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Voices Turn Into Miracles
previously "twinkle, twinkle, shining star"
Raizza Shimono Eclipse
~x~
in bloom
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Dear SHIZUKA,
Hey, sis! How's the tour going? I hope this letter gets to you before you leave Nagoya in a week or so! I'm going to Saotome Academy soon, like you. I hope you're well.
KANON-CHII
"That's nearly not long enough, Kanon," a woman around her late 30s scolded lightly, taking the floral-scented paper from her daughter's desk. "Come on, now. You haven't seen your sister in more than two months and this is all you can think of saying?"
Kanon looked at her mother dully. "Well, actually, yeah." She twirled her favorite feathery pen between her fingers. "We're not that close anymore, Mom."
Her mother shook her head and waved the sweet-smelling paper in the air. "I want you to fill this page at least halfway or I'm banning your phone."
"Mom!" Kanon whined, her cheeks puffing out defiantly. "You just bought me that phone."
"Which is why if you don't behave, I'll be returning it." The older woman flipped her long dark hair back and gave her daughter a triumphant grin. "Understand?"
"Fine," she huffed, snatching the paper from her mother's hand and scribbling furiously.
Very long PS.
I wonder if you had a lot of fun at Saotome. You know I HATE transferring – even though we do that EVERY YEAR –
"Not every year, Kanon."
"Mom!"
"Alright, alright, write away!"
– I STILL DON'T LIKE THE FACT THAT WE CAN'T STAY PUT. Breathing in and out. Anyways, thanks for sending me a limited edition of your 3rd album and DVD of your last concert. You were really cool – like one of those sparkling pop-stars – wait, you ARE A POP-STAR, right. TRY NOT TO ENDORSE YOURSELF AT SAOTOME OR ELSE I'LL BE FOREVER KNOWN AS "SHIZUKA'S sister" and nothing more, okay?
Mom agrees that no one should know I'm your wonderful sister. Nya.
Anyways, I'M IN S CLASS! Like YOU! I'm SO gonna outshine you! HAHAHA. Just kidding. But you'd go saying something obnoxiously Onee-chan-ish like "Yeah, right. THAT'S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!" or something, but just watch me, you!
"Kanon..."
"Hey, you told me to write, Mom, and I'm writing!"
I hope you're not off doing things with Hanamura-san, by the way. MOM'S READING THIS TOO. I BET YOU'RE BLUSHING SO BRIGHT YOU'RE LOOKING LIKE A CHRISTMAS HAT WITH THAT SILVERY HAIR OF YOURS AND RED FACE! HAHAHA.
I hope you're... happy? Great? Health? Whichever! Just be good!
Your sister of complete adorableness and awesomeness that blinds everyone,
~Kanon~
"Is this good enough, Mom?"
Her mother rolled her blue eyes and folded the letter carefully. "You should be more tactful when writing, Kanon."
Kanon mimicked her mother. "You should give your daughters privacy, Mom."
"Whatever."
This is my mom... who sounds so much like a teenager it's AWKWARD! Kanon said to herself, shaking her head and pocketing her pen.
"Can we go, Mom?" Kanon asked impatiently as her mother took her sweet time in putting the letter into an envelope and writing down the receiver's address in neat, cursive handwriting. "School technically starts with the student briefing tonight!"
"Oh, hush. It's only a two-hour drive to the school. It's only one PM."
"MOM!"
No response.
"Mo~m!"
Nada.
"Nagi-okaa-san!"
"Alright, alright, stop shrieking already!" She rolled her eyes and slipped the letter into her leather handbag. "Let's go already."
"YES!"
She arrived at the school only to see a crowd of students flocking around the gates and attempting to form a decent line to enter the school.
Sighing, she pulled out her temporary ID – one that came with her acceptance letter – and got in-line, but not before sending her mother a brief glare that said, "I told you we shouldn't have made so many food stops!"
The woman gave her a flying kiss and zoomed off to what she knew would be a shopping mall. Kanon groaned loudly, causing a few other students stared at Kanon in surprise.
"First day and she decides not to be punctual," she muttered, fanning herself with her ID and at the same time fixing her grip on her handbag.
The line shifted considerably, and she was immediately ushered into one of two different registration areas – probably for the males and females, she thought, seeing the boy-less group she was sent to.
It was a noticeably less hedge-and-bush-filled area of the entrance, with paved floors and the water fountain situated on her right. She stared around in awe, walking slowly until –
"Oomph!"
"Ack!"
"Ow!"
A – or rather, some – particular bumps snapped Kanon out of her gazing, and followed by breathless, completely nervous apologies.
Her dark blue eyes fell onto two other greatly contrasting colors – one pair with a piercing, bright yellowish-green, the other a soft, rather common shade of brown.
"Um..." the girl with yellow eyes and carrot-orange hair said intelligently, a shy blush creeping up her cheeks as she struggled to say something else.
Seeing her obvious discomfort, the other girl with brown hair and glasses laughed slightly. "Sorry about that!" she said in a cheery voice, patting the other girl on the back – as if encouraging her. "We were just – well, school-gazing."
"Um... yeah," the orange-haired one said, nodding slightly.
"I know what you mean," Kanon laughed as well, agreeing. "Just the entrance and we're already star struck, huh? This school's amazing!"
"Tell me about it," the bespectacled girl huffed, rolling the similarly brown eyes she had behind the lenses of her glasses. "Huge is the only word I can describe Saotome."
"True."
"Anyways, I'm Tachibana Risa." She held out her hand and gave Kanon a wide smile. "Nice to meet you...?"
"Kanon." Kanon accepted her hand gratefully. "Hoshino Kanon."
"Nanami Haruka," the other, shyer girl said, smiling weakly. "Haven't I heard that name before? Hoshino, I mean."
Risa tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Oh, yeah. That idol who graduated from Saotome... er... 'SHIZUKA' or something?"
Kanon fought back a grimace. "Oh, my – her, you mean. We just share the surname, probably." Steer topic away now! "So what class are you guys in?"
"A Class," Risa replied.
"S Class," Haruka answered moments later.
"Classmate!" Kanon squealed, taking Haruka's hands and shaking them happily. "Let's both do our best!"
"Well, I'm hurt," Risa teased.
"Roommate!" Kanon repeated, jumping excitedly.
"Hoshino Kanon," a male student repeated from afar, echoing what the teacher had said. Kanon stopped mid-jump and waved goodbye to her companions before speeding towards the desk.
A male teacher with spiky, much lighter orange hair gestured for her to come closer. A female teacher who had curly pink hair and blue eyes smiled sweetly. She's really pretty... Haven't I seen her before?
"Hoshino, right?" the male teacher said, peering at her through his reading glasses. "You must be Shizu – "
The other teacher silenced him with a sharp glare. "Kanon, right?"
Said girl held back a snort, realizing that that teacher was no woman. The cross-dressing idol, Tsukimiya! Right!
"Mhm," she managed to say, biting back a laugh. "Th-that's me."
"Your mother told me about how you'd like to keep that a secret, so it's not a problem," Tsukimiya Ringo smiled sweetly once again. "If only Hyuuga-sensei would remember that," she – he? – added.
"Well, Shizuka was one of my best students," Hyuuga Ryuya defended, slipping off his glasses. "I hope you live up to my expectations," he said to Kanon.
She nodded determinedly. "Yes, sir."
"I'll be your class adviser, but you're more than welcome to approach Tsukimiya-sensei if you need assistance or advice," he said in a deep, stern voice. "I expect great things from such a talented family such as yours, Kanon."
"Hai!"
She gave him her temporary ID and was in-turn presented with her official ID, room key and lunch card.
"Be careful and don't loose any of those. The school has two spare keys for your and your roommate's sole access, but the card and ID are hard to replace, understood?"
"Yes, sir."
Ringo handed her a stylized key – one that had a petal-like pattern – and a card, where a room number was written. "Your roommate, like everyone else, is a student from my class – that is A Class. You're free to choose a roommate."
"Is a girl named Tachibana Risa still okay?"
The pink-haired teacher scanned her clipboard briefly. "Ah, nope. Approved."
"Thank you, sensei!" Kanon said, bowing politely before escorting herself inside along with the other finished students.
The cafeteria was buzzing with life and energy as students dashed here and there to their seats, to the soda machine, to the line and everywhere else.
"Anyways, this is Shibuya Tomochika, Haruka's roommate and my classmate," Risa finished before taking a sip of her drink. Tomochika reached out and shook Kanon's hand.
"Nice to meet you, Kanon," the red-head said, her slightly red-lipsticked lips curving into a smile. "Let's do our best, okay?"
"Right!"
Haruka looked around the huge room in awe. "This place sure has a lot of students – although it's probably just fifty to sixty, right?"
"Forty to fifty, I think," Risa said. "Each class probably has twenty-five students, more or less."
"Regardless of numbers, this place is amazing!" Tomochika said, throwing up her hands as emphasis. "I mean – like – really amazing."
Kanon laughed. "If I had a yen for each time I've heard the word amazing..."
"Oh, yeah!" Haruka said suddenly, dropping her spoon. "Where's Mika-san, Risa-san?"
Risa smiled slightly. "Off with her own friends, of course. I don't have to look out for the girl."
"But I thought – "
"She can go wherever she chooses, Haruka," Risa said shortly, cutting the subject short.
"Who's Mika?" Tomochika asked
"My sister," Risa answered reluctantly, putting down her chopsticks, her tone saying 'and that's all you need to know'.
Tomochika quirked a brow, but Kanon knew the evasive tone well – having used and perfected it herself – and said, "Oh."
"How so – "
"So what course are you guys taking, by the way?" Kanon chirped, cutting off Tomochika. "Idol or Composer? I'm taking the second course."
"Idol!" Tomochika said brightly.
"Composer," Haruka said.
"Idol too," Risa muttered.
"So can you play anything?"
"I play the Electone," Tomochika answered.
"I can play the piano well," Haruka and Kanon said in unison, before smiling at each other.
"Guitar," Risa said.
"We have to play together sometime," Tomochika squealed excitedly, taking Kanon's hand and waving it happy. "All of us!"
"That would be nice," Risa agreed, back into her cheery mode, nodding happily. "Like a uni – "
"Attention~! All students proceed to the auditorium in ten minutes!" Ringo's voice came from the several announcement speakers inside the cafeteria, hushing the noise. "Once more, the auditorium in ten minutes! Thank you~!"
Kanon pushed her plate into the table and rose. "I know this... We need to get there soon, or we'll be forced to sit at the back."
Haruka nodded. "Right."
A deep, rumbling voice boomed from the speakers in the rather cold auditorium, causing the students to jump in their seats.
"STUDENTS! ASPIRING IDOLS AND COMPOSERS ALIKE! WELCOME TO SAOTOME ACADEMY!" the voice echoed inside the hall. "I AM~ SHINING SAOTOME!"
"Isn't he like the super-idol in the past?" Risa muttered to Kanon, who nodded silently, her eyes fixed on the stage where several beams of light were swarming the curtain.
Big sis told me about him... She says he has a bit of an extreme quirk, was it?
"RIGHT-O, STUDENTS!" A man in a brownish-orange suit said – er, yelled – into a microphone, as if falling into the stage from nowhere. "Welcome to SAOTOME ACADEMY!"
The students clapped and cheered excitedly, followed by a ripple of anxious murmuring in the crowd.
"You might all know me as Shining Saotome, the super-idol – " he laughed obnoxiously in a way that was contagious " – but here I am just Saotome-san, headmaster and teacher." He made a flourish and bowed. "Nice to meet you all!"
"Nice to meet you, Saotome-san!" the students replied happily.
"Well, everyone, I'm pretty sure you'll have an unforgettable time here at the school... BUT we have a few rules to follow, yes?"
"Yes~"
"First of all, all students must follow a sharp, 11:45 pm curfew. Anyone caught beyond hours will be reprimanded and will suffer the consequences – unless a permission slip is issued by your class adviser. Hyuuga Ryuya for S Class, Tsukimiya Ringo for A Class.
"Second: students are not allowed to leave the school premises within school hours unless permission is granted in writing. Anyone skipping class will be rebuked.
"Third: treat your future schoolmates, classmates, roommate well, especially your partners – your success depends on the unity between you and your future partner.
"FINALLY," his tone became much deeper, much more serious and stern, "one rule I strictly implement is what we call the NO LOVE RULE."
His last rule resulted murmurs from the students. Hyuuga-sensei silenced his students with a loud clear of his throat.
"Why?" someone asked loudly.
"Why?" Saotome repeated absently. "Well, regardless of the reason, anyone – anyone caught breaking this rule – will be expelled from the school. You are not allowed to date anyone from within the school. If not from this school, of course, I would allow that. Your dreams should come first."
His last sentence echoed in the silenced hall.
"Three simple rules, students."
Title: April: in bloom - 01
Words: 2,227
Title Derivation: "in bloom" is a song by School Food Punishment, from their album, Prog-Roid. The title symbolizes the start of the new academic year, which is in April, the month where cherry blossoms usually start to bloom.
Opening/Ending Lines: None.
Disclaimer: All things familiar in Voices Turn Into Miracles are the sole ownership of their respective copyright holders, namely broccoli, UTA*PRI project, ELEMENTS GARDEN and other respectable producers, record labels, composers, arrangers, singers and more. I only own Original Characters, added plot and the like.
Reprinting, reposting and/or redistributing without formal and written permission is against my law.