Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Twenty Two - Ōhei [横柄]

'Hup! Pass!' Koro-sensei called out.

A black and white patched soccer-ball flew through the air, where it was kicked by Maehara back towards the octopus.

'Hup! Kill!' Maehara called out immediately, lunging forward to try and stab Koro-sensei with his Anti-Sensei knife.

Right before the knife contacted, Koro-sensei dodged in a flash with a familiar Nyuu!

Amaya watched silently, her gaze sharp with curiosity as the process repeated over and over again.

It was still lunch-break, and Koro-sensei had appeared in the middle of the clearing, proposing a friendly game of Assassination Soccer. Of course, the only connections this game had with soccer was the fact that there was the specified ball, and the students could only kick the ball.

Nagisa and Karma had noticed Koro-sensei start playing with some of the other students, and decided they wanted to participate as well. And because Karma was bossy as hell, he dragged Amaya along with them by the back of her shirt kicking and whining the whole way there.

Not that she was complaining right now, of course.

The game was very, very intriguing, calling out to an unfamiliar side of her that was eager to join.

This was all so new that Amaya was watching much like a cat watching a peculiarly odd reflection of light jiggling on the floor.

'What's up with you, Karsuragi-chan?' Maehara asked as he came to a standing position just a couple of feet to Amaya's right, curiosity dancing in his eyes.

Unfortunately, Amaya hadn't quite heard him over the eagerness to watch the game unfolding in front of her, so she didn't answer.

Curiously, Maehara leaned over to actually look at Amaya's face.

Eyes bright, quickly following every movement with unyielding focus, and a small, twitching at the corner of her mouth, Maehara could see that Amaya was entirely focused on the game.

He seemed to chuckle at that.

'You're totally into the game, aren't you?'

No response - Amaya's head turned quickly to the right to follow the ball Koro-sensei had thrown over to Nagisa, who kicked it back and tried to shoot Koro-sensei in the head.

To no avail of course, as Koro-sensei dodged his attempt in exactly the same manner as he had Maehara's attempt.

'Koro-sensei!' Maehara called out to the giant octopus, though he didn't seem to say anything else, as far as Amaya could tell.

She watched the ball get thrown towards Kayano, who kicked it back and tried to shoot Koro-sensei as well.

'Hup! Pass!' Koro-sensei announced once again, however this time instead of being thrown to one of the other students, it came hurdling right towards Amaya.

Shocked, and at a loss of what was going on, Amaya instinctively caught it in her hands.

'What the--?!' Amaya squeaked out.

Quite a few of the students surrounding Koro-sensei started to laugh at her rather startled expression, even Maehara.

In fact, Maehara was the one laughing at her the most, next to Karma of course.

'Foul!' Koro-sensei announced in that jovial manner of his, crossing two of his fingerless tentacles in an X in front of him. 'Katsuragi-san, you're not supposed to catch the ball.'

Amaya blinked owlishly as she began to comprehend what had actually happened.

'Sorry! I just didn't expect it!' She apologized quickly, throwing the ball right back to Koro-sensei.