Price of Life

Chapter 3

"Ugh…" Isogai groaned as he finally regained his consciousness. The first thing his hazy mind understood was that he was resting against something thin and metallic and his arms were pulled up. Confusion turned into shock and the boy stumbled on his feet only to gasp when he felt pain in his arms.

"W-What…?" Isogai wondered aloud as he fell back against the metal before he glanced up at his arms. It was then when he noticed that his arms were handcuffed to the metal pipe on the wall.

After recovering from shock Isogai tried to get up on his feet again, this time more carefully. When he had got up, Isogai began studying his surroundings.

He was in a dark room. In the dim light Isogai saw that the room was quite small and there wasn't any piece of furniture. However there was some small holes on the walls, probably for shelves that used to be in the room. Above him on the right wall was three small and dirt covered windows in a row. On the opposite wall the boy saw a door with a steel doorhandle and a lock.

Isogai glanced at the concrete floor and his shoulders slumped when he saw nothing useful.

"Of course they couldn't leave my school bag here," Isogai muttered to himself while wishing that he hadn't left his phone in his bag. And since they came to his mind, Isogai's thoughts returned to the earlier events of the day…

Isogai walked briskly along a walkway. The trip had gone in silence because no sounds was heard from the houses surrounded by hedges and there hasn't been cars in the lane for a while. Right now there was just a white van parked in the lane and a man standing next to it with a mobile phone in his hand.

When Isogai had almost reached the van, the man rose his eyes from the screen. "Hey, boy," he said to Isogai.

"Yes?" the assassination class' student asked as he stopped.

"Is the cafe Kunugi-Kaze somewhere here?" the man inquired.

"No. It's little further there, in the opposite direction," Isogai told as he pointed in the right direction.

"Of course," the man sighed as he ran his fingers through his short brown hairs. "Can you give me detailed directions? You see, me and my girlfriend are here for the first time but my phone ran out of battery and my girlfriend forgot her phone at home, so we can't use the map app."

"Sure," Isogai answered with smile. "Just turn around and drive straight until-"

"Can't you write them down?" a woman's voice was heard from an open window of the van, causing Isogai turn his attention at the woman with black hairs and sharp features. "My boyfriend has so terrible memory that he'll forget everything after the first point."

"Thanks, darling," the man commented sarcastically.

"Well," Isogai said as he glanced at his clock, "I try to write the directions for you quickly. My shift in that cafe is starting in twenty minutes."

"Oh, we have the same destination?" the man asked as he turned his attention back at Isogai, sounding pleased. "Then you can give us directions while we give you a ride."

"Is it alright?" Isogai asked. "I wouldn't want to bother-"

"Of course it's alright," the man assured with smile. "I don't want you to be late for work just because of us." Then the man turned back towards the van and said to the woman: "Hey, Rinnoru. Make room for our passenger."

The woman named Rinnoru opened the passenger's door and stepped out, allowing Isogai to get in the van while the man got on the driver's seat. After Rinnoru had got back in the van, the man started the car and turned it around.

"So," Isogai began, "drive straight until you reach a crossroads and then turn right."

The ride went without problems. Isogai gave directions and the man named Shimada followed them. Rinnoru sat quietly with bored expression while Shimada talked friendly with Isogai.

Just then Isogai noticed that they were approaching Kunugi-Kaze.

"It's there. You can park your car in the parking lot near that that clothing store," he told to the man as he pointed at the parking lots.

But Shimada didn't even glance at the direction the boy was pointing at. Actually he didn't even slow the car.

"H-Hey!" Isogai exclaimed as they passed the cafe. "You missed it!"

"Calm down. I'm just searching the parking lot," Shimada answered while still holding his gaze on the road.

"But I said that you can park-"

"Silence him."

That's when Rinnoru lunged at the boy.

Isogai, startled by the attack, shoved the woman with his elbow but although she gasped in pain, Rinnoru managed to grab the boy's right arm. Despite her slender build, she had an iron grip and Isogai struggled to get his arm free. While the boy was struggling and kicking, Rinnoru took a cloth from the pocket of her red blazer and shoved it towards Isogai's face.

Isogai's eyes widened in alert. As the boy leaned away he almost pushed Shimada who glanced briefly at them with irritation before focusing back on the road. "Keep the brat in check, Rinnoru!" Shimada snarled.

"Shut up!" Rinnoru snapped while struggling with Isogai until she managed to cover the boy's nose with the cloth.

When he felt a scent of chloroform in his nose, Isogai grabbed her wrists and tried to turn his head away but Rinnoru pressed the cloth more closely to his nose. Isogai squirmed for a moment before his consciousness began fading…

"How could I be so stupid?" Isogai scolded himself. "I've told my siblings so many times that they should never get in the strangers' cars and I did exactly that. They're going to be so proud of their older brother." With a frustrated sigh, he pressed his forehead against his arms. After he had gathered his thoughts for a moment Isogai rose his head with determined expression. "I have to get out. If they're after Korosensei, I'm not going to stay here as a hostage."

Isogai placed his left foot against the wall and began pulling the handcuffs against the metal pipe, hoping that they were second quality.

"There! Isogai's phone should be below you!" Ritsu informed.

After hearing this, Maehara stopped and glanced over the roof edge. Nagisa, Kayano, Sugino and Kataoka stopped next to him and studied the alley below them.

There were two green dumpsters and some black trash bags on the alley. Luckily for them there was nobody there right now, so the students were able to climb down the safety ladder without attracting any attention.

"So…" Kayano said hesitantly as they stopped at the dumpsters, "which of us is going to check those?"

Before anybody had time to say anything, Maehara sauntered to one of the dumpsters. With a grimace of disgust, he threw a lid open and glanced inside.

"Bingo!" Maehara gasped in relief as he leaned to pick something up from the dumpster. He then turned back to his friends and showed them a familiar bag in his hand.

"Isogai's school bag," Kataoka gasped before she and others gathered around Maehara who opened the bag.

As assumed, Isogai's bag contained schoolbooks, a pencil case, an empty lunch box and his mobile phone.

"Just as I feared," Maehara muttered grimly as he took Isogai's phone in his hand.

"Somebody kidnapped Isogai in order to use him as bait for Korosensei?" Sugino guessed with worried expression.

"But if so, then Isogai should still be alright since the Government decided that the bounty won't be paid if one of us gets injured during the process," Nagisa reminded.

"That doesn't ease my mind at all," Maehara commented seriously. "I can say with certainty that he's alright only when I see with my own eyes that my buddy is alive and unharmed."

"You're right," Kataoka agreed, her expression as serious as the rest of them. She then addressed others: "Nagisa, call Mr. Karasuma and Professor Bitch. Tell them what we have found and where we are. Ritsu, contact others and tell them same. Maehara calls Korosensei. And Kayano and Sugino keep an eye on the environment for bystanders."

"Got it!" Maehara answered with determination as he and Nagisa took their own phones in their hands.

At the same time, Class E's super-creature teacher was enjoying his time in the Louvre. Korosensei's current disguise included a beret, striped shirt, black trousers, shoes, scarf, fake mustaches and sunglasses, giving a picture of stereotypical Frenchman for people around him.

"Magnifique," Korosensei noted with a fake french accent as he studied Narcisse Diaz's La Fée aux Perles with great interest. Or in fact, the woman in painting. His art enjoyment was interrupted when his phone began ringing. After seeing the number of one of his students, Korosensei stepped aside before answering the call. "Good day, Maehara. Oh, wait! It's evening in Japan! Good evening, Maehara."

"Korosensei! You have to return!" Maehara told.

The octopus-like teacher froze when he heard distress in boy's voice. "What's wrong?"

"Isogai has gone missing! We found his bag and phone from the dumpster in the alley but we don't have any clues about his current whereabouts or who's behind this!"

"I see. I'll return immediately."

Isogai did his best to hide his fear when the door opened and Shimada entered with a tall, muscular man. Rinnoru was leaning against the door frame while she fingered her phone.

"Oh, you're awake," Shimada stated. "Well, I'm sure it isn't going to cause problems."

"What do you want from me?" Isogai demanded. "Me and my family don't have anything valuable." Even if he was kidnapped for Korosensei, Isogai wasn't going to mention his teacher before the kidnappers would bring him up.

"We don't have to tell you anything, so just shut up and do as we say," Shimada informed coldly as he placed a bag he had carried on the floor. Then he took a key from the pocket of his jeans and gave it to the man who had come with him. "Kombu. Unlock the handcuffs and keep the boy still so I can tie him up."

Isogai flinched when the man named Kombu approached him. The student of Class E had hoped that he would escape before his kidnappers returned but that plan was impossible now. Even if Isogai pulled his hands away after the handcuffs were unlocked and ran, he would just get attacked by all three of them.

So, Isogai did what he and his classmates had done after they had faced the God of Death; he stood still, without fighting back as Kombu unlocked the handcuffs and grabbed the boy tightly while Shimada took a rope from his bag.

When the kidnappers escorted tied and gagged Isogai out of the abandoned building and locked him in a red car's trunk, Isogai knew that he could only pray that his disappearance was noticed and that Korosensei would find his scent.

To be continue...