Edit as of 2.12.: Update postponed to 4.12. Thank you for your patience!
Hey guys! Thank you so much for the reviews and for letting me know you're still here. Appreciate it so, so much and I hope that after this chapter, you'll still have the heart to talk to me... coz... it hurts. This chapter hurts. I mean, it was inevitable and we all know how it ends, but I hate myself for putting myself through this again so you're free to hate me too.
I love my boys, I love Koro-sensei and I am genuinely torn into pieces. I don't think I'm ever getting over assclass, genuinely. Hopefully it soothes you to know that I, a grown ass woman, am crying over a giant octopus teacher.
Anyway, have fun.
Gakushuu camps in Karma's room that evening to make sure none of their parents find out about the runaway. After all, he did break the lock again and should they call for the redhead and hear no response, it'd take only one gentle push to find out he's gone.
So here Gakushuu sits, on his brother's bed and pretending that the two of them are spending time together.
He texts his mother that he needs to stay by Karma's side for now and asks for privacy. She understands and doesn't question it, much to his relief, though it does take some convincing that they don't need tea, sweets or anything of that sort.
So far, it's working. All he has to do is play the part and patiently wait. However, it's been only a little over half an hour and Gakushuu already picks up his phone constantly, anxious for Karma to send him an update. Theoretically, the E-class could have reached the mountains by now, but there's still a chance that they got caught and the plan failed.
Before his mind can wander to what-ifs, Gakushuu's phone buzzes. He almost drops it in apprehension, but manages to unlock it (after several tries) and read the message:
We made it. Koro-sensei says hi.
A smile finds its way on his lips. Gakushuu is stumped about the fact that Karma even mentioned him to Koro-sensei, but simultaneously, it warms his heart.
Say hi back. And then rescue him so that I can meet him personally.
It takes another two minutes till he gets a reply. This time, there's a photo attached to it - a selfie with Karma and a few other students holding a small cake and a gigantic yellow octopus in the background. So that's their enigmatic teacher.
We're celebrating his birthday first.
More photos ensue. They're the most random, poorly lit and slightly blurry shots of the class - from Koro-sensei ogling the cake to Shiota and Nakamura laughing at his antics. On another one, Gakushuu also recognizes Isogai who seems to be announcing something and other students cheering in the background. This love that he sees in their faces is an explanation enough for him as to how they found the strength to carry on and fight against all the hardships they've had to face from the main campus... and from him.
Pick up.
Then, his phone rings. It's a video call from Karma and Gakushuu panics, unsure of what to do. He's not quite emotionally ready to be talking to anyone from their class, let alone their teacher, plus he feels like an outsider to this occasion.
Still, he accepts it.
Right away, the speakers blast a cacophony of unpleasant noises, all of which he suspects is the class E's enthusiastic chatter. Gakushuu cranks the volume down faster than lighting, worried about his parents hearing it.
"Why are you calling?" he asks quietly, looking at a very unflattering angle of Karma's chin.
"Huh? Oh yeah, Koro-sensei wanted to talk to you!" his brother announces and finally looks at the camera, all toothy grin.
Gakushuu's heart starts racing again. He knows that he has nothing to worry about but it still catches him unprepared. Just because he said he wants to get to know the teacher doesn't mean he's thought of what exactly he wanted to say or ask yet.
The video shifts and there's a flash of yellow before Koro-sensei's round face enters the frame. He looks ridiculously harmless, similar to the plushes he and Karma got from their parents. Definitely a huge difference from what Gakushuu imagined when he heard of a superhuman creature capable of destroying the earth.
"Ah, Asano-kun! Nice to meet you! Of course this isn't my first time meeting you- I mean, I saw you with Karma-kun oftentimes, not that I stalked you or anything! Ah, what I'm trying to say is this is probably your first time meeting me- Wait! Isn't it actually the second, considering you got to know about me through the news?! Does that count?!"
The way Koro-sensei trips over his words makes Gakushuu unwittingly cackle. What an unexpected turn of events that this person whom he put on a pedestal this entire time felt more flustered to meet Gakushuu, a mere student he didn't even have much to do with in the first place. He expected an authority resembling the chairman or at least someone who commanded respect like Karasuma Tadaomi.
"No, I wouldn't count that. This is the first time. It's nice to meet you too, Koro-sensei," he smiles, bowing lightly out of habit. "Did you wish to discuss something with me?"
"Yeah, Koro-sensei! Why are you calling my brother when we're here? You'll meet him later. We're lighting up the candle soon, hurry up!" Karma calls from off-screen.
Koro-sensei's whole body jolts at that. "Wait! Not yet, I'm not ready!" he yells back in panic, flailing his tentacles.
Then, as fast as a switch, he turns to the camera and his expression gains a different aura altogether. Gone is the initial jumpiness, instead replaced with a serene smile.
"I heard things are going well with your family," the teacher says, his eyes turning soft around the edges.
Taken aback by the topic, Gakushuu struggles to find the right words: "It's..." he stops to think. Things are going well, but he's afraid that by admitting it out loud, the magic spell might break and he'd wake up in his bed again, on a random Tuesday morning when nothing's changed and everything good that happened was simply a dream.
In the end, he settles on this: "We're making progress. I suppose."
Koro-sensei hums supportively. "I'm glad to hear that. You and Karma have gone a long way and I'm proud of you both."
Both? Gakushuu doesn't believe he's done much apart from continuously losing and getting some sense knocked into him. He feels his cheeks heat up and diverts the attention away:
"But it's you who played a huge role in everything that happened in the last year. Now I know to thank you for changing Karma for the better. And my father too, apparently. Without you, there would be no family to talk of."
At this, Koro-sensei's complexion turns bright pink and he rubs his cheek bashfully. It's quite a comical gesture and Gakushuu loses the last bits of apprehension at that sight, realizing just how easygoing and expressive the being in front of him truly is.
"Ah, no, not at all. I only did what a proper teacher should. In the end, it was you and your brother who made the decisions that led you where you are now. It takes lots of courage and compassion to forgive and to grant your parents another chance. I'm sure you won't regret it."
From the background, more voices start to call for the giant superhuman to join them. This is the cue for the two of them that the conversation is nearing its end, so Koro-sensei catches the boy's gaze again, this time in full seriousness.
"Asano-kun, it was an honour to face you and your class. You're all formidable and exceptionally bright students and I hope that from now on, you'll keep on polishing that genius in a healthy way. Please don't forget that you're not alone in either your endeavours or your struggles. To trust is not a weakness and neither is to love."
Something akin to tenderness mixed with melancholy swells in Gakushuu's heart.
"Why are you making this sound like a goodbye? I plan to learn more from you too, you know?" he declares, a light chuckle escaping his lips.
Koro-sensei's eyes lower slightly, a silent confession. Gakushuu's breath hitches when he realizes that the teacher does intend this as a goodbye. But why? Why is Koro-sensei preparing for a death that has not happened and should not happen, not now when his students have come to rescue him?
Could it be that he believes there is absolutely no way out of that trap? No, class E is smart. They must have a way to get him out of there. Surely. Gakushuu refuses to believe otherwise.
"I'm sorry, I didn't intend to worry you. I merely wish to tell you this no matter what," Koro-sensei notices the distress and tries to placate the strawberry blond. "I must return to my students now, they're getting impatient. Asano-kun, I hope to see you grow up happy and loved. Both you and Karma-kun, take care of each other."
And with that, the phone call ends. Karma follows up with a quick message immediately after, promising he'll call later.
Despite the deafening silence that Gakushuu's suddenly engulfed in again, witnessing class E and his brother laugh and carefreely celebrate with their teacher reassured him. After such a long time of being kept indoors with the inevitable prospect of death looming over their heads, he finally finds the hopelessness dissolving a bit. But not entirely. After all, Koro-sensei's split-second hesitance about them meeting again plants seeds of doubt in him.
No. It's going to be alright. Karma is there and as Gakushuu knows him, the redhead wouldn't have gone through such lengths without a plan. And he most definitely wouldn't just stand by and watch his beloved one die.
He's ten minutes late to answering Karma's last message, but just to calm his own concerns, he sends this:
No matter what happens, I'm here. Let me know if I can do anything. Stay safe.
And then Gakushuu waits.
Karma feels his phone buzz from his pocket but he doesn't look at it, doesn't even have the time to as there's an onslaught of attacks threatening to kill them at any second.
He feels helpless, violently torn from the sense of comfort he bathed in just a moment ago, when all he had to worry about was Koro-sensei dropping the cake. Now, the cake lay crumbled on the ground, not so far from Kayano-chan with a gaping hole in her chest and Koro-sensei...
Koro-sensei might be killed by a madman and his science project.
He needs to do something. He should be of some help, distract the enemy or at least hinder it so that Koro-sensei could land a decisive blow. But the battle is way beyond their abilities, too fast and deadly to follow. If even Kayano-chan who retained her kinetic vision couldn't keep up, what chance did Karma, a regular person do?
Nagisa picks up her lifeless body into his arms, but there's nothing for them to try. No matter how much medical stuff Karma learnt from Gakushuu, no amount of CPR or first aid skills would help when there's little left of her heart anymore.
The only thing they can do is run. Run away (because it's a sound decision, because they're only in the way, a liability) and watch as Koro-sensei rages, black and red in fury.
And then, the aggressive glow changes. It morphs into softer hues - blue, green and ultimately white, illuminating the entire campus. It comes from a different place, not from uncontrollable bloodlust and vengeance - they can all feel the warm love radiating from their teacher.
Koro-sensei shoots a beam of pure energy, the cumulation of his entire life.
With that, Shiro and the Reaper disappear, nothing but dust left of them.
And then it's over.
Koro-sensei wins and returns to them in one piece. He even manages to save Kayano-chan, repairing her body with the blood he collected in combination with his own cells.
Karma's phone buzzes again a few times in a row, and he knows Gakushuu must be worried after having seen the intense light from afar. But he doesn't pick it up now either, because suddenly Koro-sensei collapses on the ground, resigned to his fate. He looks beat up, frail even and it's wrong, this is so wrong-
"What kind of an assassin lets a dying target escape?" he breathes out, the question barely audible.
Still, those words shake the whole class to their core. They understand what he's implying, yet to acknowledge it hurts too much.
Unfortunately, Koro-sensei doesn't allow for any doubts.
"Don't you see? It's killing time."
Ritsu silently announces barely 30 minutes before midnight of March 13th and before the red laser fires and annihilates all antimatter. It grows painfully more evident that Koro-sensei has no strength left to move, let alone escape and even though Karma knows that this was a possibility they kept in mind - that they wouldn't be able to get him out in time - he's not ready for the alternative.
Koro-sensei speaks up again, his breathing slow and laboured.
"The fun times..."
Karma bites his lips, heart sinking.
"... are bound to end."
He doesn't want that. All things must end, yes, but it's too early for the assassination classroom and its teacher. And Karma thinks to himself as his soul bleeds uncontrollably, that ending a life so grand and precious should be a sin.
"That's what a classroom's all about."
He can't bear that. Not this time, not this classroom. Not this one person he's grown to love and respect more than anyone ever before.
Not Koro-sensei.
But what other option do they have? Let the beam do the job for them? Let Koro-sensei perish by the cold hands of the government while they hide and tremble in the corner? No, that wouldn't be fair. Despite the thought of Koro-sensei's future flaying them to the bone, they have to decide on it together.
So Isogai as their class president asks them a simple question.
"Who doesn't want to kill Koro-sensei?"
And receives a simple answer back. The whole class raises their hands, gazes plastered on the ground. Karma admires the guy for the firmness of his voice, for stepping up and taking the initiative. Even more, he appreciates Isogai asking the most difficult question:
"And who wants to kill him?"
No one. Clearly and without a doubt, no one wants to lose someone they adore so much.
They don't want to kill him, but they want to give him a fitting end.
So the class raises its hands, barely holding back tears.
Because this is their purpose. Because this is what the classroom was created for, because that's what they were: Assassins. And Koro-sensei was their target. In order to fulfil this promise between them and keep their bond intact, it has to be them who kill him.
So they surround him and clutch his tentacles, a student each, pushing him down. They tighten their hold when he reprimands them for doing it too meekly. They wait as he bids his goodbyes to Karasuma-sensei and Bitch-sensei, they laugh briefly when he panics at the preposterous fear that someone left early.
They answer as he takes attendance, loud and clear as he asked them to.
"Akabane Karma-kun."
"Here."
Karma's voice almost breaks. He meets Koro-sensei's eyes once upon being called, but diverts the gaze down immediately after, not trusting himself to keep calm otherwise. He replays the sound of Koro-sensei's voice over and over again, engraving it into his whole being as he realizes that this is the last time he's going to hear his name out of Koro-sensei's lips.
The last time he's going to hold Sensei's soft arms.
The last time Sensei looks at Karma with affection and pride.
The last time they ever see each other.
And before he even realizes it, the call is over. It's too soon, he's not ready, but there are simply no more names left.
"It was a really... really fun year."
Karma wants to tell him. He wants to tell him that this year was more than just fun - it gave Karma a purpose, a home, things he never could have dreamt of. It taught him friendship and allowed for family, a thing once thought unattainable, to reenter his life. He needs to tell him that - that he wants Koro-sensei to keep looking over them, to see Karma graduate, to see him get into high school and university, to be there when he becomes a bureaucrat and live up to Koro-sensei's expectations of him.
He needs to tell him that he loves him so much he can't bear to lose him.
But Koro-sensei squeezes back with the limb Karma's holding, giving him a reassuring smile.
He already knows that. Of course Koro-sensei knows all of that. Some things don't need to be said after all.
"Be happy."
He asks this of them, closing his eyes.
It's hard to imagine it without Koro-sensei. It's a cruel and bleak future where they don't have their teacher behind their backs who'd cheer for their win, who they could tease for his ridiculous antics and perverted side. Being happy is hard in the face of reality, where someone they owed their lives to now had to give up his.
They love him. They love him so.
But they will fulfil his wish.
They will live on and carry Koro-sensei in their hearts, they'll listen to his gentle advice at every step of their life.
Even as Koro-sensei's body dissipates into golden speckles and enters the sky like a million stars,
even as they cry and wail
and wish for nothing more but to have him back,
they will be alright.
One day,
it will be alright.
.
.
.
Gakushuu looks out of the window with wide eyes, following the radiant beams rising from the Class E campus. It's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, yet there's dread churning in his stomach.
He can put one and one together. It's probably not a coincidence that this sight followed the initial blast of white light, nor that Karma hasn't updated him since the call or answered any of his texts. They haven't even been opened in fact.
Deep inside, Gakushuu's aware of the most probable scenario. He should have made peace with it in the last two weeks when there was no other option anyway than to let Koro-sensei die, yet it doesn't get any easier. Not after he's actually had the opportunity to talk to the teacher, the future right within his finger's reach where the two of them shake hands, learn more about one another and bond over education or over having to deal with a delinquent such as Karma.
It's not exactly a heartbreak - or at least, it's a different kind of one as they haven't ever shared any time or experience together yet, but Gakushuu perceives it as the loss of an important person anyway. Loss of things that could have been but never will.
He already sent Karma a few messages and is so close to calling him or even going to the mountain himself. The radio silence scares him because at best, his brother is just mourning. At worst, he might be hurt too. Whichever it is, he shouldn't be alone.
Before Gakushuu leaves the room to gear up and run after Karma, his phone vibrates shortly.
A message.
He anxiously opens and skims through it, the apprehension turning into soul-crushing sorrow.
He's gone. Koro-sensei's gone. I'm safe. Please give me time.
Gakushuu stands rooted in place, all the determination evaporating. He feels a tear roll down his cheek and he traces the trail left behind with his sleeve, lips pressed together into a thin line.
Indeed. A loss of something that should have been but never will.
"Asano-kun, I hope to see you grow up happy and loved."
He, too, hoped to have Koro-sensei see it.
...
And with this, Koro-sensei is officially gone.
I wanted to give him and Gakushuu a chance to meet at least once but knew it wasn't possible, so I gave them that phone call. If only they had more time together, but Koro-sensei managed to convey the most important things and Gakushuu got to express his gratitude, so at least there are no regrets.
There's not much more left to do at this point, just need to wrap up things. The next (and probably last) update will be on the 2nd of December. Until then, hang in there :')