Project End

Prologue

There's blood all over her.

"Empty your pockets, state your name, address, and you will receive a medical exam shortly," the voice said, filled with more procedure than humanity.

Kayano blinked, who was talking to her? Some nameless grunt, sitting in front of her, checklist on hand and looking incredibly bored? It didn't matter anyway. She warily rubbed her hands on her face, but forgot it was covered in his blood, her cheeks now smeared in red.

"Name," the man repeated, trying to remain unperturbed by this young girl covered in blood. He was well trained.

"Kurosensei is dead," Kayano rambled instead, her head was overworked and stressed trying to process the insanity that occurred not too long ago. Her mind was overstimulated and she couldn't stop herself. "The God of Death killed him. The fake one. We just stood there and watched. He killed Kurosensei. Then he killed… he killed Nagisa."

The man in the JSDF uniform shifted uncomfortably. "Listen kid, do you need emergency help right now?"

No. She didn't want their help. Why was her class still being strung along by the government? Kurosenei was gone, vaporized, not a single piece of him left. Nagisa wilted on ground too frozen to soak up his blood. Why did they bring them here, in some generic, white roomed facility? She wanted to be gone, she wanted to mourn.

"No."

"Then, name."

Kayano wondered which name she should give him. She had a dozen of them. Should she tell the truth? She looked at the poor generic soldier, obviously not okay with dealing with kids. Not caring that her friends needed to be with their families, and she needed to curl up in her bed somewhere and sleep out her exhaustion and rage and brokenness.

"Kayano Kaede," she replied. She didn't want them knowing her real name. They didn't have the right. She gave them the false address that she had given the school, if they went to investigate they would know it wasn't a real home, but it wouldn't matter. She paid her rent in advance and in cash, and the neighbors were the kind to never bother asking questions. Let them chase after nothing.

"Okay Kayano-san, remove everything from your pockets, and follow this guard to your room."

"My room?" Kayano shook her head. "What about my friends?" Panic began to well up in her throat, were they being separated?

"They're okay," he said shortly as if it explained everything. "Inside."

Her room was small, something that could barely pass as a janitor's closet, but it was dressed like it might have been once been a hospital room, repurposed just for them; a small examination bed was pushed into a corner, and ar fold up chair to its side, a sink, and a trash for biohazard waste. The guard closed the door behind her and locked it.

She glared. Maybe a repurposed prison.

She sat on the bed, closed her eyes, and tried to recollect her thoughts. A lock on the door meant nothing; it would take any one of them less than a minute. Escape wouldn't be too difficult either, if she was by herself. But if she was going with everyone else, that would be a problem, stealth was destroyed by numbers.

Whatever this facility was, it was a decent drive away from their town, somewhere secluded, probably military. When she looked in from the outside, opaque windows glittered in the rising sun, but she saw none inside the actual building. Fake windows, this place was built for security in mind.

Her musing was interrupted by the door opening, an older man with half mooned spectacles sliding off his nose wandered in. He smiled gently, and it made Kayano's inside squirm, like a dozen worms in her stomach. She needed to get out, this place felt oppressive, like it was weighing down on her chest and squeezing her lungs.

"Don't worry. I'm a doctor," he said without giving his name. He sat in the folding chair, and looked through his glasses like he was dissecting her. "You've got quite a lot of blood on you, but I was informed you didn't have any injuries. You must have been close to the monsters when they were fighting."

"Kurosensei doesn't bleed. This is Nagisa's." She lifted her arms like she was cradling the air. "I was holding him."

"I," the man looked so startled his glasses almost slipped off. "Your classmate was bleeding?"

"He died," she said blandly. "Right in my arms. And your people did nothing."

Concern flared, probably fake and full of poison. She didn't want it. "Do you feel the need for psychological coun-"

"Where's my friends?" she interrupted. The doctor seemed miffed at the interruption but it allowed him to slip back into professional mode. "They're well taken care of; we just have to do a quick examination to make sure you're uninjured and healthy."

"I'm okay," she said. Relatively okay. Better than boys that were ripped apart by a false God of Death, better than boys who had holes torn straight through their chest, where their lungs filled with blood, and bones snapped as the tentacles ripped through flesh and muscle.

Anger coursed through her body.

Who the hell were they? They didn't lift a finger to stop Nagisa's death, they weren't there when everyone watched their friend die and the seconds all melted together in timeless pandemonium. Then they asked for her name, and seized the only people that could understand each other and put them into separate, tiny rooms and wanted to ask them questions. Kurosensei is dead, and Nagisa is dead, and to hell with them, every single one of them. "I want to see them," she said with rising hysteria.

"Right now I need to-"

"If you aren't going to let me see them," she spat, "then leave."

"Little lady, I'm afraid there are proper protocols-"

"Protocols?" Heat radiated from her cheeks. "Your protocols didn't save Nagisa, screw your protocols!"

She hadn't felt anything like this since parasitic organisms fed into her inner turmoil, like coaxing the coals of a raging forrest fire, talking to her like the devil on her shoulder saying; kill him, he took your sister's life. Only there were no tentacles, there was just her sorrow and this man who completely ignored that she had Nagisa's blood on her.

"Take me home," she bluffed, because home had nothing left for her but the demand would be enough for him to turn his tail and leave. If they went through the trouble to separate her for her friends, then they wouldn't let her meet with her parents, and they would need to stall to keep her there.

"I," he sighed like she asked him for improbable ransom. "I'll see what I can do."

He left the room, and Kayano breathed. She closed her eyes, she was like a broken lid of a tea kettle, the steam and hatred pouring out. She couldn't calm down, because if she tried, Nagisa's face came to her and all of a sudden the day's events roared back like a tsunami.

She couldn't stop it... but she could control it, she had near a year of experience taking these emotions and sharpening it to edge it like a weapon. She bit her lip and meditated while standing.

Kurosensei. She thought and put it in a box. Aguri. Another box. The next one was too hard, she could still feel his warmth, and the sensation as it slowly faded into something chilling.

She couldn't control that pain, so she blotted out his face in her mind, took that name and crushed it, made in invisible.

With that she could walk again, she went to jiggled the handle. It door was solid, but like she thought it would be no problem. She didn't have any supplies with her, but she could improvise somehow. She walked to the sink and turned the nob, but nothing came out.

Just by knowing she had no access to anything made her throat dry. When was the last time she drank or ate? Or slept for that matter. She smacked her dry lips, and ran her hands over her skin, weather beaten by the wind.

The room was so cramped, even someone as tiny as Kayano had no room to pace. Terasaka must be absolutely dying if he hadn't already punched down a wall. Kayano hopped on the bed with the full intention of drawing plans in her head, but once she was off her feet she felt the sudden force of fatigue. She was so, so tired.

Everything just exhausted her. The day had been tense and nerve-wracking and physically painful, but watching Kurosensi be blasted into pieces while he moved over Nagis- the boy's still body. That was worse than any tentacle strangling her nervous system or spontaneously combusting pieces of her body.

Kayano felt sick. And the sickness was growing, from the arms that held the boy, down to her stomach, wrenching and twisting it, to the parchness of her throat. This sickness was black and oily and she was drowning in it.

If this is what she was left with, then she would rather Kurosensei just let her die the day she gave into her hatred, let her turn to ashes.

She didn't want it like this. If Kurosensei had to die she wanted to kill him herself, with everyone he loved by his side, just like Kurosensei promised it would happen. They would circle him as stronger, better people, ready to move on. But he died knowing he had let them down, he died at the hands of mad men who gloated their victory, who sneered at their tears, who proved how weak she really was and how miserably infantile their relationship with Kurosensei was.

So tired.

Before she could let sleep consume her, the door opened and Kayano shot up, alert once again. She was embarrassed that she could fall asleep here of all places, wolves roamed these halls.

This time it was a different man, he didn't look like a doctor or military, but he had sharp eyes, a shaved head, and a well pressed suit, pinstriped and meticulous .

He opted not to sit down, instead chose to tower in front of her, he stuck out his chest and folded his arms behind his back, making sure to look down on her. Kayano slipped into her actress role; if you boil down acting down in its crudest form- it was simply the manipulation by people. She knew what to look for to bounce off of, what to say to draw them in and satisfy them.

Kayano glanced at his shoes, they were slightly platformed to give him extra height. He was trying to make himself look bigger, more authoritative, to exude the natural authority that would usually cow someone young into immediately obedience. This man reminded her of the chairman, she can work with that.

Kayano transformed herself accordingly. This kind of man treated rebellion as a challenge; she needed to be quieter, calmer, but resolute.

"Hello Kayano-chan," he said. This one didn't identify himself either, but he wasn't trying to present a person, he was trying to be a voice of authority.

"Hello, sir," her voice went higher, sweeter, her eyes rounded in innocence. He liked that, instant submission.

"You must be very confused right now," he told her, his voice was strict and low. It wasn't a question Kayano noted, he told her what she felt and would probably try and tell her how to respond to those feelings, this man was dangerous. "But rest assured, we are working for you and your friends. As long as you cooperate, we will resolve this matter and you will be allowed to leave."

"Cooperate…in what way?" she asked. He shifted on his feet, and she knew she probably said the wrong thing. She shouldn't have asked that question and let him talk to his resolution, he would have given the answer anyway. Save the inquiry for questions that matter. She could kick herself if she had the mental fortitude to do so.

"Let's get right to the point then," he stood at the door, the light inside her room was dim and yellow, and cast everything in a hazy glow, but outside in the hall was bright and glaring to the point where it looked like his back was shining. She winced when she struggled to look at his face because the halo around him was too intense. "The public doesn't know anything that has transpired. We've decided to address this as a terrorist attack."

That… made sense. Did that mean he wanted them to play along? She swallowed the question, it wasn't the right time to ask it. She nodded in compliance.

"You'll get a full debriefing later, and your parents will be reached to know that you are safe, but this is all superfluous. What's important is the aftermath, and what you do in the wake of these trying times. We're doing our best to shield the public from the unfortunate mess we were forced in. This secrecy is not just for your sake, but for the public sake. And what's for the good for the public is often an ugly thing, it involves a great many unpleasant promises and work that should be hidden, which is why you will help us."

"I… I want to help," she said like a good little girl should.

"That's good Kayano." He let a file drop in front of her, when she reached for it, he abruptly slammed his hand down on top.

"Kayano Kaede, born January ninth to a construction worker and a secretary, completely average in school and placed 42nd in the second semester midterms, somehow but managed to pass the entrance exam on the first try."

Kayano's eyes widened as he began to prattle off facts about her pseudo life. He looked satisfied at her response, he believed he shocked her but he had given more to Kayano than he meant to. It meant that they were digging into their lives, but not to the extent that they had blown Kayano's cover. It did not seem like this misstep was due to a lack of importance or negligence, but more likely the sheer volume of people they had to handle.

She was still Kaede Kayano, Kurosensei must have convinced Karasuma not to detail it in any report, he was still protecting her even after death. Safe, for now at least, further investigation would eventually lead to them finding holes in her life.

"You would fall into mediocrity," he continued. "But at the same time, you are at a crossroads, we could use your help and in turn we could mold you into something great. There are far worse monsters in this world than those that lingered in your class. Say yes to help us and we'll help you."

Kurosensei was no monster. This man was either an idiot or can't be trusted.

"I should ask my parents," she lied.

He frowned. "Like Class E's operation this is strictly confidential. You will not inform anybody of this."

Kayano shook her head, as long as she demanded for her parents, they would be unable to pressure her and she wouldn't look too independent. "I think my mom is worried."

He glared with a calculated stoicism, and Kayano could feel her skin crawl. With meticulous pace he walked to the other side, eyes never leaving hers. She had the distinct impression he was not use to rejection.

"This is a pressing matter," his voice was a low rumble, like heavy footsteps that quaked wood floors. "But we are nothing if not charitable, I see you need to calm down. Take a few minutes to think it over before you say yes. Remember that this is a calling." A man to her left tossed a bundle to her. "Clothes. Change into it; we can't have you waiting in those filthy garments. We will return."

She bobbed her head as they walked out, eyeing them closely as the heavy door creaked shut. His words drifted in before it closed completely. "Remember Kayano, this is your only chance to do what is right. And you do want to do what is right."

A click came with the lock. Kayano sighed, utterly drained. She undressed, her old assassination uniform had clung to her skin from the warm blood, but it had long been dry and when she shed her clothes, the flakes peeled from her and dusted the ground. The clothes they gave her were heavy and dark, with long sleeves and long pant legs, the material was thick and scratchy on her skin, but it was better than wearing his blood.

Now that it was all said in done, Kayano didn't know what to do next. She didn't know how to live with it, the weight of a boy in her arms. The smile that died from Kurosensei's face and in turn metamorphosed into a sorrowful sort of anger, knowing that he died knowing he had failed two of his protégées.

One had a dream he was working for and the other bled for redemption, and in the end none of it mattered.

Kayano rolled to the side and vomited in the sink. She wiped her mouth, the taste lingered and the smell invaded her nose making her sicker. She was too bone weary to dwell on the acidic burn of her throat so she settled in the examination bed, it was hard and unforgiving but at this point she couldn't care less. The tiredness was like sand in her eyes, and she felt her mind drifting to oblivion.

She didn't know how long it was until a new man arrived, jolting her aware before she could really fall into anything that resembled sleep. This new one was a completely different personality, a softer face and figure, and a lot kinder in a way that felt dishonest. He also attempted to her get her to say yes to the vague auspices of their goal. When she didn't, he too left, and once again she tried to fall asleep, only to be awakened by someone else.

It happened over and over again, that she felt her consciousness was being stretched thin. She had long lost all sense of time, moving forward was measured by repetitions of the same cycle and no one would tell her the time.

She could feel her frustration build with each new arrival. Not only was she running on empty, but it began to physically get uncomfortable. The heat wasn't unbearable but it was hot enough to be unsettling, and she was hungry and thirsty but no matter how many times she asked they wouldn't bring her anything to eat or drink.

The fourth time they left the overhead light began to blink in and out, and the stuttering of brightness gave her a headache she couldn't ignore.

"Could you please do something about the light," she almost begged. Turn it off or fix, whatever.

The woman smiled, and Kayano got the distinct impression that this is what she wanted.

"Of course," she said before they walked out again, and it continued to rapidly flicker until had to close her eyes for respite.

The sixth time the door opened came, it brought two men to badger her. They rapid fire questioned her, wearing her down to nothing but nerves and twitches, and she couldn't concentrate with the speed of the interrogation and the pounding in her head.

"You know, all your friends all said yes," said the short one in the middle of his pestering, and Kayano felt rage and bile almost spill out of her. She resisted the urge to wring their necks because they have no idea what they are talking about. They wouldn't fall for them, not with what everything Kurosensei taught us.

But Kurosensei died regardless, didn't he? When she refused them, she did so a little louder than she had meant to.

In the flickering dimness of the sick light, Kayano stomach panged with hunger, the sweat slid down her unwashed skin and dampened her dark heavy clothes so they felt even heavier, and her throat screamed for something to quench it, made worse with her complete mental and physical fatigue that all of these men were exasperating.

She was in a bad place.

But Kayano had been worse, and when she was about to snap she summoned whatever helped her get through the times when her clothes were soaked in her sister's blood instead of a boys, whether that strength be from strength or pure contempt.

She needed a goal, something to catch all her scattering thoughts into one focus and drown out her agony.

Take away all the pain and distractions, strip it from her like layers, and she found her immediate objective, escape. She would not be tied down here, with men that would use her and her friends hours after they stood by and watched a Yanagisawa steal Kurosensei's life which was rightfully theirs. And then they gave the bounty to Yanagisawa, with the thanks of a grateful nation.

Yanagisawa. Shiro. Kayano's grip tightened until her fingernails drew blood on her palms. There it was, that was what she was left with. Him, laughing and living when none of the people she loved could do so anymore. He did it, he took everything away from her, slowly skinning her of everything she cared about.

When I set my mind to it, I really get into it.

With her purpose steadfast in her head, everything else fell into place. Her exhaustion and pain fell away as mild inconveniences, her grief and frustration are were pushed aside and the world sharpened and simplified.

With her goal came the need to understand her obstacles.

She understood what these people were doing to her, why they took away all sense of time, no visible watches, no windows- in order to get her to say yes they needed to strip her of all control. They purposefully agitated her with blinking lights to produce irritation. They fed her nothing, they kept waking her to keep her tired. They gave her thick clothes, and raised the temperature just hot enough for discomfort. None of these things alone were enough to trigger any sort of complaint of conspiracy, but prolonged exposure would eventually lend itself to break most people.

She wasn't most people.

"Okay," she lied when they came the eighth time. "I'll do it." They smiled and opened the door for her.

With as little as she knew, blind escape was too risky, it would be better to just pretend to give in and let them hand her the keys. They wouldn't have been suspicious, she was sure she was looked awful as she felt, smelling of vomit and sweat, her hair tangled down her face and her eyes sunken and her body near shaking with hunger. Let them think they broke her.

Still, her window of opportunity was limited, the longer she stayed the more they would expect and the greater the chance they would piece together the incomplete parts of her made up story. Once they figured out she was not Kaede Kayano, her freedom would really be gone.

She must have been in her room for too long because once she emerged in the hallway the light was so intense she had to be escorted half blind. They had given her no shoes so the floor was chilly against her toes, and when the full effects of the air conditioner blasted on her skin, wet with sweat, it made her shiver.

"Here kid." A young soldier gave her bottle of water, almost sounding remorseful about the whole thing.

Pride be damned, she greedily took it, not even bothering to give a thankyou, and cool relief slid down her tongue and her throat and her entire body quivered with reprieve. She could weep.

She returned the drink and they offered her a blanked around her shoulders, she didn't bother memorizing their faces; easier to think of them as faceless obstacles, ready to be overcome. She studied the building again, looking for escape, there were still no windows anywhere and too many doors, but there weren't many security guards at all. The ones they had were young and bored.

Kayano felt her heartbeat quicken, the beginnings of adrenaline pump through her body. This was going to be easier than she thought, and she was going to leave soo-

"They let you out of the hole," a voice drawled. Her stomach sank.

"Karma-kun."

It wasn't a lie when the men said that her classmates said yes. It wasn't just some weird tactic that they used on weak kids to coax them into signing their life away. Karma gave in, and if Karma gave in, everyone else would fall.

Injustice replaced her blood, it pumped in her body.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Karma, her voice strained.

Karma just gave her a look, removed from usual casual bravado and sardonic confidence, this was a Karma she has never seen, with bruises under dull eyes and his usual slouch even more tired. He said nothing. He didn't even smirk.

"You said yes?" she whispered. This was Karma. Karma, the man who would rather set himself on fire then get on his knees. Then she looked past him, and half the class was lingering in the open.

"So did you," was Karma's reply. Kayano shook her head, then made sure no one was paying attention to them.

"I'm escaping. Before they can find out who I really am."

Karma simply shrugged.

"If you want, I'll take you with me. All of you."

"I don't think I want to."

She searched him his face to find anything from the old Karma, the one that jumped off a cliff to open Kurosensei to assassination, that led the charge against Nagisa for the right to keep on their path, the boy that dominated school. She just saw a very tired looking middleschooler.

"You want to stay?"

"I wanted to kill Kurosensei." His head cocked and he finally gave her a weak smile, full of self loathing. "Look at where we are now. This is what we have left. This is his great legacy, assassination. I'm just continuing on my road.

He added after a second; "It has to be worth something."

Karma doesn't do physical affection, but he leaned in and patted her on the shoulder like he was comforting her. He turned his head near her temple and spoke low so no one could hear. "Okuda says there's a vent in the girl's bathroom, small enough for someone like you. I don't know where it takes you, but the guards don't follow you in."

Kayano tentatively reached for his hand and squeezed like she was returning the reassurance.

"Got it."

Thank goodness they knew nothing about Karma, otherwise this closeness would have set red flags. Kayano pulled away with a nod and Karma leaned on the wall with his hands in his pockets, looking bored with the entire thing. He motioned his head towards Manami Okuda who was rubbing the ends of her braid in neurotic fashion.

"Manami-chan, go to the bathroom with me." Manami stared at her friend before quickly lunging int a hug. Manami didn't know the meaning of the word subtly, but Kayano was grateful none the less, and the warmth of it surprisingly caused her to waver a bit on her feet. She squeezed her back for a second, and she could feel Manami's glasses slip from her face from the crush. She giggled, and from anyone else's perspective it was just two friends reuniting after an awful trauma, and not like the goodbye it was.

"Let's go," she whispered, her voice thick with sadness. Okano, Kanazaki, and Rio followed them, they must have known what was going on. There was safety in numbers, it was easier for one girl to slip away from a crowd than alone. Too smart for their own good, all of them really.

"Good luck," Okuda whispered as she fiddled with her glasses. Okuda made up for her extreme nervousness with a compulsive need for preparation, and as a result she kept a lockpicking tool in the thick frames of her glasses legs.

Kayano would miss them, more than she realized.

"You too," she said, "And if you ever need help escaping, I'll be on the other side."

Kayano looked at the small hole in the wall, and resolved to make it through, no matter what. She would fight her way out of the building if she had to break her own bones to fit, and she would focus on the one thing that would keep her going.

Yanagisawa.

His presence was everywhere, lingering like a foul stench, a gluttonous pride that devoured everything. She'd end him. If she had to throw herself away to do that, well, that was acceptable. She'd leave her dreams here, with the final wishes of Kurosensei, the warmth of her sister, and she the name of a boy she would never speak.

As Rio provided her leverage to lift herself into the vent, a funny thought struck her. It almost made her laugh.

Here, at the end of it all, the final chapters of Class E, she found herself in the very same place she was in the beginning.

Alone, and ready for revenge.

A/N: A new chapter story. For some reason, I can't get back into the groove of writing at the level that I want. And it shows in this chapter, rereading this prologue was EXTREMELY rough, but I hope it will get better as it goes on. I have a few chapter rough drafts done, and a general idea of where I'm going, but for the most part I'm just going to just write it all out blindly. I actually had to rewrite a huge chunk of this prologue because I decided to change a major plot point right away.

I dunno if anyone read my earlier Assclass oneshots, but these will not be like that. I'm pretty horrid at writing comedy and wanted to challenge myself on those stories, this is going to be decently dark. I was battling out whether or not this would be rated M because of later violence, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

For those wondering what kind of story this is: it focuses mostly on the story of Kayano and Karma, the plot is pretty much evenly split between the two despite this prologue being strictly Kayano centric. I wanted to write a Kayano related plot, but with where she is going I needed someone to carry the other side of what was going on, and Karma was the best for it. On occasion there will be other character spotlights. I could not write this story without OC's but they are mostly in the fashion of the OC's here, I needed people to run whatever project the rest of Class E enlisted in. Some will be important.

This story was based off the premise of Karasuma saying that if Class E didn't kill Kurosensei, it would probably mess them up, I'm paraphrasing but that's the impression that I got. So here, Kurosensei was killed by Yanagisawa/Shiro and/or the fake god of death, and the fake god of death killed Nagisa instead of Kayano because I wanted it to be that way. Yanagisawa was awarded the bounty, and didn't face any charges because he technically didn't hurt Nagisa directly.

And because pairings mean a lot to other people, I'll be upfront with it. There will be a lot of Kayano and Nagisa musings because they are my otp. Expect sprinklings of Sugino/Kanazaki, Hayami/Chiba, Manami/Karma, and Megu/Yada (y u not popular cuties?) in various amounts.