#korotan

At the entrance of the Embassy are countless police on emergency standby. Beyond the entrance is the Ambassador, plus security guards and the Board Chairman.

When the door opens, Lea’s company part from their bikes and walk onto the lawn.

“[Princess Lea! I’m glad that you’re safe!]” As the Ambassador welcomes her with open arms, Asano pulls Lea behind him.

“Asano-kun, do you realise what you are doing? Hurry and bring the Princess over,” admonished the Board Chairman, his expression even colder than usual.

“I fully understand what I am doing, I am just respecting the Princess’ own wishes, and I was calm and rational when deciding on this course of action,” echoed Asano’s frank answer across the Embassy grounds. Seeing him like this, Lea looks worried.

The Board Chairman senses that there’s some form of intimacy between the two of them.

“Ho? You were supposed to be the Princess‘ escort, and yet you brought her out from the hotel and provided openings for the enemy. You even ignored my counsel and allowed danger to befall her. And you claim these actions to be calm and rational?”

“This is the result of me placing utmost priority on her safety and her point of view, my actions were completely based on reason.”

The Board Chairman snickers at Asano’s rhetoric.

“Asano-kun, do you truly swear that you took action with reason as your basis?”

“Of course!”

“And are you sure that it wasn’t personal desire that triumphed over reason?”

The Board Chairman’s eyes are gleaming with a sharp iciness, as though they can see through to the deepest pits of his son’s heart.

“You exposed the Princess of the Norgo Kingdom to danger, and you caused a crisis to the friendly relationship between Japan and the Kingdom. Let us hear how you intend to bear responsibility to the consequences, Asano-kun!”

Under his questioning, Asano can do naught but helplessly lower his gaze, fists clenched as he endures humiliation coming from his own father.

Bearing witness to the dire situation between father and son, Nagisa and co hold their breath, his thoughts racing for a way to help the princess and Asano.

An idea came to him, and he asks Karma for the phone from the very first hitmen that they took down.

“Hold it!”

Just then, a piercing voice crossed the quiet Embassy. Its owner is Fuwa, stepping her way into the scene with heavy footsteps, with Kataoka’s special ops team following behind.

Suddenly, she points her finger. “Ambassador, there is no need for you to greet the Princess, because your plot to take advantage of this foreign trip and assassinate her has been exposed!”

The Ambassador has an astonished look on his face, eyebrows raised. “What nonsense are you speaking of at such a critical time!? Do you have any proof to back your words?“

As if in response, Fuwa raised her right hand, sending a signal to Takebayashi who is hidden in the courtyard. He then triggered something on his phone, and the phones of everyone on the scene chimed with ringtones of all varieties.

Not understanding what’s happening, the Ambassador brought out his own phone from his breast pocket. It shows an email from an unknown sender, the contents of which is a log of the Ambassador’s numerous scans for the geolocation of Lea’s phone. Seeing everyone’s look of surprise, Fuwa lets out a “huhuhu” laugh of satisfaction, and begins her explanation while looking at the email.

“The email you’re all seeing now is proof of the Ambassador’s assassination of the Princess. His unauthorised inquiry of Princess Lea’s cellphone GPS, as well as hidden software that he had secretly installed. As a result, the princess was ambushed three times.”

“[How…when did this!?]” Hearing Asano’s translation, Lea grips her phone in anger.

Off to the side, Itona has got the hitman’s phone from Nagisa and is straining to break past its security lock. They tried using the greases left on the screen to deduce the password, but to no avail, and they ended up exhausting the attempts allowed by the system.

He has one last trick on his sleeves: he decided to exchange the SIM card from his phone with the one on the hitman’s phone, and then entered his own password.

Meanwhile, Fuwa continues her graceful pursuit. “Furthermore, the Ambassador’s personal bank account has had multiple expenditures of considerable sums, paid in American dollars. Surely they’re reward payments to your hitmen? If you want to see some concrete data, I’ve got them right here.”

From her pocket, she waves out a USB thumb drive. This intelligence on the Ambassador’s personal account was discovered by Irina in his room, which she infiltrated using her intimate connection with one of the local diplomats.

But even when presented with the facts, the Ambassador isn’t as rattled as expected. “True, I installed the software onto the Princess’ phone. But it’s for the Princess’ protection, since she has the bad habit of going missing all the time, and for that I must beg her for forgiveness. However, it is not proof of my assassination of the Princess. Moreover, what reason would I have to assassinate her?”

Fuwa wasn’t phased by the Ambassador’s duplicity. “A reason to assassinate her? Of course you have one! Ambassador, you are the illegitimate son of the previous King, and for the right of succession to the throne the Princess must disappear, that is your conspiracy!”

“…” Ambassador.

“…” Lea.

“…” Nagisa.

“…” Karma.

“…” Board Chairman.

“I mean, an illegitimate son of royalty who is also a pretty boy being the final boss is a staple of Shonen manga!!” nodded Fuwa proudly to herself.

“Uh………. Fuwa-san, don’t you think you jumped way too far out there?”

While all who are present went silent, Itona lightly taps Nagisa on the shoulder. He turns around and sees him with the phone. “The lock has been bypassed. This is checkmate.”

“Thanks!!” Nagisa takes the phone and went to Fuwa’s side.

“Everyone, we’ve been by the Princess’ side since she was ambushed by hitmen. This is the phone from the very first hitman, and now I’ll call the most recent number from its call log.”

Nagisa dials the phone, and a “beep beep beep” ringtone resounds, its origin coming from the phone that’s in the Ambassador’s hand. All on the scene turns to look towards his face.

“Your phone’s ringing.” Nagisa moves the phone over his ear, his words directed at the Ambassador. His face breaks out in cold sweat and is refraining from answering the call. When the phone went to voicemail the ringing stops, but Nagisa just ends his call and dials the same number once more.

“Well Ambassador, let us talk with our phones.” Looking at Nagisa, the Ambassador sees that his gaze is full of bloodlust, as though he has his prey cornered.

“S**t!!” The Ambassador drops his benevolent façade and exposes a malevolent expression, and out of the blue he pulls out a handgun from his waist.

“You bast**ds, don’t think that this is o-“

Before he can finish, his handgun drops to the ground. The person who has been standing next to him, the Board Chairman, made a tight clutch on his wrist, forcing his grip on the weapon loose.

“Let go!!” The Ambassador struggles, when suddenly, his image changed in an instant. His handsome blond haircut was shaved into a top knot. Without thinking, Nagisa and co. laughed out loud. He didn’t know what’s going on, but confused by the laughter all around him, he touches his head and reacts with rage. Looking around, Nagisa sees that expected yellow silhouette up on the roof of the Embassy.

“Intentionally harming my students is unforgivable, so I’ve helped tidy up your hairstyle and gave you an actual top knot, nurufufufu.” Korosensei then throws the severed hair into the air, blond strands scattering above the grounds.

The Board Chairman has the escaping Ambassador held on the ground.

“It’s best if Japanese officials don’t lay a hand on the Ambassador. Have no fear, the laws of our country will judge him.” The employees of the Embassy surround him and cuffs his hands behind his back.

Lea runs over. “[Why did you want to kill me!? Tell me!]”

“[It’s because you just wouldn’t stop prattling on about that sh*tty peace of yours!]”

“[What are you talking about, why would I be killed for talking about peace!?]”

“[As you are well aware, the Norgo Kingdom has become divided over whether to use force to settle the conflict. As a diplomat, had I gotten the country to mobilise and intervene in the conflict, I stood to gain a profit.]”

“[What did you say? You wish for mother’s homeland to continue suffering under the fires of war? I cannot allow that!]”

“[See, that’s exactly it, those pretty words of yours are proving to be a real hindrance for us!]”

“[I’m a hindrance for you?]”

“[Why of course! A most bothersome hindrance! You enjoy popular support among the people, and when someone like that goes on and on about peace, the results couldn’t be more frustrating for us!]”

With that, the employees transported the Ambassador deep into the Embassy, leaving Lea confounded at what she heard.

And so, as Nagisa and co cheer on with the joy of their success, Lea stood to the side with a smile to herself.

“[I see, I finally understand, just what sort of power I hold.]”

Prologue :

Nagisa counts the X’s on his copy.

“Ah, damn...”

By the end of the sixth period, he have been given back his English test. The exercice was simply to tell in English about how yesterday went. He had been praised for the content, but he still got four X’s. All spelling mistakes.

"I can't believe I fell for those!"

On Nagisa’s test was drawn an octopus, Korosensei’s alter ego. The animal crosses its tentacles into an X.

“No spelling mistake. Never!”

Nagisa sighs and look away from his test.

Chapter 1 : Monday’s spelling errors

In 3-E, after class, Karasuma-sensei holds a special training session for volunteers. While the students in their tracksuits went to the courtyard, Isogai asked Maehara a question.

“Maehara, you’re not coming? -Nah, I’m busy. -’Busy’, you mean with a girl? Don’t get into trouble! -Trouble goes hand in hand with love. See you later!”

Seeing him quickly walk away, Isogai muttered.

“He really didn’t learn his lesson, that one! Nagisa, I’m going...” He spoke to Nagisa, the only one still in the classroom. “Ah, right... -Something wrong ?” asked Isogai. “Nothing. I’m coming. -Come quickly, Nagisa! If you loiter around, we’ll start without you.”

When Isogai exited the room, Nagisa took out the sheet that had been given back to him.

“I can’t believe I made four spelling mistakes...” Nagisa said to himself. Korosensei suddenly appeared.  “You’re sighing, what happened?”

Nagisa fell out of his chair.

“Woah! -What happened? I heard a sigh from the teacher’s room, so I came immediately. -You truly have a good hearing for someone who doesn’t have ears! -The errors you made this time seem to have discouraged you. But there’s no time to feel bad about it!” Korosensei handed him a booklet. “Let’s make this week about strengthening your English vocabulary!”

On the handmade book was written ‘Korotan’.

“’Korotan’? -The vocabulary textbook that Korosensei -who couldn’t stay looking at the 3-E class without doing anything- made in three hours with love, at Mach 20 speed. So, ‘Korotan’ for short. -It’s not as heavy as the school trip textbook, but that’s a super long title! -You shouldn’t underestimate it. This handbook has all the vocabulary on which you could make mistakes. In a week you will have a test, so you need to learn it throughly. -Ah!”

Nagisa’s face went dark.

“Without physical strength, training with a knife or a gun is useless. In the same way, you all can’t win against class A without mastering the basic English vocabulary. Come on, you need to strengthen your English skills! -Ok!”

When Nagisa raised his head, Korosensei had already left. There was only the ‘Korotan’ that he received. 

The voice of teacher Karasuma could be heard from the courtyard:

“Today we will begin with walking on poles! -It already started!? I need to go!” reacted Nagisa.

He placed on his desk the handbook given to him by Korosensei and changed his clothes in a hurry. In his tracksuit, he was prepared to get out of the room when he turned around and threw a last glance at the book.

“One week... Will I be able to succeed...”

“Terasaka, how long are you gonna be stubborn?” Muramatsu asked on the way. “What? I’m not being stubborn! -Then just go to the octopus’s supplementary lessons. Your grades will get better.”

Seeing Muramatsu snicker, Terasaka started to get angry.

“You guys are painful, like some sort of octopus worshipper. -You’re taking this too seriously.” replied Yoshida. “If you wanna assassinate the octopus, wouldn’t it be better to get close to the target by being more friendly? -Tsk...”

Annoyed by Yoshida’s words, Terasaka kicked a stone on the roadside. A tentacle stopped it before it rolled down the slope. 

“You’re in a bad mood, Terasaka!” Terasaka was surprised by Korosensei’s sudden appearance in front of him. “W...What?! -Ha ha ! He really appeared while we were talking about him !” Yoshida cracked up. While surprised, Muramatsu and Yoshida found the situation humorous. “What do you want from me, sensei?” This was irritating for Terasaka. “Here’s a gift for you, Terasaka. -A gift ?”

He observed for a long time what Korosensei’s tentacle was holding out. It was wrapped in paper, on which was drawn an octopus making a cross with its tentacles.

“What’s that? A copy of my test from earlier?” Terasaka unfolded the paper while grumbling. “Wait, that’s a list of English vocabulary! -Nurufufu! It’s not a mere list. It’s the ‘Korotan’, one of my inventions. Follow it and eliminate one of your weak points with me. -I’m not up for it” replied Terasaka. “Even if you stop for an instant now, you will keep going forward. -What are you saying now?” Terasaka replied to Korosensei, angry. “Isn’t that a quote from the TV show ‘Kinpachi-sensei’, is it !?” asked Yoshida. “Absolutely! Yoshida, you’re knowledgeable when it comes to old TV shows.”

Strangely, the discussion heated up joyfully between Yoshida and Korosensei.

“One day I will make takoyaki out of you...”