This was an approach where she might be spotted more than once by someone with some official status, let alone a busybody. As it was, she was confident the first time would be fine. She had her Haikyo badge and armband from ghosting in the club for a while at Joshigakuen.

She couldn't use this approach again for a month. It was no good saying you did haikyo when you kept coming back to the same abandoned building, after all. She had another tiny shed nearby she'd found in case she was unable to get to her new home, but she preferred coming in via a back way. But that was a bad pattern, too. She hadn't used up any of her encounters. There was that. She just had to use the front entrance a bit less often.

When she had been casting around to figure out a high school uniform to pretend in, transferring her badge and armband, she had met those two girls - what had they called each other? Nico something and Tori … no, KOtori something. They hadn't seemed to know each other well, despite using personal names, but both had invited her to a school festival. She'd been so distressed their invitation felt like an act of kindness. She told them her name — well, gave them a name, stuttering — and enjoyed herself.

Everyone at the festival assumed she was a little sister or a prospect. The two girls had even gotten her Kotori's spare uniform when she somehow scrounged up the nerve to request one, and no questions asked. Both of them gave her a concerned look, but didn't pry. She hoped they would become friends with each other — they were both so nice. Nicer than I'd be, I would guess, she thought.

She wasn't particularly hungry and her camping gear would keep her warm. She was scrupulous about stripping down to her panties — actually her boy briefs since they were cheaper to buy — so as not to ruin her clothes with sweat — especially the Otonokizaka uniform she was counting on to keep attention away. She spent almost as much time keeping clean as she used to spend playing the piano, the girl reflected.

She'd done other things to change her look, before she got her fake ID, too. Bleaching her hair and dying it a fairly natural-looking auburn was a major step. The Otonokizaka uniform would help her avoid looking like a yankee, and if people realized it was dyed and not just the result of being a hafu, and then noticed the violet contacts which she wore in addition to her no-prescription glasses, they would assume she was simply overly fashionable. Or so she fervently hoped.

She'd even adopted a very noticeable deliberate habit of twirling a strand of hair in her fingers and saying "Imi wakaranai!" when she was upset, and even when she was just pretending to be. Anyone hearing about her second-hand wouldn't recognize her at all.

As she did most days, the stowaway had actually been doing haikyo most of the day. It was necessary for her cover, and gave her a map of limited but vital safe houses for one night in an emergency.

Fortunately for her, several houses even in Tokyo, and even in Akihabara near Otonokizaka, were too pricey to demolish. The city regulations in Tokyo made it so expensive to get a permit to demolish safely that the profit you'd get by selling was often eaten up. Meanwhile, the land taxes on houses were artificially low. In their shoes, Maki decided, she'd weaken, indeed all but demolish the house supports, stay somewhere else, and wait for the next quake to complete the job.

Her headquarters had no power, naturally, but it did still have water somehow — perhaps it was on the same line as an adjoining building. She made a point of not using more than she could possibly avoid using. A little water for tea and drinking, and the rest for the toilet and sponge baths. She budgeted one session of laundry a month and one day at a public pool every two weeks, mainly for the shower.

For practicing, she used her tablet with a piano key program and earbuds. The tablet she recharged when she went to tea shops. If worst came to worst, she'd cleaned out the room she was using, found a discarded whiteboard, and put it in place with Otonokizaka Haikyo Club written neatly at the top. She had a table with four chairs around it, a big map, and the whiteboard was just behind that. There was nothing to indicate she slept in the completely bare side room she'd also cleaned up.

Her camp stove for tea and soup and instant noodles and camping meals left no evidence. It definitely did not look like what it was: currently, her only home.

She was pretty sure the abandoned house across the street from their Shouhei Bridge apartment complex was being used. She saw the faintest flicker of light, after all. Well, that or it was haunted. It would be dangerous to get too close just to pry, but she made a point of altering her route to bypass it somewhat nearly. Today it paid off. She saw a girl about the same age as Nee-san, and she seemed to be coming from that direction. She tried to be surreptitious, but had to go on her way when it became clear the girl was really paranoid. That raised all sorts of questions. One thing, she thought, was that her uniform looked like the one from Nee-san's school, where she was a successful school idol. People often confused her with her young-looking older sister. That must be why, when she had turned to go to the convenience store, and their eyes met briefly, the girl had a shocked expression on her face. Her sister was a celebrity, after all. She was tempted to address her and give her an autograph, but Nee-san would never approve of pranking a fan. Especially such a pretty fan.

Embarrassingly, it seemed the girl was going to the same store. She quickly crossed to the other side of the street, even though she'd have to cross back when they got near to the shop.

She realized she couldn't be more conspicuous. The girl knew her, for gods' sake. She determinedly crossed back and caught up with the Otonokizaka girl.

"Umm, Nico-san, was it?"

For some odd reason, the girl seemed really amused, Looking at her again, she thought what she had the last time, only much more so. She really did not look old enough to be a first year high-schooler. She was certain she'd skipped at least a grade, probably two. Something heavily discouraged in Japanese schools, though apparently common overseas. Her own parents had prevented her from doing so, and she was still angry about it. True, they had squeaked her in to elementary school though she was still five by April 1st, given her birthday was a few days into the school year, by delaying her entry a few days and saying "yes, she's six," when the intake secretary asked. They probably felt that was sufficient.

"Anyway, I wanted to thank you for how nice you and … Kotori-san were to me with the festival and all."

Now the girl had an "Oho!" expression. Even more puzzling. But at that, she held up her hand like a traffic cop.

"You are mistaken, that was my Onee-san," she said, laughing. "I was wondering if you were trying to get an autograph and that's why I laughed, I was amusing myself by imagining giving you one."

"An … an autograph?" she stuttered. "Umm …"

"Wait, you don't know Onee-san's a school idol? You're not a fan?"

"Well," she said honestly, "The school festival is the very first time I've ever paid attention to anything at Otonokizaka. I am usually in my own world with my studying. And neither Nico-san nor Kotori-san were doing anything celebrityish at the festival, that I can remember."

"Ah, so the nice thing they did was …"

"Taking pity on a hermit. I should say, 'first time I've paid attention to anything there other than haikyo' I mean. It's my one hobby."

"Oh, you do haikyo?"

"Yeah," she replied. She made a decision.

"Actually, the building across the street from the apartments is our base. I've been camping out over spring break, but every day I cover a different part of Tokyo."

"Wearing your uniform?"

"Pretty much. And the armband and badge. It's not illegal to do haikyo but it's nearly trespassing, and there are safety concerns. And you wouldn't want to be taken for a runaway and have your parents called."

"So, are you, like, the president?"

She'd asked the two Otonokizaka students and they had both said there was no such club at their school.

"Well, no, not on paper. But to the degree there is one, I would be." Even lying by omission felt bad, and it was good to recall this was the precious little sister to one of her benefactors, who knew the score to a degree.

"Can I see it when we get back?"

She was already in it, so she agreed.

When they got back near the apartments and the pretty but rather strange girl showed her her "base," she was surprised how little was there. A whiteboard, a big map with pins and sticky notes, a table and four chairs, and another small table with a camp stove, and that was that. She'd have to discuss the girl with her big sister.

They had tea and the girl regaled her with haikyo tales. It was funny, because the further back her stories went, the more it felt like second-hand information, like she'd started as a ghost member, then got enthusiastic. It reminded her of … well, it reminded her of how her onee-san went up and down about her idol club. The other two kids had no idea, but she wondered sometimes if being an idol wasn't less fame and fun and more pain than it was worth sometimes. Something bad had happened during her sister's first year, she now believed, but she'd never dared to bring it up, and her sister was clearly busy for at least an hour most evenings before going home. But unlike this girl, onee-san's stories became more second-hand-sounding the more recent they were.

At the very least, she thought her sister seemed kind of lonely, and this girl did, too. Maybe, just perhaps, her and her sister and this Kotori girl could all become friends? Interestingly, she never asked for their family name, not because she didn't want to be polite — you could see she'd been raised with good manners — but for fear of being asked to reciprocate. The strange girl was hiding something, but it wasn't her business what. But it might be Onee-san's she thought to herself with a smile. She'd tell her all about it the minute she got home.

Wow. That strange girl from the festival was camped out — living, more or less — across the street from them! If she had any contact with that Kotori girl, the headmistress's daughter, she'd probably mention it to her, but she didn't. She'd paid no attention to anyone who hadn't either taken a leaflet or shown they were willing to help the Idol Research Club, and Kotori had never fallen into either category. She had hoped getting involved with the festival would boost her own activities, but it hadn't helped a bit. Kotori had been friendly enough, and she was almost as skillful a seamstress as she was herself, at least for standard costumes, so they'd had a pleasant enough time. But her situation was too desperate to go making random friends. They would also be nosy, and her school life had degenerated into secrecy and gloom a long time ago.

Maybe, though, this was an opportunity. The girl seemed even more desperate than she was, to be honest. She didn't go to Otonokizaka — she'd just finished junior high and hadn't said anything about even applying to go there. The only reason she'd gone to their school festival was that she and Kotori had invited her, because she seemed lonely. She knew loneliness when she saw it, and Kotori seemed like a bleeding heart type.

So, basically, she could talk to the girl and as long as she agreed not to tell the family about her real situation at school, well … it would go no further. A year or more of suffering in isolation and despair would take its toll on anyone, and it added to the pain that she wasn't helping out at home as much as she should be, just to keep up her facade.

This was the definition of a random friend, true, but not a nosy one. On the contrary. She got her sister to promise to let her handle the girl for the near future.

The next morning, she got up early. She put some miso soup from last night in the microwave then poured it into a paper hot cup with a lid. Since she was making breakfast for everyone anyway, she put on a little extra smelt to grill, made a little more rice, and got out a little extra tsukemono. She arranged everything but the misoshiru in a small take-out box as if she was filling a bento. Then she left the house as if she were going to the conbeno. Instead, she walked rather swiftly over to the assumed-abandoned building where the girl was. She had given the name "Ma-Mami" when asked, but the stutter meant it wasn't her name. When she had been otaku enough to ask "like in Madoka?" the girl had looked nonplussed, like she'd never heard of it. Being named Mami made that unlikely.

She knocked, which she knew would spook the girl, but she said, loud enough to be clear but not so loud it would draw the attention of neighbors who happened to be up and about, "Kinjo e youkoso!"

She had a sinking feeling the older girl wasn't buying anything and this was her way of telling her as much. By pretending she swallowed her lies completely sincerely. She opened the door after she recovered from her heart attack due to the knock, and quickly invited her in and shut the door.

"Gomen, ne, Mami-san! I forgot I shouldn't give away your secret haikyo base. I just figured, since you are our new neighbor, well … Kinjo e youkoso!," she repeated. Again, she felt like the girl's body language was saying, Listen, I'm literally the one who told you there is no haikyo at Otonokizaka and the one who helped get you that very uniform you're wearing under false pretenses, so …

At least, it was a nice breakfast.

Her visitor only had tea, since, she explained, she was going to go back and have breakfast with her family. "Cocoro is probably serving everyone as we speak. Listen, Mami-san. This is a nice neighborhood, honest people, though many of us are somewhat poor. Still, people will eventually notice you. I don't mind vouching for you if I can be sort of sure you're not up to something bad, or doing something self-destructive."

She decided to show the girl her ID, which read "Saitou Misaki." It listed her a little over a year older than her actual age.

"Mami, huh?"

"Well, it's … a nickname."

"Well, if you are going to use haikyo for your secret agent cover, Mami-san, you're already a weird girl, right? So you might as well claim it's a Madoka-based nickname." With that, the small, but confident, girl pulled a small notepad out of her pocket and scribbled in it fiercely. Then she tore out the page on top and handed it to her.

It detailed the rough plot, main characters, and one or two facts about "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" which she knew enough Latin to declare mostly gibberish. But then, like her new quirks, being an otaku was also nothing like her old self. But it clashed with her dyed hair and stylish looks … Perhaps she could be a closet otaku.

She made another uncomfortable decision. Hell, this was her life now. She'd left the comfortable ones behind with all the other comforts of home.

"Today I have to do many things. Bank things, paperwork for school. Like that. I normally really do do haikyo, you know. But tomorrow, Saturday, I am free. If you know a cafe where we can talk quietly without being easily overheard, I would pay. I am on a … fixed budget, you can guess, but I can at least do that much."

The other girl got up and nodded. It was a date.

Fortunately for both of them, and their personal budgets, there was a somewhat nearby cafe. The girl still had her pass until school started and she, of course, did too, though she was certainly going to renew it. So getting there took neither time nor money. Even better, it was nice, inexpensive, and the tables were pretty far apart. They took the one furthest from the door.

The girl was even more unusual than she would have guessed. She hadn't been lying about anything two days ago, besides the obvious things. She really had been doing banking. Apparently, her grandparents had set up a postal account for her, and vouched for her. She just, conveniently, had never "gotten around" to telling her parents. Along with any prize money, =New Year's money, etc., apparently, she'd been tutoring all through middle school and putting the profits in her account. This was on top of getting perfect grades and winning piano competitions. "But papa said once I get to high school I have to stop playing," she observed. Nonchalantly, if you didn't watch her hands tighten angrily. Oho.

She, herself, couldn't imagine giving up music, and apparently, neither could "Mami." Then again, she found it hard to imagine giving up what — she was reading between what Mami said to discover — was quite a privileged life. I think once she realizes what being poor is like, she'll give in to her parents, she thought.

Really, it was quite childish to run away just because your parents didn't support your plans and wishes. She reminded herself that the ID was probably fake by one year, and the girl was two years younger than she was. And hadn't had to mother three children since she was a child herself. Then again, had she spent a year lying to her family about her glittering life, meanwhile crying to herself in a half-dark room surfing the internet, completely alone, for videos of girls who weren't failures? That wasn't exactly the most mature, let alone healthy, thing a girl her age could do.

Apparently, also, there was some early talk about o-miyais. In this day and age. She thought about it — perhaps that was how the rich families stayed rich in supposedly equal Japan. But, anyway, she was scarcely destitute. Her budget was plenty to tide her over while she attended high school and applied for scholarships, grants and loans for university.

That paperwork part was for real, too. Ironically, not only had she, in fact, applied to Otonokizaka, among others, but she'd been accepted there (as well as a half dozen other schools) without any fees whatsoever. Her parents had already signed off on several scholarship applications, most of them ostensibly for science or medicine-related programs, but many of them had simply been redirected by Mami simply filling out a form later on, because they were more open than they seemed at a casual glance. Mami's goal was to go to a top music school like Geidai. She had found music schools that were markedly less expensive yet almost equally prestigious, and all of her grants would apply to them once she was accepted. She had also applied for every possible scholarship, citing her record as a prize-winning piano prodigy. She'd also won a viola contest. And she could play the flute well, as well as the oboe and clarinet.

She'd won nearly as many composition contests as performance ones, which interested Nico. She knew in the pop world of dancing and singing that original compositions were extremely important.

It occurred to her that she could make Mami happy by actually starting a haikyo club. Ah, but she couldn't. The instant she was part of another club the student council would pounce, and that would be that for the Idol Research Club. But that led to a thought she'd been avoiding all through second year — that she should let it die. She was way above average at singing and dancing, there was no doubt about that. But she would have to give herself a very low grade — in the 20s — for reaching out and networking and for keeping her fellow idols smiling. It wasn't that she couldn't be a team player — just not for the sort of team she could find at Otonokizaka.

She had to at some point, and it was now an albatross around her neck like in the poem. If so, there was a long list of things she couldn't stand to do that she must. Telling mama what she'd really been up to. Explaining to the kids. Getting four other people involved in a club she wasn't even interested in. Even contacting Kotori — she'd have to do that, right? In fact, she'd have to tell her pretty much everything. It was a choice — go on in despair with her head held artificially high, or spend the spring break and part of her third year in humiliation. Wonderful.

She was really shocked. Yazawa-san still had her number? Well, be fair. She had been friendly with the tiny wannabe idol. In fact, she was just being mean in her thoughts to cover up a true shame. She had watched the cute little thing flounder and instead of really getting involved had gone on to "better" friends, especially Eli. Which was exactly the behavior by other girls that had caused her tearful, sleepless nights at the schools she would transfer into for half a year. It helped a little that the girl had been so focused that you could kid yourself she wasn't even concerned with having friends or not. But not after her club abandoned her. No, you really couldn't. She'd told herself at the time it was a kindness convincing Eli to keep the club active with just the president left. Eli had disagreed, and she was probably right. There was a difference between being truly kind and just not wanting to see that little face crumble when the last thing she had left was taken away from her.

You can ruminate about guilt and choices later, she decided. The text was an opportunity. Wonder why she wants the drama club's first-year assistant dressmaker? Is she starting another idol group? Well, technically, she might be able to justify giving the number of someone who'd recorded it as part of the drama club, right? How else would they network? One of the things she couldn't get Eli to face was that Otonokizaka was far too stiff and controlled for fun and happy group things to arise spontaneously. If she hinted at that it came off like a personal attack on Eli, in fact. Plus, she already had the reputation, so …

She texted back Kotori's number and told her to just say she got it from a friend. Given their history, it was a blatant lie.

Was this what Yazawa-san was like? So tentative, almost frightened? Well, she liked a mystery. They would meet in two days, and she was looking forward to it. Apparently the strange girl from the festival would be there, as well. Her mystery cup was running over. Too bad she couldn't tell Honoka and Umi about it.

When she brought "Mami" to stay overnight she just told Mama she was a neighbor and someone she knew from school. Mama just looked at her as if she knew her daughter was keeping a lot of things from her, but then sighed. She welcomed Mami (or Misaki or whatever her name really was) and said it was fine if she stayed for dinner and stayed overnight in Nico's room. The only thing they had in common as far as she knew was music so, not without trepidation, she showed her videos of her group performing, and for comparison, the ones she'd gotten from competing schools. Mami immediately noticed what, apparently, no one at Otonokizaka was competent enough to: Nico's group was polished, accomplished, and exciting. They made even the best other school groups look feeble. When she found out how her group had disbanded and abandoned her near the end of first year, she gasped. When she told her about her last year, alone, watching idol videos and never speaking to anyone except to try to get them to take leaflets to join the club, the strange girl said, "I don't ever do this, but …" and hugged her. She decided she wasn't going to get out of this without tears, so she let hers out. Fortunately, Mami didn't wear her uniform at night.

The next morning, when she told her family the long-suppressed truth, as she expected, the youngest ones were shocked silent. But her mother took things in hand. "The only problem here is that my oldest daughter doesn't feel she has the right to ever fail, to ever show weakness, because we all have depended on her as far back as she can remember. Her friend Mami is right — your sister did nothing wrong and the girls she was working with simply couldn't keep up. Her finally telling us the truth is a very good thing, and it's healthy, Nico-chan. If the idol world won't take you because you lost a couple of years — and that's not for certain, as young as you look — then maybe you need to decide it's not for you. There are a lot of other ways to make people smile and honor your father's memory. And we are already proud of you. Cocoro and I understand perfectly, and we can talk to Cocoa and Cotarou. But I am a little angry with that world you are so invested in, I admit it."

It was very rare a Japanese person stood up for their child against the world, but Yazawa Kotono was a rather rare specimen. She was glad her daughter could be self-reliant — her own experience showed her that could suddenly be necessary — but it had gone far too far. She hugged her daughter and said, quietly, "Nico, you have reached out to Kotori, Mami, and even Nozomi, even though she obviously hurt you so in first year. I want you to promise us you will make this a good year, and go out on a good note. Cocoro and I can handle things. The twins are mostly seeing to themselves for many things, and all you have to do is your normal share, not absolutely everything. And when you aren't here, you don't have to be guilty and you don't have to never do anything for yourself anymore, okay? This is the first day of your life, and you owe it to yourself to wake up and seize it."

At that, Mama turned to Mami and shocked her by addressing her: "Was there abuse?"

The strange girl was obviously brilliant, but it was still impressive she wasn't caught flat-footed.

"No, not at all. They just made it abundantly clear that nothing I wanted to do, with my school, my career, or even who I would marry, and so on, mattered a bit. It was all decided years ago and I should never say a word other than "hai, okaasan, hai, otousan." They probably think I'll come crawling and it will take months before they realize otherwise."

"I probably shouldn't have asked, should I? Now I can't unhear anything. Well, Mami, if it helps, I understand a little bit, maybe. When I was starting high school, two of my friends and I were practicing kissing. They liked it so much they started dating."

She couldn't help herself. "Noriko and Kikuko were dating?"

"Yes, they were," Mama said with a grin. "And my parents found out about it and threatened to start sending me to omiyai even though I was only fifteen. So, instead, I found Nico's father and told them we were going out, when we were really just friends. Which appeased them. And as you can see, it worked out."

Her mother's name was Kikuko. And her mother's best friend was named Noriko — she was the principal at Otonokizaka, which was where she had first heard of it. She had a strange feeling.

"Umm … " she suddenly spoke up. "What were your friends' family names?"

Mrs. Yazawa looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Nakamura Noriko and Kobayashi Kikuko. Why?"

Her reaction probably showed on her face. She had something like a poker face, usually, but not always.

"You're Maki-chan! Aren't you?"

It was their second visit in a short time. At this rate, the cafe would regard them as regulars. Kotori was gracious when she arrived, but wasn't she, usually? Perhaps a little flirty and mischievous, but gracious, definitely.

Time to grab the nettle. "Minami-san, we'd like to be friends with you. I hope that doesn't startle you."

The girl did, indeed, look surprised. "This isn't about the uniform, is it, Mami-san? I told you you don't need to give it back."

The other two girls both laughed. "No, we really want to get to know you better," Nico said. "You are part of a group with … oh, shoot … Kousaka of Homura's, right? And the kendo champion … Sonada?"

"And you, Yazawa-san? I think I saw you talking to the student council, are you involved?"

"Uh, no. The secretary and I, we used to associate in first year. And I had an idol group, so we asked them for permission for things. And I kept the idol research club going even after we lost all but the ghost members, so sometimes I have to request permission to use the bulletin board and to leaflet."

She wasn't outright stating she had no friends, and Kotori was polite enough not to try to clarify it.

Maki spoke up, then. "I would like to call you Kotori-sempai, if that's alright? I will be starting at Otonokizaka in a couple of months, after all. We have some issues that we'd appreciate your thoughts on, in fact."

"Oh?" asked Kotori.

With Nico's permission, Maki had brought along the videos she had watched in Nico's room. Nico's bed had been a bit cramped, but as emotional as they'd both been, having someone cuddled next to them had been comforting and helped them both get to sleep.

"First, would you do me the enormous favor of watching these videos? One disk has Nico-sempai's group performances, and the other has various other schools that were their competition. I think Kotori-sempai may need to understand more if she ends up being willing to help us."

Kotori had suggested they meet again in a couple of days at her favorite cafe. She'd offered to pay, but they both told her they were already going to be asking her for help, so that would be too much. Instead, Nico and Maki would be splitting the costs for the three of them there.

Therefore, today was reserved for haikyo. Maki had a smaller, cruder version of the for-show map in her headquarters. It turned out Mrs. Yazawa had a compact sleeping bag for camping that she'd bought in high school. She'd always left it out of its bag, and even rotated it occasionally, so it would keep its loft. Nico seemed fascinated with all of Maki's safe houses.

It wasn't quite parkour, but Nico had enjoyed the circuitous routes they'd had to take to get to Maki's preferred sites. Since there were two of them, Maki hadn't felt the need to wear her uniform, so both of them opted for sturdy but older clothes. Nico wore the badge and Maki the armband, so they both looked somewhat haikyo official.

When they over-nighted at her second-best house, Nico brought up the idea of getting a new fake ID with the Yazawa's address. She phoned her mother, who was silent for a while. Finally, she answered that it was acceptable to her. "Both of you are in a hole, digging your way out, I think. In such situations, bending a few rules may be allowed. But I want Maki-chan to get to know our neighbors. Explain everything you did in the past. Tell them your name on your ID as well as your nickname. Bring them gifts. Participate in the neighborhood sports meet. Let everyone know you're a haikyofanatic. You don't have to actually show your ID, so you can tell the truth about being not yet in high school and being in your middle school haikyo club. I won't lie for you, but I won't contradict Nico if she says you're a cousin or something. Since it's a little crowded, you both would probably prefer it if Maki-chan usually sleeps in the house she's squatting in."

After they finished their soup, they hit an internet cafe for about a half hour — mainly to use the toilet. Nico, of course, looked at idols on Maki's tablet, after both of them checked their email. They had both gotten email from Kotori. She was very impressed by Nico's group, and wondered if they needed a costumer if they were going to start it up again.

When they got back to the abandoned house, they both hesitated. Finally, Maki suggested they zip their bags together. They were similarly-sized, and Nico's happened to zip on the right side, while Maki's zipped on the left. You could always flip one if they weren't matched, but that took away some of the loft, and, more importantly, made it much harder to zip, and would produce gaps. Maki had researched everything about camping before leaving her home for the last time. Her expertise impressed the older girl.

Just as it had the night before, the presence of the other girl made each of them more at peace. And the body heat didn't hurt, either.

They were bolder girls than she'd thought, Minami Kotori mused to herself. So, her normal instinct to be bold herself should be okay. At some point, she'd have to tell Honoka and Umi-chan about what she was up to over spring break, but not yet. When they were officially ninensei would be time enough. But at any rate, she piped up.

"A neighborhood sports meet? I have read about those! They have that sort of thing in Tokyo? Could I join?" Nico and Mami looked at each other.

"Well," Nico began, then paused. "I really don't see why not. We're claiming she's my cousin, so if we say you are a friend of both of us, no one will think it odd. Just tell them the truth, that you always wanted to see a neighborhood sports meet."

"Your cousin?"

"Yes, she's kind of staying with us. Technically, she's across the street in her haikyocamp, but …"

"What a bold girl you are, Mami-san!"

"Thank you, Kotori-sempai. I mean, you meant that as a compliment, right?"

When Kotori nodded, Nico suddenly got a very serious expression. Their coffee and desserts arrived just then, and Kotori noticed Nico stopped speaking immediately until the server was gone.

"Maybe, first, I will be brave and ask you if you saw the videos, and, if so, what you think of it all, Minami-san?"

"First, please call me Kotori, Nico-sempai. And what I think is that if what I heard is true, that the girls in your idol group abandoned you, they were idiots." Mami nodded vigorously.

"Yes, that was my reaction, too. So, the first secret we are going to tell you is that Nico-sempai was abandoned not only by her group but by her friends, and was too ashamed to tell her family, so she spent the last year entirely alone, alleviating her misery by watching other idols in her club."

Kotori gasped, she couldn't help it, and put her hands over her mouth.

"Thanks to one of my former friends — She's how I got your contact info — I was able to keep my club with only one member, but it ended up being like quicksand. Anyway, because of one of our other secrets, I want to give it up, after I bring home all the things I furnished the club with, I mean."

"But it would be such a crime if Nico-sempai gave up dancing!" she couldn't help but interrupt to say.

"Well, we can discuss it. I think it's time to move on to the other secret."

With that, the other girl admitted her name wasn't Mami and it wasn't what was on her ID, either. It wouldn't matter until she started at Otonokizaka, she insisted, so it was "best if Kotori-sempai continues to think of me as Saitou Misaki" — at which point she showed Kotori her ID — "and known as Mami." In reality, she admitted, she wasn't a haikyo fanatic. She had been a ghost member in the haikyo club in middle school as a cover for tutoring, and only familiarized herself with it enough to pretend to her parents. What she really was, was a runaway.

"And, Minami-san …" "Kotori," she interrupted. "Kotori-san, right. What I was hoping to do was if you would be so kind, you would sign up as a ghost member when I start a haikyo club at school. That will bring the idol research club to a halt because Toujou Nozomi has been covering for me for a year, but it's time." She seemed to pause before repeating, "It's time." Then, "and perhaps you could help us scout out another two members. Ghosts are fine. It's just that, it might be a bit much if Ma-Mami-chan were at our apartment all the time, and she's very intrepid. If someone finds her in the house across the street, she could phone me and I could come over and meet her and say it was our base, you see. And it is fun camping overnight in those buildings, it turns out, if we're lonely for each other's company we can do that."

It was pretty convoluted, but then again she didn't know anything about Yazawa, really. In fact … She had become a kind of hermit before Kotori even got to Otonokizaka, but hadn't she sort of noticed the group once when visiting her mother there? She forced herself to concentrate. Yes. Her mother had mentioned she knew Nico-sempai's mother from school, she was a young widow, and that she had four children, and there was a big gap between the eldest and the rest. She said that Nico was a very good girl and was holding the family together. If all they could afford was a small apartment, then yes, adding one more teenager might be a bit much. Mami having somewhere else to live and only coming over sometime might make the difference between a burden and a blessing.

"I'll make a deal with you, Nico-sempai, Maki-san," she said, smiling.

They looked at her expectantly.

"I'll help Nico-sempai start a haikyo club as a cover for Maki-san. But we agree it's a crime Nico-sempai stopped singing and dancing, correct? So I propose we also convert the idol club into a dance club. One of my best friends is tired of kendo, and my other best friend is telling her she'll get fat if she quits. She does eat a lot of bread and sweets. And she loves things like DDR. And if we both ask sweetly, I think we can get Umi-chan to agree to be a ghost in both clubs. And Honoka will be a for-real dance club member. To keep her weight, if nothing else. And the student council vice-president, Ayase-sempai, she visits my mother a lot, she has lamented not able to do any dancing here. Where she's from in Russia — she's a hafu — I guess she was a very talented dancer. And there's nothing to say we can't do our own singing for the music."

At that they looked at each other, puzzled.

"Otonokizaka is very traditional, and things like school idols aren't part of that. But a dance club, they have a history with that, so people like Ayase-sempai will be okay with it. They also had a haikyo club, unfortunately I only know because my mother was relieved when it died a year before I arrived as a student."

The Yazawa cousin was a good girl, Mrs. Itou decided. Her manners were excellent, and she and the Otonokizaka principal's daughter had gone all out in the sports meet without being too fierce. Exactly as they should. Well, no surprise. They were both friends of Nico-chan, after all. She was the most dutiful girl in their neighborhood, which was keeping its own identity even though it adjoined Jimbocho and Kanda and was part of Akihabara. But it had to be said, the girl was rather sad. Maybe having friends would make her smile more. It was ironic, since she seemed so desperate to make other people smile, but the girl's own smile never reached her eyes. And when she thought no one was looking her face revealed a deep inner misery.

In fact, the cousin was already cheering her up. They had both helped with the community garden without being asked, so she was dutiful as well. So she had mentioned to the cousin that she needed a little help at their family sake shop and she had, politely, almost jumped at the chance. It wouldn't be many hours a week, but apparently, like her cousins the Yazawas, she could use everything she could earn. Poor Tomoko was still working too many hours at her two jobs, though according to her second oldest, she'd finally felt comfortable in cutting back to about 50 hours a week, not counting commuting time.

She'd already notified the cousin, Mami-chan, that they would need her every day in the month just before school started, and she seemed fine with that. She clearly wanted to bank some savings, since once school started she would probably be too busy for an arbeito.

Since she was going to have dinner with the Yazawas, Maki was going along with Nico to do the shopping. Some of it would be at the convenience store/grocery, but today was the farmer's market day. She really enjoyed shopping with Nico, who was shrewd and knowledgable and well-liked. Nico, in turn, seemed to be really happy not to do everything all alone for once.

The fishmonger Watanabe had mentioned "Nico-chan's pretty cousin," but she had ignored that. Nico told her they'd gotten the fish very cheaply, probably at cost. She wouldn't be unfriendly even if older men were really flirting with her but she wouldn't smile, either. If it became common, she'd go out once in her middle school uniform. Nico agreed that was a good idea, and suggested she have Cocoro accompany her next time.

Working at the sake shop didn't cut in to her haikyo time at all, and, in fact, now that she was somewhat settled, she was back to composing every day. She and Nico would work on lyrics, and often Nico would supply a rhythm. She was competent to play chords or a basic melody on Maki's tablet, and they also brought a small Yamaha keyboard that Nico had gotten from her late father and bequeathed to the younger children. It turned out they weren't that interested in using it, and donated it back to Nico and "Mami." Cocoro and Mrs. Yazawa knew her real name and situation, but they could be relied on not to let it slip. Life was, surprisingly, good. Perhaps it was too good to last. That night, after dinner, she was ambushed by Nico and her mother.

"You need to write at least your mother a letter, Maki-chan." Nico nodded firmly, agreeing with her mother. "Whatever dispute you have, it's no good leaving them hanging, not even knowing if you are well, or even alive." Well, that was true.

"Spend the night again, please, Maki-chan," Nico said. "We can go right now. Write it up and let me look it over, in case things are too raw now, I can help you tone it down." Well, with her sempai and her mother's friend ganging up on her, what choice did she have.

It turned out Nico decided she'd been wise to insist on looking it over. "You have to be much kinder and much more polite than this, Maki-chan. For one thing, it will convince them you're mature, if nothing else." Maki had told them she was safe and well and able to take care of herself and stay presentable, and not in the slightest interested in living in the Nishikino manor again.

Maki crossed out several lines. She planned to copy it over anyway. But she added a note that "I have a friend who is reading this and telling me I am too harsh, and if so, I am sorry. I am now living on modest means, and so is she. She says I should be properly grateful for the care and education I have received from you, and I agree. However, I am afraid being too polite will let us dodge the issue. The issue is that neither of you will ever give anything I feel about my life, my plans, my goals, my wishes, even my love life even ten seconds of thought or a smidgeon of respect. That price is simply too much to pay, and I refuse to deal with either of you until it's made clear that I don't depend on you and you cannot order me around as you like. At 16, after a little over a year of living on my own and not being your dependent, I can, and will, be emancipated. At that point, we can reconcile as human beings and family members, not as masters and pet."

The way Nico looked at that, she probably regretted saying anything. But she just sighed and told Maki that it was better than nothing. When Maki mailed it, there was no return address.

They decided to treat themselves before Maki would have obligations to the sake shop and they could only do weekend trips. Nico and Maki decided to do haikyo in Kyoto. Unexpectedly, Kotori asked if she could come along. She had told her friends a little about them — Nico said they were Kousaka Honoka, who was part of her family's manju and other sweets business and Sonada Umi, who was the best kendo club member. Apparently Kousaka was doing kendo as well, but Kotori had managed to interest her in dance club instead.

She'd told them about getting to know Nico doing costumes for the festival, and meeting her cousin Mami when encountering them over a weekend.

Kotori had only slept over one night in an abandoned building near a hot springs. After she left, completely thrilled with the experience, they visited the hot spring again, just the two of them. They'd been climbing around all day, and Nico's arms were sore, so Maki gave her a shoulder rub in the bath.

Nico accepted gratefully, and afterwards Maki wrapped her arms around her and Nico nestled in to Maki, keeping her eyes blissfully closed, with Maki's hands clasped over her stomach.

"Nico-sempai?" she heard Maki say, rather tentatively. "Yes?" She replied, cautiously.

"Do you remember how our mothers knew each other?"

"Well, they were friends at school, right?"

No answer. A thought intruded into the calm atmosphere.

"You don't mean k-kissing practice?"

The silence said she did.

"No-nozomi and I..."

"The secretary? You kissed?"

Maki's voice had a strange tone.

"N-no, we were going to, but Ayase ..."

"She interrupted?" Maki interrupted.

"Y-yeah. She wouldn't practice with Nozomi, but it seems she was watching her like a bird of prey."

With that, she dared to turn her head and meet Maki's eyes. She had a thoughtful expression, as if she could understand Eli's behavior. Then she looked Nico in the eye.

In somewhat of a daze, Nico turned around even more, still held tightly in Maki's arms as she was. She found herself eventually straddling Maki's lap and facing her fully. She saw Maki lean towards her a bit, and, still dazed, she followed suit. Some of it was the woozy feeling of being in the hot springs a little too long. But some of it was not.

Maki turned her head a bit, and lo and behold, they were kissing. It was Nico's first kiss, and the main thing she felt about that was … relieved. Being seventeen and never kissed had been one of countless things preying on her mind. It didn't even matter that it was a girl, because, after all, anyone would say Maki was beautiful enough to be special, right.

Then Maki pulled her tight. Their breasts were pushing together! She was not only kissing Maki, she was kissing her naked! They were very lucky they were the only two in the pool at the moment. She didn't want to offend Maki, so she kissed back for a while. Then she said, "We need to get out, we've stayed too long for me, Maki-chan."

As they showered and dried off, they didn't say anything. Maki just looked at Nico.

They got back to their base for the night. Maki had, as usual, made it clean and livable on one of her earlier visits. Nico was used to stripping down to just her panties. Not wearing anything more than you needed made sense when camping seriously. This time, Maki stripped off her panties, folded them, and put them on a crate they'd used as a chair. She looked at Nico significantly. Nico decided she wasn't in a mood to argue with Maki, or even offend her, so she did the same, then jumped into their joined bags. Maki followed suit, and soon they were kissing again.

Maki licked Nico's lips, and when she parted them a little, tickled her tongue with Maki's. When she started kissing Nico's neck and stroking her body, Nico panicked a little and said she didn't know anything about … Maki said she didn't either. She stopped for a second and looked at Nico and asked, "Is seventeen too young?"

It was a good question. As an idol, it wouldn't be ideal even at seventeen if Maki were a boy, but in all honesty, no one would know if it was a girl. She made a snap decision: "Don't push too far, don't hurt me, Maki-chan." Somehow she felt 'they'd know' if she was still a physical virgin. Nico was timid and easily intimidated in the idol world. Her bitter experience had made her gun-shy.

Maki obeyed Nico's request, but later they told each other they had one of the most unusual and memorable nights of their lives. Nico didn't like to think that they were "having sex." She just felt very good and it seemed somehow very romantic. The lonely hermit had found a runaway princess, and it was all very good. Maki felt knots unclenching inside her that were always there unnoticed until they weren't, any more.

—

As the haikyo girl Saitou Misaki got busier at the sake shop she was helping out at, Kotori saw a lot more of Nico-sempai. She, Honoka and Kotori were all practicing dancing for when they started the club at Otonokizaka soon. Umi volunteered as their trainer. She was a slave-driver, but Nico only always thanked her profusely, no matter how sore or tired she got, so the others felt shamed into not complaining. Mami joined them once a week on Saturdays, and according to Nico, the rest of the week she did exercises and even practiced a little in her little house across the street, after she was done with work. Nico never explained that it was Mami's haikyo base, but then again, they didn't ask.

It turned out that vice president Ayase Eli still practiced dancing once a week at a studio she'd found in Kanda, and they went over once, all of them including Mami. While Ayase had been openly scornful of Nico's group, which Nozomi admitted in texts but got Nico to promise not to show she knew about, she had, for whatever reason, mellowed considerably over the last two years. She applauded their commitment to dancing, Umi's training, and even Nico and Kotori's costumes. While she planned to be student council president, and hence couldn't commit very much time to the dance club, she pledged to join, and help them find other members, and practice once a week. It was a major coup. She also marveled at Mami's composing ability, and agreed with Nico that having that string in their bow was a huge advantage. She shook her head when Nico told her she was also going to be part of Saitou's new haikyo club, but gave the two girls pointers on how they'd go about reviving it, nonetheless. She really surprised Nico and the others when they were about to go: "Nico, I know how much your idol club meant to you, Nozomi told me, and it must hurt you very much to give it up. When I came here, I had just been turned down for a major ballet studio. I wasn't even allowed to audition more than once, unlike many of the other girls. They said something about me told them I wouldn't fit in. I don't think it was being half Japanese, it was more that I came off proud and stubborn, maybe. I didn't know the language, I had no friends, and I hated my life. I have become significantly happier. Just saying." She gave Nico a sympathetic look.

After they left the studio, Kotori saw Nico and her cousin laughing at something. When she pestered them to find out what it was, they both seemed to be evaluating Kotori. She had been teasing them both about going out because of how close they seemed to her. As was usually the case, Mami took action. She whispered in Kotori's ear. "Nico was angry at Ayase for a long time because she interrupted her kissing Toujou-san, but now she's grateful to her that Nico's first kiss was saved until now." "Wow!" was all Kotori could whisper back. They really were a couple. She supposed it wasn't surprising, but it was the first time she had met two girls who were actually girlfriends. It was also interesting to see a sempai/kouhai couple. The fact that Saitou-san didn't have a high-school uniform but wanted one meant she was at least two years younger than Yazawa-sempai, too. And Kotori hoped they wouldn't claim they were closecousins, after all. Umm, near cousins. Make that "genetically closely related cousins." Though when it was two girls, was that okay? She snapped out of it and laughed. She had met Mami at the same time Nico had, after all. Whatever story they came up with, she just had to go along.

She felt really bad about Yazawa-sempai, she decided. All of first year, people had pointed at her, or at a minimum, turned their faces away from her. She was a desperate, lonely weirdo. The fact that she looked no older than twelve, and would fruitlessly try to give out leaflets every day, even in cold, miserable, rainy weather, got her the nickname "Matchiurino shoujo" at Otonokizaka.

She didn't want to think of herself as being like the kind of people who had ignored The Little Match Girl, but then again, she often didn't know what she of all people could do about the things that were sad in the world. When they started training, her sempai admitted she'd spent the last year or so when not leafletting, sitting down and surfing the web, so she was completely out of shape. The only exercise she'd had had been doing haikyo with Saito-san lately. Nonetheless, after Yazawa heard Umi say she'd become lazy and was eating too much after dropping kendo, she offered to race her up the temple steps they'd been training on. To her clear surprise, "lazy and out of shape" by Umi standards meant "doing pretty well" by human standards. She'd beaten Yazawa handily.

They had a rematch after several training sessions, and Yazawa was just as fast as her. With her dedication, sempai was going to pull ahead soon, which made her train just a bit harder and have just a little less manju. She gave Umi the extra, hoping against hope she'd gain weight and slow down. That was a pipe dream, it turned out. While kendo had, actually, been fun, being in a dance club was like being praised for doing DDR all the time. She couldn't wait for school to start. Otonokizaka was a wonderful place, just as her mother had promised. It would be wonderful seeing her sister there when she was a third-year. Something Kotori had said once about schools like this one being in decline had put a scare into her at the time, but she had quickly added that her mother didn't think it was something their generation had to worry about.

She really admired Nico-sempai's graciousness, and if Kotori's little jokes about them dating had any truth to them eventually, that wouldn't be a bad thing. They would make an impressive couple. Her sister and her best friend Arisa were gaga over girl's love manga, and she had read a few, which gave her a more worldly attitude.

She would never, in a million years, have guessed her mother knew she read Aera. But there in the jobs section of her favorite song-writing magazine, was a small ad:

Maki, please write. No fights, no questions. Noriko.

She still didn't give a return address, and she disguised a lot of what she wrote about, but within those strictures, she tried to give a somewhat fleshed out picture of what her life was like now. Before she sealed her letter, she had a couple of last minute thoughts, over which she hesitated. She finally decided to give the address of a mail drop she'd arranged to get her paperwork at. It wasn't near her base, so it was probably safe to do. Then, and amusingly, twirling her hair for real and with her tongue probing the corner of her mouth, she wrote, "My situation now resembles a friend of yours, Kobayashi Kikuko, with her close friend." That was probably a sufficient hint.

She sighed when she got the letter. The only good sign was that she must have written immediately, without hesitation. So, not only was she showing no interest at all in returning and preparing to take over, but she was also not necessarily going to provide her own heirs, either.

Girls often got over "that sort of thing" once school was over, she did, but they didn't always. She felt old and tired. She had one nephew and one niece that both were capable of improving themselves, and it was time to start evaluating them. The hospital must go on.

Putting any more pressure on Maki wouldn't regain a hospitalist, it was now clear. It would lose them a daughter. May you have a good life, willful girl, she sighed. Again.

When she wrote back (Maki had written that she checked the mail once a week or so), she was very careful not to stir up any trouble. When her husband complained they'd had no warning of any of this, after reading her letter, she responded: "we told her not to say anything to us, just do her work and excel against the other children, so she did just that."

He looked upset, but nodded. They were both sure that, whatever she was up to, she was excelling at it. There'd never been any other option.

When Officer Satou got a phone call saying the Nishikino heiress was no longer missing, but her status was "estranged from the family and staying elsewhere," he felt bad for the couple. They were dedicated healers, scrupulously honest and hard-working. Kind, generous people. It just seemed out of balance that people like that would have a daughter like that. She had seemed fine the one time he'd encountered her, too. Very pretty. Maybe almost too quiet, eh? Well, it might be a bad thing for a police officer to think, but sometimes there was just no justice in the world.

She had, of necessity, kept her real ID sequestered. She'd been tempted to cut up the fake one that didn't have the Yazawa's address, then come to her senses. You couldn't really have too many IDs if you were, even technically, a runaway. There would be a collision between the name she'd given to everyone but Nico and the one that had to be in the school records, but as that filtered out, they'd make sure that a vague rumor that she had to hide her identity for some reason trickled out with it, so she wouldn't come off as just a liar.

They'd given Honoka, Umi and Kotori a heads-up before school started up — Kotori had already told the other two about her actual living situation. Not only were the Yazawas well-liked in the neighborhood, but so was "Mami," by now. People would, if anything, pity her instead of getting angry as word that she was not actually Cousin Saitou Misaki filtered out.

She'd just been thinking of the second-year trio as she and Nico walked along the hall in Otonokizaka. Maki/Mami had been talking with the principal about trying to skip one grade so she'd only be behind Nico one year instead of two. It was looking very promising, and it seemed to light a fire under Nico to find a good performance school and get accepted, too. But there the three girls were … and something was very wrong with Honoka. Had she over-exerted herself?

"My high school … life … over …." It seemed she had regained consciousness.

Nico bent over the girl, who was being supported by Kotori and Umi, and gave her a sympathetic look. "I have been there, Honoka-san. It's not over till it's over, you know?"

"You don't … get it … " the girl addressed mumbled, seemingly about to pass out again.

"Ummm …" began Kotori.

"Honoka just found out the school is closing," Umi continued sadly.

Well, there went all their plans into the toilet.

She had guessed, correctly, that they weren't all going to be tossed out the door and left to fend for themselves educationally. Actually, the situation was even better than that. The plan was simply to accept no more new students. After the class Maki was in graduated, the school would close for real.

That meant, as a practical matter, it didn't affect any of them currently there. It would be very sad, of course, that Cocoro, Cocoa, Cotarou, Yukiho and Alisa would never be able to go to the same school as their Onee-chans, but they would all be going to the big high school, UTX, which was thriving and probably suited the younger generation better, anyway.

If she was going to be honest, she wasn't sure she had any real feelings for the school. The place where she was known as The Idol Failure and The Little Match Girl wasn't exactly warming her heart.

But she could see Honoka's unhappiness about losing the school had touched Maki very deeply. And where she went, Nico was going to go. At least for now.

They had talked to Nozomi and Ayase and neither of them had any ideas they were confident about. Surprisingly, creating the dance club had been a snap. Two girls that formed an unlikely pair, Koizumi and Hoshizora, had both jumped at the chance. One of them was actually a school idol fan, and when they showed her videos of Nico's group after they met each other at the first meeting, she became a Nico fan.

She hadn't had high hopes for the Haikyo Club, and they'd discussed other ways of hiding the fact that "Mami" was living as a squatter, when three girls that knew Honoka volunteered. Fumiko, Mika and Hideko said they were all too shy to dance in public, but they wanted to help, so they joined the dance club as assistants. When they heard "Misaki/Mami" and Nico talking about doing haikyo, they were immediately fascinated, and signed up. Because "Mami" was unsure about where her time would be going this year, they decided to make her and Fumiko co-presidents, so they could spell each other off.

Still, everyone had guilty feelings about poor Honoka. After one practice, which was one of Ayase-kaicho's weekly visits, however, the normally shy Koizumi got some papers out of her pack and strode up to her. She stuttered a little on her name and title, and the president told her she could just call her "Eri" if she was more comfortable with that.

"E-eri-sempai, you should know that not only will they bring back the Love Live! School Idol Contest this year, which is very prestigious and has not been held for five years now. Bu-but … But a dance club can enter as long as some of them are singing."

She had Nico's attention. That very notion is what she had used to spur her original group on. Any year, she'd said, they would bring back Love Live! , and Otonokizaka with Nico as the leader had a great shot at winning it.

She tilted her head towards Honoka, rolling her eyes significantly at Ayase. Ayase looked disgruntled, but she said, "Okay. We'll do it. Honoka, pull yourself together, this is probably your one chance to make an effort that might bear fruit. Might."

Honoka smiled and saluted. Umi looked a little worried, probably about how she'd handle both kendo and a serious commitment to training the dance club. But then Kotori smiled at her, and she smiled back. Then, they all smiled, even Koizumi, who'd been looking nervous but determined.

"You know …" added Ayase. "Nozomi is really good at ballroom dance. She has taught me everything I know about it, and she's really smooth. Adding something like that to our routines would set us apart and emphasize that we are dance-oriented. I'll see what she thinks. Yazawa-san, she's said to me many times she wishes she could do something with you.

She didn't drop her smile, not a bit, but she definitely had mixed emotions about that. She reminded herself not to think bad thoughts by squeezing Maki's hand. That girl looked over at her and nodded that she understood. She squeezed back, and drew Nico in a little.

Suddenly, everyone seemed to be swept up in the moment. No one was criticizing, everyone was simply accepting the idea and planning what they could do. It seemed naive, but it was also heartwarming. Nico seemed willing to go along, even though it was likely she wouldn't be in charge — and if not, that would be a mistake on their parts, objectively. And even though Nico flinched a little when Ayase mentioned Toujou-san. Well, that just gave Maki an excuse to comfort her.

It was in Maki's nature to both brood and worry. She had a lover. She had just turned fifteen. She was pretty sure her parents wouldn't harass her, yank her out of school, or otherwise try to ruin her life. She was very worried about being in a relationship, now that she could pause and think. If she and Nico stayed the loners they had been, with only each other, wouldn't they fight eventually? Be so dependent they wouldn't allow the other to grow and change and go off and do their own business now and then?

In that case, best they jump in and swim with the school.. This was what it was like being in the neighborhood sports meet, passing the baton to Nico-chan. This is what it was like bargaining in the farmer's market. Or greeting the customers at the sake shop. This, right here, was the stream of life. It had been flowing before they were born and would go on long after. And they and their love would fit in. When they went and spent all morning finding a book Maki wanted in Jimbocho then discussed it in "their" cafe. When Nico rubbed her feet after a day of haikyo and then they both soaked them in a bucket of epsom salts. When they composed songs in Maki's base on her tablet, interrupted by kisses.