White tentacles attacked with violent force.
We, the students and teachers alike, stood in a state of absolute shock.
Leaving us behind without a single clue as to what was happening, Koro-sensei let out a low, sharp rasp.
"Where... where did you get... those tentacles!!"
It was a deep, guttural tone we had never heard from him before.
From the dark, pitch-black shadow of anger that colored his face, I realized the truth: Koro-sensei was beyond furious at the sight of Itona wielding those tentacles.
But why?
Why did Itona possess tentacles too?
I retreated into my earlier deductions and began to re-analyze the situation.
Koro-sensei had undergone human experimentation in a project originally aimed at saving the Earth, likely related to an energy crisis. I had previously hypothesized, when Principal Asano visited, that the energy supposed to destroy the Earth next March was originally designed to save it.
Now, Itona's appearance with these tentacles sent my conclusions racing once again.
"I am not obligated to answer your questions, Koro-sensei. But haven't you realized it yet? Your parents were different, and your upbringings were different. Nevertheless... this boy and you are brothers."
That was what Shiro had just said.
Different parents and different upbringings meant this wasn't hereditary at all. Based on those words, didn't it mean these tentacles were artificial limbs implanted later by a third party?
No, it was too early to be certain.
"Ritsu."
"Yes?"
I moved behind the crowd and whispered to Ritsu inside my phone, trying to find the missing pieces of my logical puzzle.
"Can you search for a real person named Itona Horibe?"
"That is possible. Shall I begin the search?"
"Please."
The first thing to doubt was the reality of that name; it was possible the boy before us was simply a "designer child" created in unofficial experiments. Depending on this information, the credibility of my hypothesis—that Koro-sensei was originally human—would shift.
"What a terrifying face. Did you remember something unpleasant?"
"It seems I have many questions I must ask you, Mr. Shiro."
"You won't be able to ask them, because you are going to die here."
While I analyzed the situation, their words all seemed to hold deep significance.
Meanwhile, the battle between the tentacle-bearer and the teacher progressed. Shiro raised his sleeve and fired a beam of light. To us, it was merely a bright flash, but it had a completely different effect on Koro-sensei.
"When you are exposed to this beam, your cells begin to move according to 'non-Newtonian fluid behavior,' causing your entire body to stiffen in an instant."
Why was this happening?
"I know everything. I know every single one of your weaknesses."
How did this man know all those details?
My focus shifted from the superhuman battle unfolding before me to the identity of this man called Shiro. Could he possibly hold the keys to all these secrets?
I would proceed with my deductions assuming everything I had reached before was correct.
There is an energy project determining the future of the nation and the planet. In those experiments, Koro-sensei and his kind were born. After conducting experiments on his species on the Moon, those samples lost control and exploded, vaporizing seventy percent of the lunar surface.
And if my suspicions weren't wrong, the scenario of Earth's destruction stems from the loss of control over that energy caused by Koro-sensei's natural death.
Even if the part about human experimentation and energy provision were just figments of my imagination, the fact that the world ends with Koro-sensei's death must be true—because Koro-sensei himself told me so.
Think, Keiichi Nozaki. Who is this teacher standing before you? I should be the closest person to finding the answer, especially since Koro-sensei himself gives me the hints!
While I was lost in thought, Ritsu called out to me after finishing her search for Itona.
"Nozaki-san, Itona Horibe is a real person. He appears to be the son of a small factory owner."
"I see. Thank you, Ritsu."
Itona was an officially registered individual.
Of course, it wasn't certain that the Itona Ritsu found was the same boy before us, but assuming he was, it meant tentacles could be implanted into humans. And if Itona was the same person, it proved that tentacles could be transferred to a human being, strongly supporting my theory that Koro-sensei was once human.
...But what was this feeling? Even though my deductions were progressing, I didn't feel satisfied at all.
"Die, brother."
Itona delivered a merciless blow that pierced Koro-sensei's body.
But I didn't miss the truth. Just before the impact, Koro-sensei used his "Molting" skill to escape to the ceiling.
"Molting... right, he had that trick as well."
"But Koro-sensei, I know the weakness of that move. It consumes more energy than meets the eye, and consequently, your boasted speed drops. You also reconstructed the tentacle you lost in Itona's first strike, didn't you? Reconstruction consumes physical strength as well. How much power can you show now that your performance has plummeted twice?"
Ah, I understood now.
I understood why I didn't feel happy despite my deductions moving forward. It was because I hadn't uncovered anything with my own strength.
While I sat there analyzing, new information appeared one after another, as if someone were feeding me the answers in a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors after I had already revealed my choice.
This bothered me.
Yes, I felt frustrated.
If Itona succeeded in his mission, the Earth would be saved. Yet, I felt no joy, because I wanted us to accomplish this task with our own hands.
As I bit my lower lip in frustration, two of Koro-sensei's legs were severed.
"With this, your physical strength has dropped even further. It will be easy to kill you now, which helps us greatly."
"Brother, I am stronger than you."
Itona declared this in a tone confident of victory.
Koro-sensei had been cornered like never before. Only one step remained to save the Earth, yet my unease persisted.
"It seems you've finished reconstructing your legs. You become agitated when you lose your tentacles, because controlling them depends on your psychological state... Come, let's see if you can withstand the next attack."
Hearing Shiro's words, we found ourselves gripping our knives unconsciously. Could we do anything? Would we allow Koro-sensei to be killed this way? These questions swirled in my head.
At that moment, Koro-sensei spoke.
"This is the third time I have been cornered like this. This assassination attempt looks like a straightforward match, but in reality, it is a calculation executed with extreme precision."
Koro-sensei's words were sincere praise.
But his voice carried an unshakeable resolve.
"I have much to ask you all, but it seems I won't get an answer unless I win this match first."
"Do you still think you'll win? That is merely the howling of a defeated octopus."
"Mr. Shiro, you designed this assassination method, but you forgot to calculate only one thing."
"Impossible. My calculations are perfect. Kill him, Itona."
Itona followed Shiro's order calmly and began striking with his tentacles, but Koro-sensei avoided them by a hair's breadth, a confident smile on his face.
Suddenly, the Anti-Sensei knives disappeared from our hands. That octopus... he had snatched the materials meant for his destruction to use them to destroy Itona's tentacles.
"Oh dear, it seems I stepped on some lost items."
Koro-sensei said this provocatively, but Itona was in no state to respond. He was completely agitated due to the destruction of his tentacles.
This was the turning point of the battle.
Shiro had said that tentacle control is heavily affected by psychological state. If that were the case, it applied perfectly to Itona, who possessed those same tentacles.
"Since they are the same tentacles, the knives meant for me affect them in the same way. The agitation upon losing them is also identical."
Koro-sensei seized the opportunity of Itona's confusion, wrapped him in his discarded skin, and hurled him out the window.
"But my boy, in terms of tentacle-handling skills, your teacher has a bit more experience and cunning."
Itona's feet landed on the ground outside. According to the rules Shiro had set, Itona leaving the "ring" meant execution—meaning he had lost the match.
"Since I wrapped you in my molted skin, you won't be harmed. However, your feet landed outside the ring, which means the teacher wins. According to the rules, you are sentenced to death and cannot attempt to kill me again."
Koro-sensei changed his face color to green stripes to start taunting Itona, while the latter's features twisted in clear rage.
"If you want to reclaim your life, come and learn with us in this classroom. There are things that cannot be measured by calculations and performance—that is the 'difference in experience.' I have lived a little longer than you and possess a little more knowledge. I became a teacher because I want to pass my experiences on to you. You won't defeat me unless you steal those experiences from me in this classroom."
As Koro-sensei delivered these moving words, signs of worry appeared on Shiro's face. Suddenly, Itona's tentacles turned pitch black, and he lunged toward the classroom in a frenzy.
"I won't win... I am... weak...?!"
Itona whispered unintelligible words as he charged. Clearly, his target was Koro-sensei, but there were many students in his way.
"Unbelievable..!!"
"Kurahashi-san!"
Kurahashi-san was standing very close to his path.
In that moment, the second I recognized the danger, I entered "The Zone" immediately.
I knew Itona might not target her directly, but a boy who had surrendered to a rage that blackened his tentacles wouldn't think of the collateral damage he would inflict.
I moved my body with everything I had while in that state of focus.
Itona was fractions of a second away from the windowsill, while I needed to cover seven meters to get in front of Kurahashi-san.
If this continued, not only would Kurahashi-san be hurt, but the rampaging Itona would turn the classroom into rubble and might kill or injure the rest of my classmates. I felt a looming danger that shook me to my core.
My senses were fully ignited, just as they were when Karma tried to commit suicide in his previous assassination attempt. I felt the world moving in extreme slow motion.
The difference this time was that Koro-sensei wasn't at full strength. He was wounded and exhausted, and I didn't know if he could protect everyone right now.
In that extreme moment, I heard a voice echoing from within me.
".. What do you want?"
It was my body asking. Though I had never felt anything like this before, I wished for it with total spontaneity and answered my body's question with a single phrase.
"I want to move fast."
So I can protect Kurahashi-san and everyone.
In that moment, amidst that extreme state, something inside me exploded.
"K-gh..!"
In that scene that looked like a very slow replay, almost stopping entirely, I was able to move slightly faster than everything else around me.
Even the weight of the air that usually stuck to my body like solid glue felt loosened now.
I was able to move with total freedom inside "The Zone."
"Look around you more than you're doing now, you idiot!!"
I moved faster than anyone else, intercepted Itona's charge, grabbed him, and slammed him forcefully onto the floor.
As soon as I caught him, I exited the state of focus and shouted at him while pinning him down.
"Gh.."
Perhaps a superhuman strength born of desperation had exploded within me. I broke the shackles of being unable to move within "The Zone" and succeeded in knocking Itona unconscious.
"Hah.. hah.. Are you alright, Kurahashi-san?"
"Y-Yes! I'm fine."
Due to performing a movement that exceeded my own expectations, an intense lethargy invaded my body. I was panting heavily. It seemed moving inside "The Zone" had exhausted my mind more than usual. I felt a fatigue that almost made me lose my balance, a headache tearing through my skull, while my knees trembled and refused to obey me.
"You truly amazed me. You have some lively students, Koro-sensei."
While everyone stood stunned, Shiro alone maintained his cool. Quite simply, he evaluated my performance as being "lively," then hoisted the unconscious Itona onto his back.
"Thank you, Keiichi Nozaki. Thanks to you, you saved me a lot of trouble."
"Why... do you know my name?"
"Well, who knows? Oh, and right, Koro-sensei; my apologies, but it seems this boy isn't in a psychological state to attend classes regularly yet. Even though today was his first day as a transfer, he will be absent from school for a while."
"Wait! As his teacher in charge, I cannot leave him like this. Once he enters Class E, I will take care of him until he graduates! And you, Mr. Shiro, I have mountains of questions for you!"
"I refuse. I am leaving now. Or do you intend to stop me by force?"
Without answering my question, Shiro left coldly, carrying Itona. Koro-sensei wasn't about to let him escape so easily and extended his tentacle to grab his shoulder, but...
With a sound like tearing paper, Koro-sensei's tentacle shattered the moment it touched his shoulder.
"Anti-teacher fibers. You can't even touch my shoulder with a single tentacle. And don't worry, I will return him to school soon, Koro-sensei; not much time remains until March. I will take charge of his private tutoring with full responsibility."
As Shiro was about to depart, I directed a question at him, almost certain he wouldn't answer.
"Mr. Shiro, Itona has tentacles too. Will he blow up the Earth next March?"
This was the question weighing on my mind. If Koro-sensei possessed energy that would destroy the Earth upon his death, then Itona, who possessed the same tentacles, should be subject to the same logic.
Unexpectedly, an answer came. It was short, but a clear reply.
"This boy won't do that."
He said that and prepared for his final exit. But for some reason, he turned toward me before leaving through the hole Itona had made this morning and said briefly:
"Oh, right. Give my regards to your father, Nozaki-kun."
"What..?!"
Leaving those words behind, Shiro truly departed.
This incident left a number of questions in my soul. Why did he mention my father at the end? Was it just a distraction? If I thought about it, it wouldn't be strange for him to know a lot about me if he had seen Karasuma-sensei's reports...
For now, I understand almost nothing. Everything I have is nothing more than deductions. But there is no doubt that the man called Shiro holds the secrets regarding Koro-sensei and the tentacles.
However, there is no way to be sure now.
Shiro and Itona Horibe caused absolute chaos in our classroom and then left the stage.
●○●○●
After Itona left, and while we were rearranging the classroom, Koro-sensei seemed lost in thought. He claimed he had been carefully playing the role of a spontaneous and foolish character.
I didn't care for such trivial information. As I was thinking that, Bitch-sensei spoke.
"I was truly shocked. That boy Itona—I didn't expect him to have tentacles too."
My classmates caught these essential words and began attacking with questions.
"Tell us, Koro-sensei. What is your relationship with those two?"
"We are your students, aren't we? I think we have the right to know more about our teacher."
"You've always dodged with vague answers, but after seeing what happened today, we can't stay silent."
Everyone's words and gazes focused on Koro-sensei.
It seemed he realized escaping was impossible this time, so he began to slowly recount the truth.
"No way out... it seems I am forced to speak. I will tell you about my true identity. Actually... the truth is..."
Everyone held their breath, waiting for the shocking truth.
"Actually, the teacher is an artificially created living being!"
"We already knew that! What else?"
"Your reaction is so lackluster!!"
While my classmates naturally deduced that Koro-sensei was a created being, I was reviewing my deductions in my mind.
He was supposed to be a hero who saves the Earth. He ended up as a great villain who will destroy it. Tentacles can be implanted in humans. Koro-sensei will die a natural death in March, and then he might drag the Earth with him to oblivion. A man named Shiro holds the threads of the mystery.
That is all we know so far. Koro-sensei is truly full of secrets.
"What we want to know is what comes after that, Koro-sensei. Why did you get angry earlier when you saw Itona-kun's tentacles? Why were you born, and what were you thinking when you came here?"
Nagisa's words hit the core of the matter perfectly. Koro-sensei gave a cryptic smile.
"Unfortunately, telling you this now has no meaning. If the teacher blows up the Earth next year, everything you've learned will turn to dust."
Once again, Koro-sensei used the "meaninglessness upon Earth's destruction" theory to prevent us from reaching the truth whenever we got close. I'm sure if I told him everything I had deduced, he would only say, "Perhaps that is so."
"Conversely, if you save the Earth, you will have countless opportunities to learn the truth."
Yes, in the end, it always comes back to this point.
"You understand, don't you? If you want to know, then try to kill me."
After that, there will be enough chances to uncover what is hidden.
"Assassin and target; that is the bond that unites us. If you want to know the important answers within me, you have no path but assassination. .. If there are no other questions, our lesson ends here!"
Koro-sensei said that and left the classroom, wriggling in his usual way.
●○●○●
After classes ended, I finished tidying the classroom quickly and headed toward Karasuma-sensei. But, unusually, I wasn't alone today. A large number of my classmates were with me.
"Karasuma-sensei, please train us today as well."
"Nozaki-kun..? The number today is larger than usual. Did something happen?"
Karasuma-sensei looked surprised by the majority of the class joining the extra assassination training that I usually attended almost entirely alone. He asked us, tilting his head in question.
"Please, can you teach us more about assassination?"
"More than I am doing now?"
"We always felt that 'someone else' would do the job, as if it didn't concern us directly."
"But after seeing Itona today, we thought... we want to kill him with our own hands."
"We don't want anyone else to do it. We want to do it ourselves."
I felt conflicted; should I be happy for my classmates' rising enthusiasm, or sad because I would no longer have Karasuma-sensei's training all to myself? Well, Karasuma-sensei looks happy listening to everyone's opinions, so I'll be happy for them.
"If a powerful professional assassin precedes us in the future, we will never know the value of what we were doing until today."
"So, we want to do everything we can, with all our might! With our own hands!"
"We want to kill him and find the answers to our questions ourselves."
That was how Isogai concluded our speech.
"As you heard, I brought everyone with me. Do you mind, Karasuma-sensei?"
I asked him, knowing the answer beforehand. Karasuma-sensei smiled.
"I see. In that case, I will hold extra training for whoever wishes after school! I will be stricter with you from now on, so be prepared!"
"At your command!!"
"Then, let us begin immediately by climbing the vertical ropes to a height of twenty meters!"
"That strict!!?"
Hearing my classmates' reactions, I thought of one thing. It seems the shortest path to knowing the truth is indeed killing Koro-sensei. I won't stop deducing and analyzing, but so I don't forget the frustration I felt today, I decided to devote myself to assassination more than ever before.
"Nozaki-kun."
"Mm?"
"Thank you for saving me earlier."
"It was... pure coincidence."
Because of my embarrassment over the fact that I had lunged like a madman until I entered "The Zone," I could only look away from Kurahashi-san.
●○●○●
"Darling."
"What is it, Kei?"
"I heard a voice."
"A voice?"
"Yes. It asked me: 'What do you want?'"
"And what did you ask for?"
"I answered with one word: 'Time.' And after that, I started to feel amazed when I sometimes feel as if one minute passes like hours."
"..."
"Though the time I desired wasn't meant in that sense."
That pregnant, silver-haired woman whispered sadly, while she gently stroked her belly where a new life rested.
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