The Ordinary Life of Chizuru Yukimura

Disclaimer: Hakuouki isn't mine.

It started out as a joke. A cute little trick they'd bring out at family reunions or sometimes in class. It was easy for identical twins even those of different genders. Chizuru and her brother Kaoru would switch their clothes for about an hour and switch back, usually without anyone noticing. It used to be fun when they were little. But as they got older and Kaoru's voice broke, it was a little harder. Aged sixteen, Chizuru thought they'd never play that game again. It wasn't mentioned for yearsuntil the day they moved towns.

Just like it was before, Kaoru was the one who started it. They were sat next to each other on the bus. Their father was moving with them but he was rarely ever around and so it was usually just the two of them. They were sat near the back, eating crappy food.

"Hey… have we registered at the new school yet?" There was a small smile on his face. He was planning something.

"I don't think so." Chizuru wasn't paying much attention. It had been a long day and she was starting to get tired.

"Because I have an… interesting idea."

"Oh?"

"Remember when we used to switch places, when we were younger?"

"Yeah?" She was a little confused as to why he was bringing this up. It was pretty hard to do nowadays.

"Well… What if we enrolled at our new school as each other. I be you, you be me."

"What?" Now she was listening.

"We could bet on it." Kaoru looked pretty keen on the idea.

"How?"

"The first one to get found out has to do one thing that the other person tells them to."

"As interesting as that sounds, aren't we a little old? I mean, we could get in trouble." Chizuru hated getting into trouble over stupid things, in stark contrast to Kaoru who really didn't care.

"How? No one in this town has ever met us. You can just act like you always do, we'll just be dressing differently." He opened up a new bag of crisps. "I don't know why you're so worried."

"Well…" She paused. There wasn't any real reason she didn't like it. "I'd just rather be a girl…" There was a lot more to gender than just the way you dressed after all.

"We can always switch back later. We'd have to when they do those physical exam days anyway."

"Oh! That's true…" Chizuru stared out the window at the passing countryside. They were starting to get close to their new home town.

"So?" Kaoru wasn't giving up this topic so easily. "Are you in?"

"I suppose…" Chizuru had stopped listening. She figured it was just one of Kaoru's things and he'd probably drop it pretty soon. They were starting to go past buildings and so she was keen to get a feel for the place.

Two days after this and Chizuru had completely forgotten about their conversation. She was busy sorting through the boxes in her room when Kaoru walked in, holding up a piece of paper.

"It's done."

"What is?"

"School registration." She paused in her unpacking and went to see. Instead of saying Kaoru and Chizuru as it would normally, the form read Kaori and Tsuruo. Chizuru stared.

"…Why are our names wrong?"

"Did you forget about our bet?" When she thought back to their conversation from the bus she froze.

"You didn't."

"I did. I even got the uniforms." He looked her up and down. "It's a good thing you're so flat chested. You'll probably have to trim your hair though." All of these things were annoying to hear but there was one thing that bothered her more than anything else.

"I know you're Kaori… But Tsuruo? Why can't we just swap names?"

"Well… I thought it would be more fun." For him perhaps but not for Chizuru. "Kaoru is easy to change over but your name is way too feminine." She was starting to get annoyed which was understandable given the current situation but she preferred to avoid arguments.

"Do we have to do this?"

"I've already sorted things. You never know, you might enjoy it."

And so this was why, on the first day of the new term, Chizuru found herself with her hair cut to the same length as Kaoru's and dressed in a boy's uniform. As they walked to school she could feel her heart pounding. Kaoru was not so self-conscious and so was pretty comfortable in a skirt.

"How are you so confident Kaoru?" All she could think of is what would happen if someone noticed.

"Because it's not that bad. And it's Kaori, remember? Kaori and Tsuruo."

"Right…" It would've been better if she'd picked her own name at least. Maybe then she would actually be able to remember it.

As they got closer and closer to the school, more and more people were appearing and Chizuru's heart was practically beating out of her chest. She was certain that someone would notice soon and she'd be driven into exile already. But no one even gave her a second glance. It was the first day of spring term and so there were a lot of new first years. At least this meant she blended in a little more.

After walking past a stern looking teacher at the front gate they came to the class list. Luckily they were in together, which was a major relief to Chizuru as it meant she didn't have to walk into her class alone. The room was pretty full already and as they entered, a girl with black hair in two long ponytails came over.

"Are you two twins?" This was always the first question anyone asked them.

"Yes." Chizuru had always been a little shy.

"I'm Kaori Yukimura." Aside from changing the pitch of his voice slightly he'd made barely any changes at all. "And this is my brother Tsuruo."

"N-nice to meet you." Chizuro was glad that Kaoru had introduced her as she would've definitely given the wrong name.

"I'm Sen." She smiled. "I can introduce you to some of the other girls if you like?"

"Thanks! See you later 'brother'." Eh? Kaoru trotted off with Sen leaving Chizuru alone at the front of the room. She wouldn't have minded going with them but as she was supposed to be a boy she assumed she should be somewhere else. They hadn't invited her anyway.

She spotted a desk to the side and so she went over there where she could be out of the way. There were a few groups of guys around her but she didn't try to talk to them. She'd probably give herself away if she did. The chattering continued until the stern looking teacher from outside walked in. It seemed he was their homeroom teacher, something Chizuru wasn't too sure on. He looked pretty bad tempered.

"I'll go through the register. When I get to you, introduce yourself." Oh no. This was a major problem for the incredibly shy. Public speaking. The building panic distracted her from most of her classmate's introducing themselves. Except for the very loud one behind her.

"Yo! I'm Heisuke Toudou, nice to meet you all." Heisuke turned out to be a smallish boy with large eyes and long-brown hair tied back in a ponytail. As he sat back down he noticed her looking and smiled. He was only being friendly but she was pretty flustered already and so quickly turned away.

Oh no! I hope he doesn't think I was bring rude… She did tend to think too much about minor details. So much so that she didn't notice what was going on around her.

"Tsuruo Yukimura! Yukimura!" It took her a moment to realise she was next.

"Oh!" She stood up and knocked her chair back into Heisuke's desk. "Sorry!" Sannan-Sensei was not best pleased.

"Well? Are you going to introduce yourself?" A few people laughed and she turned bright red.

"Yes Um… I'm Chi- Tsuruo Yukimura! N-nice to um… meet you."

"…Are you going to sit down?"

"Oh! Yes, sorry." And now very red and with the whole class laughing she dropped back into her seat hoping that the ground would swallow her up. The chattering died down and the lesson started. Chizuru did try to pay attention but the way the girls across the classroom kept giggling put her off. When the bell rang for break she planned of finding somewhere to hide.

"Hey Yukimura!" This was foiled by the boy behind her. He was smiling at least.

"H-hello…" She hoped he wasn't going to make fun of her.

"That was a pretty funny introduction you did."

"Oh…" And now he was laughing at her.

"Tsuruo right?"

"Err… Yes?" That is my name. Not Chizuru, Tsuruo!

"Call me Heisuke." He held out a hand so she reluctantly shook it. "Can I call you Ruo?"

"Ruo?"

"You don't like it? What do people normally call you?"

"Oh! No, Ruo's fine." I have a nickname…For my fake name. Across the class she could see Kaoru still talking to Sen.

"So… Ruo. Is that girl over there your sister?" He pointed to Kaoru.

"Yeah, that's Kaori."

"You guys are really alike. It's pretty cool."

"Thank you?" It seemed he was being nice which was a good start. She did talk to people around her but usually people weren't so… forward.

"Where are you guys from anyway?"

"We move around a lot. Most recently it was a small city."

"Lucky! I've always lived here. I mean it's nice but…" He shrugged. "It'd be nice to travel too. Why'd ya move out here?"

"Dad got a new job here so…"

"Ohh. Welcome anyway." Heisuke was a pretty friendly person and so he did most of the talking. And he hadn't realised she was a girl either. So far things were going well. Up until lunch when the inevitable happened. She was on the way to get some food with Heisuke.

"Hey, I'm just gonna nip to the toilet quick, you coming?" Heisuke had no idea of the inner conflict he had caused.

"Oh…Err…" It wasn't that she didn't need to go. There was just the obvious anatomical differences. "O-ok." She couldn't hold it until the end of the day so she'd just have to wing it. She failed at her first effort when she tried to go in the 'wrong' door.

"What are you doing? That's the girls!" Heisuke was giving her the weirdest look.

"Oh! Sorry I wasn't really paying attention."

"You're a pretty spacey guy. You were nearly branded a pervert there."

"A pervert?!" The idea of this had never occurred to her and she gulped. It was complicated being a boy it seemed.

The toilets only had two cubicles and an entire row of urinals. Chizuru froze like a deer in headlights. Heisuke didn't have any gender-related dilemmas so walked over as usual. Realising she could be about to see more of her new friend than she wanted, she dashed into a cubicle. She couldn't sit down as Heisuke would notice so she had to squat. From now on she was only going in here when no one else was around.

"Why'd ya go in there?" When she finally emerged, Heisuke was giving her an odd look.

"Oh well… I don't really… I don't like getting it out in public!" She turned bright red and Heisuke laughed.

"Wow, really? Never met anyone like that before." She was so lucky he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box. "You're pretty shy aren't ya?"

"I guess… Sorry…"

"No worries! Shin says I talk enough for everybody so I guess I make up for it." Chizuru couldn't disagree with that.

"Shin?"

"Oh. Shipachi. He's one of the guys in the kendo club. Oh, that reminds me! What club are you joining?"

"Club?" She hadn't thought about joining any kind of club.

"A few friends of mine from middle school are in the year above and they're all in the kendo club. I'm going round there after school. You should join too." He looked eager at this.

"Oh… Um well…" She definitely didn't want to get involved in a sports club. This would involve more complications.

"Just come with me later and meet everyone." Heisuke was so determined it was hard to say no.

"That would be ok. I think?"

"Great!" Chizuru jumped back. The guy was pretty exuberant. "You'll love the guys, they're awesome."

"Yeah…" She just hoped they weren't more observant than Heisuke.

I've been playing the Hakuouki Memories of the Shinsengumi game recently so wanted to try a Fanfic. This is the first Hetero Fanfic I've done and the first one from the POV of a female so not sure how good it will be :L The name Chizuru means a thousand cranes and Tsuruo means crane and also manly so I thought it would fit XD The characters may be a little OOC but I'm trying to keep them accurate. Thanks for reading and please review :3