Irina Jelavic. Batman had briefed him about her when she first signed on as E-Class's 'English Teacher'.
An assassin with fourteen confirmed kills and twice that suspected, she was quite possibly the world's greatest honey trap. She was fluent in a dozen languages, a master of seduction, and sex to the point that she could turn even the most disciplined of men into walking sacks of hormones.
Christened 'Bitch-Sensei' by her students for reasons that became apparent within moments of meeting her, she was a surprisingly engaging teacher., if only for the sheer number of buzzwords she used. As it turned out, teenagers couldn't not pay attention to anyone who used the word 'sex' in every other sentence.
Or, so Wally was told at least. For the past three days, he'd spent her classes napping, thanking the fact that he was already fluent in English and that she didn't care enough to have him try learning something else.
Still, as he slept peacefully, his snoring kept in check by a pen cap stuck between his teeth, Karma watched him with a curious eye.
Bruises covered half his face. He hadn't said who was responsible, only that it was some enemies he'd made in D-Class. Karma wondered what exactly Wally had done to Class 3-D that they would keep after him like this.
It had been five days since the American's arrival and in that time he had made almost a dozen attempts on Koro-Sensei's life. While this wasn't exactly a surprise, given the nature of the classroom, what was shocking was the fact Karma knew well and true that Wally had spoken to just about every single one of his classmates by now, gathering stories and anecdotes about their own attempts.
And yet, despite this, Wally's M.O. had barely shifted in the slightest since his first day.
He had spoken to Okuda in depth about acids and the chemical properties of the Anti-Koro-Sensei materials. He had drawn out tales of hand grenades and kamikaze attacks. Stories of ambushes, firing squads and even toxic Henna paint were all carefully absorbed...
And yet he limited himself to the knife and the handgun. He attacked from behind or the side or even head on at his desk and never for even a nanosecond was anyone in the class concerned that he'd take their bounty away from them. He'd learned nothing.
Karma looked up, away from his neighbour. His eyes briefly scanned the blackboard to be sure Bitch-Sensei hadn't yet said anything of interest, before resting on Nagisa.
Wally had never followed through on his promise to 'kick his ass', as Nagisa had warned him. He had called him a dick, but Karma fully embraced such descriptions.
In any case, Karma suspected that there was no way in hell Wally could 'kick his ass'. His showings at Karasuma-Sensei's lessons for the past few days had been pitiful. The boy made Takebayashi look graceful.
It was kinda pathetic.
It was so pathetic. This whole mission was driving him insane.
Wally could feel himself starting to crack. It just didn't make any sense. None of it made any sense!
Lovecraftian abomination threatening the world at large? Perfectly normal. Lovecraftian abomination threatening the world at large and using that as leverage to get a teaching position? A little odd, sure. But Wally had seen stranger things in this world.
But this school? This was a place of education and learning?
'Kill me now,' Wally silently wished as he braced himself for the punch he knew was coming.
He could've avoided it. A little trick with his speed and he could even make it look like dumb luck. A trip over a convenient rock or a stumble at just the right time. Nobody would ever suspect he was anything more than he appeared... but it was better to save such things for an actual emergency. Just to keep people from getting suspicious.
So he took the hit, rolling with force of the impact to soften the blow.
His attackers were from Class 3-D. He knew them, sort of. He's not sure if he doesn't remember their names or if he never knew them in the first place, but he does know their faces. They were some of the lowest ranked students in D-Class, mere inches away from being sent to E-Class themselves. But they were still D-Class. Still most definitely not E-Class.
It was weird how important that distinction was. It was weird how hung up this school was on grades. Wally had found when he'd first arrived that his teachers were willing to forgive anything he did because his test scores were near perfect.
Disruptive pranks? Forgiven. Laughed at, even. Pick a fight? The other kid got suspended.
It wasn't until he let his grades slip that his teachers began to warn him. Began to tell him off or lecture him. Suddenly the people he was messing with had better grades than him.
It was a joke.
Although, losing all respect for the school had made it easier to give himself over to the role of the delinquent. It took two weeks before Wally was in B-Class. Another week before he was sent to Class 3-C and he was in D-Class within another three days.
And now he was in E-Class. And not just any 'End of the Line' loser like his classmates. No, he was one who'd picked a fight with the kids in A-Class and the kids in D and everybody in between on his way down. And everyone knew that now he couldn't fight back against a 'superior'.
It was simple, really. The only thing the school could threaten him with now was expulsion. Wally couldn't afford an expulsion, and the other students picked up on that hesitance pretty quick now that he was at the bottom of the school's barrel.
So, here he was. Being pummeled by a couple of teenagers he could take with his hands tied.
The first punch knocked him back, but it was the second that sent him to the ground. Wally didn't fight back at that point. He just curled up into a ball and let them kick until they were bored.
They were saying something. 'Stupid'. 'Arrogant'. 'Worthless'. Wally stopped paying attention. The pain was an easy thing to focus on. A perfect distraction.
He'd taken worse beatings before. These were just some punk teenagers after all. Compared to Blockbuster or Amazo these were nothing. Hell, he'd taken worse hits sparring with Robin.
This was for the mission. It would make him look weaker to Koro-Sensei. It would make sure he remained underestimated. So he'd suck it up and let it happen.
Koro-Sensei was beginning to fret. Wally just wasn't advancing the way he should've been.
Oh, his grades were fine. Or, at least, they wouldn't be a problem for long. Despite his most recent test results, Wally was perfectly capable of answering any question thrown at him, leading Koro-Sensei to believe that his problems lay in a lack of interest. In fact, Koro-Sensei was currently working on a personalized curriculum that would better suit the boy's advanced intellect. Hopefully that would challenge him enough to really engage him.
He was socializing well enough as well. It seemed that he'd made fast friends with Nagisa and was quickly developing a friendly-ish rivalry with Karma. He talked to Okuda about all things chemical. He seemed a little put off by Ritsu, but Koro-Sensei figured that he just needed to get used to the poor girl.
And yet, as Koro-Sensei worked his way around the classroom, his eyes were drawn to the young American. Slumped over at his desk, a mass of bruises covering half his face...
Koro-Sensei felt a familiar desire to annihilate the remainder of Kunugigaoka Junior High School's third year students. With careful breathing, Koro-Sensei delayed that urge.
It was likely pure chance that Wally looked up when he did. Certainly, he wasn't paying attention to Koro-Sensei's lecture on Newtonian physics. But, for the briefest of moments, student and teacher's eyes met...
Koro-Sensei's gaze was cool and challenging, waiting for his student to make a move. But Wally looked down rather than maintain the competition, a soft frown at his lips.
Koro-Sensei withheld the urge to sigh. It seemed as though his newest student was giving up all too quickly. After his repeated failures to kill his teacher and his recent altercations with his former classmates, his pride must've been damaged far greater than Koro-Sensei had assumed.
But perhaps this could be a good thing... Koro-Sensei had scrutinized every detail of Wally's transcripts and had came to a simple conclusion. He could be doing so much more with his intelligence but, by the notes of his past teachers, Wally put in the barest efforts with his schoolwork, rarely participating in class discussions or activities. Never taking the initiative or involving himself with clubs.
He was coasting on his natural intellect, of this Koro-Sensei was certain. Wally had yet to meet an obstacle that could sufficiently challenge him and so had never learned the need to truly work towards his goals. So, now that he had been tasked with the killing of his teacher, the idea that he couldn't must be getting to him.
His thoughts turning to ways he could push his wayward student out of this little funk, Koro-Sensei continued his discussion, still making his rounds of the class. And it was as he began to pass by Karma, only just leaving Wally behind him, that he felt a disturbance in the air.
A grin formed on his lips that only Takehara and Karma could see. It seemed Wally still had a little fight in him after all. Good... his tentacle moved to intercept Wally's knife, his back still turned to him. This would be-
Koro-Sensei's eyes widened when he felt the tip of a knife penetrating his back.
Wally would never have thought that stabbing someone could be a pleasant experience. And, as he slid the knife into his teacher's back, he knew with conviction that for him it never would be.
It was satisfying though. To have seen Koro-Sensei's tentacle begin to move far too late, the knife already about to hit home where the heart lay. Too far gone to be stopped.
Twisting reflexively as the weapon continued on its path, Koro-Sensei was able to divert the blade from his heart... barely.
Pain screamed through his body as the knife was ripped from his flesh. His attacker was about to finish the job.
Only now Koro-Sensei knew. Three tentacles made to intercept this time as Koro-Sensei span around to face his assassin, but two were cut from him before he could turn, the third hastily withdrawn as he bit down on his pain.
And Koro-Sensei saw.
Karma exclaimed something in his shock. Other students turned to get a look at the commotion. Koro-Sensei didn't pay them a moment's notice.
Because Wally was standing tall before his desk, his anti-Koro-Sensei knife in his hand, and lunging in to stab him again, his form perfect andmoving faster than Koro-Sensei had thought possible of the boy. Moving faster than Koro-Sensei had thought of anyone this side of the Pacific.
He reared back, lashing all of his tentacles before him to intercept, but Wally proved faster. He severed another two tentacles and ducked around the rest, twisting and turning around the onslaught with more grace than even Hinata, the class's star gymnast, could claim.
And then he was stabbing again, Koro-Sensei's own speed being the only thing that saved him. He moved just enough, sending the knife into his gut rather than his heart.
There was no scream or even a grunt from the pain. Koro-Sensei ignored it as his singular focus for the moment was his survival. Wally was fast. Faster than Itona and faster than him, especially now that he was wasting precious energy regenerating four limbs.
The only being he'd seen that was this fast had been... huh. Then that meant Wally was...?
Suspicions and conjecture were banished from his mind. He could think of Wally's true identity when he wasn't being stabbed at.
Koro-Sensei had lost the advantage of his speed... His tentacles served only as a base distraction, but still he lashed all of his remaining limbs forward, wincing each time as another fell to the floor, severed from his body.
But by the time Wally passed through the web Koro-Sensei had weaved, he had taken to the air. Confined as he was by the classroom- it simply wouldn't do for him to leave his students unattended- he could only pin himself to the ceiling. But that still put him out of Wally's reach. Speed didn't matter all that much when you couldn't touch your target.
Not that gravity seemed to pose much of a problem for young Wally, as Koro-Sensei soon discovered.
He saw Wally dissolve into a blur of grey and red, racing to and then up the wall, before kicking off and shooting for his target like a bullet from a gun.
Koro-Sensei had neither the time nor the presence of mind to react and Wally managed to connect a hit, but Wally's strike was mistimed and the knife went wide. The hit turned into a tackle in mid-air as Wally tried to drag Koro-Sensei back down to Earth.
He succeeded, Wally's unexpected weight causing Koro-Sensei to drop, the pair of them crashing down onto Chiba's desk and bouncing from there to the floor, Wally landing hard on top of Koro-Sensei.
Lying dazed and prone on the ground, half of his tentacles severed and regenerating far too slowly for his liking, Koro-Sensei knew he was in real trouble. Wally sat astride him, rearing back his knife for the coup de grâce.
As the knife came down, Koro-Sensei's body shot off with a blast of light.
Wally flinched back, the burst of light blinding him and followed immediately by a shockwave that threw him back, all as Koro-Sensei's mass disappeared from beneath him. He tumbled to the floor, the knife flying from his grip as he hit the ground, his head slamming into the floorboards and triggering a burst of stars behind his eyes.
There were mumbles and moans from the rest of the class, the sound of crackling glass and splintering wood, but Wally didn't hear them as he twisted and lurched to get his feet back underneath him.
And then he saw. A translucent sphere the size of a baseball sat where Koro-Sensei's body had been. That emoticon of a face, with that smug smile of his, resting within.
Wally reached for the knife that had flown beneath Chiba's desk and lunged forward in the same motion, stabbing down on Koro-Sensei's new form, only for the blade to turn away with nary a scratch.
He tried again and again, but the sphere was too smooth for the knife to gain any purchase and the knife was unable to penetrate, sliding off each and every time.
The thunderous 'crack' of a gun went off, startling the class and freezing Wally in place, drawing attention to Ritsu, who had a single pistol extended from her chassis and a frown on her pixelated lips.
A single pellet of Anti-Koro-Sensei material rolled away from the sphere.
"Test shot fired," she reported robotically, expressing shock and disappointment despite her cybernetic nature. "Direct hit. Target proves impervious to bullets and blades. He is now completely immune to Anti-Koro-Sensei material."
"No," Wally hissed as he returned to his fruitless assault. "Nononononoo..."
"Koro-Sensei...?" It was Nagisa who was the first to regain themselves. "What is this?"
"This is my Ultimate Defensive Form," Koro-Sensei revealed, smug pride clear in his tone. "Congratulations, Wally. Not even the Justice League was able to force me to use this, my last of last resorts."
The words were genuine. Koro-Sensei was truly impressed. Wally kept stabbing.
He went on to explain the particulars of his ability to the class. That he had condensed and crystalized his body in order to create a truly invincible form.
"What a well done assassination attempt," Koro-Sensei beamed, heaping praise on his stunned student. "Making yourself appear so completely harmless until you could strike... I really had no idea you were hiding such formidable abilities. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on you from now on."
"Shut up and die," Wally stabbed again, the knife sliding off of Koro-Sensei and bouncing into the floorboards. Wally released his grip and let the knife drop.
"No need to be rude," Koro-Sensei huffed. "But it's no use. Like this, I am completely indestructible for 24 hours. Even if I can't move, there's no way you'll ever defeat me."
There was silence from the students, broken only by Wally breathing. His face was red and he was breathing hard, his shoulders shaking. He'd put his all into that assault and it had come to nothing.
Very slowly, Wally got to his feet. Picking up Koro-Sensei in one hand, he took a single step before leaving him to stand on Okuda's desk.
Taking a single haggard breath as he calmed himself, Wally looked the girl dead in the eyes.
"Okuda," he said simply. Monotonously. "Koro-Sensei is now immune to the knives the government gave us. Whatever he did to himself, it changed his chemical composition. So, everything you've tried on him before, try it again. And then try everything else. He might've made himself vulnerable."
Again, silence had settled in the class. This time it was broken by Koro-Sensei.
"Hey now, there's no need for any of that," he spoke quickly. "I can assure you all that in this form I am completely invulnerable. Absolutely nothing on this planet can harm me at all. Not even a nuclear bomb would leave a scratch!"
"I... I'll try," Okuda promised. Koro-Sensei was ignored.
"Great," Wally nodded, before turning to his next target. "Karma."
The other redhead quirked his brow, inviting the American to continue.
"Go to the Chem Lab in the main campus," he ordered. "Take as many people as you need. Get Okuda anything she asks for. Don't let anyone stop you."
"Wait, wait," Koro-Sensei was starting to look concerned now. "Really now. Class is still in session and you have exams coming up. We really don't have time to be wasting with this pointless-"
"You got it, Wally," Karma nodded, pushing his seat back as he stood with the languid grace that was characteristic of him. "Isogai, Kataoka, Takebayashi... let's go."
"Everyone else," Wally looked around, meeting as many eyes as he could. His voice filled with a determination that they had not thought a part of him. "Koro-Sensei is trapped. He is at our mercy. Hit him. Stab him. Shoot him. Rattle him. Smash him with a hammer. Try everything you can think of. And then try it again. Get Karasuma-Sensei. Use real bullets. Real weapons. Show him a dirty magazine. Try and drown him. If you have an idea but don't have the equipment, call me and I will get it for you."
"Wait, hold up," Nakamura halted the proceedings. "What's... West-san. Who... what are you?"
As the eyes again turned to him, Wally gave the question some thought. It's not like telling them would make the situation any worse. With information so readily available, Wally was sure half the class already suspected and the rest would know for sure by tomorrow. But, he found, his identity wasn't really all that important.
'Kid Flash' had little to do with what was going on in this classroom anyway. Superheroes don't get sent in for assassinations.
"I'm a student of Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High School," he stated simply. "And I am trying to assassinate my teacher."
"We have 24 hours," he reminded them. Frowning, he checked his watch and corrected himself. "We have 23 hours, 56 minutes. This might be our best chance. Our only chance. So try anything. Try everything."
And without another word, Wally was gone, leaving only a harsh wind in his wake that tugged at the hair and the clothing of all in its path.
Author's Note: So, as I'm sure a lot of you already guessed, Wally's first 'real' assassination attempt hasn't exactly gone according to plan. Let me know what you think of it all!