The World Only The Girl's Know: Mission 'V'
Chapter 1: A Normal Beginning
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Original Title: The World Only God Knows / 神のみぞ知るセカイ
Original Concept by Tamiki Wakaki
Written by: wrathie
Author's Notes: This story is on a totally different time line!
Author's Notes: Thank you, Kaiser Dude for the beta as always.
This story is totally on a whim, totally on a different timeline that follows canon and I'm totally unsure on whether I'll ever finish it.
Yes, I understand it's a super tease.. but hey... at least I published it!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone, and I would like to dedicate this chapter to: Furiseirei as well as all the other Terada Miyako fans!
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Terada Miyako was a normal high school girl who leads a normal life in the grand scheme of things. She wasn't admittedly very pretty as in the midst of all the girls in the same class, she simply didn't stand out at all.
She was above average in her results, took part in the track & field club and yes, oh yes, she was part of an all-girls band! Take that, norm!
Only that girl-band hadn't really done their first gig yet and was more like a club than anything else, practising after school and not even having a real budget as it was pooled from the allowances of all the other girls in the club.
Even if they have club funds, it simply was too meager for them justify using it more than what was necessary.
Even if they did went to record a song of theirs in the studio, it had ended up as a failure. She and the rest had thought that they had done so well that last time too, but reality was harsh as always.
At least they had done quite reasonably well during the Mai-High festival though, could they call it their first gig there? Only they didn't earn the right to be there, they were simply allocated a slot. So Miyako didn't think that it was really a gig, more of an opportunity for them to practice in front of a live audience.
Miyako supposed that was the curse of being average? But actually looking back at it, being average was good. It meant that she would be able to live her life in her own pace, not as fast as the geniuses were used to, and definitely not as slow as those who lagged behind the pace of life, so to speak. What's best of it all was that she wouldn't be rushed or urged to move at another pace at all! That was good, it was very good and it brings about less stress in life.
Most importantly however, at least in her life, it freed her from the troubles and pains that was the byproduct of the curse known as 'love'. Miyako didn't believe in love at first sight, she thought that those romantic and sappy soap operas that she watched on TV was seriously impractical and unrealistic.
The strings of fates that tied those couples together was simply the delusion of the director or script writer, and even if Miyako enjoyed a good book at times, those shows were just for entertainment and had no basis in the reality of one's world.
Not to mention that she found herself being more grounded to reality thanks to the improbability of experienceing love thanks to those shows. In a way, Miyako felt that watching those shows has two effects on the population as a whole.
The general population's expectations would either raise or lower due to those shows, as it would either make those romantics actually anticipate more and to raise their standards in their pursuit for the 'perfect' life they read and watch about.
The other part of the population would actually lower their expectations as they were more in touch with reality, and of course resigned with themselves…
No, that would actually make it even more depressing, they would tend to be less demanding and satisfied with a more normal and mundane relationship with another person. There was simply no use trying and needing to find a 'perfect' person after all; a normal one would do!
Actually, didn't that sound even more depressing than before? Mundane relationship? That was just plain depressing, perhaps a better phrase would be a functional relationship where both parties were reasonably matched with one another?
Just thinking about it made Miyako feel depressed, but honestly she wouldn't know, she had not fallen in love with anyone before after all.
Unlike her friends and fellow band mates, she was just an observer in the span of things; a cog in the big clock wheel of life, and having the opportunity to observe and to get involved a little in the grand scheme of things perhaps?
Even if she wasn't a very big fan of soap operas/serial dramas, the fact was that she still wouldn't mind getting involved in a little harmless teasing of her friends.
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'So, are all of you going to give Katsuragi-san chocolate then?'
Miyako asked innocently even as she wiped the sweat off her forehead after a particularly grueling session with the 2B Pencils, the girl-band that she was part of.
Besides her, the other members of the band were her friends: Takahara Ayumi, Kosaka Chihiro, Katsuragi Elsi and Guido Yui. Either through sheer coincidence or by pure luck, all of them had a crush for a certain boy, their classmate, Katsuragi Keima.
Well, except Elsi but there was definitely the start of a sister-brother worship, so there! And Miyako thought that Chihiro was 'normal' like her too! She didn't think that Chihiro would be serious about anyone at all!
Katsuragi Keima could be accurately called and described as 'unique'.
There really wasn't any other way to describe him other than that due to the very nature and personality, not to mention the characteristics of Katsuragi Keima, he was unique!
Her personal impression of him wasn't that good, the entire school probably shared that sentiment, even if she would never tell her friends that.
The fact was that she didn't quite approve of him, found him severely lacking, and someone that none of her friends should be interested in. But then again, Miyako realized and acknowledged that love itself, like portrayed over the ages, was blind and everyone has their own taste, just like how she didn't approve of him and her friends did.
She even had the flight of fancy imagining that all of them were only interested in him due to their internal maternal instincts and wanted to nurse and guide the poor boy into a member of society. If that was the case, Miyako would have no choice but to recognize one of her friends as a saint. There was no way that anyone would ever change Katsuragi Keima to a respectful member of society without a literal fight.
It was their choice after all, and Miyako was never going to comment or ask them about that, it wouldn't be fair after all and she would simply offer them a shoulder to cry on when they experienced heartbreak for the first time.
That was her role as a friend after all, and Miyako was not going to comment to them about that; it wouldn't be fair and she would simply offer a shoulder for them to cry on when they experienced heartbreak for the first time.
That was her role as a friend after all, even if she really didn't look forward to it.
Come to think of it, Miyako actually felt a little surprised at how all of her friends, Elsi aside, as she was his sister, could actually get along so well together and without complaints even when they were presumably rivals in love.
She was at least relieved that Katsuragi wasn't cheating on any one of them, he was just clueless or simply ignorant of the girl's affections for him.
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As if, that was not possible at all! Miyako certainly didn't buy it, and like a majority of the female population, theorized that he simply couldn't make a choice or just couldn't be bothered to. Considering that there were other girls who were interested in him, that theory could be true after all.
As the girls themselves were loathe to actually admit their feelings to him or explain to their friends why, it made the situation even more peculiar.
Particularly the female population itself was divided on their opinion of him, one side finding it sweet that he didn't want to hurt any of the girls by considering his decisions carefully, and the other wanting to kill him for causing the girls even more pain and suffering by letting them wait for an answer.
Or simply by making them give up, Miyako would actually approve of that decision if he actually told them that he wasn't interested. Perhaps he already did and they were just unaware of it? That meant that her friends were so hopelessly in love with him that they were willing to wait for him?! If that was true, Miyako would have no choice but to take her hat off to them.
In the end however, the female population were just unable to act on any one of the possible actions as whatever happens between them was just that, between them and only between them.
So unsurprisingly, the female population were conflicted on what they thought of Keima. It was a tough time to be close to Ayumi and the rest of her friends as it was so hard to decide whether to support or to persuade them to give on Katsuragi.
That was made even harder when Yui revealed her interest for Katsuragi too. That was enough to cause another population of the female population to be torn between supporting the love of their idol and being angry at Keima for obviously seducing Yui and then playing with her feelings.
Either way it was a very chaotic situation, but as Miyako explained earlier, that didn't mean that she couldn't have a little fun with her friends as all of them stiffened a little when they were reminded again of Valentine's Day.
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It was a common tradition for girls to give chocolates to members of the opposite sex, whether it was for their friendship or when they liked them.
Actually it was only the latter at the start but the former has managed to gain traction with everyone as well. Miyako believe that it was possible for a friendship to form between members of the opposite sex that did not translate to romance.
She had a few of those friends who were boys and yet they got along great! They were study buddies and they would sometimes spend some time after school to go through homework or to revise after for exams.
She was going to give out a few chocolates to those friends of hers, some of the boys in class who had helped her a lot. Not that she had anyone to offer a chocolate that was meant for conveying more than gratitude of friendship after all.
'W-What… why are you asking that all of a sudden, Mkyako?'
It was Chihiro who reacted first, the leader of the 2B Pencils being more unable to feel a little shaken at how easy it was for her friend to ask them that out of the blue.
She had been trying her best to avoid thinking about it till the day where she would actually start making the chocolate, but it seemed that she was forced to answer this question earlier than she had thought.
It was still a week left to Valentine's Day after all!
'Well, I was thinking of buying chocolate today, it's always so hard to get chocolates when it's near Valentine's Day; it's a commercial conspiracy I tell you, a conspiracy! The corporations always try to jack up the prices of their chocolates so high that it doubles! If we wait longer it might get even more expensive, even if it already is quite expensive…'
Miyako tittered on as the other girls exchanged looks with each other uneasily.
Even if the three of them did know that each of them had a crush on Keima, well, Yui was adamant that it was more than a crush seeing how she had shamelessly prepositioned the poor boy in the middle of lunch break into the courtyard, they couldn't help feel a little uneasy admitting it to each other.
Like it or not, the three of them were rivals in love after all, even if the only person to actually lay out a confession to Keima was Yui. And what a confession that was!
Besides the three of them, they were also aware that Kanon, the Nakagawa Kanon, top idol of Japan had a very strong attraction to Keima as well. Their deepest fear was that Kanon would actually act on it if exposed to Keima for a very strong period.
Thankfully she was rarely, if ever around but when she did, she would spend a lot of time staring in Keima's direction from her seat at the end of the classroom.
It was unnerving for them, all of them, to know that they were competing against the top idol of Japan. Thankfully Katsuragi himself didn't seem to be that interested in her, or anyone else for that matter.
Even if the two of them were probably the closest girls to him, he still hadn't picked up on their cues or was just trying to tell them that it wasn't possible. Chihiro had to remind herself that they were at the age of equal rights, one day they were going to confess to him instead!
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But looking back at the situation, it was also true that even after Yui had confessed to him and tried to get close to him, he had not even been moved. He had been flustered yes, but nothing beyond that. In fact Yui had thought that he disliked her even more after that and had kept her distance for a while.
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'So what about it? Are you worried? Don't worry… I'm sure that Katsuragi would be happy to accept all of your chocolates, I wonder how he likes his…'
Miyako asked impishly as she nudged Elsi, who still seemed confused as she asked them what they were talking about.
'We are talking about Valentine's day, silly! It's coming up next week! Are you ready for it, Elsi-chan!'
'What is this Va-len-time's day?'
Elsi asked curiously even as the other girls looked at each other. Even if she was a transfer student that had came from overseas to study with her family again, they had to question whether Elsi was really being serious or just playing them for a fool.
Still, Elsi was always a little lacking in common-sense and street smarts, it was a relief that at least Keima did take good care of sister and would never let anyone take advantage of her, despite rumours saying so otherwise.
'Valentine's day is the day of St. Valentine but to keep it short, it's a day where girls give the boys they like chocolates! Though we can still give it to our good friends as a friendship chocolate.'
Myako summed it up for her even as Ayumi sighed and said that was exactly why commercialization of Valentine's Day was so simple with that explanation being the most general and yet most wide-spread of all.
'Oh no, I've fallen into cohorts with the commercial conspiracy as well! '
Miyako wailed good-heartedly in jest even as the other girls laughed at her antics.
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'But seriously, seriously, are you going to do so, or not?'
Miyako asked her friends patiently as they left school by themselves as they had practiced close to the evening now, and she reasoned that if she was going to get some chocolate anyway, she might as well pull them along and have some fun teasing them as well. Oh, bad Miyako, Bad!
It was the right of all friends of lovers to abuse that right to tease the easily embarrassed girls in love in exchange for helping them with their worries when they needed it after all. It was a stupid and silly right that Miyako was determined to abuse to if she could, especially since she could sense the uneasiness from her friends.
'Kami-Onii-sama doesn't like sweets though.'
Elsi commented even as she considered what she was going to prepare for Keima. After that disaster with the cake, she was aware that Keima didn't like sugar or anything sweet for that matter and even his coffee, when he did drank, was black without sugar.
Tea too was taken with a few drops of lemon juice add on to add just a hint of flavor into the tea, Elsi guessed that Keima simply didn't take the excitement of life that sugar could be used to symbolize in his tea or coffee. Then again, Elsi was never smart enough to understand what Keima thought, and she was happy just knowing what he liked and what his tastes were.
That revelation seemed to depress the other girls even more and Elsi did sympathize with them as it was really very hard to cook for Keima. 'Hard' in that Keima was not a very picky eater, in fact he didn't have much of a preference to food but it was simply that it was very hard for him to actually say that he enjoyed the food. The fact that he disliked sweet stuff was more of a kind of an afterthought though…
'B-But that doesn't mean that Kami-Onii-sama wouldn't eat sweet stuff!'
Elsi realized that she had dug herself into a hole with her own reflections about Keima's taste, he did have tastes after all and she didn't realize it at all! That was a revelation for her as well!
'Elsi, what does Katsuragi-kun like to eat at home then? What does he usually eat? Does he have any favorite foods?'
It was Yui who took the initiative to actually question Elsi about this new avenue of attack, the heiress had been the one who had always charged ahead disregarding everyone else if she had to.
'Ah, what does Kami-Onii-sama eat? He eats a lot of things! But he doesn't like what I cooked for him…'
Elsi seemed depressed by that, pouting quite a bit even as her shoulders slumped, and that caused the others to reassure and encourage Elsi as well.
They were aware that Elsi always cooked for Keima, and they couldn't quite understand why Keima always fled when Elsi tried to coffer food to him.
They couldn't see the ingredients of food from New Hell waving and snapping at Keima like he did, neither did they taste Elsi's seemingly innocuous cooked food as well for Elsi was one to not waste food and would pack it back home to finish it herself if ELsi was unable to get Keima to finish it.
'But Kami-Onii-sama doesn't seem to have a preference, I think Kami-Onii-sama likes more simple food that he can finish fast though, I remember Haqua telling me that…'
Even as her friends tensed at the mention of Elsi's childhood friend that was in another school and the implications that she had cooked for Keima, Elsi continued on without stopping. The three of them were aware of this Haqua person as Elsi had mentioned her a few times in the past but had not really elaborated on who she was and what her relationship to Keima was.
All they knew was that Haqua was Elsi's good friend, and so it was unlikely that she was tied to Keima. But for all they knew, Elsi did encourage and was supportive of Haqua being with Keima, being good friends and all.
Maybe Haqua was a childhood friend of Keima just like Elsi! Just knowing that was enough to make them feel a little more depressed again.
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'So that means that Katsuragi-kun might like smaller chocolates? Maybe dark chocolates? Cookies might work I suppose… or maybe cupcakes… hmm…'
Miyako did catch on to some of the girls' thoughts though, their depression quite obvious to her while Elsi remained painfully oblivious, it must really run in the family. It always was so adorable to see Elsi egging and subsequently depressing and disappointing her friends without even noticing that she had done so.
It was her 'sworn' duty to try and add some excitement into her life, no, it was her 'sworn' duty to help and encourage the girls into getting Katsuragi to even spare them more than a glance.
'Why not just get a bucket of melted chocolate and offering yourself to him then? It would be 'easy' to do so after all.'
Miyako dropped that bombshell on all of them and everyone besides Elsi turned as red as a cherry, even as Chihiro yelped at that idiotic suggestion. Ayumi simply coughed to stifle her own gasp, and Yui actually considering it.
Whatever their reaction was, Miyako just continued on without even caring about the reactions of her friends.
Well maybe she did care, considering how her shoulders shook just a little as she turned away from them to hide the growing smile on her face as she watched some of her friends' mental capacities slow down and finally jerked to a stuttering halt as Miyako finished off with the most predictable and cheesy line ever.
'Like saying "It's all of you! Would you like to have me together with the chocolate?". Something like that would certainly and surely win over any guy!'
'M-Miyako!'
At least it seemed that Chihiro was still able to actually scream in outrage at their scandalous and teasing friend as Ayumi's face was too red to even able her to mount a proper reply.
Yui though, surprised all of them as she rubbed her chin, seemingly accepting of that idea and even seemed emboldened by it.
'Hmm… but wouldn't it need to be warm? Perhaps I could say that I need your love to melt the chocolate around me? No? That's quite embarrassing to say though…'
Yui's self-musing was enough to cause everyone to stare at her in disbelief, she however continued walking on while disregarding the others.
'Yui, Yui… you aren't really considering it, are you?'
Miyako, despite being the one who had suggested it, was the one who was most unnerved by it. Elsi had recovered and was thinking about the idea as well, though it seemed that she didn't seem to mind more than the difficulty of having Keima accepting it.
'Kami-Onii-sama wouldn't want… that right?'
She asked herself uncertainly even as chaos descended upon all of them again
Author's notes: I have many ideas for this, but the issue is whether I'll write them out. Well, see you the next time!