Koro heard whispering between classmates here and there. He was trying to pin it down, but none of them were saying anything worth bothering about.
Eventually, one of them raised their hands. "Korosensei?"
"Yes?" he asked politely, knowing from the fuss in that direction what he would ask.
"Can we go home yet?"
"Working on it." Which he had been, for over two weeks now. If Sanctuary was a 'scrap the whole place kind of thing', it'd probably be over already, but it wasn't. Once he investigated and started visiting the other side, Sanctuary started having a lot more bright lights burning inside of it than the dark craziness.
Those bright lights kept to themselves, but he could always tell lying from honestly believing fanatically in the brainwashed lessons. About thirty percent of the Sanctuarians believed he was actually their god. About Fifty percent believed he could take them to another planet. The rest of the fifty percent seemed to just 'deal with it', and honestly just wanted to stay there.
They were all changed into an octopi shape, only helped with the forms Hyouga gave if they were 'important' or 'had to leave'. The outside world seeing them like that, wouldn't know how to accept it.
Although Koro managed to trick people into believing he was just an average human, not every octopi had the same ability to change color that he did. Some changed different colors everyday. Some changed colors due to temperature changes.
And although Koro wore a smile which tended to be taken the best outside, the ones that wanted to leave the most were stuck with an expression that was either too neutral or shocked or scared. Chou Chou's question was an important one to answer alright.
It was clear that how a person felt when they were making their last change, dictated that lasting expression. Meaning, it was hard to go to places and be seen as okay with a look of fright in your eyes.
So, most of them seemed to . . . cling to Sanctuary as the place to live.
That part really made sense, and Koro didn't help matters when he threatened to destroy the moon in a year if no one killed him. That probably made it even harder to go.
They were each just trying to get along, and live the best they could. Which meant once he did his trick and left the bad ones behind, the new ones would be open to being discovered at some point. They couldn't hide forever in that base, especially if Koro was taking out the top of Sanctuary. They were the ones that provided everything along with the ones like Aguri that had a Shibori effect to them. They were able to look human or octopi without shells.
And that of course meant that any connection to over here, would weaken their chances, so dragging anyone here to get any of these kids . . . "I am working on it. Just keep doing your homework." It meant he had to find a way to stop the bad side, without destroying the bad side yet, so they could provide for the good side, until he could figure out what to do with the good side, so it didn't depend on the bad side!
Another hand was raised. "Yes, Inke?" he responded in German. She asked in German about his egg. Again. He tried to have each of them speak in their native tongue, to keep them thinking closer to their home. "No idea it it's boy or girl, and no, not going to the doctor. Work on your work, please," he said to her in German.
During the day, he had watched the egg by just being a roller coaster for it. It seemed to work okay, and he was able to teach class and grade at the same time. When he went home, he usually handed the egg straight off to Aguri, and it kept still.
It kept still if she cooked. It kept still if she watched a movie. It even kept still when she slept. As soon as she handed it to him so she could head off to work again, it just went turbo.
It was still worth it though. Aguri was safe now, although she still tended to keep a more human appearance. She had been brought up to try and fit in, so she probably didn't even see a use for changing.
Another hand went up. It was Hermano. "Yes, Hermano?" Koro asked in Spanish. He looked toward his student, but he had stopped speaking. "What is your question?" he asked in Spanish.
Hermano just started to cry. "Bathroom!"
Okay? Koro didn't get a sense that was a sad subject, but Hermano was crying.
"Bathroom," Hermano said again. He rubbed his eyebrow and his eyes.
Oh. "You can go," Koro said in the language Sanctuary spoke. Hermano took off pretty fast. Three of my students can't speak their native languages. Two of them have forgotten their parents. So many, so young, that they forgot. Especially with all the experiments! Why couldn't the whole damn Sanctuary be bad, I could have just taken the whole place down! No, no have to have a whole lot of really good people here! It made it hard to concentrate.
The egg decided to drop down on his work and start to spin on it. "No, no," he insisted as he threw it back up and had it move around his tentacles again as he watched the papers.
They were supposed to be writing things in their own native languages too, and he could see some of them starting to combine words.
It also didn't make him feel good that Chou Chou wasn't in class that day. He had sent out Lola to check out the situation, but she said she wasn't feeling well that day. Even had a note from the 'adoptive parents' that watched over her.
But, his worst fear came true as he saw a short blue octopi with familiar eyes enter the room. They were sticking their tongue out. Chou chou. Already changed.
His front tentacles grabbed at his 'head'. Too late! Even if I find her home now, she can't go back like that! "Chou Chou."
She continued sticking her tongue out, as yellow mucus formed under her eyes. She went over and took her usual seat.
"Chou Chou!" All of the kids were starting to freak out.
Chou Chou's tears were red and she smudged them into the desk, changing it into a red color. "It's like paint now," she said looking toward Koro. "I can paint the town red if I want. Funny, huh?"
"I don't mind," Koro said to her. "Your whole area could use some red." She would need to cry. She could paint anything she wanted red with her tears.
"They never looked for me," she said to him. "Korosensei. You'd never find them. I was supposed to be in camp. They picked me up, when I was heading to camp. I'm just supposed to be at camp."
More and more of the area stained red, including her new flobby clothes. She knew the truth too. She could never go home. There wasn't an ounce of Shibori on her.
"Oh, God of Death!" Lola exclaimed as she was in the hallway and looked in. "We have our first full transformation. The others aren't very far behind."
"Not now, Messenger of God!" He was not in the mood! Koro went over toward Chou Chou. There was nothing he could do. She wasn't a student who ever-
Nevermind. Chou Chou came straight toward him and hugged him, crying on his outfit. Covered in red, like her. He didn't care. It was fitting. He held her in his front tentacles.
"Mm? It just takes a little getting used to," Lola said toward Chou Chou. "I will leave you, Lord, so you can deal with your new convert."
I have to work faster. He was too late for Chou Chou, but from what Lola said, he didn't have long before full conversion happened to all of them. He had to get them out and home somehow!
He had to get them out of Sanctuary itself, and make sure no one found Sanctuary in the process. I can't let anymore children be sacrificed just because I'm running out of time!
He watched as Hyouga stumbled in. "I heard someone transformed fully?" He looked toward Chou Chou. "I will start replicating a shell for you very soon."
"A shell won't change what happened," Koro cautioned her. "If I find your home and you are wearing a shell, it will eventually fail, and you'll be in a heap of trouble." That was just asking for it.
"They are starting to last a very long time," Hyouga insisted to her.
"He's the only one who can make shells. If something happens to him, they are gone. If he doesn't want to help you right away, they are gone," Koro also pointed out. He looked toward Hyouga. "She needs to adjust to a serious situation, not be confused by a notion that shells can save her."
"Serious?" Hyouga scoffed. "You have the gall to say that while an egg just races around you?"
"Shut up, both of you!" Chou Chou said in French.
Lola knocked by the door and waved slightly.
Koro sighed. "What is it?"
"There will be a graduation ceremony scheduled one week from now for the first batch," she said toward him. "Chou Chou will be the prime speaker since she was the first."
Not surprisingly, the kids started to freak out. Koro left Chou Chou and headed quickly toward Lola. "Who's graduating? I need to know as the teacher."
Lola pulled up three names. "Don't worry, Lord Reaper," she assured him. "You will always have students. Once you are down to the last three, you'll have a whole new batch of students ready."
Koro wished he could be more surprised. All three were the ones that had lost their native languages. Two out of those three had forgotten their homes. I have to move very fast. I have to get the tentacles out of them first before I can send any of them home. And they had to go before they went through full conversion.
"Your new students will be arriving in a couple of more weeks," Lola said.
Koro was happy he was always smiling. "When do the new little dears arrive to Sanctuary?"
"Oh, they are already here," she said. "They just aren't ready for being taught yet."
Koro heard the kids really panicking, but Lola just ignored it all.
"We make sure everyone is all secured and feeling better, before we put them in schooling," she insisted.
"Well, stop!" Koro insisted. "That is going t-to drive my plan completely out of whack!" he insisted. "I am trying to make a plan to get us off to another planet, and if you just keep gathering others, it's never going to work! I need consistent data! No moving numbers!"
"Oooh!" She seemed to suddenly get it. "Yes, Lord Reaper, what an issue. I agree, I see the problem." She bowed. "I will take care of it immediately!" She looked toward Chou Chou. "Does even one throw off all your data?"
Koro didn't know how to answer that one. "Possibly, so stop all conversions right now, or we might not be able to leave to a new planet. We might end up crashing in space instead."
"Yes, Lord Reaper!" Lola yelled as she took off.
Well? Maybe that stopped this whole thing. Even if it did, it was too late for Chou Chou.
"The egg calculations too," Lola said as she came back through the door. "The leaders demand to meet you right away. I will watch your class for you, Lord."
That sounded promising. "Fine," he agreed, "but don't bother Chou Chou. She's painting her whole corner red, and if she wants to paint anything else, she can," he warned her as he started to head away.
"You are very right," one of the leaders told him. "We should stop our normal operations so that numbers stay consistent from now on. Creating a solution, and only having it become a problem because of excess numbers would be bad."
Koro shook his head. "Yes, so let's reverse anything in progress, so numbers go back to how they were."
"We are stopping it right now," one of the leaders insisted. "Anything in progress has to finish. Not only would some children be absolutely scarred from the confusion, but eggs cannot be put back."
"There might accidentally be a pregnant octopus that does show up," a different leader addressed. "Do we tell all biological females to go for an exam to check, and then tell them all to be celibate until it worked out?"
Oooh. Good thing Lola didn't hear that. That felt like way too much constriction. It probably wouldn't happen without serious interventions, but there could be accidents in numbers. "Fine, we'll account for a few extra, but that's it," he insisted. "So, I think we should stop the converting and kidnappings. The numbers are tough enough to deal with."
The leaders seemed to agree the kidnappings should be stopped, but they didn't understand the conversions part.
"We can yank out the tentacles and save them, they'll stay human, and we can just drop them off somewhere near their home," he insisted.
"They'd tell," one of them insisted. "They'd tell about Sanctuary. It's not like we can just erase their minds. Can we?"
"Nevermind, let's not talk about their brains!" That might lead those idiots into even worse activities. "Okay. Let's . . . make them human again, but keep them until we are all gone. Once Sanctuary is empty, they'll be fine to go. Humans would come check out the place if they did believe, and find nothing here." There.
"That could be an idea," one of them agreed. "Then again-"
"I am keeping up a few spots for innocent eggs that might show up, are you going to tell a mom or dad that their egg is doomed because you felt like converting students that could have been changed back?" Koro tried to hit them where it hurt.
"Right," one of them agreed. "We will fix the tentacles and change them back, but keep them prisoner until this area is demolished and we are long gone."
It wasn't the safety of home, but it brought the safety of being able to go back home to his students. All except for Chou Chou.
What a night. When he went home, he told Aguri all about what happened. It wasn't hard considering he walked in covered in a red that looked like blood. Her immediate concern was clear as he explained what happened to Chou Chou, and all the other havoc he caused.
All he wanted to do was tune out the world and enjoy some TV with some popcorn that night. There was nothing left to be done, just tune it all out. Some movie. Some popcorn.
"Egg?"
Hm? Koro listened to the popcorn pop but he heard the mutterings in the next room with his excellent hearing. He slithered that way. Aguri looked alarmed, looking straight at the TV. He looked at it but it was just a regular problem.
The egg wasn't on her lap though.
"Egg." She didn't move, but glanced toward him. "The egg."
"Did it take off?" It never took off when it was near her. He heard his microwave beep.
"You can get that," she insisted. Still a little out of it.
He went to get the popcorn and sat beside her. He had looked around for the egg, but he didn't see it. "How far did it go?"
"I know where it is."
He looked back toward her. "Where?"
"I was tired," she said. "I think I started to fall asleep." She pushed her hand under her shirt and brought it out.
"It was probably trying to get warm," he said growing pink. "Beyond your shirt is probably very warm." Still, she was looking at the egg and stuck it back under her shirt, jumping slightly. "It sure would be nice to be that egg right-"
"Can you stick a tentacle through the top of my sweater to the egg?"
Uuuh? "Am I dreaming?"
"Oh, you would probably touch my boob."
"I mean, I can try!"
"Wait. Just." He watched her change into her octopi self, sort of. The clothes were more constricting. She took her tentacle and dug into the constricting ugly sweater.
Koro picked up a very faint noise. A squeak.
"Got you, you sneaky. Wait. No, no, it's okay. There we go." Aguri brought it out with her tentacle.
Along with it, she didn't bring out the egg, but something the color of the egg. It was sucking on her tentacle. Very small. About the size of the egg.
"Little shit." Koro laughed as he saw it, waving his tentacles around. "That's clever."
"I don't feel much on my boobs when I transform," she admitted. "I usually transform at night, it just happens involuntarily when I sleep. I guess I was too flubbery to notice, but I felt it grab onto me in this form." It was trying to curl back up, but the tentacle between stopped him.
Uh? "You mean, you really have . . . milk?"
"A type, I guess, definitely sucking something down there." She just looked at it hanging off her tentacle, while he was looking toward her sweater. "Yes, I have nipples in both forms."
"That is interesting to know." He turned full on pink. Lola didn't have anything much showing when she was naked in her octopus form. Maybe the nipples were just the same color. Were Aguri's the same color? "Also, interesting to know."
"You said that twice."
"It's twice as interesting." He started to slither around the room as the tiniest little octopus managed to get past the tentacle and bound into a tight egg shape again. "Octopus moms die immediately, no one raises the babies. They definitely don't have milk."
"Well, we aren't octopi, we're made of anti-matter," she reminded him as she held the 'egg' back in her lap.
"You should probably let it feed. It's away all day with me, and it looks like it only fed at night with you."
"Why's he hiding?" she asked. "If it's a he. Is it a he?"
"Good question, and all also interesting." Koro picked up the egg. "It only unravels because it needs to eat. It's impossible to figure out what it is without unraveling." Not a sound was even made. It just rolled around all day on him, and probably slept on Aguri. "Hey? You in there?"
No answer.
"You know, the whole world's a lot more enjoyable being on the outside, instead of being in a little impenetrable ball," he tried again. "Why don't you at least look out in that form? I used to look out in that form. You don't need to stay curled up in it, you're already invincible."
"Koro," Aguri teased him. "I don't think they are born knowing any language. Maybe it just needs to feel more comfortable before it comes out."
"Good point. An excellent point, Aguri," he agreed. "You should change out of that tight sweater and put something else on that'll fit your octopus style."
She seemed confused. "It'll nurse either way. I don't have clothes that fit that form well. I would have to go naked."
"Yes, please, do it!" Too overexcited probably. "Maybe a blanket?"
"A blanket wouldn't do much good when I had to feed it," she reminded him. "I'd have to lower the blanket."
What do her nipples look like in that form? Were they hard and pink too, or- "Small blanket on top, although you know, it's a much more feministic style not to let social norms dictate how and when you feed your child. Stand up for what is right!"
"No free show, Korosenpai."
"Damn." He chuckled. "Two blankets it is." He went to go fetch two blankets. She took them as he took the 'egg' back. It rolled around on him, same as before, as she came back.
"On the bed. Couch," he corrected himself as she came to the couch awkwardly with the blankets. He grabbed his roly poly egg kid and gave it to her.
She stuck it back down and let it nurse. "Why do you want this shape?"
"I don't know, but maybe if it sees mommy more like it when she reaches for it, it'll start coming out of the ball," he said.
"Maybe." She looked below the blanket. "Hyouga never likes me in this form. He always said the more we accept it, the more we'll believe the lies. That if we can just rebel long enough, we'll reach a point where this form will never even need to be seen again."
"Shells." Yeah. "No one can hide themselves forever. This is part of you too, Aguri. You fall asleep in this form, because it's your true form now. You're lucky enough to be able to change forms, but the transformation isn't the octopus."
"It's the human appearance." She closed her eyes and nodded. "I know. Whenever I really want to relax, I always change for just a minute back into this form, before I pull myself back to my human form." She shifted slightly. "The only people who like it are all crazy Sanctuarians that think they are alien and that you're a god destined to take them to a new planet."
"That's not true." That wasn't true at all. "I like your form. I like both of them," he said. "I'd love to see you in either form." All of her in either form. "Ooh, all the things that I've heard other Sanctuarists say that they've done in-"
"Pause."
"Right." Right. "I'd like to see you in this form more often."
"This form is also dangerous," she reminded him. "The government is aware of this form."
But she was so . . . cute. Aguri, pink, with a shibori pattern. She was the cutest of all the octopi he'd seen so far. "The government isn't bugging us while we are watching a movie and eating popcorn," he told her. "Turning you into this, saved your life. It's part of you now, just like this is me. I still have a ton of those human shells because I haven't wanted to bother with any of them." Why would he ever want to look how he once looked as a human? "I mean, I will, if it was for things that weren't like, for the outside world, you know, private things."
"Like sex?"
"Yeah, in a heartbeat," he agreed. "Flipping forms, with forms, and they apparently call things naughty tentacles for a reason."
"You are really losing your cool today with me," she teased him.
"Yeah. Well. It might be from losing a chance at saving a student today," he reminded her. "Or realizing the God of Death actually somehow produced a kid hiding as an egg. Chou Chou could have been sent home before something happened. Instead, Hyouga's going to teach her to hide herself in those shells." Yeah, and the invincible egg. "When they find out it hatched, they are going to put it in a shell too."
"It's really tiny," Aguri pointed out. "I don't want a shell on it. It doesn't even expose itself to the world much."
"Yeah, it is tiny, great point." Maybe that was another reason it didn't expose itself to the world much? "Let's keep the fact the egg hatched just between you and me. We don't need them trying to shell it when it's not even comfortable with the world yet."
"I agree, secrecy sounds like a good idea," Aguri agreed. "We should name it though. I don't know whether to say he or she, and I don't like saying it all the time. It's definitely something, the way it's just sucking away at this boob. It's super hungry for it."
"Aren't we all?" he teased. Nah, that little hider was probably really hungry since it was only eating at night. "Primavera."
"Pasta. That does sound good," she said. "I prefer fettuccine."
"Ooh, that does sound good," he agreed.
"I think the special today is 'procrastination'," she said, understanding what they both did.
He looked back at her. They had put the conversation about the egg and the pregnancy completely off this whole time. Preferring to ignore it until they couldn't. Things were getting serious though. Things were getting out of casual conversation hands.
Naming it, was their first serious thing they would actually do. When they started that, it would break that solid ice bridge they had kept on everything. "My brain is busted. There are a million names circulating, but I don't know how to know which one to pick. What do you want to call it?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "Not a surprise, I'm terrible at this."
"We could just call it Egg until we know?" he said.
"That sounds like a terrible idea, but I'm all for it," she agreed.
There. That didn't destroy the icy bridge very far at all. Good. This was them at their happiest. Ignoring reality and just enjoying what they could.
Movie and popcorn.
"Hey, Chou Chou. You have an important visitor. Your teacher!"
Chou Chou hadn't moved since she left the classroom. She just rested in the room where the octopi that took care of her let her rest. She would never call them parents, they were just crazy octopi that lived where she lived.
She looked out the door. Her teacher was in his human form? "Why are you like that?"
He just smiled and gestured for her to follow him.
"Follow our Lord," Her guardian commanded her. "Hurry, don't disobey."
Chou Chou followed him through the halls and out the door.
Chou Chou kept slithering, but the grass felt weird. She wasn't used to being outside in that form yet. "Should we really be leaving Sanctuary?"
He opened the door for her.
She didn't want to go, but she knew the dumb octopus' in charge of her would just yell if she disobeyed her teacher openly. She went into the car.
It drove off as he handed her something. Some kind of pill.
Once again, she really didn't want to. They'll just get mad. She hated them, but now she had to learn to deal with them. Her parents would never come back to her. No one would.
She took the pill and felt him nudging her down to the left, indicating he wanted her to lie down. She lied down. Her body felt really weird, like it was changing again.
She looked down at it, and watched as her humanly form came back. Her previous clothes were now really baggy on her. "A shell?"
"A special shell," he said, but that wasn't her teacher's voice. "You know that Hyouga would have given you something simple, but eventually, it would fail. He only really kept lots and lots of shells of a few people. His brother, Tsuruga, himself, and the woman he absolutely loved but could never have. Yukimura Aguri."
Chou Chou pulled herself up. She was much taller. In fact, she was really tall! "I'm an adult."
"You are Yukimura Aguri," the person in front said again. Definitely not her teacher. "That special pill is something Hyouga has been saving for some time. It'll put his beloved in an unbreakable shell for nearly five years. And after that? There are enough pills to put her in another few years to last two lifetimes. No way to break."
"I look like Lady Aguri." She looked at her hands. "Why did you give me her shells?"
"Do you want to be her? Not the sanctuary one. The one that kills people with the God of Death?"
What? "Korosensei won't like that." He also wouldn't go around killing people. Not anymore.
"Okay, here's another question." He stopped the car and helped her from the backseat to the front seat. He went around and got in the front seat.
Then he pulled a gun on her as they took off again. "Would you prefer to die? I can arrange that and make someone else be her."
Agh! Chou Chou shirked backward from the gun. "Who are you?"
"Oh. I was once your Lady Aguri's fiance."
"Yanagisawa?"
"You did study in school," he congratulated her. "You won't be killing anyone, you'll just be hanging around the horror. Or, I can just kill you, dump you, you'll turn back to normal into a slobbish octopus creature, and I will find someone else who wants a whole life of shells."
Chou Chou didn't want to die. She didn't know what to do. "Why are you doing this?"
"Why did Sanctuary cross me with God of Death?" he asked. "Why did Sanctuary kick me out of command?"
Chou Chou was really feeling her age now as she was staring down the barrel of the gun. "Lady Aguri?"
"She'll be fine. There should be no worries, I heard the new little god was born."
"It's just a tiny egg," she corrected him.
"An egg?" He didn't seem pleased about that. "I thought it had been longer. Why's it so small?"
"Korosensei wanted Lady Aguri to be safe." She answered any question he had.
"Where is the egg?"
"Usually just riding around Korosensei's tentacles," she said. "Can't miss it."
"Not if I'm aiming, I won't."
Oh, this guy was full of pure hatred. Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me.
"Your answer?"
Her answer. "I want to live."
"Then you take the position." He moved the gun away. "Good choice, Aguri. If you change your mind in the future, I'll kill you then. Before we head off, I have one more stop." He took a different pill.
Yanagisawa stopped outside of Hyouga's little place. That idiot never wanted to stay at Sanctuary. His only goal was to stop the tentacles. If he used his genius for more, he could have made something of himself. But, Yanagisawa would made sure it didn't go to waste.
He made sure he locked the doors. He doubted the new Aguri would be running off on him.
He stayed on the side of the house and lied down behind a bush, waiting for the pill previously to kick in as he held a second one in his mouth.
When it did, he returned to his previous state. Unable to do much, he now swallowed the second pill.
After a few minutes, he turned into Tsuruga. Hyouga's precious little brother he didn't waste much time in killing. Seriously, Tsuruga was kidding himself if he thought helping out him of all people would save him and his brother. The only thing it did was ensure that God of Death didn't kill him.
Just the shell of God of Death, after he learned everything Tsuruga knew. The hidden secrets of Sanctuary, their mission, his brother's involvement, and every other morsel he needed for a restart.
His reign was not over, it just began.
He knocked on Hyouga's door.
"Tsuruga, hey, where have you been?" Hyouga smiled as he gestured for him to come inside. "Come inside. I have so many more things to show you."
He listened and watched as Hyouga showed him some fascinating things. Things he deemed as 'failures', which he could turn into successes. Work he was experimenting with, which he would be taking over.
Then, some even more fascinating news. "If God of Death hears that, Brother, he's going to kill you and not me."
"Oh no, I saved Aguri's life and sanity. He can't hurt you," Hyouga said. "Anyhow, he'll never know about this. It's better that way. Once he dies off again, then I'll tell Aguri, and everything will be better."
Oh. So many new toys. So many good secrets. "I'd like to tell you something of my own, Hyouga."