The Assassin Within

Part 40~Cramming

Karma groaned as he walked out of the back room.

"I'm impressed. Not many people come out of training with father alive," Nagisa stated as he sipped at his morning orange juice.

"I feel like I've died."

"You're not allowed to just yet. Your final exam is coming up soon." Nagisa smirked as Karma shot up.

"I'm getting tested?!"

"Well, obviously," Digit stated as he jumped into the kitchen, grabbing something out of the fridge. "So how did it go with father? You picked your name yet?"

Karma blushed as he looked down. "No..." When the boss asked him for a name, Karma couldn't think of one. Nagisa had to step in to keep him from being a fool.

"Aw, don't worry about it, newbie. I didn't pick my name until the third time he asked me and Vi here took almost a year to decide on his."

Karma stared at Nagisa as the blue-haired boy nodded. "Of course I did a lot in that time so don't think that just because you don't have a name, we won't keep you working, Chili."

"Chili," Karma questioned as Digit laughed.

"Everyone gets a temporary nickname based on food until they choose their name. Vi was called blueberry for a long time and Zen was orange." Digit chuckled as the door was thrown open.

"Who the fuck didn't tell us that the loan shark had eight bodyguards!" Zen and Okabe stormed in, covered head to toe in mud and blood. Zen collapsed on the sofa as Okabe hugged Karma.

"Alright, you two, we should head to school." Nagisa stood up as both teens groaned. "Come on, you're not getting out of this."

"You got the basics down cold over the past semester, students. At this rate, I expect your grades on finals to shoot right up," Koro-sensei announced as he spun around the students who studied under the trees.

Nagisa lifted up his head as he looked at Koro-sensei. "Koro-sensei, do you want us to make the top fifty this time too?"

"No. I was too focused on your total scores for midterms. I've come to believe that each student should have a goal better suited to themselves. D-Don't worry, Terasaka-kun! You've got a shot at reaching it too! Now, then... As Shiro-san said, when I lose a tentacle, I also lose speed. As you can see, even one tentacle makes a difference." Koro-sensei shot off one of his tentacles causing the clones to slow down. "I can't keep up the quality of my images and now there are a few child images mixed in. Lose one more, and you get more child images with the parent images fretting about how to make ends meet. Yay!"

Nagisa looked away from the children's images. "Well, that took a depressing turn."

"Lose yet another, and now the father image has vanished, leaving the mother image to raise the children on her own. Each tentacle lost reduces my movement capability by approximately ten per cent. Here's the deal: each student who receives a top score either overall in an individual subject, will have the right to destroy one tentacle. This is the final exam for our assassination classroom. Can you get any closer to that ten-billion-yen prize? That, my students, is up to you. But it doesn't look like Karma and Okabe are unless they wake up and start studying!"

"One tentacle for each top score," Nagisa muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah! We can do this," Okuda cheered excitedly.

"Since when are you ever this fired up, Okuda-san?" Karma still looked dead but at least he was awake, unlike Okabe who was sleeping on his shoulder.

"Well, since science is my one strong suit, I might finally be able to help everyone out!"

"We have our share of high-scoring students here. Acing one subject each isn't that far-fetched," Kayano chimed when Isogai's phone went off.

"Shindou? Hello? Hey, what's up? Haven't seen you since the tournament," Isogai said into the phone.

Nagisa strained his ears to pick up the other voice. "Yeah. Hell of a game. I said we'd have our rematch in high school, but now I'm worried you won't even make it there."

"Still as condescending as ever, I see."

"So listen... Right now the entirety of the A-Class, our accelerated program, is in a conference room for an independent study session. Their leaders are the pride of Kunugigaoka: a set of geniuses known as the Big Five. Coming in at third place on midterms! The mass-media hopeful whose social studies knowledge crushes the competition: Media Club president Araki Teppei! In fourth place, dominator of competitions in the humanities, the perspicacious poet: student council secretary Sakakibara Ren! In sixth place, the memorization monster, driven by his grudge against Akabane: Biology Club president Koyama Natsuhiko! In eighth place, the man whose sharp tongue and LA-honed language skills are light-years beyond the rest: speaker of the student council Seo Tomoya!"

"Who's doing the dramatic reading? It's too early for a dramatic monologue," Okabe complained as he rubbed his head against Karma's shoulder.

"Uh, sorry..." You could practically feel the embarrassment coming through the phone. "I've always wanted to try my hand at announcing. And reigning over all these from the very top... In the first place, coming in first on the national mock exams with his perfect mastery of all subjects, the man with leadership in his genes: Asano Gakushuu. The principal's only son! They've got popularity and high scores. The charisma that brings together the proud A class go-getters, along with his innate leadership qualities. Asano, with his perfect knowledge of every subject, and the others, with their own specializations... Together, they form the Big Five. They're looking to keep you from making it back to the main campus. If this keeps up..."

"Thanks for looking out for us, Shindou," Sugino interrupted with a smile. "But it's all right. Right now our goal isn't to get out of the E class. Still, to meet the goal we do have, we will need to beat the A-Class on points. Watch us, okay? We'll put up a real fight!"

"Knock yourself out. The E Class's fight isn't my problem."

Nagisa chuckled as he clicked his shoulder. There are too many tests happening right now. At least Isogai had gotten them tickets to the library so they can study in peace.

“I take everything back that I ever said.”