Marionette

Skies, Chapter Thirty Six - Hoshizora [星空]

Whatever that can of white gas was that Terasaka had thrown, it wasn't just plain pesticide.

In fact, Amaya was more than certain of it.

Her eyes continued to sting throughout the last few lessons of the day, and her sense of smell was wrecked. In fact, her throat itched like she'd managed to inhale a little bit of sand, and her head felt stuffy.

It appeared that a few of her classmates were still feeling the effects of it, too – Kanzaki, who'd copped a full hit of the stuff was still coughing every now and then. A couple others seemed to be constantly wiping at their eyes, not that she could really blame them.

And then at long last the chiming bell for the end of class rung, signifying Amaya's few minutes freedom – She'd already packed her stuff away, however.

All she wanted to do was to go to sleep – Here in the classroom, on the train home, at home, it really didn't matter to her.

All her energy was spent.

'Oi, Maya-chan!' Maehara called out as Amaya let herself begin to slump over her desk, causing a faint groan to escape her as she reluctantly looked up in response.

Oddly enough, the Playboy had been looking out the window, though he turned his head to look at her after a second.

'Is that Reiko-chan outside?' He asked her.

'Huh?' Amaya turned her head towards the path that lead down the mountain towards the main campus.

A form stood out amongst the line of trees, dressed in the green and tan of the uniform Reiko usually wore for school. Her much shorter hair proved to stump Amaya for a second, before she recalled the events of yesterday evening.

She was so used to Reiko having long hair in twintails that she almost thought she was looking at another person.

'What the--?' She shook her head slightly as she picked herself out of her seat, grabbing her bag as she looked back at Maehara. 'I gotta go.'

'Oh. Sure...' Maehara responded, though he looked a little confused. 'Everything's okay, right?'

Amaya couldn't help but smile slightly as she headed for the door.

'Yeah yeah, everything's fine.' She responded, waving a hand slightly over her shoulder. 'Later.'

The door clunkled slightly as she slid it shut, and she made as quick an attempt at swapping to her boots as she could.

And then, she was jogging across the schoolyard to approach Reiko.

In the minute it had taken for Amaya to get her boots on, four of her classmates who had already left the classroom approached Reiko to greet her – Sugino, Nagisa, Nakamura and Kurahashi from what Amaya could see from where she was. And a couple others were beginning to approach as well.

Reiko was talking amiably with the four, smiling brightly.

In fact, it was possibly one of the brightest smiles Amaya could recall Reiko to have worn since she had to go back to her normal school.

And realizing that had her heart sink just a little.

'You look so different with short hair, Reiko-chan!' Nakamura spoke with a smile, reaching over to ruffle Reiko's much shorter hair with a hand. 'I don't know if I could cope with having all my hair cut off.'

Was it really that big a deal?

Amaya didn't quite understand it, herself – Her only sensitivity with her hair was her lack of pigment. She honestly didn't care about her own hair past that.