Lucky Stars and Gitahs: Farewell Tour
Chapter 1
… What a fool I have been…
What kind of idiot am I that I could not see this coming? I… I have brought this upon myself. I have none to blame but myself… All this time, I wanted her, for myself... But all I did was doing was bringing her farther and farther away…
… Maybe I… deserved this? Maybe because I was being so selfish, wanting Ritsu for myself… But is it so wrong to fall in love with someone? I-I'm not sure what to think anymore. I originally wanted to help her, but somehow, things went awry. How did this happen-?
"Wow, you're beautiful…"
Konata made a sudden thrash of her body whilst lying atop her bed, voicing a single sob as she did. The tears returned to her eyes.
That's what she told me, that I was beautiful… W-Was she lying then? Did she lie to get by in her lessons...? That must be it. She lied, right to my face: telling me I was beautiful, today's admission, all of it was a lie, lies so she could get to- t-to…
The blue-haired girl thrashed once again, flipping herself onto her stomach and burying her face into a pillow. The tears continued to come forth.
It's hopeless now. She probably already admitted to her and t-they are together now… Damnit, why couldn't I have said something earlier. I was too busy being the teacher I was blind to the fact I could have just told her.
Konata suddenly slammed her right fist into the mattress. "DAMNIT!" he muffled voice sobbed into her pillow. Mind-numbing sorrow filled every bit of her thoughts. Nothing could distract her heart from its anguish, for she knew she could never undo what she had done. She let the one she loved walk away: Ritsu Tainaka.
Izumi lifted her head from her pillow and checked the clock radio next to her bed. The digital display read 20:21, which means she had not moved from her bed in over five hours. Frankly, she felt too weak to get up. Such was the toll her sorrow took on her body.
She looked around at the four walls of her room and saw everything as if it were not there: the bookshelf of unread manga, her computer, her television. None of it appealed to her anymore. Nothing ever would…
"Konata!" a voice called from outside her room and down the stairs. It was her father, Sōjirō. "Dinner is ready."
"… I'm not hungry," she barely yelled back. Konata was finding speech a difficult task.
"Are you sure?" he called back. "It's curry! I even got that expensive brand you like." It was clear he was going out of his way to cheer his daughter up. The brand he spoke of was nearly four times the price of what the average curry powder they bought woulf cost (not something their family could often afford on the budget they had.)
"I'm fine," Konata insisted, this time letting slip a hint of aggravation in her tone.
"… Ok," Sōjirō relented. "I'll leave your plate out in case you change your mind."
Finally left alone, the girl continued to sulk in her solitude. At one point during this time, she slipped off into sleep, only to awake when her stomach gave a loud pang of hunger. Konata sat up and checked her clock again to see that about another hour had passed.
She had just somehow managed to stand up from off her bed when her father called up the stairs again. "Konata, honey, please come down stairs right now. Someone is here for you."
"That's odd," the otaku thought to herself. "Dad very rarely ever calls me 'honey.' And someone is here for me? Could it be-? No, it couldn't be would be hoping for the impossible. But still, who would come here at this hour?"
Those thoughts continued to replay in her head as she finally exited her room and lugged herself downstairs. She reached the bottom and saw that there were noises coming from the living room, which was through the doorway on her left. But as she approached the room in question, she passed the dining room door on her right. She gave a quick glance inside to see that her curry, perfectly prepared, sat atop the table at her usual spot, completely untouched.
But she went past and entered the living room, immediately asking "So what's going on he-" She both stopped abruptly and gasped when she finally noticed who her supposed guests were. Kneeling on the floor on the opposite side of a table from Sōjirō were both Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi. Behind each of them was a large, nearly overstuffed black duffle bag.
"W-What the…? Tsukasa? Kagamin? What are you guys doing here?" Konata asked.
Instead of the two answering just yet, her father answered. "Konata, sit down, please." His voice was serious, not something he often was. Konata took this as a bad sign. What was worst was that, at that moment, Konata became aware of how red the right sides of her two's friends faces were. She walked over and took a seat to her father's left. He then looked to the others and asked "Would you like me to tell her or-?"
"N-No," Kagami interrupted. "We can tell her, thank you… K-Konata?"
"Yes…?" Konata said back.
The pigtailed girl took in and exhaled a shaky breath before proceeding. "T-Tsukasa and I, we were… Damnit, we were kicked out of our home."
"Wha-! Kicked out? What for!"
Again, she paused, this time for an even longer period. "B-Because… *Sigh* Konata, Tsukasa and I are both gay."
Had this been any other day and under normal circumstances, this admission would have sent Konata bouncing off the walls and ceiling in both pure joy and the satisfaction that all her jokes and teases over the years had been correct all along. But today was not such a day, nor was this moment such a moment. So instead, Konata reacted rather (dare I say it) normally. The expression upon her visage turned to stunned in the blink of an eye.
"… O-Oh my God," she managed to whisper after five or so seconds of silence. "Kagamin? Y-You and Tsukasa are… lesbians?"
"*Sigh* Yes. We are."
Konata shifted her eyes between the two sisters. Without them even telling her yet, she knew that there was a Part II to what they needed to admit, and she had already figured it out: the sisters were a couple. Now Konata really was taken aback. Years of silly and seemingly harmless "twincest" jokes had now been shoved right back into her face. "Should I feel bad about all the jokes I made?" she asked herself. "After all, I didn't know about this back then."
"B-But how could your family kick you out," Konata then asked. "Aren't you all Buddhists? I thought they didn't care about stuff like that."
"T-They don't, but- But it wasn't the family that kicked us out… It was our Mom."
"Your mother?" Sōjirō echoed. "You mean she alone kicked you out? How did that happen?"
In place of her sister, Tsukasa answered the query. "I-It was strange, really. Mom always acts so calm and kind, but when we told the family about us, she…s-she changed."
-o0o-
"T-That's not all," Kagami added. She then reached her left hand over and clutched Tsukasa's left hand before she gave the second admission to the family. "Also, Tsukasa and I are… in love… with each other." The two then squeezed their eyes shut and awaited the family's reaction.
…
Miki stood up.
She took a few, measured steps forward and stopped within arm's length of her two daughters. After a few seconds, Tsukasa and Kagami reopened their eyes and looked up to their mother's face. "M-Mom?" Tsukasa managed to ask before the near unthinkable occurred.
In movements almost too quick to register, Miki reared her left arm back and, in one fluid motion, struck both her daughter's right cheeks with such great force that it made the two collapse to the ground. The rest of the family behind her shot to their feet an instant after the hit. "Mom!" Inori screamed. "What the hell are you doing!"
Miki ignored her other daughter's cries and focused all her rage onto the two who were before her. "… Get out," she whispered.
Kagami and Tsukasa ungracefully stumbled themselves back onto their feet. The right sides of each of their faces were marked with a bright red and very distinct hand-print. So taken aback from the hit the two were that all they could muster back their mother were terrified looks.
"I want you out of my house," Miki continued.
At this point, her husband Tadao finally managed to speak up. "What are you saying!" he exclaimed. "What is going on with you!"
She instantly whipped around and yelled back into her husband's face. "I am not having their kind living under my roof and that's that!" Before Tadao, Matsuri, or Inori could give any sort of retort back, Miki had already turned back around, grabbed both Tsukasa and Kagami by the collar of their shirts, and pulled them out of the room and toward the stairs. Once at the foot of the stairwell, she threw them forward into it, both daughters falling onto their knees.
"You have ten minutes to pack your things," Miki ordered. "After that, you're both out the door."
-o0o-
Tsukasa could not stop breaking down into tears as she recounted the event of not even an hour or so ago. Kagami kept a hold of her right hand, which seemed to help. "S-She did give us ten minutes," Tsukasa continued. "But once it was up, she barged into our rooms, zipped up our bags, and threw us out the front door and locked it behind us. We both went back to the door and kept banging on it to let us back in but no one would answer. We could hear Mom yelling at the others inside."
When Tsukasa paused, Kagami continued in her place. "That's how it basically happened. At first, neither I nor Tsukasa knew where we were going to go… But then she suggested coming here." She turned her eyes to Sōjirō. "That's why, Izumi-san," she said, bowing her head to toward the table's surface, "we both humbly request that you allow us to stay at your house."
Already, Konata had a good idea as to how her father would answer. Her father paused to give a heaving sigh of his chest. "… I suppose I can allow you to stay-" He quickly noticed the two across the table raise an eyebrow. "O-Oh, it's not like I'm doing it begrudgingly or anything! Honest! I'm just saying that it can't be forever. It is not you two, quite the opposite. It's just a matter of finance…" The eyebrows lowered, the two's visages now showing a look of realization. "It's usually only been Konata and I. I've been able to support Yutaka when she came to stay, but I'm just not sure I handle two more so suddenly.
I hope you understand what I mean."
Kagami nodded. "I- We understand, and thank you. Tsukasa and I will try not to be a burden to you." The only thing Tsukasa really added was a quick "Right."
Konata shifted slightly before offering to the two that "You can sleep in my room, if you want. We have a couple of extra futons somewhere you two can-"
"Um, excuse me?" A quite voice sounded from the open threshold that led into the hall. Everyone tuned to see the previously mentioned, Yutaka Kobayakawa, timidly poking her head from behind a wall, looking into the room.
"Y-Yu-chan!" Konata exclaimed. "How long have you been standing there?"
"U-Uh, somewhere in the middle of Tsukasa telling the story… Well, I just wanted to offer you two my room."
"Wha-? N-No, Yutaka," Kagami said back, "you don't have to do that for-"
"No, really, I insist." She removed herself from behind the wall, putting her while body into view in the doorway. "You two can use my bed, I don't mind. It's big enough for two people anyway, much bigger than what I need. I can use a futon and sleep in Onee-chan's room- I mean, if that's ok with you, Onee-chan."
"… Uh y-yeah- I mean, no, it's no problem with me… But what if they want separate beds?"
"Un, actually," Tsukasa chimed in, "I'd rather share a bed…" Then, when she noticed everyone's staring eyes, she nervously added "B-But it's not for that reason! I-It's just, today has been really nuts, and it might help if I have Onee-chan-"
"I-It's ok, we understand," Sōjirō interjected, not wanting to hear more. "But are you sure about this, Yutaka?" he then asked, to which she gave back a sharp nod of her head as a reply. The two Hiiragi sisters then stood up from the table, bowed to both Konata and Sōjirō and thanked then once more for their hospitality before picking up their bags and following Yutaka upstairs to their room. This left the father and daughter along in the living room.
Sōjirō took this moment to finally have a chance to talk with Konata, something he seemed to have been without for the last month. He voiced another long sigh, one which conveyed the stress this situation had put upon him. "Man… What a night, huh?" He was met with silence. Konata seemed to have her gaze locked onto the surface of the table in front of her, her eyes showing an almost unfeeling look to them. "… You ok, honey?" he asked her.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," she replied. It was clear that she wasn't.
"Want to talk about it?" Silence. "*Sigh* I thought so… You know you can tell me anything, Konata."
"I'm fine." She was just about to stand up when she was suddenly stopped short when Sōjirō leaned in and quite literally grappled her daughter in a hug. "Uh, Dad, you're acting all clingy again," she advised. Not that that did anything, though.
Sōjirō had now adopted an almost child-like whine to his voice. "Oh please don't be like this!" he pleaded. "Come one, talk to me, please!" This was not completely unlikely. Sometimes, when his late wife Kanata was on his mind, he would enter this sort of clingy state, using Konata as that with which to cling to. She has gotten use to it over the years
As Konata's father continued to hug, something akin to a miracle occurred. For what seemed the first time in a month, Sōjirō's antics managed to put a grin on the girl's face. "Dad, come on, knock it off. It's late. I should get some sleep… Goodnight." She stood up, breaking her father's hug at the same time, and headed back upstairs to her room. A futon had already been laid out on the floor and Yutaka was already in her room when Konata got there. Yutaka was in the middle of changing into her pajamas: she had already switched into her sweatpant bottoms and, currently, was without shirt and bra, just about to put a simple t-shirt on. The second Konata door opened, Yutaka gasped at being caught half-naked and turned her front away from her cousin.
"Hee hee," Konata laughed. "What are you so embarrassed about? Nothing I haven't seen, Yu-chan. We use to take baths together, remember?"
"I-I know," she whispered back, quickly throwing the shirt on. She turned back around. "Uh, sorry about springing that up on you so suddenly, Onee-chan, about them using my room," she apologized.
"It's ok… That was really nice of you, Yu-chan, to give them your room."
"Oh, thank you."
"Hmm. But why?"
"Eh?"
"Why did you give them your room? I was going to offer them my room."
"Well… I guess I felt sympathetic to them."
"Sympathetic?" Konata echoed.
"Y-Yeah. Well, I know if I suddenly had nowhere to live, I'd be terrified!"
"Hmm, I guess. You're just a little angel then, aren't you, Yu-chan?" she joked.
"Eh-hee-hee," laughed back. "Onee-chan, you seem to be in better spirits now."
"I guess I am… Ok, I'm going to sleep. I'm exhausted." Konata threw herself atop her bed and before Yutaka thought to say "Goodnight" to her, she was already asleep.
What proceeded for the next few days was, for Konata, Tsukasa, and Kagami, the most stressful days of school they had ever had to endure. Those three shared a secret that only a small numbered few knew about. Whenever they had their usually lunch together, Miyuki was the only one at their impromptu table that had no clue. That being said, those three were unaware of her secret: her relationship with Tsumugi Kotobuki.
-o0o-
"… Oh my gosh," Tsumugi whispered. "I think… I think I know what's going on, you guys."
"You do?" asked Azusa. "Wait, what do you mean by 'what's going on'?"
Mugi turned to the two and said "I think Ritsu has a thing for Mio!"
Silence once again filled the room. The look on both Yui and Azusa's faces were ones of shock. "… What?" the kouhai deadpanned back. "You think that Ritsu likes Mio?"
"Yes, I do. In fact, I don't think she does: I know she does!"
"B-But Mugi, how are you so sure!"
Mugi, once again not think before she spoke, had just put herself into a seemingly inescapable position. The two others in the room, Yui Hirasawa and Azusa Nakano, now had their eyes firmly locked onto Mugi, awaiting her explanation. She saw no other way of answering truthfully without revealing that what she had kept secret from them both: her relationship with Miyuki Takara.
"Well, you see…" she finally answered. "I'm sure because… I'm, in a way, like Sawa-chan and Nanako."
"… You're married?" Yui gasped. Azusa gave the brunette a look akin to saying aloud "You're fucking with us, right?"
"Eh- N-No, Yui. I mean- *Sigh* Everyone, I like girls."
Just like a moment before, the room seemed to plunge into silence. Slowly, Azusa and Yui's eyes open wider and wider until they reached their maximum. "M-Mugi-chan?" Yui then said. "You mean you're a lesbian too?"
Again, Mugi voiced a nervous sigh. "… Yes, it's true. I am a lesbian- Wait, 'too'?"
"Yeah, like Sawa-chan."
"O-Oh. The way you said it, it sounded like you- Never mind. But, uh, yeah, I guess I am like Sawa-chan, in that respect."
"W-When did you know that you... you know." Azusa asked.
"Oh, I think I've always been like this. Far back as I can remember, really."
"So, uh, do you have, you know, a girlfriend?"
"Well, yeah, but uh… I don't think she wants everyone knowing she's a lesbian as well. Because, you know, she wasn't one before."
"So you turned her into a lesbian?" Azusa then deadpanned.
"Not exactly…"
"So who is she?" Yui asked. "Anyone we know?"
"But will you promise to keep it a secret?" Mugi asked the others. When she got back unison nods, she answered "… Miyuki Takara."
"Holy shit!" Azusa quickly covered her mouth after that uncharacteristic vulgarity. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to scream that! It's just… Wow. Miyuki, really?"
"Mhm," she said back, giving a nod of her head. "T-This must be shocking to you two, right?" The reply Mugi got back was… not what she was expecting. Yui and Azusa exchanged a glance before looking back. Yui was finally the one to say back "Um, actually… We kind of already had a feeling."
"Eh? Y-You knew! B-But how!" Mugi was clearly taken aback by this. She had imagined the admitting of her sexuality to be met with shocked exclamations of such things as "I had no idea!" or "I never saw this coming at all!", things one would expect to hear uttered in a television drama. But to receive back the big slap in the face of "We already knew, Mugi"? As a matter of fact, Mugi felt almost cheated out of the experience she expected.
"Well," Azusa chimed in, "You'd sometimes have these weird, almost excited looks at the weird times, these glimmers in your eyes. For example, that time we saw Sawako and Nanako kiss for the first time."
"Oh? I-I thought I was being discrete about that."
"You were, but not well enough. It was still pretty obvious."
"B-But Yui was saying 'They look so cute together' that day. You don't think she's a lesbian?"
At this, Azusa quite literally burst into laughter. "Yui? A les- Ah-hahahaha!" She continued to laugh for a few more seconds before she seemed to subside. "That's a good one, Mugi."
Yui, however, didn't seem too pleased at being laughed at. "Hey," she nearly whined. "Why doesn't Azu-nyan think I can be a lesbian too!"
"You just don't seem like the type to be a lesbi- Wait, why do you even care, Yui-sempai? You're not a lesbian anyway!... Are you?"
"No-"
"Then why do you care that I- Wait. Mugi, why are you acting all defensive right now, passing the attention to Yui? You just told us that you liked girls."
"Oh, because you didn't react correctly!" Mugi exclaimed. "You were supposed to act shocked and surprised and say 'We had no idea!' Oh fiddle-sticks, this isn't how I imagined it at all!"
"… You're very weird, Mugi," Azusa commented. The room once again took a turn for silence, and it was in that moment that, in a way, Azusa came to grips with the gravity of the situation. "… Jeez. So Sawa-chan is a lesbian, Ritsu likes Mio, you're a lesbian, Mugi… Was there a meeting or something that I missed?" Everyone else in the room raised an eyebrow at the pigtailed girl. "I mean, did we all just decide 'Hey, let's all switch fields?' I-I… This is nuts. I'm going home." She packed up her instrument, grabbed her bag, and after giving a final "See ya" to Mugi and Yui, she exited the room.
After being alone in the now dead-silent clubroom for a good number of seconds, Yui turned to Mugi. "I don't think anyone's coming back," she said, stating, perhaps, the absolute most obvious thing she could, "so is it ok if we left too?"
"Uh, yeah," Tsumugi replied. "You can go ahead of me. I need to pack up the snacks and stuff."
"Ok," said Yui with a grin as she got her bag and packed up her instrument. As Mugi continued to rebox their cake for that day (which had gone largely uneaten, given the events that occurred) and right before Yui left the clubroom, she gave Miss Kotobuki one last message. "Say hi to Yuki-chan for me, will ya?" And with that she exited and shut the door behind her.
Mugi could not stop grinning. Though he had been denied the dramatic experience she desired, she was incredibly happy that her friends (or at least Azusa and Yui, for the time being) were so accepting of her admission.
She had quite the story to tell Miyuki the next time they met, that was for sure.
-o0o-
"Tadaima."
With the closing of another day of work, Sawako Yamanaka returned to her home sometime in the evening. It took no more than a split second before the aroma of a cooking dinner wafted from the kitchen and into her nostrils, reawakening a hunger that had seemed to disappear on the car ride home. She took off her shoes and entered the kitchen/dining room, where her wife Nanako could be seen standing in front of the stove (wearing her white apron, as she always did whilst cooking.)
Said blonde broke her concentration from her cooking to turn around and meet Sawako back with a "Hey honey." The brunette in question walked herself over to Kuroi to give her a quick peck on the mouth (an average greeting between the two, it seemed.)
"Work going good?" Nanako asked as she returned to the stove.
"Yeah, guess so," Sawako replied. "But, uh… Strange thing, really: no one was at the club room today."
Nanako kept her eyes on her work as she replied with a "Really? That seems odd. They're always in the club room after school, right?"
"Exactly. That is what I thought was strange. Hmm, maybe they all went out into town to do something."
"Maybe."
"… So, Nanako, any luck with Konata yet."
"… *Sigh* None at all," Kuroi replied, showing disappointment in her tone. "I've been hard on her case for a week straight now and, well, I'm starting to feel like I'm just wasting my energy on her. Last week she seemed to have a tiny bit more perk in her step, but after that it's been worst then ever...
I'm actually really frightened for her, Sawako. I mean, what if she doesn't get out of this? Who knows what could happen to her."
Nanako suddenly felt her wife's arms reach out from behind her and encircle her waist, felt her soft breasts and the curve of her body cup against her back, and the other's chin rest atop her left shoulder. "You're not wasting your energy," she reassured her. "And don't give up on her. Ever. Just be persistent and keep at her no matter what. She'll come around eventually. Trust me."
The blonde voiced a soft moan at the other's gentle, supportive, and evocative touch. "Mmm… Thanks… I just don't know when that will be: tomorrow, a week from now, a month. I want to help her now, but I can't help her until she asks for help. Otherwise she won't want any. Damnit, why does she need to be so stubborn!"
"Hmm, can't really say. But hey, I was a pretty stubborn chick when I was younger, remember? And besides, Konata's a teenager after all, and you know how they are. She might just grow out of it, who knows?"
"Maybe, maybe… Hope your students aren't giving you headaches." Nanako half-joked.
Sawako released her hug to walk backwards and plopped herself into a chair at the dining table not ten or so feet away. "No, can't say any of my students are acting any different. Not taking into account today, what with them not at the club room, it has been business as usual, far as I can tell."
"Humph. Glad to see you're doing fine. Meanwhile I have 'Nightmare Gloom' to deal with."
"Nightmare Gloom…" Sawako echoed in a whisper. "Why does that sound familiar to me… Wait a second. Is that a pun-reference to what I think it is?" she then asked Sawako in a mocking tone.
"Uh n-no, it's not!" she instantly defended.
"You sure? Because that sounds an awful lot like 'Nightmare Moon,' and that's a reference to-"
"I don't know who that is or what you're talking about!" In truth, she actually did. "Now can we please end this conversation?
Sawako could not stop laughing at this point. "Oh man, Nanako, I have so much more dirt on you now," she chuckled. "I am going to have fun with this."
"Oh, you think so?" Kuroi snapped back, turning herself around at the same time, "how is it you know who that is? Huh?"
"…"
"Yeah, just as I thought. We're both equally guilty." She then returned to her cooking, which now seemed on the eve of being complete.
"… So does that make us 'bronies'?" Sawako then asked.
"We are not calling each other that," Nanako shot back.
"… How about 'Bristers'?"
"Oh shut up."
[Author's Notes] Well, this be it. The beginning of the end of "Lucky Stars and Gitahs." And yes, this will be the last of the series. But does that mean I won't make other Lucky Star/K-On crossovers? Most likely not, but time will ultimately tell.
At any rate, the story continues the sub-trilogy interconnected story that began with "Love's Battlefield" and will end with the series as a whole. As some of you have already guessed, Miki has gone and completely rejected her lesbian daughters. Mugi's admission went better than expected (much to her personal dismay) and both Sawako and Nanako are bronies. Or is it bristers? Whatever, they watch 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' is the point I'm conveying.
And before you ask, yes, I, ParadoxBattleZone, is a bronie as well.
Until the next chapter, enjoy thyselves, populous, and may good health be in thy future.