"Hiro!" the tiny Trans called, standing outside in her winter uniform, which as usual was sized for someone many years her junior, waving to the boy as he smiled, heading to where she stood.

"You're pretty happy, aren't you?" he asked, and she nodded, jumping where she stood and spinning around, a move she'd apparently learned off some anime.

"Of course I am! It's the anniversary after all, isn't it?" she replied. "Which means that today's a year since you reminded me that destroying planets isn't the best way of life!"

He laughed, patting the top of her head as her grin widened. "Yeah, also a year since you nearly died, but I guess that kind of sours the mood, doesn't it?" He looked around them, watching as students filed out of the doors to head home. "Where's Satsuki-san? Isn't she supposed to be coming with us?"

He knew very little about Satsuki Minene, but she had the dubious honor of being Nemesis' best friend, so she couldn't be all that bad. He barely even knew her anymore, they hadn't been great friends and everything from the year before was a little fuzzy to him now. He seemed to vaguely remember someone sitting behind him last year, but oddly, he couldn't recall who it was. Oh, well. Wouldn't be the first time a hole in his memory formed. Nemesis enjoyed taking bits and pieces just to bug him, but he trusted her not to take anything important.

Thoughts of memory loss aside, he laughed as she looked around, as if she'd totally forgotten about her friend. "That's right, where is she? Minene was supposed to get here before me…"

"Maybe she got caught up doing other things?" he asked. "After all, it's our anniversary, you didn't meet her until later-"

"I'm here!" called a voice, cutting him off as the two turned around.

Satsuki was difficult to categorize based on her appearance alone. She wasn't tall, but she wasn't short either, though compared to Hiro, she seemed tiny...But Hiro, being half Canadian, was a giant compared to pretty much any pure Japanese person, so his size was nothing to go off. Yukihime was an exception, but she too was a freak in her size.

The way Satsuki carried herself was very average too, and her appearance was nothing to remember. Blonde hair, tied in a braid behind her head, and she carried no accessories to distinguish her uniform from anyone else.

Still, Nemesis was friends with her, and that was good enough for him as he turned to her, nodding as she stopped in front of them, holding her hands to her knees and panting. Had she been running to get here on time?

"Sorry, I got caught up helping one of the freshmen…" she explained, and Nemesi laughed, jumping forward to wrap her friend in an embrace.

"You made it, that's all that matters!" she said, breaking from the hug and turning to Hiro. "Let's go, the stores won't wait!" she called, grabbing Satsuki's hand and starting to run toward the exit to the school, and Hiro followed behind, shaking his head at the sight of the human stumbling to keep up with the much shorter girl.

"You have your ID?" he asked, and the tanned girl flashed the card from one of the pockets sewn to her uniform. "Alright, good. We don't want another mess like last time…"

Nemesis was a dark matter being, meaning that especially since she and Hiro had become partnered, her appetite had steadily begun to increase to fill the void her body contained. Dark matter is incredibly heavy, a small chunk barely the size of Hiro's fingernail could weigh a much as the sun, and since Nemesis only weighed about 36 kg, it meant she was so sparsely packed that she had quite the space to fill.

Long story short, she was constantly hungry. It was a wonder she didn't exhaust his government allowance with her appetite. It was to the point that she needed a special government-sanctioned ID marking her as an extraterrestrial in order not to get sued by any restaurants she cleaned out.

~~~Downtown~~~

"So, Satsuki-san, what are you planning for the break?" Hiro asked as the three walked down the street, headed toward the event they'd planned to go to...a planetarium tour that had recently opened, something Nemesis was extremely keen on visiting. She probably wanted to see how accurate Earth's knowledge of space was, knowing her.

The girl looked up at him as Nemesis happily walked in front of them. He wasn't good friends with the girl, but they were at least acquaintances enough that he didn't feel the question was too strange.

"I don't know, probably just staying home. My parents are kind of worried about the whole aliens becoming normalized thing, so they don't want to risk going out for the break in case something happens."

Hiro shrugged, looking over at Nemesis, who was blissfully ignoring the conversation. "What do they think about Nemesis?" he asked, and the girl laughed, waving a hand.

"They like her. It's not that they don't trust them, they just are nervous is all. Not everyone's as nice as Nemesis after all."

Hiro crossed his arms and nodded. "And even Nemesis herself used to be one of those dangerous ones until a year ago." he replied. "I can't say your parents are right or wrong, but there certainly is a danger." He had a nagging feeling about Project Genesis too, but for now, things were quiet. Hopefully they'd stay that way, at least until after the break. Let everyone have a peaceful Christmas.

He wouldn't let himself think too hard on things. Peace and quiet was a good thing, not something to be worrying over. He knew that things were too crazy last year, this year, he hoped not to have such problems.

"Hiro!" Nemesis said, turning around and snapping to catch his attention. "Look, Camellia-chan's here!"

He blinked, looking around, before smiling as he caught sight of the child standing next to her mother, who was busy staring at a sales sign for some sort of gift idea.

The three changed direction to walk up to them, and he waved. "Hello, Mavis-san." he said, catching the woman's attention as she and her daughter turned, the child's grin more than enough to show her excitement.

"Neme-chan!" Camellia said, and Nemesis and Satsuki started chatting with her as Hiro faced the woman, who smiled at the sight of them...With the exception of Satsuki, it looked just like children playing, even though none were actually children, though Camellia physically was.

"It's good to see you, Hiro-kun." Mavis stated, nodding to him. "I hope everything's going well?"

He nodded, glancing at the three girls before crossing his arms. "I see Camellia and Tsubaki are adjusting well. They definitely seem happier, at least."

The woman laughed idly at the statement, waving a hand. "Tsubaki is a quick learner when she's motivated, and she's been teaching Camellia all kinds of things...Sometimes it feels like I'm the one out of the loop, with all the upper-level stuff they talk about together."

Hiro tilted his head at the statement, confused. "You can hear them both at once?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Well, not quite...It's more like, they both tend to talk out loud. They're not very easy to tell apart, so I just pretend it's both of them. Kind of makes me feel guilty, like I can't tell my own daughters apart…"

"Well, it's not a big deal. They're in the same body after all, telling the difference is pretty hard." Hiro replied. "Though I've heard Tsubaki prefers to be called Camellia anyway."

The woman nodded. "She does, though I don't see why...I think Tsubaki is a lovely name, though Camellia's name means the same thing...It's quite ironic that they happened to be together, isn't it?"

"Maybe it's fate." he replied, chuckling. He never believed in such an absurd thing as fate, but it was a nice scapegoat to say everything was pre-decided. "Just like how by trying to attack me, she ended up eventually repenting her old lifestyle and managed to settle down."

"All that's in the past now, she's a good girl." Mavis replied. "She's like Nemesis, isn't she? They have very similar backgrounds."

"Yeah, you're right...So what are you doing out today? Don't the elementary schools still have class?"

The woman shook her head, turning to the sales poster. "No, they got out last week...I've been trying to think of a good gift for my husband…"

Hiro blinked. "I...didn't know you had a husband." he said. "Sorry, I thought-" He blinked as she grinned, turning to him with a twinkle in her eye.

"Thought he was dead?" she asked, laughing at his embarrassed expression. "No, he lives in the United States. Camellia and I moved here, but he had to stay behind..It's sad, but we are in touch. Still, for you to get that idea...It's clear why you're the mature one in your household despite being the youngest, isn't it?"

"Hey, I had to live by myself for 7 years, I had plenty of time to mature." he replied. "Sometimes even I forget I'm only 15...Geez, I'm not even a legal adult and yet I have all this mess going on around me…"

"I wouldn't say it's a bad thing though, you've grown a lot as a person as a result of everything around you, haven't you?" she asked. "Now, mister big boy, help me with my shopping!"