“I transferred at the worst possible tiiiiiime!” Sakuragi groaned dramatically, draping herself over her desk. “Midterms are next week!”

Rio Nakamura laughed. “Were your grades bad, Hanako-chan?”

Pouting, Sakuragi shook her head. “I was in Class A before, but since I defended Nagisa from bullies in other classes, I was transferred. But I’m horrible at studying! I always studied with the Big Five who were in my class, but they won’t help me now!”

“Don’t worry about it!” Both girls jumped as they turned around to see Koro-sensei grinning at them.

He went to the front of the classroom, then split into multiple clones, as many as there were students.

“I’ll help you study to get into the top 50!” The clones grinned and spoke in unison.

“Top 50?!”

“Why do we need to study?” Rio asked.

“Huh?” Koro-sensei and Sakuragi looked confused.

“We’re Class E. The End Class. I know you don’t understand, Hanako-chan, since you haven’t been here long but there’s no point in trying.” Rio had a resigned look on her face.

“But-” Sakuragi was cut off by Maehara. “Besides, if we win the bounty, we don’t need to have good grades.”

“Yeah!” Fuwa agreed. 

“Is that so?” Koro-sensei’s face turned purple with an X mark on it. “You guys aren’t cut out to be assassins, hm…..follow me outside.”

Hesitantly, all of the students followed him outside. “Irina-sensei, do your targets often get killed on the first strike?”

A blond haired woman Sakuragi assumed was Irina Jelavic looked up and shook her head no.

“How about you, Karasuma, when you teach knife skills?” The man, who Sakuragi assumed was Karasuma shook his head as well.

“If the opponent is skilled, the first blow is likely to be dodged.”

“You see? An assassin always needs a second blade in case what they try first doesn’t work. What if someone else kills me? What if I just leave? Then you’d have no money and no future.” Koro-sensei then turned into a tornado, blinding the students with the dust.

Sakuragi felt a flash of fear, subconsciously letting her bloodlust show. Once everything settled down, the field was completely clear, fit to play sports on and everything.

“I weeded and cleared the field,” Koro-sensei announced. “If you guys don’t get into the top 50, I’ll leave.”

Sakuragi let out a sigh of relief. “Are you okay, Hana-chan?” Kayano looked at her.

Sakuragi nodded. “I am, thank you, Kaede-chan.” She let out a shaky smile.

…

Once Koro-sensei turned into a tornado, Karasuma sensed a surge of bloodlust. Suddenly alert, he looked around. That isn’t the octopus…

Karasuma turned to Irina. She looked just as alert and confused as he was. When the tornado dispersed, he was able to see better and looked around. When his eyes found the students, he zeroed in on a nervous looking girl with dark purple hair and violet eyes. Her?

The girl looked up and locked eyes with him, the bloodlust disappearing as she did so. Who is she? Oh, Koro-sensei did mention that there was a new student from Class A yesterday.

Karasuma walked over to Irina. “Did you sense that too?” Karasuma murmured.

Irina nodded. “Did you see who it was?”

Karasuma gestured to the purple haired girl. Irina looked confused. “Isn’t she that cheerful one? How could someone like her-”

Karasuma interrupted. “You know as well as I do how well some people can put on an act. Have you talked to her yet?”

“No I haven’t, so I haven’t gotten close enough to sense if she has the scent of death. Are you planning on talking to her?” 

 “Yes, I need to anyway.” Karasuma strolled over to the students while they were filing into the classroom, and stopped the purple haired girl.

“You’re the new student, aren’t you?”

…

“You’re the new student, aren’t you?” Sakuragi looked up at the government agent, 3-E’s P.E. teacher, Tadaomi Karasuma.

Not good. She thought. I accidentally let my bloodlust show. Sakuragi let a fake bright smile cross her face. “Yes, sir! I’m Hanako Sakuragi! Do you need something?”

“I’m Tadaomi Karasuma, 3-E’s P.E. teacher. Have you attempted to kill the octopus yet?”

Sakuragi shook her head with a laugh. “No, sorry. I don’t feel comfortable trying to kill someone, especially since he used to be human.”

Karasuma stared at her. “How do you know that?”

Sakuragi froze. Oh. “Uhh...I…..” She started looking panicked, making tears appear at the edge of her eyes. Karasuma flinched.

“Oh, look, you made the poor girl cry.” Irina approached from behind Karasuma. “Let me meet her.”

Sniffling, Sakuragi wiped her eyes. “Who are you?”

“I’m Irina Jelavic, your English teacher.” Irina took a deep breath, eyes widening slightly. Karasuma looked at her questioningly. Irina gave him a brief nod, the message clear: She has the scent of death.

Sakuragi smiled widely, her tears gone. “Nice to meet you! I’m Hanako Sakuragi!” Irina froze, then pulled Sakuragi into her chest.

Cheeks pink, Irina turned to Karasuma. “She’s so adorable, can I keep her?”

Karasuma sweatdropped. “No you can’t. And let her go, you’re probably suffocating her.”

Irina released Sakuragi. “Go to class now, honey.” She patted the younger girl on the head. Sakuragi grinned.

“Okay, will you eat lunch with me later, Irina-sensei?” Sakuragi asked. She seemed to be sparkling.

Touched, Irina nodded mutely. “You can come too if you want, Karasuma-sensei!” Sakuragi looked at the man in question, who shook his head.

“I’m often working during lunch break.”

“When are you not working?” Irina mumbled under her breath. Karasuma shot her a glare.

“Anyway, goodbye for now!” Sakuragi waved, and skipped into the classroom.

…

“Do you think she’s an assassin?” Karasuma asked as he paced.

“She does have the scent of death…..but it’s possible that she had a traumatic experience and that gave her the scent of death as well as the large amount of bloodlust.” Irina furrowed her brow.

“What I don’t understand is why she’s hiding it. This is the Assassination Classroom, the whole point is for the class to assassinate. And to have so much bloodlust without changing her personality means she carefully crafted this persona. It’s entirely possible everything about Hanako Sakuragi is fake.”

“We’ll have to be careful,” Karasuma said.

I really hope it’s not fake. Irina thought. I like that kid.

…

Now it was the day of the midterms. The Class E students were taking the test in the main school building.

The teacher overseeing them was tapping his fingers on the desk. Sakuragi gritted her teeth. Does he really have to do that?

She tried to ignore the tapping and focused on her test. History is probably the hardest subject, so it’s a good thing I have it first.

HUH? WHY DO I HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT AUTHORS ON A HISTORY TEST? Something about Yukichi Fukuzawa….

Sakuragi remembered what Koro-sensei said.

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“The hardest subject of yours is History, isn’t it?” Sakuragi looked up and saw a double of Koro-sensei wearing a headband that said ‘History’ on it.

Sakuragi looked down. “Yeah….all those dates and people are confusing.”

Koro-sensei put a tentacle on Sakuragi’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it! So, see, the way to remember these is…….”

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Remembering the advice Koro-sensei gave her, Sakuragi delved into the test with laser-focus.

She breezed through the rest of the tests easily, and turned her paper in. She was frowning as she walked out of the room. Those questions seemed different….did the principal change them?

Later, when everyone found out their scores, the mood was subdued. Koro-sensei was moping in a corner. “I’ve failed you all….” he said dramatically. “I can’t face you.”

Suddenly, a knife was thrown at the back of the octopus’s head. He dodged and saw Karma staring at him with a mocking grin on his face. “You sure, teach? If you don’t look at us, you can’t see us coming to kill you.”

“Karma!” Koro-sensei said, wounded. “I am very depressed now-”

Sakuragi got up from her seat and walked over next to Karma. They both placed their tests results on the desk. Koro-sensei looked at them and gasped. “Huh?!”

“What is it?!” Sugino asked.

“What was the score?!” Kayano chimed in.

Akabane, Karma. Ranked 4th in Year 3.

Sakuragi, Hanako. Ranked 1st with Asano, Gakushuu in Year 3. 

“WHAT?!” The class erupted into loud chatter, gathering around the two highest achieving students.

“Karma got a 100 in math, no way!” Isogai exclaimed.

“Sakuragi-chan got a 100 in every subject!” Nagisa peered at Sakuragi’s score.

Sakuragi rubbed the back of her head, blushing. “I wasn’t sure how well I was going to do since I didn’t study with some of my old classmates this time, but thanks to Koro-sensei’s teaching, I managed to score well even in the subjects I struggle with occasionally.”

Rio let out a breath. “That’s a former Class A student for you. Nice, Hanako-chan!” She wrapped an arm around Sakuragi’s shoulders, grinning.

Meanwhile, Karma had a large smirk on his face. “You taught more than you had to for me.” He addressed Koro-sensei. “So I could still handle the questions even if they changed their scope.”

“Either way, I’m not leaving this class.” Karma tossed a knife up in the air and caught it.

“Me neither!” Sakuragi smiled a closed eye smile, seeming like she was sparkling. “You guys are too nice for me to just leave!” All the girls immediately hugged her.

“You’re so cute!” Yada exclaimed.

“We love you too, Hana-chan!” Kayano agreed.

“Assassination is way more fun than listening to some boring old teacher. Anyway…” Karma leered. “Are you going to use this as an excuse to leave? Are you….scared?”

The students’ eyes widened, then exchanged amused looks with each other. Maehara spoke up. “Oh, you were just scared, sir? You should’ve told us.”

“Yeah, should’ve just said, ‘I’m scared, I’m going to run away.’” Sugino teased. Koro-sensei turned bright red, waving his tentacles around.

“I’m not scared! We’re going to take revenge twofold in finals!” Koro-sensei shouted. Everyone started laughing.

Flustered, Koro-sensei said, “This isn’t a laughing matter, honestly!”

The students’ laughter only increased.

Hurriedly, Koro-sensei said, “Repeat after me! Class E-fight!”

“Fight!”

“Louder!”

“FIGHT!”