Marionette

Skies, Chapter Two - Doryoku [努力]

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.