Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Thirteen - Shin'en no Hate ni [深淵の果てに]

If there was anyone in the world she never wanted to live near, her first pick would be her own father. Whether or not he was still alive, that honestly didn't matter. He took first place in that, and he always would.

However if she weren't to count Katsuragi Toji, she could easily name the very next residing within second place - That would be Asano Gakushuu.

She never had a problem with him until coming to Class E. Never had she been given a reason to reject his very presence in a volatile form of defiance. However, he continued to antagonize her in just the wrong way, entirely to manipulate her into bringing into words the information he wanted.

And now she was Asano's neighbor, and even if there was the slightest glimmer of possibility that he hadn't realized it now, he would realize it within the next few days.

The sudden snatching of her wrist snapped Amaya out of her stunned and horrified stupor, alerting her to her current situation. A remarkably sour look was written across Karma's face as he dragged her out of the street with more haste than she felt was really necessary at this moment.

She was being dragged through the now-open gate of the property, stumbling slightly on loose paving stones here and there as she was tugged into what looked like a tiny little patch of garden.

Well, if one could call overgrown grass poking out of the crevasses between paving stones a garden, in any case.

The gate shut with a metallic groan behind Samuel's following form, causing the blond to let out a yelp as he rushed to latch onto Amaya.

It was here that Amaya noticed the rather curious looking building was a little in disrepair. The bricks were beginning to grow tainted with the start of moss, chips missing from the exposed beams that lined the corners, and the coat of had-been ochre pain was mostly flaked away to reveal a weather-worn jarrah beneath.

However, it was easy for Amaya to see that there had been some very recent modifications – The lock and handle of the door itself had been replaced with a much more modern, and far heftier looking version. The windows were also remarkably pristine and clean, and they looked to be made from glass far thicker than considered normal.

'I hope we're not here just to admire the outside.' She heard Karma remark as they reached the door, a moody edge to his tone as he released her wrist.

Well, no... she hadn't had a chance to even collect her thoughts after that unfortunate instance out on the street. Though she didn't respond to his words and instead just fished the key out of her bag.

The interior was a little different to what she'd expected.

The door opened up to an expansive room spanning a good half of the buildings floor-space, presumably the main living area, in a somewhat curved, backwards L shape. There was evidence of a couple of walls having once separated the room into three smaller ones presumably made up of a lounge room, living room and a Kitchen in order from left to right. The floors were a had-been varnished set of floorboards, the only places left with undamaged varnish being certain parts where large items of furniture had once been.

The walls were all a old, time-worn kind of tan, and the ceiling was open with a large array of exposed beams with a fair amount of open space above the horizontal ceiling beams. Two other doors were visible along the wall directly in front of front door, a small hallway to the left leading to what was presumably another room on the immediate left of the house.

There was no real furniture in the building, though, only a small dining table with two chairs, and a refrigerator standing in what was obviously the kitchen. There were no curtains, either. A few rather weighty envelopes sat neatly on the dining table, clearly left for her, along with a couple stacks of school-books, a rather tattered looking travel-case, and ... another box of sweets, from what she could smell wafting through the dusty air.