"This is stupid," the male mumbled as he passed the auditorium. He readjusted the rim on his glasses with his wrist, a habit he got from having his hands bloodied from surgical operations. His gloved fingers carded through his black locks as he walked away from the gunfight.

He pulled his phone out, taking a look at Irina's message. He hadn't cared much for her message previously, dismissing it after a look as he had other matters to attend. But after seeing Grip out, followed by Gastro, he felt his boredom grow and decided to have another look at her text.

The address he previously read with mild interest now seemed oddly familiar. He narrowed his dirty-blue eyes, of course, it was. The coordinates were located right next to his hotel. It would be more surprising if he didn't realize it after taking a careful look. He ruffled his hair, feeling like the poisoned people were his client's targets.

The incoming headache was strong.

He had a look at the group through the camera, a bit after their encounter with Smog and before they began to work around the cameras. He hadn't seen Irina, so he hadn't made the connection between the two. Either way. He took the mission from Takaoka he couldn't step down now.

With these thoughts, he made his way back to the surveillance room. He didn't know if Gastro would manage to stop the group, and truthfully, he didn't care. Gastro was a pro and a former military man. While Oshiro couldn't compare to his marksmanship, his use of drugs, as well as his medical knowledge, largely made up for it.

Oshiro entered the surveillance room without knocking. What greeted him was the sight of Takaoka scratching his neck and relentlessly peeling his skin and scabs with his nails. His dirty-blue eyes narrowed to observe the man's build figure with some minute disgust. Finally, he sighed.

"You should stop that," he told the military man. His sharp eyes stared at the older's back before he made his way to his suitcase.

Takaoka lifted his gaze from the screen that displayed the drugged students laying on the patio. His crazed face turned to look at Oshiro with a raised eyebrow. "Shouldn't do what? What right do you have to speak to me? Who do you think you are? I'm the one who hired you! You should follow my orders and shut up!" he cried, voice growing with every sentence.

Oshiro stared at the man with boredom. Fortunately, his mission would end soon and he would be able to leave the man behind. He heaved a silent sigh, ignoring the man's words as he unlocked his suitcase. In it, a plethora of test tubes, as well as some questionable samples, rested. Oshiro took a seat on one of the swivel chairs, uncaring of his client's words.

With his suitcase on his lap, he pulled one tube out. He was about to open the tube when Takaoka called out to him. "Hey you, Shadow, right?" the burly man rhetorically called out as he continued to scrap his neck and cheeks.

Oshiro raised his head, he raised an eyebrow, his poker face not fading as he brought the tube back in his suitcase. "Yes?"

"Don't stay here, go and take care of those brats for a bit!" he ordered with a vicious grin, his eyes glinted manically as he envisioned some of the students' demise and suffering. "Make their death long and painful!" he added wickedly.

Oshiro closed his suitcase, he grabbed it with his white-gloved hand and nodded at the male. "Will that be all?" he professionally asked. This task would be the last one before he stopped following the male's demands.

Takaoka hurriedly waved his hands, uttering a multitude of "yes" he quickly dismissed the hitman and focused back on the monitors in front of him.

With a tired sigh, Oshiro exited the room. All of the material he brought out of his hotel room was in his hands— his suitcase. He wasn't part of the field assassins like Grip or Gastro. His offensive power was limited, not that he couldn't fight, but against an opponent who specialized in hand to hand battle, he was at a disadvantage.

His varnished shoes hit the floor cleanly as his cold eyes swept the whole story in search of someone. He noted without much surprise that there was no guard standing, and deduced that Gastro had fallen and the targets took the guards down. This deduction made him slightly narrow his eyes.

He stretched his right fingers, opening and closing his hand in turn as he tested the flexibility of his wrist. There was no sound apart from his shoes hitting the floor. He got closer to the linked corridors and stopped a few feet away from it. With his right wrist, he readjusted the rim of his glasses before plastering a very fake business smile on his face.

"Apologies, Sirs, do you have an appointment?"

::

After their fortuitous encounter with Gastro, 3-E continued their ascension toward the top floor where the mastermind resided. It didn't take long for them to pass the next story, as only a few guards were located, and before they knew it, only two floors were left until the top.

Karasuma cracked a smile after taking down yet another guard. The teacher was truly terrifying. Although only half of his strength was back from his encounter with Smog, he continued to take the full-grown, burly security guards down as if they were mere ants under his feet.

For the first time in a while, class 3-E admired just how powerful their P.E. teacher was. Karasuma seemed quite pumped by his recovery and didn't let his students' somewhat fearful gaze deter him and his brutal ascension.

Suddenly.

"Everyone, I hacked into the personal computer's camera on the upper floor," Ritsu, the class' A.I. student, called out from the many phones of the E-class students. Her voice sounded in stereo as she appeared on every phone screen, a bright smile illuminating her face. Everyone brought their attention to their cellphone, allowing themselves a pause as the pink-haired girl spoke.

"The entirety of the upper floor has been reserved. As far as I can tell, the only one remaining is this guy here," she announced before showing them what the camera had to provide. The room was dimly litted, leaving only the light of the computer screen to cast a shadow over the stranger's back.

They couldn't see his face, but they could hear the sound of scraping and scratching and well as some incoherent mutters. On a closer look, they noticed the man's computer screen was an image of the remaining drugged 3-E students, back at the resort.

They felt a chill crawling along their spine. The man was a psycho, one that found sick enjoyment in their classmates' misery. The discovery only served to renew their determination.

Seeing the mood of his students, Koro decided to expose his foundings. He told them the man probably wasn't a hitman as the way he scattered the men under his command lacked proper method and experience. He also underlined that their target wasn't the students but himself and that entering his ball state pushed the mastermind to reconsider his plan. Finally, he reminded them that even if they managed to vanquish three hitmen, chance played a major role. In fact, had the situation been the one they originally planned, had they stuck to the plan, 3-E wouldn't have gotten out of their squirmish in one piece.

His sound judgment allowed the students to keep their guard and not fall complacent or grow overconfident. On the other hand, Karasuma also analyzed the yellow octopus' words. But his thoughts were elsewhere and on the stationed guards instead. There was something amiss with these guards, he couldn't quite put his finger on the issue, but he had an inkling.

He didn't like the direction his thoughts were taking, it gave him a very bad feeling.

"Either way, Ritsu," Koro-sensei called out, taking his students out of their musings. "What about Shadow? We haven't met him yet, have we?" he asked the A.I. student as he remembered Grip's warning regarding Gastro and Shadow being the other two assassins dispatched for them.

Ritsu nodded, she reviewed the computer's memory until she found an image, soon, a man's face appeared on the phone screens. The image wasn't of the best quality, even after Ritsu's processing, but it was good enough to distinguish the male's main features.

"This man should be Shadow," she introduced. The image was a bit blurry, one could distinguish the short black hair of the male as well as his glasses. With the bad lighting and reflection, they couldn't make out the color of his eyes behind the glasses. With the way the camera was oriented, they could only see the man's upper body.

He was clad in black, with a turtleneck shirt and coat over it. They saw his hands, covered in a pair of immaculate white gloves, and managed to decipher the silhouette of a silver suitcase. "He exited the surveillance room minutes ago, probably to go after you," she told them.

Karasuma gave a curt nod. "Very well, thank you, Ritsu," he told her before leading the way to the upper floor. They took a few steps into the corridor. They were about to join the main one when Karasuma motioned for them to halt. He brought a finger to his lips, telling them to keep silent as he crept closer to the end of the corridor. He was about to peek out of it to have a look when a slow and unhurried voice came to his ears.

"Apologies, Sirs, do you have an appointment?"

He felt a chill run down his spine. Not because of incoming danger or the fact that the man— most probably Shadow, detected them. But from the feeling of being dissected alive by the voice. As if nothing could go past the owner of the voice, slipping into you and finding out your most precious secrets.

Karasuma took a moment to ponder his next actions before he heaved a sigh. If the man was the last hitman, there was no need in playing dumb after he spotted you. He wouldn't go away if they played dumb. Instead of going for a confrontation, Karasuma tried to play the "inoffensive" card. He raised his hands, showing they were empty and walked out of hiding to face the hitman.

Looking at him, Karasuma realized the male was a few centimeters taller than him. His eyes were a dirty-blue and his face unreadable as he stared at Karasuma's hands.

Oshiro stared at Karasuma for a few silent seconds before giving a slight polite nod to the Ministry of Defense agent. His smile didn't fade, remaining as plastic as before, and his eyes narrowed. He stepped closer, disregarding the hiding students or Karasuma's possible offense if he got into arms reach.

"You," he finally uttered. "Do I know you?" he asked, low voice laced with some minute confusion and irritation. Karasuma felt something wasn't right with the man's reaction. Taking in the assassin's figure, he shook his head in denial. He didn't remember ever meeting him or contacting him to aid Koro-sensei's assassination.

Oshiro hummed, his narrowed eyes slightly widened in recognition, and he snorted. The sequence was anything but what E-class and the teachers anticipated, and Karasuma could only stare in confusion while the remaining students observed the confrontation through the cameras Ritsu hacked.

"This is stupid," the hitman uttered as he put his suitcase down. The motion made Karasuma even more on edge as he waited for the raven head to resort to his hidden weapon, he was ready to counterattack and take him down any moment now.

The students held their breath. Chiba and Hayami, the ones with firearms, inched closer to the main corridors, guns in hands, and ready to cover for their teacher in case he needed a diversion.

Oshiro ignored them all. He plunged his left hand— the one that previously held his suitcase, in his pocket, making Karasuma almost charge at him, and pulled a flip phone out. "This will only take a second—" and Karasuma attacked.

Oshiro dodged, as best as he could, while keeping the phone in his hands and waiting for the other side to pick up. He wasn't the best fighter, but if it was dodging for some time, he could do it. He felt a hand reach for his head, and out of reflex had a scalpel slip out of his cuffs, ready to cut the man's tendons.

Karasuma dodged the strike in the nick of the time. He gritted his teeth. At the best of his ability, he wouldn't have any trouble taking the male down. Karasuma charged again, sending punches and kicks the hitman's way. This time, he was careful to look out for the hidden scalpel in the man's hands.

After dodging some more, the phone call connected. A familiar voice, to both parties, sounded through the device. The owner seemed slightly intoxicated, probably from drinking, and the chatter behind her was prominent. The sound of the piano added to the atmosphere, completely breaking the tension between the two men.

"Oshiro? You already landed in Okinawa?"

Oshiro looked at Karasuma's face with a raised eyebrow, his lips stretched into a straight line as he kept an eye out for any surprise attack. He brought the phone to his ear.

"Irina," he greeted, making Karasuma and the student both tense and confused. "You didn't tell me that you got yourself a boyfriend," he drawled, his low voice seeming colder than usual. There was a pause on Irina's side.

"Boyfriend? Whose? Mine?"

Irina's questioning voice seemed out of this world to Karasuma who stood close enough to hear it. The students who saw their teacher not move while Shadow passed a call, were slightly baffled.

"Why yes, black spiky short hair and eyebrows, mean-looking eyes. Tall— well, still shorter than me, and muscular," Oshiro paused, once again looking at Karasuma's figure. "Short-sleeved shirt, most probably not our line of work," he described. "Stronger than you."

Irina chortled. "Stronger than you, you mean?" she teased back before cutting herself.

Oshiro didn't wait for her, he looked up at Karasuma. "Your name?"

Karasuma blinked, he felt like they could come to terms without needless fighting and complied. Oshiro hummed in acknowledgment before reporting it to Irina.

"Wait, what are you doing with my students!" she screeched. From the lack of chatter, Oshiro deduced she changed location.

"Your students?" he echoed in mild disbelief. He walked to his suitcase, ignoring Karasuma as he picked it up. "Weren't you on a mission to kill some old men? When did you become a teacher?"

"I— leave it, I'll explain it later. Pass the phone to Karasuma. I need to talk to him— wait. You aren't going to stand in his way are you?"

Oshiro paused, his lips stretched into a calculative smile. "I wonder."

Irina bit the bullet. "I'll owe you thrice for this one," she negotiated. Hearing the male hum, she knew he would comply.

Oshiro walked up to Karasuma, he gave the male the phone. "You have two minutes, I'm in a hurry."

Feeling mystified, Karasuma accepted the call.

It wasn't until the later that they recalled Irina had a few colleagues with the word "Shadow" in their moniker.

Bonus:

[Years Later]

"Now that I think about it, how did you recognize me?" Karasuma asked as he brought a piece of meat to his mouth. Irina, his fiancée sat on his left, and Kyoya on his right.

Kyoya hummed, he brought the wine glass to his lips, silently observing the beverage before bringing it to his lips. He ignored Irina who began to choke on her vegetables, and the alarmed looks she sent his way.

"Irina sent me a picture," he took a sip of his wine. "She was drunk, the number of heart stickers added to it was... outstanding."

"Oh."

Next chapter, Mitsukuni is back! Did you miss him?

Kyoya Oshiro