Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Thirty Three - Hebi [ヘビ]

It was Monday morning, and Amaya could already tell that it was going to be an uncomfortable type of chaos, unlike her usual preference for fun chaos often created by a boy with red hair.

Just at 5am, Amaya was already up and beginning to get organized so she could get going to the Classroom as Karasuma had told her. Her plans were in order, and her bag was, too.

Because her original messenger bag wasn't big enough for simple requirements for three days away from home, Amaya had wandered down to the city on Saturday afternoon to buy another larger, more suitable messenger bag.

Two sets of BB-Dust soaked uniform were neatly packed at the bottom in a plastic bag to keep it from contaminating anything else, or at the very least to keep it from losing its BB-soaking. In with the bag with the uniforms were essentials like hygiene stuff, a hairbrush, a change of regular street-wear, a first-aid kit just for her arm, charging items for her phone, her headphones, a bottle of that Anti-Sensei clear paint she'd made, and books. Lots and lots of books - Novels, notebooks and her music-book.

They were purely because Amaya knew she was going to be sitting there doing very little for the whole time in Kyoto. And what better way to ignore Koro-sensei than to have her eyes glued to a book, and her ears covered with headphones?

Yuta and Reiko had made arrangements to stay at a friends house for the two nights that Amaya wouldn't be home, so there was no concerns of anything happening while Amaya was away, thankfully.

She was just checking everything over, making sure she had everything packed and was organized before she had to wake her siblings up, and leave to head to the Classroom.

Amaya had no idea just how different she looked with her hair cut short - In fact, she was amazed that Karma recognized her from behind on the train like he had.

With the much shorter hair left loose to hang around her face, Amaya looked less sharp in appearances. Further to that, her eyes were less angular and seemed softer than she was used to.

She actually almost didn't recognize herself in the mirror, which was quite a feat.

About the only reason she did recognize herself was the sight of all the cuts, scratches and bruises that touched her pale skin over her arms, neck, and the left side of her face.

So, after brushing her hair and letting it do what it wanted, Amaya gave herself a quick glance-over in the mirror before she decided to rouse her siblings from bed.

They tumbled out of bed sleepily once they'd woken up enough to realize that Amaya was leaving for her class trip, emerging from their bedrooms as she'd hoisted her bag onto her shoulder.

'A-Amay!' Reiko had called out all of a sudden, catching Amaya's attention as Yuta seemed to race back into his room frantically, now wide awake it seemed.

'What's up?' Amaya asked, glancing at the door of Yuta's room before looking back at Reiko. 'I wasn't gonna leave without saying goodbye or anything.'

'I know...' Reiko mumbled as she came to a stop just in front of Amaya. 'Just wait a few minutes.'

Amaya let out a breath as she glanced up at the clock, which read 5.19am.

'Okay, you've got five minutes for whatever you need - I've gotta be out the door by six.' Amaya responded.

'So considerate...' Reiko responded with a sleepy giggle.

'So sleepy.' Amaya imitated with the slightest roll of her eyes.

It was as Reiko opened her mouth to retort sleepily, that Yuta re-emerged from his bedroom.