Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Twenty Three - Shin'nyū [侵入]

Amaya's sense of time was addled, as it seemed to be for the majority of her days of late.

She vaguely recalled a small handful of things that dotted a basic string of movements, but nothing more.

At some point, she had been fished out of the pool, though by who she couldn't recall. What she remembered after that was the walk back home while she was still soaked from head to toe in water.

And after that, she didn't remember anything conclusive at all.

There were instances throughout that night where Amaya might have been checked on, but beyond that her conscious recollection was spent. She spent the whole time curled up in a small ball, scarcely moving at all.

She remained in the very corner of the couch while she stared at the wall in front of her, and thankfully, she was more or less left alone to gradually pull herself back together again. Though the kittens, grown enough to wander out of their box and thankfully now using their litter box, had decided to come and clamber all over her.

But even though the instance at the pool should have reduced her respect for the evil incarnate by ten-fold, somehow it hadn't.

Through the terror and tears, she did remember that he had not once let go of her and let her drown.

He never once got frustrated with her or even raised his voice.

But that didn't mean her trust towards him when it came with water wasn't affected - she no longer trusted him in that regard.

As far as her trust issues were concerned, he had made them a little worse.

It was some time early on Saturday morning when Amaya's sense of time was moderately restored.

She awoke finding herself tucked away in her bed, though she had no recollection of ever leaving the couch.

The sun cast a pale light through her drawn curtains, sign enough as to just how early it was.

It was some time around 7am she guessed, though beyond that she found she didn't care.

She turned to stare up at the ceiling for several long minutes, as her other senses cleared and her thoughts returned beyond the hell that had been her water-memories.

There was the faint sounds of Samuel's chattering through the wall that confused Amaya at first, at least, until she realized that it was Saturday. The twins had likely left for school, since they both had class rep and head boy duties to attend to.

However, who he was chattering to seemed a little bizarre at first.

'Fluffy! Jiji! Stop! That tickles!' Samuel practically squeaked out with a shrill laugh, causing Amaya's brow to furrow slightly as she found herself recalling the names of the two furballs had finally been decided by the trio.

Fluffy was the white ball of fur courteously named by both Reiko and Samuel, with Jiji being the name of the black one.

And, Amaya knew for a fact that Yuta had named that one – She'd heard that name for a black cat in an anime the twins were obsessed with at some point.

The white kitten though, Amaya pitied the poor thing.

It was going to be mocked for the rest of its life for having such a poorly chosen name.

Jiji at least was a somewhat suitable name for a male, black kitten.

Amaya dragged herself out of bed as she decided that Samuel was probably getting a bit too carried away being the only one here with the two, rather young kittens.