Maehara gives Kayano a wave as she approaches him.

"Defense?" he says. He sits on a fallen log a few meters in front of the flag.

"Yep." Kayano finds a nearby rock to sit on. "Although I'm surprised Isogai didn't take you with him. You guys work so well together."

"I wanted to, but I'm a lot better with knives than guns." Maehara lets out a disappointed sigh. "And Hayami would've killed me before I could even get close enough."

Kayano laughs. "That makes sense."

~.~.~.~.~.~

"Wait, you want me to go there?" Mimura's surprise is audible.

"Yes," Karma says. "It's a bit risky, I know. But from Mr. Karasuma's vantage point, you'll have the clearest view of the entire battlefield."

"Do you think I'm allowed to just go up there though?"

"There's no reason why you aren't. Just think of him as another part of the terrain."

"Okay," Mimura says. "So once I get there..."

"Locate Kayano. Give me her position and her movements. And don't take your eyes off her."

"Roger."

~.~.~.~.~.~

As Kayano sits around the flag with Maehara, there's a silence hanging in the air that feels a bit too pronounced.

Kayano's never felt awkward around Maehara before; his easygoing, friendly personality never made it difficult to relax. But now, as they sit wordlessly, she doesn't think she's imagining the discomfort filling the space between them as he fiddles with his knife.

Before she realizes it, she opens her mouth.

"Maehara?"

He glances at her. "Huh?"

"I know that you have a lot of reason not to trust me. But I just wanted to say that right now, I'm going to give it my all to help us win this battle."

Maehara blinks at her.

She takes a deep breath. "So I hope that you can at least trust me on this front. While we're defending the flag together."

The confusion on Maehara's face turns into understanding.

"Oh," he says. "Well, I do trust you when it comes to this. I'm glad that Isogai sent you to guard the flag with me, really." Then he frowns and puts a hand to his chin. "But, um... Do you want my honest thoughts on your whole thing?"

Kayano nods slowly and inwardly steels herself. "Yes."

Maehara lets out a small sigh. "So I have to admit that I did agree with some of the things that Karma said back there. I mean, not about killing Korosensei, because I'm on this team obviously." He smiles, good-natured, but Kayano can see the slight strain in it. "But about you hiding everything from us the entire time. And not helping us."

Kayano nods.

"Especially when he mentioned the island resort." He slightly grimaces. "I mean, for a bit, I legit thought I was going to... maybe not make it out alive back there."

The realization hits Kayano with a cold jolt. Maehara was one of the people infected.

"But," Maehara says before Kayano can say anything, "I also do believe what you said about the tentacles."

Kayano can't keep the surprise off her face. "You... do?"

"Well, we all saw how crazy Itona was when the tentacles were controlling him. They really do mess up your mind, don't they?"

She remembers that night at the resort—fear and panic for her classmates' lives filled her, raw and frantic and real, while the tentacles were razor-sharp and merciless in cutting away at her thoughts.

Look at how the full-class assassination attempt failed even with all that planning and the target's voluntary handicap, they hissed. So don't even think for a second that you can afford to stray from your goal of killing him.

And so she never did.

Kayano feels her hands clenching. "But the tentacles aren't an excuse for what I did."

Maehara shrugs. "Maybe not. But they give me some relief, honestly." He gazes at her. "This might be naive, but I still want to believe that you were truly a member of the class. And that... now that the tentacles are gone, maybe you can finally be honest about yourself to us."

Kayano remains silent.

Then Maehara leans back on his log and sighs. "Well, anyways, I just don't know how to feel about this yet. And you. It's a mix of everything, you know?"

"I understand," Kayano says. "I'm happy that you believe me, though."

"We'll see how it goes from here, I guess."

"Yeah. And... I'll do my best to be more honest to you guys from now on."

"That's good." The previous tension that Kayano detected in Maehara seems to have mostly dissipated. "Oh, but one thing I know for sure is that you were extremely serious about saving Korosensei."

Kayano blinks. "Why?"

"Because you were about to pick a fight with Karma over it." He smiles, and this time it fully contains his signature easygoing air. "And if that isn't the absolute peak of seriousness, then nothing is."

~.~.~.~.~.~

"Okay, guys," Isogai says as Yada and Kurahashi fall into position beside him. "I know that we're outnumbered, but don't worry about anything other than eliminating Hayami and Itona. To win this fight, we'll have to take some risks."

Isogai peeks through the bushes at the tree a few meters in front of them. He can just make out the vague outline of Hayami's form situated on its branches with Itona standing at its foot. He ducks back under the cover of the bushes before he can get spotted.

He turns back to Kurahashi and Yada. "When we go in, Hayami's probably going to try and take me out first," he says. "So try to use that chance to land a hit on Hayami, okay?"

Yada and Kurahashi both nod.

"It's all or nothing now." Isogai raises his gun and bursts through the bushes. "Go!"

~.~.~.~.~.~

Gunshots ring from the right side of the forest—where Hayami is located.

"Nakamura, that's your cue," Karma says. "Get ready to advance towards the flag."

"Gotcha," she responds.

As the sound of battle continues echoing, Karma pushes himself onto his feet to stand on his boulder.

Then Mimura's voice comes from his comm.

"Hey, Karma?"

"Mimura?" Karma says. "Something wrong?"

"I'm nearly there. But I think—"

His voice is cut off by a gasp and a thud.

The realization pierces Karma instantly.

"Nakamura, Terasaka," he says sharply, lifting his mic to his mouth. "Someone's nearby—watch out."

~.~.~.~.~.~

Like Isogai expects, Hayami instantly swings her rifle in his direction as he rushes forward alongside Yada and Kurahashi.

"Yada! Kurahashi!" he yells. "Surround her from the left!"

He's halfway through raising his own gun when he's struck on the head, red paint splashing over his visor. Isogai falls to the ground with a grunt, but from the corner of his vision, he sees Yada take aim.

Hayami whirls to face Yada right before a burst of blue shoots across Hayami's shoulder. Then Yada lets out a yelp as Itona fires at her. He pauses as she falls to the ground covered with red paint, but then spins around as Kurahashi darts towards him with her gun raised.

Blue paint bursts on Itona's chest at the same time he sends red paint spraying across Kurahashi's side.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Is that... Mimura?

Nagisa watches Mimura climb up the ledge, although he's careful to remain perfectly still. But Mimura is approaching from the side, so it's only a matter of time until notices Nagisa standing behind Mr. Karasuma, his form sticking out from Mr. Karasuma's profile.

Nagisa wonders if he should just try eliminating Mimura here and now. But before he can make a move, Mimura presses what seems to be his comm speaker to his ear.

Nagisa can just make out the words—"Hey, Karma?"

He's reporting to Karma, Nagisa realizes with a jolt.

"I'm nearly there," Mimura says, narrowing his eyes in Nagisa's direction. "But I think—"

In a single swift motion, Nagisa rushes forward and slashes at Mimura with his knife. The force of it sends Mimura tumbling off the ledge, and Nagisa inwardly apologizes as his classmate lets out a groan below him.

Then Nagisa turns to the large rock that sits just below Mr. Karasuma's ledge.

I've already been spotted anyways, so...

Nagisa leaps onto the rock before springing off of it to surge over to its other side. As he lands, he twists around to fire a round of paintballs at the Red Team members on standby at its foot.

Blue paint explodes on Muramatsu and Yoshida. Nakamura yelps and ducks behind Terasaka right as he fires back at Nagisa with a yell of "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM?"

Nagisa lowers his gun when he feels a paintball hit his shoulder.

Terasaka blinks at him and slowly lowers his own gun.

Then Nakamura peeks her head out from behind Terasaka. "Bruh. Please never do that ever again."

~.~.~.~.~.~

The sounds of battle echoing from Hayami's area of the forest go silent, but then it's followed by a yell that rings from Karma's comms.

"WHERE THE HELL—" is what Karma manages to hear, before it's drowned out by the rattling of gunfire.

That's Terasaka, he realizes.

When the gunshots fade, he says, "Nakamura, what's the situation?"

"We just killed Nagisa, but he took out Muramatsu and Yoshida," she responds. "And... I don't know how he got so close to us."

Karma feels his voice lowering. "He was hiding behind Mr. Karasuma the entire time."

And if Karma hadn't preemptively sent Mimura up there out of caution for Kayano, then Nagisa would've been able to eliminate all four of them the moment they were out on the field.

Karma shakes away the thought with a huff of wry amusement. I guess my wariness still ended up paying off.

Then he turns his gaze to the direction of where he positioned Hayami and Itona. So far, there haven't been any signs of new activity—no reports from Hayami or Itona, and no further advances from the Blue Team. They probably all took each other out.

Which means that Maehara and Kayano are the remaining Blue Team members.

"Nakamura, Terasaka." Karma jumps off his boulder and lands on the ground. "We have a new plan."

~.~.~.~.~.~

"I can't reach Isogai either," Maehara says, frowning with a hand raised to his comm speaker.

"They were probably... all eliminated." Kayano says. "Nagisa was taken down, too. Which means that we're the only ones left."

Maehara's eyes widen. "What about the Red Team though?"

"Hm." Kayano mentally runs through the team members list. "Nagisa took care of Muramatsu and Yoshida, and assuming Hayami and Itona are down..."

Kayano narrows her eyes down the field that stretches between the Blue Team and the Red Team territories. In the distance, she can faintly make out the figure of someone—or someones—advancing.

Kayano stands up from her rock. "Then it's Terasaka, Nakamura, and Karma left."

"Oh shit," Maehara says as Kayano reaches towards the knife strapped to her hip. "Are they coming?"

"I think so. I see people in the distance." Kayano pauses as she hovers her hand over the hilt of her knife. Then she moves her hand away to grab her gun instead.

Maehara stands up from his log and withdraws his knives, slightly grinning. "But if we manage to kill them all, we'll win, right?"

Kayano nods, and the two of them turn to face the advancing enemies.

~.~.~.~.~.~

As predicted, Nakamura sees only Kayano and Maehara standing guard around the flag. Maehara has his knives drawn and Kayano has her gun raised—but neither of them seem willing to make a move, instead choosing to stand firm in front of the flag.

Terasaka keeps his gun raised to match them as he advances alongside Nakamura.

When they're only a dozen or so meters away from the flag, Nakamura taps Terasaka's shoulder. "We need to draw them away," she says, withdrawing her own gun. "Attack from here."

"Okay," Terasaka says, stopping to take aim.

Nakamura points her gun at Kayano, who widens her eyes and dodges to the side. At the same time, Maehara shouts something that sounds like "YOLO" before sprinting forward in a sudden burst of speed. Simultaneously, Terasaka follows Maehara's movements with his aim, firing.

Maehara reaches Nakamura and slashes her across the side a second before Terasaka lands a paintball on his shoulder. As Nakamura stumbles to the ground, she watches Kayano seize the opportunity to rush forward towards Terasaka.

Terasaka spins around to face her, gun raised—but Kayano's too fast, leaping forward into the air and barraging Terasaka with a round of blue paintballs before he can pull the trigger.

~.~.~.~.~.~

When Kayano lands back on the ground after eliminating Terasaka, the first thing she feels is a rush of relief. We haven't lost this battle yet. But as she gazes around the field, it quickly gets replaced by apprehension.

There are more no signs of action. No movement from the Red Team's side of the field, no more figures advancing in the distance, and no Karma anywhere to be seen.

Is he still guarding the red flag?

That's the first thought to flit through her mind. But it feels too simple and too straightforward, and it fails to bring her any reassurance.

Kayano glances at Nakamura, who's rubbing her back as she sits on the ground, and at Terasaka, who's examining the blue paint on his chest with a scowl.

The fight flashes through her head.

The way they engaged in it. The way they were the first ones to fire. The way they stopped their advance a dozen meters away.

Like they weren't actually trying to go for our flag.

There's a faint rustle behind her.

Like they were a distraction for something else.

And then Kayano whirls around to the sight of Karma lunging at the Blue Team flag.

She instantly fires at him.

Just as swiftly, Karma digs a foot into the ground and twists backwards out of the way. He narrowly dodges the paintballs before lurching to a stop just over an arm's reach away from the flag.

Then he turns to her and they lock eyes.

"Just you and me now, huh? Let's settle this, Kayano."

.

.

.

.


A/N: uni's started again for me so I may not be able to update at my usual time next week-although that shouldn't be likely, since I have a decent amount written already! And as always, thanks for reading, and see everyone next chapter! 3