Hey everybody!

I said I'd do it, and here it is --- the sequel to The Great Shizuma. Hopefully it will live up to TGS.

AW, GROW UP ALREADY!

Chapter One

The First Of Our Last Days

Sixteen-year-old Suzumi Tamao did up the pine-colored necktie and smoothed out the bottom of her uniform. Sighing, she snuck a glance out her dorm window. The cream-hued curtains were thrown open, admitting April's buttery dawn light. The season had approached that ambiguous spring weather --- bitingly chilly in the morning and at night, and miserably hot in the afternoon.

Tamao turned toward her bed, smiling as she saw her favorite redhead laying in it, fast asleep. Aoi Nagisa lay on her tummy, her arms tucked underneath her, her mouth slightly ajar. By close examination, Tamao could see that she was blushing. I wonder what she's dreaming about?

With a drowsy groan, Nagisa shifted a bit in her sleep. She extended an arm, her hand pawing the side of the bed where the poet previously laid. Nagisa's auburn eyebrows knitted and she mumbled, "Tamao-chan…" Her hand made vague squeezing motions on the sheets.

Tamao giggled. She's so cute! Then she sweat-dropped. But I wonder what part of me she would be grabbing if I was laying there… It was true to say that ever since they stole home plate (or first base if that's how you look at it) in July last year, Nagisa had been a bit bolder, sexually.

Nagisa rolled onto her back, her right arm up over her head. Tamao decided to have a little fun waking her up. The redhead's mouth still hung open and the poet covered it with her own. Tamao's tongue darted inside, immediately rousing Nagisa with a hilarious snorting sound. She brought her hands to the poet's neck, cradling Tamao's head as they made out for a few moments. Then, moaning, Nagisa began to tug on Tamao's uniform, trying to pull her in their bed. But the poet politely broke off the kiss and whispered, "As much as I'd like a morning roll in the hay, I'm afraid we can't."

Looking a bit crestfallen, the redhead slumped back in bed, covering her garnet eyes sleepily with her arm. "Why?" she asked.

"Guess what day it is?"

Nagisa's eyes were hidden, but Tamao saw her bemused frown. "Monday?"

"Hai. You're right. BUT…" The poet pulled Nagisa's arm from her eyes, and leaned in closer. "Hint: I'm in my uniform,."

Nagisa spaced out a moment before it clicked. She sat up. "The first day of school!"

"You're absolutely correct! Here's your prize!" And Tamao pulled her in for another kiss.

---

"Are you guys idiots?! Get up!"

"Good morning to you, too," Nanto Yaya greeted Tsubomi sarcastically.

Across from her, fifteen-year-old Konohana Hikari yawned and rubbed sleep from her turquoise eyes. Ever since Hikari's beloved Amane graduated from Spica and she herself had stepped down from her position as Ếtoile, the blonde-haired girl had gone back to rooming with Yaya.

"School starts in an hour," Okuwaka Tsubomi ranted, "and we have to pick up our class schedules!"

"Take a chill pill, Tsubomi-chan," Yaya grunted. She stood and started to change into her uniform. Hikari, having lived with the brunette before, knew to look away. Tsubomi tried to avert her gaze, but Yaya caught her sneaking a peek. She grinned.

"Impressive, eh Tsubomi?"

For a brief moment, Yaya saw Tsubomi's golden eyes widen and a pink blush dashed the younger girl's cheeks. Then she turned away with a huff.

Tsubomi cried out as Yaya pressed up against her from behind. She saw and felt the older girl's bare arms encircle her waist.

"Yaya-senpai…" Tsubomi warned.

"Oh, you love it. Admit it," Yaya growled, gently nibbling her ear lobe. She jumped away just in time as Tsubomi's fist narrowly missed her head. Yaya laughed heartily. "Such a violent little girl!"

"Just shut up and get ready." And Tsubomi turned her back to her girlfriend, dismissing the argument completely. Yaya heard her mumble, "I'm not so little…"

Hikari sighed. It's great to be back.

Yaya had to agree, though, on their way to the courtyard, that Tsubomi wasn't really so little anymore. When she first met the kouhai, Tsubomi had been of smaller than average height with long light-pink hair. She had had burning topaz eyes and chubby cheeks that puffed out when she was angry. Now she was taller, though not as tall as Yaya. Some of her baby fat had been shed and her hair had faded from roseate to fuschia. In a month, Tsubomi would be fourteen, the age Yaya was when she first met the younger girl, and had apparently entered the awkward-clumsy phase of adolescence.

"Oi, oi, that's probably the third time you've tripped today," Yaya laughed, holding Tsubomi steady, "and it's not even 0700 hours!" She smiled appreciatively and lightly ran her hand along Tsubomi's soft cheeks. "You really are getting older."

Tsubomi frowned at that. It was an understatement to say that she was stubborn. She hated it when things had to change. The fact that Yaya was in her penultimate year of school was too real for her. Why can't things stay the same? she thought, her sorrow turning into anger. Everybody was happy with the way things were, so…why?? Her growth spurt was just another illustration of her world changing too rapidly. Not half an hour before she traipsed off to Yaya and Hikari's room had Tsubomi gazed at herself in her full-length mirror. She had found it hard to recognize herself. Waterfall tears streamed down her face as she pouted, "My body refuses to comply with my principles."

The pinkette opted to disregard Yaya's comment about getting older, and simply pushed her hand away. "Hey, none of that. You know how I feel about public displays of affection."

"There's no one around." Yaya grinned and slid her hand up Tsubomi's beige sweater, pushing up the light blue polo underneath. "Besides, I can't keep my hands off you."

Tsubomi shuddered as Yaya's hand reached penalty zones. She jumped away, readjusting her clothes. "W-well, you b-b-better learn to," she stuttered, blushing. "I w-won't have you m-mauling me at sch-school."

Tsubomi felt a sultry heat build up in her chest as Yaya's brown eyes smoldered. "You mean I have to go an entire day without my Tsubomi-chan?"

With an effort, the kouhai averted her butterscotch eyes. "M-more or less…"

"Okay," Yaya said slowly, stepping closer. "I can deal with that, on one condition…"

Tsubomi gazed at Yaya, intensely bewildered and weak at the knees. "What's that?" she practically whispered.

Yaya seized the younger girl by her shoulders and pushed her up against a tree. "I have a pitstop of lovin' to keep me going." And she attacked Tsubomi's neck with warm, wet kisses, dangerously light and ticklish. Tsubomi could be impervious to Yaya's flirtations, but once the older girl went for her neck, the pinkette's resolve crumbled. She managed to grunt out one last warning "Yaya-senpai…" before she gave in completely. She closed her eyes and emitted a panicked purr as Yaya ran her tongue ever so gently along her hyper-sensitive neck. Eventually, though, Yaya's tongue hit a nerve, causing Tsubomi to jerk her shoulder up, knocking Yaya away.

"I'm sorry!" Tsubomi exclaimed. "It was a reflex!"

"It's okay," Yaya smiled, stepping back a bit. "C'mon, let's go get our schedules!"

"You mean that was all I got?" the pinkette sighed.

The raven-haired girl laughed. "Ah, see? Now you want me to do you!"

Rats. I was tricked. "Y-you suck, Yaya-senpai." But Tsubomi took her hand and they made their way to the courtyard.

---

Kagome stood outside the registration office, which was teeming with girls from all three schools. This portion of the first day of school --- picking up your schedule --- was always a pain in the butt for all parties involved. The student body of Astraea Hill was approximately 12,000 girls. The staff had to scoot 12,000 students through the office before school started. Usually a fifth of the student body was late to class because of this.

Girls bustled past the Lulim third year, in a hurry to find their first classes. Kagome was waiting for Tsukidate Chiyo, her girlfriend and a truer companion than anyone could have. They had entered the office only to be separated because Kagome had to go to the "First Names A-F" section and Chiyo had to go to the "First Names T-X" section. Kagome had finished first.

She looked at her schedule. Biology I Honors, Effective Writing, French III, AP Japanese History, PE, lunch, and Statistics. Girls from separate schools rarely had classes together, but Kagome was hoping she and Chiyo would at least have PE together.

"Kagome chan!"

The Lulim girl looked up and smiled as Chiyo approached her, grinning. The two brushed lips, the contact sending electricity through Kagome, and they compared schedules.

Chiyo pouted. "Why must you be so smart?" Chiyo's schedule boasted no Honors or Advanced Placement classes at all: Japanese History, Japanese Literature, Intro to Biology, lunch, PE, Geometry, and French III.

"Hey, we have Gym together!" Kagome beamed.

"So we do…Hmm, I wonder if we wear the same uniform size…"

They contemplated that. Then they blushed deeply as they realized that they would have to change clothes in front of each other.

Kagome looked up past Chiyo's shoulder and smiled. "Konichiwa, Nagisa-oneesama. Tamao-oneesama."

Chiyo turned around to greet them, but her greeting stuck in her throat. "T…Tamao-oneesama! Your hair!"

"Do you like it?" Tamao ran her fingers through her ponytail.

"It's…in a ponytail!"

"Yeah. Do you like it?"

Chiyo openly stared. She couldn't decide whether or not she liked Tamao's new hairstyle. Her first impulse was to hate it simply because it was too different. But Chiyo didn't want to be too quick to condemn this style. To go from a bun to a ponytail wasn't such a drastic change. To go from a bun to cornrows or a shaved head --- that was something to sneeze at.

"It's great," Kagome said. "I love it."

"Lovely! Great!" Chiyo added.

Tamao simply smiled, knowing that Chiyo just felt a little upheaved by the new school year. In a disquieting way, the poet suspected everyone was feeling this way.

She turned to Nagisa, who was crying waterfall tears.

"What's wrong? Is the ponytail really that bad?"

"No," Nagisa whined. She waved her schedule about. "We only have French and lunch together!"

"Well, at least we have something together," Tamao assured, resisting the urge to laugh at Nagisa's expression.

"Only one class, and we're not even allowed to speak Japanese to each other…" Nagisa didn't even have to take French this year, or last year. She had fulfilled her foreign language credit requirement. She had come within a breath of omitting it from her schedule, maybe take some fun elective like Ceramics instead, but Tamao had convinced her otherwise.

"After French IV," the poet had explained, "it becomes an Honors class. That will look good for uni. And if you opt out of French V and VI, you'll just have to take it in college anyway."

"Tamao-senpai! What did you do to your hair?" They all turned to see Yaya and Tsubomi approaching them. They both looked pissed, but for different reasons.

Tamao chuckled humorlessly. "I take it the ponytail isn't a hit."

"No, it's not," fumed Tsubomi. She didn't get it. She had thought the bun was fine, so why did Tamao have to get rid of it? Why did everything have to be so different? Couldn't everything just stay the same for just one second???

"What's wrong, Yaya-chan?" Nagisa asked.

Yaya shook her head furiously and held up her schedule. "They decided to make choir a regular fifty minute class instead of an extracurricular activity! So the administrators decided to push out my Consumer Ed class!"

"And that's a bad thing?" the redhead asked. "I'd be jumping for joy."

"It's a graduation requirement. I was hoping to get it out of the way this year."

"But the real reason Yaya-senpai's upset," said Tsubomi, "is because she could actually get in serious trouble for skipping rehearsals."

Yaya couldn't really deny this.

---

Tamao appeared to be fast asleep that night, but she actually just laid there, her eyes narrowed into slits. In the dim light Nagisa changed out of her uniform and into her pajamas. The poet shuddered as she saw her girlfriend in naught but her undergarments. They were in a comfortable stage of their relationship where they could see each other like that, but Tamao still got a delicious thrill to see Nagisa in her underwear. Such perks one could get from rooming with her lover.

Nagisa did up the last button on her top and switched off the light. Tamao could still see her vaguely in the moonlight from the window. The redhead moved toward their bed and sat upon it. That was when Tamao made her move. In one quick, easy movement, the poet grabbed Nagisa, pulled her down in bed, and rolled on top of her. Naturally, the redhead gave a startled squeak.

"Eep! Tamao-chan?!"

Tamao smiled as she nuzzled her girl. "See, that's another thing I love about you: you're so much fun to seduce."

For the past week, they had been compiling a list of things they loved about each other. It was like a little game of theirs.

Nagisa brought her hands up to Tamao's face. "You're horny tonight, all of a sudden," she observed. "Are you sure we should do this on a school night?"

"I've been thinking about something, Nagisa-chan," the poet sighed. "Do you realize that today was our last first day of school?"

"I personally find that to be a relief. No day is more hectic or confusing."

"Yeah, but once you think that you could never have it again, it becomes more appealing." Tamao paused a moment to gaze into Nagisa's crimson eyes. She decided to cut to the chase. "What'll happen to us after we graduate?"

Nagisa frowned. She had never really considered that. For the redhead lived in the moment and simply enjoyed hers and Tamao's relationship for what it was, not what it could be. Nagisa loved Tamao deeply --- no other girl could make her so happy --- but one thing she didn't love was the poet's inclination to worry. (They had fought about it once; Tamao refused to acknowledge it as "worrying," but rather "thinking ahead." But with her father's recent diagnosis of esophageal cancer, Tamao had been "thinking ahead" a lot, which led to their infrequent quarrels.)

"I don't know," the redhead responded.

"Neither do I," Tamao sighed, lowering herself so she could rest her head on Nagisa's chest.

"We could…try to get into the same college," Nagisa suggested.

Tamao shrugged. She couldn't see that happening. She and Nagisa had a whole world between their academic ranks at Miator. Tamao was in Honors and AP; Nagisa was in Regular Ed, and even in Essentials math and science. Tamao wanted to become a writer; Nagisa didn't know what she wanted.

"You may call me a 'worrywart,'" said the poet, "but this is a real problem that needs figuring out." She reared back up so she could look Nagisa in the eye. "At this point I can honestly say that I want to be with you forever."

"Is this a proposal?" the redhead grinned. "Where's my ring?"

"I would…like to marry you someday. But uni comes first. Do you…think we could stand a four-year separation?"

"Of course."

"So optimistic…" Tamao whispered, stroking Nagisa's almond-colored hair. "There's another thing I love about you."

Tamao's list extended longer than Nagisa's. It didn't mean Nagisa didn't love Tamao as much, but rather that Tamao was a hopeless romantic.

"I want to make love to you." Tamao leaned her head against Nagisa's, brushing lips. "I want to because we can, and someday we won't be able to."

Nagisa hooked her legs around Tamao's waist and pulled her in for a deep, sultry kiss. That night the redhead never thought "thinking ahead" could be so hot.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

And that's chapter one. I won't be able to update as frequently. I can probably get chapter two up next week.

For those of you who have read The Great Shizuma and know about my promise to illustrate it and post my illustrations up on deviantART, they're finally up. Here's my URL.

chiharusenpai . deviantart . com

It's really all one word, but I have to space it so FF will put it up there.

And concerning my artwork, I always considered myself an okay artist, but I don't think my style of manga artwork quite matches Strawberry Panic! and I'm pretty self-conscious about it. So when you comment, don't leave obnoxious remarks about anatomy and stuff. This was just for fun. (Besides, some of the characters are really hard to draw!) I misplaced my picture of Setsuko, but I can just draw another one.

Until next time! Peace.