Konata and Kagami had been going out for a few months, yet Konata's behavior hadn't changed a bit ever since they started calling each other girlfriends.
Not like Kagami minded any. Konata's laid-back attitude and jokes were the things she always secretly loved about her. Not like the eccentric otaku was even a romantic anyway. And hey, Kagami understood. She was okay with that. The two maintained an easygoing yet sans-romantic relationship.
But sometimes Kagami wished to advance things a little. Yet no matter how many hints she would drop, Konata remained oblivious to them.
"She's so clueless about this kind of thing..." Kagami would think. Her girlfriend wasn't the most affectionate girl in the world and Kagami didn't want for that to change. She only longed for her girlfriend to express her love every now and again at least.
Because since she loved Konata, she wanted to know truly that the one she loved also loved her back.
"Hey, Konata, take out your headphones and listen to me!" Kagami yelled, one clear Thursday morning.
Kagami had been undeniably sweet to Konata ever since they became girlfriends (except when she was too shy to show it), but she still would yell when she needed to, especially when her carefree, anime-eccentric lover was ignoring her.
"Kona-chan! Please listen to me!"
Konata nonchalantly popped one headphone out of her little ear.
"Oh, sorry Kagami, what did you say?" she said in her trademark lazy voice.
"Geez, Konata. Just what are you listening to?" Kagami thinned her eyes and spoke roughly; one of the the things she did that made Konata call her "tsundere".
"I'm listening to Vocaloid number 03..." Konata's voice quavered with unusual emotion.
"Oh, she sounds so heavenly..."
"Uh-huh." Kagami blushed and pulled the remaining earphone from Konata's ear. Her hands shook as she became ready to take a move...
"But... wouldn't you rather hear my voice early in the morning instead?" Kagami asked, sustaining a blush.
"Oh dear gosh, what did I just say to her!?"
"Ah, give my headphones baaack!" Konata flailed around, snatched her earbuds from Kagami's loose shaking grip, and popped them back in her ear. Pop!
"Uwaaah..." she melted back into her seat once she was immersed into the song again. "Ah, Megurine-sama, Megurine-sama, why do you have to be so gorgeous... fuaaaah..."
The petite girl blissfully sprawled herself out on the desk, flailing around slowly in an indulged, fangirlish manner.
"Megurine-samaaaa..." Konata's cheeks were strangely rosy and on her face was a rare expression...
Kagami lifted an eyebrow. Konata was acting... dazed! As if she were... in LOVE.
In love? In love? This is the first time Kagami had ever seen her laid-back and languid friend so... so out of sorts.
"Konata never acted this way towards... me." Kagami thought.
The twintailed girl glanced over at her girlfriend on the desk again. She was totally lost in fangirl world. Nothing would be able to snap Konata out of her daze, not even something like a sweet kiss from Kagami, or would it? (N-n-not like Kagami was thinking of trying that or anything... baka.)
Kagami would never admit it in a thousand years, everything about this was suddenly making her feel strangely insecure. As if Konata would even choose this Megurine over the likes of her...
No, no. Kagami brushed this thought out of her head as if it weren't even there. Only a complete loser would be getting jealous over a 2-D girl, right?
"Konata's just being her ol' otaku self, right?" Kagami grinned and spoke to herself to reassure her spirits. "Yup, good ol' Konata... she's just being... herself."
"Oh, hey there Kona-chan, what are you listening to?"
A familiar soft and sheepish voice spoke behind them. It was Tsukasa Hiiragi, Kagami's younger twin who had just arrived late for the before-school meeting due to having a small errand to go about.
Without hesitation, Konata spastically shoved one of the earbuds in her curious friend's ear.
"Oh... she has a nice voice." Tsukasa said. "Is this from that Vocaloid thing you've been raving about lately?"
Konata suddenly grabbed her friend's shoulders and smiled a sparkling gaping grin to her face.
"Yes, Tsukasa! It is not only Vocaloid, but it is a sound straight from the heavens! The voice of a pure goddess, above all the others!"
Above... all the others?
"Even... even ME!?"
Kagami pinched the end of her skirt and clenched a fist.
"Hey, Kagami. Are you okay? Yoo-hoo..." Konata waved her hand in front of the shaking girl's lowered, clenched-up face.
"You aren't being as tsukkomi as usual today, Kagami. Something must be up..."
All of a sudden, Kagami slapped Konata's hand. Pretty hard.
"Ah...!" Konata suddenly slid back and grew intimidated.
"Kaga...mi...!?"
Kagami's turned around and her glare lasted a split second, yet in that second her very face and all it's rage penetrated itself deep into Konata's soul and caused an eruption of blood to dash from her heart, almost stopping it cold...
"Heh heh... just kidding." Kagami broke a sweet, wavering smile, sheepishly rubbed her head and laughed nervously.
"Oh, you little tsundere joker you..." Konata rubbed the head of her friend.
Kagami blushed insecurely.
"I feel... so happy when Konata treats me this way..." she thought. "I never want for it to stop being just her and me..."
Kagami fought back a painful stinging sigh.
"But when Konata was raving about Megurine, the expression on her face... she was in such love. She's never used such an expression on me before..."
After school...
Kagami walked into the cafeteria area where her friends and her had been meeting after school lately.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Konata bunched up at a table, in the midst of some intense chit-chat with Hiyori Tamura and Patricia Martin. Even Tsukasa, being herself, was curiously listening in on the side, not understanding most of the geeky terms her otaku friend was uttering so seamlessly.
"Megurine Luka is the best, I'm so in love with her!" Konata beamed.
Kagami almost choked on her own spit as she flinched and threw her head down.
In... love?
Cringing, using every ounce of her courage to look back at the scene again, she was greeted by an elated Konata, standing in disbelief while holding up a high-quality, life-size, gorgeous and marvelous poster of the digital superstar in all her pink-haired glory.
"Aaaaah!"
To Kagami, this now became the face of evil.
"Oh my goodness, sh-sh-she's gorgeous!" Her face flashed red and immediately, Kagami flinched back at her own thoughts. "Such a gorgeous illustration of a gorgeous girl..."
"I'm glad you liked my gift!" Patricia said. "I knew you liked Vocaloids more than me, so it's all yours!"
"Like!?" Konata cheered. "I LOVE it! I love it, I love it! I love it so much that I want to tape it onto my body pillow and just SLEEP with it!"
Kagami froze in place and began inching away very slowly, eventually spying on the group from a corner.
"Isn't Megurine Luka such the romantic?" Hiyori chimed in. "In all the Luka x Miku doujins I bought, she's just been so hot I don't even know how to explain it!"
"Ah, I've read them online! They're so amazing!" Konata lifted her arms in the air with glee. "Every time I read one, I always wish I could be Miku!"
"Haha, you really love Megurine Luka, don't you?" Patricia said, laughing a bit.
"She's my waifuuuuuu!"
Konata's blissful cry almost echoed through the open air.
Kagami could practically see the sparkles around Konata as she twirled with her hands to her face. So out-of-character for her...
Without even talking to Konata, Kagami ran off, too thrown-off and unexplainably terrified to even know what she was doing or where she was going...
Her heart pounded fast as she ran down a street and across a sidewalk.
"Konata... Konata would choose her over me."
Kagami stopped on the sidewalk near a corner store and before she noticed, tears were streaming down her cheeks.
"I'm not as pretty as her, I don't have anything special about me. She's a gorgeous goddess and I'm just a stick in the mud. Her figure is perfect and her voice is amazing and I'm just... Kagami Hiiragi. A girl who doesn't have any redeeming quality."
Flashbacks of Konata's smile, visions of the gorgeous girl on the life-sized poster...
They all flashed through Kagami's head as she ran. She could feel the insecurity chasing her, hunting her down to eat her alive.
"No wonder I'm not as special to Konata... I'm certain if Megurine Luka were real, she'd surely choose her over me in a heartbeat..."
BAM.
Kagami found herself kicking a pole. She was finally in a street where nobody was around.
Pent-up emotions escaped from her with a pounding bang in each and every her kick.
"Damn you! Damn you, Megurine! Why were you even created!? Why did you take MY girlfriend away!?"
Kagami's foot began throbbing and she collapsed onto the concrete.
"What am I doing... I'm going crazy, she's not even real..."
Kagami got up and walked away sadly, her long pigtails dragging her slumping body.
She barely even noticed anybody walking by, but she soon felt a strange overpowering aura in the air.
Kagami looked up right when their faces crossed... catching a tiny glimpse of her face. Thin and elegant, crystal blue eyes...
The bewildered pigtailed girl caught the scent of succulent roses as the tall woman continued to walk along in the other direction, a lovely river of glossy pink hair flowing behind her as she swayed. She wore a pair of gold and bronze headphones, and what she could see from behind, a sleek black top and a long black skirt as well.
"No... no... no way!"
It was such a shock that the small tsundere almost gave away and fainted right in her spot.
"M-M-Megurine Luka!?"
With a sudden, stilling pause, the woman stoically turned around, uttering a single responsive "yes?"
Red poured into Kagami's cheeks.
"You aren't real! I'm seeing things, I'm seeing things!" she screamed.
"Or you're a really amazing cosplayer or-or-or something!"
The pink-haired lady shook her head.
"I am Megurine Luka." she said.
No way, her voice even sounded the same as in the song Konata had her listen to...
"But you're a Vocaloid! You... you..."
"I am real, though I am an android. Crypton made me to travel around the world, but because they canceled the idea, they released us all into the general human population. But I do exist, and I am Megurine Luka."
Kagami's mouth suddenly fell wide open.
"I... I... just... why... why!?"
This real Megurine Luka was just as fabulous and beautiful and gorgeous as the picture on Konata's poster. And with even the exact same voice, and with her calm and emotionless anime-esque personality...
"No, no, no! This is bad, she does exist! She DOES exist and she's going to take my Konata away from me!" the thoughts boomed inside Kagami's head.
"AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH!"
The little tsundere simply couldn't keep inside her scream.
"Hey, hear that?" Konata said, around the corner. "It's Kagami yelling! She went down there!"
"Alright!" as if they were a search team, Tsukasa, Hiyori and Patricia followed their short blue-haired friend down the corner of the shops.
"Kagamiiiiin!"
As soon as Kagami heard the cry of her name, she felt a bit frightened...
"It's Kona-chan," she thought. "If she sees... oh gosh, if she sees Megurine Luka here like this..."
"Quick! Run!" Kagami shouted to the taller woman.
"Oh, why must I run...?" she asked nonchalantly.
"Don't ask questions, just do it! It's because, uh... there's a MANIAC chasing after you! Just run and follow me!"
Kagami began sprinting in the opposite direction of where the voice was coming from, and Luka followed behind, soon even catching up and running ahead of Kagami even as she was running as fast as she could.
"Yes! Quick! Keep running until you reach that alley! Then hide!"
Kagami looked behind her... no Konata yet. Luka was almost inside the alley path...
As soon as Luka turned the corner, leaving her pink hair trailing in a wisp behind her, Konata's nosy face popped out of the far behind corner.
"Kagami's all the way down there alone!" she shouted as she continued running to her.
Kagami peeked down the alley one last time to make sure Luka would stay put, then stood and decided to act natural.
"Kagami... Kagami, where were you running to all of a sudden?" Konata asked, almost out of breath. Tsukasa was still trailing behind, limping as the run had tired her out.
"Oh, I was just..." Kagami started answering. "Getting some lemon Megurine pie."
Kagami instantly clamped her mouth shut. Oh boy... She had meant to say lemon meringue pie, lemon MERINGUE. Idiot! Kagami can't believe what she had just said.
Konata suddenly burst out laughing.
"Kagamin, what? Just what? Hahaha, great joke, friend!"
Konata began to pat her softly on the shoulder. It was a tender touch, a sweet sensation...
"So... where's the pie?"
"Um... um..." Kagami nervously peeked in the alley. Luka was in there, tapping her foot.
"Ah... um, it turned out I had forgotten my wallet, so... no pie, sorry! And... no Megurine either, hahaha... no Megurine anywhere..."
Kagami began sweating nervously.
"Um... maybe all you guys should get going now. Leave me behind, because um... I just feel like taking a walk all alone. Yeah, that's it. I need exercise..."
"Oh, that sounds nice. In fact, I'll be happy to walk with you."
Kagami's heart skipped a beat. Lazy Konata wanted to take a walk with her around town? Alone, the two of them? Together! Oh, this simply would be something Kagami couldn't ever turn down...
But she needed to.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm going to be doing tons of ridiculous workouts. Very ridiculous. You wouldn't want to be here with me for that." Kagami rubbed her head bashfully.
Konata gave Kagami, then everyone, a long suspicious glance.
"Okay then... I guess. Bye, Kagamin. Have fun, I guess..."
Kagami began stretching and jogging in place to seem less suspicious. It took everyone a rather long time to disappear around the corner, but once they were gone, Kagami urged Luka to come our.
"It smelled in that alley." the refined lady said.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I know." Kagami said.
"It smelled, like tuna." Luka continued. "It made me hungry. Might you happen to have any?"
Kagami blushed a bit and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking me if I have tuna?"
"Because from now on, I'll be staying at your residence." Luka said, in a very nonchalant manner. "I have no place to stay, so I've been wandering alone. I had planned to stay at the residence of the first person on the street who recognized me."
A ripping flash of lightning promptly went off in Kagami's head. Her face made a fantastic expression, and soon enough, the thunder arrived.
BOOOOOOOM.
Kagami's little head couldn't take this anymore. Megurine Luka was going to live with her.
Megurine Luka was going to live with her.
She was going to turn Kagami's entire life upside-down.
"WHAT!?"
When Kagami's grasp on all logic finally returned, she desperately tried to reason with this outrageous situation.
"I'm sorry, but can't you go to somebody else's residence instead? As in, somebody who actually likes you?" the words flew from Kagami's mouth.
Luka shook her head, her arms crossed and posture very still.
"I want to be with you." she said in a calm voice. "You."
After a few seconds, Kagami madly stomped away. "Ugh, no way!"
But the tenacious Luka wouldn't let her get away quite so quickly and angrily.
"Would you mind telling to me the reason you dislike me?" she asked from the distance.
"Because... because I just do!" Kagami turned back, her face a deep red. "You've caused me so much trouble today, more than you even know! And I am not letting a demanding stranger live with me in my house!"
Luka suddenly quietly and warmly walked right in front of Kagami and put her hand to her shoulder tenderly...
It was sudden, but this was a tender touch... almost like Konata's little hands, but slightly different. They gave Kagami a soothing tingle starting from her fingertips and trickling through Kagami's entire body.
"I am not a stranger." Luka's voice was so serenely quiet that literally only the person right in front of her would be able to make out the words.
"You are my master. I am your Vocaloid."
Kagami wanted to push Luka away, but her touch was so gentle and... sweet. She couldn't bear to! She was immersed in her soft aura.
"But why!?" she asked.
"Because, the person I have chosen as my master is you." Luka said, gazing fondly at the smaller girl's bewildered face.
"Uhm..." Kagami uttered in a fit of shaking.
"So, master." Luka slid her hand gently down Kagami's shoulder to her elbow. "What do you wish for me to do?"
"Uh..." Kagami's mouth twitched.
What was she going to answer!? Get out of here? Sing for me? Find me a million dollars?
"First of all, I would like for you to avoid my friend Konata Izumi at all costs." Kagami finally answered. "Blue haired, strange, really teeny. Who was just here a few minutes ago. You know who I'm taking about."
"But why am I avoiding her?" Luka asked.
"Ugh, don't you know anything? Because she's in love with you! She's supposed to be in love with ME because I'm her girlfriend, but no... as soon as she sees that you exist, she'll probably jump all over you and forget about me forever!"
"Oh dear..." Luka uttered, appearing to be taking sympathy into the situation.
"Finally, you're getting something." Kagami said. "Anyway, just... I'm just going to have to keep you a secret."
The hot-tempered girl hung her head. What did she ever do to deserve such a stressful life?
"Megurine, that means you can't be at my house now. Konata's staying there with Tsukasa probably until it gets late."
"Then, shall we do something to kill time?" Luka suggested.
"Like... like what!?"
"Karaoke. Or would you be fine with getting us supper at a restaurant? I'm quite hungry."
Kagami groaned and peeked in her pocket. There was enough money for both of them to get something at the local diner.
She breathed out stressfully.
"Fine then. I'll get you a tuna sandwich or something. You better not ruin my life, Megurine."
"I shall try to be the best Vocaloid I can be for master." Luka said devotedly, as she joined Kagami in walking down the sidewalk into the sunset.