What, I'm starting another story? I got into KHR a couple months ago so... yep.

A couple things first though. I intend to make this story follow the manga plot as close as possible with a few elements from the anime mixed in. I'm also going to try to get through the Daily Life Arc as quickly as I can.

I'm not entirely happy with this chapter because it's the introductory chapter. The plot won't start for a little bit. Also note that the rating is subject to change (mm, probably around when the Varia show up.)

This is also a slow romance because not only are the characters fourteen years old but also because Yamamoto is oblivious. Extremely oblivious. So don't expect mushy romance-y stuff until much later.

KHR doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Akira Amano.

So enjoy!

-x-

"Mitsuki, breakfast's ready!"

"Be there in a sec!" Satou Mitsuki shouted from her bedroom. She shoved her books into her bag and slung it over her shoulder before heading down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Morning!" Mitsuki cheerfully greeted her mom as she sat down at the table. She dropped her bag on the floor next to her and picked up her fork.

Wait a second, fork?

"A western breakfast, Mom?" Mitsuki's nose crinkled slightly. It wasn't that she minded western food but she preferred Japanese food over it.

"We ran out of rice last night as I was making your lunch." Her mom, Misaki, replied and set a glass of milk down in front of her. "So eggs and toast will have to do."

"Alright." Mitsuki sighed and started to eat.

"Do you think you can go to the store for me after school and pick up some rice?" Misaki asked. "I'll give you some money."

"I have kendo after school." Mitsuki replied between mouthfuls.

"Oh, that's right." Mitsuki didn't miss the brief look of irritation on her mom's face at the mention of kendo but she sighed and sipped at her coffee. "Your father and I will be busy all day with work, can you go after?"

"I suppose?" Mitsuki said thoughtfully. "It's Friday, after all." And I'll have the weekend to do homework.

"Good." She put some yen on the table. "This should cover it."

"'Kay." Mitsuki finished her eggs and toast and downed her milk. "I'm off!" She pocketed the money into her bag. Then she pulled out a spare hair tie and put her long, black hair up into its usual ponytail.

"Have a good day!" Her mom called behind her as Mitsuki grabbed her second bag full of her kendo equipment.

"I will!" Mitsuki left her house, closed the gate behind her, and began her twenty minute trek to Namimori Middle School.

About ten minutes into her walk she met up with her best friend like always. "Hey Chiharu!" Mitsuki called out and waved to the other girl.

"Mitsuki!" Chiharu gave her a small smile. "Morning."

Chiharu looked dressier than usual. Her light brown hair was immaculately curled and she was wearing more makeup than usual (it made Mitsuki feel plain by comparison—straight dark hair and makeup-less.) But she wasn't smiling as widely as she normally did and she was nervously playing with her bow on the front of her uniform.

"You look nice." Mitsuki commented.

"Yeah." Chiharu fidgeted, now playing with the hem of her skirt.

"Something wrong?" Mitsuki frowned. She knew Chiharu well enough to figure out when she was bothered by something. And judging by the fidgeting, something must be up.

"Ah, I'll tell you later. We should get going or else we'll be late." Chiharu motioned for Mitsuki to keep walking.

They continued on towards school, both not talking much unlike all the other days when they walked to school together. Normally Mitsuki would ramble on about kendo or her upperclassmen. Chiharu would talk about their homework from last night or a test coming up and whether or not Mitsuki wanted to come over to her house to study. So the silence was unusual and uncomfortable.

"Do you have any plans for the weekend?" Mitsuki finally broke the silence.

"I'm going shopping with my Mom." Chiharu answered.

"Sounds fun. I'll be doing my usual." Mitsuki said. Her usual consisted of homework and the normal jog around Namimori to help stay in shape for kendo.

"Like usual?" Chiharu joked. A smile finally formed and she giggled.

"Yep." Mitsuki laughed and soon enough, they were laughing and chatting like usual.

-x-

"Morning!" Someone said to Mitsuki in the hallways as they walked past.

"Morning!" Mitsuki called back and knelt down to take off her shoes and switch them for the indoor ones. She shoved her shoes into her locker and took a quick trip down to the locker rooms to put her kendo bag away.

At exactly two minutes to the bell, Mitsuki slipped into her classroom and took her seat. The seat in front of her was empty—as usual. The occupant would be running into the room in five minutes or so.

"Alright. Settle down." Their teacher called them to attention and began roll call. "Ai!"

"Here!"

And on it went like usual.

"Nakamura!"

"Here!" Chiharu chirped.

"Satou!"

Mitsuki raised her hand. "Here!"

"Sasagawa!"

"Here!" Sasagawak Kyoko, the 'idol' of Namimori raised her hand too.

And then, without warning, the door slammed open and a panting boy with gravity-defying brown hair stood in it.

"SAWADA!" The teacher shouted, a vein popping out of his forehead. "You're late!"

"Sorry!" Sawada Tsunayoshi apologized and shut the door behind him.

Almost immediately the whispers began.

"No-Good Tsuna is always late!"

"I wonder how low his test score is going to be..."

"No-Good Tsuna can't do anything!"

The boy labeled as "No-Good" Tsuna made his way over to his seat and plopped down in it—right in front of Mitsuki. By the way his shoulders were stiff, she could tell he was trying to ignore the whispers.

"Now that Sawada has decided to grace us with his presence—snickers went through the classroom and Tsuna visibly flinched—we can continue on."

He handed out tests. "Yamamoto—seventy-four." He read out.

"Ah, not bad!" The resident baseball stood up, rubbing the back on his head.

Ah, even in the early morning Yamamoto-kun looks good. Mitsuki thought dreamily as she watched him get his test. Tall, lean, fantastically good at baseball, and with handsome looks, Yamamoto Takeshi was one of the most popular boys in school.

And Mitsuki's had a crush on him since the second grade.

Since then, she cultivated little pieces of information about him:

His birthday was April twenty-fourth (making him just a few weeks older than her.)

He was 5'8" and weighed one hundred-thirty eights pounds.

His blood type was O.

His favorite drink was milk.

His favorite food was sushi (and his favorite type of sushi was fatty tuna, young yellowtail, and shrimp.)

His dad owned a sushi bar.

His favorite instrument was the taiko.

And in baseball, his favorite position was batting (Mitsuki also thought he was great at pitching) but he was aiming to become an all-rounder.

Yep, just the little things. However, Mitsuki wasn't the most knowledgeable about him in the school. The girls who watched him constantly at baseball practice knew the most. Unfortunately, Kendo Club was at the same time as baseball practice so Mitsuki could never watch him.

"Nakamura—ninety-nine. The highest in class." Chiharu stood up to some small cheers from other people in class as she got her test.

"Sasagawa—eighty-nine."

"Kurokawa—eighty-five."

"Satou—eighty-eight." That's pretty good! Mitsuki thought as she took her test back.She had been worried about her math test since she barely had any time to study for it—what with kendo and all.

"Sawada—fifteen." The snickers came back as Tsuna grabbed his test and nearly ran back to his desk.

Poor Tsuna. Mitsuki watched him shove his test away and out of sight. He's not able to do much, is he? He was infamous for not being able to do anything. His test scores were always low, he always came in last, and was always last to be picked and first to be teased. She had felt sorry for him ever since they were put in the same class and she got a firsthand experience with how badly he was treated.

She never made fun of him but she never defended or helped him either.

People in their school were merciless and would also make fun of anyone who tried to help or befriend him (not that anyone did.) No one's popularity could save them from being teased for being affiliated with No-Good Tsuna.

The rests of the tests were handed out and then they moved onto their first lesson—English.

"Crap." Mitsuki muttered as she pulled out her book. English wasn't her best subject, she could never get the pronunciations right.

"Kurokawa, start reading on page sixty-six."

"Alright." Kurokawa Hana stood up and began to read.

Mitsuki could follow it easily enough. It was a history excerpt on England's Queen Victoria; her early life and then coronation as queen. I wonder what it would be like to be a queen of an entire nation? She idly wondered as she followed along.

"Satou, repeat this phrase." Their teacher said after Hana finished speaking. "Queen Victoria would take the throne after William the Fourth's death."

"Yes." Mitsuki attempted to translate. "Queen Biktolia—"

"Vic-to-ria! Hard 'r', Satou."

She flushed, embarrassed. "Right." Luckily she managed to get through the rest of her bit before Mr. Nezu called on someone else. The next person was Chiharu who stood up and recited the passage given to her perfectly.

-x-

At 11:30 the bell rang for lunch. Mitsuki put her books away and pulled out her lunch. "Where do you wanna eat?" Mitsuki asked Chiharu as she approached her. "It's warm out, I was thinking maybe the courtyard."

"Actually. I wanna go somewhere else." Chiharu's solemn look was back on her face.

That somewhere else turned out to be behind the school, in the shade.

"Back here?" Mitsuki asked, eying the area skeptically.

"Yeah, I wanted some privacy." Chiharu replied and sat down.

"Ookay." Mitsuki drawled out and sat down too. She unwrapped her lunch and opened it. "So what's on your mind?" She popped some rice into her mouth.

Chiharu was busy fiddling with her lunch—perfectly made too, Mitsuki noted. But Chiharu came from a wealthy family; all of her stuff was never out of place.

"Chiharu." Mitsuki said again. "What's wrong?"

Chiharu sighed and looked at Mitsuki, her sky-blue eyes meeting Mitsuki's brown ones. "I got in."

"Got into where?" Mitsuki wasn't following.

"I got the letter yesterday. I got into Midori Middle."

Mitsuki's appetite went away. "Oh." Midori Middle School was an all-girl's school that was super competitive and for extremely smart people. Chiharu had been talking about transferring there since the beginning of school but she had to take an admittance test first.

"So you passed the test?" Midor's swallowed with difficulty, her throat felt constricted.

"Yeah." Chiharu nodded.

"And you're transferring?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

"Monday."

Mitsuki's insides froze. "As in—this coming Monday?"

Chiharu nodded slowly. "Yes. Today's my last day at Namimori."

"I see." Mitsuki visibly slumped. "So you're leaving."

She knew it was Chiharu's dream to get into Midori. Midori was the first step towards her becoming a doctor someday and from Midori she'd get into a good high school and then get into Tokyo University.

But she and Chiharu had been best friends since the first grade when Mitsuki sat down next to her at lunch and introduced herself. Since then, they had been inseparable. A Namimori without Chiharu was... an unbearable thought.

"I'm sorry, Mitsuki." Chiharu said sadly. "I wanted to have more time but it just happened so suddenly."

"It's okay, really." Mitsuki tried to shrug off her feelings about Chiharu leaving and grasped Chiharu's hands. "I'm happy for you, I really am. I know how badly you wanted to get into Midori."

Chiharu smiled. "That means a lot to me. Thank you Mitsuki."

An idea hit Mitsuki. "I know, I'll go buy something to celebrate you getting into Midori! Wait here!" And then Mitsuki ran off, ignoring Chiharu's protests.

She bought some melon bread with the little money she had left and came back to find Chiharu had almost finished her food. "Here." She handed a melon bread off to Chiharu. "Congratulations on getting into Midori!"

"Thanks." Chiharu smiled and tore apart her bread and eating the chunks while Mitsuki bit off a piece.

"Okay, you have to come by a kendo tournament sometime." Mitsuki started off as she devoured her lunch. "Or you and I can go to a cake shop and buy cake during the weekend. We need to stay in touch."

"Of course!"

Mitsuki held out her pinky towards her best friend. "Promise?"

Chiharu smiled happily and hooked her pinky around Mitsuki's. "Promise."

-x-

Like I said, it's the introductory chapter. So how do you like Mitsuki? Reviews, favorites, and follows are loved!