Erika stood in the living room with her hands on her hips.
"So. What does 'raining down hellfire' mean?"
Akira was on the floor in seiza, head lowered.
"…It's just saying something cool."
Erika frowned at him.
"Ritsu already told me everything you did."
Akira peeked up.
"It's not that bad, okay? I just destroyed a few things."
Erika picked up the remote and turned the TV on.
"Is that what you mean by a few things?"
The anchor's voice filled the room.
"BREAKING NEWS. Multiple facilities destroyed overnight across the world. Upon further inspection, they were identified as secret arms research and production sites."
The footage cut to a wrecked compound.
Then to a lead scientist—the same man who had once built Ritsu—staring at the camera like his soul had left his body.
The anchor continued.
"In other news, forbidden secrets belonging to multiple politicians have suddenly appeared on the internet worldwide. The public is calling for resignations and arrests."
Erika switched it off.
The silence after the screen went dark was worse than the sound.
Akira cleared his throat.
"Well. Maybe slightly worse than expected. But those guys deserved it. And I kept my promise. No life was lost."
Then he looked at her with his big eyes.
The look was shameless. Soft. Waiting.
The look was unmistakable.
A puppy waiting for a treat.
Erika frowned.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Akira's eyes flicked away and back.
"You know… that. That."
She did not.
Selena's voice slipped into both of their heads, far too helpful.
"He probably wants a kiss as a reward."
Akira nodded furiously.
Erika's face went red, then sharp.
"A reward? You want a reward after destroying that many buildings?" She pointed at the dark TV. "All I am giving you is punishment."
Akira lifted both hands.
"But they can't trace it back to me. The Moon Infiltrator is invisible and untraceable, after all."
Selena did not let him have that.
"Wow, bro. From the moment you decided you were getting another kiss from her, all you've gotten is punishment."
Akira's thoughts snapped back.
"Shut it, sis."
Erika's ears were a little red. Her voice was not.
"So why did you do all that? You wouldn't normally be this careless."
Akira went still.
For a while, he didn't answer.
Then he said,
"…I'm just angry." He kept his eyes on the floor. "I don't really know how to control it. When I'm angry, I just want to destroy whatever made me angry. It doesn't stop until I do something about it. I don't know how else I'm supposed to deal with it."
Erika didn't answer at first.
She knew him well enough to hear the difference.
He had always been reckless.
This was not that.
She had never really seen him this angry before, and now she knew he had never really had to deal with this kind of anger before.
She sighed, sat down beside him, and put her hand on his head.
"I don't know either. But we'll figure it out."
Akira leaned into her.
She kept patting his head, slowly thinking about what to do. Unfortunately, she couldn't keep doing that forever. They had school, and eventually, she had to drag Akira away and force him to get ready.
---
Back at school, Class E was filling out the future-planning survey with unusual seriousness.
The door opened.
Irina walked in wearing ordinary clothes.
"Is that octopus seriously doing career counseling?"
Every head lifted.
"Bitch-sensei!" Yada stood up.
Kurahashi pointed.
"In regular clothes!"
Irina flicked her hair, unimpressed.
"Yes. Regular old cheap clothes. Just trying to match your regular old world."
She looked a bit insecure.
"What? You want me to show more skin after all?"
Okajima's nose started bleeding.
"No… hiding it has actually made you more sexy."
Mimura nodded with strange sincerity.
"In a way, you've grown!"
Akira didn't look up.
He was writing whatever he wanted on the form.
Erika wasn't writing at all. She stared at the blank lines as if they had personally offended her.
Nagisa's scream cut across the room.
"Hey, Nakamura-san! You wrote this! Why would you warp a person's career path like that?!"
The page in his hands was already filled in.
Desired school: Girl's high school
Desired career: Nurse and maid
Nakamura smirked.
"Men's work doesn't suit you."
Karma leaned over from the next desk.
"Hey, Nagisa. Let's hit Thailand or Morocco after graduation. I understand Thailand is where it's at."
Nagisa looked personally attacked.
"Why are you trying to cut it off me?!"
Erika, seeing Akira writing seriously, leaned toward his paper to look.
Desired school: Hogwarts
Desired career: Gundam pilot and Power Ranger
Her eye twitched.
"Take this seriously."
Akira kept writing.
"But I am serious, okay? It's my childhood dream." He glanced at her form, still mostly empty. "What about you? You wanted to be a princess, right?"
Selena slipped into both of their heads, helpful as ever.
"That's simple. As long as you marry my brother, you will become one."
Erika shot the answer straight back.
"Shut it, Selena."
Out loud, she tapped Akira's desk.
"I am thinking seriously. Now write something normal before Koro-sensei calls you."
Then her name was called.
Erika filled the last two lines in a rush and stood.
---
Koro-sensei held her sheet up to the light.
"Now, Erika-san. The school you filled in doesn't exist. And for the job, you wrote that you would manage that school?"
Erika let out a thin breath.
She couldn't say it was in another world.
"It's from where we came from. So it's a secret."
Koro-sensei nodded, then tilted his head.
"I see. But it seemed like you filled it in at the last minute. Is there a reason?"
Erika's fingers tightened on her skirt.
"I always thought I wanted to do this, but… now I am not sure. With Akira, the future is not going to be that simple after all."
Koro-sensei's voice softened.
"That's Akira-kun, after all."
"For now, I just want to stay with him and make sure he doesn't do anything weird." She looked at the desk instead of him. "I'll think about my future slowly."
Koro-sensei was quiet for a second.
He had seen enough lately to know that "anything weird" was not a small job.
"That's a good idea too," he said. "It would be even better if you discussed it with Akira-kun. But remember. Choose what you truly want to do, Erika-san. You don't have to decide everything today. Whatever you choose, keep working toward it."
Erika nodded.
She left the room with the form still warm in her hand, and didn't look back at the empty chair waiting for the next student.
---
Koro-sensei looked at Akira's form, then at Akira.
"Akira-kun. You filled out that you wanted to become a teacher."
Akira nodded with total seriousness.
"Yes, yes. After the recent events, I realized this is what I wanted to do."
Koro-sensei's eyes filled with tears at once.
"Really?"
"Yeah," Akira said. "Especially a teacher for an all-girls high school."
The tears stopped mid-fall.
"…Wait a minute. Explain that to me fully first."
Akira took out his phone and turned the screen around.
"I recently played this game called Blue Archive. In it, you play as a teacher and guide your students through their problems."
Koro-sensei leaned in.
"Really? I have never heard of this game."
Akira smiled.
"I'll share it with you. Believe me, it's a really good game."
He started showing him the story.
Koro-sensei got into it immediately.
Outside the door, the next student waited, staring at the wall and wondering what the hell they were doing in there.
Koro-sensei wiped his eyes.
"This is such a story. I can't wait to play it. I'm sure he is a great teacher. Like me."
Akira remembered what that Sensei actually did with his students.
He decided not to say it.
He just nodded.
"I'm sure you will love it."
Koro-sensei set the phone down.
"Sure. Now, Akira-kun. What exactly did you want to do?"
Akira's shoulders dropped.
"Honestly, I'm not really sure. I mean, I can become whatever I want. I know I can do it. I was even planning on creating a company and becoming a CEO on the side, but… I just don't know what I should write in there."
Koro-sensei watched him for a moment.
"Akira-kun, perhaps you're looking at the question from the wrong direction. Instead of asking what you can become, ask yourself what you would want your future to be like for you to be happy. Then think about what to do toward that."
Akira was quiet.
"…As long as I am with Erika, I feel like I will be happy. It's just…" His fingers curled on his knee. "Going on missions like this with her is fun, but I don't want her to be in danger. I don't want to go by myself either. It would be lonely. But what if I take her somewhere dangerous and she gets hurt?"
Koro-sensei had no idea when career counseling had become relationship counseling.
But he was still a teacher.
He was prepared to advise a student on anything.
"Akira-kun. You don't have to decide her future for her. You can tell her what you're afraid of. You can tell her what dangers you expect. You can ask her to stay away from something you believe is too dangerous. But after that, you must let her choose."
"I did," Akira said. "She just said she wanted to come with me. But I still feel worried."
Koro-sensei nodded.
"Well, then the best thing you can do is protect her as best you can and keep her safe, even if she chooses to face danger with you. Right?"
Akira's head came up.
The look on his face was enlightenment of the worst kind.
"That's right… I just need to become stronger to protect her. That's right. I need more power. More weapons. More everything… all so I can protect her completely."
Koro-sensei jerked forward.
"Wait, Akira-kun—"
Akira was already on his feet.
"Thank you, Koro-sensei. I know what I need to do."
He was gone before the next sentence could catch him.
Koro-sensei stared at the empty doorway.
He was no longer sure if this had been a good thing,
or if he had just made something worse.