Coburn Elementary School

Coburn Elementary School
kana	国立“コバーン小学校”
romaji	Kokuritsu “kobān shōgakkō”
Purpose	Elementary school, secret Japanese indoctrination facility
Location	Seattle, Washington
Mission	"Target05: Smile"
Boss	Greg Nightmare
First appearance	killer7 (2005)

Coburn Elementary School (国立“コバーン小学校”, Kokuritsu “kobān shōgakkō”, lit. "National Coburn Elementary School") is a location in the video game killer7. It is the setting of the second part of Target05: Smile.

Overview

Pre-game events

Coburn was founded by Harman Deltahead, its first principal, in 1780. Secretly, however, Harman and Coburn were being funded by unknown underground capitalist organizations, who wished for Coburn to spread and cultivate capitalism through its education. From the very beginning, Coburn was intimately tied to the presidential election, as the first presidential primary was held there. Harman remained at the school for the next forty years; following his death, however, it is mostly unknown how control of Coburn shifted from the mysterious capitalists to Japan.

Beginning at some point likely following World War II, Coburn was used by the Japanese government as a secret indoctrination site and training ground for fifth columnist assassins to be used against the United States. Taught using the doctrine of the Yakumo, students were raised to be inserted into key positions in the government. Emir Parkreiner attended the school as a young boy and became a sort of prodigy. As part of Parkreiner's rampage in the incident known as "killer7", he killed the principal, another Harman Smith, and locked his body in his office safe.

Coburn was also the headquarters of the Education Ministry. Votes were counted in this school, and due to Washington's heavy weight on the vote in the world of killer7, whoever controlled the school could theoretically control the results of the presidential election. When the United States government became suspicious of this following the 1992 election, it dispatched an investigator named Holbert to uncover its secrets. While investigating the school, Holbert discovered the truth about Coburn's Japanese occupation, and also found himself seemingly stalked by Heaven Smiles. Holbert met his end when he was shot by someone who he identified as Emir, but left tapes scattered around the school detailing his findings.

Game events

Years later, Garcian Smith and the Smith Syndicate, having been disillusioned with the United States government and gone rogue, act on information gathered at the Union Hotel and travel to Coburn Elementary School to investigate Garcian's own origins. The building is dark and desolate, the sense of dislocation heightened by the unusual time of day and lack of children, jarring to anyone who has only ever experienced a school during daytime hours. The group follows the path of the cassette tapes that Holbert had left behind in a last gasp attempt to get the story out. As a result, with help from Travis Bell, Garcian slowly comes to uncover the truth.

Garcian ultimately confronts current principal Benjamin Keane in his office, where the man challenges him to a game of Russian Roulette: Should Keane win, Garcian agrees to murder the President, and should Garcian win, he will teach Garcian the secret to hitting on women with 100% success. Garcian wins the game and Keane commits suicide. Using the information he gathers about Emir Parkreiner, a former incarnation of himself, Garcian unlocks the office safe where he finds Harman's previous body and deposits his Vision Ring into a computer terminal. Garcian's Third Eye briefly opens as a result of this.

Garcian's search finally leads him to the gymnasium, where he briefly speaks with the increasingly more powerful Kenjiro Matsuoka, who seems poised to literally take over the world. He is then forced to battle the hanged Minister of Education, Greg Nightmare, who drops the Golden Gun upon his defeat. Six Black Smiles then appear one by one, seemingly invincible, each killing off a member of the Smith Syndicate with a suicide attack until only Garcian remains. Garcian however picks up the Golden Gun and easily executes the final Black Smile before fleeing the scene.

Dan Smith proceeds through a Coburn hallway.