[Book #2 - Skies Arc]

It felt like it had been many long weeks since Amaya had been back in Tokyo.

It felt like months since she had seen any of her friends.

And now she was back.

There was no word that she could find to describe just how happy it made her feel to receive such a warm welcome from the whole of her class like that. From witnessing the rather disgusting sight of Koro-sensei beginning to fill the room with gloop from all the crying, through to a slap to the back of the head from Maehara before he then dragged her into a hug instead, Amaya was probably the happiest she'd been in quite a long while.

Koro-sensei had let out a rather startling exclamation at Maeharas sudden hug however and proceeded to furiously write in that journal of his, though Amaya was probably the only one who'd noticed through all the chaos.

The day had gone rather simply after that initial stampede of the majority of her classmates rushing over to greet her - After the long trip back from Hongu, Amaya had bid everyone farewell at lunch time to head home and collapse.

In fact, Koro-sensei had insisted on it after everyone had settled down and noticed that she was particularly sleep-deprived.

Amaya had gotten home, and proceeded to crash on one of the couches. She hadn't even woken up when the twins had gotten home, or even at all that night.

She'd slept the whole of Monday away, a testament to just how tired she really was.

A familiar prodding to the side of her face drew consciousness back to her, as well as a familiar edge of irritation.

She rolled onto her side, away from the prodding that was annoying her and curled a little into a ball with a small groan.

And yet all she received in response was a small chuckle, belonging to who Amaya knew to be the evil red-head, obviously having wandered into the apartment all on his own again.

'Amay.' He spoke in an attempt at getting her attention.

Amaya refused to respond to her shortened name, relaxing into the couch a little more.

'If you go back to sleep, I'm going to do something horrible to you.'

That was a very familiar string of words, however Amaya knew for a fact that she'd never heard him say that before.

They were her own words repeated back to her.

She still refused to yield, despite the fact that he really was going to follow through on his threat, like always.

There honestly wasn't much he could do to her that he'd never done before, so she wasn't too bothered - He'd drawn on her face with permanent marker, buried her in a mountain of books, covered her in a giant pile of sherbet before applying just enough vinegar to have it madly fizz up, and even gone so far as to drop a cracked egg right down her top before.

And after the whole bathtub incident, she'd be very surprised if he tried anything with water ever again.

The couch she was lying on shifted ever so slightly, and for some reason it made her feel a little uncomfortable.

Just what the hell was he up to?

However she didn't have a chance to wonder about what it could have been - All of a sudden, the cushions of the couch were lifted from beneath her with great force, so violently that it not only threw her off the couch in a rolling motion, but a startled scream to escape her as she crashed inelegantly to the floor.

'What the--?!' Amaya yelped out as she threw herself upright, only just noticing the fit of laughter that had taken hold of Karma.

She turned her head to fix him with a glare, waiting with frustrated patience for him to stop laughing.

'What the hell was that for?' She questioned temperamentally, watching as her friend continued to snicker at her rather inelegant awakening at the very least.

'I told you, Amay.' He remarked, straightening up as he grinned brightly at Amaya. 'You really should listen sometimes.'

She however continued to frown at him, inwardly wondering why he was in such a good mood.

'God you're a jerk...' Amaya sighed as she dragged her gaze away from Karma, blowing a tuft of haywire hair out of her face.

'Really?' He questioned, his tone drawled out as he straightened up, that grin still in place. 'That's too bad. I guess you don't want breakfast, then.'

Amaya gave an involuntary flinch at that remark, turning her head ever so slightly to peer at Karma.

'Huh, is that so?' She questioned him suspiciously. 'If it's more of that disgusting caramel water, you can keep it!'

'Stop being dramatic.' He remarked, though he didn't seem at all annoyed or exasperated with her - He turned on his heel and began to head back to the kitchen, leaving Amaya frowning after him.

Picking herself up off the floor, Amaya began to follow after him out of curiosity.

'When did you get here, anyway?' Amaya couldn't help but ask as she glanced over at the clock, which read 8.17am. Quite late in the morning, but it didn't really matter to Amaya, anyway.

She guessed Yuta and Reiko had already left for school.

'An hour ago, I guess.' Karma remarked with a shrug. 'I bet you've been sleeping ever since you got home, though.'

Amaya averted her gaze furtively at that remark, and refused to say anything.

'Heh, I knew it.' Karma remarked, not the least bit fooled.

She blinked momentarily at the remark, slinking up to the counter opposite Karma in order to peer curiously over at what various items were situated there.

No sign of any torture items anywhere, which was odd, and no sign of anything that would cause her to frown - she kept her eyes at counter-level, the rest of her obscured behind the counter - it was better for her to escape if he did suddenly reveal torturous sweets.

Despite her rather serious disposition, all it did was cause Karma to snicker at her.

'You're just proving that you really are a cat, you know.' He remarked while continuing to snicker to himself, much to Amaya's frustration.

'Shut up!' Amaya snapped.

All she did was cause him to shake his head slightly.

She still wondered why the hell he was in such a good mood - It was almost creepy.

Though in another way, it made her begin to smile to herself in a rather whimsical manner.

'Here.' Karma spoke up all of a sudden, startling Amaya out of her small window of thoughts as he set a plate right in front of Amaya's face.

She flinched back in surprise, however sudden excitement and happiness engulfed her in an instance the very moment she actually looked at what sat on the counter in front of her.

Fish.

She was staring at a fish and lettuce wrap for breakfast.

'Oh my god yes!' Amaya practically squealed, throwing herself around the counter towards the still snickering Karma to hug him. 'Thank you~!'

Jostled, and probably greatly surprised by her sudden lunging hug, Karmas snickering suddenly stopped, and he didn't quite respond at first.

However he didn't suddenly freeze up at the hug like he normally would, though Amaya was too excited over fish for breakfast to have noticed anything.

'J-just let go and eat, clingy cat.' He told her, his tone rather strained.

Amaya did as she was told immediately, not even picking up on the fact that he'd called her a cat, again.

They'd left for class not long afterwards, once Amaya had gotten organized and stopped cursing the fact that she hadn't redyed her hair in weeks.

She settled for pulling her hair in a ponytail at the back of her head, which minimized just how bad her hair looked with its horribly washed out colour.

Despite Karma's snickering at her, her mood wasn't dampened.

In fact, Amaya was in a very good mood the whole way on the train, a small smile across her face as she she held onto the hand-railing above her head. A tune was on the tip of her tongue, though she stopped herself from humming it just because she didn't want to annoy the redhead with her off-key tune.

Keeping herself quiet was still a very hard thing to do, though.

She missed having her MP3 Player.

Maybe that's something she could finally replace, now that Shigure had given her a personal allowance and insisted that she spend it on herself.

Although, she couldn't help but feel a little intrigued by the idea of at least looking in a music store at least once - Her favorite subject was music, of course.

But in Kunugigaoka, frivolous subjects like Music and Art wasn't all that high on the list of priority subjects, and she had a sneaky feeling being in Class E meant that you weren't entitled to learn them.

It was like clubs and outings - Class E wasn't permitted to attend school clubs, because they were supposed to focus on their studies.

Like that would do any good.

She offhandedly wondered just how much money Shigure had given her. She knew how much the annual budget was, because she ran with it all the time, but an allowance?

He implied that it was a fair amount, which was curious.

Oh well, she'd find out later - She'd lifted the smaller envelope from inside the packet Shigure had passed her, as well as a sum to pick up some shopping with after she was finished her three-hour training session at his new residence.

'Amaya-san! Karma-kun!' Koro-sensei exclaimed as they arrived in class, his face flashing purple with a red cross right in the middle as Amaya blinked in surprise. 'You're both late by a whole hour! Care to explain yourselves?!'

Whoa, Koro-sensei could get naggy when he wanted to, couldn't he?

'Sorry, I was busy hibernating.' Amaya answered honestly, smiling sheepishly as she stepped around Karma to head to her desk.

'Hmmm ... well Sensei will let it slide just this once.' Koro-sensei gave in, clearly deciding that Karma was just late cause he felt like it. 'However you must not be late again, Amaya-san!'

Amaya didn't bother in responding - She certainly couldn't agree to that.

No, her lifestyle was too demanding to be able to make promises like that.

Sugaya turned his head to cast Amaya a smile in greeting, and over at the front of the classroom Maehara waved with a bright grin while Koro-sensei resumed his lecture on what turned out to be Social Studies.

Of course, Amaya wasn't the least bit interested in such a subject, and could feel her previous sleepiness beginning to tug at her.

Karma wasn't either, of course - He sat leaning back in his chair, like he always did.

It brought a smirk to Amaya's lips, though she refrained from looking at him in preference for pulling out her notebook.

She spent her time drawing a small score of music notes between the lines in order to keep herself from nodding off to sleep.

The longer she thought on it, the more she really did feel like perusing through a music store.

Maybe this would be her only chance to do that and be able to buy something?

After Geography, the class went out for PE class, which was more knife training, though apparently the whole week before was spent on gun practice. Isogai and Maehara had approached to pair up with Amaya right off the bat, leaving the girl to blink in surprise, though a smile quickly flashed across her face.

Somewhere at that point, Karma had wandered off to the other side of the clearing to team up with Nagisa.

'So, Maya-chan!' Maehara spoke up with a grin as he watched Amaya attempt at hitting Isogai with her rubber knife. 'You free this afternoon?'

Amaya blinked in surprise at the question, freezing for just long enough where Isogai had stepped forward and pegged her in the shoulder with a knife-throw.

Well, that was her fault, wasn't it?

'Huh? Am I free?' She repeated in question, turning her head to look at Maehara, as she tossed Isogai the knife she had and grabbed his one at her feet. 'What for?'

'For that afternoon of games we talked about weeks ago, of course!' Maehara answered, that grin still across his face as Amaya stepped aside so the two boys could take turns trying to score against each other. 'We talked with some of the guys in class while you were away, and we got some great recommendations for you to try first!'

Amaya felt a small smile touch her face at that remark.

That's right - Ever since she'd gone to the arcade with them, Maehara'd been bringing up the offer a couple of times.

Just every time he'd bring it up, something came up.

'Kimura-kun and Okajima-kun have even given Maehara some games to borrow just for that reason.' Isogai remarked as he side-stepped a slash from Maehara.

Wow, they really talked with some of the guys about this, haven't they?

Amaya found herself really wanting to actually play, but it was Tuesday...

'So how about it, Maya-chan?'

'I'm sorry, but I can't today!' Amaya apologized, casting Maehara an apologetic smile. 'In truth, Tuesdays are a kinda no-go for me for now on - I can definitely do it tomorrow though!'

Definitely, because the apartment was pretty well stocked, since neither Amaya nor her siblings have been home until yesterday, so they didn't need to do shopping that week.

Maehara and Isogai cast each other a glance, before Maehara looked at her again.

'Sure, tomorrow's fine.' Maehara responded, curiosity creeping across his face. 'Everything alright, though?'

'Absolutely - Everything's great.' Amaya responded, smiling brightly in response.

There was no way in hell she was going to admit why she was busy now.

'Okay, if you're sure.' Maehara responded before placing the majority of his attention back on trying to score against Isogai. 'You'd better say something if somethings up though.'

Amaya grinned at the remark.

'Sure thing.' She responded, crossing her fingers behind her back as she said those words.

If it was something small scale, then sure, she would.

Just not what was going on in the darker corners of her mind.

The rest of the day went remarkably normal, to the point where Amaya very well could have gone to sleep, and she wouldn't have missed anything.

Although her trend of sleeping in class was a bit too prominent - It wasn't a good idea to increase her sleeping vs awake ratio even more towards sleeping. Koro-sensei might start doing evil things to her while she slept to deter future events.

She'd heard about his tendency for grooming and preening his students when they misbehaved, after all.

Amaya certainly didn't want to wake up after a short snooze in class to find that she'd been given a complete makeover.

Screw that - She'd rather stay just how she was right at that moment.

Just without the horribly washed out dye. That was something she could pass on.

Amaya was joined for lunch by Isogai and Maehara around her desk, and lot long after they'd sat down, Kataoka and Fuwa joined them, too. It appeared that during Amayas twelve day absence, her current standing in the classroom swapped over, and she was suddenly more popular than before, although that might be because not much was known about her, so her classmates were trying to get to know her a bit better.

Or it could be the novelty of her being back after an unexplained absence.

The only person who would know at least a little about what she was absent for was Karma.

And she very much doubted he'd ever mention it to anyone else in the classroom.

Never the less, Amaya found herself enjoying the small conversation amongst the five of them, which was a mix of their progress in PE classes, the topic of Koro-sensei's research, and the dilemma of cake.

Of course, Amaya didn't partake in the discussion on cake, since she wasn't a fan of sweets to begin with.

Fifth Period was a theory class on chemistry, which bored Amaya beyond belief - She'd taken to her music score for this class, thankful at the very least that it wasn't a practical class, and finally sixth period was English.

Irina was taking this class, however.

It had been a while since Amaya had sat through a class run by Irina, and she found herself thoroughly surprised by how she actually went about teaching.

She actually explained things in a rather down-to-earth way, at least when she wasn't throwing in some innuendo or something else in her speech just because she could. Though from a lot of the head-shakes and sighs of dismay from various students around the room at rather regular moments, there were quite a few that she was missing, or just didn't get.

Amaya knew where the English ones were going before a great many of the class, because Irina was quite openly crude with her English phrases.

Distinguish the L and the R from each other is where English Classes with Irina were at, and as she tied the class up for the afternoon, she finished with a rather alarming threat.

She was going to check everyones pronunciation regularly, and if they got it wrong, she was going to give them a French Kiss in public.

There was no two way about it - Irina would do it, and she'd enjoy every second of it. The only thing Amaya had going for her right now was those rather harsh lessons her so called father had drilled into her during the tiny pockets of time she'd interacted with him.

Get the pronunciation right, because there were punishments for getting Geniviere's name even slightly wrong, though Geniviere herself never seemed to care if Amaya got her name wrong or right.

Amaya guessed she must have looked particularly horrified at Irinas threat, because Karma had started snickering at her - Very, very obviously.

She refrained from casting him a glare, because all she'd do is amuse him even more.

It wasn't a funny situation for Amaya though - She certainly didn't want to be humiliated like that in public, and there was no way in hell she'd want her first kiss to be taken by her!

No way in hell was that going to happen - She'd rather hide under a rock for the rest of her life than let that happen.

In some regards, Amaya felt sorry for Nagisa, even though she had broken down to a fit of laughter when it happened.

The rest of her was still amused by the recollection, though.

Irina strutted out of the classroom as soon as the bell had sounded, leaving everyone to gather their belongings, and the students on Duty to tidy up.

Amaya let out a breath as she shoved her music-scored notebook in her bag, tossing her pen in as well as she lifted herself to her feet.

Well, she had to get going anyway - She'd rather leave now and at least have a chance to find the place while it was still early.

'Hey Katsuragi-san. Where are you going?' Echoed a voice all of a sudden, right as Amaya had reached the door to leave. She paused for a second, turning her head to look over in response.

She found herself staring at Okano, Mimura, Kurahashi and Okajima over at the teachers desk.

'Where? What do you mean?' Amaya asked curiously.

Okano blinked in surprise for a second, glancing over at the blackboard as Mimura cast her a small smile.

'You're on Cleanup Duty.' Mimura remarked, that smile still across his face.

Amaya blinked in surprise, snapping her gaze to the side of the blackboard where Class Duties and the date was written out every morning.

Cleanup Duty:
Okano Hinata
Okajima Taiga
Katsuragi Amaya

Oh god, she actually was.

Amaya'd never had to think about that before, because she'd never been given class duties before - Most people rathered not having to deal with her, so she was never put on the list.

And why the hell was everything conspiring to occupy her Tuesday?

Nothing ever happened on Tuesdays, so why the hell was it all happening right when she had to go somewhere without explaining anything?!

Though all of a sudden it seemed her catastrophic luck eased off and gave her a small instance of good luck.

It came in the form of Isogai looking up from his conversation with Kataoka to see a rather astonished Amaya still standing at the back door of the classroom.

'Oh, I can take over cleanup duty for you if you'd like, Amaya-san.' Isogai offered, that kind smile bright across his face. 'You said you're busy on Tuesday afternoons now, didn't you?'

'Y-yeah ...' Amaya hedged as she looked at the Ikemen.

He just continued to smile at her.

'Then we'll see you tomorrow.' He remarked.

'O-oh! Right!' Amaya agreed, relief overcoming her in a sudden crashing wave. 'See you later, everyone!'

And with that, Amaya turned on her heel and left the room at a jog.

Amaya smiled to herself as she began to swap her shoes over, wondering just how she could thank the Ikemen for all that he'd done for her since coming to Class E. Hell, both he and Maehara, even.

They looked out for her so much without asking anything in return.

She felt like she really didn't deserve such kind and awesome friends, but here they are, looking out for her.

Maybe that was why her luck on a day-to-day basis was so warped?

Because she'd just gained two awesome friends and had the sadistic friendship with Karma?

Her luck may have been spent on that, instead of just set on permanently catastrophic.

'Since when are you actually busy?'

Karma's voice spoke up all of a sudden, startling Amaya out of her thoughts with a squeak.

She snapped her gaze straight to him in an instance, to find that he was leaning backwards against the shoe shelf just next to her, his hands buried in his pockets as he looked at her.

Damnit, she hadn't even noticed him standing there.

'Since now, I guess.' Amaya responded with a faint breath, tugging her right boot on and tying the laces.

She damn well picked Tuesdays out of everything because it was the most pointless day of the week with absolutely nothing going on, so she could humor Shigure with his treatment idea.

If next Tuesday ended up like today, she might have to change the day.

Karma seemed to let out a breath as he lifted his gaze from her, looking over at the wall in front of him.

'What's going on?' He asked, a serious tone touching his voice.

'Nothing, really.' Amaya responded, glancing at the red-head from her hands as she finished tying off her shoes. 'Anyway, I gotta--'

Amayas words were cut short as she went to start leaving, when a hand closed around her wrist and pulled her backwards. She found as she regained her footing, that Karma had pulled her over to stand right in front of him, a particularly stern look across his face.

The look was greatly similar to the one he'd wore when she'd finally divulged that little bit about her parents two weeks ago, though this time there was a hint of concern instead of the understanding.

'I need more of an answer than that, Amay.' He told her, his grip still firm around her wrist.

She was starting to get tired of these unyielding moments.

But she guessed she might just be too cagey about these things - He let it drop pretty easy when she'd at least given him a little bit of an answer to his questions, before.

'Can we talk about this later? Please?' Amaya asked, casting him a rather pleading look. 'I really do need to leave right now...'

Karma stared at her for several long seconds in silence, before he sighed and shook his head slightly.

'Later is tonight.' Karma told her with a particularly stern tone, fixing her with a rather commanding look. 'I'll drag you out of your apartment if I have to.'

Amaya felt herself pale quite considerably at those words, nodding sheepishly up at Karma.

Seeming at least a little acceptant of her response, he finally let go of her wrist.

'O-okay, well ...' Amaya had begun, however her words trailed off instead - Before Amaya had even finished speaking, he pulled himself away from the shoe-shelves, and began to head back to the classroom.

Amaya stared after him for a few seconds, a small breath escaping her as she smiled wryly.

God he was a jerk when he felt like it.

But at least it seemed like they were learning to negotiate better. She had to be thankful for that, at least.

So Amaya left, that wry smile still in place.

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

Heya everyone! Chapter 46 of Marionette completed, and also Chapter 1 of the Skies Arc :) I hope you've all enjoyed the chapter, and I should have the next one up by next Friday the very latest.

Chapter Dedication this time around is for KhristynZoeBas, I hope you enjoyed, and thank you very much for all your ongoing support with this story to date :)

Housekeeping time! For my Christmas Oneshot Set that I have Wild-Cards free, I received no responses to the last update's question. For all of you that are unaware of it, the question is: What is the name of Amayas Father, and what field of Science does he work within as a Profession?

As there have been no answers from anyone on this, I'll answer the question for you all. Amayas Father is called Katsuragi Toji, and his professional Field of Science is Genetics. This has actually been mentioned in a couple of chapters to date, so it wasn't a random question thrown out there that you wouldn't have had answered for you at least somewhere in a chapter ;)

As there have been no answers to this question, the Wild-Card automatically goes to MidnightChildren05, who got the Bonus Points the previous update with her theory on Yuta and the colour Purple for Amaya. So, Midnight-chan, let me know either in a PM or a Comment who you'd like as the character in your Ansatsu x Reader oneshot, and if you have anything extra you want to see.

So, Wild-Cards are as follows:

Wild-Card #1 - kanade_yuki88
Wild-Card #2 - MidnightChildren05
Wild-Card #3 - [Open]

Here is the final question for you all: How much do you believe Reiko and Yuta remember about Okinawa and related events?

It doesn't have to be a factual answer, just your own opinion or theory to date :) Wild-Card Placement will be announced by next weeks update :)

Anyway, Translation notes :)

Chīsai tori - Translates as Little Bird, which is written as 小さい鳥 in Japanese :)