Specimen T-04

Part 24~Run

Nagisa blinked as he woke up. Keiji wasn't in bed. That wasn't normal.

Pushing himself up, Nagisa walked down the stairs, spotting Koko and Keiji sitting atop a table, talking rapidly.

"Should I be scared?"

Esumi laughed, waving to Nagisa as he walked down. "They're trying to think of a way to stabilise your octopus friend."

Nagisa gaped. "He was serious?"

"I guess so. They're been at this for hours." Esumi smiled as she sipped her coffee. "I've been talking to Ozaki. He's agreed to a meeting."

"Oh, great. Don't suppose they have any useful information."

Esumi shrugged. "Ozaki says he has something but is refusing to share until we meet. How's your other tentacle friend?"

"Still refusing to take the surgery. If she waits much longer, it could be hard to get it out."

"Especially since you don't know why she has the experiment, you managed to get that information."

Nagisa shook his head as he poured the cereal. "It feels like everything ground to a halt."

"It kind of has." Esumi sighed, putting her cup down. "We'll figure things out; it'll just take time. I'll tell Ozaki to meet us in a few weeks."

"A few weeks?"

"What? I need to mentally prepare."

Nagisa laughed, leaning on his hand. "Yeah, they are a lot."

"Oh, they are." Esumi pushed herself up, stretching her hands. "Well, I am going to wake up Eriko. I said I would take her to the fairground."

"It's raining."

"Perfect, no people." Esumi hopped away as Nagisa smiled.

He pushed himself up, grabbing an umbrella before he paused. "Wait, since when did we have cereal? Who robbed a shop?!"

Nagisa wasn't answered.

~~~

Keiji hopped behind Nagisa, bouncing as he explained what he and Koko had been talking about. Something about the rapid decay of the cells causing a build-up of energy that wasn't being used up by the rapid replacement caused by the replacement cells.

Nagisa wouldn't admit it, but sometimes he forgot how brilliant Keiji actually was. If he had gotten an actual education, there is no doubt he would have been one of the most brilliant minds of this century. Instead, he couldn't even write his own name.

June had started. They had nine months left to figure out how to stop Koro-sensei.

~~~

Sitting in the classroom, the students stared at Koro-sensei's head.

"Koro-sensei," Ritsu finally interrupted, "why is your head 33% bigger than normal?"

Koro-sensei grew awkward as he's mouth drew into a straight line. "It's all this moisture in the air. My head's like a sponge."

Nagisa could feel Keiji before he spoke. "Does that happen to you?"

"No," Nagisa hissed back through their mental link.

Keiji narrowed his eyes, chuckling as he spotted the shine in Nagisa's hair. "Did you cover your tentacles in ice to stop them from swelling?"

Nagisa didn't answer as Keiji chuckled to himself.

Koro-sensei drained his face into a bucket, his smile returning. "I dodged all the raindrops, but I can't do a thing about the humidity."

The students sighed, glancing at the buckets that collected the rain dripping through the ceiling. "It wouldn't be a problem if Class E wasn't in this old shack. It's not fair the main campus students get to study in classrooms with AC and controlled humidity."