章 36: Chapter 35
The assassination attempt failed.
They took Koro-sensei to the makeshift seaside chapel. They lined the insides with the thick sludge that was the wannabe bug spray and his nose slowly became useless even though it didn't become as runny as the original thing had.
They laid traps with their snipers, they shot off six of his tentacles, and then Ritsu and everyone else shot him with BB bullets.
The chance of killing him was extremely high, as calculated by Ritsu. But even then, they didn't manage it.
The probability and preparation was on their side, but it didn't compare to Koro-sensei's perfect defense.
Irritated didn't begin to describe what Karma felt. It couldn't describe what every one of his classmates felt.
And then , his classmates started dropping off like flies. They were poisoned.
So, his classmates were panicked, his teachers were concerned and Koro-sensei seemed to be racking his brain for a solution as well.
Of course, it ended up being an assassination attempt on Koro-sensei that once again implicated the class in the middle.
Every single assassin till then had managed to pin down Koro-sensei's biggest, most glaring weakness. The way Koro-sensei tried his best to save the lives of every single one of his students.
But this time, they had cut off his support by themselves, when their assassination attempt forced him into the shell.
No one must have thought Koro-sensei would allow himself to be pushed so far, or even that he had one more life saving countermeasure in place.
So this would be their first time.
The first time the students would actually be put to the test for every single lesson they spent honing themselves.
Their blades would have to be sharp, and they would have to take the step forward to do what was necessary.
The remaining students were given a time limit to hand over Nagisa and Kayano with Koro-sensei, to the assassin who was about to kill their classmates.
Instead, all of them got into a car to go to the back entrance of the hotel.
It was at this time that Karma's phone began ringing. The students who remained, turned towards him to give him a curious glance.
When Karma checked his phone, he let out a relieved sigh.
It was Gakushuu.
He picked it up immediately.
"Hey, you're okay," he breathed out after picking up. Gakushuu let out a tired chuckle.
"I saw your calls. I should have guessed Ren would immediately call you after I told him I wouldn't come," Gakushuu's voice was a welcome change from the things that had been happening around Karma.
Unfortunately, he had curious classmates who were trying hard to listen into his conversation.
"Are you doing okay?" Karma asked insistently when he didn't get a reply the first time. He frowned at the following silence.
"I'm just tired," Gakushuu replied. He sounded exhausted. Tired was an understatement. He probably hadn't slept in days.
But he was still relieved to hear his voice. He hadn't even realized how relieved he would be until he heard him laugh.
He breathed out a heavy exhale, looking outside. His eyes caught the lit up hotel they were approaching.
His lips curved into a hard smile. How perfect. Enemy assassins were practically falling into his lap to die just when he needed to let out some of his frustrations.
"Yuki and Mirai missed you," he told Gakushuu instead. "If you're allowed out, you should visit them before I come back."
Gakushuu laughed in his ear.
"And you didn't?" He teasingly asked. "And here I thought you'd be running from your classmates to answer my call, but from what I'm hearing behind you, you have a couple attempting to eavesdrop on you."
Karma turned around to glare at his classmates, and they shut up their whispered discussions about who he was talking to. Karasuma sighed tiredly, and Irina smirked.
"Sloppy, Karma," Gakushuu laughed.
"Shut up," Karma rolled his eyes, "it's not like you have much room here either. Who was the one who got a full face blush the last time again?"
"That would be you," Gakushuu retorted. Karma snorted.
"Sure, I'll let you believe that." Then his smile faded, "I have to go now. An emergency just popped up."
"The kidnapped students kind or the other kind?" Gakushuu asked. The tired quality had left his voice entirely, as it sharpened.
"The other one," he replied, ignoring the look some of his classmates were shooting him. If they were so worried about him spilling their assassination class secret, maybe they should have been more discreet about it.
And he doubted discreet would be enough to kill Koro-sensei.
"Do you need back up?" He asked next.
"It'll be too late. We'll handle it," Karma reassured.
"Hmm. I'm sending you a picture," Gakushuu told him distractedly, "it'll serve as a threat to people both in the military and the assassins, so take good care of it. I'll erase this call from your logs too. If anyone insists, it was from Chiho."
The call was cut abruptly and Karma pulled the phone away from his ear to stare at the picture he had just received.
A bloodied right hand with a signet ring on the ring finger. It was laying on plush velvet fur.
"No way," Irina said, snatching the phone away from Karma's hand. He let her take it undisturbed. He was pretty curious about the meaning behind the picture too.
"I thought this was a Reaper kill," she whispered to herself, zooming into the signet on the bloody hand.
She confirmed it and then looked up to stare at Karma, flabbergasted.
"Who the hell gave you this?" She asked, her voice oddly even.
"A friend of a friend," Karma gave her a smile, "people get worried when I tell them I'm in trouble, you know?"
Karma could feel Irina increasing her estimate of his threat level at the new information. She looked back at the picture before handing it back to him warily.
"You made a dangerous friend, Akabane Karma," she said, her brows furrowing together and there was a serious glint in her eyes that they hadn't seen for a while.
Karma tilted his head, giving her a slow smile.
"I know."
The rest of the night wasn't what Karma would call easy but it was oddly simple. Irina exposed herself to keep them hidden, then Karasuma got struck out by poison.
Karma went up against the second assassin and took out his frustrations by squirting as much wasabi as he could into the man's nostrils. The next included their class' snipers redeeming themselves and finally, they recreated Nagisa's fight with Takaoka part 2 on the rooftop while Terasaka collapsed.
It was terrible.
The only silver lining was the fact that no matter how many suspicious glances Karasuma shot Irina or Karma, neither for them revealed the picture Gakushuu had sent to Karma.
(Which only emphasized exactly how dangerous showing that picture would be.
Holy fuck, Shuu.
Where are you getting these people?)
Somehow, it felt like he was carrying nuclear launch codes to a gunfight. It was funny, considering not even nuclear weapons could kill Koro-sensei.
While the assassins were taken away by the government after assuring them that no, everyone was going to be fine, Karma texted Gakushuu that the whole thing was over and he hadn't used the picture.
The picture disappeared from his phone like it hadn't even existed.
…Karma had no idea when Shuu did that, but he was glad to not be carrying such a dangerous double edged sword around.
He was pretty sure it wasn't just him that was relieved to have it gone from his phone though.
Unfortunately, he went off again and Karma couldn't reach him anymore. He managed to convey reassurances to Ren though, which he was sure the whole class appreciated from the amount of relieved sighs he had heard.
The day ended with them managing to fall asleep sometime after they were assured of their classmates' continued health.
The next day, Karma rose early, watched the sunrise and then went off to sleep until.the afternoon, which was when most of his classmates woke up.
Surprisingly, most of "poisoned" students were feeling much better than the group who had to trek up however many floors and confront 3 assassins along with Nagisa's fight against Takaoka.
Thankfully, their regular training made sure they didn't have any aches or had any injuries that a simple nap couldn't fix.
Instead, when Koro-sensei came back, they were relaxing at the beach or just having fun. Karma certainly was enjoying some unpoisoned drinks that he had forced them to make in front of him.
The hotel was nice, but it certainly wasn't assassination proof. Booking out the whole place had given them control over the staff but it also made them easy targets.
Every move they made to protect themselves, there was a chance they were leaving themselves vulnerable from another angle.
Assassins were trained professionals, and even their training gave them a 'habit' that Karma had managed to take advantage of.
Playing dead was literally the first rule of street fighting, but as an assassin, you had to make sure your target really was dead.
Or well, he would if he actually was training to be a proper assassin. As it went, they just had to kill Koro-sensei for now.
Maybe years down the line, Karma's hands would be as bloody as the assassin he had faced.
Class E was already far too exposed to both the underground and the military. To protect themselves against Koro-sensei, they were vulnerable to any future manipulation from both sides.
As long as class E stayed away from both sides, they would probably be left alone.
Wasn't that funny?
Turned out, Karma's choice of future profession would be far more deadly than his current profession of assassin.
He wondered if Nagisa would go underground and become an assassin. He vaguely hoped he didn't, for a multitude of reasons, mostly gathering up to it'll probably get him killed faster than he could say 'oops, sorry'.
The government wouldn't want them on the other side, and even less on their own side. No one liked more competition for their power after all.
Karma had a long hard road in front of him, but he would have rather had this strength and deal with all the complementary future problems than not have had it, and still deal with similar problems.
Being well known had never been a bad thing for Karma.
There were people on his side, and people not. There would be people trying to use him, and also people who didn't.
It would be up to him, as always, to make his future whatever he wanted to see in it.
He considered his thought with humor.
Wasn't it Gandhi who had originally said something similar?
Something about if he changed himself, the world's response to him would change too? It had been popularly quoted as 'be the change you want to see in the world'
He huffed a laugh to himself.
Quoting from a man famous for his nonviolence, would wonders never cease.
Gaksuhuu would laugh himself into an early grave if he knew Karma had just compared himself to Gandhi.
Unlike Gandhi, Karma was an assassin, after all.
Koro-sensei eagerly sent them into caves for a test of courage, making up pairs for the class that most of the class rolled their eyes at.
Fortunately, Karma had chosen Okuda on their Kyoto trip so he was with a friend, at least. They just casually talked about the whole poisoning incident, Karma retold a little from his point of view and they walked through Koro-sensei getting freaked out by himself.
It only got funnier when they left the caves to find Koro-sensei sobbing while surrounded by the rest of the class. He kept repeating the same words, while hiding his face.
"I'm so ashamed…I'm so ashamed!!" He whined.
"So you wanted to scare us into each other's arms and pair off as couples?" Maehara asked, displeased.
"We saw right through you," Kurahashi added.
"But I wanted to see you all as couples, holding hands and blushing, and tell you not to have sex!" Koro-sensei protested loudly.
Everyone sweatdropped.
"Just leave that sort of thing alone," Rio sighed, exasperated. Then a thought occurred to her, and she let out a sleazy grin. "In the first place, Karma's girlfriend isn't even here, sensei. How could you encourage him to cheat?"
Koro-sensei shrieked. Everyone's eyes laser focused on Karma. Karma's smile stiffened.
"Ah! I'm so sorry!! I didn't even consider your girlfriend, Karma-kun!" Koro-sensei waved his tentacles.
"Or boyfriend," Rio pitched in, her grin widening. "What do you call Asano Gakushuu again?"
Koro-sensei stiffened at this piece of information. Then he looked at Karma with a conflicted look, dollar signs in his eyes and a heart at the back of his head.
"You're not getting increased pay by asking me," Karma deadpanned. Koro-sensei spent half a second sobbing into a handkerchief before exchanging it for a notebook.
"But tell me what kind of relationship you're in, Karma-kun. Nurufufufu."
"Fufufufu," the class echoed, their eyes on Karma.
"How is that a courage test? There's nothing in there!" Irina's voice pulled their attention off Karma. "I got scared for nothing!"
Karma took the time to move away from his previous position.
"That's why I told you not to cling to me. You're weighing me down," Karasuma coldly rejected. The look in Rio's eyes became slightly frantic.
"Oh shut up! Aren't you a man? A beautiful woman should always be escorted!" Irina protested.
While the class watched the two like a production, Karma smirked.
"Hey, I've been kind of noticing it but…" Karma started.
"Is Bitch-sensei…" Kurahashi innocently picked up on his lead as they watched Irina try to sneak away from under they eyes.
"Yeah."
"What should we do?"
"We have some time before we have to leave tomorrow morning…"
"Let's set them up!" Koro-sensei's eyes lit up at the opportunity. The whole class, sans Nagisa, smirked with an evil look in their eyes.
It was far more distracting to have a romance play out in front of them than harass Karma, though that didn't mean he was forgotten.
And soon enough he heard someone yell aloud.
"Ah damnit! Karma escaped while we were distracted!"
"Shoot. Let's split into teams! If we let Karma escape, we won't be able to corner him again!"
The class hashed out a plan in a few seconds and proceeded to carry it out.
Irina was handed to the girls, and Karma was the responsibility of the boys, though some chose to go for Karasuma, knowing Karma would easily lead them on a wild goose chase without Koro-sensei to chase him down with them.
In the end, neither plan had proper success.
Irina didn't manage to get a proper romance and Karma didn't spill a thing no matter how much they bothered him.
They got back up on the cruise, disappointed.
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