"Recess!!" shouted Mrs. Yotoma. All of the sixth graders rushed out into the school yard. All that is, save one. A lone girl, Hotaru Tomoe, made her way slowly and silently out into the bright midday light. She winced and backed into the shadows as the sun rested on her pale skin, so white that it seemed translucent. She sat gingerly in the shade of the large oak that lay in the front of Jubaan Primary School. Hotaru drew her legs up under her chin and sighed.
It was another day, just as boring as the rest. Hotaru was smarter than any of the other sixth graders and she should, according to the IQ tests that they had made her take, be in the ninth grade. She wanted to be but her "parents" said that she should stay where she was, for now at least. Hotaru's "parents" now were really just guardians, her mama and papa had died a few years before. Haruka and Michiru were very nice and she loved them very much, but they just weren't her mama and papa. She watched the other kids playing hopscotch and jumping rope and wished that she could join them but Hotaru had a "condition." She had always had it, at least as long as she could remember. She couldn't play much or go outside because she had a weak heart. She could do certain exercises, but only one of them was any fun. She smiled as she thought about what the other kids would say if they saw her doing that! She decided that she would ask Haruka if she could this afternoon.
Her hand reached back and brushed away her dusky hair. She regarded the strands in her palm. "Pretty," she decided. "Not too coarse like most black hair and it has gotten so nice and long." It reached just past her shoulders, but a few months ago it hadn't come to her shoulders yet. It also framed her face beautifully. Her slim, peaked face was pale and luminous. Her eyes were so dominant in her face, next to her small mouth that always seemed to be disquieted with something or other and her minute nose. Her eyes had long, thick lashes that seemed to stretch on forever. Her eyes themselves seemed to swell when she looked at anything, as if gaping in wonder of what she was seeing. Looking into her eyes, however, is like falling and falling as though you shall never stop or even want to. As dark a purple as the shadows ever spawned gazes back at whomever has the compunction to meet her gaze. But for all that her eyes frighten some she is in all other ways quite normal looking. Her school uniform is as same as all of the other children. A heavy red sweater with a dark blue collar and a blue and white striped bow in the middle is the top with a green pleated skirt and dark blue pantyhoes with dark shoes complete the outfit. Her hands are long and slender with tapering fingers, clever for whatever task they are set to. Her skin is paler than the other children's, because of her illness, but from afar she looks much the same as any other sixth grader. However, when you neared Hotaru there was a noticeable difference. The silence that seemed to follow her where ever she was.
The silence to Hotaru was just another part of her life, like her "condition." She didn't really even know what it was, perhaps not even that it was but it was. Around Hotaru was what seemed to be a shield that kept out all of the noise and confusion of elsewhere. Her usual stoic attitude around strangers therefor, did not seem all that unusual. She did not talk much to anyone except herself. And everywhere that Hotaru went the shield followed. If she went to sit under a tree the birds stopped their incessant twittering and chattering almost immediately where for another they would have only grown louder. Conversations seemed to cease when Hotaru was around and an almost awestruck silence seemed to be wherever she went.
Hotaru's teacher finally dismissed class for the day and Hotaru pulled on her woolen overcoat, unaffected by the heat. She walked steadily home, neither running nor trudging. The walk was a long way though and before she got halfway she was forced to stop at a street corner and catch her breath. As she struggled to get the necessary air a car stopped, unnoticed, beside her.
"Hey Hotaru, are you all right?" asked the concerned driver.
Hotaru's head jerked up at the sound of her name but relaxed when she saw that it was only Haruka. "I think I have walked too far Haruka-san." she said.
Haruka laughed and gestured to the interior of her red sports car. "Hop in Chibi-Hotaru!"
Hotaru grimaced at the inference and stated in a very mature manner, " I am in sixth grade Haruka-papa, I am not "little" anymore."
"Of course." replied Haruka in an equally serious tone that was ruined by a quick bark of laughter. After giving Haruka a look that made her clear her throat a little Hotaru jumped in the car.
The car tore off down the road after both were tightly buckled in. Haruka had been a race car driver at one time and she still drove like she was on the track. Haruka was no older than twenty and Michiru was only nineteen. Even though those two were the ones who took care of her they were too young to adopt her formally so her official guardian was one Setsuna Meiou. Setsuna was hardly ever around for she had a very important job that meant that she was elsewhere most of the time. Hotaru remembered the first time that she had called Haruka papa or Michiru mama. Haruka looked more surprised than Michiru, probably because even though she was female she took the greatest pains to make everyone think that she was male. Haruka looked, sounded and acted the part. Hotaru was pretty sure though that not all of it was acting. Haruka had always been like a boy, even before she and Michiru had met. Now it was better that everyone thought she was male. Hotaru lived with the two and could see how much love went into their relationship but other people might be cruel and mean-spirited about it like they were to Hotaru about her "condition."
"Haruka-papa," she began as they drove towards home. "Do you think that I could bring my glaive to school and show the others?"
Haruka listened patiently to the question and then leaned back in her seat. "Now Hotaru, I don't think that's the best of ideas," she said. "For one I think that the glaive is too dangerous to just be carrying it around everywhere. And for two, I think it would make the others like you even less." Haruka knew about the teasing.
"I don't understand," Hotaru finally said. "If they see me do that, wouldn't they know that I can do stuff and play like they can and like me better?"
Haruka sighed. "No, it wouldn't Hotaru-chan. It would make them fear you, that you could use so dangerous a weapon. It would make you more of a pariah than you already are." Hotaru knew what pariah was. She had known ever since she had gone to school with other children. She was a pariah, an outcast and now Haruka-papa was saying that if she showed them the only thing with muscles that she was good at it would get worse!
"All right Haruka-papa," she finally said. "But can I go see ChibiUsa-chan?"
"ChibiUsa has lessons today Hotaru," she replied. " But what I will let you do is practice with your glaive today."
" I can?" she asked with excitement.
"You most certainly can." She replied as they pulled up to the house.
Hotaru walked into the house and saw Michiru right away. Michiru gave her a kiss on the cheek, talked to Haruka and then went back to the sound studio. Haruka went to the high cabinet that held Haruka's swords and Hotaru's glaive. She handed it to Hotaru and went outside to run down the beach. Hotaru went silently into the gymnasium and began to practice with her glaive. It started out slow, with simple forms that anyone could do. Weaving the Mat, The Floating Feather were the two easiest. It then sped up. Moon Over the Water and Sandpiper Pecks at the Waves. Her glaive became a blur as it passed from hand to hand, over, under and around. It wove a web of steel to corner an invisible enemy. Hummingbird Kisses Honeyrose, Elephant's Trumpet, Slip Steel and Striking the Spark. The glaive wove all around her but she remained as calm as ever. Finally she ended it with a "killing blow" to her "opponent". Leaf in the Whirlwind and it was finished. Hotaru bowed to the air and cleaned off her glaive.
"Oh," she thought. "If only the others could see my Silence Glaive Surprise!"
Disclaimer: I don't own it, other peoples do. 'Nuff
said.