Konata flipped through the pages of the manga she thought it could be a interest series as she stood in front of manga section of the store. As a chocolate pocky hang from her mouth, she thought, Hm... This manga needs some work on the characters. The team are practically mary sues, and villains without a good motive to be evil is pretty boring. I wish I've notice this by the cover.
Something caught her eye when she notice a great amount of color out of the colorless manga. The page she's on have the picture of Miku, Rin, Len, Kaito, Luka, and Meiko in a group hug as their colors shine more than the rest. What greatly interest Konata was the message of a Vocaloid concert near the city she lives that will happen in about a week or so.
A Vocaloid concert?! Don't you think it would better to put an ad like this in a much more popular manga than this one?! I bet there's no more tickets left! Konata thought, feeling disappointed about this.
"Oooo... Hatsune Mix." Konata heard a voice next to her.
The blue haired girl slightly jumped when she notice someone next to her, and thought, Where did she come from?!
The girl next to her have waist-length hair and eyes that were a different shade of pink compared to Miyuki's hair, and wore a red hoodie with a yellow star in the middle of it, a red backpack with many charms hanging on it, a gold necklace with a red, heart-shaped gem, pink heart-shaped headphones around her neck, a pink knee-length skirt, long, pink and white striped socks, and white sneakers with pink laces.
How didn't I know notice her? Her clothes colors sticks out like a sore thumb! Konata thought.
Konata notice something under the girl's necklace and said to her, "Hey, what's that?"
The girl's pink eyes look around until they landed on Konata. Her pink eyes follow Konata's green eyes and now see what she's looking. The girl move the necklace's gem out of way. Konata's jaw dropped, seeing that the girl also wore five backstage passes to the Vocaloid concert!
"Where did you get those?!" Konata practically shouted, grabbing the passes, nearly choking the girl.
"I-I work for the Vocaloids." The girl said, trying to breathe.
Konata let go of the girl, letting the pink one breathe, and with her usually calm expression on her face. Konata said, "You mean the companies that created them?"
"Um... Yes?" the pink haired girl said. "But only as a maid."
"How were you able to have five backstage passes when you're a maid?" Konata ask.
The girl nervously chuckles and said, "I did a really good job as a maid and a kind of a big fan of them. Um... Maybe I did a bit of a better job than I thought."
Konata stared at her, creating an somewhat awkward atmosphere in the store's manga section. An idea came to the blue haired girl's head as she took out her phone. A nervous look was on the pink one's face, seeing the blue one texting something on her phone. The pink one gulps as Konata put away the phone and look at her.
"Follow me." Konata said.
The pink girl looks nervous as she follow the blue one until she finally ask, "Where are we going?"
"We're just going to meet my friends." Konata said.
"But we just met!" The girl exclaims in shock.
"Yeah. You need some people to go to the concert with you, right?"
"I-I guess so."
"Let's go."
The pink one gulps, not knowing how to react to this or what's going to happen.
At a cafe, the pink one felt awkward as Konata eating a chocolate cornet. The blue-haired girl stopped eating for a moment to think and said, "What's your name?"
You just remembered to ask my name? The pink one thought.
"I-It's Hope." The pink one said, still feeling a bit awkward.
"Konata Izumi." The blue one said. "Since you have a job involving the Vocaloids, are you able to get the merchandise for free or at least a cheaper price?"
"For me, I get some of the merchandise for a slightly cheaper price. A 5-10 percent discount, depending on what it is." Hope said, feeling a little less awkward.
"I guess that's reasonable. The company probably won't get much money if they let the workers have a 95 percent discount on anything Vocaloid related." Konata said.
Hope smiled a bit, feeling more comfortable even with what just happened a few minutes ago.
"Do you like anime?" Konata ask.
Hope nodded as her eyes sparkled a bit. With a big grin, she said, "I think it's the best. It's sad that I don't much anime merchandise from where I come from."
I guess she's not from Japan. Or maybe she lives in a pretty old part of Japan. Konata thought to herself.
"What anime do you like to watch?" Konata ask.
"A couple of magical girl anime, a couple of slice of life anime, I started to watch One Piece, and some other anime." Hope said.
Not that much. Hm... Maybe she doesn't have much time to watch other anime. Konata thought.
"Do you play video games?" Konata ask.
"Yeah, but I can only handheld games since I don't know how to connect game consoles to my TV." Hope said.
"Favorite types of games?"
"RPG, fantasy, life simulation, horror, and sometimes, I like to play Phoenix Wright."
Konata was shocked to hear that Hope likes horror games since she seems to be pretty innocent, and thought, Hm... Let's see how innocent she is.
"Did you read, play, or watch anything M-rated?" Konata ask.
A small, pink blush appear on the pink girl's face as Hope said, "I-I don't think I have the guts to play or watch anything rated M, but rarely, I read fanfiction that are a little mature. Although, I do want to play Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies."
"I heard Dual Destines was rated M for one gruesome crime and a couple of scenes. Can't you ask your parents to buy it for you?" Konata said.
"W-Well, my dad left my mom and I when I was a little, and my mom died almost a year ago. I'm pretty sure I can wait two more years for the game."
The atmosphere around the two was suddenly felt awkward for them. Konata stayed silent and Hope look at her shoes.
That's pretty depressing. Konata thought.
The blue-haired girl look behind Hope and said, "Over here!"
Hope look up and turn around to see three girls.
