RECAP: one down, two to go, who are they exactly? What the heck is this building up to? Well, you'll see… eventually. GET INTO PLACE YOU!

"H-hey, don't shove"

Chapter 28

The battle continues, the earth itself shook under the pressure of an impossible occurrence. So many beings whose existences alone contradict one another. But under the skin, behind enemy lines, a team was sent in to eliminate the leaders of the enemy. The interior of the enemy base, within the black tower, was significantly different from the previous exploration. It was noticeably larger, multiple corridors and empty rooms, so far in, the team, consisting of Issei, Asia, Gasper. Karma, Itona, Kayano, and Nagisa; lead by Karma, the only full human. The next order of business after slaying one of the residents of the tower, was to eliminate the others. They came across a long corridor that would take at least 5 minutes to walk through.

"What did he mean?.." Asia whispered to herself.

"Did you say something?" Issei asked, hearing her words.

"Huh? Oh um, when he called us 'merry men' I didn't know what he meant by that."

"Probably some stupid villain stuff."

"It's never meaningless." Itona commented as he had walking beside the two. "Last words will always mean something, good or bad."

"So what does 'Merry men' mean, what do you think?"

"Merry men refers to a group characters in an old story, foreign, but mostly well known around the world. The name escapes me."

"Guys?" Kayano said. "Over there," she pointed at the left wall, small nigh-invisible ripples formed from the mid-level of the wall. Five small protrusions extended from the wall, followed and stemming from a hand shape, then an arm, then a leg, and then

Thud

"Oooww~"

Another black and white entity, fell on the ground in comedic fashion leg twitching and all. The female being stood up and "dusted" herself off, if there was any dust at all.

"Oh yes, hello boys and girls!" the woman spoke. "You're all here to play with me, so let's have lots of fun."

"Is she for real?" everyone thought.

"First, My name is Love, or Passion, or embrace blabla, just call me Love." the woman said placing her fingertips on her chest, above her breasts which of course irritated a certain girl.

"We've beaten Destiny, we'll beat you too. He said so himself" Karma declared

"He said that HIS loss was inevitable, my fate is yet to be decided, but our battle won't be like his, I'm not the brawn type"

Love raised her hands up at a 45 degree angle and created numerous "bubbles". Shining and glittering. They lined from one side of the hallway to the other.

"If you wanna get through me, get through this first, my maze! heehee" Love said smiling gleefully.

The wall of bubbles blocked the way, there wasn't time to think of a way to break it,

"Who wants to go first?" she asked.

It didn't matter that she asked, they all were already walking into the wall, literally. It seemed like a just a bunch of bubbles you would get from blowing into soap, or soda, or those toys that kids get, but everyone's vision slowly disappeared as the cloud got thicker and thicker until a complete white.

"Karma!?" Nagisa called out, hoping for a response.

Nothing, just silence.

"Issei!?"

Nothing again.

"I'll just go back." he thought

He walked backwards for 10 seconds straight until deciding he was lost. Oddly, he walked in a line. There was no way he could have gotten lost. So why was there nothing but white?

"Okay, this is some trick,

then out of silence, a group of voices, young, maybe 14 or 15 years old. Very familiar voices, the voices of his old classmates. His vision fully restored, Nagisa took a scan of his surroundings. brown wood floors, a desk, windows to the left, a black board ahead, tags in the back reading "Tentacle", a door ahead to the right, glass windows between the room and the hallway on the side.

"The... classroom?" Nagisa said to himself.

"Oi, Nagisa, what do you think?" Sugino said from the right side. he was sitting on top of a desk next to Nagisa

"huh?"

"sleeping huh? I was asking for your opinion on me going to America to join a team."

"h-oh, um" Nagisa had no idea what was happening. his arms felt somewhat sore, his forehead felt numb, signifying that he had fallen asleep.

"wait, where is everyone?" Nagisa asked.

"what?" Sugino looked puzzled.

Nagisa turned his head, the entire class was here, some of the girls talking to each other, Terasaka's group hanging in the back, some students entered the room, everything was just like a normal day.

"are you okay Nagisa? you were mumbling some things in your sleep. you said Karma, but who or what's Issei?"

"I... was dreaming?"

Nagisa strained his body's and tried to summon his Sacred gear, but nothing happened.

"yes, you were down for a little while. c'mon, we've got the ceremony in an hour."

"what ceremony?"

"...the Graduation Ceremony of course, you have amnesia or something?"

Nagisa stood up and walked out of the room and went outside for a breather.

"what's going on?" he said aloud.

"Is something wrong Nagisa-kun?"

a voice from behind asked, Nagisa looked behind him, turning his neck at light speed to see Korosensei standing there looking at him.

"K-Korosensei? what're you doing here?"

"hm? I heard from Sugino-kun you were acting strange, it seems like you've seen a ghost."

"I, what is today?"

"hm, today is march 23, the long awaited graduation day. Congrats on making it here I must say, and alive."

"You're... what happened last night Korosensei?"

Korosensei and Nagisa stared at one another silently for a moment. If this was graduation, then logically Korosensei would be dead, evaporated, gone. so why was he here, why was this happening at all.

"I'm not entirely sure why you would ask, you were there after all, everyone was. even so I will recall the events. last night..." Korosensei began, seating himself next to the much smaller boy. "Last night Yanagisawa-sensei and my old apprentice attacked us, Kayano-san was injured, but I was able to subdue the two adversaries and save her."

"and after that?" Nagisa asked hurriedly. from his memory, after those events happened, he had plunged a knife into his teacher's heart. he needed to know what happened next, or what Korosensei was about to say.

"Karasuma and all of you were able to convince the government to deactivate the light weapon, I was set free."

"Th-that didn't happen!" Nagisa exclaimed. "You. you died here last night, I killed you I know I did!"

"it seems like you've rekindled your bloodlust, ironic, you were on the 'Save me' side."

"n-no! I saw it all, you were about to be killed by the laser, you asked us all to do it together and assassinate you. this... this has to be fake!" there was no way any of this could be real, so why was it that everything felt so real. everything fit as if it was part of some JRPG with multiple endings. why was he angry at the situation.

"...Nagisa-kun." Korosensei placed a tentacle on the confused child's shoulder. "you wer asleep for a few hours, what was your dream?"

"m-my dream?..."

"yes, whatever it was, it must have taken a toll on your mind. you seem to think I died, but I'm very much alive, everyone you tell me what happened in your dream?"

Nagisa calmed himself, and explained what the night before was for him. how Korosensei was assassinated by the entire class. how he pierced the heart of his greatest role model with a knife.

"...I... see." was all Korosensei could respond with. Nagisa seemed to be telling the truth, or this was an impossibly good lie. "Nagisa, remember, what you dreamt of didn't happen, I wouldn't be here otherwise right?"

"I, I guess so."

"your goal was accomplished, you all have saved my life, now it's time for you to all move on."

Korosensei stood up and looked out into the trees ahead, dawning his unchanging smile.

"Come now, it's time to get ready for the ceremony. I'll be there too."

"you, will?" Nagisa asked surprised

"of course, I'm no longer an international secret, it'll be okay. now, stay here, I'm going to retrieve everyone else.

Korosensei was off, off to prepare everyone else and himself for the ceremony marking their graduation from the Assassination Classroom.

"...Issei, Rias, Karma, the Dragons," Nagisa muttered. "Sirzechs, the angels and devils and fallen angels, that. that couldn't have been a dream, there's no way all of that, the feeling of being impaled and in combat couldn't be a fabrication. I know this, but why am I here? an hour ago wasn't a dream, no, this. this must be the dream."

For a moment, not even half a second, a blink for lack of a better term,

static

A brief buzz in Nagisa's vision. Something was very wrong.

END

You all already get what's going on I'm sure, but hey, gotta stretch things on right?

If you like the series, be sure to favorite/follow and review. byebye