Out of curiosity, does anyone want the backstory of Karma's parents in the next extra? Or Karma and Nagisa fluff? I'm open to suggestions!
This chapter is shorter than the others because it's mostly action, but enjoy!
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Chapter 20:
Action time!
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The lights do not switch off completely.
Korosensei glances up and the lights begin their strange pattern of alternating between being bright and dim - apparently a fault in the lighting system - then glances at their class.
"Now then," he grins, "I wonder what on earth you are going to do?"
In Nagisa's opinion, Korosensei thinks the natural faulty lights is part of their assassination plan. She's almost certain that he thinks that as he seems to pay attention to the lighting. Due to the differences in light, the areas furthest from the centre of the chapel (where Korosensei is) occasionally become shadowed. Although their class doesn't care about it, it's clear that Korosensei thinks the lighting is of importance and is paying attention to the shadowed areas which is somewhat...
Funny.
He should be watching something else, Nagisa thinks but says nothing.
At any rate, Isogai smiles and gestures to Mimura and Okajima, who flank the pulpit. Both boys look a little weary which Nagisa supposes is due to working through dinner.
(At least she assumes they were working through dinner, since she hadn't seen them there. Even Kaede had commented on how a few people seemed to be missing at dinner, though she followed it up with a careless, "well, if I can't tell who, they mustn't be very important," that had made Yukiko and Manami laugh awkwardly.)
"First, you'll get to enjoy a video Mimura put together," Isogai indicates where Nagisa is standing demurely between Nakamura and Manami and then where the Terasaka gang is standing, behind Korosensei, "then the eight top scorers will destroy your tentacles. That'll be the signal for us all to jump in and begin the assassination. Does that sound right, Korosensei?"
Korosensei still regularly diverts his attention to the shadowy areas even as he answers Isogai with a smirk his signature snigger, "Nurufufufufufu...more than all right!"
"Thanks for setting this up, Mimura," Sugaya comes around the pulpit and pats Mimura's shoulder.
Mimura turns his tired smile to Sugaya, "It was hard work! I was editing all through dinner!"
Yay, I'm right, Nagisa mentally smiles.
"Is that who was missing?" Despite her innocent tone, what Kaede says seems to drive an arrow into Mimura's chest.
"At least notice that," Mimura whines.
"Well, you don't make that much of an impression," Kaede points out in her usual brutally honest way.
Nagisa notices Korosensei examining their surroundings again and decides to let him. The more he concludes, the better. His observations will all be overturned, so she should let him draw as many as he can so that the effect of the 'overturning' (she doesn't know what to call it) will be more drastic. After letting him have an undisturbed once-over, Nagisa approaches Korosensei. "Korosensei," calling out, she tries to be fairly conspicuous so that he diverts his attention from the surroundings to her, though she isn't sure how it works.
"Please stand and hold your tentacles out," Nagisa instructs, "I have to perform a body check."
Korosensei looks mildly confused as he stands, but the confusion makes way for understanding when Nagisa pats him down, checking for any anomalies. She initially had objected to the job, but Nakamura and Karma had embarrassed her into doing it, claiming 'Nagisa is the most observant!' and 'Nagisa has the most data!' and generally singing praises until Nagisa (red-faced and hiding behind her arms) had agreed.
At any rate, Korosensei obligingly turns so Nagisa can pat down his back and she keeps up a running commentary so his attention is on her.
"We may be surrounded by water, but if you smuggled in that swimsuit," Nagisa pauses momentarily recalling the mermaids and Kataoka's awkwardness, "you'd still be able to get away," she finishes.
"You're being so careful!" Korosensei declares. "But I wouldn't pull such a cheap trick."
One thing I learnt from Karma is that there is no 'cheap trick' no one will pull, Nagisa thinks with a sigh, recalling her time spent in the Akabane house. All the same, her hands slow slightly. Even from this close, Korosensei can easily dodge her attacks. But...if they all work together now, this may be their chance.
She thinks of her indecision the past few days and forces her hands to retain their lost tempo. She will think more about that feeling later. If they really do kill Korosensei, she will have the rest of her life to beat herself up over it. If they don't, she will have more time to toss the conundrum over in her head, debating if she should or shouldn't kill.
My opinion doesn't matter anyway, Nagisa muses as she steps back from Korosensei, there's so much money, ten billion on the line so of course everyone wants to assassinate him. I do too. I do. If I ever decide that I don't, though...I don't have that much sway in our assassination classroom. We will still continue to kill him. A bitter smile curves over her lips as she states, "All clear." Maybe she will make an effort to make herself a presence in her class the same way Isogai and Kataoka are after the island assassination.
And maybe she will wake up with vibrant red hair.
Nagisa wants to slap herself to pull herself together. Korosensei will blow up the earth on March thirteenth, unless they kill him. She will have the rest of her life to feel guilt after they kill him. End of story.
Shoving her worries away, Nagisas grips her arm and forces herself to breathe.
"Are you ready?" Korosensei asks as he sits. His diarrhoea pill eyes (as Irina had put it, seemingly so long ago) narrow as he faces them, "no need to hold back. Come right at me!"
Nagisa's eyes travel over her classmates as she resumes her spot between her fellow top scorers.
All she can see is determination painting the lines of their faces.
"Here we go, Korosensei," Okajima announces and switches off the lights for good.
The television promptly lights up. The backdrop shows their small classroom building, blanketed cozily among the folliage of the mountain. A logo appears on the screen - two letters, 'AC', in orange.
'Assassination Classroom', the logo professes and then tucks itself into the lower left hand corner of the television.
"Somewhere in Tokyo: Kunugigaoka Junior High, Class 3-E," Mimura's voice announces. As it does, Nagisa's eyes flicker over to the doorway of the chapel where two forms have just left. She isn't quite sure who, but she thinks it's Yada and Okano, "as it is, their teacher is also their assassination target." One person comes in, then one leaves while three enter as Mimura continues, "tonight, the E Class recon team will close in on the ecology of this mystery man."
The eight students take their seats one at a time, Isogai last.
Their quote unquote 'mystery man' has probably sensed the students coming in and out of the chapel. Nagisa shifts her gaze back to the television. Korosensei is hopefully also distracting himself from the main picture by trying to keep on eye on the edges of the chapel as well as the net flow of students.
Nagisa is partially right. Korosensei had indeed sensed the entrance and exit of the students, but had not bothered to keep track of who's entering and who's exiting. Instead, he has focussed the bulk of his attention to where the scents of a certain pair: Hayami and Chiba. He had not smelled either Hayami or Chiba within the chapel which meant that the assassination involved them somewhere far away, where they hoped Korosensei would not be able to smell them. Unfortunately, Korosensei thought with a smirk, I can smell them from that direction. More importantly...
"This video is really quite good," Korosensei hums contentedly as the camera pans across the classroom, "you edited and narrated this, Mimura-kun? Nice camera blocking, good music...really sharp."
Mimura is one of the few students Korosensei can see, lit up by the television screen and standing in front of him.
"It pulls me right-" Korosensei freezes as the camera zooms in on the blackboard of the classroom. Mimura, Okajima and Maehara stand in front of a chalk drawing of none other than him.
"Joining us today are those who shared top-secret data with the intel team. We'll hear what they have to say..." Okajima and Maehara nod, "after this."
"His bribery..." the scene changes, showing Korosensei sitting on a small hill of gravure magazines in his teaching robes and a hood with a dragonfly on it, "failed."
"IT FAILED?!" Korosensei screeches.
Nagisa bites her lip to keep from laughing. She reaches out and lightly shakes Manami's arm. Manami answers falling against Nagisa and grabbing her arm. The blue haired girl feels her friend shaking as she laughed quietly. Feeling the slightest of head chops, Nagisa glances over at Nakamura and sees the blonde hovering her index finger over her lips. Both Manami and Nagisa nod and straighten back into silence and attempt to pull themselves together..
His current preference is mature office women," the narration resumes, oblivious to Korosensei's alarmed exclamations.
"Here are all the dirty magazines this octopus has gathered," Mimura's indifferent voice makes the situation seem that much more scandalous, somehow.
"No, Okajima-kun! I told you guys not to tell anyone!" Korsensei squeaks in alarm as his bulbous head snaps from side to side. Having heard the story from Sugino, Nagisa has to cover her mouth with her hand before she can gather her wits.
"A giant shadow looms over the line of the 'women's only' cake buffet. Who could it be?"
Nagisa's hand presses against her lips as they twitch.
"I'm Koroko," Korosensei announces on screen.
Koroko! Nagisa wishes Karma had scored top in maths simply so he would have been here and she could have buried her laughter in his shoulder. They're going to save the video, Nagisa hopes. This is the short of movie the class can watch together on a later date. And the sort of video they'll be quoting at each other at every class gathering.
He's decked out in a light pink dress, cinched at the waist with a brown belt and a hot pink cardigan over it. Korosensei wears a wig and Nagisa notes the peachy pallor of his skin.
Manami grips Nagisa's arm and Nagisa gathers some reassurance from how she's not the only one who wants to laugh.
"His disguise can't last long," Mimura says almost with pity as one of the waiters escorts Korosensei away. Korosensei flails on screen, protesting loudly. "It's a miracle they found out he wasn't a woman without discovering he wasn't even human." The calm voice over continues.
Hazama snickers ominously from where she has approached Korosensei. "Porn, cross-dressing and not a hint of shame?" she asks, a malicious smirk on her mien, "what a dirty person."
"When he's short before payday, he lines his images up to get free tissues." Nagisa watches as a line of Korosensei's - each cosplaying differently: an office worker, a baseball player, a housewife - queue up and each take a packet of free tissues from an increasingly surprised man.
"And what does he do with them?"
The scene changes to the classroom they use for home economics.
"Fries them up and eats them."
Korosensei looks overjoyed as he deep fries the tissue packets.
Nagisa doesn't know how to react let alone what to say. Korosensei even keeps up a running commentary as though he is a chef on his own show.
"Has he no dignity as an educator - nay, as a living being?"
"And that's not all - " Korosensei lets out an alarmed, 'nyu!', "we have a full hour of embarrassing footage of this instructor."
"Another hour of this?!" Korosensei shrieks.
Nagisa would feel sympathy, but well...
He sort of brought it on himself.
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"I'm dead. I'm already dead."
An hour of embarrassing footage slips past and Korosensei looks as though all the blood had left his body. "With all that out in the open, I can't go on living..."
The television screen shows the character for 'end', announcing the conclusion of the, ah, interesting collection of videos and photos. As a final word, Mimura's voice comes out.
"Now, did you happen to notice anything while you sat through our top-secret video, Korosensei?"
The last word is said with more emotion than the rest of the narration. It sounds slightly mocking and holds a slight challenge.
Water! Korosensei sits up at once as he realises the liquid lapping at his tentacles. But I didn't sense anyone pouring it in...
He freezes, recalling the sea outside. It couldn't be...
High tide!
"We haven't done anything yet," Terasaka crows. Korosensei turns and sees the Terasaka gang getting to their feet. Each member holds a gun with the anto-sensei bullets. "Someone musta shortened the support pilings on this here chapel."
Someone...? Korosensei's eyes fall on his students.
"You're seasick..." Nakamura announces with a slight smile on her face, "humiliated...and you've absorbed a lot of seawater," she stands, flanked by Nagisa, Okuda and Isogai, "there's no way you'll be able to move quickly now."
"Now for the main event," the eight top scorers line up. Each of them hold a gun...a gun pointed right at one of his tentacles, "a promise is a promise. No dodgin' now!" Terasaka declares.
A good effort, Korosensei thinks. His eyes skim over the line. Nakamura-san, looking slightly nervous but confident; Okuda-san, looking extremely nervous with her trembling hands, but resolute; Nagisa-san, looking calm as her eyes betray no emotion; Isogai-kun, looking similarly calm but with the slightest smile; Terasaka-kun, looking cocky despite the way his hands are shaking...he hides one in his pocket; Hazama-san, a smirk on her face that betrays nothing but self-assurance; Yoshida-kun, hiding well with his indifferent expression; Muramatsu-kun, seeming both anxious and poised with his shaky eyes and steady hands.
But I know where the snipers are, Korosensei thinks, if I just keep an eye out in that direction...
Outside, Kaede glances down at her phone from where she is tucked into a gently bobbing boat.
"Commence operation!" Ritsu calls. A text is sent to Isogai.
There's the slightest buzz from Isogai's pocket before the black haired boy aims.
"Begin!" he calls.
Eight guns go off and eight tentacles are taken away. Korosensei barely keeps himself upright.
"Five seconds have elapsed," at Ritsu's announcement, four people react.
Karma turns at the sound of that with a smirk, driving the motorboat away from the chapel. Three other boats go in three different directions from his.
"Did it pull apart?" Kaede gasps as she keeps her eyes forward, too afraid of losing control to look away from where her motorboat was heading.
Takebayashi pushes his glasses up, feeling secure in his knowledge that the chapel walls had pulls away.
"Yes!" Hara declares, punching her fist in the air as she directs her boat away.
"Thirty-five seconds elapsed," the words signal the ascent of a dozen or so students from where they had been lurking around the chapel. Using boards that spit high pressured water, they meet above Korosensei's head and wrap their arms around one another to form a hydraulic cage.
"Korosensei doesn't do well with sudden changes to his environment," Kimura recalls, looking down at Korosensei with his lips pressed against one another.
"From the chapel to a cage of water!" Sugino agrees.
"It'll confuse his weakened state and lower his reaction time even more!"
"Fifty-three seconds elapsed." Kaede glances at her watch.
Ritsu - Ritsu! - pops up from the ground in her full form and announces, "commencing volley. Arming. Target area: a one metre radius around Korosensei."
The eight people in the...in the water cage with Korosensei form a circle around him with Ritsu in their ranks and aim their guns at him. They begin shooting.
"Korosensei is highly sensitive to attacks that make contact," reloading, Isogai keeps an eyes on the yellow octopus.
"But we're actually not going to aim at him!" Nakamura yells. The bullets form a smaller, tighter cage around Korosensei as the nine students shoot at him. None aim to hit him, which obviously throws the teacher for a loop as he turns his head frantically. He is clearly panicked.
"We'll block his escape path with a hail of bullets!" Terasaka exclaims.
"And that's not all~!" Nakamura sings, sings!, and someone more focussed would see a glint, no two glints, from two different directions in the sea.
"Game over!" Ritsu announces happily, pointing a finger gun at Korosensei and miming shooting him.
One of the glints is the barrel of Chiba's gun. The other is the barrel of Hayami's. The class had left two dummies where Korosensei had smelled the two snipers and left the body odor soaked clothes of the pair on it. To avoid detection, the pair had remained underwater the whole time. Since his attention was so diverted, two blind spots had been formed.
Gotcha, both Chiba and Hayami grin slightly as they fire their shots.
Korosensei goes up in a massive explosion of light.
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The explosion throws the sea water out of whack and the students are knocked from their careful positions into the sea.
Nagisa surfaces, panting and treading water desperately.
"Nagisa!" A pair of voices call. Karma and Kaede, both in their respective motorboats, approach Nagisa.
"This was different from our other attempts," she breathes, the delighted horror welling up in her chest stealing her breath, "did we..."
"Don't let your guard down!" Karasuma yelled, running up the platform that once connected the chapel to the beach, "he can regenerate!"
Irina comes running from behind him, her skirts cinched up. Sweeping her blue-green gaze over the students, Nagisa can practically hear Irina counting their heads mentally, checking that all the students are there.
"Isogai-kun, Kataoka-san, you're in change of watching the water!" Karasuma yells.
"Look lively, now," Karma instructs her. Nagisa feels like telling him that he's using the phrase wrong (it does not mean 'pay attention) but she knows that he knows that she knows that he knows and does it on purpose to rattle her and so settles for a slight sigh and a pout over her shoulder before she turns her attention to the sea.
"Over there!" Kaede yells. She's the first to spot the barest of bubbles bursting on the surface of the sea.
"O-Oi..." Sugino whispers.
Nagisa searches for her gun and finds that she had somehow held onto it even as several of her classmates let out exclamations of disbelief at their absent weapons. Lifting it, she directs the barrel to where the bubbles are.
More bubbles surface.
Nagisa presses her lips together.
There's a red glint of evil eyes...
Her finger squeezes the trigger-
And Korosensei surfaces as some kind of bubble, going, "NurufuFUAH!"
In Nagisa's shock, her gun goes off before she can still her finger and the pellet ricochets off the surface of the bubble. There are several exclamations at the sudden shot and appearance of the bubble, including one in their teacher's voice.
There's no other way to describe it.
Korosensei is, simply, a bubble.
Actually, he is a bubble in a bubble.
Their three metre tall teacher has been compressed into a peach ball approximately the size of Nagisa's face which floats in the middle of a transparent sphere that has wrapped around the peach ball like some weird membrane.
There's a moment of silence.
What the hell is that.
"Nurufufufufu!" Korosensei turns his smirk to the students as he bobs in a slow circle. "My trump card of all trump cards: my absolute defense form!"
"How many trump cards do you have?!" Kaede exclaims, flinging her arms up in the air. "Are you a cat? Do you have nine trump cards? Twenty seven? Fifty four?!"
"Pudding, calm down. You sound like a rabid dog," Karma speaks up. His usual amusement is lacking, though.
"What 'rapid dog'! What the hell is an 'absolute defense form'?!" In her fury, Kaede messes up the words.
"The exterior is crystallized, high-density condensed energy," Korosensei brags, "the energy remaining after shrinking my body down hardens in a shell around it. in this form, I'm absolutely invincible! Water, anti-me BB's...it repels them and everything else."
Nagisa forgets to tread water and gets a mouthful of seawater. As she splutters, a pair of hands come under her armpits and hold her slightly aloft so she can catch her breath.
Absolutely invincible?!
"No way..." Yada cries out. "So if you always stay in that form, we can never kill you!"
"If only that were the case," Korosensei announces in his 'teacher' voice. "This energy crystal will break down in about a day. When it does, my body will re-inflate, absorbing energy and returning to its usual form. On the other hand, for the one day or so until this crystal decays, I can't move an inch." Korosensei bobs slowly in a circle as he resumes his lecture. "This brings about certain risks, such as being thrown away, though what I fear the most while being in this form is getting stuffed in a high-speed rocket and left to float through the far outreaches of space." Wearing a smirk, Korosensei regards their class. "But I've done my research. Nowhere in the world is there a rocket capable of making that flight within twenty-four hours."
Nagisa says nothing, her head spinning. Her earlier troubles, her indecision, her somewhat confidence all faded away. All she feels is...
disappointed.
Disappointed at herself.
Korosensei had gotten them. He had had another trick up his sleeve after all that. He even considered its weak points!
"Up you go," barely hearing Karma's voice, Nagisa let herself go limp as she was hauled onto a firm, if bobbing, surface. She releases her gun and hears it clatter into the boat. Her wet fingers hooked in Karma's fancy maroon shirt, forming dark splotches. She doesn't dare put her head on his shoulder even though she wants to; Karma's shirt is definitely branded and she shouldn't even be messing it up...
Karma lets her cling, watching Korosensei. After a moment, he exhales and pats Nagisa on the head.
"Let's go to land," he mutters. Her fingers are gently unhooked from Karma's shirt and she remains there, frozen on the boat. Nagisa hears the low roar of the motorboat that drowns out something her classmates are saying as Karma eases the boat to the platform. The engine stills and the boat rocks as Karma climbs off.
"Come, Nagisa," Karma says softly.
A hand descends into her vision and Nagisa takes it. Karma helps her onto the platform and pats her head one more time.
Nagisa watches mutely, her insides more numb that her legs after sitting cross-legged for three hours, as Karma turns to the sea where Terasaka is whaking the Korosensei bubble with a wrench.
"Is that so," Karma hums with a little more seriousness in his voice than usual. "If there are no weaknesses, then we're out of options. Toss it over."
Terasaka narrows his eyes but obliges.
Karma catches Korosensei easily with one hand (because it would kill him to be anything less than cool) and lifts his phone. He shows his screen to Korosensei.
Whatever is on it makes Korosensei screech a loud, "NYUYA!"
Nagisa blinks and lifts her head.
"What's that?" She approaches Karma slowly.
Karma sets Korosensei down and props up his phone in front of Korosensei with the help of a shell.
"Stop!" Korosensei wails. "I can't cover my eyes without any hands!"
Nagisa bends down and sees the picture on Karma's phone.
Korosensei is there in his stag beetle cosplay, leering at a porno while sitting on a mountain of pornos. How many times has she seen similar themed photos, Nagisa wonders, mentally judging her teacher. For how many days did he go sitting on the same mountain of pornos while perusing each one. For that matter, how come he was broke but had so many cosplays? How weird was their teacher, really?
"Sorry, sorry!" Karma hums. Nagisa glances at him and knows he doesn't mean a word of it. Everyone probably knows. "Then I'll just..." Karma hums as he fetches something from the poles holding the platform upright in the sea, "stick this sea slug on you!"
Nagisa winces in sympathy.
Karma holds nothing back, leaving the sea slug over Korosensei's eyes so that their teacher can get full view of the squirming underbelly of a sea slug.
Korosensei screams so loud that Nagisa flinches.
"Someone go find me a dirty old guy so I can jam this thing down his underpants!" Karma calls out to their classmates, lifting the ball.
"No! Help!" Korosensei wails loudly.
"I-If you think about it, we can do whatever we want with him," Kaede speaks up from behind Nagisa.
"Yes," Nagisa glances at Karma cheerfully going off to play more pranks on Korosensei, "and this kind of thing is Karma's speciality."
Is it just her hearing wrong, or is Karma saying something about...a pool of cockroaches...?
"We'll disperse for now, students," Karasuma took the Korosensei bubble from Karma, effectively saving their teacher from more torture, "the top brass and I will discuss how to deal with this one."
Karasuma places Korosensei in a clear plastic bag.
"Nurufufufufu! Going to throw me in a pool full of anti-sensei material?" Korosensei smirks. "It won't work. I can simply make a portion of my energy explode, creating a blast like before that would send things flying."
Karasuma clicks his tongue.
"But you should be proud," Korosensei adds, addressing the students. "Even the world's combined military couldn't get this far with me. It all comes down to the magnificence of your plan."
None of the students say a thing. Everyone's heads are lowered like they want to sink into the water and never come out. Nagisa helps a few of her classmates out of the water.
As always, Korosensei praised their assassination attempt.
But they had been closer than ever, making their disappointment that much more palpable.
Nagisa swallows thickly, the disappointment rearing its ugly head. She hates how small she feels sometimes. It's stupid. It's so stupid. One failure out of many they have. No different.
Yet Nagisa feels like running the length of the platform and diving into the water and never come out except one, she can't dive, and two, she's too numb to move. She swallows again, feeling like she is trying to swallow away something stuck in her oesophagus.
Her classmates trudge past her, returning to the hotel.
Maybe they are feeling this too, Nagisa thinks in the solitude of her own mind.
The thrill from earlier that fell to make way for the crushing, agonising disappointment.
The fatigue and deadness that paralyses the limbs.
Their most elaborate assassination yet.
Their most soul-crushing, mind-numbing, heart wrenching feelings left over yet.
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When Nagisa had first come from England, the environment had been so drastically different that she had lost herself.
She recalls it even to this day, the introductions, the questions, the crowding, the discomfort. Initially, her classmates had been enamoured with her. No, enamoured with the idea of her; a girl from Europe, a girl with long blue hair and blue eyes. They projected the image of a confident person, a cultured, mature girl from The West onto her. Just like one of those anime characters.
Upon discovering that she was quiet and naive, her classmate's delight had become irritation. They seemed to believe Nagisa was putting on an act of what those from the west perceived of those who were Japanese. This naturally infuriated them and the questions and crowding stopped. They began ignoring her.
She retreated into herself, happy with her books and company. Persuading herself that she wasn't lonely.
The ignoring became something else when Nagisa never reacted to it.
To her parents, she used to tell them elaborate stories. She got along with her class. She had a few good friends. She had lent her book to her friend, that's why it went missing. Her classmate had forgotten their textbook and borrowed hers during lunch, but someone had spilled a drink on it, that's why it was messed up. She had been talking with her friends when a group of boys who were scuffling had fallen against her table, knocking her books onto the ground and since boys were boys, they hadn't noticed and ended up fighting on her books, causing ripped out pages and worn covers.
That's all.
It had been exhausting. Pretending to her parents to enjoy school, pretending to her teachers that she got along with her class (she lost count of the number of times her teachers had pulled her aside, saying, "Miyamura-san, we noticed that you and your classmates..."), pretending to her classmates that their actions didn't affect her, pretending that she didn't notice all the mean notes in her cubby hole. She had forgotten how it was like to not pretend during that year.
The current situation reminded Nagisa of that. Of pretending that she was okay, of spinning tales to persuade herself that she was fine, of smiling on the outside and crying inside. She had nearly forgotten the feeling. The last time it had surged over her had been not too long ago, only last year, and yet she is completely unarmed to fight it.
The students return to the hotel quietly. Nagisa stares ahead. There is not a sound except the crunching of sand under the shoes of her classmates, the lapping waves of the sea.
She hates this feeling.
Underneath all her bitterness, the year she first moved to Japan, had been disappointment at herself. Frustration. So many of her classmates got along, didn't they? Why couldn't she? It was her own fault. She had to fix herself. Somehow, she had blamed herself for every misdeed inflicted upon her.
In a similar fashion, a million things now run through Nagisa's head. Maybe if she had thought the plan out more? Maybe if she had suggested something else? Maybe if she had had more information about Korosensei, maybe if she had carried out the plan better somehow, maybe if there had been more data in the video, maybe if she had distracted him some more so that he became more confused and slower when the environment changed, maybe her reluctance to kill had-
A hand chops her head.
"Don't be so selfish now," Karma says mildly, "it's not like you were the most important part of the plan or anything."
Nagisa blinks and a memory assaults her.
"You must be really self-centered."
"W-What?"
"I'm saying you're selfish. How much do you think the world revolves around you?"
"I don't think the world revolves around me!"
"Are you suuuuuuure? Clearly the git from England thinks she's the cause of everything here. How much self worth do you think you have?"
Nagisa lets out a bitter laugh as she recalls that scene. Karma had had a cocky smile on his face as he spoke, having found Nagisa in tears behind the school's gymnasium. It had not been the best - probably the worst, actually - of first impressions, but at the time, it had been enough. Karma had later admitted that he had been trying to start a fight, but apparently had been so charmed by Nagisa's response (a burst of laughter before she had continued to cry while laughing) that he had tried to comfort her ("Oi! I mean, stop. You're that English girl right? It's not your fault, your class just has a lot of shitheads.") before giving up ("Ugh, my mom's going to kill me for making a girl cry...better run...you!" "Y-Yes..." "Stop crying. Oh my...stop crying, seriously. Argh. Bye.").
She had requested to change class later. Her teachers, who had always suspected about the bullying, let her. She had ended up in Karma's class in time for the art project and everything.
"You could be more tactful," Nagisa says mildly as she takes Karma's arm.
"What do you mean?"
"You could say something like, 'don't worry. It's not your fault', or-"
"Is that what I was attempting to say, though?" Karma quirks a brow, letting Nagisa cling to him.
"That's a good question," Nagisa feels her lips curl up into a smile despite her previous misgivings. "Is that what you were trying to say?"
"Who knows," without batting an eyelash, Karma shakes his arm out of Nagisa's grip. Before she can get embarrassed for bothering him, Karma has put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. "No one knew that Korosensei had that form. It was caused by a lack of data, but it was impossible for us to get out hands on that data in the first place, so it's not your fault. Besides, it was a team effort so it would be overly self centered if one person shouldered the blame. It's like having only one person claiming all the rewards."
Nagisa doesn't say anything, but relaxes against Karma's side.
"Of course, that does not include the event that someone screws up irrevocably. But no one did."
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Back on the round platform that had once been the chapel floor, a pair of students stand.
Neither say a word, then one turns to the large computer set up a little ways from them.
"Ritsu," Chiba calls.
"Yes?"
"Did you get all of that?"
"Yes. I recorded the entire assassination," smiling, Ritsu points at the camera on top of her computer, "using my best high-speed HD video camera."
Hayami presses her lips together.
"I knew," Chiba speaks up, "the moment I pulled the trigger...I knew that I had failed. That my shot wouldn't kill him."
Ritsu closes her eyes and says nothing for a while, then unloads some data on them. Unclear data, Ritsu reminds them. Unclear data that amounts to if Chiba had fired earlier or if Hayami's aim had been more accurate, they would have had a fifty percent chance of making it.
"I was so confident beforehand. I did it perfectly during the rehearsal and I didn't miss even once when shooting from a more unstable position," Chiba swallows loudly, "but when the moment came...my finger froze and my vision narrowed."
"Me too," Hayami says so softly, it's nearly a whisper.
"It was the pressure of not being able to afford to miss." Chiba turns to face her. "That crucial 'Now or Never' moment."
"Yeah..." Hayami bites her lip, then starts walking. "To think it would be this different from our practice sessions."
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The E class arrives at the outdoor cafe. The same outdoor cafe they had sat in not even ten hours ago when they had first arrived on the island, excited and happily sipping drinks.
Nagisa leans back on her chair quietly. Karma has helped her feel better about the whole incident (though she does still feel disappointed), but her classmates had clearly been beating themselves up over the failed assassination the whole walk over.
"Whoa, I'm dead," Maehara announces as he slowly lifts his head. He exhales, looking as though he has overheated. It looks borderline erotic, Nagisa thinks, then beats herself up for that thought.
"Let's go back to our rooms and ressttt," Mimura groans, resting his head against the table, "I don't feel like doing anything else tonight."
Both Maehara and Mimura share a table, both looking flushed and drained, and Nagisa feels exhausted simply by looking at them.
"What, one lousy miss and you lose all your energy?" Terasaka snorts. He sits with Yoshida, who is sipping a drink. He doesn't look too drained. "We did what we were supposed to do, so tomorrow we can just enjoy ourselves."
"Yeah!" Okajima grins widely, holding his index finger and thumb over his eyes like they're binoculus. "I'm going to stare at babes in swimsuits from dawn to dusk tomorrow! No matter how tired I may be, I'll always have the energy for a hearty nosebleed!"
Okajima has drunk three of the juices already, presumably to calm his nosebleed...though looking at his flushed cheeks, Nagisa doesn't think it worked.
"Man, I'm just not feeling it." Maehara, who is usually Okajima's partner in perversion, sighs and lowers his head.
Nagisa laughs awkwardly at the sight and sweeps her eyes over her classmates.
Something's wrong...
A large number of her peers are sagged over their table, as though they're too tired to even lift their heads. Nagisa sees Hara, Maehara, Mimura and Sugino among those. Since Sugino and Maehara are often good sports with a lot of energy, she can't help but feel a little anxious. Everyone seems too exhausted.
Nagisa stands and bumps into someone. Before she can apologise, a hand grabs her shoulder and in a voice that sounds coated in exhaustion, Nakamura whispers, "can I lean on you for a second, Nagisa-chan?"
The words have not even Nakamura's mouth before she collapses. She pulls Nagisa down to the ground with her.
"Nakamura-san!" Nagisa exclaims in panic, getting herself up into an awkward squat. She doesn't know what to do, trying to help Nakamura sit up. However, Nakamura isn't helping her and Nagisa finds herself shouldering the blonde's weight.
"I want to go back to my room and change," she manages to get out, "but I can't seem to move my body at all..."
Nagisa brushes Nakamura's hair away from her face and flinches. "You're burning up." Since she's not strong enough, Nagisa slowly sets Nakamura down.
"Just imagining those babes is giving me a nosebleed-" Nagisa hears Okajima call out. His previous excitement seems dampened with fatigue and Nagisa snaps her head around to look at him when she hears him gag. Her eyes widen when she sees Okajima hunched over his table, hand over his nose to staunch the blood bursting from it.
"Okajima-kun!" She calls uselessly.
There's the sound of a crash and Nagisa turns to see Muramatsu crashed on the floor.
"Is Nakamura-san okay?" Kaede asks in a rush. Nagisa gasps, having not noticed Kaede's presence, and returns her attention to the blonde in front of her.
"I think she has a fever," Nagisa says uselessly.
Hearing the hotel doors crash open, Nagisa redirects her attention and sees Karasuma. She's relieved at once, reassured that the teacher would take control of the situation. Karma rushes over (as much as Karma ever rushes) to where Karasuma is. Because she's watching him, Nagisa sees panic settle on Karasuma's face as he speaks to the waitress.
No hospital...anxiety hits Nagisa like a car. She sucks in a breath. What is going to happen to her classmates?
At that moment, Karasuma receives a call.
Nagisa and Kaede exchange looks, then Nagisa pulls out her phone.
"Ritsu," Kaede whispers.
"Understood," Ritsu bows her head.
A low voice, rough like gravel and unrecognisable comes from the phone.
"Hey there sensei."
Simply the voice makes Nagisa's hands tremble.
She and Kaede listen to the man in frightened silence, hearing him outline the virus and how it will kill their classmates in a week. How there is only one antidote. How the man 'can't be bothered' to bring the antidote to them and how they should go to him, where he's at a hotel on the top of the island's mountain.
Karasuma gestures Nagisa and Kaede over. Ritsu shuts off the audio and pulls up a map of the hotel instead, allowing Karasuma to see exactly how the island looks.
Because they are so close, Nagisa and Kaede hear the exact moment the man asks him to send two students still standing over to him. Nagisa's heart immediately clenches.
"Let's see...how about that pair standing in front of you right now?"
Nagisa freezes. She feels Kaede slowly slipping her hand into hers. He can see them?
"I've told the front desk to expect you. Follow the rules, and we'll swap the target for the remedy and that's that. But contact any outsider, or be even a little late and the remedy will be history."
"I've got to thank you for immobilising him like that. Looks like the Gods are on my side."
The call ends and no one moves.
Nagisa is wrong. What is on the other side of the call is not a man, but a monster.
Then abruptly, Karasuma mashes Korosensei against the table with enough force that Nagisa can hear the table grating against the plastic Korosensei is inside.
"He can see us," Nagisa whispers to Kaede, her eyes searching the outdoor cafe for cameras.
"Probably hacked the hotel cameras," seeming to be doing the same thing, Kaede answers in an extremely low voice. Her lips don't even move.
Nagisa spots about three and soon locates a blind spot. Should they inform Karasuma...?
Nagisa decides against it. If the monster can see them, moving out from the camera's gaze would only make it put up its guard. Besides, Karasuma has definitely already located the blind spot. Nagisa notices him eyeing it in frustration once he flings Korosensei down onto the table in a rare show of emotion.
Fortunately, Karasuma seems to already have drawn the same conclusions as them about the monster being able to see them. He moves into the hotel to dish out commands to his subordinates while Nagisa and Kaede simply stand there, hand in hand as though sharing their fears will somehow make them smaller.
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Their classmates are lain on the ground on makeshift beds.
"Karasuma-san," Karasuma's subordinate comes rushing out to where Karasuma is watching over his students. "As we expected, it's useless. Even if we play the government card, the hotel only replies with claims of privacy."
From the frantic expression on her face, Nagisa assumes that she has tried everything. Quietly, she waits with Kaede behind the table where Korosensei rests. Neither dare make a move. Her eyes flick over to where Karma stands just in the blind spot, looking like he wants to dash over to where Nagisa is. Nagisa had been very insistent with her body language (as subtly as she could which mostly meant frantically texting him under the tablecloth) to make him stay in place and not enter the gaze of them monster.
"It figures," Karasuma says in frustration.
"It does?" Korosensei asks.
"The mountaintop hotel is a noted site for illegal negotiations," Karasuma explains.
"A remote island in the southern seas?" Irina steps away from the students and glances at where her colleagues are. "Couldn't ask for a better location."
"They have connections with government higher ups," continuing, Karasuma has regained his cool expression. Despite that, Nagisa easily sees the tension in his brow. "Even the police have their hands tied."
Just then, Karma crosses his arms. "So the government can't do anything," he says in a flippant manner. Nagisa glances at him and sees the accusation in his gaze, the accusation that contrasts with his careless manner of speech. When Karasuma doesn't negate the statement, Karma's eyes narrow and he moves to Karasuma's side.
"Let's do something about the cameras first," Nagisa is barely able to hear Karma when she strains her ears over the panicked reactions of her classmates.
"What do we do?! At this rate, it'll be a massacre!" Eyes wider than saucers, Yoshida's voice holds nothing but alarm as he whips his head to and fro. He practically shouts the opinions of all their classmates. "We didn't come here to be killed."
The irony in the situation finally strikes Nagisa and she can't do anything but smile bitterly. This was supposed to be their assassination island. They had come here to kill but now they were being killed.
"Why are you smiling?" Yoshida snaps, causing Nagisa to flinch. The bitter smile slips from her lips and she replies automatically.
"My apologies, mo-"
Catching herself in time, Nagisa abruptly stops talking. She senses Kaede and Karma's eyes on her and hurries to cover her slip.
"Sorry, I'm just so frustrated."
"Then why would you smile?! Are you insane? This-"
"Calm down, Yoshida-kun," Hara's feeble voice cuts through Yoshida's words. "We won't die that easily...just come up with a way to deal with this..."
She is one of the affected students, lying down on a makeshift bed on the floor.
"Right...sorry Hara..."
"It's too dicey to do what he says," Terasaka announces from right behind Nagisa and Kaede. Nagisa nearly jumps but catches herself as Terasaka pounds on her head. "Sending these two runts?" Excuse me? "These two squirts?!" Nagisa has no idea how to react, but clearly Karma has no qualms. She can feel his bloodlust and she's not even his target. Terasaka does too, because he stops hitting her. "We'll just be handin' him hostages!"
She wants to be mad, but can't quite find it in herself.
"First off, I'm pissed at anyone who would even do this kind of thing," Terasaka announces angrily, jerking his thumb to where Muramatsu and Hazama are lying flat on makeshift beds, "no one lays a hand on my flunkies!"
You can say friends, you know, Nagisa thinks but doesn't say.
"That simple-minded guy," Hazama smiles despite her hard words and Naigsa's heart clenches as Muramatsu laughs his agreement. She likes Hazama. She's dark and a little strange, but she's a nice girl who Nagisa worked well with. The pair of them never had many opportunities to get closer and if they...and when they get out of this situation, Nagisa swears up and down that she would talk to Hazama more. She would talk to all her classmates more.
"I say we ignore his demands!" Terasaka shouts. "Let's get everyone to a hospital in the city!"
"I'm against that," unexpectedly, the always quiet Takebayashi breaks into the conversation, carrying a bucket pushing up his glasses, "if it really is an unknown artificial virus, even the biggest hospitals won't have the antivirals to stop it," he kneels next to a pair of makeshift beds and pulls out a plastic bag from the bucket, "the time wasted in bringing in the sick could hurt them more."
"Say what?!" Terasaka yells.
"For now, we'll treat their symptoms," Takebayashi shovels ice from the bucket into the plastic bag and sets it on Muramatsu's head.
"Takebayashi..."
If only our assassination attempt had not gone so well...if Korosensei could move, we might still have a chance...resolving herself to the exchange, Nagisa swallows, then speaks up. "There's nothing else we can do. We have no choice...the antidote...we need to get out hands on it."
"So we have no choice but to follow what that guy says right?" Kaede murmurs, lowering her head.
Nagisa lifts her head and turns to Karasuma. "Karasuma-sensei-" She pauses when she sees Karma there, just out of sight from the camera. He's holding a computer, with words enlarged on it. It says...
Nagisa: please let us go to the hotel!
Nagisa blinks, then repeats the words.
"Nagisa-san..." Korosensei says.
Karma clicks the mousepad.
shut up octopus
"We will leave that as the last resort!" Karasuma says sharply.
"Nyuya!" Korosensei exclaims in obvious surprise.
Karma clicks and new words appear on the screen. Is he using powerpoint? Nagisa wonders as Kaede looks up and also catches sight of the computer.
Pudding: but ks, our classmates will...will...
"But Karasuma-sensei!" Kaede makes her voice so desperate that Nagisa can believe that the words had come from her alone. "If we don't, if we don't...our classmates will...will..."
Nagisa sees Karma raise his eyebrows but click the computer mouse pad again.
"There's no guarantee that that guy will let the kids go after they deliver him," Irina says severely. She clearly ignores Karma's computer, but the redhead doesn't look worried. In fact, on the next powerpoint slide (for that must be what Karma is using), it simply reads, whatever bitch-sensei says.
N: even so...
P: we have to take that chance!
Act scared! like u dun wanna do this but u have 2
The two girls act out their parts, both showing their obvious reluctance and determination.
"Enough," Karasuma brings his fist to his forehead, looking stressed. Finally, he points to the edge of the outdoor cafe. "Just sit there. Don't do anything."
Listen 2 him. Dun move after u sit, but look calm.
Click
Find a position u would stay in 4 n hour.
Click
Stay till I call u.
Nagisa and Kaede exchange looks as Karma turns the computer to their other classmates then act a little more as they move across the wooden platform and sit at the edge.
Nagisa shuffles until she finds a spot she would stay in for an hour and Kaede does the same as they hear high heels clumping across the wooden flooring of the outdoor cafe.
"Oi, Karasuma!" Irina starts to shout when Karasuma interrupts.
"We'll discuss this inside."
Neither Kaede nor Nagisa move.
After a while, Karma's voice calls them. "Move. We've got a fraction of footage of you both on the wood place on the camera and Ritsu's looping it. We're taking the audio from a different camera and feeding it into the one there, We removed the audio from the other cameras too, so we can talk freely now. That includes you, Korosensei."
"You called me octopus just now Karma-kun!" Korosensei protests.
"I don't recall the word octopus leaving my lips in the last two minutes," Karma replies flippantly then glances at Karasuma. He and Irina must have come out from the hotel. "You do have a plan right, Karasuma-se-n-sei?"
Karasuma doesn't answer as Nagisa and Kaede make their way back across to the table where Korosensei rests.
"There is a way," Korosensei interjects.
Nagisa's phone beeps.
"Korosensei?" Ritsu asks. "We're all set."
"It looks like Ritsu-san has completed the prep work I asked her to do," Korosensei announces the same way he delivers his lectures, "I need the healthy students to come here. Wear something you don't mind getting dirty."
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Three cars pull up on the base of the mountain.
The healthy E class students flow out from the cars, staring at the mountain. Nagisa herself stands between Karma and Kaede.
She glances at her still-standing peers.
Kimura. Isogai. Okano. Chiba. Yada. Fuwa. Hayami. Sugaya. Terasaka. Yoshida. Kataoka. Ritsu.
Beep!
Nagisa lifts her phone and many of her peers do the same, Isogai sharing with Chiba.
"I infiltrated the hotel's computers and got schematics of the interior, complete with guard locations," Ritsu announces with a smile. She then outlines the positioning of the guards - mostly at and about the main entrance - and how it's not possible to enter the hotel without going past the front desk...unless you go by the back, where there is an entrance by the super steep mountain. The terrain is impassable and hence it has no guards there.
"If you don't want the enemy to get his way, there's only one thing to do!" Korosensei smiles at them from his waist-height plastic bag. "Not counting the ten patients and the two left behind to care for them, all capable students must sneak in from here, get the jump on the guys at the top and steal that remedy!"
Nagisa swallows. A hand slips into hers and squeezes gently. Feeling the callouses and the familiar writer's bump, Nagisa closes her eyes and squeezes back.
A moment later, their hands separate as they prepare for the upcoming task.
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QUICK QUESTION(S)!
Would you prefer long chapters (in which I include every piece of dialogue like I've been doing) or shorter chapters (whereby I summarise parts of the dialogue)?
Review and tell me which!