Nagisa followed the directions of the little girl. Kayano and this Lola didn't live too far apart from each other. A part of him felt like a heel for not calling Kayano, but she had kept him in the dark on someone so important.
Korosensei meant a lot to them all, she shouldn't have hid this! Even seven years later, those memories meant the world to all of them. If Kayano knew things, she might hide them, like she did Emiko. I need to go straight to the source.
He got out with Emiko. He held her hand as they went into the apartment building. A lot less secure than the one Kayano lived in. He went up the elevator to where Emiko led him and knocked on the door.
"Aunt Lola's probably out. She has night jobs. Aunt Akari watches me after six 'til the morning." Emiko pushed on the door harder, and it opened. It opened a little broken on the side, but it opened.
Yep, Emiko had Korosensei's strength too. Nagisa went in and Emiko brought him toward a closet she opened.
He looked in. "We'll need a flashlight." He watched Emiko's head light up. He just smirked. "Come on, Emiko."
When he went inside, he saw a collection of different things. Different books. Different texts. Sayings on the wall. Lord Reaper and God of Death were on a lot of them.
"I call Aunt Lola Aunt C. It's short for Crazy," Emiko told him. "She can get nutty sometimes. You'll see."
Nagisa looked through the books, having Emiko come closer. There was a lot more on this Sanctuary place. "Yanagisawa's experiments went viral, started experiments of their own. They all lived in one place called Sanctuary." Interesting. "So, the tentacles were perfected and stopped killing the host somehow, or putting the Earth in danger." That was good news. "Is your Aunt Lola from Sanctuary?"
"I think so. She talked about it," Emiko answered.
"Goddess Emiko, Daughter to God of Death!" A large, loud woman's voice fit for running a choir yelled. "What are you doing in there again?"
"Checking it out again." Emiko seemed to have little guilt. She came out and Nagisa started to follow.
"What have I told you about the prophetic closet?!"
"That it's prophetic." Emiko was a kidder too.
"You are not to-?" Apparently, her Aunt Lola stopped yelling when she saw him. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing with Korosensei's daughter?" Nagisa asked her. "Why are you and Kayano hiding things?"
"Uh." Her Aunt Lola grabbed Emiko. "Why did you bring him here?"
"His address was on the dryboard in the prophetic closet that I'm banned from," she answered. "Aunt Akari isn't answering anything. I flew to him to see what he knew."
"You flew?!" Yeah, her Aunt Lola wasn't happy about that. "You are not supposed to reveal yourself, Young Goddess!"
"To just anybody, but I was part of class 3E!" Nagisa called her out. "What's happening soon, why are there huge questions all over it, what and where is Sanctuary, and what does it have to do with Yanagisawa?"
Lola had sent Emiko to her room while she told him all about what happened. About Sanctuary, Korosensei's part, Yanagisawa's deception, the true goals, and through it all? It was hard to tell fact from fiction because she also believed Korosensei was ordained to be a god that came back from the dead to take her and others to another planet.
So? He had to take everything with a grain of salt. "The date on the dryboard?"
"It is the date that God of Death and Lady Aguri will rise and take on Yanagisawa. Sort of. If I can figure out how to get them out before Yanagisawa, or if I should interrupt destiny at all. I was turned away from Sanctuary, the leaders are siding with Yanagisawa's lies so that they can work on the plans to leave to outer space."
"And Korosensei is actually frozen with Ms. Yukimura?" Oh boy. "And Ms. Yukimura survived because . . .?"
"She was saved by Yanagisawa and experimented on."
"Right. And Korosensei survived because . . .?"
"Lady Aguri saved his particles and when she was in trouble, they were excited and pulled back together, bringing our God of Death back from the dead."
"Which is why Emiko is a . . . Goddess?"
"Yes. She was laid by Lady Aguri."
"Laid. Like an egg?" Right. "I better call Kayano." She probably had a better grasp on what was happening.
"They would be such good parents," Lola answered. "As an egg, Emiko played on God of Death's tentacles every single day. I just don't know how to beat Yanagisawa in Lord Reaper's shell when I am disallowed to return to Sanctuary. He has risen once, he could be just doing that again. But would I need to open the door, or will it just unlock for his presence?"
"Yep." Nagisa wasn't listening too closely. Kayano was on her way. It probably wouldn't take long.
"I don't know who to ask for help. I don't know who will believe, or who can help."
"Well? Where is Sanctuary?" At the least, he could check out the address. Emiko did exist so maybe there were some hidden truths in the hysteria. Emiko seemed to think so enough that she risked flying to him. Lola scribbled it on a piece of paper and slid it to him as Kayano showed up.
"You should have told me when my niece first showed up," Kayano scolded Nagisa. "What are you doing here?"
"You should have told me when you first knew about her," Nagisa came back. "Why'd you hide Emiko from me?"
"She's my niece. She didn't have anything else to do with anything, and I didn't want to risk anything with her," Kayano insisted.
"That's not fair to say that. She was Korosensei's daughter too."
"No, she just had a lot done to her like him. She's Yanagisawa's, but it doesn't matter. She's Aguri's. She's my family," Akari said. "That's all that does matter. Emiko!" She marched straight toward Emiko's room. "How dare you run off like that! Bad. You are sleeping in the same room with me tonight, and it's going to be hard to trust you again after that."
"You should have told me," Nagisa said again. "We should go for a ride, Kayano."
"I don't want to. Emiko, hurry up," Akari denied him.
"Why is he calling you Kayano?" Emiko asked as she stuck her head out of her bedroom.
"We just knew each other when I had a different name." Kayano didn't tell her much else. "It's like a nickname, don't worry about it."
"In Class 3E, you said you had a different name. Is that the name?" Emiko pried more.
"Kayano. I have something I need to check out," Nagisa insisted.
"Then check it out."
"Kayano! Korosensei might have wanted us to check this place out." If there was any truth inside of the stories, there could be innocent people trapped in Sanctuary. "Your sister might have wanted it too. Have you ever checked Sanctuary?"
"Lola never gave me the address."
"She didn't believe," Lola pounced back. "That's the problem. I can't do anything on my own, and no one believes in the Messenger of God!"
"Messenger of God?" Nagisa looked back toward Kayano. "Her?"
"Supposedly," Kayano answered.
"That's why I kept it in the dark too. I can't do anything on my own, and no one else believes," Lola complained.
A lot did sound like fantasy. "Emiko came from somewhere though. Let's go check it out," Nagisa insisted again to Kayano. "Let's see if there's any truth to the fantasy."
"See, even say it right in front of me! My beliefs are not fantasy. I am the Voice of God, and I speak for him when he cannot. I just don't know what to do right now to help him, but it doesn't change my intentions or duties!"
"Lola, just take the night off," Kayano said. "I guess I should check this out."
"Good. Then you will see I am telling the truth. I'll take the night off and watch Emiko," Lola agreed.
Okay. They had to at least check. "Kayano?"
Sanctuary wasn't a hop, skip, and a drive away. Lola definitely moved closer to Kayano since she stayed in the same place close to her steady morning show.
"We should have flown," Kayano complained. "I hardly take a day off, they aren't going to be happy when they see I'm missing in the morning."
Tomorrow was Saturday, so Nagisa would be free. "You bought a ticket to get back online already." They were both still a little at odds. It was annoying that Lola was part crazy. Both of them had different ideas about what truths could be.
Nagisa swore Korosensei was definitely Emiko's father. She really had his eyes in her cephalopod form. Kayano definitely believed it was Yanagisawa and Akari, and that Yanagisawa was hurting her sister. He reminded her how she was being forced to watch Korosensei, and it might have been something there, not experiments done on her that created Emiko.
Neither of them agreed, and neither could prove each other wrong. The best thing they could do is see if Sanctuary . . .
Nagisa pulled over. A huge place that was secret wasn't just hanging out in a huge city down a parking lot. "I think that's it."
"They won't put up a sign for it." Kayano got out of the car with him and they headed over slowly. Each of them started to remember their stealth lessons from a long time ago.
A couple of people had come out of the building. Both looking quite human. They tailed them to hear their conversation.
"She wanted grapes, not grape raisins. See, here's her original writing," the woman said to the man. "If you can't write it down correctly in the list, I can choose a different partner to go shopping with."
"I can too," he concluded. "Rice. Berries. Grapes. Snacks. What kind of snacks? General snacks? Digi should have written the order better."
They were talking about groceries for a lot of folks. Then? Something useful dropped.
"This is not how you spell raisins, for the final time!" the woman yelled at the man. "Grapes! Not grape raisins and not raisins!"
"It says grapes! You are terrible, you should be moved off into the stealth faction for the shuttle instead of grocery shopping!" he yelled at her right back.
"Stealth faction for a shuttle?" Nagisa whispered. "Kayano, what do you think?"
"There's something at this huge address," she settled with. "It's in the middle of nowhere, they are shopping for a lot of people, and yeah. Stealth and shuttle. Maybe this is where Lola is from."
The place was huge, but it was clear there was a budget with a fight about raisins or grapes. They both snuck back close to the front, and hid in front of some plants. Fancy doors loved their plants.
It was several hours before they returned. When they did, they were coming in and out with lots of groceries. On one attempt, Akari took the chance to get inside. On a second attempt, Nagisa got in.
Once they were in, nobody seemed to notice them. That was strange. People were coming and going from little glass cells, with some having curtains drawn, and others not. "It's like they are all living here." A community, of cells?
"God of Death, the groceries are finally coming in!" they heard someone random say.
Nagisa studied the look. Is that what Korosensei looked like as a human? There were never pictures of him that he could find. The voice was a dead giveaway though.
"They are late," the God of Death said to him. "Reprimand them, find the cause, and move one of them to collecting parts for the shuttle."
That voice.
"Yanagisawa." Kayano looked like she was trying to keep herself in control. "He should be dead. He doesn't look like himself anymore."
"That might be what Lola tried to explain as 'shells'." So far, Sanctuary and the shell concept seemed to be true. How much was true? "We need to get to 137. That's where she wants help for in six days."
They both moved around without anyone noticing, until they found the room with cameras. No wonder no one noticed them.
There was a person in there looking at their phone instead of paying attention to the cameras. They were close enough to see all of the rooms on the cameras, and a bunch of . . .
Score another point. There were tons of people just like Korosensei. In different colors, but definitely with the cephalopod tentacles. "We are going to need a distraction," Nagisa said to Kayano. "You are famous, maybe they'll recognize you?"
The eyes weren't kind toward him. They did need someone to be the bait though, so Nagisa could get to the control panel with the cameras.
Kayano headed away to the other side, stopped being stealthy and walked around . . . a good five minutes in the open before someone recognized she shouldn't be there. "Oh, oh! Did I get the building wrong? I was looking for a place a friend Lola was from?"
Well, why not throw Lola under the bus? Nagisa didn't care, he just made his way into the control room as the cephalopod inside came out. 137. 137. 137.
He focused in on 137. He didn't know what to . . .
It was Kayano's sister, and another cephalopod. With a familiar hat, and a familiar tie, with a familiar hole in it. And they weren't frozen.
They were playing Marupeke on the ground. That couldn't be anyone different! He didn't know if Lola's whole schpiel about particles was true, but they were both there, playing away with some chunks of ice.
He checked the door to 137. It had six more days until it opened. Nagisa looked at the controls. There had to be a way to open it.
He felt his heart pounding, but he couldn't get emotionally wrapped up in the reveal. He had to get that room opened and them out of Sanctuary. There were quite a few classes where he learned about programs, but the best ones was when he was training to be an assassin. Find your ground. All of these top buttons are for cameras. Locks must be in a different location. Maybe.
"You're an idiot, and I've been waiting."
Nagisa saw Ms. Yukimura next to him start pushing buttons on the bottom. That wasn't her voice though. "Who are you?"
"Not what you see," she replied back. "I owe teacher. It's opened, you don't have much time. Get out of here. I'll blank out the cameras too."
Whoever she had been, she was on their side. Hopefully. No time to check and no time to waste.
Inside freezing chamber
"I won that one," Koro said to Aguri as he finished scratching the ice against the ground. They woke up trapped in that stupid room nearly two days ago and were bored stiff. At least there was ice in certain sections, and the ground was kind of teflony. They were marking it with their games.
"Yeah. I can start the next one," Aguri said as she adjusted her shirt and then started to grind the ice against the ground.
Neither one knew how long they had been out. They had no way of knowing if Yanagisawa's plan failed and it'd been a couple of days but the door was sealed, or if it had been years and the door would open soon.
All each of them knew was that starving to death, or waiting for the door to open to freedom, or the door opened to be frozen again, or death in some other way, was all that was probably awaiting them. So?
Marupeke.
Aguri's stomach made a noise and she just ignored it.
"Here I always have snacks on me," he mentioned. "The apple in my pocket I have is probably poisonous or rotten. It might be fine for us, or it might make our heads shrink, or it might even kill us. If we get desperate, we can tempt it."
"I don't want to die by a poisonous apple. It's too fairytale," Aguri said to him. "Apples were friends to teachers. It wouldn't be right."
"You know." He watched her start to scratch in the next squares. "You suck at this."
"You said it, and we have nothing else to do," she reminded him. "It helps take our mind off things."
Yeah, like death. Chances were pretty high once that door opened they'd be killed. Or they might just die beforehand. Nah, there was nothing good about just sitting around. "This one is a little better?"
"Still too easy." He helped her with the board. Unfortunately, he started to hear the door start to open. At least they wouldn't starve.
"At least we won't starve," Aguri said what he was thinking out loud.
When the door opened though . . . "Nagisa?"