Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Ten - Kimeru [決める]

Consciousness came to Amaya slowly, much like the how the annoying sunlight would begin to shine across her face.

Amaya gradually awoke to a different scene to the last she remembered. Above her head was a familiar ceiling lit by incandescent light from what she guessed to be a lamp of some kind, that of the living room in her apartment. She was lying upon the couch it seemed, her head propped up on pillows gently while the rest of her was covered in her blankets that had been left there when Reiko and Yuta had taken her out shopping.

Amaya blinked slowly as she struggled to remember what had happened to her - Why she felt like she'd just run a marathon with blocks of iron strapped to her limps.

And why she could smell nothing but blood, even though she was home right now.

She vaguely recalled sitting in a Cafe with Reiko, where a group of newbie delinquents in Hayashi's gang had suddenly turned up at the window with Yuta held captive. After that? Not much, really. She remembered nutting a guy and strangling him until he passed out, and vaguely remembered Hayashi turning up with reinforcements.

But the rest?

It was completely blank on her.

Considering that all of the anger she'd felt boiling away at her insides for the past three days was gone, Amaya guessed that something really had gone down, even if she couldn't recall it. Right now, she felt exhausted, and the familiar icy waters of her prior emotional state had returned to sit still inside of her.

Amaya let out a breath as she lifted her left hand to rub her eyes slightly, however she paused as she actually managed to get her arm out from beneath the blankets. There were lots of bandages wrapped around the palm of her hand, and she could feel the tugging that was a telltale sign of stitches.

Oh great. Her left hand was now practically useless to her while the stitches were in place.

Just what the hell had happened to her?

'Oh? You're awake now?' Echoed a familiar voice all of a sudden.

Amaya lifted her gaze from her bandaged hand to look over towards the other couch.

Karma was present inside of her apartment, stretched out on the other couch like he'd been sitting there for quite a while. He was wearing a set of clothes she vaguely recalled to be a set he'd left here at one point a couple months ago just because he couldn't be bothered in coming back to collect it at the time. It was a maroon button-up shirt with short sleeves, and a pair of black jeans. He was looking up at her from what looked to be his phone.

For some strange reason, it felt really weird to see him out of school uniform of late.

'K-Karma? What...?'

'That's some greeting.' Karma spoke in sarcasm, lowering his gaze back to his phone.

Amaya shook her head slightly as she managed to drag herself upright, a faint wince flashing across her face from the pain that shot through.

God it felt like someone had used her as a punching bag!

'The hell are you doing in my apartment?' Amaya asked him seriously.

'I don't suppose you'd remember too much, huh?' Karma remarked without looking up at her, his attention seeming to be upon his phone as he tapped away.

'I remember Hayashi showing up - Not much else, though.' Amaya responded seriously.

Oddly enough, Karma lifted his gaze to look at her again.

Despite the smirk there in plain sight, there was a glimpse of something unreadable in his gaze, something that she had never seen before. She couldn't figure what it was - All she knew was that it made her feel like she said something very wrong just then, and she didn't know why.