As soon as Amaya had gotten home that Wednesday afternoon, she locked herself up in her room with the curtains drawn, choosing to try and drown herself in music-clad darkness instead of walking around looking for a person to throw her fists at.

She needed to calm herself down before the twins got back, and for Amaya, music was the only thing that did that for her. She plugged her phone into the wall to charge, her headphones in place as she drowned the world around her out with an assortment of all of the music she had in her old device, which was greatly limited, considering the lack of data the old device could hold.

Somewhere in the time between then and sundown, Yuta and Reiko realized that she was home. It was not long after that which Amaya grit her teeth and escorted her siblings to go do the shopping, like every other Wednesday. It was an event done in moderate silence - Not that Amaya had insisted on it, but rather that Yuta and Reiko could tell that there was something bothering her.

Thursday was as uneventful as the three weeks while Karma was locked up in his apartment - She didn't go to school, padding slowly around the apartment in a kind of aimless droll with her headphones on and her music playing. No emails or calls came through for her - The world was entirely silent around her. About the most that did happen was her spending the afternoon reading Yuta's Evangelion Manga while nobody else was home.

Right now, it was late Friday morning, where Amaya was lying on the couch with the black blankets from her bed covering her from head to toe.

Yuta and Reiko had a day off of school today; It was some kind of event going on at school involving the faculty, and all the students had the day off, according to the twins. Amaya expected they were going to spend the day with Kouichi and Mako, like normal, so she didn't really pry into their business.

She did wonder if they were still here, however.

She hadn't heard a single peep out of them since she woke them up that morning so they didn't miss out on their whole day, and since doing that, she slouched onto the couch and nodded off for a good half an hour.

Amaya let out a sigh as she stretched on the couch beneath her blankets, her eyes closing again as she relished in the strange relief the movement always gave her.

It was about the only thing that she could feel relief with.

She had spent the whole time since slamming her foot into that man's chin examining her own mental and emotional condition closely, and she was bothered by the lack of change that had occurred.

None of the anger or frustration had dissolved into water to fill the inside of her world like it normally would, and none of the water had escaped into the outside world to give her relief. The only thing that happened was that the anger seemed to grow, pushing a lot of pressure onto her mood.

She was still on the verge of snapping, and she knew it wasn't going to be good.

That was why she was still here at 11.30am lying on the couch doing nothing.

Amaya knew exactly what would help her rid herself of the dangerous self-combustion, but she had morals enough to not do anything unless provoked.

But that involved setting foot outside, which she had no interest in doing right now.

She often wondered how Class E was going for Karma and Nagisa - She hadn't heard from either since that train-ride on Wednesday morning, and while she was curious, she wasn't going to go out of her way to find out.

'Amay! GOOD MORNING!' Echoed a sudden voice all of a sudden, followed by a sudden weight crashing hard against her stomach.

A choking gasp escaped the startled Amaya as she threw herself upright, blankets falling from her face and revealing what had suddenly attacked her.

Reiko was sitting upright on Amaya's lap, a cheeky grin across her contrasting features.

'Good morning?' Amaya repeated in bemusement, her expression shifting to reflect her tone. 'I woke you up hours ago.'

'Yeah - but you're still in bed!' Reiko retorted easily.

'Amay's in a bad mood, not still in bed.' Yuta's voice cut in all of a sudden, causing the two girls to look over at him. 'I already told you that.'

He was approaching from the doorway of his bedroom, his eyes upon Reiko with a small frown.

'So what's up? I thought you two would have gone to hang out with Kouichi-kun and Mako-chan by now.' Amaya asked, glancing at Reiko from Yuta suspiciously.

It was in this second that Amaya noticed the twins were actually dressed up for a city-visit.

Reiko was dressed in a little pink spaghetti-strap dress with a white long-sleeved shirt beneath it, her hair pulled into twin tails at the nape of her neck, while Yuta wore his jeans with a long-sleeved forest-green shirt. He appeared to be holding a large bundle of material that Amaya didn't recognize at all.

'We're not!' Reiko announced with a grin, her expression bright as she grinned up at Amaya. 'We're spending today downtown with you!'

'Huh?'

'Amay.' Yuta piped up from right next to her, causing a small frown to touch Amaya's face as she turned her head to look back at him. 'We're going soon, so you need to get dressed.' He then proceeded to hand Amaya the bundle of black, orange and white material. 'In that.'

'Eh? Why?' Amaya questioned curiously, glancing down at the clothes that had the scent of strawberry and caramel mixed in with the new clothes smell. 'I've got my other clothes -'

'Amay! Just do it!' Reiko cut in with an angry pout, causing the older girl to let out a breath.

'Fine, fine. Just get off, already.' Amaya grumbled.

Reiko giggled all of a sudden, and flung herself off of Amaya's lap to stand next to Yuta.

She cast the two a stern, suspicious look before she lifted herself out of the mess of blankets to go get dressed, like ordered. She flicked the light on in her bedroom, and shut the door with her foot before she headed towards her bed.

Amaya let out another sigh as she used one one arm to yank her sleeping shirt clean off over her head as her other lifted to flick her messy slept-in plait over her shoulders. She hadn't worn her school uniform, or even done anything with it since she got home - They were discarded, still flecked with blood at the bottom of her bed. She was trying to figure out if she wanted to incinerate them, but inwardly wondered if it was really worth the bother.

She guessed just throwing them out would be sufficient enough.

Discarding the sleeping clothes onto the pile that her bloodied uniform sat upon, Amaya gently untangled the clothes that Yuta had brought out, her brow furrowing ever so slightly as she realised what they were.

A pair of black pinafore shorts, with the legs so high that they were more like mini-shorts, a long-sleeved orange tee shirt to wear with it, and a pair of white leggings.

These were so different from anything Amaya had worn before, and yet they weren't at the same time. It was the combination together that Amaya had never worn before. They were boyish, in a weird way, but they were very obviously girls clothes. Picked specifically for her, based on her personality rather than the fact that she was a teenage girl.

Hell, she could even wear her knee-high boots and it would still work how the twins obviously wanted it to.

Deciding that she may as well humor the twins a little more, Amaya didn't bother to strap her chest down, instead pulling on a sports-bra before getting dressed.

Despite the weird feeling of being in more form-fitting, girly clothes and her chest not strapped down like she was in a breast-only corset, Amaya found herself a little surprised at the fact that clothes she had never tried on before actually fit her like she tried them on yesterday.

She thought about that for a few seconds, before a sigh escaped her lips as she lifted her right arm to her nose.

They had a brand-new smell about them, and they fit perfectly, which told Amaya that they might have kidnapped her denim shorts and a tank-top to compare sizes. Amaya's yesterday was spent in her own world on the floor in the corner of the living room. The twins very well could have taken off with some of her stuff, and she wouldn't even know it.

Amaya appraised herself in the mirror of her closet for a few seconds, becoming rather shocked at the fact that her well built form didn't look so weird in this set of clothes - In fact, it complimented her build, leaving it rather clear that she had a very active, strength-building lifestyle, but softened her normally sharp and jagged edges so she still looked a little like a girl instead of a bad-tempered delinquent.

Amaya let out a small, wry chuckle as she began to leave the room to head for the bathroom. The twins were fussing with something in the living room, and didn't appear to have noticed Amaya emerge from her room, causing a small smile to touch Amaya's face.

'No! Don't you dare put it in a pony-tail!' Reiko's voice suddenly snapped as Amaya finished brushing her hair, startling the purple-girl with little effort.

She turned her head to look at Reiko's reflection in the wall-sized mirror in front of her, in the process of dragging one of the stools into the room.

'You always put it in a ponytail, and it makes you look really serious.' Reiko grumbled under her breath as she clambered onto the stool. She then yanked the hair-tie out of Amaya's hand and proceeded to quickly weave the stunned girl's hair into a loose braid at the back of her head, tying it off at the nape of her head for the rest to fall in a loose tail at the back of her head.

'Eh? Why couldn't you have left it out, Reiko?' Yuta complained from the doorway.

'Because we're not obsessed Evangelion fans like you!' Reiko retorted immediately as she rearranged Amaya's fringe to hang in a neatly disorganized manner around her face. 'There! Now Senpai will notice you!'

Snapped out of her stunned stupor, Amaya fixed Yuta's reflection with a frown after realizing that her sister had just made a pop-reference.

She didn't miss the intended insinuation, either.

'Yuta?' Amaya ground out, causing the boy to flinch as he looked at her reflection. 'Where did your sister learn that reference from?'

Yuta was silent at first, his expression rather sheepish as he realised he was in trouble.

'Me ... Sorry, Amay.' Yuta spoke, sighing as Amaya eventually pulled her gaze from him to look at Reiko.

'All done?' Amaya asked, to receive an enthusiastic nod from the girl.

'You look so pretty like this!' Reiko announced as she leapt off of the stool, causing a small sigh to escape Amaya.

'She's right.' Yuta responded, evidently to confirm this before Amaya would make a move to deny it. 'I think you'd look better in a black dress, though.'

It caused a wry smile to touch Amaya's face as she turned to look at the twins.

'Okay, okay. So, where are we going?' Amaya asked curiously.

Her curiosity only grew more intense as Yuta shook his head, and Reiko bounced on her feet to leave the room.

'Not telling!' Reiko and Yuta announced in their rare moment of usioned reply, causing a small chuckle to escape Amay.

'Fine, fine.' Amaya sighed as she began to follow Yuta out of the bathroom. 'I guess we're going, now that I'm organized?'

Amaya's question was answered without words, but the sudden surprise of Reiko appearing in front of her with her personal affects in her hands - Amaya's purse, her keys, and her phone. Amaya felt the twins begin to push her towards the doorway once she'd grabbed the items from the girl, and she rolled her eyes.

'Okay! Geeze, you're acting like I'm going to take half an hour just to walk to the door!' Amaya ground out.

'No offense, but you're really slow, today.' Yuta spoke up.

'It's gonna be dark by the time we get to the cafe!' Reiko added.

'Reiko!' Yuta snapped in immediate response. 'That was supposed to be a secret!'

'Oh ... Oops...'

Despite the still frothing and bubbling anger that hadn't left her in days, Amaya couldn't help but laugh.

'God, you two are hopeless, sometimes.' Amaya spoke with a grin, pocketing her belongings as she began to pull her boots on, earning curious looks from the twins in response. 'So, lets just go so you two stop arguing over spilled secrets.'

'Okay.' Reiko spoke up, while Yuta just slipped on his sneakers. It was here that Amaya noticed that both Yuta and Reiko had their backpacks on, but there was nothing inside.

Thus began the afternoon of being dragged around by the twins downtown.

They'd stopped at a street-vendor for Tayaki before they'd used the linking train from their stop right through to a station near Akihabara. While it wasn't unfamiliar for Amaya, it still felt very uncomfortable for them to have taken the train that follows the line through Kunugigaoka Station, even though they were taking the express train that just passed through.

The twins of course were chatting between themselves, though Amaya did feel them glance up at her in concern.

They must have realized from the past couple of days that something had gone down at school.

She still hadn't received any kind of correspondence or telephone calls about the teacher she'd assaulted, or even about her expulsion. But she refrained from thinking on it - If she did, it was just going to rile her up even more.

Amaya didn't really have any idea what the twins had planned, other than that small snippet of a cafe that Reiko let slip, and she was quite curious. This was probably the first time she could think of that the twins had started to order her around and drag her around on a trip they'd planned themselves.

However curiosity soon turned to surprise when after the hour-long journey to Akihabara, the twins each grabbed one of Amaya's hands to pull her through the busy streets. They walked as if they knew the streets like the back of their hands, and it left Amaya wondering what the twins did on days off she presumed them to be spending at Mako and Kouichi's houses respectively.

Amaya was a hands-off kind of guardian, preferring her siblings to have freedom over rules and structure so long as they always contacted her when they needed anything, even if it was to ask a stupid question. But it always amazed her when they'd suddenly show her some form of knowledge that she presumed they hadn't utilized just yet.

So after three hours of being forced into the selected clothing stores speckled here and there throughout the shopping district to try on and choose at least one set from each one, Amaya figured out what the twins were actually doing.

Yuta and Reiko had been watching her closely ever since Karma had gotten suspended from school, and decided that an intervention was needed. They'd figured out that she'd gotten herself in some trouble with school, and spent the whole of Thursday planning where they were going to take her; This came to Amaya's knowledge when Yuta mentioned that Nishino-Sensei recommended a particular clothing chain for tomboyish girls.

It was when all of this sunk in on Amaya that she realised the two had been talking to the teachers about what to do, which was why they had a day off all of a sudden without an event or letter home to signify this.

How the hell did two eleven-year-olds manage to sweet-talk their school into letting them have a day off to help their delinquent sister, anyway?!

How the hell had the school even authorized that to begin with?!

'Amay!' Reiko called at around 4pm, just as the older girl was neatly placing the purchased clothing in the backpack Reiko had brought. 'Yuta said to go on ahead to the Cafe, he'll meet us there once he's finished what he's doing.'

'Huh?' Amaya quickly scanned her gaze throughout the heavily-populated city-district for any sign of the boy.

Of course, there was none.

'Seriously? It's really busy right now - He's gonna get himself lost if he runs off like this.' Amaya grumbled, though she did look back at Reiko's smiling face. 'He's got his phone, doesn't he?'

'Yeah - We both do.' Reiko answered with a sweet smile, causing a small breath to escape Amaya. 'We always have ours, just like you say to.'

'I swear the both of you aren't really eleven, at all.' Amaya sighed as she zipped up the almost-full bag. 'How the hell did you two save up so much money, anyway? None of this stuff is cheap!'

'Secret!' Reiko chimed in as she quickly grabbed her orange backpack from Amaya. 'Yuta will yell at me if I tell you, anyway.'

Amaya could only sigh as she straightened up on her feet.

'Well, I guess you should lead the way to this Cafe.' Amaya spoke with a small, wry smile, pressing her hands to her hips as she looked down at Reiko. 'We wouldn't want Yuta to get there before us and complain about it.'

'Oh, good idea! I'm really hungry!' Reiko spoke up, and like all afternoon, she grabbed Amaya's right hand and proceeded to lead Amaya through the sea of walking people.

Amaya's gaze traced the sea of faces around them, scanning each and every one of them for even just a glimpse of familiarity.

They were all blank, unseeing.

It unsettled Amaya in a way that was very familiar.

Nobody could see her, except for the three people she let inside.

Nobody even knew she was there, unless they had a problem with her or with the people around her.

Right now, with the hanging fate of expulsion dancing just out of her field of vision, Amaya had no idea where her life was even going.

She had no idea on what was going to happen to Karma, either.

Amaya was fine with expulsion, really, but she wasn't fine with the uncertainty, nor was she fine with the seething anger that lied just beneath her skin.

She hated the feeling of boiling alive inside, and yet she hadn't been able to get it to ebb away once over the past two days.

'And we're here!' Amaya heard Reiko announce, jerking out of her train of thought.

Amaya found herself looking up at a friendly building, with petunia-filled flowerbeds outside and a crème coloured exterior. Reiko had released Amaya's hand to push a simple and neat glass door open, soft chimes ringing in response.

'Come on, Amay! Let's go in!' Reiko called loudly, causing a wry smile to touch Amaya's features.

'Reiko - Mind your volume.' Amaya told the girl, but all she received in response was a small laugh as the girl entered. Amaya sucked in a soft breath as she followed suit.

She felt a little weird about entering a cafe - the last time she had been in one of these places was when she had asked to meet up with Karma just before they started at Kunugigaoka, and the guy decided she was going to shout him lunch because of the apparent inconvenience. Other than that, Amaya had never set foot in one of these stores in her life.

Even her mother never really set foot in a Cafe unless Amaya's father wanted to, and that was never with children in tow.

The interior of the Cafe was quite inviting, pleasant in comparison to Amayas first thoughts. The interior was painted in a soft sandstone, with dark wood furniture and small flowerpots of petunias growing throughout the inside. The cafe itself had a kind of laid-back feel about it, and oddly enough, it reminded Amaya ever so slightly of some of the more comforting kind of cafe that you would see in western countries.

Oddly enough, despite the sign on the door saying Open, there didn't appear to be anyone here.

'P-pardon the intrusion ...' Amaya actually found herself muttering beneath her breath, her gaze falling upon Reiko, who was in the middle of climbing on one of the padded bench-chairs that sat against the wall to the right of the store.

The chimes above the door rung as the door shut behind Amaya, this time earning a response from somewhere behind the counter.

'Sorry - I will be with you, shortly!' Echoed a voice belonging to a young male, somewhere within the vicinity of Amaya's own age, causing surprise to escape her.

Deciding that Reiko obviously knew more about Cafes than she did, Amaya wandered over to take a seat at the table.

'So where's Yuta gotten to?' Amaya asked her sister, who had picked up one of the menus from the small box sitting on the table next to the salt, pepper. and sugar.

'Amay, stop asking questions.' Reiko sighed all dramatically, though she was still grinning to herself as she opened up the menu. 'I'm not telling you anything more.'

'Says the kid who let mention of a cafe slip before we even left home.' Amaya responded with a grin, lifting the other menu from the holder as Reiko glanced up at her. 'So, I take it you and your brother have been here before, then?'

'Yeah - We came with Mako-chan and her Mom last month.' Reiko explained, her eyes scanning the menu quickly. Amaya watched the girl for a few seconds before she decided to scan the menu she held in her hands.

At least until Reiko's hand reached up and yanked it right out of her grip.

'Oi! I was reading that!' Amaya remarked.

'We're choosing for you!' Reiko announced with a grin, not the least bit bothered by Amaya's frown. 'You're just going to order something really cheap because you don't want us to spend anymore money on you!'

'Damnit.' Amaya responded with a sigh, taking to cradling her chin in the palm of her right hand as she watched Reiko. 'Just gone Eleven, and you're both already figuring out all my tricks.'

'Actually, Yuta told me that.'

'Of course...' Amaya responded with a groan.

It was a few seconds later when Amaya noticed movement from the corner of her eye.

A boy about her own age had come out from behind the counter with an order-book and a pen, with an apologetic look across his rather handsome face. Dressed in what was a pair of black pants, a white button-up shirt, a black waistcoat and a black tie, Amaya guessed he was the person who had called out when the door closed behind her. He had black hair with two antennae poking up out of the top of his head, and rather warm gold eyes. His nametag had 'Isogai' written in neat lettering, and for some reason the name danced on the line of vague familiarity.

'Sorry about the wait - Are you ready to order?' The boy called Isogai asked, causing Amaya to glance at a still-reading Reiko.

'Well not really - We're waiting on a plus one, and I'm being ordered for.' Amaya spoke up with a small, polite smile. 'I take it you're the only one here, right now.'

'More or less.' Isogai responded with a wry smile. 'The other part-time workers have the day off, today.'

'Ouch, that's gotta suck if you come straight from school or something.'

'Like you can talk, Amay.' Reiko interjected, causing Amaya to turn her gaze upon the girl immediately. 'You've skipped school for the past two days.'

'Says the girl who's actually playing hooky. I'm actually in limbo when it comes to school, thankfully.' Amaya responded easily.

The silence that she received in response brought a grin to spread across her face as she looked back up at Isogai.

'Sorry - Is it alright if we order when our plus one gets here? He'll complain if I let her order for him.'

'That's alright.' Isogai responded with an odd, almost knowing smile, flipping the cover of his order book in place. 'Feel free to call out when you're ready.'

And with that, he disappeared behind the counter before Amaya had even turned back to Reiko.

'Amay ... what do you mean by Limbo?' Reiko questioned, lifting her head to look up at Amaya curiously.

Amaya bit her tongue for a second as she chose her words carefully.

'I got myself into a lot of trouble on Wednesday.' Amaya eventually gave in, lifting a hand to gently brush her hair out of her face as Reiko stared at her. 'I meant Limbo as in I don't know if I'm on suspension, expulsion, or I've just been absent from school.'

Oddly enough, Reiko didn't look horrified or surprised.

Instead she just nodded, and returned her gaze to the menu.

'Yuta said you were suspended ...'

Amaya blinked in surprise.

'Well, there's no definite - I haven't been told what's going on.' Amaya answered honestly, a sigh escaping her as she leant back in her chair. 'For all I know, I've probably just been skipping school without realizing it.'

Reiko looked up at Amaya after a few seconds, an apologetic look across her face for some reason.

'Did you get in trouble because you tried to defend Karma-san again?'

'I get into trouble for everything, Reiko. You should know that by now.' Amaya let out a small chuckle, shifting slightly in her seat as Reiko continued to watch her. 'I really don't mind, either. Anything to spite that school's principles suits me fine.'

'Do we really have to go to Kunugigaoka Middle School, Amay?'

Amaya watched the growing concern in her sisters face, and felt her heart beginning to ache in her chest.

'Unfortunately ... it's something he insists on.' Amaya spoke with a sad smile, her gaze dropping to the table in front of her. 'There's nothing I can do about it ... not unless I had the money to put you both through school myself.'

Reiko's gaze lowered to the table as well as a sense of foreboding overcame the two of them.

'Sorry Amay ...' Reiko whispered. 'You always -'

A sudden tapping at the window cut Reiko's words short, causing Amaya to snap her gaze to the source of the sound immediately.

Standing outside the window of the Cafe was a group of five first-year highschool boys, vaguely familiar to Amaya from her brawling life, while there was one form that both girls recognised. The largest of the highschoolers had Yuta held motionless in his arms, the one to his immediate right holding the boys large backpack from one hand.

She vaguely recognised them in the sense that they were Hayashi's senpai, but nothing more. Hayashi was the main one from that group that antagonised her, after all.

Thankfully, it didn't look like Yuta was in pain, at all, just uncomfortable being held off the ground like that.

The sharp intake of breath from Reiko was all Amaya needed to know that the girl was about to start panicking.

Amaya could feel her anger beginning to bubble over as she slowly lifted herself from the chair.

From the broad, disgusting grins that the group of high school first-years wore at the sight of Amaya's movement, they were here purely to pick a fight with her, and her alone. They'd acquired Yuta just to rile her up, and when they decided the kid had been utilised enough, he'd be free to go.

But they were out of luck - If they so much as caused the smallest amount of pain to Yuta, she was going to do worse to them than she did to Hayashi.

These bastards wouldn't have known they'd just picked one of the worst times to antagonise her.

They wouldn't know that she was close to committing murder.

It was probably for the best that they didn't know, either.

---=[Authors Note]=---

Aaaand that's chapter done! Ohoo I actually really enjoyed writing the ending of this chapter, but having said that, I've always enjoyed writing conflict in a story :P Lemme know what you guys think of the story so far, and I'll see if I can get another chapter done in the next day or two.

And for those of you who have wondered about a proper picture of Amaya since I mentioned it in the authors note in the bottom of next chapter, BEHOLD! The link below is a really rough sketch and colour I did today. It's on my deviantart (I don't get why it won't copy + paste though. Might just be my browser, or something...)

http://melonfoxjozei.deviantart.com/art/Katsuragi-Amaya-Quick-Sketch-549269785

Anyways, translations translations. If you see any I missed, then feel free to let me know and I'll include them in the notes :)

Kanraku - Translates as Sinking, which is written as 陥落 in Japanese
Evangelion - For those unfamiliar with the series, it's full title is Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's a show from way back in the 1990's, but it's still hugely popular. They've been making reboots of the original series in movie format, and for new starters, I highly recommend watching the Rebuild instead of the Original show, because a lot of people are too used to modern quality of anime. Sooo you want Evangelion 1.11 You Are (not) Alone if you want to pick this one up.
Senpai - Purely because I don't believe I translated it in a previous chapter. It's a word for someone in the the years above ones own. Like if you're in eighth grade, you'd refer to someone in the year above you as Senpai. The reference of Now Senpai will notice you is more of a meme atm. You can find more info if you look it up in the meme base.
Akahibara - A shopping district in Tokyo. A lot of electronic stores here, if my research is right (I want to visit Japan at least once sometime soon :3)