A/N: My first Sakura Taisen fanfic. Generally, a mild SumirexKanna story. The idea popped into my head while I was looking at a picture of Kanna as a child during her early karate training days with her dad in the game. She looks so adorable! Do forgive me if you detect any OOCness. And I follow names according to the Japanese pronunciation and order, which is why I use "Kouran" instead of "Kohran" because that's the way it is written in the hiragana alphabet of the language… an exception being Ohgami because in actual fact it is written as "Oogami" but that would look kind of awkward, wouldn't it?

Disclaimer: Sakura Taisen is not mine, nor its characters.

Kanna-tan

Chapter 1: Sumire fetches Kanna

"Kanna-san. Kanna-san!"

Sumire knocked on the door again, harder this time. That block of a head can actually sleep like a log! She thought. It was already half-past ten. And all but the Kirishima martial artist was awake and about, getting ready to leave for yet another important training camp.

Orihime and Sumire were the only ones who had permission to be excluded from the trip. The Italian had been terribly down with the cold a week ago, and was still in the light of recovery. Sumire on the other hand was for strange reasons given the responsibility to stay and take care of her. Reni and Iris had actually volunteered to stay behind instead, but were persuaded to leave the Italian and the theatre to the Kanzaki heiress. Not that they didn't trust Sumire; they simply wanted to help her with the work.

Naturally the Top Star made an indifferent wave with her fan, exclaimed "A simple thing as this is hardly worth my effort!" and gave plenty of assurance that she could surely accomplish her duties better than any nurse could do with the least difficulties.

Thus, the marked Thursday on the calendar had come faster than expected, pouring forth a glorious sunshine onto the roof and windows of the Grand Imperial Theatre as though wishing its members a divine good luck, the very sunbeam that would always set one particular woman up on her feet and send her flying at record-breaking speed straight to the dining room for breakfast in the early hours of the day.

But she was not there for breakfast that morning.

It's absolutely outrageous for you to miss breakfast, Sumire wondered incredulously as though she was thinking how terrible it was for the Earth to stop spinning. But that was merely a trivial matter to worry about. After all, the reason why she bothered to go fetch Kanna in the first place was all in the hands of the Ensign, not her.

"Kanna-san! Oh, are you deaf?"

A muffled sound from inside the room, audible, but weakly comprehensible, was her reply. Which incensed Sumire a tenfold: that was not the kind of answer she wanted.

She threw a fiery glare at the door. "Kanna-san, I am not to be made a fool of, like you. Everyone is waiting. You better get up lest you wish to delay the others. And if you don't open this door any minute now I will tear it down!"

Sumire made no attempt to wait, however. Her patience had already run out. She turned swiftly and had begun her way to fetch her naginata, when she heard the click of the door unlocking.

"….."

Sumire stopped and looked behind her shoulder. The door was ajar. "What in the world is the matter with you?" she began, the cold flame ablaze in her tones, as she traced back her steps towards her rival's room.

The voice that came next, though, was not what she had expected; she was pretty caught in surprise that she her fingers stopped halfway before they could push a wider opening for her way in.

Her eyebrows twitched.

It sounded like Kanna. The piled-up, boyish crude words were all Kanna's. But the whole impression was rather off the mark. In fact it sounded like…..

For some few seconds Sumire remained wooden, eyebrows knotted. It sounded…. But wait, could it just be her imagination? Surely it sounded like…..

"Sumire."

"!"

It was real! The voice which called her name had a sense of doubtful weakness, as if desperate for help – a sort of fear, not as bad as trauma, but a more puzzled-like kind.

Secondly, that voice could no doubt belong to a second-grader.

Clutching hard onto her sleeve the Top Star rushed in. The door swung back into place and lodged itself secure with a loud snap. Inside, Sumire stared. And stared. So much that she forgot everything else.

Even at times a self-acclaimed prima donna can become speechless and start to question both her sanity and reality in the span of several seconds. We do this all the time, especially when we meet the unexpected. Common sense and thoughts ram against the back of your head and fade into a blur of grey, and you seem to lose yourself in the process, like being thrown off a cliff. Sumire felt exactly that as she struggled to drink in what her eyes were telling her.

"K-Kanna-san…."

A short sigh. "Don't. Say. Anything. I know what it looks like. Hey, don't stare at me like that! You're giving me the creeps."

As though roughly awakened from a trance, Sumire winced. "Look who's talking! I should say the same thing for you." She cleared her throat, "But, it really is you, isn't it?"

"What do you think?"

Sumire did not take long to examine. It was easy to capture everything in one glance. After what seemed like a timeless silence, she bent down to level her gaze with the redhead's.

"My, you're very small, aren't you?"

"WHO are you calling 'small' here?"

Sumire sighed. She was already thinking about how the rest of the gang would react when they found out that Kirishima Kanna had turned into a child.

End notes: For those who do not know, the word '-tan' in the title for this story is a cute way of calling children or tiny/chibi characters. It has a greater effect of cuteness than calling someone "-chan" and it can be used for teasing.

Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to review! Criticisms and comments are gladly welcome.

See you next chapter..?