Chapter Text
Mahiru awakens bright and early, and she stretches as the sun streams in through her blinds. It isn’t long before she’s standing up, trying to shake off her tiredness and get herself presentable. She quickly changes herself into her usual attire, before heading to the bathroom to deal with her hair, as well as generally clean herself up, so that she doesn’t look as awful as she did waking up. After that’s all done, she sighs, still a bit tired, but feeling much better.
The reason for needing to get herself presentable? Today is the first day of the school year. For her, it’s the first day of her third year at Hope’s Peak Academy, a school well-known for developing and studying the talents of the country’s most gifted students. Ever since Mahiru was invited as the Ultimate Photographer, her life has changed drastically, as she’s met many new people, and has gotten to improve herself alongside her talent.
Her first year of school was quite interesting, and quite unlike anything she had ever been through before. Meeting so many bizarre people, as well as getting to know them, was quite an experience. Her second year was much calmer, as she spent more time focusing on her talent. Though that isn’t to say she completely neglected her friends, because she actually spent more time with them than ever in her second year.
Especially Hiyoko. The small, bratty girl that had basically stomped into her life, and wouldn’t leave. The girl that, while generally rude to most, has really softened up around Mahiru. She wouldn’t be lying if she said that she considers Hiyoko her closest friend. After all, she spends more time with the dancer than almost anyone else in class. The two have shared secrets with each other, laughed together, cried together, and just about anything else two people can do to bond with each other.
That’s the big reason Mahiru is excited to finally return to Hope’s Peak. While she did spend a good amount of time with Hiyoko over break, they haven’t been able to speak at all over the last month, due to some overseas dance tour that’s been taking up all of her time. The few times they’ve been able to text, Hiyoko seemed absolutely exhausted. But now that everyone is heading back to school, she’ll get her chance to talk to the Ultimate Traditional Dancer once more.
Mahiru shakes her head, clearing her thoughts. It’s not like she’s incredibly excited to see Hiyoko again, to the point where she isn’t thinking of much else. Well, she is, but only because they’re close friends. Not anything else, she tells herself. Yet again ending her train of thought, Mahiru grabs her treasured camera, checks the weather forecast for the day, and heads out the door, ready to make her way to the academy.
Mahiru wouldn’t say she hates rain, but she’s never really been a fan of it. Rain can make for some absolutely beautiful photos, and sometimes it’s nice to sit inside with a hot drink and relax while listening to the raindrops on the roof. But when she’s walking to school in the rain, it’s a completely different story.
( “It’s so cold… and wet… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get dry again.” )
Of course her thoughts are hyperbolic, but when caught in the rain, how could they not be? In the moment, Mahiru feels nothing but misery as the freezing water rains upon her, drenching her body and spirit. She really regrets not bringing an umbrella, but to be fair, the weather forecast said it wouldn’t be raining until well into the school day. Instead, it had suddenly started pouring about halfway through her walk.
She feels herself groan as another shiver wracks her body, and hunches into herself just a little bit more, desperate to conserve her body heat. It’s not like the rain is freezing, but it’s definitely just a bit too cold for her current attire. Speaking of her attire, her clothing is now fairly wet, and she heavily regrets not having any changes of clothes. If she has time, she hopes she can swing by her dormitory room and pick up one of the spare outfits the academy tends to leave in the closets.
After checking her watch, Mahiru reasons that she’ll have enough time to get a spare set of clothes. She never really understood why the academy insisted on keeping a dozen spare outfits in everyone’s room, but she currently isn’t really in the mood to complain about it. Instead, she picks up her pace, desperate to get to school as fast as possible.
Luckily, the photographer is able to make it to the school entrance without slipping on the wet ground. As soon as she’s on the school grounds, she rushes to the dorms as fast as she can. Luckily, the building isn’t too far from the school entrance, so she’s quickly able to get inside of the much warmer and drier dormitory building. After a few moments of walking, she makes it to the outside of her room, and unlocks it with the key she made sure to keep on her when heading to school.
Once Mahiru enters her room, she sighs and opens the closet. A bunch of copies of her current outfit stare back at her, and she quickly grabs one and changes into it. Luckily, this doesn’t take very long, and she’s able to be out of her dorm room in a flash. She’s also able to grab an umbrella, which she’s very glad the school also stocks dorm rooms with.
Mahiru heads outside, and manages to make it to the school building itself pretty quickly, her umbrella keeping her from getting wet. After she’s inside, she closes the water-repelling device and sets it in her bag. Once that’s taken care of, she makes her way through the familiar halls of Hope’s Peak Academy, heading to the gym where the entrance ceremony is supposed to take place.
When she heads into the gym, Mahiru is quickly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people inside. She should be used to it by now, but she’s surprised every time. The entrance ceremony is meant to both celebrate the beginning of a new school year, and introduce the new students to everyone already attending. Mahiru remembers how stressed she was, standing up on stage with all of her classmates she didn’t yet know, while the entire school stared at her.
Clearing those memories with a shake of her head, the photographer decides to search for Hiyoko in the crowd. The girl she’s looking for is fairly short, but her distinctive hair makes it so she isn’t hard to find. And luckily enough, she spots the banana-style hair quickly (though Hiyoko would kill her if she called it that out loud) and makes her way over.
It’s also fairly quick that Hiyoko spots her, and turns around. Once the pair make eye contact, Mahiru finds herself looking at…
A girl who’s much taller than she remembers, who stares back at her with a smile, not at all matching the shocked expression on her own face.
When Hiyoko sees Mahiru’s expression, she finds herself incredibly glad she didn’t tell the girl about her sudden growth spurt. The look of pure shock on the photographer’s face is exactly what she expected, and also what makes this all so worth it. When she suddenly grew much taller, her first thought was that she’d have to try and surprise Mahiru with her sudden change in height.
During vacation, Hiyoko was busy being whisked around the world for a rather fun dance tour. Well, not completely fun, as two more attempts on her life were made, but it was mostly fun for her. However, during this time, she suddenly grew much taller, much to her own surprise. Apparently, this sudden burst of height in her late teens is something that runs in her mother’s side of the family, but she sort of just assumed she’d stay short for the rest of her life.
Her sudden growth during the tour was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the people in charge of promoting her dance shows were able to use her new appearance to create a massive amount of promotional material. But on the other hand, a lot of her routines had to be modified at the last minute, as her being taller made some of her old routines rather tricky to pull off while maintaining the same effect.
Blinking back into the present, what Hiyoko did not expect was to suddenly be taller than Mahiru. It wasn’t a giant height difference, but she had thought that her boost in height wouldn’t be enough to be taller than the girl she admired so much. However, it appears she was wrong, as she finds herself craning her head down ever so slightly to meet the other girl’s gaze.
Eventually, Hiyoko decides it’d be best to snap Mahiru out of her shock. “Well, how do I look? Surprised?”
Mahiru seems to be taken out of her thoughts when she hears this. “You’ve… grown taller?”
“Uh, obviously. Should I start calling you little sis instead?” Hiyoko fires back, immediately feeling comfortable now that she’s speaking with her favorite photographer for the first time in months.
Well, she says Mahiru is her favorite photographer as if she even knows any other photographers. Which she doesn’t. But that’s besides the point.
Mahiru replies to Hiyoko’s earlier statement. “That’s fine, Hiyoko. I just didn’t expect you to get any taller.”
“Yeah, it runs in the family,” Hiyoko finds herself saying. “I suddenly grew during my tour, and everyone was shocked,” she continues, before coming to a realization. “Wait, did you not watch my tour, big sis?”
She sees a look she can’t quite decipher in Mahiru’s eyes, something between sadness and regret, as she speaks. “Well, I was intending to, but I had so many jobs over break. Before I knew it, your tour was over, and there weren’t any channels that were rerunning the footage.”
Hiyoko shakes her head. “I can’t believe my big sis Mahiru would put work before my worldwide tour,” she pouts, partially joking. “Well, all my dances from the tour are on video, so you’re coming to my house tonight and watching them all, whether you like it or not!”
“Of course, I’d love to!” Mahiru says, a bit louder than she probably intended. But the smile on her face is genuine, and that makes Hiyoko smile as well.
Hiyoko isn’t quite sure when she first started feeling this way around Mahiru. It almost just seems like one day, the girl’s very presence made her feel warm and happy inside, and from there her feelings of friendly affection grew into something more powerful. Something more intense. After some time, she finally realized that what she was feeling was love. Sure, she calls Mahiru her ‘big sis,’ but she doesn’t actually see the girl as a sister.
No, if she had to say, she sees Mahiru as her crush. When she first started feeling this way, she scoured the internet for words to describe how she was feeling. To describe the happiness and fluffiness and warmth inside her when she even thought about the red-haired girl she spends so much time with. And what she finally came up with was that Mahiru is her crush.
The only problem, in Hiyoko’s mind, is that Mahiru doesn’t see her the same way. The way the girl takes care of her is familial, and the dancer is almost certain that Mahiru only sees her as a little sister figure. And Hiyoko’s nickname probably hasn’t helped, either. All the girl has been hoping for is that her sudden growth in height will make Mahiru see her as more of an adult.
Hiyoko is snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of a microphone coming on. When she turns her attention to the stage, she sees that the headmaster of the academy, Jin Kirigiri, is already standing there, a microphone in hand. It seems the opening ceremony is about to begin.
Of course, Hiyoko remembers her own opening ceremony pretty well. She stood there, watched her classmates be introduced, figured out who’d be easy to pick on, and then gave a speech when called up for her turn. She also remembers insulting the headmaster’s hair, but that part isn’t important. She also remembers the previous year’s opening ceremony, as does probably everyone in the school.
The reason that last year’s opening ceremony was special was due to one of the students being brought into the school. Every single student remembers the hushed whispers that hurried throughout the crowd as one of the students was called for an introduction, one who bore the last name Kirigiri. Since then, the rumors about the girl never stopped. It probably hasn’t ever helped that the girl has refused to disclose her Ultimate Talent, even when pressured to.
Previous ceremonies aside, this year’s opening ceremony is now beginning. Hiyoko tunes out the headmaster’s boring speech, which, if the last two years have been any indication, hasn't ever been changed. Instead, she finds herself leaning against Mahiru, who wraps a single arm around her and smiles at her.
Hiyoko is going to have to find a way to suppress the odd feeling in her chest, which makes itself known every time she sees that smile