It was during the small window of time between classes that Amaya had been called upon by Karasuma. Nagisa and Karma were talking at the time over near the window she'd been sitting at when the serious man had walked into the room, that ever stern expression across his face as his eyes zeroed in right upon Amaya.

She'd been lead to the Faculty Office, where Karasuma handed her a single green knife made out of a substance very similar to rubber in a case that would attach to a belt, a decent cache of Anti-Sensei BB's, and an air-gun that was quite similar to a real gun by both look and feel. He'd run her through how to load the air-gun, how to fix it if it happened to get jammed, and how to unload the cartridge if need be.

Other than that, there wasn't much else, really.

Karasuma asked her if she had any questions, and when Amaya had said no, he sent her on her way again.

Right now, Amaya was tucking the gun in the belt of her pants beneath her shirt as she walked, much like it was a real gun. She'd have to come up with a better idea later, but right now she just didn't feel like discarding it into her bag. The knife in it's case was tucked beneath her right arm, the large box of 1,000 Anti-Sensei BB's held in Amaya's hands as she investigated its packaging.

It was a simple box in a camo-green, with what she gathered to be a picture of Koro-sensei with a line through it. Other than that, nothing stood out, other than the rattling of many tiny BB's knocking against each other inside.

There was an odd smell about the BB's, like they were made out of chalk.

She did actually stop to wonder if it was just her sense of smell, or if the BB's themselves were made partially out of chalk itself.

She decided that she may as well try to grind one up just to have a proper look at it.

After all, Amaya preferred to have at least a little understanding of what she was going to be carrying around with her for what very well could be the rest of human life.

She was a little confused, though.

She was picking up on a lot of scents around here much easier than she would down in the city streets, so she was a little perplexed. But there wasn't really any point in wracking her brains over it - She'd just pay attention to it and if some explanation came up, she'd think of it then.

Amaya stopped at the first door of the classroom, her left hand grabbing the door-handle, and she began to slide it aside without looking up from the box.

'Ah! Perfect timing, Katsuragi-san!' Echoed Koro-sensei's voice all of a sudden, causing Amaya to snap her gaze up in surprise. 'Come and introduce yourself to the Class!'

Standing at the front of the classroom in front of his desk was Koro-sensei, his attention entirely upon her.

In Amaya's peripheral vision, she could see that the class had returned - some were sitting down at desks, while others were standing with their friends just talking. Well, they had been talking until Amaya had opened the door.

Right now they were silent, their cautious attention upon her much like they were unsure of who the hell she was.

Except for Nagisa and Karma of course - Karma was just lazing at his desk with a smirk across his face, while Nagisa cast her a rather sheepish smile.

'Eh? Do I really have to?' Amaya questioned with exasperation, stepping inside the classroom and sliding the door shut behind her as the silence continued.

'Of course you do!' Koro-sensei responded enthusiastically, waving his tentacles dramatically in sign that he wanted her to stand next to him. 'I want everyone in this class to get along and work together, after all!'

So Amaya buried her left hand in the pocket of her pants as she did as she was told, her box of BB's held securely against her hip with the weight of her right arm.

This was awkward, and not because Amaya could see Karma just smirking at her like this was funny.

She hadn't been forced to introduce herself to anyone ever since she moved to Tokyo. People usually didn't want to get to know her, anyway.

'Hey, I guess.' Amaya spoke up as she placed her weight onto her left leg, her gaze quickly scanning the many unfamiliar faces that were watching her like hawks. 'Name's Katsuragi Amaya, and I suppose all the best for the rest of the year?'

At the mention of Amaya's full name, murmurs began to escape various students in the room. What was rather peculiar was the fact that at least half of the class were looking between Amaya and Karma like they were just realizing who exactly she was.

In particular, she picked up on a girls voice that said 'Wait ... that Katsuragi?!', while a dark-haired boy over near Nagisa let out a frantic whisper of 'Oh no! Not her, too!'

Karma of course didn't even care.

He just ignored them and watched silently, that smirk still in place.

Oddly enough, there was a black-haired boy sitting at the front desk in Karma's column, who was looking at her with lucid recognition across his face. He had warm, gold eyes and a rather handsome face. What was more prominent was the two antennae-like tufts of hair sticking out of the top of his head.

She recognized him from somewhere, but offhandedly, she couldn't recall where.

It really didn't matter right now, anyway.

'Right...' Amaya sighed as she turned her head to look up at the presumably confused Koro-sensei. 'That cool? Can I go, now?'

In response, Koro-sensei let out a rather dejected sigh for some reason.

'Come now, everyone! This is hardly the kind of welcome a new student should receive!' Koro-sensei spoke, completely ignoring Amaya in preference for telling his students off.

Amaya found herself lifting an eyebrow in question, though she didn't say anything.

'Eto ... Koro-sensei, do you even know who that is?' Spoke up one of the girls, the one with long locks of gold hair, a brow raised in question as she looked at the yellow creature from Amaya.

'Of course I do!' Koro-sensei responded immediately, causing Amaya to sigh as she shook her head in dismay. 'She is your newest classmate, here to help you assassinate me!'

'Sukeban, apparently.' A girl with sharp eyes and strawberry-blonde hair spoke seriously, her gaze shifting from Koro-sensei to Amaya briefly.

'What the hell--' Amaya began, however she was cut off with a shrill exclamation from right next to her.

'Kyah!? SUKEBAN!?' Koro-sensei exclaimed in horror, causing Amaya to turn her head to look up at the creature.

His face was the same yellow, however she could immediately tell that he was rather horrified at the label.

'Seriously?' Amaya grumbled as she lifted her left hand to scratch her head gently, a frown of exasperation evident across her pale features. 'Getting into fights all the time doesn't make me a bloody Sukeban...'

'Yeah, she's more of a yangire, really.' Karma spoke up with a smirk evident in his voice.

Immediately, Amaya snapped her gaze to the red-head sitting in the back of the room to fix him with a filthy glare.

'Dammit Karma!' Amaya snapped indignantly, ignoring the mix of dumbfounded, horrified and awkward looks she was receiving. 'You're not helping!'

'Eh? Really?' He drawled out mockingly, with a smug grin across his face. 'But it's not like you really care about what anyone really thinks, right?'

She knew he was taunting her, of course.

It was his favorite pass time, and everyone would know that by now. But unfortunately his words jabbed her a bit too well, and she felt thoroughly insulted. Hearing him announce it like fact felt like a slap to the face.

A slap to the face with a concrete brick.

It was because she actually cared what he thought of her, after all.

However, rather than responding with an insulted retort, Amaya chose a different response.

'Tch, whatever.' Amaya muttered as she turned to head for the door again. 'Say or do whatever the hell you want.'

'Oh dear ...' Koro-sensei's voice echoed out faintly against the silence as Amaya left the room, the door sliding shut with a resounding clunk behind her.

Nobody went to stop her of course, leaving Amaya to walk away.

She tossed the knife and box of Anti-Sensei BB's into the shoe-shelf her boots were inside with little care, her air-gun going inside as well as she swapped shoes. She then tossed the indoor shoes into the shelf before walking out of the building altogether.

Amaya knew she probably just walked off a bit too quick, but she felt that she wasn't required to just stand there and listen to various people call her yangire, sukeban or anything else they damn well felt like at the time.

She at least felt being offended was justifiable, really.

Who the hell would want their best friend to tell a class of impressionable children that she was a girl who was unstable enough to snap and go psychotic at the drop of a hat like that? It didn't matter that it was a joke, or if he had some other reason for saying it - It was insulting.

She'd already told him off for saying that she went berserk when mad, so he'd of course know she wouldn't like being called yangire.

He was too smart to just simply not realize.

Amaya's feet led her into the forest surrounding the Class E campus, far enough where she couldn't hear, smell, or even see anything that wasn't the natural forest that surrounded her. Her hands were buried in her pockets as she walked, her gaze tracing the abundance of life that surrounded her.

She wasn't quite sure where in the forest she was right at that moment, but she wasn't bothered.

She walked until she found a small offshoot of the stream overlooked by many large trees, scarcely deep enough to reach her ankles if she were to stand in the deepest part - It was just within her comfort range, where it didn't cause an uncomfortable sickness to roll around in the pit of her stomach. The grass out here was lush, comfortable looking, and there were very few rocks and pebbles. There didn't appear to be any snakes, or anything that would pose a problem if she chose to just spend the afternoon right here.

So Amaya set herself down on the clearest stretch of grassy forest floor, stretching out so that her back was flat against the cool ground.

Today wasn't a good day, and in fact, Amaya couldn't help but wonder if there had been any particularly good days for her at all this past month.

Sure, there were highs here and there, like Karma seeming to come back to his senses, the shopping spree Yuta and Reiko had dragged her on, amongst other things. But over all? Not really anything stood out to her.

If something good happened to her, it was usually overshadowed by something unfortunate pretty soon after.

And it bothered her.

True, she probably asked for a lot of it with the way that she acted and treated people, but there were times where she couldn't help but wonder about it.

Was it entirely her fault?

Was it something out of her control?

Or had she just reached that point in time where her luck was inverted?

There were small snippets where people would refer to particular years of a persons life to be either lucky or unlucky, depending on their age. She couldn't really recall all too much about it, but the one she had heard was that sixteen years of age was a good year, seventeen was average, and eighteen wasn't really all that good.

She couldn't recall what fifteen was. If she was going to believe it to be anything, based on her luck right now, it was a terrible year.

Terrible for everyone of Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka, too, because they were basically responsible for making sure Koro-sensei was assassinated by the end of the school year.

If it was a bad luck year, then she had no choice but to grit her teeth and deal with it.

Amaya let out a small breath as she closed her eyes, setting her left hand against her stomach with her other beneath her head as she lost herself in thought again.

Yes, this year was terrible so far, but dealing with Karma was beginning to become a bit too tedious for her to appreciate. Granted, it was just the first day being back in class together for years, so it might just be a case of things being weird until everything finished settling back in place, but she did not appreciate the headaches and insults she was receiving.

Right now, Karma was giving her many reasons to give him a black eye.

Just today, there was the whole thing with her fainting in the Faculty office, giving Koro-sensei her phone to wake her up with, and sneaking up behind her to scare her. That was already three separate things, not including the fact that he'd been laughing at her amongst taunts and mocking.

Just from today's events, she really wanted to give him that black eye.

And really, if he pushed her buttons too much more, she probably would, too.

It wouldn't be the first time she'd done it, either.

Rare, but not unheard of.

At that point, at the age of eight, she'd learned to not let anybody in. Then she suffered the whims of a brat who in the end learned how to get under her skin and rule her up.

Of course even at that age, Karma was the evil, manipulative person he was now.

He'd managed to worm his way in despite her best attempts at pushing everyone away.

After that day when she decided to stop hiding, she had retaliated a few times vehemently.

But those were more like what today was.

Karma would just prod and jab her with taunts that wouldn't truly bother her on a normal day, but because of his impeccable timing, they jabbed straight through her like they were really steel swords. The taunts shouldn't bother her, because he'd used them on her before, but every now and then he'd use them on a day that she was already upset over something related.

There was a phrase that her English teacher back in elementary school would use ...

Maybe 'The straw that broke the Camel's back', or something like that.

The whole scenario with his taunts was something like that.

All of a sudden it seemed, a soft vibration from Amaya's left pocket began to appear, combined with a soft chiming that was a tune that she didn't recognize off the top of her head.

Though she did understand it was her phone beginning to ring.

She let out a breath as she reached down towards the device, her fingers pulling it free as she opened her eyes slowly.

The caller ID read Reiko, causing a small sigh to escape her.

She would have wondered what was so important he'd be calling her during school hours, had she not been able to see the clock in the top right corner of her phone, reading 3.49pm. Yuta was probably doing head-boy kinda stuff, and Reiko didn't have a club she was attending right now, so maybe she wanted something?

With this in mind, Amaya pressed the answer button on her phone and pressed it to her ear gently.

'Hey, Reiko.' Amaya answered as she closed her eyes slowly. 'What's up?'

A soft cracking echoed through the speaker, mixed with a little bit of wind-like whirling.

'Amay~! I have a question for you!' Reiko's voice chimed out through the speaker, her tone enthusiastic and musical.

It had Amaya let out a small breath.

'Okay?'

'Can Mako-chan and Kouichi-kun sleep over tonight?' She asked.

Sleep over? On a Monday night?

'Why?' Amaya asked suspiciously.

'We have a group assignment we need to study for! And Kouichi-kun's parents are still fighting, so we can't go there to do it.' Reiko explained, much to Amaya's exasperation.

'Right, they're still pretty bad for that, aren't they?'

'Uhuh!' Reiko hummed in immediate answer.

'You do realize that's a pretty dangerous thing you're asking for, don't you?' Amaya questioned as she pulled her right hand out from beneath her head to rub her eyes gently. 'I'm still a little mad about this morning. I could let something slip, or bring up some pretty embarrassing stories. I'm sure Kouichi-kun would just love to hear them.'

'Amay, you wouldn't do that to us.' Reiko responded confidently, sure of herself as Amaya opened her eyes to glare up at the treetops above her. 'You love us too much to do that.'

'How about you try throwing me out of the apartment again, and see where that gets you?'

'So can they sleep over?' Reiko questioned quickly, making an obvious play at ignoring Amaya's remark. 'They've got the okay from their moms, so it's all on you!'

Another sigh escaped Amaya as she closed her eyes again.

'You've gotta stop doing things backwards, Reiko - You need to ask me first so that it's guaranteed for Mako-chan and Kouichi-kun.' Amaya complained.

'But it's for study~!' Reiko whined dramatically.

Amaya felt her ear ache at the pitch the girl spoke at.

'Okay, fine. They can come over.' Amaya gave in as she set her free hand over her eyes, another sigh escaping her at the excited squeak that echoed in response. 'I'm not sure what I can cook for five, though...'

'Oh, that's okay. You don't need to cook, Amay.' Reiko spoke up all of a sudden, quickly, causing Amaya to blink in suspicion. 'It's probably better that we get take-out, instead.'

'The hell kind of answer was that?' Amaya grumbled indignantly. 'You got something you wanna say about my cooking, do you?'

'Oh?' A familiar voice spoke from right next to Amaya, a sly grin echoing in their tone of voice. 'It's bad enough where it could be the best weapon to use against Koro-sensei - We should try giving him some!'

'Shut up, Karma!' Amaya responded instinctively.

And then it hit her.

'Wait -- Karma?!' Amaya exclaimed as she threw herself upright in fright, turning her head to look at the suddenly present red-head.

He was sitting at most a meter away from her, fixing her with a smug look as Amaya blinked in bewildered confusion.

When the hell had he turned up?!

'Amay! Don't ignore me!' Reiko's shouting voice echoed from speaker of her phone, catching her attention immediately.

'A-ah ... sorry about that.' Amaya apologized to Reiko while she fixed Karma with a glare. 'So I'll figure something out for dinner for everyone and grab it on the way home ...'

'Eh?' Reiko responded in an almost Karma-like manner, causing Amaya to glare at the red-head even more. 'I'm sorry! I didn't realize I was interrupting anything!'

Amaya felt her glare turn vicious as she heard the mocking in the girl's voice, and she had to drag her gaze away from the thoroughly amused Karma.

'Reiko, there's a fine line between a joke and a death wish.' Amaya spoke gently as she struggled to maintain her composure. 'I suggest you stop while you're ahead, or I will make your life miserable.'

'Okay~!' Reiko sung out, however she didn't sound the least bit repentant or wary. 'We'll see you at home!'

And with that, Reiko hung up before Amaya could have responded.

The disconnection beeping echoed through the speaker of her phone for a couple of seconds, before Amaya pulled the phone from her ear and hung up, as well.

'Someone's in a bad mood.' Karma remarked as Amaya pocketed her phone, causing her to fix her glare back on him immediately.

'Really? I hadn't noticed.' Amaya responded in venomous sarcasm.

Oddly enough, Karma's smirk disappeared, and he sighed, leaving Amaya to drop herself back to the grass and rest her right arm over her eyes. She really did feel horribly fed up with the day, and wanted nothing more than to drone out to her music.

Curse of her luck, really.

'You're mad about the whole yangire thing, aren't you?' Karma asked her.

There was exasperation in his tone of voice, which didn't help Amaya's mood at that moment.

'I'm not mad.' She responded moodily.

'Yeah, no. You're definitely mad.' He responded immediately.

'I'm not mad!' She repeated herself a little louder, screwing her eyes shut beneath her arm. 'Geeze, what is it with you, today? Are you trying to piss me off, or something?'

'Not really.' Karma responded easily, though his tone was rather subdued. 'I didn't think you'd get so bent out of shape, though.'

'In case you hadn't noticed, you've been doing nothing but mock me ever since Karasuma-san turned up at my apartment.' Amaya griped, turning her head to glare at the red-head past her arm. 'Four god damn days worth of your sense of humor and nothing else? Of course I'd start thinking you were trying to piss me off!'

Either that, or he missed her more than he was letting on ever since he'd gotten suspended.

She wouldn't let herself believe that, though.

'Fine. If I make it up to you, will you forgive me?' Karma asked her seriously, though she could pick up on a knowing smirk in his eyes.

'That depends on what you had in mind.' She responded.

He shook his head with the smallest of chuckles.

'How about I save those kids from your cooking?' He offered with that knowing smirk growing across his face. 'Yuta-kun and Reiko-chan would have built up an immunity by now, but I don't think their friends will survive.'

'Okay, now I know you're trying to piss me off.' Amaya responded with a glare.

'Would I do that?' He asked her whimsically.

'Will you stop asking rhetorical questions, already?'

Instead of answering her question, or even thinking about it, Karma just smirked as he lifted himself to his feet.

'Come on - I want to talk to you about a plan I've got for Koro-sensei, anyway.' He told her, burying his hands in the pockets of his jacket as Amaya continued to frown at him. 'I wanna try it out on him tomorrow.'

Eventually, Amaya gave in with a sigh and dragged herself to her feet.

'Fine, fine.' She grumbled, though inwardly she was beginning to feel a little better. 'I need to get my bag, though...'

'No need.' Karma responded with a grin, lifting up what Amaya immediately recognized as her messenger bag.

She was actually surprised she hadn't noticed he'd brought it with him.

'Oh, thanks...' She spoke as he handed it to her.

Maybe things were getting back to normal, after all?

The last time he'd wanted to include her in on something was when they trapped the water-fountains back at the main campus, just before everything went belly-up between them.

The very thought was enough to actually cheer her up.

So, with a small smile and an exasperated sigh, Amaya began to follow the Red Devil down the mountain towards civilization.

*-+-<3-+-*

'Katsuragi Amaya!' Yuta snapped as soon as Amaya had opened the door of the apartment, startling the purple-haired girl with little effort. Both she and Karma blinked in surprise to find the boy stomping down the small passageway towards them, a livid expression across his spectacled face.

In his hand was a purple obento, which belonged to Amaya.

'What the heck do you call this?!' Yuta all but shouted at her, practically shoving the opened obento in Amaya's face. Inside the purple container was white rice with just a single slice of salmon.

Clueless, Amaya blinked before she spoke.

'My obento? What about it?'

'Where's the rest of it?!' Yuta demanded angrily.

'What do you mean? I kinda splurged on that.' Amaya responded, still clueless to what was ailing her brother.

Much to her bemusement, her honest answer seemed to make the spectacled-boy angrier.

'You mean this is normal?!'

Amaya blinked, however she nodded silently, coming to the understanding that somehow, her obento had made Yuta truly angry.

The spectacled boy looked down at the obento for just a second, before he fixed her with that same livid look.

'I can't believe this! You're telling me you have nothing but rice for lunch every day?! What's wrong with you?!' Yuta lectured her, stunning the clueless girl as he slammed the lid shut on the box. 'I'm surprised you haven't come down sick!'

'E-eh? Yuta--'

'Since I can't trust you to look after yourself, I'll just have to step in!' Yuta snapped, stunning her back to silence as he turned back to head inside. 'From now on, you're banned from making obento, Amaya!'

Finally cracking under the strain, Karma burst into laughter as Amaya remained frozen in the doorway.

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

And here we have Chapter Thirteen all submitted :) My copy of the Manga still hasn't come in yet, so it's still gonna be a bit slow with the updates. Fingers crossed they arrive in the mail soon!

I must thank everyone for the feedback and the votes on the chapters thus far! It's been a lot of fun talking with all of you, and I hope to hear from you all as the chapters continue :)

In any case, here are this chapters translations notes :)

Narasu - Our Chapter Title translates as a form of Sound, or Chime, written as 鳴らすin Kanji.

Sukeban - It's a word that translates most accurately as Girl Delinquent (スケ番 in Kanji). This one I had to research it's word, so the following paragraphs are from a definition I found online:

Sukeban means girl or boss girl in Japanese, equivalent to the male Banchou (番長 in Kanji). A dictionary of Japanese Slang says that sukeban only refers to the leader of a girl gang, not any member of the girl gang.

Further on, you can find this in its definition description: The common signifiers of sukeban (described by the Japanese police in 1980s pamphlets as "omens of downfall") include or hair, and modifications of the such as wearing coloured socks, rolling up the sleeves and lengthening the skirt. Sukeban are reported to engage in activities such as stimulant use, shoplifting, theft, and violence, but if arrested, they can be charged with the lesser offence of "pre-delinquency". The word sukeban was originally used by delinquents, but has been used by the general population since 1972.

From this, I'm sure you can understand why Amaya didn't like being called a Sukeban ;)