Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Eleven - Shokai [紹介]

There was something in the way that the world works, which never ceases to reduce Amaya to a nervous wreck when she least expected it.

Just like there was something in the way that the discussion between herself and the man from the Japanese Ministry of Defence that would encite confusion, and remind her of her darker thoughts with alarming clarity.

It didn't help that Karma hadn't stopped laughing for nearly the rest of the time Karasuma and his shadow were there.

It got so bad that Amaya decided to just take everything the man had said as a joke, and think nothing of it.

Nothing he had really said actually stuck in her head, anyway, so what did it matter?

Amaya couldn't say one way or the other whether it was because of how outlandish and impossible the whole story was, or because of the jerk that sat right next to her the whole time laughing his ass off at the conversation. It wasn't long after Karam's fit of laughter began, where Karasuma had told her that Karma could explain anything further, and that if she let this slip to anyone, her memory would be erased.

He left with his shadow following right after this, leaving Amaya to sit there glaring at the laughing teenager.

About the most clear and concise information that stuck in her head was that she was now a member of Class E at Kunugigaoka, and she hadn't gotten expelled at all, no thanks to her former classmates of five days.

Amaya didn't really remember much of the rest of the evening - After the twins returned with a rather exhaused looking Nagisa in tow, Karma practically dragged the blue-clad boy with him out of the apartment, leaving Amaya to her twisted, broken sense of reality. She vaguely registered that the twins had kidnapped Nagisa so they could go buy dinner with an escort, and probably torment the guy with incessant questions the whole time, but there wasn't much else. After being handed a take-out container of yakisoba for dinner, Amaya ate in a sense of dull silence, her brain trying to sort through the information she'd been given while trying in vain to filter out Karma's incessant laughter.

It was bad enough that she was determined to punch the guy in the face next she saw him.

Right now, it had just gone 6am on Monday morning, and Amaya was in the process of getting breakfast and obento for everyone made.

Her long hair was pulled back into two loose braids tied off at the nape of her neck like twintails, and she was dressed in her ever normal pair of grey pants with her white button up shirt. She was without her gloves today, since she couldn't get her left one on over the bandages she still had wrapped around her hand.

The weekend had been spent more or less just resting up from all of the injuries she'd sustained from her little psycho-break at the delinquents on Friday afternoon, and getting mad at the new phone Karma had bought for her. Her injuries had healed enough where she could be free of all bandages, apart from the ones wrapped around her left hand, which really was a godsend. She didn't like the prospect of going to school all bandaged up, after all. That didn't mean the bruises up her arms and the split lip didn't stand out, either.

Her anger at the new phone was just because of annoyances at Karma, though she still got frustrated with the fact that her old phone had died on her.

It had taken her a couple of hours just to figure out what icons were her contact list, what one was her number pad, and where email composer was hidden. Learning how to type with it was another story entirely, and out of brused pride, she refused to walk across the road to demand that Karma tell her how to use it.

That was probably the whole reason he picked that phone for her - Because it was the same as his, and he could mock her relentlessly when she eventually cracked and asked him for help. She'd learned how to read emails pretty quick though - The painful teenager had been sending her messages on and off throughout the weekend, many just saying something pointless like 'I'm bored' and 'Still learning how to unlock the phone?'