Alright, back with the next chapter. I meant to update sooner, seeing as I left off on a bit of a cliffhanger last time, but online school got in the way and I got some sinus junk on top of it. But it's here now! And thanks to everyone reading this so far! I'm glad people are enjoying it so far. And of course, thanks to everyone who left some kind words of encouragement. And I do hate to disappoint, but the other teachers and students aren't likely to make an appearance in this. I wanted to include them, but I couldn't find a good way for it to work out. But like I said in the first chapter, I've got other ideas for stories. Something I didn't say was that one specifically has to do with Bakugo, Izuku, Karma, and Nagisa. I'll leave it at that.
Spoiler warning: This story will contain spoilers for the follow Assassination Classroom episodes: Action Time, Pandemonium Time, Karma Time/2nd Period, XX Time, and Nagisa Time. It will also contain spoilers for the following My Hero Academia episodes: Game Over and All Might. If you haven't watched any of these episodes yet, I'd advise you to wait on reading this story until you've done so if you want to avoid spoilers.
Disclaimer: I do not own BNHA or Assassination Classroom.
Karasuma tore his eyes away from the sight of his students and quickly spotted a girl with brown hair pulled into pigtails who worked staff just a few paces from the door, holding her serving tray to her chest and watching the events with terror and concern. He jogged over to her and said, "Call an ambulance, stat! This is an emergency!"
The girl pulled her serving tray closer to her before explaining, "It'll take them a while to get here. The nearest ER is on the mainland." Karasuma cast a glare down at the floor and growled, gritting his teeth together in frustration. Korosensei, still in his little bag, had heard the news and gasped, now feeling guilty that he wasn't in his normal form to help his students.
The server made her way over to the door quickly, most likely to inform the manager of the happenings, just as Karasuma's phone rang. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled it out and was surprised to see that the number had been withheld. Disregarding his growing suspicion, he clicked the button and held it up to his ear.
While Karasuma listened and talked to whoever was on the other end, Kayano, who was now by Nakamura's side along with Izuku and Nagisa, pulled out her phone and began talking to Ritsu to see if she could identify any of the symptoms with any known disease. Both Nagisa and Midoroiya looked towards the teacher with interest as he spoke to the other person on the line. Karasuma didn't sound happy with them.
The bluenette slipped his own phone out of his pocket. "Ritsu, can you play the audio of the phone call? And find where the other end of the call is coming from?"
Ritsu appeared on his screen upon hearing her name. "Of course. Just give me a moment."
"You're telling me you're responsible for making them sick?" Karasuma asked solemnly, making the bluenette more anxious to hear what was being said.
"Alright, here's the audio," Ritsu popped back up, appearing on Kayano's phone as well. "I'll keep searching for the signal while it plays."
A distorted, deep chuckle came from the bluenette's phone before the same voice continued, "You're good, but they're a helluva lot more than sick. They're bodies are hosting a lab-manufactured virus. The incubation period and symptoms vary, but the end result is the same. After about a week, cells rupture and vital organs become jelly."
At that statement, Izuku's face lost its color and his eyes widened, casting a concerned glance down at the unconscious girl beside him. "Why? Why is he doing this?" Everyone else, including Karasuma, was both shocked and horrified at the fate that awaited the ill students.
"The only known antidote is also lab-made. Lucky for you, I'm its sole possessor," the voice went on after a moment. "Trouble is I'm lazy. If you want it you'll have to come get it." Karasuma silently gestured for Nagisa and Kayano to come to him with Izuku following them. Nagisa turned his phone around to show the map, a purple dot showing the mystery assassin's location and a yellow dot showing Karasuma's location.
"There's a hotel on top of this island's highest peak. Bring me your precious cargo and we'll chat." Karasuma lifted up Korosensei, assuming he was the precious cargo he spoke of. It was obvious that was who he wanted. "Top floor, within the hour, no tricks. And because you seem like the sort of man I wouldn't want to tangle with, send proxies. Two students. The shortest boy and the shortest girl. Out of whoever is still standing, of course." Midoriya quirked a brow at the oddly specific directions before it hit him that the two shortest were standing right in front of him.
Karasuma had realized it as well, and his lip trembled just slightly with growing guilt as he looked at his two students in front of him. He couldn't let them go alone. Call it a hunch, but something was telling Karasuma that this mad-man wouldn't keep his end of the deal or he would pull a trick and hurt them. Either way, not good, and he'd rather himself be dead than any of these children so much as hurt.
"There's a concierge desk across from the elevators, have them go there. If all goes well, you'll have the antidote, and I'll have the bounty. Now, this should go without saying, but contact outside help or show up late, and boom. The antidote goes bye-bye. The infected die." Karasuma grunted, the look of guilt on his face now gone, and the two teens in front of Izuku whimpered at his words. "This is bad."
"Hey, you guys were fantastic. With the target immobilized, the hard part's done. I can't thank you enough. Lady luck is definitely smiling down on our cause." The line cut and went silent, save for the beeping to indicate an ended call, leaving them all to absorb the information.
Izuku gritted his teeth with anger, the last thing the mad-man said repeating in his head. How could someone speak so casually when so many innocent lives were on the line? It sounded like they did all the work, and whoever it was that infected them planned to swoop in at the last moment and steal their bounty, which he guessed was the thing Karasuma had in his hand.
The green haired boy was snapped out of his thoughts when Karasuma slammed Korosensei down into the table. "Damn it!" he cursed through a clenched jaw, all the muscles in his body tense and a dark expression on his sweat-drenched face. "Of all the times for some psychotic bastard to sabotage us!"
"Um… Karasuma?" Korosensei said, surprising Izuku and trying to get the man's attention in hopes that he wouldn't slam him into the table again. It didn't hurt, but being jostled like that wasn't fun either.
Karasuma called in his comrade, Sonokawa, who was also at the resort, to speak with the manager of the hotel. He was hoping she'd be able to negotiate something with them to get the mad-man's identity, and so far, he hadn't heard back from her. He had also called Irina down as well, thinking she'd be able to help too.
While they waited, Izuku eyed Korosensei, who now sat on a table, curiously. He didn't dare break the silence, but his mind couldn't help but wonder what made him so valuable. Was this the Korosensei they were trying to kill? The name bugged him as well. It sounded like Korosensai, which meant unkillable.
It wasn't long before she came through the doors out to the deck. "Mr. Karasuma, I'm afraid they're not cooperating," Sonokawa informed as she jogged over to him. "Even when we play the government card, the hotel owners maintain they have the right to protect their guests' identity."
"Naturally," he grumbled, looking at a loss for what other options he could play. Sending in his students was an absolute last resort.
"Intolerable!" Korosensei practically spat the word from his mouth from his spot on a table.
"But not surprising," Karasuma continued. "The resort our mystery man chose is a known site for all manner of illegal operations.
"Remote, shady history," Ms Bitch joined in the conversation. "It bears all the trappings of an ideal rendezvous point."
"The owners have connections with Higher Ups in the government. Law enforcement knows to leave it alone," he added.
There was a brief pause in the conversation before the red-head broke it with a sigh. "So basically there's no way of knowing who the prick is before we meet him."
Some kid with dark brown dreads let out a frustrated groan. "Are we really just gonna take this psycho's word for it? If he's bullshitting us about the antidote, we're all gonna die!"
"Ribbit, it doesn't look like we have much choice," Asui interrupted as she pressed a folded towel to Okajima's nose while he lied down.
"Calm down, dude, it's fine," a slightly chubby girl with brown hair pulled into a ponytail said soothingly. "We came here to be killers not victims, remember? Look how far we've come. We'll figure this out." Her mouth pulled into a weak smile.
"Right, yeah. I'll try to stay positive," the boy with dreads responded, now less angry and more worried.
"No way we just do what the asshole tells us to do. I mean, c'mon, use the runts as proxy?" Terasaka said darkly from behind Nagisa and Kayano with an equally dark look on his face. "Send these two runts in to seal the deal, and we might as well lay down and die right now!" he exclaimed angrily, knocking them both on the head with a closed fist. The two grumbled at his comment but didn't say anything. "Okay, that was rude," Terasaka admitted after hearing the two, calming down and removing his fists from their heads. "I'm sorry. I'm just pissed off that someone's got us by the balls. And my friends' lives are in danger! Forget about it!" He threw a thumb over his shoulder in gesture to the sick teens lying on the mats as a vein bulged out of his forehead.
Terasaka slammed his hand on the table. "I vote we ignore what the jackass wants us to do! Let's get everyone to the hospital and forget this happened!"
"Bad idea," a boy with dark hair and glasses interrupted from behind Mr. Karasuma, catching everyone's attention. "If we are in fact dealing with a man-made virus, a hospital would be a waste of time," he continued, pushing his spectacles up his nose. "Not even the most state of the art ER is equipped to handle this. There's no way for them to treat everyone. We'd be dead before they even figured out what we have." The boy strode casually over to the sick students, a bucket in hand.
"Seriously!?" Terasaka grunted, unsure if he heard right.
"He's right. There's no way for them to find out how to cure it in time. Even if they did manage to save a few, there's no way the ones already showing symptoms will make it," Izuku spoke up for the first time in a while.
"I vote we focus on easing the symptoms for now," the spectacled boy went on as he took some ice from the bucket and put it in one of the plastic bags he had been carrying. "You better start heading to the rendezvous point."
"That's the only way, huh?" Terasaka said at a loss, staring at him as the other boy treated his friends.
Midoriya looked back at the ill students. Asui had already taken to helping them along with Okuda and a few others while Mineta had made his way up to the front near Izuku. It was hard to watch. He didn't know why this happened, but he knew he wanted to help them. That was what he was training to do after all.
Karasuma turned to look down on Korosensei. "At the end of the day, this is all happening because of you," he said rather coldly.
"Gotta wonder if these kids'll be willing to surrender their quarry so easily," the blonde woman wondered aloud. It went quiet as Karasuma brought his balled up hand to his face, wracked with stress over what to do.
"I think I might have a solution," the octopus turned ball spoke up, catching everyone by surprise.
There was a buzz again and the bluenette pulled out his phone to show Ritsu in an orange outfit, different from the one she wore earlier. "Korosensei? Everything is ready, sir," she confirmed with wink.
"Excellent. Ritsu's finished the prep work I asked her to do. If the healthy students would step closer, please. Be sure you're wearing something you don't mind getting dirty," he said, his smile getting wider making it look more sinister with the beady eyes. It didn't take long for everyone to gather around the table and listen to the plan he had thought up. It was risky for sure, but following the mad-man's demands seemed even riskier to Karasuma, so he agreed, albeit with reluctance.
Once everything was said and done, all the healthy students and teachers sat and waited for the cars, save for Okuda and Takabayashi, who were going to stay behind to take care of the ill students.
While he waited, Karasuma couldn't help but think about the three kids they had found on the beach and the promise he'd made. He supposed he should speak to them about the situation, even though they had a lot of the information already.
"Midoriya, Mineta, Asui," he called, gesturing for them to come to him. All three were in front of him in no time, and he sighed heavily. "You three already know the situation, and it isn't good. I hate to ask you three this seeing as you aren't even my students, but would you three be willing to help Okuda and Takabayashi take care of the rest?"
"Ribbit, of course," Tsu nodded without a moment's hesitation. "I don't mind at all. They'll need all the help they can get with all those sick students."
"Staying back here and helping pass out bags of ice sounds better than facing that guy," Mineta agreed fearfully.
"Mr. Karasuma, sir?" the green haired boy spoke up, his head slightly low so that his hair hid his eyes. "I want to come with you and help get the antidote." He lifted his gaze to meet Karasuma's, showing the impressive amount of resolve in them. To say Karasuma was surprised would be an understatement. "He doesn't know any of these kids, but he's still willing to put his life on the line for them. That's not something you see everyday."
"What?!" the smaller boy next to him whisper-shouted in a panicked voice. "Midoriya, we just got out of a situation where we were fighting a bunch of crazy villains! Are you sure you want to jump into another situation like that?"
"Mineta has a point, Midoriya," Asui croaked beside him. "If this guy is serious like those others at the USJ, then you could get hurt or worse."
"I know what the risks are, but I don't care." He turned back to Karasuma, his strong desire to help blazing in his eyes still. "I'd like to come if you don't mind, Mr. Karasuma."
The man looked at the green haired boy and sighed. "I'm afraid I can't let you." Izuku's eyes widened and he looked at Karasuma expectantly for an answer. "This mission requires skills that I'm not sure you have. If we brought you along, not only would you be at risk, but the mission as a whole would likely be at risk as well. I hope you understand," Karasuma explained carefully. He didn't want to come across as ungrateful to them.
"I… Yes, sir," Midoriya eventually said, sounding disappointed. He knew he could help the ill students, but there wasn't something that told him he'd be needed on the mission, a feeling he couldn't shake.
"Good. I can't thank you three enough for helping us like this," Karasuma said earnestly.
"Mr. Karasuma, the cars are here," Sonokawa called as she came back out to the deck. At that, everyone began to file out to the front doors while Asui led Mineta and Izuku over to a few of the ill students. Along with Okuda and Takabayashi, they all began handing out bags of ice to treat the fever.
After handing a bag of ice to a girl with short, orange-red hair, Midoriya glanced around at the others. They were all busy with a student. With them occupied, it wasn't hard to ease over to the door and slip out undetected. Hopefully the cars hadn't gone too far. It had only been a few minutes after all, and getting everyone in was bound to have taken a couple of minutes at least.
Once outside, he spotted the black cars heading away from the resort. "Good. They aren't too far ahead of me. Now comes the hard part…" The green haired teen concentrated hard and willed One for All's power to flow throughout his whole body, and soon enough green energy had begun to spark around him. "If I can keep this up and run, I should be able to not fall behind." It was a risk to use One for All throughout his entire body, but that was the only way he could think of to keep up with the cars. Besides, he had controlled it back at the USJ, so he was sure he could do it now.
Geez, I wanted so much more to be in this chapter, but I also wanted to keep these chapters from reaching near four-thousand words for my own sake. But what a great place to leave off… again. Next chapter things'll really get interesting with Izuku trying to stay hidden from not only the guards but also the assassination classroom! Who knows, maybe he'll come in handy at some point. Until next time.