Assassination Classroom isn't mine obviously. So this chapter is done, it wasn't supposed to be nearly this long, but hey I have a hard time ending things. It took a lot longer than I had planned, I had wanted to get this out around Valentine's day since I had an idea for a one-shot for that time of the year, but Katsucon came and it was very distracting. I did have fun though and got to see Assassination Classroom cosplayers though so it was worth it I suppose. Just a warning when reading this chapter, a lot of it takes place at night, but the characters can sort of see each other well, I sort of applied the manga logic when it comes to nighttime, you can see almost as clear as if it was daytime, except when the plot actually says you can't. Also just so you know I was writing this chapter while chapter 128 came out so this ignores it, most chapters probably will, if you know what I'm talking about good, if not, than I won't be the one to spoil it for you.
It was the morning of February 28th, the last day of February and tomorrow is first day of March. The leaders of the world were panicking, after all the unstoppable monster than blew up 70% of the moon said he would do the same to the earth when March came. No one was sure if the creature meant as soon as the month started or if he was merely saying sometime in March he would do what he promised, but if it was the former than they are doomed and if it's the latter they don't have much time. All their preparations have failed, every hit man they hired had been sent back defeated, the only hope they had left was their biggest longshot, the target's assassination classroom.
Miles away from the assembly where the world leaders argued and panicked, somewhere in Japan, at the dormitories of Kunugigaoka Jr. High for Class 3-E was an even more stressed situation. While they were not running around screaming at each other the atmosphere was definitely heavier. It was quiet in the big room on the common floor, no one was talking, the only sounds were the clacking of those choosing to clean their weapons or the flipping of pages from the few who were passing the time reading books. The tension in the air was so thick and goopy you could cut it with an anti-Sensei knife. Everyone in the class was used to failing; they were after all the Class E for End classroom, but the stakes had never been this high before. For almost a year now they had been trained as assassins so that they could kill their teacher, but despite their best efforts and the best efforts of several professionals the octopus like teacher was still alive.
Any day now the world could end, despite the creatures' bubbly and personable demeanor, there wasn't a student in Class E that doubted Koro-Sensei would destroy the planet just as he had promised. He never breaks a promise after all. They already feel like failures, and while they don't think Koro-Sensei will destroy the planet the following day, he would have said something, the octopus was terrible at keeping secrets. But still, they had been training for months to kill their teacher and only a few times had they even come close to killing him. Granted, they have come closer than anyone in the government or army had, but close doesn't matter when it comes to assassinations, not if they didn't get it done.
They had one last big plan left, it wouldn't be ready for at least a week if they pushed it, they would need two if they wanted it to go perfectly, all that matter was if Koro-Sensei gave them enough time or not. They believe that their Sensei was a creature of his word, but they also believed that he loved the world just as much as they did and they were counting on him putting off his world destroying plans until the last moment. Still, this might be their last night on earth and some of the students were planning on trying to stop it while others were trying to spend it without regrets.
Everyone was trying to find something to do, something to pass the time while still using their time right. Some like Maehara were trying to make peace with their social contacts, the playboy was on his phone texting his various girlfriends apologizing for how he has been a jerk all these months and that he would apologize when he could but he would be out of contact for the next few weeks. Others, like Kanzaki where making peace with their parents, the Japanese ace was on the phone outside of the dorm apologizing to her father that he did not have the daughter that he wanted, but not for being who she was. Okajima was going around to each girl asking if they wanted to spend what could potentially be their last night on earth as virgins. He got yelled at and hit for his perviness, but no more than that since everyone knew he wasn't serious. He was just trying his luck even though he knew no one would take him up on his offer, but he still believed in the power of perversion in his heart so he knew he had to try. Sugino was out at one of the ball parks with some of his teammates from both Kunugigaoka and the city league playing a few games since he knew they might not get the chance again. Chiba and Hayami where outside despite the cold practicing on as many targets as they could, they knew their marksmenship skills would play a key role in their Sensei's death, they had to be sharp.
Kataoka, one of Class 3-E's leaders was checking her work on the final plan for the third time that hour. Everything was written on a special anti-Sensei scroll that they received from the defense office so that their teacher would have no chance to steal it and find out their plans before hand. Everything checked out, just like it had a thousand and one times that night but she didn't know what else to do. She wanted to slam her hands down on the table, but she knew that wouldn't look good in front of her… 'troops' after all they were professionals after all. Or at least that's what the world governments considered them to be as they heaped the blame on them for not dealing with Sensei already. The extra stress didn't help which Kataoka almost shouted a week ago at them when they brought Isogai and her before the counsel so they could chew the students out for their failures in killing Koro-Sensei so far. Luckily countless school council meetings with Asano and his father had prepared them for much more dangerous opponents than a room full of old men who cared more about their jobs than the world.
They threatened to pull their funding, to just blow up the school and deal with Koro-Sensei that way, but both of the class reps knew they were bluffing. They had already invested so much time and money into the assassination classroom; they couldn't stop so close to the deadline, they needed every option they had to kill Koro-Sensei. The pencil in Kataoka's hand snapped at the memory alone and the whole common room turned to stare at her and her face grew red from embarrassment and frustration.
Isogai, who had actually been distracted watching Kataoka for the past few hours from his part in the final trap, saw that she was reaching her limit. "Kataoka," he said walking over to her and breaking the silent stares, "I was going to do a perimeter sweep to make sure that everything is working right due to the cold. Two sets of eyes are better than one, could you come with me to make sure I don't screw up?"
Everyone knew Isogai was asking for Kataoka's sake since no one believed that an ikemen of his level could miss something, but they chose to pretend they weren't watching Kataoka. Sighing because she knew he was taking pity on her she agreed, "sure, let me just grab my coat," Kataoka said. 'I need a break from the papers and planning,' she rationalized to herself as she put on her coat, 'a walk with my cru-, fellow class rep might be good for me, especially with the night air.' She walked to the front of the dorm room where Isogai was waiting for her, that frustratingly handsome smile on his face irked her since she wasn't supposed to be letting him distract her. If they killed Koro-Sensei and she was the one to do it, she would ask Isogai out without fear and use the reward money to take him out on the best date of his life, but until then no distractions. Not even if he was so pretty despite having muscles you could see through his waistcoat and jacket.
"Shall we be off," he asked opening the door for her and somehow his smile seemed to grow even wider, while still being gentlemanly. If she was a stereotypical tsundere she would have called him a baka and punched him in the face, but since she wasn't, she just tried to smile back tired as she was and allowed him to be a gentleman. Someone wolf whistled behind them as they left, but despite Kataoka's head whipping around at speeds that would make Koro-Sensei jealous, she couldn't' tell who did it. She just gave the whole room the 'I'm watching you,' fingers before turning around and leaving with Isogai who looked like he was about to crack up. "Shut up," she told him embarrassed before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him outside with her.
The air outside was crisp but not cold, they were lucky that it hadn't snowed and wasn't supposed to for a long time. You would think with Koro-Sensei's weakness to water that a winter storm would be good for them, but no one liked the cold human or octopus monster. Besides, the wind and snow made it harder for even Chiba and Hayami to draw a bead on something as fast moving as Koro-Sensei. The two class reps examined all the traps, making sure they were marked so that their fellow students could tell where they were, but subtly enough that Koro-Sensei wouldn't be able to. The traps were more a distraction, much like their two cages on the island, to lead the world destroyer to the main area where Karma, Maehara, Hinata, Kataoka, and Isogai, the best knife users in the class were waiting for him. They were to engage him in the designated areas underneath the trees which at that time would be covered in nets made from anti-Sensei they salvaged from Shiro's attempts to kill Sensei. Above that battlefield, anti-Sensei BB's would rain down as the battle specialists engaged hampering his movements so that hopefully the knife wielders would be able to at least get a few tentacles to slow him down. When the shower of pellets stop the knife wielders would back off so that the firing squad could do their job, and from all directions they would open fire while Chiba and Hayami were waiting in reserve like before to deal the finishing blow.
The Adult Game Protagonist and the Tsundere Sniper had been pulling double duty with their markmenship practice and physical exercises so they could work up a sweat. Due to Sensei's sense of smell, it would be hard to hide in the forest as opposed to the ocean where they had previously cornered him. So instead of trying to disguise or erase their scent, they decided that they would do what they did on the island, only a much larger scale. They would have dozens of uniforms with their scents on them, they were to wear at least three different uniforms a day to saturate them with their scents. Other students would be wearing them along with several automatic turrets Karasuma-Sensei had been able to get the military to lend them and they would fire from all angles while the final two aim to kill. They had other tricks to make sure that it wouldn't fail, and Karasuma-Sensei's contacts in the military had several different rocks that could be launched into the sun if they failed and Koro-Sensei went into his Ultimate Defense Mode. It wasn't the perfect plan, but it was the best they could come up with since everything else failed.
"So how's it going," Isogai said trying to make conversation with his crush.
"Stressed," she said tersely, but then her face managed to smile, "but I'll admit that this helps, thank you Isogai."
"I didn't do anything," Isogai swore, "I just needed help."
"Well you know Ikemegu is best when she's helping others," she said making a muscle to show off.
The two of them laughed a bit as they continued on, "you know that you don't have to do everything and help everybody if you don't want to," Isogai mentioned not wanting to upset her.
"The same could be said about you Isogai," Kataoka said with a challenging smirk, "you don't have to help everyone or do everything yourself, but you still do. Anyone could have made the rounds, it didn't have to be you, but still, you volunteered, why?"
They eventually reached the shooting range, the last area they had to check, as they talked. The trap wasn't supposed to go through there, but they still had small traps to scare away Sensei, they couldn't be too cautious anymore. "I volunteered because I saw you were about to blow and thought maybe taking a walk with me would be the marginally better option than going over the same plans you've been going over all night."
Part of her wanted to yell at him for saying something so stupid, but she wasn't really tsundere though her face was red. "Maybe a little better," she grudgingly, "I just want to make sure that everything's perfect, because if not…" she let her words hang not wanting to say them out loud.
"Hey, look at me," Isogai said gently placing his hands on her shoulders and made her face him, "it's going to be okay," he said. For some reason, despite what he was saying being completely impossible, she believed him. "Besides, if the world does end tomorrow, or the next day, or a two weeks from now, then shouldn't we be doing something we really enjoy?"
"Oh and taking a walk with me in the middle of the night in the winter while we check the traps to kill our teacher who might blow up the world is something you enjoy. Something that you'd like to do if this was your last day on earth," she asked. She was worried that it could have sounded rude, but Kataoka had tried not to sound frustrated, she meant to sound like she was teasing him.
"Well," he said quickly after giving it some thought, "I mean it could be warmer and I wish we didn't have to check on death traps, but yeah, I wouldn't mind."
A crimson blush crept on her face, but before she could say something they heard a branch snap and they immediately turned their heads. Behind them, were Hayami and Chiba, who were holding hands. The three of them just stared at each other quietly as if waiting for one of the others to say something.
"…S-so what are the two of you doing out here," Hayami asked trying to break the awkward silence.
"C-checking the traps for our final move against Koro-Sensei," Kataoka replied equally nervous, but now that the silence was broken she felt compelled to explain. "What are the two of you doing out here," which sounded stupid even to her since she knew what they were doing since they were at the firing range after all. Though her eyes didn't leave their still interlocked hands.
Hayami followed where Kataoka's line of sight went and saw what she was staring at, her face went red, but surprisingly she smiled when she looked back. "We were just out practicing for the big day, making sure things like the cold doesn't interfere with our aim or the condition of our guns," she said evenly.
"It looks to be a bit more than that," Kataoka mused, she didn't want to be nosy or anything, but a romantic development between Class-E's two snipers was juicy gossip and the female class rep was only human. Technically as the class rep she was supposed to get on their case about romantic relationships getting in the way of their school work or something that's normally shown in manga, but she was really just happy for her classmates.
"I-it's not-," Chiba started, but then stopped as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. He didn't want to say that it wasn't like that since it was exactly like that. The boy with the blinding bangs had confessed his feelings to Rinka a little while ago, and to his shock and pleasure she said she felt the same way about him. Part of him wanted to deny it since he didn't like attention and knew if he confirmed what Kataoka was getting at then rumors would spread through their class and their relationship that was just starting would be at the forefront of everything. But another more sensible part didn't want to deny what was going on between him and his new girlfriend, (he had asked her to be and she said yes and they had made out for a few moments, Rinka had been the one to initiate), especially since it would hurt Rinka if he denied what they were. He'd rather spend his whole life in the old Class-E than hurt her. "It's not completely incorrect to say that," he said awkwardly since he didn't know where to find the secret life cheat that would allow him to skip this conversation and just go back to hanging out with Rinka.
Luckily for Chiba, his Tsundere Sniper was far less of a tsundere than the class assumed and cooed at his awkwardness. Reaching up to his chin she pulled him down for a quick peck on the lips, not caring if they had an audience. Afterwards she gave the red boy a pat on the cheek, "you're so cute Ryu," she said blushing at her use of a pet name. "Is that good enough for the two of you," she said turning to the class reps who nodded dumbly, "good. Then I don't have to bring up the fact that we're not the only ones looking suspiciously lovey-dovey out here," she said not waiting for an answer from her sputtering leaders. "Come on Ryu, I think we've had enough practice and it's getting a bit could out for me, lets head back to the dorms," she said taking his arm once more and dragging him with her. "Have a good night you too, don't' stay out too late otherwise you'll set a bad example for the rest of us," she called back channeling her inner Nakamura.
"We're not doing anything bad," Kataoka shouted, but it was somewhat drown out by Isogai shouting right beside her. "If you want to avoid a scene you shouldn't go through the front entrance, everybody's in the common room. The windows on the second floor and the fire escape should be clear though.
"Why are you encouraging them," Kataoka asked in a huff, she didn't mind if the two of them were in a romantic relationship, but still she was annoyed at Hayami's digs and technically they were supposed to chastise them a little.
"Well, they are our friends. Shouldn't we be happy for them," Isogai asked sheepishly, he loved how Kataoka looked when she was frustrated, but not when it was directed at him. Even if they were in the dark and he could barely see her, he knew she was doing her angry pout, he could just feel it.
"Okay you have a point," she agreed with a sigh, he did look cute nervous though, she admitted to herself. 'Well he's cute all the time,' a prickly voice in her head said softly, 'we don't normally see our sweet ikemen look so nervous. It's actually kind of exciting to see such a mortal look on such a perfect boy.'
'Shut up,' Kataoka whispered to the voice, 'he isn't our ikemen, he's our friend and his own ikemen. Crap I need to say something before he realizes I'm talking to myself.' "I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just worried with the world potentially coming to an end… The two of them are the keys to our plan and Koro-Sensei knows that, what if they get distracted because of their feelings for one another and it costs the world everything?" It wasn't a likely outcome, and she did trust Hayami and Chiba to keep their romantic relationship separate from their mission. But still, love was one of the most distracting things at their age, which she knew from experience.
"Well I suppose that's true," Isogai agreed, "but hypothetically, even if they didn't say it, doesn't mean that their feelings wouldn't' distract them anyway," he managed to say evenly.
"What do you mean," Kataoka asked, even though there was a bit of a flutter in her chest when he spoke.
"Well I just mean, sure being in a relationship, especially a new one can be pretty distracting. Not that I would know, never being in one myself, I was always too afraid to ask," Isogai said rubbing the back of his head as he drifted off topic. "Well anyway, maybe it was a bit of a gamble since if either of them said no they would have been crushed which would have probably been even more distracting than a new relationship. But still, if the world ends tomorrow or next week or something… I certainly can't blame them for not wanting to leave things unsaid." Noticing Kataoka was staring at him intently he merely coughed into his hand, "'better loving and losing versus never loving at all,' and all that," he said embarrassed.
"S-so you're saying that hypothetically…" Kataoka said finally taking her eyes off of Isogai for a moment to stare at her feet. "You would confess to a girl you like if you happen to," she said in what the girls from the main building called her 'cool onee-san' voice. It was to show off how confident and nonchalant she was even if she wasn't.
"Well no, or maybe kind of," Isogai stammered around, "I mean I would like to be the type of guy who puts himself out there, especially since the girl I have a thing for is sweet and wouldn't tear into me even if she didn't feel the same way," he rambled, "but I mean even though I know that I'm still a coward, I couldn't confess to her even though I wanted too so much."
'Is he talking about me,' she wondered/hoped. Why else would he be telling her this while the two of them were alone at night in the woods, it have a romantic feel about actually being there, but the description didn't really do it justice. 'I mean it isn't really something you just come out and tell a girl, but then again I am pretty much Isogai's best friend after Maehara. Maybe he just doesn't think of me as a girl so he's okay with telling me stuff like this. Okay Megu, stop with that line of thinking we have enough on our plate without drifting there even though it might be important and very real. "I'm sure any girl you are interested would love to have you. You're… wonderful," she had wanted to say perfect, but it hadn't felt like something she would say.
"I don't know about that, it's not like I'm all that great," Isogai said humbly, but from the sound of his voice he seemed happy. "Not to mention that this girl is amazing, and like a thousand years out of my league. She is stronger and smarter than me, she is sweet and has a sense of responsibility that you just want to follow. Not to mention she's beautiful and is one of the best swimmers I've ever seen…she's like a mermaid from a fairy tale," he said meeting her eyes finally and looking shy.
The swimmer froze when he finished, "Isogai," she said like a whisper, she hadn't even hoped that he would be doing this today of all times.
"Wait please," he said getting closer to her so he was within arm's length to her, "I don't want to sound like a jackass right now, but can you please just let me talk. If you just let me say what I brought you out here to say, if you do I promise that I will let you do anything you want. Yell at me until tomorrow, slap me across the face as hard as you can and kick me in the gut, don't say anything and just run away in horror. Fine, whatever you want if you just let me get through what I need to say because if you don't I'm going to lose my courage," he said practically pleading to her. Covering her mouth so she wouldn't speak, she knew that what her answer would alleviate his fears, but she cared about him enough to let him get it out so she nodded to let him speak.
"Thank you, I'm sorry for sounding like an ass, but I've kind of had to work myself up for the last hour since we came out here to confess and I can't really stop or I'm gonna be the one to run away," Isogai said giving her a smile after his rant. "Okay," he said taking a deep breath, "I've liked you for a long time, like since back in the main building. I know that I'm not exactly the minority in that, after all every boy and girl in the school has had a crush on you at some point. I thought that when I was forced to transfer to Class E… I thought that I wouldn't have the chance to say how I feel, especially since I was just another member of Class E for End. But then I saw that you were transferring to and I was happy since we would be in the same class. I'm sorry, I know it's selfish since you were in trouble for it and nothing that hurts you should ever make me happy, but I was. I didn't become a class rep just because you were, I'm not that bad, but I was glad when you became one with me. "
"I figured that maybe since we were spending more and more time together maybe I would work up the courage eventually, but I never could, not even after Koro-Sensei came to our class. Council meetings, extra training sessions, both of our school trips, even though one turned out to be a death trap, the sports festival when I thought I'd be kicked out, working at the preschool, it wasn't until our run in with the God of Death that I realized the depths of my feelings."
"Before then, I had always wanted to confess but managed to talk myself out of it at the last minute. I told myself that the world comes first and that we need to focus on killing Koro-Sensei first or just that it wasn't the right time and I should wait for a better time. But after we split up, you went with the rescue team and I went on the battle unit, I realized that we really could have died and I could have never told you how I felt. When we were all defeated again and rounded up as bait I thought it was over and being a selfish jerk I kind of wanted my last words to be me confessing because I was too scared to hear the answer. But then we got rescued again, not that I'm complaining, since we're still alive, but I managed to tell myself that it wasn't the time again."
"So time past and I started getting angry at myself for being an idiot, especially since I know you wouldn't hurt me or anything just for the fun of it. And I am blabbering," the male class rep said pinching his nose in frustration. "Listen," he said looking back at her, eyes full of sincerity, she almost giggled at him when he did if he didn't look so serious and she wasn't too busy letting tears fall down her face. Maybe it was stress, in fact that would be the exact excuse she made if he brought it up, not that she was a sappy girl who was crying because her crush confessed to her, such a thing would be ridiculous. "Listen, I know it's selfish, but the world really could end in a few days, maybe even tonight. I don't want it to end with the biggest regret of my life still inside of me. So I'm just gonna come out and say it, I like you Kataoka, in a whole lot more than being a friend type of way. There, I'm done now, I'm grateful you stayed until the end of my stupid ramblings. If you want to slap me, yell at me, or run away I completely und-," he started to say but he was cut off by Kataoka grabbing both sides of his face.
"Finally you finished," she said with her loving smile and pulled him towards her, kissing him like a goddess. Kataoka didn't quite know what she was doing, the only kisses she had ever had were back in grade school, from a couple of truly desperate girls who stole kisses from her when she was unaware, but she hoped she was doing a good job, and from Bitch-Sensei. It was sort of how Bitch-Sensei kissed members of the class as a reward… or a punishment, but with less intensity and sucking the air out of his lungs replaced with gentleness, she didn't want to kiss anyone like that until it was her wedding night. It's the first time she kissed someone; she hoped she was doing it right. She wouldn't have worried so much if it wasn't for the fact that Isogai was a perfect kisser, so warm and gentle even when taken by surprise, while still being strong and surprisingly manly. She loved how good and responsible he was with and at everything, but seriously this, did he have to be and ikemen at this. Slowly her complaints and nerves drained away though as his hands reached around her pulling her in and she lost herself in his lips. It shouldn't of been as wonderful and sugarcoated like a fairytale kiss, but it was still more wonderful than she had ever thought a kiss could be.
Eventually though they were forced to break the kiss due to lack of air and they reluctantly separated and Isogai brought his arms to his sides. It was then, the leaders of Class 3-E, two of their most physically capable students doubled over and started sucking in air. Assassin training had long since stopped being a problem for either of them physically, but a few minutes of rather chaste kisses left them sucking wind.
"So," Isogai said finally recovering and standing up straight, "does this mean you feel the same way as I do," he said hopefully.
Laughing a bit Kataoka used her newly recovered strength to push him over, "yes you dork, it means I like you too. Now come on," she said lending him her hand, "we checked all the traps, I think it's time for us to go back to the dorms. I think we can find a couch in the common room to cuddle on for tonight."
"Y-you don't mind if everyone finds out about us," Isogai asked surprised. He certainly didn't mind if everyone knew, he felt like he could shout it from the top of every building in Japan that they were together, but he thought Kataoka would have wanted to remain a bit more discreet.
"Maybe I would have if we had more time to waste, keeping a relationship secret could be fun, but we don't," Kataoka said solemnly. "So I want to spend the time I have left without regrets, I want to spend as much time as I can with you Isogai and I don't care who knows it," she said offering him her arm so they would walk beside each other.
With a smile Isogai linked his arm with hers, "no regrets huh? I could get behind that," and he gave her a quick peck on the lips, it wasn't as deep as their first one, but the feelings they felt for each other definitely were there.
"Besides," Kataoka said as they began walking, her face red but smiling, "I'm the one who should be nervous, my boyfriend is the infamous Ikemen of Class 3-E, the girls from the main building might tear me apart for taking you off the eligible bachelors list."
"Boyfriend huh," Isogai teased, they hadn't really talked about it in the few minutes they had after his confession, but he was more than happy that she was already calling him that. "I like that," he said with a smile, "but I might be the one who needs protecting, after all most of those girls could forgive their beloved Onee-sama for kissing someone, but they would never forgive anyone who despoiled her lips," when Kataoka giggled at his teasing he smiled even wider. "Oh you think that's funny, well let me tell you Maehara and Okajima might like the idea of hordes of girls chasing after them, but I certainly don't, especially when they'd be out for my blood."
"Don't worry," Kataoka said leaning up to kiss his forehead, "I'll protect you," she had meant to say that 'she'd protect him from the scary main building girls,' but decided the first part alone was enough, it was how she felt anyway and that was enough for right now.
Over, finally over, it took a lot of time and procrastinating to get this out, I'd like to think I did an okay job, but I am a bit critical. Maybe Isogai's rant at the end was a bit out of character and sloppy, but I didn't really know what else to do for it so I just went with what I first wrote. The Chiba Hayami thing was just purely fanservice for both readers and me, since I think they are the most universally shipped couple in the fandom. Next chapter will be Valentine's day themed and will not focus on Isogai and Kataoka, sort of like an intermission.