Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Thirty Seven - Gin [銀]

When it rains, it pours - For Amaya, this was one of the great truths of life. Whenever she went through a bit of bad luck, it just kept spiraling worse and worse, until she was about ready to crack.

She couldn't remember very much of what was said after Isogai and Maehara had found her sitting on the windowsill in the corridor, though something in the back of her head told her that not much was actually said to begin with.

The situation caused by Koro-sensei's dropped gossip book wasn't exactly something one could happily converse about, after all.

She vaguely recalled Maehara asking if he could have Koro-sensei's book for some reason, and the two of them escorted Amaya to Karasuma's room once she'd managed to regain her composure. Isogai had disappeared at some point around then, and the rest was a blur to her.

Amaya guessed she must have finally passed out somewhere along the line, because she was somewhere completely different to what she last remembered.

'Katsuragi-san.' A voice called out her name gently, prodding at her consciousness and drawing her from the unconscious depths of rest. 'Hey, Katsuragi-san. It's time to wake up, now.'

'Megu-chan, can't we let her sleep some more?' A second voice questioned, a concerned tone touching the mostly unfamiliar voice. 'She really looks like she needs it...'

'Karasuma-sensei said she needs to get up.' The first voice responded, a patient tone in her voice.

The small exchange was enough to bring Amaya to open her eyes groggily.

She found that she was lying on her back in a futon, set in the same corner she'd taken up the night before, and there were two girls leaning over her. The first was Kataoka, dressed in the same pristine, neat and tidy uniform with her hair the exact same way, and the second was Yada, also dressed in her school uniform.

'Ah! Good morning, Katsuragi-san.' Kataoka greeted Amaya as she looked at the two girls sleepily. 'How are you feeling?'

Amaya blinked slowly before she settled with 'Okay, I guess...'

Honestly, she wasn't even coherent enough to have an answer for that, yet.

Nothing hurt, exactly.

'How'd I get here, anyway?' Amaya managed to ask after a glance at her surroundings.

'You were asleep at the time - Maehara-kun carried you here.' Yada spoke up, a sympathetic smile across her face as Amaya turned her head to look at her.

'It sounds like you had a pretty terrible day.' Kataoka surmised with a wry smile across her face, causing Amaya to look at her in confusion. 'Isogai-kun came and let us know when you got back last night, though he didn't tell us what was going on.'

'Oh ...' Amaya went to lift her left arm to rub her eyes gently, however she barely managed to flex it before she was suddenly shocked with pain. 'Oww! Damnit!'

'Oh yeah, your arm's apparently pretty messed up.' Kataoka spoke up in apparent explanation, watching as Amaya sighed and forced herself upright despite her body's protests. 'Did you get into some kind of trouble, too, Katsuragi-san?'

'No, not really.' Amaya responded with a huff, looking down at the copious amount of bandages wrapped around her arm. 'My luck's just rotten, this year.'

Kataoka and Fuwa seemed to share a glance with each other, though they didn't really say much.

'We'll leave you to get dressed, Katsuragi-san.' Kataoka remarked as she looked back at Amaya, while Fuwa lifted herself to her feet. 'Check-out is in just under half an our, so you should start getting organized.'