The Assassin Within

Part 48~Grip

'Carefully,' Terasaka and Yoshida moved the poison-based assassin and covered him with a table. They wrapped rope tightly around the assassin as Isogai helped up Karasuma. "You can't keep going like this, Karasuma-sensei."

Karasuma looked awful as he tried to deny Isogai's statement. Nagisa had seen paralysing agents like this before, he was amazed Karasuma was standing at all.

"He's crazy," Fuwa gasped, watching the duo walk forward. "That gas was supposed to stop elephants in its tracks!"

"Karasuma-sensei's kind of a monster himself," Sugaya agreed as Zen chuckled.

Zen swung a small penknife in his fingers as he watched the scenes go by. "Don't forget, that guy was an assassin. All assassins tend to exaggerate to make themselves scarier."

"You're an assassin," Nagisa pointed out, hitting against's Zen's head. "Come on."

Nagisa let his mind wander as he walked. If he made a guess, there are at least three more trained assassins hiding in this building- the other two that Lovro lost and then whoever is pulling the strings of this operation. If he remembers correctly, that means they'll have to deal with at least one sniper and one close combat specialist. If Karma and he work together, Nagisa was sure they could take down the closer combat specialist while Zen would tackle the sniper. Though, would the other students stay out of the way? Probably not. That meant Nagisa had to plan them into the equation. It might have just been easier to just go through the front desk.

"Man it sure is starting to feel like summer vacation, am I right," Koro-sensei asked from Nagisa's hands. His face had even changed to show a cartoon style sun.

The class wasn't happy with Koro-sensei's statement as they shouted at him. "Nagisa, twirl him around till he's sick!"

Nagisa was more than happy to comply as he spun Koro-sensei 360 with ease.

Karma grabbed his hand as he smirked. "Okay, Terasaka, I'm jamming him in. Drop trou and spread those cheeks!"

"That'd kill me," Terasaka shouted as Nagisa chuckled to himself.

"Oka would kill you," he told Karma who paled slightly, remembering the jealousy caused by simply making Terasaka take off his shirt. "Koro-sensei, why do this feel like summer?" Nagisa lifted up the motion-sick Koro-sensei as he popped back to normal.

"The teacher-student relationship isn't a cosy one. Summer vacation foster students independence in places beyond a teacher's protection. If you apply the lesson you've learned in your usual gym classes, there will be few enemies for you to fear. This is your assassination and you can beat it," Koro-sensei explained encouragingly as he looked around the class.

Terasaka cautiously snuck around the corridor. He froze when he spotted the tall figure just standing there. The man didn't look normal, he stood in the open without any purpose or clear mission.

Zen narrowed his eyes, resisting the urge to shoot the man down right here and now. Nagisa grabbed him to stop him. Gunshots would draw too much attention. From what Okabe told him, this wasn't the sniper meaning this was the close combat specialist; Grip. Or at least the appearance matched.

He chose a weird spot though. It was a scenic walkway with an unobstructed view. You would expect more people to wander through here but it did mean they couldn't make any sneak attacks and from what he heard, strength in numbers wasn't going to help either.

The class jumped as Grip hit his hand against the glass. Grip didn't flinch as he pulled his hand back, small fragments of glass falling to the floor. "What a drag-eth. I can tell-eth from your footsteps that you're not tough enough for me. And they said some special-forces teacher was tak-eth-ing the lead, too. I guess Smog's gas must've gotten-eth the better of him. Probably killed-eth each other at the same time. Come on out."

Nagisa's eye twitched as he listened to the assassin. Yep, that was definitely Grip. Okabe had joked about him enough times for his little quirk to become highlighted.

Slowly the class left their hiding spot. Nagisa could tell they were all intimidated by Grip but at the same time, Nagisa could tell they had picked up on it.

"You sure like adding 'eth' to things, buddy," Karma pointed out cheerfully.

"I heard it had a cool old-fashioned sound to it, like-eth a samurai. It's got a cool ring to it," Grip explained, making the class question him. How did Okabe ever think telling Grip that was a good idea?

Koro-sensei was not afraid. Not at all. That's why you couldn't see the sweat dripping from his brow. He wasn't afraid at all- lier. "Bare hands... Are those your killing tools, then?"

"My skills are actually in quite high demand, you know-eth. Passing through pat-downs is quite the advantage, after all-eth. When my prey draws close, I snap-eth their necks. Or if the fancy strikes me, I crush-eth their skulls. It's funny, you know-eth. The more you train-eth your strength for the purpose of killing people, the more you feel-eth like using it for something other than assassination. To be-eth precise, a fight, to the death, against-eth a mighty foe. But this is quite-eth the letdown. After seeing who I'm up against, I've all but lost-eth my will to fight. Not to mention, it's a pain to mop-eth up a bunch of small fries by myself." Grip pulled out a radio as he spoke. "I'll call in my boss and my colleagues to help-eth out."

Karma was across the corridor in a second, hitting the radio into the glass with a tree. Nagisa charged forward himself, grabbing ahold of Grip's arm and throwing him to the floor. Nagisa pushed his foot against Grip's head, pushing him harder into the ground.

"Hey, buddy, chill-eth," Karam teased with a smirk as he knelt in front of Grip's face. "You seem pretty average for a pro, huh? Breaking glass, busting skulls? I can do that much. Heck, even Nagisa there could probably do that if he tried. But if your opening move is to call in reinforcements, I guess that means you're too scared to take on a junior-high kid alone."

"Stop winding him up," Nagisa ordered as he gasped. Grip slowly stood up, not caring about the small assassin on his back. He grabbed Nagisa's head, throwing him over his shoulder and onto the floor.

Grip pulled off his jacket as he spoke. "Very well-eth. Let's see what you can do-eth. Give this everything you've got."

Nagisa wanted to stand in but the second he saw Karma's eyes, he sighed, lowering his eyes and backing off. "I hope you know what you're doing, Karma."