While Akira was busy exploding rockets with Koro-sensei in the forest, Erika sat alone in her room, trying to concentrate on her math homework.
She worked through a particularly difficult problem, but midway through, irritation built up, and she snapped her pencil in half.
She took a deep breath, calmed herself down, and picked up another pencil.
Selena's voice echoed telepathically.
"Erika-chan, that's the fourth pencil you've broken. Are you alright?"
Erika replied,
"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm FINE."
Snap.
Another pencil broke.
Selena sighed.
"Yeah... I don't think so... Is it because of my idiot brother?"
Erika rested her head on the desk with a sigh.
"Maybe…"
Selena giggled.
"My, my. Didn't you always complain that he was constantly clinging to you?"
Erika pouted.
"He is, but I never said I hated it… It just feels a little weird without him clinging to me."
Selena burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Erika-chan, seriously..."
Erika snapped,
"Don't laugh!"
Selena replied,
"Haha, don't worry. He's just doing something with Koro-sensei. He'll be back soon to cling to you again. I'm sure he misses you too."
Erika sighed.
"What is he even doing right now?"
Selena answered,
"Right now...? Oh, he just made a bet with Koro-sensei. It involves you getting full marks in math."
Erika blinked in surprise.
"What?"
Selena continued,
"You know the challenge Koro-sensei gave the rest of the class? Well, your idiot boyfriend changed it. If you get full marks in math, Koro-sensei has to seriously listen to something he wants to say in the future."
Erika looked stunned.
"But that's…"
Selena smiled.
"He said he believes in you. He knows you can do it."
A faint blush spread across Erika's cheeks.
"Really…? Well, it is only junior high math, and I already know most of it. Yeah... I can do this."
Filled with renewed determination, she grabbed another pencil and tackled a difficult problem.
A few moments later, however...
"Should I use this formula... or that formula...? Hmm..."
Selena immediately answered,
"Neither. You need to use the third formula here."
Erika puffed out her cheeks.
"They should all give the same answer, okay?"
Selena sighed.
"No, they won't... Sigh. How about I just teach you?"
Erika looked surprised.
"You know math?"
Selena sounded deeply offended.
"Excuse me?"
Erika hurriedly corrected herself.
"I mean... you never went to school, right?"
Selena replied,
"Did you forget? I know everything my brother knows. Besides, I may not be a ridiculous super genius like him, but I'm still a genius in my own right."
Erika tilted her head.
"Really?"
Selena answered proudly,
"Yeah. And unlike that idiot, I won't accidentally start teaching you quantum mechanics in the middle of a junior high math lesson."
Erika couldn't help smiling.
"Alright then. Teach me."
Selena replied,
"Gladly. I'll make sure you get full marks in math. But don't neglect your other subjects either, okay?"
Erika nodded.
"I won't."
And so, Selena began teaching Erika.
To Erika's surprise, Selena turned out to be an excellent teacher. Her explanations were straightforward and easy to understand, making concepts click far more naturally.
After solving another problem, Erika smiled.
"These methods are actually really good. I wonder how much Class 3-E's scores would improve if we taught them like this…"
Selena replied,
"Maybe you should try. Who knows? It might help. Besides, we still have that mission to get Class E into the top fifty in the final exams."
Erika suddenly froze.
"Wait... I completely forgot about that."
She blinked.
"...Did Akira forgot about that, too."
Selena sighed.
"Yeah. For someone with a perfect memory, he somehow forgets a surprising number of important things. Don't worry, though. We still have plenty of time."
Erika nodded with determination.
"Then I'll help teach everyone tomorrow. We should think of other ways to improve their scores too."
Selena replied cheerfully,
"Sounds good. But first... Finish all those problems."
Erika let out a defeated sigh.
"Fine."
She returned to her homework.
By the time her dinner arrived—or rather Akira arrived for dinner, Erika had actually managed to finish all of it.
---
The next afternoon, while the rest of the students were busy preparing for the exams, Akira returned to Koro-sensei's house with Ritsu to continue the experiment.
Ritsu appeared on his phone screen and asked,
"I wonder if we can make any improvements today. Yesterday, we almost blew up Koro-sensei's house and still didn't make much progress."
Koro-sensei, who had just arrived, laughed heartily.
"Nuruhuhuhuhu~! Failure is essential for growth! True failure only comes when you stop trying and fail to learn from your mistakes. Akira-kun's first prototype exploded after three seconds. His second one lasted twenty seconds. That's already progress!"
Akira nodded while unpacking the large box.
"Yeah, but Ritsu's right too. We don't want to waste too much time. So, to speed up our progress... I have a secret weapon."
Koro-sensei's eyes sparkled.
"Nuruhuhuhuhu~! A secret weapon, you say? What is it?"
Akira answered dramatically,
"A montage."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Koro-sensei blinked.
"…I'm sorry, what?"
Ritsu tilted her head on the screen.
"…A montage?"
Akira nodded with complete seriousness.
"Yes. Every epic, time-consuming creation requires its own building montage. Montages increase productivity."
He pointed toward the sky.
"It's a universal law."
Koro-sensei and Ritsu slowly looked at each other before turning back to Akira.
Koro-sensei finally asked,
"That sounds... nice, but how exactly do we do it?"
Akira replied,
"We play the music... and start working."
Koro-sensei blinked.
"That's it?"
Akira smiled confidently.
"It's more of a feeling than anything else. Don't question it. Just embrace it."
He pulled out his phone.
"Allow me to demonstrate the first step."
He pressed play.
The opening notes of Immortals by Fall Out Boy echoed through the clearing.
And thus...
The montage began.
---
♪ Music: Immortals – Fall Out Boy ♪
Akira and Ritsu rapidly worked through calculations and simulations on a laptop while Koro-sensei tightened screws and assembled parts at Mach 20, finishing entire sections of the rocket in mere seconds.
The first prototype was activated with Koro-sensei supplying antimatter.
It roared to life—
—and shot straight into the forest.
This time, however, it didn't explode.
Instead, it simply lost power and dropped harmlessly to the ground.
Progress.
Back to the drawing board.
The second prototype resembled a tiny space car.
It accelerated beautifully...
...then refused to steer and crashed headfirst into a tree.
Back to planning.
The third version looked like a miniature space bike, with Koro-sensei sitting on it as a rider and a living power source.
It launched successfully—
—for about two seconds.
Then the entire vehicle disassembled itself mid-flight.
Back to planning.
The fourth prototype was... a giant glass sphere with rockets attached to it.
Koro-sensei sat inside like an octopus in a fishbowl.
For a brief, glorious moment, it hovered perfectly.
Then it started spinning.
Faster.
Faster.
Faster.
It reached supersonic speed...
...burrowed straight into the ground like a drill...
...and exploded.
Koro-sensei climbed out of the smoking crater, covered in soot.
"Well, that went better than before!"
Akira immediately pointed at him.
"Sensei! You spoke during the montage."
Koro-sensei looked confused.
"But people are allowed to talk during montages! Lots of movies do that."
Akira shook his head.
"Not this montage."
He crossed his arms.
"This montage is powered by background music... and silent determination."
He sighed dramatically.
"Now you've interrupted the flow."
He pointed toward the phone.
"We have to restart the montage."
And so...
The montage continued.
Prototype after prototype was built.
Some exploded.
Some flew a little farther than before.
Some mysteriously decided that tunneling underground was a perfectly reasonable method of space travel.
But with every failure, the next design improved.
Day after day...
Evening after evening...
While the rest of Class 3-E focused on preparing for the end-of-term exams, Akira, Ritsu, and Koro-sensei continued refining their secret moon project.
Slowly...
Steadily...
Their spacecraft finally began to take shape.
And before any of them realized it...
The day of the end-of-term exams had arrived.
---
Akira and Erika walked toward the exam hall, with Akira staying close to her as usual. Since they were in the main school building, he refrained from hugging her directly, though it was obvious he wanted to.
He muttered,
"I've been so busy these past few days. I missed you."
Erika sighed, though a small smile tugged at her lips.
"You see me every day. You're only away for, what, four hours?"
Akira replied dramatically,
"That's four whole hours without you beside me. Sigh... Once all of this is over, I'm going to hug you tightly and never let go for an entire day."
Erika sighed again, although she looked secretly pleased.
"Why are you like this?"
Just then, Nakamura and Nagisa, who were heading to the same exam hall, caught up with them.
Nakamura grinned.
"Oh my, being all lovey-dovey right before the exams? That's bold."
Erika hurriedly shook her head.
"It's nothing like that. He's just always like this..."
Nakamura smirked.
"So you're saying both of you are always this romantic?"
Erika flushed.
"N-No, that's not what I meant..."
Nagisa turned to Akira.
"Akira-kun, did you prepare well for the exams?"
Akira nodded casually.
"Well, I already finished the entire curriculum and reviewed everything Koro-sensei recommended..."
As they entered the exam room, they noticed someone sitting in Ritsu's usual seat.
She had the same hairstyle as Ritsu, but with a plump face, a round nose, and eyes that seemed permanently closed.
Nakamura and Nagisa blinked in confusion.
"Who's that?"
Karasuma, standing by the doorway, explained,
"That's Ritsu's proxy."
Nagisa asked in surprise.
"Proxy?"
Akira looked thoughtful,
"Oh, I heard her say she is tutoring someone, is that her."
Karasuma let out a weary sigh.
"We couldn't convince the principal to let an AI take the exams, so we settled for a stand-in whom Ritsu personally tutored."
His expression became complicated.
"Do you have any idea what it feels like to have the principal give you a pity-filled, 'You've sure got it rough,' look during those negotiations?"
Nagisa and Nakamura immediately bowed.
"We're not worthy!"
Karasuma nodded and looked at them.
"Ritsu has a message for you, and so do I. Good luck."
Everyone answered together.
"Yes, sir!"
And so...
The exams began.
The room fell completely silent as everyone focused on their papers.
For the students of Class 3-E, every exam felt like a battle against a powerful enemy.
For some...
It was a complete massacre.
For others...
It was a difficult challenge.
And for a few...
It was a duel between equals.
Nagisa glanced toward Akira.
Akira had already finished nearly an hour ago.
Now he was peacefully asleep with his arms folded on the desk.
Nagisa stared blankly.
...For some people, they aren't taking on the exam.
The exam is taking on them...
...And losing.
And so, the two days of end-of-term exams came to an end.
---
Koro-sensei stood at the podium, holding sealed envelopes containing everyone's exam results.
"Well, class, your scores for all subjects have arrived."
The classroom instantly became tense.
Koro-sensei opened the first envelope.
"First things first. Originally, I wanted to announce the top students in each subject from both our class and the entire school one by one, but... the student who ranked first in every subject with perfect scores is... Akira-kun!"
No one looked surprised.
"Ok, and?"
"Everyone already knew that, Koro-sensei."
"Yeah, tell us who got second. It's Asano-kun, right?"
"The Big Five are impressive, but Asano is on another level."
Koro-sensei pouted.
"At least pretend to be surprised for Sensei's sake!"
He cleared his throat dramatically.
"Very well. The student who ranked second overall in the entire school is... Erika-san."
The classroom exploded.
"What?! Erika-san got second place?!"
"Seriously? She beat Asano?!"
"Asano got pushed down to third?! No way!"
Koro-sensei nodded proudly.
"She came remarkably close to a perfect score. She only lost two points in total—one in social studies and one in science."
Erika let out a disappointed sigh.
"Sigh... I really thought I'd get full marks in everything."
Akira already had tears in his eyes.
"Erika... You got a perfect score in math. I knew you could do it."
Erika lightly smacked his shoulder.
"Stop joking around."
Kayano suddenly raised her hand excitedly.
"Wait! Does that mean we already won the bet?"
Koro-sensei shook his head.
"Not quite. Akira-kun and Erika-san excluded themselves from the Class A bet. Their challenge was only against Asano-kun. Besides, they requested a different reward from me instead of destroying one of my tentacles, so that matter is still pending."
The class immediately grew tense again.
Koro-sensei continued.
"Now then, for English... tied for first place in Class E and first in the entire grade with a perfect score... Nakamura Rio!"
The class erupted into cheers.
Koro-sensei smiled.
"Though I was a little concerned about your... unique source of motivation."
Nakamura walked up with a grin.
"Well, there were ten billion yen on the line! Don't forget about that tentacle now, Koro-sensei."
Koro-sensei turned orange with a giant red "O."
"I won't."
He opened the next envelope.
"Japanese. Third place in Class E goes to Kanzaki Yukiko with 96 points. However, in this subject, Class A's Asano Gakushu tied Akira-kun and Erika-san with a perfect score."
Walking over to her, he smiled warmly.
"Kanzaki-san, you did an excellent job. Be proud of yourself."
Maehara whistled.
"Asano really knows how to squeeze out every point."
Isogai nodded.
"Well, he is one of the country's top students."
Koro-sensei continued.
"Next, social studies. Third place in Class E goes to Isogai Yuma-kun with 97 points. And congratulations... you beat Asano-kun by two points."
The class cheered loudly.
Fuwa, who had been keeping score, pumped her fist.
"We're leading two to one!"
Sugaya grinned.
"Next is science... Okuda, right?"
Koro-sensei smiled.
"Third place in Class E goes to Okuda Manami with 98 points... and you defeated Class A by three points."
The classroom burst into celebration.
"YEAHHHH!"
"Great job, Okuda!"
"That tentacle is yours!"
"It's three to one now! Even without counting math, we already won!"
Some students celebrated enthusiastically.
Others...
Not so much.
Karma quietly crumpled his math score sheet, which read 85.
Meanwhile, Akira leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"So... finals are finally over."
He looked thoughtful.
"Now then... what should I ask Asano for?"
He paused.
"Should I stick with making him end every sentence with 'nyaa~'?"
The entire class screamed in unison.
"NO! THAT'S STUPID!"
---