Before me stretched a magnificent blue ocean and after a six-hour boat ride from Tokyo, we had finally arrived at the place where we would kill Koro-sensei.

And to review the flow of what would happen next, we gathered at the hotel.

“Welcome. Thank you very much for coming all this way. Here is a complimentary tropical juice.”

“Ah, thank you.”

In this heat, free juice was definitely appreciated, but right now there was something I needed to do before whatever was in front of me.

And that ‘thing’ was part of the plan after dinner, so until then it was free time.

Just like during the school trip, we decided we would go around and have fun in groups.

Before meeting up with my group members, I headed to the hotel beach and looked out at the sea and the view in front of me stole my heart.

“...It’s nice.”

“Kiyotaka-kun, is something wrong?”

“Ah, Yukiko. I was just looking at the sea.”

By the way, since Kanzaki asked me to call her by her given name as a reward for taking first place in the grade during finals, I switched to calling her by name.

“Is there something in the ocean?”

“...No. It’s my first time seeing the sea.”

Yukiko knew my family situation was complicated and her expression twisted.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just… in the fourteen years I’ve lived, I don’t really have any memories that stand out.”

Even though I said that, judging by Yukiko’s expression, she seemed to have taken it pretty heavily.

While I was thinking about what to do, Yukiko spoke up.

“Then from here on out, let’s make memories together, with everyone and sensei and with me too, Kiyotaka-kun!”

Her anxious look from a moment ago was nowhere to be found as she smiled at me with an exceptionally bright grin.

“Yeah. You’re right. I’m hoping today will become a memory that stays with me for the rest of my life.”

Spending time with my classmates and teachers wasn’t something that left a bad taste in my mouth.

Compared to when I was in the White Room, I’d become a lot more human.

And the reason I could become that way was because of my first friends and my teachers, nothing else.

Maybe that’s why my words just now were genuinely what I felt.

And at the same time, I was certain I would never forget this day for as long as I lived.

Returning to our group with Yukiko, we steadily prepared for the assassination while the other groups played with Koro-sensei and kept his attention on them.

* * *

Karasuma POV

A large-scale assassination plan like never before and so far, it was going exactly as planned.

The only worry remaining was…

To cool the head of a colleague who was fooling around from behind, I tossed her into the sea and asked her a question.

“Irina, there’s something I want to ask you. You, a professional assassin, said this, didn’t you? That jobs rarely go according to plan.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I looked over the plan and if it’s this complicated, one or two things are going to slip somewhere. Besides, do I really look like I’m just playing around? I’m seriously aiming for the leftovers. If the brats’ plan slips and a chance comes to me, I won’t let it get away.”

“...I see.”

She was right, plans always have slippage.

But what is that man planning to do this time…

As I thought, a certain student came to mind.

Just what are you seeing?

Ayanokōji.

* * *

After finishing the assassination prep and dinner at the shipboard restaurant, we headed to the stage for this assassination.

“Alright, sit down, Koro-sensei. First, let’s start with a fun movie screening.”

From here, an assassination that would decide the target’s fate begins.

For the plan to succeed, I quietly slipped out of the chapel without anyone noticing.

* * *

Koro-sensei POV

Judging by the expressions on my students’ faces, they’re fully prepared.

Everyone has a good look in their eyes.

“Your wisdom, ingenuity and earnest effort… watching that is the greatest joy for your teacher. Show me you can kill me with that blade you’ve honed. I’m expecting your all-out assassination! Now then, what exactly is about to begin, I wonder?”

“First we’ll enjoy the video Mimura edited and after that, the eight people who won in the test will destroy your tentacles and that’ll be the signal for everyone to start the assassination all at once, right, Koro-sensei?”

“Nuru-fufufu, you’re awfully confident, explaining the whole flow. Fine by me.”

Even so, I already know this is a carefully crafted plan.

This chapel is surrounded by the sea and the walls and windows could be loaded with anti-sensei material.

Escaping would be far too risky.

It seems I’ll have to dodge everything within the chapel.

“Koro-sensei.”

“Nyu!? What is it, Nagisa-kun?”

“First, a body check. Even if we’re surrounded by water, if you’ve hidden a swimsuit, you can still escape.”

“Thorough, aren’t you~. But I won’t do something so boorish as run away. I’m prepared to accept your assassination.”

After the careful body check, I sat down.

“Now, are you ready? No need to hold back, come at me!”

“Alright, we’re starting, Koro-sensei.”

When Okajima-kun turned off the lights, footage began playing on the monitor in front of us.

[Somewhere in Tokyo, Kunugigaoka Junior High, Class 3-E. Unbelievably, the homeroom teacher of this class is an assassination target…]

In the darkness behind us, students were coming and going from the chapel.

To keep the positions and numbers unclear, presumably.

But that’s naive.

The fact that I can’t smell Hayami-san and Chiba-kun, the top snipers of Class E and that I can smell them from far behind instead…

“But this video is really well made~. Mimura-kun did the editing and narration? The cuts and music choices too, great taste. I can’t help getting pulled in!”

[This time, we’ve invited the people who provided our investigation team with top secret information. Before we hear from them, please watch the continuation.]

“Bribery failed.”’

“F-faileddddd!”

On screen, I was lounging atop a mountain of piled-up erotic magazines, casually reading one.

“W-wait, no! Okajima-kun, you guys! I told you not to tell everyone, didn’t I?!”

My screams meant nothing and the merciless narration continued.

[A massive shadow lining up at an all-girls cake buffet. It is none other than him.]

“Koroko.”

‘There was no way it wouldn’t be found out. The only miracle is that before the cross-dressing, I at least passed as human.’

“Huh, erotic mags and cross-dressing. Aren’t you embarrassed? You absolute pervert.”

Faced with the shameful footage still playing, all I could do was cover my face.

[Right before payday, the man lines up with his clones to hand out tissues. You wonder what he needs so many for, but then—He starts frying them into karaage and eating them. As a classroom—no, as a living being—does he have any dignity at all? And this isn’t the end. Let’s enjoy a full hour more of this teacher’s embarrassing footage.]

“A-another hourrr!”

* * *

One hour later, in front of the monitor, my spirit was completely ground down and I couldn’t even stand anymore.

“Ah… I’m dead. Your teacher is already dead. After people know that, I can’t live anymore.”

[Now then, you’ve watched the top-secret footage, but have you noticed something, Koro-sensei?]

…Water.

No one had been moving around like they were letting water in.

Don’t tell me… high tide!

As I sat there completely exhausted, the students drew closer.

‘Someone probably shortened the shack’s supports.’

[You got seasick, got embarrassed and inhaled seawater… your movements have gotten pretty dull, haven’t they? Alright, the real thing starts now! Just like you promised, don’t dodge!]

An assassination that drags the target into a field and conditions they’re bad at.

As the target, I couldn’t help but admire it.

[Operation start!]

At Isogai-kun’s signal, my arms and legs—eight tentacles total—were blown off.

Almost at the same time, the chapel’s pillars cracked and collapsed completely and students wearing flyboards emerged from the sea.

[Koro-sensei is weak to sudden environmental changes. From a chapel to a water cage. We confuse his weakened tentacles and drop his reaction speed even further.]

Almost the moment the water-pressure cage was completed, countless anti-sensei rounds flew around me.

And none of them were simply aimed straight at me, they were calculated to narrow my escape routes.

The two who deliver the finishing blow should be the ones who strike while I’m shaken.

Impressive.

Their intelligence, strategy and technique deserve praise.

But it’s still naive.

They know my weaknesses inside out.

There’s no way they’d overlook the fact that my nose has a distinct property.

The smell of the two on land must be a fake.

I’m constantly evolving too.

Without growth, I couldn’t serve as the homeroom teacher of this class.

Student and teacher, sometimes assassin and target.

It’s a twisted relationship, but there is certainly a bond there.

And accepting their all-out effort is also my role.

So here, I will go all out.

The moment I was surrounded by the bullet curtain, I deployed ultra-fine tentacle fibers, too small to see, forming a circle with about a one-meter radius centered on me, careful not to touch the barrage.

Just as the human body is a collection of microscopic particles, my cells are made of tentacle fibers.

It’s not only my arms and legs that are tentacles.

With this, no matter what direction the sniper shot comes from, the ultra-fine tentacles will detect it and form layers to kill the bullet’s momentum before it reaches me.

Just as I intended, the bullets fired by those two and—unexpectedly—also a bullet fired from the opposite side in a way that created a blind spot for the two’s shots, all had their momentum killed by my tentacles.

A blind-spot shot using the two’s sniping as bait… who in the world?

But I didn’t realize it then.

Right behind that blind-spot shot, another bullet was stacked.

...Blind!?

The blind round Ritsu once fired by flicking her own finger.

A strategy that uses even your own fired round as bait.

It wasn’t that I underestimated them.

If anything, I was on maximum alert with the utmost respect.

But placing another round directly behind the bullet you fired is not humanly possible.

That lapse in understanding became my undoing.

Having exhausted my tentacles with the first blind-spot shot, I could not kill the blind round as it pierced through the layers and rushed right toward me.

Well done… to come this far...

* * *

Ayanokōji POV

Through Ritsu, I relayed my specified timing to Chiba and Hayami and at her signal, I pulled the trigger.

Even if they managed to handle the blind-spot shot, I’d prepared insurance.

Just a few seconds after I fired, I saw a massive waterspout rise from the sea with a tremendous explosion from the spot where the target had been.

Did we do it?

To confirm whether he was alive or dead, I hurried to join everyone.

There he was—now in a spherical form.

“Nuru-fufufu, this is the teacher’s trump card within a trump card. Complete Defense Form.”

“Complete Defense Form!?”

“The outer layer is a crystal of densely compressed energy. I shrink my body as small as possible and with the excess energy, I tightly reinforce the area around my body. In this form, I am truly invincible!”

“If you can just stay like that, then we can’t kill you.”

“However, it’s not that simple. This energy crystal naturally collapses in about one day. At that instant, I expand my body, absorb the energy and return to my original form. Which means, for the remaining one day until the crystal collapses, I can’t move at all. This comes with various risks. The scariest is being loaded onto a rocket and dumped far away into outer space, but there’s no need to worry. There is nowhere in the world right now with a rocket that can do that within twenty-four hours.”

A hidden card at the very end…

He got us.

Judging by everyone’s faces, the level of despair was immeasurable.

“Still, you can be proud. Even militaries around the world couldn’t corner me this much. Especially that final snipe—this was all thanks to your wonderful plan.”

“……”

Even the target’s usual words of praise were empty now and probably didn’t reach anyone’s ears.

Leaving my exhausted classmates behind, I started walking back to the hotel ahead of them.

So…

I…

Lost?