Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Fifteen -Tensō [転送]

It was early morning when Amaya woke up with a jolt, her heart racing and her body covered in an almost chilling sweat. She'd snapped entirely awake in an instance, throwing herself upright in bed as she tried to figure out where she was.

The far wall of her room came to her immediate notice as her brain reeled on her, the dull light of dawn approaching showing through the gaps of the curtain.

Had ... that really happened?

Her face heated up quickly as she retraced her recollection of prior to waking up here.

She remembered red coloured light, then being dragged around by Karma.

And then ...

She slapped her hands over her face as she found herself struggling to maintain her composure, and her face was burning hot to the touch. Her thoughts and emotions were far too jumbled up for her to even begin making heads or tails of anything.

No, she had other instances where she'd had delusions over the past month, her sanity evaporating had been a concern to her. And then there was the problem that she couldn't really remember anything from after he ... apparently kissed her.

So she was doubtful she was even recalling the majority of the night properly, though she hoped she was right, for more than just one reason.

Amaya sucked in a deep breath, trying and succeeding to will away the vivid blush that had stained her pale features before she looked down at herself.

She was still dressed more or less in the yukata Maehara and Isogai had brought for her, though her hair was loose and through however much sleep she actually got, she seemed to have loosened the obi enough to have it practically falling off of her.

Odd. Usually if she slept, it was just in a tank top and her underwear, sometimes shorts if it was a little chilly. She decided to shrug it off for the most part, pulling herself out from beneath the covers to start getting herself organized.

It was some time before 5am she guessed - she didn't need to wake her siblings before 6.30, and she honestly doubted Samuel would still be asleep by that point. She tossed aside her yukata carefully and got dressed into the new clothes for school she'd picked up the other day with everything else for her siblings.

It felt more than six weeks since the last time she wore her school uniform.

But right now, she didn't know how to feel about it, either.

She didn't have a new pair of boots yet, so she had to make do with a pair of sneakers until then.

Dressed in her long-sleeved shirt and pants, Amaya made her way out of her room to find a mostly intact living area, if one were to ignore the empty candy wrappers and pizza boxes on the dining table and over the floor. Obviously, Yuta didn't quite succeed in stopping their siblings from getting sweets for dinner.

Which meant she wasn't going to let them decide their next fortnight's worth of dinner, and possibly more later.

However after a few seconds, her eyes drifted from the irksome mess to the couch sitting towards her right.

The rather familiar sight of a mop of red was visible from over the arm of the new article of furniture, a clear sign that there was somebody there.

Her brow furrowed as she wandered over, the smallest dusting of red reappearing across her face as she came to a stop at the side of the couch.

The evil incarnate appeared to be asleep, though he didn't look too comfortable, oddly enough. Using whatever cushions were around, it appeared he'd tried to make the couch a little more comfortable to sleep on.