It was revenge time.

Karma did not appreciate the fact that his friend's horrific ability to stay completely and utterly asleep at the worst of times had essentially convinced him that she'd somehow died in her sleep. He didn't appreciate being on the verge of bursting into tears until that moment, let alone the fact that it honestly took throwing the girl off the couch onto the floor just to wake her up.

And no amount of yelling or pinching torture inflicted on Amaya did enough to make him feel better.

He didn't like feeling so helpless for something like that, and the best way to make himself feel better?

To pull a harsher prank on the girl and making her suffer a little, of course.

Karma's belongings were still tucked away underneath the couch back at Amaya's place, hidden well enough that her rambunctious siblings wouldn't find them, and Amaya herself wouldn't see and dig them out from their hiding place and ask the building manager of his apartment building to drop them in.

She had, after all, done just that a number of times.

He was nowhere near home at all.

It was a little past nine in the morning when Karma had arrived at his destination, a strange mountain next to a school a few stops down the train line. Some place called Kunugigaoka, or something. He was armed with a butterfly net, twelve of the cheapest bug cages he managed to get with his allowance for that week, a jar of honey and gloves.

He was on a mission to catch the most disgusting creepy crawlies guaranteed to make any of the girls in class scream and let them loose in Amaya's apartment. While he doubted he'd get much of a reaction out of her for their appearances – he still hadn't found anything that could actually creep her out, no matter how hard he tried - he'd spent enough time being friends with her to know that she hated having insects in the apartment. He'd once watched her chase a moth around her apartment for hours on end to try and shoo it out the front door, and that only ended when he got sick enough of the sight to catch the moth himself.

Having at least twenty bugs take off into her apartment would drive her absolutely insane.

He had the afternoon all to himself to catch these insects undisturbed, and he was determined to do good on it. He'd heard some of the older kids on the train remark about a forested mountain in the middle of the city one time, and he'd made a mental note to check it out. At the time he'd wanted to drag Amaya along with him, but not now.

Instead, he followed a trail he'd found that lead upwards until he reached a stream running parallel to the trail, and set up.

The forest was noisy, alive with cicada, crickets and various other insects, proving a bountiful prank, if Karma was any judge on that. His mission was met with the acquisition of a handful of rice locust, a couple ladybirds and a small snail, bringing a grin to spread across his face as he thought on how much these insects would bother the albino. He'd shoved them away in two of the cages.

Next were some silkworms he found nearby, plentiful enough in numbers to bring that grin to broaden all the more, and finally he'd caught a whole heap of common butterflies while he was checking around.

But after a few hours of searching, the collection felt remarkably empty, like it was missing something. He wound up sitting down on a large rock part way up the mountainside, frowning down at the exceedingly overfilled insect cages as he tried to think of what else he could add. It honestly felt like there was something important that he was overlooking.

A sigh escaped the young boy as he turned his attention back upon the forest surroundings and its vast ecosystem of living creatures.

Then, he found his answer as he looked up into the tree branches and spotted glimmers of silver in the air. Threaded patterns in carefully spun strands waved in the soft breeze, and a large, eight legged insect stood nestled comfortable in its centre.

His little prank was missing spiders!

With newfound vigor, and three remaining empty cages to go, Karma set about finding the largest and most unpleasantly freaky looking spiders on the mountain.

And succeed, he certainly did, though the spiders tucked away in the cages weren't all that pleased.

Two tarantula and another spider he hadn't seen before in his life were his acquisitions, and beyond catching more crickets and cicada, Karma gathered his belongings and walked home. Nobody cast him peculiar looks as he wandered back through the city streets of Tokyo, nor did they seem to give his cargo of some three dozen insects more than a cursory glance, though the security on the train had taken the presence of the insects to concern.

It had taken him promising that he wasn't going to let the bugs out on the train, and even letting the security guard take custody of the insects for the duration of his trip home. He was thankful however that the presence of two exceedingly large tarantula had done nothing more than exasperate the security guard.

It was around noon by the time Karma arrived back at the familiar street that the two apartment buildings resided within, and he was about to simply wander up towards the albino's apartment and try to talk the building manager to let him inside her apartment if nobody was home, but the presence of a delivery van parked at the front of his own apartment building had tugged at his curiosity.

He stared, brow furrowing as he began to contemplate some better way of pulling this prank on the girl.

Could he somehow get the courier to deliver the bugs for him, instead?

It was worth a try.

So Karma dashed quickly inside his apartment, digging through his mother's wardrobe for one of those decorative boxes she kept her spare cocktail dresses within and managed to pour the insects inside, minus the odd couple of cicada that were too quick for him to force into the box. Not that it mattered, they could be a surprise for his mother, since she absolutely loathed insects.

Karma quickly ran down the stairs with his box of insects secured with just a few pieces of loose ribbon he'd found in one of his mother's drawers, ignoring the chorus of insect chirps and clicking from within.

Thankfully, it appeared the courier was still around; The van was still sitting there on the side of the street, and Karma decided he was going to stand her and wait.

It wasn't long until a thirty-something man came walking out of the building with a clipboard tucked under one arm and a trolley dragged along behind him by the other. Karma struggled to keep the mischievous grin from spreading across his face as he stepped away from the van to approach the man.

'Hey, Mister!' He called out, earning a startled look from the man just a second before he set the trolley down beside his van. 'Can you deliver this to someone? Please?'

The courier employee cast a brief, cursory glance towards the box in Karma's grip before he began to unload another sum of deliveries and carefully stacked them onto the trolley.

'I'm sorry kid, but I can't do that. I'm running a bit late on my deliveries as I am.' He declined with a faint sigh, pausing brieftly as he glanced back at the clipboard he'd discarded onto one of the boxes inside his van. 'The boss' probably going to deduct it out of my pay, again...'

'It's for my friend's birthday, today, but my mom won't let me go cause I'm grounded.' Karma lied as he followed along after the man, who'd simply cast him a brief glance back. 'Please, she lives in that apartment building over there, it won't take long!'

A heavy, almost grudging sigh escaped the courier employee as he continued to stack his parcels.

Darn, it looked like he'd have to go with the original plan, then.

'Name?' The courier asked.

'Huh?'

'What's the name of your friend?' The courier demanded irritably.

'Katsuragi Amaya.' Karma quickly answered.

The courier heaved another sigh as he flipped through the pages of another clipboard inside the van, where he then tossed it back inside after a span of twenty seconds.

'Fine. Just this once, alright?' He gave in as he resumed stacking boxes. 'You're lucky I already have a delivery for her today, cause otherwise it would be a definite no. I'll deliver it for you once I've finished with the deliveries here.'

Oh, good!

'Thanks, mister!' Karma hummed out as he quickly deposited the box of insects inside the van, right where the courier employee pointed.

It was at that moment that the cicada inside let out a rather loud cry, causing the courier to lift a questioning brow.

'Why are you giving your friend cicada for her birthday?' The man grudgingly asked.

'Because she likes cicada?' Karma offered in response. 'I don't know why, she just does. She's kinda weird.'

Thankfully, it appeared the courier accepted that answer well enough.

'Fine, get out of here kid. You're holding my work up.'

Karma didn't need telling twice.

He dashed back into his own apartment building, hiding in the foyer in wait for the courier to wander past with his next load of deliveries before he dashed back out across the street, unseen.

The largest, most mischievous grin was plastered right across Karma's face as he quickly took the stairs up to Amaya's floor, and it only sought to broaden as he reached the apartment door and heard the telltale sounds of the twins running rampant through the rooms squealing something about tigers and lions, for some reason.

Needless to say, Karma didn't hesitate to attempt to open the door, and was rather pleased to find that the door was unlocked.

Inside the apartment was the most chaotic he had ever witnessed, which was saying something considering that it was always chaotic here with the twins. The children were chasing each other through the living room, leaping onto the couch and bouncing over the back as they went about evading Amaya, who was frantically trying to catch the two to force them into summer jumpers and hats. Her legs were peppered with the obvious signs of fresh bruises and her toes were red and scratched up from several severe accidental stubbings.

The sight alone was enough to cause the boy to sigh as he shut the door behind him.

'HELLO KA-CHAN!' Reiko squealed out when the twins noticed his arrival, and promptly, the twins had abandoned their next lap of the living room to throw themselves at him in their usual show of clingy greeting.

'MAYMAY! KA-CHAN'S HERE!' Yuta shrieked out in glee.

This however, gave Amaya the immediate opportunity to catch them both by the back of their shirts before they reached him and drag them roughly to the floor in a flurry of flailing limbs and childish squeals.

In an uncharacteristically careless way, Amaya sat on Yuta's legs to keep him pinned beneath her while she held Reiko by the upper arm and forced the clothes on her, all while ignoring the obvious screams and complaints from the twins. It was sign enough that she was exasperated, even though her face did not show it. It was only on rare occasions that any show of pain or fright appeared to crack that emotionless facade, after all.

Karma decided he needed some kind of system to figure out how mad she was, because at this rate, he was never going to figure anything out.

'MAYMAY STOP!' Reiko screamed at the top of her lungs, encroaching waterworks on the way as she tried to wrangle herself out of Amaya's iron grip. 'I DON'T WANT TO WEAR JUMPER!'

'You will wear it.' Amaya's flat response came, matching with her blank expression as she roughly forced the sleeve of the jumper over Reiko's arm. 'Otherwise we will not go.'

Go?

Go where, exactly?

'NISHI-CHAN PROMISED!' Reiko shrieked, loud enough for Karma to wince. It was honestly amazing the girl hadn't so much as flinched at the harsh volume. 'NISHI-CHAN PROMISED SO YOU CAN'T MAKE US STAY HOME!'

'Really?' It was that moment that Amaya let go of the younger twin's arm and watched as the jumper was thrown roughly to the floor. 'If you don't put your clothes on, I won't go.'

At that remark, both Yuta and Reiko fixed their sister with wide, horrified gazes.

'B-But the birdies!' Yuta whimpered from the floor.

'YOU HAVE TO GO!' Reiko screamed at the top of her lungs.

'I won't.' Amaya simply reaffirmed without so much as a second's hesitation.

And as the seconds ticked by, sniffles escaped Reiko as she reluctantly crouched down and pulled her jumper back on.

While Karma was honestly thankful the screaming had stopped, he was thoroughly perturbed by the ultimatum the girl had given.

What exactly were they supposed to be doing? Where were they going, and why were the twins so transfixed upon the fact that Amaya absolutely had to go?

It tugged at Karma's thoughts relentlessly, however the sound of loud, rather brisk set of knocks at the door had reminded him of the delivery he'd asked the courier employee to bring over.

Frantically, Karma dashed out of the entrance walkway to hide behind the kitchenette island, out of sight of the door as Amaya picked herself up off of Yuta to answer the door. The mischievous grin had spread right across his face as he heard the courier's voice greet the girl, broadening all the more as he dared to peek past the island towards the door. He doubted she'd truly noticed he was even there; She tended to become so focused on something everything else just failed to catch her attention.

'Hello Katsuragi-san.' The courier greeted the girl. 'I have a delivery for you.'

'Okay.' Came the girl's blank response, followed by her brief shuffle to procure a seal to sign for the delivery.

Karma inched a little more from behind the island, struggling to keep himself from laughing as he watched what little he could see of the ablino reach out to sign for the parcels.

'Perfect, here you go, dear.' The courier employee said as he'd carefully set the insect-filled box into Amaya's waiting arms, along with two other parcels wrapped in postage plastic. 'Also, Happy birthday.'

'Thank you.' Amaya responded, causing the grinning redhead to pause.

Wait, it wasn't actually her birthday, was it?

'Probably not.' He muttered as he looked up at Amaya's form walking carefully towards the dining table with the parcels in arm.

Honestly, Amaya just agreed with anything and never corrected someone, so he was confident enough to shrug his doubts aside and creep out from behind the kitchen island.

'Maymay! What's that!?' Yuta's voice spoke up loudly against the quiet apartment, jostling a chorus of cries from the cicada inside the box.

'I don't know.' She answered.

'It's noisy!' Reiko chimed in.

'It is.'

'OPEN IT!' Yuta demanded with a shriek.

And so, Amaya did.

Karma could feel the broad grin appearing across his face as he watched the girl carefully discard the other two parcels and carefully untie the knotted ribbon that held the lid in place. He watched with bated breath as she managed to untie the ribbon and carefully lifted the lid from the box.

However, she seemed to freeze up as soon as she had looked inside to find the dozens of insects crawling around inside.

He hadn't expected a reaction from her, necessarily, however as he watched and noticed that the girl was actually starting to tremble, he realized he'd managed to find something that utterly disgusted her.

The lid of the box slipped from her trembling grip and landed atop the box with a clatter, startling all the insects inside to burst out of the box and scatter throughout the living room, earning screams and cries from the twins as Karma erupted in a fit of laughter. The twins ran to cling to him, and for once he was too busy laughing at the best prank he'd come up with yet to even care that the young children were essentially glued to him.

However, his bout of laughter had come to a halt when the door of the apartment actually slammed shut, and heavy, running footfalls sounded the arrival of none other than Nishimura.

The man however did not spare a glance towards Karma or the twins, or even the mess of insects that had made their presence in the apartment well known. Instead, the scruffily dressed man in slacks and a loose button-up shirt had swiftly slapped what was the largest of the tarantula off of her hand, sending it whizzing through the air to land with a dull tap on the floor by the window.

This wasn't good.

'Amaya-kun! Are you alright! Did it bite you?' Nishimura demanded urgently as he tugged the girl away from the box, crouching down at her side as he quickly checked her over for any bites. It was the moment that he saw the girl shakily turn her head aside in mute answer that Karma actually saw that she was in tears.

However that was all the answer even Nishimura was going to get out of the girl.

With the spider now removed from Amaya's hand, the girl had been shaken enough out of her frozen state to tear herself out of the man's grip and ran as fast as she could out of the room. It was a second later that they heard the bathroom door slam shut with a bang.

Karma swallowed thickly as he realized his prank may have been a little overboard; He hadn't expected to get such an obvious reaction out of the girl, ater all.

'Karma-kun.' Nishimura's voice pierced through the growing unease in the boy's thoughts, causing him to flinch. 'I know this was your doing.'

The redhead remained silent as he watched Nishimura straighten up onto his feet and turn to face him. Though he wasn't prepared for the disappointed look the vice principal gave him at that moment.

'I had hoped you would have put more thought into what to get your friend for her birthday.' Nishimura told him.

'W-wait...' Karma hesitated, hoping that he was honestly mishearing what the scruffy man had said. 'It's not her birthday... is it?'

'It is.' Nishimura clarified, before he looked back at the box, where the other tarantula was crawling out of the top.

Karma could only lower his head as the unease quickly turned to that unpleasant spiking of guilt.

Needless to say, he spent the next half hour catching every escaped insect loose in the apartment, and released them back outside.