Ayanokōji POV

If Takaoka saw my face there was a chance he’d pick me as his target for revenge, I chose to hide, but if Nagisa died I had no idea what kind of impact it would have on the students, so I ended up pulling a handgun in place of Karasuma-sensei.

Fortunately, sniping doesn’t work on that guy, so even if my skill with a gun is exposed now it probably won’t be a problem.

More than that, I’m worried about Nagisa right now...

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, thanks to you Ayanokōji-kun, I barely made it out alive, thank you.”

“No, pushing him that far was undeniably your achievement, I didn’t really do anything.”

“You did very well, Nagisa-kun! This time I was scared about what would happen, but I’m relieved now.”

“...Korosensei. I’m fine, but what do we do? What we took from Takaoka-sensei isn’t nearly enough.”

That’s the problem.

For a middle schooler, a friend dying is nothing but a painful experience.

If half the class died like this, the impact on the assassination would be immeasurable.

“For now, we’re escaping from here. I called a helicopter, so you all wait there, I’m going to bring the poison-user guy over here now.”

“Hah! You bastards don’t need any medicine!”

When I turned toward the voice, the assassins we’d subdued were standing there in a wide-legged stance.

“Brats, you think you’re getting out of here alive?”

“Your employer is already defeated, so you shouldn’t have a reason to fight. Besides, I’ve recovered already and the students are strong enough, so why don’t we stop before either side takes more damage?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Giving up sucks, but sure, yeah?”

“Getting revenge for the boss isn’t included in our contract. And I told you, you don’t need any medicine in the first place.”

“...”

“What I gave you was a modified version of this food-poisoning bacteria. For the next few hours it’ll run wild, but after that it rapidly loses activity and becomes harmless. It’s different from what the boss told us to use, if we’d followed the instructions, it would’ve been seriously bad.”

“Right before using the virus, the three of us talked it over. The time the boss set was one hour, so if that’s the case, we can still negotiate without using a virus that actually kills. Wasn’t it more than enough for you to feel your lives were in danger?”

“So you disobeyed his orders? Even though you’re getting paid, is it really okay to do that?”

“Idiot, if you think pros move for money no matter what, you’ve got it completely wrong. Of course we’ll do our best to follow the client’s wishes, but it looked like the boss never intended to hand over the medicine from the start. Become the ones who slaughter a bunch of ordinary middle schoolers, or ruin our reputation as professionals... we just calmly weighed which one was the bigger risk for us going forward. So yeah, sorry, but none of you are dying. Make the patients drink this nutritional tonic, it’s good enough that we get letters saying they feel even better than before they collapsed.”

“I’ll only trust it after I confirm the students have recovered. I’ll also hear the details and until then, I’m keeping you restrained on our side.”

“Yeah, can’t be helped. I’ve got the next job lined up next week, so keep it within that.”

“Awww, so no revenge match, mister? You don’t hate me enough to want to kill me? lol”

“I’ve never killed someone over a personal grudge. I’ll wait for the day someone hires me to kill you. So become the kind of person who gets targeted.”

Karma’s provocation fell flat as the assassins walked toward the helicopter.

“That’s how it is, brats. If you really want us to come at you seriously to kill you, become important! Then I’ll teach you the full-course meal from a pro assassin!”

After leaving that message, the assassins boarded the helicopter and left behind their own kind of cheer.

And just like that, our large-scale infiltration mission ended without a single person on the hotel side noticing.

But as for me, I’ll probably have to explain some of the situation, since there are students staring at me with suspicious eyes already...

After that, we returned to the hotel once and told everyone it was safe now.

Everyone fell asleep like mud from their own exhaustion and everyone finally woke up the next day in the evening.

* * *

After everyone woke up, I told the members who had been hearing about Takaoka that his downfall happened because I provided the video of corporal punishment and that as for the gun, I’d been hiding my ability.

Terasaka and the others asked why I hadn’t been cooperating with the assassination until now, but around that point, Chiba and Hayami had also been hiding their abilities and Isogai settled it by saying that was basically the basics of assassination.

While I watched the ship that carried Korosensei with the setting sun, Yukiko sat down next to me.

“Morning, Yukiko. No, it’s evening already so ‘morning’ is weird, more importantly, are you feeling okay?”

“Thanks to you I’ve completely recovered, it’s thanks to you guys, Kiyotaka-kun♪”

“No, I didn’t do anything in particular.”

“Is that so~”

Ignoring Yukiko as she clung to me and poked my side over and over, I turned my eyes toward the ship.

“Korosensei is inside that?”

“Yeah, it’s a long shot, but they’re going to lock it down tight under Karasuma-sensei’s command so we can kill him if we are lucky.”

“Even you, Kiyotaka-kun, can’t kill Korosensei?”

“...Not as things are now.”

Yukiko is one of the not-few people who already knows I failed this assassination.

“Hey, Kiyotaka-kun...”

“What is it? Making a face like that...”

Seeing Yukiko looking uneasy, I wondered if I’d done something.

“Can I be a support for you?”

“Yeah, you help me plenty, so there’s no need to worry that much.”

Even so, Yukiko’s face didn’t clear up.

As if she could tell my words didn’t have any emotion in them...

She needs me, but if you ask whether I need Yukiko right now...

Will that day ever come, a day when I can want to be by her side without caring about benefits?

Even if I can understand what’s normal for a human, I can’t put it into practice and I really hate myself for it.

BOOM!!

An awkward atmosphere had been flowing between us, but that air got blown away by the explosion sound.

* * *

Well, the outcome is exactly what you’d expect...

“Nurufufufu, I’ve put you through hardship because of my inadequacy, but everyone! You fought the enemy, you fought the virus and you truly did your best.”

“Hello, Korosensei. You really are at your best when you have tentacles.”

“Yes, hello! Now then, shall we enjoy the rest of the trip?”

“But we’re going back tomorrow morning, right?”

“What are you saying!? Sugino-kun! I was in an almost complete defense mode, so I haven’t played enough! This is a one-time summer with my students, I can’t waste even a single second!”

With that, Sensei started playing around using clones.

Maybe the students gathered around us were influenced by him, because they also decided to enjoy the rest of the time to the fullest.

It looked like Yukiko had been wearing her swimsuit underneath too, since she had already changed.

I thought I might play around at least once, but it seems playtime is being put on hold for me.

“I figured you’d come to talk around now Korosensei.”

“Nurufufufu, as expected of you, Ayanokōji-kun. That final snipe in the chapel, that was you, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I figured you’d see through it.”

“Yes, right after I entered that form, I checked the area, but besides Chiba-kun and Hayami-san, the only one I couldn’t see was you. And with the Takaoka-sensei matter, you’ve been moving quite proactively lately, did something change in your mindset?”

“Once I realized assassination by sniping is impossible, I just thought there was no need to hide it anymore.”

“You resemble my past self very much. You never doubt your own power and you judge others only by their usefulness, it’s exactly the same. But you know, that way of living will definitely lead to regret, that’s advice from your senior in life.”

“I don’t know what happened in your past, Sensei, but unfortunately I’ve never regretted anything so far.”

“I’m telling you it’s too late once you regret it.”

“I’ll accept that as one kind of experience.”

“Even if the life of someone important to you can never come back, can you accept that?”

“‘Time moves on and memories never fade’ is nothing more than nonsense. The human brain is built that way, it’s an unavoidable structure of the human body.”

“...Just what are you?”

Without answering, I turned my back to Korosensei and the sunset and walked away.

* * *

“Everyone! Let’s do a test of courage, a ‘kimodameshi,’ where you walk through a scary place at night to see who panics!”

“A test of courage? Now?”

“Yes, if there’s one thing to do on a midsummer night, it’s this!”

“You’re saying that, but you just want to play, Korosensei, don’t you?”

“That’s right! Unlike you, I’ve been shut up in my shell the whole time! Even though we’re on a southern island!”

“A test of courage sounds fun!”

“Yeah but I don’t like scary stuff~”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, the ghost is Korosensei, right? lol”

And so, on the last night on the southern island, we ended up doing a test of courage together.

But at this moment, we didn’t know Korosensei had another goal, to force a couple to form for his own sleazy purposes...

“The location is this island’s undersea cave, make it through to the exit in male-female pairs!”

* * *

Korosensei POV

Nurufufufu, you’ve all truly gotten stronger... but even you still have something you’re lacking.

That is...

A romantic scandal.

By around summer, I assumed a couple would be forming here and there, but you lot are so obsessed with assassination there’s not a single romantic story at all!

So here, Sensei will give their backs a push through fear, pair boys and girls up... then use it as material to tease you and write a ‘based on real events’ novel.

This is the refined consideration of a homeroom teacher.

Now then, let’s get started right away.

* * *

Ayanokōji POV

With Korosensei’s proposed test of courage happening, I’m walking through the cave with Hayami right now.

Why Hayami? Because she invited me, saying she had something she wanted to talk about.

Yukiko invited me too, but this time Hayami came first, so I prioritized her.

“So what did you want to talk about?”

“...I don’t think I properly thanked you back then, so, th-thank you.”

“It’s not something you need to thank me for. You’re the one who pulled the trigger, I just gave you a slight push.”

“That’s what I’m saying helped! And I wanted to apologize to you too.”

“Did you do something?”

“...Before, I said something awful, that you can’t be trusted, right. Back then I let my emotions take over and I wasn’t thinking about you. So... sorry.”

“I’m not bothered by it. Considering how hard you were trying to teach me, your feelings were reasonable. If anything, you could say I’m the one who should apologize. I’m sorry.”

“S-so, yeah, I guess. I’ll forgive you.”

“That helps.”

As we talked like that and went deeper, suddenly we heard a voice along with the sound of a sanshin, a traditional Okinawan three-string instrument.

“This is the bloodstained cave of tragedy, Ryukyu. It is where the royal family who lost a battle met a lamented death.”

“They’re more elaborate than I expected... hey, are you okay?”

She’d been totally fine until now, but the moment the voice started, she turned into this... Hayami grabbed my clothes and froze.

“D-don’t leave me, Kiyotaka.”

“I’m not leaving you, so let go of my clothes, Hayami, it’s hard to move.”

“...R-Rinka.”

“Sigh, Rinka, for now, let go of my clothes. Do you want me to hold your hand instead?”

Rinka nodded, then trembling, took my hand.

This girl changes way too much...

Holding hands with Hayami, we went even deeper and a voice called from behind us.

“Do not separate, if you are alone, you will be slain by a wandering soul.”

“Kyaaaa!”

With a loud scream, Rinka bolted.

Since we were holding hands, of course I got dragged along, pulled into running through the cave by her force.

* * *

Karma POV

“Not being scared is scary... is that it?”

“Yeah, seeing Nagisa-kun back then, honestly it shocked me. Not that he beat Takaoka, it was after that. He wasn’t scared at all. If we fought, I’d win 100%, but for an assassin, that kind of win or loss means nothing. I thought ‘not being scared’ is actually the scariest thing. But I’m not losing though. The one who will take Korosensei’s life is me♪”

“Yes! I’m looking forward to which one kills him♪”

Even so, there’s one more eerie person.

Ayanokōji Kiyotaka.

My first impression was that he was just a normal student with little presence who sat next to me, but once you open the lid, his gun skill is enough to surpass even Chiba and Hayami-san.

He has the brains to build strategies I never would’ve thought of.

He also seemed to have a hand in the Takaoka incident...

But there’s one contradiction.

Back then, Takaoka said that unlike Kiyotaka-kun, he ambushed Nagisa-kun with a cowardly method.

But what Kiyotaka-kun conveyed was hidden filming of evidence videos for corporal punishment.

It looks like nobody noticed, but that clearly contradicts Takaoka’s idea of fighting fair and square.

I run my thoughts.

If Takaoka’s story is true, then Kiyotaka-kun has skill great enough to overwhelm Takaoka head-on.

Someone who isn’t scared, yet is scary.

A bottomless, unfathomable guy.

Two people you’d never meet in ordinary daily life.

That’s why this classroom is interesting.