Amaya wandered down the streets outside Kunugigaoka, following the directions on the little piece of paper Shigure had given her while she was back at the old house. Class had just been called by the Main Campus, meaning that for some reason, Class E's bell seemed to have rung earlier than it was supposed to.

Not that Amaya was complaining or anything, she was just a little curious about it.

Amaya turned left at the end of the street, finding herself wandering down a street that was vaguely familiar for some reason.

She'd never wandered the streets outside of Kunugigaoka itself, so she knew it wasn't because of that.

The buildings here were tall, far more extravagant than their neighbors a mere street away, which was a surprise for Amaya. They were all very lush with foreign plants and foliage, adorned with expensive looking garden ornaments, and many other features that made Amaya sigh at the thought of all that wasted money spent just for vanitys sake.

She glanced at the piece of paper again, reading that it was the last house on the right, just before the road ended in a rather pointless roundabout.

So she shrugged slightly and pocketed the piece of paper.

She'd emailed Yuta and Reiko, letting them know that she was probably going to be late home, and also that there was a chance that a moody Karma might turn up while she was away. She'd received no response, though she didn't doubt they were busy at that moment, what with Yutas head-boy duties and Reikos Class Rep duties.

All in all, she expected it to be about seven in the evening when she eventually got a reply, and it would be something like 'Okay, well Karma-san's already here :P'

Ten minutes later, Amaya finally reached the end of the longer-than-expected street, her eyes wide as she stared up at a building far too large to even be called a house.

The building itself looked like a cross between the traditional house design that the old house outside Hongu was, and an actual martial-arts dojo. There was a stone wall built with many gaps and holes in its designs to form glassless windows, where bamboo and other foliage could be seen from the outside.

Amaya shook her head momentarily as she double-checked the address on the piece of paper.

This was the place... Damn, it made Shigure look filthy rich!

Who the hell was Shigure, anyway? And how the hell could he arrange sudden housing like this at the drop of a hat?!

Amaya let out a breath as she looked at the surroundings of the street, to find that she'd ended up right at the foot of the Class E Mountain

She knew she had, because she could actually see the tiniest hint of the Classroom's roof from where she was standing. There was even an off-road vehicle trail that lead off from the roundabout, all the way up to the classroom, which immediately told Amaya why she had vague recollections of this street.

The bus that Karasuma had arranged ended up taking that very trail to head to the Tokyo Station.

'You've got to be kidding me ...' Amaya muttered under her breath, though she still wore that wry smile all the same. 'How the hell is this inconspicuous?'

Well, at least now she could take the more direct route when there wasn't so much damn attention on her.

But the problem was that if anyone followed her this way down the mountain, they were going to figure out where exactly she was going every Tuesday, now.

Not so smart of Shigure, considering that he said nobody was to know about him.

She had no choice but to guess that he'd ended up being saddled with this mansion just because it was right next to the Class E Mountain, maybe.

Hesitantly, Amaya began to make her way towards the front gate of the property, stepping through the gate carefully as she listened to the sounds of the city.

Or rather, the lack of sounds of the city.

It was odd - It was just like she was up on the mountain.

And the amount of plant-life inside the walls of the property were enough to have her almost believe it, too.

Amaya walked along the path through a thick wall of bamboo, many meters before she reached the front door.

She contemplated knocking, but took to reaching out to open the door instead - She recalled Shigures remark that she could drop in whenever she wanted in addition to her regular once a week training days, so she guessed if the front door was open, she should just walk in.

And in fact, the door was open - Amaya was a little surprised at how easily and soundlessly the door actually slid aside.

The interior of the huge building was very empty - Large rooms were adored with the bare minimum of furniture, and nothing else. There were no decorations, no signs that anyone even lived here.

Not that Amaya was all that surprised by that.

She wandered through the large building once she'd tugged her boots off, her gaze tracing her surroundings as she made her way towards the back parts of the building.

Amaya eventually found herself stepping out into a room that was far bigger than the tatami room back at the old house - more befitting for a dojo, the floor was wooden with a line of tatami mats running along the outer edges of the room. There were no other furnishings or even any form of decoration within the room, aside from a single table at the far right end of the room, with what looked to be a bundle of neatly folded material in white siting on top. The wall directly opposite the door she'd walked through was opened up to reveal the outside gardens, and it was there that Amaya could see that Shigure was present.

He had been crouched down in front of what looked to be a pond that took up the whole back half of the gardens, a wall of bamboo separating the pond from the back wall of the property.

The old-fashioned man was approaching, his arms crossed over his chest as he gazed at Amaya's rather uncertain expression. He was dressed slightly different to normal though - Instead of his earthen green mens kimono, he was in a white gi this time.

'Greetings, Little One.' Shigure greeted Amaya in much the same fashion as normal, referring to her by that string of words he'd used the first time they'd consciously met back in that coastal city.

It was one of his quirks.

'Hey.' Amaya greeted back, though she was a little uncertain of the situation.

A massive, wealthy looking house at the foot of Class E Mountain, the opposite side to Kunugigaoka's main campus?

This felt horribly weird to her, right now.

'I trust you found the place without trouble.' He remarked, though his tone hinted at a question.

Amaya let out a breath as Shigure stepped up onto the veranda to make his way inside.

'More or less.' Amaya remarked, burying her hands in her pockets as she shifted her weight onto her right leg. 'You could've just told me it was at the start of the vehicle trail of the mountain - I would have found it without needing to go through all the back streets.'

'Indeed, I could have done that.' Shigure remarked as he came to a stop in front of Amaya, a small smirk in his gaze. 'However for the time being it's preferable if you do not give your acquaintances or classmates an opportunity to follow you here.'

'I know...' Amaya muttered, another familiar breath escaping her as she glanced at the gardens past Shigure for a second. 'So this is where you are for the foreseeable future, then?'

'That's correct.' Shigure remarked, stepping around Amaya to head towards the little table that stood at the right end of the room. 'As I have mentioned before, you're welcome to treat this building as your own during the time that I have use of it.'

Amaya kept silent, watching Shigure as he lifted the neatly folded material off the top of the table.

'In any case, while you are here for treatment, you are required to wear these.' He remarked as he turned back to approach her. 'While your current outfit is suitable for encounters with your acquaintances, they are not practical for what I intend to teach you. These will be more suitable.'

'Sure sure.' Amaya agreed, looking down at the white material as Shigure passed them to her.

'The third door back down the hallway is allocated for your use.' He remarked, stepping away to head back out into the garden.

Amaya let out a small breath as she began to make her way to the mentioned door to get changed.

It turned out that the neatly folded material was a light grade gi, stronger than her clothes she wore as her own version of the school uniform. Putting it on was a little awkward, because she wasn't used to wearing such clothes, but there certainly was more freedom of movement. Amaya had found a key between the pants and the top of the gi, obviously the front-door key for her to use from now on. She'd clipped it onto her keyring before she began to make her way back to the back room, her belongings left behind in the rather large room.

She started to feel a little apprehensive of the situation, recalling the way Shigure'd immobilized her so suddenly just last week.

What kind of training was this going to be? And what kind of teaching style did the man have?

There were other questions bouncing around in Amayas head, but these two were the most prominent of them all.

'Much better.' Shigure remarked at the sight of Amaya walking back into the room, turning towards her.

'Yeah yeah.' Amaya waved off his remark, coming to a stop a few paces in front of him. 'So what's the go?'

'Not so fast, Amaya - We have yet to make some agreeable boundaries.' Shigure remarked, a wry smile touching his face as Amaya huffed slightly.

'Boundaries?'

'Unofficial rules, if you will.' He amended.

Unofficial rules?

That didn't sound too good, in Amaya's case.

'To begin with, you should be aware of three fundamental differences between what you will be doing here, and what goes on at the Classroom up the Mountain.' Shigure began, that smile still in place. 'Its best you keep them in the back of your mind - Doing so will prevent injury and misunderstandings.'

Amaya felt her brow furrow in confusion at that remark.

'Like what ...? Something like how this is supposed to be secret from everyone kinda things?'

'While that is true, I was not referring to those circumstances.' Shigure responded patiently.

'Then what?'

'You must first understand that your two teachers up at the mountain classroom, ' He began, straightening up on his feet. 'They follow a strict set of guidelines required by law in order to teach - They will never push a student beyond a mutual comfort-zone.'

He paused for a second, that smile still in place.

'I however, have every intention of pushing you far beyond your comfort-zones, to the point where you may well want to kill me yourself. It is for your long-term benefit, not the short-term.'

Amaya felt a chill shoot down her spine as he said that with that kind smile of his.

'First, there will be no breaks between the start and finish of training - Time is a commodity, and one we do not have much to spare.' He surmised, much to Amaya's displeasure. 'Second, there will be no curbing of strength - you need to learn to abandon inhibitions and discard your conscience at a moments notice. And third, you will likely suffer injuries, however training will continue - You will learn how to continue to fight while injured, learning how to minimize further damage while maintaining your own self-defense.'

Oh god, she'd agreed to hell-on-earth nightmare classes, not this so called treatment she'd thought it was!

But it was too late to back out of it, now.

She had a feeling that quitting now was not allowed, either.

'I ... understand, I guess.' Amaya sighed as she swung her arms slightly, glancing away from Shigure for just a second. 'You're starting to sound like some kind of teacher from hell, you know?'

Shigure didn't necessarily respond, however he still smiled all the same.

Amaya began to wonder if Shigure ever wore any expression other than that smile of his.

'If you have no further questions, then we should begin.' Shigure remarked.

'U-uh, sure ...' Amaya hedged, watching in surprise as Shigure shifted into a ready stance of his left foot in front of his right, his arms held ready in front of him. This was already quite different from Karasuma, who'd just stand there at a strangely relaxed stance, as if he was just watching something.

Although he was always at the ready for any form of attack in any place at any time, so maybe that was why?

'Come, Amaya - Do not dally.' Shigure commanded, his smile vanished completely from his face.

His whole disposition had done a complete turn, and all Amaya was getting was a peculiar sense of foreboding.

'You haven't exactly told me what I'm supposed to be doing.' Amaya sighed as she shifted herself into a similar stance, only her hands were closed into fists.

'You merely have to try and hit me.' Shigure responded, his smile still gone from his face. 'We will continue until you manage to land a decent strike, nothing less.'

That was very, very familiar, almost like Deja vu.

That was the way that Karasuma did his one on one evaluations.

'Okay ...' Amaya sighed, her brow furrowed as she watched Shigure.

She had a strong feeling that she was going to leave this place hurting like hell.

Amaya lunged forward quickly, throwing herself into a roundhouse kick to Shigures side, however he didn't deflect her attempt like Karasuma would - he turned with the motion of her kick to avoid the strike, and kicked her foot out from beneath her before she could even figure out what'd just happened, sending her crashing to the floor with a thud.

A startled gasp escaped Amaya as she caught a glimpse of an approaching low-kick, barely managing to roll out of the way and scrambling to her feet.

'What the hell, Shigure-Ojisan?!' Amaya exclaimed, gaping at Shigure as he merely shifted back into that ready stance of his.

'I never said I wouldn't fight back.' He remarked, as if it was obvious.

Amaya grit her teeth as she began to realize that she was in trouble.

'Also, drop the honorifics, regardless of the familial circumstances between us.'

'Geeze ...' Amaya huffed under her breath.

Okay, scratch that sense of deja vu - this was completely different to Karasumas classes.

'If you do not make the first move, then I will!' Shigure announced, and then all of a sudden he'd appeared right in front of her, throwing a backwards kick to Amaya's head.

Thankfully Amaya had managed to get her arms up in time to block the kick, however he'd thrown himself into a second kick with his other foot, catching her unguarded side and sending her crashing to the floor a few meters away.

A strangled gasp escaped Amaya as she tried to recover her senses, a sense of understanding coming over her as her side ached in pain that she was rather familiar with.

He did say she was to learn to throw her conscience and inhibitions aside at a moments notice.

She needed to actually start treating this seriously, instead of the regular practice training classes that Karasuma ran.

She was going to be in a world of hurt if she didn't.

It was the very second that Amaya had gotten to her feet, when Shigure made his move once again - he threw himself forward in a lunge forward, and before Amaya knew what she was doing, she'd managed to step out of the way, much like her body had decided to move without her brains consent.

Before Shigure had an opportunity to recover his footing, she attempted to clip him in the side with a backwards elbow.

However much like in Karasumas classes, her move was spotted well before she could have managed a hit. Shigure once again kicked her foot out as he merely moved out of the way of the strike, sending her crashing to the floor yet again.

Only this time Amaya knew what was coming, and managed to kick one of his feet out in turn.

Though nowhere near enough to trip him up - She merely jostled him.

'Not bad. You're starting to relax out of your inhibitions.' Shigure surmised, pausing his counter to grab her arm and hoist her back onto her feet. 'However you have a long way to go.'

'Right ...' Amaya huffed out, sliding into a ready-stance before Shigure could get the jump on her.

'Again.' Shigure commanded, sliding into a ready-stance himself. Again Amaya huffed, though her attention was much more on what she was doing, rather than the circumstances of why she was there, and the boundaries that had been agreed upon.

Thus the afternoon disappeared, with Amaya spending a good half of the time crashing into the floor if not managing to avoid Shigures counters to every single move she made.

This was nothing like Karasumas classes - she'd at least managed to graze Karasuma, and he didn't hit back.

This was hell incarnate, and by a half hour into the training session, Amaya was already ready to collapse in a heap on the floor.

But of course she couldn't - that was one of the so called boundaries of these training sessions.

That was one of the rules put in place, after all.

By 7pm, Amaya had not once even come close to landing a single hit on Shigure, or even just grazed him.

She'd hit the floor so many times she'd become well acquainted with it, and she was aching all over.

When she got home, she probably wouldn't even eat dinner - She'd just go collapse on her bed.

'That's enough for today.' Shigure announced after what felt like the hundredth head-first crash to the floor for Amaya. 'You've done well, but we'll repeat todays objectives by next Tuesday.'

Amaya waved her left arm wearily in acknowledgement, before she let it flop to the floor at her side.

How the hell did that guy spend three whole hours throwing her across the room every thirty seconds like that and not break a sweat?!

She was beginning to doubt that he really was human.

Amaya heard dispersing footsteps leading to the other parts of the mansion-like house as she tried to catch her breath.

She could feel that her arms and legs were shaking rather violently, and her chest was aching from all of her labored breathing.

Amaya was sure that after a month of these training lessons, she was going to be very, very fit.

She'd see just how well her body recovered after all this being thrown around - She might sneak out here on Friday if nothing came up.

A faint, far off ringing that was familiar came to Amayas notice, and after a couple of seconds she recognised it to be the ringtone of her phone.

With a disgruntled, pained sigh, Amaya scrambled to her feet and ambled over to the room her belongings sat within.

However the phone had stopped ringing by the time that Amaya had opened the door of the room, causing a small breath to escape her as she checked her phone.

Three emails from Yuta and Reiko, and one missed call from Karma.

She stared at her phone for several long seconds in confusion, before she recalled that little remark of his about requiring an explanation when she got home.

Damnit, she wasn't going to be able to sleep the moment she got home ...

Well, now that she was on her feet, she may as well get dressed so she could head back. She'd return the call when she was on the train.

Getting changed hurt more than it was supposed to - Amaya felt her body protesting to every small movement, but there wasn't really anything she could do about it. Amaya wondered how she was going to cope with PE tomorrow - if she was aching so much right now, then she was going to be in agony tomorrow.

And Karasuma had mentioned something about another one-on-one evaluation again.

Amaya was almost certain that she was going to do terrible, and then everyone would start asking questions.

'Amaya.' Shigures voice spoke up from the other side of the door, just as Amaya had finished buttoning up her shirt. 'May I open the door?'

'Yeah - go ahead.' Amaya responded, smoothing out the creases of her shirt.

The door opened after a couple of seconds, and Shigure stepped inside.

Upon a glance over as she shouldered her bag, Amaya noticed that Shigure had a canvas shopping bag hanging from his right hand.

'I trust you're feeling well enough to make the trip home?' He asked, that kind smile back in place across his face.

'Yeah, of course.'

'Very good.' He seemed to smile just a little more, lifting the bag up before he handed it to her. 'Dinner for Yuta, Reiko, and yourself. Its a bit late for you to prepare anything, I believe.'

Amaya blinked in surprise as she looked up at Shigure, a sheepish smile soon creeping in place.

'Thanks a lot, Shigure-Oji--'

'Enough of the honorifics, Amaya.' Shigure cut her off, his expression softening slightly. 'I already told you they aren't necessary.'

'O-okay ... Well, thank you, anyway.' Amaya smiled a little more. 'I should get going anyway - Yuta's been trying to contact me.'

'Indeed.' Shigure responded, stepping out of the doorway to allow Amaya to step out of the room. 'Well, if not before, I will see you on Tuesday.'

'Yeah, definitely.' Amaya agreed, grinning despite how achy she was feeling. 'Thanks again, Shigure.'

And with that, Amaya began to make her way back to Kunugigaoka Station.

For a Tuesday night, it was pretty quiet, and thankfully there was only a couple of minutes wait for the next train.

There was almost nobody here, and for that Amaya was thankful.

She really didn't have any energy in her for any meetings, whether it be with a friendly other, or a usual delinquent acquaintance.

Amaya's phone began to ring just one stop away from her one, causing a faint groan to escape Amaya. She looked down at the caller id for a second, rolling her eyes as she saw that it was Karma trying to call her again.

What? Did he think she was avoiding home, or something?

'Seriously, Karma? Haven't you heard of a little patience?' Amaya spoke up as she hit answer, pressing the speaker to her ear as she leaned against the wall of the train carriage.

'So? Where are you?' Karma responded on his end of the line, completely ignoring her comment.

It brought a sigh to escape Amaya as she looked out the window.

'Ten minutes away, at most.' She grumbled, readjusting her grip of the bag of food hanging from her other hand. 'Why does that--'

'I'll be waiting out front - Don't bother trying to skulk in through the back.' Karma cut in over her, and then the line went dead.

Amaya let out a breath as she pulled the phone from her ear, frowning down at the end-of-call summary as it flashed on the screen a couple of times.

What? Did he seriously think she was out this late cause she was trying to avoid talking to him?

She couldn't ever recall to have tried to avoid him, even when they were at each others throats.

Why the hell would she start, now?

Avoid topics, sure, but she'd never avoid him as a person.

He was the one who avoided her if he didn't want to talk about something, or if he was just moody.

The train arrived in the station much sooner than Amaya had expected, and in what felt like a mere minute, Amaya had arrived within visible sight of the front of her apartment building.

Just as he had said on the phone, Karma was standing right out the front, his arms crossed over his chest and an annoyed look across his face.

'Hey, it's the impatient jerk!' Amaya called out in a taunting tone as she got within earshot of Karma, earning the boys attention with little effort.

Karma turned his head with the obvious intention to retort back, however he seemed to stop himself at the sight of her.

He stared for what felt like several long seconds, the annoyance melting from his expression quickly to make way for confusion.

'Who'd you pick a fight with, this time?' He asked, completely disregarding her taunting greeting.

'Hello to you, too.' Amaya muttered sarcastically as she stepped around the redhead in preference for continuing inside.

From the footsteps she could hear following, she knew that Karma was right on her heels.

'Amay-'

'No, I didn't pick a fight with anyone.' Amaya cut in over Karma, rolling her eyes as she heard a huff escape him. 'And I wasn't avoiding coming back, either. I was just busy.'

'Have you seen yourself since this morning?' He questioned, his tone rather sarcastic in turn.

'No, can't claim to say I have.' Amaya responded with a sigh, glancing over at Karma as she pressed the call button for the elevator.

He was looking annoyed again, unfortunately.

She was probably going to suffer for annoying him once he decided he'd waited long enough to interrogate her.

But right now it looked like he was going to give her an opportunity to put her stuff down inside before he dragged her away for the interrogation.

Amaya could feel herself beginning to nod off where she stood, and even as they took the elevator up.

There was twice where her eyes had closed on her, and all of a sudden she'd find herself shaking herself awake before she even knew what she was doing.

It was quite likely that she might actually fall asleep in the middle of talking, at this rate.

Karma hadn't said a word, his piercing gaze upon the side of her face as she began to unlock the door of the apartment.

Just as she stepped inside, setting the bag of food aside so she could tug off her boots, rushing footsteps came to hear notice.

'Amay's home!' Reiko called out with excitement, running right for Amaya as Karma stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

Amaya hadn't had a chance to look up at the charging twelve-year-olds, let alone brace herself for what happened next.

Reiko leaped on Amaya in a form of tackling hug, knocking the already battered girl off her feet and causing her to crash to the floor yet again as Yuta slid to a halt just a few paces away, fright flashing across his face.

That one last crash to the floor was all it took to knock Amaya out cold, her connection to the world severing in the instance her head hit the floor.

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

Hello everyone! Here's Chapter Forty Seven of Marionette for you :D I hope you all enjoyed reading, and that makes this weeks guaranteed installment - If I get any others submitted before Friday, they're a bonus xD

Poor Amaya xD She just doesn't get a break, does she? Oh well, she's got gaming afternoon with Maehara and Isogai coming up, so things should work out xD

Thank you to everyone who commented on last chapter :D I was gone for three hours after I submitted the chapter and then BAM! All those comments, xD you have no idea how happy I was to see all of them, even though they were answers to the Wild-Card Question I submitted. Everyones answers were all so different, however the one common thing between most of them is that Reiko remembers near nothing, apart from KatKit83 and Raharayuki. That was the most interesting thing for me to read :) There seems to be a lot of respect for Yuta amongst all of you xD One thing I will say is that Yuta got actually knocked out when Yukariko struck him, so he doesn't recall anything after that point, but Reiko? Well she still wasn't talking by that point, but she wasn't struck or unconscious now, was she?

Just something to think about ;)

Wrapping things up! It was a hard choice, but the winner of the final Wild-Card for Assassination Classroom Christmas Oneshots goes to Raharayuki. Lemme know your chosen character for the x Reader Oneshot, and any additional little tidbits or conditions you want to see met in either a PM or a Comment, and I'll get onto that :)

Wow, Christmas is just 25 Days away now xD Not long now.

Final Wild-Card Placements:

#1 - kanade_Yuki88
#2 - MidnightChildren05
#3 - Raharayuki

The Oneshot Gifts will all be submitted on the 25th December, 12.00am GMT+0800 I hope you all look forward to them :)

Translation notes for Chapter 47 of Marionette

Doryoku - Translates roughly as Effort, which is written as 努力 in Japanese :)