When it rains, it pours - For Amaya, this was one of the great truths of life. Whenever she went through a bit of bad luck, it just kept spiraling worse and worse, until she was about ready to crack.

She couldn't remember very much of what was said after Isogai and Maehara had found her sitting on the windowsill in the corridor, though something in the back of her head told her that not much was actually said to begin with.

The situation caused by Koro-sensei's dropped gossip book wasn't exactly something one could happily converse about, after all.

She vaguely recalled Maehara asking if he could have Koro-sensei's book for some reason, and the two of them escorted Amaya to Karasuma's room once she'd managed to regain her composure. Isogai had disappeared at some point around then, and the rest was a blur to her.

Amaya guessed she must have finally passed out somewhere along the line, because she was somewhere completely different to what she last remembered.

'Katsuragi-san.' A voice called out her name gently, prodding at her consciousness and drawing her from the unconscious depths of rest. 'Hey, Katsuragi-san. It's time to wake up, now.'

'Megu-chan, can't we let her sleep some more?' A second voice questioned, a concerned tone touching the mostly unfamiliar voice. 'She really looks like she needs it...'

'Karasuma-sensei said she needs to get up.' The first voice responded, a patient tone in her voice.

The small exchange was enough to bring Amaya to open her eyes groggily.

She found that she was lying on her back in a futon, set in the same corner she'd taken up the night before, and there were two girls leaning over her. The first was Kataoka, dressed in the same pristine, neat and tidy uniform with her hair the exact same way, and the second was Yada, also dressed in her school uniform.

'Ah! Good morning, Katsuragi-san.' Kataoka greeted Amaya as she looked at the two girls sleepily. 'How are you feeling?'

Amaya blinked slowly before she settled with 'Okay, I guess...'

Honestly, she wasn't even coherent enough to have an answer for that, yet.

Nothing hurt, exactly.

'How'd I get here, anyway?' Amaya managed to ask after a glance at her surroundings.

'You were asleep at the time - Maehara-kun carried you here.' Yada spoke up, a sympathetic smile across her face as Amaya turned her head to look at her.

'It sounds like you had a pretty terrible day.' Kataoka surmised with a wry smile across her face, causing Amaya to look at her in confusion. 'Isogai-kun came and let us know when you got back last night, though he didn't tell us what was going on.'

'Oh ...' Amaya went to lift her left arm to rub her eyes gently, however she barely managed to flex it before she was suddenly shocked with pain. 'Oww! Damnit!'

'Oh yeah, your arm's apparently pretty messed up.' Kataoka spoke up in apparent explanation, watching as Amaya sighed and forced herself upright despite her body's protests. 'Did you get into some kind of trouble, too, Katsuragi-san?'

'No, not really.' Amaya responded with a huff, looking down at the copious amount of bandages wrapped around her arm. 'My luck's just rotten, this year.'

Kataoka and Fuwa seemed to share a glance with each other, though they didn't really say much.

'We'll leave you to get dressed, Katsuragi-san.' Kataoka remarked as she looked back at Amaya, while Fuwa lifted herself to her feet. 'Check-out is in just under half an our, so you should start getting organized.'

Amaya nodded her head in understanding, though she didn't really pay much attention in preference for quickly checking herself over.

The two girls made their way out of the room, leaving Amaya the only person inside.

So far, it was pain in her arm, the rest was a dull, heavy pressure that kind of hurt, but not much more. She was also remarkably clean, too - She guessed she must have gotten cleaned up before her arm got tended to. There were bandage patches on her face, and her right arm had a bit of patching as well.

She guessed she must have been a bit more beat up than she thought.

She didn't remember much, though, even as she picked herself up to get organized.

However she did remember the words inside the cursed little book, and the pain that they had inflicted upon her.

She was a little bothered by the fact that it had hurt so much - She'd always been so certain that he didn't think of her like that, anyway.

Maybe ... it was just having some kind of evidence of it instead of it all being in her head?

Because she was hoping all this time that she'd be proven wrong, perhaps?

Yes, she wanted to be proven wrong.

She couldn't hope for something that would never happen, something that she could see would never happen.

She could only hope for something to prove her wrong.

It was easier to play with the meaning of her own words, instead of being entirely forthcoming with herself.

Things just worked out better that way.

Amaya's arm was hurling painful abuse at her as she finally got herself dressed, her bag slung over her right shoulder, and the futon she'd been sleeping in neatly folded and discarded with the others. She wondered offhandedly if she needed to keep it still just so that it could heal a little.

Actually, she was pretty sure she was just aggravating it.

Even still, all she did was carefully hold her arm still at her side before leaving the room.

Amaya made her way through the corridors of the Inn, her gaze tracing the discoloured patches in the walls as she followed the far-off sounds of her classmates voices.

There was one voice that was much closer than the others, echoing from one of the small, one-person rooms along the way.

'Nyuuwah!? Where did it go!?' Echoed the familiar voice belonging to Koro-sensei, his tone frantic as the sounds of a lot of movement began to echo as well. 'Nooo! My precious research! I can't have lost it, now!'

Amaya didn't even glance over, keeping her gaze elsewhere as she filed that bit of information away for future reference.

Research, huh?

She wondered what kind of day it was going to be - the sunlight out the windows were bright and crisp, telling Amaya that it was around mid-morning, and their train back to Tokyo was a mid-afternoon one.

There was brief mention that it was going to be a souvenir day somewhere in amongst all the discussions, however Amaya couldn't be sure.

Amaya decided there really wasn't much point in thinking about it, either.

As far as she knew, there were no changes to the separation announcement from Koro-sensei, so in all likelihood she probably was supposed to follow him around all over again.

Not that she would, today.

Even if it was set in stone as the way of today, Amaya was just going to go to the train station and wait there, instead.

'Oh! Maya-chan!' Came Maehara's voice through the haze of Amaya's train of thought, startling the girl just enough to catch her attention.

She looked over in the direction of his voice, to find that she had already reached the common-room, and he was approaching from a small encirclement of boys made up of Isogai, Mimura, Sugaya, and Kimura.

At the mention of Amaya's shortened name, a few additional gazes fell upon her, even from over in the other parts of the common-room where she could see glimpses of green, red and blue from the corner of her eye.

'Hey, you feeling okay?' Maehara asked her, and despite the normal smile of his across his face, there was an edge of concern in his gaze.

She probably looked terrible, then.

'Yeah, I guess ...' Amaya responded with a small sigh, ruffling her hair absent-mindedly as she kept her gaze away from the far corner of the room. 'I don't really remember much after you asked for that book ...'

'I'm not surprised.' Maehara responded, an edge of sympathy touching his expression as he then glanced back at the group of boys he'd been talking with when she arrived. 'Come on, you're with me and Yuuma, today.'

Amaya blinked in surprise at that, and looked up at the playboy owlishly as he began to walk back towards Isogai.

'Wait - I am?' She asked him, though she followed as he glanced back at her with a smile. 'But - when was that decided?'

'We decided it yesterday. You know, after watching you have to sit there doing nothing all day.'

'Oh.'

There really wasn't much that Amaya could say to that - she ambled along after him and tried not to let herself recede further into her shell.

She was apparently going to be spending what was left of the Kyoto trip with Isogai and Maehara, so she shouldn't let it go to waste.

The boys in the small circle all looked up at Amaya's approach, casting her small smiles with quiet greetings. There was a kind of knowing air about them too, as if they were aware of what was going on.

Of course, they knew about the contents of Koro-sensei's book now, since the cursed item was held open within Sugaya's grip at that very second, open on a particular page that brought a painful clenching back to Amaya's chest.

'I'd put that away, if I were you.' Amaya spoke with a humorless smile, causing Sugaya to blink in surprise as everyone else looked at her - She didn't miss the way he suddenly tried to hide it behind his back, either, as if he suddenly realized she could see the pages. 'I think Koro-sensei's looking for it.'

'You know what this is, Katsuragi-san?' Sugaya asked in surprise, while Kimura seemed to stare at her in shock.

'Amaya-san was the one who found it, actually.' Isogai spoke up from Amaya's left side, startling the others with little effort. 'She gave it to us last night.'

Ah, they must have assumed that Maheara had found it, rather than that he'd obtained it from a tearful Amaya.

Mimura cast an uncomfortable glance at Maehara, who let out a wry chuckle as he set a hand atop Amaya's head gently.

'Maya-chan won't sell us out, don't worry.' Maehara remarked as he gently ruffled her hair.

Amaya felt her eyes slowly droop shut on her at the pleasant contact, inwardly weighing his remark in her thoughts.

Would she sell them out just for that little discussion?

Probably not - Not to teachers, or the girls.

People were gonna talk about those things, regardless. It was just unfortunate that she found written records of it.

'Eh? Are you two on first name basis with Katsuragi-san?' Mimura asked curiously, almost suddenly.

Amaya guessed it was an attempt at shifting the conversation from the little book.

'Yeah?' Maehara answered, though his tone was curious as he lifted his hand from Amaya's head. 'What about it?'

'Nothing, really - Just thought it was a bit sudden.' Mimura responded.

'I don't like my family name.' Amaya spoke up as she opened her eyes to look up at the rather startled Mimura. 'Nothing more, nothing less.'

'So you just prefer people to call you Amaya-san, instead?' Sugaya asked, a small smile touching his face.

To which Amaya just gave a small nod.

'Nurufufufu, so Katsuragi-san is like Nagisa-kun and Karma-kun in that she prefers being referred to by her first-name, then?' Koro-sensei suddenly spoke up, appearing out of nowhere it seemed. 'I see. That's understandable.'

It was typical for the creature to turn up right in the middle of a discussion that had nothing to do with him.

Though as Amaya glanced at Sugaya, she noticed that the notebook was long since gone.

She guessed they'd put it away when she suggested.

'You know it's rude to eavesdrop on conversations, Koro-sensei?' Mimura spoke up all of a sudden, fixing the yellow creature standing just a couple of paces behind Amaya with a rather bemused stare. 'You're actually starting to look like a stalker.'

'S-Sensei just happened to arrive just now! Honest!' Koro-sensei spoke up in his defense, however she doubted anyone was just going to accept that excuse right now.

'We're still mad at you for last night, dammit!' Maehara exclaimed, and all of a sudden he'd turned to approach Koro-sensei. 'I've got a bone to pick with you over that, too!'

'Nyuuwah!?!' Koro-sensei exclaimed all dramatically.

'That's a good point.' Mimura remarked as he stepped out of the circle to follow suit. 'What kind of teacher continues to eavesdrop on his students, even after being chased around like that?'

'Wha-what?!' Koro-sensei appeared to be at a loss of what was going on, not that Amaya knew what they were talking about, either.

But she decided to add fuel to the fire.

'I heard him talking to himself about some precious research on the way here.' Amaya remarked as she turned to look at the scene of Maehara and Mimura standing right in front of a rather startled Koro-sensei, causing the three of them to look over at her. 'Maybe it's got something to do with that?'

'Nyuwah!?' Koro-sensei had exclaimed at the mention of research, and his face went very pale.

'Research?!' Maehara repeated, his eyes widening as he turned his head to look back at Koro-sensei. 'You're researching us!?'

'Sensei wants to learn more about his students!' Koro-sensei practically yelped out.

And with that, he suddenly took off in a frantic dash back into the other parts of the Inn.

'Damn it - GET BACK HERE!' Maehara shouted as he took off after Koro-sensei, Mimura and oddly enough, Kimura, Sugaya, Okano, Nakamura and Okajima following suit.

After watching this little turn of events, Amaya guessed that could be why the book had ended up discarded on the floor for her to find like that - Koro-sensei had been caught eavesdropping, and in the midst of being chased around, dropped it while trying to avoid most of the student-body trying to kill him.

That could also explain why it seemed like Koro-sensei only noticed the book's absence when she walked past that morning.

It wasn't long after Amaya had fueled the little scene with her tidbit of information that Karasuma had arrived in the common-room, an irritated look across his face as he walked with not only Koro-sensei, but the students who'd chased after him in tow, each wearing a grim look of resignation.

By the looks of it, Karasuma had rounded them up and given them a lecture on manners, considering that they were supposed to be leaving.

The plans for the rest of the time between now and departure was for the students to wander around at their own leisure, around two, meet up in front of some landmark Amaya honestly didn't know, and then they'd board that train and go back to Tokyo.

Amaya wasn't going to lie - She really wanted to go home and curl up on the couch hugging her siblings.

At one point, Karasuma had looked over at Amaya standing next to Isogai.

He'd opened his mouth to say something, but it appeared that Isogai knew what he was about to say.

'We're bringing Amaya-san with us, today.' Isogai spoke up before the ever-serious man even said a word.

To which Karasuma seemed to nod slightly, before he turned on his heel and went to pry Irina from smothering poor Nagisa with her excessive breasts.

She might have been trying to get him to cough up some more information on Koro-sensei's weaknesses.

Though oddly enough, despite the fact that the rest of Nagisa's group from yesterday were all present around him, Karma-kun was nowhere to be seen.

Amaya wondered about that, after all, she could have sworn she'd seen him when she walked into the common-room.

'Shall we go? Maehara? Amaya-san?' Isogai spoke up as Karasuma grabbed Irina and pulled her into an arm-lock in order to steer her away from the gasping, blue-faced Nagisa.

'Definitely.' Maehara responded with a smile, to which Amaya nodded her head in agreement.

Thus Amaya was lead out of the inn, situated between Isogai and Maehara as they made their way towards wherever it was that the two wanted to take her.

She doubted there was too much of a plan, though.

These two just tended to do subtle things to keep her mind occupied, much like when she'd first started to spend time with them.

Isogai and Maehara lead her along the many streets in a very different direction to which Koro-sensei had lead her through just yesterday, and Amaya listened into the conversation they were having.

There were a few questions here and there that the boys asked her as well - Innocent, well meaning questions that weren't very much at all in the form of invasiveness.

'Cats or Dogs, Maya-chan?' Maehara had decided to ask her as they'd passed by a street-vendor selling crepes.

'Birds...' Amaya responded after a small seconds thought.

'Oh! So it's neither, then.' Maehara seemed a little amused by her response. 'Then, favorite colour?'

'Red.' Amaya responded without hesitance, taking a sip of the water she'd bought a few streets back.

'So how about your favorite sweets?' Isogai asked this time.

'I don't like sweets very much.' Amaya responded honestly. 'I prefer spicy foods instead.'

'Well that's a first.' Maehara scoffed slightly, causing Amaya to turn her head to look at him. 'You're the first girl I've ever heard of that doesn't like sweets.'

'You're not the first to tell me that.' She responded with a small sigh. 'Reiko probably makes up for it with all the sweets she inhales.'

Isogai actually laughed lightly at that.

'That almost sounded like you were describing my own sister, Amaya-san.' Isogai remarked with a smile, causing Amaya to look up at him.

'Ah, so she'd eat sweets for every meal if she had her own way?' She asked curiously.

'That's right.' Isogai appeared thoroughly amused right now. 'She's not allowed in the kitchen simply because she'd add sweets to whatever meal's being prepared at the time.'

Amaya felt her brow knit together.

'I think you just described Reiko ...'

'You people with siblings, I swear...' Maehara muttered with a small scoff.

'What's wrong, Maehara?' Isogai asked with amusement clear in his tone of voice. 'Are you feeling left out?'

'Why would I feel left out of a conversation about siblings?' Maehara responded with a heavy air of sarcasm. 'Both pairs of your siblings are spoiled brats.'

Amaya weighed his words for just a few seconds, while Isogai just smiled.

'Yeah, I guess mine are ...' Amaya eventually remarked, placing her gaze back upon Maehara with a small smile. 'But they are mine, so I don't mind, really. I certainly wouldn't trade them for anything.'

'Couldn't have said it better, myself.' Isogai agreed, much to Maehara's bemusement.

'Fine! You two adore your siblings! Next topic, please!' Maehara announced childishly.

Isogai laughed lightly in response as Amaya shook her head slightly with a smile.

'How about lunch, then?' Isogai offered.

'Oh! Great idea!' Maehara piped up with a grin, looking down at Amaya from Isogai's amused expression. 'So Spicy Food was it, Maya-chan?'

'U-uh, yeah ...?'

Maehara then made a rather dramatic move of scanning all the nearby stores, before looking back at Isogai.

'Oi, Yuuma - That place we passed is around here, right?' He asked.

'That's right. Left at the end of the street. It's the third one on the right side of the walkway.' Isogai responded with a smile, surprising Amaya with little effort.

'Wait - You only walked past this place once and you remember exactly where it is?' Amaya asked in surprise.

To which Isogai cast her a smile in response.

'Yuuma here's got some impressive memory.' Maehara explained with a knowing grin, earning Amaya's surprised gaze in turn. 'It's actually kinda freaky when you start noticing just how much he actually remembers - It's like he's some kinda robot or something!'

'Only you would compare me to a robot, Maehara.' Isogai responded with a rather amused smile.

Despite the small disagreement taking place, Amaya couldn't help but smile brightly.

How the hell did these two have such a great nack at cheering her up like this?

The debate on what made Isogai a Robot continued between the two, even as they turned left at the end of the street and made their way to the third store on the right side of the walkway.

However Amaya hadn't gotten more than a couple of meters from the front door when she stopped in her tracks as her nose picked up on something.

It was a scent that actually tugged at her stomach, and made her suddenly quite excited.

'Oh my god, they have seafood!' Amaya suddenly exclaimed with glee, and before the two boys had managed to whirl around in surprise, Amaya had dashed straight into the store with great enthusiasm.

The cashier at the register looked up in surprise at Amaya's sudden approach, however the pseudo-purple girl didn't notice; She lifted up one of the paper menu from the stack sitting on the counter and moved to the side in preference for inspecting it.

Of course, Amaya's stomach had already made the decision of seafood, so she just stared at the rather large seafood menu on the back of the page.

'Someone's obviously a fan of fish.' Maehara remarked with a smirk as he and Isogai came to a stop just next to Amaya.

'Fish, squid, prawn, shrimp, wakame, all of it.' Amaya remarked without lifting her gaze from the menu. 'I could seriously live off of this stuff if it wasn't so expensive.'

'Are you a penguin or something?' Maehara deadpanned.

This time however, Amaya lifted her gaze to look at him in surprise.

'Penguin?' She repeated.

'I think you're mistaken, Maehara.' Isogai remarked with an amused smile, looking at the playboy from Amaya's confused form. 'Amaya-san seems to have many feline tendencies. Perhaps she's a cat, instead?'

'Oh yeah.' Maehara laughed as he looked back at Amaya's rather bewildered form. 'I guess that makes more sense than her being a Penguin.'

Before Amaya could even stop herself, she facepalmed in response.

'Dammit, not you, too...' She groaned, however Isogai just laughed.

Was she really that bad? Not only for Karma to call her a cat, but now Isogai and Maehara had made the connection, too?

She seriously didn't know whether to laugh about it, or get a little offended.

They placed their orders, Amaya going with a curried seafood wrap and once they had their lunch, the boys lead the way to one of the tables outside the store.

A cool breeze was about as Amaya took a bite of her lunch, and she felt her mood suddenly brighten and she almost let out a happy squeak in her seat.

Happiness through food.

Apparently that was a common thing for girls, but it was usually to do with sweets.

It honestly didn't matter - All Amaya knew was that she was going to enjoy her curried seafood.

There were chuckles from her two friends at the sight of her excessively happy moment, though she really didn't mind.

'So obviously the way to your heart is through your stomach, Maya-chan.' Maehara remarked with a grin.

Amaya didn't bother to agree, feeling that her current disposition was enough of an answer.

Of course, her good mood didn't last very long.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed the familiar forms of Sugino and Nagisa walking into one of the shops across the road, a few paces behind them was Kayano, Kanzaki, Okuda, and right in the back was Karma, who had his hands buried in his pockets as he seemed to talk to the girls ahead of him.

Amaya could feel her chest tighten painfully again, and an uncomfortable, almost acidic feeling began to take hold of her.

She lowered her gaze as she fell silent, and her appetite began to disappear on her.

Her thoughts were automatically rerouted to that cursed book.

She missed the knowing look both boys cast each other at her moods sudden deflation, before Isogai decided to break the silence that had descended upon the table.

'So, Amaya-san?' Isogai spoke up, catching Amaya's attention and bringing her to hesitantly lift her gaze from her half-eaten wrap in her hands. 'How long have you known Karma-kun?'

Amaya inwardly winced at the question, though she didn't let it show across her face.

'Ever since I moved to Tokyo with Yuta and Reiko.' Amaya answered, lowering her gaze back to her wrap as she began to swing her feet just a little beneath her. 'So ... probably going on eight years now.'

'You've known each other about as long as we have, then?' Maehara surmised, though he did sound a little surprised.

'We're neighbors, so it's kind of one of those inevitable things, I guess.'

'Really?' Maehara asked, surprise evident in his tone of voice. 'So he lives a couple blocks away like Yuuma and me, then?'

'No - He lives in the apartment building across the road from me.' Amaya remarked, glancing up at Maehara's rather flabbergasted face. 'We were in the same class all through Elementary School, too.'

The two boys looked at each other for a few seconds, though they didn't really say anything in response to her words.

Probably because there wasn't very much that could be said.

It was then that Maehara seemed to have an idea, almost randomly - His posture suddenly straightened, and he looked thoroughly intrigued as he looked over at the store that Karma and everyone else had gone inside.

'Wait here - I just thought of something.' Maehara remarked, casting Isogai a smirk for a second.

Before there was any response, however, Maehara had deposited the empty packaging of his yakisoba pan into the wastebin on the side of the road, and walked into the store.

'That's odd.' Isogai remarked, though he didn't really seem too bothered - He cast Amaya a kind smile before he continued eating.

It was a few minutes later when Maehara re-emerged from the DVD store, with an oddly confused looking Karma with him.

Amaya did her best to ignore the uncomfortable tightening of her heart inside her chest, but it was still there.

She must have looked rather pained, because the Ikeman sitting next to her lightly elbowed her to grab her attention, and fixed her with an encouraging smile.

'Oi, Yuuma.' Maehara spoke up with a rather alarming smirk, surprising Isogai as Amaya lowered her gaze back to her lunch. 'Gimme that book for a minute, would you?'

Book ...

Amaya felt her chest tighten painfully again.

She remained silent as Isogai didn't say a word, however he set his lunch carefully on his napkin and pulled that little blue notebook from the inside pocket of his school blazer.

Amaya vaguely wondered when Isogai had gotten the notebook off of Sugaya, but nothing more.

Somewhere in the vicinity of the next few minutes, Karma had flicked through that notebook with a particularly sharp gaze, glancing through on most parts.

There was however one or two places that he seemed to stop, as if the contents suddenly interested him.

Amaya couldn't stop the flinch from escaping her as Karma snapped the notebook shut all of a sudden, and he then just passed it to Maehara.

'Since it's that kind of book, you could use it on him for extortion.' Karma remarked as he buried his hands in his pockets again, seeming to glance at Amaya's motionless form for just a second. 'He'd probably pay up quite well if you threatened to release the contents to everyone. Otherwise you could just trap all the pages so that he can't touch the book at all, and give it back to him.'

'Oh! That's a good idea!' Maehara remarked with a rather impressed tone of voice. 'But how could we do that?'

So that's what Maehara wanted to talk to Karma about - What kind of evil things can they do to Koro-sensei's notebook.

Amaya didn't realize that the playboy actually had a bit of a vindictive side to him, after everything that Isogai had said about him.

Isogai seemed to let out an almost uncomfortable sigh at those words.

Obviously he did not like the way this was going.

'Amay?' Karma spoke up all of a sudden, causing her to lift her gaze to look up at him. His gaze was particularly sharp, his brow furrowed ever so slightly in what she knew to be confusion.

Something was bothering him, but right now Amaya really didn't want to try and figure out what it could be, or why.

'Yeah?'

'You brought some of that stuff you used to trap your headphones and clothes, didn't you?' Karma asked her.

Of course...

Amaya let out the smallest of breaths as she wrapped her lunch back up and set it on the table.

'Umm ... yeah, I guess.' Amaya responded, reaching down for her bag as she felt those sharp eyes remain fixed upon her unexplainable meek form. 'How much did you need?'

'Enough to ruin a whole book.' Maehara responded.

One by one she pulled out the small jars of Anti-Sensei BB solutions, gently setting them on the table until she had all five of them sitting there on the table.

She could see Isogai's rather curious expression from the corner of her eye, while Maehara looked thoroughly floored with the revelation that she had Anti-Sensei solutions already prepared in little jars like that. Karma however just glanced at the jars, before placing his gaze back upon her face.

Though he didn't say anything.

'So what are these, Maya-chan?' Maehara asked curiously, picking up the jar with the silver lid. 'They're all different.'

'One's quick-dry glue, another's just straight BB-dust, umm ... the one you're holding is mixed with Vanilla Sugar--'

'Vanilla-Sugar?' Karma was the one to speak up this time, an edge of curiosity to his otherwise serious tone of voice. 'What good is that going to do?'

Amaya glanced up at him for a second, before she began to zip her bag back up.

'I was thinking of putting it over his sweets if I had an opportunity.' Amaya remarked as she set her bag down on the ground between her feet again. 'Or just leaving it somewhere for him to find.'

'What about this cloudy water?' Maehara asked, picking up the jar with the blue lid.

'Just that.' Amaya shrugged slightly as she looked up at Maehara. 'The other one's just vinegar and sugar.'

'... Why do you have that, Amaya-san?' Isogai curiously asked, despite his previous look of wanting to stay uninvolved with Maehara's scheme.

Amaya guessed he was just as curious as Maehara.

'Distraction-purposes.' Amaya remarked with a small breath escaping her, the corner of her mouth pulling ever so slightly into a small, wry smile. 'Throw a couple of the BB's in it, and it'll burst into a frothing mess after a few seconds.'

Isogai let out a small sigh at those words, while Maehara looked a little perturbed at the remark.

'I'll just borrow that, then.' Karma remarked with a rather evil tone of voice, and before Amaya knew it, her jar of sugared-vinegar had been acquired.

'Karma-kun!' Nagisa's voice spoke up from the front of the shop, causing the red-head to turn his attention over to the boy in mention. 'We're going to head to the next spot - You coming?

Amaya didn't need to look up to see that the rest of the group was there, too.

She lowered her gaze back to her hands as she hesitantly lifted her wrap from the table once again.

Karma cast her one last glance, before he bid himself farewell, and disappeared to rejoin Nagisa and the rest of the group.

An uncomfortable silence had descended upon the remaining three, leaving Amaya to recede further into her shell.

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

And here's next chapter. Longer than past updates, I admit, but I've been busy with work and some other things for the past few days, so I haven't had a lot of time to update. But I've made this one a longer chapter to cater to that :) BishOfAwesome I updated, so please don't cram me in the top of a tall tree xD I actually don't like heights! And Yander3RedQueen, I updated again >:D When ya gonna catch up? Anyways, about 5,450 words for this update.

Many thanks to everyone who's read thus far, and I hope you're still enjoying the story.

Poor Amaya seems to have terrible luck, huh?

In any case, lemme know what you lovely readers think of the current update, and I'll see about getting the next chapter up in the next couple of days.

Question for Discussion time! For those of you who haven't commented on my question on this earlier last week, who's your favorite Ansatsu Character? Obviously mine's Karma, closely followed by Maehara, but haha, what's yours?

In any case, translation notes for this chapter.

Gin - Translates as silver, which is written as 銀 in Japanese.