Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Twenty Six - Dōyō [動揺]

As the white cloud of gas in the street gradually faded away to reveal the havoc that lay veiled beneath, Amaya found herself realizing exactly where Koro-sensei was, and where exactly the group who'd set out to unmask the hand framing Koro-sensei for underwear theft had ended up.

A droopy-tentacled Koro-sensei, half melted from the cloud of white gas stood staring after the departing open-tray truck, before frantically turning to check his surroundings.

Nagisa, Kayano, Fuwa, Terasaka and Karma stood around Koro-sensei, a sense of apprehension about them as they spoke with the Octopus himself, before a mere second later, the Octopus tore off after the truck.

And all the while, Amaya leaped across rooftops to close the distance.

She needed answers, and she wasn't going to get them standing back on that rooftop at the end of the street, even though she really did need to try and catch her breath.

Nagisa had pulled out his phone after a short exchange of words between the five, and by the time Amaya had closed the distance enough to use the nearest light-pole as a quick slide down to the ground, the group of five were already on the move after Koro-sensei.

'D-damnit wait!' Amaya gasped out just as she landed on the ground, though her form wavered as she found herself a little unsteady on her feet.

Unfortunately, it appeared they didn't hear her – They'd disappeared from sight almost as soon as Amaya had righted herself on her feet.

'S-stupid damn bastard...!' Amaya seethed beneath her ragged breath, practically doubling over as she tried to regain her breath enough to start running again. 'You're never this deaf when I don't want you to hear me!'

She was going to clobber that evil incarnate when she saw him next, she was convinced.

'Amaya-san?' A voice spoke out through the eerily silent streets, ripping a startled yelp from Amaya's throat as she whirled around.

There, jogging up the street towards her were a handful of her classmates, namely Mimura, Okakima and a few meters behind them was Hayami and Chiba.

What in the world...?

'Did Ritsu-chan get in contact with you, too?' The orangish boy questioned as they slowed to stop in front of her, confusing Amaya all the more. 'Oh, actually more importantly, you're not in any trouble, are you? You're kind of bleeding.'

'What? Where? No, that's not important!' Amaya huffed slightly as she found she was rather left out of the loop, earning a sheepish smile from the orange-haired boy who'd just made a move to point towards the side of her forehead. 'What the hell's even going on?'

'Well, funny story, that--'

'We should move, if we're to rendezvous with Koro-sensei.' Hayami spoke up as she and Chiba continued to jog past them to head in the direction Karma's group had gone. 'Explanations can wait until then.'

'Right! Come on, Amaya-san!' Mimura responded as he and Okajima followed suit.

Great ... More running.

Though Amaya merely huffed beneath her rather haggard breath and followed after them.

The group of students lead the way down the streets, towards one in particular several city blocks away, as per Ritsu's instructions from Mimura's phone in his hand.

As they ran to catch up, Amaya kept catching the smallest hints of what smelled like blood, nearly smothered by the acrid stench of rubber grinding on bitumen.