46. Richness

"...and so, we went to court to file our cases together," Gakushuu said. "The judge gave us a very disapproving look and suggested counselling instead."

Nao couldn't exactly enjoy his tea right now. "You Asano family sure have a weird way of bonding as a family." Who the hell says we went to file lawsuits against each other in the same tone as would a parent and child going for a haircut together?

Gakushuu shrugged. "It's how we've always been."

Nao chortled.

The last event of the Kunugigaoka school year, after the final exams, was the School Drama Festival. Nao sat by the corner of the hall, eating his lunch as Gakushuu caught him up with what went on after the whole incident.

(Nao took a trip to the hospital, but he came out of it with little to say for it other than his old problems. Seems the progress of his illness has inched a little further forward, but hey, an unknown deadline is still unknown even if you run toward it.)

(His arm didn't break, surprisingly, but it was very close. There was a very deep bruise upon it, as the bone bent. But it was fine.)

It seems like the Board Chairman's narrative arc has come to a close.

All that's left are entrance exams, the matter with Shiro, and then the final assassination itself. It felt like time flew by.

"I have to go," Gakushuu said, when the Virtuosos waved him over. It's almost time for Class A's performance. "Please don't talk to my father if he comes over. Please don't," he looked entirely serious, eyes full of genuine concern. "You hear me, Kuma-sensei? I'm still in the process of getting a warrant for him if he touches you ever again."

"I'll try," Nao waved, "good luck on your end. And please don't arrest your father, I have a feeling the government has their hands full with the moon incident."

"I don't care, it's their job."

"Well then, do it for me?" Nao pleaded.

Gakushuu faltered, looking away, "...that will depend."

Gakushuu left systematically, the committee meeting him with paperwork and reports of how things are going. He's a very hardworking child, and Nao thought that was really amazing. Not for the first time, he wondered if he was truly a junior high schooler.

He leaned against the table, smiling warmly.

If no one else, he's assured that Gakushuu will go on to become a great adult.

-

"So..." he hummed. "Are you actually going to come sit with me, or are you content just standing there and staring like the evil mastermind you no longer are?"

Asano Gakuho looked very miffed. "I thought you were not going to talk to me, in accordance with my son's advice?"

Nao shrugging, turning back toward him, an arm on the back of the chair. "I said I was going to try. You know how my attempts at doing anything always go."

Asano frowned. "Get that negativity away from me."

"I'm sorry, it's a chronic condition, so that's impossible."

"Stop saying things that are stupid but technically true, I don't like not having a response to your rebuttals."

Nao pours a cup of tea for Asano, and the Board Chairman sits down, to the surprise of some nearby students that very pointedly scoot a little further away at the sight.

"You're such a frail creature," Asano said, rather disappointed. "Are you really the man that's been going directly against me for the past few months? Even more directly than that octopus, in fact. You're the one man I just can't figure out how to defeat, since you're neither challenging me academically nor physically."

He's the only one seeing this as a two-way battle, though.

"I'm playing Kirby, so don't go Street Fighter on me," Nao sighed. Asano raised a brow, clearly not understanding the comparison. "This was never supposed to be a war between you and me. Not everything is a test."

"But everything can be," Asano insisted. "From the moment you stepped into my office that rainy day, questioning my choices, the war had begun. When you defied me and showed favour to Class E, when you mislooked their deeds and tried to manipulate me from my very own words, from your position. It has all been very amusing."

To him, the world is a series of battles and trials. Every conversation with his child is an opportunity to one-up the other. Every problem he's faced is a challenge on the road to success. He's been raised to take everything in this violently-contextualised worldview, and perhaps, Asano himself had no idea how to change that.

In the end, it all just boiled down to the psyche that no science can understand, huh.

"That was never my intention," Nao said. "I'm just doing my job." As a teacher. As an empathic person. As a protector and adult. "I don't want to be anything like a hero or a main character that saves this school, nothing like that."

He did not defy the Board Chairman for anything like that. He spoke against him, he was never too afraid of him.

And that was not because Nao wanted to be the one that fixed everything. He wasn't that arrogant to actually believe anything like that.

"If so, then, what do you really want to be?" Asano asked. "Or do you intend to stay an outsider forever?"

Class 3-E's play goes on, a dark, morbid story of an intrinsically warped household that begins dreadfully, and only spirals down further, into worse developments. It was a story meant only to subvert expectations, never to genuinely hold any heart.

It was a story fated to end on a macabre note, and that was how they delivered the ending. It never tried to be anything it wasn't.

Like that play, Class E will not have a happy ending.

(And neither will Nao.)

Asano picked up his teacup, taking careful sips. "The Ministry of Defence has already told me their final plans for Korosensei's assassination. I can only assume what will happen next."

It's almost time for the final mission. It is something that will happen. It is something with a genuine, slated deadline, and yet, no matter how many warnings they've received, they would never be prepared for the abrupt farewell.

No one is prepared for death. Not even someone on their deathbed.

"Will he be able to remain a teacher after it?" Asano wondered, looking toward Korosensei, dressed as a peach, sitting innocently upon the stage, getting pelted by food and trash items. "Will you?"

Nao didn't know.

"Korosensei will always be a teacher," he said. "That's the only thing I'm sure of."

The name feels foreign on his tongue. It's the first time he's ever said it, hasn't he? It's embarrassing to actually say it out loud.

"Well, enough about me and the octopus," Nao said. "What's with you and Shuu-kun?"

"...why are you calling my son that?"

"Because Shuu-kun is a good boy," Nao said. "I heard he changed the locks in the front door just to spite you."

Asano looked irritated. "Yes. Luckily, I mastered the art of lockpicking five years ago, so it was a minor inconvenience,," he said. "On that note, I have installed electronic locks to every single door in his room, including the closet, and also chain-locked his shoes to the house column. I'm impressed he made it to school in decent condition today."

"...is that morbidly annoying turn of events the reason why you don't have a tie today?"

"Well, smart casual is fine for one day. It is certainly not because my son airlifted my entire tie closet into Saudi Arabia last night."

"Apologize to us poor peasants of the world, right this instant!"

-

When Kayano attacked Korosensei and ran off, leaving the entire classroom baffled and frazzled— Nao looked upon the direction she left, and followed while the class confronted Korosensei instead.

He lost her very quickly, but he didn't come up empty.

"I have a proposition for you, Kunomasu Naomasa."

It was hard to say that Nao expected this to happen, especially after Kazane showed up last time to make a mess of things. The world had to veer itself back onto the right path somehow, and the easiest way to deal with a gap in the plan was to get rid of the initial roadblock, wasn't it?

Shiro— Yanagisawa, approached him with a case.

"It has been a while. I hope Irona is doing well in your care," a very blatant lie. "Please, refer to me as Shiro."

Nao eyed it skeptically. Strictly speaking, Shiro has not spoken to Nao much, or at all. He barely glanced his way or Irina's in all the times he's approached the class, because he did not see them as useful in his plan.

It appears that has changed.

"You have a talent you've never tapped into. It's such a waste, especially as near death as you are," he said, and Nao realized that he'd been buttering up the conversation for a while now, Nao just ignored it because he'd had a headache and he just wanted to go home. "It's hard to imagine you're related to Windy." Of course he knows that. Who doesn't, at this point? "But you have potential, and this might even give you a chance to cure your illness."

Nao's head lifted at that.

Is this fucker for real?

Misinterpreting it, Shiro smiles, visible even through his mask as his eyes narrowed in emotion.

"Would you hear me out?" He opened the case to reveal an array of syringes and suspicious chemicals. "There is a very great benefit to you cooperating with me. You'll be able to live longer, for one, and more of all... you would be able to empathize with that one problem student of yours."

Nao blinked. Problem student... he's referring to Kayano.

"She's run off, hasn't she? Impatient and impulsive, she is," Shiro sighed, resigned. "I'm sure you're wondering what drove her to that point. You are the counselor, after all. You always strive to see things at their level."

Nao stepped forward.

"This will greatly aid your efforts," Shiro assured. "I–"

"I'm sorry, but," Nao held up a hand, taking the briefcase by the handle. Shiro abruptly realizes that he was unable to pull out of the titan grip. Nao's eyes are cold, completely stoic, and exhausted. "That's above my pay grade."

Nao ripped it out of his hands and, clutching Yanagisawa's arm, pressed against the elbow— he whirled around and judo-flipped him right over his head, shattering the briefcase and its contents all over the ground.

Nao dusted his hands.

He was only able to do that because Yanagisawa himself is a researcher, not a fighter, and also, he was caught unawares. If it had been anyone else, (any of the students, for example,) Nao would have stood no chance.

"Also, I don't have a sister," he said, beaming. "We completely cut ties a long time ago, which is an example you should follow, you clingy-ass motherfucking creep. Get a fucking clue, you homeless jerkwad."

Yanagisawa lay on the floor, flabbergasted at what he was hearing.

"Ah, my bad," Nao said. "I'm in a bad mood, you see. Your tirade made me realize that you've just spent so many months of your life looking for stupid revenge instead of earning a living, and it just filled me with unbridled fury. Do you not need an actual job? Are you rich enough to be able to waste so much time on petty grievances instead of trying to earn back your losses when your lab exploded?"

"...how did you even know... most of that?"

"Rich people can go fucking die," Nao said. "Also, I'm looking for my student, so if you're not going to tell me where she is, please go away and wait for your cue at the final battle. Thank you."