For some people art came like a lightning strike - quick, sudden inspiration that set fire to the passions of creativity. Others saw it come naturally, flowing like a river unimpeded until it flowed out into the ocean of fine arts. Then there were people who simply had difficulty accomplishing anything with even the most wide ranging and comprehensive set of tools known to man. Many girls at the Astraea Hill schools were gifted at one or more things, many of them were competent at art no less. A new teacher had taken up instructing art at Spica this year, a former Etoile who was well loved by the students. Sitting in the corner of Hiruko-sensei's art class was a certain pigtailed girl for whom no amount of supplies would make artistic tendencies flow. While the rest of the class had been busy finishing up sketches of myths, legends or just portraits. Whatever tickled their fancy really. Haruka on the other hand had been struggling to do anything with the assignment and had several crumpled pieces of paper scattered near her desk. All were full of indecipherable scribbles. Finally the idea had come! She had been working on it almost the entire class period but there was much to be proud of! Truly a great picture of her hero. A powerful figure stood atop a throne with people forced to admit his superiority and kneel before him. What she didn't realize was that for all her effort the figures were really crude stick figures, sometimes impossible to determine as people at all. One looked more like a chair than a person. And the hero's throne? It looked like a second grader's picture of a toilet. Still Haruka felt kind of proud about the picture and even added helpful labels - 'Zod' for the hero and 'kneeling before him' for the others.

"Mwa ha ha! Kneel before Zod!" she giggled evilly but quietly so as not to disturb the other artists. Little could she know that she may well have attracted the teacher's attention.

She stood at the front of the class, watching over the girls who were busy at work on their assignments. Her white hair just barely touching her shoulders. She wore a knee- length pink skirt and plain white top with a similarly shaded tailored jacket, simple yet still professional. A light pink stained her cheeks, but she was smiling.

Hiruka Kagami couldnt have been happier. Since she had awoken from her car accident, she had felt within her a new determination, an urge to make the most out of her life. And now, she was; she was helping others, teaching, and teaching something that she absolutely adored. On top of that, she still had her darling girlfriend and her little sister at her side. She was thoroughly enjoying the new turn her life had taken.

She began walking between the desks, glancing at her students work and offering compliments and advice when appropriate. She glanced up as a giggle reached her ears, turning to see a pig-tailed girl who was sitting towards the back. There were pieces of paper discarded around her desk, but she seemed to be quite pleased with the work in front of her.

With a tiny smile, Kagami walked over to her. "Oh- san." She stopped in front of her desk, folding her hands in front of her. As it had always been, her voice was soft, though it now possessed a sense of self- surety that before had been lacking.

"How are you doing with the assignment? May I see?"

Her work was nearing completion but there was just something missing from it. Something that would add to the hero's majesty and prove once and for all his superiority over all who opposed him. Then it hit her: those who didn't kneel before him were doomed to fall before him! Thus she began to work furiously to add one last part to her brilliant illustration. A final, crucial thing that it needed if it were to incorporate her full vision. By the time that her teacher arrived at the desk Haruka had finished this missing piece and was in the process of labeling it as well. Now below the figure of Zod was a crumpled form identified as 'son of Jor-El'; in reality it appeared to be a cat or some other animal curled up at the feet of the humanoid standing atop a toilet. She was surprised to hear her teacher's voice calling to her and jerked her head up suddenly, pigtails bouncing playfully on her shoulders. Nothing was wrong of course, since the teacher was nice and this was clearly the best drawing Haruka had ever done! Asked how the assignment was proceeding, she smiled brightly and allowed Kagami to fully see what had been crafted by the hand of Oh.

"Hiruko-sensei! Of course you can," she agreed, looking far more adorable than she had a right to be, "It's my masterpiece! I thnk this is the best art I've ever done."

After a second, she explained, "It's Zod! He's the greatest hero of our time."

Kagami couldnt help but smile at the enthusiasm the girl was showing; she loved it when her students were excited for the assignments and activities she gave them. As Haruka showed her the drawing, the smile faded slightly, then froze, a look of confusion evident on the teachers face.

She would never have told anyone that their art style was bad or lacking, but... What was she looking at? She cocked her head to the side, even tilted the drawing itself to the side, trying to make sense of the lines on the page. This was... the best she had ever done.

"I... I see..." She bit her lip and placed the paper back down on the students desk. WHen Haruka spoke up, she blinked, confused, at her explanation.

"Z... Zod..." She had never ever heard of this person.

Kagami was honestly at a loss as to what to say. She didnt want to tell her student that she didnt understand the drawing. The familiar feeling of insecurity began to wash over her, and she felt her blush growing in intensity. Suddenly, a realization occured to her.

"Oh! Oh- san, w-were you perhaps trying to go for abstract art?" She smiled gently, her anxiety fading. That HAD to be what she was going for!... Right?

Surely such a great teacher as Hiruko-sensei would be able to see the true perfection which had radiated out from the samurai's pencil. Never before had she felt so engaged and energized by art, but things lately had been going so well for her that it'd been different. General Zod would have been proud to see her finished product! There was a man whose strength and virtues remained invisible to most people who could be bothered to explore his adventures. Not Haruka. She understood his motivations well, knew he was only doing what he had to. Which made this picture pretty important to Haruka; if she'd actually done poorly it'd be an insult to Zod and to herself as a follower of Zod. So it was tense when the teacher looked at her illustration of Zod's magnificence in all sorts of different ways, looking kind of nervous herself. Was she wondering what to make of such an awesome spectacle of might? That must sure be it.

"Abstract? What are you talking about, Hiruko-sensei? What's abstract art?" Haruka responded with her own question, obviously perplexed by the notion that her picture might not look like what she saw. Then she started to wonder, a little voice eating at her confidence, "Are you saying.. it's no good?"

Then she pointed to the figure on the toilet, "See, this is Zod! He's defeated his enemy the Son of Jor-el and now all these peons are kneeling before him! This is my very best work I promise!"

Kagami felt her anxiety slowly growing again as Haruka spoke; the girl didnt even know what abstract art was? That meant... that meant that this drawing was a genuine effort to be... decent.

"N=No! Kagammi lifted her hands in front of her, as though defending herself from the students words. "I would never say that about a students work! I... I can see you put... a lot of effort in it." Well, that was true, at least.

She had to choose her next words and actions carefully; the girl was so proud of what she had produced, Kagami didnt want to make her feel like it wasnt any good. (Though, in all honesty, it wasnt). "I think," she said, speaking slowly, more for herself then for Haruka, "That... That you should try another medium. M-Maybe it will let you express yourself more clearly."

A little bit later, Kagami had Haruka seated in front of a mound of clay, that had been worked enough that it was soft. "Now, I want you t-to do the same scene from your drawing, just sculpt it out of this, okay?" she smiled softly, encouragingly; she was certain haruka would succeed at this. Or at least, she wouldnt do as bady as she had with the drawing...

There was still a chance that the art teacher honestly doubted the artistic talent of this daughter of Oh. Though she offered words that were nothing if not supportive, Haruka wondered if Hiruko-sensei was just being nice to her. She was suggesting that Haruka try some other medium for expressing appreciation of the majestic nature of the one and only Zod. Did that mean that the drawing wasn't any good? It was hard for her because Kagami was such a supportive, kind hearted teacher normally; the thought that she might actually regard this as sub-standard troubled the brunette more than it should have. Pride carried her through an average day, just as necessary for her as oxygen was to every human being. Now it was cracking a bit. No matter how hard she'd tried to draw Zod it just wasn't working! Thankfully the teacher provided her a distraction by suggesting she give sculpting with clay a shot; Haruka remembered fondly working with that medium back in elementary school. This would surely allow her to express herself so that the teacher could see for herself the joy of Zod!

After quite a while of intense sculpting, measuring and modification the piece was at last finished. Portraying Zod gave way to giving form to her appreciation for another person who figured prominently in her life. Pride was but one powerful motivation an artist could put into use as she created her masterpiece. Love was another. Luckily she had been fortunate enough to find someone she truly cared for not long ago, in the coolness of autumn. Her heart swelled thinking of the lady Tachibana, a perfect paragon of womanhood even at this young age! So she'd done her best to make a small statue of the lady under her protection in all her beauty. All told Haruka was convinced that she was a natural at this! To anyone who wasn't Haruka it would more closely resemble a sentient hot dog in a bun. Assuming of course that hot dog was moldy, had two arms made of cheetos and oddly, a peg leg. Where the girl she'd had in mind had pigtails, this thing had tentacles coming from the top of the bun.. or maybe it was a trench coat.

Haruka meanwhile had stars in her eyes as she informed the teacher, who'd given her suggestions along the way, "Look, Hiruko-sensei! It's Tachibana-hime-san! The loveliest girl on Astraea Hill!"