Voices reverberated back and forth through the overcrowded cell, a multitude of voices that caused pain to Amaya's tender ears. She scarcely had the endurance to depict the owners, let alone the words in which they all spoke at once.

She had to rely on her blurry gaze to depict what was even going on around her.

Silently she sat in the same place against the wall, with her hands bound and the explosive collar latched around her neck. The bulk of Class 3-E were gathered in the far end of the cell with Koro-sensei, speaking of a plan with no concern to volume the very instance Mimura had told them that there was likely no microphones in the room, and Koro-sensei had taken the initiative to turn off everyone's phones for them, given Ritsu's hacked condition.

It appeared from the little she could discern that they'd come up with the basis for a plan of retaliation.

The conviction in the voices she could hear told her as much.

'Aren't you going to join them...?' Amaya asked the silent redhead who had yet to so much as pick himself up off the floor to go help with the planning.

'Nope.' Was Karma's blunt response.

'But it looks like they're--'

'If they need me for something, they can come over here and ask for it.' Karma cut in sternly, much like that was the final word on the matter.

And at that moment, Amaya honestly didn't have it in her to argue.

She opened her mouth to give a verbal acknowledgment, when all of a sudden Koro-sensei appeared right in front of her. With a cheeky grin, he crouched down right in front of her, carefully grabbed hold of the explosive collar around her neck and snapped it off.

'That's twenty seven collars, and now--' Koro-sensei then snapped the one right off of Karma before placing the two gently into the centre of the room with all the others. 'Twenty eight! Excellent, everyone is safe. Sensei will remove everyone's handcuffs now!'

'You took your time, Koro-sensei.' Karma remarked with a sly grin. 'Were you enjoying the safety in our hands being tied?'

'Nurufufufu~! Of course, but not the fact that my student's lives are in danger at the same time!' Koro-sensei responded easily as he tugged Karma a little away from the wall so he could undo the handcuffs easier. 'I trust you will postpone the assassination attempts until later.'

'If I must.' Karma's response was half-hearted as the telltale clinking of separating metal parts echoed through the cell. 'I wouldn't want that guy to take credit for killing you if I succeeded right now.'

The octopus chuckled lightly as he straightened up slightly.

'Alright Amaya-san, you're next.' Koro-sensei announced as he turned back to her, and with a remarkably more gentle grip, he tugged her a little away from the wall, as well. 'If you could straighten up a little, that would be of benefit.'

Without a word, Amaya shifted herself so she was sitting more upright up on her knees and lifted her arms up a little higher behind her. She could feel the faint shifting of metal links against her arms as Koro-sensei set to work, and oddly enough, the sensation of gazes upon her motionless form.

So she lifted her gaze from the stone floor to look ahead of her.

Awkward forms belonging to a few of the female members of the rescue team furtively looked away from her, a second too late for Amaya to have missed the way they were looking at her in spite of her blurry gaze.

Wary, apprehensive, and greatly uncomfortable now that Amaya had caught them out. The trio of blurs appearing to resemble Yada, Kurahashi and Hayami didn't hesitate to relocate to other parts of the cell to avoid her gaze. Whether they were talking about her, or the incident with Irina mattered not. The way they quickly avoided her gaze was all she needed to know that it had some relation to her.

How she wished she hadn't bothered to look.

The clattering of metal pieces hitting the ground dragged Amaya's thoughts back to the octopus hovering at her side, just in time for her to notice him straightening up on his leg-tentacles.

'All done, you know what to do, Amaya-san.' Koro-sensei told her as he gently patted a tentacle to her shoulder. 'Next, Itona-kun! You can help me with the other handcuffs, once I'm done with yours!'

'Sure.' The tech-savvy boy responded, easily.

The seconds ticked by towards minutes as she remained there, right before she felt an arm loop firmly around her waist and drag her right back against the wall.

She'd flinched at the sudden movement, however before she could so much as look up at the evil incarnate in question, a sudden crash in the distance snatched up everyone's attention.

A violent tremor tore through the facility, far worse than any of the others that had taken place since they'd arrived. The whole cell shook enough for dust and mortar to fall from the ceiling and silence to engulf the students making their plans and Koro-sensei's unshackling. Immediately, their gazes shifted to the monitor set on one of the walls outside of the cell, and mixed reactions of horrified gasps and panicked words rung clear.

'KARASUMA-SENSEI!!' Koro-sensei practically shrieked into his phone as he ripped it out of his pocket, with his head turning frantically between the device and the monitor screens so fast, it would have earned him whiplash had he been human. 'IT LOOKED AS IF THERE WAS AN EXPLOSION ON THE MONITOR! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?! AND IRINA-SENSEI?!!'

'... I'm fine, but she's pinned under some rubble.' Karasuma's voice eventually responded from Koro-sensei's phone, earning horrified gasps from a remarkable portion of the class. 'But I don't have time to worry about that. I'll do something about the rubble blocking off my path and chase after the "God of Death".'

'NO!!' Kurahashi practically shrieked as she tore across the cell towards Koro-sensei, who with a rather grim look held out the phone to her. 'Why aren't you helping her, Karasuma-sensei?!'

'...Kurahashi-san. In her own way, she sought results, and she joined forces with the "God of Death". This is the outcome of that choice.' Karasuma's voice echoed in firm response, upsetting the frizzy-haired girl all the more. 'I won't blame her, nor will I help her. A full-fledged pro takes self-resposibility.'

'This has nothing to do with being a Pro or whatever!' Kurahashi continued none the less. 'I'm saying this as a fifteen year old, but Bitch-sensei is only twenty!'

'Yup,' A nearby Yada agreed with a rather wry smile. 'Even though she's an adult with tons of experience, she's even more childish than us sometimes, isn't she?'

Karasuma on the other end of the line remained silent in response.

'Maybe...' Kurahashi continued once more. 'Because she was raised in an environment with no peace of mind, Bitch-sensei, while growing up... she forgot to pick up certain pieces of her adulthood.'

'Help her out, Karasuma-sensei.' Yada added, seriously. 'You've forgiven us students when we make mistakes, too. Forgive Bitch-sensei this time, too.'

It was as Koro-sensei cheekily stuck out his tongue and proceeded to carefully unshackle Isogai's wrists that Amaya lowered her gaze to her lap.

'It'll be a loss of time, and you guys will die.' Karasuma eventually responded.

'It's alright.' Isogai answered brightly as Koro-sensei managed to release him from the shackles. 'The God of Death will probably come back without fulfilling his goal, so stay right there, Karasuma-sensei.'

And with that, all was said and Koro-sensei pocketed his phone to place all his attention on freeing up his students wrists.

'We have to be very quick with the last of these preparations.' Koro-sensei remarked as he moved onto Nagisa's cuffs next.

'We're right on track.' Mimura's voice rung out through the room.

'Excellent!' Koro-sensei announced as he finished with Kayano's shackles and disappeared to take care of the next person.

'What's wrong, Nagisa-kun?' Karma spoke up all of a sudden as he leaned past her to look at the blue-featured boy standing a few meters away, earning a startled yelp in response. 'Are you seeing something?'

'Ah, er... Oh, I have to act like I'm still tied up.' Nagisa hedged as he turned his head to cast the evil incarnate a sheepish smile as he hid his hands behind his back. 'Now what's next, Mimura-kun?'

'Yeah, Okajima, how's the surveillance camera looking?' Mimura questioned the classroom pervert standing in the far end of the cell, staring up at the camera.

'What we've got here is an emphasized fish-eye lens. Even when he's busy, he can check on the whole room with a single glance.' Okajima responded without once taking his eyes off the camera. 'And outside the cage, there's another placed where it can't be destroyed from in here. They don't have any blind spots, but like you thought, there are spots where you can't see accurately.'

The ongoing chatter and explanations rang more or less without meaning to Amaya, who had her eyes shut tight as she tried to drown out the flickering of pain that ripped through her head with every rise in pitch and volume she could hear.

If it weren't for the fact that her arms had to stay behind her back in order to fake their submission, she would have covered her ears to drown their voices out at least a little.

'Amaya-san, are you feeling okay?' Came Okuda's voice before long, a little stronger with confidence in spite of the rather deplorable situation the class was stuck in the middle of.

'I'm fine, Okuda-san.' Amaya responded softly without opening her eyes.

'But ... you don't look very good...'

Amaya bit back on the instinctive quip that threatened to escape her. While she honestly wanted to be anywhere else, and she was in a lot of pain and disorientated, that didn't mean she missed what Okuda really was meaning. And the bespectacled girl didn't deserve to earn the brunt of her hurt feelings.

Though thankfully, there was an appropriate enough interruption almost a second later.

'I'm sorry to ask this of you, Amaya-san, but are you able to stand?' Came Isogai's apologetic voice, and his tone was remarkably soft in comparison to the volume of the others in class. 'I need to apply the camouflage spray on your PE clothes, now.'

Without a word, Amaya lifted herself up with next to no waver in her movements, though it felt horribly like her brain was sloshing around inside her skull. However, in spite of the deceptive ease in Amaya's motions, she didn't miss the firm grip that closed around the upper part of her right arm and pulled her just those few paces forward.

Of course, she wasn't all that surprised, and she didn't need to look to know it was Karma, who was now undoubtedly standing right there practically scowling. Whether at her, or somebody else, she had no interest to know.

The clacking and high-pressured hissing of aerosol cans peppered the cell in regular and quick motions, and a second later Amaya felt the telltale whoosh of air past her ears that told her that Isogai had begun to apply the camouflage adhesive to her back in long, quick motions.

'How many left to go?' Mimura's voice called out across the cell. 'We need to get into position as soon as possible!'

'Nearly done, don't worry.' Sugaya responded casually.

'We've got a small problem, here...' Isogai spoke up as he paused in his motions to examine the neck of her PE gear. 'The camouflage spray isn't working over the blood on Amaya-san's PE clothes.'

'How bad is it?' Mimura called back in response.

'It shows up noticeably.' Isogai responded seriously. 'I don't believe the surveillance cameras will overlook it.'

'If her inner shirt is fine, we can probably use the outer to hide the collars, at least.'

Isogai cast Amaya a hesitant look.

'Is that okay, Amaya-san?'

'It's fine.' She responded as she managed to tug her arm free from Karma's grip to pull the outer layer off.

In truth, right now she didn't care if her PE uniform ended up torn to pieces if it meant she would be able to get home to her siblings that much faster. Though saying that now might cause her more problems than she wanted to admit.

With the outer layer of her PE clothes gone, that burning pain coursing through her body felt more tolerable, if only a little. And with the outer layer in her hands at that very second, Amaya could see exactly what Isogai had meant by the remark that the camera's wouldn't overlook the blood.

The whole hood of her uniform was stained with blood much like it was meant to be an ominous camouflage patterning, and the neck and shoulders were even more stained.

It was a lot of blood, and it explained why she felt so exhausted.

'We can work with this.' Isogai spoke with an obvious sigh of relief as he glanced over the back of her clothes, and without further remark he set to work applying the spray camouflage to her clothes.

'Is that everyone covered?' Mimura called out as he made the last circle back around the cell, sparing Sugaya a glance as he walked past to look at the far corner of the cell from the camera's point of view.

And oddly enough, it was only here that Amaya noticed that the artistic boy had appeared and already applied the camouflage spray to Karma's uniform.

'Everyone's done!' Sugaya responded, with an affirmative nod from Isogai as he finished up with Amaya's clothes.

'Good! All the collars set up?'

'Nearly!' Okajima called out from the middle of the cell. 'It was Amaya-san's shirt we're using to cover them, right? Okuda-chan, can you bring it over here?'

'E-eh?!' Okuda seemed to flinch as she looked up at Amaya's motionless form.

But then without so much as a word, Karma grabbed the bloodied outer-shirt straight out of Amaya's grip and threw it hard enough that it collected Okajima in the face with a loud thwock.

'Sorry Okajima-kun, I didn't mean to hit you with it~' The redhead spoke in mock apology as he fixed the startled pervert with an innocent smile. 'Guess you were too preoccupied to bother even looking this way, huh?'

No, that was definitely on purpose...

The colour drained quickly from Okajima's face as he made a frantic move to fold up the shirt and hide all the collars beneath it in the centre of the room.

'Was that really necessary...?' Amaya spoke up in question as she watched the way Okajima seemed to flee towards Mimura as soon as he'd finished hiding the collars and applying more camouflage over the shirt.

There was no answer, though the usual innocent look across his face said enough.

'Okay, we've gotta get into position now!' Mimura called out as he waved everyone to the corner of the cell right where he was standing. 'Hurry, he's probably almost there!'

With what looked to be planned assignment, Amaya watched as her classmates arranged themselves along the wall in groups of three, with Koro-sensei's help to lift students up as needed. With the lighter students sitting atop the shoulders of a medium weighted student, who was also sitting upon the shoulders of one of the boys, they stood flush against the wall to blend in as much as they could.

And in Amaya's blurry gaze, if she hadn't seen them get into position, she wouldn't have even realized there was people there at all. The camouflage spray over the uniforms did wonders to blend everyone into the wall with remarkable ease.

'Amaya-san, you're going to have to stand at the bottom along with us.' Mimura remarked as he directed trio's one after the other. 'We'll have to have two pairs mixed in at the far end. You need somebody on your shoulders to hide your head, since your jacket's hiding the collars for us.'

'That's fine.' Amaya responded, seriously.

'This is probably going to be for quite a few minutes, are y...' The orange-featured boy trailed off at the emotionless stare Amaya fixed him with before he coughed awkwardly. 'Right, nevermind.'

And yet, of the remaining handful of students not already stacked up in threes, nobody really volunteered to approach her. At least, until Okuda pulled away from the assigned group consisting of herself, Sugaya and Kurahashi to stand next to Amaya.

Amaya pretended not to notice the rather relieved looks across a couple of the student's faces.

'Very well, everyone's in order!' Koro-sensei spoke quickly as he continued to tuck students atop the other's shoulders, and within a second, he'd appeared to gently lift Okuda off the ground. 'Tuck in close to the wall!'

Amaya wordlessly did as she was told, bracing her hands against the wall as Koro-sensei gently eased Okuda onto her shoulders. The immediate shift of weight on Amaya's feet threatened to topple her over, though as she felt Koro-sensei help steady her with a tentacle to the small of her back, she found herself a little more stable.

'S-sorry Amaya-san!' Okuda squeaked nervously as she felt Amaya waver slightly beneath her. 'I-I'm not too heavy, am I?'

'No. Just getting balanced...' Amaya dismissed without even thinking.

Honestly, the lightest person in the class was probably Okuda, purely because she was one of the smallest. Out of everyone, Amaya had the easiest time right now with just the bespectacled girl to hold atop her shoulders.

Though the pain coursing through her contested against the ease she should be having.

'Excellent, and now Sensei ... is ... in position...' Came Koro-sensei's response from just behind the students stacked along the wall. 'Just a second, Sensei will cover the gaps between your boots right now!'

And a second later, Amaya felt the strange sensation of something slithery and unpleasant gently weave between her boots and around her ankles. Undoubtedly it was one of Koro-sensei's tentacles, or he'd let himself liquefy to that gloop-like state he occasionally did after Okuda's tonic during first term, but it was still quite a bit of a surprise to her. It was hard enough not to flinch away, let alone stop the rather uncomfortable look from spreading across her face.

The seconds ticked by towards minutes as everyone remained in position against the wall of the cell in mutual silence. Ears were strained for any foreign sounds, breaths low to avoid making any additional noise. And Amaya remained with her eyes closed as she willed herself to stand there as motionless as she could manage.

She had no solid grasp of time, standing there. She could barely recall the proper passing of time. All she knew was that it felt like forever before even anything had happened. Her hands to the wall for balance trembled slightly as the dull disorientation seemed to grow worse, and the pain began to grow noticeably worse in the side of her chest, more so than the rest of her.

Eventually, as the trembling in her hands grew remarkably worse, she felt something press up against her right hand, enough so for her to force her eyes open to look.

Amaya found through the blurry haze that a hand was closed over her own firmly, stilling the trembling with just that alone. The small hints of vibrant red in her peripheral vision was sign alone that the evil incarnate was standing right next to her.

That disorientation really was a problem for her. She hadn't even realized that Karma was even standing right there at all.

The grip around her hand tightened gently as a small shudder shook her form, and whether that was the intention behind it or just to still the trembling alone, it seemed to help ease the gnawing pit of unease inside of her, if only just a little.

A shrill series of three electronic beeps echoed throughout the cell after what felt like mere seconds, from mere meters behind them where the collars had been hidden on the floor. And then a second later, a resounding bang of explosives setting off ricochet throughout the area, showering the students in pieces of smoking metal.

Nobody spoke a word, and nobody dared to move beyond the initial flinch the explosion caused. As the air stilled and the reverberating tremors throughout the cell died down, curiosity began to grip the students around her.

'...He blew up the collars...' One of the boys whispered from the other side of the group. 'Which means he probably saw the image in here, right?'

'Now that he's flustered, the "God of Death" should return to where Karasuma-sensei is.' Who Amaya assumed to be Mimura spoke up in agreement. 'We have to stick it out until we know the outcome.'

'Guh... This is intense...' Terasaka a few groups closer ground out awkwardly.

'At any rate, you did well to think this up, Mimura-kun.' Koro-sensei spoke up from the floor just at their feet.

'Camouflaging ourselves and blending into the wall... Did we really deceive him with this?' Nakamura questioned from up the top of the wall.

'Probably. Even the light adjustment is perfect.' Mimura responded confidently.

'Seriously...' Kataoka groaned out from the middle of the group. 'Who would have thought the radio-controlled model using peeping toms would have such a huge role...?'

'Cameras and costumes. This was like some film production, huh?' Okano commented brightly.

'You really like this sort of thing, don't you Mimura?' Maehara inputted with a grin echoing in his very voice.

'So what about Koro-sensei?' Somebody else asked.

'Well, Sensei can naturally camouflage himself, so...' Mimura seemed to trail off with a wry smile.

'That means he's completely naked right now, right?' Somebody else finished with a rather wry chuckle.

'I'm so embarrassed...' Amaya heard the octopus teacher begin to whimper from right there on the floor behind their feet, bringing Amaya to let out the smallest of exasperated breaths.

Well ... she guessed she could understand the octopus' embarrassment. She'd be mortified if she were in his position, and twenty eight students would see the moment they turned around.

Another explosion soon rocked the underground tunnels, its source from much further away this time, silencing the students once more.

'That sounded like it was from the same location as the one that collapsed the roof in on Karasuma-sensei and Irina-sensei.' Koro-sensei surmised after a few seconds. 'He certainly moves fast, this "God of Death".'

'Coming from you, that sounds like some lame joke.' Yoshida scoffed.

'Nurufufufu~ Indeed his speed is no match for Sensei's mach 20.'

'Yeah yeah, no need to crow too much, Koro-sensei.' Nakamura spoke with a small chuckle. 'You do enough of that already, after all.'

'Sensei does not--'

'Wh-what?!' Sugino suddenly exclaimed as a distant flicker of movement shifted down the tunnels to land in the water with a resounding splash. 'SOMETHING JUST FELL INTO THE WATER OVER THERE!'

'From the shaft above, correct?' Koro-sensei asked as he seemed to shift on the floor. 'It's... KARASUMA-SENSEI AND THE GOD OF DEATH!!!'

The shriek from Koro-sensei as he spoke caused Amaya to wince visibly as she struggled to not clasp her hands over her ears.

'Karasuma-sensei and the God of Death?!' Somebody exclaimed in response, mixing with the frantic shuffling of people dropping down from atop one another's shoulders. 'I can't see them from here!'

'Hey! You've got those weird Zoom-eyes right, Koro-sensei?!' Somebody else demanded, one of the boys if Amaya was even hearing anything right. 'You can tell us what's going on, right?!'

'Y-yes! Sensei can do that for you!'

Amaya prayed they would stop shrieking at the top of their lungs. The pain it was inflicting was starting to rival the rest of it in her body.

'Amaya-san, I'm climbing down now.' A faint voice spoke from above her, soft enough that it was almost lost through the chaos.

The weight on her shoulders shifted, altering Amaya's centre of gravity drastically as she struggled to shift her balance to counter it. Small hands pressed against the tops of her shoulders for just a second before all the weight suddenly vanished entirely, so fast that she didn't have a chance to right her balance or even brace herself for it.

The shift was so disorientating that as she quickly became light-headed, her legs beneath her grew slack, and she toppled right over in an instance.

And yet she didn't feel the floor come hurdling towards her head as she fell.

A startled string of words escaped the softly spoken voice, so fast that even hearing them hurt her head. Her view of the world around her had taken a remarkably distinct change in what felt like a mere second.

She found herself more or less knelt down on the ground, with her head lolled forward enough where all she could see was the rather blurry blotches of dark crimson over pants, and the floor. An arm was circled around the back of her shoulders to hold her upright, and she could feel a quick, almost panicked tapping of a hand against the side of her face.

It was almost as if they were trying to wake her up...

'Sorry ... I just got dizzy for a second...' Amaya spoke up as she tried to sit up, but the arm around her shoulders just tightened to hold her in place.

'That wasn't just a second, Amaya!' Came the hushed snap of Karma's voice in immediate response. 'You actually blacked out for over a minute!'

Did she?

It honestly felt like she'd just lost a second or two at most.

'...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.' She whispered as the shrieking of voices around them seemed to just grow louder against her pained ears, though she forced herself to lift her head to shift her gaze onto the rather strained boy holding her upright. 'I guess I'm more tired than I thought...'

The expression written across Karma's face seemed to stiffen just a little at her words, as if he was struggling not to speak the words he honestly was thinking at that second.

'You can't sleep yet,' He spoke carefully, almost cautiously as he seemed to hesitate on his words. 'But you need to rest.'

Yeah, she knew that. She had to try and stay awake until a doctor cleared her to sleep. She'd had enough head-injuries to know that without even thinking about it.

But it was so hard to just keep her eyes open when she was drained of all her energy.

'I'll try not to...' She mumbled as she let her head droop forward once more. '...No promises...'

'That's fine, I'll just torture you every time it looks like you're going to sleep.' He responded with immediate effect, combined with a lofty chuckle.

But she'd heard his breath waver slightly, and the hand still to the side of her face seemed to tremble just the slightest.

And yet, the smallest hint of a smile touched her lips as she felt her eyes close once more.

'Okay... just no sweets please...'

'No promises.' He quoted her, with a remarkably gentle tone in spite of her expectations.

She didn't need any further convincing, and with no hesitation on her part, she sunk that little bit into his grip.

The echoing shrieks and exclamations escaping their classmates and alienesque teacher was impossible to grasp, and the sounds continued to inflict pain to her head. At least, until a moment later when she felt the hand to the side of her face shift to gently cover her ear, and she was shifted a little so her head rest against Karma's shoulder.

Finally, with the brunt of the volume dulled for her, she could grasp the words that were being spoken.

'THE GOD OF DEATH HAS A KNIFE—AH, NO NEXT IS A WIRE! FOR THIS, KARASUMA-SENSEI... OHHH! AMAZING! HE DODGES AND COUNTERS WITH AN ELBOW!' Koro-sensei's exclamations rung throughout the cell, with sheer excitement ringing clear from every syllable. 'AH! IT'S NO GOOD! HE'S USING THE KNIFE AS A SHIELD! SEEING THAT, HE INSTANTLY CHANGES TO A KICK-- U-UMMMMM B-BOTH AT THE SAME TIME! THIS—THIS IS AN AMAZING FIGHT!!!'

'WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE SAYING KORO-SENSEI!' Several of the more outspoken students shouted in sync. 'EXPLAIN IT SO WE CAN UNDERSTAND!'

'NYUYAH?!'

Everything was getting energetic, she guessed.

That was about the most she could ascertain from the combination of rebukes from classmates and the octopus' failed attempts at commentating.

'How long have we been in this place...?' Amaya forced herself to speak as the group in the cell with them seemed to quieten down a little, enough so where she felt the hand firmly pressing over her ear lift away a little.

'A few hours, I guess.' Karma responded after a moment of silence. 'It wasn't even eight when Koro-sensei ended up in here with us.'

Good ... then it certainly wasn't after midnight, and the twins weren't in the process of staying up until dawn waiting for her to come knocking at Samuel's window.

She felt rather relieved by that.

'Oh! Everyone, Sensei has to empty out his pockets now!' Came Koro-sensei's sudden remark, almost as if something had just occurred to him. 'Sugaya-kun, would you be so kind as to hold these for Sensei?'

'Wh-what? Uh, sure...' Sugaya seemed to respond awkwardly.

'Nurufufufu~ Thank you.'

'Koro-sensei! This is not the time to crack open half a dozen bottles of tomato juice!' Maehara exclaimed indignantly.

'I beg to differ, now is the perfect time!' Koro-sensei responded jovially. 'Well then! Itadakimasu~!'

Nothing else was said, and after being in this class for the better half of a school year, Amaya could imagine the deadpanned looks everyone was wearing as they stared at Koro-sensei.

'Koro-sensei...' One of the girls eventually spoke up. 'Did you always like Tomato Juice?'

'Mmm, no, I can't say I'm too fond of it.' Koro-sensei spoke through what was likely a mouthful of tomato juice. 'I bought it while on the way here with Karasuma-sensei. I thought we would need it.'

Needing ... tomato juice?

A second later, a shrill howl of pain ripped through the entire network of tunnels, so loud that Amaya actually winced from the pain to her ears. As the excited gasps and faint chuckles from the front of the cell grew in numbers and volume, they lead up to a chorus of cheers a mere minute later.

It was sign enough through all the exhaustion and pain that the so called God of Death had been defeated.

The voices around her grew louder with their relief and glee, their cheers reverberating throughout her head like the shattering of glass. It continued and grew, right up until she managed to lift her hands to clasp them over her ears.

'Karasuma-sensei!' She heard one of the girls call out from beneath her hands firmly pressed over her ears. 'Hey! Can you please let us out, now? We'd really appreciate it!'

'Yeah, no kidding!' One of the boys agreed heartily. 'It feels like we've been in here for ages!'

There was no response, as far as Amaya was able to discern from the back of the cell, and no words escaped the various students at the front as they appeared to wait for release.

The absence of cheering and excessively loud discussion and arguments was a relief that sunk in on Amaya with remarkable haste. It was quick enough for the pain to begin to ebb away, and for the exhaustion to sink its claws into her and proceed to drag her towards slumber.

Sleep felt like such a wonderful concept right now.

A heavy, metallic clunk of gears echoed overhead before long, causing a shudder to rip through the makeshift cell as the ceiling appeared to open up. The sound of relieved cheers rocked the cell once more, ripping that small pocket of comfort and relief right out of Amaya's clutches.

Her hands over her ears tightened just a little more, in spite of the futility.

'Come on, Amay.' She heard Karma speak as his grip of her shifted slightly. 'We're getting out of here.'

'...Okay.' She managed to speak as she tried to drag herself to her feet.

The motion itself was already difficult enough for her, however, as the whole tunnel shook one last time, she almost fell right over. She certainly would have, had the redhead not been right there to catch her arm and steady her.

In fact, she heard a faint breath escape him as he seemed to pull her arm around over his shoulder, before he dragged her up onto his back with one clean motion. Amaya had to hold in the small gasp of pain that flared through the side of her chest as she ended up stretched a bit too much in that short second.

'You'll have to put up with it, Amay.' Karma remarked as his arms looped beneath her knees to support her weight. 'You'd rather be out of here tonight, right?'

Well ... guess he knew the motion was painful already...

Damn him and his stupidly perceptive ways.

The door was open, Amaya found as she looked ahead of her, where the forms belonging to classmates were already celebrating their freedom jovially in the open tunnel. A few forms were even skipping and laughing in glee, and some were just standing right there at the door of the cell, blocking the entire way past.

Amaya let out a small breath as she felt Karma's grip of her knees tighten slightly, before she let her forehead rest on his shoulder.

'Kimura-kun,' Karma spoke up at the door of the cell, a scarcely pleasant tone to his voice as the aforementioned boy seemed to turn his head in response. 'Move.'

'O-oh, sorry Karma-kun.' Kimura apologized quickly as he squeezed through the sea of students to try and make room.

However, the evil incarnate was not as scarcely polite afterwards.

He shoved forcefully past the others between the cell door and the stairs, earning startled exclamations and gasps each time, though he practically ignored them.

'Wait, Karma-kun!' Koro-sensei had called out, however Karma just took the stairs without so much as slowing his pace.

Amaya slowly closed her eyes as the shifting of stairs beneath them began to hurt her head.

'That wasn't necessary, Karma...' She mumbled softly against the back of his shoulder.

'I couldn't care less.' Came Karma's dismissive response.

But she did. She didn't want him causing ripples between himself and the class purely because of her, though she didn't voice it. There really was no point when he was already in such a hostile mood.

About the most she could do was just let him do what he wanted at the present moment.

She didn't even have the energy to really argue anymore.

With no more strength to hold onto her state of awareness, her world slowly drifted out of focus, until finally it gradually shifted towards black.

Voices reverberated through the dissonance between the pain and emptiness that filled her head, small motions of jostling and the shifting of her limbs on occasion. Speckled through the emptiness, they gave no real presence beyond their tone, their emphasis the only show of communication while the words were absent from recognition. Agitation, concern, alarm and vehemence dripped from the tones she could hear through the dark, peppered by the everyday speech of voices she had no recollection of in any shape or form.

It painted a very simple image that made no real sense to her – one of impatience and agitation with responses given, and nothing more.

She vaguely recalled one moment or so, where she had felt the forceful touch of a hand to her shoulder, and what sounded to be demanding voices.

But nothing more.

Amaya couldn't recall if she had responded or not, only that it was a haze of sounds and motions that eluded her for the most part. And she didn't want to grasp it either, for if she did, it was likely that the pain and discomfort would increase once more, shifting out of the scarcely tolerable level that she was managing to deal with.

Eventually, she found herself recognizing small things through the dark, things that tugged at her consciousness more with every repetition. The sounds of familiar locks disengaging, the scent of safety, of what was home. And, the startled voices of siblings who she'd wanted nothing more than to return to that whole time she'd been in that mess of a rescue mission.

The comfort and subconscious knowledge that she was home, and that her siblings appeared to be fine was enough to lose her entirely to the darkness.

No memories flooded her slumber, nothing of external influence interrupted the empty depths that she had sunk in, and by the time her eyes gradually opened, she found herself carefully tucked away beneath the covers of her bed back at the house with sunlight filtering through from between the curtains onto the side of her face.

Her head ached chronically, almost as soon as her eyes had opened, though at least her gaze had cleared up to a more normal standard. The smell of dried blood was the first that came to Amaya, followed by the lethargic haze that occupied her body through the pain.

She didn't feel like she was burning up, and the air didn't sting against her skin either, so she surmised that the drug Irina had unintentionally overdosed her with had finally worn off.

The colour of the light cast the sign that it was at least somewhere within the span of school hours, though she expected her siblings would still be around on the provision that she had not lost more than just the morning after that rescue mission. The silence that filled the house in its entirety painted the impression that her siblings were either still asleep, or had gone out for the day.

With more difficulty than she liked to even consider, Amaya dragged herself out of bed. She couldn't hide the grimace of pain that spread across her face as she found her limbs felt as if they were made of lead, and it didn't help that her head throbbed with pain as she lifted herself upright.

It was here that Amaya could look down at herself and see that while she was smeared with dried blood, her clothes had been more or less swapped out for one of her tee-shirts and a pair of shorts, allowing her a glimpse of shocking dark blemishes marring her arms and legs. She didn't doubt this was Reiko or Yuta's doing, if anything.

The entire length of her forearms were a severe bruising of black with peppering of blood here and there, the clearest sign of the bursting of blood vessels beneath the skin, and while without the damage to the blood vessels, there were similar bruises over her thighs. She stared down at her arms in shock for several long seconds, joining the scraps of events she could scarcely recall to the injuries she could see. There were two hits she barely managed to block with her arms, the second of which had been remarked on, if she remembered that right.

And as she recalled the solid strikes the God of Death had dealt to the side of her ribs, Amaya dared to lift the bottom of her shirt up, only to find the whole right side of her ribs were the same colouration as her arms, right from the horrific shade of black bruising to the burst blood vessels trailing crimson flecks across the bruise.

Well ... she certainly looked a little worse for wear, though Amaya could feel without a doubt that there was nothing broken. Merely bruised to oblivion, which was a sight better than how she'd come out after rebelling against Takaoka during first term.

As Amaya lowered her arms to hoist herself up onto her feet, she noticed something rather peculiar in the room with her, enough so where she paused in her motions to look properly.

Sitting slouched in one of the dining room chairs brought into the room was Karma, his mop of hair hanging untidily enough to obscure his eyes from view, and the way his head lolled forward was the clearest indication that he was well and truly asleep. He was seated a few feet away at the very most, and appeared to have been there for at least a short few hours, for his 3DS was hanging from the slack grip of his hands. The simple shirt and jeans he was wearing was sign enough that either he had made a trip for home, or the more likely scenario, he had utilized her house and a stash of belongings he had here while she was out cold.

He was probably here to keep an eye on her, what with the obvious concussion and all that. It brought a soft smile to lightly touch Amaya's lips as she finally lifted herself to her feet. Well, that ban she had placed on him talking to her or even coming near her house was practically invalid, thanks to that botched rescue mission, but she didn't really find it in her to care about it.

No, there were other things far more important, things she needed to do before anything else could make it worse.

And so, after managing to drag over the top layer of her blankets and draping it over Karma's sleeping form, Amaya ambled out of the room and went to get herself organized.

Unfortunately, the shower and washing what she could of her hair was not forgiving for Amaya's battered form, neither was the stairs as she then went to check on her siblings once she was dressed in a pair of jeans and one of her long-sleeved jumpers. Everything ached worse with every task she undertook, with every step it felt like she was about to curse and swear so violently that she could possibly put a roughened sailor in his place.

If so much as seeing where her siblings were at that very second wasn't so important to her right now, she might just go right back to bed.

Unlike usual, Amaya found that bedroom doors were left wide open when she'd arrived at the top of the stairs. Samuel's room was empty, as was Reiko's, however Amaya discovered upon peering into Yuta's room that all three of her siblings were present and accounted for at the very least. Reiko and Samuel were both asleep lying atop Yuta's bed, while the bespectacled boy in mention was curled up on the floor with a rather uncomfortable look written across his face. Whether he had sacrificed his bed to his two siblings by choice was hard to ascertain, though Amaya doubted he was entirely willing to do so.

As she stood there at the door, watching her siblings' sleeping forms, Amaya came to a decision.

She searched out her phone, eventually discovering it lying exactly where she had left it before she had even left for that rescue mission. The device was on the last dregs of battery life as she unlocked it, and it let out an audible beep to protest the lack of recharging she was giving it.

There were unread emails and missed calls, those of which Amaya didn't bother to look at as she quickly scrolled through all the cat-vandalized apps and words on her phone for a certain contact. Her eyes shifted to the clock at the top of her screen for just a second to find that it was earlier than she had anticipated. Friday, 7.46am, apparently.

Her siblings could have the day off from school. They were already going to be an hour late, anyway.

She typed and typed, as quick as she could manage, and as she received a sent confirmation on the last of two emails she had typed, her phone decided it had suffered enough and turned off completely.

Well ... that was going to be the best she could do on that count, she guessed.

As she threw her phone on charge, gathered her purse and both sets of keys, she moved towards the front door to leave.

'Where do you think you're going?' Came a sleepily curious voice as Amaya finished tugging on the only shoes she had left at that moment, bringing her to carefully turn her head in response.

Wandering over from the hallway that lead towards her bedroom door came Karma, who was wearing a rather unimpressed look across his face.

She guessed she either took too long getting herself organized, or she'd made too much noise and woke him up. Either which way, she doubted she was going to be going anywhere alone with a concussion.

'Just up to the classroom.' Amaya answered honestly, earning a frown in response. 'I need to talk to Koro-sensei about something.'

'Just call his cell.' Karma responded seriously.

'It's best in person.' She responded.

The disapproving glare she received in response was rather obvious, though oddly enough Karma didn't immediately say anything. In fact, with a lot of effort on his part, he just let out a breath as he wandered over to tug his shoes on as well.

'I was hoping to ditch the whole day today.' He muttered grudgingly, though his tone had little bite to it. Probably because he was too tired, not that Amaya could really blame him in the least. 'It had better be important enough to risk being forced to stay in class.'

It was, but she didn't exactly want to get dragged into a conversation about it right now.

'You don't have to come if you don't want to.' Amaya dismissed as she stepped out the door and continued out of the property.

And much to her surprise, she received a far more severe glare in response.

'I'm not letting you kill yourself by walking up a mountain.' He responded bitterly.

'Fine, fine. Whatever you say.' Amaya dismissed with a small sigh as she buried her hands in the pockets of her jeans.

She made a point of keeping her gaze ahead of her as she wandered the streets towards the back of the mountain, in completely the opposite direction to the front of Kunugigaoka's main campus.

'You're going the wrong way.' She heard Karma call out.

'It's faster this way!' Was all Amaya offered in response.

Silence greeted her words, however it was a mere few seconds later when she heard Karma's approaching footfalls.

The walk through the few city blocks were spent in silence, which suited Amaya perfectly fine if she had to admit it. The familiar route leading right past the house of Shigure's temporary residence was a pleasant change, and as she turned her head to look towards the huge, traditionally built house hidden within bamboo thickets and high walls, Amaya found herself wondering if Shigure even still had lease of that place.

Perhaps not. Shigure wasn't one to hold onto locations if they no longer served a purpose for him.

'I didn't know this was here.' Karma remarked as he followed Amaya up the vehicle trail up the side of the mountain.

'I don't see why not. It leads right up to the classroom.' Amaya responded.

'If you knew this was here all along, then why have we been walking the long way around to get to class?' Karma questioned suspiciously.

A small breath escaped Amaya as she contemplated not answering.

But at the same time, she doubted actually saying anything would cause any problems.

'Shigure told me not to, in case someone casing his temporary house ended up noticing me.' She admitted. 'There's no other reason, to be honest.'

She received no answer, though she didn't doubt he heard her.

The mountainside was rather quiet as they walked, as was the clearing as they arrived. While a few of their classmates were still around, the majority were likely already inside. A group of classmates consisting of Chiba, Okajima, Hayami and Fuwa were hunched over trying to catch their breaths, with Mimura lying sprawled on the ground, completely exhausted.

Whatever had just taken place, it had finished, and it looked like it was at their expense.

Amaya kept her gaze ahead of her as she walked past them to head inside, hoping that out of every possible reaction, they would just overlook her. And yet they didn't. Fuwa had visibly flinched at the sight of her, and a painfully awkward air overcame the group as they seemed to almost shrink away from her. Inside was not much different, either. The duo of girls consisting of Yada and Kurahashi cut their conversation in the foyer off remarkably quick when they saw her walk in, and they made no point of hiding their aversion as they quickly picked up their bags and made their way for the classroom.

She couldn't write that off as a figment of her imagination. She could have done that for the ones outside at that very second, but not this. It was not the concussion speaking, and she couldn't dress it up with white lies to spare herself from the hurt it really did cause her.

Merely trying to avert it would hurt even more.

'You'd better not try and disappear before I get back.' Karma muttered sourly as he walked right past her to head towards the classroom itself. 'I don't want to get half way down the mountain and find you sitting there with a broken leg or something.'

Wordlessly, Amaya stared at the redhead's disappearing form down the corridor, struggling to draw in a breath as she found herself more than just a little startled by his response.

And, she found herself feeling horribly guilty before long.

After shaking herself out of her stupor, and finding that her boots were the only shoes left in her shelf in the foyer, Amaya didn't bother to change her shoes over and walked down the corridors with her heart sinking a little more with every step.

'Nurufufufu~!' Came Koro-sensei's voice through the door of the faculty office as Amaya stopped before it. 'That was quite the entertaining walk!'

She hesitated at the door, struggling to maintain her resolve as she forced herself to lift her hand and knock. She heard the faint movements of the outside students quickly making their way towards the classroom as she knocked thrice.

And immediately, Koro-sensei's energetic voice spoke up in response.

'Come in!' He announced brightly.

And Amaya could only take a deep breath as she reluctantly slid the door aside.

Koro-sensei's familiar form stood at the window as he gently folded up what looked to be a dog-costume tailored to his rather large frame. He appeared as he ever did, with that broad grin spread right across his face.

'Oh, Amaya-san!' Koro-sensei spoke up at the sight of her standing at the door of the faculty office, and his tone seemed even brighter than just a second prior. 'Sensei is glad to see you're well enough to come to school today, but you really should come in uniform at the very least!'

A wry smile threatened to spread across Amaya's lips at that remark, though she kept it clear from her face as she forced herself to step into the room.

'Then I guess it's a good thing I'm not here to come to class.' She spoke softly as she shut the door behind her. 'I came to talk to you in person, actually. I'll be leaving afterwards.'

Koro-sensei seemed to eye her for a few long seconds before he reluctantly nodded. The dog-costume was gently set aside as he then lifted a stack of papers for class from the top drawer of his desk.

'Indeed, in light of last night's events, Sensei will accept that. It's best not to test a concussion. Rest is the best thing for you right now.'

'You're... not making this easy, Koro-sensei.' Amaya barely managed to speak, with a faint tremor taking hold of her voice.

'Nyuuu?' Koro-sensei seemed rather confused, and it was all Amaya could do to gather her resolve and speak.

'Koro-sensei, I've put through a request to Karasuma-sensei. I haven't received a response yet, but still...' She forced herself to speak in spite of the gnawing guilt that was beginning to chew at her insides. 'I thought it was right to inform you, myself.'

'And what would that request be, exactly?' Koro-sensei asked curiously.

'I'm voluntarily dropping from the Assassination Program, and I won't be coming back.'

And as soon as those words had left Amaya's mouth, the stack of papers and writing utensils in Koro-sensei's grip fell to the floor with a thud.

'S-sorry Amaya-san, Sensei must have heard you incorrectly...' Koro-sensei spoke mechanically, all expression and colour wiped clean from his face as he stared at her.

Beads of sweat began to pour down his face as Amaya visibly winced.

'No, you heard me right.' She spoke softly. 'I'm leaving class 3-E.'

'Wh-WHAT?!' Koro-sensei practically shrieked at the top of his lungs as he appeared right in front of Amaya, undiluted horror and disbelief written as clear as day across his face, all the while his tentacles writhed in what looked to be sheer panic 'A-Amaya-san, why would you elect to resign?!'

And yet, all she could do was fix him with a rather humorless smile.

'Why are you so surprised, Koro-sensei?' Amaya softly spoke, linking her hands in front of her as she watched the flailing octopus. 'You can't be saying that you've never even thought I'd want to leave, right?'

'No! But I don't understand why!' Koro-sensei practically cried out.

She didn't know if he was playing dumb, or if he honestly didn't understand at all. The merest idea that the octopus who always knew what to say or what to do was so lost right now just felt like a sick, and rather cruel joke.

'A reason why, huh?' Amaya whispered as her hands wrung one another tightly in front of her. 'I guess if you wanted to chalk it up to just one thing, that disaster yesterday put many things into perspective for me.'

'Y-Yesterday?!' Koro-sensei's gasp was rather loud as he seemed to flinch slightly. 'Why, yes! Sensei understands that, and Karasuma-sensei's put forward a set of stipulations on the bounty to try and ensure the safety of all students! It will be ensured, Sensei promises!'

Amaya's gaze fell to the floor at her feet as she maintained her silence, and gradually, she could feel the worsening of Koro-sensei's alarm as the seconds ticked by.

'A-Amaya-san, isn't that good news?'

That was nice, she guessed.

But that wasn't the point.

'Really, the idea is nice and all, but that means next to nothing to me.' Amaya forced herself to speak as she traced her gaze over the grains in the floorboards. 'It's not just the dangerous situation that yesterday ended up getting turned into. It's not just the fact that we were essentially collateral damage to an unhinged assassin, either. It wasn't pleasant, but really, that's not the whole reason. It's really only a small part of it...'

The frantic motions of Koro-sensei's tentacles seemed to slow drastically at Amaya's words.

'It's only a small part?' He questioned, dubiously. 'I don't understand....'

That was probably because he was looking at it from the overall results.

'Koro-sensei... I'm willing to bet that you know a lot more about my background than you're comfortable to admit.' Amaya began as she took a deep breath, struggling to strengthen the fleeting resolve to actually speak entirely honest for once in her life. 'You've probably had a lot of discussions with my Uncle after you brought me back from Berlin, and what you haven't heard from him, you already figured out, right? You probably already know what he thinks of my life expectancy.'

Koro-sensei seemed to still entirely as Amaya's words sunk in on him, however he maintained his silence.

It was enough of a response to prove her words correct.

'Regardless of stipulations and the level of care you and Karasuma-sensei can give the class, that doesn't change the fact that accidents happen. Not every assassin or psychopath would be deterred by stipulations if all they want is to succeed in killing you. And it's unfair for me to expect that you can protect everyone without fail. Even so, it's unfair for my siblings to have to deal with the possibility that one day I might not come home again.' Amaya continued with a shaky breath. 'I already know my uncle doesn't expect me to live beyond twenty... And I struggle to care for my siblings with that hanging over my head as it is. I can't afford to stay in this classroom with the knowledge that thanks to someone like Shiro who clearly isn't in it for money, or thanks to another thoughtless and cruel mistake your students make, I could be dead in days.'

As the silence from Koro-sensei continued with painful clarity, Amaya lifted her gaze to look up at the silent creature.

'I'm tired of even being here in this classroom anymore, Koro-sensei... I'm tired of being treated like a monster by the majority of these children for the things I can't even control anymore, and I can't keep paying for the stupid mistakes they make. My life isn't worth much and I know I can be hard to deal with... but my life is worth more than this, isn't it?'

Koro-sensei didn't speak a word at first, though he lowered his head as he foraged through the pockets of his teachers robes for a second.

'I understand.' Koro-sensei eventually spoke as he crouched down before her with a handkerchief in tentacle, all the while he gently wiped away tears she didn't even realize she'd shed. 'If these are the things that are weighing the most on your shoulders right now, then I can't argue with a single thing you have said.'

Amaya refused to speak as she lifted her hands to furiously rub the burning tears from her face as quick as she could.

'I accept and appreciate your resignation, Amaya-san, however I won't accept it to begin as of this second.' Koro-sensei continued, just as he gently lifted a tentacle to rest it atop her right shoulder. 'I would like to hold off on it until Wednesday morning. This does not mean I expect you to come to school regardless, it's merely a grace-period. If you are still certain of your decision by then, I will humbly accept it as guaranteed, even though I will be sad to see you leave so soon.'

She looked up at him wordlessly, though before long she nodded her head in agreement.

If he just wanted her to wait five days to be sure of her decision, then that was fine. She could accept that, even if he had ulterior motives behind his request.

However, the rather gentle tone to his words and the lack of his usual air of hyper had her believe that for once, there was no secondary plan behind his words.

'Was there anything else you needed to discuss with me, Amaya-san?'

'N-no...' She whispered in response, though her right hand still rubbed away at the tears that refused to stop. 'I'll head back home, now...'

'Would you like me to drop you off?'

'No, I can walk...'

'Well, if you're sure, then please be careful on your way home.' Koro-sensei spoke gently as he straightened up on his leg-tentacles. 'At the very least, I'll walk you out of the building.'

'It's okay, I'll just--' Amaya had begun, however the sliding door practically right behind her slid open all of a sudden and shocked the very wit out of her.

'What's with that look, Octopus?' Came Irina's rather distinct voice, causing Amaya's breath to hitch as she hesitantly turned her head to look up at the woman who was walking right past her to head towards her desk. 'And what's with all the paper on the floor?'

She was dressed in her usual attire of short skirt, low-cut top and a tiny cardigan over the entire outfit, with nothing more than her handbag in her possession. The scowl she was fixing a mildly grinning Koro-sensei went unnoticed by Amaya, who's eyes had fallen right upon a set of dark, hand-shaped bruises around the woman's throat, that of which the attempts at concealing it with makeup had failed to hide its presence. Amaya's throat tightened so much that she could hardly breathe as she instinctively knew that those bruises were her own doing.

The growing panic inside of her clawed and ripped away at the inside of her chest so much that it sent her fleeing the faculty office so fast, Koro-sensei had barely managed to call out her name before she was gone.

Amaya's breath came in jagged gasps as she slumped against the trunk of one of the trees rimming the outline of the schoolyard, with her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to force the glimpses of her hands around Irina's throat from her mind.

She didn't mean to inflict such harm upon the woman, but it didn't change the fact that she had.

Seconds ticked over to minutes as Amaya struggled to calm herself down, right up until she managed to right herself on her feet once more.

She turned her head back towards the classroom building as she decided she really should leave, where her hands tightened against the wood of the tree.

Through the windows, Amaya saw Koro-sensei walk through the front door to begin class, it seemed. He appeared to deposit the papers he'd gathered up onto the teachers desk. He didn't appear to pull out the class attendance file, nor did he seem to launch into his usual, jovial air of jokes and humor.

Instead, as the seconds passed with nobody inside that classroom moving at all, Amaya could only pull the hood of her jumper over her head and begin the gradual and careful descent down the mountainside.

It was done.

And as far as she was concerned, she wasn't coming back.

---={Authors Notes]=---

Hello everyone, and here's another chapter update from yours truly. I hope you enjoyed reading it, even though it ended in such a way. Here's hoping I get the next chapter out sometime soon.

A bit of a note here, even though there was quite a bit of a wait for this chapter, I actually had quite a bit of trouble typing it. Not so much the second half of it, because that was easy, but the first two thirds. The chapters of the manga and the anime episodes don't show a lot of what happens on the student's side beyond the flashbacks tied in with current-time action surrounding Irina and Karasuma, and I had to try and go back and forth to make sure I got everything in proper, logical order in spite of it. A lot more reading between the lines, if you know what I mean. And I'm so upset I didn't get an opportunity to focus more on Irina and Karasuma because of the story being locked to Amaya's point of view alone! Ah well, we know how the canon story goes, so we're all good there I guess. I just would have liked to show it a bit more...

In any case, how do you think the class is going to react to this change Amaya has thrown into the mix? As I've said to Bagel and a couple other people, a LOT has been cooking in the background and the ball is now actually rolling.

Ah but I should stop yammering on about sweet sod all and finish up with this authors note already. Hope you all enjoyed this submission I managed to submit today, though to be honest, I really intended it for tomorrow (10th here). It's a triple-length chapter for celebration. As to what, I dunno lol you'll have to either guess or figure it out. (Though I wonder if calling it triple-length really counts anymore, since all you guys are obviously used to the length of the chapters through the majority of Cosmos arc :'( )

Translation notes:

Zetsubō - Translates directly as Despair, which is written as 絶望 in Japanese. If you've watched Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei, you'd be damn familiar with the word xD

Itadakimasu – If you all watch the original Japanese dubs of anime, you will have heard this one where food is concerned guaranteed. Itadakimasu translates approximately as "I humbly receive". This one has possibly been explained in a previous chapter I have written, but as this is part 144 of this omnibus, I honestly can't recall which chapter might have it, etc. So here you have it again ^^;

All the best, guys~!

<3 Loki-Roki