Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Thirty Nine - Zetsubō [絶望]

Voices reverberated back and forth through the overcrowded cell, a multitude of voices that caused pain to Amaya's tender ears. She scarcely had the endurance to depict the owners, let alone the words in which they all spoke at once.

She had to rely on her blurry gaze to depict what was even going on around her.

Silently she sat in the same place against the wall, with her hands bound and the explosive collar latched around her neck. The bulk of Class 3-E were gathered in the far end of the cell with Koro-sensei, speaking of a plan with no concern to volume the very instance Mimura had told them that there was likely no microphones in the room, and Koro-sensei had taken the initiative to turn off everyone's phones for them, given Ritsu's hacked condition.

It appeared from the little she could discern that they'd come up with the basis for a plan of retaliation.

The conviction in the voices she could hear told her as much.

'Aren't you going to join them...?' Amaya asked the silent redhead who had yet to so much as pick himself up off the floor to go help with the planning.

'Nope.' Was Karma's blunt response.

'But it looks like they're--'

'If they need me for something, they can come over here and ask for it.' Karma cut in sternly, much like that was the final word on the matter.

And at that moment, Amaya honestly didn't have it in her to argue.

She opened her mouth to give a verbal acknowledgment, when all of a sudden Koro-sensei appeared right in front of her. With a cheeky grin, he crouched down right in front of her, carefully grabbed hold of the explosive collar around her neck and snapped it off.

'That's twenty seven collars, and now--' Koro-sensei then snapped the one right off of Karma before placing the two gently into the centre of the room with all the others. 'Twenty eight! Excellent, everyone is safe. Sensei will remove everyone's handcuffs now!'

'You took your time, Koro-sensei.' Karma remarked with a sly grin. 'Were you enjoying the safety in our hands being tied?'

'Nurufufufu~! Of course, but not the fact that my student's lives are in danger at the same time!' Koro-sensei responded easily as he tugged Karma a little away from the wall so he could undo the handcuffs easier. 'I trust you will postpone the assassination attempts until later.'

'If I must.' Karma's response was half-hearted as the telltale clinking of separating metal parts echoed through the cell. 'I wouldn't want that guy to take credit for killing you if I succeeded right now.'

The octopus chuckled lightly as he straightened up slightly.

'Alright Amaya-san, you're next.' Koro-sensei announced as he turned back to her, and with a remarkably more gentle grip, he tugged her a little away from the wall, as well. 'If you could straighten up a little, that would be of benefit.'

Without a word, Amaya shifted herself so she was sitting more upright up on her knees and lifted her arms up a little higher behind her. She could feel the faint shifting of metal links against her arms as Koro-sensei set to work, and oddly enough, the sensation of gazes upon her motionless form.

So she lifted her gaze from the stone floor to look ahead of her.

Awkward forms belonging to a few of the female members of the rescue team furtively looked away from her, a second too late for Amaya to have missed the way they were looking at her in spite of her blurry gaze.