Sometimes, it was just better to roll with the punches than to fight against them.

Right now, Amaya guessed this was one of those times, for her.

After accepting Maehara and Isogai's insistent remarks that they were escorting her home Wednesday evening, Amaya found that her luck wasn't anywhere near as bad during that time.

An unfortunately familiar pair of delinquents from the next school over had noticed her, but at the sight of both Maehara and Isogai with her, they decided that it was best to leave her alone that evening. Further to that, there had been three times where either of her two acquaintances had caught her by the arm to stop her from tripping over upturned pavement or any other perfectly avoidable hazard.

If she had insisted on walking herself home on her own, she would have been jumped by those delinquents, and if she had managed to run fast enough to lose them, she would have ended up smashing her face on the pavement instead.

It turned out that both Maehara and Isogai took the same train to and from Kunugigaoka, and they lived one stop further from the pathetic school than Amaya and Karma. In fact, Maehara had said that he lived just a couple of blocks away from the station, and Isogai lived just on the other side of the river further along. Amaya guessed the only reason she had never seen the boys on the train before was because she always took the one an hour earlier than them if she could help it, and she was normally involved in some kind of fight and delayed in the afternoons.

The twins had spent that night staying at Mako's house again in order to finish their little group project, which was convenient, since there was no safe food in the fridge, and nothing was running in the apartment. The electricity hadn't been turned on, yet, however it appeared that a couple of other tenants in the building were having the same problem, so it wasn't necessarily something exclusive to her. It meant that there were actual problems with the power of the building, therefore, as soon as it was fixed, everything would be in order. She just had to deal with cold showers until then.

She spent her conscious time propped up on the windowsill of her room, once again, however this time she made certain to set her alarm and drag herself to bed before she actually fell asleep.

Amaya's appetite was still rather non-existent. She didn't feel hungry at all, but after thinking about it throughout the evening, she realized she'd been functioning just on an onigiri and a couple of bites of an anpan over the past two days. Therefore, on her way to school, Amaya made certain to stop at one of the convenience stores in order to pick up a couple of rice-balls to ensure that she was at least eating something, even if she had no appetite.

She had done a lot of thinking over the night about what was going on in her life, and the oddities that were beginning to surface. Lots of things that didn't mean very much at all, but they accumulated and just made everything confusing and emotionally heart-wrenching for her. She hadn't gotten anywhere with them, either.

She guessed that another day would yield her at least some more snippets of happenings to help her cycle through the questions that were surfacing in her life right now. Maybe she'd figure out whether she should apologize to Karma for throwing that tantrum at him, or not.

Amaya arrived at the Class E Campus by 6.30am, to find that there was nobody there yet. Clad in her uniform plus her white hooded jumper with peach-coloured music notes just because it felt horribly cold to her, it was all Amaya could do to just stare at the empty, lifeless building.

It was odd, it was peculiar, and Amaya wasn't sure what was going on.

At the main campus, there was at least someone there at 5am, even. When Karma set all those fizzing pranks in the Administrations Office, he actually had to sneak in at 4am just to set them without someone stumbling upon him mid-way through the work.

Managing to shake off her bewilderment, Amaya let out a small breath as she began to walk up to the door of the building.

She found that the door was open, and yet she could neither hear nor see any sign of someone being here.

Amaya tilted her head to the side slightly as she thought on a sudden glimmer of inspiration.

Nobody was here – That meant she could do whatever she wanted until someone arrived, right? So, realistically, she could get up to all sorts of mischief, and with nobody here to see her, nobody could gripe or give her the stink-eye over it.

She glanced down at her messenger bag briefly, joining her small thoughts together into a somewhat coherent plan.

It would give her something to do for the next hour, or until someone arrived.

So, with a small, fleeting smile, Amaya stepped into the building, and shut the door behind her.

She had some evil to put in place.

˚✧₊⁎⁺˳✧˳⁺⁎₊✧˚

It was around 7.30am when the first few people began to arrive at the campus – Amaya had finished her little task for the morning and settled down at her desk when she began to notice the arriving presence. She was sitting at her desk with her headphones on as she spotted approaching forms at the edge of the clearing from the corner of her eye, causing her to turn her head to look over.

She could immediately recognize Nagisa from the sky-blue hair, walking alongside the taller, dark haired boy with a slightly more cautious disposition. She vaguely recalled Isogai listing off students names over lunch-break yesterday, and he described the one called Sugino Tomohito being friends with Nagisa.

She guessed that was him.

There were other forms beginning to approach, however Amaya turned her head from the window to look back down at the book in her hands.

Who the people out there were didn't really matter to her, at least right now it didn't.

So she settled into her chair as Hack On The World started playing through her headphones.

There was no sign of Koro-sensei or Karasuma yet, but she guessed they would be along soon. Koro-sensei probably could get here from wherever it was he was living in a matter of a couple of seconds, so Amaya honestly didn't expect to see him until the start of class.

Oh the joys of having the ability to move at Mach 20.

One by one students began to filter into the classroom, a couple ignoring her, a few making an attempt at greeting her, while the rest seemed to glance at her, like they were trying to make heads or tails of her.

Nagisa had greeted Amaya when he walked in to find her at her desk, while the boy called Sugino watched warily from a couple of paces behind the blue-haired boy. Apart from a few exchanged words, there wasn't much else – Nagisa deposited his bag and sat down, returning to a conversation he was having with Sugino while others began to trickle into the classroom.

'Ooh! Katsuragi-chan!' Echoed a voice that she was beginning to recognize, causing Amaya to blink down at the book on Homemade Glass Paints.

She found herself looking up after a couple of seconds to see Maehara approaching her from his seat in the classroom, a smile in place across his face.

Odd, it looked like he was happy to see her.

Isogai was in the room as well, and he was smiling over in that reserved manner of his as he followed Maehara.

'Good morning, Maehara-kun.' Amaya greeted the boy, lifting a hand to gently lower her headphones to sit around her neck.

'Whatcha reading, there?' Maehara asked her curiously, leaning over Amaya's desk to look down at the book in her hands. 'Home-crafts and Hobby Ideas'?' He read out loud, and if possible, his curiosity seemed to grow.

'More or less.' Amaya shrugged slightly, gently closing the book as she saw a familiar form take up the seat directly to her right. 'It's more of a curiosity than anything else.'

'Gotcha.' Maehara responded, straightening up to bury his hands in the pockets of his pants. 'So, you thinking about painting, are you?'

'Yes and no. To be honest, I was trying to see if they had a recipe for gel-paints you can use on windows without ruining them.' Amaya responded, glancing at Isogai as he came to a stop just next to Maehara.

'Good morning, Katsuragi-san.' Isogai greeted Amaya.

'Hiya, Isogai-kun.' Amaya responded with a small smile.

Well, this was two days in a row that they came up to her willingly with smiles – If this happened again tomorrow, she might eventually be able to call them friends.

'Did you bring it?' Isogai asked Maehara all of a sudden, causing Amaya to blink in surprise as Maehara turned his head to look at Isogia in confusion.

At least until realization overcame him a second later, and he was smirking.

'Of course I did!' Maehara remarked, before he looked back at Amaya with a smile as he began to fish through his pockets for something. 'Hands out, Katsuragi-chan.'

Tilting her head to the side ever so slightly, Amaya set the book in her lap to do as she was told.

In response, Maehara pulled his hands from his pockets, and gently set a little cotton pouch in her hands.

It was an Omamori, a small pouch made of what she guessed to be coarse-woven silk in a deep red with gold patterning, held shut with white woven drawstrings tied in a very neat, ornamental bow. She'd seen these many times before, though she'd never bought, or been given one, so she wasn't really all that familiar with them.

'It's a byouki heyu.' Isogai spoke up, causing Amaya to look up at him. 'We thought you might appreciate having one, right now.'

'It's a get-well-soon gift!' Maehara announced with great enthusiasm.

Amaya was stunned to silence for a few seconds, before she smiled and chuckled just a little.

'Thank you - I can feel it working, already.' Amaya responded, quite touched by their kindness.

'You're very welcome.' Isogai responded.

Then, all of a sudden the door to the front of the classroom slid open.

Koro-sensei bobbed his head beneath the top of the door-frame as he entered the room, his ever-yellow appearance slowly becoming rather normal to Amaya.

'Good morning, Everyone.' Koro-sensei spoke up, his tentacles wriggling as he made his way to the teacher's desk. 'Please take your seats while I take attendance.'

The shuffling of feet echoed as Isogai and Maehara cast her a smile each before they disappeared back to the front of the room. She smiled as she looked down at the Omamori in her hands, before she carefully slipped it into one of her pants-pockets.

Koro-sensei began to call out the names of students in the classroom as Amaya gently set the book she'd borrowed from the library on the desk, leaning back into her chair as she took to watching the yellow creature call out names.

The red-head sitting next to her seemed to be doing much the same thing, though every now and then, she thought she could see him glance at her from the corner of her eye.

She resisted the urge to sigh every time, choosing to pretend that she couldn't see it in preference for just observing him.

'Excellent! Everyone is here for the start of day!' Koro-sensei announced with enthusiasm as Amaya answered her own name being called. He snapped the attendance file shut with a small snap, and proceeded to set it down on his desk gently.

And then all of a sudden his fingered tentacle popped like a balloon upon contact with the wood.

It was rather bizarre for Amaya to watch it happen for herself – She watched as the yellow goop from his tentacle splattered over the desk, small flecks hitting the floor as his damaged tentacle flailed around out of what she guessed to be a nervous, automated reaction, much like how the human body worked.

'Nyuuu?' Koro-sensei lifted his freshly-popped tentacle, as if he didn't understand what was going on.

And from the silence that had engulfed the room, Amaya knew that the students didn't know what had happened either.

Amaya did her absolute best to keep any hints of understanding and knowledge from her face as she watched Koro-sensei lift his gaze to look at the rest of the class.

'Who is responsible for covering my Desk with Anti-Me BB dust?' Koro-sensei asked, however instead of appearing annoyed or angry, he genuinely sounded rather intrigued by the situation.

Perplexed by the reaction, but otherwise understanding that she wasn't going to get in trouble right now, Amaya chuckled silently to herself.

'That was me.' Amaya spoke up after a couple of seconds, causing Koro-sensei to place his gaze upon her in immediate response. 'Sorry, I meant it more as a prank than anything else.'

She noticed Karma glance at her for a second, though he didn't say anything.

'That is not the purpose of your Anti-Me weapons, Katsuragi-san!' Koro-sensei rebuked, and all of a sudden his face turned purple with a whopping great X in the middle in a red colour. 'You must intend on killing me when you use them!'

Amaya blinked silently for a second, thinking on her words carefully.

'How about if its in order to learn how to kill you? Is that allowed?'

Koro-sensei stared at her for a few seconds in silence, before his face flashed bright orange with a giant scarlet circle.

'That is perfectly acceptable!' Koro-sensei announced enthusiastically, seeming quite pleased with that response. 'In that case, I look forward to whatever pranks you decide to play on me!'

Amaya was inwardly rather surprised at how easily he had given in, however she guessed he wasn't really one to spoil someone's fun if they could learn from it, too.

Koro-sensei's popped tentacle regenerated with a rather uncomfortable squelching sound, and in the blink of an eye, the mess of yellow goop and the tiniest layer of Anti-Sensei dust had been cleaned from the desk.

The day turned out to be quite entertaining.

First period turned out to be Maths again, and while Amaya spent the whole time in a state of mental anguish over the cursed subject, she didn't miss how close Koro-sensei had come to tripping a couple of her little pranks she put in place throughout the lesson.

Second Period was English, which Koro-sensei spent the whole class reading from a textbook and got everyone to read a particular phrase every now and then. This Period had begun with Koro-sensei stepping on one of the wooden floorboards over next to the green-haired girl's desk, where two of his feet-tentacles had popped, sending the teacher stumbling backwards with a startled yelp of fright.

Immediately, Koro-sensei had turned his gaze upon Amaya, who was making a particularly obvious play at keeping her attention on her textbook. Maehara down at the front of the classroom had snickered a little at this, while Isogai just smiled in a rather bemused manner.

Third Period was PE, where there were no instances of Koro-sensei touching Anti-Sensei BB dust, however Maehara and Isogai had laughed when they looked to see that the yellow teacher was in the middle of scrubbing the floor to get rid of any left over BB dust. Amaya smirked, finding great amusement at the fact that Koro-sensei had already tripped the one prank she'd set on the floor. There were still the others he hadn't found, yet.

Fourth Period was Geography, and it consisted of Koro-sensei explaining how seasons affect the geology of the countries of the world, which in turn influenced where humans built their civilizations. It was the end half of the lesson where Koro-sensei had tripped another trap – He went to dust the blackboard off, however his tentacle exploded upon touching the BB-contaminated duster.

Entertainingly enough, Koro-sensei didn't bother to even fix the obviously guilty girl with a look, and instead took to swapping it with a new one. What was particularly curious about this incident was the small giggles that began to echo from some of the students when it happened – In particular, the Meat-slab called Terasaka and his goons were finding this rather funny, and Amaya had noticed Maehara turn to cast her a discrete thumbs up.

Lunch break came right after Fourth Period, and none of the remaining three patches of Anti-Sensei BB-dust had been found at this point. Amaya was hoping more than anything else that Koro-Sensei wouldn't find them until later – In a moment where he'd have forgotten all about them, and then BANG! He'd find one and be at a loss of what was going on.

Isogai and Maehara had invited Amaya to sit with them for lunch, much like yesterday.

She noticed that particular girls in the class were beginning to get used to her – The Class Representative called Kataoka Megu had greeted Amaya as she walked past with a couple of the other girls, and the green haired girl had approached with Nagisa, introducing herself as Kayano Kaede.

It was here that Amaya discovered that she was the second student of Class E to actually manage to injure Koro-sensei.

Second to Karma of course, because the red-head had a nack for doing what's considered almost impossible.

There was something very odd about the way in which Nagisa said this though, so Amaya made a mental note to call the blue-haired boy later to ask him about it. She ate with Isogai and Maehara, who talked quite openly about little things that ultimately were rather random, making her laugh to herself. All the while she could feel that she was being watched.

Or observed, more truthfully.

She'd been paying close attention to her surroundings all day, and aside from the glances she was receiving from Karma every now and then, during lunch break there was nobody around that she could see to be watching her. Yet it felt exactly the same like yesterday afternoon, when Karma was observing her outside. It was kind of weird for her – He wasn't really making an attempt at avoiding her, and seemed to be watching her, like he was trying to figure something out.

Despite how amusing the day's events had been, she still couldn't seem to shake the waters that were still there. But at least she was distracted enough where the waters didn't begin to rise, again.

However much like the day before, she ended up nodding off in afternoon classes, though thankfully it wasn't until the last half of sixth period. She ended up face down on her desk again, though this time it was on top of her notebook and pen. If sixth period wasn't History, she might have survived the whole lesson.

She wasn't so far into sleep that the scraping of chairs and the chattering of students didn't wake her up – As the girl sitting directly in front of Amaya got to her feet, the scraping of her chair against the floor snapped Amaya awake, sending her shooting upright in her seat much like she'd been struck.

The spectacled girl flinched in reaction to Amaya's sudden jerk awake, snatching up her bag and running out of the room like she was running away from a serial-killer. Amaya didn't really notice, though – She was blinking, staring ahead of her in a kind of daze as she tried to figure out where she was.

Most of the class was still here, just lazily getting themselves organized to head home, it seemed. Except it looked like Isogai had disappeared along with Kataoka, and Maehara was in the middle of talking to a couple of the girls at the front of the class.

A sudden ringing from Amaya's pocket echoed, a familiar song dragging her sleepy gaze from her surroundings. She lifted the noisy device from her pocket, staring down at the screen for a few long seconds as her brain began to circulate information for her.

The Caller ID said that this was Yuta, so Amaya pressed accept and pressed the speaker to her ear.

'Hey, Yuta... What's up?' Amaya mumbled into the phone, her free hand taking to gathering her belongings.

There was the faint sounds of an upset Reiko talking in the background, but not much else.

'Hi Amay.' Yuta spoke up on the other side, his voice surprisingly loud in comparison to Amaya's sleepy words. 'Where are you? It sounds like I woke you, or something.'

'No ... but you were close.' Amaya responded as she lifted her bag from the hook of her desk in order to start packing her belongings away. 'I'm just at school.'

'Okay ...?' Yuta seemed to sigh on his end of the line. 'Amay, do you know what's happened at home?'

'At home ...?'

'Nothing's working – We don't even have lights.' Yuta explained, his tone becoming a little stressed. 'Everything in the fridge is warm, too.'

She let out a breath as she lifted herself to her feet, and lifted her bag to sling it over her shoulder.

'Oh...' Amaya rubbed her eyes numbly as she stepped past a strangely present Karma to leave the classroom. 'Yeah, we've been out of power since Tuesday...'

'What do you mean since Tuesday?!' Yuta exclaimed in shock, causing the sleepy girl to wince as she held the phone away from her ear. 'We're Thursday, Amay! Thursday!'

'There's nothing I can do about it, so don't have a go at me, damnit!' Amaya shot back as she slid the door of the classroom shut behind her.

'But Amaya! What are we supposed to do with no power?!'

'It's not the end of the world, Yuta.' Amaya responded with an exasperated sigh as she made her way towards the foyer to change her shoes over. 'You can last a couple of days without it, surely.'

'What about light? What about the fridge?!' Yuta complained dramatically. 'We can't cook anything with an electric-stove, Amaya!'

Amaya could only scowl as she realized that he was in one of his temperamental moods again. She wasn't going to get anywhere trying to talk to him right now.

'You know what? Put Reiko on, please.'

'What--?'

'Now, Yuta.' Amaya commanded the boy.

A frustrated muttering escaped Yuta as he clearly handed the phone to Reiko – She could hear scraping and shuffling noises as she began to swap her shoes over.

'Hiya Amay.' Reiko's voice spoke up through the speaker, a lot more cheerful than their brother at the moment.

'First of all, why is Yuta in such a bad mood? Did something happen?'

'Yes but no...' Reiko spoke in a quiet, slow manner, causing a small huff to escape Amaya.

Okay, so he was just in a bad mood for the sake of a bad mood, then?

'Right, I'll explain it to you, since Yuta's just going to complain the whole time if I try telling him right now.' Amaya explained, tying her laces off quickly.

Reiko gave a hum of understanding, bringing Amaya to speak once again.

'I forgot to pay the power account on time, which is why it got cut off on Tuesday, but I paid it that night.' Amaya began as she straightened up, readjusting her bag as she began to head home. 'Some of the others in our building have the same problem, too, so it's not just us. I think there's a fault somewhere in the line, and they're trying to fix it before they reconnect power for us. You remember how sometimes it'll flicker and blow up the light globes like there's something wrong, right?'

'So we won't have power until it's finished?' Reiko asked seriously.

'Probably not.' Amaya answered.

'Do you know how long, Amay?'

'Not really – Maybe another day, or two. If it's not on by tomorrow night, then it'll be Monday, I think.'

'Oh...'

Amaya gently scratched the back of her head as she thought for a couple of seconds.

'Ne, Reiko? You think Mako-chan's parents would be okay to have you both over for another night?' She asked, burying her free hand in the pocket of her hooded jumper as she walked.

'They will – Mako-chan wanted us to stay again, but Yuta chickened out.' Reiko responded.

If Amaya was in a better mood, she probably would have laughed at that.

'Just make sure you explain exactly what's going on when you do.' Amaya told her sister with a patient tone, while her expression continued to reflect the scowl that was threatening to creep into her voice. 'I've paid the power account, but they just won't hook us back on the grid until what I believe is a fault is fixed.'

'Okay, there is a problem, we have no power until it's fixed, and we don't know when.' Reiko summarized, causing Amaya to sigh in relief.

'Thank you – Do you need me to walk you there?'

'We should be okay, Amay.' Reiko told her, and shuffling began to echo through the line. 'Did you want me to ask if you can stay as well?'

Amaya blinked in surprise.

'No, I'm good, thanks.' She spoke with a small smile, turning her head to take in her surroundings. 'Unlike you two, I can survive a couple of days with no power.'

'Okay, if you're sure, Amay.' Reiko responded with a small sigh, though Amaya was waiting for it to turn mischievous. 'We'll see you later.'

Again, Amaya was surprised by the girl's words.

'Sure, will do.' Amaya responded, listening to the sounds of the call disconnect.

Monotonous beeping echoed through the speaker for a few seconds, before Amaya pulled the phone from her ear and pressed the disconnect icon that was showing on the screen.

She really hoped they'd get power back soon.

Guessing her phone had power enough to last overnight, Amaya tucked it into her pocket and began to head home. She wondered what she was going to have for dinner. Her stomach wasn't really telling her anything conclusive, after all.

After stopping downtown to pick up some candles, and getting dragged into a little brawl with some delinquents from one of the middle-schools, Amaya finally managed to get off the train at her station, where she noticed that it had gotten dark rather quick.

That, or she lost track of time curb-stomping the six or so rather weak delinquents into the ground before they managed to get the upper hand and give her another battle-wound to the collection. And probably steal her belongings, too.

Deciding on some Nikuman as she walked past the shop on the way home, and she entered the apartment building to find that the elevator was out of order.

She decided it had something to do with the electricity faults, so she didn't really pay much heed to it and took the stairs instead.

Walking up the 10 floors worth of stairs, Amaya was exhausted by the time she got to the apartment.

Much as Yuta and Reiko had said, there was no power at all – Amaya's nimble fingers flicked the light-switch carefully, where a sigh escaped her at the lack of response.

There really must be some fault that the electricians were trying to fix.

Well, there was, since there have been times where a light-globe has spontaneously exploded.

But maybe it was worse than she'd thought, initially?

Amaya locked the door of the apartment up with the security chain and deadbolt, tossing her bag to the floor at the kitchen counter as she began to make her way towards her room with her bag of Nikuman.

There was still at least a little light in the apartment from the twilight outside, so Amaya didn't really need to use the candles just yet.

She pulled herself up onto her windowsill slowly, tucking herself so that she was sitting with her legs stretched out along the broad plank of wood, her back resting up against the window-frame on the left side. Gently, she opened the bag of four Nikuman to lift one from inside.

Amaya peeled the wax paper off from the bottom, and took a bite as she trailed off in thought.

It had been two days since she'd spoken to Karma, and he to her. It didn't even seem to be bothering him at all, either, while it was bothering her enough where two boys were actually going out of their way to distract her from dwelling on it.

She wanted to figure out a way to sort this out, because even though it was really nice to be on such friendly terms with Isogai and Maehara, she missed her best friend to death. But if she went to talk to him when he wanted to be left alone, he'd just start avoiding her. It was like she'd said to him that afternoon, if he didn't want something, he'd avoid it, and if he wanted something, he'd basically twist your arm to get it.

Was there any real point in even trying to talk to him, though?

Something came to her notice not long after this question dragged her into sombre dwellings.

It was a small glimpse of movement from the corner of her eye, bringing her out of her thoughts in order to look over at what it was.

It had begun raining in the time that Amaya had been lost in thought, and only one Nikuman was left in the bag sitting in her lap. She found herself staring over at the apartment building diagonally across from her own one, and in particular, a window that showed a lit room inside.

It took her a few seconds to realize that she was staring over at Karma's apartment.

So he was home, then?

He had to be, really. His apartment was always dark unless he or his parents were home, after all.

She observed silently, her brow furrowing as she watched to see the red-haired boy walk past the window.

She'd never been inside his apartment to really know what room was which, but she knew enough from what she could see now to guess that the window she was looking at was probably to his bedroom.

A few seconds later, the red-haired boy seemed to walk past the window again, much like he was pacing.

No, he was pacing.

It was obvious to her as he walked back past the window again a few seconds later, only to walk the other way once again.

Something was bothering him – A lot.

Even from across the rainy street, Amaya could tell that he was biting his nails quite roughly, and his gaze was distant from deeply involved thought.

She couldn't help but wonder what could be bothering him so much right now – A lot had happened for the both of them over the past month, to the point where Amaya couldn't really decide what it could or couldn't be.

She found herself back in that same dilemma she was in just a week ago – She wanted to know what was bothering him, but at the same time she knew there was no point in even considering it.

He wouldn't talk to her about it, anyway.

She wasn't like him and would force the matter, after all.

About the only thing she knew was that he hadn't noticed her watching him.

And she wanted to keep it that way.

So she turned her head back to the rain-drenched streets outside her window.

It was going to be a very, very long night for Amaya.

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

Here we are folks, with another chapter for Marionette :D I hope y'all enjoy reading and look forward to the next chapter.

First of all, CELEBRATION!!! Marionette has reached 250 comments and over 100 votes! Thank you all so freaking much! I never thought my story would be read by so many people here, and I'm honestly quite touched :'D I hope you all will continue to enjoy the chapters I submit xD

Now then, some translation words from Chapter Eighteen :D And please, if I'm translating any of this wrong or there are discrepancies, then let me know!

Genkidashite - Translates as Cheer Up, which is written as 元気出して in Japanese

Hack The World - Not a translation note but rather a reference note; It's a song by Kishida Kyoudan and the Akeboshi Rockets from their album Hack / Slash. It's a very good song from a very good band, and I highly reccomend looking them up if you're interested in more music.

Omamori - Written as お守り in Kanji. They're difficult to translate into exact English, but you can think of them as protection amulets or talismens. A Byouki Heyu (病気平癒鵜) is a type of Omamori, which is meant to help you recover from illness. You can read more on Omamori at www.tofugu.com

Nikuman - This summary has been extracted from justonecookbook.com: Nikuman is the Japanese name for the Chinese baozi (包子,肉包), also known as chūka man (中華まん). These steamed buns are made from flour dough and filled with meat and other ingredients. In western Japan (西日本) including Osaka, these steamed buns are called buta man (豚まん).