A Few Weeks Later
Exiting a police station, Isaac watched on his handbook as money was transferred into it. 'Easiest 5000 yen I ever made in my life, The guy didn't even put up a fight.' He still had a long way to go to reach the threshold for his Final Exam.
-Flashback-
"I have to earn how much money from bounty hunting!?" Isaac exclaimed after talking to Kizakura. The man just shrugged and explained that each student must be able to present their talents for the Practical Exams and for Isaac to pass as a bounty hunter he must raise 550000 yen solely from bounty hunting. Isaac, of course, had more than enough money in his bank account back home, but he wasn't allowed to pull from his own funding so this was going to be a challenge.
-Flashback End-
Isaac made his way from the police station back to Hopes Peak. He still wore his grey trench coat that held many of his weapons and tools but had a white button-up shirt with a red tie and brown pants. His hair, once a ponytail, was now a half-bun and a piercing on his right ear. His black fingerless glove is now replaced with black zipped-up gauntlet gloves***. When he entered the building, he made a beeline for the Crime Lab to find his next target. After quick twists and turns, he stopped in front of a large twin door that had a symbol of a pair of scales crossed with a magnifying glass engraved on it. He quickly swiped his handbook to the scanner and the doors opened automatically. Inside were various stations, a forensic lab, a large whiteboard with various photos with red strings connecting them, a gun range, and a large computer that has access to Japan's police database. Isaac went over to his station which comprised a desk and several files laid out in piles. Isaac took one of the files that were open on his desk and put it in his 'captured' pile.
"Ya got another one there Takashi?" A stern voice rang behind Isaac. Isaac turned around and was greeted by one of the upperclassmen, Renji Yamoto, the Ultimate Police Officer. Renji was a tall guy with dark hair, almost blue, and instead of wearing the Hopes Peak uniform, he was a police officer uniform. From what Isaac learned, Renji comes from a long line of policemen and each of them was known for their ability and passion to uphold the law. The current police chief, whom Isaac met only once, is Reji's father.
"Yes, I just turned him in Yamoto-senpai," Isaac replied, Renji smiling and rubbing his finger under his nose after being called 'senpai'. Another fact about Renji is that he absolutely loves being praised. And Isaac has indeed mastered the art of sucking up to others.
"Ah, oh well," Renji had a faint blush on his face before marching off, "Keep up the good work, Takashi!"
Isaac blinked in confusion as he looked at the clock in the lab and saw that he was about 10 minutes late to class. 'Crap!' Isaac began packing his stuff before heading out and heading for class 1-B. before thinking of a more efficient way of getting there. He quickly grabbed his quiver, which was leaning against his desk, and his bow he bought from Sonosuke. He quickly made his way outside and looked up at his class window. He took an arrow from his quiver and notched it to the bow. The bow was made of sleek black metal and the string was comprised of similar material. One feature Isaac asked for is that the bow can compact itself into twin batons if he got close range. He aimed for a spot above the window and let the arrow fly. When the arrow was let loose a metal cable attached to the arrow zipped by as well. When the arrow stuck into the wall, Isaac gave a few tugs to make sure it was secure and grabbed onto the cable when his quiver began making a whirring sound as he was pulled up from his spot and into the air. After getting pulled in the air Isaac began running up the wall while being pulled up by the wire and made a stop in front of his class window. Isaac then opened the window from the outside before climbing in and before closing the window, retrieved his arrow. When closing the window, he was greeted with a peculiar sight. In the room were Sonia, Mahiru, Hiyoko, and Mikan, but what made it curious is that there was an orange-haired woman in an apron holding a knife to Fuyuhiko's neck.
"Sorry, for being late, I was-" Isaac stopped as he looked at his surrounding before cocking his head. "Is this a bad time or..?"
The orange-haired woman sheathed her knife and pointed it at Isaac, "Glad you could join us, Mr. Bounty Hunter. That's one rotten orange down!"
"Rotten orange?"
After a brief introduction, the group first headed to the second-floor men's bathroom. Mikan, Fuyuhiko, Sonia, and Ms. Yukizome went inside to look for Nekomaru while Mahiru, Isaac, and Hiyoko stood outside waiting.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Hiyoko pouted as they could hear chatter inside.
"Could be worse," Mahiru replies before turning to Isaac, "Why aren't you in the with them? You're a boy aren't you?"
"You want me to go into the men's bathroom with 3 other girls?" Isaac asked with a raised eyebrow
"Fair point."
They were soon interrupted by a deep rumbling that shook the ground beneath them before it stopped completely.
Hiyoko turned away looking annoyed before saying, "Whatever, it's just the pi-" before she finished her sentence, a hand grabs her by the back of her collar and lifts her up. Isaac takes a step back with Hiyoko in his hand as the door is blown off its hinges, right at the spot where Hiyoko just stood, as smoke and dust billowed out as the halls are filled with the voice of a certain coach.
"Okay, that's another down! I think we should check what's on the menu." Ms. Yukizome announces as they enter the cafeteria. As they enter the room Chisa feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns around and sees Isaac behind her. Without a word, he reaches into his coat and pulls a bundle of rope tied together. He tosses the bundle to her before saying, "You're gonna need this." and walks off to join his classmates.
"Look alive! We got a slippery one!" Ms. Yukizome says as most of the class is preparing an outdoor cooker with a slab of meat on it. As soon as the meat began cooking a voice rang out in the distance yelling, "MEAT! GLORIOUS MEAT!" as Akane descended upon them from the rooftop.
"AHHH! She took the bait!"
Ms. Yukizome sees the gymnast and then carries out her trap.
"Go, Nidai! Hit it!" She signals to Nekomaru and no sooner than the team manager charged up and hit Akane with everything he had, causing several explosions and shaking the earth itself.
"Now Takashi! Restrain her!" Isaac hears the signal as he leaps into action, grabbing the unconscious gymnast, and proceeds to tie ropes around her limbs before securing her to a makeshift 'cross' that Sonia made. As the dust settles Akane is at the bottom of a ditch, crucified.
"Another classmate brought back to the fold." Sonia announces as Akane wakes up yelling, "HEY! I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASSES SO HARD!"
The next thing they knew, the class is brought to a giant engine outside, but most of them kept their distance due to the strong smell of iron and motor oil. Sonia soon volunteers to get Kazuichi's attention as she confronted the mechanical marvel. Souda immediately notices her and makes his way to the ground. As soon as he does, Isaac feels a light tap on his shoulder and turns to see Ms. Yukizome smiling at him.
"Sorry to ask Takashi, but do you happen to have a gas mask I could borrow?" She asks.
"I don't think anyone just happens to carry that around." Nekomaru comments, but Isaac begins to dig deep into his trenchcoat, and after a series of strange pulls that range from knives, to smoke bombs, to a rubber duck, and soon he pulls out a black gas mask, to everyone's surprise. He nonchalantly hands it over to his teacher with a quick, "Here you go." and Ms. Yukizome puts it on and strides over to a rejected Kazuichi. Isaac then turns to see that almost all of his classmates, minus Akane, are staring at him with confused expressions.
"What? Was it something I said?"
The next stop was Animal Farm to look for Gundham. For some reason, the weather in the area was dark and cloudy, the complete opposite of the earlier sunny weather. The class plus Ms. Yukizome stood in front of a giant temple that was surrounded by large statues of hamsters that had bat wings(?). At the base of the temple, Ms. Yukizome begins to call out for the breeder.
"Heellllllooooooo? Hey Tanaka?" she called, "We know you're up the-ahhhh!" Soon a pack of bats swarmed them all as a menacing laugh boomed over them.
"Mwuhahaha! Speak the name of evil and it shall appear! You gaze upon Tanaka, the Forbidden One. My Four Dark Devas of Destruction serve me at every turn. Mark my words, one day I will stand in stride in this corrupted planet." As to punctuate his words, lightning flashes above him as the fire on the pedestals roars as the flames grow tenfold.
The rest of the class simply watches as the breeder continues to monologue as Kazuichi lets out a groan, "Freaking drama queen."
"I think this is a fine display of his true power." Sonia complements, stars in her eyes.
"Is nobody going to question the literal thunderstorm in the middle of the day?" Mahiru asks, still batting away a stray bat.
"At this point, I just learn to not question stuff anymore," Isaac replies, pinching the bridge of his nose.
They soon headed to the music room, the door trembling to hold in the sound desperately trying to escape. When Ms. Yukizome opened the door everyone presents, minus Isaac, clamped their hands over their ears to avoid losing their hearing. Inside, Ibuki was wailing on her guitar, which she was somehow able to equip with a propane tank and a flamethrower, and was grilling cuts of meat in an improvised barbeque.
Ibuki then let out her last note, showering the meat with one swipe of flames before realizing she had an audience. Fuyuhiko and Nekomaru still had their hands over their ears, Akane was drooling over the cooked meat, Teruteru was practically foaming at the mouth, Mikan looked close to fainting, Mahiru's being ruffled by the sound and heat, Gundham and Sonia were drained a bit, and Hiyko was lightly applauding her performance.
"Woah, didn't know I was playing for a crowd."
"Death Metal barbeque, huh?" Kazuichi commented.
"At least she's got her priorities straight," Isaac replies, seemingly unaffected by the sounds.
Ibuki then strikes a pose with her guitar, "Let's stick it to the man!"
Ms. Yukizome responds with her own pose and guitar, "By attending class!"
"Cool poses, can we go now?"
The next stop was the Combat Lab, more specifically the dojo section, where Peko sat, seemingly meditating with her bamboo sword at her side. When entering the dojo, Ms. Yukizome silently walked up to the silver-haired girl, and when she got a certain distance, Peko's instincts kicked in, bringing her sword to whoever was behind her in an instant. Ms. Yukizome didn't even flinch as the weapon was barely an inch from her neck.
"Sorry Pekoyama, but the class has already started today." Ms. Yukizome says calmly as Peko lowers her weapon.
"Forgive me, I so easily lose track of the time," Peko responds as she gets up on her feet.
"I know your job is important, but you do need to go to class." When their teacher says this, it brings a reaction from both Fuyuhiko and Isaac, the latter just raises his eyebrows and stares more intently at his teacher. Fuyuhiko, however, asks, "Hey teach, how the hell do you know about-mmmff!" he didn't get to finish as Ibuki stuffed some of her 'cooking' in his mouth.
"Eat some hormone-yaki and get hyped, little man!" Ibuki says before pulling another steaming stick and handing it to Isaac, "You too dude, gotta keep those juices up!"
"Juices?"
Ms. Yukizome smiles at her student's antics before doing a look of determination, "All right, we're down to our final 3! Think of all the growth we'll experience as a class!"
"Our teacher seems very...motivated."
"Huh? This sucks! I'm perfect as is!"
"Part of me is growing right no-OW!" Teruteru didn't get to finish what he wanted to say before he was flung from across the room by their teacher.
"Now now, Hanamura. That was a bit overboard." Ms. Yukizome says, Peko's sword on her shoulder.
"Onward! Luck is on our side!"
The class was now outside on the road right outside the Main Building looking for a certain lucky student. Ms. Yukizome took the lead, holding a small lavender book as she searches for her student.
"I know that boy is around here somewhere..." Ms. Yukizome ponders as she looks all around her.
Kazuichi, who took a break from walking to sit on the roadside fence, sneered, "I don't like him. Every time he's around my day goes south like majorly." Little does he know that a truck whose tires flew out was barreling towards him and hit him, sending the mechanic flying.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"SOUDA!"
Aside from the mechanics' screams a distinct sound of chains fills the air. Suddenly a coil of chains flies through the air heading toward the airborne mechanic. The chains wrap around Kazuichi's waist and before he hits the ground, he is jerked up flying towards the group before landing in the arms of Isaac, who is holding a chain whip in his hand. The class barely had any time to process the turn of events before Kazuichi starts bawling in Isaac's coat.
"Thank you, man! I thought I was gonna diiiiiieeeeeee."
"There, there." Isaac comforted the mechanic, "But if you get any snot on my coat I will drop you."
Before any more could be said, Ms. Yukizome calls everyone over to Nagito, who is carrying a hefty amount of soda cans.
After that fiasco, they all returned to their classrooms and back in their seats. Isaac sat in the back of the classroom right behind Ibuki and is silently putting his head down trying to take a quick nap.
"Hahaha! Hold on. You wanted to meet a no-one like me? What a wonderful teacher you are!" Nagito sits in his seat, almost hiding behind piles and piles of Dr. Hopper soda.
"Come now, you aren't a no-one." Ms. Yukizome replies before dramatically pointing at the luck magnet, "You are a rotten orange!"
"Hahaha," Nagito chuckles with a bigger smile on his face.
"That wasn't a compliment dimwit!" Fuyuhiko says, a deadpan look on his face.
Ms. Yukizome gets the class's attention and says, "Now listen up! Now 2 more and we're finished! Homestretch you guys, now gimme some hustle!"
"Huh?" Hiyoko groans, "I'm not taking another step! It already feels like my legs are about to fall off!"
"Oh my god! I didn't know that could happen f-from just walking around!" Mikan rushes to the traditional dancer with an alarmed look.
"It was a figure of speak dumbass!"
"Y-you didn't have to be so mean..."
the former Ultimate walks to the windowsill and slowly wipes her finger on the frame, collecting dust on the tip of her finger. "Well if you're gonna be lazy-butts, I'll go wrangle your two last classmates myself. The rest of you should stay here and give the room a good cleaning."
Souda, who only had a bandage wrapped around his forehead, complains, "For real? Haven't we suffered enough today?" As soon as those words left his mouth a pair of long knives were stabbed into his desk, inches away from his fingers. The owner of said knives was their teacher, who was giving the mechanic a full staredown with a dark smile on her face.
"You wanna talk suffering?"
"Nope! We're good, we're good!"
Ms. Yukizome begins to leave the classroom and waves to her class, "Have fun! I'll see you later!" then hesitates to leave after seeing Isaac asleep on his desk. She pulls out her knife, unsheathes it, and with a flick of her wrist, flings it at the bounty hunter. Before the knife hits its target, Isaac catches it between his middle and pointer finger, his eyes still closed and his head on his desk.
"Wakey-wakey Takashi! You gotta clean up too!"
"Ughhhh, fine." Isaac groans as he pulls himself up.
"Yeah, pulls swords on the guy who got hit by a truck!" Kazuichi mutters as Ms. Yukizome leaves the classroom.
Mahiru puts her 2-cents in and says, "I think she's pretty cool, all things considered."
"Shove it, shutterbug!"
"This is what high school is all about!" Sonia exclaims, stars in her eyes.
"Yeah, you called it Ms. Sonia!"
Gundham gets started immediately with all of his Devas, minus San-D, all holding different kinds of cleaning tools. "Unleash your chaos, my Devas, so that we may cleanse this Gehenna!"
Fuyuhiko puts his arms behind his head and states, "No choice, I guess. Let's just get it over with, yeah?" Peko nods in agreement until a crashing sound pulls their attention. At the source of that crash lay Mikan, who somehow tripped and landed herself in a compromising state with the mop and bucket full of soapy water.
"How do you survive the day, you klutz!?" Hiyoko spats.
"Um, so when is this class over?" Peko asks.
Chisa comes back with Ryota tied up and Chiaki over her shoulder. Isaac was back in his seat when Chisa saw that everyone was there and spoke.
"Just look at you all! Sitting there in your tidy little rows. Also, good job, the room looks absolutely immaculate." Chisa looked around seeing how clean the room was.
"I can be kind of a badass when I give half a damn," Ibuki says looking proud of herself.
Nagito chips in saying, "Cleaning is one thing I'm pretty good at. Now this place will be a worthy stage for everyone to showcase their talents."
Chisa nods, "Great. And we'll pick up here tomorrow."
"That is quite the presumption," Gundham retaliates before opening one of his eyes, "So long as one focuses on their talent, I heard we were free to skip class as we deemed fit."
"Freak-face is right, sitting here is hell on my glutes."
"Just let me go back to the music room Teach, everyone wins!"
Chisa crosses her arms, "Technically yes, the rules say you can leave whenever you want, but," she rests her hand on the podium before looking at all of them, "There's more to life than being good at something. This time with your classmates we'll build character. Think of the memories you'll make. Just this once, let's put something else front and center, like your hope."
"Our hope? That would be amazing."
"Laaaame, building character is just a waste of time."
"Hardly! This is just a part of growing up!"
"Right you are Princess!"
"Huh? Way to stick to your words grease-monkey."
"I think this new plan is the shit guys!"
"M-me too!"
A large smile grows on Chisa's face as she announces, "In that case, I'll round you all up again, bright and early!" Followed by a "HUUH?!" from the entire class.
Chisa looks outside, seeing the sunset, "Well, you all should get a good night's rest! I'll see you all tomorrow!"
Fuyuhiko scoffs as he is the first one to leave followed by Peko.
Isaac was about to leave too until a large wall of muscle blocks the door. Isaac looks up and sees Nekomaru grinning at him. "Oh no, you don't! We still need to make a training regimen for you Isaac!"
Around their first few days of school, Akane challenged everyone in the class to an arms wrestling contest. Isaac was in a bit of a foul mood that day because that was the day he got his assignment from Kizakura. When he got challenged, he, of course, declined the contest, but she wouldn't stop berating him so he accepted and after some grueling moments where they were at a stalemate, he finally beat her. Ever since Nekomaru considered both him and Akane as his 'trainees' and while Akane was happy to have a coach, Isaac wasn't keen on the idea.
'Crap he's blocking the exit' Isaac looks to the other exit in the room and sees Akane standing in front of the other exit, daring him to try and get past her. 'If Nekomaru nabs me, I'm done for and Akane has the other exit covered. The only exit is the window!'
Isaac grabs his bow with one hand and raises both hands in surrender. "You win Nekomaru. I tried to run, but I can't-" Isaac puts up a mask of surprise "Oh my god! Is that a hockey team in need of a coach?" Isaac points behind Nekomaru and the team manager whips his head around and shouts, "WHERE!?" When he does Isaac runs back to the window and swings it open. He looks back at the confused look of his classmates and salutes them saying, "I'll see you all tomorrow!" before jumping out of the window several stories high. Isaac quickly pulls out the grapple arrow and shoots it toward the left wing of the building and swings down safely to the ground. He looks back at the window, seeing the surprised looks of his classmates before nonchalantly walking back to the dorms.