The Assassin Within

Part 43~Upside Down

Nagisa sighed as he picked up the gun. One week until they left for the island and the class had gotten together to do some training and get the plan together.

"Well, well! I see you little brats are working up a good sweat, summer vacation notwithstanding," Professor Vitch exclaimed as she sat on the lounge chair with a drink.

"You should train too, bitch-sensei. Your gun and knife skills aren't that much better than ours," Mimura pointed out without much kindness.

"Grownups are sneaky. I'll just hitch a ride on your strategy and take the best parts for myself."

"You think you're a big shot, huh, Irina?"

Professor Vitch jumped up as she turned around. "L-Lovro-sensei!"

"He's here as a special instructor for the summer. He'll give us tips on our strategy from a pro's perspective," Karasuma explained as Lovro glared down on Professor Vitch.

"Spend one day resting, and your finger and arms forget about killing. If you don't want to flunk out, hurry and get changed!"

Professor Vitch jumped up and ran off in a second. "Yes, sir!"

"Even Bitch-sensei can't say no to him," Sugaya muttered.

"Yeah, well, he's one scary dude," Maehara claimed as he looked away.

Karasuma tried to ignore the situation as he spoke. "Thank you for your assistance."

"To make matters worse, I lost contact with the assassins who'd shown the most promise."

"Were they scared off, knowing that even the pros had failed?"

"Perhaps. Now, all we can do is leave it up to them. And talk about failing, Okabe! What do you think you're doing?!"

Okabe yelped as he jumped from behind Nakamura. "I'm trying not to die," Okabe shouted as he stood at attention. Nagisa sighed as he watched Okabe badly hiding his fear.

"Where's that redhead? I thought you two were always around each other."

"Oh, Karma? He had to do some... jobs."

Nagisa sighed, that wasn't suspicious at all. "Karma's helping my dad out with some stuff. I don't get along with him so I got out but Karma didn't get the chance to say know as our dads still get along and Karma- as tough as he may act- doesn't say no to his parents," Nagisa half-lied to cover the truth. In reality, Karma was doing some last-minute preparation before his first mission with Zen so couldn't come but Nagisa's lie was close enough to the truth to avoid suspicion.

"Shame, he showed promise. More promise than you at least," Lovro claimed, making Okabe lower his head. "In any case, am I correct in understanding that he is absent today?"

"Yes," Karasuma announced. "He's had a trip to Everest planned, so he's there now, beating the heat."

"I see. First, we destroy the seven promised tentacles, then the entire class immediately jumps in to finish him off. So far, so good. But what's this very first step: 'psychological warfare'?"

"First we throw him off, blunting his moves. Koro-sensei was scavenging for dirty magazines earlier. So he paid each of us off with an ice pop. As if that'd be enough to keep our mouths shut in this day and age," Maehara growled demonically.

"The entire class will be ganging up and picking on him," Terasaka added with a dark expression.

"First we'll corner him with that blackmail material... and more," Nagisa summed up with his notepad.