Amaya knew she had reacted a bit too volatile to Karmas little taunt.

She knew it, and yet she couldn't fell entirely guilty about it.

She'd spent the majority of that night curled up beneath her bed in the dark, entirely alone where nobody could find her. Nobody would even notice it was there, unless of course they lifted the mattress to find that the frame lifted up like a box, and inside was entirely hollow, save for a set of blankets and a pillow she'd left in there the last time she'd gone hiding.

Not even Yuta and Reiko knew about her little hiding place, because she very rarely utilized it.

So there was no way that anybody else would know about it, either.

Nothing was out of the ordinary - Amaya got organized for school after getting her siblings obento and breakfast organized.

Though class was of course different, something had sprung up to spur everything into energy and turbulence just as she'd expected.

It was during Homeroom when this came to light.

The Ball Game Tournament had come around, and of course Class E was supposed to participate in a mockery round. Girls versus the Basketball Team, Boys versus the Baseball Team.

Amaya had wandered in a little late after deciding that uniform be damned before walking back home to change out of the skirt into a pair of shorts. She arrived to find Kataoka and Isogai at the front of the classroom, writing down names on the blackboard.

On the girls team so far was Nakamura, Yada, Kurahashi, and Kataoka, though that was an incomplete list so far.

Very few looked up at her late arrival, and it appeared that Koro-sensei was too busy perusing the pieces of paper in his tentacles to notice she'd just gotten in. Sugaya, Maehara, and Isogai had glanced over.

Nobody else.

It was good for Amaya though - she honestly didn't want a scene over it.

She took her seat at her desk, discarding her bag onto the hook before leaning back in her chair.

Karma had glanced at her from the corner of his eye, though nothing more. He remained with his chin propped up on an upturned hand, staring ahead at the scene before them lazily.

'Mm-hm. A class versus class ball game tournament, is it?' Koro-sensei hummed, flipping to the next page as he continued to read. 'Cultivating healthy minds and bodies through sports-Most excellent!'

Koro-sensei then lifted his gaze to look at the class, sweat beginning to form over his face in what Amaya assumed to be apprehension.

'However ... Why is Class E not in the tournament brackets?' He asked, indignantly.

'E Class doesn't get entered into the tournament due to the splendid reason that there'd be an odd number of teams.' Mimura responded, a small edge of bemusement in his tone of voice. 'Instead, we have to play in the exhibition game at the end.'

'The exhibition game?' Koro-sensei questioned.

'Basically it's just a spectacle. As the entire school looks on, we get pit against the Baseball Club, and the girls the Girls' Basketball Club.' Mimura explained.

'I see ... so it's the same old same old.' Koro-sensei surmised with a sigh.

'Yep.' Kataoka agreed.

At that very instance, Terasaka, Yoshida and Muramatsu rose to their feet, rather bored looks across their faces.

'We aren't sticking around to be laughing stocks. You guys handle it however you want.' Terasaka remarked, letting out a breath as he turned on his heel to head for the door. 'See ya.'

And with that, the three boys left the room.

'Hey, wait! Terasaka!' Isogai called out, though it was obvious to Amaya that he wasn't going to respond. 'Sheesh!'

'If it's baseball, the go-to guy would be Sugino.' Maehara remarked, turning his head towards the boy in mention, who looked a little put on the spot. 'Got any secrets we can use to win?'

Amaya saw the boy shrink slightly in his seat, and guessed what he was about to say.

'It's impossible. Our baseball team is pretty strong.' He mumbled, staring dejectedly down at his desk. 'Especially our current club captain, Shindo. His powerful fast-ball has even gotten the attention of the prestigious high schools. A star pupil and a star athlete-- it's like, unfair.'

Amaya let out a small breath as she pulled her phone from her pocket, glancing at the display as she thought.

Once again, everything seemed to take a melodramatic turn, like it usually did when something happened.

'But you know... I want to win, Koro-sensei. Not just put up a good fight. Win.' Sugino continued. 'I don't want to lose at the baseball that I love.'

Amaya looked up from her phone for a second to look at Sugino, however something else had caught her attention.

Koro-sensei had all of a sudden changed outfits, though Sugino continued all the same with something.

His face had suddenly taken on the appearance of a baseball and a sprig of grass sticking out from his teeth, and he was dressed in a set of baseball clothes, each of his tentacles waving an item related to the sport as he whispered 'So excited, so excited' like an enthusiastic kid, causing Amaya to facepalm.

It was amazing that nodoby had noticed yet.

Though she guessed it was probably because everyone had their attention on Sugino.

'I want to team up with these guys and-' Sugino had continued with his words, however he'd finally looked up from his baseball in his hands to look at Koro-sensei.

And then everybody looked up in response to Sugino's sudden silence.

'R-right. You want to play baseball too.' Sugino remarked upon the rather obvious fact, his face rather blank as he, along with everyone else, stared up at the strange creature in baseball gear. 'I hear you loud and clear.'

'Nyurufufufu! I've always wanted to be the fiery coach in a sports drama.' Koro-sensei explained with gusto, lowering his baseball equipment as he then seemed to grab something else out of nowhere. 'I won't smack you kids around or anything, so instead, I'll flip dinner tables.' He then proceeded to lift a fully stocked table with a four-person spread of grilled fish, rice, miso soup, curried vegetables and wakame salad and held it up to help convey his words.

Amaya could even smell that the food was fresh - What the hell!?

'You're way too prepared!' Sugino deadpanned in response.

'What a waste of good food ...' Amaya remarked with a frown, though nobody seemed to hear her at all.

Koro-sensei then seemed to toss the table of food aside, though it wasn't in the room the moment it left his tentacles, almost like a magic-trick as he then held baseball bats and other items in his tentacles again..

'Lately, you've grown more articulate about the direction you want to go in.' Koro-sensei continued, as if nothing had been said to disrupt his little moment of gushing. '"I want to kill." "I want to win." Unwavering, no matter then adversity you face. To reward that spirit, Coach Koro will impart upon you the training and strategy that will allow you to win!'

And that was the end of discussion, with Koro-sensei finishing his spiel in just the same difinitive way that he always did, there was no room to discuss anything further.

Kataoka and Isogai went back to writing up the team placements for the two teams, and Koro-sensei had calmed down from his excitement.

Koro-sensei decided that they were going to spend from fourth period to the end of day practicing for their respective games, though like Terasaka, Yoshida and Muramatsu, Amaya opted out of doing that.

They already had enough members for the basketball match, and it wasn't like Amayas luck was going to let her run in a straight line without knocking herself out cold with so many people watching.

And she didn't even understand the first thing to do with Basketball, aside from the fact that it had a large, orange ball.

Baseball, she at least understood from when Yuta had to learn it for school.

Nobody seemed to mind the fact she had ended up wandering off elsewhere, though she did feel curious eyes upon her every now and then.

Amaya stood beneath the largest tree at the edge of the clearing, near the set of log-platforms and climbing frame Karasuma had gotten built to help teach the class more skills for assassination, staring up at the three ropes that were hanging from the thickest branch 20 meters up.

She guessed this was new, though she didn't really understand when it was put in place.

Was it yesterday afternoon?

Or was it the same time that the climbing frame had been put in place?

Everything just seemed to mix and churn in her head, bad enough where she didn't truly have a sense of time with anything to do with class.

It seemed to be the one thing she lost track of.

'You are the only student who has not attempted this, Katsuragi-san.' Karasuma's voice spoke out all of a sudden, startling the girl with little effort.

She whirled around to find herself face to face with Karasuma, who was standing a few meters away, his ever-serious expression in place.

Amaya was fairly certain that if he ever smiled, something was seriously, seriously wrong.

'Oh. Right...' Amaya huffed slightly as she looked back at the ropes gently swaying in the breeze. 'So this is for PE classes, then?'

'That's correct.' Karasuma confirmed, glancing up at the top of the tree for a second. 'Few of your classmates have made it to the top, Isogai-kun, Maehara-kun, Kataoka-san and Karma kun being the exceptions.'

Amaya looked up at the top of the tree for a second, before she looked at Karasuma.

'The Target has mentioned that particularly large group activities don't appear to be your strong suit, so we are not to force you to join if you do not wish to.' Karasuma informed her, that same unreadable expression across his face. 'However, if this is the case, then I will assign my own choice of tasks for you to complete, instead.'

She couldn't help but smile slightly at that.

Well, she had been tossing up whether to ditch and head to Shigures for her three-hour training session purely because she had nothing else to do.

This was at least better than ditching - She was still here doing something that also suited her preferences, so Koro-sensei couldn't complain at her for shirking her studies, anyway.

'He really should learn to mind his own business.' Amaya responded with a wry smile, glancing up at the tree once again. 'Okay, so what's first?'

'First, you are to attempt to climb to the top of one of these ropes.' Karasuma informed her, earning her attention once again. 'You will continue to do so until you can reach half-way.'

Half way ... so ten meters then?

That's still quite a feat on a single climbing rope - if she was told to climb the base of the tree without the rope, she'd be able to do it easily enough.

Of course, if a certain someone ever saw her scale a tree, he'd surely call her a cat.

She grabbed hold of the rope gently, tugging it a couple times to get an idea on how sturdy it was before she glanced up at the top of the tree.

'Are there any tricks to this, Karasuma-sensei?' Amaya couldn't help but question, as she gauged just how many knots in the rope she'd have to pass before she got half way.

'Manage your momentum.' Karasuma responded knowingly, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched. 'Stopping frequently will expend far more energy than a single upwards climb, and it will also wear you out faster. You should also keep your arms at least a little bent at all times.'

Amaya nodded momentarily, grabbing hold of the rope with both hands before hoisting herself up on it.

Uncomfortably, the rope swung underneath her feet as she stood on the bottom knot with both feet, and it felt far more cumbersome to constantly step on every knot and lift herself up.

She'd gotten two meters off the ground before the conflicting swinging of the rope beneath her hands and feet got too much, and she dropped herself to the ground once again.

'Oww... that's harder than it looks.' Amaya sighed as she rubbed her hands together, taking another look at the rope.

'Instead of focusing on where to place your feet, Katsuragi-san, you should focus on keeping an upward momentum.' Karasuma explained, stepping forward to stand in front of Amaya. 'As you pull your weight with one arm, your other should rise up at the same time, taking hold of the rope higher up to continue the momentum. In this type of climbing exercise, your feet should merely keep the rope anchored in case you need to stop and brace yourself against wind or any other force that might cause you to fall.'

Amaya blinked in surprise, before she looked at the ropes once again.

It was here that she noticed the one she was next to had the most knots in it, with the far rope the one with no knots, and the other a medium number of knots between the three.

Well, if most of the work was going to be done with her arms, then there wasn't much point in the rope with knots - That'd hinder her more than anything else, and it was a calm day with the weather.

Amaya nodded slightly to herself as she ambled over to the knotless rope, pushing the sleeves of her shirt up her arms as she began to ready herself for the climb.

'Be careful with that particular rope, Katsuragi-san.' Karasuma warned her, though his tone of voice and expression were the same as usual. 'It will be easy for you to fall if you misjudge your movements.'

'Okay.' Amaya responded, taking hold of the rope with her right hand.

She sucked in a deep breath through grit teeth, and then threw herself in a leap upwards, pulling herself higher with her left arm just as Karasuma had instructed.

Immediately, Amaya could feel the difference a constant upwards momentum made, and as she let her legs just hang beneah her with the rope between the arches of her boots, she found herself easily clearing two meters in a mere ten seconds.

Her arms didn't strain with the constant stopping and hanging, and much like Karasuma had said, it felt better to keep her arms at least sligthly bent.

No wonder gymnists and regular climbers scaled most things in one fluid set of motions without stop, and it made sense why they made it look so easy.

Because there really was a trick to it.

She reached half way up the rope that way, however she didn't stop - Her arms were starting to tire a little, but she wanted to reach the top, if she could.

Higher and higher she went, the more of the mountain she could see. The girls were practicing running and rebounding back the other way off their feet, the boys were out on the field with Koro-sensei, who was still in that baseball outfit of his, though from where Amaya was, it looked like there was a good nine of him out there.

Oddly enough, it looked like a couple of the boys had spotted her climbing, and turned their heads to look over from the erratically moving Koro-sensei..

He was obviously acting as pitcher and fielder while the boys were supposed to bat, though his movements were so fast that it seemed counter-productive to Amaya.

How were the boys supposed to practice when Koro-sensei was slugging out Mach-speed movements on the field, and throwing pitches that were so much faster than was humanly possible?

That sounded stupid.

Very, very stupid.

Pointless in fact.

A sigh of relief escape Amaya as she reached the top of the rope, clambering up onto the branch so she could let her arms have a short minute rest before she made her way back down.

On that topic, she wondered how she was going to get down.

Would it be the same way?

She couldn't exactly slide down it like a vertical bar on a childrens climbing frame - Even though she was wearing her usual fingerless gloves, she'd still get rope-burn before she'd even get half way down.

Though she was wearing her boots - maybe she could slow her descent with her feet, allowing her to manage her descent similar to her ascent?

In the mere minute it had taken for her to climb to the top of the rope, Irina had turned up to stand just a few feet away from Karasuma.

Both were looking up at Amaya, though both wore unreadable looks across their faces as they spoke to one another.

Amaya guessed it was time to get down...

So she tried her idea of sliding down using her boots to slow her momentum down without getting rope-burn over her hands, and aside from it being a little uncomfortable to hold her feet that way, it did the job just as well as she'd hoped.

Her feet hit the ground with a soft thud, and she released the rope in preference for letting her arms hang at her sides to rest.

'Good, you seem to learn quickly.' Karasuma surmised, glancing up at the top of the rope for just a second.

Really?

That was news to her - If she really was, then she had no idea how that worked.

She was still getting thrown across Shigures tatami room every ten seconds or so without so much as landing a scratch on him for hours at a time, after all.

Though Shigure made a point of telling her that he was not going to go easy on her.

'What's next?' Amaya asked with a small smile, glancing between Karasuma and Irina.

The busty blonde turned her head to look at Karasuma, though she didn't say anything.

That was odd, though - Irina usually wanted to give her own two cents, even if it wasn't really warranted at the time.

'Repeat the same for the other two ropes - I will have something else for you to do after you complete that task.' Karasuma commanded her, earning another glance from Irina.

Amaya nodded her head, turning her gaze back to the first rope she'd attempted.

She guessed he was getting her to do all those exercises and training sessions that she'd missed since Ritsus arrival.

With that thought, Amaya was glad she really did opt out of the practice sessions with everyone else.

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

BONUS, EXTRA CHAPTER FOR THE WEEK! Purely because I had a spare two hours between work commissions to finish it :) Its shorter than the usual number of words by about 600, though it's still a beefy 3,500 approximately - Beefing it up even more would have bloated it beyond comfortable reading, I think. I hope you enjoyed reading, regardless :)

Translation notes for Chapter 55 of Marionette

Fuitchi no - Translates roughly as discordant, which is written as 不一致の in Japanese.