Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Fifty Two - Kentaikan [倦怠感]

'WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN EVERYONE HAS TO MAKE IT INTO THE TOP FIFTY ON THE EXAM PLACEMENTS?!' Amaya's indignant, shrill exclamation sounded like a forceful slap across the face, marred with the obvious horror that was plastered across the albino's face.

It was none other than that news that greeted her upon their walk up the main trail of the mountain Wednesday morning, just a handful of days after her shopping afternoon with Okuda at the optometrist clinic. And it was just that news that had ruined Amaya's already frazzled mood worse than the buildup days of nausea caused by ocular migraines via obnoxious octopus tutoring. It had been horrifying enough that she'd completely failed to notice the chiming of her phone within her pocket.

Her attention was solely upon Karma's exasperated face.

'Just what that means. What else do you want me to say?' The bearer of bad news, Karma dismissed with a shrug.

'Why didn't you tell me this before?!' She demanded. 'Hell! When did this even come up?!'

For once, Karma appeared to find very little about her reaction to be rather amusing. In fact, he appeared a little exasperated by her, instead.

'It just slipped my mind, alright?' He dismissed yet again, bothering Amaya all the more. 'And it was a week ago. When Asano came crawling up to us and asked for help.'

Asano?! Asking for help from class E?!

No no, the excuse of it having to tell Amaya slipping his mind wasn't good enough! She needed to know this when it happened, and hell! She'd been skipping Koro-sensei's tutoring because of the trouble it was causing her.

And now here he was telling her this news as if it was a given that it had to be accomplished at all costs?!

This was ridiculous!

'I don't believe it...' She groaned with a heavy sigh. 'Karma, I actually needed to know that!'

She would have asked Isogai to help her study again, or Maehara. She would have even asked Okuda to repeat that topic they were having on atomic structures on the way to the optometrist! Anything to avert this impending disaster she found herself facing.

'It's too late to complain about it now, Amay.' Her companion told her with little conviction, almost as if his words to her were an offhand remark. 'It's not like you can get any studying in before the exams, anyway.'

Huh?

'What...?' Amaya openly gaped at the redhead.

No. No way in hell!

'Oiii! Maya-chaaaaan!' Maehara's distant call from up the mountain trail jostled the girl out of her growing panic, bringing her to look up at the distant blur a good hundred meters up the trail. 'Come on, already! We gotta dump our gear inside and get down to the main campus!'

...The exams were today.

Just perfect!

'There's no point worrying about it. It's not the be all end all like Koro-sensei throws at us. We don't have to do it.' Karma muttered dismissively as he roughly shoved his hands in his pockets. 'They'll probably overlook one or two who don't make it, anyway.'

Amaya slowed to a halt as those words sunk in on her, and her head had lowered as she fell silent.

While the words were undoubtedly meant more as a dismissive reassurance for her, it had the exact opposite effect. It stung, or rather, it hurt, like he'd just jabbed a needle right through her chest.