The Very Exciting Authors' Note!

Cha-Cha: Aaaaaaand, we're back! We got good reviews from aprilfool1993 and Trying Too Hard To Be Cool too - Thanks!

In answer to aprilfool1993's review: Hopefully Mugi will update her other story soon, I'll have to keep nagging her about it. I agree that Hotaru's power are very superhero-like and that's one thing about this piece I don't like much. It kinda clashes with her factfile on the forum, but I tried my best to make it flow with the story. Sorry about that :/ Well, we're glad that you are enjoying it and we're updating more soon! If you know anyone that might be interested, or if you want to submit an OC yourself, please feel free to mention it :D We welcome anybody.

And in answer to Trying Too Hard To Be Cool's review: I agree from the summary it looks a bit weird, and OCs usually mean crap, right? Well, admittedly, I don't usually read OC fics myself (although in the past I have written quite a few of them), so I'm glad you like the scenario and idea of it. And we totally love your OC! The only thing we're changing about her is her height. Making her a shortie will give Rikuto and Hotaru excuses to tease her a bit XD

Kazue: I luuuuuve you, aprilfool1993 and Trying Too Hard To Be Cool! Give me a hug? :3

Rikuto: Mom, you're so embarrassing. Don't go around attacking reviewers.

Itsuki: My, my, how did I get lucky enough to have a wife and son? Thank you for not interpreting me as gay ^-^

Hotaru: I am waaaaay too superhero-like. It's annoying DX Get it right, Cha-Cha!

Mugi: Why am I still not getting lines? :'(

Cha-Cha: Here, say the next bit, whatever.

Mugi: We're very happy to announce that we got a new OC to join us! ^0^ Her name is Momoka Murakami, she's fourteen years old, a samurai-type human girl, and she's really cute as well! She was created by Trying Too Hard To Be Cool. Say hello, Momoka!

Momoka: Um, hi, thanks for adding me. Really appreciate it. Uh… yeah… *puts on her headphones*

Mugi: Sigh… not all cuties can be sociable.

Cha-Cha: DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya because if I did this whole thing would be real, not fake. And I wouldn't have taken 3 freaking years to write the tenth volume!

Mugi: If you want to learn more about Rikuto and Hotaru, please feel free to drop by on the forum to read more about them! And please leave a review, or enter an OC to our forum? It's really easy to do, we even have a template for you! :D And also, Haruhi's daughter hasn't been created by us yet, so if someone wants to create her as an OC they can.

Mugi and Cha-Cha: Please continue to support this fanfic and maybe review to say how much you liked or hated it?

XXX

Silence

I'm so tired of being happy. Ever since I was born, our world has been in a raging war. When I was a kid, I would always wait up for my dad to come home from fighting, and give him a hug, make him some tea. But he would always be too tired to say much to me, other than, "Thanks for the tea."

I can't help but smile though. I have so much fun every day, but I hate that. While people are dying, being locked up, sobbing their hearts out and waiting to be freed, I'm arguing with Hotaru, playing on my Xbox, laughing, chatting with my parents and the other members of the Agency. It feels so wrong, bitterly unfair. It's not right, damn it.

I was so lonely all those years, too. Everyone would go and fight, and I'd be sat alone up in my bedroom, with only one of the most useless people on our team staying with me to defend the base. Until Hotaru was made.

She was made as a ten year old little girl, only a year younger than me. Her name was originally Zuki, named after one of the most famous of aliens for her allying with Suzumiya, and she was an alien created by the aliens. But she was built wrong. She could age. She could eat. She could sleep, feel pain, the things aliens lacked. They thought it was bad, not good. So they left her in their old base when it got sabotaged, expecting her to perish along with the building.

But my dad rescued her. He named her Hotaru Mizuki, and gave her love and care, as any child should have. No one outside the Agency once suspected she was made by the Sky Canopy Domain. And it was pure bliss to have a friend.

Sure, she was hot-headed and a bit unsure of the world at first, but she was almost the same age as me and we clicked, just like that. It was easy. And it felt so great to have a best friend. It was so amazing.

My mom, Kazue, she was so kind to her as well. But now they don't have much time to fuss over us. They think because we're fifteen and sixteen they don't have to worry about us anymore. But now we have Mikuru. It's a great feeling to have someone looking out for us again when they're all so busy.

She became our cleaning lady today. I'm not even kidding. She was like a little fairy in a fluffy top which obviously belonged to my mom, a cute ruffled skirt and a little white apron, whizzing round, cleaning everything. I woke up to a dazzlingly clean base. It was like walking through a fancy state-of-the-arts place that only existed in books nowadays, thanks to the stupid war our country had been caught up in.

"Wow," I breathed, taking in how clean everything was, breathing in the freshness of this place after her amazing clean-up skills. Mikuru smiled at me.

"Thanks for the compliment," she giggled, her ponytail wobbling with her laughter. "If you're looking for Miss Hotaru, she's eating her breakfast in the common room."

"We're not allowed to eat in there!" I grumbled, opening the door. She was sat in front of the TV in her silky green pyjamas. Typical.

"Yo," she said, barely looking up. Her eyes were glued to the screen.

"Hotaru, you know if any of the Agency found out you were eating your cereal in here-" I began.

"Shut up," she said, glaring at me. "They won't, will they? They're tracking down all the time-travellers from yesterday's prison break so that they can be escorted into our less noticeable bases, away from the aliens. They won't care."

"Look, you're almost spilling your bowl!" I exclaimed, whisking it away from her hastily. "Go sit at the table! Come on, you've watched this show way too many times. I'll sit with you."

Grouchy, she took her bowl off me again and went to sit at the table in the next room. That's "our" room. They say that because we're the only ones that use it, but honestly, if they used it then they wouldn't all be crammed into the common room. Adult logic is seriously retarded.

I poured myself a bowl of cereal with a glass of orange juice to follow and went through into "our" room, sitting down next to Hotaru. Her face looked ready to murder me.

"That was my favourite TV show," she growled dangerously. "Daisuke and Izumi were about to be captured by spies!"

"I don't care," I replied. "You've seen that episode twice, and I honestly don't care about what happens to Daisuke and Izumi. What do you want to do today? Should we help out Dad?"

"Naw. You can, but I'm still tired from yesterday." She eyed me. "Is daddy's little angel going to help out?"

"Don't call me that." I folded my arms. "I'm just saying, he's got enough on his plate. Why don't we help him out?"

"Because we did his dirty work for him yesterday," she snapped. "Our job is to be kids and have fun, not try and stop this stupid war, and pick up the pieces of someone else's mess."

"It's our mess," I reminded her. "We were the ones who released the time-travellers."

"They ordered us to!" she pointed out. "And anyway, it was the aliens who cooped them up in the first place."

"Which is why we should help out. You're an alien, are you not?" She glared at me dangerously.

"Don't say it, Rikuto. You know you'll regret it." She sighed and leaned back. "I am not with those creeps, and you know it. But if you really want to, I suppose I'll tag along and pretend that I'm helping out."

"Great! Now go and get dressed, we need to get going soon." Grumbling under her breath, she abandoned her cereal and stomped upstairs. It was then the fax machine started whirring.

"U-Um, what's with that thing?" she stuttered, frightened of the sudden noise.

"It's sending a fax through. I'll handle it," I called. I made my way over to the fax machine and read what the fax had said.

Rikuto,

If you're not doing anything today, would you mind coming to help out me and your mother? We've found someone who's just become a new member of our team. You should come and meet her. You and Hotaru can show her around, since she's way younger than I am, and she's barely listening to what I'm saying.

- Dad

"A new member of our team? Holy… Why? Why wasn't she afraid to join us? Everybody else in the country is either on the Slider side or the Alien side. Hmm… Hey, Hotaru!" I called up the stairs to her.

"What is it?" She appeared downstairs moments later with her red top on, black pants and signature black jacket, her auburn hair tied back in a ponytail with some red ribbon she probably stole out of my mom's room.

"Dad sent me a fax just. They found a new recruit for our team, and she's around our age," I said, showing her the fax. Her eyes widened.

"Wow," she breathed. "No one's joined us for ages. This is awesome! We're one step closer to ending the war now!"

I finished my cereal and drank my orange juice hurriedly, eager to meet up with my dad and meet this new recruit.

"I'm going to get dressed," I announced.

"Congratulations," Hotaru said dryly, turning on the TV again.

I headed upstairs to my room. That was one thing about this base that I loved.

My room. I didn't have to sleep with any of the other ESPers who might spend their nights talking, or drinking, or smoking. I got a room all to myself, although Dad said if anyone came unexpectedly he'd have to sleep in my room until they got another bed in the dorms that all the other ESPers stay in.

I opened the door to my bedroom. The white walls greeted me. When we'd first built the base my dad had asked if I wanted to change the colour of the bedroom walls, but I love the colour white. It's my favourite colour, actually. On the walls I'd tacked pictures of my parents, me, Hotaru, and some of the other ESPers. My bedroom was quite messy, actually, with my desk cluttered with drawings and notes and diagrams, my bed unmade and covered with crumpled clothes and books. I needed a clean-up in there.

I opened my drawers and put on a blue undershirt, a clean white shirt, and my black jeans. Quickly I straightened my collar, tugged on my sneakers and tied the laces, combed my hair with my fingers and slapped my baseball cap on my head.

"Okay, I'm coming," I called, rushing down the stairs. She turned around.

"That was quick," she commented. I pushed her out of the back door. As I did, Mikuru came into the hallway.

"U-Um, where are you guys going?" she asked timidly.

"We're going to help out Dad," I said, waving at her. "We'll be back when he is!" I shut the door behind us.

I knew where they were most likely to be - at our abandoned base. The aliens had left it well alone a long time ago, when they'd invaded it last. They thought that we were dumb enough to never go back there after they'd invaded. They thought if we'd moved to a new base, there was no possible way we'd use our old one for something else. Aliens are pathetic (save Hotaru).

I was right as well. It was pretty easy to get to, actually (no wonder the aliens found us out). All you had to do was walk past the music store, back behind the park and through part of the woods. We only got to the park when we saw my dad. He was obviously waiting for us to arrive.

"Hey, Dad!" he looked up and waved. For the first time in ages, he was smiling.

"Hey, Rikuto, Hotaru. You two are such generous kids, coming out to help. It means a lot," he said, leading us back to the old base.

"Yeah, yeah. Is there anything cooking?" Hotaru asked hopefully. He chuckled.

"Sadly, there's not, but on the way back you guys can pick something for supper tonight as a treat for coming out here on your day off," he replied.

"Thanks, Dad!" I grinned. "Something unhealthy, at last - I can't wait."

Laughing, he led us to the base and into a charred room which used to be my bedroom. A petite girl with a mop of black hair was sat down in the corner, her back to us, listening to music. It was very hard to believe that this girl could possibly be a recruit.

"Um… are you a time-traveller from yesterday?" I asked. She took out her headphones and turned around.

Her piercing green eyes caught me off guard for a moment - they were just so… bright, and perfect on her face. Her olive skin and slender cheekbones all harmonised with her eyes, too. It seemed a beauty was sat before me. She glared at me.

"None of the time-travellers I've seen wandering around aimlessly today have been listening to music, or wearing expensive and relatively clean clothing, so no, I am not." Having said this, she reached for her headphones, but Hotaru beat her to it.

"Wow, you're cute. You seem kinda wimpy, though. Well, except for your ego."

"Shut up," she snapped, "and give those back." Hotaru began to listen to her music.

"Wow, you listen to emo stuff? Booooooring," she said, taking the headphones off again.

"If you don't like what I listen to than give them to me!" The girl looked furious. Her cheeks were pink, too. "It's none of your business what music I listen to anyway!"

"Break it up," Dad said, coming between them and taking the headphones from Hotaru. "Look, sweetie, I'm only having the headphones for now because you could do with listening to this." He turned back to us and motioned for her to stand up and join him. Sulking, she stood up and shuffled over to him. "Now, Rikuto, Hotaru. This is Momoka Murakami."

He then turned to Momoka. "Miss Momoka, this is my son, Rikuto Koizumi, and Hotaru Mizuki, Rikuto's friend from childhood."

I took a good look at her, now she was stood up. She was wearing a white tank top, with a faded camouflage-green jacket over that looked like it had been battered and stitched up many times, black shorts and camouflage-green doc martens. I was impressed. This girl looked a lot tougher in these clothes, but she still looked slightly like a kid playing dress-up.

"Er, nice to meet you, Momoka," I said, holding out my hand for her to shake. She shook it, her ragged and bitten-down fingernails digging into my hand slightly, "I'm sorry for mistaking you for one of the time-travellers." She frowned.

"Uh, okay, sure." She stared at Hotaru, as if to say, "…Well? You can shake my hand now, too."

"…Hey. So what are you, anyway? Another ESPer?" Momoka took her hand and shook it. I noticed she was squeezing her hand tightly.

"I'm not an ESPer, nor am I a time-traveller, or a slider, and I'm certainly not an alien. I'm just a human girl." We stared.

"What do you mean, certainly not an alien? Racist," said Hotaru, gritting her teeth.

"But you can't be!" I exclaimed. "Most of the regular humans are in hiding, in the countries that aren't involved in the war. Why would you be in Japan right now?" She scowled.

"I'm not a regular human. I'm not like the rest of them. I'm the toughest of the tough. I bet I'm way better at fighting than you! I've trained and lived by myself since I was seven. What makes you think I'm normal?" I was taken aback by this. She couldn't have been older than me, but there was also no way we could've been the same age.

"How old are you, anyway? You're short," I said.

"Fourteen," she answered, eying me. "You're also short. How old are you?"

"I'm not short! And, for your information, I am sixteen. So show me some damn respect!"

XXX

Cha-Cha: Okay, so we met Momoka, found out a bit about Hotaru and Rikuto's pasts, and we also found out what Hotaru likes to do first thing in the morning.

Rikuto: That's what she said!

Cha-Cha: That is what I said, dammit!

Kazue: *sob* I didn't even get an appearance in this chapter!

Cha-Cha: That's because you weren't supposed to be here, you're a human and I didn't feel like adding you, okay? Get over it! You weren't even planned to be here until I was writing the prologue!

Itsuki: Hehe… I got lots of screen-time in this episode…

Momoka: *puts on her headphones* I can't believe it's only the first chapter and you're already adding an OC into the plot. I'm not joining in next chapter so the readers can read more Rikuto and Hotaru moments, so there.

Cha-Cha: Th-That's so cruel, Momoka…

Rikuto: Well, I thought it went great, Cha-Cha.

Cha-Cha: You're such a good OC, Rikuto. I raised you right. But you're kinda a kiss-ass. Lay off, okay?

Mugi: Again, I did no contribution to this chapter, so you decided to cut out all my dialogue?

Cha-Cha: It's equivalent exchange, Mugi. *taps nose*

Mugi: Sniff… That's so unfair.

Cha-Cha: Once again, please leave a review saying what you liked or hated, and don't forget to check out our forum and upload an OC if you have one and want to become a part of Silence!