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3
.gitmodules vendored
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[submodule "quatalog"]
path = quatalog
url = https://github.com/quatalog/site
[submodule "gtrr"]
path = gtrr
url = https://github.com/artemislena/gtrr

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assets/css/style.css
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@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ body > div{
border-radius: 20px;
border-style: dashed;
color: #333;
font-family: monospace;
margin: auto;
max-width: 800px;
overflow: auto;

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gtrr Submodule

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Subproject commit 3154950fb53e92007f17367c0f522a03a7014ee4

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hibari/1.md
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# Chapter 1
Kousaku was always a fan of the winter. It usually didn't get too cold in Kyushu, but it was a lot more bearable than the rest of the year. He could wear heavier clothes, which he vastly preferred over more summery options, and would often just wander, enjoying the weather and the sights around town. This was especially the case during breaks, when he had little to do but sit around home and read manga or head to the new-ish arcade with Daisuke.
When the arcade was closed, he and Daisuke would sometimes go hang out at a favorite spot of theirs atop a hill near the school. It was a pretty nice view, and a quiet area. Occasionally they'd sit and play cards or something. Usually, however, they'd just sit, chat about girls, and, more often than not, make stupid bets.
"I'm tellin' ya, man. Nomura was flirting with me! I bet you 500 yen something'll happen with her in the first week we're back in school. She complimented my hair! I told ya that growing it out was the right call!"
This was one of those sometimes.
"I never said it wasn't," Kousaku sighed, "I just don't think it's why every girl you ask turns you down."
Daisuke turned to look at him. "The hell's that supposed to mean?", he asked.
"I'm just saying, maybe you shouldn't keep asking your crushes out a week after you notice them. Get to know one of them first or somethin'", Kousaku answered with a shrug.
Daisuke just stared at him. Then he laughed.
Kousaku frowned. "What?"
Daisuke stopped laughing, but kept grinning, "It's just... remember Hishikawa, from last year? You had the _biggest_ crush on her, and then you weren't even man enough to ask 'er out! And here you are, callin' me out for being, I'll admit, a bit of a skirt chaser, but you won't even give it a shot!"
That... that wasn't right! He's asked out plenty of girls. There was... uh...
Uh oh.
"W-well", Kousaku stammered, "unlike you, I don't find some constant need for a girlfriend, y'know? Sure, it would be nice, but..."
"...you're in no rush." Daisuke finished, a tone of exhaustion in his voice.
"Exactly! It's not like I've been chickening out or anything, I'm just being... uhh... decisive! You wanna be careful about this sorta thing, make sure she's the right girl, get a feel for whether you think she'll say yes, all that."
"..."
"..."
"...you're kidding me."
"...eh?"
".....anyways, did ya do the math assignment yet? I forgot to start it!"
* * *
By the time the Kousaku checked his watch and the two boys decided to head home, it had gotten quite dark outside. It wasn't particularly late, yet, but Kousaku's mom had told him to get back home early. Apparently, they were going to have a special guest coming tonight.
"I'm home!" he called out, closing the door behind him.
"Kousaku, come help me finish dinner! Our guest is set to arrive here within the half-hour and I need you to make the salad before he does."
"Okay, mom! Just let me put my stuff in my room real quick."
He yanked off his shoes and ran upstairs to his room, quickly pulling off his jacket and throwing it over his chair while grabbing the sweater he usually wore around the house off his bed. He took a quick glimpse at his mirror to make sure he was presentable, and then hurried back downstairs.
"Hi, mom." he finally said as he walked into the kitchen, kissing her on the cheek and hurriedly grabbing the ingredients for their usual salad, as well as a knife and cutting board, and getting to work. "Who is this guest, anyways?"
Harue Sakamoto was a tall, youthful woman with short, curly hair. Kousaku's father used to talk a lot about how it was what drew his attention when they met. She was dressed comfortably, but nicely, in a fairly typical day dress perfect for working at home. If one looked closely, they could see some faint, dark circles under her eyes from long days working on her next manuscript, but they didn't subtract from her generally welcoming expression and demeanor, nor from her subtle beauty.
"Hello, dear." she began, "We're not exactly being visited by a _guest_, per se. He's the son of an old friend of your father and myself, and he'll be staying with us for the foreseeable future. I'm not entirely clear on the details, myself, if I'm being perfectly honest. Ibari asked this of me on very short notice but it seemed rather urgent that he come stay with us... and all the way from Tokyo, too..."
_Tokyo?_, Kousaku thought, _That's a far place to suddenly move out here from. Oh! I need to grab a bowl for this..._
He turned around to head for the cabinet. "So, do you know anything about our new housemate, mom? Besides that he's the son of some friend of yours up in Tokyo."
"Well," she said, "his name's Hibari Oozora and he's in your year. He'll be going to your school while he's here, actually."
"Really?"
"Yes. You better be nice to him, Kousaku. God knows you need more friends than just Daisuke."
"Mom!"
"Anyways, go set the table. He should be here any minu-"
A loud knocking on the front door cut her off.
"Oh! That must be him!" Mom exclaimed. "Go get the door, I'll finish getting the food ready."
Kousaku quickly finished emptying the cut vegetables into the salad bowl, and walked over to the door. _I wonder what kinda guy Hibari will be?_ He unlocked it and turned the knob, pulling the door open.
His eyes were immediately drawn to the two strands of braided hair on the sides of her face. Each one had three red-orange beads, matching the distinctive color of the lipstick on her cute, pursed lips. Her long, dark eyelashes and brown eyes were about level to his and stood out against her bright, blond hair, the aforementioned braids reaching just past her _very_ visible ~~and attractive~~ collarbone. Her grey sweater swooped low, just wide enough to reveal a sliver of a black bra-strap, but high enough to cover any cleavage, and was tucked into her cream colored pants. They were cuffed on the bottom, exposing bright crimson socks that screamed for his attention.
She looked at him and smiled, and it took almost everything in Kousaku for his heart to not stop right then and there. He could _feel_ the flush creeping up his neck, especially when he noticed the slight blush on her cheeks. Was that part of her makeup?
"Hello." she said, "Is this the household of Harue Sakamoto? I was told this is her address. I just arrived by cab from the train station."
"Um. Uh. Umm-" he tried to form a coherent response, but his brain was too occupied with thoughts of _cute_ and _girl_. "Uhhh..."
She looked at him expectantly. Kousaku took a deep breath to collect himself.
"Sorry. Ah, yes, this is the Sakamoto household. I'm Kousaku, Harue's my mother. And you are?"
"Hibari Oozora, third daughter of Ibari Oozora."
_**This** is Hibari Oozora? But, she's supposed to be a guy!_
The sound of approaching footsteps came down the hall. "Hibari-kun, is that you?" Kousaku's mother called out. She turned the corner and saw the young woman standing just outside the door. "Oh! Sorry, I thought you were a guest we're expecting. Are you looking for a particular house on this block, miss?"
"Uh, mom?" Kousaku began, "That's Hibari Oozora."
The girl in question smiled at Mom. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Sakamoto. My father has spoken much about you."
His mother's surprise was contained entirely in her eyebrows. After a brief pause, she spoke. "Oh, hello, dear. I'm sorry we didn't know it was you. I suppose I may have misheard, but I could've sworn your father had said you were his son when I spoke with him..."
Kousaku wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but it seemed like the girl's smile was slightly more strained, if no less vibrant. She explained, "My father occasionally gets things like that mixed up. He's loath to admit it, but I think he's still a little bitter about having four daughters and no son." Her smile seemed to perk up a bit at the edges, as if she found something mildly amusing.
Mother smiled in kind. "Well, please do come in. I don't want to keep you out in the cold. Kousaku, help her with her bags, please." she said, turning back towards the kitchen.
Only then did Kousaku notice the guitar case she was holding. As if reading his mind, the girl spoke up, "It's a bass. I'll hold this, but I'd appreciate your help with my luggage." She pointed at the fairly large luggage behind her, then winked at him and walked into the house.
Once again, it took almost everything in Kousaku for his heart to not stop right then and there.

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# Chapter 2
"So... Tokyo, huh?"
"Yup!"
"That's, uh, a long distance to move on your own."
"It is."
"Especially in the middle of the school year..."
"Uh huh..."
"What's up with that?"
"I was also wondering that, Hibari. Your father only asked that I could let you say, but didn't seem to want to explain why. It's quite unusual of him, he's usually a rather direct man."
Instead of responding immediately, the girl reached over to grab the bowl of rice. She began to empty some of it into her own plate before replying. "Ibari felt I needed a change of scenery for my last year and a half of high school", she said, that same, slightly amused smirk lifting the corners of her mouth as she lowered the bowl, "in order to deal with my 'immature' behavior. Personally, I think he's being unreasonable, but I'd rather this than some of his other suggestions."
"Other suggestions?" Kousaku asked.
"Sending me to a boarding school, non-coed specifically. A few different ones came up, mostly up in Tohoku. Father hasn't been the biggest fan of some of my actions the last few years, so I guess he just wanted the problem out of the way for a while." She shrugged and continued eating.
Kousaku and Harue were both mildly unsettled by this information. Their new housemate seemed like a kind girl, but did they unknowingly agree to house a delinquent of some sort?
Kousaku's mother asked the obvious question, "If I may ask, Hibari, what behavior of yours did he have a problem with?"
The light smirk turned almost devilish, giving Kousaku confused chills. He didn't know how to feel about such a menacing expression on that ~~cute~~ face. "Oh, just the usual teenage girl behavior, I suppose. You know, teasing my sisters, drinking some of Ibari's liquor, threatening a yakuza member. Nothing major."
*Yakuza?*
"You're joking about the last one, right?"
Hibari giggled. "A little."
*?!?!?!*
"What do you mean, 'a little'?!"
The giggles turned into full-on laughter. "Oh, *that* one he actually had no problem with!" Her laughter calmed down mildly. "He had his own grudges with the guy, anyways." she noted with a shrug.
With.
A.
Shrug.
Whereas this unsettled Kousaku significantly, the elder Sakamoto's reaction was much more mild, bordering on annoyed. "I suppose you can only set expectations so high for the head of the Kantou Oozora Group." she sighed, "I had hoped that your father hadn't been getting you involved in any of that, Hibari. We've had our share of disagreements on some of his own decisions over the years."
Hibari's laughter died down fully, though her smile remained. "Ahh, what a rush." she sighed. "Just kidding! Ibari doesn't want me to be involved in business stuff, honestly. He's always afraid I'll make him look bad, so I'm left out of it usually. As for his real problem: he just doesn't like how I express myself. I'm in a rock band—or at least I was in Tokyo—and I don't always dress how wants me to. He says it's inappropriate for the role I was born in."
Kousaku took a moment to process the rapid whiplash of information. *So her dad's a yakuza boss, and mom knew that, but at least she isn't some kinda scary mob freak. If anything, she's kinda fun. It's nice.* The thought calmed him down somewhat.
His mother, on the other hand, seemed to only grow more upset. "That seems so unlike him. Sending off his own daughter like that..." She moved to get up. "Maybe I should call him and talk to hi—"
"No!" Hibari suddenly shouted, slamming her hands against the table and surprising both of them. She blushed slightly at their startled gazes. "Um, I'd rather not drag you into this, Mrs. Sakamoto. We've been having these disagreements since junior high school and they haven't exactly been productive. I'd prefer to just let things with Ibari rest for a little bit. I doubt it would make much of a difference anyways, unfortunately."
"I see." Harue seemed to think on this a moment, then sighed. "Well, I won't do anything you wouldn't want me to, then."
An awkward silence descended on the table after that, as the three of them continued their dinner. Hibari still seemed embarrassed about her outburst, while Kousaku was a bit too nervous to try to break it.
By the time Kousaku got the courage to actually speak, the three of them had almost finished their meal and the awkwardness was nearly suffocating.
"So... did you enjoy the food, Hibari?"
"Oh? Yes I did, actually. You made the salad, right? It was pretty good! Do you tend to help with the cooking, Kousaku?"
"I often do most of it, actually."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. Mom's an author and often works pretty late to make her deadlines. I started learning how to cook over the summer a couple years back and I've just been doing it a lot to make it easier on her."
"That's... actually really nice of you. I imagine you appreciate that a lot, Mrs. Sakamoto?"
Harue smiled. "Yes, it's been a big help these last few years. My workload in general has been a lot heavier and Kousaku has been stepping up a lot. He's truly been everything a mother could ask for."
Kousaku flushed at the praise. "Mom!" he whined.
His mother laughed. "Anyways, I take it you two are done eating at this point?"
"Yeah."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Alright, then. I'll handle the dishes tonight. Kousaku, you should go help Hibari get her things up to her room and figure out what you'll be doing the next few days."
"Alright. C'mon!"
* * *
The two teens walked back towards the front door of the house, where they had left Hibari's things before dinner.
She leaned to grab her luggage, rolling it towards the stairs with clear intent to carry it up."
"Hey, uh, wait a second!" He rushed to her side. "That bag was heavy just bringing it inside! You'll hurt yourself trying to drag it up there on your own. Let me help."
Hibari looked at him blankly, almost confused by the offer. "I appreciate the suggestion, but I really *can* deal with it just fine by myself—at least better than you were doing earlier."
Then she grabbed the handle, and effortlessly carried the bag to the top of the stairs.
With one hand.
One.
*What the hell.*
She turned around to face him and tilted her head quizzically. "What's the hold up? Bring up my bass for me, will you?" She began to move down the hall, then stopped and turned back around with a light blush staining her cheeks. She looked down at him, a *goddamn ~~insanely cute~~ expression* of mild embarrassment on her face as she did.
"Oh, uh, which room is the guest room?"
"...first door on the right. My room is the second one."
"Ah! C'mon, Kousaku!"
She left his line of sight from the bottom of the stairs, as Kousaku just stood there for a moment, taking the first moment he'd had all night to process what was happening.
One of the cutest girls he'd ever met was moving *into his house* for at least a few months, and he was being an absolute mess. He's blowing it. He's barely getting a single word out or... what was it he'd said to Daisuke earlier that day? Getting to know her? She seemed interesting as hell, between the band she mentioned and her dad being a *yakuza* of all things and her *joking* about it, and he's just been stuttering all night at every little thing she does. He's barely been managing to respond to her at all.
He hates that.
It's rude! It's lame! It's... unmanly! He can do better, and he will! Determined to get his shit together, Kousaku grabbed the guitar case and carefully carried it up to the guest room, now Hibari's room. The girl had set her luggage down and opened it against a wall and was at the moment just stretching out against the bed. Kousaku pointedly ignored the little bit of midriff revealed by her sweater creeping up as she did.
It was a lot harder to ignore the little moan she made while stretching. "Ungh! Ah, sorry! It's been a long trip here and I'm a little tired." The blond sat up and, upon seeing him, gave him a teasing smirk. "Enjoy the show?"
Kousaku managed to mostly keep his reaction in check, if not without a little nervous fidgeting. He was *not* going to answer that question, though. "I just, uh, brought up the guitar. Where should I put it?"
"Oh, hmm... I think that corner is probably best." she gestured towards the side of her bed opposite the nightstand. "It's designed to be able to stand, just put it with the flat part down." He did as she asked. "I'll just be in here emptying out my things for a while, Kousaku. I can take care of it myself, so don't feel any need to stay and help." She got up fully and walked over to her bag, getting on her knees and beginning to sort and take things out of it. Mostly clothes, Kousaku noticed.
"I was actually wondering if I could just stay in here and talk? I wasn't planning on doing much tonight anyways and it feels wrong to not, I dunno, help you get acclimated? School doesn't even start back up for a few days anyways... Oh! Would you like to go out with me?"
She jolted up in surprise and looked at him, eyes wide. It took a few seconds for Kousaku to realize his mistake. *Foot, meet mouth.*
"I-I-I just meant that I could show you around town! Tomorrow! Maybe meet a couple of my friends, that sorta thing. I was gonna see one of them tomorrow to start getting ready for classes, too, so we could help you catch up if you need it."
Her surprise faded as Kousaku explained himself, morphing into a teasing grin.
"O-only if you want to, of course, I just thought it would be nice." he finished, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"Oh, I would *love* to go out with you, Kousaku. Make sure to show me *all* your favorite make out spots." He could feel himself heating up. "Pff, you're bright red! Talk about pure-hearted. I'm just teasing you~"
She winked at him and turned back towards her luggage, continuing to unpack. "In all seriousness, that sounds good. You're also welcome to stay, though I get the feeling you might want to be careful about any talking."
He just grunted in response, not trusting his own voice, and sat down on the bed.
The two of them sat in silence for a while, Hibari occasionally getting up to put things in one of the drawers or hang some of her clothes. From what he could see, a lot of them seemed pretty cute. Of course, he still wondered how'd they look on her but he'd already gotten the sense that Hibari was good at coordinating outfits, if what she was wearing in the moment was any indicator.
"So, I've been meaning to ask, you're in a band?"
"Yep! Or at least I was. After I sang for the school cultural festival last year, Takanashi and Matsumoto—they're the other guitarists—thought up this whole plan where Matsumoto faked a broken arm *just* so they could rope me in. I figured it out pretty quickly, but then they asked me to join and, well, it was fun, so I said yes. They've honestly been my best friends the last few months, especially Takanashi..." she trailed off wistfully.
"At least you could always call them." Kousaku said.
"I suppose, but it wouldn't be quite the same. Father doesn't want me back in Tokyo any time soon, either, so it's not like I could just go for a visit and play with them. I'm just going to miss their antics, I guess."
"Antics?"
"Well, outside of how they got me to join, Takanashi and Matsumoto would constantly make schemes to try to get us gigs. So, Wakaba Academy, my old school, is *obsessed* with sports, right?"
"If you say so?"
"Yeah, so it's the start of the fall school term and Takanashi goes to the boxing club with a deal: let us play our music at your games and Hibari, as in, me, will fight in any game you want during the season."
"Why you?"
"Their manager has been trying to get me to join ever since I beat their star player—her now boyfriend, funnily enough—in a fight to make him stop flirting with me."
Kousaku would find that hard to believe if he hadn't already seen how strong she was.
"A lot of clubs wanted me for reasons like that. I threw a volleyball just a little too hard at the girl's team captain and next thing I knew she was trying to get me to join." She shrugs. "I had to keep telling her I wasn't planning on doing sports at the time and she wouldn't back off until I won a match against her."
*She's amazing...* Kousaku thought. "So, uh, what ended up happening with the boxing club?"
"Right. So, what Takanashi didn't realize is that the school boxing club isn't allowed to just have some band play their own music during their matches... so the scheme failed."
"Oh. That's... very anticlimactic."
"Indeed. Still, it was a lot of fun to be involved in stuff like that... I miss her a lot.... I miss all of them."
Kousaku didn't know how to respond to the sudden, melancholy shift in tone. He felt like he was intruding on something more personal than he meant to pry into. He was about to ask her if she was okay, but she spoke again instead.
"Sorry, it's just an adjustment, being here instead of there. Ibari deciding to send me here was sudden, to say the least."
Kousaku chose to stay silent at that admission, resisting the urge to pry. Why was such a major shift *sudden*? Was there a fight of some sort, bad enough that her father would send her away? Kousaku found himself wanting to know more, to understand exactly what led to this girl appearing in his life.
The two of them sat in silence for the next few minutes. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but Kousaku didn't find it quite as comfortable as he'd liked. It felt very awkward to just sit there without saying anything, especially without anything to do but stare at her. He felt weird about doing that.
To his fortune, Hibari finished unpacking pretty quickly, emptying out most of the luggage and only leaving in clothes that seemed a bit inappropriate for the weather. She stood up and stretched out yet again, then grabbed her sweater from the bottom and pulled it off, revealing a black tank top.
She turned her head to look at him, that teasing smile adorning her lips yet again. If she noticed he'd been staring at her shoulders, she didn't comment. "I think I'm going to have to kick you out for the night. I want to change and get ready for bed. As I said before, it's been a tiring day."
He nodded and got off the bed. "Okay. Uh, good night?"
"Good night."
Kousaku walked out of her room and into his own. A quick glance at his alarm clock indicated that it was getting quite late, though not as late as he often slept during breaks. He quickly changed into his pajamas, brushed his teeth in the bathroom, popped into his mothers room to wish her a good night, and ultimately decided to sit in bed and read for a little while.
About half an hour later, he heard a light knocking at his door.
"Come in?"
To his slight surprise, it was Hibari. She'd changed into her own pajamas—a white set with cute pink hearts all over— and had cleaned off her makeup... not that it made her any less pretty.
"I was just wondering when you're planning on heading out tomorrow." She rubbed her eyes, betraying her tiredness, and yawned. "I was about to go to bed when I realized I hadn't set my alarm yet."
"Well, I was supposed to meet Daisuke, the friend I mentioned, to study around... two o' clock? If I'm gonna show you around town beforehand, we're probably gonna want to leave around noon."
The girl nodded lightly, then moved to leave the room again. She smiled at him again, a softer, more fatigued smile that looked especially cute with the way her eyes lidded in weariness. She spoke, "Okay, then. See you in the morning, Kou-sa-ku~", and walked out.
"See you..." he said at the empty space she had occupied. He undeniably felt a little warmer than he had a few moments ago. A quick glance at his mirror confirmed his very visible flush.
Kousaku spent the next 15 minutes attempting to read, his thoughts wandering every few words or so. Eventually, he decided to turn out the lights and try to sleep.
It took a while for Kousaku to fall asleep that night, the blond on his thoughts as his dreams took him. He remembered absolutely none of his book.

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# What She Deserves
[ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/44676520)
[1](1)
[2](2)

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[equality](reads/equality)
[hibari](hibari)
[writes](writes)
[keeweb](keeweb)
[gttr](gttr)
[wealth](wealth)
[portal](aperturescience/portal)

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El knew this was a stupid waste of her hard-earned mana. Nearly two years of constant effort to fill up thirteen mana crystals just so she can keep some hope of graduating alive.
But now that she's given it some cold, hard, totally non-depressive thought, maybe it is worth it if it'll keep her going long enough to get there.
That is, if the stupid school would stop giving her books on plague magic.
---
If there was one thing that I hated more than the particularly headstrong and entitled breed of enclaver that seemed intent on making every miserable loser of a wizard in their immediate vicinity desire nothing more than to use every last bit of mana they'd stored to shut them up, it would be the friendly reminder of circumstances that at least one of them was in the same, gradually-teetering-towards-inevitable-capsize boat as me. Because then I’d have to take the effort to push down the urge to seethe at the mere state of their existence, and remind myself to be the better person and treat them like human beings.
Or something close enough to that that Mum would approve of my actions and, were I still a little kid, give me ice cream or something as a reward for good behavior.
And I say this all due to the wonderful fact that one Miranda from the Austin enclave took the time out of a very productive lunch, in which I was super busy talking to my myriad of social connections, to announce to every other sophomore that she was, in fact, Miranda from the Austin enclave and not whatever other name she'd had before. At which all the other enclavers made absolute sure to vocalize some gesture of support and acceptance while a good half of them poorly concealed the all-too-familiar grimace of discomfort they'd easily give me without a second thought.
This normally wouldn't bother me—not any more than it does on a typical day in the *sanctuary to all the wise-gifted children of the world*—but it just so happened that I had already been having a frustrating ~~week~~ ~~month~~ ~~year~~ existence. Which is why, after yelling into my pillow for about an hour after the start of curfew, I was sitting on the flimsy desk chair at the edge of my room, yelling at the delightful scenery of the void for fucking anything that would make the part of my brain that was increasingly crying bloody murder on the mere concept of also having a physical body of some sort shut the absolute hell up.
"You could at *least* give me something that'd let me do something *useful* for once! Instead of giving me crumbly scrolls to summon the armies of the undead, give me a *fucking* medical book!"
It threw an old, thick book of medical spells and potions written by a pair of French and Spanish healers back in the 1740s directly at my face in petty retaliation, knowing that I'd be sitting here for the remainder of the night translating every last page in hopes that I'd find something at least mildly useful. As well as making clear that it sees the most reasonable response to a student having a hard time to be to throw *more* academia at them. So of *course* it would be the Spanish version of the book that the school would throw at me, not the French that it knew I was more familiar with *because it's the school and could see how I was doing with each language*.
Regardless, I didn't expect much success out of my stupid idea to look for an alternative to a spell so expensive that even the most fortunate enclavers wouldn't blow their abundance of power-shared mana on while still inside this cylinder of misery. Not if they planned on getting out *alive*, after the other members of their enclave realize that over half the mana they'de painstakingly built for years was sucked up by the trans kid. If there were such an alternative, I was pretty sure one of Mum's circles would have managed it in the half-decade since I told her that being a guy just wasn't for me.
The especially fun thing about being trapped in the Scholomance smack in the middle of puberty by design, was that you therefore didn’t get to use any Mundane medications for anything, not unless you intended to use them in the brief window before they expired *and* blow a chunk of your weight allocation on at most half a year's supply in the process. If you could, more students would at least be bringing some cold medicine for when they inevitably get a nasty one right before an exam—speaking from experience—and I would have probably brought some of what I wished I had right now.
I had few doubts that, had she tried to, Mum could have easily gotten it anyways. Given her luck, she'd decide she wanted to do so and bump into some fancy doctor who'd be all too willing to give her anything she asked for, in exchange for a few meditation sessions and a chance to face his conscience over some medical error he made a decade prior. Considering the odds of us getting even remotely as much mana as we'd need for me to magically transition, something along those lines was the plan even before I ended up here.
Unfortunately, I had increasingly strong doubts about getting to the point where a plan like that would be reasonable. Instead, I was still awake far later than was advisable, trying to figure out if I could do something monumentally stupid without screwing myself over.
I was at least lucky enough that the text had a—mildly singed and faded and only partially readable—table of contents in the front, so any other healer smack in the middle of some medical emergency could potentially figure out what to do in the nick of time to stop someone from dying of dysentery. Or whatever health problems were common to mid-18th century wizards.
Unfortunately, the authors also decided it would be useful to throw in information about a wide variety of spells that would *cause* a significant portion of the ailments their text provided solutions for, presumably so others could verify that their cures worked in a controlled environment or something. At least, that's what I gathered from the slightly out-of-date Spanish prose.
Which probably explained why the Scholomance even decided to give me a potentially useful book so quickly: because these idiots spent a good seven pages going over every way the bubonic plague had been inflicted by some dickhead wizard who was angry at his neighbor or something, and the minor ways the passage of time and variations in translation made the spell incantations increasingly deadly and destructive. And then they spent two pages on some incredibly long spell that would cleanse one whole person of the most common variants of the plague, before jumping into another half dozen pages on smallpox.
Which I guess would be useful if I ever decided to attempt to give my enemies a slow and painful death via infectious diseases they were probably immune to. Now that I thought about it, time had probably made those into some of the *least* deadly spells the school had given me. Hurrah for modern medicine, I suppose.
After some continued searching, I found a spell of immediate notice: a Farsi translation of an old Scythian alchemical recipe to synthesize conjugated estrogens out of, among other things, equine urine. Which, if you hadn't noticed, was neither within my affinity for magic nor comprised of resources one might have easy access to in the Scholomance. Furthermore, I didn't *know* Farsi. And, with it being a relatively uncommon language for spell distribution, I certainly didn't personally know any students I could ask for help. Assuming they'd even give me the chance to ask them for it.
So, I took note of the page in my notebook and continued searching the tome for anything else that might possibly allow me to do anything about the lump of meat known as the Body of El Higgins. Which I continued to do for about 40 minutes before coming across, to my luck, a seemingly useful spell in French, about half a page long, noted in the text for alternating hormone production on a group of people—with a particular focus on its uses for treating sex-based diseases in individuals. According to the Spanish description, the spell was used by a group of healers on both themselves and a patient, and they would then isolate themselves from the patient and recast the spell to undo possible side effects. It was tradeoff to make what would typically be an even more mana-intensive spell considerably less so: potential risks to the casters and their surroundings.
It took me a moment to fully process the consequences of this spell, and why the school may have placed given to me, before I realized. "You gave me a forced transition spell because you knew it would count as 'destructive' enough, didn't you." I deadpanned at the void across my desk. It didn't respond.
Considering I had no other choices due to my affinity for mass destruction, the following evening had me searching for as isolated of a lab room as I could possibly find—one as far down and centered as humanly possible, so to avoid any chance of hitting students up above in their rooms—and preparing to cast an unreasonably cheap transition spell that might accidentally give every cis person in the school dysphoria. And, because of how hormones work, I wouldn't know if anyone had been affected for a *while*. Which was just great. I certainly didn't notice any immediate effect when I cast it on me, that's for sure.
I honestly didn't really *mind* my body *too* much before I actually went ahead with the incantation. I had no issue being tall, I looked feminine enough that many didn't even realize what I am, and I was rather happy about the hints of muscle that daily mana-building exercise had given me over time. I just knew that it was starting to focus on *changing* in ways I was most definitely *not* looking forward to.
So I took *extra* care to make sure I was casting this right and with ideally minimal damage (which is incredibly hard if you're me) and, when I was done, I was pleased to see it had barely even touched my personal mana store, let alone affecting Mum's crystals. I got what I wanted, and I didn't even have to *think* about cheating.
Now hopefully nobody else got caught in the crossfire.

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### Chapter Text
Kousaku has always been a fan of the winter. It usually doesn't get too cold in Kyushu, but it's a lot more bearable than the rest of the year. He can wear heavier clothes, which he vastly prefers over more summery options, and often just wanders, enjoying the weather and the sights around town. This is especially the case during breaks, when he has little to do but sit around home and read manga or, if the two of them are particularly bored, head to the new-ish arcade with Daisuke.
When the arcade is closed, he and Daisuke sometimes go hang out at a favorite spot of theirs atop a hill near the school. It has a pretty nice view, and serves as a quiet area for the two of the,. Occasionally they'll sit and play cards or something. Usually, however, they just sit, chat about girls, and, more often than not, make stupid bets.
"I'm tellin' ya, man. Nomura was flirting with me! I bet you 500 yen something'll happen with her in the first week we're back in school. She complimented my hair! I told ya that growing it out was the right call!"
This is one of those sometimes.
"I never said it wasn't," Kousaku sighs, "I just don't think it's why every girl you ask turns you down."
Daisuke turns to look at him, brow furrowing in confusion. "The hell's that supposed to mean?", he asks.
"I'm just saying, maybe you shouldn't keep asking your crushes out a week after you notice them. Get to know one of them first or somethin'", Kousaku answers with a shrug.
Daisuke just stares at him. Then he breaks into a laugh.
Kousaku frowns at the sudden outburst. "What?"
Daisuke stops laughing, but continues grinning, "It's just... remember Hishikawa, from last year? You had the _biggest_ crush on her, and then you weren't even man enough to ask 'er out! And here you are, callin' me out for being, I'll admit, a bit of a skirt chaser, but you won't even give it a shot!"
That... that wasn't right! He's asked out plenty of girls. There was... uh...
Uh oh.
"W-well", Kousaku stammers, "unlike you, I don't find some constant need for a girlfriend, y'know? Sure, it would be nice, but..."
"...you're in no rush." Daisuke finishes, a tone of exhaustion in his voice.
"Exactly! It's not like I've been chickening out or anything, I'm just being... uhh... decisive! You wanna be careful about this sorta thing, make sure she's the right girl, get a feel for whether you think she'll say yes, all that."
"..."
"..."
"...you're kidding me."
"...eh?"
".....anyways, did ya do the math assignment yet? I forgot to start it!"
* * *
By the time the Kousaku checks his watch and the two boys decide to head home, it's already quite dark outside. It isn't particularly late, yet, but Kousaku's mom had told him to get back home early. Apparently, they're going to have a special guest coming tonight.
"I'm home!" he calls out, closing the door behind him.
"Kousaku, come help me finish dinner! Our guest is set to arrive here within the half-hour and I need you to make the salad before he does."
"Okay, mom! Just let me put my stuff in my room real quick."
He yanks off his shoes and runs upstairs to his room, quickly pulling off his jacket and throwing it over his chair while grabbing the sweater he usually wears around the house off his bed. He takes a quick glimpse at his mirror to make sure he looks presentable, and then hurries back downstairs.
"Hi, mom." he finally says as he enters the kitchen, kissing her on the cheek and hurriedly grabbing the ingredients for their usual salad, as well as a knife and cutting board, and getting to work. "Who is this guest, anyways?"
Harue Sakamoto is a tall, youthful woman with short, curly hair. Kousaku's father used to talk a lot about how it was what drew his attention when they met. She was dressed comfortably, but nicely, in a fairly typical day dress perfect for working at home. If one looked closely, they could see some faint, dark circles under her eyes from long days working on her next manuscript, but they didn't subtract from her generally welcoming expression and demeanor, nor from her subtle beauty.
"Hello, dear." she begins, "We're not exactly being visited by a _guest_, per se. He's the son of an old friend of your father and myself, and he'll be staying with us for the foreseeable future. I'm not entirely clear on the details, myself, if I'm being perfectly honest. Ibari asked this of me on very short notice but it seemed rather urgent that he come stay with us... and all the way from Tokyo, too..."
_Tokyo? That's a far place to suddenly move out here from. Oh! I need to grab a bowl for this..._
He turns around to head for the cabinet, reaching for the items in question. "So, do you know anything about our new housemate, mom? Besides that he's the son of some friend of yours up in Tokyo."
"Well," she says, "his name's Hibari Oozora and he's in your year. He'll be going to your school while he's here, actually."
"Really?"
"Yes. You better be nice to him, Kousaku. God knows you need more friends than just Daisuke."
"Mom!"
"Anyways, go set the table. He should be here any minu-"
A loud knocking on the front door cuts her off.
"Oh! That must be him!" Mom exclaims. "Go get the door, I'll finish getting the food ready."
Kousaku quickly finishes emptying the cut vegetables into the salad bowl, and walked over to the door. _I wonder what kinda guy Hibari will be?_ He unlocks it and turns the knob, pulling the door open.
His eyes are immediately drawn to the two strands of braided hair on the sides of her face. Each one had three red-orange beads, matching the distinctive color of the lipstick on her cute, pursed lips. Her long, dark eyelashes and brown eyes sat about level to his own and stood out against her bright, blond hair, the aforementioned braids reaching just past her _very_ visible ~~and attractive~~ collarbone. Her grey sweater swooped low, just wide enough to reveal a sliver of a black bra-strap, but high enough to cover any cleavage, and was tucked into her cream colored pants. They were cuffed on the bottom, exposing bright crimson socks that screamed for his attention.
She *looks* at him and smiles, almost bright as the sun, and it takes nearly everything in Kousaku for his heart to not stop right then and there. He can _feel_ the flush creeping up his neck, especially when he noticed the slight blush on her cheeks. Was that part of her makeup? *How is she so pretty?*
"Hello." she says, "Is this the household of Harue Sakamoto? I was told this is her address. I just arrived by cab from the train station."
"Um. Uh. Umm-" he tries to form a coherent response, but his brain has slowed to a halt, too occupied with thoughts of _cute_ and _girl_. "Uhhh..."
She eyes him expectantly, waiting. Kousaku takes a deep breath to collect himself.
"Sorry. Ah, yes, this is the Sakamoto household. I'm Kousaku, Harue's my mother. And you are?"
"Hibari Oozora, third daughter of Ibari Oozora."
_**This** is Hibari Oozora? But, she's supposed to be a guy!_
The sound of approaching footsteps echoes down the hall. "Hibari-kun, is that you?" Kousaku's mother called out. She turns the corner and sees the young woman standing just outside the door. "Oh! Sorry, I thought you were a guest we're expecting. Are you looking for a particular house on this block, miss?"
"Uh, mom? *She's* Hibari Oozora."
The girl in question smiles at the older woman and bows. "It is nice to meet you, Mrs. Sakamoto. My father has spoken much about you."
His mother's contains her surprise entirely between her eyebrows. After a brief pause, she speaks. "Oh, hello, dear. I'm sorry we didn't know it was you. I suppose I may have misheard, but I could've sworn your father had said you were his son when I spoke with him..."
Kousaku's unsure whether he's seeing things, but the girl's smile seemingly turns more strained, though no less vibrant. She explains, "My father occasionally gets things like that mixed up. He's loath to admit it, but I think he's still a little bitter about having four daughters and no son." Her smile perks up a bit at the edges, as if she just said some strange joke.
His mother smiles in kind. "Well, please do come in. I don't want to keep you out in the cold. Kousaku, help her with her bags, please." she said, turning back towards the kitchen.
Only then does Kousaku notice the guitar case she's holding. As if reading his mind, the girl speaks up, "It's a bass. I'll hold this, but I'd appreciate your help with my luggage." She points at the fairly large luggage behind her, then winks at him and walks into the house.
Once again, it takes almost everything in Kousaku for his heart to not stop right then and there.

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"So... Tokyo, huh?"
"Yup!"
"That's, uh, a long distance to move on your own."
"It is."
"Especially in the middle of the school year..."
"Uh huh..."
"What's up with that?"
"I was also wondering that, Hibari. Your father only asked that I could let you say, but didn't seem to want to explain why. It's quite unusual of him, he's usually a rather direct man."
Instead of responding immediately, the girl reaches over to grab the bowl of rice and begins to empty some of it into her own plate before replying. "Ibari felt I needed a change of scenery for my last year and a half of high school." she says, that same, slightly amused smirk lifting the corners of her mouth as she lowers the bowl, "It's in order to deal with what he deems as 'immature' behavior. Personally, I think he's being unreasonable, but I'd rather this than some of his other suggestions."
"Other suggestions?" Kousaku asks.
"Sending me to a boarding school, non-coed specifically. A few different ones came up, mostly up in Tohoku. Father hasn't been the biggest fan of some of my actions the last few years, so I guess he just wanted the problem out of the way for a while." She shrugs and continues eating.
Kousaku and Harue were both mildly unsettled by this information. Their new housemate seems like a kind girl, but have they unknowingly agreed to house a delinquent of some sort?
Kousaku's mother asks the obvious question, "If I may ask, Hibari, what behavior of yours did he have a problem with?"
The light smirk morphs into something almost devilish, giving Kousaku some very confused chills. He has no idea how to feel about such a menacing expression on that ~~cute~~ face. "Oh, just the usual teenage girl behavior, I suppose. You know, teasing my sisters, drinking some of Ibari's liquor, threatening a yakuza member. Nothing major."
_Yakuza?_
"You're joking about the last one, right?"
Hibari giggles. "A little."
_?!?!?!_
"What do you mean, 'a little'?!"
The giggles turn into a full-on cackle. "Oh, _that_ one he actually had no problem with!" Her laughter calms down mildly. "He had his own grudges with the guy, anyways." she notes with a shrug.
With.
A.
Shrug.
Whereas this unsettles him significantly, his mom's reaction is much more mild, bordering on annoyed. She shakes her head and sighs. "I suppose you can only set expectations so high for the head of the Kantou Oozora Group. I had hoped that your father wouldn't get you involved in any of that, Hibari. You or your siblings, for that matter. We've had our share of disagreements on some of his own decisions over the years."
Hibari's laughter dies down fully, though her smile remains. "Ahh, what a rush." she sighed. "Just kidding! Don't worry, Mrs. Sakamoto, Ibari doesn't want me to be involved in business stuff, anyways. He's always afraid I'll make him *look bad*, so I'm left out of it usually. As for his real problem: he just doesn't like how I express myself. I'm in a rock band—or at least I was in Tokyo—and I don't always dress how wants me to. He says it's inappropriate for the role I was born in."
Kousaku takes a moment to process the rapid whiplash of information. _So her dad's a yakuza boss, and mom knew that, but at least she isn't some kinda scary mob freak. If anything, she's kinda fun. It's nice._ The thought was somewhat relieving.
His mother, on the other hand, had only seemed to only grow more upset as the girl spoke. "That seems so unlike him. Sending off his own daughter like that..." She moves to get up. "Maybe I should call him and talk to hi—"
"No!" Hibari suddenly shouts, slamming her hands against the table and surprising both of them. She blushes slightly at their startled gazes. "Um, I'd rather not drag you into this, Mrs. Sakamoto. We've been having these disagreements since junior high school and they haven't exactly been productive. I'd prefer to just let things with Ibari rest for a little bit. I doubt it would make much of a difference anyways, unfortunately."
"I see." Harue seems to think on this a moment, then sighs. "Well, I won't do anything you wouldn't want me to, then."
An awkward silence descends on the table after that, as the three of them continue their dinner. Kousaku continues breaking the silence a few times, but between Hibari's still evident embarrassment and his own nervousness, he hesitates.
By the time Kousaku actually *does* get the courage to speak, the three of them have almost finished their meal and the awkwardness has become nearly suffocating.
"So... did you enjoy the food, Hibari?" he breathes out, barely avoiding a stutter.
"Oh? Yes I did, actually. You made the salad, right? It was pretty good! Do you tend to help with the cooking, Kousaku?"
"I often do most of it, actually."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. Mom's an author and often works pretty late to make her deadlines. I started learning how to cook over the summer a couple years back and I've just been doing it a lot to make it easier on her."
"That's... actually really nice of you. I imagine you appreciate that a lot, Mrs. Sakamoto?"
Harue smiled. "Yes, it's been a big help these last few years. My workload in general has been a lot heavier and Kousaku has been stepping up a lot. He's truly been everything a mother could ask for."
Kousaku flushes at the praise. "Mom!" he whined.
His mother laughs. "Anyways, I take it you two are done eating at this point?"
"Yeah."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Alright, then. I'll handle the dishes tonight, Kousaku. Instead, you should go help Hibari get her things up to her room and figure out what you'll be doing the next few days."
"Ah, alright. C'mon, then."
* * *
The two teens walk back towards the front door of the house, where they had left Hibari's things before dinner.
She leans down to grab her luggage, rolling it towards the stairs with clear intent to carry it up.
"Hey, uh, wait a second!" He rushes to her side. "That bag was heavy just bringing it inside! You'll hurt yourself trying to drag it up there on your own. Let me help."
Hibari stares at him blankly, almost confused by the offer. "I appreciate the suggestion, but I really _can_ deal with it just fine by myself—at least better than you were doing earlier."
Then she grabs the handle and effortlessly carries the bag to the top of the stairs.
With one hand.
One.
_What the hell._
She turns around to face him and tilts her head quizzically. "What's the hold up? Bring up my bass for me, will you?" She begins to move down the hall, then stops and turns back around with a light blush staining her cheeks. She looks down at him, a _goddamn ~~insanely cute~~ expression_ of mild embarrassment on her face as she does.
"Oh, uh, which room is the guest room?"
"...first door on the right. My room is the second one."
"Ah! C'mon, Kousaku!"
She leaves his line of sight from the bottom of the stairs, and Kousaku just stands there for a moment, taking the first moment he's had all night to process what was happening.
One of the cutest girls he's ever met is moving _into his house_ for at least a few months, and he's just being a complete and utter mess. He's blowing it. He's barely getting a single word out or... what was it he'd said to Daisuke earlier that day? Getting to know her? She seems interesting as hell, too. Between the band she mentioned and her dad being a _yakuza_ of all things and her _joking_ about it, he's finding himself *wanting* to know her. And instead he's just been stuttering all night at every little thing she does. He's barely been managing to respond to her at all.
He hates that.
It's rude! It's lame! It's... unmanly! He can do better, and he will! Determined to get his shit together, Kousaku grabs the guitar case and carefully carries it up to the guest room, now Hibari's room. The girl had set her luggage down and opened it against a wall and was at the moment just stretching out against the bed. Kousaku pointedly ignores the little bit of midriff revealed by her sweater creeping up as she does so.
It's substantially harder to ignore the little moan she makes while stretching. "Ungh! Ah, sorry! It's been a long trip here and I'm a little tired." The blond sits up and, upon seeing him, gives him a teasing smirk. "Enjoy the show?"
Kousaku manages to mostly keep his reaction in check, if not without a little nervous fidgeting and a cough. He is _not_ going to answer that question, though. "I just, uh, brought up the guitar. Where should I put it?"
"Oh, hmm... I think that corner is probably best." she gestures towards the side of her bed opposite the nightstand. "It's designed to be able to stand, just put it with the flat part down." He does as she tells him. "I'll just be in here emptying out my things for a while, Kousaku. I can take care of it myself, so don't feel any need to stay and help." She gets up fully and walks over to her bag, getting on her knees and beginning to sort and take things out of it. Mostly clothes, Kousaku notices.
"I was actually wondering if I could just stay in here and talk? I wasn't planning on doing much tonight anyways and it feels wrong to not, I dunno, help you get acclimated? School doesn't even start back up for a few days anyways... Oh! Would you like to go out with me?"
She jolts up in surprise and looks at him, eyes wide. It takes a few seconds for Kousaku to realize his mistake. _Foot, meet mouth._
"I-I-I just meant that I could show you around town! Tomorrow! Maybe meet a couple of my friends, that sorta thing. I was gonna see one of them tomorrow to start getting ready for classes, too, so we could help you catch up if you need it."
Her surprise fades as Kousaku explained himself, morphing into a teasing grin.
"O-only if you want to, of course, I just thought it would be nice." he finished, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"Oh, I would _love_ to go out with you, Kousaku. Make sure to show me _all_ your favorite make out spots." He could feel himself heating up. "Pff, you're bright red! Talk about pure-hearted. Don't worry! I'm just teasing you~"
She winks at him and turns back towards her luggage, continuing to unpack. "In all seriousness, that sounds good. You're also welcome to stay, though I get the feeling you might want to be careful about any talking."
He just grunts in response, not trusting his own voice, and sat down on the bed.
The two of them sit in silence for a while, Hibari occasionally getting up to put things in one of the drawers or hang some of her clothes. From what he can see, a lot of them seem pretty cute. Of course, he still wonders how they'll look on her but he's already gotten the sense that Hibari was good at coordinating outfits. If what she was wearing in the moment was any indicator, she's a rather fashionable girl. Definitely out of his league.
*Goddammit, Kousaku! Stop thinking about your new friend being attractive!*
"So, I've been meaning to ask, you're in a band?"
"Yep! Or at least I was. After I sang for the school cultural festival last year, Takanashi and Matsumoto—they're the other guitarists—thought up this whole plan where Matsumoto faked a broken arm _just_ so they could rope me in. I figured it out pretty quickly, but then they asked me to join and, well, it was fun, so I said yes. They've honestly been my best friends the last few months, especially Takanashi..." she trails off wistfully.
"At least you could always call them." Kousaku said.
"I suppose, but it wouldn't be quite the same. Father doesn't want me back in Tokyo any time soon, either, so it's not like I could just go for a visit and play with them. I'm just going to miss their antics, I guess."
"Antics?"
"Well, outside of how they got me to join, Takanashi and Matsumoto would constantly make schemes to try to get us gigs. So, Wakaba Academy, my old school, is _obsessed_ with sports, right?"
"If you say so?"
"Yeah, so it's the start of the fall school term and Takanashi goes to the boxing club with a deal: let us play our music at your games and Hibari, as in, me, will fight in any game you want during the season."
"Why you?"
"Their manager has been trying to get me to join ever since I beat their star player—her now boyfriend, funnily enough—in a fight to make him stop flirting with me."
Kousaku would find that hard to believe if he hadn't already seen how strong she was.
"A lot of clubs wanted me for reasons like that. I threw a volleyball just a little too hard at the girl's team captain and next thing I knew she was trying to get me to join." She shrugs. "I had to keep telling her I wasn't planning on doing sports at the time and she wouldn't back off until I won a match against her."
_She's amazing..._ Kousaku thinks. "So, uh, what ended up happening with the boxing club?"
"Right. So, what Takanashi didn't realize is that the school boxing club isn't allowed to just have some band play their own music during their matches... so the scheme failed."
"Oh. That's... very anticlimactic."
"Indeed. Still, it was a lot of fun to be involved in stuff like that... I miss her a lot.... I miss all of them."
Kousaku finds himself unsure how to respond to the sudden, melancholy shift in tone. It feels like he's intruding on something more personal than he meant to pry into, and that's the last thing he wants to do. He's about to ask her if she's okay, but she speaks again before he does.
"Sorry, it's just... it's an adjustment, being here instead of there. Ibari deciding to send me here was sudden, to say the least."
Kousaku chooses to stay silent at that admission, steadfastly resisting any urge to pry. Still, he can't help but wonder. Why was such a major shift _sudden_? Was there a fight of some sort, bad enough that her father would send her away?
He wants to know more. He wants to understand exactly what led to this girl appearing in his life.
The two of them sit in silence for the next few minutes. It's not exactly uncomfortable, but Kousaku doesn't find it quite as comfortable as he likes. It feels very awkward to just sit there without saying anything, especially without anything to do but stare at her. He feels even weirder about the thought of doing that.
To his fortune, Hibari finishes unpacking pretty quickly, emptying out most of the luggage and only leaving in clothes that seemed a bit inappropriate for the weather. She stands up and stretches out yet again, then grabs her sweater from the bottom and pulls it off, revealing a black tank top.
She turns her head to look at him, that teasing smile adorning her lips yet again. If she notices he's been staring at her shoulders, she doesn't comment. "I think I'm going to have to kick you out for the night. I want to change and get ready for bed. As I said before, it's been a tiring day."
He nodes and gets off the bed. "Okay. Uh, good night?"
"Good night."
Kousaku walks out of her room and into his own. A quick glance at his alarm clock indicates that it's getting quite late, though not as late as he often sleeps during breaks. He quickly changes into his pajamas, brushes his teeth in the bathroom, pops into his mothers room to wish her a good night, and ultimately decides to sit in bed and read for a little while.
About half an hour later, he hears a light knocking at his door.
"Come in?"
To his slight surprise, it's Hibari. She'd changed into her own pajamas—a white set with cute pink hearts all over— and had cleaned off her makeup... not that it made her any less pretty.
"I was just wondering when you're planning on heading out tomorrow." She rubs her eyes, betraying her tiredness, and yawns. "I was about to go to bed when I realized I hadn't set my alarm yet."
"Well, I was supposed to meet Daisuke, the friend I mentioned, to study around... two o' clock? If I'm gonna show you around town beforehand, we're probably gonna want to leave around noon."
The girl nods lightly, then moves to leave the room again. She smiles at him again, this one being a softer, more fatigued smile that looks especially cute with the way her eyes lid in weariness. She speaks, "Okay, then. See you in the morning, Kou-sa-ku~", and walks out.
"See you..." he says at the empty space she had occupied. He undeniably *feels* a little warmer than he had a few moments ago. A quick glance at his mirror confirmed his very visible flush.
Kousaku spends the next 15 minutes attempting to read, his thoughts wandering every few words or so. Eventually, he decides to turn out the lights and try to sleep.
It takes a while for Kousaku to fall asleep that night, the blond on his thoughts as his dreams takes him. He remembers absolutely none of his book.

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Waking up to a blaring, unfamiliar noise is a miserable experience. It's disorienting and annoying, especially when soon after you remember *why* it's unfamiliar. Especially when you find yourself awake enough to remember it's the alarm of some stranger's guest room. Especially when you remember why you're here, after a really good couple weeks had turned into a waking nightmare made only mildly better by its suspension. Especially when you know it's bound to come back.
This is partially why, on this particular morning, Hibari was *not* having any fun at all.
The girl snoozes the alarm and lays back down, staring at the ceiling, watching the way the light from the window behind her lit up the drywall above. She just lays there for a bit, unblinking. Was it for a few minutes? Ten? More? Doesn't really matter to her, right now.
The alarm goes off again, startling her back to reality. She closes her eyes, tries to rub the tiredness out, and takes a deep breath. Then she pushes herself up and off the bed—*her* bed, now—and turns it off.
She walks over to her luggage, still open against the wall from her unpacking the night prior, opens up the small internal pocket, and pulls out what she is looking for. Then, taking a glance at the door to make sure nobody can see, opens it, grabbing what she needs, and puts it back. She carefully tiptoes to her nightstand and takes a big gulp out of her glass of water. She swallows.
On the bright side, the satisfaction of getting what she wanted in the end almost numbs all the pain.
She stretches, arms up over her head, standing on her tiptoes in a streamline position, one hand grasping the other. She groans at the relief, listening carefully to the sound of her own voice. Perfect.
She lets herself smile. *I can manage this.*
Her arms fall to her side, and she rocks them back and forth a bit as she sways from the balls of her feet to her toes and back. She grabs the sweater and jeans she'd set aside the night prior—a comfortable, favorite outfit of hers that she'd laid on the desk in the corner of the room—and finally makes for the door. She exits and crosses the hall towards the bathroom, reaching for the doorknob only to be surprised by the door bursting open.
It's Kousaku, with only a towel around his waist, who, upon realizing the situation, turns an increasingly familiar shade of pink.
"Oh, uh, g-good morning," he stutters out. "I just finished showering and, uh... sorry."
"Sorry?"
"I-I mean, I just imagine you don't really want to see some guy you just met half naked," he says, pulling his towel up and tightening it a bit. He shuffles a little, seeming almost nervous to Hibari.
"It's not a big deal."
The shuffling stops for moment, before returning with an increased anxiety. "Still, I'll just... go change... now," he says. "Yeah, um, f-feel free to take your time getting ready." He rushes back to his room and closes the door, leaving Hibari still in the hall.
*He is... impressively transparent.*
She enters the bathroom and sets her clothes on the countertop, in the small gap between the sink and wall. Hibari washes her face, keeping her gaze fixed downward, then pulls off her current clothes and stows them on the opposite side. She resists the urge to take a look at her own reflection in the mirror and instead turns the shower up hot, and steps in.
---
It's over half past eleven when she walks into the kitchen, backpack in tow, greeted by the sight of a tired-looking Kousaku sitting at the table with two plates: one empty, save for a bunch of crumbs, and one with what she guesses is her own serving. He gestures at the full plate, "I, uh, made breakfast. Pretty light, just an egg sandwich with some hash, but we'll probably get lunch somewhere in town today, anyways."
She follows his prompting and sits down. She thanks him for the food, and makes quick work of it. It was basic, yes, but still good. *Might be fun to start cooking again myself.*
"So, getting lunch together? Mighty romantic, I'd say. What else is in your plan for our little... *date*, Kousaku?"
She can *see* him get pulled awake by the tease, eyes widening in shock, familiar blush on his cheeks. *Wow, he's incredibly easy.*
Hibari's no stranger to the effect she has on people, especially when they find her attractive. She's had half the boys (and girls) at Wakaba ask her out at some point or another, so it's hard to not notice it. Not that she minds the attention, of course; she draws it in on purpose. But it *does* mean she can easily see all the familiar little tics in his behavior that she's seen dozens of times before.
Kousaku sputters together a response. "I told you! I just misspoke!" he begins. "I swear, I'm not that kinda guy. I just... wanna get to know you, as friends, ya know?"
He's somehow more obvious than most she's seen, but there's undeniably something cute in his earnestness, at least. Something appealing. Whatever it is, it definitely doesn't subtract from the fun.
She gives him a sly grin. "Oh, of *course*. Still, it's a mighty shame... not very nice of you to get a girl's hopes up."
"I'm telling you, I'm not!" he exclaims. "Seriously, stop acting like I've got some gross motive to want to be friends with you! I just want to show you some places I go to hang out and where the school is, that's *it*. Then we go to Daisuke's place, okay?"
She grimaces a little. *Ah, I might have pushed him too far.*
"Sorry, I was just having fun. I don't mean anything mean by it, promise," she says, smiling apologetically at the end. "And, yes, that sounds okay."
Kousaku sighs in response. "Good. Just... stop pushing like that... please. I don't like being treated like that," he grumbles.
"Right. Sorry."
"We should, um, get going, anyways. It's already almost twelve." He points at the clock on the microwave, then stands up and grabs a knapsack from the counter. "We're going to head over to the library first so I can return a couple books, then I'll show you the way to school, I guess."
Hibari nods and stands as well. "That sounds good. What are you returning?"
"A recipe book I got and a fantasy novel I read over break. It's called, uh, *Count of Black Shadows*, I think."
"Fancy name."
"Yeah, though I doubt you'll be surprised that there was some creepy count guy in it. Had some pretty cool art of him and this princess character in the book. I wonder if there's going to be a sequel or something..." Kousaku trails off, shrugging.
The two of them pull on their shoes by the house entrance and open the door. Kousaku yells out "Bye, mom!" as they exit, to no discernible response.
"...No clue if she heard me or not..."
Hibari giggles. "So, you read a lot?" she asks.
"A bit, though mostly manga. When I do read novels, it's mostly fantasy or... um..."
She gives him a questioning look. "Um?"
"...romance..." he answers with a blush and a nervous glance.
She can't suppress a smile at his admission. "Hey, that's fine! I have a bit of a soft spot for particularly sappy romance novels myself."
"Yeah, but you're a girl. That's, like, pretty normal."
"Ah yes, because guys of course don't fall in love."
"I mean, it's not like that. There's just, y'know, judgement when people see a guy likes stuff like this. I don't wanna deal with any of that. You wouldn't understand."
*I do. Better than you know.*
"Maybe not, but don't assume everyone's so close minded, either! You're not the *only* guy into that, obviously, and maybe it's worth defying those expectations if it lets you be yourself. It's what I do... sometimes, anyways."
"I guess... It's still not like I'm going to announce my hobbies to the world..." He shudders, "or even Daisuke, for that matter."
"What's wrong with him knowing? Isn't he a close friend of yours?"
"Yeah, but he's never seemed to be the kinda guy for this sorta, um, sensitive stuff? Like, he's ribbed me before for not having the same attitudes as him on a few things and it just... doesn't seem like something he'd be super positive about, really."
Now, that's a little concerning. The last thing she wants to deal with right now is yet another man set on imposing masculinity on others, at least not in any close proximity to her.
Kousaku brings his hands up to the back of his head, looking almost contemplative. "On the other hand, he *does* like talking about girls a lot, to the extent that even *he's* made jokes about it before. Like, I still feel like he might be a bit judgy on it, but I guess it's not *that* different, is it? It would be pretty hypocritical of him, now that I think about it."
He shrugs. "Either way, I ain't gonna tell him. No real reason to bring it up, at least, possible hypocrisy or not."
Hibari nods in agreement. "Yeah," she says, "no harm in keeping things private."
They walk in silence for a little bit, and Hibari takes the time to properly observe the area in the daylight. It's a very different sight from Suginami, and she's not quite sure how she feels about it. She's used to at worst the quiet dullness of suburban wealth, large plots of land still dense enough to form a coherent block, all following some semblance of the grids that laid out the bustling city centers she'd often hang around. What she sees instead is very bare: loosely laid plots of land separated by a mix of dirt paths and lightened asphalt, roads twisting to fit some unknown, long forgotten path. Grass fills her periphery, dulled to a near brown by the unkind weather, blowing lightly in the gentle breeze, the leaves in the few scattered trees doing the same.
It makes her miss home, a little. Beats this, at least.
They eventually come across a building, only slightly larger than the few homes and small stores they've passed by, with a logo on the front window denoting it as the public library. She follows Kousaku into the building, as he opens up his bag and pulls out the two books. On the back of one of them, she notices the drawing of a bored princess holding a dagger in front of some monster. *Honestly, same.*
While Kousaku talks to the librarian manning the front desk, Hibari looks around the small library. It has a surprisingly decent amount of recent texts, from what she can tell, though there's clearly been an effort to fit as many books as possible in the small space. As she looks towards the back of the room, the selection very quickly leans to older writings. She imagines the rest of the library to be just a few more rooms of old, donated works that are mostly just collecting dust.
Now that she thinks about it, maybe she should try to get something. Would be nice to have something to actually do, now that she's here.
She looks around for a couple minutes, grabbing whatever catches her interest—mostly some of the newer books, but she also finds what seems to be an old romance novel of sorts. She's kneeling to grab a book from the bottom shelf of a bookcase when she hears footsteps to her right.
"Hey, what're you doing, Hibari?" Kousaku asks.
"Seeing what books your library has that I might want to read, Kousaku."
He gives her a confused look. "But... you don't have a card?"
She looks back at him. Is he joking with her? Or is he just stupid?
She settles on stupid.
"You do, dummy." She pushes the books she's gathered into his hands as she stands up. "Get them for me."
He blushes a little bit, *again*, but nods and brings the books to the librarian, who appears to be rather amused by the exchange. Hibari walks up beside him and takes the books, stuffing them into her bag and insisting to the librarian that no, they aren't too heavy for her and no, she's not Kousaku's girlfriend and no, she doesn't need either of their help.
They thank the librarian and leave, Hibari feeling a little lighter despite the additional weight in her pack.
---
They walk a few more blocks until they come across an intersection, at which they turn right. From there, Kousaku leads her a few minutes down the road, which went slightly uphill before flattening out. There were a lot more local businesses at the top than there were below, and Kousaku began to point them out.
"Pharmacy's over there, new tea shop that I've heard about but haven't gone to there, arcade's there, and school's a bit more uphill that way."
"You've got an arcade out here?" she asks.
"Yeah, I think the owner's uncle or something works for one of the game companies. Nintendo, I think? Up in Kyoto, I'm pretty sure, either way. Heard he managed to get a buncha old cabinets on cheap and decided it was worth getting whatever high schooler allowance he can get outta it. I think I've seen the owner just sitting around playing on his own machines, to be honest."
"Huh, that's pretty neat. And weird. Nice to hear there are at least a few things to do here, in any case."
"Hey! I live here, you know! Unlike you city folk, I can recognize there's *plenty* to do out here."
Hibari scoffs. "Oh, really? Like what? Get lost in a rice field? Loiter next to the one pharmacy in town? Talk to the same few people every day for the rest of your life?"
"You're acting like that's so awful, but how different is it really from what you're used to?" Kousaku challenges. "Most days you get up, go to classes, hang out somewhere nearby for a while, go home when it's dark, and do whatever you want, no?"
"You're being awfully presumptive about what my normal life is like, Kousaku." Hibari warns, growing frustration seeping through her every word. "Not everyone can live an idyllic life like that." *Ease up on the honesty, Hibari.* "Not everyone gets the chance."
Kousaku gives her a look, one that turns almost pitying as he considers what she may have accidentally implied. She fights the urge to avoid his gaze—she's not that weak, not anymore—and draws up a smile.
"Just, think a little more about how others might have it, okay? Compared to Tokyo, this is outright boring. Let me hazard a guess: you spend all your free time either in some hangout spot near your school, or languishing in your room? Going on what you've assumed about me." she asks.
"That's an unfair way to put it..." Kousaku protests.
"I'm not making any judgement on you for doing that. That's fine, maybe even *typical*, but not everyone wants that. I *liked* being out and about. I *liked* having places to go. I *liked* being able to change things up. And you need to understand that I **don't** have that here. Is that clear?"
He fidgets a little under her verbal pressure, but nods. "Crystal," he says, giving her a nervous smile. "C'mon, I'll show you the school real quick, and then we can grab lunch and head to Daisuke's place."
---
The school ends up being about how she expects: much smaller than Wakaba, but still pretty impressive considering the area. She's able to guess the school pulls in a fairly decent number of students based on the size, something that is at least somewhat of a relief. She's not going to be stuffed in some tiny school building, left to a crummy last few semesters of high school as she watches her college prospects drift away.
To be fair, Ibari had told her it would be fine, to his credit. But she has no reason to believe a word he says about anything.
They walk back down the hill, Hibari leading a very winded Kousaku, and continue farther down the center. Eventually, Kousaku tells her to stop in front of one of the buildings. It's small and old-fashioned, with a picnic bench out next to it, protected from the sun by an awning sticking out of the building's side. She'd call it quaint, if she is a particular fan of that style.
"Here's lunch," he says. "Only ramen place in town, but pretty good, if you ask me. Get whatever you want, I'll pay."
She steps ahead and pulls the door open. "No need. You and your mom are already doing a lot for me. I'll cover it, I've got plenty of cash. Courtesy of the Kantou Mob."
She hears Kousaku's exasperated chuckle behind her as they walk in. "That bit's *still* kinda unbelievable: the nice, pretty girl I just met is a yakuza."
Hibari laughs. "Pretty, am I? And I'll have you know that *I'm* not the yakuza member, my father is. For now, at least."
The two of them check the menu and make their orders, both ordering slightly different variations of the shop's tonkotsu bowls. When they're asked to pay, Hibari does so before Kousaku even has a chance to grab his wallet, shooting him a victorious smile as she does so.
The cashier tells them to take a seat, as their food will take a couple minutes to prepare, and the pair choose the outdoors seating. The returning outdoor chill is refreshing after the brief reprieve of the heated indoors, and Hibari closes her eyes to just enjoy the breeze. She reopens them and notices that Kousaku has already sat down, watching her out of the corner of his eye.
She walks over to the table and takes a seat across from him, setting her bookbag down next to her and pulling out her notebook and pencil. "So, while we wait, I was wondering if you could let me know where all your classes are, like in terms of curriculum. I need to know if I'm moving too far off from the classes I was already in."
"Oh! Yeah, I was planning to look over that stuff later when I'm also helping Daisuke out with his winter break assignments, but I suppose we could do that now. Actually, do you know which class you'll be put in?"
Hibari thinks for a moment, remembering what Ibari told her after arranging the transfer. "I believe it was class two?"
"Oh, that's a bit of a shame. Daisuke and I are in class one... I don't really know where class two is in the material for every class. I can assume they're close, but I don't know exactly where."
She grunts in annoyance. "That's... fine. I'll just check against where you are and hopefully it won't be a problem. Worst case I'll just have to crunch to figure it out once the semester starts."
They begin to go over their classes, but are quickly cut off by the restaurant door opening, the cashier now bringing out their food and drinks. Hibari, not one to be interrupted, simply sets her notebook to the side so she can keep writing what Kousaku's telling her as she eats.
The two discover that she's mostly ahead, at least relative to Kousaku's class. A few topics, particularly in their mathematics classes, are rearranged such that she never learned them whereas Kousaku had done so months ago. Hibari's sure she can figure it out from context, but graciously accepts when the boy offers to lend her some of his notes when they get back to his house.
They're finishing up their food when Kousaku suddenly exclaims "Oh, shit!" and shoots up from his seat, pulling Hibari's attention away from the (shockingly good) ramen. She tilts her head to look up at him.
"It's 1:50," he tells her. "We really need to get going to Daisuke's place, like, right now. He's almost a twenty-minute walk out, so we're going to be pretty late..."
She nods, slurps up the last of her food, and gets up herself. She folds up her notebook and places it and her pencil back into their spots in her bag. The two of them then pop into the restaurant to let the cashier know they're done with their food, and hurry on their way.

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[hibari-ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/44676520)
[hibari1](hibari1)
[hibari2](hibari2)
[hibari3](hibari3)
[area-of-effect](area-of-effect)