After defeating the gun user, we kept moving toward the top floor to complete our objective, when Koro-sensei called out to us.

“Everyone, I’ve figured out something about the mastermind who’s probably up ahead, he’s using assassins wrong. Lookouts and defense aren’t an assassin’s job, if they fully use their abilities, they should be terrifying.”

“Yeah, that guy didn’t miss his target by even a single centimeter.”

“If Karma-kun had been stalked in daily life, he would’ve been instantly killed by that grip strength.”

“Well… yeah.”

So the mastermind really isn’t an assassin.

If it’s not an assassin, but someone who knows Koro-sensei and Karasuma-sensei in detail then…

Most likely revenge.

Just in case, I spoke to Hayami.

“Can I ask you something, Hayami?”

“W-what, don’t suddenly talk to me, you scared me.”

“Sorry, it’s an emergency, I have an idea who the mastermind might be, so just in case, hand me the gun you’re holding.”

“Huh? If you know who the mastermind is, shouldn’t you tell everyone?”

“I don’t have proof and we’ll know for sure soon anyway, more importantly, give me the gun, we don’t have time.”

“Fine.”

After taking the gun from Hayami, I slipped back to the rear where I’d be less noticeable.

* * *

We reached the room on the top floor and went in at Karasuma-sensei’s signal.

Best case, we restrain him without incident before he can hit the detonation switch.

The moment we were about to pounce, a voice rang out in the silent room.

“It itches… When I remember it, it starts itching, but maybe because of that, since the wound always gets exposed to air, my senses have gotten sharper and I told you, didn’t I, I was already prepared to kill a Mach 20 monster, I even made spare switches, enough that even if I go down, someone can still press one.”

It was a voice I recognized.

But that pressure was nothing like before, it was so deranged it felt like madness.

From the very back, before he could see my face, I instinctively hid inside the bathroom.

“There’s one more person besides the three assassins who went out of contact, someone inside who vanished along with the Ministry of Defense’s confidential funds and the assassination budget. What are you trying to do? Takaoka.”

“You bad kids, coming in through the back entrance to see your mentor, I didn’t raise you to be like that, fine then, I’ll give you summer break remedial lessons. Let’s go to the rooftop, I’ve prepared a welcome for my beloved students, of course you’ll come along, right? Your class is alive only by my mercy.”

At Takaoka’s order, the classmates unwillingly headed up to the rooftop.

Of course, I followed behind quietly so nobody would notice me.

“You hired assassins and threatened students with a virus, this recklessness, have you lost your mind?”

“Hey, hey, hey, hahaha. I’m completely sane, this is a plan that can save the Earth, if you’d just obediently sent those two short brats to bring me the wanted man, my assassination plan would’ve wrapped up smoothly. In the plan, what was it, Kayano, was it? The girl. The room’s bathtub is packed full of anti-sensei rounds, you bring the wanted man into that tub, then bury him alive with cement from above, to return to his original form without touching the anti-sensei rounds, he’d have to blow up the student along with it and a teacher who cares about students wouldn’t do that, so I figured he’d just obediently melt away, hahaha.”

After hearing Takaoka’s horrific plan, the classmates were speechless at how inhuman it was.

“I panicked when I found out you all stormed in together, but what I have to do doesn’t really change, how many of you I keep alive depends on my mood.”

“Do you think you’ll be forgiven for something like that?”

“Oh, that’s a scary face, monster. Even so, this is still the more humane option, compared to the inhumane thing you did to me. That knife shoved at me with a cheap trick and those humiliating eyes, every time it flickers through my head, my face starts itching, I can’t even sleep at night. The evaluation you dropped gets repaid with results, the humiliation I took gets repaid with humiliation even worse. Especially Shiota Nagisa, you who stained my future, I’ll never forgive you, I’ll teach you suffering worse than hell.”

“So that’s why you demanded the short students, your goal was Nagisa…”

“Yeah and there’s one more I really want to kill, but if he isn’t here, maybe the virus already got him, hahaha.”

“You’re insane, you only lost to Nagisa inside the rules you made yourself. And just so you know, whether you won or lost back then, we still hated you either way!”

“Shut up, I’m not listening to gravel like you. Don’t forget I can cut the gravel in half with my fingertips. Shorty, you come up alone, we settle this on the heliport up here.”

* * *

Nagisa POV

In the raging wind and violent gusts, I headed up to the heliport, just like Takaoka-sensei ordered.

Right after, Takaoka-sensei put his finger on the remote’s switch.

“Takaoka!”

“Don’t get it twisted, Karasuma, this is to make sure nobody interrupts my precious time with Nagisa-kun and you’re still shaking, aren’t you, you haven’t fully recovered, if that’s the case, you can’t hit me.”

Right after saying that, Takaoka-sensei pressed the switch and the path leading to the heliport collapsed completely.

“Now nobody can climb up here anymore, you know what I want, right? A rematch from last time.”

“Please wait, Takaoka-sensei, I didn’t come here to fight.”

“Of course, that dirty trick like last time won’t work anymore, it’s obvious you’d get taken out instantly, but if it ends instantly, I won’t feel satisfied, so before we fight, there’s something you need to do. Apologize, kneel and bow. Sincerely, for ambushing me with a cheap trick because you lacked ability.”

I started apologizing as he said, trying not to set him off.

“I…”

“Is that a bow? Rub your head on the ground, like this.”

As he said it, sensei forcibly ground my head against the ground.

If it’s for everyone.

This much is nothing.

“I lacked ability so I ambushed you with a cheap trick, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah and then talk big too. Like ‘Get out’… you brat, a student saying that to an adult, a student saying that to a teacher.”

“I’m sorry for speaking arrogantly to an adult, to sensei, even though I’m just a brat, even though I’m just a student, I’m truly sorry.”

“Yeah, unlike Ayanokōji, you can only do underhanded things, so you look perfect plastered to the ground like this.”

At that unexpected name, not just me, but my classmates and even the teachers looked confused.

But the most important person, Ayanokōji-kun, who had been with us just before, was nowhere to be seen.

“A-Ayanokōji-kun?”

“What, you didn’t know? He had a hand in my downfall. Well, that guy will be dead from the virus soon anyway, hahaha. Here, as a reward, I’ll tell you what happens to someone who dies from the virus, Smog showed me images and it was a masterpiece, boils all over the body, the face swelling up like a grape. You want to see it, Nagisa-kun?”

Then Takaoka-sensei tossed the case with the cure into the air and blew it up.

Now there’s no cure.

Because of me, half my classmates are going to die.

Regret and despair crashed into me all at once.

“Yes, that face, that’s what I wanted to see, why don’t you turn it into a summer break observation journal, hahahaha, watching your friends’ faces turn into grapes, hahaha.

It’s a shame I can’t see Ayanokōji’s face directly, but why don’t you guys bring me footage of it, Ayanokōji’s dying face, hahaha.”

Shut up.

I can’t hear anything because of my heartbeat.

But I’ve never felt like this before.

All I can feel is…

Killing intent toward the man in front of me.

“…I’ll… kill you. Hah… hah… you bastard… after what you did to everyone…”

“That’s it, come kill me, Nagisa-kun!”

The moment I tried to slash at Takaoka-sensei, a shock slammed into my back like something had hit me.

When I looked down, it was the stun gun Terasaka-kun had.

“Don’t get cocky, Nagisa! When the cure got blown up, you looked at me like you pitied me, don’t act all high-and-mighty like you can worry about other people, you bean-sprout bastard! A virus like that can be cured easily! Even if he’s trash, if you stop his breathing, it’s still murder, are you going to throw away a ten-billion chance just because you got emotional?!”

“Terasaka-kun is right, Nagisa-kun, killing that man has no value, losing your temper only puts you at a disadvantage and he doesn’t even have knowledge about the cure, we’ll question the poison user down below, knocking him out is more than enough!”

“Hey, don’t butt in. If he doesn’t come at me seriously trying to kill me, it means nothing. Only when I humiliatingly crush this shorty’s real killing intent, only then can my shame finally be erased.”

“Nagisa-kun, pick up Terasaka-kun’s stun gun, that man’s life and sensei’s life, that man’s words and Terasaka-kun’s words, think about which one has value.”

Right after that, Terasaka-kun collapsed and everyone rushed over to him.

But his eyes were still staring straight this way.

“Do it, Nagisa, beat the hell out of him without killing him!”

Thank you.

Koro-sensei, Terasaka-kun.

For telling me what I need to do right now…

I steeled myself and turned toward Takaoka-sensei, then like before, I started walking while erasing my killing intent.

But immediately, Takaoka-sensei’s front kick slammed straight into my stomach.

“Hey, what’s wrong, weren’t you going to kill me?”

That cheap trick like before wouldn’t work at all, he had no openings.

So I grabbed my knife and went in.

First, to show I was serious, I thrust for his face.

But he twisted his body and cleanly dodged.

I swung the knife again and again, but he caught my arm and I ate a headbutt.

As I reeled from the headbutt, merciless fists came flying.

First, his left fist punched through my cheek and the other fist came right after.

With no time to guard against that fierce barrage, I kept getting brutalized.

Build, skill, experience, everything was on a completely different level from me.

All of it was for the sake of killing me.

I could feel that will and violent madness buzzing against my skin.

“Hey, hey, hahaha, don’t collapse on me, that was just the warm-up, now then, I guess I’ll start using this too.”

As he said that, Takaoka-sensei pulled a knife from inside his clothes.

“There’s a trauma that shows up in my dreams, your smile back then and Ayanokōji’s eyes, after seeing that, everything went crazy, you’re going to die now and Ayanokōji will die from the virus too, that ends my revenge and from today, my life restarts. To commemorate the restart, I’ll cut off your arms and legs and make you a specimen, I’ll keep you by my side forever and admire you.”

While Takaoka-sensei was talking, I recovered my strength and thought about the finishing move I was taught.

One.

The enemy is holding two weapons.

Two.

The enemy is highly skilled.

Three.

The enemy knows the fear of being killed.

Good.

We’ve got them all.

I approached Takaoka-sensei again with a smile.

At the smile he couldn’t crush no matter how many times he smashed it, that ‘trauma’, he showed a split-second of hesitation.

From zero motion, at top speed…

At the furthest point and at maximum…

The timing is just barely outside the knife’s range.

The closer you get, the more the enemy’s focus gathers on the knife.

You ‘discard’ that focus along with the knife, like leaving it hanging in the air and then…

Bang!

Like a cat-feint, you disrupt the opponent’s rhythm and for an instant, you steal their will.

As an assassin, I don’t miss those brief moments.

I drew the second blade in one smooth flow and before he could react, I drove the stun gun into his side.

Got him.

That thought lasted only an instant.

Takaoka-sensei’s flames of revenge hadn’t gone out.

Even after taking the current, he held his ground and thrust the knife at me.

But with a single gunshot, the knife was knocked aside and it never reached me.

And this time, to make sure he couldn’t escape, I sent the current through him again and Takaoka-sensei passed out.

Relieved, I thought Karasuma-sensei had saved me and immediately looked back.

There was…

Ayanokōji-kun, pointing a gun at me with expressionless eyes.