The Ordinary Life of Chizuru Yukimura

Disclaimer: Hakuouki isn't mine.

Why does he have to be so harsh? Chizuru sighed and hefted her backpack up on her shoulder. Yet again they were walking to school separately, but this time Kaoru had insisted she go another (longer) route. Apparently he was meeting up with Sen and didn't want to be disturbed. She sighed again and continued walking. Hopefully this wouldn't make her late.

Usually Kaoru was the most dominant one of the two. As in this suggestion, most things were his idea. The problem caused by this was that it had made him very selfish, something Chizuru worried was her fault. Especially as she had always allowed him to get away with it.

Pushing her brother's issues from her mind, Chizuru attempted to enjoy the scenery around her. Now that she had stopped thinking about Kaoru, the impending horror of P.E. was upon her. She knew she could just change in the toilets out of sight but being shy, she didn't want to wear her P.E kit in public. At least in kendo she had the protective armour on top.

As she turned on to a main road leading up to the school, she spotted a familiar face amongst the groups of people heading up to the school building. Souji was dawdling, seemingly bored of his surroundings. This caused a bit of an internal conflict for Chizuru. As she barely knew the guy she didn't want to go over to him, but she didn't want to be rude and seem like she was avoiding him either. Just as she was pondering the decision, Souji noticed her and paused. As he was now aware that she was nearby, she felt that she ought to go and speak to him.

"G-good morning senpai." He gave her one of his lazy smiles.

"Mornin'." And he resumed his lazy walk with Chizuru alongside him. There wasn't much she could say to the guy since she barely knew him.

I can't just walk here and say nothing! It's rude! Souji was less bothered by this but he did eventually notice her discomfort.

"Something wrong?" She jumped. It had been silent for a while and so she hadn't expected any noise.

"No… Why would there be anything wrong?" Other than the fact that I'm weird.

"You're twitchy."

"Oh… Am I?"

"I guess I don't know you so I don't know how normal this is." It was fairly usual as she was shy but it was more exaggerated today. Feeling an explanation was necessary she gulped.

"I'm a little shy…" This was like saying Mount Everest was merely a hill.

"I never would've guessed." Again that smile. Chizuru hadn't worked out if it was a good thing or not. It was hard to tell what this guy was thinking. She decided to try and move the conversation away from her.

"A-are you feeling better?" She sounded so feminine she started cursing inwardly.

"Better?"

"After yesterday?" This was apparently the wrong thing to say as he went from being relatively laid back to quite tense in a matter of seconds.

"I'm fine." Now that she thought about it, he had been very angry with everyone making a fuss yesterday.

"…I'm sorry." Why am I so bad at talking? The better question was why had it been Souji she'd run into. He was only slightly better than Hijikata and at least someone like Sano would've held the conversation better. It didn't go well when she tried to lead when talking to people.

"Hm…" And now he's mad with me. This great awkwardness was just building up between them and she didn't want to be stuck there anymore. They were still far enough from the school gate that she couldn't just break off without feeling rude. Luckily a distraction appeared.

"Is that your sister?" She doubted Kaoru would let her walk in with him and Sen but at least it changed the topic.

"Yes it is…" She hadn't realised how alike they were before now. Everyone was recognising them.

"I can't decide…" Eh?

"About what?" This was something he was very focused on.

"Whether she's a particularly masculine girl or if you're a feminine boy." Has he worked it out? That smile had reappeared and she was going red. The only plus side was that he was the first one to say that Kaoru looked masculine, something that would definitely piss him off.

"I couldn't say." If he had worked things out she would have no clue what to do.

"I'm guessing you get this a lot."

"Fairly often…" Has he guessed or not?

"Are you sure you're a guy?"

"I am not a girl!" And now she was shouting again. A fair amount of people passing by laughed and she scowled over the blush. And now everybody is going to think I'm weird.

"This is a pretty sore point for you isn't it?" If anything this just made him more amused.

"Sorry…" She didn't like shouting and it was happening too often recently.

"Why?"

"For shouting."

"Really? Why apologise? Most guys would've punched me or called me an asshole."

"Really?" She couldn't imagine Kaoru punching anyone but then he wasn't like other guys.

"Wow, you have spent way too much time with your sister." Souji paused by the school gate and she stopped. She couldn't see anyone around. "I'm waiting for Saito, in case you were wondering." She blushed.

"Oh! Sorry…"

"See you later weird boy." And now another nickname had appeared. In comparison to her Kaoru seemed to be having a great time with Sen. Curse him and his confidence.

-Page Break-

"Hey Ruo, what's taking so long? Everybody's starting to go out." Heisuke's voice echoing through the toilets made Chizuru panic more.

"Just coming!" Because she knew they were probably going to be playing football today, she was making extra sure that her boobs were really held down. They weren't big enough to push themselves out but if the cover fell off it would require explanation. After ensuring she looked sufficiently male, she emerged. Heisuke was hovering by the door waiting for her.

"What took you so long?"

"Umm…" This was hard to explain after all.

"Oh I get ya. When you gotta go, you gotta go." Wait. No. Not that!

"I wasn't-."

"Let's go!" And Heisuke wasn't listening. With an air of gloom she followed him down to the horror that was football.

Out on the sports fields the other boys from their class were gathered in a group. Some were stretching out to get ready for practice, others were complaining. In the distance the girls could be seen starting up a hockey game. Chizuru wasn't sure which was worse. Then she remembered the many times she'd been hit with a hockey stick and thanked every deity that she was playing football instead.

When the teacher finally arrived he decided to throw them straight into a full football match. She managed to get into defence where she could attempt to stay out of the way. Heisuke was more ambitious than her and threw himself into the middle of things.

Luckily there were no events that ended up with her giving herself away, although she still had a pretty shitty time. Twice Chizuru went to kick the ball and ended up throwing herself onto the floor. How she'd done this no one knew. And she took a face full of leather when someone kicked the ball to her and she attempted to head it.

Surprisingly she wasn't the one who got yelled at the most. This may have been because their teacher had decided she was a lost cause. Heisuke, although pretty good, had a slight issue. His hair was so damn long that whenever someone got near him they got it in their face or even had it tangled up in their arms.

"Right that's enough!" Chizuru was currently picking herself up off the floor and so was relieved by this. "Toudou! Your hair is too damn long, wear it in a bloody bun or cut it off!"

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with my hair!" Most of the rest of the class were laughing and he was blushing greatly. As she and Heisuke headed back up to the main school building he complained.

"No one else cares about it! And we've only just started here!"

"You don't have problems in kendo."

"I tuck it up in the helmet."

"Oh…" Even when she had long hair, Chizuru's hair had definitely not been as long as Heisuke's. It just wasn't very practical.

It was when they got to kendo club after school that Heisuke made a major error. Hijikata had been called to the office so the rest of them were waiting around. The younger boy (foolishly) decided that he was going to tell his friends about his trauma. For some reason he forgot what they were normally like.

"Well perhaps he has a point." Sano had a smile starting on his face.

"What?!"

"It really isn't a very practical hairstyle." Unbeknownst to him, Shin had come up behind him with a sinister grin on his face. Their plan was quite obvious.

"Don't you dare!" Sadly his small frame and lack of back up did not convince the other two. Shin forced Heisuke down to the ground and sat on him.

"Get the scissors!" Sano did a small salute and started pulling through all the cupboards.

"No! You bastards!" Should I do something? It was doubtful she could manage to do anything. Saito was still reading and Souji seemed to be enjoying the show.

"Hold still Heisuke, we need you to look fabulous!" Sano held the scissors aloft and both he and Shin seemed to have an evil glint in their eyes.

Gripping the end of Heisuke's ponytail, Sano quickly cut most of it off leaving only the smallest ponytail left. When released he pulled off the hairband and rushed over to a reflective surface. His hair now hung around his face. It did suit him but clearly he was not happy.

"Why would you do that?"

"We were helping you like the fantastic friends we are."

"Why did you guys let them? Ok Ruo couldn't have done anything, but you two!" He pointed at Saito and Souji. "You could've stopped this!"

"I was preoccupied." Saito had still not looked up from his book.

"It was too funny to stop."

"You guys are all jerks!"

"You should be nice to me, or else I won't neaten up your hair." Although he wanted to continue moaning, the temptation to have his hair fixed was too much.

When Hijikata finally arrived he could only stare at what he saw. It was an unexpected scene that was unfolding in front of him.

"So is anyone going to explain to me why this has turned into a hair salon?"

"We are making Heisuke look fabulous."

"…I don't want to know." He rolled his eyes at the weirdness of his friends. "I was just coming to tell you practice is off today. I have things to do. We'll just do extra tomorrow."

"What? I am not coming in early!" Shin was scowling.

"We'll add it on the end. Just show up."

Although Chizuru wasn't best pleased about going into school on a Saturday, it was only for the morning. Plus she had a horrible feeling that her asshat brother was going to make plans with Sen. He had become such a jerk recently.