Chapter 31 - Assembly

A/N:

Here's the chapter. Sorry for the delayed upload.

Couldn't seem to get into a writing mood properly, so it took way longer than it should've. I got to about 3.8k words at least, so there's that.

As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the chapter!

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All of Class 3-E's students' focus was on Jason. There was something about his voice and the way he talked that just grabbed their attention.

"Approaching this problem with this formula is advisable when the object is constantly …"

Jason's clear voice resonated in the classroom as he taught, the chalk in his hand gliding over the board while he explained the basics of motion, force, and Newton's laws. It's been a day since he first started teaching and there were no problems so far.

While he wouldn't call himself an excellent teacher, he knew how to package information and deliver it to the students in the most understandable way possible. Any questions the students had were answered based on how they learned best, whether that be visually, through hearing, or through demonstrations.

The class seemed to like demonstrations the most, like when he explained the forces involved in a bullet's arc by shooting one of the anti-sensei pistols and having them do simple calculations of the drop. It solidified their understanding of the topic and made it easier to visualize other problems.

Just as he was about to continue on to a new topic, the campus bell rang through the speakers, signifying the start of their lunch break.

Jason put down the chalk before dusting his hands off.

"All right. That'll be the end of today's lesson. The octopus will take over from here. Class dismissed."

The students let out small cheers and groans before Isogai, the class' unofficial leader, stood at the front of the room.

He faced his classmates with an easygoing smile. "Everyone remembers about the assembly, right? Let's all hurry and head to the main campus."

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3rd Person POV:

Jason knew about the assembly since yesterday and was already waiting at the main campus gate by the time everyone else began making their way down the mountain. He could hear their footsteps and words all the way from his location.

While going down, he took care of the dangerous hazards that could've hurt the students along the way, such as snakes, wasps, a random bear—that he knocked out with a punch—and a boulder that could've crushed someone.

The amount of danger on the mountain trail to the main campus fueled his annoyance towards the school for their lack of safety precautions. They could've at least made the trip safer using the money they got from all their sponsors, and most recently, the Ministry of Defense paying their principal millions of Yen as hush money.

Kunugigaoka and their principal's obvious discrimination against the 'End Class' were appalling to him, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

While he mulled over his thoughts, the students and teachers except for Koro-sensei arrived.

"We're finally here!" Okajima cheered with tired breaths as he ran past the open gate. He hugged and kissed the ground with tears in his eyes. "I never wanna use that route again. And whoever said the bridge was a shortcut is a damn liar!"

"There weren't any dangerous animals like last time. Did you guys notice?" asked Hinata Okano, a female student with short brown hair.

"I noticed that too! I expected to find some snakes or something else along the way," answered Manami Okuda, a female student with braided hair and glasses. She was relieved to not encounter any of those animals like last time.

Most of the class shared the same sentiment and used their brief moment of respite to take a break. Many of them sat down while some were completely resting on their backs.

"We made it," said Isogai as he looked back at the class with sympathy. The trek wasn't difficult for him because he was an active guy, but he couldn't say the same for most of the class.

"Yeah, somehow." replied Maehara with slightly winded breaths. He was in the same boat as Isogai.

"Come on, guys!" Isogai exclaimed. "Let's hurry and line up!"

Hearing this, everyone sighed. "Okay…"

"Wait, has anyone seen Will-sensei?"

"Nope."

They made their way to the gymnasium while helping some of their friends stand up.

Jason looked down and spotted an exhausted Irina on her hands and knees, holding her hand out to the students, "W-Wait for me!"

'She looks like she's about to drop.' Jason snorted his nose in amusement.

Shaking his head, Jason stepped off the top of the metal gate and silently landed behind her.

"Can't handle a short walk down the mountain?" Jason asked tauntingly.

Irina jumped in surprise before comprehending the words said to her and growling in response.

Turning her head back to look at Jason, she shouted, "Let's see YOU try running down a mountain wearing heels!"

Jason snorted once more and walked towards her. "Не за милион година. (Not in a million years)," he said in Serbian as he pulled her up by the back of her suit. "Here's my advice. Improve your fitness and stamina more. Even if you're an assassin that specializes in espionage, there will be times where you'll need your body in good shape."

"Hmph! I don't need your advice," she said in disregard before blinking in surprise. "Wait, you know Serbian?"

Jason shrugged, "I do. I know at least twenty languages."

"Alors, connaissez-vous le français? (Then, do you know French?)" asked Irina.

He nodded. "Je peux parler français. C'est l'un des premiers que j'ai appris." (I can speak French. It's one of the first ones I learned.)"

"Deutsch? (German?)"

He nodded again. "Auch das noch. (That too.)"

Irina couldn't hide her surprise. "I thought you only knew English and Japanese."

"I traveled all over the world to train and learning different languages became a necessity," said Jason as he walked past her. "Where's the octopus?"

"Left behind. Good riddance, if you ask me."

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Back at the E-Class campus, Koro-sensei's grey-colored face stared at the blue sky with a blank expression.

He spoke in a dull monotone. "I'm an outcast, all alone… Shunned Sensei…"

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Jason snickered at that image.

"Alright, then. I'm going ahead. Don't stay back for too long."

"Wait!" Irina held a hand out as she fixed her hair, but Jason simply ignored her and continued walking. "Damn you!"

"See you inside, Miss Jelabitch!" Jason taunted, using the same nickname the students gave her.

"It's pronounced 'vić' (vich) goddamn it! Wait for me!"

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Inside the gymnasium, all of Kunugigaoka's classes lined up with the E-Class on the right-most side. Even with all the classes gathered, there was still a substantial amount of space. Kunugigaoka spent millions of Yen to construct this state-of-the-art gym.

The school dean smiled while he gave his speech at the podium. "…In short, you are the cream of the crop—the nation's chosen elite! I, your school dean, can vouch for that!"

His smile turned into a sneer as he looked down at E-Class and continued in a mocking tone, "But if you're not careful… You can wind up as worthless as you-know-who!"

Every other class exploded in laughter, aiming the same sneers at the E-Class.

Most of the class looked down because of shame, or embarrassment, or both. They were the End Class, so the only thing they could do was swallow all their grievances and duck their heads.

"Now, now," the balding school dean said in a faux-apologetic voice, "We mustn't laugh at their expense. I suppose my comment was out of line."

"Hey, Nagisa. Where's Karma?" In a low voice, asked Sosuke Sugaya, a relatively tall male student with long, light grey hair.

Nagisa looked to the side. "Playing hooky."

"Eh? Just him?!"

"He knows he'll get punished for skipping assembly, but he says he doesn't care," Nagisa recounted as he wore a wry smile. "It's times like this I wish I were a student bad-boy."

"I hear ya," Sugaya agreed, sharing the same sentiment. Karma had good grades, even if he skipped every other class.

The school dean left the podium, and the speakers echoed with an announcement.

<Next, we'll have an address by the student council. Please have the speakers begin their preparation.>

Meanwhile, Karasuma walked to the right of the E-Class, introducing himself to a female main campus teacher who looked at him with blushing cheeks.

The students from the other classes noticed him and began to murmur.

"Who is that teacher?"

"He's so stylish and cool!"

With one of their teachers nearby, the E-Class' grew more comfortable.

"…As I work on a separate campus, I thought I'd use this opportunity to say hello," Karasuma explained to the blushing teacher.

"Uh… Okay!" replied the teacher, not able to come up with a more complicated statement since she was too busy blushing.

"Hey!" said Kurahashi as she held up an object in her hands to show Rio. "Check it out!"

"Oh!" Rio pulled hers out as well.

Karasuma turned in their direction, curious about the objects in their hands.

"Ghk." Karasuma's face strained, realizing they were holding up their knife sheaths.

Noticing their teacher's attention, Rio and Kurahashi held her sheath up in his direction. "Oh, Karasuma-sensei. Look."

Kurahashi smiled, not noticing Karasuma's strained expression. "We decorated our knife sheaths!"

"Cute, huh?" added Rio.

Karasuma rushed in their direction and covered their knife sheaths before anyone could see them.

Nervous beads of sweat poured down his face as he muttered in a tense voice, "Cuteness is all well and good, but don't pull them out in public! We absolutely cannot let the other classes find out about the assassination!"

"O-Okay."

More of the students from the other classes looked over and grew curious.

"Who's that guy? An E-Class teacher?"

"They seem to get along pretty well."

"I'm kinda jealous," commented a female student. "All the guys and teachers in our class are butt-ugly."

The guys who overheard her felt a sudden case of depression.

But it did not depress them for long as the gasps of amazement around them drew their attention to the two people who just entered.

Irina—dressed in a form-fitting white suit and matching pencil skirt—drew gasps of admiration and blushing looks from all the students and teachers. The sway of her hips and hair mesmerized those who dared to look.

"Wh-Who's that hot-ass white chick?!"

In contrast to Irina, Jason, who had the appearance of an incredibly muscular giant with white hair and an eyepatch, attracted looks of fear and awe. He towered over everyone in the building, and not a single person came close to his height.

Jason remembered Wheatley commenting he got taller by another inch, adding more to his ridiculous size.

"Th-That dude looks scary as hell!"

Tomohito Sugino, a male student of E-Class with short black hair, sweatdropped at the other classes' reactions. "Bitch-sensei was ready to drop just about a minute ago, too."

Nagisa's lips slightly turned up as he tried to comprehend how someone could recover in such a way so quickly. "Vanity's in her veins, all right."

"Are they E-Class teachers too?" commented an A-Class student.

"That's kinda cool."

Irina stood between Karasuma and Jason, who had his arms crossed.

"What are you doing here?" Karasuma asked Irina while looking ahead.

"Don't give me that. I'm their teacher too," replied Irina.

"So you DO consider yourself a teacher?"

"Plus, I wanted to check out the other students," she continued, noticing a pair of boys leering at her. She laid her hands on her hips. "Hardly worth the trip."

Her eyes widened as she remembered to ask Nagisa questions about the pervert's weaknesses. "Oh yeah."

Jason watched her walk towards Nagisa before looking at Karasuma. "She's going to start a ruckus by demanding questions from Nagisa. Not gonna stop her?"

Karasuma's eyes furrowed, and he watched as the same scenario Jason described occurred. 'How the hell—?'

Just as Irina started smothering Nagisa with her chest, Karasuma grabbed her hair and pulled her away.

"Ow! That hurts!"

The students watching furrowed their brows in confusion and anger.

"What the hell? The End Class isn't supposed to have fun!"

On the podium, the student council member with green hair and glasses cleared his throat.

"Attention, please. The student council events are explained on the handouts you've just been given."

"Huh? What?" Okajima looked down and around him, not seeing any handouts for their class. He whispered to Okano, "Where are ours?"

Okano shook her head and crossed her fingers into an 'X'.

Isogai held his hand up. "Excuse me, sir! E-Class didn't get any handouts!"

The student council member looked at Isogai with obvious disdain. "Oh? You didn't get any? How strange." He continued in a fake apologetic tone like the school dean had before. "I'm sorry. Seems like we forgot to make enough copies for you! I guess you'll just have to memorize the whole thing before you leave!"

The surrounding students erupted in mocking laughter once again.

"But hey, you and your classmates could stand to sharpen your memorization skill, right?" he said.

"What the hell?" Irina uttered in slight anger. "Could he be any more sadistic?"

Nagisa and the others maintained a stoic face, but shame and a feeling of inferiority gnawed at them within.

Jason's jaw clenched in anger at the discrimination he was seeing, but surprise caught him when he sensed the powerful presence of Koro-sensei approaching at speeds past mach one.

A sudden gust of wind and a sheet of paper in every student of E-Class' hands accompanied Koro-sensei's arrival.

Jason pretended he was as the same as everyone else and couldn't see the creature moving at blistering speeds in front of him. But it still baffled him how something so fast can move at that speed without breaking the sound barrier. No one except everyone involved in the assassination even noticed the new sheets of paper and the sudden gust of wind.

'Such speed…'

"Isogai-kun," Koro-sensei called out, and Isogai followed his voice to the right.

Irina and Karasuma turned to Koro-sensei in shock at his sudden appearance.

"What are you…"

"Oh, there you go!" Koro-sensei ignored Karasuma while he twirled a pen on his tentacle tip. He also changed the color of his skin to match a human's and added a black wig along with a fake nose. "Now, does everyone have a handwritten copy?"

"Yes, sir!" Isogai nodded with a smile. He raised his hand to the student council member once again. "Oh, we got our handouts. Please continue!"

"What? N-No way! How?!" The student council member stared at them in complete confusion. "Hey, now! Who killed our fun?! Er, um, ahem… Let us continue!"

While the E-Class looked at their papers with smiles on their faces, Karasuma laid a hand on his hip as he furiously berated Koro-sensei.

"I explicitly told you NOT to show yourself to the rest of the school! Your very existence is a state secret, you know!"

Koro-sensei wriggled his long and wrapped up 'arms' around with a carefree smile. "Oh, come on. My disguise is flawless. No one will ever know."

Nagisa dryly smiled. "He must've been lonely."

Sugino shared the same smile. "Can't blame him, I guess."

The other classes' students then watched in bewilderment as the blonde hottie attempted to hit the new wiggly teacher with a knife before the cool guy locked her arm and took her away.

"Ow! That hurts!"

Maehara smiled as the class bursted into chuckles and laughter. "That's Bitch-sensei for you."

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"We're going on ahead, Nagisa!" said Sugino as he and Kayano headed back up the mountain. Irina had already started climbing up the mountain, wanting to get back up and rest before anything else.

Nagisa nodded as he put in some money inside a vending machine and selected his drink. "Okay! I'll catch up with you guys in a minute."

The juice box dropped at the bottom with a dull clang. Nagisa crouched and opened the lid to grab it.

"Hey, Nagisa," called out a familiar voice.

He looked to his left and recognized the two. Nobuta Tanaka and Chosuke Takada. Two students who often bullied him whenever they got the chance.

They looked at him with sneers on their faces.

"Don't you think you guys are gettin' a bit too big for your britches?" asked Tanaka.

"Huh?" said Nagisa as he stood up, holding his drink.

"Laughin' during the assembly and stuff… How about learning some respect?" Tanaka continued.

Takada added with his nasal voice, "You E-Class losers should just keep your heads down where they belong."

"What with your crappy lives weighin' you down and all," said Nobuta.

Nagisa could only stare at them with a confused look. The way they just approached him, started complaining, and talking down at him and his class was too abrupt.

Behind Nagisa, Karasuma, Jason, and Koro-sensei exited the gymnasium. They all noticed the confrontation, and it only took a moment for them to comprehend what was going on. With frowns on their faces, Karasuma and Jason prepared to move.

""This damn school…""

But before they could continue, Koro-sensei laid a tentacle on their shoulders. Green circles wrapped around his face like bars, signifying him currently feeling heavily assured.

"None of the students trying to assassinate me…" He looked at Nagisa with extreme confidence. "…would ever let people like that get the better of them."

Tanaka glared at the silent Nagisa as students around them watched with smiles on their faces. "You dumb in more ways than one? Say something!"

Before Nagisa could respond, Tanaka clutched his shirt and pulled him close threateningly. "Or d'you want me to kill you?!"

Nagisa's vision blurred as those words entered his ears.

'Kill…' He pondered to himself as a familiar sensation rose inside him. ' "Kill," huh?'

Nagisa stared at them with cold and calm eyes.

"Like you've ever tried to kill someone before," he said in a frigid tone.

A chill ran down the spines of Tanaka and Takada, and they immediately backed away while Nagisa walked past them.

"Wh-What was that look?" asked Tanaka.

"It was bloodlust," Takada answered shakily.

Koro-sensei looked at Karasuma and Jason. "See? My students are much more… motivated."

Karasuma stared at Nagisa's back, bewildered.

Jason, meanwhile, frowned for a different reason. The sensation he got from Nagisa the moment he released his bloodlust was eerily similar to assassins he had met before.

'That kid…' Jason wondered. 'He might have a talent for this assassination thing. I'll continue observing him when I can. But for now, I'll have to pick up Ruby and Aqua from school.'

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Jason silently waited with closed eyes, leaning on a wall in front of the school as he waited for Ruby and Aqua.

'Three… two… one…'

The school bell chimed, signifying the end of school and not long after, kids rushed out to meet their parents.

Jason spotted Ruby and Aqua looking for him and turned off his stealth ability. He really needed to come up with a name for it.

The instant he turned it off, Ruby and Aqua's eyes locked onto him. He wasn't a hard person to find with his distinct size, anyway.

Ruby ran towards him, with Aqua trailing behind her, and he opened his arms as he crouched in preparation. It had become a routine for the past month and a half.

"Jay-san!" Ruby jumped and hugged his neck.

Jason chuckled and patted her head. "Hello, Ruby. I trust that school was fine?"

Ruby leaned back with an expression of deep thought on her face. "Hmm."

"It was boring," Aqua said for her, already knowing what she was about to say.

Ruby pouted and tightened her hold on Jason. "Hey, no fair! I was gonna say that!"

Aqua ignored her and continued. "I agree with her, though. It's incredibly boring. I just read my books at school if I have nothing else to do."

"Oh, really? You should tell your mother about that. See if she can do something about it. Of course, I'll also do what I can to help." Jason stood up with Ruby on one arm. "So, you guys ready to go home? Miyako-san's probably already waiting."

Ruby nodded and raised her fist. "To the Jasonmobile!"

"J-Jasonmobile?" Jason sputtered. He was speechless for a long moment. In the end, he shook his head with a wry smile. "To the Jasonmobile, it is, then."

Aqua shook his head alongside him while Ruby grinned in excitement. She loved how smooth the car rides with Jason were.

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"Thank you for picking them up, Jason-san." Miyako bowed in appreciation. Ruby and Aqua had entered the condo in order to change clothes.

Jason waved his hands. "It's no problem. Now, if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."

"Of course. Have a safe trip."

But before he could turn around, a series of rapid thumps increasing in volume resounded deep within the condo before Ruby slid to a stop behind Miyako. "You're leaving, Jay-san?! Why so soon?!"

Jason rubbed the back of his neck and decided to be somewhat honest. "I… have a new job now."

"Really? What do you do?" asked Miyako.

He shook his head in response. "Sorry. It's related to the government. Can't say much about it."

"Oh, that's disappointing. Well, regardless of that, take care of yourself." Miyako smiled.

"Aww." Ruby pouted in disappointment. "But you'll be free on weekends, right?"

Nodding his head, Jason replied, "I probably will."

The side of Ruby's cheek remained inflated, but she nodded in defeat. "Okay. Take care, Jay-san."

"I'll see you all later."

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Inside his car, Jason's mind raced with ideas on how he could find more information on the science experiment that went wrong and turned the octopus into his current form.

Why a science experiment? A botched science experiment was the most likely scenario based on cases from his old world, with Firestorm and the Flash being prime examples. Bruce's knowledge was extremely helpful in this case.

There were some old news reports about a science facility crumbling in Tokyo and he went there to investigate. But by the time he got there, almost everything that could've given him a good lead was gone. The government went to extreme lengths to cover it up. The fact that the government even bothered to cover it up was the biggest hint so far.

Even if he didn't manage to learn much from that initial investigation, it DID lead to him finding a few interesting pieces of information

'Hmm. Looks like I'll have to infiltrate the Ministry of Defense, hack into their local database, and find any remnants of the science facility related to Koro-sensei. Not today or tomorrow, but soon.'