Unfortunately for Amaya, she hadn't been able to accept Maehara's offer to hang out on Saturday afternoon with him and Isogai.

It wasn't due to a rather difficult red-head, either.

Well, not directly, in any case.

When Reiko and Yuta had returned come Saturday morning bright and early, they insisted that she stay in bed and rest up for the whole weekend. Amaya had her suspicions of Karma's manipulation of course, but without concrete proof she couldn't really do anything but begrudgingly listen to her siblings, and send Maehara an apology email in return.

It didn't help that Karma turned up sometime Saturday evening just to be a thorn in her side; He took control of the remote to the television and kept on changing the channel whenever Amaya would begin to become interested in what was on the screen at the time. Once or twice he would stumble upon a documentary on birds or dinosaurs and immediately switch it over with a malevolent grin.

She wondered if this was some kind of psychological torture for something she wasn't fully aware of just yet, but ended up falling asleep before she could formulate a retaliation plan to rescue the remote from his evil clutches.

Amaya's Sunday was spent in a similar fashion, though thankfully Karma didn't turn up just to annoy her. In fact, he didn't turn up at all, though he did make his presence felt by calling her.

There really was no point to him even calling her to begin with, though by the time she'd hung up on him five minutes later, a vivid blush had appeared across her face and she felt thoroughly annoyed.

She did not like being threatened with a litre of caramel being forced down her throat, after all. Either wasabi or mustard were better because it wasn't a thick sludge that adhered to her throat like glue, and they were at least something she could tolerate in large quantities.

So Amaya begrudgingly behaved herself and spent the whole day reading whatever manga Yuta would throw at her on the couch.

Just in case her traitorous brother decided to sell her out.

Despite the irritations, bright and early on Monday morning, Amaya was feeling quite well. In fact, she felt great.

She didn't feel lethargic or off-colour at all, and in fact she felt very optimistic. There was no uncomfortable cold sinking into her bones, either, so she was in her normal clothes. The gashes in her hands had finally scabbed over, and she'd gotten Yuta to carefully help her remove the stitches before they ended up fused in her hand that morning.

Right now she had a plaster over her hand, and she was finally able to wear her fingerless gloves again.

She had her headphones in place as she walked up the Class E Mountain at a stroll, a baked sweet-potato in her right hand as she looked around. A song called Akatsuki wo Utsushite played with pleasant, deep bass, and Amaya found herself feeling like she just wanted to actually run around and have fun all day.

However it was a school day, so she just hummed along with the song as she munched on her rather odd breakfast.

The sunlight was nice and warm today, and it was bright enough where Amaya knew she was probably running a little late for class.

Not that it really mattered too much to her right now - A few minutes wasn't too bad.

Koro-sensei was probably going to be upset with her for not turning up to school on Friday, though.

Amaya let out a soft breath as she reached the clearing, and noticed that a large portion of the student body was already seated inside. Oddly enough she could see that Maehara, as well as another boy with bright hair, and a boy with very short dark hair was standing with Anti-Sensei knives in hand.

Maehara seemed to notice her from behind the teachers desk, because he waved all subtly towards her with a bright grin, earning a curious look from the bright-haired boy crouched down next to him.

So Amaya smiled brightly in return, picking up the pace to reach class on time.

Making a quick job of finishing her sweet potato and swapping shoes, Amaya stepped down the corridor towards the first door of the classroom. However in the short time it took for her to get to the door, there seemed to have been a commotion.

Or rather, there was one underway as Amaya opened the door.

The room was rearranged, six large desks were in place of the standard school desks, each with six chairs, seeming to be arranged in such a way that showed that it was a group-based lesson.

'Nurufufuf! That's a vital detail!' Koro-sensei announced in that same bouncy manner of his, easily dodging as Maehara and the two boys continued to chase after him in order to stab him. 'Be sure not to forget it!'

Amaya stared in silence, blinking owlishly as she tried to figure out what was going on.

What was vital?!

What the hell was not to be forgotten?!

One by one the boys collapsed at the front of the classroom, gasping and out of breath.

'He actually finished prepping while dodging three knives at once ...' Maehara gasped out weakly, completely spent by his few minutes effort.

'You okay, Maehara?' Isogai asked curiously as he approached the collapsed trio.

'Y-yeah ...' He responded weakly, causing Koro-sensei to begin to laugh to himself.

'You know a sneak attack that simple just isn't gonna cut it.' Karma piped up, the tiniest hints of a smirk dancing in the tone of his words.

Oh ... Did they try to sneak-attack him or something?

'All right! Let's begin our lesson!' Koro-sensei announced with vigor as he began to stroll towards the front of the classroom. 'Oh, and Katsuragi-san?'

Amaya blinked in shock, turning her head to look at the yellow creature immediately.

'E-eh?!'

'Good to see you've come to school, today.' He spoke up as he reached the front of the classroom. 'We're beginning Chemistry now, so please take your assigned seat.'

A cold, uncomfortable chill shot down Amaya's spine at those words.

With wide, fearful eyes, Amaya scanned each of the desks that were set up in the room.

They all had bunsen burners, tripods, test-tubes, petri-dishes, and chemical jars with dropper lids.

She realized that it was a practical class instead of theory.

What were in those jars? Acetone? Toluene? Or was it her worst nightmare, Ammonium Hydroxide?

Instinctively Amaya's right hand immediately went to cover her wrinkling nose, as if she could already smell the pungent chemicals inside.

She didn't know if she could cope sitting through a chemistry class right off the bat - Chemical smells were always horrible for her sensitive nose, and if they were using anything pungent, she was probably going to feel queezy for the rest of the morning! She'd rather Maths damn it! Hell! Algebra!

'Is there something wrong, Katsuragi-san?' Koro-sensei asked curiously, seeming quite confused by her distraught, jerky motions.

Amaya frantically decided on a course of action as she saw some of her fellow students begin to look over curiously.

'S-sorry! I think I'm just gonna go review Algebra instead!' Amaya squeaked out as she turned on her heel and shut the door quickly, and left as quick as she could go without being excessively rude.

She didn't miss the bewildered exclamation from Koro-sensei, or the startled manner in which Karma had turned in his seat to gape at her.

There didn't appear to be any response to her actions otherwise, which said a lot considering that Koro-sensei could both think and move at Mach-20.

Swapping her shoes back over, Amaya made her way to the steps just in front of the door - Coincidentally close enough where she could still faintly hear what was going on inside.

There was no harm in it, and oddly enough she felt like it may be in her favor to listen in.

She doubted they'd notice her right outside, anyway.

Amaya begrudgingly pulled out her notebook, doing her revision on Algebra as she'd volunteered just because she didn't want to give Koro-sensei a reason to drag her back into chemistry.

If she was revising her worst subject, he'd probably let it go.

By what she could faintly hear from her place on the steps, it seemed like Koro-sensei was teaching everyone how to extract food-colouring from snacks using the various chemicals they had at their disposal at that moment.

About half-way through the lesson, Amaya found herself thankful that she'd actually run away from class when she did; She heard the mention of Toluene somewhere in the middle of the lesson, which didn't necessarily make sense to her, since she seemed to recall it had something to do with paint thinners and other such substances.

Eventually however the rather quiet atmosphere drew Amaya into a kind of daydream, and the algebra notes Isogai had taken down for her on Friday swam and mixed with itself in her vision.

She really hated Maths.

She'd enjoy Chemistry a bit better if she just didn't have such a sensitive nose.

Amaya honestly wondered how she was going to get through the rest of school without sitting through Practical Chemistry lessons.

Was there a way to opt out of them without the trouble she was expecting there to be?

Amaya sighed as she closed her eyes slowly.

'What?!' A chorus of voices exclaimed all of a sudden, jerking Amaya out of her daze much like she'd just been slapped.

Confused and not the least bit sure of her surroundings, Amaya turned her head towards the source of the commotion.

She found herself looking at the classroom, seeing through the window that Koro-sensei was standing behind his desk all hunched over, with a huge stack of opened snacks in his fingered tentacles, before they vanished, and Koro-sensei was standing up straight with a particularly smug glint in his ever-grinning expression.

'We bought those ourselves!' One of the boys in the classroom exclaimed indignantly.

Not that Amaya could honestly blame whoever it was - She'd be pretty upset if Koro-sensei had stolen snacks from her, too.

Various murmuring voices echoed amongst the students as Amaya slowly set aside her notebook, her stomach telling her she should probably pay attention to what was about to happen.

If her few classes with Koro-sensei had taught her anything, it was that anything could happen at any given point in time.

And it beat staring down at Algebra notes, hands down.

It was as Amaya returned her gaze to the windows of the classroom that she noticed one of the girls lift herself from her seat in order to approach Koro-sensei.

From the angle she was at, Amaya could see that she had two corked test-tubes in her hands, and one corked vial held behind her back. They all seemed to contain different liquids inside.

Amaya couldn't quite tell which of the girls it was, only that she had dark hair pulled in two plaits at either side of her head. She also seemed to have a very delicate stature.

Amaya came to a crouching halt at the edge of the window as the chemical-wielding girl came to a stop in front of Koro-sensei's desk.

'U-umm Sensei...' The girl spoke hesitantly.

'Can I help you, Okuda-san?' Koro-sensei asked the girl.

Not only was Amaya a little uncertain of what was going on, but the rest of the class as well.

'Umm...!' The girl called Okuda seemed to have difficulty speaking, and instead she suddenly held the containers of chemicals to Koro-sensei.

Amaya's brow furrowed, and at first she thought the girl was showing Koro-sensei her progress in class - At least until she realized that those weren't extracts of food-colouring in chemical solutions.

'This is poison! Please drink it!' Okuda announced awkwardly, her head bowed down just the tiniest bit, as if she had her eyes screwed shut from nervousness.

'Wha--?!' Amaya gaped at the girl, as did most of the class.

'Now that's straightforward.' She heard Maehara say in bemusement.

'I guess ... that's too much to ask?' Okuda asked Koro-sensei, who was staring at her in shock.

'My, this is certainly an honest assassination attempt, Okuda-san.' The yellow teacher said in an almost sheepish manner.

Okuda seemed surprised?

No, more like a little jostled by the statement.

As Amaya listened to the girl explain that she wasn't good at anything except for Chemistry, she watched Koro-sensei's expression for any cues as to what he was going to say. She actually had to stop herself from actually giggling as Okuda told Koro-sensei that she made the poisons with her heart and soul.

Amaya immediately recalled the lengths in which Koro-sensei had gone to update her on what her role here in Class E was, and a sheepish smile touched her face.

With that in mind, Amaya was willing to bet ten thousand yen that Koro-sensei was going to comply with Okuda's request.

'O-Okuda ...' The boy called Sugino began hesitantly as Amaya fished her phone from her pocket quickly. 'No one would be dumb enough to drink it just like that.'

'Oh yes he will!' Amaya deadpanned with a grin, and immediately she saw the silver-haired boy snap his gaze to her location at the window.

She honestly doubted that these so-called poisons would affect him the same way it would a human.

She was also willing to bet that Karma thought the same, too, since she hadn't heard a single word out of him the whole lesson.

She glanced up quickly as she opened up her video-recorder, and hit start.

'Well then!' Koro-sensei spoke up as he took the three glass containers, and uncorked them. 'I would be delighted to!'

And without further ado, he downed the first test-tube's contents, much to the horror of everyone in the classroom.

Amaya blinked in surprise as the yellow creature began to make some gasping and gagging noises for a few seconds, her hands holding her phone steady as she watched through the screen as he hunched over slightly.

And then all of a sudden, in conflict with the dramatic turn of events, Koro-sensei suddenly let out a familiar 'Gnyuu' as his face changed to a similar blue to Nagisa's hair, and he grew three sweeping horns out of the back of his head, with two triangular ones out of his head much like ears.

At least, Amaya thought they were horns.

The colour and arrangement of those horns were oddly familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

'Ah yes. This tastes like sodium hydroxide.' Koro-sensei surmised, turning his head to look down at the speechless Okuda. 'It's poisonous to humans, but not me, I'm afraid.'

'Oh ...' Was all Okuda had to say about that.

Amaya couldn't help but snicker slightly as she said 'Called it!', causing the silver-haired boy to glance over at her again.

Next was the other test-tube, which Koro-sensei downed in much the same fashion.

Koro-sensei's reaction to the second solution was a bit more violent than the first; He hunched over, his gasps and groans much louder as he placed a fingered-tentacle to his mouth for just a few seconds, as if he was about to gag.

But then he straightened up, and his face suddenly changed with the same 'Gnyuu' escaping him.

A pair of small, feathered wings suddenly sprouted from the side of Koro-sensei's head, and the two ear-like horns sprouted into what looked kind of like passerine bird-feet. His face also turned a kind of pale, frosted green. What made things stranger still was the fact that the longer Amaya stared at his bizarre face, the more she knew she recognized it from somewhere.

But where?! The only things she recognized in an offhanded, unrelated manner was anything to do with Yuta's interests in manga and anime, or that card-game he got her to play with him for a few months so he could practice.

It was that very second that Amaya's brain halted on her and she came to a realization, and it felt like she'd just been sucker-punched.

Wait a god-damn second! She knew exactly what his face reminded her of!

Koro-sensei's face had turned into a monster from that Yu-Gi-Oh! Card game! A little green fairy with wings and bug eyes in a spherical body just like Koro-sensei's head!

She actually owned that card, too!

He'd turned into a god-damned fairy!

A fit of giggles were beginning to erupt from Amaya as she struggled to hold her phone straight, and despite what was going on inside, she couldn't focus.

The silver-haired boy was looking at her curiously, and Sugino had turned his head to look at her, too.

Koro-sensei seemed to say something, though Amaya couldn't hear it over her giggles, however she did see that he had begun to drink the vial he had left in his fingered-tentacles.

Immediately after finishing the final vial, Koro-sensei seemed to start groaning viciously in pain, his tentacles crossing over his torso as a strange purple aura overcame him, and vaguely, Amaya registered that particular students were speaking in alarmed questions at the dramatic scene.

And then all of a sudden there was a faint popping sound, and Koro-sensei's face had gone completely white and featureless in an instant. Even his grin was gone, his mouth instead in a very thin horizontal line.

It felt just like he'd deadpanned.

In fact, Amaya was certain that he'd just deadpanned.

And unfortunately for Amaya, it was the most hilarious thing in the world to her right now, and she finally cracked under the strain.

She broke down in a fit of hysterical laughter heard by everyone inside the classroom, however they were all too preoccupied with Koro-sensei's bizarre transformations to pay her any mind.

Amaya had no grasp of time, all she knew was that her sides were aching, tears were beginning to well in the corners of her eyes, and she couldn't stop laughing.

Somewhere in amongst her laughter, Amaya'd lost grip of her phone and ended up clutching her sides.

'Whoa, she's really lost it...' Someone spoke up faintly.

'Who knew she could laugh like that, huh?' Someone else said, a bit louder this time.

'Amay.' Came Karma's voice all of a sudden, causing Amaya to try and open her eyes to look at him.

Amaya found herself lying on the grass beneath the window, staring straight up at a suddenly present Karma, who was in fact crouched over her prone form with a rather amused look across his face. A couple of the other students were looking at her through the window curiously, though Amaya couldn't care less about that at the moment.

She was still giggling like a lunatic, though thankfully she was beginning to recover, slowly.

'I'm dying! Halp!' Amaya managed to get out between bouts of giggles.

'Not sure I can help you, there.' Karma responded easily, propping his chin on one upturned hand as he watched Amaya's giggling form. 'You know Amay, I don't think I've ever seen you laugh this much.'

'It really really hurts!' She gasped out.

'I bet.' He responded with a smirk.

All of a sudden a sharp pinching kind of pain shot through the side of Amaya's face, however all it actually did was cause her giggles to boil over into laughter again.

'That's not good.' Karma surmised, however he sounded more amused than anything else.

'I think she's broken...' Someone spoke up.

'How about throwing a bucket of water on her?' Someone else suggested. 'That normally works, right?'

However the mention of water stirred a very different reaction from her than they'd expected; Her laughter cut off all of a sudden as instinctive fear took over, and she managed to throw herself upright.

'Hey! That worked!' The voice belonging to who she immediately recognized as Isogai spoke up.

Amaya blinked slowly as struggled to figure out what was going on.

'...Amay?'

She turned her head in response to her name.

She found herself looking at Karma, who seemed to have an oddly curious look across his face.

It was a few seconds before Amaya realized what was going on.

'O-oh! Sorry.' Amaya responded, forcing a sheepish smile across her face.

The red-head watched her for a few seconds, before a strangely understanding look touched his face.

'You all good now?' He asked her.

To which Amaya inclined her head in answer, inwardly thankful that he wasn't going to pester her over her rather sudden reaction.

Unfortunately for Koro-sensei, Amaya couldn't look at the creature the same way again.

She spent the rest of the day face-down at her desk to try and stop herself from remembering the hilarious transformations of his face.

She hoped he understood her dilemma.

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

And here we have Chapter Twenty of Marionette :D This chapter was spawned for the most part at the am-hours of night on a coffee high with no sleep xD Ahhhh the joys of working all day in preparations for a fair and having no daylight hours to type stories xD I need to sort my priorities out, xD But for the time being, I hope y'all don't mind accommodating my strange habits while I'm typing chapters away, hey?

Anyways, this Chapter is actually dedicated to Yander3RedQueen who has been thoroughly enjoying my story to date (I hope to GOD you're enjoying the story, kukuku~!) Please enjoy, hun, and I promise more badass Amaya will be coming, soon xD

And here are the Reference and Translation Notes for Chapter 20 :D As always, most of these are either from my own knowledge, brushed up with research to try and make sure I've got it right - If I haven't, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Fukakujitsusei - Our Chapter Title translates as Uncertainty, written as 不確実性 in Japanese.

Akatsuki wo Utsushite - This is a song by Kishida Kyoudan and the Akeboshi Rockets. Really great song, and I highly recommend checking out their stuff if you're interested in some new music :D (And yesh, I like sharing good bands with everyone, so if y'all wondering why I keep referencing music, that's why xD)

Passerine - This is an explanation of a word most might not be familiar with. The word in reference to Birds basically refers to whether they have the foot-structure giving them the ability to perch, passerine being perchable, non-passerine for not. For example, a Duck cannot curl its toes around a branch to hold it stable, because it's feet are not built that way, but Parrots can because their feet are different. Therefore, a Duck would be a Non-Passerine bird, a Parrot being a Passerine bird.

Koro-sensei's Yu-Gi-Oh! Face - Presuming you're familiar with what Yu-Gi-Oh! is either vaguely in passing or if you're like me and actually play it (If not, it's so huge you can find the wikia on it immediately, but the easier way to get an idea is to look up the synopsis of the Anime). Koro-sensei's face looks a lot like the Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Card called Shining Friendship, only with the feet on top of his head instead of under like in the image. I'm not 100% certain Koro-sensei's face is a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh! But it's damn near close, especially when his first face is so obviously a shout-out to Sonic The Hedgehog