Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Seventeen - Tanoshii [楽しい]

Never had Amaya considered that she might actually enjoy PE class, for once. She had never really considered that it was possible for her to make friends, either. Nor even if she could have fun with someone she didn't already trust explicitly.

Well, she was proven wrong by the third rotation during PE class.

There was no negativity shown towards her by these two boys called Isogai Yuuma and Maehara Hiroto, nor was there an underlying question of trust or suspicion. If she disregard the shock that they were struck with when she'd surprise them, like when she'd foot-swept Maehara, they grinned, and even managed to get her to laugh twice, now.

It was honest to god, innocent fun that felt foreign to her right now.

And even though it was foreign, it felt so good to Amaya that she decided to herself that she whole-heartedly liked these two boys who'd reached out to her.

She was inwardly giggling like a little schoolgirl inside when she realised that she might actually have the capacity to make friends, after all.

Before the beginning of the month, the idea that she was capable of such a feat had been as far-fetched as the moon exploding to her. That said very little now that her over-dramatic teacher had done just that to validate his position in the world.

So right now anything was possible in Amaya's eyes.

'Isogai-kun, you're up next.' Karasuma announced in that ever-serious manner of his, straight faced as he helped pull a winded Maehara to his feet.

Right now, it was the end part of PE class, and nearly everyone had been dismissed for lunch, except for Amaya, Isogai and Maehara. Things had run a little late for some reason, and Karasuma hadn't gotten around to the three of them by the time lunch started.

'Man, it's next to impossible to get a good run against him...' Maehara groaned out as he walked over towards where Amaya was standing, massaging his shoulder gently.

'I can't imagine someone from the Ministry of Defense would be a push-over.' Isogai responded with a smile as he approached Karasuma, Anti-Sensei knife in hand.

Amaya couldn't help but smile at that remark.

'Ne, Katsuragi-chan?' Maehara spoke up with a smirk, causing Amaya to turn her head to look at him. 'Mind if I ask you something?'

'You can ask,' Amaya began, burying her hands in her pockets as she glanced over at Isogai and Karasuma. 'But that doesn't necessarily mean I'll give you an answer.'

Maehara laughed in good humor at her words.

'I heard Koro-sensei say that you weren't put here for your scores, yesterday.' Maehara began, turning his head to watch Isogai try and hit Karasuma with the Anti-Sensei knife of his. 'I was just wondering why you ended up here, anyway?'

Amaya blinked as she thought on that for a couple of seconds.

And for some reason she couldn't comprehend, she actually decided she may as well be honest.

She wondered if it was because she actually wanted to become friends with these boys, and one of the top three things she valued was honesty.

'Do you want the roundabout answer, or the blunt answer?' Amaya asked him curiously.

She couldn't help but let out a small breath as she saw Karasuma grab Isogai by the knife-arm and use a Judo-throw to land him on the ground.

'The blunt answer, I guess.' Maehara told her as he glanced at her, and she saw the tiniest hints of a smirk across his face.