"I swear," grumbled Granny, in the disgruntled way she did so well when she was angry-caring about someone or something. In the time Hotaru had lived with her, she had observed and found that in about ninety-five percent of times Granny used that tone, she used it in relation to Kawahira.

This time was no exception. "I'm going to give Riku a piece of my mind when he gets back from wherever he's wandered off to this time."

Hotaru cringed lightly. She hadn't seen Kawahira since the day her powers had returned, and Granny said that he hadn't come back since February, when Hotaru had returned to Namimori.

It really had been a goodbye, that day, when her powers returned.

Obfuscating, Helios had called him. Hotaru let her shoulders slump in disappointment at yet another failed attempt at meeting him. Over the years she had grown used to his presence, subtle but undeniably there like mist, and while she had found Helios to be correct on his description of his fellow guardian, there had also been a kinship, a connection.

But all things came to an end, Hotaru thought morosely. Good or bad, eventually there was an end. Third time had not been the charm.

"I'll take a wooden spoon to his thick head," promised Granny when she saw how dejected Hotaru was. "I'll tie him up if I have to, and not feed him any ramen while I do that."

Hotaru shrugged and forced a cheery smile onto her face. "It's okay, Granny. It's just bad timing on my part. I'm sure I'll run into him eventually."

"Hmph." Granny, with how well she knew both her grandson and Hotaru, was unconvinced, but she let it go at the unsaid request. "You forget about my lazy grandson and focus on school. I know you're smart, but you should still work hard."

Hotaru nodded. That had been the plan. Middle school was a challenge as much as it was a gift.

It wasn't that the material was hard – even if Midori Middle happened to be one of the 'elite' schools in Namimori, she was still ahead of the syllabus – but more to do with the unfamiliar environment and the population. Her years in Namimori had been spent quietly, peacefully, with social interactions limited to a handful of people.

Middle school was, for all that it was a private middle school for girls, still bigger and had more people than she was used to. If Haru hadn't been there at her side, practically vibrating with double her usual enthusiasm, Hotaru knew she would have shrunk back into herself.

Like she was doing now.

"The music club has more than enough people," Haruno Sora, the third-year student and head of the history club, had a firm grip on Hotaru's left arm. It wasn't painful, but it could become so soon enough, much like how the senior student's voice was deliberately calm but ready to rise in volume if necessary.

The other third-year student, who had introduced herself as Komachi Mirai, scoffed and tightened her grip on Hotaru's right arm. "Did you or did you not hear her play the violin just now?"

Two older students were fighting over her, because both of them wanted her in their respective clubs. Somehow even the normal part of her life ended up being spectacular, Hotaru thought ruefully.

All she had wanted to do was actually get a chance to join a club. During her days at Mugen Academy she had never had the chance to partake in club activities due to the attacks of pain from the bloodless robotic limbs grafted to her back then, and she had been looking forward to it. It was the one part of school she wouldn't do with Haru, since she was going to be in the gymnastics club and Hotaru didn't have much of a desire to brave more physical exercise than she needed to, even for Haru. She was considering the music club, but when she heard there was a history club, she just had to ask about it.

But unknown to her, one thing had led to another during orientation to Midori's clubs, and Haru – who, with her signature friendliness, had somehow made at least three friends – had ended up telling Komachi about Hotaru playing the violin.

Komachi insisted she play then and there – with her own violin, at that – and Hotaru, who had been in the middle of asking Haruno questions about the history club, had obliged.

Somehow that had ended up putting her in this situation.

"Violinists are a dime a dozen," Haruno said stiffly. "I know you have at least three violin players in your club, Komachi. The history club needs more students."

"Why study the past and remain caught up in the deeds of the dead when you can forge your own history, make a name for yourself in the future?" Komachi shot back. "In the field of music, at that."

Hotaru quietly resigned herself to becoming the rope in a tug-of-war game as she considered it. The history club, which had five members, six if she entered, and the music club, which had far more members.

"Hotaru-chan?" Haru, arguably the reason why she was in this mess, was done with signing up for gymnastics. She turned and found Hotaru in the grasps of two older students. Her jaw surrendered to the pull of gravity at the sight. "Hahi?!"

Hotaru didn't blame Haru for her reaction. For all that they were maintaining their manners and decorum, Hotaru could almost see the spirits of two clashing beasts ferociously fighting for dominance over the heads of the two senior students. A dragon and a tiger, perhaps. That would certainly fit their fighting spirits quite well.

They were only third-year junior high students. Namimori was truly misnamed.

But Haru was many things, and one of the strongest components happened to be bravery. She darted towards Hotaru, and did her best to avert her eyes from the two seniors all but snarling at each other in spirit.

"Which club are you signing up for?" Haru asked, a little too loudly, trying to distract everyone, especially the two students that looked ready to go to war at the slightest push.

Hotaru gave both heads of the clubs she had been considering a baleful look. It was true she had considered the music club, because she liked playing the violin, but that was because it had been Michiru who taught her how to coax melodies from the strings, how to bring forth combinations to create different chords, and how to read the notes and translate it into a language that needed no words to move the heart.

She liked the violin, of that there was no doubt, and yet when she learned there was a history club . . .

"What history does the club cover?" Hotaru asked.

Haruno Sora's face came alive with genuine emotion at that question, and not just because the student she was fighting over was asking about her club.

"World history," she replied immediately, words fiery and well-polished in the way only true belief and dedication could make them. "Japanese history is covered pretty well in class, and if there's homework or a test, we'll focus on it too, but I started this club when I realized that the curriculum doesn't really cover the rest of the world very well."

She blushed a little when Hotaru stared, engaged, but that didn't stop her from continuing. "People say that studying history is important to not repeat the past, but that also applies for a narrow vision. If we don't want to narrow our points of views, we have to be able to consider things from another perspective – and if we grow too used to looking at only one version of the story, we can't do that very well."

That decided it for her, and from the resigned sigh that Komachi Mirai released along with her grip on Hotaru's arm, the head of the music club knew it, too.

"Sorry, Komachi-senpai," Hotaru apologized, and Haruno Sora beamed.

The older girl waved it off coolly, accepting defeat graciously. "Nah, it's your choice at the end. I've got to respect that. Haruno – take good care of her, or I'll steal her."

"You don't have to worry about that," Haruno replied seriously.

Hotaru thought that it was a bit dramatic, all things considered, but both of her senpais ended up being good people, so that was a relief.

And with that, the middle school experience truly began. School, club activities, regular trips to Titan Castle to monitor the solar system's outer rims, visiting Granny and so on. The small incident with the club turned out to be the most interesting thing she experienced, because from then on, her life settled into a mostly steady routine with no significant outliers.

An unfortunate side effect of this was that she got to see Takeshi far less often than she would have liked. Despite Midori being in walking distance of Namimori Middle, he often ended up being busy with the baseball club. She no longer lived in the shopping district, which meant TakeSushi was farther than before. She had more things to be doing, which meant she could no longer be there for him according to his schedule like she had before.

"Baseball in middle school is a lot more fun," Takeshi said, unable to suppress the happy grin on his face. Three weeks after school had started, and this was the first time they really got to hang out.

Hotaru, for all the years she had been his friend, still didn't know much about baseball. She knew the rules, the basic ones, and the positions, but she only really knew about the game through Takeshi. She had no passion, no direct interest herself. Much like her 'interest' in gymnastics, it was only because someone she cared about liked it with a passion as bright as the sun.

She still remembered what it was like, trying to catch the balls he threw. The only reason she hadn't given up after the first time she was nearly decapitated by a weaponized baseball was because he had looked so happy when she showed some interest.

A thought struck Hotaru.

"Are there people on your team that can actually catch the balls you throw?" she asked. Forget needing sailor soldiers to fight off alien invaders, if there were a few more of Takeshi in this world, they could probably just throw baseballs at the heads of invaders and be done with it.

"The third-years can," he said. "And the second-years can hit it, too. But the rest tell me I have to tone it down a little." He looked genuinely confused as to why he might be told this.

That made Hotaru feel a little better about her record of 'zero' for all the times she had actually managed to catch his throws mid-air.

She couldn't imagine anyone having the strength, the reaction time, or just the nerve to catch, let alone hit a ball like the kind Takeshi threw, unless she counted Haruka or Makoto. It gave her idea of using the Namimori baseball team as Earth's defense a little more weight.

"What monsters attend your school?" she had to ask.

Takeshi laughed. "Well, we have Hibari."

Hotaru covered her mouth at the familiar name. "Oh my gosh, no."

"Yeah." He grinned, like having a boy that had been terrorizing Namimori since he was young at his school was a thing to be happy about. "We have a disciplinary committee that he runs, and they can be pretty intimidating, but the seniors say that it keeps other schools from picking on our students."

"What other schools?" Hotaru had to ask. Surely not Midori or Yumei Private. Maybe the high schools?

"Kokuyo."

Oh, the school with a lot of delinquent students. The one Haruka had looked into just to make sure it was out of the way and warned her about with pictures of their uniforms.

"And high schools," Takeshi added. "Less fights, too."

It was like an entirely different world, what he described. Namimori Middle definitely sounded nothing like Midori, or Mugen. And Mugen had been a school with actual monsters plotting world domination living in its depths.

But Takeshi sounded happy enough with the school. He got along with the baseball team, even if he didn't consider them to be 'friends', and slept through most of the classes.

That was clear when she looked over his homework and previous tests the next time they met. After doing a double-take at his confession – that he didn't really remember much of class because he slept through most of it – she had told him to bring his homework the next time they met.

What Hotaru saw worried her, a lot – even if the actual owner of the homework didn't seem half as concerned as she was.

"Seriously!" she protested over his homework while he laughed. "What if you can't play because of poor grades?"

"It's not that bad, is it?" Takeshi shrugged.

Hotaru chose not to answer, which was a reply in itself. Instead she went over the sections in his textbook, skimming content to check just what needed to be covered. They didn't have enough time together to go over all of it, so she just made note of it.

"I'll make you study notes," she promised. She had to leave soon, her shift on Titan Castle was coming up. They had sent a message to the Starlights, and were still hoping to receive a reply. Not just from Princess Kakyuu's home planet but from anyone, revived by Sailor Cosmos at the Cauldron. Given that it had been years, it shouldn't have been a stretch to assume other sailor soldiers were also revived by now.

Takeshi winced. "Isn't that too much work?"

"I can just photocopy mine," Hotaru said, and it wasn't a lie, not really. She didn't need notes, per say, not when she had long passed the level taught in middle school while on her own, but she didn't want to be complacent or develop bad habits so she made them for her classes nonetheless.

The ones she would be making for Takeshi would have to be more detailed. Takeshi didn't do well in classroom settings, but he did pretty well when it was one-on-one. Since she didn't see him as much, notes would have to do. Hotaru could just write them up while she was on Saturn for shift. There was only so much of exploring Titan Castle she could do before she grew bored, and Makaria would enjoy seeing what the curriculum was like for an average middle school student. "It's really not much work."

He sighed and grinned in relief. "Thanks. I guess I'm just useless at everything except baseball."

Now he was just being ridiculous.

"And I'm useless at everything except studying?" Hotaru asked, eyebrow raised.

"That's different," Takeshi said immediately.

"It's really not." Hotaru lightly flicked his forehead, 'punishment' for being silly. Of course there was more to him than baseball. That wasn't why she had become friends with him, now was it? "I'll be there when you have a game, okay? Just let me know the date in advance. I'll bring food and sports drinks and a sign with your name and everything."

She'd also ask Haruka what athletes needed after exertion to better recover.

His reply to that was a beaming smile.

Hotaru really thought everything was fine, until she received news that Takeshi had tried to kill himself and realized that she had been very wrong.

AN: OC names and appearances are just from the Vocaloids Haruno Sora and Komachi Mirai. They're not important, you don't need to pay attention to them. I just needed names.

TL;DR

Hotaru: it's peaceful at Midori.

Midori: *an all girls' school* *Mean Girls going on in the background* *drama DRAMA*

Hotaru: *oblivious to it all because she doesn't care* Nice and quiet.

Sweet Dreams~