Even if the world crumbled around her, she always thought she'd still be there.

Even if he turned his back on her, she always believed she'd still be there, waiting for him to notice her again.

But she couldn't be there anymore.

And it broke her heart.

Would he hate her for this?

He'd always said she would never leave him – That she'd miss him too much to even attempt to leave.

He was so sure of himself whenever he would say that.

She felt sure he'd hate her for as long as he'd remember her, and right now, she couldn't bring herself to even try to blame him if he did.

She already hated herself for it, even though she had no choice.

A stretch of time unfathomable to her passed her by – She stopped trying to see, anymore.

The oceans had risen to try and take her back beneath the surface again.

She hadn't uttered a sound since Shigure had collected her from the empty mountain-top classroom, only responding in movement when he insisted on it.

She had begun to recede back into her shell and for the most part refused to acknowledge the outside world anymore.

The apartment she'd spent nearly eight years living in with Yuta and Reiko was mostly empty when the albino man had escorted her in by dark - All of the items that resided in the twins respective bedrooms and the shared dwellings were gone in their entirety.

Just two black traveling suitcases on wheels remained in the now-empty apartment, the entire collective of Amaya's scarce belongings.

Samuel was still in the apartment, perched on the windowsill next to the two traveling suitcases, though at the sight of the despondent girl in tow, he'd hopped down from the windowsill and begun to approach.

'You didn't have many belongings, so I took the liberty of packing them on your behalf.' Shigure had explained, though as she had been the whole trip back, she didn't utter a sound in response. 'The belongings of both Yuta and Reiko are on their way to their new address, and an acquaintance of mine is on their way to retrieve the two, now.'

It was decided, then?

He really was sending her away...

'I suggest making use of the apartment facilities while you have the opportunity.' The man remarked as he pulled out his cellular phone, a distinct sigh in his tone. 'We will be leaving in just half an hour.'

And with that, he disappeared back out of the apartment, pressing his phone to his ear as he left.

'Miss Angel?' The soft voice belonging to Samuel echoed, just loud enough for it to register in Amaya's head. 'Was Mister Bell-Pepper okay?'

Bell-Pepper?

She guessed he was talking about Karma.

She turned her head to look down at the boy, who hand two handfuls of the shirt she was wearing in his tiny hands.

His expressive eyes showed concern as he stared up at her, awaiting her answer.

She didn't know.

She honestly didn't know where he'd gone.

The only thing she did know was that whoever bumped into Karma right now were probably going to suffer a painful beating if they picked a fight with him.

At her hesitation, the blond seemed to have all the answer he needed – He adopted a sad look as he did his best to give her a hug, but the best he could do was get his arms around her hips and bury his face into her stomach.

As Amaya had been when she'd gotten off Okinawa the first time, Samuel was remarkably small for a kid his age – Likely, that was caused by prolonged incarceration, just like with her.

She vaguely recalled that she'd done as Shigure had instructed, though she didn't recall her motions beyond that – she didn't even recall where Samuel had ended up going while she was lost inside her own head.

She only knew time had passed when Shigure had ushered her out of the apartment for the last time.

She didn't have an opportunity to bid her precious home a final goodbye – she was quickly ushered into the awaiting taxi on the verge, the passing glimpse of the opposite building her only glimpse before she was whisked away.

All her hope, and her heart was left in the emptiness of that apartment.

Voices, mechanical sounds, colours and forms dimly made any impression on her.

Papers were handed to her, instructions that she barely even registered were given, checks made of her and her luggage, but the most she really acknowledged was the sounds of a child's shouting.

Shrill and far more emotional than she was used to hearing – It was the upset in the foreign-toned voice that jostled her enough out of her closed-off state to acknowledge her surroundings on a conscious state.

'You're making her go away! She wants to stay but you don't listen to her!' Samuel's voice rung with shrill effect, his words directed at a motionless Shigure. 'Miss Angel is hurting and you're being mean and making her hurt even more! Stop being mean to her and Mister Bell-Pepper!'

'That's enough, Samuel.' Shigure spoke in an even tone, though his frustration was beginning to show. 'Stop making a scene, and calm down.'

'I won't!' Samuel yelled as he managed to pry his wrist free from Shigure's grip.

He didn't waste any time in running towards Amaya and latching onto her, like he had before.

The few spectators that had paused to watch the scene cast the two in Sigure's presence pitying looks and whispered amongst themselves, though nothing more.

'Samuel. Its time to go.'

'No!' Samuel's muffled response came, his grip tightening. 'I want to go with Miss Angel!'

'That's out of the question, now come.' Shigure responded, his already worn patience beginning to wear thin. 'I have arrangements to make into your relocation.'

'I said I want to go with Miss Angel!'

'Samuel—'

'Miss Glarey Lady said Miss Angel is best so I'm going with Miss Angel!'

'Wow, poor kids...' One of the nearby spectators murmured, just loud enough for their voice to carry.

'They look so sad ...' Another spoke.

The narrowing of Shigure's gaze was the only sign that he'd heard them.

'That's enough arguing, Samuel. You're causing a scene--'

'I DON'T CARE!'

'Samuel--'

But then the sudden announcement from the overhead speakers cut Shigure short, bringing him to lift his gaze from the arguing boy.

'All Passengers for Flight JR302 at 01:27 hours, Tokyo to Moscow, Russia, via Dubai, please proceed to Gate twelve. Ensure you have your boarding passes and all identification and travel permits ready for scanning in advance.' Rung through the expansive airport terminal at that second, drawing a reluctant sigh from the albino man. 'Flight JR302 will be departing in thirty minutes.'

'Very well, have it your way.' Shigure spoke, pulling out his phone as he turned to head towards the closest administrations desk. 'I will make arrangements for your foster home over there, instead, nothing more.'

He left the boy clinging to Amaya in the middle of the terminal as he disappeared through the crowd.

She had enough conscious thought to consider running off right now, though it was a thought short-lived.

It was entirely likely that the albino man had already made arrangements in case she did just that.

No matter where she ran to here in Tokyo, he would find her before long.

It was a pointless endeavor, and she wasn't in any physical condition to manage anymore.

The whispering and muttered voices continued, though nothing else.

Before long, Shigure returned with another set of papers and an envelope, his had-been look of frustration fading slightly at the sight of Samuel still clinging to Amaya.

He handed the additional papers to her – A ticket and sealed letter, the same as her own - before he silently ushered them towards the gate, where he could go no further without his own paperwork, presumably.

No words were exchanged, and numbly she let the crowd of people usher them onwards.

The airline worker at the gate eyed the two rather haggard looking pair with an air of utter befuddlement – the frailty of the still teary-eyed Samuel and the injured Amaya didn't fail to reach his notice.

'Where is your guardian?' He questioned, his deep voice touched with confusion.

Amaya didn't voice a response, instead, she handed over the boarding passes and the two sealed envelopes.

The passengers behind the two peered past, curious about the scene unfolding as the airline worker gingerly peeled the envelopes open.

The shuffling of papers echoed, broken by the small few seconds of silence as the worker read what was there, his eyes widening with each and every word.

Offhandedly she wondered if that was the papers that would get them through, since neither of them had a passport.

A few seconds later, as the papers and envelopes were handed straight back, it turned out that she was right.

'Go right on through,' The worker said, a frantic edge to his words. 'You're both clear.'

'Miss Angel?' Samuel tugged at Amaya's shirt at her lack of response, jolting her back into the present.

Reminding her that they had to go, no less.

With every step, the gravity of the situation became heavier and heavier.

Until every ounce of hope had been strangled out of her, leaving just the heartbreak and regret to remain.

'Wow, we're flying?' Samuel spoke up in question, trying his best to coax some kind of vocal response out of Amaya. 'I was in a plane once! No, twice! Miss Angel, have you been on a plane before?'

The smallest shake of the head was all the response Amaya gave, though she didn't consciously realize it.

'Then Miss Angel will sit next to the window!' Samuel gushed, pleased that he'd even gotten a response. 'I really, really like the window but its really pretty outside the window up in the clouds! And Miss Angel should see that since you've never flied before!'

No, she's flown before, just not on a plane ...

But she couldn't exactly explain that whole scenario to the little boy.

And so, Samuel practically pushed Amaya into the window-seat of their allocated two seats on the plane, before he launched into the longest personal talk-through about what the fun things about flying were, amongst other things.

As the energetic boy babbled with seemingly endless energy, takeoff arrived, bringing the tears to finally escape her control.

She couldn't even say goodbye ...

And there was nothing she could do.

A pause in Samuel's endless chatter came all of a sudden as he'd noticed she wasn't even listening, before he foraged through the pockets of his many-sizes too big jumper.

A handkerchief was procured and held out towards her, surprising her just enough to catch her attention.

'Here.' Samuel spoke, practically shoving the handkerchief in her face to try and scrub the tears away instead, bringing her to grab it.

He seemed to pout a little at that, but otherwise didn't object.

'Miss Angel, are you my big sister?' He questioned after a few seconds, turning to sit straight in his chair once again. 'Do I have any brothers or other sisters, too?'

She didn't know how to answer him – She didn't know what kind of answer he was actually wanting to hear.

But he didn't give her a chance to ponder the question very long.

'Can I tell you a secret, Miss Angel? Oh, no I meant Big Sister Angel! Miss Angel is now Big sister Angel!'

He wasn't going to stop calling her Angel, was he?

However, she found herself nodded in response to his more recent question.

He made a move to look around, as if he was checking to make sure nobody was listening, before he clambered to his knees and leaned to whisper in Amaya's ear.

'I was naughty and didn't listen to that man in a dress.' Samuel whispered, pausing to make another check of their surroundings. 'I went outside when he was gone even though he said not to.'

Amaya absorbed what the talkative boy had confided in her, but the most her mind actually locked onto was the remark of "man in a dress".

It took her a few moments to realize that Samuel was talking about Shigure, and that the boy either had no idea what a mens kimono actually was, or he did know and was just making fun of the man.

She got the faint feeling that it was the latter.

And that amused her just enough to stop the tears from falling so much.

'Say, Mister Bell-Pepper lives really close to your house, right Big Sister Angel?'

Amaya nodded her head in slight answer.

'How close? Right across the street right? In the other tall house, like yours?'

That was oddly specific, and it brought confusion over her.

Though in response to the question, she nodded once again.

'Yay! I was right!' Samuel cheered in relief, shuffling in his seat so he was sitting properly once again. 'That's good.'

That's good?

Just what the hell did he mean by that?

'Say, Big Sister Angel, are you close to Mister Bell-Pepper?'

Inwardly, Amaya sighed as the onslaught of questions began to pile up, though she did her best to answer them none the less.

Thus began the 22 hour flight, where now that she'd calmed down, Amaya discovered that flying via means other than a seemingly omnipresent, show-off of a teacher did not agree with her in the slightest – In fact, it rated about as comfortable for her as ferry-ride to Okinawa, only this time, she was stuck here for much, much longer than the one-hour trip.

In spite of the tight squeeze it was when Koro-sensei had taken her, Karma and Nagisa to Hawaii, she found being stuck in a metal box with around a hundred other people rather suffocating.

The plane would rock, its constant vibrations easily felt through her abused feet through the floor, and it didn't help that the seats were uncomfortable.

And in spite of the air-recirculation they had installed in the plane, the air was still so tainted with the smells and odors of their nearby passengers that her excessively sharp nose picked up on nothing else. It was to the point that she had begun to feel nauseas within the first hour of the flight.

Samuel talked about anything and everything, from how his favorite colours were yellow, green and pink through to how he didn't like eating meat unless it was squid and tomato soup amongst other things. He even went on to explain how he believed dust-bunnies were really the ghosts of little mice who were trying to rebuild their bodies out of dust so they could sneak into the kitchen and eat more cheese.

He'd earned a couple of amused chuckles from nearby English-fluent passengers who happened to hear that little explanation.

It was about the second hour when Amaya realized that the boy was trying to keep her distracted – He'd start demanding responses and acknowledgements from her whenever it looked like she was drifting back into her shell, or her nausea was getting worse, but any other time, he was content to chatter on his own.

Reiko would adore this little boy – Amaya knew that for a fact.

Having a fellow chatterbox who was content to chatter about anything and everything was to Reiko as inflicting wasabi and mustard torture was to Karma.

Yuta preferred some peace to absorb in his manga and anime, and Reiko wasn't pro-silence when she was bored.

It hurt so much to know that they would probably never meet, and that she probably wouldn't see them again.

However, even though he was trying his best to keep her distracted with whatever there was he could come up with for conversation, he eventually nodded off to sleep sometime before sunrise wherever it was the plane was at that moment. He slumped limply in the chair next to her, where not even the swaying or small jostling of the plane every now and then woke him up.

Leaving Amaya there to fall into the world inside her head.

She tried to keep herself awake, to stop herself from drifting into the abyss of darkness that was the oceans of her inner world.

It was all in vain in the end.

Her mind drifted to black, teetering along the edge of sombre daydreams and the unknown that would greet her in the oceans.

Voices swam around her in the dark, many she couldn't separate from each other no matter how hard she tried. They were haunting, just as they were familiar, slowly growing louder as more joined the disorientating chaos.

At least, until she heard a faint sound that frightened her more than the rest.

It was a disconnected, haunting chiming that sounded uncomfortably like laughter.

A voice that didn't seem familiar at all, and yet the very sound of it caused foreboding chills to tear through her aching body.

Why don't you come down here ...?

Bouncing tones, fading in and out of her grasp like the lapping of waves, slowly growing louder, rising up through the chaos of sounds that filled the dark.

Don't you feel oh so dizzy?

The laughter continued to bounce around her with an eerie edge.

It was a female voice, that much she could ascertain from the tones.

Dimly, she felt herself try to grope through the darkness – to find some sense of where she had ended up.

You spin and spin, taking everything in your stride, blaming everything on yourself – As if that would lessen the brunt of the pain.

The darkness flickered, jagged shades of limelit green stabbing through her mind.

Like the tearing of interference through radio-waves, it cut through with terrifying viciousness.

You could stop spinning, you know? All that nonsense that disgusting woman filled your head with, it just had to be that tiny little notion. Spin, keep your sanity, keep yourself from sinking into your own personal incarnation of oblivion. I can help you put an end to it, so you can finally just let it all go, at long last.

Her breath hitched, the painful flickering growing worse with every second.

'Who...--' She had begun to speak in question, however she cut herself short as horror gripped her with deathly clarity.

You know exactly who I am, don't you see?

A mocking laughter, terrifying beyond belief.

Because at that second, she realized her own voice and that bouncing around in the dark were one in the same.

A sudden force slammed into her chest, inflicting pain so vivid she almost screamed, before thin, bony appendages she dimly realized were fingers wrapped around her throat.

'You've always been so close to it ever since Mama tried to do it first, every year closer and closer.' The horrific, distorted voice rang, louder and louder along with the sea of voices that swam around her. 'So how about we do this for real?!'

And then the sudden thud of her head hitting something hard shocked her awake like she'd been electrocuted, and she threw herself upright.

Blinking wildly, her hands reaching up to her throat instinctively, she found there was nothing there. Her heart raced so fast it felt like it was trying to burst free from her ribcage, and she was already dizzy with a lack of oxygen intake from her shallow breathing.

The darkness she had been seeing vanished, and around her she could see the interior of the plane she was aboard.

Most of the people around were still asleep in spite of the rising sun outside, even Samuel, who was still passed out in the chair next to her.

'We apologize for the disturbance just now.' Echoed over the overhead PA system, a male voice belonging to the assistant pilot. 'We are traveling through some turbulent systems, which should subside within the next few minutes. Until then, please stay calm, and remain seated at all times if at all possible, until we are clear of all turbulence.'

It dimly occurred to her that she'd nodded off in spite of her best attempts, though it was overshadowed by the almost primordial fear that had overcome her.

She picked herself up out of her seat quickly, making as quick a move to the nearest washroom as she could without drawing attention to herself.

All the while, the bouncing of unsettling laughter reverberated within her head.

The door of the restroom shut with a dull thud behind her, and with trembling hands she managed to lock it behind her.

She leaned against the metal surface of the door, forcing herself to take deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

Vivid nightmares weren't uncommon for her, not by this point at all.

Even the ones of her mother trying to kill her weren't exactly uncommon.

But something about this one frightened her beyond all comparison.

The whispering still lapped at the back of her mind, fading in and out like the white noise one would hear on a radio-signal slightly out of tune. Still there, dancing on the edge of notice.

The bouncing, haunting laughter was still there, too.

With every second her eyes closed, even just the slightest of blinks, glimpses of limelight green danced inside her head.

It was as if she hadn't woken up from that nightmare, and she didn't know if she was really awake at all.

She pinched herself, wincing slightly at the pain she inflicted upon her arm, though she was otherwise unconvinced.

Many of her nightmares were always vivid, and this one felt so real she couldn't be sure.

Second-guessing the fact that she was even awake wasn't something she was used to in the slightest.

She always had some kind of lifeline or just something in the real world she could just see and know she wasn't sleeping. There was always something she could hold onto just to pull herself back together again.

She forced herself to wash her face, still struggling to manage her breathing properly as she did so.

The voices didn't leave, no matter how hard she tried to ignore them.

And the air felt uncomfortably cold.

Why was this happening now?

This wasn't normal, even when it came to her own messed up version of the word.

It was like something had come loose inside of her, and now she was starting to unravel.

She didn't understand it, no matter how much she tried to think it through – There was so much on her mind that there was no way she could get her thoughts to work right.

For most people, the revelation of someone dangerous coming out to either kill or abduct them was enough to send them into paranoia, but to her, it was something that had always been in the back of her mind.

It was a lingering feeling that she had lived with for so long, it was almost normal.

The revelation that it was fact now didn't really make any difference to her.

It should, but it honestly didn't.

As the minutes ticked over, Amaya managed to drag herself a little more back together again.

She could still hear the whispering in the back of her head, though she reasoned that it was the lack of sleep that was doing it to her.

A rational thought, no less.

She took several deep breaths as she willed herself to unlock the door and return to her seat, all the while she hadn't noticed the hand of her injured arm had ended up lifted towards her throat.

---=[Authors Notes]=---

I had some free time, and was on a roll so I got another chapter done for you guys (Zoe-chan will probably kill me if I don't sleep today, so your Sadist Penguin will hopefully be going to sleep in just a minute, issues permitting). The image in the top of the chapter has some meaning, as I'm sure you've guessed by now. Yeah, I  know it's probably not the most pleasant of chapters, but you all probably knew things were going to keep tumbling along like this, right?

Anyways, chapter notes:

Fushoku shōki - Translates roughly as Corroding Sanity, written as 腐食正気 if I'm not mistaken?

All the best, guys~!

<3 Loki-Roki