Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Thirty One - Bunri [分離]

Amaya had no recollection of how she had gotten home, however her siblings were very quick to tell her all about it when she awoke later that night.

It appeared that when she'd finally passed out at her desk after the events of midterms, someone had roused her from sleep and escorted her home. Or rather, they'd carried her all the way home, because she wouldn't wake up no matter how hard they tried to reach her.

Apparently it wasn't Karma.

The twins described the person to be a really nice boy, accompanied with a serious looking girl. Apparently, when Yuta had answered the door, he was face to face with the boy carrying Amaya on his back, and the girl had her belongings in her arms.

According to Yuta, Amaya's classmates were very polite and kind - though he wouldn't tell her why he was insistent on this.

So Amaya was left sitting there with a peculiar sense of understanding that felt rather foreign.

She wondered who the hell would carry her all the way home like that? It was a long way from Kunugigaoka to her apartment, after all.

Not even Karma would go to that bother, unless there was something seriously wrong with her.

He'd just bludgeon and annoy her awake, just to piss her off.

All of Amaya's belongings were on the table when Amaya awoke on one of the couches around ten that night, however the exam papers with her scores and placement on them were not.

Amaya decided to wave it off as them still being in the classroom, and left it as that.

She left a little later than she normally would, a sleepy Yuta and Reiko sitting at the table munching on their breakfast as she shut the door.

She still felt horribly tired after her studying stunt, and no amount of sleep she got actually helped.

Amaya wandered onto her needed train as its doors opened, a hand over her mouth to politely hide a stubborn yawn that just wouldn't leave her. Her hair was left loose today just because she couldn't be bothered in doing anything with it - Yuta was too sleepy to have made too much of a double-take of it and start gushing.

Thankfully.

She wasn't entirely sure if it was really a good thing for her brother to have such an adoration of an older-woman character from an anime like that.

Amaya took up her usual place in front of the door opposite the one she'd walked through, reaching up to take hold of the passenger hand-railing as the train began to start up again.

'Yo! Katsuragi-chan!' A familiar voice spoke up in greeting all of a sudden, catching Amaya's attention immediately.

She blinked sleepily as she turned her head towards the sound, to find that Isogai and Maehara were approaching her from the far end of the train carriage.

She guessed she was running a bit later than she thought.

'Good mo ... morning.' Amaya greeted, that stubborn yawn breaking her words apart mid-greeting.

'Still tired?' Maehara asked her with a smirk, while Isogai smiled in that kind manner of his.

'Yeah.' Amaya responded, rubbing her eyes gently as she turned to face her classmates. 'I don't normally study, so it just wears me out even worse.'

'It's still pretty amazing that you got in the top fifty with just one day's study, though, Katsuragi-san.' Isogai responded.

'Really?' Amaya asked, a little surprised by the remark. 'I'm sure you guys would have gotten better scores than me if the exams weren't rigged like that.'