In less than ten seconds, three very important things had become painfully clear to Amaya.

The first was that Katsuragi Toji still maintained his Okinawan connections, the second being that he was here in the flesh. And the third was that he still did whatever he hell he wanted, with no regard to his own appearances, or consideration towards others at all.

The manner in which he'd suddenly grabbed her was more than enough to have that as concrete as the fact that the moon had been blown up. Even his very appearances had changed very little, other than instead of a scraggled mane of black hair, Toji was well-kept, looking almost as sophisticated as Asano Gakuho, if that was possible.

But then almost as soon as she'd been grabbed by the hair like that, an explosion of sound came to her addled notice.

A startled gasp from either of the petit duo, but more prominent than anything else was the sudden exclamation from others, familiar voices belonging to the odd few that had been walking a few meters behind her.

The grip did not change in the slightest in response to the noise that exploded into life, nor did the terrified look across her face.

It was the sudden collision of a fist to the man's face that yielded her the release from his grip.

Stumbling back, a hand steered her to the side slightly, and before she could even look up, she found herself hidden partially behind Karma.

His grip was uncomfortably tight around her arm, though she found herself unable to particularly care about that at that second.

'It's been quite a while since a mere child has shown me such blatant disrespect...' Toji remarked, a whimsical edge to his tone as he shifted his piercing stare onto the redhead. 'Interesting ...'

He didn't appear the least bit bothered about the fact that he'd just been struck, which in a twisted way didn't surprise Amaya at all.

It was almost like it didn't register in his mind.

'Oi oi, I think you need your eyes checked, senile bastard.' The remarkably distinct voice belonging to Terasaka shot out from just behind as a couple of forms stepped over to put themselves somewhat between Toji and Amaya. 'You're the one who decided to attack without warning.'

'Oh? Is that what it looked like?' The tall man questioned, almost as if he was intrigued by the idea. 'I merely wished to take a closer look at the peculiar child.'

Undoubtedly, the man didn't see anything wrong with his own actions, since he wasn't on the receiving end of any harm that way.

A shiver tore down her spine as she felt his cold gaze fall upon her from past Karma, and the grip around her arm had tightened a little more.

'Now boy; Would you kindly hand that girl over to me?' He requested, his gaze narrowing upon Karma's unyielding form.

However, instead of Karma's undoubtedly sharp reply, another voice spoke up in turn, drawing the situation in yet another more alarming tangent.

'Don't you think that's enough, Katsuragi-sensei?' A feminine voice rung with almost lifeless chime.

The words the new voice had said were enough to cause an involuntary flinch to shoot through her, and for Toji to lift his piercing gaze from Karma.

'Wait, that's--' Terasaka had begun, however he cut himself off with a sharp hiss of pain as Karma slammed an elbow into his ribs.

'Genivierre, you took your time.' Toji mused with a quipped edge, gazing at a form approaching from the restaurant hall.

The years had not been kind to the woman of familiar namesake, just as the past few months hadn't been kind to Amaya. Her once-been ginger hair was limp and greying, her eyes more of a muddy grey than their original green of life. Skin sallow, hanging a little off an almost hauntingly slender frame, her overall condition made her look twenty years older than her actual age of mid thirties. She was dressed in the same attire Amaya always remembered her in – A Laboratory coat with a shirt and slacks.

It was the sight of that which had Amaya's heart begin to sink inside her chest.

'Save your condescending pleasantries.' Genivierre responded briskly as she came to a stop just a few paces away, her gaze not once lifting from the clipboard in her weathered hands. 'We're behind schedule with the storms project as it is. Surely it would be a better idea to get to work instead of harassing guests.'

Amaya's breath hitched at the woman's words painfully.

The tall man cast Genivierre a sharp look, before he seemed to glance back at the forms standing in front of him.

The look didn't convey much on the surface, though she instinctively felt the calculating edge of madness behind it.

'Very well, if you insist.' He agreed, before he turned to step past Terasaka and his two friends. 'You can find me a suitable part for the ocea--'

'Now, Sensei!'

'Fine, fine.'

An uncomfortable silence had descended upon the group as Toji disappeared from sight, Genivierre a mere few paces behind.

It was suffocating, strangling the little air in her lungs right out of her.

'Amaya-san, are you alright?' Nagisa questioned, the first to break the silence.

Was she alright?

No, no she wasn't alright.

The trembling of her body hadn't once disappeared, and she was so wound up it was a miracle she'd even managed to stay motionless like that.

'Amaya-san?'

'What are you guys doing still out here?' Isogai's voice spoke up all of a sudden, approaching from the dining hall that was where Karma had been dragging her before she'd been grabbed. 'We're already starting.'

'What?!' Muramatsu spoke up in response.

'Damn it, why are you guys so impatient?' Terasaka muttered as he began to head inside, along with the rest of his posse. 'We weren't even that long!'

'S-sorry Isogai-kun.' Kayano apologized quickly as she began to push Nagisa along. 'We're coming!'

And yet Karma didn't make a move to follow along – His grip merely tightened of her arm as he looked at her over his shoulder.

'Did something happen?' Isogai questioned uncertainly.

'Nah, not really.' She heard Yoshida respond somewhere in the distance. 'Come on, you said we're starting, so lets go.'

'Ah, yes that's right ...'

'Karma-kun, Amaya-san, are you coming?' Nagisa called back.

She wanted to say no, even though she'd probably be dragged against her will, like usual.

She didn't want to be around anyone right now.

'No.' Was Karma's immediate response, turning his head to look at the others. 'Go without us.'

And before anyone could say anything in reply, he'd begun to tug her along after him.

She picked up on no real response – nothing was said.

And before she knew it, she'd been tugged outside into the fading sunlight again.

There was no sign of Toji or Genivierre anywhere, though a vehicle was departing from the resort hotel towards the road that lead towards the facilities up at the top of the island.

The grip of her arm had thankfully loosened a little, allowing the feeling to return to her fingers.

She was tugged along the beach after him, the silence between them growing stronger and stronger the more minutes passed. He didn't say a word, the tension in his grip of her arm sign enough that there was a lot on his mind.

And yet she was fine to leave it that way.

The ship everyone else was on pulled away from the jetty in the distance before long, moving to circle the island the few times as was normal for this resort island during the dinner hour.

A sense of resignation had overcome her as she stared down at the passing sand beneath her feet, created by the revelation of events just passed.

Everything was still continuing on – Nothing concrete had resulted from the manic research that had happened.

The madman was just the same as he always was.

And she was trapped on the island with him.

Going home wouldn't do her any good, now – If he recognized her, then it wouldn't take him very long to find her, even if she did manage to get off the island in time.

Storms project ...

Was he repeating them all over and over until he got the results he wanted?

Just how many had died to date?

Just how many siblings of hers had come into this world, just to die like this?

How many were still alive?

There were so many questions bouncing around in the darkness, so many she would never know the answers to.

And slowly, she found herself losing the will to search for those answers after all.

There was no point when this hell was never going to end - not when every time she looked, there were more tortured, broken souls lost to the madness of that man.

The sunlight disappeared as the sun set beyond the horizon, bathing the area in indigo, and Ritsu had chimed in on Karma's phone, telling him that the third phase of the assassination plan was about to begin.

Not a word escaped him, though he did seem to let out a breath as he proceeded to drag her back the way they came, with him.

And it was that, which convinced Amaya that he was going to leave the topic of what happened well alone.

At least, for now.

He might have intended to bring it up, but he'd been too engulfed in thought to do that.

Familiar figures stood out in the indigo light of post-sunset evening, leading a yellow octopus along the beach towards the walkway of the water-set chapel.

The atmosphere was so different from what had descended upon herself and Karma – Eager, carefree in a strange sense.

Kurahashi was skipping along, Kimura was jogging along a few meters away from her.

And the distinct sound of carefree chatter was about them.

'Oh, Karma-kun! Amaya-san!' A familiar voice called out as they'd joined the rest of the class on the edge of the beach, drawing Karma's attention immediately.

Jogging over from the back of the approaching group, Nagisa approached with moderate haste, drawing the attention of Nakamura and Kayano walking with him.

What would have been curious looks from others ended up being alarmed at Amaya's overall disposition, though nobody made a move to approach. Perhaps they'd already expected she wouldn't be too happy to be here at all, after her reaction to their reasons for hiding the assassination plan from her.

'Where'd you both go?' The blue-featured boy asked as he reached them, his expressive eyes showing concern as he glanced back and forth between Karma and Amaya. 'We tried looking for you.'

'Heh? Did you miss us that much, Nagisa-kun?' Karma spoke up in taunting response, though to Amaya's ears, it sounded a little forced.

She had the rather firm grip of her elbow to validate that in her head.

'W-well Isogai-kun didn't know what was going on, so he was starting to get worried...' The delicate boy hedged, glancing almost apprehensively at Amaya. 'But the topic of what happened came up during dinner ...'

Of course.

In all honesty, Amaya hadn't expected any different, though she found herself wishing otherwise.

'So, you're starting, yes?' Amaya spoke up in an attempt at shifting the topic, earning a confused look from Nagisa almost immediately.

Though from the smallest motion towards the Chapel, he let out a breath and inclined his head in response.

'Y-yeah ... you're right.' He agreed.

And without a word, he made his way after everyone else towards the chapel.

Amaya inwardly sighed at that.

She guessed he'd thought she wanted him to go away, or something.

'You're not going?' Amaya asked the redhead still standing beside her, as she noticed he hadn't made a move to follow along.

'No.' Was his simple response, the same he'd given Nagisa earlier though he didn't look at her. 'I'm not leaving you alone.'

She understood he likely meant out here on the beach, though she couldn't help but find herself reminded of his actions less than two weeks ago.

He'd left her all alone, then.

And she couldn't stop herself from dwelling on the insecurity that she shouldn't take his words as whole-heartedly as she used to.

Because there was the very real possibility that he might avoid her again.

And after the unpleasant situation on that boat just an hour ago, she was honestly surprised it hadn't started yet.

Irina and Karasuma had wandered over after a short while, just as the odd few of her classmates had begun to quietly creep out of the chapel once the lights had flicked off.

And then, less than a minute later, there was a horrified scream loud enough to reverberate through the whole area.

'IT FAILED?!' Koro-sensei's voice echoed, mortification clear in his tone of voice. 'NO! COME ON, OKAJIMA! I TOLD YOU GUYS NOT TO TELL ANYONE!'

Offhandedly, she wondered what it was they were doing in there, especially to get such a response from Koro-sensei so instantly.

But the reaction was enough to tell her that the yellow creature was rather distracted right now.

Minutes passed, and more of her classmates wandered out of the chapel.

Though they immediately set about their plans as soon as they were out.

In the end, only seven remained inside, those who'd won the right to destroy tentacles. Everyone else had come out.

Except for Hayami and Chiba, who were nowhere to be seen.

Ropes were tied to the four supports that made the curved walling of the chapel, the other ends tied onto four motorized boats.

Everyone else apart from the four drivers, were already changed into swimming gear and were waiting in the waters just inside the chapel rimming.

And as everyone got into positions, all Amaya could do was stand there and watch.

It felt wrong to pray for the assassination attempt to fail.

She felt so guilty for the idea, so she tried desperately to wish for the slim possibility that nothing would come of this hell.

No matter what she did, it felt like she was just going to get in the way and spoil everything, even just by wishing as she was.

The Assassination Plan started with a bang – Almost literally it seemed, from the faint sounds of gunfire from inside the chapel.

And exactly five seconds after that, the motorized boats driven by Kayano, Takebayashi, Hara and Karma all roared to life and tore the chapel walls apart.

It was as the others lying in wait in the water rose up on water-propelling boards that Amaya realized just how intricate this plan really was.

The barrage from Ritsu's actual Terminal and the seven others burst into life as soon as Koro-sensei was caged in by water, frazzling the already panicking teacher even further.

And then, Hayami and Chiba's absence was explained to Amaya as they rose up out of the water in suba-gear mere seconds later, taking their killing-shots at Koro-sensei.

However, something happened.

Something she certainly hadn't expected, and with a vicious explosion that was so sudden it made her jump.

A sudden shockwave burst into life the second those Anti-Sensei BB's reached their target, plunging the area in a sudden drop in temperature.

Right before the place where Koro-sensei had been caged in burst into a sudden dome of electricity shooting forth into the sky.

And at that very second, Amaya's heart had sunk into her stomach.

The shockwave from the reaction had thrown everyone on those boards back into the water, sending cascading waves outwards – If the boats had been close enough, the waves would have managed to capsize them.

Alarmed, if not panicked, Karasuma tore off running up the walkway towards the carnage, Irina hot on his heels as everyone in the water began to surface.

There was no sign of Koro-sensei anywhere.

It looked like the assassination attempt worked.

It was almost a guarantee – Never had there been such a volatile reaction to what seemed to be a clean-hit, and Koro-sensei was always right there at Mach-Speed to laugh with his green-striped expression in the end of it.

Seconds passed, everyone was on their guard.

Watching and waiting, eagle-eyed for any hint of their slithery teacher.

Until something surfaced, drawing everyone's attention to the centre of the ring of floating students.

Without breath, Amaya watched, desperately trying to figure out what had happened from where she was, her form sinking to her knees on the sandy beach.

Minutes passed, until eventually what looked to be a ball was lifted out of the water, and who Amaya could only guess to be Terasaka tried to smash it with a rather large spanner.

'R-Ritsu-chan ...' Amaya managed to speak up, her voice trembling slightly as she fumbled with retrieving her phone from her pocket. 'What are they doing ...?'

There was no response from the girl that resided within everyones phones, not even the slightest peep.

'Please ... Ritsu-chan, answer me...'

Silence was her only companion as Terasaka tossed the sphere to Karma over in the distance.

She looked down at the device, only to find that it had run out of power, which explained why there was no answer.

She could only guess in her rattled state, that the desperate barrage of emails she'd been trying to send all afternoon had taken its toll on her phone.

And in spite of the logical explanation she'd found, it just made her feel even more alone.

Eventually, everyone began to pull themselves out of the water, trudging back onto land in the wind-down of the biggest assassination attempt they'd tried.

She heard the muttering complaints of Koro-sensei's latest trump-card as everyone wandered past to head to the hotel, their movements sluggish from disappointment-fueled lethargy.

And yet all the while, the strain of being so high-strung for so long had Amaya recede even further.

The revelation that Koro-sensei was now imprisoned within a sphere of impregnable crystalline didn't send her into further panic, nor did it send her into hysterics.

There was no further her already high-strung state of mind could go – All she could do, was accept the fact that her safety net was gone.

Her own thoughts rolled around her head, drowning out her surroundings slowly as everything wound down, much like she was underwater - that terrifying sensation she knew better than anything else had returned, pulling her gradually back into that shell she'd hid inside the last time she was trapped on this island.

Her body worked almost as if it was on autopilot, reacting and responding as necessary, but her thoughts were completely elsewhere.

She followed along, responded to her name, but other than that was lost in her own numbed down version of the world.

The disappointment of the plan having failed seemed to sap her classmates entirely of energy, almost like they'd poured every ounce of their very being into that plan for years.

They'd ended up slumping out over the tables and chairs that were situated in the outdoor dining area of the resort hotel, content to stay there silently.

Karasuma was furiously on his communications devices, spherical Koro-sensei settled on the table in front of him inside what looked to be a clear plastic bag.

The air of silence seemed a little too suffocating to Amaya, even as she remained in the shadows and watched.

And in spite of how insistent Karma was that she wasn't left alone earlier, he seemed almost lost in apathetic thought.

It was almost laughable.

She sat in the shadow of one of the large palm trees outside of the outdoor restaurant, her gaze tracing the patterns in the sand as the lapping of the waves continued to roll.

Unmeasurable minutes stretched onwards, to the point where she lost her sense of time.

Nobody really spoke – Everything was sombre.

And then, all of a sudden, she heard a familiar voice, loud enough to pierce through the droll of mulling sounds inside her head.

That of one of her classmates suddenly exclaiming something.

She couldn't pick the words spoken, nor the person who'd suddenly exclaimed.

Only the alarm and fright in the voice had reached her, startling her out of her reprieve.

She'd managed to scramble around the tree she was seated behind almost as soon as she realized there was something very wrong, her eyes immediately falling upon Nakamura crumpled on the floor, with a frightened Nagisa crouched over her.

And then, a standing Okajima collapsed, a fountain of blood spouting past his hands clasped over his nose.

In fact, almost exactly half of the class began to collapse almost at once, give or take a classmate or two.

Everyone else was either frozen in their tracks, or scrambling to try and help those who'd suddenly fallen ill.

It was sudden, and almost at once.

It wasn't some kind of natural illness they could have caught – Amaya knew enough from caring for Yuta and Reiko for as long as she had.

Not simultaneously like that.

It was too clean, and it was far too well timed.

There was no possible way this could have just happened by chance – She wasn't stupid enough to assume that.

The only question was, what was causing this?

Or who?

Far too soon to be coincidence, Karasuma's phone started to ring all of a sudden, cutting through the chaos like a sledgehammer. Almost deliberately, purposefully, the call screamed taunting to Amaya, and Karasuma hadn't even put the phone to his ear at that point.

Wary, gaze narrowed in concerned suspicion, Karasuma listened to whoever was on the phone while the hotel attendant ran off quickly, likely in search for someone to help.

'Who is this!?' Karasuma demanded after a few seconds, his gaze narrowing noticeably as a couple of her classmates looked over in alarm.

The clicking of multiple phones switching to loudspeaker echoed right away, and a heavily-distorted voice rung with chilling clarity.

'Who I am doesn't matter.' The unknown caller spoke, an eerie sense of calm that had the hairs on the back of Amaya's neck stand on end. 'All you need to know is that those brats aren't the only ones going after that marked man.'

'You mean you did this?' Karasuma questioned seriously.

In immediate response, there was a dark chuckle from the unknown caller.

'How observant. It's an artificial virus. Once you're infected, it's all over. The Incubation period and initial symptoms vary, but after a week, the body's cells will be shredded, ending in death.' They explained, a very clear grin audiable, even in the heavily-distorted tone. 'It's a rather agonizing way to go, as you can imagine.'

What a disgusting person.

Amaya suppressed a shudder as she dragged herself to her feet to listen in properly.

'There's only one remedy, likewise an original concoction; Unfortunately for the brats, I'm the only one who has it. It's too much of a bother to give it to you, so you'd better come get it, directly.' Karasuma motioned with his free hand towards Nagisa and Kayano, a grim look across his face as the petit duo quickly approached, phones in hand. 'There's a hotel atop this island's mountain – Bring me the one with the bounty and come up to the top floor within the next hour. You will get your remedy then.'

There's a catch – Amaya was more than certain of it.

Half the class were sick with an artificial virus, deemed to die without the remedy, and all the person on the phone wanted was for Koro-sensei to be handed over?

That's too clear-cut, and the air of pleasure in that voice told her the person was cruel, if not evil.

And it was the next remark from the voice that had her certain this was more than just some blackmail utilizing ill students.

'Send your two shortest students still standing – One boy and one girl.' The voice remarked after some remark about Karasuma looking particularly dangerous, catching the horrified attention of all those left unaffected by the so called artificial virus.

Typical coward...

'We'll talk at the front desk here. Follow the rules and we'll exchange the target and the remedy without a hitch, and that will be that. But if you contact any outsider or are even just a little late, and I will destroy the remedy.' A dark chuckle echoed with taunting sneer. 'I must thank you for immobilizing him like that. Looks like the gods are on our side.'

And with that, the click of the line disconnecting echoed with resounding volume from the multiple phones in the area.

The Gods, huh?

It had been a very long time since she'd stopped believing such a thing ever existed.

The sudden crash of Karasuma smashing the immobilized Koro-sensei on the table in a fit of anger wasn't enough to jolt Amaya out of her encroaching thought, though she did notice it.

Though she didn't notice the look that Karma cast her as he realized she was standing right there, as she turned her gaze upon the rather scared looking hotel attendant still hovering around the door.

Instead of standing here fretting about something she couldn't do anything about, they needed futons or at the very list, blankets for everyone who'd fallen sick.

It wasn't smart to take them up to their rooms in this condition when they all needed to be under close watch.

Ten caes, all with fevers, severe lethargy, a lot of pain that seemed centered around the stomach, and one case of a gushing nosebleed from the pornography enthusiast.

All in all, this looked like a stomach illness, much like gastro or a stomach infection.

One of the very few things she'd never suffered, but her siblings had a few times throughout their lives.

But it was one of those things she knew almost instinctively how to handle.

And now wasn't the time to hide in her shell to wait for her impending doom.

'Excuse me, Miss?' Amaya spoke up as she approached the frightened woman, earning a startled squeak in response. 'Sorry to bother you, but we need some things, right away.'

'Y-yes.' She seemed rather shocked at one of the so called children approaching her in such a manner. 'I'll get right on it – What do you need?'

Amaya decided to write it down to being in shock at the events just been, though inwardly she had to stop herself from frowning at the woman.

'We need futons for ten, plus pails, ice, two sets of cloths for each, as well.' Amaya began to list off, counting off her fingers as she scratched her brain. 'Also, bottled water, and some fresh lavender in a little hot water if you have any. The last one isn't all that important, though, so don't worry if you don't have any.'

'R-right! I'll go and get them now.' The woman agreed after a few seconds of stunned silence, turning on her heel to dash inside.

Leaving Amaya standing there, watching her retreating form with weary eyes.

'It looks like you beat me to it, Amaya-san.' An unexpected voice spoke up all of a sudden, startling her out of her wits. 'Though I fail to see why you asked for lavender as well.'

She turned her head to find herself face-to-face with none other than Takebayashi, who was in the process of pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he watched the now empty doorway.

Odd – He'd never said a single word to her before.

Maybe he just never had a reason to until now.

'It's something to add in the cloth-water. Just a little.' She explained, burying her hands in her pockets as she took her gaze away from the taller boy. 'Lavender is known for its calming properties in aromatherapy practices ... I thought it might help.'

It was something she'd heard mentioned before, and whenever she did that for her siblings, it seemed to work.

Similar to thyme with its antiseptic properties, and chamomile for uses with indigestion amongst other things.

And, vanilla for clearing stale odors out of the air.

There were many things one learned, when money was tight and there were children depending entirely on ones ability to care for them.

'I see.' The spectacled boy responded, his tone a little surprised as he looked at her.

There was nothing more that she really said – it honestly didn't feel like now was the best time to really discuss anything.

Other things were quick to take up her thoughts as she retreated to the shadowed corner of the outdoor area.

And her motions didn't appear to be noticed, either.

The blackmailing call from that mystery person was on her mind, tugging relentlessly at her thoughts.

She had no idea who this person could be, only that they wanted the two shortest still standing to deliver Koro-sensei all on their own.

Insistently, almost as if they would immediately be able to tell if someone else was sent in their stead, and that in and of itself confirmed one thing for Amaya.

This wasn't her father's doing.

The shortest two were Nagisa and Kayano – Amaya's height put her in the taller margin of the female students.

And this certainly wasn't something Toji would do, either – That man much preferred to see the immediate effects of what was happening in person.

Minutes passed as the requested items were brought in, and those who were ill were put to rest, with some of the others tending to their needs all the while.

The air was cold with foreboding, a chill that almost turned her blood cold when she'd contemplate just what would happen if they didn't get the remedy.

'Oi, I'm not that bad off!' Maehara complained, a little feebly in spite of his protests towards being forced into the futon. 'Worry about everyone else, alright?!'

'That's enough, Maehara. You're sick, so stay down.' A thoroughly concerned Isogai responded, fixing his best friend with a stern look.

The playboy let out a weak slur of complaints, though a wry smile was written across his face none the less.

Well, aside from the fact that everyone was sick with an artificial virus that apparently was going to tear their cells to shreds in a week max, everyone seemed rather calm, considering.

There wasn't much point in freaking out just yet, she guessed.

'Karasuma-san!' The sudden call from one of Karasuma's subordinates echoed loudly through the tense silence that had descended upon everyone, alerting the serious man to her return from inside the hotel. 'As we'd expected, it's no use. Even when we play the government card, the hotel just responds with claims of privacy protection.'

Amaya lifted her gaze from Okuda tending to Kanzaki just a few feet in front of her to look over.

'It figures.' Karasuma had responded with a heavy sigh.

'It does?' An intrigued Koro-sensei responded, drawing the serious man's attention right away.

'That mountaintop hotel is a noted site for illegal negotiations.' Karasuma responded in explanation.

'You couldn't ask for a better location than a remote island in the middle of the southern sea.' Irina agreed seriously.

'They have connections with some government higher-ups – even the police are hands-off.'

The sheer truth behind those words caused a small grimace to flash across Amaya's face.

Right at the wrong moment, too – Karasuma seemed to look at her all of a sudden, as if he'd noticed the tiny motion.

'Clearly they're not going to cooperate with us.' Karma remarked from a few meters away, thankfully drawing Karasuma's gaze from her.

Though it still felt like she was being stared at, and she hated it.

'What are we gonna do?! At this rate a lot of us will die!' Yoshida yelled out as he seemed to crack under the stress. 'We didn't come here to be killed!'

'Calm down, Yoshida-kun. We won't die that easily.' Hara spoke up weakly, casting the rattled boy a feeble smile. 'Just come up with a way to deal with this.'

'Y-yeah ... sorry, Hara.'

'It's way too dicey to do what he says. Send your two runtiest students?' Terasaka spoke up after a few seconds, drawing the group's attention right away as he seemed to stop right behind Nagisa and Kayano. 'These two squirts?! We'd just be handin' him hostages!'

He then proceeded to knock the two repeatedly atop their heads to emphasise his words.

'First off, I'm pissed at anyone who would even do this kind of thing. Nobody lays a finger on my cohorts!' Terasaka announced with conviction, much to the chagrin of the petit duo.

In spite of the questionable right he had to smack the soft parts of his fists atop the petit duo's heads, Amaya had to agree with him.

Because in spite of all talent Nagisa had for assassination, there was no way the two of them could defend against an unknown person who was already causing a lot of them trouble.

There were too many frightening people on this island, let alone elsewhere in the world.

'I say we ignore his demands! Let's take everyone to a Tokyo Hospital!' The burly boy continued his rant, slamming a hand on the table as he turned to face Karasuma.

'I'm opposed.' Takebayashi cut in all of a sudden, earning a startled look from Terasaka. 'If it really is an unknown artificial virus, even the biggest hospitals won't have the antivirals to stop it. The time wasted in bringing in the sick could hurt them even more.'

'Say what?!'

Takebayashi let out a breath as he crouched down next to Hazama and Muramatsu.

'We'll work on treating the symptoms for now – You'd better hurry to the trade-off point.' He concluded, ending the discussion entirely.

And not too soon, in Amaya's honest opinion.

If they kept running themselves in desperate circles like this, they weren't going to think as clearly when the deadline came.

And besides, Koro-sensei had been uncharacteristically silent this whole time, apart from reacting when his sphere was smashed against the table, of course.

He only did that when he was thinking carefully about something, or waiting.

And as a sudden beep echoed from multiple phones all of a sudden just two minutes later, Amaya knew it was the latter.

'Koro-sensei?' Ritsu's voice spoke up all of a sudden. 'All set!'

'It looks like Ritsu-san's finished the prep-work I asked her to do.' Koro-sensei surmised with a grin as everyone looked at him in surprise. 'I need the healthy students to come here!'

Ah, of course.

What other way could a Mach 20 monster with an impressively sharp mind meddle to save his students in the nick of time?

The fact that Amaya hadn't of guessed that, really felt like some kind of bad joke.

As instructed, everyone who wasn't afflicted with an unknown artificial virus approached to circle the table that Koro-sensei's sphere sat upon, a sense of reluctant hope beginning to appear across the faces of the more emotional students.

'Sensei has devised a plan along with Ritsu-san, where instead of playing to our mysterious contact's demands, we go and get the remedy ourselves.' Koro-sensei began, his confident and unwavering grin bright with energy that everyone seemed to have lacked until that moment. 'There's no lying, its dangerous, you could very well get hurt. But I think you all will prefer this than merely sending Nagisa-kun and Kayano-san to hand me over, correct?'

There was silence in response, however it wasn't reluctant acceptance.

Energy began to return to everyone, the same conviction they had when setting up the assassination attempt just hours earlier.

All except one.

The redhead standing on the opposite side of the table lifted his gaze to look at her, a stern glint to his sharp gaze.

It was enough to tell her that he hadn't conveniently forgotten about the relevance this place had to her.

'If everyone is happy with going with the plan Sensei has made with Ritsu-san, then please quickly get changed into something you can get dirty. We will be leaving in five minutes at the very most.'

A sudden rush of footsteps met Koro-sensei's words as the able-bodied took off to do as they were instructed.

With a chance they were happy to accept, they set to work.

Though as Amaya turned to do the same, a hand suddenly closed around her wrist to stop her from leaving.

'Amaya.' Karma spoke, entirely serious as Amaya flinched at the use of her full name.

Completely without care or concern for the fact that Koro-sensei was still right there, he tightened his hold of her.

'You're staying here.'

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

Hehe, sorry about that wait on the chapter. As you can understand, since it's a very intricate part of Amaya's past that's being dragged to the surface here, it's a bit more complicated to write, therefore it takes me a bit longer to type it out.

Now then, I have an announcement to make.

Today (For most of you) is the one-year mark since the first chapter of Marionette was submitted, the 31st July (For me, that was three hours ago, I nodded off while typing again T-T) I made sure that this chapter was a long one for you guys. Hope it wasn't too much of a wait.

As always, thank you all so much for all the comments, reading and all the votes. And thank you all for being here this year. I know I don't get to replying to all your comments right away (Like this past week) but I do read them. I do get them, and I love reading them. It just takes me a while to reply cause life stuff and well, I  hadn't expected my book to get so popular. So anyways, thank you all so much, and I hope   we will continue to have fun reading  and writing together :)

Our translation notes:

Danpen - Translates roughly as Fragment, which is wrritten as 断片 in Japanese, if i'm not mistaken.

All the best, guys~!

Loki-Roki <3

P.S. Two more chapters of Skies Arc to go :P