Never had Amaya considered that she might actually enjoy PE class, for once. She had never really considered that it was possible for her to make friends, either. Nor even if she could have fun with someone she didn't already trust explicitly.
Well, she was proven wrong by the third rotation during PE class.
There was no negativity shown towards her by these two boys called Isogai Yuuma and Maehara Hiroto, nor was there an underlying question of trust or suspicion. If she disregard the shock that they were struck with when she'd surprise them, like when she'd foot-swept Maehara, they grinned, and even managed to get her to laugh twice, now.
It was honest to god, innocent fun that felt foreign to her right now.
And even though it was foreign, it felt so good to Amaya that she decided to herself that she whole-heartedly liked these two boys who'd reached out to her.
She was inwardly giggling like a little schoolgirl inside when she realised that she might actually have the capacity to make friends, after all.
Before the beginning of the month, the idea that she was capable of such a feat had been as far-fetched as the moon exploding to her. That said very little now that her over-dramatic teacher had done just that to validate his position in the world.
So right now anything was possible in Amaya's eyes.
'Isogai-kun, you're up next.' Karasuma announced in that ever-serious manner of his, straight faced as he helped pull a winded Maehara to his feet.
Right now, it was the end part of PE class, and nearly everyone had been dismissed for lunch, except for Amaya, Isogai and Maehara. Things had run a little late for some reason, and Karasuma hadn't gotten around to the three of them by the time lunch started.
'Man, it's next to impossible to get a good run against him...' Maehara groaned out as he walked over towards where Amaya was standing, massaging his shoulder gently.
'I can't imagine someone from the Ministry of Defense would be a push-over.' Isogai responded with a smile as he approached Karasuma, Anti-Sensei knife in hand.
Amaya couldn't help but smile at that remark.
'Ne, Katsuragi-chan?' Maehara spoke up with a smirk, causing Amaya to turn her head to look at him. 'Mind if I ask you something?'
'You can ask,' Amaya began, burying her hands in her pockets as she glanced over at Isogai and Karasuma. 'But that doesn't necessarily mean I'll give you an answer.'
Maehara laughed in good humor at her words.
'I heard Koro-sensei say that you weren't put here for your scores, yesterday.' Maehara began, turning his head to watch Isogai try and hit Karasuma with the Anti-Sensei knife of his. 'I was just wondering why you ended up here, anyway?'
Amaya blinked as she thought on that for a couple of seconds.
And for some reason she couldn't comprehend, she actually decided she may as well be honest.
She wondered if it was because she actually wanted to become friends with these boys, and one of the top three things she valued was honesty.
'Do you want the roundabout answer, or the blunt answer?' Amaya asked him curiously.
She couldn't help but let out a small breath as she saw Karasuma grab Isogai by the knife-arm and use a Judo-throw to land him on the ground.
'The blunt answer, I guess.' Maehara told her as he glanced at her, and she saw the tiniest hints of a smirk across his face.
She almost contemplated giving a rather graphic version of events, but thought better on it.
'Katsuragi-san! You're up.' Karasuma called out as he helped Isogai to his feet.
'I kicked a teacher's face in, so to speak.' Amaya answered Maehara's question as she began to approach Karasuma. It was a couple of seconds later when she heard an astonished 'Huh?!' escape the orange-haired boy, causing her to snicker to herself as she passed a curious Isogai.
Karasuma was straightening himself out as Amaya came to a stop a good five meters away, her bright eyes taking in her surroundings.
She noticed that Isogai and Maehara weren't making a move to head inside, yet, and she also noticed that nobody else seemed to be around.
They were probably all inside the classroom.
'Katsuragi-san.' Karasuma called her, causing Amaya to lift her gaze from her surroundings to look at him. 'I want to ascertain what you are actually capable of - Do not curb your strikes.'
He was standing in the same rather intimidating stance without actually being ready for an attack, causing Amaya to tilt her head to the side slightly.
Curb her strikes?
Amaya was a little perplexed by that, however she decided to listen to the man, never the less. The only people she ever actually tried to attack were the idiots that would pick fights with her.
'Umm, okay...?' Amaya eventually answered, flipping the knife around so that she held it backwards in her left hand.
'When you're ready, Katsuragi-san.' Karasuma told her, though he didn't shift into a waiting position.
Amaya guessed he didn't need to ready for anything.
So she took a few seconds to consider her plan of action.
Her strong suit on any day was her legs - She usually dealt all of her damage with kicks and well placed steps. On a bad day, she couldn't punch to save her life, but she could still deal hell with her steel-caps. She was in a pair of gym shoes right now, of course, so she wouldn't do a lot of harm, but that still didn't stop her from being at least a little apprehensive.
Her goal in the end was to just hit the serious-faced man with the rubber knife, so really, it would be best if she did this as quick as she could.
With that in mind and a deep breath to steel herself, Amaya launched herself forward into a dash.
She saw no surprise or thought flash across Karasuma's face at her sudden movement, and none appeared as she managed to throw a roundhouse kick towards his side. In fact, he deflected it with ease, pushing her backwards against her momentum, and bringing her to stumble backwards just a couple of paces.
His eyes remained upon her own, watching for any slight sign of movement she would make.
Amaya decided that he really did have the upper hand with any form of combat.
As she regained her footing, Amaya tossed the Anti-Sensei knife to her right hand as she threw herself into a foot-sweep, forcing the man backwards as she continued the motion into another roundhouse kick, this time with as much strength as she could manage.
However he used the momentum of her kick to pull her into a Judo throw, sending her crashing to the ground a couple of paces away.
'You're still curbing your strikes, Katsuragi-san.' Karasuma told her in that same serious tone of his, causing Amaya to chuckle to herself as she dragged herself to her feet. 'Do not take me lightly.'
'Sorry, Karasuma-sensei.' Amaya apologized, straightening up on her feet as she looked at the man.
'Try again.' Karasuma commanded her. 'You may discard your knife, if you prefer.'
Amaya blinked in surprise, however she took immediate advantage of that - She tossed her Anti-Sensei knife aside as she shifted into a ready stance.
She wasn't going to question the fact that he picked out her discomfort.
Her feet were parted with her left in front of her right, and her left arm was in front of her, with her right raised to her jaw at her side, both hands curled into firm fists as she looked up at Karasuma.
She felt more comfortable without that stupid knife - It was fine against Isogai and Maehara, because they were on the same level as her, but she didn't know what to do with it against someone who clearly knew what they were doing.
It felt more like her hands were tied with the rubber knife than if she was without it.
She took a deep breath once again, and threw herself forward in a second attempt, her right arm pulling back in preparation for a strike.
Amaya's right hook was sidestepped by Karasuma easily, causing her to continue the motion into a roundhouse with her left foot. Her kick was blocked easily with the smallest swing of Karasuma's right arm, and before she had a chance to regain her balance, she had to throw herself backwards to avoid his free hand grabbing hold of her arm.
She followed this up with an uppercut with her right arm to his jaw, however yet again he deflected her strike.
So out of instinct cultivated from her many brawls on the streets, Amaya threw herself forward into a sweeping high-kick before she could think, where the toe of her right shoe barely grazed Karasuma's chin.
A glimpse of familiar red in the corner of Amaya's eye suddenly caught her attention, distracting her just enough where she didn't notice Karasuma suddenly move towards her until it was too late. Before she even knew what had happened, her right wrist had been caught, and she was thrown to the ground with a startled yelp escaping her on the way down.
Amaya crashed to the ground in an inelegant heap, gasping as her left hand slammed to the ground painfully.
Her head was spinning a little, and her breath was unsteady as her world spun around her.
'Damn it, that hurt!' Amaya groaned out, clenching her left hand to try and disperse some of the pain that was flaring to life.
'That was well done.' Karasuma told her in that same, serious manner of his, and it was a second later when she noticed that he was standing over her, a hand held out to pull her to her feet once again.
'Thanks ...' Amaya spoke up with a small sigh, unsteadily lifting her right arm to accept the hand up.
She was then pulled back to her feet, where she could regain some of her senses a bit better.
'That's all for today - You're free to go to lunch.' Karasuma told her, stepping past her to retrieve his suit-jacket from the ground a few meters away.
Amaya sucked in a shaky breath as she began to dust herself off with a small pout across her face.
Her hand was still aching.
'Katsuragi-chan! You alright?' Maehara's voice spoke up all of a sudden, catching Amaya's attention immediately.
She lifted her gaze from her dirtied form, to look up at the approaching boy. Both he and Isogai were jogging over, the latter with Amaya's bag slung over his shoulder. They both wore looks of minor concern.
'I'm fine.' Amaya answered wryly, straightening up to face them properly. 'It's not like I've never hit the ground, before.'
Isogai seems to glance at Maehara for a second, before he returns her messenger bag to her with a kind smile.
A kind, knowing smile.
She really found it kind of uncomfortable that he was giving her a lot of those.
Just what the hell did this guy apparently know, anyway? It was seriously beginning to bug her!
'Would you like to join us for lunch, Katsuragi-san?' Isogai asked her.
Lunch ...?
Oh right, that meal right in the middle of the day, usually a bento for school students.
It was right that second that Amaya realized she hadn't brought anything with her to eat, no thanks to the asshole that stole her obento and everything else that had happened since then.
The weird thing was she couldn't consciously remember the last time she'd actually eaten. The other weird thing was that she didn't have an appetite, so she probably wouldn't really eat, even if she brought anything.
Oh well. Silver lining, right?
'Umm ... okay?' Amaya eventually agreed, a sheepish smile touching her face as she finally shouldered her messenger bag. 'That'd be cool ...'
'Great! I'll go get our stuff, then!' Maehara announced with enthusiasm, turning on his heel to start jogging back to the Classroom past a departing Karasuma, leaving Amaya and Isogai standing there awkwardly.
Did the guy actually seem pleased by the fact that she agreed to have lunch with them?
'Is he always like that ...?' Amaya eventually asked.
'Not really.' Isogai responded with a smile, causing Amaya to look at him. 'We just thought you'd be more comfortable this way.'
Amaya blinked up at the smiling boy, her brow furrowing as she tried to figure out what was going on.
To no avail - She just seemed to get more and more confused the more she tried to think about it.
'What do you mean by that?' She eventually asked.
He smiled, fixing her with a rather patient look, however he didn't answer her.
Was there a reason for that?
The same glimpse of red that had distracted her while she was trying to land a hit on Karasuma caught her eye, over by the line of trees to Amaya's far right. She blinked, turning her head to look at what it was.
'Katsuragi-san?' Isogai spoke up all of a sudden, halting Amaya in her motions and bringing her to look back at him. She saw him holding an Anti-Sensei knife towards her, hilt first. 'I believe this is yours.'
'O-oh! Right!' Amaya smiled sheepishly as she retrieved her knife. 'Thank you.'
Her hand was still aching, even as she put her knife away in her bag carefully. She could see that the mess of Anti-Sensei BB's were all through her uniform inside. She did recall what had happened yesterday when she tried to push his tentacle away; The residue had the appendage explode like a goop-filled balloon.
So she realized that was the kind of effect these weapons had on Koro-sensei.
If you could hit him, that was.
'Man, let's eat! I'm starving!' Maehara's voice echoed all of a sudden, snapping Amaya out of her moment of thought.
She lifted her gaze to look over, to find that he was slowing to a walk just a few meters away, two school-bags in his grip as he grinned brightly.
'Thanks for getting that for me.' Isogai thanked Maehara brightly as the latter tossed one of the bags over.
'No problem.' Maehara responded, turning his head to look at Amaya's motionless form. 'You good to go? Katsuragi-chan?'
'Umm ... go?' She questioned curiously.
'Not very far.' Isogai says with a kind smile, turning his head to look at Amaya's confused form. 'It's more comfortable on the other side of the clearing.'
Amaya blinked, though she eventually nodded her head in understanding.
Something was a little odd to her, however she chose to instead speculate on it at a later time as she began to follow the two boys towards the left side of the Classroom Building. They talked and joked on the way, slowing down enough so that Amaya was walking alongside Maehara.
It wasn't forced, but the longer she observed, the more she began to feel like there was something odd.
Her answer came to her as they rounded the side of the building, and a glimpse of red once again caught her attention.
This time however, she managed to look over before the classroom ended up obscuring her line of sight.
Karma was standing against one of the trees along the edge of the clearing, his hands buried in the pockets of his jacket as he seemed to gaze over in her direction. And as she saw him turn his head away all of a sudden, she realized he'd been standing there, watching her for a while now.
Was that why Isogai and Maehara wanted to eat lunch on the other side of the building?
Because Karma was right there?
What reason would they have for that?!
'Katsuragi-san?'
Amaya blinked, whipping her head around to look at Isogai and Maehara.
It turned out that she'd slowed to a halt, and they'd noticed. There was that strange touch of concern to Isogai's face, and Maehara looked a little curious.
'S-sorry. I got a little distracted.' Amaya apologized as she jogged to catch up to them.
Amaya's afternoon continued in much the same fashion, though by the end of lunch break, she had a vague understanding as to why the two boys seemed to keep shooting her concerned looks every now and then.
It came in the form of Koro-sensei suddenly appearing out of thin air towards the end of break, his tentacles wrapping gently around her left arm, just like the day before, and neither Isogai nor Maehara looked the least bit confused about that. He checked her condition, and with a low sigh, Koro-sensei deemed that there has been no change in her condition at all.
She entertained the idea that Isogai and Maehara were keeping her company at the request of the clearly concerned Koro-sensei, however she wasn't sure about it and ended up disregarding the idea altogether. Her stomach told her that these two were just really nice guys.
They just noticed the new girl was having a bit of trouble and decided to help her out.
That was all there really was to it.
Much to Amaya's surprise, both Isogai and Maehara had asked to exchange contact information, Isogai explaining that if she needed to ask him anything about the ways of Class E, it gave her an avenue to do so, while Maehara just flat out turned around and said 'You don't mind, right?'
So by the end of lunch break, she had an additional two contact numbers, raising her total number of entries to eight.
Why eight instead of seven?
Because while Koro-sensei had possession of her phone on Monday, he had decided to enter his contact information for her. She didn't even know until Maehara had decided to help teach her how to add contacts into her phone.
Needless to say, Amaya was a little bemused by the revelation.
The afternoon classes went by in a flash for Amaya, for no other reason than when she'd sat down at her desk in the beginning of fourth period, she put her head down and slipped into a dark, dreamless sleep.
Nobody went to wake her during any of the afternoon classes, evidently enough.
She was left there for the last two classes, silent and motionlessly slumped over her desk. The world continued on around her, where on the odd occasion she could feel something touch her in her sleep. It was soft and squidgy, much like the consistency of Koro-sensei's tentacle prodding at her to check if she was actually still alive.
However it was the sensations of a gentle shaking of her shoulder that drew her out of her slumber.
'Katsuragi-san?' She heard a vaguely familiar voice speak up, however she was still half asleep when she spoke out of habit.
'Karma, nooo...' Amaya mumbled as she curled a little more against the desk. '... I swear I will bite you ...'
'Time to get up, Katsuragi-chan.' Another voice spoke up, sounding thoroughly amused
It was the chan honorific that snapped Amaya awake, and she threw herself upright in her seat out of fright.
She found herself sitting in an orange-lit classroom, with Maehara and Isogai standing over her.
'You with us, now?' Maehara asked her, a smirk across his face as Amaya managed to look at him.
Silently, Amaya carefully scanned the room for any sign of the deemed red-head responsible for waking her up, only to find that there was no sign of him.
In fact, nobody else was here.
However, it was as Amaya leaned over to check under her desk that Maehara actually burst out in laughter, causing the sleep-dazed girl to look up at him in confusion. She noticed that Isogai was struggling to fight off a smile - The corners of his mouth were twitching from the strain.
'... What?' She mumbled in question.
'We actually woke you, Katsuragi-san.' Isogai told her, casting her an apologetic smile as Maehara continued to chuckle to himself.
'Karma-kun left over an hour ago.' Maehara added, thoroughly amused, it appeared. 'Why the hell would he be hiding under your desk, anyway?'
Amaya blinked slowly as she began to absorb that information.
'So ... I have to bite you, instead...?' She questioned the two in front of her.
'I'd prefer it if you wouldn't.' Isogai responded with a patient smile.
'I dunno about that.' Maehara remarked as he cast a grin to Isogai. 'Feisty girls are kind of attractive, don't you think?'
Amaya propped her head up against her fisted right hand, watching sleepily as Isogai turned his head to fix Maehara with a bemused smile.
'I'm pretty sure there's a difference between feisty and bitey.'
'That all depends on the girl in mention.' Maehara responded confidently with a smirk.
She watched in sleepy thought, failing to notice her eyelids drooping as the two boys continued to discuss this rather bizarre topic.
Even half-asleep, she was enjoying herself around these two.
It was fun, in a way that was very different to the fun she would normally have hanging around Karma. It was light-hearted, innocent fun that didn't confuse her anywhere near as much, if at all. They were honestly nice to her, with no obvious ulterior motives in place.
However her thoughts were cut short on her in one of those tragic ways of hers.
She sneezed, and in doing so managed to hit herself in the face with her upturned fist she'd propped her head on.
A sudden squeak escaped her as she threw herself upright, only to slip off of her chair and crash to the floor of the classroom.
Both Isogai and Maehara snapped out of their discussion immediately, and turned their rather shocked gazes upon Amaya's sprawled form.
'K-Katsuragi-san..?' Isogai spoke up hesitantly.
'You didn't just punch yourself, did you?' Maehara questioned a few seconds later.
'Owww ...' Amaya whimpered, unmoving on the floor as her brain sloshed inside her skull.
Isogai and Maehara shared a look for a few seconds, before they both looked down at Amaya to fix her with sheepish smiles.
'Yeah, we're gonna walk you home, Katsuragi-chan.' Maehara spoke up as he buried his hands in the pockets of his pants, watching as Isogai stepped over to help the poor girl to her feet. 'You're gonna end up killing yourself on the way there, if we don't.'
'... Thank you ...' Amaya mumbled, now fully conscious with another bruise to the collection.
When was her luck ever going to improve for her?
---=[Authors Notes]=---
Hey, xoCANDYox? You know what I said about the next chapter coming out on Sunday night? :3 I lied. Here you go, Sweetheart ;D
Thank you all very much for all the awesome votes and views and just awesomeness! You all rule so freaking much and made me so damn happy! This chapter may seem like filler, but I promise you, it's not! You'll find out why in the next chapter or two!
Now, I have to apologize to FleriaS. I know we talked about having a bit more of a point-of-view alternation because you'd like to see more of Karma in connection with everything going on in this point of the story, but I seriously looked at the way I set up the story, and it kind of would not exactly 'spoil' the story, but it would make it very hard to have the story work the way the next four chapters have been written out. I'll do my best to rig something up, but for the time being, I'm sorry T^T
Thanks for all the love you guys! You're all awesome!
Translations for words in Chapter Seventeen of Marionette (Just one word, yet again)
Tanoshii - Translates as Fun, written as 楽しい in Japanese :D