Marionette

Cosmos Chapter Thirty Two - Kenkyū no gōmon [研究の拷問]

The term "bubble-wrap" happened to be the best metaphor for Amaya's condition following the conclusion of the Boutaoshi match.

She'd discovered after slipping away among the victory celebrations that she was burned worse than even she had expected. With her arms, face, neck, and even the top of her feet burned to a bright, painful red, her skin had begun to blister in many tiny bubbles all over the worst-affected areas.

Amaya's only saving grace was the fact that it was technically the weekend as soon as school was out that afternoon, providing her with a hopeful two days before she'd have to show her bubble-wrap face in public. It was to her benefit however, that the blistering didn't actually get any worse.

And thankfully, Karma didn't go out of his way to annoy her too much.

Isogai was allowed to keep his part-time job, and Asano had vowed to never question it again. While Amaya wasn't witness to this, Maehara didn't hesitate to call and tell her all about it the very instance he had an opportunity, along with a remark about Iogai's act of begging the school faculty to let him take over the leftover bread. While that was good news, and Amaya had no doubt that Asano was going to continuously pretend she didn't exist, that didn't mean that was going to be the very last anyone would hear of him.

She just hoped that was the last he was going to bother messing with the lives of her classmates, and herself of course.

But then again, she was his neighbor, and she was undoubtedly going to bump into him again at some point.

Alas, now that the Athletics Festival was over and done with, Koro-sensei had returned to a painfully familiar act that Amaya legitimately hoped to never see again.

Mid-terms were two weeks away, and the octopus decided to make ample preparations into their tutoring. But at least long-sleeves were back on the uniform roster now, so she could cover up again.

Amaya muttered profanities beneath her breath as first thing Monday morning, she found herself face-to-face with a solid wall of Koro-sensei faces whirling around everyone's desks, each with different words and prompts written over the bandanna. Where the heck was their ease-in to mid-term preparations?

Oh right, Koro-sensei was a nutcase who didn't believe in doing things easily.

What a stupid question.

'Okay okay, everyone! We have the second semester midterms in two weeks! It's time to surpass Class A!' Koro-sensei announced erratically as the room was engulfed in sulphur-yellow. 'LET'S TURN UP THE HEAT! THE HEAT!!!'

Amaya's forehead contacted the hard wood surface of her desk as she buried her face in her hands.

'Any more, and you're going to spontaneously combust.' Amaya muttered as she felt the unpleasant, squidgy prodding of Koro-sensei's fingers poking against the top of her head.

'Nonsense!' Koro-sensei's shadow-clones remarked with that same obnoxious grin. 'Now sit up straight so we can start!'

'Then stop moving around so erratically!' Amaya snapped.

'I am not! These are carefully tailored duplicates for your studying ease!'

'I see more flickering than your damn duplicates, Koro-sensei!'

'WHAT?! But my duplicates are flawless!'

The snickering she could hear from Karma said enough. Between the barely-healed sunburn rubbing beneath her sleeves and the flicking messing with her head, Amaya was having a very hard time actually sitting there "studying" like they were supposed to.