Author's notes: Heya everybody, Omegahugger's here! In case you are wondering why so many closet-related Lucky Star fics are appearing, well, it's because we at Zokusho's mostly Lucky Star-oriented Forum are holding a contest to see who can write the best fic with the theme: Kagami and Misao get stuck in a closet. So, now you know what is going to happen in this fic. The question is: What kind of cruel, evil fate could throw our beloved characters into a closet?
Close(t) Studying
It was a study session, just like any other. Of course, Kagami usually had her study sessions alongside her sister, but the little gal was asleep. Matsuri had had the lovely idea that showing her The Ring was fun, so she hadn't slept. Literally. She was actually awake when Kagami entered her room in the morning, complete with dark rings surrounding her eyes, and a scared muttering every other second. She couldn't last through breakfast, though, and once her face was cleaned she had been carried into her room. Here, 8 hours later, she was still lying in there.
But that wasn't relevant to what was about to happen. You see, this particular study session was not with Konata and Miyuki. It was with Kagami's middle school friends, Ayano Minegishi and Misao Kusakabe. Sakuraba-sensei had given them a veritable STORM of homework, and Kagami had (with Ayano's blessings) decided that Misao should actually learn what they were teaching in school. Therefore, Misao had been dragged into the Hiiragi household, upstairs into Kagami's room and the door locked. The other family members did wonder a little at the screams of agony and terror that flowed from the room, but they paid it no mind. It wasn't the first time that Misao had been pulled screaming into a study session. Surrounded on all sides, Misao had no way of escaping.
"So, let's start out easily," Kagami said, ignoring the whimpering brunette. "Minegishi, what was it we're supposed to read again?"
"We had to start with p. 118, right?" Ayano answered. "Misao! Why are you poking your eyes out!"
"I shall not give in to your evil schemes! If my eyes are what I have to sacrifice, THEN SO BE IT!" The last part was shouted out loud.
Kagami, however, kept her calm. "Even if you tore your eyes out, which I know you won't, you would still have to learn this. So cut it out, will you?"
"I can't! I don't have any scissors."
Immediately Kagami facepalmed.
"Let's just start over. Page 118, please."
"Hiiragi, you are even more of a slave driver than my uncle..." Misao mumbled, but she opened her book like she was supposed to. Kagami had clearly won.
Ø*Ø*Ø
5 Hours Later
"Misao, what is the answer to task #38?" Ayano asked, with a tint of worry. The reason for this worry was that Misao was currently lying face down on the table, staring empty-eyed at her textbook.
"Ugh... The birds are flying into lampposts because scientists tied magnets to their brains."
Ayano blinked a few times, before turning to her other classmate.
"Hiiragi, I think Misao needs a break. She has been working hard, but I fear this is too much for her."
Kagami looked at the defeated girl. Even she could see that Misao was down for the count.
"I see your point. Okay, we take a thirty minute break, everyone!"
When that was said, Kagami realised just how hard 5 hours of concentrated work had been for the usually energetic girl. It took her almost 30 seconds to simply react, much less actually getting up. Kagami had to do something about that sluggishness.
"Kusakabe, there are some P*cky in the fridge."
That did the trick... Sort of. Misao definitely moved more energetically, but it was like playing a zombie game. Sure, this super-zombie moves faster than the others, but it still moves like a zombie!
As Zombisao moved downstairs. Ayano turned to Kagami.
"I don't think this was such a good idea now."
"Yeah, she wasn't built for such work. I guess I'll have to go a little easy on her after the break."
Suddenly, a loud thumb followed by a curse rippled throughout the house. It turns out that Misao had tumbled and knocked her head into the closet down by the end of the stairs.
"WHO PLACED A CLOSET HERE!" Misao yelled, or she meant to, but an angry mumble was all she could manage at the moment. Instead, she moved towards the kitchen. At least the bump on her head had knocked her out of her stupor. Misao opened the refrigerator, found the bag of Pock* and began eating.
Strange. These P*cky are hard and they taste nothing like I remember them...
Misao then heard something sneak up on her, and with all her might she flinged herself back and turned to face the assassin.
And she looked right into the sleepy, half closed eyes of the younger twin.
"Ah, Imouto-chan, I hadn't seen you coming," Misao greeted. "Hiiragi said that you'd be asleep all day, so what brings you up?"
" 'Ungry..." the little girl muttered. Misao had a little trouble understanding her (her speech was by far too mumbly and incoherent), but when she cracked the code, she knew what she had to do.
"Would you like a P*cky?"
Tsukasa conjured sounds that sounded a bit like "Mang Uu" and proceeded to grab some food.
The two girls proceeded to eat for a few seconds, until Kagami Hiiragi, arguably the most mature person around, came and asked a very weird question.
"Why are you two eating carrots?"
"Huh? We aren't. Why do you think that?"
"Kusakabe, you have a carrot sticking out of your mouth like a cigar. You aren't fooling anyone."
Misao was weirded out. Kagami was right; there really was a carrot in her mouth. How did it end up there? All she had done was taking the bag of P*cky a-.. Wait, bag? P*cky usually comes in boxes.
When Misao saw the bag of carrots in her hand, it all made sense. It was a vile conspiracy, planned by some evil organization to ruin her brain with a lack of sugary goodness and a surplus of vitamin A!
"The Pock* is a lie!" she yelled out of pure shock.
"I see you are back to your energetic self. Good thing, you actually worried Minegishi back then."
"Eh, Ayano always worry. She once even tried to tell me not to climb the power lines."
"I think she was right to stop you."
"No matter! I sha-..Wait, what is Imouto doing over there?"
Tsukasa, in her drowsiness, was currently searching through the closet that Misao had bashed into, mumbling things man was not meant to hear. Fortunately, Tadao wasn't home right now.
Kagami, however, decided that her sister still needed more sleep, and immediately began dragging her off to bed. Misao found the entire ordeal hilarious.
However, something was missing. Of course! Ayano wasn't here! What could have stolen the precious childhood friend's time? No need to worry, Detective Misao was on the case.
Of course, Misao knew there was no need to do any detective work. It was just more fun to think of yourself as a detective. So with courageous steps she ventured forth, towards Hiiragi's room of terror, where the fair lady Minegishi was residing.
As the brave/imaginative Misao climbed the stairs of doom, she heard some happy chatting. Using her sub-human intelligence, the brunette quickly deduced that Ayano was simply talking in her phone. And judging by her happy tone and sometimes irritatingly girly use of words, she was talking with her boyfriend.
Misao was not the type of girl to simply burst into a"lovey-dovey" conversation (at least not right now), so she had to talk to Kagami to pass the time. Fortunately, Kagami appeared from her sister's room, tired from practically carrying her sister.
"Oi, Hiiragi! Ayano's talking with her boyfriend; let's ready a trap for when she comes out!"
Kagami groaned. She was not in the mood for this. To her, this break had been more exhausting than preparing for the entry exams. However, once Misao got an idea into her head, there was only one thing to do:
Try to distract her.
"Kusakabe, why do you think that trapping Ayano is a good idea?"
"Erm... Because she won't expect it!"
"You sure? Minegishi can be very knowledgeable sometimes. She might have figured your master plan out already." Not to mention that she might have heard you. I know she rarely gets distracted while talking to her boyfriend, but one should always keep an eye out for Misao.
"I know she hasn't! I don't even have one of those!"
Kagami facepalmed. Misao was back, no doubt about it, and now she seemed puzzled at something.
"Why do you do that? If I don't have a plan, there is no part of it that can go wrong. It is a perfect strategy," Misao continued after noting Kagami's gesture.
"Ugh, just forget it." Kagami needed some sugar now. Good thing that Misao had accidentally eaten carrots instead of P*cky.
As Kagami tried to prevail where Misao once had failed, Misao felt a certain pressure in her bladder.
It was time to go.
"Sorry, I need to pee!"
"Don't just blurt that out of the blue!" Kagami snarked.
Having taken the Pock*, and lost the distraction that was Misao, Kagami moved to join Ayano. However, she didn't need to. Ayano came out a split second before Kagami reached the door.
"I apologize, Hiiragi-san, but I have to go."
"Huh. That guy again? Sometimes I wonder why you bother, he seems like trouble to me." Kagami responded, with a small smile on her face.
A smile which Ayano apparently didn't notice.
"W-What! No! He is kind, and gentle, and nice, and pretty, and, and..."
"Relax, I was just joking," Kagami hadn't expected Ayano to act like that. "Now, shouldn't you get going? Wouldn't want to keep the prince waiting."
Following these words, Ayano hurried out of the house, with a face as red as ketchup.
By now, the break was almost up, so Kagami decided to wait for Misao in her room and prepare for continued studying. Misao might have been hurt by 5 hours of work, but now she was fully healed and could easily take another 2.
And that was when Misao bursted in through the door.
"Oi, Ayano, Hiiragi! I have returned from the perilous bathroom of the Hiiragi household. I ha-" Only then did Misao notice something was off. "Wait, where's Ayano?"
"Oh, she had to go see her boyfriend, I think." Having said that, Kagami gained an evil gleam in her eyes. "Kusakabe, your 30 minutes are up."
Misao gulped; this was not good. Without Ayano to keep her in line, Kagami could do whatever she pleased. There was no way Misao would survive even five minutes of this, so there were only two options left.
1: Run.
2: Run faster!
Misao went with #2.
"Oh no, you don't!" Kagami said as she lunged for the brunette, and she managed to catch her... Or at least grab her arm.
However, Misao was not going to stop simply because her arm was held in place. With an admirable display of strength, she pulled Kagami with her. Unfortunately, Misao forgot one tiny little detail. Momentum. While Misao managed to move ahead, she hadn't noticed the stairs having appeared in front of her. With her sudden burst of speed, she was unable to stop before the fall, and Kagami's balance was broken by her lunge for Misao.
This resulted in the two girls tumbling down the stairs. And had they been able to see where they were going, they would have noticed that Tsukasa never closed the closet. Instead, they felt themselves slammed into the aforementioned closet.
"Ow..." Misao groaned. "Gravity is a harsh mistress, it seems"
"You say such things even now..." Kagami responded, her entire body aching. "Though I have to agree that it was a tough fall."
The two classmates were both unable to move, partly because they had just tumbled down a flight of stairs and straight into a hard surface and partly because their bodies were tangled together.
And their racket had woken up a dazed Tsukasa, struggling to find the bathroom.
"What was that... Oh. I forgot to close the closet." she mumbled as she noticed the open door.
Due to Tsukasa speaking like a person straight out of bed, and Kagami and Misao being kind of distracted, Tsukasa's discovery went unnoticed. That is, until she in her half-awakened state closed the closet doors.
"Oi, Hiiragi, it just got dark in here..."
"DON'T LOCK US IN HERE!" Kagami tried to yell, but her actions were in vain. Tsukasa's mind was currently 500 miles from earth, in the local fluffy-bunny heaven.
"Sis... Why are you a bunny?" she mumbled while dreaming of other things, as she, perhaps unconsciously guided by her kind sister's advice, locked the closet, then staggered back to bed.
"She locked it." was all Misao could say, stating the obvious.
"HEY, MATSURI! STOP LISTENING TO HEAVY METAL AND HELP US OUT OF HERE!" Kagami shouted, trying to get some help.
However, all she got was the sonata of the cicadas.
"INORI! WE NEED YOUR HELP; TSUKASA LOCKED US IN THE CLOSET!"
Nothing was heard, except the peaceful blowing of the wind (Misao noted how weird it was for the wind to be blowing indoors).
"HEY MOTHER, I-"
"Would you stop yelling already? My ears hurt." Misao interrupted. She would have held her hands to her ears to prove her point, but they were kind of stuck.
"You are in no position to talk; it is your fault that we are stuck here, and I-"
"It is all that stupid gravity's fault! I always knew it wanted revenge since the day I beat it to a pulp in kindergarten." Misao defended, and tried to squeeze away from Kagami's wrath. For some (to Misao) unthinkable reason, it didn't work.
"Stop wriggling around! There is no space in here, and your hand is touching my breast!"
"I can't! It is dangerous to be this close to the legendary Hiiragi of the Oni's Fury. I need to get out of here!"
"You aren't going anywhere until we get out of this irritatingly small closet!"
"Exactly. Hmm, how to escape a locked room. I think I saw a magician do this once!"
"Except that he cheated, was prepared and had loads of more experience than we do."
"It was really easy! All he did was saying the magic words, and the door was unlocked!"
Kagami sighed. "So what are these magical words you've been taught?"
Misao took a deep breath. Messing this part up could be fatal, like any magic trick.
"Please unlock the door!"
There was a brief moment of silence as the magic did its work, and the door opened.
On the other side stood a very confused Miki and looked at her daughter and her daughter's friend coming out of the closet.
"Thanks mom, you really saved us back ther-.."
"IT WORKED! IT REALLY WORKED! I AM THE ULTIMATE SPELLCASTER!" Kagami was, once again, interrupted by a loud/energetic girl.
"I don't know if I really want to ask this, but... Why were you locked in the closet?"
"It was all Kusakabe's fault. She tore us both down the stairs and into that dusty, old closet."
"It only happened because YOU wanted to torture me again!"
"No, it didn't. By the way, mom, how come you didn't come when we, or rather I, called for help?"
"Oh, I just thought Kusakabe tried to escape again. When you have these forced study lessons, the rest of the family tends to block out all loud noises coming from your room." The youthful mother explained. "It is the only way to get through them without going insane."
"Hah! It really was because you tortured me!"
"Oh, just shut up."
At this point in time, Kagami was in no condition to continue studying, so Misao was sent home. AFTER Kagami made sure she would never, ever mention this again.