Hidden Undercurrents; Assassination Attempts

Hey, Shun here!

Have you ever had a friend that you prefer to call or address using the very first thing that you decided to call them with like their surname, for example. Then, as days, months, or heck, even years go by, you found it hard to change out of that habit after doing for so long?

As they say, habits die hard.

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(Third Person's POV)

*BAM*

At a hidden hideout, away from any human settlements, towns, or cities, a guy clad in an all white attire smashed the table with both of his hands heavily.

"Damn it! Who the heck was that brat!? He's foiled my plans twice now!"

This guy is the man who identified himself to the students of Class 3-E as Shiro. It's been a few days now since his plan to kill Koro-sensei commenced, which ended in complete and utter failure.

His hideout is quite far from civilization and his supplies are being stocked by some of the people with the highest authorities in the world in order to kill Koro-sensei. They all know his methods but that didn't deter them from giving him their full support.

At this point, it's very clear that they didn't mind lending a hand to someone who wouldn't hesitate to kill a few junior high school students to achieve his goals. It's really as they say, the ugliness of human nature would rear its ugly head when the desperate need arises.

With the possibility of the entire world blowing up to bits and becoming just some specks of space dust and asteroids on space, some of these world leaders didn't hesitate to fund someone who's had a track record of experimenting on humans.

"I have to deal with that guy somehow." Shiro said while looking at the numerous glass containers in front of him.

Inside it, people that are showing varying degrees of deranged and agonized expressions could be seen, with black colored tentacles growing on their heads.

"It's still on the experimental phase and it will probably take a few months for me to perfect it but, at this rate, my plans have a high likelihood of failing if I don't deal with that brat first. Negotiating or bribing him with money wouldn't work so, I could only resort to this…"

Taking out his phone, he decided to call someone. The contents of their conversation was brief and Shiro just said, "There's a change in our plans. You need to come here to my lab as early as possible in order for you to take care of the disruption first."

『Ah. I got it…』

Putting down his phone, Shiro stayed silent for a few seconds before looking at the humans that has black tentacles on their heads.

"These guys will do for now. They don't necessarily need to fight him, after all… Don't he have friends? I can't control these monster completely but, I can give them simple orders…"

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(Shun's POV)

"Wouldn't this be the time when the mad scientist would launch his attacks against you with his army of monsters!?" It was early in the morning and Mutsuko-san is already spouting some pretty alarming things.

"Is this what Shun calls 'raising a flag'?" Rokuko said in wonderment.

"Don't raise a flag, Mutsuko-san!"

"Why are you panicking, Shun-kun? We're the protagonists of our own story so we of course already did some countermeasures. Look, I had the new drones I made to monitor our classmates!" Mutsuko-san said while showing her phone to me and scrolling through the screen — with her sitting dangerously close beside me. She's been doing this a lot lately, and the younger girls are starting to copy her.

Putting those thoughts aside, I focused on the screen of her phone. There, I saw our classmates who are on their way to school.

"Whoaaah! Ama-ziing nodesu!"

"Way of ninja surveillance technique~?"

Pochi and Tama who were watching what was happening on Mutsuko-san's phone screen couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

"Nope! This is a survival technique. It's what I call, 'Extensive Preparations Before Disaster Strikes'!"

"Looong~?"

"That's too long Mutsuko-nee. Maybe you could call it Disaster Prevention Plan instead?" Ritsu suggested. She's eating the food on her bowl rather fluidly now, compared to when she first tried to do it.

I still remember that time when she had to do maths before moving her hand in some angles. She made eating sound so complicated.

"That's a good idea! We'll call it that then!"

The reason why Mutsuko-san easily accepted this proposition to change the name was not only because she really did think it was great, but also because Ritsu helped her a lot during the making of these many small drones. In fact, Ritsu had a hand on helping us create the technology and some other things that we wanted to make for our company to sell as well.

Speaking of the things our company is now selling, it's the things that are already invented in my world by some amazing people. Take for example the fire extinguisher that doesn't use any chemicals but use a certain frequency of sound that could displace the oxygen in the atmosphere.

It was really hard to tune the frequency into something that couldn't hurt the ears of any living organism but it worked out and now, we're advertising it to other countries as a more reliable way of killing the fire. Firefighters seems to like the idea of not having to carry those heavy hose.

There's also some other things like the [Air Ink] which sucks the air pollution out from the air more effectively — it's actually a lot better than normal markers. Now, we're in the middle of optimizing the design of the [Eco-homes], [Pavegen], [Transparent Solar Panels], and some other things.

Anyway, enough about my company. It's been a month or so since that pool incident took place. Itona-san, or should I say, Horibe Itona-san, was taken under custody and has now been attending classes daily.

The moment we heard his full name, it was Ritsu who immediately reacted. Looks like he was the only son of the bankrupt company we bought.

During this span of time, we pretty much familiarized ourselves with the surroundings. I even took the girls out, sometimes with all of us going around in some interesting places and sometimes with just only me and one of them. Tsuka, Fenny, Pochi, and Tama likes it more when we go at amusement parks with everyone but they also don't mind going with just the five of us.

Currently, we're all in the middle of studying hard for the upcoming exam. The finals exam for this first semester, to be exact.

Currently, I'm on my way to Kanzaki-san's house. The reason why I'm going there with her was not only because she asked for me to teach her about her weak subjects such as chemistry, but also because my classmates were getting attacked by some weird humans with black tentacles on their heads.

We're already making progress when it comes to locating where they came from, with Tama, Ritsu, and Mutsuko-san doing the investigations, but since we didn't know where they are still, Koro-sensei asked us to look after each other. The guys were able to handle the assailants on their own by taking some water and other things that Koro-sensei is weak to with them when they go home as a group, but the girls are having a harder time since not all of them are that proficient with fighting yet.

Because of this, Pochi and Rokuko would go home with our classmates, or to be more precise, kinda escort them home, before I pick them up using my [Divine Warp Feather]. I'm also doing the same things as them while doubling as a tutor for this upcoming exam.

I remember when I first started doing this after Koro-sensei and Karasuma-sensei asked our group to do so. It was Kanzaki-san who I accompanied at the time, along with Hara-san.

The first time I arrived at Kanzaki-san's home was really chaotic. Her dad was going insane, berating Kanzaki-san for bringing a guy home, while Kanzaki-san was calmly and with a smile on her face exchanging words with her father.

From someone who, when I first met, gave me the impression that she's like a beautiful flower on a vase, Kanzaki-san really changed a lot, I thought. Also, her father is your typical Asian parent who's too strict to his children when it comes to studies and how they behave.

To be honest, I was slightly overwhelmed by his attitude at first since my parents were not like that, but I soon came to the understanding of how she ended up rebelling at some point and turning to games. Her and Miu's end result of turning to games was similar but how they ended up there was really different.

"So this is the chemical formula of glucose? Hmm? Shirakami-kun? Is there something on my face?"

"Ah? No, it's nothing. I just thought of the time when I met your parents." The moment I mentioned that, Kanzaki-san's face reddened and, while putting her hand over her mouth and looking away from me, she said.

"You make it sound like *mumble* *mumble*…"

Ah… Did it sound like I was introduced by her to her parents or something? It does kinda sound like that, now that I think about it.

Well, this is kinda awkward… It's like that time when I talked to Mutsuko-san's mom over the phone because of that incident with Mutsuko-san's little sister.

The day passed by relatively smoothly, even though there were obvious bumps on the way during the lessons because of that moment. But hey, we managed to weather the storm.

In the end, it was still kinda fun since I managed to make her laugh due to the really corny punchlines I have, all under the gaze of Kanzaki-san's father. Just so you know, we didn't study at her room but at their living room. Her father was very adamant on not allowing us to do that. Well, I kinda understand his worries though.

"Well, I'll get going now then, Kanzaki-san. Just give me or our teachers a call if something happens." I said after lifting my bag.

"Un. Thank you very much, Shirakami-kun, for teaching me about my weak subjects." Kanzaki-san said with a smile on her face.

"See you later!"

"Yes. See you at school tomorrow…" When Kanzaki-san waved her hand at me and bowed her head slightly, I saw her father standing right behind the post nearby their lot.

Seeing him there, I waved my hands again, this time, it was directed at him. Man, his gaze reminds me so much of those xianxia and wuxia antagonists who looks like they're about to murder a character's entire clan and all the 13 generations before them.

Once Kanzaki-san's house was out of sight, I heard my phone ring. Curious as to what it is about, I took it out of my bag and read the message and saw the video feed that Ritsu sent me. A split second later, Ritsu appeared in my phone screen.

『Yada-san is currently under attack. Her brother is getting targeted by the monster so she's having a hard time! Pochi-chan, Tama-chan, and Rokuko-san are out to assist Kurahashi-san, Hayami-san, and Hazama-san. You're the nearest also the fastest one who could reach her place.』

The moment I saw what was happening on the feed, I couldn't help but feel angry. That Shiro is really something else, knowing that he'll be able to get away with things with the help of his backers.

Once we locate where all these things that Shiro sent out is, I'll personally pay a visit to him. I have things I want to talk to him about, after all… Yes, talk…

Looking at Yada-san who was struggling to defend her bedridden brother from the attacks, I immediately put my phone away and used my [Divine Warp Feather]. A moment later, I arrived at a dimly lit room, with broken furnitures scattered all over the place.

*slash*

Although I didn't kill this deranged human who have black tentacles growing on her head, I wrapped a white cloth on the part of her head where the black tentacles are sprouting out of. This cloth will prevent the black tentacles from growing out. While I'm at it, I tied her hands and feet as well.

Until we find out a way to extract the tentacles out of their body, we have to be careful not to kill them. What's more, they could also be the evidence against Shiro and his heinous deeds.

Seeing that the threat is now incapacitated, Yada-san slumped on top of her little brother's bed. When I looked at her, some parts of her body like her arms are full of bruises. Her brother that was unable to move a muscle behind her also suffered from some injuries because of the attack and is now unconscious.

Without saying anything, I took out a potion and used it on both her and her brother stealthily.

"E-Eh? What was that just now, Shirakami-kun?". Yada-san said while looking at me with an inquisitive gaze, her eyes wet — probably because of the pain and helplessness she's feeling earlier.

Seeing the usually energetic, and big sister-like figure of my classmates, Yada-san be like this for the second time, I couldn't help but say the word that I involuntarily blurted out the first time I saw her outside of school setting.

"Magic, I guess?"

"Pshh… What are you even saying, idiot. You don't seem to be lying to me but I, for one, can't bring myself to take that seriously…" this is nearly identical to what she replied to me at the time as well.

"Well, it's up to you whether you want to believe me or not." Shrugging my shoulders, I approached her before taking out a towel that I have in my bag and dousing it with the water.

"What's this for?"

"For you to clean yourself, obviously."

"Thank you for answering me with such an obvious answer to my question, Mr. Obvious. I meant, why are you giving this to me when I can just go out and clean myself. I'm at my house right now, you know?" Yada-san said while crossing her arms.

"What a sassy attitude. And here I was, thinking that this should help you at the very least…"

Seeing my poor acting skills, Yada-san just let out a chuckle before taking the towel off of my hands.

"Seriously, I'm having a déjà vu moment. And why are you always bringing such a large towel, anyway?" While wiping her face, Yada-san tried to continue and joke around.

I've noticed it during that day but, isn't she really quite good at hiding her real emotions? Unlike Hayami-san who's forcefully trying to conceal her emotions, she's more like Irina-sensei who's really good at taking a role and acting on it. Just like that other person I know in our class.

"Well, would you prefer it if I brought a handkerchief this time around?" I patted her on the back slightly before continuing.

"At least you managed to force yourself not to cry this time."

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ It's about time for me to choose who I want to invite to the group. Man, this is a tough choice. By the way, a brief flashback will be shown next chapter and then we could do yet another few days of time skip maybe. I hope I was able to portray the development in Shun's relationship with everyone during these past few chapters.