A/N: HERE IT IS. THE LONG AWAITED - but probably not - FIRST CHAPTER OF SEASON 2!

... Well, it's probably not as big an achievement as I make it out to be. The fact that it took me this long to get started and I'm currently hal asleep probably doesn't help.

Pathetic, I know. But the boys(and girl) are back for more fun and heart-wrenching- I can't keep this up.

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"Cut my hair."

In Kyou's opinion, the sight of Madoka dropping his pen and watching it roll of the desk in silence was pretty amusing.

Though there was little he could think of to explain the boy's shock.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right." He said nervousyly. "Did you just tell me to cut your hair?"

"... Yes?" He said hesitantly, raising an eyebrow. "Wait, don't tell me that stuff Yoshiro said-"

"No!" Madoka stood up suddenly, attracting quite a bit of attention for someone usually so quiet. "I can cut hair perfectly fine - hell, it's my future career choice - but- just- why?"

Kyou thought it over for a moment. His hair just barely passed his shoulders now, and he never considered growing it out. It just... happened. Maybe it was because it was getting annoying that he considered cutting it now?

... It might have something to do with an annoying comment Tetsu made about him starting to look like one of Asaka's underlings. That was a scary thought.

"No reason." He lied. Madoka wouldn't get it anyway. Though the odd look he recieved from the brunette was enough for him to glance away. "You can cut anyone's hair but your own, right?"

"Hey, shut up."

At that, Kyou didn't bother hiding his laugh, which Madoka returned with a grin of his own.

Yeah, this was how things were supposed to be.

"By the way," Madoka said once their laughter stopped. "Did you finish your submission for this week's chapter?"

Kyou hummed, thinking back to what he'd accomplished. His chapter was one detailing the background of a minor antagonist some of the other students asked about, and he was most of the way through their required five hundred words per chapter. While it didn't seem like much, fitting it all into the minimum - and keeping it below the maximum - was proving to be more difficult than he thought.

"I should be done by tomorrow." He said, receiving a nod in response.

"If there's anything I can help with, just ask. I designed the character and all."

Right. Madoka had been in charge of most of the villains, while Yoshiro and Akio did the heroes. Kyou himself had been paired with Masuyo for side and neutral characters. Their little side story was turning out to be a larger scale project than they thought, especially since they continuously added to their list of scrapped ideas - which they hadn't completely exhausted yet.

At least their club was getting the recognition it deserved.

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"So my brothers have been bugging me to come back to the cooking club." Masuyo sighed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "You'd think they would have gotten the idea after I gave them every reason I could think of not to go back."

Yoshiro and Akio nodded along, though the former was only half listening while he balanced out their club duties. Trying to work around their five inconsistent schedules was difficult, but at least he knew his and Madoka's well enough that the two of them never ran into problems.

Masuyo had been tied up with finding a job for when they graduated, preferably one that would let her work without a high school degree. The idea of going to the same school as her brothers didn't sit well with her, she'd said, which is why she wanted to pay for her own schooling. Kyou mentioned how troublesome it sounded, but he didn't disagree with her either. Something about not wanting to be stuck in the same building as his brother for the same reasons.

Said boy also had an increasingly busy schedule, since one of his old friends - at least, Yoshiro assumed he was a friend - had him running around stalki- monitoring people from their organization. He had his own opinions about such shady work, but Kyou obviously wasn't that happy about it either.

Akio was a complete mystery to him still. The boy never told them where he was going when he left early or failed to show up for club, but it seemed to be an unspoken group rule not to pry into each other's business if they didn't speak of it first. If the boy didn't want to tell them, they would wait.

The wind blew suddenly, and he let out an annoyed growl. He wouldn't have to do paperwork on the roof if Hagane hadn't been demanding more from him.

"I get what you mean." He heard Akio say, when he tuned back into the conversation. "My siblings are always asking me to come home early and play with them til late - I hardly ever have time to do those practice sheets you and Madokan gave me!"

Yoshiro blinked.

"You have siblings?" He asked, suddenly interested. Akio rarely talked about his own family, and since he mentioned it now...

"Hm? Oh, yeah, tons." The younger said with a shrug. "Brothers, sisters, there are even a few really little kids. I'm the oldest though."

With that last line, the term "really little kids" seemed a little obscure, but neither Yoshiro or Masuyo said anything.

The glint in Akio's bright eyes said he wouldn't stop talking if they did.

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For once, the room was silent when Kyou and Madoka walked in. Further inspection showed that Akio was absent from club again, which wasn't surprising.

What surprised them was that Yoshiro wasn't there either, and Masuyo had an annoyed expression on her face while she flipped through a book.

"Masuyo." Madoka started nervously. "Where's Yoshiro-san? He didn't mention leaving early today..." The snap of Masuyo's book caused both boys to jump.

"He didn't leave." She said irritably. "Hagane called him out, they're talking in the SC office right now."

Madoka nodded, not questioning the sudden abbreviation. Both boys dropped their bags on the floor, taking their seats around the table they recently moved to the middle of the room. Easier to draft stories and get ideas down on the spot, Yoshiro had said. No one disagreed.

"So..." Kyou said. Rare was it that there were so few of them, and he felt at a loss. "What should we do while we wait?"

There was shuffling from the other side of the table, and he caught the folder Masuyo slid towards him.

"My chapter is next, right?" She said. "You guys pick one for me, and I'll work on getting ideas down for it."

Kyou nodded, flippeding the folder open. The loud scraping sound to his left told him Madoka had moved closer.

"I'll pick one for my next one too, then. I'm after Akio, after all."

It was roughly half an hour later when Yoshiro walked in, looking very annoyed.

Kyou had a feeling their completely normal days were about to get shaken up.

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A/N: It started off a little slow, but that's how it is when you're transitioning into a new season.

But I have something important to announce. Since things aren't going as planned with "Through the Water", which should be obvious with me uploading this before chapter ten. Chapter nine is most of the way through, and I'm going to get it uploaded right after this, but after that I'm going to be putting the series on temporary hiatus. There's not really a specific reason, but you guys might have noticed I'm not all that great with long-term projects like "Tomorrow". So I'm going to be focusing on getting the chapters written instead of updating, so it isn't rushed. Then when I have enough of th story covered, I'll start updating it again in installment, maybe twice a week. I'll still be updating "Tomorrow" when I have a new chapter ready, but it'll be a slow progress and there will be noticable gaps.

And now I'm off to take a nap, because it took everything I had to finish both this hapter and nine of "Through the Water".