One step forward and two steps back.

Or was it the other way around?

Sometimes it was impossibly hard to tell the difference.

Though what was easy to tell was that when Amaya woke up, it felt like today was already going to be so different from the last few weeks.

Not much had happened after Koro-sensei's frantic, almost desperate retreat in the early hours of the morning from a rather livid-looking Karma. Reiko had emerged before long, and Karma had decided he was going back to bed for a last couple hours sleep, so he'd left shortly after. And since that felt like a good idea, Amaya did the same, with Reiko promising to come wake her up before leaving for school.

She felt completely and utterly worn out, and the three or so hours of sleep she'd managed to get seemed to make her feel even worse.

Even though there was a part of her that wanted to go to school just so she could find out how the situation with Toadsworth turned out, Amaya felt like she'd done enough to warrant just skipping out today altogether.

She felt like the many hours spent dressed up like a fish-person was enough justification for a day off.

The six hours spent through the night was practically a whole school day, after all.

And besides, there were some things she wanted to do, and she couldn't do them up there on Class E Mountain.

She couldn't do those things with the prying stares of a certain yellow octopus and anyone else curious enough to pay her attention, after all.

Not when just yesterday, Koro-sensei, Nagisa and Kayano had been stalking Kataoka to source out the Toadsworth issue.

It was convenient in a way to skip today - Koro-sensei would probably assume she was skipping just because she was tired, or even just trying to avoid water.

So he wouldn't think too much about it.

Throughout the morning, Amaya set about doing cleaning that she hadn't had an opportunity to do with Koro-sensei dragging her back to Kunugigaoka for the evening - Washing clothes, mopping, vacuuming, and even long-needed dusting and polishing of windows that she could get to, though she would do the clothes washing last of all - She liked to make sure clothes were still fresh for her siblings, so sometimes she would take everything in the apartment and run them through the wash, including the clothes stuffed in the back of their drawers.

She usually did all of this in the evenings after dinner, but she hadn't had any time to do it.

However, it was as Amaya was in the Apartment Building washing room that Amaya had been disturbed out of her morning peace.

Her phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated, and a voice that was becoming familiar over time suddenly rung out.

'Amaya-san! Good morning!' Came Ritsu's voice all of a sudden, causing Amaya to sigh as she tossed the last few articles of Yuta's clothes in the industrial-size washing machine she was standing in front of.

Amaya lifted her phone and looked down at the screen.

Ritsu was displayed in her usual manner over the whole screen of her phone, however she was in fact dressed in a Private Investigators outfit, presumably to suit a theme in place, like how she had donned a fish-themed swimsuit last night to go with the Toadsworth situation.

'Good morning ...' Amaya responded, her brow furrowing slightly as Ritsu giggled cutely. 'What brings you to my phone?'

'Koro-sensei wanted me to check in on you, and inform you that he expects you to come into class, today.' Ritsu announced brightly.

And of course, Amaya couldn't help the sigh that escaped her at those words. She ended up deciding that Ritsu was probably going to hang around for a short while, so she went to prop her phone up on the bench where she had her headphones and bottle of water.

'I'm rather busy, so I probably won't.' Amaya responded, wandering over to the closest working dryer so she could check the condition of the bed-linen inside.

'Busy?' Ritsu repeated the word, like it was foreign to her.

'Yeah, busy.' Amaya responded, though she smiled in relief as she found the linen was nice and dry, so she pulled all the sheets of material out from the dryer and set it on the bench next to Ritsu. 'I was supposed to do all this housework last night, but Koro-sensei came and forced me to come to the classroom last night, so this never got done. And if it doesn't get done now, its going to take forever to do later in the week.'

'Is this a once-off occurrence?' Ritsu asked.

'I hope so.' Amaya remarked, a pointed glare appeearing across her face as she set folded linen on the other side of Mobile Ritsu. 'As long as Koro-sensei stops interfering with my daily routine like he did yesterday. Otherwise, if I keep getting dragged around like that, I'll probably have to skip more and more just so I can get everything done..'

'Oh.' Ritsu responded in surprise.

Amaya cast the Artifical Intelligence a sly glance after a few seconds.

'I take care of two eleven year olds and do all the chores myself - I don't have the time to sit there twiddling my thumbs for hours just because Koro-sensei wants me to.'

'Understood, I will relay the message now.' Ritsu announced, before she disappeared with a small chiming sound.

Amaya let out a breath as she looked down at her phone, to see that it read 9.47am on the clock display.

Intermission between first and second period was in session, was it?

Ah, whatever.

It honestly didn't matter.

So Amaya returned to folding up the linen in the neat little packages she preferred them to be in.

After finishing the giant pile of washing and putting it all away, last on Amaya's list of things to do was to trap her whole apartment with Anti-Sensei BB dust, as she had done for her clothes and belongings during the Kyoto trip.

She decided since it was very important that she do this, that she'd spend the money on the varnish and polishes so they couldn't get removed by a quick glide-over with a damp cloth.

Once she did all that, she was free to do the other things she had planned before she would head over to Shigures, which she decided really needed to be done.

And it was Tuesday, too - She had been going over there on Tuesdays for a month or two, now. Missing training last Tuesday had actually messed with her sense of time.

However, just as Amaya had gotten used to the silence, Ritsu appeared with another sudden chime of greeting.

'Amaya-san!' Ritsu called out again, much to Amaya's exasperation. 'Koro-sensei asks if you would like any help?'

God damn it, such a nosy Octopus!

'No freaking way!' Amaya responded in alarm, turning her head to look back at Ritsu in shock. 'Tell him to keep his nose out of this!'

'Ah, Isogai-kun had mentioned that you probably wouldn't accept the offer.'

'Isogai-kun?' Amaya repeated in surprise.

Damnit, was the Ikemen psychic, too?

No, wait. He was just very understanding, so he'd have guessed it.

'I will relay your answer now.'

And with that, she was gone again.

Amaya let out a breath as she went back to her washing.

The rest of the morning went by undisturbed, much to Amaya's relief. Ritsu hadn't returned, and thankfully she hadn't been called by a dramatic octopus demanding she come to class.

Perhaps Koro-sensei got the point and decided to leave her to do what she needed to do?

Of course, there was always the possibility that he got sidetracked with something else.

None the less, Amaya appreciated the peace and quiet so much that she had made a dash downtown, purchased the maintinance items she needed, and got all of her apartment-trapping done by noon.

So, Amaya took the opportunity to lock up after leaving a note on the inside of the apartment door about the varnish and polish here and there as she left for the afternoon.

It should be touch-dry by the time Reiko got home, but a note should still be left.

With chores and the first task of her quiet tasks done for the day, Amaya decided to move onto her second task she needed to do without prying eyes.

She'd packed a duffel bag of items belonging to Yuta; Fresh-washed clothes, a couple of his favorite books, some of his favorite snacks and pocket money, and she made a trip down to one of the gift shops she had seen quite a few times but never set foot in.

She had surprised the dark-haired spectacled woman sitting behind the counter when she'd walked in, and the woman seemed even more surprised when Amaya had asked for the biggest gift-basket they had suitable for a family with kids, wrapped in the nicest paper they had. Disbelief was next when Amaya reassured the woman that cost wasn't an issue.

The basket ended up being some fancy snacks, chocolate, sweets, flowers, and various other related items. All items that Amaya felt rather certain would be much appreciated - She had Isogai's little freak-out over expensive sweets to judge from this.

What was more entertaining was the look across the woman's face when Amaya had paid for it, too.

Instead of paling at the sight of a fifteen thousand yen bill in the end, Amaya had smiled brightly and paid upfront.

By the end of the transaction, Amaya had left with a particularly huge basket of goodies, and the woman was staring like she had just seen a ghost.

Or perhaps a yellow octopus.

Never the less, it had amused Amaya so much that she felt much more upbeat by the time she'd boarded the train to head towards Isogai's house.

Amaya had entertained the thought that there wouldn't be anyone home, however the day had been very productive, and while on a roll, Amaya wanted to get as much done as she could.

And she had vaguely heard Isogai mention yesterday that his mother had a bit of a fever, which was why he had to suddenly call in at work.

Things seemed very hard for Isogai and his family, and yet they had taken Yuta in all the same.

So it felt right for Amaya to drop in now - She also wanted to ask how Yuta had been acting, since Isogai probably wouldn't tell her if he had been misbehaving.

She was optimistic about the way she was going about it, and it was a relief.

For the first time in what was two whole weeks, it felt like she was regaining her footing, even though people like Koro-sensei tended to make things exasperating by meddling.

And nobody was around to meddle right at this second.

Carrying so much felt awkward, however Amaya's rather bright mood did wonders to keep herself rather motivated.

The moment the train had pulled into the correct station, Amaya was out the moment the doors opened and comfortably walking towards the Isogai residence.

She'd drop this stuff off, and then head to Shigures.

She wanted to know his opinion on what she should do for Yuta.

He would have a much better way of thinking this whole situation over - Much easier than Amaya, who was of course too close to the heart of the situation to really think rationally.

And if it came down to it, he'd be able to help her if the situation couldn't be fixed.

Yuta couldn't stay at the Isogai residence, or anywhere else, for that matter.

If it came down to it, Amaya was sure Shigure wouldn't mind her camping out at his place until she could find some other means of accommodation.

Even though she didn't want to leave where she was, she was prepared to leave if it would help bring Yuta back in line.

It might help keep Koro-sensei from being too involved with her siblings, too. Reiko was fine with knowing about him because she understood the general situation, but Yuta was too unpredictable right now.

Hell, Yuta just meeting Koro-sensei that once was too much. It was a honest-to-god miracle that Yuta had been so upset at the time - He would have been far too focused on his own frustrations to have noticed all that much about Koro-sensei other than his name.

After what felt like a couple of minutes, Amaya reached the front gate of the Isogai residence, and much to her relief she could see that there was signs of life inside - A couple of the windows had their curtains open, and the plants in the front yard appeared to have been watered quite recently.

She wouldn't have to leave the gift-basket on the front step, like she'd been dreading.

Her fingers traced the handle of the basket as she came to a stop on the front step, lifting a hand to gently knock against the wooden surface.

A soft tune was on the tip of her tongue, though she kept her silence none the less.

A gentle breeze was in the air, tracing lines against her exposed skin and sweeping her hair out of her face.

Soft footfalls approaching the door from inside came to Amaya's notice before long, causing her to lower her hand back to the handle of the gift-basket.

Amaya scrambled through her thoughts, picking just the three she needed to ask for the scarce five or so minutes she was even here.

And then, just as Amaya had started, the door in front of Amaya opened up.

On the other side stood a girl just a little older than the twins, if Amaya had to pin an age to her. Featuring the same coloured features as Isogai and his brother, as well as the same antennae, Amaya found herself realizing that this was Isogai's sister. She was dressed in what looked to be home-clothes, and she wore a particularly confused look at the sight of Amaya standing there.

Interesting - Amaya hadn't expected this.

'H-hello...' Isogai's sister greeted Amaya, her tone showing the full effect of her confusion.

'Good afternoon!' Amaya responded as she cast the girl the biggest smile she could. 'I'm sorry for suddenly turning up like this - My name is Katsuragi Amaya. I'm a classmate of Isogai Yuuma's.'

In immediate response, surprise appeared across the girls face.

'Y-Yuuma-nii's classmate?' She repeated in surprise, though quickly comprehension flashed across her face. 'Th-then ... you're Katsuragi-kun's sister...?'

'His older sister, yes.' Amaya agreed, keeping her smile in place. 'Its a pleasure to meet you.'

At those words, Isogai's sister seemed to pale considerably as she flinched.

'I-I'm Midori! Its nice to meet you, too!' She responded in a rather flustered manner.

Amaya found herself thinking that Isogai's sister was rather cute - She seemed to be a rather modest and soft-spoken kind, similar to her older brother.

'Right, I guess I should explain why I've suddenly turned up on your doorstep, huh?' Amaya let out a small breath as she lifted up the rather excessive gift-basket. 'I wanted to bring this over as a thank-you present for everything you guys have done for Yuta and the rest of my family. It means so much to us.'

'O-oh...' She responded, her eyes widening as she actually looked down at the basket in Amaya's hands. 'Wait - Are you sure?! That looks really expensive!'

Definitely Isogai's sister - She'd heard the same thing come out of his mouth when Takaoka had brought those sweets last Thursday.

'I'm absolutely sure.' Amaya confirmed for the rather bewildered girl. 'This is for you guys.'

Hesitantly, Midori reached out and lifted the basket from Amaya's grip.

'Then, thank you very much! I'm sure Yuuma-nii will be surprised.' Midori responded, though she did look a little hesitant as she seemed to look at the duffel bag hanging from Amaya's shoulder. 'But umm ... Katsuragi-kun isn't here right now ...'

Amaya cast Midori a brighter smile.

'That's alright - Its a school-day after a--'

'N-no! That's not what I meant!' Midori cut in over Amaya, though she looked a little flustered again. 'He came back with a strange man this morning and took all his stuff. I think Mom said he was Katsuragi-kun's father.'

The words Midori had spoken caused a deathly chill to shoot down Amaya's spine, and her breath had hitched painfully in her throat.

Yuta's father?!

Oh no!

The look across Amaya's face must have been rather frightening, because Midori started to get rather flustered, if not panicked.

'D-did you see the man that was with Yuta?' Amaya questioned rather desperately.

Meekly, Midori nodded her head slightly in answer.

'He looked a lot like you, Katsuragi-san, or really you look a lot like him.' The girl spoke slowly, almost hesitantly. 'He has red eyes though, and he wears old kind of clothes...'

Red eyes?

Amaya's rising panic was halted dead in its tracks at those words.

Okay, that sounded like she was talking about Shigure, which was a strange thing of itself though she had to be sure.

'He has long white hair, yeah?' Amaya spoke up for clarification. 'He talks funny too?'

Midori nodded silently.

And then Amaya let out a relieved breath.

Just what the hell was Shigure doing calling himself Yuta's dad when he and her brother looked nothing alike?

Though there had to be a reason he would claim to be as such, so Amaya decided she had better stick with the story that had obviously been given.

'Sorry about that.' Amaya apologized quickly, casting Midori a sheepish smile as she rubbed the back of her neck. 'He's our Dad, but he's usually out of the country - I didn't even know he was back, yet.'

Hesitantly, Midori seemed to nod in understanding.

She seemed to accept that story, for the confusion and apprehension began to melt away.

Probably because Shigure looked like Amaya herself - if Shigure didn't look anything like Amaya at all, it would be a different story.

'So he's never really home...?'

'Not really, no.' Amaya responded with a wry smile. 'He comes back for a few weeks every year at most, but otherwise he's elsewhere.'

Midori nodded in understanding, all apprehension now gone.

In fact, it seemed like something made a lot of sense to her all of a sudden.

'Then, maybe they're both home, now?' Midori spoke up.

'Yeah, probably - I haven't been home all day, so that might be why I didn't know until you told me.'

There was a small sound of a voice calling out from inside, drawing Midori's attention immediately. The soft-spoken girl turned her head in response, seeming rather flustered all of a sudden.

'Oh, I've kept you here for a while! I should really get going.' Amaya spoke up, drawing Midori's attention back to her. 'Have yourself a great day, Isogai-chan.'

'Y-yeah, you too.' Midori responded. 'Goodbye, Katsuragi-san.'

And with that, the girl had closed the door to head back inside.

An edge of exasperation overcame Amaya as she found herself jogging back to the train-station, her thoughts immediately going back to Shigure.

So he was still in the city, or at the very least has been in the city today if he had brought Yuta here to get his belongings from Isogai's house.

Amaya decided to scrap her third major plan for the day and just go to Shigures right away.

House-shopping could honestly wait until tomorrow, this whole situation with Yuta had taken a whole new tangent she hadn't expected.

But at least it was back in somewhat familiar grounds - Yuta being at Isogai's house for the past week had made the situation so hard to get a grasp of that she couldn't function.

But if Shigure had decided to step in, then it was back to a bit more of a comfortable grounds.

And if Karma really had talked to Shigure like she believed, then this sudden change in situation fit in a bit too well to shrug aside.

The train pulled into Kunugigaoka Station as Amaya had let out what felt like the hundredth breath, and she was on her way through the city the long way to Shigure's place.

Karma had confinscated Yuta's keys amongst other things, and Shigure didn't have a set as far as she knew, so in all logical reasoning, they'd be at that excessively large house over anywhere else.

The heavy duffel bag at her side knocked against her knees, though she did her best to ignore its presence.

Street after street she walked quickly, her paranoia beginning to take hold as she found herself almost frantically turning her phone off.

Ritsu had turned up just that morning, and for some reason Amaya had a sneaky feeling that the moment someone asked where she could be, the Fixed Artillery would immediately find such information for them.

This was bad - That could explain half of Karma's eerie moments of turning up all of a sudden when she'd never told him where she was.

Amaya also remembered just how quickly Ritsu had provided her with Karma's location when she'd woken up in hospital, which served to fuel her paranoia.

Until she could have a proper word with the Fixed Artillery when nothing was happening, Amaya was going to carefully monitor when and where her phone was left on.

The sun provided an uncomfortable sense of burning as Amaya had finally reached Shigure's temporary residence, and she felt uncomfortably overheated.

She made her quick way up the path towards the front door, her brow furrowing as she found herself a little apprehensive of just letting herself inside.

Even though she did so since the first day Shigure arrived, with Yuta in the mix, it felt almost like a taboo to keep acting the same.

Though Shigure had told her to let herself in whenever she wanted, even if he wasn't home.

So really, she was just being stupid.

She ignored the complaints of her body as she carefully slid the key in the tumbler of the lock.

It was always silent here, only when Shigure was hurling her across the room was there ever really any noise.

What if Shigure wasn't here after all, in spite of the fact that there was no other place she could consider for him to go with Yuta in tow? The last she had spoken to him, he had said for her to do what she needed and not worry about it. But at the same time, Amaya had tried more than a few times to get hold of him.

Realizing that she was standing on the front step of the expansive house hesitating, Amaya let out a breath and opened the door.

The interior of the house was unlit, though illuminated by the light filtering in from other parts of the house. Amaya let out a breath as she entered and kicked her shoes off.

A sense of discomfort had overcome her, though she brushed it aside.

She was just winding herself up into a case of nerves, when it really, really wasn't warranted.

Though, peculiarly Amaya could pick up on the faint sound of voices as she shut the door.

She could recognize Shigure's particular voice rather easily - his manner of speech also made it easy to identify him from most others.

Was he talking to Yuta? Or was there someone else here?

Amaya had no idea, but rather than slink around trying not to interrupt anything, it felt more appropriate to actually just walk in and wave, at least so that Shigure knew she was there.

So, she made her way to the particularly large tatami room that Shigure's voice seemed to be coming from.

Two steps away from the door, the sound of Shigure's voice trailed off, and before Amaya had even managed to knock on the door, she heard a small shift in uncomfortable movement from inside.

The tension in the air suddenly began to escalate.

'Greetings, Little One,' Shigure spoke up all of a sudden, startling Amaya with little effort. 'You're right on time.'

Amaya was silent at first, a rather dumbfounded look creeping across her face before she let out a small breath.

Ah, he must have known she would come as per normal, even without getting any response from him over the phone.

So Amaya slid the door open and looked inside.

Much like when Shigure had arrived at the house in Hongu, a table had been set in the middle of the room, and Shigure was seated on the cushion with his back towards the door Amaya was at. A further two cushions were set on the floor around the table, and three cups of tea were set on the table around a bowl of a pan.

Upon the cushion directly in front of Shigure was Yuta, his head turned away in a show of dissatisfaction with Amaya being here.

'Hi Shigure, Yuta--'

'Don't talk to me!' Yuta shot back with petulance, fixing Amaya with an immediate glare.

'That's enough, Katsuragi-kun.' Shigure told Yuta, though like always, he spoke with gentle patience.

Oddly enough, Yuta seemed to huff in agitation, though he said nothing further.

'Come, Amaya.' Shigure spoke up, turning his head to look at Amaya over his shoulder. 'We have arrangements to make, discussions to have, and it would be better to finish before the sun begins to set.'

Yuta continued to brood, his glare upon the cup of tea set in front of him.

Amaya slid the door shut behind her, setting the bag down next to the door before making her way to the cushion on Shigure's right.

And immediately, Yuta picked himself up to move to the cushion opposite the one she had chosen.

Ah, between the strange man who'd picked him up from school and Amaya, it appeared Yuta would rather sit next to Shigure.

That was rather typical, following his recent attitude towards her.

How poorly he acted when he had a chip on his shoulder.

Though thankfully, it appeared that Shigure had no plans on letting this continue any further than what it already had - She'd had enough to do with Shigure to know what was going on, at least by face-value.

Amaya had winced slightly as the cracks in her ribs made their presence known, though she said nothing. Yuta continued his own brooding while Shigure sipped his tea, almost as if there was nothing wrong at all.

She would call a sense of Deja Vu, if it weren't for Yuta's presence here.

Shigure set his cup down on the small coaster in front of him after a few seconds, before he let out a breath.

'Well then, I suppose we should start with the root of the problem.' Shigure spoke up, casting Amaya a small glance before he looked at Yuta's brooding form.

The root of the problem?

'What would that be, exactly?' Amaya couldn't help but ask.

Shigure looked back at Amaya for a few seconds, before a small breath escaped him.

That was out of character for him.

So very out of character.

'Given Katsuragi-kun's constant refusal to actually explain of his own accord, this will take a while.' Shigure explained, reaching for his cup of tea again. 'I hope you won't find it too tedious.'

A while?

Damnit, just how much did Shigure have to talk her through all of a sudden.

'Katsuragi-kun.' Shigure spoke up, turning his head to fix his gaze upon Yuta.

The boy in mention refused to look up in response.

'This is your last chance to speak your side of the situation.' Shigure informed, his tone much more firm than what Amaya was actually used to hearing. 'However if you do not talk now, we will have no choice but to follow the explanations of another party - Either Akabane-kun's or Isogai-san's, either will work for me.'

Yuta seemed to turn his head further away.

'I'm not talking - You're on it's side.' He muttered petulantly.

It was this moment that Shigure seemed to have enough - All of a sudden he set his cup of tea down, so suddenly that not only had Amaya flinched, but Yuta had recoiled as well.

'That is enough.' Shigure rebuked, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. 'You have until I have finished discussing with Amaya about what has been happening. If you do not provide your own version of the story, then we will make decisions for you.'

Shigure's gaze narrowed upon Yuta almost dangerously.

'This is your last chance - Take it while you can.'

---=[Authors Note]=---

A chapter for you all, and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Saigo no chansu - Translates roughly as last chance, which is written as 最後のチャンス in Japanese.

All the best <3

Loki-Roki~!