One former student was gone, but so was Aguri. Akari bought her a ticket. She probably had some sisterly stuff to talk about. "It's probably sisterly stuff they want to talk about," Koro said out loud as Nagisa drove now. "Maybe? Do you think they're planning a wedding? What should I wear? Ooh, a honeymoon, with Aguri, and pictures do no justice for the real Aguri."
"How could she stand you?" Nagisa asked briefly. "You're terrible with people, let alone women, Korosensei."
"She loved me despite it." Aaah! He didn't hear that. He did not hear that, it meant nothing to him.
Nagisa didn't say anything, just kept on driving. Nah, he must have heard it. Unless it didn't mean anything to him? It should, if he cared for him, then he should care about how others cared about him. Not just drive! Seriously? Not even a word? No confirming or denying?
Koro looked out the window. Just, enjoy the scenery. Nothing else. It was fine. "Don't you think she loves, I mean secretly loves me? Because she hadn't ever left my side when I came back and rescued her, and she stayed with me on the bus, and we lived together, and we watched movies, and she knows how to corner me from making someone want to kill me, which is really great, and why would she do all that if she wanted to be just friends? I mean, are we just friends? Because she would totally be my first ever friend, and maybe that's why it's so scary to get close, because I think she thinks I'm just a really close friend and I am a really close friend, even though we joke with the most sexual stuff, it's crazy, and with her little innuendos so innocent but not, but I would love to wreck her with my tentacles in just the most savage way possible, and that's not friend thing, and we have a kid together, and Akari wants us to get married, and if she did love me then yes I'd do it, but then if it's like just friends, just really really good friend for some reason that she just hasn't left the side of in the last seven years, then, how come you never learned how to shut me up like she does?!"
Nagisa just looked at the road and back to him. "What?"
"F!" He waved his tentacles and went to looking back out the window.
"It's good to see," Nagisa said to him. "It's good to see you moved on. Maybe . . . you shouldn't let go of the bond?"
Huh? "I'm not letting go of my bond with Aguri."
"I mean, you. Your bond to stay together. You've lasted awhile, Korosensei." Nagisa shrugged. "Are you still doing radical things to live everyday at it's fullest because you'll know it'll end soon? Or did you just start to live?"
Weird topic.
"I think you should keep your first target," Nagisa said. "Help Sanctuary, yeah, but that first one? Aguri awoke something primal in the parts of you to bring you back. If she was the glue to bring you here, then keep that glue until she's unglued too. Y'know?"
My student got smart. That's why he graduated and wasn't his student anymore. "When I first met Aguri, she wasn't supposed to live long. We thought that we'd both just see each other off in the end."
"Then, that should still be it," Nagisa said. "Why change your target?"
"She's fine, I got them to take the egg out before anything hurt her," he confessed. "She's going to live a nice long life probably."
"Still the target. Don't take your eyes off your target." Nagisa smiled. "Some targets just take a long time to get to. Becoming a teacher still hasn't happened, but I've been steering myself to it."
Korosensei hiccuped. "Look at you, all grown up! It's so hard to bear to see you like that. Trying to give me a lesson in the process of driving too! You know, most teachers don't even have one student from a grade come back and see them, and I'm lucky enough to have one actually come back and save me!" He wrapped his tentacles around Nagisa, while at the same time, piloting the car so they wouldn't crash.
"Korosensei!"
Ah, there was that usual sound of his that proceeded a want to try and kill him.
Nagisa hit the brakes. His smart former student was wearing his safety belt, so he was okay. "Maybe I should have left my car behind. That whole feeling of everyone holding you down, and aiming through the tie . . . it's like I remembered that and the trips . . . but I forgot how incredibly annoying you are!" He shook his head. "Honestly, in my opinion? I don't think there's a way Ms. Yukimura could have stood you if she didn't have strong feelings for you."
Yeah. "We ignore serious subjects," he told Nagisa. "We always have. Even when I was locked up as a test subject, she never came in and passed judgment. Any day could have been her last getting so close to me, yet she never acted like it, or knew it. One or the other."
"Yeah?" Nagisa started to drive again. "This part is more out of my league. I don't focus much on relationships."
"You still know Kayano?"
"We're just friends. You went from calling her Kayano, to Akari. Why?"
"There's potential she might become my Sister-in-Law if she's aggressive enough, it might get weird with that name. Don't want questions."
"Uh? You really think Ms. Yukimura would marry you just for her sister?"
"Aguri hates confrontation. She's traumatized from the way her fiance treated her, I know that he did the most horrible-"
"I don't need details," Nagisa interrupted.
Whew! See, like that. How hard was it to just shut him up? "Anyhow, we tend to go with the flow of whatever's easiest."
Nagisa placed a hand on his head. "For one, you have no identity. You probably need one of those. For two, if you get found out, you'll get hunted by the government again. For three, Kayano's sister is proclaimed dead. For four, I don't think going with the flow into marriage is going to get you anymore closer than you two are now. Most importantly, for five? You should probably decide what you are going to do about Emiko. She's just a name to you, but once you meet her, she stands out. A lot."
"It won't be hard to help this little girl. We could sneak her into Sanctuary, but I need to know why Lola did that. Actually, I can't even say that. It's been almost seven years . . . everything could have changed." Koro looked ahead. "Everything except Yanagisawa's threat."
"Do you think Yanagisawa really wants something from her still?" Nagisa asked. "I don't see what he would want."
"She's easy to control." He hated to say that. "She hates confrontation because of him." Him. "I killed without any feeling. Yanagisawa felt . . . great pushing down on Aguri. It makes him feel invincible. It doesn't matter that she doesn't have power, that makes it better to him. Weak. Pleading. Easy shot."
"Do you think he'd aggressively go after her?" Nagisa asked again. "He wanted your spot in Sanctuary. I thought she was a . . ." He was trying to figure out how to say his thought nicely. An ability Koro didn't have anymore. "Side benefit?"
"Do you like candy, Nagisa?"
"Sure."
"If you didn't get any today, would you care?"
"No."
"If you didn't get any in a month, would you care?"
"Probably not."
"If you didn't have any in a year, would you care?"
"I would have had some by then."
"If you didn't have any in seven years, would you care?"
"I'd probably have some medical condition to stay away from it. I'd buy the substitutes when I have a craving if I did." Nagisa picked up the hint. "There's no substitutes for her, and he might come back for her."
"It's sicker than candy. He thinks that high he gets from hurting her is love." That made it so much worse. "Akari's right to worry, it doesn't matter that it's been seven years. That's why I couldn't help her feel better. She gets how sadistic he is, and Aguri?" Oh. "She's the sweetest candy ever of all time! I could suck on that sucker all day long! Her voice, and the way she talks with me, oooh! I crave her and she hasn't even been gone long."
"Wow," Nagisa said. "That ending bit was typical of you, but I've barely heard you be so serious before with me. I guess I'm seen more like an equal now, huh?"
Aguri. Sanctuary. What little Nagisa knew about Emiko. What Nagisa saw at Lola's. Egg insanity. Hyouga. Shells. Different job. Little Miracles. Itty Bitties. Chou Chou. School afterward. What everyone had accomplished. Akari's show. Nagisa's classroom delinquents.
They had covered a lot by the time Nagisa got him to Kayano's. "Well? You have my number. I'm glad you're okay and all, but don't call unless you have to."
Yep. Everyone could only stand Korosensei for so long. Nagisa made sure Kayano would allow him up first before he took off.
Then he was off. Probably a little faster than he should have took his car legally. Hm? Might have talked his ear off a little too much during the five-and-a-half-hour drive.