"Congratulations! You went bankrupt!" announced Nakamura to wide-eyed Arina. Everyone else laughed but Kurahashi was the only one to send her a good luck on the next turn.

"It can't be blamed that I'm too unlucky sometimes!" mourned Arina bitterly, as she watched the dices Maehara just threw tumbling on the board as it was his turn. "Oh, well, perhaps it's a good thing. There are not many people who can deal with bankruptcy as easily as I do! I will simply just take the easy route and marry myself into wealth right after this. I will go then — I can see that potential in— I mean, I will go marry a multibillionaire and win this game effortlessly. I'm sure he's just somewhere nearby."

But she did not go find and marry a multibillionaire right after the announcement. Instead, she came back to sit next to Kataoka Megu who was still losing herself deep in the assassination discussion with mainly Isogai Yuma.

'Oh, I'm so hoping they won't be stressed out by the world being blown up too much,' Arina low-key intertwined her hands.

"Oh, you're here. Would you care to join us for a discussion?" Isogai snapped out of his diligent mode at last and offered with a wide grin, full of enthusiasm in Arina's point of view, as she let out a little gasp of admiration.

"Oh, I can never come up with any innovative idea at all, what a pity," she mourned, then immediately clasped her hands in excitement. "But, Isogai-kun! Why is that then? I have such a good imagination yet I don't think it's equipped to plan to kill somebody, let alone an octopus monster! You, on the other hand, have that sort of imagination — fascinating! I will sit here and listen to yours and Takaoka-san's plan, Isogai-kun. I'm very much eager to! If you ever succeed I will make sure to tell the media how you came to arrive at your ideas — what remarkable things inspired you, in detail!"

Surely after learning the truth about Koro-sensei, Arina had lost all desire to attempt an assassination on him. The reason her days in class 3-E were still beating with thrills was because of the idea of how the students were going to put an end to the conflict, as if a movie, as Arina thought — a movie about a group of students attempting murder on their octopus teacher — how fascinating!

She sat gazing dreamily at the prospect of teenage students coming up with a plan to kill a literal monster who threatened to destroy the world. Sometimes she would feel like chiming in, but chose not to interrupt their great effort. She got up to her feet and reached out for her tote bag on the rack above the seat to fetch her homemade cookies and distributed them to each student, including the teachers and Koro-sensei who just got inside the train in a human disguise.

"Oh, I'll come, too!"

Okuda Manami's voice caught Arina's attention as she whirled around to see the girls in Nagisa's group heading for the other compartment. Passing through them, were Ryuuki, Butaro, and Goku. Their eyes met for a few seconds before Arina happily waved at them but quickly dropped her hand when she was hit upon by the state of their broken relationship and almost broke into sensitive tears.

"Are you alright, Arina?" Yada noticed the stiffness in her body language and leaned out of the seat to ask.

"Alright? Oh, alright — I'm pretty much alright most of the time, but, my, Yada-san," anyone could see Arina was desperate to try and hold her tears back.

She marched over to the table and flopped herself down before Yada and slammed her head to the table — nevermind the ladylike image she forgot to present on the verge of grief for a once bosom relationship between a Big Sis and her dearest comrade brothers — she buried her face in her arms and whined, "Butaro is no longer chubby anymore! I saw it — his belly shrunk by an inch! It shall never escape my sight! What a horrible sight! If I were still his Big Sis I would have already stuffed him with these cookies! That's the one thing so awful about being loathed by your loved ones!"

***

"Please, Asano-kun, this man STINKS!"

During this time, in the first-class compartment, Asano's poor classmates who were assigned to sit near the showerless man for years resorted to breathing through their mouths instead, flinching whenever Watanabe the homeless man's curious eyes landed on them.

The stinky man was sitting next to Asano who seemed to be unbothered by the smell and gazed through the window to the landscape outside while crossing his arms. Apparently, he was thinking about the potential hypothesis he just developed days ago after that conversation with Arina, and shifted to thinking about her mysteriousness instead, since it also has to do with his theory. But then he decided that he missed her, as he pulled out his phone and texted, 'I had learned my lesson and already given up your seat for a homeless man. I would understand if you still don't want to talk to me, but I learned now that by looking at this man, we shouldn't take things for granted, as I shouldn't when you are always present around me.'

He turned off his phone but only seconds later occurred a 'Ding!' sound, which lightened his heart so much that he immediately turned it on again and checked his message.

From: Morikawa Mika

Pls forgive me for saying this but we are in the middle of truth or dare and Tanaka dared me to tell you that I've been secretly in love with you all these times😩 Ps: pls don't take this seriously...but you can tho if you want to

Disappointment smeared on Asano's face, along with that contempt for whatever childish game that was.

Sitting before him Mizuno Ami unapologetically let out a burp sound as she sat a free cup of liquor as first class benefit on the table and further spread her legs apart regardless of wearing a skirt and leaned back against the seat. She waved a hand, again, a burp, "I mean, he does stink but— you get used to it after a while. Oh, I wonder if stench is *burp* contagious. If it's contagious this whole compartment would be doomed—but—bu, I mean *burp*— the scale depends on how strong and how much it reeked from Mr. Watanabe— Anyway, I can tell *burp* when people are being judgmental just by— by looking at them. Let the man live a life of flamboyance for once at least."

'What a vulgar manner,' Asano wasn't aware but his irritated facial expression already spoke his mind, disapproving of the tomboy's self-indulgence and lack of image consciousness. Inappropriate. Utterly inappropriate. He vocally corrected her. The reason why he even let her into his group was thanks to Teppei who insisted on having her with Seo and Ren as his assistant.

'Oh, Ami, she is never afraid to speak her thoughts,' sighed Teppei dreamily, who was sitting on the row of seats beside them on the other side of the aisle. His heart-shaped pupils dilated.

"Aren't you the one being judgmental now?" sweatdropped Ren beside Teppei, deliverying his gze at Ami.

Minami Mei shuddered at Ami's words and glanced at the homeless man sitting in front of her in horror and tilted around to query how the contagious thing worked under her breath meanwhile the man was indulging himself in free complimentary drinks and sweets.

Asano shut his eyes and folded his arms to relieve himself from the stress Ami was giving him by simply just existing then suddenly, the phone once again notified him with a 'Ding!' sound.

Shooting his eyes open at the possibility of who that could be he unlocked his phone screen only to feel disappointed when it was just another message from the girl he barely even saw as a minion as of now.

From: Morikawa Mika

It's been over 5 mins I'm so sorryyy😭 you must be very annoyed with me to not dm me back I'm so sorry I didn't mean to provoke you by saying it I didn't mean what I said either it's just a sillyy gamee

Asano turned the screen off without much thought and decided to take a nap to take his mind off of the stupid people he were being surrounded with. Even with another 'Ding!' and 'Ding!' sound he just assumed it was from Morikawa and spiraled deeper into his sleep.

***

Arina was waiting impatiently for Asano's reply. She had been staring at what she had typed out and considered deleting them for the past fifteen minutes but decided not to each time she was about to do so.

He hadn't even seen her texts. And she began to imagine what he was up to this very moment. She wanted to give him the cookies she just made from a new recipe, but the thought of endangering his reputation by walking into class 3-A's compartment and showing the students there that they were still associated with each other had made her release a very long sigh.

Hours passed and finally the train reached its destination, Kyoto. Asano still hadn't replied by that point. In chatters of excitement of what fun was to come the students arranged themselves back to their original groups and took turns lining up under their facade homeroom teacher Karasuma.

Arina hopped out of the train carrying her suitcase with her bright eyes and cheeks radiating exhilaration as a girl who was always hungry for adventures. But without thinking, she dragged her eyes from the back end up to the front end of the bullet train, an inner part of her hoped to bump into the ex-comrade brothers again, carefully scrutinizing the busy crowds on the platform. But what met her eyes instead was Asano's from class A line standing amid the stream of people. Apparently he was scanning the crowd for her as well, and accidentally spotted her first. Since when Arina didn't know, but her face burned a ruddy color and she looked away, pretending to admire the sky until she was truly losing herself in reverie by the sight.

'I know deep inside he's a good person with good
intent — but I would like to believe he hasn't helped the homeless man just to convince me he's good, but oh merciful goodness, why do I find it so lovely of him to act the way he does,' Her green eyes bathed in the sunlight turned to gold, and she knotted her fingers hopefully, shutting her eyes closed, 'Oh, perhaps I'm too romantic, but that's the way to live life to the fullest. For once I would fancy a nice little date with my dear Asano-kun around Kyoto for a while — just for a while. I shall hope the world won't burn to crisps while it happens. For some reason things always DO happen while I'm at the peak of my emotion and they tend to not last long. What a pity. But that's why I'm only asking for a while.'

Arina wasn't so shy — thank goodness not too much to the point she could not simply ask for what she'd hoped for.

After arriving, the students were given time to rest before moving on with the first tour around the city. Asano was unbuttoning his shirt to prepare for a quick shower when he picked up his phone to check the time and saw the notifications with his bosom friend's name on them — with the edges of his lips curled upward to the maximum of its capacity he hadn't realized he had let out a full, delightful chuckle.

From: Arina (Ариша)

Nooooo

Don't mind my dramatic rant, I still quite very want to talk to you

How's the homeless man ⁉️ What is his name? Is he very happy when he gets to travel with you in first class? 🥺💗

I miss you, Asano-kun, but I'm just worried that by getting too close to you you would get into trouble with your reputation, bc I'm now a criminal. A monster. A Joker without her Batman, but I don't deserve one since I'm literally living in a paradise instead of Gotham（ ; ; ）who am I to complain?

Buuut how about I disguise myself and sneak out on my second day to be with you? I could be Batman. Oh I would love to be Batman! *\(^o^)/*And we have tomorrow off aren't we? Would you still have any class projects by then?

Idk why, but the thought of being with you really lightens my heart ✨

He stared at the text — more specifically — at the last text for a few minutes before a knock resounded from behind at the door. He quickly took a screenshot and put his phone down on the bed and went to open the door. It was Watanabe the homeless man.

"What it is?" with a closed-eye smile facade Asano put on almost instinctively he asked the man in a polite tone. Though he quickly realized, the man was gluing his gaze on his body up and down instead of his face and came to an alert that he was greeting someone while being topless.

"Nice abs," the homeless man licked his lips.

"Pardon me. Wait a moment before I put my—"

"Erm, no problem. I'm here to ask if you have any idea on how to turn on the hot water. I can't figure out by myself how it works."

Despite heaving an internal sigh, Asano held onto his smile and guided the man into the bathroom and with a little bit of logic, showed him how it worked.

"Ooh so that's how it works! By the way, are you in love with anyone?"

Asano gawked at the man he rescued from the street in disturbance by the suddenness of his random question. He was a hairy guy who looked like he hadn't shaved in an eternity: black, curly hair curtained half his face and his beard a big bush. He was fully clothed from top to bottom, so Asano could not point out whether he was truly malnourished by being authentically homeless or not. Somehow his intuition told him something was wrong now that he was alone with this guy.

"Or if you do, does she love you back?"

He licked his lips.

Asano widened his eyes.

In that moment, he realized, that this man he found on the street — the poor, supposed homeless man, had piercing on his tongue.

"I really hope Arina loves you back, Asano-kun, I do."

Before he could even react, his sight was hit with a blockade purple of foggy gas, the next moment he knew, he was lying paralyzed on the floor before blacking out completely.

***

The glass-domed tram that carried Arina's group was passing by the Hozu River Bridge and came to a brief stop so the tourists could take photos of or admire the scenery, or...benefit from an assassination attempt while Koro-sensei was peeking out of the window.

"Oh, look, Koro-sensei! They are going downstream!" Kurahashi pointed at the boat chugging underneath the bridge. Hearing so, Arina whisked beside Koro-sensei as she let out a gasp of excitement and joy and extended her full arm to wave at the people on the boat.

"Have a very wonderful day, lovely people!" she exclaimed merrily, chuckling, almost tumbling down the bridge as Koro-sensei pulled his hyper-thrilled student away from the window.

While they were distracting Koro-sensei according to plan, Maehara and Isogai exchanged glances at each other and nodded.

'Our high sign to the sniper,' Isogai's inner voice called, 'is the moment Koro-sensei leans out the window to look at the boat!'

'It would certainly — definitely not going to work,' Arina's mind spoke, contrasting with others' hope. She eyed the terrain and predicted the shooting distance and bullet trajectory and was pretty certain Koro-sensei would be able to do so as well.

Heck, he didn't even have to do it. He was too unearthly fast to even bother. In a swift movement Koro-sensei caught the high-spin rifle bullet with a soft and chewy yatsuhashi in a twirl of his tentacle, going for the motion of the bullet.

"Oops! Found a tiny bone in my Kyoto sweet. That could've been ugly," he turned around to the students but they avoided his gaze as sweat trickled down their cheeks. And Arina found herself laughing in an old fashion of clasped hands, imagining the poor sniper's reaction right now.

After the first assassination attempt Koro-sensei moved to join other groups, leaving Isogai, Maehara, Justice, Yada, Kurahashi and Arina to freely explore the city on their own.

"Oh, I love it when it's an adventure WITH exploration. That just makes it ten times better! I've been to Kyoto a few times before but often I'm too busy for an exploration. Well, indeed, I am a busy woman. Oh, don't you JUST love it?!" the gang was exploring Kyomizu-dera temple as Arina happily spoke, her hand brushing past every wooden pillar they went by, "I mean, don't you just love it when there's so much in the world to explore that you can NEVER run out of things to explore? I do! I very much do! That's the beauty of life! Oh, don't mind me, I'm just a little worked up since I got to spend time going on a thrilling adventure with you."

She swung her arms around the big pillar but slipped and fell on her ass. 'What a shift in attitude ever since the field trip with Koro-sensei!' her groupmates stared in confusion for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"Oh, Arina-chan," Kurahashi lifted her up, "Of course we are worked up too knowing you're here with us. But my, my, you really are just bad at containing yourself." She fake scolded while smiling. The rest came up to them and agreed. Arina laughed at herself and stood up and dusted her skirt.

"Euphoric! Oh my, that's the right word! Personally I think it's so good to express yourself shamelessly and see who will laugh at you for it — laugh like it's an acceptance! My, are those omamoris? Oh, perfect, wonderful, lovely — I would buy some for my beloved Asa—"

Her voice faded away as she entered the crowd by the souvenir shops to purchase the omamoris. Isogai craned to look out for Arina and instead spotted people lining up to receive fortune slips at the Omikuji corner. Some smiled while reading the paper while some just simply frowned.

"Hey, wanna know if we have enough fortune to win 10 million yen?" Isogai turned around to suggest and winked.

"Woah, the world is about to the blown up and here you are just thinking about the money?" chuckled Yada. "Way to go, class president."

"He just can't help that he's poor," said Maehara pitifully. "In order to pick up ladies you need money. Plenty of them. And technically speaking when he gets his wish it also means the world is already safe isn't it? Oh gosh just imagine having both money and new accolades as the hero of the world to pick up the ladies~"

"Always ladies," Yada gave him a stern look and the bunch broke into laughter.

A moment later Arina came out of the crowd with two huge shopping bags and was met with Kurahashi who prompted her to draw a fortune at the Omikuji corner, as Arina simply let out a low sigh.

Here is the catch. She low-key resented Omikuji. Why? Of course during her time in Japan, she had drawn once, twice, thrice, etc but every time the results came out as 'Dai-kyo' (Great bad fortune), and she would whine about it and tie it to the fence and even toss it to the trashcan at a certain point with a red face. But looking at Kurahashi's eagerness now was almost too much for Arina to dare to reject the offer. Oh, having to go on an adventure with dear friends and draw a fortune was almost always too good to turn any of it down, even if she kept getting great bad fortune for the rest of her life!

"Okay!" said Arina plainly, and she walked to the Omikuji corner where the rest of the group was reading theirs.

"Guys! Guys! I got Great Blessing—! I got—" Maehara couldn't restrain himself but bragged to everyone for more than they would like to hear.

"I got Small Blessing, which means it's probable that I would become a lady hoarder like Maehara said," grinned Isogai. (A/n: is that even a word?)

"Right! Right! I got Future Blessing!" Kurahashi finally announced her result, waving with her full arm amid the crowd while returning with Arina by her side.

They approached the group and apparently, as in Arina's view, the air had somehow split between the fortunate and the unfortunate.

Yada and Justice stared at their paper gloomily. Not even a twitched sign of facial expression.

"That's why it's important to name their kids normally...ha ha..." breathed Kimura Justice darkly at the piece of paper which had a big 'Great Bad Fortune' written on. "No one who comes to earth with such an unusual name would be able to experience a normal, happy life..."

"Oh heavenly mother! Don't be so overly pessimistic, Justice-kun," gasped Arina, horrified.

"Ha ha ha..." said Justice.

"This once again proves that being born as a queer person is undeserving of happiness," Yada muttered something so low that others had a hard time hearing her given the noisy background. (A/n: I just found out recently that Yada is canonically gay so don't accuse me of overusing this trope🥲)

"Two hundred yen isn't it?" Arina dropped her shopping bags to reach for her wallet. Kurahashi stopped her and offered the money instead.

"Here, it's only two hundred yen. It's my money so, knock on wood," Kurahashi winked dearly at her and Arina was so grateful that she jumped up and down happily and swore that her offer wouldn't be in vain.

She put the 200 yen in an offertory box and then stuck her arm into a box full of omikuji papers and drew one piece out. The group followed their gazes attentively as she unfolded the paper, it read:

Bad Fortune

Even if you try to do anything, you can not get along with others.
Trying to avoid danger, another trouble will come
Troubles and difficulties come to the person who takes care of home
Be careful to be more religious, because bad things come repeatedly

"Your wishes will not come true. "The patient won't get well soon. "The lost thing can't be found. "The person you are waiting for won't come.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Kurahashi sorrowfully.

Isogai and Maehara peaked at the paper as well and each patted Arina on the shoulder, while Kimura Justice hid a satisfied grin and Yada joyfully lit up and showed her the same description on her paper.

But they snapped out as soon as their white blonde-haired friend held the slip of paper up to the sky, radiating dreaminess in her demeanor as she chuckled very brightly:

"Merciful goodness, dear Hinano-chan! The day finally comes! The day I moved one rank higher above the Great Bad Fortune! It is no LONGER 'Great' as in bad! Oh, I'm so awfully grateful — Oh, I really do." Her dreamy eyes sparkled, "But even if it comes out as 'Great Bad Fortune' again, oh, I can't really see how it is a bit legit. Even now, at this moment, I've had everything I've wished for! I have my lovely everybody with me— oh I don't mind if some of them might be a little rude to me; I have a roof above my head and great food and adventure every day; I'm able to partake in a HEROIC quest of protecting the world from a giant yellow octopus along with some of my favorite people on earth! Oh, why is anything 'bad' then?"

'She's way too optimistic!' thought the groupmates. But it was great that they were able to witness her transformation when first entering this class until today. She might have gotten used to everyone fearing or speaking ill of her everywhere she went that eventually she decided to forgive them and focused on loving what she had instead. And those thoughts put a smile on her classmates' faces.

"That's what Arina-chan is best at!" complimented Kurahashi, chuckling, "She's very good at overcoming misfortune!"

"Oh, why? because you can always draw another Omikuji at any time," revealed Arina, as like it was the most mind-numbing information ever.

"Ah," chimed in Kimura Justice. "But it will take a while before I can officially change my name."

"No, my dear Justice," Arina turned to Justice and told him very heartily. "I think your name is as perfect as it could be, and I wouldn't lie when I tell you that I would dearly love to be named something so unique and heroic as Justice! Oh, just imagine being a hero in a novel while you're named Justice! Peak protagonist energy isn't it?"

Suddenly Justice's cheeks heated up without knowing, and Maehara saw it and slapped his back while grinning as though saying 'go for it'. Isogai further encouraged Justice to not pay a mind to society's opinion on things that do not fit into their mold and that he shouldn't be worried about his name being out of place.

"Well, Arina," countered Yada, "'You can always draw another Omikuji at any time' but isn't redrawing means ignoring the gods' advice?"

"Oh, even gods can not stop me from trying!" declared Arina boldly. "Because you only become more experienced and wise having learned from mistakes you can not foresee. Gods can't be telling you your future mistakes. That must be a mistake from gods themselves."

Isogai elbowed her and warned in a whisper, "You're in a temple."

"Oh my word, I couldn't help it," paled Arina.

***

The world for a while a color of ebony black, for Asano it was. He slowly opened his eyes to realize he was staring at the floor — a filthy, disgusting one. Not until he lifted his head that he drew the pattern and remembered what happened earlier and the state he was currently in and the place he was being held in captivity. Oh, damn! He was being held in captivity! In an abandoned building for the worst. He wanted to rub his eyes but his hands were already tied with chains behind him. And as if it wasn't enough, he found familiar faces standing around him with satisfying grins on their faces.

Arina's ex-minions.

Despite his state, Asano was trying to pull himself together to confront them. And there he was, Watanabe the homeless man whom he salvaged on the street, was standing in the middle of them. He overheard them calling him the new "Boss".

This man! The same man who was too stinky for not taking a bath for so long! Was their new leader? What the hell happened?

"Boss, how will you make him vomit it out," said a certain minion whom Asano didn't know the name of.

Vomit? Literal meaning or what?

"No worries," smirked the SOAB who dared to disguise as a vulnerable homeless man.

"If you want anything from me, I think you've come to the wrong person," Asano shut his eyes and said very calmly. "On top of it all, I am the most prestigious student of Japan. If anything ever happens to me, then you're sure to be under investigation. It wouldn't be a good ending for all of you. Think again."

"Surely," the smirk still remained on the SOAB's face. He held out a phone and showed Asano several pictures and videos, "It wouldn't be such a big deal as you said to just expose these things."

Asano almost lost his composure. Ho— How did they?!

"I can not believe he rehearsed scenarios of being bald in front of the mirror!!" the laughing almost made him lose his mind as Asano started to panic when the prospect of having these embarrassing things exposed to the internet struck him like lightning.

"And this 'most prestigious student of Japan' secretly went to the ice rink and tried quads without even knowing how to jump a single and fell and had a nosebleed and cried himself out of pain! Bro, just swipe it to the video where he sat on the ice floor and cried like a baby! It's hilarious!"

"I saw it! He doesn't even attempt another one after a SINGLE fall!"

"Guys, it doesn't compare to when the most prestigious student of Japan has to speed walk all the way outside of the school campus just to FART!"

(A/n: omg I sincerely apologize, Asano my love)

At this point, Asano was near to fainting away out of pure shame. Maybe 'Why are you doing this to me?' was the only facial expression he was able to make at that moment and he wasn't aware of it.

"I OWE YOU NOTHING!" at last he couldn't bear but exclaimed, completely losing himself. His face burned with anger.

"Well," the biggest SOAB in the world licked his lips once again with his piercing tongue sticking out, "You're going to provide us some info about Aleksey's daughter. What a shame that unlike you, she actually acknowledges the existence of hidden cams and is very careful to protect her secretive life. But no biggies, since you're her rumored boyfriend who is seen with her most of the time, the future of our gang relies on your confession."

'What is that supposed to mean?!' Asano questioned in his head with his eyebrows furrowed.

A second later, the door burst open and another group poured into the abandoned building. There they were, Arina's once most trusted members — Butaro, Goku, Japana, Chibi, and Ryuuki — three of them clutched two girls by their arms, pressing them back behind them. Kunugigaoka uniform. These faces, were from this year's class E, as Asano recognized with his eyes wide open.

"Let's have some fun with these girls while interviewing him, shall we?" evil laugh. And Asano immediately realized what was about to happen. He flashed his eyes to the girls' expression, examining them.

They were, of course, afraid for their life. If he could break free, he would try to save them, even though they were from class E, because it was just the right way to do.

"Now," added Ryuuki, tilting his head aside, as though waiting for something. "I wonder if that girl will come to save the day once again."

"Whatever it is," said another, "it's important that we have fun first."

"So," the SOAB approached and lifted Asano's chin with his hand, voice lowering to a half octave. Never had Asano smelled such a disgusting breath from the mouth of someone. "If you don't do me a favor, then I will expose your deepest secrets to the world, and on top of all, your crush will know every bit of it. Every. single. details."

Evil laughter shook the entire abandoned building, and for Asano, whose image and pride was ALWAYS on top of his priority, the terrifying prospects had left him emotionally damaged for the rest of his life.