The term "bubble-wrap" happened to be the best metaphor for Amaya's condition following the conclusion of the Boutaoshi match.

She'd discovered after slipping away among the victory celebrations that she was burned worse than even she had expected. With her arms, face, neck, and even the top of her feet burned to a bright, painful red, her skin had begun to blister in many tiny bubbles all over the worst-affected areas.

Amaya's only saving grace was the fact that it was technically the weekend as soon as school was out that afternoon, providing her with a hopeful two days before she'd have to show her bubble-wrap face in public. It was to her benefit however, that the blistering didn't actually get any worse.

And thankfully, Karma didn't go out of his way to annoy her too much.

Isogai was allowed to keep his part-time job, and Asano had vowed to never question it again. While Amaya wasn't witness to this, Maehara didn't hesitate to call and tell her all about it the very instance he had an opportunity, along with a remark about Iogai's act of begging the school faculty to let him take over the leftover bread. While that was good news, and Amaya had no doubt that Asano was going to continuously pretend she didn't exist, that didn't mean that was going to be the very last anyone would hear of him.

She just hoped that was the last he was going to bother messing with the lives of her classmates, and herself of course.

But then again, she was his neighbor, and she was undoubtedly going to bump into him again at some point.

Alas, now that the Athletics Festival was over and done with, Koro-sensei had returned to a painfully familiar act that Amaya legitimately hoped to never see again.

Mid-terms were two weeks away, and the octopus decided to make ample preparations into their tutoring. But at least long-sleeves were back on the uniform roster now, so she could cover up again.

Amaya muttered profanities beneath her breath as first thing Monday morning, she found herself face-to-face with a solid wall of Koro-sensei faces whirling around everyone's desks, each with different words and prompts written over the bandanna. Where the heck was their ease-in to mid-term preparations?

Oh right, Koro-sensei was a nutcase who didn't believe in doing things easily.

What a stupid question.

'Okay okay, everyone! We have the second semester midterms in two weeks! It's time to surpass Class A!' Koro-sensei announced erratically as the room was engulfed in sulphur-yellow. 'LET'S TURN UP THE HEAT! THE HEAT!!!'

Amaya's forehead contacted the hard wood surface of her desk as she buried her face in her hands.

'Any more, and you're going to spontaneously combust.' Amaya muttered as she felt the unpleasant, squidgy prodding of Koro-sensei's fingers poking against the top of her head.

'Nonsense!' Koro-sensei's shadow-clones remarked with that same obnoxious grin. 'Now sit up straight so we can start!'

'Then stop moving around so erratically!' Amaya snapped.

'I am not! These are carefully tailored duplicates for your studying ease!'

'I see more flickering than your damn duplicates, Koro-sensei!'

'WHAT?! But my duplicates are flawless!'

The snickering she could hear from Karma said enough. Between the barely-healed sunburn rubbing beneath her sleeves and the flicking messing with her head, Amaya was having a very hard time actually sitting there "studying" like they were supposed to.

'Fine, I'll listen...' Amaya muttered as she reluctantly obeyed Koro-sensei's demands.

And how she regretted that in the end.

The sun was beginning to set in the skies as school slugged to a close with nothing but Koro-sensei's torturous tutoring replacing every class. She struggled to maintain her brainpower, but before fourth period had even ground to a close, she was burned out. It didn't help that Koro-sensei refused to stop no matter how much she really did need it.

'WHAT?! Amaya-san you can't tell me you don't know this one!" Koro-sensei had shouted as he decided to move onto Japanese, utter horror reflecting in every word. 'THIS WAS ON THE END OF TERM EXAMS! THIS IS EVEN YOUR BEST SUBJECT!'

Amaya remained silent as she stared down at the papers on her desk, struggling in vain to ignore the throbbing pain in her head.

'I told you last time, Sensei.' Karma spoke up as he cast a smirk at Amaya through all the Koro-sensei faces in the room. 'You're just making her stupid by teaching her like that~'

'Are you telling me that all my teaching this whole year is pointless for Amaya-san?!' Koro-sensei practically yelped out.

'I'm just saying her brain doesn't work right.'

'Oi.' Amaya muttered as she shot a scathing look towards the smirking boy. 'Quit with the stupid implications.'

'I'm just saying it as it is.' Karma quipped back with a rather dramatic sigh. 'It was difficult trying to figure out how to explain what the word "toaster" was to you. Actually, it was like that for everything, come to think of it.'

Amaya was silent at first as a wince flashed across her face, no thanks to Koro-sensei's continuous flickering.

'I don't remember anything like that.'

All the flickering Koro-sensei faces swarming Amaya's desk seemed to adopt thoughtful looks, before his trademark green stripes appeared.

'Very well!' Koro-sensei remarked all of a sudden. 'Since you're so convinced that Sensei can't teach Amaya-san, then I'll assign you to tutor her for Mid-terms!'

'Heh, okay~'

Wait—what?!

Amaya opened her mouth to retaliate, or at the very least ask for Isogai to tutor her instead, since he had a wonderful nack of teaching her anything he could think of at the time. But then she recalled just how much trouble the poor guy was dealing with of late, and decided better on it.

Even with Asano Gakushuu minding his own business now, Isogai still had work and all those other things he needed to do.

It was a miracle he'd had so much time to tutor her for the previous exams.

Amaya said nothing to object or decline, even if Koro-sensei was going to accept that. She just grit her teeth and leaned back in her chair.

She was not looking forward to this at all – While she didn't remember that so-called issue Karma apparently had with teaching her what a toaster was at some point, she certainly did remember the trouble she went through when he decided those few times to try and force her to learn better cooking. It was not fun, and by the end of it he spent more time pinching her into submission than actually teaching her anything.

At long last, the bell for the close of day rung through the PA speaker, bringing Koro-sensei to return to the front of the room and cease with the flickering multitude of study-aid faces.

'Well then! Sensei will see you all bright and early tomorrow for more study preparations!' The Octopus declared with a dramatic wave of a tentacle, before he vanished completely from sight. 'Travel safe! And don't forget your evening studies!'

And with that, he was gone, allowing Amaya to finally recover from the painful afterimage flickering that plagued her eyes.

How the heck did everyone else manage with all that flickering like that? It honestly felt like her head was about to crack open from all the pressure.

To hell with coming to school tomorrow – if the next two weeks were going to be this and worse when it came to Koro-sensei's insistence on Mach-Speed, she'd rather just stay locked up in the attic staring up at the ceiling all day. Hell, even two weeks of PE was so much better than this tedious, flickering pain that refused to leave her head.

How could she accomplish that though?

Maybe she should retreat all the way back to the house in the woods just to escape? Not even Karma would guess she'd left the city just to escape Koro-sensei's mach speed stu--

A startled yelp escaped past her lips the very instant that she felt her chair suddenly swing backwards as if she'd been rocking back on it a bit too far. However, her fall had stopped half-way off of the floor by hands to the back of her chair, and she found herself staring up at a thoroughly amused redhead over her.

'What are you thinking about so intently?' He asked with an almost taunting edge.

And then Amaya realized that he'd actually dragged her chair back to scare her.

'What the hell was that for, you stupid--' Amaya had begun in agitation, attempting to smack the evil incarnate with a fist to the side of his face.

Except he just smiled innocently as he released her chair, letting her fall the rest of the way to the floor with a thud.

'Oww!' Amaya practically groaned out as her head knocked in the floor.

'It's your own fault, you know~' Karma snickered as he stared down at her wincing form.

'How was that my fault?!' Amaya demanded indignantly as she began to drag herself to her feet.

'You're so quick to take a swing at me~'

'What did you expect?!'

'A "thank you", of course~' Karma chimed in innocently.

'You're the one who tipped my chair over to begin with!'

'But I did stop you from falling--'

'YOU DROPPED ME ANYWAY YOU JERK!' Amaya practically screeched as she rounded on the evil incarnate to try and wring his neck.

Of course, try was the appropriate word – All he did was evade each of her swipes with a lofty air about him, all the while she failed to notice that there was next to nobody around.

And she failed to notice at first that he actually had her bag, along with his.

Her attempts at wringing Karma's neck ended up passing unfulfilled by the time they had caught up with the bulk of their class near the foot of the mountain, drawing the delinquent duo's attention before long. Okajima was standing on the rooftop of one of the nearby buildings, pointing towards the station with a bright grin written across his face.

'We can just train just from going to school. Let's all go this way starting today.' The class pervert suggested.

Amaya let out a breath as she slowed to a halt just next to Karma, who was watching with minor curiosity.

'Ehh~ Isn't this dangerous?' Kurahashi a few meters away asked slowly as she shielded her eyes from the sunlight. 'If we fell...'

'She's right. Karasuma-sensei even told us not to do this outside of the rear mountains.' Kataoka inputted seriously.

'What are they going on about?' Amaya ground out wearily as Okajima turned to respond reassuringly to Kataoka.

'Free-running.' Karma dismissed lazily as he dropped Amaya's bag into her arms. 'Looks more like Okajima-kun's trying to play leader, though.'

'That can't be good...' Amaya muttered as she wandered along the path to continue on. 'Oh well, whatever, I guess.'

'Not interested?' Karma asked.

'Not in the least.' Amaya agreed with the dismissive wave of a hand over her shoulder. 'I'm going.'

'Karma-kun!' Nagisa's voice rung out before long, just as Amaya heard Okajima give a cheer and the onslaught of multiple feet landing on the building rooftop nearby. 'Are you coming?'

'I'll pass.' Amaya faintly heard Karma remark with a lofty grin. 'Later, Nagisa-kun.

'Yeah, see you later Karma-kun.' Nagisa responded with a sheepish chuckle.

Huh, okay then.

Amaya had expected Karma to join in on their fun, but she guessed it wasn't all that odd that he didn't, either. She of course didn't object as she heard his familiar footfalls catching up to her, or even as he stepped in to walk equal pace with her.

'So.' Karma spoke up as they walked, drawing a small frown from Amaya as she glanced up at him for just a moment. 'I've got a question for you, Amay.'

'Oh? Pray tell, what kind of question do you have?' She responded.

If she had been looking at him as the words left her lips, perhaps she might nave noticed the slight shift of his expression, whether it was out of amusement or his telltale show of faux innocence.

'When are you going to do me the favor of getting a new couch?'

Amaya's steps faltered as agitation took hold of her once again, worsening still as she actually looked up at him.

'That's your question?' Amaya ground out, fixing Karma with a volatile glare. 'How many times do you have to bring this up?'

'As many as it takes~' Karma responded easily as he turned to face her.

'I already gave you an answer!'

'But not the one I wanted~'

'Just what kind of response are you after?!' Amaya seethed.

'Something a bit more concerned than just "go home", of course.' Karma responded with an excessively dramatic sigh. 'You've been awfully cold towards me over that couch. I almost feel rather unwelcome~'

'Your complaints are unwelcome!' Amaya snapped.

'My complaints will go when that couch does.' Karma returned simply, pushing Amaya's annoyance into overdrive.

'Fine! Throw it away! Burn it! I don't care! Just get rid of it yourself and never mention it ever again!' Amaya finally snapped as she stormed off, leaving a smug Karma standing there as he watched her disappear around the corner.

Amaya's agitation didn't dissipate, even as she'd returned home to an empty house and locked the door behind her. The sight of the couch just to the left as she kicked her shoes off merely riled her up even more, bringing Amaya to march herself straight to her room to start shoving the remainder of her belongings into the luggage case and her bag.

It was time for her to make that move up into the attic, and she was determined to not come down until her sour mood completely vanished.

Karma's taunts and agitating weren't helping.

With well-managed movements, Amaya managed to climb up the ladder with the luggage case hanging from one arm and a pointed scowl written across her face. The lack of access beyond the ladder and the tree outside was problematic in a sense, though her obstinate side fueled her onwards. It would be far easier if she went and carried everything piece by piece, but she didn't have the patience to make so many trips, or to break the move down over a period of a few days.

Besides, the evil incarnate was bound to stumble upon her if she took her time.

The attic was just as she'd left it, entirely tidy with a few of the novels she hadn't gotten around to finishing set out on the table in front of the woven egg chair. The smallest scent of dust hung in the air, bringing a small breath to escape the already irate girl.

She had some dusting to do later, she guessed.

Amaya picked a corner of the attic to deposit the bulk of her belongings, tossing the blanket she had brought up over the top of the egg-chair with little care. Her thoughts trailed back and forth between all the irritations that had plagued her that week alone, and she found herself ready to just throw in the towel.

She knew she didn't have patience anywhere near as exceptional as Isogai's, but she was sure she had more patience than most, in spite of how "done" she was with everything. It was just unfortunate that Karma had that wonderful nack of shredding all her patience to pieces without really trying.

Hours passed as Amaya remained locked up in the attic, and her sour mood had barely frizzled away.

She ended up tucking herself away in the egg-chair with her blanket covering the front of the chair to darken her surroundings a little more and sleep.

But she was too agitated to even manage relaxing at all.

'Damn it all...' She huffed as she threw the blanket aside and dragged herself back to her feet. She forgot to bring some bottled water up when she gathered her stuff.

The scowl across Amaya's face darkened as she let herself slide down the ladder with practiced ease all the way down to the bottom.

Just a quick meander through the pantry for anything that would tide her over for now, and she'd be right back.

Except, as she quietly unlocked and opened the door at the foot of the ladder, Amaya found herself perplexed - the dark backing of the pantry wall was not what Amaya was met with at all.

Light flooded in through a sizable gap left exposed, highlighting the fact that not only was the sliding panel not fixed in place at all. She had thought in the first second that she'd accidentally left the panel ajar in her effort in lugging her stuff through the shelves, and she was undoubtedly quite right. But that wasn't the worst of it – The panel had been opened further to reveal a full window of the other side.

Karma stood there equally as surprised as Amaya, the sliding panel shifted aside by his left hand, with a bag of shopping in his other. Whether he'd been looking for her or just happened to find her by accident while perusing the interior of the pantry didn't matter when Amaya realized that her sanctuary was now pitifully compromised.

'Oh damn...' Amaya's slip of the tongue was the only sound between them as a wicked grin flashed across Karma's face, and she tried to scramble back.

'No you don't~!' Karma's quick response was the only warning she had before he managed to snatch up the shoulder of her shirt to tug her back, where he then secured a firm hold of her arm through the shelves. 'When were you going to tell me there was a hidden door in here?'

'I was aiming for "never".' Amaya shot bitterly, though the amused hum that escaped the sadist's lips said enough. 'Can you let go, now?'

'Nope~' Was his immediate response as he easily slipped through the shelves, all the while his grip remained as he peered past her through the door. 'I guess I know where you've been disappearing to.'

'Unfortunately.' Amaya muttered sourly beneath her breath.

She was inwardly kicking herself for her slip up – She really should have just gotten some water from the tap outside, instead.

'That's harsh~' Karma responded as he cast her a teasing smirk. 'You make it sound like you're hiding something.'

'You mean an empty room? Yeah, I'm definitely hiding that from you.' Amaya rebuked.

'An empty room?' He responded disbelievingly, as if she'd just uttered some kind of joke. 'Now that's hard to believe.'

'You know, the reason I've been keeping quiet about it is so I can be left alone!'

'Amay, when you want to be left alone at all costs, you leave town.' Karma retorted knowingly as he managed to turn her back around and pushed her onward.

'I legitimately considered doing just that before you tipped my chair over...' Amaya muttered as she glowered. 'Hongu is still rather appealing right now.'

Karma seemed to pause in his motions at first, casting her a glance as he seemed to weigh her words carefully.

'I won't go borrowing those keys you've got, if that makes you feel better.' He remarked with a marginally softer tone. 'But I am curious as to why you'd rather spend time in an empty room over just throwing a fit at me for riling you up too much.'

'Because all you do is rile me up worse if I so much as try!' Amaya snapped.

'Okay, I get it~' Karma for once decided to give in, a mischievous glint in his eye as he held up his hands in mock surrender. 'But I know full well I'm not the only person you've avoided by locking yourself in here.'

Amaya fixed him with a sour look, though she refused to answer him on that. If possible, he looked even more amused than before.

'So. Are you going to let me come up and see what this empty room looks like?' Karma questioned with a sly grin spreading across his face. 'Or are you going to make me suffer with curiosity?'

She was sorely tempted to turn around and say no, but she eventually let out a breath and pushed her way back past him.

'Do whatever you want.' Amaya huffed as she tugged herself through the shelf to head back to the rest of the house. 'There's nothing really up there, anyway.'

If he was being honest when he said he was just curious, then she could live with that.

By the time Amaya had stepped back into the rest of the house, she found that her siblings were all home. Samuel was seated at the dining table, a pout written clear across his face as Reiko talked him through what was written over a piece of paper in front of him, and Yuta was elsewhere.

Though she could hear the Washing Machine working, so she guessed he was somewhere nearby.

Reiko greeted her though Samuel merely glanced over, with that pout worsening across his face.

Since the drastic change in rules, the fridge was untouched, and aside from the pantry being locked at all times, it looked like Samuel had finally decided to adapt to the rules that were in place in the house. Though his sweeping needed more work.

So, Amaya decided that she would do something nice for dinner, though undoubtedly Karma was going to just sit there and mock her cooking, like he always did. She guessed pancakes and crepes could be a change.

'Reiko.' Amaya called out as she pulled ingredients out from the cupboards and fridge, earning the girl's immediate attention. 'I need you to get chocolate and caramel you have hidden away.'

Immediately, Reiko bristled in nerves.

'Wh-what? You haven't given us back our allowance yet!' Reiko responded awkwardly, though Amaya didn't bother to even glance over. 'I haven't got anything.'

'Oh, then I guess that cache I saw underneath your bed yesterday was just a figment of my imagination.'

'Wait, there's sweets under my bed?!'

'Give it up, Reiko.' Yuta sighed as he emerged from the laundry with a basket of washing in hand. 'I told you not to bother hiding it from Amaya.'

'B-but...'

'Come on! I'm not asking you to hand everything over!' Amaya sighed as she turned to scowl over at a sheepish Reiko at the table. 'I require snackrifices for dinner, now go and get them!'

'Snackrifices?' Reiko repeated in confusion. 'But ... why? You don't even like sweets.'

'Obviously Amaya needs them for dinner.' Yuta sighed dramatically as he wandered past to head for the front door. 'She wouldn't want them otherwise.'

'Sweets?!' Both Reiko and Samuel squeaked out, before the former tore from the table to run upstairs. 'I'll be right back!'

And with that, the stomping of running footsteps echoed overhead, drawing a distinct sigh from Amaya's lips.

Before long, Karma seemed to return from invading the attic, a curious look across his face as he found Reiko depositing a large supply of popping candy, chocolate and caramel chews onto the counter next to Amaya.

'What are you doing?' Karma asked as he meandered over.

'Cooking. What the hell does it look like?' Amaya responded.

'Looks more like you're out to kill everyone.' He answered easily.

It was that whole running joke about her terrible cooking, huh? Unfortunately for him, she was more than aware that her cooking wasn't as bad as he claimed.

'Sure, complain about my cooking all you want.' She responded as she added flour to the batter she was preparing. 'But I have it on good authority that not everything I've cooked has been a horrible disaster.'

'Really?' Karma sounded rather intrigued. 'Then have you been trying to poison me on purpose all this time?'

'Karma-san, you don't really mean that~' Reiko sung out in greeting as she returned to deposit another armful of sweets on the counter for Amaya with a mischievous grin plastered right across her face.

'Of course I do.' Karma responded with a smirk as he eyed the bowl Amaya had in her grip. 'You've obviously grown too accustomed to poisoned food and can't tell the difference, Reiko-chan.'

'You like Amay's cooking~'

'Either you imagined it, or your eyesight has been bad for quite a while.' Karma countered easily. 'You're eyesight is probably as bad as Yuta-kun's~'

'Oh really?' Reiko grinned even more as she pulled her phone from her pocket. 'Everyone here knows you're lying~'

Almost in time with her words, Reiko held her phone up to show Karma the screen, and promptly, she heard the words Karma was prepared to counter with suddenly cut short.

Undeniable shock was written clear across Karma's face as Amaya dared a glance from the corner of her eye, strong enough to cause Amaya to shake her head slightly in bemusement.

'I told you so.' Was all Amaya said before she returned to her task of cooking.

And thankfully, Karma didn't mention a single word about how "terrible" her cooking was.

He avoided her gaze as he seemed to brood on the events just passed, which was fine enough for Amaya.

Finally, with everything plated up and servings handed out, Amaya was free to hide out in the attic alone. She took no notice of Karma's particular silence as she handed him his plate, though she was practically deafened by Reiko and Samuel's squeals at caramel and chocolate pancakes.

Except, as she made a move to head for the pantry, Amaya felt a hand close around the back of her shirt.

'Where do you think you're going?' Karma questioned.

'Away.'

'Heh, but you've got study to do~' He taunted.

A scowl spread across Amaya's face as she turned to glare suspiciously at him.

'Wait ... you're not actually going to be obedient and do what Koro-sensei sai—owwww!' Amaya practically cried out as her face was pinched with blinding pain. 'Sunburn! Stooooop!!'

'Oops.' Was all Karma gave in response as he did as she pleaded, for once. Though he didn't sound particularly apologetic.

'Stupid jerk...' Amaya muttered sourly as she watched him pick up his plate again.

'So, you done arguing yet, Amay?'

'Is this really necessary?' Amaya complained as she edged herself out of Karma's immediate reach and tried her best to massage the pain from the sides of her face. 'You know I don't give a damn about my grades. It's too much bother.'

'Its a free opportunity to watch you squirm.' Karma countered easily.

'Yes, because the only reason for my even being here is for your amusement.' Amaya seethed with venomous sarcasm practically dripping off of every word.

And in spite of her wishes otherwise, her evening was taken up with torture and study.

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

Alrighty, sorry for the wait on this one, guys. It's a regular-length chapter (Yes, REGULAR, Cosmos Arc just has a lot of double-lengths and a couple triple-lengths lol) but I hope you enjoyed it, anyways. Hope you weren't disappointed lol.

Anyways, two (more like three) reasons why this chapter was a normal lengthed one and took a bit to update. First, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is on next month, and I've actually been frantically getting myself organized for that, plus work, plus outside requirements. Second, I've actually submitted a couple supplement chapters in the Omake Book about other things pertaining to Marionette since the last main update, so I've been active in a sense already lol. And third, I felt like this chapter was perfect enough as it is.

Hope you guys enjoyed, anyways, and I'll be catching you all on the next update. If you want to add my instagram account, you're more than welcome to, just remember that unless I know who you are beforehand, I'll be clicking "no", since it's a private account lol. Just lemme know your account name on here if ya do add me :) Not that I am always on it but anyways lol.

Also, as a final note, since I just discovered that books can't be viewed on the Nanowrimo page (It's just a calculator for some reason), I'll probably submit a few chapters here once I've submitted the oneshot.

Translation notes:

Kenkyū no gōmon - Translates roughly as The Torture of Study, which is written as 研究の拷問 in Japanese.

All the best, guys.

<3 Loki-Roki