Excited Particles (An Assassination Classroom Fanfiction)

Through the tie. Nagisa was trembling, as he was about to do it. He was about to assassinate Korosensei. Everyone was crying as they held each tentacle down. It was only right. Since the first day with him, they knew they had to kill him. It was a must to save the world. It was supposed to be a must!

He was supposed to be okay. They were all going to have thousands of memories together. More pictures. He'd be coming back every year to keep seeing Korosensei. To learn more so that he could become a great teacher too. He had just learned his path. Started to see new ways.

Then, all this had to happen. Who cared if there was less than a 1% chance the Earth would blow up, that wasn't even a choice now! They had to do this. Korosensei was out of time.

They discovered him. They trapped him. The unkillable teacher was done for. Nagisa's teacher didn't even fight against it. He just laid there, waiting for it, but it wasn't right. It wasn't fair.

He felt a small tentacle touch his neck, steadying him. Korosensei gave him some final words of wisdom. The final words he would ever say. Nagisa steeled himself. This was it. There was no choice. He tried to muster what Korosensei wanted.

A smile.

He plunged the knife down into the tie. There was no blood or scream. Korosensei turned into several lighted particles, floating away like fireflies.

Sometime Later . . .

A shadow graced the floor of 3-E. She stepped in quickly, trying to remain unseen. It wasn't her usual style. Shades, overcoat, and all black clothing.

Her usual style would have stood out. She took a seat, wanting to conduct business fast. "Principal Asano."

He stared at her a moment. "Usually it's not my style to meet like this, but considering the source, I had been curious. Remove your hood."

She did.

"Aguri Yukimura," he noted, saying her older name. "You were declared dead."

"I'm sorry, I wouldn't bother you with this if it wasn't important. I'm going to need a reference to work at a school in a different district far away."

"You were dead."

"No, but I'd like to get out before that's well known." The sooner she left, the better.

"Considering what happened to your replacement, I am guessing others finding out you are alive would put you in harm's way?"

"You could say that, yes."

"You were a promising teacher. A little underprepared, not quite up to the task of teaching outside of class 3-E," he admitted. "I will give reference since I assume I will be your only reference, but it won't be glowing. Mediocre."

"No special treatment," she agreed. "I just need to move on with my life elsewhere, but this is a tie I have to cross." She stood up and bowed. "Thank you, Principal Asano."

"Big sister!"

Oh no. Aguri knew that voice. She turned and saw Akari. "Stay quiet, Akari."

Akari hugged her, but she lowered her voice. "You're alive. You're really alive."

Aguri stroked her little sister's head. "I'm glad you are okay."

"He's dead," Akari said flatly. "We killed him. He wanted it that way."

"I know." Aguri looked toward the door. "Akari, you have to do me a favor. Don't tell anyone that I'm alive. Especially any of your classmates, or anyone who knew about Kotorou's company." She stared at Akari. "This is for the sake of my life. I am going to create a new one far away from here. I will contact you when it's safe, just please. Never tell a soul about me. Promise me."

"I promise," Akari answered. "No matter what. I'll never tell anyone about you. Ever."

"Good. Thank you, Akari. Keep growing and become what you want to be. Take the actions you always wanted to, don't let concern for me bog you down." She gave her a small kiss on her head. "Good bye."

"I had ten-"

"Goodbye, Akari," she said tersely. "I have to go." It was cruel, but she had to leave. It was time to get out of there.

Three days later . . .

The apartment she was staying at was okay. Not the best, but not the worst. That's the way it was supposed to be. She looked toward the other bed.

It was empty. A double bed with no one under the covers. However, floating above the covers in an anti-anti containment field, were light particles.

Just a few would glow here and there.

She went over toward the netting by the bed, but didn't disturb it. "My sister caught me meeting with the principal. I know she'll keep my secret though." She flung her purse to the other bed on the other side of the room. "I think I'll be able to find a job soon, if things get better. I have a decent reference."

She watched a few different particles shine. "You have the prettiest ashes in the world, God of Death. I promise. I will lay you down to rest soon, but first I need to protect what's left of you."

She didn't care that she was talking to particles. To her, it seemed as normal as speaking to someone at their grave. A decent way to say goodbye, and to communicate her own thoughts.

She couldn't risk being caught, but she also couldn't risk Sanctuary getting a hold of God of Death's particles of anti-matter. She got close enough to put anti-anti net (an invention of Sanctuary) below the anti-sensei net. It protected anti-matter particles escaping.

After she was allowed to go back, she took the large netting back. She brought it into a tiny ball and stashed it. The particles though wanted more room, and the net kept growing. "That's not easy, when you won't stay little. They are still combing the grounds to find even small traces in the classroom."

Sanctuary didn't deserve a single molecule of him.

"That ball is getting bigger." Hyouga came into the room. "Door was unlocked. You shouldn't do that."

"I was sure I locked it."

"I got in."

"I gave you a key."

"Which is why I got in," he teased her. "Like I said, shouldn't have done that. Lent a strange guy your key." He looked toward the floating particles. "Any luck yet?"

"The particles keep wanting more space between," she said. "It won't stay contained. I can't place it just anywhere, but if I let this go near 3-E, I know Sanctuary will retrieve them."

"I'll help you scatter his particles then. An all around proper funeral, quiet but respectful. We'll find somewhere nice, Aguri."

Aguri looked back toward the particles. "As long as they don't get them." She left the room, Hyouga trailing afterward. Tsuruga was also there. Oh not him. Why did he let him in?

Tsuruga moved past them to look into her bedroom. "Yep, a big old glittery ball." He moved closer to it as Aguri and Hyouga came back in.

"What are you doing?" Aguri asked.

"Anti-matter isn't matter," Tsuruga said with a smirk, "so maybe it works in a different way. If he could change himself through a conversion, then maybe it would work backwards. Maybe he could go from gas to liquid and solid."

"Yeah. That sounds like a farfetched theory," Hyouga said. "Little Brother, don't tease her."

"I like you, Aguri. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here," Tsuruga said. "So let me help? You have to excite the particles to make them change states. Here, it'd be my pleasure to help."

That's when Tsuruga wrapped his arms around her and kissed her?! She struggled for a minute, wondering what was going on.

"Hey, maybe tonight we can do something with that free bed on the other side of the room?" he asked. "What about it Aguri? A nice fucking?"

What?! "No!"

"Tsuruga you ass!" Hyouga grabbed him. "You must be drunk, get out."

Tsuruga didn't listen. "Still too fond of Yanagisawa, after everything he caused for you? Bastard won a hell of a woman." He winked. "Offers always on the table." Then he left the room, with his brother escorting him.

As he carried Tsuruga out, Hyouga looked back at her. She was hot red from shame, embarrassment, and guilt. "Sorry. You know him, and he's worse when he's been drinking. Look? Tomorrow we'll talk serious about a nice funeral place for God of Death."

"Mm." She didn't want to talk about it anymore. It wasn't the first or last time Tsuruga tried something with her. "Don't let him get that key."

Hyouga promised the key would be safe as she watched him leave. She hummed as she started to fix herself some supper.

After she ate her food, Aguri went back toward the back bedroom. She planned on grabbing her pajamas and changing for bed, but she stopped.

Puddles of yellow. Liquid yellow. It was on the covers of the bed she had the anti-anti net over. Liquid dripping off the covers. On the floor.

The particles were dropping from the air and changing into a liquid state? She smiled. At least it opened up a few more options of where to scatter him safely. "I'm glad you found and wore your birthday present. I saw pictures of you. You looked great, with your grin. This year, I'm giving you . . . the finest but safest place I can for what's left of you."

She grabbed her pajamas and left the room to change. Now, it just felt strange to change in there. She came back and looked over. She went over toward her own bed on the other side of the room. It felt safer. Her heart wasn't racing as much. I almost feel like your presence is near.

Aguri awoke to a hand being pulled down over her mouth.

"Did you really think you could get away, Aguri? You have no idea what our plans for you are!"

Aguri struggled trying to fight back. These were three people that were trained in the art of their tentacles though. She even recognized some of them.

In the dark, at least they couldn't see any of the particles in the air. If they checked the other bed though, would they figure it out? She struggled enough against the hand, she had a brief few seconds. "I'm not going with anyone!"

Then the hand was right back on top of her mouth. Her struggling wasn't improving her chances at all. They had her again, for who knew what deadly purpose? Sick bastards. Every one of you. Her eyes were covered with a blindfold, and then she felt the rough stickiness of duct tape over her mouth.

She couldn't even see or scream as she felt her arms and legs being wrapped up in more stickiness. Probably duct tape. A short time solution. She heard the sound of running water too. What were they doing running water? Trying to cover up their sound?

Would they kill her for trying to escape, or would they take her back? Worse yet, maybe they would use her for after she was dead. They tied you up, it isn't over yet for you.

Calm and rational was tough to pull off though right now. Aguri felt herself getting carried from the room.

Then she heard some sounds and yells. Did Hyouga and his brother come over? Maybe he heard her those two seconds. Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to defeat them.

"Hold her more steady, she keeps kicking."

"What's going on back there?"

"Just hurry, hurry!"

Aguri expected to hear the sound of a van door at some point and screeching wheels. The people around her made sounds, and then she felt something. A feeling she knew, but was impossible to feel again.

The softness. The caring of wonderful tentacles. Unlike anyone else by far. She heard one more loud sound, and then found herself floating with the feel of the familiar tentacles.

It was impossible but it had to be. She felt the tentacles remove the tape off her mouth and the blindfold from her eyes.

She stared at the impossible. "God of Death? Why are you wearing my dress?"

His grin. It didn't look like it would move. "Well, I didn't want to come meet a dead woman naked when I rescued her, did I?"

His tentacles undid the sloppy job of the quick duct tape while she stared in wonderment still. "How are you alive?"

She felt herself getting pulled close toward the octopus, right next to the grin.

Half curiosity. Half angry. "Mutual question, Aguri."

Aguri was aliiiiiiiiiive! Korosensei was beside himself as she took him back up to the apartment and got him some food. Well, he asked for some, and she delivered. Such sweets. Oh such sweets, but it didn't distract him from his number one question.

How did Aguri survive? She was trying to work out his existence, while all he wanted to do was hear about her. Where had she gone, how did she survive the mortal wound, was she okay, why didn't she ever show back up at school, etc.

"I woke up after emergency treatment with the tentacles," she admitted. "Yanagisawa promised to keep using his money to treat me so I would survive."

So caring? No he wasn't, not at all. "And?" There was more to that.

"You were nothing but particles. You passed on."

Koro didn't really care how he survived right now. He was much more interested in her story. Who were those people that tried to abduct her? "We'll have to move to safety. Right after I eat what's left of any dessert you have. I'm starving."

Aguri had always seemed like a nice casual homemaker, so to his delight, he raided her fridge while she gathered her things. She promised to tell him more on what had happened, but it was dangerous to stay there.

Keywords that her leftover chocolate cake she baked five days ago couldn't heal as well. Yanagisawa. Tentacles. Entrapment.

He got the feeling that he was missing a lot more. Especially on the how he survived aspect. That would be interesting to figure out. It sort of depends on how I died I guess. I'm completely anti-matter. Still, I should have been obliterated right afterward if even a single particle survived.

That huge laser.

"Okay, I'm ready," Aguri insisted as she came out with one suitcase. "I'm sorry, I don't have any clothes for you."

He looked at the dress he put on earlier to rescue her. "Eventually." He didn't bother cleaning up his mess. If people were after Aguri, then they needed to get out. "Which way is the wind blowing us to?"

"I . . . just grabbed my money and grabbing a bus." That's as far as she knew. "Hyouga is next door. He helped me get out of my situation." She was still being a bit mysterious. "He'll have some clothes. He knew you were dead, so you might give him a shock."

Do I want to give him a shock? Maybe he should lay low. He didn't know this Hyouga guy. Why else would she ask for a man's clothes though? I don't have time to play around. Someone is coming after Aguri. "Is he home right now?" Next door.

He tapped his tentacles along the wall delicately.

"If he was, either him or his brother would have come when I yelled," she said. "I think they are probably out."

"Good."

In seconds, his tentacles had put a huge hole in the wall between the rooms. A delicate hole made just right to not collapse the wall. He stepped in, looked around. Empty. He opened the closet, saw some clothes, quickly got dressed, and took some extra.

He came back over to Aguri. "Shopping done, let's go."

She didn't seem to be as fond of what he did, but she didn't speak up about it. They left downstairs and toward the bus stop.

He stood in a familiar pose, looking human. He'd done that before more than once. Pretended to be human. It was just the first time he did that with Aguri.

She'd never even seen his yellow octopus form. The form full of weakness. The last time she saw him, he still had a degree of a humanity look to him. With his beady eyes, unchanging grin and yellow complexion?

She still seemed okay. Better than okay. She was smiling, that familiar smile she used to give him every day.

That'd change though. He was overjoyed that she was alive, really alive! His heart, he could literally feel it pulse through the new tie he wore. Nothing would change how great it was to know she was alive. However.

He was not God of Death anymore. I can make a class of kids want to kill me. It was only a matter of time before she would feel the same way.

"What's wrong? You're turning kind of blue," she noted toward him. "Are you okay?"

He just rubbed the bottom of his spherical head with his feeler. "Fine, just wondering about . . ."

"Your whole life? I know. Me too." She sighed. "I haven't been able to be myself for so long. I was hoping I could just have a different name, but still be a teacher. I even went back to visit Principal Asano. A private recommendation."

Yeah. They both sounded lost.

"I wasn't one for the big, exotic adventures I've been having. That kind of life, it wasn't for me. However, I guess that kind of choice isn't up to me anymore. Why are you still choosing to look like a yellow octopus disguised as a human instead of like a real one?"

Heh. Classic Aguri. How he'd missed her! "I'm not. I can't, this is my form. My studly, final form!" He announced loudly standing off the seat. He sat back down. "See? I don't act human anymore anyway. I'm closer to an extraterrestrial being." He still liked himself in that form better than as the human who hurt others.

"Oh. Sorry," she apologized. "I've missed out on so much of your life. I only knew the basics."

"Since we are waiting for the bus, how about you tell me how you got my particles. I just found myself resting, right in your bed, Aguri." Aguri's bed, just resting right there in Aguri's bed.

"Did sleeping in my bed make you happy?" The simple phrases of being innocent and naughty, but looking absolutely casual about it. That always drove him crazy.

"Partly, but I wanted-" Stop! "-a lot more than-" No, don't! '-just the bed-." Yep. It was his true nature, and his weakness. He spoke his lecherous mind straight at Aguri. He could fumble his tentacles, try and act like he didn't want to say that, but he'd just mess up more.

Still, that was the natural thing to do. "I mean, not like that, I mean in a different way. Blankets and pillows were nice too, but I'd much rather have your-"

"You still have some pervert in you, huh?" Perfectly normal smile. "I'm glad. The tentacles really did let you change into who you were meant to be."

Then, her next words. It pierced his heart harder than the knife.

"You show the world now who you were inside, the side you only showed me before." She playfully tried to bop his nose, although it was hard to find. "Well, I tried. Clumsy Aguri can't always make a good joke." She moved back toward staring at front.

No different. No red face of anger. She acted like him doing that was absolutely normal.

"I saved your particles," she said. "The people who are wanting me back. They are called Sanctuary, and they have technology to fight back in different ways. I stole their anti-anti net. It shields anti-matter from being destroyed."

A net inside a net? "You thought I was dead." Everyone thought he was dead. Why do that?

"I did it because I didn't know what they wanted with your particles. I wanted you to rest in peace, but I didn't want them to steal any particles of you away. I was giving it time to try and find a place you would be happy to rest in peace at, that they also wouldn't know about."

"Who is they?"

"Sanctuary. The people who came for me, they were a part of it."

Hmm. "From the looks of things, there was more than just one source of anti-matter particles. Why did they want mine?"

"It's less about what it was made of, then who it was made of," she said. She grew quiet as some humans moved past them. When the humans were a safe distance away, she spoke some more. "As much as society was frightened of you, is how much you are worshipped by Sanctuary. Many think of you not as the God of Death, but as their god."

A god? "Wow! To think others would worship me so fondly."

"The coming back to life isn't going to dissuade them any either."

Ooh, that's right. "Only a god would come back from the dead. What do you think, Aguri?" Don't do it. "Do you believe I'm a god too? I did come back from the dead." Don't finish. "I bet you could please a god with a little dance."

It was like telling the sun to stop burning. Like telling the Earth to spin in the wrong direction. It was impossible to stop himself. He had tried more than once, but it was a part of who he had been.

"No worries." Same smile as before. "I don't think you are a god. There must be an explanation as to how you came back." She did give a cute giggle though. "That shade of pink is cute on you."

Cute, she said cute! Does she mean cute like sexy and smoldering, or cute like an infant? "Do you want me to stay pink?"

"No. I like the yellow look on you better."

"Oh, well that's bad. I remember your fashion sense."

That seemed to disturb her more than all of his other comments so far. Yet? She was still nowhere near close to wanting to kill him. "Well? One day I'll find the right outfit that I like, and so does everyone else."

"We can all keep dreaming." He noticed her rubbing her stomach. She had done that a couple of times now. Indigestion? Stress? She just escaped death, that could be it.

"God of Death. I suppose I should call you something else now? Do you want me to?" Aguri asked tenderly.

Hmm. "I was Korosensei." Was. He could never be a teacher like that again. "I'm not really a sensei anymore. I never planned on anything after graduation."

"Then maybe just Koro?" she asked. "Would you like me to call you Koro? Then again."

Koro sounded fine from her, what was the 'then again' about?

"Maybe Korosenpai would fit better."

Senpai?! Ooh. All the sweet, sweet mangas with the senpai. The upperclassman that the poor innocent-

"Will you teach me how to be an assassin?"

Koro taught all of the children of class 3E about assassination. He would teach anyone. Teaching was in his genes. But? To teach Aguri? "I thought you died because of my assassinations." How could he ever teach her about that? How could anything ever infest the good of Aguri so much she would consider killing?

Aguri started to wipe at her eyes. "I hate Sanctuary. I . . . " She cuddled up closer into herself. "It sounds wrong, I know. Little Aguri actually wanting to do something so terrible. I have to though. You've only learned the very tip of things."

"From the fact that thing is still alive, I'd say it must know something we don't know."

Koro watched as someone strolled to them. Aguri seemed okay with him. "Am I wearing your clothes?" Was this Hyouga? He's pretty good looking. I hate that. What's he doing hanging out with Aguri?

"Aguri?" He looked at her. "Is that really him?"

"Yes," she answered back. "I'm leaving with him."

"Why?" he insisted. "What happened?"

"Sanctuary," she simply said.

"And where do you think you are going to go?" He criticised her.

"Wherever the world takes her," Koro came back with. "What's wrong with that? Aguri should go wherever her heart wants to."

"Aguri, if they found you once. They will find you again," Hyouga insisted. "I should probably follow you, and I don't know how their god survived, but you shouldn't travel with him. They'll want him."

Little upstart. "Aguri is catching a bus. It's up to her what she wants to do afterward." Koro looked toward her. "I would like to continue our conversation on the bus." Not in front of this guy.

"Holy shit!"

That voice sounded familiar. Where had he heard it before? He'd never met him clearly, and he didn't remember him during the entire school year. The lab? No, not the lab. Where did he-

What about it Aguri? A nice fucking?

Aguri didn't know what to do. One minute Koro had been sitting quietly and the next? He had no problem losing his human disguise. He looked disturbing and his face was black and contorted.

"Memories of you." His voice was thick and unrecognizable. "I don't like you."

Tsuruga just looked at Hyouga. "How the fuck, man? It's dead, it was dead."

"You come near Aguri again and your dead!" An explosion of power seemed to burst forth from him. "Get out of here."

"Aguri." Hyouga held out his hand. "You know who he had been. Dead ashes is one thing, he's alive and moving. Grab my hand."

Aguri didn't know what caused the transformation but she wouldn't leave. Not him, and not like that. We are getting safely on this bus, and then we'll talk about what's next. Whether it's separate or together. She never left him like that in the past, and she wouldn't start now. "Koro?"

Unlike last time, he paid attention to her. She didn't need to be dying to get the attention. His colors didn't change, but he wasn't aggressive towards her.

"Please relax," she insisted. "No one is in danger, as long as no one sees you like that."

"I disagree." Yet, she watched him go from his darkness back to a yellow. He then went from yellow back to a more skin tone to mimic a human. "We are getting on that bus when it comes, but not them."

That was her original plan, but Hyouga didn't like it. They tried to convince her to stay, but the closer they moved toward her, the more tentacles Koro wrapped around her.

Even while staying yellow, to an outsider it would look like an octopus wrapping it's prey. It was high protection with scowling still toward Tsuruga.

"Aguri. You need to talk to your friend," Hyouga insisted. "You're all wrapped up, you need to say something."

She did want to say something. "Please stop getting nearer to me. Koro doesn't like something about you, and he definitely doesn't like Tsuruga." She was inclined to agree. She didn't trust him either.

"Look." Hyouga kept trying. "Koro."

"Korosensei to you," Koro corrected him.

"Korosensei," Hyouga tried again. "Let's be reasonable. You don't know us, but we have protected your friend since we all escaped. I am the most knowledgable about Sanctuary. I know things even she doesn't. About it and about her." He said her real hard. "About you too. All those secrets will be lost if you up and take her away without us."

Koro seemed to be thinking. He took one of his free tentacles and gestured toward Tsuruga. "Not him." He gestured back to Hyouga. "You can come with me for now."

There was something strange in the way Koro said 'for now'. It was almost like 'but not for long'. He was letting him come purely to learn all he could about Sanctuary. Hyouga has never spilled all the secrets to me.

Hyouga nodded and came closer to Aguri. Koro however had different ideas. He grabbed him with his tentacles and placed him on the other side of him on the bench.

"I said you can come with me," Koro repeated more forwardly. "I didn't say you could come near Aguri."

As he said that though, Aguri felt all the tentacles leave from around her. Koro was sitting calmly with an appearance of being human again.

"Deciding what a woman wants like she's your property won't win you any awards," Tsuruga pushed the subject.

"Tsuruga." Hyouga tried to warn him.

Koro looked toward Tsuruga. There was something different in his eyes as he stared. He didn't answer Tsuruga. He didn't answer anyone. There was a light breeze in the wind that rattled the small hat Koro was wearing. His hat didn't fall though.

Tsuruga didn't move an inch. He looked like a deer trapped in headlights.

That was the end of that conversation. All of them waited patiently as the bus came.

Koro and Aguri got up first. Koro gestured for Aguri to get on first. She paid the bus driver and took a seat in the back. When she sat down, she saw Koro coming to sit down with her.

He seemed like he was in good spirits now. Aguri looked out the window and saw Tsuruga and Hyouga waiting at the bench again. "I don't know exactly what secrets he held."

"No need to concern yourself, Aguri," Koro decided. "We talked a second before getting on. I think he would rather stay here and keep his secrets."

Hm? "I don't understand," Aguri said as she stared at Hyouga and Tsuruga, just staring back at her. "You've never even met them until today." How did he know Tsuruga was scum and Hyouga would never spill any secrets? "Teachers are usually patient individuals who learn about people and their students. How did you handle my class with such swift judgments like that?"

He didn't answer. He heard her, she knew it, but he just didn't answer.

The bus started to move and she watched Hyouga wave to her slowly as it departed. "He barely let me leave his sight for anything. He really wants to keep the secrets that bad."

"No, I think he wants to protect his brother," Koro said. "Just in case I come back in a pissy mood."

Protect his brother? "What do you mean?"

//////Koro stopped before getting on the bus toward Hyouga. "Tell Tsuruga he did excite the particles. I'll come back and kill him on a bad day that I just don't feel like using pacifism."

Hyouga just stared for a few seconds at him. He didn't say anything, just backed away from the bus.

"I know," he warned Hyouga. "You were talking before you ever approached me. Stay away from Aguri, or I'll take that precious little brother of yours.'/////

"No big thing you need to concern yourself with Aguri," Koro insisted. "Let's just enjoy the ride a little while, and then figure out the next step we'll take in life." He looked out toward the window, watching the trees in the darkness. "Since we are still alive."

To Hyouga and Tsuruga in a different hotel

"I can't believe you stayed," Tsuruga complained. "You know she is the last thing you should let out of your sight."

Hyouga looked back at his brother. "He has super hearing."

"So?"

"A part of him heard you with Aguri."

"What?"

Hyouga shook his head. "He said to also tell you that you did 'excite the particles'." Somehow, he remembered a little of when he was just particles. Which meant that he must know Tsuruga was indecent with Aguri. In fact, it was probably that event where Tsuruga kissed Aguri drunkenly that excited the God of Death back to life.

Tsuruga was a little drunk, and he tended to get in trouble when he was like that. Aguri didn't mind Hyouga, but Tsuruga was a different matter. Hyouga had always been there to pull his brother out of the dumb stuff he did in life, but nothing could compare to this one.

"Why oh why did you have to mess with Aguri? She's such a nice person." Hyouga complained. "Aguri was the only friend Sanctuary ever knew he had. When the God of Death knows the secret, he's going to take his anger out on you."

"I had nothing to do with it," Tsuruga complained. "Hell, you're closer to the matter than I am."

"Yeah. He might want to kill me too," Hyouga admitted. "All I can do is hope Aguri tells him enough about Sanctuary he'll have some kind of pity for saving her."

"Tch." Tsuruga kicked a piece of litter on the road. "You sound like a wimp. It'll be fine. The tentacles changed him into another form and person. He became a teacher for crying out loud. Plenty of people tried to kill him, even the government. He didn't seem to even care, so why worry?"

"Because nobody messed with Aguri."

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