Chapter 32 - Shiro

A/N:

Here's the next chapter. This is the longest one I've written so far, having around 6.5k words.

This short arc is very close to ending, with 1 or 2 chapters left, and the arc after this will be the last one before Jason finally goes world hopping.

Comment on any grammatical or spelling mistakes. This chapter was a long one, so I edited while writing. I may have missed a few things.

Also, I've added some extra stuff at the end of the previous chapter. Tell me what you guys think.

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

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The office door slid open with a loud thud.

"Will-sensei! Bitch-sensei!"

Jason and Irina looked up from their desks, pausing the work they were doing.

The student who opened it was Meg Kataoka, a female student with long, light brown hair.

"What is it, Kataoka-san?" asked Jason, feigning ignorance.

He had an idea as to why they were being called outside. Yesterday, Koro-sensei had a confrontation with the school's principal. An impressive man, even by Jason's standards.

Jason's information gathering and spying before being hired involved the top-brass of the "Assassination Classroom" operation, including the school principal. The man was someone who used brainwashing techniques and manipulation in order to "enhance" the performance of his school's students and to fulfill his other agendas. Yesterday, he and Koro-sensei had a clash of sorts in regards to their teaching methods and the treatment of the E Class. This, combined with the class' lack of determination in schooling, set Koro-sensei on a course to correct their attitude.

"Come outside, quick!" Kataoka urged.

Jason and Irina looked at each other before standing up and following Kataoka outside at a slow pace.

"Hurry up!"

"What do you mean, hurry up?" Irina asked in an annoyed tone as they reached the area overlooking the field outside.

"Koro-sensei asked us to bring you," she answered before going down the stairs and joining her classmates.

Aside from them, the teachers, the whole class was gathered at the bottom of the stairs. Koro-sensei seemed busy pushing one of the small exercise equipment to the side of the large, grass-filled field.

"Irina-sensei and Will-sensei, there's something I'd like to ask you two as professional assassins," Koro-sensei said seriously.

Irina scanned the situation and blinked in confusion. "What is all this?"

Koro-sensei ignored her question and continued, "When you're on a job, do you prepare just one plan of attack?"

Irina hummed in curiosity before a serious expression took over her face. "No. Things rarely play out according to my initial plan. Making detailed back-up plans in preparation for any possibility is a basic tenet for any assassination."

Jason nodded to her answer. "Information is integral in that process. An assassination with little to no gathered information is bound to fail. And like Irina said, preparation is the key to success in any mission, especially for a professional assassin. I've learned through experience that circumstances can change in an instant, and adaptability is what separates the successful from the failed. Multiple plans, each tailored to exploit different variables, ensure that no matter what obstacles arise, I'm ready to make the necessary adjustments to achieve my objective. Flexibility, resourcefulness, and the ability to seize opportunities are what make a deadly assassin truly formidable."

"And you, Karasuma-sensei," Koro-sensei continued as he walked towards the center of the field. "When fighting with a knife, is the first strike the only important one?"

"The first strike is, of course, the most important, but your next move matters too. Against a powerful foe, your first blow is likely to be dodged, so the precision with which you can land your second and third blows can decide the fight," answered Karasuma.

Hearing all this, the majority of the class merely had looks of confusion on their faces.

"Look, what are you getting at?" Maehara asked Koro-sensei.

"As your teachers have said," Koro-sensei spun in place, producing a small cloud of dust around him, and was noticeably speeding up, "a confident assassin always has a back-up plan they can rely on. But what about you?"

"'We've got assassination, and that's enough,' you think and there goes your academic goals." Koro-sensei produced the sound of a helicopter's rotor as he spun, his figure blurring into multiple, still afterimages like a spinning fan. "You're just trying to avoid dealing with your inferiority complexes."

The students screamed and everyone covered their faces with their arms and pushed their legs against the ground as the strong gust of wind transformed into a storm with Koro-sensei at the center.

Jason frowned at the artificial phenomenon Koro-sensei was beginning to make. Beside him, Irina and Karasuma stood their ground against the wind. 'What the hell is he doing? Is he trying to create a tornado?'

"What if I fled from this classroom? What if another killer got to me first?" asked Koro-sensei. "If you stake everything on this assassination and it goes up in smoke, all you've got left is good ol' E class inferiority. A word of advice from me to you as you walk that fine line:"

"THOSE WHO CAN'T WIELD A SECOND BLADE AREN'T QUALIFIED TO BE ASSASSINS!"

A small tornado had formed in the middle of the field, reaching the sky and covering their field of vision. Trees in the vicinity tilted, their roots barely hanging on, and the tornado sucked in large pieces of the ground. In the sky, ominous clouds swirled around the tornado, and people around the mountain gasped in horror.

From the main campus, the principal, Gakuho Asano, smirked as he watched the tornado. 'Show off'

Soon, the tornado died off and the sun's bright rays illuminated the field. Jason put down his arms and slight awe overcame him. Despite the enormous cloud of dust covering the area, he could still see what had changed.

'Holy shit… I'll have to revise my contingency plans after this.'

The dust cleared, and the students gasped. Koro-sensei had completely flattened the field and removed any grass or debris. It even had white track and field lines encircling it, along with goal posts at each side.

"The yard was uneven and rampant with weeds. I tidied it up."

Koro-sensei's voice resounded around the newly renovated field. His eyes glowed ominously. "I am a superbeing capable of wiping out the Earth. Flattening a whole neighborhood is a piece of cake. If you can't show me a second blade you can depend upon, I'll know that none of you are assassins worthy of taking me on, and I'll flatten this entire campus before I go."

Jason could tell that while it wasn't an empty threat, he wasn't completely serious about it. It would also go against the psychological profile he's built about Koro-sensei.

"Show you a second blade? By when?" asked Nagisa with worry in his voice.

"Tomorrow, of course." The students made sounds of confusion while Koro-sensei raised a tentacle. He clarified, "I want you all to place the top fifty on tomorrow's midterms." The skin on his forehead changed color, forming the number fifty.

The kids shouted in surprise, with the ones who usually place last in the class holding their heads in shock.

Koro-sensei raised his tentacles with confidence. "I've been honing your second blades all this time. You've learned fast enough to keep up with the main campus students and then some." He pointed at them with encouragement. "Succeed in your mission and hold your heads high—smiling and unashamed. You are proud assassins, and moreover, proud members of E-Class!"

With that declaration hanging in the air, nervousness gripped the students. They didn't want to disappoint Koro-sensei, but at the same time, they weren't confident in being able to get into the top fifty.

Jason could tell unease and a lack of self-confidence dominated most of the students except for Karma. He wasn't optimistic about their chances of fulfilling the octopus' conditions either. Most of their current grades weren't bad, but it was from being worthy of getting into the top 50 among the 186 students. The one most likely to reach that threshold was Karma.

Furthermore, there was the principal. Jason had a complete profile on him. Based on what he'd seen so far, the man was extremely likely to add some twists to the tests, such as adding new material, in order to fulfill his desire of keeping the E-Class as an example for the other students.

At this point in time, it was too late to help the class study more material. There was nothing else they could do as teachers but hope that they can do well in the midterms.

'I did my best teaching them,' Jason consoled himself.

While he wasn't that close to the students, he wanted the best for them just as much as the octopus. His life as a street rat in Gotham City taught him many valuable, but life-threatening lessons and he wouldn't trade that experience for anything. But he'd be damned if he ever let any of these kids experience something like that just because he couldn't teach them one subject right.

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The day after the midterms, the class got their scores, and it was just as Jason expected. Inside the teacher's office, Koro-sensei stood facing the wall with his head down. Irina calmly looked ahead with her head in her folded hands, but he could tell the test results agitated her as well. Karasuma was looking at the blue sky, his hand holding his phone to his ear.

"What's the meaning of this? I felt that test was decidedly unfair," Karasuma said to the main campus teacher on the phone.

"That's strange. You should've been notified," the teacher replied in an infuriatingly fake, apologetic tone. The man was audibly holding back his laughter and was no doubt smiling on the other end. "Was there some kind of miscommunication on your end, perhaps? You don't stop by the main campus very often, so it wouldn't surprise me."

"I can't say there was, and regardless, this is highly unusual," Karasuma replied, slightly aggravated. "Two days before the exams, and you broaden the scope across all subjects?"

"You don't seem to understand… what was it, Karasuma-sensei?" The man replied condescendingly. "We are a prep school. The last-minute cramming abilities of our students is simply another thing we test. Why, the main-campus students received a splendid lecture on the new material from the principal himself."

Karasuma's brows furrowed, and he ended the call while Jason clenched his fist.

Jason looked at Karasuma's back. 'Karasuma's no doubt worried about the octopus leaving because of this, but I highly doubt he'd leave just like that.' He turned his head to Koro-sensei, who was still facing the wall, as if he himself was the one who failed to get into the top fifty. 'The octopus is just too invested in the E-Class' academics and it would be out of character for him to abandon them.'

Koro-sensei's tentacles made squishing noises as he silently made his way to the students. Jason and the other teachers looked at each other before following him.

While Koro-sensei entered the classroom of despondent students and faced the board, Jason and the other teachers waited outside and observed.

"The responsibility is entirely mine. I seem to have underestimated what this school is capable of. I can't even face you after this."

Silence reigned once again. Suddenly, Koro-sensei sensed an attack from behind and sidestepped to his right in fright, dodging an anti-sensei knife to the head. He stared at the knife on the ground in surprise. An assassination wasn't appropriate in this serious situation.

"You sure?" Grinning, Karma asked as he stepped forward, carrying a bundle of papers. "If you can't face us, you can't see us coming to kill you."

Koro-sensei's head turned red, and he raised a tentacle in anger. "Karma-kun! I'm very depressed right now, and —"

Koro-sensei stopped in curiosity as Karma laid out the papers on the table. A strained sound escaped his throat as he stared at Karma's almost perfect scores. Koro-sensei picked up the pieces of paper close and looked at them intently.

"Changing a few questions isn't gonna stop me," Karma confidently said.

The whole class stood up and gathered around him, in awe of his scores.

"Whoa!"

"A hundred in math? No way!"

Karma smiled as he looked up at Koro-sensei, remembering the intense afterimage tutoring sessions. "My grades were good already, but you really went the extra mile. That's why I could handle the questions even after they changed the scope. However… I'm staying right here. Assassination is way more fun than going back to my old class. So what's the plan? You gonna use the others' results as an excuse to turn tail and run?"

He got up close to Koro-sensei while holding an anti-sensei knife and taunted, "Sounds like you're just scared we might kill you."

Koro-sensei let out a small, but audible groan of annoyance. The students noticed the shift in the atmosphere, smiling. Kataoka elbowed Maehara, signalling him to join Karma's taunting.

Maehara held his hands behind his head. "Oh, so that's it? You were scared?"

"You should've just told us up front!"

"Just be like, 'I'm scared! I wanna run home to my big octopus mommy!'"

Koro-sensei ground his teeth in annoyance. Not long after, his entire body turned red, and he exploded in anger. His tentacles wriggled in the air.

"I am NOT running away!"

"Oh? Then what?" asked Karma.

Koro-sensei paused before his face took on a competitive edge and he held a tentacle tip in front of his face. "We'll pay them back two-fold on the end of term exams!"

The students erupted in laughter because they found his words absurd, but also mostly because of how unsure Koro-sensei also looked.

"This is no laughing matter! Honestly! Aren't you thoroughly disappointed?!" Koro-sensei nervously shouted.

Outside, Jason smiled in relief. Besides him, Karasuma and Irina's tension also disappeared.

'Looks like everything turned out alright.' Koro-sensei's dynamic with his class was great, and Jason had no doubt that if they kept improving, they'd definitely sweep the top spots from the main campus students.

Smiling fondly, thought back to the kids at home and had an idea. 'What if I tutor them when they're older? Ruby wants to become an idol like Ai while Aqua wants to become an actor. But they can't rely on those plans their whole life and will need something to fall back on. A "second blade" if you will. I don't think they'll decline if I ask them. Ruby will probably jump in joy, and Aqua's likely to join her just because he wants to.'

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Holding a large bag filled with home-made food and drinks, including dessert, Jason rang the doorbell of Ai's condo and waited.

It wasn't long before the door opened. Ai greeted him with a warm smile.

"Good evening, Jason!"

"Good evening, Ai." Jason returned the smile and raised the bag in his hand. "I brought some food and drinks for movie night."

Ai clapped her hands excitedly. "Wonderful! Ruby and Aqua were so excited about tonight's anime and they wanted to watch it while eating your food."

"Well, they won't have to wait any longer. May I come in?" asked Jason.

Her face flushed red out of embarrassment. "Ah, I've held you up, haven't I? I'm so sorry. Of course you can come in!"

Jason shook his head as he took off his shoes and entered. "No worries at all. Pardon the intrusion."

After the night of the concert at Tokyo Dome, Ai and the kids started inviting him to their movie nights. They had movie nights at least twice a week and almost always with everyone together.

Jason's role as the better cook between him and Ai was to be the designated cook every movie night. He had already expected it even before they suggested the idea.

As soon as Jason neared the couches, Ruby pounced from the couch and jumped towards him with her arms wide open.

"Jay-san!"

Jason calmly caught her with his free hand and gave her a reprimanding look. "How many times have I told you not to do that, young miss?"

Ruby's smile froze, and she scratched her cheek. "Uhh… Eight times, right?"

Hearing her reply, Jason sighed. Ruby never stopped doing this, and he didn't think she was gonna stop soon.

Behind them, Ai giggled at their playful dynamic before going ahead and preparing the anime they were going to watch.

He raised the bag in his other hand up to Ruby. "Look what I brought."

Her eyes immediately lit up, and she tried grabbing the bag. Jason pulled it away from her and gave her a playful raise of an eyebrow.

"Gimme, gimme!" Ruby kept trying to grab the bag while standing on his arm, knowing he wouldn't drop her.

Jason was about to shake his head before an idea came to him.

"Ruby," he said forcefully, catching her attention. "Let's make a deal. I'll hand you the bag, and in return, you have to stop jumping from the couch for the next two movie nights. Deal?"

"Hmm. Okay, deal!" Ruby pinkey promised him and immediately grabbed the bag before jumping back onto the couch. It cushioned her and the bag's falls before she began unloading all the food and drinks on the middle table.

'This girl…' Jason groaned internally.

Jason turned to Aqua, who had just been reading a rather advanced book for his age on a separate couch. He'd accepted long ago that Aqua was smarter than most kids around his age and even those older than him. The kid was a prodigy.

"You doing fine, Aqua?"

Aqua turned to him and nodded before flipping to the next page. "I'm doing fine, Jay-san. I'm sorry about my sister. You know how rowdy she can be sometimes."

"Understatement of the year." Jason nodded in complete agreement.

"Yosh!" Ai grabbed his arm and pulled him down to the couch. "Don't just stand there, Jason! It's time to watch the anime."

"Okay, okay. My bad." Jason complied and grabbed two chicken sandwiches. He passed one to Ai with practiced motions.

"I wanna sit on Mama's lap!" Ruby climbed onto the couch and placed herself on Ai's lap, smiling victoriously at Aqua, and he glared at her in return.

Seeing their interaction, Jason snorted in amusement. It was pretty much a normal interaction between them, and it wasn't even the worst one.

Ai pressed play, and the intro for the anime started.

'I forgot to ask them about what they think of being tutored by me,' Jason thought before he shrugged. 'I'll ask next time.'

Throughout the whole night, they successfully finished a whole 24 episode season of anime.

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Two weeks quickly passed by, and a lot of things happened.

First, during their brief stay at Kyoto for their school trip, the students attempted to assassinate the octopus by distracting him with the city's attractions and having a sniper hired by the government called "Red Eye" perform the assassinations. Needless to say, they failed, and the assassin gave up after a whole day of trying.

There was also an altercation with another school's students where two of Nagisa's female group mates got kidnapped. Koro-sensei and Nagisa's group took care of the situation, but when Jason heard about what happened, he silently vanished and did his own thing.

The delinquent students were all sent to the hospital the next day due to mysterious circumstances. But unbeknownst to them, an anonymous source gave the police evidence of their crimes. Rape and blackmailing only being two of a long list. It became an enormous scandal and the reputation of the school the delinquents belonged to hit rock bottom.

After that, the class got a new transfer student in the form of Autonomously Intelligent Fixed Artillery-san or Ritsu, as the class named her. She or it was an AI program contained inside a metal box with an avatar display of a pink-haired girl with a cheery and optimistic attitude. She was the complete opposite of optimistic on her first day, but Koro-sensei reprogrammed her and despite her creators reverting most of Koro-sensei's modifications, she hid the core changes. There were also some problems before her reprogramming, such as disrupting the class, often with a hail of bullets aimed at Koro-sensei. But they were all solved in the end, and the class now had an impressive AI assisting them in their assassinations.

Then there was the arrival of Irina's mentor, Lovro. While Jason wasn't able to meet the man because of a minor school emergency he needed to help Ruby and Aqua with, he remotely hacked into his phone and acquired footage of what happened during the day using the hidden cameras he hid all over the school. The information he got from Lovro's phone might prove useful in the future.

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Raindrops lightly pelted the classroom's window.

Jason felt anticipation bubbling up inside him. Ever since Ritsu first transferred, he'd been monitoring the messages between the ministry and Karasuma, and according to them, their "long-awaited trump card" would be arriving today.

Jason stood beside Karasuma and Irina as they observed the supposed trump-card's guardian, a man donning full white robes, including a white mask that completely covered his head. They stayed outside the classroom as the man, who introduced himself as "Shiro", stepped inside.

Jason immediately noticed the strange frequency of his voice with his enhanced hearing and deduced him to be using a voice modifier. The sound of shifting metal parts also emanated from beneath Shiro's robes, suggesting he had hidden weapons beneath his robes.

"N-Nice to meet you, Shiro-san," greeted Koro-sensei. The stories Ritsu told of the coming assassin slightly unnerved him, since she said that even a deadly AI like her was vastly inferior to him. "And where is our new student?"

Shiro brought out a brick-shaped jelly from his robes and replied, "It's a pleasure, Koro-sensei. He's a rather unique child, in personality and otherwise. I'll introduce him myself." While moving to the front of the class, Shiro paused and Jason noticed him staring at Kaede Kayano.

Jason narrowed his eyes in thought. 'He's surprised, but he recognizes her. That's strange.'

Jason came to know of Kaede's history and fake identity through his previous investigations. Her real name was Akari Yukimura, a brown-haired, retired child actress and the sister of E-Class' previous teacher, Aguri Yukimura. He always knew she was hiding something inside her because his senses registered her as something a threat similar to the octopus, but he couldn't figure out the reason.

What was most interesting about her was her connection to her sister. While her sister was a teacher at this school during the day, she worked at a research facility at night. That was the extent of the information he could find. There was no information about what they researched, and the only clue he possessed was that the facility's explosion could be related to the major destruction of the moon. The fact that both events happened on the same night and the octopus emerged sometime after was undeniable and was most likely related.

Jason had been looking for further connections and Shiro apparently recognized Kaede. This was his perfect opportunity. He knowingly turned his eyes to the back of the classroom.

"Yes?" Koro-sensei inquired, noticing Shiro looking at his students.

"Oh, just… You've got good kids here. I'm sure he'll fit right in," said Shiro. "Now to introduce him." He turned towards the door and the class followed him with nervous looks. "Hey, Itona! Come on in."

The students screamed. Something suddenly crashed into the back wall of the room, sending debris flying along with a cloud of dust. From the hole in the wall, Itona's figure emerged, donned in the school's uniform with the addition of a white fur scarf around his neck.

With an unchanging expression, he nonchalantly walked forward and sat in the furthest seat at the back next to Karma.

"I won," he said, and Jason immediately noted the boy's lack of water on his body, his hidden bloodlust, and his wide-eyed look of mania. "I proved that I'm stronger than that classroom wall."

"""Use the damn door!""" the class shouted back.

"That's all that matters. That's all," Itona mumbled to himself while ignoring them, his hands held together on the desk.

'We've got ourselves another handful!' thought the class in dismay, remembering Ritsu's disruptions during lessons.

"This is Horibe Itona. Please call him Itona," said Shiro.

"Say, Itona-kun, something's been bugging me," said Karma. "You came in from outside, right? Empty-handed? It's raining buckets out there, and yet there's not a drop of it on you."

In response, Itona surveyed the class. His chair groaned as he stood up before walking to Karma. "You're probably the strongest one in this class." He laid his hand on Karma's head and looked him in the eye, his voice taking on a strange tone of comfort. "But don't fret. I have no interest in killing those weaker than me. The only ones I do want to kill…" he walked towards Koro-sensei, who was happily eating the block of jelly Shiro gave him, "are those who could be stronger than me."

"And in this room, Koro-sensei…" he pointed at Koro-sensei. "That's you."

Koro-sensei grinned at him. "When you say 'strong' and 'weak,' do you refer to fighting ability, Itona-kun? In terms of strength, you and I are worlds apart."

"We're closer than you think." Itona took out the same block of jelly from his pocket and came closer. "After all… We're brothers by blood."

The class' jaws dropped in shock while Jason deadpanned. It was complete bullshit and there was no possibility of that ever coming true.

Itona took a bite out of his jelly, wrapping included. "The loser dies, Brother." He walked outside with Shiro behind him and held the door. "Siblings have no need for cheap tricks. I will kill you and prove my strength. We face off after school. Here, in this classroom."

As the class erupted into chaos due to the "reveal" of Koro-sensei's familial ties, Jason and the teachers headed back to the office.

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Classes would proceed as normal, though there was obvious tension in the classroom's atmosphere as Koro-sensei taught.

Inside the teachers' office, Jason continued his work while subtly observing Shiro. The man entertained himself with some manga lying around.

Reading his body language showed Shiro was the most agitated person here. He seemed carefree as he read and laughed at the manga he was reading, but his body language presented otherwise.

Shiro noticed Karasuma's nervousness and put down his manga. "Sorry to startle you, Karasuma-sensei. That boy's existence is the most classified of classified information. It wasn't unreasonable for you to be in the dark here. But I assure you: he is indeed Koro-sensei's brother. And after school, that will become extremely evident."

'He seems to be implying something else there,' Jason thought and his mind suddenly connected it all together. 'If Koro-sensei and Itona resulted from the same experiment that gave Koro-sensei his abilities, then that could be why he calls them brothers. That explains the similar feeling Itona gave off and his dry state. If his tentacles are the same as Koro-sensei's, they should be capable of moving at similar speeds. He must be hiding tentacles of some sort somewhere inside his body. But this… Hmm. Does this mean Kaede Kayano also has these tentacles? If that's the case, how did she acquire them?'

Jason's computer-like mind raced with the most probable reasons and the various possibilities.

'I'll figure out more after school ends. I'll get to see what Shiro and Itona have in store for us.'

———————————————

Everyone in the building had already gathered inside the room before the school bell rang. The tables were all placed like walls on each side of the room, giving ample space for Koro-sensei and Itona in the middle.

Itona threw his uniform jacket and scarf away, revealing a lean, toned body under his red, sleeveless turtleneck.

"They arranged their desks into a ring?" asked Irina.

Jason and Karasuma nodded.

"Yep. Like a real match."

"I've never heard of anyone going about an assassination like this," said Karasuma.

"Me neither."

As Itona stared at Koro-sensei with the same wide-eyed look, Shiro spoke, "You must be tired of plain old assassinations, Koro-sensei. Shall we set a rule, then? How about… 'Stepping out of the room means instant death.' What do you think?"

"The hell? As if the loser would ever keep their end of the bargain," said Sugino, referring to Koro-sensei.

"No," replied Karma, "for him to break a rule we all witnessed would damage our trust in him as a teacher. That kind of restriction works especially well with this guy."

"Alright," answered Koro-sensei. "I accept your rule. However, Itona-kun, hurting the spectators will also result in a loss."

"Very well. Start on my signal," said Shiro before he raised his gloved hand and chopped down. "Assassination… begin!"

A set of light-blue colored tentacles suddenly emerged from Itona's head. Almost invisible to the normal human's naked eye due to their speed, the tentacles struck Koro-sensei's left tentacle, cleanly cutting it off. Everyone's eyes were pinned to Itona's tentacles.

Koro-sensei stared at the tentacles in shock. "It can't be… Tentacles?!"

'So I was right,' thought Jason, before furrowing his brows at Koro-sensei's reaction. 'His bloodlust is terrifying.'

"Where did you get those… those tentacles?!" Koro-sensei growled menacingly, his bloodlust stifling the surrounding air. As Koro-sensei's skin turned black, the veins on his head bulged, his teeth ground together, and his eyes glowed a menacing red.

"We're not obligated to tell you that, Koro-sensei," answered Shiro. "But this ought to have convinced you: you have different parents and different upbringings, but you are nonetheless brothers."

Koro-sensei's face remained black.

"My, what a scary face you're making," said Shiro. "Did you perhaps remember something unpleasant?"

'There it is again,' Jason thought. 'He seems to know the octopus on a more personal level. Such a specific set of words, likely aimed to attack him psychologically.'

"Oya…" Koro-sensei said as he regenerated his tentacle. "It would appear that you and I will need to have a little talk."

"Unfortunately, you'll be dead by then." Shiro raised his left arm, revealing a metal device in his sleeve. It released a flash of violet light.

Koro-sensei's skin suddenly turned gray and gained the texture of concrete.

"Exposure to this pressure ray at close range triggers dilatant behavior in your cells…" said Shiro.

Itona took the opportunity and attacked, his tentacles turning into blurs. Koro-sensei shouted in pain, having been seemingly hit by Itona's tentacles.

"Your whole body stiffens instantly," Shiro said confidently as he pointed his thumb down. "We know everything. All of your weak points."

The dust cleared, revealing the husk of Koro-sensei's skin on the ground. Koro-sensei hung onto a hanging ceiling light, breathing and sweating heavily.

"You've shed your skin? That's right. You did have that trick up your sleeve. However, Koro-sensei, we also know the downside to that process."

Itona attacked once again and Koro-sensei flew down and evaded his strikes, though his speed had noticeably decreased.

"Molting expends more energy than one would expect. Consequently, the speed your're so proud of drops immediately afterward. And you've grown back the arm that Itona took in his first surprise attack. That uses up quite a bit of stamina as well. By my calculations, you should be evenly matched physically around now. Moreover, the use of tentacles depends greatly on one's mental state. And when one considers the shock of being injured by an unexpected tentacle, it's obvious who's in the lead now."

"Furthermore, he has the support of his devoted guardian." Shiro raised the device on his left arm once again, emitting a flash of light that stiffened Koro-sensei.

Itona jumped into the air and crashed down with a spin while surrounding himself with his tentacles. Two pieces of Koro-sensei's leg tentacles flew into the air and Itona spun back.

Koro-sensei grunted before kneeling on the ground in pain. His breaths came in pants and mucus-like sweat poured down his body.

Shiro laughed delightfully. "Now you'll have to grow back your legs too. That'll drop your stamina even further, making you easier to kill."

"What a relief," said Itona as he looked down at Koro-sensei's pitiful form. "Turns out I'm stronger than you, Brother."

While Koro-sensei and Itona circled each other, Jason spotted Nagisa taking out his anti-sensei knife, and a smile appeared on his face.

'This battle's over. They probably didn't calculate what's going to happen next.'

Koro-sensei regenerated his legs and finally regained his breath. "This is the second time anyone's pressed me this hard. At first glance, it seemed like a straightforward face-off, but it's all been so carefully calculated. There's a lot I'd like to ask you two, but I won't get a chance unless I win this first."

"You still think you can win?" Shiro asked dismissively. "The bluster of a cornered octopus, no more."

As Koro-sensei pointed a tentacle at Shiro, he positioned himself close to Nagisa.

"There is one thing you forgot to take into account, Shiro-san."

"There is not," rejected Shiro. "My methods are impeccable."

Jason could only describe the next sequence of events as spectacular. As Itona struck with his tentacles again, Koro-sensei took Nagisa's knife in a sudden burst of speed while using a piece of tissue. Using that, he positioned the knife where the tentacles struck the ground. This caught Itona off guard, allowing Koro-sensei to wrap him in his molted skin and throw him out the window.

"You should be unharmed, wrapped in my old skin like that," said Koro-sensei. "But your feet are outside the ring."

Green lines circled Koro-sensei's head, and his annoying grin appeared on his face. "I win. As per the rules, that means you die. You can't kill me anymore."

Itona's face distorted in rage. Jason noticed this and prepared to subdue him.

Koro-sensei, seemingly oblivious to Itona's change in expression or completely confident in his advantage, continued in a lecturing tone, "If you want to live, stay with the other students of this class, and learn something that can't be measured just by crunching numbers: the difference experience makes. I've lived a little longer than you, and come to learn a little more. I became a teacher because I wanted to pass that on to you all."

He tapped his head. "If you don't take my experience from me here in this classroom, you'll never be able to beat me."

Itona's eyes shut and the blood vessels around his eyes bulged. "I won't? I… I'm weak?!"

His eyes snapped open. The sclera had turned black with tints of red and his iris constricted.

Shiro twitched, and his right arm shifted. "This isn't good. Itona absolutely despises studying. And lecturing a child who hates to study…"

Itona's tentacles turned black and whipped the air chaotically.

"…could result in genocide!"

"I'm strong. These tentacles made me stronger than all the rest," muttered Itona. "ALL the rest!"

Itona landed on the broken window and leapt towards Koro-sensei. Just as Jason was about to move in, Shiro lifted his right sleeve and shot a dart at Itona.

Itona's body immediately slacked, and he fell onto the ground, unconscious.

Shiro put down the smoking metal barrel and approached Itona. "I'm sorry, Koro-sensei. It seems this boy wasn't yet mentally prepared for school. I know it's his first day and all, but he'll be taking a little break."

Shiro picked him up and carried him on his shoulder.

"Wait!" shouted Koro-sensei. "I can't just let that student go. I'm his teacher! I shall look after him until he graduates! And Shiro-san… I have so very much to ask you."

"Sorry, but no. We're leaving," he paused beside Koro-sensei. "Or would you stop us by force?"

Koro-sensei turned and attempted to grab Shiro's shoulder, but the moment he made contact with Shiro's robe, his tentacles popped.

"Anti-teacher fibers. You literally cannot touch me. Don't worry. He'll be back before long. After all, March is just around the corner. I'll take on the task of tutoring him at home."

The world drastically slowed down from Jason's view while Shiro exited the room. He activated his presence concealment before placing a near undetectable tracking device on him and Itona, all within a fraction of a second.

An instant later, everything returned to normal, and Shiro was none the wiser. Not even Koro-sensei seemed to notice what happened. He remained silent, staring at the exit Shiro went through.

Jason smirked. 'You need to fix that habit of doing a monologue like a villain, Shiro. You keep giving away free information.' He already had better ways to immobilize Koro-sensei if he needed to, but the way Shiro talked to Koro-sensei gave him more data to use for Shiro's psychological profile.

Returning his face to normal, Jason approached Karasuma. "Karasuma, I'll be taking a few days off. I don't know when I'll be back."

Karasuma hummed before answering. "That's fine. But may I know the reason?"

"Personal business," Jason replied. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"I simply asked out of curiosity. There's no need to glare at me," said Karasuma. He looked away before busying himself by calling for repairs.

Satisfied, Jason cracked his neck, producing audible pops, before helping the students. The classroom was a mess.