Hang on tight for my next update; I'm not sure when it will be. Starting next week I have to focus on exams/papers and preparing to return to my home country. I will try to get another chapter done in the week I have between finals ending and my flight back to the States (May 23-29), but I can't promise that. So please don't hate me if my next update is in early June.

Anyway, this chapter is very heavily focused on the Shiota girls' relationship with their mother. I may write a oneshot exploring what type of a mother Kayano was, because oh boy, I have more headcanons about her and Nagisa's parenthood than the rest of 3-E combined. Considering she has more emotional baggage than any of them, it's something I'm sure she'd struggle with regardless of how much she wanted it. Mom!Kayano is like my favorite future headcanon in AssClass. But alas, I'm digressing.

The next few chapters will introduce the remaining second genners and focus on them.

Thanks for all reviews. Here are the responses:

TheRoseShadow21: To respond to your reviews on Great Teacher Nagisa (I thought I'd just address them here), it is getting a sequel that was supposed to be posted by now but that didn't pan out. I'm stuck on a title… I've got a working title, but I don't know if it's appropriate. I'll also be making master posts for the second genners from Great Teacher Nagisa, Hello Shooting Star Again, and the sequel to Aftershocks (once again, I am stuck on a title) when I finally get myself organized.

Darkprincess238: Yes, that's pretty much what happened with Karmanami here. No, Karma doesn't have any other kids besides Madoka (who isn't biologically his, but he raised her and thinks of her as his daughter) and Hikaru, and he wasn't in any serious relationships when Okuda was married to her first husband. I've got a lot of AU's/headcanons for their future too (I've got a lot of feelings about Karmanami), PM me if you want to know more.

Please review again, I don't know if I like how I handled this chapter, especially the last part.

Hotaru and I walked the path down the mountain at a leisurely pace. We had no homework for today, so that left plenty of time to look for food and shelter.

I sensed footsteps approaching.

"Hello Aguri, Hotaru." A very familiar voice came from the left to us.

Our mother stood in front of us. The young Haruna Mase, or Kaede Kayano, or Akari Shiota (well, not Akari Shiota yet) in all her glory. I'd seen plenty of pictures of her from her junior high days, but they didn't quite do her justice. She was petite, slender, and short. Her green hair shone in the fading orange sunlight. Her bright eyes reflected the mountain, and she was perpetually smiling. She just looked so different.

Well, that applied to Dad too- Uncle Karma was right, he really did look like a girl in junior high.

"What are you doing?" Her chirpy voice tore me out of my reverie.

"Leaving the classroom." I decided to lie by omission, rather than lie point-blank.

"Ahh, so was I. Let's walk together."

It was weird that she was staying in the woods so late, but I had bigger concerns to worry about right now. She was going to find out about our living situation! What do we do about that?

"Do you walk or take the train?" Hotaru asked her.

"I walk. I'm local to here." Mom chirped as she walked along my side. "Do you take the train?"

"No, we live here." I was sweating like Uncle Okajima in a church.

"Like in town?" A butterfly landed on Mom's head.

"Yes… Very close to here." I kicked a rock down the dirt path.

We were already at the bottom of the mountain. I stopped and pointed left once I got their attention. "We live in this direction."

"Wait, why is your house on the mountain?"

My heart dropped. I accidentally pointed in the wrong direction!

"The shed, you mean? I forgot the way." Hotaru blurted out.

"You're going to a shed? That's where you live?" Our mother asked. The way she asked it would be burned into my mind forever. With such innocence. I had to keep reminding myself that she didn't know our story, even if she knew us better than almost anyone she didn't know who we were or what we were going through.

"It's where we're staying." Hotaru spoke the truth, as usual.

"You don't have anywhere to live?" Mom sounded shocked. And… horrified. Yes, that was the expression on her face, in response to two teenage girls being homeless.

The question from my mother made me nearly fall over. "Um, well… You see..."

"No, we don't." Hotaru opened her mouth again. I realized, in a weird way, I was actually grateful for it. Maybe now we could be helped.

Mom just stared at the ground, twiddling her fingers.

The atmosphere between us was tense, border lining on awkward. There should be no awkwardness between us; she bathed us, cleaned up our vomit, taught us how to use a toilet. I couldn't fathom what could possibly be awkward about us.

"Well… You can stay with me…"

Hotaru and I blinked twice.

"I mean, only if you want to, of course… And it doesn't have to be for a long time…"

"Thank you, could we?" I spoke up for the both of us.

"Of course!" She returned back to her bubbly personality, the one we saw so much of growing up. "I live alone, so I'll love having roommates!~"

She practically skipped back to her apartment, and we followed closely.

"Tadaima." Mom announced as she took off her shoes at the door.

Hotaru and I followed her example. My heart was pounding. We had been to our Dad's childhood home a few times, but we had never seen Mom's apartment while she was a student. She always said that someone probably lives there by now so it was no use looking. And she never took any pictures.

Well, this looked quite a bit like the apartment that my sisters and I lived in briefly, when we were just born. We didn't remember it, but there were plenty of pictures I saw when I went snooping on the family cloud. This place must have been big enough for an entire family. Two bedrooms, one luxurious bathroom with a claw-foot bathtub big enough to really stretch out in, a chandelier over the dining room table- what the hell kind of an apartment has a dining room? Everything was draped in deep red- the carpets, the curtains, the bedsheets. Only the most exquisite for Haruna Mase. A butsudan with a photo of my Aunt Aguri and an incense burner sat right next to the television

"Wow." My little sister breathed.

Mom scratched the back of her head with a chuckle. "Don't question the décor, I guess you can say my Dad's got a lot of money."

Grandpa? We never knew him, he died not too long after I was born. In fact, I had realized it long ago, and whenever I came to think about it, it weighed heavy in my heart. The three of us, plus Fujiko, were the last of the Yukimura bloodline. Mom had no other living family.

She treasured us so much. Swaddled us up in warm clothes any day of the year, was terrified to let us out alone, cut up our food for us. I felt guilt pool in my stomach over me lying to her. Even now, when she doesn't know what our relationship really is, she shows us so much generosity. Could she have sensed the true relationship between us?

She lead us through the dining room, down the hall to the red bedroom we saw earlier. "You can stay here." It had a wooden desk, overhead lighting, and a nice window that oversaw the city. "How long have you lived here?" I asked Mom.

"This apartment? I just moved in a few weeks ago. My room is down there if you need anything at any time." She pointed to the left. I saw a room just like ours, but the walls were covered in movie posters it looked impeccably clean. Then Mom clapped her hands together, causing her green hair to ripple a bit. "So let's make dinner!"

Hotaru made a beeline for the kitchen and started pouring the broth. She always like doing that, she said she liked the way it smelled. We followed, making note of what ingredients we needed to get out for ramen.

"Fujihara, could you please turn the stovetop on?" Mom said while dropping eggs into a pot of water.

Her words stabbed my heart. It just felt so… strange. I was Aguri, Little Aguri, Baby Aguri, any of those things. I was not Fujihara. Especially not to my mother. She gave me this name. It was like when I tried out for that play in the seventh grade because I wanted to be like Mom, but I just couldn't get used to being called Hippolyta. Like wearing someone else's skin; how did she love this so much?

But I had to keep up the façade. "Sure, Kayano. I'll start making the broth."

The ramen, complete with miso broth, hard-boiled egg, pork, and spring onions sat in bowls in front of us at the table. It smelled amazing, especially to a pair of teens who hadn't eaten properly in days.

"So, how did you get into 3-E?" I asked our mother between mouthfuls of ramen. Had to keep some kind of conversation going.

I went to Kunugigaoka in disguise, because I didn't want to be recognized as Haruna Mase. That's where I met your Daddy, and Koro-sensei. And Koro-sensei knew your Aunt Aguri, and loved her very much, but she died. We decided to name you after her.

My mother's words, that story she repeated to me time and time again, rung in my ears. I could recite it by heart. I knew the truth, regardless of whatever she would tell us now.

"Oh, I'd always wanted to enroll at Kunugigaoka, so I took the entrance exam and passed." She seemed to be deep in thought, staring at the noodles she picked up with her chopsticks. "But I was clumsy and ended up breaking one of the principal's trophies."

Been there.

"And you? How did you two end up in E Class?" She caught us off guard with that question.

"Well, funny enough, it's kind of the same story with us." I laughed as I told her of the first events in our school year at Kunugigaoka, leaving out the part about how it was all a plot to get into 3-E, how we were her kids from the future, and how we came here for Koro-sensei's help. All the stuff she didn't need to know yet.

"Well, we have that in common." Mom wiped the corners of her eyes after laughing hard enough to cry.

"So it was kind of like fate that we met." Hotaru said, staring at her lap.

I could have cringed at the cheesiness if she said that in any other context, but this was different.

"Yeah. It might have been."

I turned to our mother.

"I look forward to staying with you, Ma- Kayano."

Mom just smiled at us. "I look forward to it too!"

I felt like a criminal, lying to my own mother.

At 12:30 am, I stumbled into the bathroom, cursing my screwed-up sleep schedule that I owe to the owls hooting on the mountain all night. My mother's room was adjacent to the bathroom, and her door was slightly ajar. I snuck past it carefully, not wanting to disturb her.

I heard my mother whisper to herself, in a voice so soft it was barely more than breathing.

"If I can't help my sister, I'll at least help another Aguri."

"I got the scholarship." I informed Hotaru as I checked my inbox Sunday morning. Mom had left to run errands in town. I considered offering to go with her, but the stomach pains I woke up with held me back. She promised to get medicine for that while she was out.

"So did I." My sister stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her.

"Good." I put my phone to charge. "It's a good amount of money, but it won't last forever. So keep applying for them, but for now we can pay this year's tuition at Kunugigaoka and pay Mom for rent and groceries."

Speaking of which, Mom entered the door five seconds later carrying plastic bags. "I got some stuff to make pudding!"

Hotaru pumped her fist in the air. "Yay! Pudding!" She helped Mom put the groceries in the fridge. It's obvious where my sister got her sweet tooth from.

"I was just wondering, strangers might think we're sisters." Mom joked, probably referring to our resemblances. Oh, if only she knew.

"Yeah, I think they'd believe that." I helped put the food away. Huh. So many banana kit kats. And pudding kit kats. And cheesecake kit kats. "Wow, I guess you like kit kats, huh?"

"Hmm? Those are for you two." She gave me a quizzical look.

"What?"

"I saw you take a big bag out of you backpack earlier. I figured you really liked them."

"Oh." Yes, the ones we intending to bring for Koro-sensei. "Yeah, we sure do. Thank you very much," Really, I could take or leave kit kats, but my heart was warmed that she did that. I was ready to cry.

"Hey, K-Kayano?" I turned towards her.

"Hmm?" She hummed.

"Sis and I are getting the money were owed on Friday, so we'll pay you rent then."

"Alright! But don't fret about it, pay me whenever you can." Mom's golden eyes were bright and sweet. She didn't even ask where the money was coming from.

"Big sis!" Hotaru beamed. I saw Mom cringe a bit, but my sister was none the wiser. "Can we go clothes shopping when the money comes in too?" We had used the last our pocket money to buy these school uniforms, so I nodded.

"Sounds like a good plan, I can recommend all the best outlets in town." Mom took her hair down. We knew those long flowing locks, but we only ever saw them as black, not green.

"Oh, and that reminds me of one more thing," I stared at my feet. "… Can we stay here for a while?" All I was doing so far was taking and not giving here. "We have enough money to pay you rent indefinitely, and we'll take up our share of household chores."

"Stay as long as you want." She smiled. It melted my heart.

"Thank you, Kayano." The name still didn't feel correct on my tongue.

The three of us walked to school the next morning. The springtime air was fresh and crisp and the birds sang. Mom stopped to scatter some seed for them. The quails ate greedily. A crow swooped down, scaring them all away. Panic mode. I grabbed both of my family members and dragged then up the path.

Mom was visibly puzzled. "Do you not like birds?"

"Just not crows." I choked out. Dammit, what's a good excuse? "I was attacked by one as a child." I pulled that out of thin air, and showed her a scar on my hand that I got from closing the door on it when I was six. "See?"

And it looked like she bought it, hook, line, and sinker. "Oh, I'm sorry. I've never actually seen them up on the mountain, but I'm new here just like you. Maybe they're rare."

I sighed in relief when I looked back and saw that the crow was no longer there. "Well, we'll be late if we don't hurry."

Hotaru nodded, a piece of toast hanging out of her mouth.

"Oh, just one thing…" Mama 'Kayano' shuffled her feet nervously. "Did you hear anything last night?"

Time to play dumb. "What do you mean?"

"Oh," She flushed red. "Well, I just sometimes have nightmares. So don't be scared if you hear noises coming from my bedroom at night."

That? Oh, that totally slipped my mind, but I knew of it. There was no way I couldn't have. She'd had them all throughout my childhood, sometimes waking up screaming and inconsolable and Dad would stay up with her until the sun rose rubbing her back and whispering to her that everything would be alright.

"Just don't concern yourself with it, okay Aguri?"

Good. That felt better.

"Okay."

Midori Chiba was unable to sit up. It felt like something was sitting on her, pinning her down. She didn't really believe in demons, but maybe this experience changed her mind. So, she prayed to her ancestors to help her free herself from whatever the fuck it was that was suffocating her.

"Hey Satoru… Can you feel it too?" She whispered.

"It's not on me, but I know it's here." His voice sounded like it was nearby.

She wiggled, she reached around and found something solid. It seemed like a loose piece of floorboard, or something, she didn't really care. Midori pulled with all of her strength. She was caught by a hand- it must have been Satoru's- that pulled her up, and out from under the creature.

She huffed a "Thanks", then tripped and fell on cloth that she didn't see there. She unwittingly had pulled open curtains that she didn't even realize were there. It was clear based on the position of the sun in the sky that it was around three o'clock in the afternoon. A dark figure scurried away.

They were both blinded by the light. Where the hell were they? They knew that they had been here before, but why were they here now?

And why was this room full of people?

Hell is other people, a line from a play echoed in her head.

"Ugh… What did I do last night?" Jeffery clutched his temples, gaining consciousness as the light flooded in.

"Whatever it was, I must have done it too." Liam Carmichael struggled to get up. The pain still radiated throughout his entire body. Wait, he just remembered- "Were we hit by a fucking car?"

"Not just any car. A sixteen-wheeler truck."

"Same difference." Liam's eyes finally adjusted to the light. Eight other people were sprawled across the floor of the room, and he recognized each and every one of them. They didn't look like they were doing well either.

Satoru and Midori caught his eyes, both looking like they'd seen a ghost.

"The Chiba siblings… What happened here?"

"Wish I could tell you…" Satoru visibly shuddered.

Their conversation woke Madoka Akabane up. She immediately shot up, sensing that danger had fled the room. Hikaru was crammed in a corner. The memory of that crow would not leave her mind. Was it just her imagination, or was it laughing at her? She went to poke her brother.

"Hey, Hikaru. Otouto, wake up."

Hikaru was slower to get up. He pushed her hand away. "I don't wanna get up. Five more minutes."

"You'll want to get up once you remember what happened to us."

The memories came flooding back to the red-haired boy. The tea that didn't taste right, the passing out, and the caws of the birds.

"Did Dad spike that tea and prank us?" His head was pounding at his sister helped him to stand up.

"Do you really think he'd do that?" Madoka coughed.

"Okay, maybe not to us." He admitted. "Maybe to Aunt and Uncle Shiota-"

"Shiota? That's my family!"

A voice from the dark corner spoke up. Kintaro Sugino stepped out of the shadows, his brother emerging seconds later.

"Oh, well… I know all of you…" Kintaro mumbled as he looked around the room, and took stock of who all these people were. "Wait, why is my family here?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Liam finally gained the strength to stand up.

Nobuhiko rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and gave another yawn. "So it happened to all of you too?"

"What? The showing up here with no memory or explanation of getting here?" Satoru said. "Yeah, that's what happened to us."

"And us." Jeffery chimed in.

"And us." Hikaru added.

"Well, there's one more pair that need to awake." Midori glanced over at the Aruta siblings, who were laying in the direct sunlight. "And I have a feeling that the same thing happened to them too.

Takahiro got up slowly, blinking to focus his eyesight. "Ah… Kinoko, are you there?"

"… Yeah." She was already sitting up. "And look at who else is here."

Takahiro turned on his other side, and adjusted to the shock much more quickly once he saw what Kinoko was talking about.

"Why are all of you guys here?"

"We don't know any more than you do." Madoka sighed.

The ten children stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

"So... What now?"

Just then, the door swung open.

"Aguri!" I got roared at my familiar voices as walked in the door. I was just sent in here during P.E. to return some of the equipment! No need to attack me. But I dropped the tug-or-war ropes I was holding when I saw who was in the shed with me.

"What! Kintaro, Satoru, Liam, Jeff, Midori, and- Everyone!? Why are you all here?"

"We could ask you that." A brown-haired boy picked up a baseball he found on the floor (Was it Nobuhiko Sugino?). "You got transported here too?"

"Yes, but why do you all look like you're fourteen? Satoru, you were twelve when I left. Nobuhiko was nine. And-" I turned to the pair in the corner with black and red hair, respectively. "Who are you guys!?"

"We're Madoka and Hikaru Akabane." The black-haired girl approached me. "I guess I look different?"

"You were seven and five when I last spoke to you." I brought my hand up to my mouth.

"Oh, I'm not offended. I'm just shocked. But that's not what I remember..." Madoka shuddered. "How old are you now?"

"Fifteen." I had gooseflesh.

Takahiro- Or who I assumed was Takahiro Aruta, he was ten when I left- held up his hands. "Alright, alright. We need to discuss this. First of all, where are we?"

"The storage shed. I'm returning P.E. equipment." I picked up the ropes and put then on their designated hooks.

"Is this where I think it is?" It had clearly dawned on him.

"If you think it's the assassination classroom, then yes." I shut the door tightly. "By the way, you all traveled back in time. It's 2015, Koro-sensei is still alive, and all of our folks are students here."

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds passed.

"WHAT!?"

"I know, I had trouble believing it myself. But look," I whipped out my phone and showed off a selfie I took with my 'classmates' in the background and Koro-sensei with his tentacle on my arm. He insisted that he be included too. It was dated two hours ago.

"So it's real. I don't know how this could be faked." The girl I had to assume was Kinoko Aruta was in shock.

"Of course it's real. When was the last time Aguri Shiota told a lie?" Kintaro defended me. His words made guilt bubble up inside me.

"Anyways. Long story short, Hotaru and I enrolled as students here, and I gotta get back to class before they come looking for me." I began to back toward the door. "Classes end in half an hour. Just- stay put, okay? It was hard enough coming up with a story to explain myself and my sister, your appearances are going to be even harder to explain." I was already halfway out the door when Uncle Isogai called for me.

"Fujihara? Are you alright in there?"

"Yes, I'm coming." I called back.

"Singular sister? Where's Fuji-san?" Kintaro looked hurt. "And why are they calling you-"

"I swear I will explain the full story thirty minutes from now, but no, she didn't come with us and we're going by fake names. Just please, I beg of you, stay put for thirty minutes."

I left and shut the door tightly, while chasing after my family-turned-classmates.

"Did you run into trouble in there?"

"I just couldn't figure out where to put the ropes. Anyway, class is about to start, so let's hurry. Or Koro-sensei might strangle us with tentacles like he did with Sugino today."

Author's notes:

1. Japan has all kinds of flavors of kit kats, I've even seen sake flavor. Yes, pudding kit kats are real, and they are amazing.

2. Butsudan: A Buddhist household altar. It can be dedicated to the Buddha or Bodhisattvas, but in this case it is to dead relatives. The canonical book Korotan D (you can find translations on tumblr) implies that Kayano is Buddhist, so I assumed she'd have one for her sister.