For what was probably the hundredth time Thursday morning, Amaya inwardly cursed as she found herself glimpsing the henna that Maehara had drawn on her, and in turn cursing her weariness ever since she'd started this so called treatment sessions that Shigure had her start on.

Yes, her temper for the most part was a little better it seemed, though she was tired all the damn time.

After managing to calm down from her fit of embarrassment over the henna on her neck yesterday afternoon, she'd gotten her chores done, made her own equivalent of dinner for herself and Reiko, and then went to bed. She decided that she'd purchase lunch for herself and Reiko on the way to Kunugigaoka, first and foremost she needed rest in order to try and get some of her had-been energy back.

The amount of rubbing she'd done to try and get rid of the henna had reduced her arms to tender patches of broken skin here and there, which by morning had turned into small lines of dried weeping, much to her irritation.

The ink had not faded even the slightest, a sure sign that Amaya was going to be stuck like this for a while.

She made a point to ask Sugaya if there was any way to help speed up the fading process without the use of chemicals.

Of course, Reiko's sharp gaze never failed to amaze Amaya, especially when there was something there that would interest the young girl. She'd spotted the mark on Amaya's neck during dinner, and made a point to tease her about it when Amaya's face started to redden from an oncoming blush.

In turn, Amaya had retaliated with the long-awaited questioning of how Reiko knew Isogai's little brother.

The interesting thing was that Reiko had turned a little meek at the question, though coughed up an answer that surprised Amaya as she ran to her room with her dinner in hand.

The two were pen-pal exchanges for Japanese classes last year, and apparently they'd been hanging out at the park just down the road from Reiko's school every Wednesday afternoon before she and Yuta would wait for Amaya at the arcade.

The other part of the story was that Yuta and Isogai's brother did not quite like each other - Yuta's clingy behavior towards Reiko when he wasn't in a nagging mood was likely a cause of this.

Which was a little foreboding since Yuta was currently staying at the Isogai residence, of all places.

She hoped Yuta wasn't causing trouble for Isogai and his family, considering that they were all being so nice as to have him stay over for a short while. Isogai probably wouldn't tell her if the boy was, even if she asked him about it.

He'd keep that information to himself purely because he was so nice to everyone and anyone, no matter if they wronged him or not.

Amaya made a note to buy a thank-you gift for Isogai and his family for all the trouble she was causing them.

She had the money on hand, so it wasn't like she couldn't afford to.

And she believed whole-heartedly that Shigure wouldn't have a problem with it, if she was doing it because she actually wanted to.

She wasn't spending the money on Yuta or Reiko.

That was probably half the problem the man had with the way she spent money, after all.

Always on her siblings, never on herself or a friend purely because she wanted to.

But that was just the way she was - They were living off of someone elses kindness this whole time, so she'd taught herself to be as efficient with money as she could possibly get.

Amaya found herself letting out a breath as she and Reiko walked around the side of Kunugigaoka to head towards the mountain trail, much like she was used to.

It seemed like they were running a little late - There weren't any of her classmates around at that moment, but plenty of the main-campus meat-slabs wandering around with their noses in books.

Reiko hummed happily to herself as she skipped a few feet in front of Amaya.

The now familiar sensation of eyes upon her came to Amaya's notice, but she did her best to pretend that she hadn't.

Though, like she'd begun to expect, luck wasn't on her side.

Standing on the other side of the gate to the Class E Mountain was an irritating form belonging to none other than Asano Gakushuu, who was standing at the base of the tree to the right.

An uncomfortable twitch had overcome Amaya as he turned his head to look up upon her arrival, the tiniest glint of a smirk dancing in his eyes as he pulled himself away from the tree.

God damn it, how was she supposed to avoid this asshole without being rude about it now?!

'Good morning, Katsuragi-san.' Asano greeted Amaya in a pleasant tone of voice as he approached.

Amaya resisted the instinctive need to run away right now - If she tried, she'd likely fall flat on her face.

It was also rather clear from the way that he'd come to a stop in front of her that he intended to keep her there to talk, even if he had to grab her.

Reiko had thankfully noticed Amaya's discord and stopped her skipping to look over at Amaya.

'Hello, Asano-san.' Amaya reluctantly greeted the boy, her teeth gritting as she struggled to keep her mood in check.

'My, you seem quite agitated already.' Asano remarked, a curious tone to his voice as he watched Amaya. 'I hope there aren't any hard feelings over last week's events.'

Hard feelings over last week, huh?

Yeah, there were plenty of them.

Amaya was trying her absolute best to keep a composed disposition.

'If there are?' Amaya responded in question, glancing at Reiko briefly.

A small chuckle escaped Asano, seeming in good humor.

'It would just be a shame, I hadn't meant to upset you.' He responded, a polite smile in place.

She hadn't forgotten Karma's remark that Asano would rather get even with her in his own way for that punch, which she found herself more than certain was true.

It would explain why the snake was standing right in front of her.

'That's a pity, I would have punched you regardless.' Amaya dismissed the boys words, making a move to step around him.

Unfortunately, he merely shifted his weight on his feet so that he was leaning more in her way.

'I actually appreciate that particular type of honesty, Katsuragi-san.' He commented, still smiling away, though he did cast a glance towards Reiko's motionless form. 'I have questions I want answers to.'

Deciding she had enough of forcing herself to keep to pleasantries, Amaya dropped her forced look of indifference to instead frown at him.

'And I'm running late for class. You know, the whole "Gotta climb a mountain as punishment" kinda bullshit.'

'I'd be happy to provide you with an apology note as Student Council President if you'd humor me.' He responded easily.

God damn it why wasn't he letting her go?!

Just how determined to talk to her was he?!

However it seemed like her luck had finally changed, if only this once.

It came in the form of a hand closing around her left elbow, ripping a startled squeak from her as she was dragged right past Asano in a very familiar manner.

'Wha-what?!' Amaya squeaked out as she stumbled, causing a giggle to escape a had-been silent Reiko.

'You're so slow, Amay~.' A suddenly present Karma remarked with a smirk, tugging Amaya along so fast that she couldn't catch her footing.

'Dammit Karma! Why do you always have to drag me around like this?!' Amaya demanded.

However there was no response from Karma - Instead he threw a glance back at Asano with a smug look across his face.

'Nice bruise you've got there, Asano~!' He taunted the silent boy, causing Amaya to blink in surprise.

She managed to look back at Asano to find herself rather surprised.

She hadn't noticed that there was a remarkably large yellowish bruise on the right side of his face, right where she'd punched him last week.

It hadn't healed yet, and seeing it as Asano turned to walk to class actually improved Amaya's mood by ten-fold.

In fact, she would go so far as to say that seeing just how insulted Asano was by the remark was well worth the agitation.

'Hey! You can let go!' Amaya grumbled up at Karma once they'd disappeared part-way up the mountain trail.

Unfortunately, Amaya got her wish a bit too quickly.

The moment he'd done as she'd demanded, she failed to regain enough footing before she fell backwards with an almighty squeak.

Immediately, the redhead stopped in his tracks to snicker at her misfortune.

'God damn it, you jerk...'

'You're the one who said to let go.' Karma responded, still snickering away.

'Owww...' She sighed as she dragged herself to her feet.

'That's why nobody listens to you, Amay.' Reiko responded, beaming up at Amaya's exasperated form.

'Shut up, damn it.'

Amaya's words were of course taken in good-humor - Reiko just giggled a little as she turned on her heel and began to lead the way up the mountain.

She was thankful that the redhead had interveined and got her out of that situation, but like most other times, he always did it in the most irritating way possible.

Though there was the benefit that since she was annoyed so early in the morning - She could focus on her annoyance a little just to stop her mind from wandering onto other things that drew a rather noticeable shade of pink over her face.

At the top of the mountain trail, everyone was already here, mostly dressed in PE clothes, which reminded Amaya what class was first for the day.

It appeared that the three of them were the last to make it, though thankfully it didn't appear that they were late.

Okano and Nakamura had glanced over, taking to waving over at the sight of Reiko.

'Nakamura-senpai! Okano-senpai!' Reiko called out happily, taking off at a dash for the classroom, much to Amaya's exasperation.

It felt all manners of strange for her to hear Reiko refer to her classmates as Senpai - Amaya herself never used the word, even in thought.

It felt more like a word from a foreign language than a honorific for an upper-classman.

As Reiko had reached the window to talk with Nakamura and Okano, Amaya caught the sight of Koro-sensei suddenly appearing in the classroom. Her brow furrowed as she watched him quickly approach the three girls with an uncomfortably familiar notebook in tentacle - the one she knew to be labled 'Developing Relationships'.

She got a bad feeling about that, especially as she saw Koro-sensei's face begin to turn pink before long.

'Ne, Karma?' Amaya spoke up after a few seconds, though she didn't take her eyes off of Koro-sensei. 'Have you had any ideas to use on Koro-sensei?'

There was silence at first as she felt him turn his head to look at her.

'Depends - What sort of ideas?'

'I don't really care, to be honest.' Amaya muttered, her brow furrowing as Koro-sensei began to frantically scribble away in his notebook.

She felt the smirk Karma cast her as he chuckled to himself.

'Is Koro-sensei getting to you, Amay?' He taunted her.

'He's up to something, that's all.' Amaya muttered in response, a small huff escaping her as she buried her hands in her pockets.

Of course, all Karma did was snicker at her response.

'You're just worried that Reiko-chan's going to say too much.'

'Shut up!'

Her petulant exclamation didn't yield her any relief, and she had no other choice but to endure his incessant snickering all the way inside.

'Oh! Karma-kun, Amaya-san.' Nagisa spoke up as the two entered the classroom. 'Good morning.'

'Yo, Nagisa-kun.' Karma greeted the boy, while Amaya cast him a smile in response as she deposited her bag on the hook of her desk. 'Something going on, today?'

'Not really - Karasuma-sensei announced earlier that we had another evaluation for class.' Nagisa glanced at Amaya for a second.

'Oh, that makes sense.'

Amaya inwardly sighed at Nagisas explanation however, lifting her PE bag from her desk she began to leave for the girls changeroom.

That meant a full hour out in the sun trying to land a damn hit on Karasuma.

Of course that wasn't the biggest problem - In truth it was her PE uniform.

She had been meaning to try and find an alternative to the uniform where it was a long-sleeved shirt with the pants, rather than the short-sleeved one they had, but of course she hadn't gotten around to it.

She'd wear the long-sleeved jacket that was a part of the uniform so she didn't burn to a crisp, but that meant she was probably going to suffer of heat exhaustion by the end of first period.

But at the same time, heat exhaustion was at least better than a burn that would take forever to disappear.

It would be gone by tomorrow.

'Good morning, Katsuragi-san' Yada greeted Amaya as she stepped into the changerooms, earning a sheepish smile in response.

'Morning.' Amaya replied as she deposited her bag onto the hook in the furtherest cubicle of the room, pulling the curtain shut.

'Ne ne, Katsuragi-san!' Another voice chimed in all of a sudden, causing Amaya to flinch part-way through unbuttoning her shirt. 'Do you like cake?'

That ... was it Kurahashi?

Amaya couldn't be sure, so she poked her head through the curtain to sight the owner of the voice.

Oddly enough, she found that it wasn't Kurahashi like she'd thought - She found herself instead face-to-face with Fuwa.

'Oh - Umm, no. Not really.' Amaya responded, disappearing back behind the cubicle curtain to resume changing. 'I'm not fond of sweets in general...'

'Eh?! Really?!' Another voice spoke up from somewhere else in the changerooms all of a sudden, one that Amaya actually did recognise to be Kurahashi. 'But I thought all girls like sweets.'

Amaya refrained from sighing as she guessed Reiko's sudden presence in the classroom had a greater affect on the female portion of her classmates than she'd thought.

They'd never really taken enough of an interest to go out of their way to talk to her like this.

'Reiko makes up for it.' Amaya responded, tugging both her PE shirt and jacket. 'She'll just about inhale anything with sugar in it if you let her.'

'Then what kind of food do you like?' Yada questioned from the other side of the cubicle curtain.

God damn, why did the topic of food have to come up when she was getting changed?!

'Spicy food.' She eventually responded once she'd gotten her pants on. 'Vinegared food is good, too.'

'Aww, that's a shame...' Kurahashi sighed, causing Amaya to blink in surprise.

'...Why are you asking, anyway?' Amaya couldn't help but ask as she stuffed her uniform into her PE bag.

'There's this cafe downtown that sells really good cake - We were just wondering if you were interested in coming with us.' Fuwa spoke up this time.

Amaya was silent at first, lifting a hand to ruffle her hair as she weighed their words for a few seconds.

'... I'm not big on sweets, and now's not a good time.' Amaya hedged, furitively looking away from where the three girls were standing on the other side of the curtain. 'But ... maybe next time? I mean, when Reiko's better, I'll consider it...?'

If Amaya hadn't been paying attention, she'd have missed the tiniest hints of a sharp intake of breath, much like surprise.

'Of course! We understand!' Kurahashi spoke up, a grin echoing in her tone of voice.

'We'll definitely ask you again next time, then!' Fuwa added.

Yep, Amaya was almost certain they'd been surprised by her response.

The sounds of dispersing footsteps amongst a rather elated farewell came to Amaya's notice as she stood silently in the cubicle, her brow furrowing as she found herself feeling rather bothered by the exchange that had just taken place.

Yes, she had known she'd probably come across as unapproachable for a while now, but she didn't expect such a turn-around in their attitude towards her just because she hadn't shot down their offer like that.

It almost made her wonder what they'd really expected her to say.

Almost.

It honestly wasn't worth thinking about.

So, after reigning in her confusion, Amaya began to make her way outside.

Amaya took note of the fact that everyone was already outside, even Reiko and Koro-sensei, though her sister was chatting amiably with the yellow creature.

Well, at least she wasn't running around wearing herself out - Amaya had to be thankful for that.

Amaya hummed to herself as she wandered over towards where Karma was standing next to Nagisa and Kayano, stretching her arms above her head.

Mostly everyone was talking amongst themselves while they waited for Karasuma to come outside, Karma included - He was talking to Nagisa about something to do with one of those Super-hero movies they'd watched apparently.

Amaya honestly couldn't recall very many of them, even though just before she'd left for Hongu the redhead had subjected her to at least three of them in one sitting.

She still believed the intention behind that was some kind of torture, though she couldn't be completely sure of it.

'Amay~!' Reiko's voice suddenly sung out from right behind Amaya, causing the girl to blink in surprise as she came to an immediate stop.

As Amaya turned her head to look at her sister, the most peculiar of things occurred.

All of a sudden something slimey slapped against the right side of Amaya's face with a rather gross sounding 'splotch', and Amaya's instant reaction was that of fright.

A startled yelp escaped Amaya as she threw herself backwards to put distance between herself and whatever had suddenly attacked her.

'What the--?!' Amaya exclaimed as she slapped a hand to her face to find that a cold, white cream had been slapped to her face, and Reiko had crumbled to her knees in a laughing fit.

It took about three seconds for Amaya to realize she'd just been attacked with sun-lotion.

'What the hell, Reiko?!' Amaya exclaimed as she frantically wiped the gross-smelling cream off her face with the sleeve of her PE uniform, much to the obvious amusement of most of her class - there was a rather noticeable wave of snickering and chuckles, from Maehara through to Nakamura and Kurahashi.

And of course an evil redhead was just snickering all the while.

'Awww! What's the matter, Katsuragi-san?' Nakamura spoke up in a teasing tone, a smirk evident across her face. 'Don't tell us you're scared of a little sun-lotion!'

In spite of Amaya's usual intention to just keep her mouth shut, the words flew to life before she had a chance to stop herself.

'Shut up! Its just disgusting, alright?!' Amaya snapped petulantly, too busy trying to rid herself of the unpleasant cream as more chuckles echoed in response.

It was immediately obvious that nobody was taking her sharp attitude to heart.

In fact, it appeared that all it was doing was amusing them all the more.

'But you're so pale already, Katsuragi-san.' Yada surmised as she approached, a smile across her face as she took in Amaya's addled form. 'You shouldn't complain - its for your own good.'

'I'd rather burn, damnit!' Amaya retorted petulantly.

'Well we can't have that.' Kataoka interjected, casting a glance at Isogai and Maehara as she spoke. 'I think this calls for an intervention, don't you think, Reiko-chan?'

'Definitely!' Reiko sung out as she picked herself up off the ground, bottle of sun-lotion in hand.

'Wait - what?!' Amaya had managed to get out, however it was too late.

'Yes! Revenge!' Maehara exclaimed as he suddenly lunged forward to grab Amaya before she could react.

'Nooo wait! LET GO!!!' Amaya yelled as she was knocked to her knees, both her arms pinned behind her back as Nakamura and a couple others raced forward to give Maehara a hand with keeping Amaya pinned. 'God damn it-- STOP!!!'

'No way~!' Maehara chuckled darkly as Amaya struggled in vain, much to everyones amusement. 'This is revenge for yesterday!'

'That was your own fau--' Amaya had begun, however a face full of sun-lotion cut her words off immediately. 'Damnit! I SAID CUT IT OUT!'

'Ooh she yells well, doesn't she?' Nakamura snickered.

'If you stop struggling, it'll all be over!' Karma called out over the chorus of snickering, amusement clear in his tone of voice.

'SCREW YOU KARMA!' Amaya yelled as Reiko continued to attack her with sun-lotion.

Of course, all he did was snicker all the same.

'Nearly done, Katsuragi-san,' Kataoka announced, the laughter evident in her voice in spite of the apologetic smile she was casting Amaya. 'Just hold still now--'

'LIKE HELL I WILL!'

'Aaaand done!' Reiko sung out, a chiming laugh in her voice as she stepped away from the struggling Amaya.

And then Maehara, Nakamura and Okano released Amaya a second later.

'There, that wasn't so bad now, was it?' Nakamura remarked, though there was still a smirk in her voice all the same.

'You're all jerks damn it!' Amaya whined, frantically trying to wipe all of the sun-lotion from her face.

'Awww, don't be like that, Maya-chan!' Maehara responded.

'We only do it because we like you.' Nakamura added with a smirk.

'That does not help!' Amaya spat.

'Is there a problem, Katsuragi-san?' An unexpected voice spoke up all of a sudden, startling Amaya with little effort.

Karasuma had finally arrived to start PE class, it appeared, and he was looking down at Amaya's slumped form.

'N-no ...' Amaya muttered in response.

'I see.' Karasuma responded, placing his attention on everyone else instead. 'Divide up into pairs - You will begin with knife-practice until I have called each of you aside one at a time.'

There was a chorus of agreeing voices, and everyone began to do as instructed.

'You done sulking, now?' Karma questioned as he came to a stop just in front of Amaya, a smirk still clear in his tone of voice.

Amaya didn't answer him, though she slapped away his offered hand up and dragged herself to her feet.

All she received in response was more snickering from the thoroughly amused redhead, much to her displeasure.

The only thing Amaya could do was inwardly sigh, realizing that it was going to be a very, very long day.

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

Heya everyone, another chapter for you all because I got it done ahead of time. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see about getting the next one out in the next seven days. Chapter dedication this time around is for ihasredchair :) Thank you very much for your comments :D I hope this chapter is to your likings.

Also! I have a writers shoutout for Hime-dere! She's writing an Assassination Story called Tachibana Attention! And I highly recommend that you check it out! Its an excellent read with 11 parts out already - Please check it out if you haven't already!

Translation notes for Chapter 66 of Marionette:

Koyasudo - Translates roughly as Respite (A short rest / break from hardship) , which is written as 小休止 in Japanese

All the best guys, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter :)

<3 Loki-Roki~!