There was no telling what happened with that situation that had taken place that afternoon - In truth, Amaya was apprehensive about even thinking about it, let alone questioning about it.

Isogai had escorted her right up to the door of her apartment building to make sure she got home alright, and then he left.

She'd received an email from him later that night, informing her that he and Maehara would come pick her up on the way to school for end-of-term exams.

There honestly wasn't much more she could cram into her already sluggish brain in preparations for the morning. So she'd spent what conscious time she had staring up at the pages she'd stuck to the wall of her bedroom, attaching more here and there was words and phrases rose from the depths of her subconscious.

She'd awoken half-sprawled over the edge of her bed, papers sticking to the side of her face as Reiko shook her awake.

The lights were still on, the sun risen, and the clock read 7.11am.

And apparently it was time to go.

The realization that Isogai and Maehara were standing at the door right at that second had drawn a startled yelp from Amaya, and she'd thrown herself into frantic motions to get dressed as quick as possible.

If there wasn't the rare instance of her needing to take these stupid exams to save everyone from the Baka-Five, then she'd be content to just sleep in.

And she didn't like the idea of leaving her friends standing on her doorstep for too long just because she didn't want to wake up.

Thanks to a lack of clothes washing over the past few days, the only articles of clothing she could wear was her shorts, and a short-sleeved shirt.

She swore and cursed as she realized all her long-sleeved shirts had ended up in the washing basket, along with all her pants and the only pair of school-acceptable leggings she actually owned.

So she had to avoid sunlight at all today, unless she wanted her arms and legs to turn lobster-red.

How she wished for autumn to hurry up and make an appearance.

'Sorry! I slept in!' Amaya called out to the friendly duo standing at the door, running as she snatched up her belongings and raced towards the door.

'Have a good day, Amay~!' Reiko sung out, waving Amaya off with a smile.

As Amaya shut the door behind her, she heard Maehara let out a low whistle.

'You should ditch the pants more often, Maya-chan.' The playboy remarked with a grin, earning a surprised look from Amaya as she locked the door.

'If you can convince the sun to stop trying to burn me to a crisp every time I step outside, then sure, I guess...' She responded, though a little sleepy.

'Oh! Then I'll pay Koro-sensei to do something about it!' Maehara announced enthusiastically, bopping a closed fist into the palm of his other hand with a grin.

'Good luck with that ...' She sighed slightly, turning her head towards the still-silent Isogai standing next to Maehara.

'You look like you've at least managed some sleep today, Amaya-san.' Isogai surmised, drawing a small nod from her.

'Yeah, kinda ...'

More like she passed out, rather than slept.

But at least she might be able to focus on the papers long enough to get all the answers down.

The trip to the classroom felt longer than it really was, even though it was greatly speckled with conversation between Maehara and Isogai, with the odd prodding question here and there keeping her from being entirely uninvolved.

Usual morning greetings and a few small exchanges of words speckled the walk up the mountain, and by the time they'd reached the classroom, they were in the last-portion of the group.

The main oddity however was the rather shocked look that Kataoka had given her, and almost immediately the class rep had forced Amaya to stop just long enough so she could help get rid of the messy tangle that had become her snowy white hair.

Inwardly, she'd let out a sigh as she realized she never once went to the bathroom to brush her hair or wash her face that morning.

There was a peculiar buzz about their classmates - Unlike the mid-terms where there was discomfort and nervous fears, this time around there was energy and vigor.

Nearly everyone had something positive to look forward to, a goal that they hadn't really had just earlier in the term.

The contrast was so clear, Amaya had almost forgotten just how much was riding on their scores today.

'Nurufufufu~!' A familiar Mach-Speed creature gazed appraisingly over his students from the teachers pedestal at the front of the classroom, a sense of pride about him as he watched his students preparing themselves for the day's hard slug. 'This is excellent. I have great confidence that everyone will do their best, today.'

It was at that second that Koro-sensei seemed to turn his gaze upon Amaya all of a sudden, though he didn't say a word to her.

She didn't like the look of that.

It felt like he was planning something, or at the very least knew something she didn't.

Hell, it felt like so many people knew something - Almost like she was the one out of the loop.

But then again, it always felt like that.

After depositing their belongings in the classroom and retrieving their items required for the exams, it was time to head all the way back down the mountain.

Amaya had once or twice wondered if the whole set up was just to wear them out before they even got to the exams - Walking up the mountain was tiring, and walking back down was alright because of the seven-hour gap between the trips.

But for exams?

It was up and down within the same half-hour, twice that day.

'Amaya-san, shall we go?' Isogai spoke up as he approached, his usual smile written clear across his face.

'S-sure, but umm ... what about Maehara-kun?' Amaya turned her head to look towards the playboy, who was at the mercy of a rather upset Okano. Kataoka was watching with a small frown, not even bothering to lift a finger to try and help Maehara out of the lecture he'd presumably earned from the acrobatic girl.

'He'll be okay.' Isogai responded with a small sigh, causing Amaya to look back at him. 'We shouldn't give the main campus an opportunity to give us detention.'

Perplexed, but otherwise content with leaving things be, Amaya followed after Isogai to head towards their own version of torture for the next five hours.

'Do your best, students~!' Koro-sensei called out to their departing forms, drawing wry smiles from some while others waved back to the strange octopus. 'Sensei is sending all his best wishes~!'

Amaya herself let out a small breath as she buried her hands in her shorts pockets.

He was acting like a doting uncle or something.

Which felt weird, because the only form of family outside her siblings she had anything to do with, was her rather peculiar uncle.

'Has Maehara said anything to you, Amaya-san?' Isogai suddenly decided to ask as they neared half-way back down the mountain, drawing Amaya's attention from the slip-prone ground almost immediately.

'Said anything?' She repeated curiously, though she did think about it for a few seconds. 'No, nothing that you weren't already around to hear, really.'

A sigh escaped Isogai, almost like her response was the one he was hoping he wouldn't receive.

'Why?' She couldn't help but ask.

'Its something to do with what happened yesterday...' He spoke slowly, glancing at Amaya from the mountain path every now and then.

'You mean that thing at the shoe-shelves?'

The small nod she received in response said it all - And she could see that Isogai was actually more than just a little exasperated.

Well, he probably didn't like this whole situation, or the way that Maehara was going about it.

'He gave me a run-down of what happened last night, and I told him he should tell you, at the very least.' Isogai proceeded to explain, placing his gaze back in front of him now that he knew he had most of her attention. 'I don't suppose he did, did he?'

'Not a word.'

'Of course not.' Isogai reluctantly agreed.

'Then ... what was he supposed to tell me?'

Silence - If only at first.

'It's not the exact way he worded it, so you'll have to forgive me for that.' Isogai cast her a long glance, as if he was choosing his words carefully before he spoke. 'But putting it simply, he decided to tell Karma-kun that he wasn't going to let him simply "have you" after everything that'd happened this week.'

Whoa, what?!

Amaya immediately turned her head to gape at the rather displeased Ikemen walking even-stride with her.

'He said what?!' Amaya managed to squeak out.

Unfortunately, the look across Isogai's face told her that he really was serious.

'I believe he intended to force Karma-kun into taking more dramatic action, but I'm not sure this will end up the way he's planned.' Isogai explained, casting her a rather apologetic look as they neared the bottom of the mountain trail. 'I'm not even sure if that was all that was said, either. Maehara was very quick to wave off any further questions I had.'

'... I think I might stay home over the weekend ...' Amaya sighed, lifting a hand to brush her hair out of her face.

'I'm sorry I don't have anything better to tell you.'

'Oh, no. It's fine. It's not your fault.' Amaya responded, doing her best to cast Isogai a smile. 'I appreciate the heads-up, anyway.'

Sincere, though now Amaya was sure she didn't want to face whatever chaos the playboy had caused.

And here she was, now dwelling on this new development rather than clearing her mind so she could focus on her exams.

Maybe she could go straight home after exams to make the best of the calm before the storm?

She didn't really need to hear how terribly she was going to score, anyway.

The usual sneers and taunting remarks were their greetings as the Class E students trickled into the classroom allocated for their use during the five-hour span of time they were permitted on the main campus.

As usual, they were to be a speculation, a mockery.

Although entertainingly, Amaya noticed on her way past the Class 3-D homeroom that one of the boys that picked on Nagisa had a bit of a peculiar appearance this time. Not the rat-faced boy, but the one that Amaya had once believed would be a perfect match for Toadsworth, in both intellect, appearances, and crappy attitudes.

He had a makeshift bandage patch over his nose, with just a handful of plaster strips holding it in place, seemingly a temporary fix so he could resume his sneering.

Of course, he didn't look all that intimidating. If Amaya hadn't noticed the tiniest couple of flecks of red on his collar, she would have presumed the bandage patch was to stop his exorbitant supply of snotty attitude from leaking out in mass.

And of course, what was more entertaining was the way Pseudo-sensei actually turned rigid in the classroom as she called out a simple morning greeting to him, earning curious looks from his students in the process.

She loved the fact that the self-righteous man was still apprehensive of her.

He probably wasn't going to be the one overseeing their class today, unlike the arrangements during mid-terms.

Aside from the revelation that they had gained a Pseudo-Ritsu all of a sudden, nothing else felt weird.

Nothing else stood out all that much to Amaya.

She took up her spot at the back of the classroom to coincide with the usual seating arrangement, depositing her lone few items onto the desk as she waited for hell to start.

The last person to arrive was Karma, who wandered in without a care in the world, it seemed.

It was rather sad to admit that she'd gotten used to being ignored by him, at least to the point where she really did notice when he'd cast her a glance.

Almost as if he was bothering to actually acknowledge her existence this time.

Though she kept her gaze on the outside scenery through the windows, all the same.

And so, hell began.

Not even half-way through the first question of what turned out to be an English Exam first up, Amaya noticed some startling discrepancies with the questions.

They were all so different from mid-terms.

And if she didn't already expect the vicious reality of trapped exams, she would have waved it off as her own imagination.

But she had a strong feeling that some of these were entry-level university exam questions.

It was a hard-task to find just one that wasn't trapped with double-meanings or conundrums.

But it wouldn't do her any good to stress out over them.

So, like she did last time, she filled in the answers she was sure of, leaving out the rest for a second glance-over later when her brain was more in gear.

Most of her classmates were furiously writing, their attention so strong that even if they did have Pseudo-sensei here to try and mess with them, they probably wouldn't notice his presence.

Except for Karma, of course, who spent the first ten minutes of the first exam leaning back in his chair doing nothing.

She'd heard him lazily writing here and there, but otherwise not really caring one way or another.

He always got good scores, if not top scores.

She'd seen that for as long as she'd known him.

And she didn't expect that this would be too different to normal.

Exam after exam were handed over, clicking over to the next subject in half-hour intervals, with a two minute intermission in-between, which appeared more to suit the supervising teacher distributing the exams than the students. In truth, they were forced to slug through with the hell the main campus reserved especially for them.

The sooner the E class was gone, the sooner the school resources could return exclusively to the main-campus students.

Amaya guessed that was the method of thinking, and for once she was rather appreciative of it.

Because it meant she'd be able to leave this stupid building before long, and hopefully avoid bumping into Asano.

But then there was a hidden question in one of the exams for the day that shocked her out of her reserved concentration, to the point that her breath had hitched and her eyes remained glued upon that one question in horror.

Q 27 - Following the Investigations of a facility off the coast of southern Australia in the year 2007: Which controversial studies underwent in other facilities were later revealed to be a breach of human rights, allowed by the current laws of volunteer experimentation and marital legislation?

It felt like someone had grabbed her by the throat, tightening grip more and more until she almost couldn't breathe.

Her heart was racing so fast it honestly hurt inside her chest.

Was this some kind of joke?

Why?! Why did they have to put this question in a god-damned exam?!

She didn't know what she was supposed to do, or what she should do.

It honestly read like a normal question, but to her, the hidden meanings in it were as glaring as someone screaming them at her through a megaphone.

And the frightening thing about this was the realization that if she was right and Okuda or anyone else got full marks for this science exam, it would then mean that they knew at least a little of what this was.

And she wasn't ready to face that kind of reality.

She tossed and turned inwardly, struggling against the two screaming voices inside her head that was logic and fear.

Logic reasoned that this was a coincidence, and nobody would read too much into it if she got a question right. It was an exam, after all, and it would give her somewhere to search next. All the while fear screamed, reminding her that it was no secret that Science wasn't a strong suit for her. For her to get a question like that right would be all someone like Koro-sensei needed to start picking her apart. The teachers always got a copy of the completed exams to see where a student was failing, after all.

But this was the strongest clue-in to the questions she needed answered.

And in spite of how much it hurt to have to answer it - How much it scared her to commit this to paper that someone else would read - She filled in the answer. She prayed however that it was marked wrong, and that the back-handed question really was just a terrifyingly close coincidence.

The only ounce of luck she had was the fact that she'd completed at least half of the exam papers of the day, and the end of the half-hour period was just a few minutes away.

Because she couldn't function with her brain reeling so much on just that one question - Not when she was on the verge of cracking altogether.

She took advantage of the two-minute break and left, however unlike a few of her classmates had done to leave for a drink or something else in the earlier hours, she had no intention of even coming back. Getting a non-attendance for what she knew to be the next three or four was fine with her when the core subjects she had to at least attempt had already been completed, minus Japanese. She left as casually as she could manage, hoping that even if her classmates noticed her quick retreat, the school wouldn't notice anything before she got out of the door.

Although she couldn't stop her hands from shaking the whole way up the mountain to her favorite tree, and even as she clambered up into the branches, it didn't leave.

What was it with this year?

None of these things came prodding and tugging at her, threatening to force her to spill her guts with every attempt.

There were no innocent-seeming questions, nobody was interested enough in her to actually pay this much attention to her until now.

Before, all she had to do was avoid certain questions, and even though it annoyed him, Karma never pried too much into it.

Why couldn't she get that kind of stability back?

She hated the paranoia she had where if she made just one wrong step, the dark memories would come tumbling out for everyone to see.

'Amaya-san~!' Echoed the familiar voice belonging to Koro-sensei, disrupting her from her spiral of thoughts with a jolt.

She lifted her gaze from the cliff below her, to find that the tentacle creature was perched up in the tree along with her, just like the last time he'd come looking for her.

'Hey, Koro-sensei...' Amaya responded, straightening up on her branch as the breeze grew a little stronger. 'What brings you up here?'

'Sensei received an email from Isogai-kun just now. He said that you haven't returned to the exam room.' Koro-sensei began, the tentacles not holding him secure on the branch waving slightly in the breeze. 'So, how about you tell me why you're out here in this tree, instead of taking the exams with everyone else.'

Amaya averted her gaze back to the ground beneath them, inwardly arguing with herself over what she was going to say.

He didn't look mad, or disappointed.

Just ... normal.

Like all he really wanted was to hear a reason.

Tentatively, her feet shifting beneath her, Amaya let out a breath before she spoke as honestly as she could bring herself to be.

'I just cracked, that's all...' She mumbled, swinging her legs a little more as she tried to find the words she wanted. 'I'm sorry, I couldn't ... sit in that room anymore...'

A small breath escaped Koro-sensei after a few moments, before he foraged through his pockets.

'Amaya-san, do you feel like you've disappointed me?' He asked, pulling out a thermo canister from one of the large pockets of his teaching robes.

She didn't want to answer him, but she felt almost compelled to do so.

The discomfort and nerves grew a little at those words he'd spoken, as if tugging at her very composure.

She honestly wasn't sure if she was worried she'd disappointed him, or actually felt guilty about running out like that.

She didn't know what she was feeling - She was a jumbled little basket of emotions.

'Amaya-san, if you are in fact concerned that Sensei is disappointed in your actions today, then please be rid of that notion right away - Nothing else could be further from the truth.' The sounds of liquid being poured echoed for a few seconds as Koro-sensei seemed to pause in his words. 'Here - for you.'

A cup of what she recognized to be warm green tea was then set in her shaking hands, almost startling her out of her wits.

'U-umm ... thanks ....'

'Nurufufufu, think nothing of it.' Koro-sensei responded immediately, proceeding to pour himself a cup of tea. 'Now then. Speaking not as a Sensei, but myself, do you have any idea why I'm not disappointed? Not the least bit about the fact that you're hiding out here while everyone else is still in exams?'

Hesitantly, Amaya shook her head slightly, her gaze lowering down to the cup in her hands.

'Its very easy to explain, but Sensei can understand why it might be hard for you to see.' Koro-sensei began, thermo canister gone as he began to drop sugar-cube after sugar-cube into his cup of tea one at a time.

'... Okay?' She mumbled.

He was silent at first, seeming to choose his words carefully.

'Amaya-san, for a girl who refuses to study or contribute in classes, Sensei can honestly say that you've worked very hard in just this week alone.' Koro-sensei began as he straightened up slightly, gently stirring the ten or so sugar-cube into his tea. 'Studying, revising, branching out. Every time Sensei has checked up on you, you have always been studying, thinking, even learning things Sensei didn't expect you to volunteer towards. That of itself is already so much more than you would normally do.'

Amaya stared up at Koro-sensei's thoughtful form, maintaining her silence as he took a sip of his green-tea flavored sugar.

'Further to that, you approached today with conviction Sensei has never seen you apply to your studies, and just by looking at you right now, I can see that you've applied everything you've learned, and you saw it through as far as you could. Sensei could never be disappointed in that.'

Amaya chewed on her bottom lip as she lowered her gaze to the cup of tea in her hands.

'But I couldn't even sit through them all ...' She mumbled, trying to force her hands to stop shaking. 'What's the point when I screw up like this?'

Her words appeared to surprise Koro-sensei, for she saw him actually fall motionless in front of her.

'Amaya-san, the fact that you worked yourself to the point of cracking mid-exam is exactly why Sensei isn't the least bit disappointed.' The octopus spoke, straightening up on his branch slightly. 'You did everything you possibly could, so much more than Sensei could have ever expected of you. Amongst the struggles you handle outside of school every day as well as the problems between Karma-kun and yourself, and yet you still had the strength to try and do more. There's nothing more you could possibly do.'

Her breath hitched in her throat at those words, and the prickling of tears began to appear.

There wasn't anything she could do ...?

Nothing at all...?

But how could that be?!

'Th-that's not ... How can that be true?' She managed to say, the tightening of her chest causing her voice to tremble as she struggled to keep her composure. 'I can't do anything right no matter how hard I try ... I always make everything so much worse for everyone!'

Whenever it counted, she could never do anything right.

She always made things worse for the people she cared about.

And nobody ever told her where she was going wrong.

'Did you know, Amaya-san?' Koro-sensei began, lifting a single arm-tentacle to set it gently atop her head. 'Out of everyone in this Assassination Classroom, both classmates and teachers alike, there is one person you treat with contempt. You have no respect for them at all, and you are very cruel with how you treat them. And yet, they've done absolutely nothing wrong. Do you know who this is?'

Ever so slightly, Amaya managed to shake her head.

The arm-tentacle atop her head shifted slightly in a gentle pat as Koro-sensei watched her in silence.

'Their name is Katsuragi Amaya,' He eventually answered, continuing to pat away as Amaya stared 'Sensei is very proud of you, Amaya-san, and nothing will ever change that. You've struggled enough, and you've suffered enough. You've done the best you could, and it's enough. You do so much for everyone else out of the kindness of your heart. So can't you go easier on someone who's done everything they can for the people you care about?'

There was nothing she could say, nor was there anything she could do.

Words she'd longed to hear had been given to her, that one little thing she'd needed to hear from someone for so long.

All she could do was let the tears spill over, at long last.

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

Chapter for you guys. Hope you enjoyed reading it. Big thank you to Obsidianix for the new cover! I hope you like the chapter~!

Tōsō - Translates roughly as Struggle, which is written as 闘争 in Japanese.

All the best~!

<3 Loki-Roki