It was just a sick, sad joke.

The contents of tattered memories and broken hearts was a heavy burden, no matter how much Amaya appreciated their delivery by unexpected hands.

Maybe it hurt less that it had been Heinrich who had brought the notebooks and final words. Maybe it was the best circumstances for such a thing. But that didn't mean it didn't feel like someone had jammed a shiv between her ribs to gouge into her heart.

Amaya didn't quite remember how she had arrived back home, nor did she remember if she had cooked anything for her siblings dinner or just let them order takeout. She certainly didn't know if she had eaten.

All she knew was that she'd been locked up in her room all alone, with her gaze retracing Genivierre's letter of final words.

She didn't dare open the other envelope that outlined what Genivierre's inheritance actually entailed, or the other two that she couldn't comprehend their reasonings for at that second. The stack of old, tattered notebooks lay tauntingly across the covers of her bed, as if mocking her with the information she knew they held. One in particular was painfully familiar to Amaya, and as soon as she had realized exactly which notebook she had unwittingly lifted from the bag Heinrich gave her, she had practically thrown the faded teal book across the room as if it had tried to bite her.

Maybe some other time when the wounds were still so fresh in her mind, she would read it.

But not now.

She had dared to at least stare down at the covers of the remaining notebooks, dwelling over the faint scores of years marking the colour-coded covers and connecting them to years she could recall. At least, a good third of them, in any case. The newer of the books were blank spaces in her mind.

A pale yellow notebook of the least wear stood out clearly to Amaya in the end, and she hesitantly reached out towards it, if only because she had once recalled that she needed to know what exactly some of the problems her newest sibling might be living with.

The cover felt unpleasant beneath her fingers as her emotions twisted like that shiv was still there between her ribs. Her fingers grazed the elegant and decoratively looped writing that marked the contents of the book.

Storms Project, Subject Forty Eight

Samuel Berchmanns-Katsuragi

Child of Subject Forty-One, Elanore Berchmanns

Overview of the Child prior to the mother immersion

My first meeting with Samuel Berchmanns has yet again brought me to despise the circumstances for meeting such a young innocent. Like most of the Subject Children following the Mass Disposal of the Control Children are of Toji's own blood, and this child is no different. I am informed by Elanore's statement upon her immersion to the project that Samuel has never met his father in spite of being biologically related. And for that, I feel it's a blessing in disguise. I pray that he will never join the dots.

Unlike most Project Mothers, Elanore had been inducted with more understanding than most, which is quite unlike Toji's usual actions to procure new Mothers. I have been informed that Elanore agreed to provide a child under the belief that, while her own condition held next to no chance of a cure, experimentation upon her would bear the groundwork that would "cure" her child should she have one, and she promptly agreed.

It was further explained that the child were to be of Toji's own blood, as the cures he has worked on to date worked most proficiently within his own gene pool. I am astounded that such an explanation was enough to win Elanore over, just as I am astounded that on both parent's side, Samuel's existence was brought to life purely with this experimentation in mind.

Unlike Mizumoto Yukariko's case, Elanore could not physically provide more than one child with her condition, and even that came with complications that had almost cost the whole second cycle of the Storms Project, to use Toji's own words. Perhaps those complications are explanation as to Samuel's upbringing up to Elanore's immersion. Estranged from most people, brought up in the countryside with only Elanore's influence. I have heard of the belief that in a child's eye, Mother who births them is god, however Samuel takes it to a far greater bound. He idolizes Elanore's every word, and even though I understand the reasons for his birth are – in Elanore's eyes – for his own wellbeing, even before the end of Elanore's time, I found myself pitying the boy immensely.

Even now, as I write these words on the second eve of Elanore's disposal, I find myself pitying him all the more. I am only thankful that even now, Samuel hasn't seemed to realize that Toji is his father, and that his "god" was felled by his own father.

Modifications made to the Electrotherapy Treatment pending M.E.P. Process

Out of the five groups, the Storms Project falls Second to the Oceans Project in terms of long-term trauma in all three areas of contamination. However, out Thermotherapy, Terratherapy, Electrotherapy and Hydrotherapy, The Storms Project retains the highest rank for most flexibility for ongoing exposure to the therapy agents. The currents are easily adjusted at a moments notice, monitored with greater precision, and otherwise can be interrupted at a moments notice.

However, great oversights were made into Elanore's case and the M.E.P. Process scarcely made any headway. Following the initial success of the first week's grace period, the increased voltage range of the process pushed the subject's condition beyond recovery. I stand under the firm belief that the violent breakdown that lead to her disposal was triggered exclusively by the trauma inflicted by such cruel experimentation.

It is not like Yukariko's collapse, or Kyoko's degeneration, and I wouldn't even place Sandra's termination in with the likes of Elanore's case. Elanore's was because of careless oversight that caused an aggravation of her condition.

However, because of her particular case, the project was lowered to a standby state, and now that the project is to continue, the farthermost extremes have been reduced by tenfold. The buffering period that the Oceans Project can adapt will not occur with this project, as I've been informed. Instead, exposure will be enforced in twelve-hour blocks, with minor adjustments of voltages made at weekly increments. Further adjustments will come to light as we encounter discrepancies and changes throughout the project, but as it stands, the strength of all drugs and the procedures themselves will be cut to an eighth dosage.

Symptoms to keep watch for following the incident leading to Elanore's disposal are as follows:

1. Darkening of the blood from overpowering the connective drivers.

2. Swelling of the flesh along the main veins and arteries of the body, most prominently around the connective drivers and the chest, throat and spine.

3. Inflammation and the onset of scarring tissue in lines following the body's main circulatory system's surface veins.

4. The bursting of the blood vessels in the sclera, especially within immediate vicinity of the iris.

5. Any unexplained spasm of the body according to ferocity and frequency.

6. While this one part is a hypothesis of my own, while bouts of mood is a common occurrence with each of the five categorical groups, the development of what appears to be a form of bipolar disorder is something that occurred in Elanore within a handful of weeks before her termination, and I believe this in of itself is a telling sign to the overall sustainability of the patient's so called "use".

Unlike the thermotherapy and terratherapy projects, the electrotherapy runs in the high contamination yield, still second to hydrotherapy. Subjects Twenty nine Karen and Thirty One Vivica were both incompatible with the hydrotherapy project and reached their limits within a week, unlike the Mizumoto bloodline, which has been proven to be best suitable for the hydrotherapy project to begin with. Perhaps that is why the hydrotherapy project has been disbanded until further notice.

Still, knowing the electrotherapy project is merely a side avenue before finding a suitable subject with high compatibility for the hydrotherapy project to be reinstated is a distressing fact in and of itself.

The further pages were more observations on the connections between the storms project and the oceans project, with many coins of phrases so obscure and impossible to comprehend that Amaya found her head aching before long, and she flipped through pages, merely glancing over a great many numbers and equations she couldn't even fathom.

Perhaps others could gain more from the contents of those pages upon review, but never would she feel comfortable in even considering the thought. Okuda could, without a doubt, and if she left these books lying around carelessly, she didn't doubt Karma would read them and find more things out, those of which she didn't want to come to light.

He already knew far too much for her liking to begin with.

Eventually, Amaya's fingers fell still upon a particular page with no header or subsequent description of its contents, not to mention the lack of peculiar words or unfathomable formula across the crinkled papers. And perhaps it was simply because of one word that Amaya had stopped to read a bit more tentatively. "Anemia".

1. Suffers a mild form of anemia, but surprisingly not the Sickle Cell Disease that had crippled Elanore right up until her passing. The reasons for such a development are still being investigated.

2. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, undeniably due to his presence at Elanore's disposal.

3. It has become apparent upon the two years of offhand observation that he has a mild form of ADHD. His ability to learn unhindered remains moderately intact, however this is only if one can completely maintain his attention at any point in time. The child-carer that has been tasked with maintaining a basic livelihood of the child has stated with certainty that if one turns any activity into a game, whether guessing or otherwise, it will keep his attention with certainty.

4. In spite of the ability to learn, Samuel shows difficulty in retaining memories within the following fields, which I don't believe are a by-product of his mild adhd in spite of Jeremiah's diagnosis; image and name associations, sound associations and recognizing most sounds, however if he has daily interactions with a specific person, he will retain the associated information far better than most normal humans. Upon testing, it has been estimated that a minimum of two weeks of activity for one hour each day will result in a more permanent memory benchmark. However, he appears to clearly remember the faces of every person present at Elanore's disposal, which leads me to speculate that the so called "quality of impact" matters in this regard.

5. Following a month of immersion preparation, as is project protocol, he has developed a moderately expected terror of the dark.

6. During an examination earlier this week, it has also been noted that while the electrotherapy has not placed a terror of it within Samuel yet, unlike Elanore, it is clear to see that the treatment has had similar effects with him as the hydrotherapy to Mizumoto Amaya. His body retains a residual store of electricity after prolonged exposure. Normally this is expelled by a subject upon contact with any conductive surface. However, his body still retains it for the most part. It aggravates his ADHD, however I have yet to devise a way as to bring his body to actively discharge the residual electricity at will.

The most amount of residual electricity he has been tested to retain is scarcely enough to cause more than a great number of static electricity jolts, however, as my cellular phone can attest, his contact with electronic computers can wipe data and interfere with the display if one's not careful. I have yet to get the device working properly since his contact with it.

There were many relevant pieces within that set of pages, things that had come to Amaya's suspicion, but beyond that she hadn't been sure. Until now at least. Anemic, mild adhd, among other things. His overall condition following his escape from the Storms Project was another factor that had been on her mind on and off throughout the time being here.

And as she continued to flick through the pages, the more her heart sunk within her chest, and her thoughts began to derail.

The further she read, the more it felt like hands had closed around her throat to close off her ability to breathe.

Bit by bit she flicked through the books now within her possession, scarcely noting the time or her surroundings until the morning sun began to creep in through the drawn curtains and paint the walls with soft light. And by the time she had noticed that dawn had come and gone, it was because of the sounds of the front door unlocking, and a familiar voice called out into the silent house.

'Hey, Amay.' Called the evil incarnate. 'Are you still asleep?'

No, honestly she felt like she wanted to go to bed though. Still, she let out a faint breath as she rose to her feet and chose to answer.

It wouldn't do her any good to ignore him.

'I'm awake...' She called back, just as she heard the footsteps began to approach the door of her room. 'I'll be out in a minute.'

Silence, if only for a moment.

'I'd hurry up.' Karma eventually responded. 'Or Koro-sensei will probably come to drag you to class, himself.'

Yes, she knew that. The Exams were just around the corner, and undoubtedly Koro-sensei was already itching to start that torturous study-session of flickering after images and claustrophobia.

She threw on a change of clothes for the day, scarcely pausing long enough to tie her hairband in place before she emerged from her room in moderately decent appearances, she guessed. There was no immediate sight of Karma near her door, though she wasn't surprised. Instead, she wandered over to wash up, grabbed her bag from the table and decided that was enough. Half of what she'd gathered was subconscious, scarcely even acknowledged. Even as she tugged on her boots and buried her hands in the pockets of her pants, she didn't even acknowledge the crumpling of paper that had sounded from her pocket.

But in a twisted sense, she already knew what those papers were, even bundled up in their envelope.

On the other side of the front door stood Karma, who looked up from his phone at her emergence from inside. She scarcely noticed the questioning look he shot her, though he didn't say anything in particular.

Instead, he just stepped away from the tree he was leaning against and began to lead the way.

He didn't question her off mood or even seem to pay it much mind. Almost as if he had seen her in such a mood many times already, he didn't bother in prodding her for answers.

As expected, upon arriving at the classroom just shy off of the starting bell, Koro-sensei was already gathering all his belongings from the faculty room with a particular urgency that made Amaya feel even more exhausted than she was. Everyone was already in the classroom itself as they chattered about the various topics of interest. Their second place earned for the culture festival, the various people that had turned up to their ramen shop, among other things that Amaya didn't even notice in her motions to take her seat at her desk.

What Amaya did notice was the faint, hushed mention of her name here or there and the mention of "Berlin", but she was too tired to even care all that much about that.

'Good morning, everyone!' Came Koro-sensei's familiar greeting as he wandered into the classroom. 'I trust you all have had a good nights rest after the closing of our culture festival yesterday?'

What the hell was a good nights rest?

What was this fabled thing and how was she supposed to obtain it?

'Nurufufufu~! Well then, since everyone is here and accounted for, let us begin with your worst subjects as of the last set of exam scores!' Koro-sensei announced.

And with an almighty gust of wind and reverberating voices, Koro-sensei duplicates plagued the classroom, filling up every square inch of space in the classroom like grains of sand.

'And that will be Chemistry in your case, Amaya-san!' The eight Koro-sensei duplicates surrounding Amaya's desk announced as they all brandished blank picture cards at her.

Oh yeah, he had figured out that she learned better in pictures, didn't he?

'We will start you off with revision to ensure we don't miss anything you have been confused by.' Koro-sensei remarked as his duplicates began to draw on their cards.

And at that moment, Amaya knew she should have just told Karma she was skipping classes that day.

Because within a mere second, she was faced with in-depth diagrams and charts, with one Koro-sensei duplicate pointing to each point of interest with a pointing rod as he explained. She continuously lost herself in thought, trailing off on tangents that lead her right back to the books that had held her captive, trapped in her own mind until Koro-sensei would bop a squishy tentacle atop her head to snap her out of it.

And it didn't change from one subject to the next.

While she could grasp a lot more of what Koro-sensei was teaching her now that he wasn't throwing all these numbers at her anymore, or using over-complicated descriptions to explain things to her, it didn't meant that she was gleaning an awful lot from his lectures. Not even the subtle addition of bird-drawings to the picture cards was doing her any good.

Eventually, after nearly a whole day of this, Koro-sensei decided she had endured enough for now.

It appeared he understood that she just wasn't able to function on studying right now, because the duplicates hovering around her all seemed to let out a sigh and lowered the picture cards all at once.

'We aren't making very good headway with your studies, Amaya-san.' Koro-sensei times six observed, though from the grim glint in the tone, Amaya knew it wasn't a sudden realization.

'Sorry... I got some news yesterday... so I just have a lot on my mind right now...'

'News?' Koro-sensei repeated curiously.

However, at the sight of the rather uncomfortable expression flashing across Amaya's face, the octopus seemed hesitant to speak.

'From... Berlin...'

'Ah.' Koro-sensei didn't bother to question, and all six of his images nodded instantly. 'Very well, but tomorrow we will be right on track with your personalized study sessions, so please be better equipped tomorrow.'

And with that, all six of his images vanished within an instance, and Amaya was granted final reprieve from after-image hell.

Amaya sluggishly buried her face in her hands as she tried to wake herself up a bit more, but it really wasn't working. Nor was trying to shove the books and the letter to the back of her mind, either.

Regardless of how grateful she really was to Heinrich for bringing those things to her on Genivierre's behalf, that didn't mean she was in the right mental condition for immediate study right now.

Even as all the remaining after images of Koro-sensei's movements continued with the tailored study sessions, Amaya's thoughts gradually traced right back to the contents of the books, of Genivierre and the events of Berlin. It honestly hadn't been very long ago, two months? Three? And yet, so much hell had taken up residence within her head and stretched out her comprehension of time far greater than it should have.

No, what she had to think of moreso than those pieces right now was Samuel and the pieces she had learned.

Her fingers traced absent-mindedly across the blank lines of her notebook, her nails scratching against the paper as she tried to trace down what she needed to organize.

She hadn't noticed when Koro-sensei's mirror images vanished from the classroom, nor had she really consciously noticed when the ending bell had rung, and classmates had begun to rise to their feet and gather their belongings. Her thoughts had doubled back and fourth, and her awareness was only roused as she felt a brief slap of a hand contact the back of her head, jostling her right out of her thoughts.

It hadn't necessarily hurt, but it scared the living daylights out of her.

'Oi, Amay.' Karma's call of attention had come from right over her shoulder, bringing the girl to turn her head in response. 'Don't tell me you really want to stay here all day. Class' finished.'

Amaya blinked up at the redhead's form standing right there over her shoulder, before she actually noticed the disappearing forms of their classmates heading through the door.

'O-oh...' She hedged as she leaned back in her seat with a sigh. 'I hadn't noticed...'

There was that brief moment of silence, before she heard a faint breath escape Karma as he shuffled over to lean against his desk. The look he wore was expectant and perhaps a little impatient, which certainly didn't please Amaya to note.

'Alright, what's wrong?' He demanded as he fixed her with a stare.

'What?' Amaya was quite surprised.

'You've been like this all day.' He stated, humorlessly.

'I'm just tired, I didn't really get much sleep last night.'

Or any at all, really.

However the strengthening of that expectant look with a side of what was undoubtedly growing annoyance was all she received in response, and by now she was just too tired to argue like she usually would.

So she gave in.

With a weary breath, Amaya reluctantly pulled out the envelope from within her pocket and held it out to him with her gaze averted. She hoped he wouldn't take it, but of course she knew he would. She wasn't surprised by the immediate shift of the envelope against her fingertips, and as she lowered her arm, she heard the crinkling of paper echo.

She made a point of keeping her gaze well away from him as she began to gather her belongings, albeit sluggishly.

She shoved her books inside her bag with little care with the few writing implements Koro-sensei had told her to bring out clattering carelessly to the very bottom, and as she lifted herself from her seat, she caught sight of a few of their classmates disappearing through the trees out the window.

Going straight home felt like the best idea right now, and she'd decided to do just that.

But as she'd moved to wander right past him and head for the door, her intentions were thwarted before she even knew it.

She was grabbed by the arm in what was a rather typical way for the evil incarnate, and before she had a chance to even open her mouth to tell him to let go, she'd been dragged sideways, clumsily stumbling before she wound up more or less pulled into an unexpected one-armed embrace.

Saying she was startled was an understatement, of course. Not to mention the fact that she was failing to even comprehend what was going on, either. She blinked as her brow furrowed slightly, and her thoughts had ground to a sluggish halt. The sounds of paper crinkling at the back of her head drew what was possibly the heaviest sigh yet from her as she realized he was still reading.

'Really? Do you have to hold me hostage of all things?' Amaya muttered quietly.

'You don't seem all that bothered by it.' He responded simply enough as his grip tightened just a little more.

Inwardly, she cursed him.

She really did.

But that didn't stop her from practically sinking into the unusual embrace he'd dragged her into. In fact, if she wasn't careful, she really could fall asleep here, and that would be embarrassing. She could feel her eyes threatening to droop shut as she let her forehead rest against his shoulder, after all.

She heard the shuffling of paper echo from over her shoulder every now and then, felt the faint shift of his right arm as he turned the pages without lifting his other arm from around her shoulders. And as the seconds soon turned to minutes, she heard a faint breath escape Karma as he eventually lowered the letter.

'This is ridiculous.' She eventually heard the redhead scoff, though she was ironically too comfortable to even utter a hum in response. 'If I really didn't know any better, I'd think you're doing this on purpose.'

'... Doing what?' She muttered.

But before he could reply, the sudden ringing of Karma's phone had cut him off. She'd heard him click his tongue briefly as he seemed to drop the opened letter to Amaya's desk before retrieving the device to silence it.

'What's up, Nagisa-kun?' He'd greeted the caller, though for some reason his tone sounded a little distant.

Which was odd, because Amaya was fairly sure the feminine-appearing boy was his best friend, really.

There was a brief moment of silence, that of which had Amaya attempt to shrug herself out of Karma's grip, with little success.

'Right, I'll wander down in a minute.' Was all Karma said in response, before he hung up.

'...Something going on?' Amaya mumbled briefly.

'Apparently. He didn't really say what, though.' Karma dismissed rather carelessly as he loosened his grip of her. 'I forgot to tell you, my Mother wants you to come by today.'

His Mom did?

Confused well enough by his out of the blue remark, Amaya lifted her head to actually fix Karma with a disbelieving stare.

'Huh? What the hell for?' She couldn't help but ask.

'Do you think she'd actually tell me if I asked her?' He remarked with a rather annoyed look written clearly across his face. 'She's been nagging me about it the whole time since they got back, so you're at least going to shut her up for me.'

Charming way of putting it, really.

If she wasn't already familiar with how he and his parents seemed to get along, she would have guessed there was legitimate hostility behind his words. Luckily, she knew better.

'Alright fine, when am I supposed to turn up?' She relented.

'Whenever. I already told her not to expect anything.'

However his answer was for the most part rather helpful to her.

It meant she could still head home and organize dinner for her siblings and get a couple chores done.

There wasn't really much more to say on the matter, and really, Amaya was too tired to really want to ask much of anything anyway. With Nagisa's call about something taking place around the mountain, both teens gathered the last of their belongings and began to wander down the main trail off the mountainside.

It was a mostly silent trip that was, for the most part, spent with Karma having to catch her arm to steady her when she'd misplace a step in her sluggish movements, or when she would place a poor step almost slip on loose ground. At least until he grew tired of constantly having to catch her arm and proceeded to take a firm grip of her hand instead, where she had better luck at righting herself on her feet upon a following repetition.

She really needed to go home and sleep.

But life wasn't on her side right now.

Even moreso as they reached the foot of the mountain trail and found the bulk of their class hidden behind some bushes, staring out at a rather startling sight.

There, standing against the fence nearest the mountain trail was none other than the one person Amaya least expected to see there; Asano Gakushu. A particularly grim look was present across the boy's face, and it appeared that he had some kind of business with class E. There was no reason why the student council president would be standing there, waiting with a rather painful edge to his form.

A weary breath escaped Amaya as she turned her head to look back at Karma, who appeared moderately intrigued by the development, though she didn't miss the glance he'd cast her.

Well, she could state that from what she'd seen, Asano had been remarkably more inclined to leave her be, but that didn't mean she really wanted to be anywhere near the violet-eyed teen.

And if the threat Karma had issued that one time Asano had her cornered in her own house was anything to go by, she knew Karma didn't want Asano coming anywhere near her again.

'I'm too tired to deal with that asshole right now.' Amaya muttered as she hoisted her bag a little better over her shoulder. 'I'm going home...'

There was no response, but she knew he heard her.

She felt his hand tighten around hers for a brief second before he decided to let go.

That was all the incentive for her to disappear.

She didn't spare Asano a glance as she walked right past him, nor did she wave goodbye to anyone – They were all rather preoccupied with learning the reasons for Asano's presence, after all.

However the violet-eyed boy certainly hadn't failed to cast her a brief glance, himself.

Her journey home felt like it took much longer than it should have, and as the sun began to paint yellowing hues across the city landscape, she finally reached the familiar building.

And before she had even reached the door, she could hear what was recognizably the sound of Samuel's chaotic laughter.

Or squealing fit, more specifically.

There had been many instances that, for better or worse, that Samuel had been in a highly energetic mood filled with laughter and the brief stints of running around and slamming doors. She could attest that this was a very common occurrence, for the walls near the doors of Samuel's most frequent slamming had begun to develop hairline cracks along the paintwork she had painstakingly applied throughout the whole house.

And as she opened the door, she found the reason for Samuel's current fit of hysterical laughter, which to her utter disbelief was a video of a dog running around chasing its own tail.

Granted it was probably something Nishijima had temporarily loaned to Yuta and Reiko to distract Samuel with while they needed to work on their homework in the afternoons, since he would often do that for her in the last year or two before she graduated. So in a way she wasn't all that surprised.

However, as Samuel's laughing fit continued and Amaya continued to watch this bizarre show of amusement from her youngest sibling, she found her thoughts quickly shifting straight back to that particular notebook of Genivierre's.

Her brow furrowed as she stared the impossibly more energetic boy down as he flailed and laughed like a lunatic on the couch, silently going back over every instance of uncontrollable behavior she could recall the boy exhibiting.

And maybe she could finally grasp the damned solution.

There was no telling just how long Amaya had been standing there piecing together her thoughts and suspicions, or even how long it had taken for her to drop her bag to the floor next to her shoes and carefully pad towards the dining table.

However, she decided she may as well see if that niggling suspicion was right.

'Samuel.' Amaya called out to the boy, who promptly cut himself off from his laughing fit and threw himself upright as if he'd been startled. A blond mop of haywire hair was first thing noted by Amaya before the rather surprised expression across the boy's face and the owlish way he blinked. His hair, if possible, seemed more haywaire than usual. 'Come over here.'

There was no verbal response, however Samuel promptly scrambled to his feet to run over as fast as he could manage, much to Amaya's bemusement. Socks that appeared too big for tiny feet flopped around and dragged along the varnished floorboards, bringing Amaya's brow to furrow just a little more as she lowered herself to a crouch just in front of Samuel's approaching form.

'HELLO BIG SISTER MEOW!' Samuel practically screeched as he tackled her in a flailing hug.

'Owww! Damn it my shoulder isn't healed yet!' Amaya snapped as his weight slammed into her right side.

'Oops! Sorry!' Thankfully, he'd pried himself off of her right away and rolled back on the heels of his feet. 'Are we going somewhere now? Ooh! Can I have a snack?!'

Amaya let out what felt like the hundredth sigh that day as she briefly shook her head.

'I want you to do some things for me, exactly as I tell you.' She instructed, much to Samuel's evident confusion. 'First, pull your socks on properly and walk to the couch and back like a normal person.'

'Okay!' Samuel promptly agreed. 'Can I have a snack after?'

'If you do everything I ask without being stupid about it, yes.' Amaya responded.

'Yay!'

And without any further questions or remarks, Samuel turned right on his heel and proceeded to do as she stated. She ignored the sounds of the front door opening off to her left, and she pretended she couldn't hear the approaching footsteps a mere moment later as she watched exactly how Samuel walked without a shift in gaze.

And as she watched him slap his hands on the back of the couch like it was his relay race partner and turn around, she found her first suspicions confirmed – His feet didn't once leave the floorboards.

'Okay! What no--?' Samuel appeared to cut himself short as he looked up above Amaya's crouched form and practically beamed. 'Hello Mister Bell Pe--!'

'Samuel.' Amaya interrupted, snapping the distracted boy's attention back to her.

'Oh! Sorry! What now?!'

For whatever reason, Karma didn't seem to say a word in response, nor did he bother to ask her what she was even doing.

Which was a godsend right now, because she didn't need him derailing her thoughts right now.

'Stand still and count to thirty inside your head.' She instructed.

'Thirty?!' Samuel squeaked out in fright. 'What number comes before?!'

'Twenty Nine.' Karma helpfully inputted with a snicker.

'And before that?!'

'Thirteen.' He lied.

'What? Then teacher lied when he said fourteen is after fifteen...?'

'You're not helping!' Amaya snapped as she turned to frown at Karma, who simply shrugged, unapologetic.

Amaya returned her attention back to Samuel as she decided his familiarity with numbers and names were undoubtedly far better in his native tongue.

'Count to thirty.' She offered instead.

'Oh! Okay!' Samuel's prompt response was met with immediate silence, though the further Samuel counted, the more perturbed he seemed to become, as if counting to ten was quite hard for him, too.

But he remained relatively still for the most part, which was quite a change to what she was used to.

She could feel Karma's form practically looming over her shoulder, silently watching, if only out of curiosity of what she was trying to glean from these instructions she was giving to Samuel. Undoubtedly, if he wasn't, he wouldn't be standing there practically watching in silence.

'Okay done! Now what?!' Samuel questioned, eager to earn his extra snack for the day.

And yet, Amaya hesitated as she glanced at the large rug beneath the dining table.

If her suspicions were right, she knew for a fact that she was going to regret teaching him how to do this. But, that niggling thought was going to gnaw at her until she got her answer, and eventually she released that heavy breath.

'Okay, walk around the dining table until I tell you to stop.' She gave in. 'Do not touch the chairs or the table at all.'

And without any remark, Samuel sprung into motion to just as he'd been instructed.

He swung his arms wildly as he walked, still dragging his feet along the rug without even seeming to realize it. The first five or six laps yielded no hints she had expected to see, however the commotion had drawn the attention of both Yuta and Reiko, who had crept down from upstairs to watch curiously over the railing.

However, as furballs stumbled down and inadvertently began following Samuel's every step, Amaya's gaze was redirected upwards towards Samuel's hair. Upon lap twenty, his usual moderate mess of unruly, fluffy hair had appeared to grow even more haywire, and with every additional lap, not only did it stand up on end a little more, but Samuel's every motion became more rigid, unsteady, as if he was struggling to keep walking as she'd instructed.

'Big sister Meow...' Samuel groaned as he seemed to stumble ever so slightly on his feet as he completed his thirty-sixth lap. 'I don't feel so good... I wanna stop...'

'Dizzy, yet?' Karma teased with an obvious snicker, though he quickly held his hands up in surrender the very second Amaya turned to glare at him. 'Sorry, I'll keep quiet~'

But oddly enough, Samuel didn't even hear Karma's question as he came to a stop right in front of Amaya and fixed her with one of the most despondent looks she had ever seen written across his face. 'No more... everything's itchy again.'

Entertainingly, the cats that had been stalking Samuel's every move actually backed well away from him when they'd come within three inches of him, and retreated for the twins standing at the top of the stairs.

Well, guess they don't like static electricity.

'Two more times.' Amaya instructed.

'Nooo... I don't wanna.' Samuel ground out as he rubbed his hands harshly against his face.

Yeah, his mood was souring much faster than she'd actually expected.

'Just two more laps, please.' She reaffirmed.

'NO!' Samuel snapped.

'Samuel, don't--' Yuta had begun to shout from the stairs, but Amaya quickly held her hand up to stop him. Which he did, though with no lack of a sigh escaping him in turn. But Amaya's attention was immediately back upon Samuel, who was still rubbing furiously at his face.

If he got any more vigorous however, he may wind up hurting himself.

'I promised you that you could have a snack, remember?' She reminded the boy, who sniffled as the tears began to spill. 'We're nearly do--'

'I DON'T WANT SNACKS!' Samuel cried out. 'I'M NOT HUNGRY!'

Unfortunately, it was very hard for Amaya to ignore the scoff that escaped the evil incarnate standing right over her shoulder at that second. What made it worse was that she could actually appreciate the irony of that comment just as much as he did.

'Okay, that's fine. Sit down, please.' She gave in as she quickly removed her phone from her pocket and handed it straight to Karma without a second thought. 'I really don't think I'm going to enjoy this...'

'I didn't know you hate static shocks.' Karma remarked as Samuel reluctantly did as Amaya had instructed. 'Is this another secret you're keeping from me, Amay?'

'As if.' She dismissed as she then removed her chain of keys and dropped them to the floor.

It was simply the fact that she certainly wouldn't want anyone else to do this unprepared for what exactly might happen. And even now, she knew what she was going to do was, if possible, one of the stupidest things she had considered in quite a while.

She then cast Karma a sideways glance before she looked back at Samuel's agitated and volatile form fidgeting relentlessly in front of her.

He was not going to find this anywhere near as amusing by the time she was done with this, and she knew it.

A heavy breath escaped Amaya as she reluctantly lifted her right hand and reached forward to prod Samuel with a finger. She hesitated just as she was about to touch the boy's shoulder, bracing herself for what she expected to be a rather unpleasant static shock.

However she found herself learning a little too late that no amount of bracing would have done her any good.

A hair-raising crackle of raw electricity echoed through the living room the instance Amaya's fingers had brushed against Samuel's shoulder, sending blinding hot pain tearing its way straight through Amaya's arm and throughout her body with such force that she was momentarily blinded. After-images of red, spidery lines glowed in her vision as the residual force of electricity ripped its way back down her limbs, paralyzing her, causing all the muscles in her body to constrict and for the very breath she took to vanish as if she'd been winded. A vicious ringing in her ears had flared to life, drowning her senses in the disorientating haze it brought.

What felt like a fraction of a second was possibly many times longer. And she learned this as the white and red blinding began to recede from her vision, and the muscles in her body began to unlock. A choking gasp escaped Amaya as she felt two hands gripping her shoulders firmly, holding her upright as she took in haggard breaths, as if she had been starved of oxygen for a prolonged period of time.

A slew of the most vicious and colourful curses possible were all that were running through her head, and if the onslaught of startled, and rather frightened voices bombarding her dull ears was anything to go by, the shock had been more than just a little alarming for spectators, too.

In fact, as the ringing finally began to die down, Amaya could actually discern that the most prominent sound she could hear was the urgent, repeated call of her name, most prominently a soon-to-be mad Karma of all things.

'I'm alright!' Amaya choked out as she lifted an unsteady arm to try and wave the concern aside. Tried being the appropriate term, as her body wasn't exactly leaping at the opportunity to heed her commands right now.

Honestly she didn't expect the shock to be that vicious.

She had expected to wind up biting her tongue at the very most, and not blacking out for however long she had.

Judging by the tone of the response she received, the evil incarnate was quite agitated now that he'd gotten a response from her, and the tightening of his grip of her shoulders did wonders to reinforce this piece of information well in her shock-addled mind for her.

However as Amaya lifted her head and managed to look past Karma's form crouched down in front of her, she found herself gazing upon a rather bemusing sight.

There, lying in a relaxed ball on the rug was the most relaxed and happy Samuel she had ever seen, with a broad smile across his face as he seemed to snore away in spite of Yuta and Reiko's attempts at waking him up. Undeniably, the sudden discharge had caused the boy to faint, and for her to loose enough seconds to set off panic.

It was all it took for Amaya to let out a shaky breath as she buried her face in her trembling hands.

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

Sorry for the extremely late reply. But here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed the read, and hopefully I'll have the next one out sometime soon.

Just putting forward a minor change of circumstances I consciously made from the canon of the manga to this chapter, though you guys probably didn't notice it. I had Karma stay back in the classroom instead of being along with everyone else when they bump into Asano. Probably means very little, but that's a discrepancy I put in on purpose.

Anyways, our translation notes are as follows:

Denka - You Boku no Hero Academia guys are undoubtedly throwing this as a shout out to Kaminari Denki, and well, I've never delved into the intricate namings, but well it feels ironically similar to his name xD. Denka, written as 電荷 translates roughly to Charge (as in electricity) if I'm not mistaken. So yeah, entertaining  stuff now that I've had to write this down xD

All the best guys ~!

<3 Loki-Roki