OK, Disclaimer time.
I don't own Azumanga Daioh. I'm not affiliated with the Army or the U.S. Air Force. This isn't being done for money or anything other than the fact that it is 3:00 AM and I'm bored. Also, this certainly is not meant to be in any way disrespectful or degrading to the armed forces, please do not take it as so.
Feedback of all kinds welcome – please leave some. Don't forget to suspend your disbelief at the door.
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Kaorin spotted the trolley coming to a stop about two blocks ahead. The rubberized soles of her russet brown service shoes ran almost silently along the sidewalk as she pumped her legs through the crowd. A small but growing amount of perspiration accumulated around her collar and she began to feel sticky in her mustard brown Army Air Corps uniform.
"Whew! Made it," she muttered as she slid sideways, through the closing door. Her uniform and corporal stripes drew a double-take from the bespectacled conductor, not to mention the other passengers, as she produced her pass from the brass-buttoned pocket of her coat. A woman in uniform was still an uncommon sight in the spring of 1942.
"That sure was some leg work!" A familiar voice called from the midsection of the crowded trolley.
"Chihiro!" Kaorin called to her similarly uniformed friend, also with corporal stripes, and edged through the thick standing crowd in the aisle. "I bet we're yelling our heads off, those fifties from yesterday were so loud my ears are still ringing," she said to her friend.
"What!?" Chihiro shouted with a wink.
The trolley jerked to a stop causing the standing Kaorin to wobble. As she recovered, she happened to turn toward the rear entrance in time to see a tall dark figure in a tan derby, tweed suit, and mint green tie ascend the stairs in one smooth motion, sliding between the crowded, shuffling masses, with eyes forward and mouth set in a cool, aloof ease.
As the passengers shuffled about the aisle, Kaorin realized that she hadn't taken a breath since she first spotted those gray, almost jet-black eyes. Gripping the back of Chihiro's seat nervously, her palms grew slick with sweat and her knees, already tested from the sprint to the trolley, began to give way.
Kaorin gasped in an almost desperate lung full of air as she felt her face flush. She stared intently at the serious eyes, deep set under the brim of the derby, which wasn't fashionably cocked to the side, but perfectly straight. She felt a chill run from the base of her spine to the hair of the back of her neck as she noticed the figure's gliding stride on perfectly long legs leading up to the slim, svelte body which was shown only slightly by the spreading of the jacket as the figure raised the two equally perfectly proportioned arms to grip the handle bar.
Just as the tall figure was about to brush past Kaorin as effortlessly as with all of the other passengers, and make way to the center of the car, the trolley lurched into motion, once again causing Kaorin to lose her footing. Her hand slipping from the seat back, she staggered a couple of steps in front of the tall figure.
The cool pace of the tall figure's stride was instantly broken. Another lurch sent a large two-toned tan and maroon shoe squarely onto the toe of the russet brown Army boot. Tripping and wincing, Kaorin fell.
"Waah!"
Instead of her head hitting the ground, or the stomach of another standing passenger as she expected, Kaorin felt a strong arm around her midsection as the tall figure effortlessly broke her fall before it even began.
"Careful, soldier," said a brisk but warm voice.
Kaorin could swear her body was literally melting in the crook of that perfect arm in the dashing tweed suit. Since she made no effort to right herself and come away from the grip, the rescuer hefted Kaorin up and squarely onto her feet. Her knees locked and she stood as though if she relaxed even the slightest bit, it would send her crashing and wobbling about the whole car.
The deep, serious mouth then broke into a small smile and offered a mock salute, with the tips of strong, but fine fingers touching the brim of the derby.
"Y...yes SIR!" clumsily escaped Kaorin's nervous lips as though she were standing at attention before a General.
With a wink, the figure looked past the now quivering soldier girl and out the window at the passing park where dogs could often be seen frolicking with their owners.
Kaorin turned to her friend "Wow," was all she could eek out, her brow perspiring enough to let her garrison cap slide down almost covering one eye.
"Yeah," Chihiro agreed, "Imagine that in uniform! More moxie than even any of our officers," she said in a tone of pure admiration.
As the trolley gained speed and stopped less, traveling on a stretch of smooth road, the tall figure leaned back against the side of a seat and removed the derby. Now realizing it would take all of her wherewithal to not stare rudely at the figure directly in front of her, Kaorin tried to look out the window, or watch other passengers. She even resorted to staring at a spot on the wall and counting to ten to try to belay this feeling evoked by the exquisite figure in the handsome suit.
Just as she let her gaze drift toward the figure once more, in one fluid motion the jacket was unbuttoned and waist-length hair was pulled from under the collar and allowed to spill out like a waterfall down the back. In a moment of repose, the figure's back arched and the torso clad in a well-fitting white shirt protruded from the unbuttoned coat, stretching forward.
It was only then that Kaorin realized what Chihiro, not responding with surprise at all, must have realized all along. This figure that had caused her mind and body to react so strongly wasn't a tall, dark, handsome man at all.
It was a tall, dark, beautiful woman.
Beginning to hyperventilate, Kaorin brought her head down to her knees and began counting "One.…gasp, two...gasp, three...gasp," up to "ten" when her cap slipped off her perspiring head and onto the floor. When she looked down to see where it landed, she already knew where she would see it - resting by those maroon and tan two-tone shoes that had stepped on her foot earlier.
By the time she gathered the courage to open her eyes to validate this inevitable horrible reality, the cap was already in the long, slender fingers of the wearer of those shoes. Kaorin looked just in time to let her line of sight come in direct alignment with the open - all too open - collar of the fitted white shirt and loosened tie. Gasping, trying to hide her staring, her eyes darted downward - to the well-fitting pants clinging to the figure's pelvis in the sweat-inducing heat of the trolley, then avoiding that, she just tightly closed her eyes again, and trying to count to ten.
"Are you alright?" came the brisk voice again. Kaorin's eyes now snapped up to the source and met the dark, staring orbs of the woman now crouching in front of her with the garrison cap held, gently offering.
"S... so, so sorry!" she could only gasp. "I... I really should be so much more careful, always losing things..." Kaorin said in one quick, loud breath.
Smiling gently, the woman held the cap closer, Kaorin now realizing she had been holding it for a while broke the stare she held and, hands shaking so hard she could barely hold on to it, slammed the cap onto her head.
"Um..." the woman said, breaking her gaze and looking up toward the cap, which was not only sideways, but inside-out. Kaorin, too late to save face reached up, with her head bowed and face bright red, righted the cap, pulling it tightly enough over her head, she hoped she could hide completely underneath it until this hell ride was over. "One...two...three...four...fi-"
"I said, are you in the Army?" the voice asked again, a bit more sharply than the first time which fell on panicked, deaf ears.
"Oh.. yes, well... yes, the Army Air Corps," Kaorin managed to say, her voice shaking, barely audible. "Th..they are experimenting with some idea... with girls, er... women on a bomber... I... uh... well that is to say... I was going to ask you... um, well, you know if...uh..." her voice trailed off as she pushed two index fingers together nervously.
"Ask me what?" came the curious but still brisk reply.
"Nothing! Never mind! Stupid, so stupid, sorry!"
At this point, Kaoin would have done anything to be able to simply walk away from the whole situation. What was she going to ask her, she thought, to join the Army? Some face she'd put on it. If only she could have walked away.
"No. Ask me," she said, almost coldly.
"Well... we always are looking for candidates... if you'd like..."
"I've heard about the WAACs. I'm interested."
"That's great! You might even get to fly in a bomber like us," Chihiro interrupted giving a jaunty thumbs-up. Kaorin gave one too, but much less steady and much more shaky than the other.
"Sakaki," the tall girl extending a hand to the shaky girl who took it and noticed now for the first time that it was bandaged in two places.
"Wow, you sure look like a fighter!" Kaorin said, with genuine awe, causing the tall girl to hide a rising blush.
"Well, this is our stop," Chihiro said and gave a quick small bow to the tall woman, "Chihiro, by the way. See you!"
Kaorin stayed, still staring in awe up and down at the new acquaintance.
"Coming, Kaorin?" Chihiro asked.
"Oh, heh heh, this isn't my stop," Kaorin shrugged.
"Yes, this is our stop, our apartment is right over..."
"I'm stopping somewhere else today!" Kaorin said in a low almost suddenly threatening growl to her friend.
"Oh...kay... see you... later," Chihiro said as she walked hurriedly to the exit.
Kaorin and Sakaki stood in an awkward silence as the trolley rolled on for a nearly twenty more blocks.
Finally, Sakaki announced with little inflection "I'll see you later." Kaorin fought the urge at the last moment to grip the sleeve of the tweed coat and hold Sakaki on the trolley for as long as it would go.
"Yeah... see you..." she eeked out as Sakaki gave a small wave from the sidewalk. The door shut and the trolley snaked down the road.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Kaorin quietly shrieked to herself, cursing the timidity that both took her twenty blocks from home to ultimately leave Sakaki on the sidewalk, without even telling her her name.
"Stupid."
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Explanation of this chapter: I didn't really want to start with this one and I may bump it up a couple of chapters later on, but it is done. A thousand points to the person who can guess what 1944 song this chapter is based on. Might songficify it later.
The long and short of this is the idea I had a while ago for the Azu characters as the crew of a B-17. Just in case you were wondering, here's the run down – probably spoilers, but it kind of explains things.
Captain Yukari: Pilot. Scary, isn't it? Fun landings are ahead
Lt. Nyamo: Co-Pilot. Of course she is under Yukari, but the plane gets back in one piece, so we know she must be the real brains behind the outfit.
Lt. Yomi: Navigator. Fits her fastidious and studious nature, plus she has glasses (yes, I know there is already so much greater suspension of disbelief at work here, but hey, my fanfic).
Lt. Tomo: Bombardier. Only an officer because Yomi was going to become one. I know it makes it weird that two of the students are officers, but it works with the dynamic I just mentioned. She'd be able to loaf off and do nothing but push a button, but this would inevitably get them into trouble if and when they would have to lead the bomb group. Of course Yomi would bail her out.
T-Sgt. Chiyo: Flight engineer/Dorsal turret gunner Senior-most enlisted person, kind of like class-rep. Most technically minded, not to mention she'd look cute as a button in coveralls with the ground crew.
T-Sgt. Osaka: Radio operator. Can you imagine any worse a feeling than that being the voice coming over your headset? Plus she'd have a ball with her nearly useless gun.
Sgt. Sakaki: Ball turret gunner. It would certainly make her self-conscious about her height, but she'd probably think the turret was strangely cute. Also, she'd likely be the most effective gunner.
Sgt. Kaorin and Chihiro: Waist gunners. Mirror images of one another and it would give Kaorin easy access to Sakaki.
Sgt. Kagura: Tail gunner. She'd like the big .50s and it seems like a gung-ho kind of position. Would put her into competition with Sakaki too.
Well, let me know what you think of the whole idea. Feedback is always welcome.