Akira, wearing his swimsuit, looked at Erika and spoke in a soft, almost serious voice.
"Now, Erika… let's go somewhere secluded to do something exciting."
Erika, also in her swimsuit, blushed slightly.
"Eh… but… okay."
Akira took her hand with a small smile.
"Come with me."
She quietly let him lead her away from the others, her cheeks never quite losing their warmth.
They soon reached a quiet, secluded stretch of beach. Clear water lapped gently at the sand, and the area was completely empty.
Akira stopped and turned to her.
"Here we are…"
Erika looked around the beautiful little bay, then back at him and blushed more.
"…So what is it you want to do?"
Akira's face split into a bright grin.
"Water splash war."
He immediately scooped up a handful of water and flung it at her face.
Erika stood there with water dripping down her cheeks, staring at him with a completely cold expression.
"…By 'exciting,' you mean a water splash fight."
Akira looked genuinely excited.
"Yeah! Just like when we were kids. But this time I only want to play with you, so let's—"
Before he could finish a hand reached out to pinch his cheeks.
"Ouch ouch ouch— why are you pinching meeee?!"
Erika finally released his cheek and let out a long, tired sigh.
"It's my fault for getting my hopes up with this idiot."
Akira looked genuinely wronged.
"Why? I didn't do anything stupid this time…"
Erika snapped.
"Just shut up."
Akira closed his mouth, still confused about what he had done wrong.
The assassination mission was over, and everyone was doing their best to enjoy the last few days on the island. When Akira had asked her to go somewhere secluded, this was definitely not what she had expected. But she also knew exactly what kind of person he was, so in the end she decided to let it go.
She exhaled and rolled her shoulders.
"Fine. If you want a water splash fight… I'll give you a water splash."
Her eyes flickered crimson for a second. She pulled her fist back and punched the surface of the water with her full strength.
A massive volume of water exploded outward like a sudden tsunami and slammed into Akira, sending him tumbling across the sand in a wet heap.
He lay there dazed, muttering,
"…Maybe I should have set some rules…"
A yellow blur appeared beside him.
"Akira-kun, Erika-san. I know you're in the middle of enjoying your alone time, but please gather in the lobby. I have an important announcement to make."
Koro-sensei vanished again at Mach 20 before either of them could reply.
Erika walked over to Akira, still dripping, and looked down at him.
"Seems like we have to leave."
Akira remained sprawled on the sand.
"But… but we didn't even do anything exciting yet… I wanted to play… I refuse…"
Erika grabbed one of his legs without ceremony.
"Stop complaining."
She began dragging him back toward the resort.
---
A short while later, the entire class had gathered in the lobby, no matter what they had been doing.
After hearing Koro-sensei's explanation, Nagisa spoke up first.
"A test of courage? Now?"
Koro-sensei stood before them dressed in a ghost costume — a white sheet with poorly cut eye holes — and spread his tentacles dramatically.
"Yes! What better activity for a midsummer night?"
Karma smirked.
"You just want to have some fun, right, Koro-sensei?"
"Unlike some people," Koro-sensei replied with a wounded tone, "I've been cooped up in a shell this whole time! On a tropical isle, of all places!"
Maehara nodded.
"A test of courage could be fun."
Isogai agreed.
"Right?"
Akira, still slightly damp, crossed his arms.
"There isn't a thing in this world I'm scared of, so I have a feeling it'll be boring."
Koro-sensei let out his usual laugh.
"Nuruhuhuhuhu~ Don't be like that, Akira-kun. Who knows? You might find a surprise too."
Akira looked unconvinced.
"Yeah. I doubt it."
---
After everyone got ready, Koro-sensei led the class to the entrance of a dark ocean cavern.
He spread his tentacles with theatrical flair.
"We'll hold the test of courage in this ocean cavern. Walk through to the exit in boy-girl pairs."
He quickly arranged them. As expected, Akira and Erika were paired together and sent in first.
As they stepped into the darkness, Akira lowered his voice.
"Maybe we should do something exciting in the dark."
Erika's face immediately turned bright red. She spun around and pinched both of his cheeks hard.
"What 'exciting'…?! What is it this time? Hide and seek in the dark?! Why are you always like this?!"
Akira's voice came out muffled and pained.
"I just wanted to scare the others a bit… why are you pinching meeee…?!"
Erika snapped.
"Then don't say misleading things—!"
Before she could finish, the soft, suspenseful notes of an Okinawa shamisen began echoing through the cavern.
Erika looked up.
"…Is that an Okinawa shamisen?"
One by one, eerie blue flames lit up along the rocky walls. A green-skinned Koro-sensei suddenly appeared in an elaborate old Japanese emperor outfit, floating dramatically in front of them.
"This is a blood-drenched cave of tragedy… where Ryukyu royalty, defeated in battle, met a violent end."
He vanished and reappeared right behind them, voice dropping low.
"You must stay together. Wandering spirits will haunt to death anyone left alone."
Akira turned to him with a completely unimpressed expression.
"Koro-sensei, this is a tropical island. No battle took place here. And believe me — wandering spirits would be more afraid of Erika if they came across her alone."
Erika's eye twitched. In one smooth motion she locked her arms around his neck from behind in a rear naked choke.
"What do you mean by that? Are you saying I'm scary? Is that it…?"
Akira struggled, tapping her arm rapidly.
"No no— I'm talking about their instinct…! I give up… I give up…!"
Only then did she release him.
Koro-sensei looked genuinely distressed.
"Why aren't you two scared at all?!"
Akira rubbed his neck and answered flatly.
"Koro-sensei, as I said — nothing in this world will scare me."
At that exact moment, a large cave spider calmly crawled up his leg.
Akira's eyes locked onto it.
For a moment the man and the spider looked at each other in silence.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Akira let out a high-pitched scream and immediately jumped onto Erika, clinging to her like a koala.
Further back near the entrance, Kayano and Nagisa — who were about to enter as the next pair — froze in place.
What the hell just scared Akira, of all people…?
Koro-sensei burst into laughter.
"Nuruhuhuhuhu! See, Akira-kun? Everyone is scared of something — even you!"
Akira carefully climbed down once the spider scuttled away, still looking unsettled.
"I'm not scared of them… I just… I just don't like them, that's all."
Then his expression suddenly changed. He looked back toward the entrance in horror.
"…Wait. Oh no. They must have heard my scream…"
Koro-sensei tried to comfort him.
"Oh, it's completely fine to be scared of something, Akira-kun. I'm sure your classmates understand that too. These things are—"
Akira cut him off, eyes narrowing with sudden determination.
"No. If I'm going down… I'm taking everyone down with me."
Koro-sensei blinked.
"What?"
Erika sighed and translated for him.
"He wants to scare them so he won't be the only one."
Korosensei nodded.
"I see… but how are you going to scare them?"
Akira pulled out his phone.
"Ritsu. I was planning on just medium difficulty before… but it's time for hell mode."
---
Kayano and Nagisa walked through the dark cavern, flashlights cutting thin beams through the blackness. Both of them were still unsettled by the scream they had heard earlier.
Nagisa tried to sound calm.
"You know… it might just have been some kind of bug that scared Akira-kun."
Kayano latched onto the idea quickly.
"Yeah… Akira-kun is unusually afraid of bugs after all—"
They both froze.
Footsteps echoed from behind them.
Kayano turned sharply.
"Is the next team coming in early?"
Nagisa looked back as well.
"Must be. They—"
There was nothing there.
The footsteps had stopped completely.
Kayano's voice wavered.
"W-what happened?"
Nagisa forced a small laugh.
"Th-the cave must have amplified the sound from behind us, that's all."
Kayano recluntly agreed.
"Yeah… that must be it. Let's keep going."
They continued walking, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling in their chests. A short while later the footsteps returned — clear, deliberate, and right behind them again.
They spun around.
Once more, the tunnel was empty.
Kayano laughed a little too loudly.
"The cave sounds are really scary, right? Haha…"
Nagisa nodded quickly.
"Yeah… it is. Haha…"
Both of them silently agreed not to look back again, no matter what they heard.
The footsteps returned a third time.
This time they drew their anti-sensei knives and slowly turned.
A pale face was half-hidden behind a rock, staring directly at them.
The moment their eyes met, the face slipped back into the darkness and vanished.
For a second neither of them moved.
Then both of them screamed.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
They turned and sprinted deeper into the cavern. Only after running for a long stretch did they finally stop, gasping for air.
Kayano looked back the way they had come, still trembling.
"What… what was that?"
Nagisa shook his head.
"I don't know."
Kayano shivered.
"Was that… maybe Koro-sensei?"
Nagisa thought for a bit and shook his head.
"It doesn't look like Koro-sensei's style."
They stood there catching their breath. Kayano eventually asked the question both of them were thinking.
"…Should we go back?"
They both looked toward the path they had come from. The memory of that pale face was still fresh. At the same time they shook their heads.
"Let's keep going inside," Nagisa said.
"Yeah," Kayano agreed. "That feels like the better idea."
They moved forward again, flashlights shaking slightly in their hands.
Before long they came across an old stone well sitting incongruously in the middle of the cavern floor.
Nagisa frowned.
"Why is there an old well inside a cavern…?"
Kayano's voice dropped.
"A well… wait, it can't be…"
A strange sound drifted up from the darkness below — the wet, unnatural cracking of a throat that hadn't been used in a long time.
A pale hand gripped the edge of the well.
Then a girl with long black hair and a white dress slowly climbed out. Her movements were wrong, joints bending too far. The moment her feet touched the ground she dropped onto all fours and began crawling toward them at unnatural speed.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Nagisa and Kayano screamed and ran.
"It can't be… it's really haunted!" Kayano cried as they fled.
They rounded a corner and nearly collided with a small figure sitting against the wall.
A little girl was crying quietly.
When she lifted her head, they saw she had no eyes — only smooth skin where they should have been — and a wide, smiling mouth.
"Have you seen my mother?"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
They turned and ran again.
Further ahead, the tunnel opened slightly. An eight-foot-tall woman stood waiting for them, her smile stretching far too wide across her face.
"Have you seen my daughter?"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
They didn't even slow down.
The scares did not stop.
That day, inside the ocean cavern, it was not only Kayano and Nagisa who suffered.
Every single member of Class 3-E experienced hell on earth.
---
Outside the cavern exit, Akira laughed like a supervillain.
"Hehehehe… hahahaha… HAHAHAHA! How did you enjoy your test of courage? By the way — you all failed! HAHAHAHA!"
He was tied up and hanging upside down from a tree branch. The entire class of 3-E stood around him with dark, gloomy expressions.
Nearby, Koro-sensei lay flat on the ground, tentacles splayed in defeat.
"I'm sorry, students… Sensei didn't expect things to go like this…"
No one was listening to him. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the upside-down boy.
Erika stepped forward and pinched both of Akira's cheeks.
"Are you still not sorry even after being hung upside down?"
Akira's voice came out strained.
"Well… it was just a joke. But it was funny seeing everyone's faces like that, right, Ritsu?"
Everyone turned to the phone hanging upside down next to him. On the screen, Ritsu was also displayed tied up and hung upside down for some reason.
"Don't listen to him, everyone. I tried to stop it, but he overrode me."
Akira looked impressed.
"What? Ritsu, you took care of the holograms' movements… and you actually learned how to lie? That's so cool."
Ritsu immediately declared.
"No. AIs don't lie."
While the two of them were busy shifting blame, Karma spoke up with a lazy grin.
"Well, everyone… since he's already tied up, it would be too much of a waste not to take advantage, right? Gather all the bugs you can. Let's shove them down his pants."
The entire class nodded in perfect unison.
Akira's expression changed instantly.
"Hey, hey, let's not go too far! Let's talk about this! No need for going too far!"
Terasaka cracked his knuckles.
"Oh? Now you're scared? I'll show you what fear looks like."
Akira's voice rose in panic.
"Listen, this and that are different matters! Erika! Erika, please save me!"
Erika sighed and raised a hand.
"Alright, everyone. Don't worry. I'll take care of this situation."
Akira's face brightened with hope.
"Erika, thank you—"
Before he could finish, she turned to him with a calm, merciless expression.
"Akira. Your unlimited headpat and lap pillow privileges… are cancelled."
Akira's scream of pure despair echoed across the beach.
"Nooooooooooooooo!"
Nagisa nodded thoughtfully.
"…It feels like a way better punishment."
Nakamura shrugged.
"Well, it all started because of Koro-sensei anyway. And it was a bit fun, actually."
Koro-sensei lifted his head weakly.
"I am sorry, students… I just wanted to bring couples together in love."
Nakamura gave him a flat look.
"Yeah. We figured that's what you were after."
Karma smirked.
"In the end, you brought them together in trauma."
Koro-sensei's voice trembled.
"B-But I really wanted to see you all! I wanted to grin at you holding hands and blushing, two by two! I was trying to keep you from marrying someone random!"
The entire class shared the same quiet thought.
So this is what a shabby grown-up is like.
Nakamura waved a hand.
"Never mind that stuff. There are plenty of us who don't want to be dragged into a love affair."
Koro-sensei sniffled.
"All right, Nakamura-san… I get it."
Just then, a familiar voice complained loudly from the cavern entrance.
"You call that a test of courage?! There was nothing in there! What a waste of fear!"
Everyone turned.
Irina was clinging tightly to Karasuma's arm as the two of them walked out of the cave. Karasuma looked exhausted.
"I told you it was pointless clinging to me like that. I don't need that kind of baggage after an all-nighter."
Irina snapped back.
"Shut up! You're a man, aren't you?! If there's a pretty woman around, escort her nicely!"
Karasuma only sighed. Irina finally noticed the entire class staring at them. Her face stiffened, and she immediately tried to loosen her grip and sneak away.
Karma leaned toward the others and whispered,
"…Say. I'm starting to wonder…"
Kayano finished the thought.
"Is Bitch-sensei…?"
Nakamura nodded.
"Uh-huh."
Maehara glanced between the two adults.
"What should we do?"
Nakamura's eyes gleamed.
"We've got time before we go home tomorrow morning."
A slow, unified grin spread across every face in Class 3-E.
"Shall we push them together?"
---