The scene picked up straight after when Sora mentally entered the gladiator ring with his weapon in hand.
"Let's go."
Nagisa leapt out of the demonic questions incoming blow. "They're faster than they were in mid-terms."
The others in E class were being blown away from the demonic questions hit.
"Yeah. But we are too." Yuki shot back, as she climbed back to her feet.
Nagisa ran towards the question, dodging a blast shot from the monster. And he brought his blade down toward the beast.
____________________
The question descriptions were glowing on the monster's skin as it growled.
"So this is the last problem!?" Seo said arrogantly as he faced down the question while other students were crushed.
"Those scrubs! I spent a year in Los Angeles when my folks worked there. There's no way any Junior high-level stuff will trip me up now!" He hit the monster in the stomach.
The monster's stomach glowered and revealed a quote, 'If you want to know the truth, I felt like slapping the cook's face a hundred times.'
The monster wasn't destroyed though, and just let out a faint growl.
Seo reeled back in shock. "It's not going down? What the!? You could use this as the answer key!"
Suddenly Rio leapt past him and stabbed the creature in the forehead.
"Huh!?" Seo gaped.
Rio grinned. "Why so serious?" she teased. "Lighten up a little, Mr Top Scholar!"
The correct answer glowed blue, revealing the quote, 'Honestly, I wanted to give that cook a hundred slaps in the face.'
The monster exploded as Rio landed gracefully to her feet and flipped her hair over her shoulder.
Seo choked. "A perfect score? From the E class?"
Rio looked over her shoulder and beamed. "I guess you never read Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye."
"Careful Nakamura. We don't wanna bruise his ego too badly." Sora joked, resting his halberd over his shoulder.
Nagisa was up next, he ran up to the question and delivered the same correct answer as Rio.
"I did it!" Nagisa's skidded across the ground as the monster was defeated a second time.
Rio's grin was slightly crooked. "I guess you didn't have many friends overseas, eh, Seo?"
"Burn!" Yuki cheered.
"Like an octopus who practically pushed books onto you?"
Nagisa smiled in amusement.
Seo gritted his teeth and glared. "Damn it!"
Koyama appeared, blasting his way through the answers. "HA! Science is all about memorisation!"
The blast/answer wasn't enough to destroy the question's knight's armour though as it came charging at him.
"Huh? I can't get its armour off!" Koyama yelled, and hastily dodged a blow. "But I know I memorised this!"
"Well, you see..." Okuda wandered by on the peaceful questions shoulder.
"Got it!" The questioned chimed.
Okuda smiled, holding a magical staff of her own. "Real science isn't any fun if it's just memorisation."
"Huh?" Koyama looked confused.
Okuda gently tapped the question on the head, showing the answer on its head. "Science absolutely loves when you tell it in words, mind you— that you know what it is."
Sora smiled, he was proud that Okuda was finally coming out of her shell, and- why was the monster taking its clothes off?
The question willingly stripped its armor off and then giggled as it skipped away completely naked.
Koyama looked slightly disturbed.
For once, Sora could relate to him.
Okuda smiled brightly. "Even in science, you need language skills to reach your opponent! I understand that now, Koro-sensei!"
Meanwhile, Araki gaped at the monstrous question. "How am I supposed to know how many times the Tokyo Conference on African Development has met?"
Further away Isogai had just defeated the question and sighed in relief. "That was close. Good thing I studied that..."
Arai scowled. "Isogai, you little..."
Isogai smiled pleasantly. "Just a fluke," he replied casually.
Sora rolled his eyes, yeah right.
"See, my family is pretty poor. And when I looked it up out of sympathy for Africa's poverty issues. Being taken to the actual location only made me that much more interested!" Isogai said brightly.
As the next set of questions came up, some of the students were starting to struggle.
"Spring has gone away and summer comes," Kanzaki recited as she swept her blade across. "It would seem from those white hemp robes laid to dry in the sunlight." The words she recited suddenly disappeared with a bright white light. "On Kagu's Heavenly Hill."
The monster disappeared.
Ren chuckled from the distance, smoothing his hair back. "Your words are as lovely as your face."
"Stop being creepy!" Yuki groaned.
He smirked and prepared his blade. "But a mere silver of satisfactory answer does not an aced exam make."
Kanzaki looked over in surprise.
'But soon enough it was over. The questions fell, and the students lowered their weapons. And the day of judgment would soon arrive.'
Sora stared down at the script.
"Isn't this a little dramatic? It's just an exam!"
The author whistled innocently.
____________________
"Well, class..." Koro-sensei shuffled the enveloped results on his desk. "Your scores in all subjects have arrived."
All of the class stiffened and grew uneasy.
Fuwa had a tally board ready to mark up against Class A.
"Here goes. Starting with English..." Koro-sensei opened up the results.
"First in the E Class..." Koro-sensei looked at the results. "And First in the grade..."
Sora's eyes widened.
The Class held their breath. "Rio Nakamura!"
"WHOA!?"
Everyone turned to Rio in shock.
'Rio Nakamura. 100 in English. 1st in Year 3.'
"Take that." Rio grinned smugly, fanning herself with her textbook.
"Ooh!" Class E sounded in the background.
"Perfect!" Koro-sensei praised, passing her results to her when she approached the desk. "Though your motivations had a whimsical side that worried me."
Rio chuckled. "Well, there was ten billion yen on the line," she replied brightly, winking. "Don't forget about that tentacle, now, sir."
"Ruthless as always hey Nakamura?" Yuki joked.
Koro-sensei displayed a bright red circle on his face. "I won't." In a second he handed back everyone's results. "Nagisa, you put up a good fight." Nagisa's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the results. "But you haven't kicked your habit of making spelling mistakes when it really counts."
'Nagisa Shiota. 91 in English. 6th in Year 3.'
Nagisa sighed in annoyance.
"Still, top marks in a subject means that's one tentacle down," Koro-sensei said, marking one of his tentacles with a tiny flag that read 'to be destroyed.' "Let's wait until I've read all the scores to see if we have something to celebrate." He opened another envelope. "Let's see, Japanese...First in E Class..." Kanzaki was shown. "Yukiko Kanzaki!"
Kanzaki gasped. "Huh?"
"First in the grade goes to Gakushuu Asano of Class A!" Koro-sensei announced.
Sora sighed bitterly. Of course Asano would still grab a few wins here.
"Kanzaki, you did an excellent job and that's enough," Koro-sensei reassured her.
Kanzaki smiled nervously.
'Yukiko Kanzaki. 96 in Japanese. 2nd in Year 3.'
Hiroto sighed. "Asano can really nab those points."
"He's crazy tough," Mimura said. "Nakamura only beat him in English by a single point."
Isogai looked subdued slightly. "That's the top in the nation for you. No chinks—not in any subject."
"They're collectively known as the Big Five but it all comes down to Asano," Mimura said, sighing. "You've got to take him down or you'll never get to the top."
"Let's move on," Koro-sensei changed the topic. "In social studies, first in the E Class goes to Yuma Isogai." Isogai was on edge. "And first in the grade? Congratulations!"
Isogai's eyes widened.
Koro-sensei's face was sparkling, with a proud red circle on his face. "You beat out Asano to take the top spots!"
'Yuma Isogai. 97 in social studies. 1st in Year 3.'
"Yes!" Isogai jumped up from his seat and fist-pumped
"An excellent job, especially considering all the fiendish questions you had to deal with!" Koro-sensei praised.
"We're two and one!" Fuwa announced excitedly.
"Next up is science!" Sugaya was grinning. "Is it Okuda?"
Okuda clasped her hands together nervously.
"First in the E Class for science is Manami Okuda! And..." Koro-sensei announced. "Marvellous!" He held up her test scores. "First in the grade is also Manami Okuda!"
Okuda's whole face lit up in amazement.
"YES!" E Class jumped out of their seats in celebration.
'Manami Okuda. 100 in Science. 1st in Year 3.'
"That's three in one!" Fuwa yelled, marking it on the tally.
"We don't even have to hear how Math turned out—the E Class won this!" Hiroto cheered.
Sora felt his smile widen. They had actually done it. From this point on it was all about his mission. He let out a low breath as he waited.
"You seem tense." Yuki joked.
"Shut up and let me have my dramatic buildup." Sora shot back, earning a laugh from the albino.
"I wouldn't worry Sora!" Ritsu chirped. "On average, you spent 9.26 more hours studying than your peers."
Sugino stared at him. "Please get some sleep after this."
"Noted." Sora agreed.
Class E clapped as Okuda shyly walked back to her seat.
"Hooray!"
"Great work, Okuda!"
"That tentacle is yours!"
Kimura fist-pumped. "And so is what we're asking for in this little deal!"
"I can't wait!" Hinano beamed.
Takebayashi smiled slightly. "So that just leaves math."
"Right and regarding that, first in E Class for math was-" Koro-sensei trailed off. Sora held his breath. "Sora Hibiki!"
He smirked and pumped his fist
"Unfortunately your score of 97/100 wasn't first in the grade," he said and I felt my excitement simmer. "But don't let that get you down, because your total score was second in the grade!!!!!"
His jaw hit the floor.
"What!?" The class cried as Sora stared in amazement.
He grinned widely and jumped from his seat. "Hell yeah!" he cheered.
E-Class had won had won.
____________________
Koro-sensei addressed the class. "All right, class, you had a fine showing in the finals, taking the top spot in three out of five subjects."
Nagisa glanced over his shoulder at Karma who was hiding behind a mask of disinterest.
"Shall we get started with the assassination?" Koro-sensei held up a marked tentacle. "The top four can choose any tentacle they like." He showed three tentacles, with green stripes on his face.
"Whoa there, octopus!" Terasaka interrupted with Muramatsu and Yoshida behind him. "We got more than three in the top spot!"
Sora raised an eyebrow at that. "Huh?"
"No, there are three, Terasaka," Koro-sensei said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Over Japanese, English," he recited, counting them with his tentacles. "Social studies, and—"
Sora's eyes widened as he realized what was happening.
"Huh? Quit playin' dumb!" Terasaka whacked the tentacle away. "Five subjects, that's Japanese, English, Social Studies. Science." He held up his test papers. "And home ec!"
He shoved the four test results on the test. They were all marked with full grades at 100.
"H-HOME EC?!" Koro-sensei had a meltdown.
Terasaka and his friends were smirking.
'Ryome Terasaka, Taisa Yoshida, Takuya Muramatsu, Kirara Hazama. 100 in Home ec. 1st in Year 3.'
"No one said what subjects to ace!" Terasaka said smugly.
Yuki broke out into laughter, leading much of the class to join in.
Hazama smirked. "Nice that we all had a hand in this scheme."
"W-wait a second! Home ec is just—" Koro-sensei stammered.
Karma lowered his head and smirked. "Just what?" He looked up as his smirk grew. "Isn't that a little rude, Koro-sensei? Why Home ec is the toughest subject of them all."
The other students were cheering in agreement
"Yeah! Don't break your promise!"
"Four of us scored highest in the most important subject: Home ec!"
Hinano jumped up and cheered. "That's eight tentacles in all!"
"Eight!" Koro-sensei was shaking in horror. "Eight! Ei-ght!—EIGHT? Eeek!"
Isogai raised his hand. "Oh, and Koro-sensei, we've been talking. We'll use our prize from the A-Class wager with this assassination." He held up the student pamphlet.
"What?" Koro-sensei sounded intrigued.
____________________
Asano and the rest of the Big Five were making their way into the assembly hall.
"Aw, yeah, here he comes: Mr Student Council President!" Terasaka yelled from where he was standing in front of the hall entrance. Yoshida, Muramatsu, and Hazama were standing by his side.
"What do you want?" Asano looked disinterested and walked past. "I'm too busy with the ceremony." He walked in with the others trailing behind. "To deal with the likes of the E Class."
"Not so fast!" Terasaka placed a hand on his shoulder. "Aren't you forgettin' something?"
Asano looked to his right where he saw the rest of E Class standing.
"We had a bet, Asano, where the winner could make anyone demand," Isogai said evenly. Terasaka joined them, grinning widely.
Asano and his friends glared at them.
"We sent our demand via email. I trust you have no complaints?" Isogai asked.
The rest of the school was watching them.
"Don't even try pretendin' it was all just a joke!" Terasaka said and gestured his thumb at himself. Yoshida was grinning like mad, while Muramatsu and Hazama were smirking victoriously. "We could always throw Home ec into those five subjects. 'Course we'd still win!"
"Way to pour salt in the wound Teraseka." Yuki pointed out.
"Are you defending them?" Itona asked.
"Don't go putting words in my mouth," Yuki replied.
"You guys are brutal."
___________________
The students were lining up with their classes.
"Karma!" Isogai smiled when he saw Karma in front of him.
"Huh?" Karma gave a bore glance from the corner of his eyes.
"Since when do you attend all-school assemblies?" Isogai asked.
Karma looked up. "If I skip now, it'll look like I'm running away. No thanks."
"Storehouse beach," Rio said, talking to Hinano.
"Storehouse—huh?" Hinano looked over her shoulder when she saw Pseudo Ritsu, Rise Onage, approach.
The purple-haired girl's expression was unnerving some of them.
Sugaya hastily ran over Karasuma, looking freaked out. "Mr Karasuma! The fake Ritsu is too distracting—I can't concentrate."
Karasuma looked annoyed. "Suck it up. This is to keep Ritsu from being exposed as a machine," he chided. "She's my immediate supervisor's daughter."The girl had the real Ritsu on her cell phone in her front pocket. "Tight-lipped and knows better than to pry."
Ritsu was smiling from the phone. "And my supervisor's glad that Ritsu's tutoring got her grades up."
Sugaya sighed. "She's been next to me ever since the exams." He looked at her from over his shoulder. "My concentration took such a hit, I wound up last in class!"
The Dean addressed the whole of Year 3.
"Now, it may be summer vacation but don't slack off!" the Dean warned. "Er, uh..." The balding man cleared his throat nervously. "You don't want to wind up like the E Class."
"Someone's gonna need some new material~" Sora joked.
"Does he always give this speech?" Itona asked.
"Every single time." Yuki stated.
The speech didn't have the effect of previous years.
Nearly all the students looked either embarrassed, angry, jealous, or sad.
E-Class was smiling.
But the year wasn't over yet. There was still one last task for the year.
____________________
"So class...what's this about an end-of-year Culture Festival?"