The start of the new school year gave Hotaru a sense of déjà vu, in that she found herself face-to-face with the head of the music club again.
At least this time there wasn't another tug-of-war using her as the rope.
"I'm actually here on behalf of Komachi-senpai," said the third year who inherited her position.
Komachi Mirai, who, despite having graduated Midori Middle to go to a high school of equivalent standing, still had much school pride, and pride in general.
"Here's the thing, Tomoe-chan," said the newly minted high school student, when they met up after school ended as per her request.
She launched into a tale, and Hotaru had to admit, she was an excellent storyteller. Had she not been an ardent lover of music there might have been a career for Komachi Mirai in storytelling or hosting television programs.
The story she wove essentially boiled down to there being a rivalry between Midori and the other 'elite' school in Namimori – Yumei Academy. Yumei – according to Komachi – looked down upon Midori because they were an all-girls school and didn't place very high in most athletic fields (Here, Hotaru was more than a little happy to hear that they were the top in gymnastics, because school pride and Haru pride).
This rivalry was no exception between the music clubs. Until her final year Komachi had fought against the music club of Yumei, tooth and nail, pouring her blood, sweat and tears into the club and music, and not only did she pass the rivalry onto the juniors, but she carried that torch within her.
This summer, there was a recital. It was an annual event of Namimori, and certainly wasn't exclusively for the students of Yumei and Midori. Anyone in the age range was permitted to participate.
Just because it wasn't for Yumei and Midori exclusively didn't mean that there wasn't a competition. They usually sent the most performers, and while it wasn't a competition – officially, Komachi stressed, there was no official prize or judges – there was certainly much on line.
Everyone participating, after all, had musical talent of some sorts, and knew good music when they heard it. The point was to play well enough to make the other side admit defeat on their own accords and terms rather than rely on a third party to be the judge. An honor system, of sorts. It wasn't an individual victory, but rather a victory for the school.
"I wasn't going to participate this year," Komachi admitted. "I did graduate, after all, and it wouldn't have been fair."
But all bets were called off when she caught rumors that there was a 'wild card' team. A graduate of Yumei – coincidentally a rival of Komachi's, ever since they clashed back in their first year of middle school – was participating in the recital with a junior student.
"Supposedly," Komachi ground out, "he's doing this because he wants to give his cute kouhai confidence. Ha! That arrogant jerk-face doesn't give a damn for his juniors, he just wants to win and be smug about it! Dirty, rotten, sneaky rat-faced bastard!"
In short, Midori needed to send a wild card team, as well. Yumei might have had them beaten in numbers, but certainly not quality (still according to Komachi). Since the whole rivalry between the schools were still 'unofficial', Midori could claim victory and bragging rights even if the performers weren't actually members of the current music club, just connected to Midori.
Examples of technical representatives from Midori being either a graduate of the school who had led the club during her junior high days, and a current student who, despite her musical talents wasn't actually in the music club (still Komachi's words).
"Tomoe," said Komachi, dropping the suffix, eyes filled with a steady but desperate want. A need. A resolve. "Will you form a duo with me, and kick Yumei ass with music?"
Hotaru agreed, if only because it was a little funny how dramatic Komachi was.
"You're getting better at this," complimented Kawahira, resting his face on one hand with his elbow on his knee. "Soon we could move onto real illusions. If I don't end up busy again."
The last of the illusion, a vase with flowers in it, broke and faded away.
"I had a good teacher," murmured Hotaru, leaning back in her seat. He was becoming absent more frequently again, but he still took out the time to teach her how to break illusions. What real illusions were, she wasn't sure, but if – when – he covered them, she was sure she would know the difference, and how to break them too.
That was the key word. 'Break'.
"How come you won't teach me how to create illusions?"
Even after criticizing her projections and talking about true illusions, all he did was make her break them. He explained the basis behind illusions, the theory and therefore the weaknesses to the techniques, the tricks to regaining her sense of reality from the illusion, but never once had he taught her how to create illusions of her own.
Kawahira reached out to ruffle her hair. "Greedy child," he teased. "Already one of the strongest beings in this solar system, yet you want more."
Heat rushed to her cheeks at that, even if she knew he didn't mean much by his words. When he put it that way, though, it did sound like she was being greedy. "I didn't mean to demand anything."
He laughed. "I know. I'm joking. Mostly."
Kawahira leaned back, and the light caught on the thick lenses of his glasses.
"Or maybe," he said, as the slight smile slipped from his lips. "Maybe I'm not."
A finger tapped at the table before them like a metronome, his habit of not keeping his hands still when he pondered something kicking in. "Maybe if you were weaker, I might have taught you how to be a powerful illusionist."
The air grew heavy with the weight of something serious – memories, regrets, sorrows, experiences that had been painful.
"Does that mean you need to be weak to be an illusionist?" After she said it, Hotaru regretted her choice in words.
Kawahira shook his head, not insulted. "It just requires a certain . . . mindset, that's all."
'Any illusionist worth their salt has struggled at least once with the concept of reality', he told her once, when they first started these lessons. 'Toed the insanity of what they dealt with as they tried to define what has no correct answer.'
Those words felt significant, now, as Hotaru remembered that Kawahira, as Acheron, was old, had seen things worth several lifetimes in a single, albeit very long and unusual one.
Kawahira shrugged, as if to shake off the heaviness of the air. "No," he said, his words ringing with a finality. "I won't teach you how to be an illusionist."
Because of what he had said – that she was plenty strong already even without needing to know how to create illusions – Hotaru didn't feel rejected in any way. She nodded.
He smirked. "Be satisfied with having the power to end a world, Hotaru-kun."
And when he put it that way, well, what could she say to that?
Raised by Michiru and Haruka – who was an excellent singer and piano player herself, just not on Michiru's level – Hotaru had pretty high standards when it came to playing instruments.
Even for her standards, though, Komachi was quite impressive. She could play the violin, which was why she had the violin when Hotaru was just starting middle school, but she also played the flute and piano, and had a rather lovely singing voice.
For the upcoming recital, though, she wanted to play the piano while Hotaru played the violin, because it gave her the most range and was also her favorite instrument.
"Which means we just need to figure out what piece to play," said Komachi. They needed to choose, not only to practice the pieces, but also to send in their choice and put a claim on it.
Hotaru wasn't all that interested in doing a pop song, something that made her senior exhale in deep relief, before giving her a rather apologetic look.
"Sorry I'm such a snob, but in my defense so are the Yumei kids," she explained, leaning back. The piano bench was hardly a good place to be lounging like she was, but that didn't stop Komachi from doing it. A part of Hotaru worried that she might end up losing her balance and falling. "Even if we covered a pop song to make the original artist weep in envy, they'd still say we were too contemporary."
So, no pop songs. Something classic. Komachi insisted on not doing Beethoven or Mozart or Chopin. "They're overdone because a lot of them don't have an ounce of creativity."
That seemed rather personal, but again, Hotaru didn't protest. There were other beautiful pieces in the world they could choose from. "What are you thinking of?"
The question lit a fire in Komachi, and she straightened from her slouch. "Something known, but not often performed or heard in recitals. Something that has an original factor but also a name value. Something with a meaning, you know?"
She pulled out a CD player and revealed quite the impressive collection of albums. Hotaru recognized a few by Michiru. The ones in Komachi's collection were the ones Michiru herself said were her favorites.
"Are you a fan?"
Komachi glanced over at the CD case Hotaru held and grinned. "Of Kaiou Michiru? Who isn't?"
Truer words had never been spoken. Hotaru gave her more credit after that, deciding that since the older girl clearly had excellent taste, she could rely on her make good decisions.
Zigeunerweisen. Pachebel's Canon. Clair de Lune. Each one was placed into the CD player with surprising gentleness and listened to for a little before Komachi grabbed a different album without needing to even check the name and replacing it.
"What about Tchaikovsky?" Hotaru suggested, while The Carnival of the Animals played. "The Nutcracker's famous."
But Komachi shook her head. "Someone from Midori's already doing a piece from the Nutcracker. Ugh, I'd do Fiume except anything from Pandora loses impact without the context, and it's better with an actual singer."
The introduction ended, and the next movement began, pianos and strings recreating the sound of pecking. Komachi's head whipped around, and her entire face filled with the light of rapture like Archimedes might once have as he shouted 'Eureka'. It was the light of inspiration, the arrival of an answer to a question challenging the soul.
"I can't believe I didn't think of this before!" she cried out, and her hand darted out in a blur like a hawk swooping down on an unsuspecting rabbit. "I'm a genius!"
The album was robbed of its CD, and while Komachi replaced the contents of the player with her answer, Hotaru picked up the discarded case.
"Danse macabre," announced Komachi, as the twelve repeated notes of a harp announced midnight's arrival.
A symphonic poem about the personification of Death, on the night of the day when the boundaries between the worlds of the living and dead was thinnest.
Komachi would never know the reason for Hotaru's amusement at the choice.
The part about going over to Longchamp's house – okay, Tsuna could accept that. He was blocking out the part where Reborn mentioned destroying the Tomaso Family, but yeah, this was just going over to a classmate's house. Not a big deal. Normal people did that. Sure, Longchamp and he weren't all that close, and Longchamp was weird, but that was basically Tsuna's life at this point.
Yamamoto and Gokudera coming with him? Just an extension of that. Classmates. Excusable. Arguably normal. Normal was good. Normal was great.
"But why are Haru and the kids coming, too?!"
None of them were classmates with Longchamp. None of them even went to Namimori Middle, and as far as Tsuna knew none of them had even met Longchamp before.
Haru looked far too happy, and Tsuna wondered if going to a complete stranger's house wasn't as rude as he thought it was, if no one else was going to notice it being weird.
"Oh, don't worry about me," Haru chirped. "I'm just going to watch you at work, I'll leave soon."
"It's not work!" Tsuna howled.
Haru pouted, but Tsuna saw the glimmer of amusement in her eyes. "Besides, I'm really lonely nowadays, Tsuna-san. Hotaru-chan's so busy we hardly get a chance to hang out!"
Hotaru was busy?
"That's true," agreed Yamamoto. "Man, I wish she could have come along, too."
One day, his blood pressure, which was undoubtedly sky-high even at his young age of thirteen, was going to kill him. "We're going to a house we weren't even invited to!"
AN: It's a special day for me so I decided to update.
In case you missed it, Saturnine is up. It's Petrichor-AU, meaning it's not canon here but does have similar elements. No, Mukuro/Hotaru is not the endgame ship, please enjoy the crack ship over yonder.
This is the Longchamp series of chapters going on, which means for Tsuna it's a life where Hotaru's presence was replaced with Longchamp. (Tsuna: I'm developing cancer here)
Komachi is from Daily Life I, the music club senior. She graduated but came back because you can take the girl out of the school, but you can't take the school out of the girl (readers: what). Yumei Academy is the private school Irie Shoichi goes to.
No, Kawahira's not teaching Hotaru illusions. He's teaching her how to break them, but not how to make them or use them in fights.
+ﾟ*｡:ﾟ+
Sweet Dreams~