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It's… an octopus.

A yellow octopus.

"…Or is it?" Shiori thinks to herself as she stares at the strange thing in front of her (and the whole class also), incomprehension and bewilderment decorating her face as she tries to make sense of what is currently happening in front of her.

This yellow octopus with a ridiculous choice of clothing seemingly appears out of nowhere, casually entering the classroom, followed closely by smartly dressed woman and men—in which one of them is holding a submachine gun, what the fuck—and the tension in the adults are as clear as day that Shiori can't help but to tense up as well, preparing to either bolt or scream for her classmates to run or duck for it. Not even the ridiculous clothes, the small hat, the bright yellow skin or the disarming and admittedly cute grin on its face can lower down her guard. This… octopus, or whatever it is (it doesn't look like a costume, it's definitely not a costume, oh my god, and she wonders if she's somehow been thrown into the world of MCU with mutants and… strange things) is definitely the cause of the adults' tension and Shiori is willing to believe that the octopus is somewhat dangerous.

Her eyes stray to the gun in the man's hands, though, acknowledging that they could be a danger to the students here as well and they could've come in here with the intention to hurt them all, and Shiori prepares for the worst case scenario. She may be able to prevent her classmates from saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, just to avoid getting shot at, if the people in suits are a threat to the students.

(And if a certain octopus notices her apprehensive, calculating eyes trained on the guns, well).

(He'll deal with that one later on).

"How do you do?" The yellow octopus says—and holy shit it speaks!—while grinning, his pearly white teeth gleaming with the sunlight, looking entirely at ease with himself as his tentacles swirl around near him. "I'm the one who blasted your moon," he continues on, calmly, as if he didn't just admit that he blasted the moon, and—

….

He blasted the moon?!

Shiori's eyes snap to the octopus' small ones in a flash, her apprehension growing with each insane sentences that spew out from the probably-an-alien's ever grinning mouth.

"I plan to do the same to earth next year," he continues to say, as if he didn't just say that while grinning with tentacles swishing around and this is so strange what is happening—

"Now I'm your teacher, nice to meet you."

…

…There are at least six things wrong in those sentences! Shiori feels like she was just thrown into a big scam involving squishy yellow octopus, especially when she sees the unanimous feeling of "what is this fuckery" from all of her classmates. This situation is just that strange; she's known that they will get a new teacher, especially because of Yukimura-sensei's passing, but to get an octopus, a yellow one, who blasted the moon and is planning to blast earth as their next teacher, well.

This just screams a big, big scam, and considering the threat given by the octopus, it's not a funny one either.

One of the men in suits steps to the front just then, gaining the attention of them including Shiori, even though she really can't help but to keep the octopus within her sight as well as the gun, because there's a gun, in a classroom full of middle school kids and that screams dangerous.

"I'm Karasuma from the Ministry of Defense," the man—Karasuma—says, and okay, Shiori thinks, that explains the suits and the gun. Though that doesn't explain why he's here in the first place.

"First, please understand that what I'm about to say is a state secret," he says, taking a deep breath as if he's exhausted, and proceeds to say, rather ominously, "Let me be blunt: I want you to kill this creature."

XXX

Shiori thinks the arrangement is bullshit, but perhaps that's her overprotective mother-hen instincts speaking. Naka—Rio did say once upon a time that she has innate tendencies to be like a mother sometimes, with her nagging the blonde to study and eat properly and not to forget showers and sleep and yeah, Shiori is a worrier—though the word she'll settle with will be 'caring', thank you very much—especially towards those she deems as precious to her person.

And this arrangement set by the Ministry of Defense is nothing but a pile of trouble labeled with the words 'COMING SOON', because with an octopus as a teacher and a target, trouble is bound to come, and when trouble comes to the class, it will impact her friends as well and she doesn't like it.

Already she can think of numerous holes in the simple agreement between the yellow octopus, the Ministry of Defense and the school, simply because the agreement is that. It's simple. The octopus stays here as a teacher—can he even teach? Shiori has to wonder if Principal Asano decides to throw class E under the bus with appointing a possible-mutant as a teacher who probably doesn't know how to teach properly—and the students here get him as their teacher while simultaneously try to assassinate him with the promise of a huge amount of money as prize and mostlikely silence money as well, with the extra rules that the octopus must not harm the students and the students must not reveal the octopus' existence to the outside world.

It's very simple and it has so many holes and faults that it's embarrassing.

First, if the octopus can't harm the students physically, what about psychological means? What about the students' friends, family (she thinks of Asano-kun and mother and father and no, no, no, the octopus can't harm them, he mustn't), who is not within the rules boundaries, used as leverage, as hostages so the students will stop trying to kill the super-fast octopus? (And that had been a surprise too. He's super-fast, apparently. As if the 'I managed to blow up the moon, haha' is not enough trouble as it is).

Second, assassination mission shouldn't be given to middle school students in the first place. Civilians, especially the middle school kind, don't really spell out the words "able to handle assassination well". There's bound to be limits to what a middle schooler can do, especially against a mutant with super speed and squishy looking tentacles.

(Shiori won't be distracted by the squishy looking tentacles).

(She won't, damn it).

Third, and the other numbers following it, consist of what-if scenarios that can possibly happen with this arrangement, ranging from ending up emotionally compromised, psychologically manipulated, threatened with harm, ending up emotionally compromised, and many else.

Basically, it's troublesome, and she's not even quoting Nara Shikamaru on this one. She wants to complain, even when Karasuma-san kept on reassuring the students that they will be exempt from any harm and that they have the opportunity considering their huge amount of time spent together with the octopus, because they're middle schoolers and why must it be class 3-E who gets chosen for this?

But of course, 3-E has a strategic spot with it being in the middle of a friggin' mountain (once again, she has to stop herself from having flashbacks over a certain conversation she had with the Principal) and being quarantined from the other student body including the staffs, which gives a nice spot for a proper assassination mission.

Sighing to herself, Shiori leans back to her chair, sipping her chocolate milk, lightly biting the straw as she thinks over this morning's sudden announcement of Earth's dooms day (exactly a year from now, whoop-dee-doo) and their "special" mission to stop it.

Her classmates are in various degrees of excited, but they're mostly accepting of it, even if they're a bit apprehensive about it either. Because really, a yellow octopus?

Still, the promise of money seems to be enough to tame them a little bit, and from the glint she's seen in her classmates' eyes, they seem to be willing to try to kill this octopus.

Eyeing the green rubber knife on her desk (does this thing even work on the octopus?), Shiori thinks that perhaps it's best if they do it soon, not because of the admittedly rather short deadline the Ministry of Defense gave them, but rather because of the implications of what may happen during the short year that can cause this excitement of assassinating an octopus die down pretty badly.

And if they don't get to do so—

"Kotonoha-san."

Body jerking in surprise at the sudden call of her name, Shiori very nearly falls down from her chair, her eyes locking onto the octopus' own eyes, lips letting out a soft yelp. The octopus is grinning at her, though he has always been grinning as far as she's seen, so perhaps it's his default expression, and Shiori has to wonder for a fleeting moment how his teeth can be so white if it's exposed to the air all the time.

"I… Yes?" Shiori manages to let out, body taut and wary, the girl palming the green knife, ready to strike and defend herself as well as bolting out of there if the octopus tries to do anything unsavory.

The octopus glances at her hand—making her stiffen even more—but seems to disregard it to stare at her instead, the tentacles swishing around as he says cheerfully, "if you would please come to my office?"

What.

"…Shiori?" Rio's voice is registered by her, and Shiori notices that Naka—Rio is standing behind her, worried and rightfully wary, because while the octopus looks squishy, he did just ask Shiori to come to his office without any real reason.

"…." Glancing back at the blonde for a few moments, Shiori thinks, rather hysterically, that perhaps it isn't really a request as much as it is an order. This guy is probably a mutant, after all, one that destroys the moon and is dangerous enough to warrant the world leaders' to be at loss at what to do that they end up depending on the help of mere middle school students.

The octopus is asking for her, and she thinks that, no, she can't drag Rio into this, whatever this is.

She can only hope that with the agreement with the Ministry of Defense (and who says that the octopus will follow through his promise? He's, like, a supervillain, right?) the octopus won't hurt her as an example to the other students or something.

She can only hope.

(And if the octopus notices that she brings along her knife along the ride, well.)

(He'll have to deal with that later, as well).

XXX

"Kotonoha-san, what do you think about assassination?"

Well.

That's unexpected.

Blinking a few moments on her seat—and that's also a surprise, the octopus had kindly offered her a seat for her and even offered a warm tea, one that she rejected much to his dismay—Shiori takes a moment to properly look at the octopus' round face.

He looks serene, at the very least, and his smile doesn't really falter even after a round of silence as Shiori hasn't answered the question just yet.

"Well?" The octopus hums, one of his tentacles curling on itself like a finger doing a come-hither motion, and Shiori once again has to marvel over the sheer strangeness of this all. Being reborn is strange enough, to see a yellow octopus acting like a human is even stranger.

"…Why do you ask that… sensei?" She tacks the title lamely at the very end, figuring that the octopus hasn't really introduced his name (does he even have a name?).

"You seem to be pretty against this assassination thing, Kotonoha-san," the octopus comments pleasantly, "so sensei would like to know your opinion about assassination itself. That way, perhaps we can come to an agreement over what sort of assassination it is that will happen in this classroom."

Shiori has to stare.

Incredulously, that is.

Because, really? What kind of assassination it really entails? Shiori may be a civilian in her past life as well, but she knows enough that with the sort of mission given by the Ministry of Defense, the sort of assassination they expect out of these children is—

"Assassination, sensei," she says, tone flat, "is a cold blooded murder."

XXX

DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN. I'M BACK. And I gave you a cliffhanger. I know, I'm awesome that way. Did Shiori sound dramatic in this chapter? I tried to make it as realistic as possible especially considering one's reaction to being faced with a YELLOW OCTOPUS DESTROYING THE MOON OH MY. Even the normally rather distant and detached Shiori has to react to that.

(And yes, she's pretty much spurred with protective instincts. She's like, "nope", as she gathers Nakamura and Nagisa and her classmates in her arms and be like, "you no touching this").

Please tell me what you think of this chapter! Review, please!

Next chapter: Agreement