Red Assassination

Chapter 21 ~ Virus

"Commence operation, now!" Ritsu said from our cellphones. The seven students inside the chapel shot off Koro-sensei's tentacles as half of us jumped into speed boats. The
boats had ropes attached to the chapel's walls so when we all drove away, the walls collapsed. The other students were on flyboards and trapped Koro-sensei in a hydraulic cage.

As soon as Koro-sensei was thrown off guard by the change of environment, we shot our guns at him. However, this was just another distraction. The kill shot was going to Hayami and Chiba, our best snipers. We had decoys infused with their scent on the island to throw Koro-sensei off.

The whole attack only lasted a minute. The snipers' bullets shot towards Koro-sensei's face and there was a huge explosion in the water, sending us all under.

"Watch out, it's possible he could still regenerate!" Mr. Karasuma said from the shore. We had him, though. There's nowhere he could have gone.

"Hey, look!" I pointed to a small bubbling in the ocean. It slowly grew bigger until a bubble came out with Koro-sensei's head in it. We all deadpanned.

"Allow me to introduce my absolute defense form." Koro-sensei laughed. "This bubble is absolutely invincible."

"So there's basically nothing we can do while you're in this form?" Kataoka asked.

"The outside covering starts to wear down after twenty-four hours." Koro-sensei answered. "I'm also completely motionless." He got us... again. We exploited every one of his weak points, and he still got us.

"Nothing's invisible if you whack it hard enough." Terasaka banged his gun against Koro-sensei's bubble.

"Oh well, I guess we're out of options." Karma said from his speedboat. Terasaka tossed him the bubble as Karma forced Koro-sensei to look at embarrassing pictures of himself. I guess this form isn't the smartest one to take around a bunch of kids. Or rather, just around Karma specifically.

"Alright, that's enough." Mr. Karasuma grabbed Koro-sensei. "I think I'll let HQ decide what to do with him now."

"Aww..." Karma whined.

"You should be proud, boys and girls." Koro-sensei said to us. "Armies around the world couldn't get as close to killing me as you did tonight." However, his words didn't do much good. This was the best we had, and it did nothing but fail.

We all got out of the water and trudged back to the resort, not only disappointed but also exhausted. "I feel like I could sleep for a month." Maehara commented.

"We should just go back to our rooms." Mimura agreed.

"Seriously?" Terasaka scoffed. "Yeah we failed, but we're still on an island vacation!"

"Does something seem wrong to you?" Karma whispered beside me. Confused, I looked around at all our classmates. Sure they were tired, but they looked completely drained and their faces were red.

"Hey, Nagisa, can you-" Kaede started to say before she collapsed to the ground. I rushed to her side and felt her forehead burning.

Soon, several of our classmates were acting extremely sick. Mr. Karasuma rushed into the room, confused. "Call an ambulance!" He told a staff member before his phone started ringing.

"Mr. Karasuma, please-!" I ran to him but he put his phone to his ear.

"Hey, teacher. I take it your students are feeling pretty bad right now." A very deep voice said.

"And who is this?" Mr. Karasuma questioned.

"That's not important." The voice replied. "Just know that your punks weren't the only ones trying to hit their mark."

"So you're telling me what you're responsible for making them sick?"

"Oh, they're a lot more than just sick." The voice laughed. "They have a man-made virus. After about a week, their cells will rupture and their vital organs will stop working. I'm the sole possessor or the only antidote. There's a hotel on the island's peak. Bring the octopus and two students. Your shortest boy and shortest girl, of who's left standing, of course." Since Kaede's sick, that leaves Nagisa... and me.

The mysterious person hung up the phone and the news spread quickly among the students. "Why are we taking the psycho's word for it?! If he's just playing us, we'll all die!" Yoshida exclaimed.

"Hey, calm down. We came here to be killers, not victims. We'll figure it out." Hara smiled through the sickness.

"I say we ignore what the guy said and get everyone to the hospital!" Terasaka said.

"Bad idea."  Takebayashi objected. "If we are actually dealing with a man-made virus, a hospital will be a waste of time. We should just work on easing the symptoms by now."

"I think I have a solution." Koro-sensei spoke up.

~~~~~

We all gulped as we stared at the hotel so high up on the island's peak. "I successfully infiltrated their networks." Ritsu said from our phones. "These are blueprints of the hotel's layout and guard posts. The best option to avoid the guards is to go along the hotel's side on this ledge. The terrain isn't easy, so security isn't as bad."

"You don't want the psycho to have his way, do you?" Koro-sensei asked. "Courage, children. Ten of your classmates are sick while two are left behind to care for them. That leaves you to operate on their behalf. Sneak in, surprise the madman, and steal the antidote." I gave in, gazing up at the tall hotel.

We have no choice.