Chapter 219: You are the challenger, Chris!

Honami Ichinose paced back and forth, flushed with embarrassment over the faintly suggestive misunderstanding from a moment ago.

Nanase Tsubasa, having taken in the whole scene, had already slipped quietly to Suzune Horikita's side. She lowered her voice and asked:

"Senpai, did something urgent come up, making you suddenly rush back to the classroom just now?"

Suzune Horikita considered it for a moment. Seeing no reason to hide it, she answered honestly:

"I went to get a bento."

"A bento...?"

Nanase Tsubasa blinked, momentarily startled.

Her gaze darted between the wrapped bundle and Horikita's forcibly composed profile, and understanding dawned instantly.

A look of relief bloomed across the girl's face — the unmistakable expression of finally, senpai's come around.

Still, the timing was more than a little off.

Nanase Tsubasa glanced around at their surroundings, then over at Ichinose, who had only just managed to calm herself down.

Honestly, as a "newcomer" who'd transferred into Advanced Nurturing High School partway through, her position here was a little delicate. She'd admittedly entertained a fleeting, less-than-noble hope — that letting the two combatants exhaust each other might leave an opening for a third party to profit.

But Nanase Tsubasa was, in the end, clear-headed enough not to let that darker impulse take full control of her thoughts.

Whatever else was true, Suzune Horikita was one of the people who'd guided her through Advanced Nurturing.

Without Senpai Horikita looking out for her, a newcomer like herself would never have settled in so smoothly.

She couldn't go and pull some idiot move like stabbing an ally in the back now. At most, she'd tag along for a sip of soup while Senpai Horikita enjoyed the main course.

Ahem. Anyway, Nanase Tsubasa had a fair grasp of the tangled, ambiguous relationship between Honami Ichinose and Chris.

Ichinose, like Suzune Horikita, counted as one of Chris's "disciples," and on top of that, she'd been among the very first Qualifiers chosen by the Black Sphere.

In terms of first-mover advantage, Ichinose and Arisu Sakayanagi, both original teammates of Chris's, naturally held enormous sway.

Originally, as far as Nanase Tsubasa had observed, there'd seemed to be a spot reserved for Kushida Kikyo too.

But after a few brief encounters, Nanase Tsubasa privately concluded there'd be no harm in crossing her off the list entirely.

After all, in Nanase's eyes, Kushida Kikyo was simply too unreliable to matter.

Aside from a chest measurement admittedly a notch above her own, the moment real danger showed up, Kushida's performance had been downright worse than an ordinary person's.

It was hard to believe she'd been one of the lucky ones chosen first.

So rather than let Suzune Horikita charge out unprepared right now, bento in hand, and become a thorn in Honami Ichinose's side—

—it was better to let the two front-runners, Ichinose and Sakayanagi, duke it out first.

Only once they'd reached some temporary outcome — or fought each other to a mutual standstill — would it be worth acting.

Better than rushing in now and catching stray fire from an Ichinose who was still fuming...

With that in mind, Nanase Tsubasa reached out and rested a hand gently on the arm Horikita used to carry the bundle, lowering her voice to counsel: "Senpai."

"Hold back for now. Dodge the sharp edge of the moment... patience!"

Suzune Horikita tilted her head slightly, looking at Nanase Tsubasa with some confusion.

She had no idea what to make of the girl's earnest, heavy-handed tone, nor what wild scenario her kōhai was cooking up in her head.

Still, Horikita hadn't actually planned to hand the bento to Chris right away.

Class was about to start, and handing over a bento in front of everyone would draw far too much attention. ...It was a little embarrassing, too.

According to the schedule, there was a health class in the afternoon — she could give it to him then without any harm done.

The bento was cold food to begin with anyway, and the season wasn't warm enough for it to spoil easily, so a little extra time wouldn't matter.

Meanwhile, once her brief flare of embarrassed anger had settled, Honami Ichinose took a few deep breaths, patted her burning cheeks, and headed back into the school building.

As an unquestionably model student, Ichinose obviously wasn't about to skip class over a minor incident like this.

Besides, if she wasn't skipping class, then going by the schedule alone, the afternoon health class only involved Chris's class and Ryuuen's class.

It wasn't even a joint session — just classes that happened to fall at adjacent times.

So even though Ichinose, with Hiyori Shiina trailing behind her, would have liked to ask more and find out what was going on, there was no chance to linger.

For now, all Ichinose could do was rush to organize and pass along the information she'd gathered so far.

Everything else would have to wait until she had time.

If anything, the biggest winner of this whole brief commotion was Shiraishi Asuka, who'd stood off to the side the entire time pretending to be a mere spectator while secretly recording every word on her voice recorder.

Call it a classic case of feigning one move while making another entirely.

Before long, the afternoon health class rolled around.

After the basic warm-up exercises wrapped up, a short break followed.

Thanks to Nanase Tsubasa's thoughtful initiative — calling out to Kei Karuizawa and the others and successfully holding them back — the potential "distractions" were kept occupied.

Only then did Suzune Horikita get her chance, with full legitimacy, to walk right up to Chris, who was cooling off in the shade of a tree.

Chris watched the girl walk briskly over and set a bento box, wrapped tightly in a plain cloth, squarely in front of him, striking a stiff, formal pose that all but announced help yourself.

He couldn't quite hold back a smile.

"Why aren't you eating?" Chris asked, though he already knew the answer.

Suzune Horikita shook her head, her eyes drifting slightly away from his.

"This is... I made it specially for you. I just wasn't sure how to actually give it to you."

Chris rubbed his chin, thought it over, and said:

"Is there only the one? Then just eat it yourself."

"My training in Ki has come along quite a bit lately," Chris lied with a perfectly straight face,

"to the point where I feel like I could go without eating entirely, just by absorbing the ambient Ki around me."

But of course, that wasn't true.

In the setting of Dragon Ball (Earth), even someone as powerful as a Super Saiyan only used Ki to boost combat and speed up recovery — it couldn't conjure matter out of thin air, and it certainly couldn't replace eating altogether.

Only beings who'd stepped into the realm of true gods — Supreme Kais, Gods of Destruction, angels — could genuinely forgo food, sustaining themselves purely by drawing on cosmic energy.

Still...

Ayanokōji and Amanatsu Kazuha had already picked up on something "not quite normal" about his body anyway.

So Chris figured he'd just ride the momentum and use this excuse to lay the groundwork for revealing more of his inhuman traits down the road.

Same as how Saitama in One-Punch Man broke past his limiter.

His strength made no sense, but he never needed to explain the reason to anyone.

He was simply born strong.

Hearing Chris turn her down, Suzune Horikita's composure wavered instantly.

Convinced her clumsy delivery must have put him off, she blurted out an explanation without thinking:

"Th-this was Nanase's idea... I, I actually..."

Seeing the girl in this rare state of flustered awkwardness, Chris cut her off:

"I know your personality well enough. There's a good chance you couldn't bring yourself to do something like this on your own initiative."

Chris let out a soft sigh and stopped teasing her.

He reached out and took the bento straight from her arms.

Then he turned, sat down on the bench behind him, and scooted over to leave half the seat open for her.

Now, Suzune Horikita was the tsundere type whose brain short-circuited and went completely blank the instant she faced someone she cared about.

But her body was far more honest than her mouth.

Before her mind had even finished deciding, her legs had already acted, carrying her obediently to sit down right beside Chris.

Of course, out of some last shred of stubbornness,

Horikita still kept about a palm's width of distance from him, hovering there, not quite daring to get too close.

Chris shook his head, quietly amused.

He opened the bento box and looked at the neatly arranged, carefully color-coordinated tempura, tamagoyaki, and octopus-shaped sausages inside.

Following local custom, he pressed his palms together briefly, then picked up his chopsticks and lifted a piece of tempura to his mouth.

Beside him, Horikita sat with her hands gripping the hem of her skirt over her knees, watching Chris's expression nervously out of the corner of her eye.

But as she watched him chew through bite after bite, his face showed none of the delighted or delicious look she'd been hoping for — he just stayed calm, as if working through the task of eating.

A knot of anxiety tightened in Horikita's chest.

Had she seasoned it wrong? Or fried it too long?

Just as she sank into self-doubt, agonizing over whether taking Nanase Tsubasa's advice had been a good idea in the first place, or whether she'd only made things worse—

—Chris suddenly turned his head. A piece of golden-fried tempura, still pinched between his chopsticks, came straight toward her lips.

Horikita blinked.

She stared blankly at the food hovering by her mouth, for a moment failing to register what was happening.

Watching her adorably dazed expression, Chris explained gently:

"It really is good. You've got real skill."

"But honestly, since I haven't been in Neon very long, when it comes to eating habits, I just haven't gotten used to cold food like this."

"That's also why I usually go to the cafeteria at lunch instead of eating a bento."

Horikita opened her mouth on reflex and bit down on the tempura he'd fed her.

Even though she'd made it with her own hands, chewing it now tasted like ash in her mouth — her mind was flooded with nothing but the sinking feeling of I messed up.

But what Chris said next snapped her right back to attention.

"So, if you really want to help me out on this front..."

Chris looked her straight in the eye. "...come by my dorm sometime when you're free and cook me something hot. I trust your skill, but I really can't stand cold rice."

This much, at least, was true.

Eating habits weren't something you could change overnight, especially not when he, as the presiding god here, had zero intention of forcing himself to accommodate anyone else.

Cold noodles, chilled noodles, liangpi — those he could tolerate as regional specialties, but cold, oil-fried tempura or icy rice balls? He genuinely couldn't enjoy those.

Coming from anyone else's mouth, words like these, landing in the ears of any ordinary Neon girl,

would almost certainly have sparked outrage on the spot — her painstaking, love-filled bento not only rejected, but she herself asked to "go make hot food in a boy's dorm room" on top of it.

But Suzune Horikita was different.

She carried a very precise scale inside her.

She had a strict hierarchy for exactly where each person belonged.

And without question, Chris now weighed heavier on that scale than even her own brother, Horikita Manabu — the one who used to fluster her the instant they met.

So the very first thought that flashed through her mind on hearing his words wasn't hurt or offense.

It was: I finally have a legitimate reason to get into Chris's dorm room!

But she reined herself in quickly.

She realized Chris was honoring their earlier agreement, giving her an opening here.

Which, in turn, was likely sending her a message: either accept this deeper, more personal kind of relationship, or refuse it and fall back to an ordinary mentor-student one. There was no middle ground.

Horikita thought it over for a moment, lifted her cool eyes, and said:

"Can I bring Karuizawa and Nanase along?"

"I haven't really studied your world's cuisine — I might need some help."

Hearing that, Chris turned his head on reflex, glancing at her with mild surprise.

He genuinely hadn't expected that, faced with such a rare chance to be alone with him, Horikita would still remember her best friends.

Now that was a closed loop, all right.

One running interference on the outside, the other sharing a sip of soup on the inside...

The teamwork here was honestly more harmonious than the Ichinose-Amikura bestie duo — did anyone else appreciate that?

Thinking that, Chris let the corner of his mouth curl up and nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Horikita let out a long breath, visibly relieved.

Truthfully, when she'd proposed bringing along Nanase Tsubasa and Karuizawa, Horikita had felt a flicker of unease — unsure whether this counted as inviting wolves into the house.

But of all the boys Nanase Tsubasa had come across since enrolling, Chris was by far the most outstanding and dazzling —

so simply giving her a chance to gather some material shouldn't be a problem... right?

After all, from what Horikita had observed of her these past weeks, Nanase Tsubasa was absolutely not the type to forget a debt of gratitude or abandon friends for a pretty face. She had principles.

'Well then... it's settled.'

Horikita packed up the bento box and, seizing the moment, changed the subject to business.

"I'm planning to sign up for the Jujutsu Class with Shiina right after school."

"As a test sample, I want to check whether the Phantom Mask's dark corrosion affects the properties of whatever technique gets awakened."

"As for Nanase, she's planning to go check out the Ninjutsu Class with Kushida."

Chris gave a noncommittal nod, with no intention of stopping her.

He just turned to look at the girl beside him, who was staring at the tips of her own shoes with visible unease, and softened his voice a little:

"Horikita... stay alive." "Live to see the dawn."

Horikita's tightly pressed lips parted slightly.

She snapped her head up, her sharp eyes wide with shock, staring at the depth of Chris's profile, and froze in place.

What did that mean...?

Was that — was that some roundabout confession?!

I-I'm not ready — what do I do?!

After that, even with a thousand tangled questions and a racing heart still churning inside her,

once Chris had said his piece and risen from the bench at the sound of the assembly whistle, Horikita quickly packed up the dishes, forced down the wild fluttering in her chest, and hurried after him.

Thanks to Nanase Tsubasa's earlier ploy — luring Kei Karuizawa and the others away under the pretext of "relaying the latest Black Sphere intel" and taking them to check the school's newest bulletin board —

settling on which Class A students would join this round of extra electives went unusually smoothly.

Chris's proposal passed unanimously:

Students who still had spare S Points and could afford a [Chakra Seed] or a [Cursed Energy Seed] would go first, as advance scouts to test the waters.

Correspondingly,

those holding high-tier items — Chris, Kouenji Rokusuke, and the like — would lend out gear they weren't currently using as a testing baseline, in case some hidden trial got triggered.

Still, to guard against the Black Sphere pulling the same dirty trick as last time and launching an exam mid-class,

everyone cautiously agreed to wait until after four in the afternoon, confirm it was safe, and only then actually distribute the items.

Amid this mix of tension and anticipation, the school day drew quickly to a close.

Given how heavy the pressure of the Special Exam had grown, aside from the elite few across every year who had spare S Points and had chosen the Jujutsu Class or the Ninjutsu Class,

plenty of ordinary students without any spare points still wanted to come check out the excitement.

Especially once word got out that Koro-sensei's Assassination Class was free of charge —

the crowd hoping to join in only grew bigger.

Unfortunately, the Black Sphere clearly had no intention of granting them their wish.

To prevent everyone from flooding in at once and leaving the new teachers unable to properly teach, dragging down training quality,

the Black Sphere had capped each class at just four enrollment slots per elective.

This was a detail neither the school nor Koro-sensei and the others had spelled out openly.

Students only caught on by watching the slots on the registration terminal gray out one after another.

Fortunately, after being reshuffled through so many exams already, hardly any class had students genuinely flush with spare S Points.

So there was zero chance of anyone coming to blows over a handful of high-tier elective slots.

With slots this limited, whether you liked it or not, you had to yield your spot to whoever in the class was more capable, more ready to become actual combat strength.

Right at this moment of sorting everyone out,

Fūka Kiryūin walked over to Chris with elegant strides, a few dim-colored capsules cupped in her hand.

"Let me give these back to you first."

She held the capsules out, her gaze sharp and clear.

"Just so, in case classes split us up later and the exam kicks off early or something unexpected happens, you're not caught without a trump card."

"That other one is the Momonga Orb that dropped from Ainz last dungeon run. Check the exact effect yourself with the Item Illustrated Guide — I won't bother explaining it."

But Chris just shook his head, making no move to take them:

"No need. If the Black Sphere doesn't pull some extra nasty mechanic, then after four o'clock today counts as a safe window."

"No need to worry about a surprise Special Exam or advance test."

He shifted gears, looking over at the free-spirited senpai:

"So which elective are you thinking of this time, senpai? Jujutsu, or Ninjutsu?"

Fūka Kiryūin raised an eyebrow at him, mildly annoyed:

"What, is it out of the question that I might just go check out the Assassination Class first?"

"Can't I just wait until everyone else figures out the rules for those two point-gated classes before deciding? I'm not about to play the sucker."

Chris nodded in agreement. "Fair enough."

"Then I'll just hand the Darkness Devil flesh straight to Horikita and have her test the waters in the Jujutsu Class."

Before he'd even finished speaking, Fūka Kiryūin had already yanked her hand back with lightning reflexes.

She clutched the capsule and looked at Chris with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

"Hey, when did I ever say I wasn't going?"

Chris laughed too and shot back, "So which one are you picking, senpai?"

Without a hint of hesitation, Fūka Kiryūin snapped her hand shut, the capsule containing the [Darkness Devil Blood Clot] popping right back into her palm.

Then she lifted her long, pale neck, her gaze drifting toward the field not far off.

Toward the white-haired figure in a black blindfold, hands in his pockets, looking around curiously — Gojo Satoru.

She turned the question back on him instead:

"Are you seriously planning to have Horikita and the others run their tests with cheap items like the [Phantom Mask] and [Stone Mask]?"

"I figured you'd have your circle of lady friends hang back and wait for other cannon fodder to sort out the results first, then set them up on the safest possible path."

Chris tugged at the corner of his mouth and answered seriously. "I won't deny you might have a point calling me greedy."

"But I'm not their nursemaid. Lending a hand when it's needed is one thing — I can't handle every single thing for them personally."

"Besides, I don't think the quality of a high-tier item necessarily decides how good the awakened technique turns out. At the end of the day, all of this is just guesswork we've patched together from the Black Sphere's past track record."

Chris spread his hands. "If it were really as simple as we first assumed — just carry a high-tier item and become unstoppable —"

"then wouldn't everyone be able to scam their way into a top-tier technique for basically nothing, once the tests were done?"

"The Black Sphere would never leave a loophole that huge for us to exploit."

In fact, under the preliminary framework Chris, the presiding god, had laid out,

high-tier items like the Demon Essence or the Darkness Devil flesh really could influence the leaning of whatever technique or bloodline limit ended up manifesting once cursed energy awakened.

But that didn't guarantee an awakening would even happen.

It was more that, in a scenario where awakening wouldn't otherwise be possible at all, they added an extra "possibility" onto fate's roulette wheel.

For instance, taking the [Demon Essence] would raise the odds of awakening something like Ice Release, or a "cryomancy" technique in the vein of Rime's.

Carrying the [Darkness Devil flesh] would raise the odds of awakening the Sharingan, or a technique conceptually aligned with something like Nanami's signature Ten-Pattern Curse Method.

As for cheap items like the [Stone Mask]'s vampire bloodline or the [Phantom Mask],

their pools still held powerful techniques like "Blood Manipulation" or the "Ten Shadows Technique" as jackpot prizes.

It just came down to this: the higher the item's own value, the slightly better your odds of pulling a top-tier technique.

At the end of the day, in this kind of gacha game, whether you awakened no technique at all, or something like Heavenly Restriction, or even Six Eyes plus Limitless itself—

it all came down to personal luck and fate.

So Chris had no intention of forcing anyone down any particular path.

Whatever results Suzune Horikita, Hiyori Shiina, and the others ultimately turned up, good or bad, would still stand as valuable comparative data.

Something the next people through could use as a reference.

Having heard Chris's explanation, Fūka Kiryūin lifted a hand to lightly cradle her chin, looking thoughtful.

"That's fair logic, all right." "But people naturally chase advantage and dodge harm on instinct. And you're not stepping in to stop it..."

She gave him a long, searching look. "Should I say you're just that confident in them? Or... that deep down, you're one of those cold-blooded types who couldn't care less what happens to anyone else?"

Chris stayed noncommittal. "Either works, however you want to read it, senpai."

"I won't deny I'm also holding off, waiting for solid results before I try it myself."

As he spoke, Chris turned to look at the group that had already gathered according to plan behind him.

He turned back to Fūka Kiryūin. "Since we're sure the Special Exam won't kick in for now, let's not keep Koro-sensei and Gojo waiting on the field too long, right?"

"First impressions on day one still matter."

Kiryūin gave a small nod and said nothing more.

She set her long legs in motion, walking straight toward where Gojo Satoru stood.

Chris, meanwhile, holding the all-purpose capsules containing the [Momonga Orb] and [The World], led the rest of the group over to where Koro-sensei stood, grinning and waving his tentacles.

"Koro-sensei, sorry — we held you and the others up a bit while we sorted a few things out."

Koro-sensei's round yellow face kept its signature smile, unchanged.

He waved a tentacle casually, entirely unbothered. "Ah, it's fine."

"It's your lives on the line, after all — I completely understand being careful about it in a school like this."

"I'm sure Gojo and Jiraiya won't mind a small thing like this either."

Hearing this, Matsushita Chiaki, walking beside Chris and planning to build up her basics in the Assassination Class first, caught the detail sharply and asked, curious:

"Koro-sensei, you've already met Jiraiya?"

Koro-sensei nodded, one tentacle slicing through the air. "He got to the school around three in the afternoon, more or less."

"He was a bit lost at first, so he came and found me and Gojo to get a feel for how the school works."

"Well, we're all using the same training ground later anyway."

"When I give you a mid-session break, I could just walk you all next door for a look, if you're curious."

Chris looked at him, a little surprised. "Koro-sensei, aren't you worried we'll see how amazing Jujutsu and Ninjutsu are and get poached?"

"You know class registration resets for us every day. The school's never forced anyone to stick with one elective."

Koro-sensei extended a tentacle and gently patted the heads of Chris and Matsushita Chiaki.

"Well... Koro-sensei's well aware of that, of course." "But naturally, as an educator, Koro-sensei could never stand in the way of my students chasing a brighter future..."

"Since the choice isn't locked in anyway, I'm confident my own unique teaching charm will win everyone back around in the end!"

Koro-sensei even rubbed his tentacles together in excitement. "Who knows, maybe I'll even work out some win-win teaching partnership with Gojo Satoru and Jiraiya somewhere down the line — it's not impossible!"

With that, Koro-sensei wasted no more time, leading Chris and the others briskly over to where Gojo Satoru stood, alongside Jiraiya in his over-the-top kabuki-style garb.

"Good. Looks like everyone's here."

Gojo Satoru tugged his blindfold down slightly, revealing his pale blue Six Eyes, and pulled his mouth into a grin.

He looked thoroughly delighted, like a kid who'd just found a fun new toy.

Jiraiya, for once, dropped his usual carefree manner and gave a nod.

He held out a broad palm in front of him. "Let's get started, then."

"I've been gone so long, the two toad sages at Mount Myōboku are probably worried something's happened to me."

Koro-sensei didn't waste time either, extending two tentacles.

He bumped fists lightly with his two new otherworldly colleagues.

But a moment later—

Jiraiya pulled his hand back and looked around. The scene was still just an ordinary school field, nothing had changed.

He scratched his white hair, puzzled. "Huh?" "Did we activate it wrong? Or maybe... do we need to strike some special pose and form seals, like with Summoning Jutsu?"

"Mommy mommy hoon?"

Koro-sensei explained gently. "No, Jiraiya." "Actually... we've already arrived at the dedicated training ground."

"By my senses, there's no background noise left in the school at all right now. Just the heartbeats of us and this group of students."

Hearing that, Jiraiya raised a hand, half-convinced, and bit his fingertip open.

He performed Summoning Jutsu, calling forth the two Mount Myōboku sages who'd come to this world alongside him but had been temporarily cut off by the Black Sphere's mechanics upon entering the school.

A puff of white smoke burst and cleared with a bang.

Two old toads in capes appeared.

Fukasaku instantly dropped into a combat stance, scanning the surroundings with a grim expression:

"Little Jiraiya! What in the world happened — where's the enemy?!"

Shima, too, kept a wary eye locked on Gojo Satoru and Koro-sensei nearby.

Jiraiya could only scratch his head awkwardly and laugh nervously. "Haha... old man, granny, don't get worked up."

"I didn't expect the two of you to vanish the second I arrived either." "But apparently that's just how this school's rules work."

"Kind of like how, earlier, I found I couldn't even use Chakra while I was in the school..."

"But after running into Koro-sensei and Gojo, I realized it really was just a false alarm after all."

The two tiny toad sages, seeing Jiraiya, hopped straight up onto his broad shoulders and launched into a spit-flecked, thoroughly serious lecture.

"My, how full of energy~"

Koro-sensei chuckled and shook his head.

He noticed Gojo Satoru had already turned, his gaze appraising as it swept over Hiyori Shiina, Kiryūin, and the others behind him — clearly already slipping into teacher mode.

Not to be outdone, Koro-sensei

turned and addressed Chris, Matsushita Chiaki, and the rest. "Before we get into the actual lesson, let me give you all a quick rundown of this place."

"This is an independent space GANTZ set aside specifically for us, meant for putting you all through real combat training."

"It's a perfect one-to-one recreation of every building in Advanced Nurturing High School. And on top of that, time flows differently here than outside..."

"Spend a full day in here, and only thirty minutes pass out in the real world."

Koro-sensei raised a tentacle, serious now. "Compared to that Hyperbolic Time Chamber you can enter just by spending points, this place definitely isn't as efficient."

"In exchange, our biggest advantage here is — it's completely free!"

"That said, opening this space requires all three of us specially-appointed teachers present at once, and it only provides one day's worth of training time per day."

"So, if any of you have points to spare and the means allow it, Koro-sensei still recommends heading to the Time Chamber after class to review and lock in what you've learned today!"

As he spoke, a provocative streak of green suddenly crept across Koro-sensei's face.

He waved his tentacles excitedly a few times. "So, moving on—"

"To give you all some confidence in Koro-sensei's own strength, so you'll willingly follow my instruction..."

"for your very first lesson today, everyone, please try your absolute best to kill me!"

Since Koro-sensei had already blown his own backstory earlier at the school gate, testing Chris and the others,

and given how fast information spread in the internet age,

pretty much everyone present already knew the full story behind him, so this opening line didn't come as much of a surprise.

But Chris, who knew Koro-sensei's actual true nature,

found himself, for some reason, struggling to keep a straight face at those words.

After all, even setting aside broken, multiverse-shaking items in his arsenal like the [Infinity Stones],

just relying purely on [Demon Possession]'s adaptive amplification, [The World]'s Time Stop, and the [Enma Blade]'s defense-ignoring Dimension Slash—

throwing out that kind of one-shot combo, Chris was confident—

in fact, of the three teachers currently present, every single one of them,

whether it was Jiraiya, or Koro-sensei with his proud Mach 20 speed, or Gojo Satoru with his baseline Infinity ability...

none of them could actually take a hit from a burst of firepower that unreasonable head-on.

In fact, looking back over every boss fight so far,

aside from the Darkness Devil, which had been a bit of a hassle mechanically,

if you set aside the gains and losses of his companions and looked purely from Chris's own perspective of clearing the run, dealing with those so-called bosses hadn't really been much of a challenge at all.

And that was without even factoring in the terrifying numbers he'd now stacked up — five or six digits' worth of Steelheart.

So, after two seconds of silence,

Chris couldn't help but speak up, offering a well-meaning warning. "Koro-sensei, are you serious about this?" "Not joking?"

Koro-sensei's face shifted back to yellow, and he let out a confident chuckle:

"Nurufufufu~ Of course I'm serious."

"Koro-sensei hasn't just been wandering around aimlessly all this time during the day, you know!"

"I know you're the undisputed strongest among this group of students."

"But... Koro-sensei is also, without question, the strongest in his own world~"

His tentacles swept through the air, leaving afterimages. "So this is a test — the strongest against the strongest!"

"If I can't beat you with overwhelming strength and prove my absolute power to everyone, how could I ever get you all to accept me as your teacher, wholeheartedly and without doubt?"

Standing behind Chris, Matsushita Chiaki watched Koro-sensei's utterly confident display.

She clenched the hem of her clothes on reflex, tilting her head up to look at Chris, and asked in a small voice, "Chris... he's a monster who can blow up the moon, after all." "Will you win?"

Chris tilted his head to look at her. "That's a question..." "...you should really ask Go— Koro-sensei, not me."

As he spoke, Chris pulled up the control interface on his Black Sphere Watch.

He drew out the [Crazy Diamond] Stand disc from his system storage and passed it backhand into Matsushita Chiaki's hands.

"Get ready."

Chris instructed her. "Press the disc against your forehead in a moment."

"I'm worried that once things get moving, I might not hold back enough and something goes wrong. With Crazy Diamond active, at least there'll be a safety net."

"Wouldn't want anyone actually getting hurt and everyone losing their class over it."

Matsushita Chiaki took a deep breath.

Even though she privately thought his words sounded absurdly arrogant, out of blind faith in Chris's strength she obediently pressed the Stand disc against her own forehead.

With his logistics squared away, Chris turned around.

He looked at Koro-sensei with a calm gaze, and with a flick of his wrist, the [Demon Possession] shortsword was already in his hand.

"Well then, just to be safe—" "how about I go first, as your inaugural challenger, teacher?"

At that, Koro-sensei's expression instantly shifted into excited orange stripes.

He extended a tentacle, pointing straight at Chris, and declared, "Good! Very good! Excellent, even!"

"Now that's the spirit!" "But let old teacher mention just one thing..." "You're the challenger here, Chris!"

____

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