Disclaimer: All characters and original story are all property of Tachibana Higuchi. No rights infringement intended. It is but a way to show love to the story that she created.

The class brimmed with excitement as the bus drew closer to Central Town. Mikan was practically falling off her seat, and as each second passed by, Hotaru got closer and closer to pulling out her Baka gun to take aim at the now irritating girl (or was it always irritating? Hotaru wasn't very sure at that particular moment) sitting next to her.

In what seemed like forever, the bus had finally reached its destination. Hotaru was quite relieved, as she was starting to doubt why she had ever made such an offer to Mikan in the first place. Getting off the stuffy bus, Hotaru breathed in a lungful of fresh air, thankful to be away from her noisy classmates, only to be dragged off by Mikan who was dragging Tobita along in her other hand.

Hotaru sighed. 'All for the prize,' she thought, 'all for the prize…' She was imagining the money she would earn after today, and was hoping that the day would play out like she hoped it would. Quickly, she turned around to check that Natsume and Ruka were still following the group. After confirming this, she felt a little bit better, and allowed Mikan to cling onto her for a little while longer.

It was half an hour later when the class had finally gotten themselves organized and was filing out onto the swimming pool deck.

Mikan bounded out in her swimwear, complete with swimming cap and tube, and, as usual, wasn't watching where she was going.

SMACK

Mikan's head was in pain. Her eyes dizzy, she looked up to see what, or who, she had bumped into when…

"TSUBASA-SENPAAAAAAAAAAAI! MISAKI-SENPAAAAAAAAAI! TONO-SENPAAAAAAI! EVERYONE!"

… She realized when her friends from the Special Abilities class were also on a visit to the pool.

"Shorty!" Tsubasa grinned a dazzling smile, "we went to find you, but class B was empty! But you're already here!"

Mikan was so happy that her favorite senpai was here that she instantly forgot her classmates, and went off with the Special Abilities, being carried on Tonouchi's back.

Hotaru walked out of the change rooms, and surveyed her surroundings. There, on a deck chair, was Sumire Shouda, surrounded by a group of people, and showing off her newest swimsuit. Anna and Nonoko were happily splashing in the pool, and Tobita was smiling as usual.

Then she realized that something was missing: there were no over-excited squeals, or super loud babbling. No Mikan. Looking around again, she saw that Natsume was nowhere to be found. Neither was Ruka.

Hotaru knew that Mikan had come out of the change rooms before her, as Mikan had told her that she was heading out early, clearly unable to contain the excitement of swimming with her classmates. Curious to find out what kind of drama was playing out, and more importantly where the drama was located, Hotaru searched the area once again.

Nothing.

Hotaru was getting annoyed. This day was turning out to be more difficult than she had imagined. She was now kind of hoping that she had remained in the classroom and completed that invention after all. For all she knew, she could be rolling in money by now.

Hotaru squinted at her last hope towards a group of people, mainly consisting teenagers, off in the distance. Then she heard it, a loud, high-pitched laugh (or squeal of excitement) that unmistakably belonged to Mikan. She realized that Mikan must have found Tsubasa and the others.

Walking towards the group of people, Hotaru happened to walk past Natsume and Ruka who were hanging out under a deck umbrella. She paused for a moment, only to smile at the pair smugly, and then turned and continued her walk towards Mikan. In the corner of her eye, she saw Natsume and Ruka realize where she was walking towards, and followed her quietly.

As she got closer towards the noisy bunch, she saw that Mikan was giggling, engaging in an intense water fight slash tickling war with Tsubasa and Tono, while Misaki and the others smiled and contributed to the fight by splashing water at Mikan.

Hotaru turned her head ever so slightly, just to check that Natsume and Ruka were still with her. Her smile widening ever so slightly, she could swear that the temperature had risen. Natsume and Ruka were both not amused by the scene playing out in front of them, and all of a sudden, they weren't there any more, but had moved towards the water.

Without realizing what was going on, Hotaru saw that Natsume had somehow managed to slap Tsubasa and Tono in the head with one shot, and as a result sent Mikan flying unexpectedly into the water.

Ruka, sensing the possibility of danger, went off towards the splash that Mikan had created. Natsume was glaring dangerously at Tsubasa and Tono, who were both still cowering with pain from their hit in the head.

'This is the moment,' Hotaru thought, and turned to rummage in her invisible bag to find her trusty camera. She could not miss a precious photo moment of Ruka saving Mikan, or that of Natsume with a particularly ticked-off facial expression that had not been caused out of annoyance from the school or from Persona. Seconds later, she realized that her camera was nowhere to be found.

No way. Hotaru? Without a camera? This could not be possible.

Hotaru began to rummage frantically, and then had a flashback of when she was getting ready to go to the pool. She realized that she made an amateur's mistake: she had left her camera on her bedside table when she had realized that she forgot to pack her moron bug spray.

Hotaru was annoyed.