Footsteps reverberated endlessly through corridors, back and forth in a disorientating haze of movements. It felt like white noise in the back of her mind, much like that whenever she couldn't focus right on what was in front of her. It was entirely dull as if she were trapped underwater, and how she hated that feeling more than anything else in the whole world.

Her eyes was trained upon the figures jogging ahead of her, unwavering in every respect, and yet her thoughts were as far away as they could possibly be. She could scarcely pick up on her surroundings as she followed everyone.

Did the God of Death learn through hacking the mobile form of the Fixed Artillery that there were others connected to the class worth use? Did he learn that her two siblings were right there a stones throw away from the school? When one stopped to consider just how resourceful this God of Death was, Amaya didn't feel that all the security Shigure had placed on the premises would mean anything against this particular brand of psychopath.

For the first time in the whole duration of her stay in the E-class of Kunugigaoka, she was honestly fearful for the damage its association could cause them. She didn't know what was worse, a madman hell-bent on capturing her for experimentation, or a psychopath hitman who had the sheer capacity to do almost anything if his whims deemed fit.

She'd never believed anything could ever truly contest Katsuragi Toji's place of volatile danger inside her head, and now that she was faced with it, she didn't know how to handle that.

The Rescue team veered down a corridor to the right before long, which appeared to end in a single door leading onward. It turned out of course that the door had been locked, Kataoka discovered as she tried in vain to open it.

'This door probably leads to the room where Bitch-sense'is captured, providing he hasn't moved her, yet.' Kataoka surmised as she crouched down in front of the door to appraise the lock for a moment. 'We could probably bust a lock like this with one of Takebayashi's explosives. Amaya-san, can you watch the corridor while we get in and rescue Bitch-sensei? This is going to be noisy.'

Amaya didn't give an obvious response, though she did step back a few paces to turn back so she could see down both ends of the corridor.

'What do we do?' Okajima questioned apprehensively from somewhere not too far from Amaya's position at the corner. 'It looks like Team A's in trouble, so maybe us guys should--'

'Don't panic. That's just what he wants.' Kataoka instructed. 'There's no change in the fact that we win if we defeat the "God of Death". He'll come attack us from somewhere eventually, that's when we turn the tables on him. We have some heavy-hitters here, too, you know.'

'But... how do we do that without Team A?!'

'These explosives are no good against Humans, but they're plenty useful as traps or threats.' Kataoka responded.

Though Amaya was skeptical about how good they would be as threats.

How could they manage that to begin with? Were they going to ask the God of Death to sit perfectly still while they attach them to his various limbs, arm them, and then detonate them?! Not likely!

'Also, we have these tear-gas bullets Okuda-san made. Just hitting someone near the face seems like it'll cause panic.'

Amaya froze up at that remark.

Okay, that would probably work well, or in her case, a bit too well.

'Amaya-san, don't you have a gun or a taser at least?' Came Kurahashi's remarkably more subdued voice from a few paces away.

'I don't need them.' Amaya responded without sparing the girl a glance.

'But ... you're practically unarmed...'

'Amaya-san's probably more comfortable without anything keeping her hands occupied.' Okajima spoke up in immediate response. 'She's the one who was kinda teaching Yoshida-kun and Muramatsu-kun Ukemi for the boutaoshi match, after all. She knows what she's doing.'

'O-oh...' Was all Kurahashi said as she turned back to the door. 'I thought that was Kurasuma-sensei...'

Of course, since in general the boys had a lot more to do with her than the girls did, Amaya wasn't all that surprised by Okajima's remark.

'Alright, this is plenty for battle measures.'' Sugino remarked with a wry smile as he armed the taser he had in hand, while everyone else armed their various guns and other armaments they had on hand. 'He probably thinks he's playing with some small fish after letting them loose in a fish tank. But let's teach him that those small fish are piranhas.'

And at that moment, the sound of another explosion tore through the corridor as the handle of the door was destroyed.

Amaya heard somebody kick the door in a second later, followed by the calculated movements of boots against the concrete. There was no signs of anyone coming down either corridor, no signs at all that the God of Death was even coming this way.

But maybe that was because the Attack Team were keeping him occupied?

Amaya hoped that was the case.

She hated the idea that they really stood no chance against this psychopath, even though she had her doubts about their chances.

'Bitch-sensei!' Kataoka's voice rung out from the room they'd broken into, dragging Amaya's gaze from the corridor she was keeping watch of for just a second.

They found Irina? Just like that, with no sign of a trap or any other danger?

That ... didn't feel right.

Even though they were locked in this place, Amaya was fairly sure that just leaving Irina there in a room the so called bait for Koro-sensei could break into was a pitifully stupid idea. Regardless of how conceited that psychopath may have been, Amaya had her fair share of dealing with twisted adults to know that escape was never given that easily if there was a use for the pawns in their control.

At the very least it was more logical for the hostage to be moved away from the exit-room, regardless of whether the exit was locked or not.

Unless ... they were missing something very important...

Amaya dared another glance back towards the room everyone was in as she tried to stop herself from getting distracted, though that was far harder than she liked to admit.

She couldn't see anyone at the door, though she could hear the faintest hints of lively chatter from within, and it brought Amaya to curse out loud as she looked back towards the empty corridors.

This wasn't the time to sit there cheerfully talking! The Attack Group was in trouble the last she heard, and here they were wasting their time having a good time with the fact that they apparently had secured Irina!

'DON'T ADD SCARY SETTINGS!' Came the familiar shriek belonging to Irina from the room, dragging yet another curse from Amaya's rather apt tongue.

Well, good to know the woman wasn't dead.

'You guys want to hurry it up, already?! We're gonna be sprung at this rate!' Amaya called from the corridor, though she received no response in the least.

That was ... odd.

'AHH—OWWW!' Came the shriek from Irina once again, bringing Amaya to drag her gaze away from the corridors to look back at the door once more.

'Guys?' Amaya called out once more.

Silence once more, bringing Amaya to step away from the corridors to approach that door.

'Seriously, what the hell's--'

'AMAYA-SA--' One of the girls attempted to call out, however their voice was cut short as what sounded like bodies crashed to the floor.

And that was all it took for Amaya to throw herself forward in a dash.

'What's wro--' Her words were cut short the very instance she felt the blood-curdling sensation of something sharp jabbing right into the side of her neck the very second she'd set foot through the door. The forms that were of the rest of the Rescue Team dropped limply to the floor in front of her, their guns and tasers scattering across the floor as she stumbled slightly on her feet.

Her breath ceased entirely as instinctively she knew what had happened. The terrifying knowledge came to her as quick as her heart raced, that familiarity of all those nightmare months ingrained into her very soul. Her heart raced so fast it inflicted pain, and her trembling hands slowly lifted towards the puncture-wound bleeding in the side of her neck.

Her gloved fingers came back bloodied with the taint of chemical odor practically oozing from the crimson smears.

She'd just been drugged, and she could feel that burning sensation taking hold of her as that silhouette belonging to a form she should know confidently strutted away.

But she couldn't recognize them.

The harsh thudding of her heartbeat resounded through her entire being, the blood rushing through her ears deafened the sounds of outside from her as her mind struggled to differentiate between nightmare and present.

Like a white noise descending upon her, the oceans lapping at the back of her mind rose higher and higher to drown her in a caustic, boiling grave.

The bodies lay motionless before her as that silhouette before her gazed over the fallen with a smug sneer as she tossed both of her syringe guns aside.

Amaya was the only one standing, the only one it had not worked on.

And at that second, she felt the last of her control shatter from within her grasp.

A blood-curdling shriek of fury escaped her as her body lunged forward in a run, hands lashing forward towards the form with their back towards her, who flinched at the sound. Scarcely moving in time for all Amaya's fingers could reach to be tresses of hair, an unsteady elbow slammed into Amaya's side as she was knocked away, sending her tumbling hard across the ground past the fallen forms of the Rescue Team.

'What the--?! Did I miss you?1' Exclaimed Irina's voice through the haze of screaming inside Amaya's head. 'I couldn't have--'

The honeypot assassin could only cut herself off with a gasp as she found herself a second later barely dodging another lunging swipe from the unhinged girl.

A gun came flying right at Amaya's head from a sweeping kick Irina threw to strike it at her, and with a resounding force it struck Amaya hard over the side of the head, sending tear-gas bullets scattering across the room as the magazine popped free. The jostling motion that overtook Amaya's attempted lunge was long enough for the honeypot assassin to have snatched up one of the syringe guns she had discarded and one of the fallen student's tasers, but not long enough to land a proper counter.

With every swipe Amaya made for the assassin's neck, needle-sharp jolts of pain shot through her as Irina tried to get a decent shot at her, and every puncture forced more of the burning toxin within Amaya's body, chipping away at her rationality more and more with every repetition. And with every attempt, Amaya's swipes grew closer to their mark.

As Amaya managed to land a solid enough kick to earn a pained gasp from Irina as she truck her in the side of the ribs, she could hear the small hints of whispered pleas from those who hadn't been completely engulfed by the paralysis drug.

'P-please... don't hurt her...'

'Stop...'

'We came ... to save her...'

And yet in spite of the fact that she could hear them, her onslaught of attacks continued.

That was until Irina realized it wasn't merely disarming her that Amaya was reaching for and grabbed the girl to slam the prongs of the taser directly into Amaya's stomach.

A sudden surge of electricity shocked Amaya's form in an instance, enough to stun her long enough for Irina to kick Amaya's feet out from under her and drop the taser in order to grab her face and slam the back of her head against the floor.

'Will you just-- stay down!?' Irina's strained exclamation rung like a shrill cry as she slammed a knee against Amaya's right elbow to pin her, and jabbed the syringe gun straight into the side of her neck.

However, no matter how many times Irina tried, it didn't work. It only pushed Amaya's fury further down the line.

And she learned that the very instance Amaya's hand latched around the barrel of the syringe gun and ripped it out of her neck.

Horror and complete comprehension latched itself over Irina's face as she stared down at the girl now grinning maniacally as the glass of the syringe gun cracked and shattered within her gloved hand.

'What in god's name are you?!' Irina whispered frantically, however she was too slow to react.

Amaya's hands came lunging up towards Irina's throat before she could even blink, her arms ripped free from beneath Irina's pinning before she even knew it. The force of Amaya's lunge knocked the woman backwards and slammed her hard against the bars of the prison room.

A choking gasp escaped the assassin as she reached up to try and pry Amaya's hands away, panicked as the grip cutting off her oxygen closed tighter and tighter with every passing second. The grip Amaya had of her throat was far too tight for her to fight it.

But then movement from the corner of Amaya's eye caught her attention, a second too late for her to react. Blinding pain shot through Amaya's side as what turned out to be a kick sent her tumbling towards the far end of the room. Instinctively, she managed to slam her hands to the floor to stop herself from collecting one of the many fallen members of the Rescue Team and propel herself back onto her feet.

It was just in time, too.

Before she could so much as blink, that form who'd got the jump on her was already in front of her, and it was all she could do to throw her arms up in front of her to try and soften the blow of what was another full-forced kick.

Her feet slid across the ground as the sheer force of that kick propelled her back to slam against the wall. Her arms shook violently from the contact as she looked up at who she knew was the God of Death. The fury was beginning to seep away as a glimmer of rational coherence began to dawn upon her once again.

She could hear the rational part of her mind screaming for her to stop.

'Oh? That blow was supposed to snap both your arms clean in two.' The man remarked with a lofty edge, though the smile he wore was almost blood-curdling. 'That's not a normal bone-density for a normal child your age. Tell me, have you ever spent any extended period of time living in high-pressure environments?'

The God of Death cast a look back at Irina, who's breaths were ragged gasps against the silent air.

'So you took care of all of them except for this one child?' He asked, almost mockingly.

'A "child"?' Irina spat the word much like it was venom in her mouth. 'Oh no, that's just a monster.'

'Really?' The God of Death remarked with obvious interest. 'She looks nothing more than a particularly durable child, hardly more to concern oneself with than these--'

The instance that the God of Death moved to roughly nudge the fallen Mimura's head with a boot, he instead found himself having to backtrack as Amaya flung herself forward to slam her foot right in his face.

However, instead of looking remotely startled, a beaming smile spread right across the God of Death's face as he returned the attack with another solid strike, being a knee straight to Amaya's stomach. A coughing, wheezing gasp escaped Amaya as she barely managed to throw herself back to avoid another strike.

'That's three hits you've managed to brush off, though I'm sure that's simply because of your anger right now.' He remarked with that beaming smile of his broadening all the more. 'I'm impressed all the same. All those kids from that other team of yours went down without so much as putting up a fight. Even those so called "prodigies" in the other group.'

Amaya's struggling breath hitched in her throat at those words, and her hands clutching her horribly bruised stomach clenched tightly.

They all got taken out...?

But they couldn't have!

'To be honest, besides this little surprise of yours, I'm that disappointed in your class as a whole that I'm looking forward to that unknown creature putting up a fight. I'd like the opportunity to kill some of your friends in return for the let-down.' The God of Death cast a deliberate look over the fallen students on the floor, before he seemed to look back at her. 'I was planning five to start with, but if you do me the favor of telling me which the target is most fond of, I'll limit the initial warning to just two deaths. That sounds fair, doesn't it?'

What was left of the barely-recovered rationality threatened to dwindle away at the sincerity she could hear in his words, the threat ripping all hesitation from her as she hurled herself forward to try and rip that man's throat out before he could make do on his words.

However, a hand managed to close around her right ankle, halting the enraged girl in her tracks as she snapped her gaze right down to what had grabbed her.

Struggling breaths escaped the girl of ash-brown locks as she struggled to maintain her grip of Amaya's ankle.

'S-stop...' Kataoka struggled to force out. 'Don't do i--'

The rest of what the Class Rep tried to say was lost on Amaya.

The very second she managed to snap her attention back to the God of Death, he was towering over her mere fractions of a second before a full-forced kick slammed straight into the side of her ribs. The impact was so strong that it sent her hurdling towards the wall that made up the side of the prison elevator, where her head slammed with resounding force against the solid steel bars.

Her vision swam between black and blurred glimpses of that man's silhouette towering over the fallen as she lay slumped on her side, her breath a weak, rasping whisper throughout the pain screaming throughout her body.

'I take that back, you're all disappointing.' The God of Death remarked as he disappeared into the shadows.

As her world flickered and distorted, she thought she saw Yukariko standing there in the room with her. The faceless form of her mother from the scarce few memories of her before her downwards spiral, of singing and dancing joy a splendor as the sun kissed her pale features.

Instead, as Amaya's world fell black for one last time, the image just stood there coldly, with a hand held up tentatively over darkening bruises around her neck.

'That's just a monster.' Those words rung back through her head, spoken by a form she couldn't seem to recall at that moment.

And there was nothing inside of her that could truly, sincerely deny those words.

A visage of voices echoed around through the darkness that had descended upon Amaya, wordless in spite of the sounds she could hear through the dark. She could distinguish nothing, everything was dull as if she were suspended underwater once more. They bounced through the darkness, with the varying underlying emphasis and emotions all that she could possibly hope to depict. Some at first were shocked, others grave. And in among those first voices, one feminine voice sounded utterly terrified.

She thought at one point that she was still lying there in that room, though she could feel the swaying of her arms and legs that felt much like she was being carried. By who, she couldn't fathom. She couldn't recognize voices, smells or even the smallest sensations beyond the sway of her limbs and the burning of her body.. Her whole body was aching as the burning grew worse and worse throughout her body. The air felt so cold, it actually hurt to breathe it.

In a twisted sense, she wished that she couldn't hear or feel anything at all. She wanted to become lost in the dark where even remembering anything was impossible. Where the only images that could possibly intervene through the dark were the smallest glimmer of a kind, motherly smile and a chiming, songbird voice on the sea breeze.

But the world had an unfortunate way of enforcing the entire opposite, in spite of the most simple and desperate wishes.

The sounds of voices Amaya couldn't pin names or faces to grew louder, and greater in numbers all of a sudden, peppering the darkness with a chaos so loud it scraped against her ears and inflicted pain to her tender head. As the loud crash of a steel door slamming shut tore through the darkness surrounding her, the voices only seemed to grow that much louder.

She vaguely recalled the sensations of her arms in shackles, of the ring of metal bound around her neck like a collar and voices that seemed to speak one name in particular with varying degrees of concern. She eventually realized that the name in particular actually belonged to her.

But it wasn't her own name that eventually drew her out of the darkness that had engulfed her. It wasn't the cold that continued to bite into her flesh, and it wasn't the discomfort of lying mostly upon the hard concrete floor.

It was the sound of the most familiar voice she could hear right there with her, so clear and precise that she could hear word for word what he was saying even through the dull blackness.

She forced her heavy eyelids open against the exhaustion that plagued her, inwardly wincing as she found herself blinded momentarily by the harsh white light of the ceiling. The left side of her vision was tainted a dull shade of red, and the skin of the left side of her face felt horribly tacky. The world was blurry a large cell built of concrete with a wall of bars, with many silhouettes of familiar form with their arms restrained behind their backs. One lone silhouette loomed over her, though their attention was upon something outside of the room.

She found herself lying on her back, mostly, with the back of her aching head resting carefully atop a wad of material set in someones lap. She recognized this form, even if she couldn't see them clearly.

It was the familiarity of the presence, and the smug way he spoke to the menacing form just outside of their second prison that stood out from everything else she could scarcely detect in her current condition.

'Must you annoy every person you encounter...?' Amaya forced herself to speak in spite of the protests her body gave to that simple motion.

Immediately, the blurry form belonging to Karma snapped his gaze right down to look at her.

'Of course.' Was his response, though she couldn't see much beyond the blurs to see the look across his face. 'What else am I supposed to do to kill time?'

'Not be an ass all the time...' Amaya mumbled weakly, earning the smallest chuckle in response. '...Where are we?'

'Just another room he's set up as a prison. Not much else to it.'

He...?

Oh, right, they were here thanks to another assassin. God of Death, if she was even recalling it, right. She was having trouble remembering certain pieces, which was probably thanks to the pressure and pain she was feeling in her head at that second.

Maybe it would help if she sat up?

Yes, that sounded like an excellent--

'Don't move!' Karma's voice came in a sharp snap as he seemed to lift his leg that little bit to keep the wad of material pressed against the back of her head as she'd tried to get up.

'But I need to--'

'If it's about that stupid wager, you can forget it!' He snapped, a little harsher as Amaya seemed to stare up at him blankly. 'In case you didn't notice, all our hands are tied, and you've got a head-injury!'

It was a few seconds before Amaya even recalled that she'd ordered him to stay away from her, and ever so slightly a wry smile touched her face.

She probably wouldn't have even remembered about that if he said nothing.

'That's not it...' Amaya spoke up as she reluctantly let herself rest back down. 'I'm just having trouble remembering some things ... thought sitting up might help.'

The blurs that seemed to show a sharp look written across Karma's face seemed to disappear after a moment.

'Oh.' Was all he seemed to say at first. 'Sorry Amay, it's going to have to wait.'

'I know...' She did her best to cast him a smile, though through the blurs of her vision he didn't appear to return it.

'K-Karma-kun...' A nearby voice spoke meekly through the tense silence in the cell. 'Is... Amaya-san awake?'

The redhead appeared to lift his gaze away from Amaya to look up at who'd spoken, where he seemed to give them just the smallest of nods.

A few seconds later, another blurry figure appeared over Amaya's prone form, that of spectacles, twin plaits and a shy disposition. And unlike the blurs she could see of Karma's face, she could immediately tell that this girl was wearing a look of pure and undiluted worry.

'A-are you feeling okay, Amaya-san?' The shy girl with the name Amaya couldn't seem to recall right now asked her.

'I'm okay...' Amaya eventually responded as she managed to turn her head a little. 'You alright?'

The form seemed to flinch and look a little guilty being asked such a question.

'Y-yes ... we surrendered, s-so I'm fine...' The girl spoke, though she honestly sounded a little pained to admit that.

Even so, Amaya cast her a small, weary smile.

'I'm glad to hear it...'

It was at that moment that a loud crash echoed overhead, as if a steel door had suddenly slammed open, and a familiar shriek rung forth through a hail of gunfire.

And from the ceiling, a yellow and black blur came crashing down into the cell to land in the middle, just as that door up in the ceiling slammed shut once more.

'K-Koro-sensei?!' Rung a chorus of horrified and startled voices as their octopus teacher landed to a crashing heap in the centre of the cell.

'Do you like it, Koro-sensei?' Came the voice of who Amaya guessed to be the God of Death, from outside of the cell, though she couldn't look around to see where he was. 'This is the place where you'll meet your end.'

'E-everyone!' Koro-sensei seemed to gasp out as he found himself reunited with his students. 'Where is this ...?'

'This is a floodway built by this country to counter flooding. I secretly connected it to my hideout. If I give the order from the control room above ground, 200 tons of water will flow in here every second from a nearby river.' The God of Death didn't hesitate to answer, almost as if he was eager to share the finer details of his plans. 'That fearful water pressure will steal your freedom and push you against the sturdy anti-sensei cage, cutting you up into little pieces of jelly.'

The tiniest flinch she felt shoot through Karma at that very second said enough, and she slowly closed her eyes as she found the brightness of the room grow too hard for her eyes to take at that moment.

She wondered why the mention of the room flooding with water didn't seem to frighten her at that second.

Was it the knock of the head addling her more than she thought?

'WAIT! DO YOU PLAN TO KILL THE STUDENTS TOO?!' Came Karasuma's horrified exclamation.

'Obviously I can't wait now.' The God of Death responded pleasantly. 'Jamming him in there together with the students was part of my plan, too. If he tries to get violent and escape, the weak little children would get involved.'

'Irina!' Karasuma then seemed to round onto the honeypot assassin, who Amaya guessed was standing silently within the room. 'Knowing that, you still--'

Whatever it was that Irina said in response, Amaya couldn't hear it.

She could only tell that Karasuma had nothing to say to it before Koro-sensei's particular brand of laughter filled the cell.

'Nurufufufu~ Indeed this is that troublesome Anti-me material, but my body has finally overcome this.' Koro-sensei announced smugly. 'I will show you for the first time, MY SPECIAL BODILY INSTRUMENT!'

And then all was silent in the cell, which even in her current state, confused Amaya more than enough to have her force her eyes open to try and look around.

'What's going on...?' Amaya muttered as she tried to sit up again.

'D-Don't worry about it!' The shy girl crouched next to her spoke up quickly. 'You should stay down and rest!'

'But what's ha--'

'You don't want to know.' Karma cut in severely, with a harsh edge that told Amaya even then that she was pushing her luck. 'Now stay down and rest.'

And even though she didn't like not knowing what was going on around her, Amaya reluctantly did as she was told.

Ticking off an already irate Karma was not something she wanted to do right at that moment.

However, it was a few seconds later that Amaya received the answer to her question, and just as Karma had said, she actually preferred not knowing.

'I'll just say this, but, if you keep it up with that licking, I'll set off everyone's collars.' The God of Death spoke up pleasantly, earning a shrill exclamation from Koro-sensei at the bars of the cell.

'E-EH?! NO WAY!!!'

'...Okay, I could have done without the horrible mental image...' Amaya whimpered.

'I told you.' Was all she earned in response from the redhead.

She expected that the only reason she wasn't suffering some kind of pinching punishment was because his hands were cuffed behind his back at that moment.

But she barely noticed from the sudden sounds of a commotion from the outside of the cell.

What she scarcely recognized to be the sound of a solid, and rather powerful strike rung through the room with remarkable volume. The sliding of boots across concrete gave Amaya enough of an idea to know that somebody had just been dealt a rather hefty punch of some sort.

'I'll convey the Japanese Government's opinion to you.' Karasuma's voice rung with conviction throughout the room. 'These twenty eight lives weigh heavier than the earth. If you still plan to kill them along with the Target, then I will stop you.'

A cheer from the bulk of the students caused Amaya to wince from the pain it inflicted upon her head.

What she wouldn't give for some painkillers right now...

'So what will you do, "God of Death"?' Karasuma seemed to continue outside of the cell. 'This plan to also kill the students by drowning, if you'll continue with it, I'll defeat you right here.'

Silence met Karasuma's declaration, for what felt like several long seconds.

And then, with the startled exclamation of her classmates as the only sign of the events taking place around her, she ascertained that the God of Death had just retreated.

'KARASUMA-SENSEI!!' Koro-sensei shrieked at the top of his lungs as Karasuma took off after the God of Death. 'SWITCH YOUR TRANSCEIVER TO ON!!'

The sounds of dispersing footsteps was all that peppered the silence presiding after Koro-sensei's command to Karasuma.

'Hmph. Trying to defeat him. How reckless.' Came Irina's eventual remark from outside the cell. 'It's true that Karasuma's inhuman, too, but he's way beyond that. He even caught this octopus, no problem.'

'So you knew that guy was planning to kill us, too?' Maehara's voice spoke up in response.

'Why...? We thought you were our friend...' Okano questioned.

'You were scared, right?' Amaya heard Karma remark with a remarkably cold edge to his words, drawing the smallest of sighs from the weary girl. 'You, who always said "pro this, pro that", you started to forget your hitman's intuition from the la~x school life. So you want to kill us and make a point. "I'm a cold-blooded hitman~".'

And in immediate response, the sounds of something crashing against the wire of the cell they were locked in echoed throughout the area. It was so sudden that a squeak escaped the girl crouched right there next to Amaya.

'You don't know anything about me...IT NEVER EVEN CROSSED MY MIND THAT I COULD LIVE MY LIFE IN A NORMAL WORLD LIKE THIS!!' Irina's trembling shout filtered through the room, before the woman seemed to take a deep breath. 'Having fun with kids that are like my little brothers and sisters, worrying about love, that's not right. That sort of dazzling world isn't my world.'

The silence that met Irina's words was heavy with the awkward edge of the students in the cell, and it continued for several long moments before one small response escaped Irina.

'...Got it.' She seemed to speak softly.

And with that, her dispersing footsteps left the area.

'As expected of experienced hitmen! "A person we thought was an ally was an enemy." While that area of sudden change is one which Sensei is poor at handling, her acting didn't let on to that change at all.' Koro-sensei announced with obvious pride as he decided to break the awkward silence, applauding the honeypot assassin all the same. 'The God of Death is a given, but Irina-sensei is also wonderfully strong. She is not yet an opponent you can defeat with your own abilities.'

The silence from the students continued on, perhaps a little more awkwardly than before.

Not that Amaya was surprised.

'This surveillance monitor setup by the God of Death... It's only fragmental, but it seems like we can take a peek on this battle between powerful individuals.' Koro-sensei surmised as he wandered over to one side of the cell. 'How about we take a... EEK! S-S-STUDENTS! YOU'RE HURT! I-ITONA-KUN! THERE'S BLOOD DOWN THE SIDE OF YOUR FACE! BANDAGES! WHERE ARE THOSE BANDAGES?!'

'It's not mine.' Itona's blunt response came swiftly enough.

'YOU'RE NOT INJURED?!'

'No.'

'EVERYONE INJURED RAISE YOUR HANDS SO SENSEI CAN TEND TO YOUR INJURIES!' Koro-sensei practically shrieked.

'We can't raise our hands, you stupid octopus!' Yoshida and Muramatsu exclaimed indignantly.

'O-OH! Yes of course! Then line up in single-file! Everyone else, please keep an eye on the monitors!'

'Eh? But we're--' Kimura had begun, however he was cut off as Koro-sensei frantically rounded upon him to apply antiseptic and a plaster bandage to the bleeding graze on his chin. '... Fine.'

How Amaya wished that Koro-sensei had a mute button right now. All his screeching was causing her head a lot of pain.

The seconds ticked by into minutes as Koro-sensei checked over the condition of his students, all the while Amaya could hear the general gist of what was happening outside of the cell.

Exclamations of an explosion rung through the cell from various students, peppered with the explanations and technicalities Koro-sensei was providing for the shocked students who were watching the screen showing Karasuma walking out of an explosion unscathed.

This was of course, followed by another instance that had Hara let out a frantic exclamation. A hail of gunfire by what appeared to be guns mounted on some kind of dog was the next so called trap that met Karasuma, and what was more horrific than the appearance of such creatures was Karasuma's actual reaction to them.

Amaya did not need to even see the monitors to imagine the chilling grin that Karasuma wore as he just casually walked right past the dogs, who were apparently so terrified of the man that they let him past without so much as a whimper.

'Now then, Karma-kun, you also appear to be injured!' Koro-sensei spoke up as the chatter on the far side of the cell grew louder and louder with every passing second. 'Is it just that--'

'Doesn't matter.' Karma cut in sharply, silencing the octopus with little effort. 'Amaya needs help, not me.'

A second later, Amaya heard a gasp escape Koro-sensei as he immediately dropped all the items he had in his tentacles. She would have opened her eyes to greet the octopus, but she just couldn't seem to summon the will to do so.

Even though she could hear better and she could pin names to voices now, she was feeling rather tired.

'Why didn't you call out sooner, Karma-kun!' Koro-sensei practically cried out as he crouched down next to Okuda at Amaya's side. 'Th-this is a lot of blood! Did they not give her any medical treatment before you were all locked in here?!'

'B-Bitch-sensei just threw this at us and told us to deal with it ourselves...' Okuda spoke up meekly. 'But we were already mostly handcuffed to begin with...'

'Amaya-san!' Koro-sensei spoke urgently, just as she felt one of the octopus' dominant tentacles gently rest atop her head. 'Amaya-san, can you hear me?'

'Yeah, I'm awake...' Amaya mumbled in eventual response as she finally managed to open her eyes again. 'I've heard you screeching the whole time...'

'Thank goodness!' Koro-sensei's silhouette currently leaning over her seemed to wear a relieved expression as he gazed down at her. 'How severe is the pain from one to ten?'

'I don't know...'

'Amaya-san, please give Sensei an indication.'

Great ... she wasn't very good at this whenever anybody asked her such a question.

'...Maybe six...' Amaya eventually responded as she struggled not to let her eyes close on her again. 'It hurts more when you're screeching, like you usually do.'

Though Amaya was fairly certain from the unpleasantly nostalgic burning and pain in her neck and the uncomfortable numbness to her fingers and throat that it the bulk of it was not because of the head-injury, even though her arms and her ribs were aching constantly, too.

She certainly couldn't bring that up, though.

'Very well, then at least let Sensei tend to that injury.' The octopus announced in a remarkably softer voice than before as he gently lifted her beneath the shoulders to sit her upright.

And immediately, Amaya felt as if the inside of her head shifted in a rather nauseous manner.

The sudden shift to upright was greatly disorientating considering the bulk of her time lying down, and her head spun painfully as her centre of balance shifted distinctively. Though thankfully, as she gradually regained some of her balance, she found the pressure inside her head begin to shift just a little, allowing her to think just a little more clearly.

However, before long she felt the beginning lines of trickling warmth begin to trail down the back of her neck.

'Hmmm, there isn't a lot Sensei can do for you, unfortunately, Amaya-san.' Koro-sensei spoke softly as he carefully inspected the injury to the back of her head. 'You need quite a few stitches, and Sensei doesn't have the supplies on hand, regrettably. At the very least it can be dressed temporarily, until we all get out of this cell.'

Amaya would have nodded, if not for the fact that she could feel Koro-sensei applying disinfectant to her head-wound.

It was odd however that she couldn't feel any real pain from it, though it might have just been overshadowed by the rest of the pain she was feeling.

'You will have to stay upright as much as possible, Amaya-san, and you will also have to avoid moving if you can help it. Anything to lessen the amount of blood flow, the better.' Koro-sensei instructed her as he finished wrapping a generous amount of padding to the wound to her head, pausing for just a moment to gently shift Amaya across to rest up against the wall of the cell just next to Karma. 'And Karma-kun?'

'Yeah?' The evil incarnate responded absent-mindedly.

'Make sure Amaya-san behaves herself, please.'

Karma was the wrong person for Koro-sensei to be giving such a command, though for better or worse he said nothing in response.

The silence that met Koro-sensei's departure towards the other parts of the cell was a pleasant change from the prodding of the injury and the screeching of the octopus' voice in response to certain remarks.

Though with every passing second, the more Amaya felt like she really just wanted to sleep.

As Amaya's blurry gaze traced the expanses of the cell once more, she couldn't help but feel the sinking of her heart as she noticed the particular bubble of distance those from the rescue group were keeping from her. The bulk of them even appeared to keep their gaze well away from her, as if they were trying to keep as far away from her as they could, within the expanses of the cell.

She recalled what happened now, albeit with rather fuzzy clarity. She knew deep down inside that she'd lost control again, just like she knew she'd been drugged quite severely. And yet, in spite of all that, and her knowledge that she would never have laid a hand on any of her classmates, the way they were avoiding her very gaze said that at least at that second, they begged to differ on that count.

Even though Kataoka was just off to the side fixing her with concerned looks, that didn't change anything for her.

Even if it were just a figment of her imagination, that didn't change the fact that it really did hurt.

Amaya slowly closed her eyes as she managed to pull her knees towards her chest lightly, struggling not to let the hurt show across her face.

'They haven't so much as looked at me this whole time ... have they?' She eventually spoke up, just loud enough to catch Karma's attention.

She heard him shift slightly, as if turning his head for just a moment.

'You noticed, huh?' His response, while still a question was more of a statement, and she could pick up on the smallest hints of exasperation in his tone. 'I was hoping you didn't.'

'How could I not?' She despondently whispered, in spite of how much she really wished she was just imagining it. 'They aren't even trying to be subtle about it...'

They weren't even trying to pretend they didn't fear her while they were locked in the cell with her.

Was it just ... easier for them to write their own conclusions about her?

'I'll deal with them when we get out of here,' Karma responded as the seconds ticked towards minutes. 'So don't worry about it.'

And yet, all Amaya could do was shake her head ever so slightly in spite of the pain it caused her as the tears began to well up in her eyes.

She wanted to go home. She wanted to see her siblings, to make sure they were fine. And she wanted to hide up in her attic where the pretenses and hurtful gazes couldn't reach her.

She didn't know how much more of these painful days with these people she could even handle, anymore.

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

Well, we have another chapter here for you. And, even though things are still up in the air, we can probably say I'm off hiatus by the end of the month. Thank you again for all your kind words and understanding.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope I'll have the next one done sometime soon, but with work and all that it might be a bit hard. It's been a fluke that I've gotten these three done pretty close to each other. I'm still catching up on comments and the like, so I apologize again for any comment spam to things you've all left me :)

Our translation notes are as follows:

Hakushoku zatsuon - I believe this translates roughly as "White Noise", which would be written as 白色雑音 in Japanese.

All the best guys~!

<3 Loki-Roki