Another attempt at Harvest Moon fan fiction.
Based on Animal Parade, though it takes extreme liberties with... well... everything. It mostly only qualifies as a Harvest Moon fanfic because it uses the characters therein.
It gets better in later chapters, I swear.
In a galaxy far, far away—okay, fine, it happened on Earth.
There was Akari, and there was the Harvest God. Akari was an endearing young lady. She helped all of the girls get married and even won a couple of hearts for herself. Her overall amazingness had even gone so far as to help her save the island, and meet the Harvest God, who, she was quick to discover, was a jerk. At first, Akari was just another pesky human, but a few daily visits accompanied by shiny apples changed that. In the beginning, Akari only visited the Harvest God for the lulz. After all, when you've saved an entire island and will pretty much be held on a pedestal for the rest of your life, what else is there to do? She certainly had a lot of free time.
And so, with the Harvest God in love and that love reciprocated, they married. Unfortunately, the Harvest God could not live with his wife, but with a house upgrade and a rather embarrassing letter from the mayor, they had a child. Two years later, they had another one. Thus, Akari was not lonely.
There were many perks to being married to the Harvest God, since he basically had control over the entire island. Among them, Akari got free cable from the mainland. This included many anime channels, and so, a magical girl junkie was born. Her name was Kyona, and she was the daughter of Akari and the Harvest God.
… That wasn't obvious, was it?
Kyona spent many years fangirling over such gems as "Shining Star," "Loli Princess," and her personal favorite, "Super Pretty Pink Diamond." This caused much confusion for the other girls of the island, who did not have Harvest Gods for fathers and thus, did not get free cable from the mainland.
But from that fangirling, grew a dream. A dream to become a magical girl, and join the ranks of the pink, sparkly and endearingly clumsy. She swore that someday, she would achieve that dream.
Somehow.
Maybe.
It's possible.
Plausible.
Okay, most definitely.
Enjoy your lack of anticipation.
-
"And now, I, Super Pretty Pink Diamond, shall fill your heart with love!" The TV boomed. The young red-headed woman, Kyona, stood from her position in front of it. Sprawled on the couch, her equally red-headed brother, Zack, was reading a book, wearing headphone to combat the noise. From the kitchen, their mother, Akari, half-watched, with mild interest, as she cleaned the dishes. "Super…Pretty…Sunshine!" On the screen, an epileptic amount of bright pink and sparkles appeared.
"Super…Pretty…Sunshine!" Kyona yelled, imitating her idol. Zack, who happened to glance up from his book at just the wrong time, rolled his eyes at her. Fin, a small orange harvest sprite, was sitting on the counter.
"Oh!" he said, suddenly, and then flew away, unnoticed.
And then the TV went black.
"Hey, what the…" Kyona wondered aloud. She turned around, only to see her mother waving the remote control, smugly.
"Bed time," Akari explained.
"Mom, I'm thirteen years old." Kyona whined.
"Thirteen year olds don't normally stand up to join Super Pretty Pink Diamond in using her attack. Besides, it's getting late." Akari argued. Kyona sighed, marching to her room.
"Soon, you'll have to grow out of that stuff…" Akari mumbled. "Hey, where'd Fin go?"
-
Elsewhere, in the dead of night, the Harvest God stood, his eyes closed, contemplating. All of a sudden, Fin flew up to him.
"Harvest Gooood! Did you feel that!?" Fin called out. The Harvest God only lazily opened one eye to look at Fin.
"Something bad's going to happen. The island's not going to be threatened, but Kyona…my only daughter…" Fin nodded.
"Exactly. What are your orders, Sir?" Fin inquired, as if he were talking to a military sergeant.
"For you? Nothing. I made a request for the Harvest Goddess to send some…help. If you want to help, make sure he gets there safely."
"Aye-aye, captain!" Fin said, saluting him. He then flew off.
-
That night, Kyona dreamed of being a magical girl…
-
The next morning, Kyona was about to bolt out of the door, when her mother stopped her.
"You got some mail," she said.
"Mail?" Kyona perked up.
"Yea…from some unknown address. Just open it." And Kyona did. What she found was no letter, but instead five pens. A red one, with an apple charm on the end, a yellow one, with a cocoa fruit charm on the end, a blue one, with an eggplant charm on the end, an orange one, with a pumpkin charm on the end, and a purple one, with a yam charm on the end.
Kyona stuffed them into her rucksack and forgot about them for awhile.
In the morning, all the good children of Castanet went to school. This, of course, meant that Zack was not a good child. Since he was older than the other children, and thus, supposedly, at a higher learning level, he ritualistically skipped school, opting instead to run off to somewhere that he could be by himself.
Kyona, however, went to school every day. And she hated it. She hated trudging through the cold, damp morning. She hated learning things that she'd never need to know. She hated all the work and tests. She wished she could just drop out and become a full-time farmer, but her mother would have none of that.
-
Kyona scanned the room, half-listening to the teacher's lecture.
First, there was Vivian. She sat at the front of the class to make sure she heard everything right. She was smart, had good fashion sense, knew how to sow, etc. etc. Vivian was as pompous and arrogant as her father. Kyona hated her. Vivian's only purpose, as far as Kyona was concerned, was to fill the role of "tsundere."
And then there was Vivian's cousin, Angie. Angie sat at the back of the class so that no one would pay attention to her. She was considerably better-dressed than the rest of the class, which, considering that they wore uniforms, only meant that she had nise shoes and socks.
And then there was Lucy. She was the living embodiment of ENERGY. If it weren't for her clothes and flower bandana, she could be mistaken for a boy.
And then there was Dakota. She was kind of a brat. Her only real skill was cooking,, but she hated it. She only ever cooked to try to win the heart of her crush, Heath. It never worked.
Kyona began to suspect that the lecture would never end, and lunch would never come, but it finally did.
-
Meanwhile, in Akari's farm, a tiny pink harvest sprite arrived, unnoticed. Like a spy, he flew to Kyona's window and slipped under her pillow, with everyone none the wiser.
-
Dakota skipped merrily over to Heath, a bento in one hand.
"Heath, I made this for you~" she sing-songed.
"Wow, that's nice of you, Dakota, but my mom already made a lunch for me, so sorry."
Dakota stood like an ice statue, a disappointed expression plastered on her face. Heath walked away, oblivious.
-
Kyona sat off in her own little corner, in her own little world, hardly touching her food.
-
Dakota was devouring her lunches at the speed of sound, swallowing between sobs, for she was hysterically crying.
"You'll get fat eating so much…" Angie murmured.
"You look like a pig." Vivian said, bluntly.
"I don't care! Heath won't accept my lunch, so I have to eat them both!" Dakota cried, dramatically.
"W-well, the last time that Heath came to school without lunch, you forgot to make one for him…" Angie pointed.
"Ha~ the solution to this is simple~ an eating contest! That'll get your mind off of Mr. Green Hair~" Lucy interjected, grabbing her lunch and shoving it down her throat at a rate rivaling Dakota's.
"Lucy, that's not good for you…" Angie warned.
"Idiot," Vivian said, bluntly.
Lucy stopped, suddenly. Her face turned blue and her stomach groaned. She held it, tenderly.
"I…I have failed~" She moaned, in an over-the-top depressed way.
"I warned you…" Angie mumbled.
"You're an idiot. I have no sympathy for you." Vivian scolded. Dakota, done with her own lunch, opened the one intended for Heath, still weeping.
"Y-you're…not going to eat that, are you…?" Angie inquired, cautiously.
"Over-eating won't do anything." Vivian sneered. She snatched up the three rice balls in the lunchbox. "Just to make sure that you don't eat too much, I'll be eating these."
"Hey!" Dakota protested.
"Ha! Tough love for a comrade! In that case, I'll eat these~" Lucy snatched up the pieces of sushi—all five of them—and stuffed them in her mouth, all at the same time.
"Lucy! That's—" Angie cried, desperately. It fell on deaf ears. Vivian was preoccupied with chewing her rice balls, so it would be rude to make a brutally blunt comment at the moment, when she had her mouth full.
"Stop eating my fooood." Dakota whined.
"Cry more." Vivian said, between bites. "You can have the rice. Angie, here. You eat the sandwiches." Angie, at first, stared at them, warily, but she eventually gave in and ate them.
-
Kyona was having a wonderful daydream wherein she was Super Pretty Pink Diamond and she saved the city and everybody was cheering for her.
"Um…excuse me, Kyona?" Kyona nearly jumped at the sound of Angie's voice. "S-sorry…"
"No, no, it's okay." Kyona insisted.
"Um…okay, well…would you like this miso soup? Dakota was going to give it to Heath, but he didn't want it…" from behind Angie, Kyona could see Dakota glaring at her, as if to say "take that soup and I will carve your heart out with a spatula."
"Uh…no thanks, Angie, but thank you for offering," Kyona finally said, nervously. Angie nodded in vague understanding and walked away.
-
After school, Lucy was racing Roy, but she was really just racing herself, because Roy wasn't even trying, Angie and Vivian walked to the Tailor Shop together, Dakota was harassing Heath to walk her home, and Kyona wasn't paying attention and ended up walking to Tam-Tam Forest, right past her own home.
She walked all the way to the front door of a house and opened the door—which, of course, wasn't locked, no door in town was during the day, usually—and it took the sound of Latin chanting from the witch for her to realize.
"Wait a minute…this isn't my house!"
The witch, hearing the noise, stopped chanting and turned around.
"What are you doing here? Get out! Out, I say! Out of my house!" The witch commanded, overdramatically.
The next thing Kyona knew, she had been thrown face-first into the swamp in front of the witch's house.
The swamp, of course, was very dirty. And thus, it made Kyona very dirty. She stood up, grumbling.
She was about to walk away, when there was a sound from behind her. It wasn't just any sound, but the sound of a giant turtle coming at her.
"WHAT THE HECK?" She managed to cry, before leaping out of the way. She stood up and ran, finding refuge in a tree. As the giant turtle ran past, she felt an immense power coming from her bag.
It was the red pen, with the apple charm.
Without warning, it started to glow, and she had a transformation sequence, in which she skipped around as various pieces of clothes formed around her.
"Magical Appuru-chan!" She called out, when the transformation was complete.
Kyona, or rather, Magical Appuru-chan, was elated at this sudden turn of events. Overwhelmed with the power of JUSTICE!!! She pointed at the giant turtle, who had re-directed and was once again coming at her.
"Your evil deeds shall not go unpunished! I'll show you the consequences of…uh…being a giant turtle!" She called out, pathetically. She had rehearsed that catchphrase a million times, but suddenly it meant nothing. It was mitigated by the fact that she was kind of hoping for a more dastardly villain.
The turtle charged at her, and she suddenly noticed that she was still holding the red pen.
And then it suddenly turned into a scepter.
"Haha, awesome. So this is my weapon. But what's my attack name?" Kyona pondered that for a moment, but she had no time. The turtle still charged at her. "ROD TO THE HEAD!" She yelled throwing the rod at the turtle. It glowed, and the turtle turned back to its normal size, and stopped being violent. "Aww, that's my attack? Fine, I'll have to come up with a better name for it…"
-
Kyona went home, ignoring her mother's nagging. After all, what business was it of hers that Kyona was almost killed?
Upstairs, Kyona's head hit the pillow, and somebody screamed.
The pink harvest sprite wiggled his way out of Kyona's pillow-hold. Kyona, suddenly wide awake, jumped off of her bed and crab-walked across the floor.
TO BE CONTINUED...