By now, the students of Class 3-E should really be used to the unexpected happening. They really shouldn't have been caught off guard by much anymore.

But they weren't.

The sudden crack of what sounded like thunder was soon discovered to be the sound of an explosion erupting from beneath the satellite campus building, a small handful of meters away if anyone had to take a guess. The reverberations from the explosion rocked the classroom, shaking cobwebs and dust loose from the ceilings, and startling the students out of their wits.

And unfortunately for poor Amaya, she was caught by surprise mid-banter with Maehara. The deafening sizzle and crackle of the ensuing sound startled her so much that she had jumped half a meter in the air and almost took a tumble over Okuda's tiny form situated just behind her.

It was thanks to a quick-thinking redhead standing nearby that she'd been caught by the shoulder of her jumper before the two girls wound up crashing to the hard wood floor.

'What in damn hell was that?!' Amaya practically yelped out through the onslaught of similar questions shouted out by classmates.

There was no response, though the onslaught of like-minded exclamations from others in the room was sign enough that the sentiment was mutual.

It was almost like a pitiful sense of deja vu as the Class Reps swiftly moved to look out the windows, as if Asano Gakuhou had gone back on his word and decided to destroy the building again.

However, the alarm that had grasped both Kataoka and Isogai was even more severe than when the excavators had arrived. Far more disbelieving and panicked.

Far less controlled, as it were.

There was no Kayano in the room, Amaya noted as everyone began to leave quickly to investigate the nearby sounds of an explosion, no Nagisa either, and of course Koro-sensei was absent; that was why they were discussing assassination plans just moments before. She barely even noticed when a hand had latched around her own and proceeded to drag her along after everyone else.

There was no petite duo anywhere, and in their place was a suffocating edge of foreboding bearing down on Amaya's mind like smog.

As far as Amaya knew, there hadn't been legitimate movement from any assassin in quite a while.

Nothing since the apparent incident where Nagisa's mother had tried to burn the classroom down. There had been no sightings at all ever since the Culture Festival over a week ago.

The harsh lashing of late-fall air against Amaya's exposed skin snapped her attention away from the spiraling thoughts when she'd been lead outside, and along with it came a horrifyingly strong odor of sulphur, even on the lively breeze. It had her coughing, struggling to take in clean air that didn't threaten to nauseate her.

As they turned around the corner towards the side nearby the storage shed, Amaya caught sight of Koro-sensei's alarmingly battered form hunched over nearby a hole in the ground through gaps in the students all running ahead of her.

And atop the storage shed was none other than a petite greenette who had been absent ever since the start of lunch break.

Kayano Kaede, hair loose and clothes unkempt, with the chilling sight of tentacles of her own waving through the air like live snakes.

Alarm bells starting screaming in Amaya's head at the sight of those tentacles, deafening her to the words around her as the ramifications that lone trait sunk in on her.

It answered exactly why she had suddenly been targeted by the greenette the exact moment after Asano Gakuhou threatened her.

And not only that, it answered exactly why Shiro's presence tailing the class had been absent for so long, most had forgotten about him.

His presence had been here all along.

Hidden in woolen sheep's clothing, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on their prey.

Whatever was said wasn't registering in Amaya's thoughts as she struggled with the urge to throw something heavy at the tentacle-wielding girl atop the storeroom, she didn't care about the "How or Why" of the matter, or even what the reasons were for this charade's sudden turn. Not even the blunt, careless declaration that Kayano Kaede wasn't in fact the girl they'd seen in their classroom this whole time meant anything to Amaya.

What did come to Amaya's conscious notice enough to rile her up worse was the scathing, cold word the viper had used to address Koro-senei; Murderer.

And then, faster than the Albino could comprehend, "Kayano" left with what seemed to be a promise to end Koro-sensei's life the next day before she took to utilizing her tentacles to disappear with haste.

Just like that, they were left in a sickening pit of confusion and betrayal, festering in the throws of a sick, cruel joke played for far too long.

And Amaya had sat through enough of this.

She ignored whatever it was Itona had begun to say about the pain of being a tentacle host, paid no heed to the way Koro-sensei was silently watching her as she tugged her hand from Karma's grip and stalked off back towards the classroom. There was of course, nothing to be gained from staying when all she could think about was the presence of possible connections her father could use, and the mouthful of spiteful words she was struggling not to spit out in her motions to leave.

Unfortunately, the moment Amaya had gathered her belongings and stepped out of the building, her movements had been noticed.

'Amaya-san? Where are you going?!' Isogai called out in surprise.

'Home!' She snapped in response.

'But what about Kayano-san?!' Someone, likely one of the girls, questioned. 'You can't just leave!'

'Watch me.'

She had no obligation to stay aboard this train-wreck in motion, after all.

And so, she marched herself home with no concern for the chill in the air, or the mess of circumstances that hung in the satellite campus air.

She tended to what she needed to at home, mulling over her thoughts in regards to her most immediate actions. No amount of chirping from her addled conure perched atop her head succeeded in drawing her attention for long, and even Samuel's loud chattering reverberating through the house failed to earn more than a dismissive roll of the eyes.

She received emails from Isogai and Maehara, though she scarcely gave more than a dismissive, non-committal reply to beyond her affirmation that she wasn't coming to class for the rest of the term. And when the ikemen asked if she really was fine with having nothing to do with Kayano anymore, the only thing she could say was "I don't care".

Maehara, in a strange form of role reversal, actually had more tact than Isogai for once and told her that he'd simply inform her of the basics later down the track when she was ready.

No questions. No prying.

Just a simple announcement with an onslaught of smiley faces and a declaration that he had her back. That was of course, followed up with the off-handed remark that she should ignore Isogai's stressing; The ikemen was just trying to smooth things over with the more oversensitive members of class.

Whether it was from experiencing first-hand some of the events that instilled Amaya's perpetual paranoia and suffocating anxiety, or simply being far less inclined to mediate unpleasant situations, the albino didn't know. But by the time she had retreated to bed come 1am, she was thankful.

Because come morning, the anger over Kayano's cloak and dagger actions had burned out, and she was in every sense of the word, done.

She had well and truly sunk to the point of hardly caring if she saw Kayano in good health ever again. It simply boiled down to a matter of what happens will happen. If she killed herself? Fine. That was nothing she could, or would help with averting.

All she personally cared about was ensuring that the greenette's connection to Shiro couldn't affect her own situation.

Did that make her callous, or particularly cruel?

At this point, Amaya was willing to go back to wearing such a stigma just to be rid of the problems everyone else tied her down with.

Now was the time for self-care, as Maehara had once put it during their mushroom harvesting activities just a mere handful of weeks earlier. It didn't matter if she alienated people anymore; The ones who would be affronted by her attitude change were the ones who'd already done the same to her up to now, after all.

Amaya's waking hours were otherwise spent helping her siblings with their belongings they were taking to school, consisting of their lunches, homework they had to hand in, and their sleep over bags after considerable arm-twisting on Reiko and Samuel's part. They were spending the weekend at Kouichi's grandparents out in the Tokyo outskirts, and given the situation involving Kayano, Amaya was for once content to give in to the arm-twisting.

She hoped the weekend would be time enough for this situation to at least be brought under control.

Beyond that, she had the house to herself if Karma didn't decide to drop in uninvited.

It was doubtful that he would at the moment though.

Amaya wasn't so shallow as to assume that Kayano's betrayal hadn't been a painfully sharp kick in the teeth for him. Especially given that if he wasn't haunting Amaya's every step, he was spending his free time with Nagisa and his posse of friends.

So it stood to reason that he'd be well invested in whatever is going on with Kayano.

She was sure of that.

It was neither insult or surprise that Amaya hadn't seen him.

Regardless, once Amaya had gone over the morning chores and replied to Isogai's followup email into her class presence, Amaya packed herself up a bag for the day and left once she'd set Koko in his outdoor aviary and ensured the two kittens residing upstairs were fully fed and watered.

She half wondered if she should get the conure a friend for some company, but she vividly recalled the bird handler at the cafe mentioning that he specifically hated other birds and most people. She didn't want to go to the point of acquiring another bird only for Koko to wind up killing it, or whatever else it was that territorial birds did to hated others.

In the end there was nothing Amaya could do other than make things as comfortable for the bird as she could.

She'd let him have free reign of the house when she got home.

The streets were quiet as Amaya made her way towards Tigers Fang Gym, wandering with headphones blaring with metal and a brisk edge to her step. Strangely so, given the fact that at that moment, it was just after 8am, and usually people would be on the commute to work or school. She half wondered if it was a sign of things to come, but decided to push the thought from her mind when the gym's front doors came into view.

There was no use dwelling on it right at this second, after all.

The gym was silent as Amaya stepped in through the front most doors, and oddly enough there was a note left on the inside sliding doors, which were shut for the first time since she'd started attending the facilities as a member. A note was left on the door for members informing them that although Daniel and Clarissa were out, they'd be back by 12 the latest. Members could let themselves in, everything was set up, but visitors were not permitted, it seemed.

Odd, but Amaya let herself in using the key she had, and settled in for what she hoped was an uneventful day of getting both her thoughts and mood in order.

It was just before 11am by the time anyone else had arrived, and Amaya was mid-way through muting notifications on her phone when she felt something large impact against her arm all of a sudden, at the same time she heard somebody suddenly yell out "Good Morning!".

It hadn't hurt, but it had startled her enough that she'd yelped and almost tripped over her feet in the panic. Unfortunately, her poor phone had slipped from between her fingertips upon impact, and not only had it landed on the wooden floor with a solid thud, but she stumbled sideways and somehow managed to step on it in the same motion.

The colour quickly drained from Amaya's face when she both felt and heard that telltale cracking of glass underfoot, and towards the door of the gym, she heard a loud, horrified gasp echo from none other than the cause of her brief pocket of misfortune.

Gingerly, Amaya picked up her poor, innocently murdered phone from the floor and gazed down at the deceased device. The screen was shattered to grit with its screen protector the only thing holding the glass in place, the phone was bent in such a way that the internals of the device just weren't intact or in place within the phone anymore. There was no saving this device, and looking at the sheer amount of damage, she wasn't sure any data could be recovered from it.

Oh how she truly missed her old, reliable flip-phone right now.

These new smart phones honestly kept dying on her in ways her old phone would have easily survived.

'I-Is it alright?' Asked none other than Isshin, who had awkwardly shuffled closer to the girl to investigate the damage. 'Is it just the screen?'

Without a word, Amaya dropped the phone into the guilty male's hands.

'Oh...' Isshin's shoulders slumped quite considerably as he felt the two halves of the phones shell begin to split within his hands. 'I'm really sorry, Amaya-san... I'll get you a new one right now!'

'Huh? What happened?' Called out none other than Daniel, who was stepping in the front door of the gym.

'Nothing!' Isshin yelped out as he quickly turned and hid the phone behind his back. 'I've got a real quick errand I've gotta run! That's all!'

'Aye? Well if you're going to--'

'Yeah! I'm going right now!' Isshin cut over Daniel as he edged towards the exit. 'I'll be back as soon as I'm done!'

And before either Amaya or Daniel could comprehend, Isshin was already sprinting out that door into the streets outside.

'...Any idea what got him so riled up, Amaya-san?' Daniel eventually asked her.

At that remark, all Amaya could do was let out a weary breath.

'He threw something at me while I was muting my phone.' She admitted as she turned back to the punching bag she had been using until Isshin's unwarranted attack. 'Didn't end well, all things considered.'

'... Ah.' Daniel chuckled wryly as he kicked a stray training bag towards the break room, all while balancing two large boxes of what looked like new equipment against his shoulders. 'That's a bad habit of his. Don't stress though, he'll get it sorted for you, aye. Let's keep it quiet from Clarissa though. She'll make his life even more miserable than his wallet will.'

Regardless of the replacement likely on the way, Amaya was still feeling a little bitter that it was yet another phone she had gone through this year alone.

And besides... that phone was expensive.

She really hoped Isshin didn't have a heart attack when he eventually found the same model on the shelf.

'Oh yeah, just checking something with you.' Daniel called out from the break room, bringing Amaya to pause in her motions to continue her practice. 'You have the day off from school or something? Clarissa's going to ask the moment she sees you here.'

'My teachers know I'm here.' Amaya admitted with no shred of doubt or hesitation on her part as she watched Daniel lean back out the door of the break room to hear her. 'Well, more so they undoubtedly expect I'm here whenever I don't show up, anyway.'

'Aye? That so?' Daniel called back. 'There a reason for that?'

Well...

'I haven't... been getting along with my classmates, so they don't really mind if I come here instead...' She answered honestly, in spite of herself. 'You can ask Karasuma-sensei, if you want to make sure.'

'I believe you, Amaya-san. I just needed something to tell Clarissa when she sees you.' He said as he disappeared back inside.

No doubt, no pause, just an immediate answer with explanation.

A few seconds later, however, there was a sudden shuffling of boxes and Daniel came walking swiftly back out of the break room.

'Oh, before I forget!' The blond announced with a broad grin. 'Lina and Rico's coming with Clarissa later this afternoon. Hang around so you can meet them! They've been asking about you.'

Before Amaya could even ask the obvious questions, the Daniel disappeared for the final time into the break room, and made no sign that he was going to come back out any time soon.

The albino let out a sigh as she lowered her arms to her sides.

Whoever Rico was, she had no idea, but she vaguely recalled Daniel telling her about Lina in passing once, or twice. She couldn't recall when that was, but it didn't matter. She had no plans in going anywhere unless something very important happened.

And if she had her way, that wouldn't be until after dark, at the very least.

Hours passed with little beyond Isshin's eventual return, pale-faced with some form of anxiety as he handed over a brand new, near-identical replacement of her deceased phone and what appeared to be a box of apology candy, along with a grave promise to not repeat the mistake he made. Daniel had emerged somewhere around 2pm and sat taunting his poor friend for his poorly timed pranks.

However, perhaps this time was best considered as the calm before the storm, simply for the fact that it was a handful of minutes later when Daniel had noticed that there were a number of people hovering around at the inner door of the gym.

'Hey, Amaya-san!' He'd called out before long, catching the albino's attention mid-kick towards the top of the large sandbags lining the far wall of the gym hall. 'Think you've got some visitors!'

Amaya promptly turned her head in the opposite direction, and failed to hide the bitter look that flashed right across her face.

Aside from Okuda, who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but here with her comrades right now, there was Nagisa, Sugino, Fuwa and Kanzaki standing just behind her looking, if possible, even more awkward at that moment.

No Maehara, Isogai or Kataoka, and there was definitely no Karma anywhere nearby.

Okuda must have been an easy target to talk into helping them track her down, since the fixed artillery was neither on her phone or knew she frequented this pale.

'Great...' Amaya huffed as she brushed her hair out of her face mindlessly. 'I should have damn well guessed...'

'You stepping out, Amaya-san?' Isshin asked from the corner of the hall near Daniel.

'Nope.' Amaya declined as she wandered towards the break room. 'Mind if we umm, borrow the other room for a few minutes? This won't take long.'

Daniel blinked briefly as he glanced towards the students hovering at the door for a moment.

'You can use it, aye. But don't be long.' He agreed with a shrug. 'We'll be wrangling you out of there as soon as everyone gets here, though. No questions.'

That was as good an excuse as any to cut this short at the drop of a hat.

Thank god for that...

'Well?' Amaya shot towards the students at the door, inwardly sighing when she noticed Okuda seem to recoil slightly. 'Are you just going to stand there, or what?'

Okuda was the first to almost spring into motion to close the distance, all the while everyone else reluctantly followed.

That time, Amaya really did let out a weary sigh.

'U-umm, Amaya-san...' Okuda mumbled as she practically skidded to a halt behind Amaya. 'I-I'm really s-sorry, I didn't--'

'I know. Don't worry about it.' Amaya cut the girl off as she dropped herself down atop one of the benches in the room, which oddly enough, seemed to have been rearranged to seat a great number of people around some makeshift boxes and planks of wood set up as a large dining table. 'They were told no and didn't have any luck with Karma or the others, so they hassled you as a last resort. I get it.'

There was no answer beyond a relieved look appearing across Okuda's face, and Amaya found herself looking up at the group of Kayano's friends who were now, all standing in the break room with Okuda.

Sugino, who was the last to come inside, shut the door behind them so that their discussion into top-secret arrangements wouldn't be overheard easily.

'So? What does the "Kayano Squad" want with me?' Amaya began as she began to unzip and remove her protective sleeves to give her arms a break. 'Don't you have rescue plans to make instead of bothering me?'

'That's... why we're here.' Fuwa began. 'Koro-sensei wants everyone to come to the fields at 7pm.'

Everyone, huh?

'No he doesn't.' Amaya corrected without hesitation. 'He already knows how I feel about this gods forsaken mess, just like Karma, just like Isogai-kun and just like Hiroto-kun. He wouldn't have sent you here to make me change my mind, and he definitely wouldn't have told you where I spend my time outside of class just to come talk to me about "Kayano".'

The edge of silence that had overcome the manga-addict was heavy, answer enough that Amaya's declaration was right.

'You gonna start talking, or whatever it is you're actually here to do? Or do I have to act like some slack-jawed reject with a learning impairment for you to get to it?' Amaya pressed as she cast a glance over towards the tiger-themed clock hanging from the wall above the door. 'I seriously cannot be the only one who doesn't actually have time for this farce right now.'

The group, less Okuda hovering in the back looking as if she wanted to hide out of sight right now, cast each other a brief glance before returning their attention back to Amaya.

And get to the point, they did.

They told her various things, asked her for her help and reasoned as to why they needed her.

Things like how Koro-sensei told them he would divulge his backstory, but everyone had to be there. About how Kayano was lost in grief and now was Amaya's chance to take the moral high ground and be there for one of her classmates. About how they needed her to make sure they could save Kayano. All these things that circled round and round with no goal in mind but to butter her up with pure intentions. It was the right thing to do, to save Kayano from herself.

But after four separate revisions, twenty minutes of sitting there silently letting them prattle their thoughts and picking the lining between sentences away, all Amaya could hear were different variations that did nothing more than make her want to roll her eyes in exasperation.

After everything she had said and done to rock the boat recently, she had to "redeem herself" in Kayano's eyes?

It would mean a lot to Kayano if everyone was there in solidarity when they come to save her?

What kind of messed up version of events were they even watching?

She sat silently, face blank as she vaguely listened to the group plead their case, beg her to come with them to see Kayano, or whatever it was her name really was. She gave them no response to their words, no incline of the head to show she was listening, nothing beyond the simple stare as she waited for them to get this over with.

Unlike before how she was angry, furious even over the situation that had panned out yesterday, right now?

Right now she found she honestly didn't care.

She was just exhausted.

'Are you done, yet?' Amaya eventually interrupted when it sounded like the group standing before her was going to start repeating their pleas to help, causing Fuwa to snap her mouth shut in an instance. 'Because I've heard you say "Kayano-chan needs our help" five times in the past two minutes, alone.'

'W-well she does!'

'Why are you so cold to somebody who's suffering right now, even as we speak?' Kanzaki was the one to speak up this time. 'Itona-kun said she's been suffering in agony all this time! For the whole school year, she's been hurting in silence. The tentacles are killing her, Amaya-san!'

She hesitated when Amaya failed to even give the smallest sliver of visible response in return.

'Doesn't that mean anything to you...?'

'I'm honestly amazed you can bring yourselves to speak all this self-serving garbage with a straight face.' Amaya deadpanned. 'I hope it's just good acting and not that you're all so utterly oblivious.'

Her words were pitifully blunt and tactless, and they were taken exactly as she expected; poorly. The soft-spoken ravenette reeled back in alarm, affronted by Amaya's rather callous rebuke so greatly it would have been entertaining if there was no prior months of tension and distrust she'd had to deal with.

'What is it that you actually want me to say? Something like "Of course I'll help! Let me just throw away my self respect and dignity while I'm at it, too"? I'd be laughing if the joke wasn't so tragically pitiful.'

'Wait, what do you--'

'Don't tell me you forgot that little drama just two weeks ago?' Amaya cut in over Kanzaki with no care or consideration for what it was she was trying to say. 'You all just loved the way that precious viper of yours painted me up as the problem, and the lot of you who've been so suspicious of me ran with it and had a class meeting with Isogai about forcing me to tell you all every little secret you think I have. Because I'm an unstable monster on the verge of a psychotic meltdown, right? You didn't just forget, or expect that I'd conveniently forget, did you?'

'Don't take this out on Kanzaki!' Sugino cut in as he stepped in front of the startled ravenette to shield her from Amaya's ire. 'We're sorry about that, alright?'

Amaya sighed briefly as she shook her head.

'I'm just talking. The fact that you interpret my talking as taking it out on somebody just shows you don't want to hear anything except the answer you want. If you don't want to hear me talk, then at the very least don't paint it up as if you're trying to reason with me.'

Amaya noted the way Okuda was awkwardly shuffling at her side, torn between what she should do given her friendship with both the albino and Kayano, it seemed.

She wasn't oblivious, and she let out another sigh as she lifted a hand and gently rest it atop Okuda's head.

'I'm not angry right now, don't worry.' She told her friend. 'Just over this bullshit.'

'I-I know you are...' She agreed with a trembling smile. 'I'm sorry...'

And it was that remark that had Amaya give in, just a little.

'Look, I'll cut to the chase, because this is hard on Okuda-chan right now.' Amaya began as she turned her attention back to the rather stunned group. 'Let's all pretend you never coughed up that insulting attempt of an apology and get to the point. Your sordid viper chose her actions, and as far as I'm concerned, she can sleep under that bus she threw herself under. And no amount of begging or pleading is going to change my mind.'

'How can you say she chose this?' Sugino gaped, affronted. 'You don't even know anything about Kayano-chan!'

'And you don't know anything about me, either, but here we are again playing hopscotch over the reality hidden by your expectations.' Amaya responded within a heartbeat. 'I know little about people and admit it, but you people... well, you do you and continue dividing people based on uninformed prejudice, I guess.'

'W-we're deviating from the matter at hand, here.' Nagisa hedged awkwardly as he tried to intervene in the building disagreement. 'Kayano-san's driven towards revenge, and she's going to kill herself to do it. Are you sure you won't help us stop her before it's too late?'

Will this just end this pitiful disagreement at last?

Amaya shook her head slightly as she let out a rather haggard breath.

'Without any ill intended, no.' She answered.

And she proceeded to explain the instant she saw Sugino begin to ark up.

'I have no time or want to save a destructive child from dragging others into her tantrums. Revenge isn't noble. It just makes others suffer with you.' Came Amaya's answer, with no ounce of hesitance or regret. 'She chose to throw herself under that bus knowing full well what it entailed. If it kills her? A pity, but she would have accepted that when she made the decision in the first place. If you manage to save her before that happens? Well, guess it was her lucky day.'

'What right do you have to say any of that?!' Sugino snapped none the less, fueled by that strange need of his to defend someone of his circle unequivocally. 'Her sister died at the start of the year and she's still grieving! You don't even know how that feels and you're talking like she's just suffered a papercut!'

'OI! SUGINO!!!' Nagisa cut in, alarmed. 'That's going too far!'

'HOW AM I GOING TOO FAR?! IT'S THE TRUTH, ISN'T IT!?' Sugino seethed as he turned his glare away from Amaya's stunned form to look at his friend. 'Nobody with a heart would even think that way!'

'But Sugino--'

'She's a nasty piece of work!' The baseball fan spat. 'She doesn't care about how anyone feels except for herself!'

Amaya felt like she'd been slapped right across the face.

Like she'd just been struck unprovoked, undeserving of such a backhand in spite of her own careless remarks.

But instead of reacting in anger and hurt, something inside of her snapped and all she could do, was laugh.

A harsh, loud bark of laughter both manic and chiming, one that instantly wiped the angered look right off of Sugino's face and stunned everyone to startled silence, unnerving them all the more as the seconds passed by.

It wasn't funny, she shouldn't be laughing.

This felt far too close to one of her bubbling rages to let it continue.

But she couldn't stop, no matter how hard she tried.

'Is that right?' Amaya eventually responded with a broad grin, voice quivering with the trills of laughter still shaking her form. 'Who knew your knowledge is so fucking omnipresent?'

She needed this to stop.

This was too much.

But she laughed.

She laughed and cackled as if this was the biggest joke in the world.

And perhaps, it really was.

Within a handful of seconds there was a harsh knocking against the door of the breakroom, and Daniel's mop of spiky blond hair could be seen through the window. The sudden interruption had stifled Amaya's fit of laughter down enough for her to silence herself.

And it caused the students standing before her to actually flinch.

'Is everything alright in there, Amaya-san? I heard yelling.' The man called out.

'Totally fine! We're done in here!' The albino returned as she buried her face in her hands to try and calm herself down before she slipped into something worse, to little avail. 'They were just getting ready to leave!'

'We're not do--'

'Sugino, stop!' Nagisa cut over his friend as he began to argue. 'Her words were a little harsh but you're the one who's getting very cruel!'

The baseball fan actually looked rather affronted by the statement, and even moreso when he glanced at the uncomfortable looks written across Kanzaki and Fuwa's faces.

'Wait-- I went too far?!' Sugino gaped, stunned as the girls nodded in response.

However, before any further words could be said, Daniel opened the door and cast a stern look upon the Class E students standing before him.

'The five of you need to start making tracks. Now.' The blond commanded with a strangely severe tone. 'It's safe to say you've overstayed your welcome.'

'What? But wh--' Fuwa had begun, however Daniel was quick to cut her off.

'I don't tolerate anyone hurling that kind of abuse at my people, especially in my own gymnasium.' He informed them coolly, much to Amaya's surprise. 'Kindly see yourselves out the door and never come back here to harass Amaya-san again.'

Daniel's command was swift, and none the least ambiguous.

There was no room for anybody to argue.

Briefly, before the group had turned to make their awkward departure, Amaya caught Okuda's gaze and cast her a brief nod.

And with that, Amaya's classmates were gone, leaving the albino sitting awkwardly in the middle of the break room.

'The one with the glasses is fine...' Amaya eventually spoke up, slowly as she straightened up on her bench. 'She didn't want to bring them here...'

'But she didn't stand up for you, either.' Daniel responded.

Well of course not.

It wasn't really Okuda's fault on that count.

'She is shy... and, well... she probably has some anxiety issues somewhere in there, too.' Amaya admitted with a sigh. 'It doesn't help that most of her friends don't like me, either.'

Daniel didn't say anything at first, even as he turned on his heel to wander out of the break room doorway.

'...I'll think about it.' He dismissed as his form disappeared from Amaya's sight. 'The rest of them are banned from setting foot in this building, and that's final!'

Well... there was no arguing with that.

Just like there was no point in hanging around here when she didn't have a firm handle on her mood at that moment.

So she forewent what she later learned to be a reunion dinner and hid away at home.

There was no word, nothing that came through once her replacement phone had been set up.

Amaya sat alone in the living room, staring listlessly into the dark corners that the light failed to properly illuminate.

Her fingers traced the cover of a book but she seldom realized it sat within her fingers. Her thoughts spiraled through her head, reverberating and repeating like the laughter she had fallen into at the end of that pitiful talk.

It felt like all she was accomplishing was further alienation, drifting through the endless doubts and questions that sought to plague her with their presence.

Even as the clock on the wall hit 11pm, there was naught but silence, and the emptiness inside her heart.

She'd had enough caring to last her a lifetime.

---=[Authors Notes]=---

Sorry I'm late, but better late then never, right? Hope you all enjoyed the somewhat angsty chapter, and well, the ball is rolling now. Cleared the dreaded Kayano arc that really killed writing for me and now it's smooth sailing.

Anyways, here's our chapter title:

Ikidzumari, translates roughly as Impasse, written as 行き詰まり in Japanese (If I'm not mistaken).

All the best everyone~!

<3 SnappyCockatiel / Loki-Roki