered and out-classed in every physical aspect.
But before I could take more than two steps, I froze as raging bloodlust filled the air. It swallowed even my own, and I shivered. Fear. I felt fear.
Korosensei let out a scream of rage as the bloodlust poured off of him. His skin darkened and blackened as the antimatter in his body reacted, giving off visible waves of anger that wreathed our teacher like a fiery corona.
The literally earth-shaking waves of bloodlust pouring off of Korosensei robbed all moisture from my mouth as I backed away.
Korosensei's expression, after losing Kayano when she dove in to protect him, was - as expected - filled with a raging fury I'd never seen before. Even when he'd gone pitch black before, his face had never been quite this twisted.
"There it is!" Yanagisawa snarled. "Oh, but you're a devastating creature when your emotions twist past the point of endurance!" he said, pointing at Korosensei. "Black indicates well-nigh unimaginable power! At last, your true colors are on true, glorious display! Is it liberating to shed that ridiculous facade?" he simpered, mocking our raging teacher. "All year long, you've been a smiling hypocrite! How wonderful to see you as you really are!"
I realized that Yanagisawa truly was thrilled to see this. He was ecstatic.
"But alas," the madman continued, twisting his arm unnaturally. "Considerable though your power may be in this form..." From his palm another syringe emerged. It erupted from his flesh itself, and I can't help but wonder if he'd generated it inside his body, or if he'd surgically implanted these tools ahead of time. "...The new and improved you will negate it effortlessly."
He blurred, before reappearing by the side of the Reaper. "Thank you for playing," he said, before injecting the Reaper. "Behold, his final attack."
Instantly, the Reaper's body twisted and tensed up before erupting in purple energy; as the Reaper roared, the ground underneath him started to crack and ripple outwards as the pressure broke apart the ground.
Whatever Yanagisawa had injected the Reaper with, it had unlocked all of the Reaper's energy at once, for one final blow. I recognized that sort of attack. Tanking it wasn't an option. Only two choices remained - eliminate the Reaper before he could strike, or just run like the hounds of hell are chasing us and hope to put enough distance between us and the Reaper before the explosion happened.
Judging by the look on Nagisa's face, he'd come to the same conclusion. He hurried over to where Kayano's body was lying on the ground, and knelt to pick her up. "We need to get out of here!" he shouted once he had her in his arms.
"Are you for real?" Hayami asked him.
"C'mon!" Nagisa shouted. "We're wasting time, he's distracted! If we stick around, it'll only make things worse."
"You can't be serious!" Okuda shouted.
Karma gripped her arm as we all started backing away. "Living to fight another day is a perfectly reasonable battle tactic," he told her, before pulling her along.
As tactician, I needed to make a decision; could we somehow survive this strike?
...No. And even if we did, if we were too close, we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves against Yanagisawa when the madman came hunting us. If we couldn't... We'd lose more than just Kayano.
I nodded to Karma, and he relayed the orders to everyone. The class didn't really need prompting; with the two massive pillars of ground-shaking energy, everyone was already halfway to flight as it stood, so as soon as we got the orders we bolted.
Once we reached the tree line we stopped and turned, hopefully far enough away. The Reaper screeched before twisting and striking forward with blinding speed. With a crash -
- the tentacle collided with Korosensei, but something was wrong. A blinding column of white light enveloped the two superbeings on our field, emanating from where Korosensei had caught the Reaper's strike.
A white light? "But his tentacles are still black..." my voice said.
Korosensei started to change. "No..." Nagisa whispered. "He's gone back to yellow..."
"Nuh-uh! That's red!" Terasaka said. The yellow glow gave way to red light.
Green. Blue. White.
Every color Korosensei had taken on. Every emotion we'd ever seen him display. They were mixing together into pure white energy.
"Treasured pupil," Korosensei said. I shielded my eyes as I tried to see what was going on. But the light was too bright; I couldn't see anything except Korosensei's white glow, and his silhouette. "May your graduation... help you find peace!"
The white light erupted.
I recognized the technique; it was the same technique he displayed against Itona. He'd compressed everything into one concentrated burst of energy, and then unleashed it against the Reaper.
I saw Yanagisawa get caught in the area of effect of the blast, and something finally clicked.
Because he'd injected himself with the tentacle cells, he'd signed his own death warrant.
Aegis liquified tentacle cells. And he was headed straight for it.
My lips curled into a smug smile. Even better than what I'd done to Sugou.
As soon as he passed through that batter, he'd be disintegrated.
Turning my attention back to Korosensei, I realized that the beam of light had severed the Reaper at the torso and sent him flying. Korosensei rose up in the sky to meet the Reaper, clutching an Anti-Korosensei in his tentacles by holding it with a napkin.
The Reaper screeched and struck with a scythe-like arm.
Korosensei stabbed the Reaper in the chest, directly in the heart.
As the Reaper disintegrated in a flash of dissolving cells, scattering into the sky like so many tiny crystals, I realized that the fight was over. Still, none of us were celebrating. The fight had ended and we had time to breathe and think instead of just react - which meant that none of us could escape the knowledge that Kayano was dead.
"Kayano," Nagisa whispered.
Kurahashi wailed, "Kaede...!"
Everyone in the class didn't want to accept it. We didn't want to accept that one of our friends had died. I just looked away and took deep breaths. I may have accepted loss as a natural part of life when Korosensei forced me to, but that didn't mean I had to accept it right here and now.
"...Lower her to the ground," Chiba said, his voice hoarse. "I'll bring a sheet to cover her up."
"Not so fast," Korosensei said, landing behind us. "One moment, please. Sorry, I'd rather her cells not come in contact with the soil."
"But sir..." Nagisa began.
"Children," Korosensei said. "I've made mistakes. More than I care to count. What's done is done - the past can never be regained or revised. If, however, we attend carefully..."
I realized small, microscopic tentacles were wiggling behind his head. Slowly, a crimson ball descended from the air, stopping just in front of Nagisa. "...it can teach us how to move forward," Korosensei said.
The smell of copper reached my nose. Blood. That was a ball of blood.
"What is... that?" Okano asked him.
Korosensei replied, "You're looking at Kayano's blood and somatic cells." My body stiffened. What was he going to do with that? "I gathered as much as I could before she fell to the ground, and stored them in a sterile membrane of compressed air for safekeeping."
"Y-You did all that in the middle of the battle?" Nagisa asked.
"I set a few tentacles aside for protecting you," Korosensei replied. "Of the rest, I used some for fighting, and some for this."
Korosensei's tentacles began glowing white with energy as he focused. "Okie-dokie, then," he said. "Time to string these cells together one by one."
Korosensei's tentacles were a blur as they moved over Kayano's body; the wound in her chest was glowing bright white. My eyes widened as I realized what he was doing. "Faster," Korosensei said, "and more accurately. You see, class, I've been improving my skills for some months now. If what happened to Aguri repeated itself, I was adamant about being prepared."
He was going to repair Kayano entirely. He was going to bring her back to life. The microscopic cells that floated in the air were being kept warm by his vibrating tentacles. One by one, he sorted each cell and placed it back in Kayano's body; the whole time, he was transferring his own energy to her through his tentacles.
The operation continued, at hyper-speed and with frightening precision.
"Now, some cells couldn't be recovered," Korosensei said. "So I'll leave strategic gaps. Those, I'll fill in with tiny bits of mucus. In a few days, what cells there are will have regenerated in sufficient quantities to replace them.
"Hh..." he said. "I'm a little low on blood. Type AB donors, if you please..." Tentacles reached out and planted themselves on the arms of Itona and Karma, who gave their blood freely. Come to think of it, I don't know my own blood type. I should ask Aki once I wake up.
...I know I'm just distracting myself from the operation, to not get my hopes up by thinking of unrelated topics. But still... it was too frightening to hope, right now. Cynicism had to be my shield, at least for this moment.
"Nakamura!" Korosensei exclaimed. "The birthday cake! Collect it and stuff it in my mouth immediately!"
The blonde girl blinked and stared at him, eyes wide. "Do what?" she yelped. "You realize it's been one with the dirt for the past half hour, right?"
"That doesn't matter!" Korosensei exclaimed. "I have to replenish my energy! Besides, I can't stop thinking about it! Thirty minute rule!"
"Thirty second rule!" Nakamura snapped. Still, she gathered up the cake and did her best to hold it steady while Korosensei scarfed it down.
Smoothly, the operation moved into its final stages. Without a single thread of string used the entire time, Kayano's wound was starting to close up without leaving so much as a single scar. Korosensei even wiped up the blood that had covered her chest and chin, leaving her clean.
"Whew..." Korosensei said, wiping his brow as he gently lowered Kayano to the ground. "In a moment, her heart will start beating and she'll come back to life. According to my handy-dandy 'What to Do for a Gut-Shot Student' manual, from here on out it should be smooth sailing."
"But who thinks of writing a manual for something like that?!" Okajima, Maehara, and Sugino all shouted. Thank you, you three, for reacting to that absurdity so that I don't have to.
Korosensei raised a tentacle, and electricity crackled across his tentacles. "I didn't mention this earlier for fear of sounding foolish," he said, "but if ever your bodies were torn to shreds, I was ready and able to put them back in order piece by piece."
I paused. Okay, I like puzzles, but holy hells that was too much even for me.
"The ultimate student-teacher relationship, really," he said, laying his tentacles on Kayano's chest. One just above her right breast, and one below her left breast. I recognized the position - it was where the defibrillator pads would go. His tentacles would act as the pads and inject the current needed to restart her heart.
It had only been... a minute or two. Kayano's brain cells probably hadn't even started to die yet; if Korosensei successfully restarted her heart, there should be no damage at all.
Electricity crackled and pulsed. "Because it requires," Korosensei said, "above all else, that I properly acknowledge you."
Kayano's body jolted. As Korosensei withdrew his tentacles, she lay still, and I gritted my teeth.
Suddenly her body lurched as Kayano coughed, gasping for air. She sat up, hand gripping at her chest and eyes filled with wonder. "Nue-heh-heh," Korosensei laughed, before sighing.
"What did you... You saved me again, didn't you?" Kayano asked him.
Gently, Korosensei's tentacles restored her typical wing pigtails. "As many times as necessary," the octopus said. "After all, your sister would have done the same."
After he finished, Korosensei backed off. I couldn't blame him.
After all, the entire class lunged for Kayano, laughing and cheering happily. Of course, Kayano screamed in surprise; that didn't actually stop us, of course. We were too thrilled that our classmate had come back to us.
Even Karma and I were celebrating. We might not have been the most expressive students, but I could see the genuine smile on his face and knew it was mirrored on my own.
Even as she flailed and protested, trying to get down - a few of the more exuberant girls had picked her up and started tossing her in the air - Kayano was laughing.
Kayano was back where she belonged, safe and sound.
Since this was the sort of event where everyone had something to say, Kayano suffered through everyone's hugs and exclamations of relief with good graces. Finally, I managed to push through the crowd of jubilant students and looked Kayano up and down. Aside from her ripped clothes, she was perfectly fine.
"Congratulations," I said. She tilted her head curiously. "And welcome to the club," I added.
"Club?" she asked me.
I grinned and tapped my own chest, lightly tracing the scar. "You survived a chest wound that probably should have been fatal," I told her. "That means you and I are chest wound buddies, now." As she giggled, I put my arms around her and gave her a hug. "I'm glad you're okay, Kayano," I said, before letting her go and stepping back.
My friend was alive.
Yes, this is a shorter chapter. No, there's not really much I can do about it; a lot of the chapter, Nick just can't do anything at all, he can only watch as Korosensei fights something that's far, far beyond his abilities.
Still, I managed to sneak a little bit of action in there. Remember, Nick cut his teeth originally in Aincrad, so once he got a real knife a lot of the old habits came back. Nagisa didn't really have the words to describe it, but… he was using a fighting style that's more physical and dance-like than the assassination techniques. Think what you'd normally see from SAO fighting. Also, just realized something, but the perfect weapon against Yanagisawa would be an Anti-Korosensei knife coated in a thin layer of metal; thick enough to cut through the skin, but thin enough to be melted and absorbed almost immediately, leaving the Anti-Tentacle material.
Speaking of Nagisa. I like the sudden shift to third person for Nagisa's look at Nick. I wanted to get at least one view from the mini Reaper before moving on; unfortunately, the brief omake in Korosensei's car was good, but not really enough for my liking. So, we have this.
And then Kayano. Sad, then straight to happy – Korosensei saved her life by tentacle microsurgery, which, uh… huh. Okay. Sure.
In the end, everything's okay. Yanagisawa has been completely destroyed (that's what happens when your vitals are all made of tentacle cells and then you go through a tentacle cell-killing barrier), the Reaper is dead, and everyone is alive. Happy ending is in reach.
Many thanks to everyone that favorited, followed, or left a review.