Chapter Fifty-Four
"Sorry to rain on your parade, but I'm against it." They all turned to Nakamura who has her arms crossed. "Our bond is that of assassins and target. That's what our dear ol' teacher said. And that bond that we've been building over the past year is precious to me. And that's why I think we have to kill him."
Terasaka, Muramatsu and Yoshida stood up while Itona fell from the tree he was perched from, backing up Nakamura.
"Sure, you wanna save him, but how are you actually gonna do it?" Terasaka asked. "I'd be one thing if we had the knowledge of how that Octopus was created from scratch. But even our science freaks, Okuda nd Takebayashi are only about College-level."
"B-But-"
"C'mon, Nagisa." Yoshida called out the teal-head. "You're not the only one who's tried thinking of saving him."
"And besides, even if we started looking for a way to save him bow, what would we do if time truns out before we find one?" Muramatsu added. "What we need right now is the power to assassinate. If we let our time pass by without using it, we's just be welcoming the time limit."
"Do you really think that Octopus would be happy with such a half-assed ending and half-assed students?" Terasaka added.
Kaede looked nervously between those who agreed to save Koro-sensei and those who agreed with Nakamura's opinion. Although she had heard from Tsuna that the decision of the class would be divided, she didn't expect that it would hit this hard.
For the past days she has been in the hospital, Tsuna and Koro-sensei started to give her company every available time the two have in their schedule. It's something she appreciates since it has been nearly a year since she lost her sister, and at some point, she could feel a mutual understanding with Koro-sensei in regard of how they could commemorate her sister's memories.
Her eyes went to Tsuna who has been at the side. She noticed how the brunet looked around awhile ago, as the last person to arrive and made a straight beeline to a specific tree and stayed there since. And now that he noticed it, that straight line became a boundary between them and Nakamura's side. It's as if he was staying on neutral ground again, like when Koro-sensei told them the truth by the grassy field, at the back of the Kunugigaoka park.
She wonders what he'd do. What group he'd take the side.
"But we can at least consider it-"
"People with talent often fall into the trap of thinking everything's going to work out how they want it to."
Their eyes went to Karma who was standing at Nagisa's back. The only one time he's not on Tsuna's side.
"So, Nagisa. How's about you step back and think about this calmly, yeah?" Karma added with his usual smile.
"What?" Nagisa uttered, surprised.
"You have the best assassination skill in all of Class E, right?" Karma observed as he started to walk closer. "And you're saying we should just stop our assassination? The rest of us have desperately work to kill him despite our lack of talent, and you're just walking all over us. For example, it's like when a popular lady tells her ugly friends, 'Like, let's stop being desperate when we look for guys, okay?'. That's you right now."
"Well," Nagisa went apologetic. "that's not what I meant. First of all, I don't have the best assassination skill, it's always been you-"
"Hearing you say that just pisses me off even more." Karma said, face already frowning. "Seeing as you're the best, maybe you just can't understand the sentiments of the weak?"
"No!" Nagisa denied vehemently, taking them by surprise. "That's not at all! I'm just showing my honest feelings! Karma, don't you care about Koro-sensei?! We had so much fun with him! Like when we went to movies together!"
"Listen to me!" Karma cuts off. "That Octopus has been working hard to make a fun classroom that wouldn't churn out idiots like you! If we let our bloodlust get dull, this classroom is nothing! Don't you get what his efforts were for?! Is your head as much a child's as your body?!"
Every one of them tensed up when they saw how Nagisa's demeanor changed so suddenly. Kaede's eyes went to Tsuna who was already being talked to by Kanzaki.
"Huh? What's with that look?" Karma said, his face went to a vicious one, with a predatory smile. "Is the little chihuahua trying to turn on the humans?"
"I just-"
They gasped when Karma pushed Nagisa's shoulder.
"If you've got a complaint, you can tell me after you beat me in a fight." Karma jeered, and pushed the other again.
"Hey Karma." Some tried to appease but the redhead pushed Nagisa's again.
"Let's go. Come at me." Karma tried to urge and pushed Nagisa again. "Come on. Come on."
Then it happened so quickly. Karma reached out for Nagisa's necktie, and suddenly, Nagisa had his hands on Karma's arms with all of his feet wrapped around Karma's shoulders, trapping the redhead's outreached arm and head. Then as if pulling Karma down, Nagisa fell on his back, taking the redhead in a painful bend.
"When did Nagisa pick up those moves?!" Fuwa questioned to them.
"Karasuma-sensei has been teaching self-defense techniques to those who are interested." Kimura answered. "So that way, we can put up a fight if some other hitman tries to hold us hostage."
"Same here! My feelings aren't half-assed either!" Nagisa yelled. "If brute force is what it takes to make you listen then-!"
"But still," Kimura worded as Karma lifted Nagisa off the ground. "I can't believe he can still hold his own against Karma in a hand-to-hand fight."
"You little-"
Just when the boys moved to part the two, Tsuna suddenly appeared and kicked the back of Karma's left leg. The redhead staggered. Then hand snapped like a snake, the brunet hit Nagisa's leg then the shoulder. The bluenet shouted when he was about to fall. Isogai and Maehara went to Karma immediately while Sugino took Nagisa.
"Tsuna-"
"Wait." The brunet said while the two struggled to get on each other. He took good grips on the two's hair and pulled them back with it. The two stared at Tsuna for a second before the latter moved. "Here we go-!"
Bam!
All of them gaped while Sugino, Maehara and Isogai almost lost their grips on the groaning two out of surprise. Tsuna crouched down when the two fell on their knees, clutching their pained foreheads. It's almost comical if they weren't talking about a serious thing.
"What? Another?" The brunet asked, eyes going to Nagisa and Karma who are trying to ease the pain with their hands. "I mean, it's fun smashing your heads together."
"You cracked their heads, Tsuna." Sugino laughed nervously.
"If I did, they won't be groaning and we'll be rushing to the hospital." The brunet waved off, waiting for the two. "What do you think we should do with this divided faction, Sensei?"
"A fight between Junior High students is splended!" They all turned to Koro-sensei who is wearing this military officer clothes with guns in both hands and a smoking pipe between his teeth while grinning. "But our class began with assassination. So why not decide things with these weapons?"
Kaede didn't try understanding what's running on Tsuna's and Koro-sensei's heads.
Tsuna sat on one of the logs as he watched Koro-sensei explain what he had in mind in regards to the fight between the two groups.
Koro-sensei had told him about it that evening. A capture the flag survival game where they would use the mountain terrain as the playground. The class was provided with their guns, paint bullets, anti-sensei knives stocked in ink, and team's flags and armbands. They were in two different colors: Blue for those who wanted to save him and red for those who wanted to continue assassinate him. Getting hit by the opponent's color was considered death. One team would win if all the opposing team's members were killed, they were forced to surrender or they capture the hidden flag. The team's view would get accepted by the whole class.
All for the sake of the class that was about to fall apart.
"Are you going to take a side?" Daemon, who was sitting on his laps again, asked after Koro-sensei ended his instruction.
Tsuna leaned back to the tree behind him. "Who knows."
"That's a bummer." Daemon commented. "I was hoping to see some actions."
"Yeah." He chuckled, tightening his hug on the ancient Vongola mist. "What a bummer."
"Well?" Isogai called out to the class. Their classmates nodded. The male class representative nodded as well. "Okay. We'll fight to decide whether or not we kill him."
"Okay. Then I'll choose my side first." Chiba said as he and Hayami walked towards the two boxes. "I think we could grow up because we did our best by searching for sure kill hits. Because someone or something raised us, and I don't want to avert my eyes from him."
"Therefore," Hayami started to conclude. Both took red jars of paint bullets and sniper guns. "I want to continue the assassination." And they walked away.
"I... Regret the fact that I tried to kill Koro-sensei." Kaede started off as she walked for the crates. "'I want to live longer with this teacher.' Probably it is because we are sisters that we think in the same way. Therefore, I want to protect Koro-sensei." And she took a blue jar of paint bullets.
Nagisa obviously sighed in relief.
Those who have gave their opinions of killing Koro-sensei awhile ago took their respective choice of weapons and red paint bullets. It was the same with those who wanted to save Koro-sensei, taking their blue paint bullets.
Ryouma, Takuya and Taisei looked back to him when they took their weapons and paint bullets. The brunet gave a wave. It made the three ease up largely.
"The power of Chemistry is infinite!" Okuda zealously reasoned as she took a blue-painted bullets. "If it can break things then it can heal them!"
"Furthermore, if it's not like we have zero chances of success. We can try it out if we act together." Takebayashi added, taking his own weapon as well.
"We craftmanship consider the assassination itself as our graduation work." Sousuke said after taking a knife with red paint and brandished it, making a Koro-sensei emoji on Mimura's open sketchpad.
"If he has to die just because he runs out of time, then we want to show our last masterpiece to Koro-sensei." Okajima continued.
"Sorry, Tsuna." Sousuke heads up on him.
He waved a hand. "No problem."
"Koro-sensei, you said that I should become an assassin worth of my name, Justice, right?" Kimura verified while taking two twin guns from the red crate. "Then I will follow your advice."
"I want to continue asking for your advices forever." Kanzaki smiled angelically while taking an AK from the blue box.
"That looked so wrong." Tsuna winced, earning laughter from Daemon who sees Kanzaki as a mist.
"Just thinking about what is more important between the life of the people on Earth and the life of your benefactor is exhausting." Hazama worded and took a red painted knife. "Let's stop this drag and kill you." And she walked for Ryouma who are standing in a corner with the other red.
"I just want to be honest with my feelings." Yada voiced in melancholy after taking a blue-painted bullets. "Is something wrong with that?"
"There's nothing wrong with that." Maehara assured to Yada as he and Isogai walked for the blue crate as well. He gave a small punch to his best friend's shoulder. "The both of us are simple guys. We will help him just because we want to. Ok?"
"Yeah." Isogai seconded with a smile. "But I also respect how everyone feels about this." And both took their own weapons before joining the blue others.
"I'm simple as well." Itona declared and stood by the red crate. "I came to this class to kill him. I met you all because I wanted to kill him." He took a gun. "I enjoy my everyday life where I try to kill Koro-sensei. And the reason is because I enjoy it and that's all." He went and gazed at Tsuna who waved Daemon's hand. "Sorry, Tsuna."
"No hard feelings." He assured and glanced at Koro-sensei who smiled at him as well.
"The top priority mission they gave me is to kill Koro-sensei." Ritsu voiced, looking down to her hand. "By continuing to think and act in order to kill him, I have finally realized that his death would be great loss to us all." Then she suddenly transitioned, curling on herself with a small apologetic smile. "It is too soon for my specs to calculate if it is right to kill him or not. I will stand neutral and cooperate with both the factions."
Brown eyes went for Okano who went straight for Koro-sensei, looking at him with uncertainty. "I thought about joining the not kill faction until a moment ago, but I cannot make my decision after listening to everyone's reason. Koro-sensei, you will not hate us if we kill you, right?"
"I will never do such a thing, Okano-san." Koro-sensei responded with a soft smile. "It is during assassination that I feel that you are the closest to me."
"Then," She took a jar of red bullets and a knife, after that she turned to Nagisa. "I'm sorry, Nagisa. They are the one closest to my feelings."
Nagisa smiled understandingly. "Ok." Then perked up and turned to the crate. "Well, then, let me take the blue as well."
Tsuna chuckled when Karma, who was quietly taking his own red paint bullets and guns, and Nagisa, who was about to get his own weapons, got to stare at each other. It took a second before the two sharply turned away.
"Well then, now, everyone has chosen his faction." Koro-sensei announced.
"Not yet." Nakamura said before nodding to the brunet's way. "Tsuna hasn't taken sides yet."
Koro-sensei turned to him and grimaced. "I'm not really sure..."
"Tsuna will come to the blue team." Nagisa voiced. "He has been trying to keep Koro-sensei safe before we decided this."
"Or he could be with us." Karma contradicted, glaring at the bluenet who glared back. "Tsuna values effort, and he knows Koro-sensei's efforts to make this assassination classroom."
"But Tsuna-kun never actively tried to assassinate Sensei." Kurahashi added on Nagisa's point. "He only guns him down when necessary."
"And he has the assassination skill that can kill Koro-sensei effectively." Chiba argues.
"I'm going for a neutral ground." He said as he stood up, letting go of Daemon who disappeared instantly.
"But Tsuna-"
"In all honesty, my skills don't match yours." He sighed. He scanned the surprised expressions. "We all know that. And it keeps getting honed with our assassination classroom. I could join the red faction because I think I can have fun playing with Koro-sensei. Not generally killing him. However, I could join the blue faction since I already have a plan on how to save him as well."
"You can't just say it like that, Tsuna." Ryouma argued. "You barely show off, so we don't know if you really that skilled as you say-"
All of a sudden, five people yelped in pain.
"That was five shots in a second, Tsuna-kun." They all heard Ritsu say. "A new record again."
"Two hundred millisecond for one bullet." The brunet scrunched his face in a small disappointment. "I need to get faster."
"We could arrange another study session on how to make it seven." Ritsu offered. "This will be great as well."
(Sawada facts no. Sixty-two: He can shot five bullets in one second.)
"That's not-"
The class gasped when three anti-sensei whizzed past Ryouma. Out of three, two embedded themselves on a tree and another gave the teen a small cut on his cheeks before it joined the others. Ryouma touched his stinging cheek and felt the small blood, eyes wide at what just happened.
"We can do this all day. We can even try and brawl here if Koro-sensei permits." Tsuna stated. "The faction I will join won't even need to move when I take all of the opposing side out. Or I could take you all out when the game starts so I could stand victorious at the end alone. I mean, traitors aren't that uncommon in a group. Especially narcissist ones." Then he shrugged.
"Tsuna-kun! That's not right!" Koro-sensei admonished comically. "You have to do leadership and cooperate with the group. You can't just betray your friends!"
"But that's not betrayal." The brunet pointed out. "That's another faction. Besides, even if the kill faction does win, I'll still save you. Not like they can stop me if I suddenly kidnap you one day and suddenly come back in your old body. Cured and very much alive." He turned and walked away. "If there is someone I want to kill, that will be Yanagisawa and your bastard of an apprentice. So yeah, I'll stand on the neutral ground."
Koro-sensei facepalmed. "Tsuna-kun, you'll appear bad to your classmates."
"Oh?" The brunet halted and looked back. He let his bloodlust out, and watched as they choked and stepped back. "Do you want to fight that? Cause I won't hesitate obliterating all of you and get what I want. I'm only being lenient with the class because I respect what you want, Koro-sensei. But we have a deal. If I get the cure and I do cure you, you will grant me three wishes. If I can't and you die, I will grant you three dying man's wishes. That's all I'm doing and focusing. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have jobs to get into today. Just call me up if Nagisa and Karma reconcile or something. Sorry about the wound, Ryouma."
They watched him go and disappear from their view.
"T-That was scary..." Yada gasped. "Tsuna-kun has been hiding that?"
"That was accumulated since grade school until now." Kimura sighed. "And I can't refute what he said that our skills aren't on the same level as his. Tsuna has been quiet, but Ritsu did say awhile ago that he likes to train. He did a lot of things that none of us could. He knows the mountain like the back of his hand and he moves when he wants to. None of us can take him on. Even Karma and Nagisa got their lumps because of him."
(* Sawada facts no. Sixty-one: He has massive and scary bloodlust in him.
* Sawada facts no. Sixty-two: He trains with Ritsu's guide.)
"Well, there is a reason why he was appointed as a yakuza boss." Karma uttered under his breath.
The class turned to him when he said those.
(Sawada facts no. Sixty-three: He became a yakuza boss!)
"Everyone, go and change to your combat P.E. uniforms." Koro-sensei urged, stopping them from asking more of what the redhead meant. "Knowing Ritsu-san, she'll connect Tsuna-kun to what will happen. Let's not disappoint him now."
"Koro-sensei," Fuwa called out, taking their attention. "he said you exchanged secrets, it means you know his too, right?"
"He knows mine before I could even tell him anything, Fuwa-san." Koro-sensei replied. "He knows who I am before I become as this. He knows who I am affiliated with when I was still God of Death. He already knows how to cure me as well. He's just waiting for a good way to get the data. All he's waiting is your decision over this. And that is what we are going to do."
(Sawada facts no. Fifty-nine: He knows Koro-sensei's past after trading it with his own. He knows Sensei's past even before he had traded his secret to gain it.)
The class looked at each other before they moved to their respective places. Tsuna's own story could wait. They have to do this now.
Tsuna looked up from the novel he's reading when he heard the door open. Itona, Nagisa, and Karma came in wearing their uniforms. The brunet immediately sat up as Daemon materialized with a first aid kit.
Itona went for the aisle while Karma and Nagisa went to their usual seats. He didn't say anything as he started to double check the injuries they inflected to themselves. Karma said Koro-sensei gave them first aid, but he missed some spots. He raised a brow at that, earning a small laugh from Nagisa. He did start to do the first aid again and put bandages on the marked ones.
When Itona came back with all this food, the three started to tell him what happened, completely forgetting that he was hearing everything from Ritsu's connection to his phone. They were really animated on what happened.
Blue team was led by Isogai while Karma led red team. When the battle started, Takebayashi was hit by Hayami while Kataoka was shot by Chiba who was a mountain away. (Chiba was like a math genius when it came to shooting from a long distance, while Hayami was good at balancing and kinetic motion.) Kanzaki was able to kill Chiba, Okajima, and Sousuke though, before getting 'murdered' by Karma himself. Karma, then, used Mimura's director's eye view to look at the other side's movements, blending nicely to that specific spot near Karasuma-sensei's standing point, while Ryouma's group was on defense by the boundary.
The redhead used Hazama to get in the blue territory and kill Fuwa and Sugino before getting out by Isogai. Okano took out Kurahashi, while Kimura took out Kaede who was going to 'avenge' Kurahashi. Both reds were killed by Hara and Maehara, who came up with a trap with Hara as the 'unsuspecting' prey. Sugino discovered Mimura's position on their territory with Okuda's help and killed him. Hayami took out Hara in the same process though.
While Ryouma's group with Nakamura tried to get blue team's flag, with Hayami's help who has Itona as a backup, the red was able to out Okuda and Isogai before Hayami got hit my Yada. Itona killed Yada though, before getting 'knifed down' by Maehara. Ryouma, Taisei, Takuya and Nakamura were killed by Nagisa on point blank. Nagisa was a genius to use Karasuma-sensei as a hiding spot, camouflaging with the referee. He was free to do anything he wanted under Isogai's orders, so he did. It all went down to Karma and Nagisa's showdown, just after the redhead killed Maehara who tried to sneak on him.
Karma surrendered after getting trapped in an arm triangle choke by Nagisa. He did so since he couldn't kill the bluenet with a knife, as the latter was weaponless. It would be unfair. With that, blue team won. The two reconciled as well after that.
Karasuma-sensei gave them a month to try and save Koro-sensei's life. The teacher stressed that Tsuna's plan was not an exemption to the time limit. All while trying to do an assassination as well since it's not just them who wanted to kill the yellow teacher. Like Koro-sensei's sentiments, Karasuma-sensei rather has them kill the homeroom teacher than someone else.
"You did say you already have a plan on how to save Koro-sensei." Nagisa said when they got to that topic. "Are you willing to share?"
"If you're up to how heavy it is." He shrugged after drinking some sparkling water. "I had to pull Daemon to guilt-strip Sensei to answer my theories over his cure. I know Koutarou and Manami want to do the Science stuffs, but I'll have one of the Arcobaleno to do it."
"What?!" The three gawked.
He nodded. "Koro-sensei knows this as well. I think he's expecting me to fail, or your mission to save him to fail. At least, if he thinks you fail, I'll show him that my plan didn't."
"Oh. I get it." Karma uttered; eyes wide. "It's logical to use our college-level efforts as a decoy to your main plan, since Koro-sensei will focus on helping us. In his least expected moment, you'll just pull him away or something, make him drink this chemical then send him back to his usual life with us. Besides, when you say Arcobaleno, we have to expect that they know a lot of things because they have been in their baby forms for years, and this Arcobaleno you'll want to solve this cure will have his frustration focus on a new case since you already have the solution they needed to go back to their old lives."
"It means," Itona turned to the two who realized what it indicates. "Once we get the cure, Tsuna will pass it to that Arcobaleno and we'll be going to Namimori in just a few days."
"We'll meet the Sawada Family and his brother's elements." Karma added.
"We'll finally get to know Reborn-san and the other people of the strongest seven. Also, the Simoun family." Nagisa furthered.
The three grinned widely and excited, which made Tsuna sweatdrop at their enthusiasm to run havoc in Namimori.