This story is based on a webcomic which doesn't belong to me, rather to the awesome and busy Akira Hasegawa. It takes place in my hometown (which is actually where the original takes place as well), and I am more than happy to share some of my childhood memories with all of you (the events are not real, but the amusement park in all its descriptions is). I truly hope that I am able to portray Akira-sensei's characters in the way he intended.

PS. If you would like to gain some extra background on the characters, you can check out tsunamichannel dot com. The comic is there, although the most recent updates have been some interesting java applets

PPS. dialogue uses double quotes, thoughts use single quotes, side notes from me are in square brackets, and if I mean to use Japanese anywhere, it will be the English meaning inside curly brackets.

PPPS. "Player", "Onii-chan", and "My Brother" are all the same person. Everyone else goes by only one name.

Okay, enough of me talking, on to the story!

Chapter 1: Surprise!

Laika looked up from her computer. "Hey, guess what?"

'Sigh I was so close.' She and the Player had been beta-testing the program the Professor had asked them to write, to make sure they hadn't missed any bugs. "What is it, Laika," he asked.

"The other day, Professor told me he bought us Ride-All-Day passes to Kennywood, in appreciation for the work we've done."

"That's cool, I guess... What day are we going?"

"That's the funny thing – he didn't say..."

"Oh." The Player tried to turn back to what he had been doing, but he found he couldn't concentrate anymore. "I'm gonna go get a bottle of pop out of the machine, do you want anything?"

"No, I'm fine..."

A couple days later, there was a knock at the front door of Player's house right as he was about to head over to the lab. "Professor! I wasn't expecting to see you here, especially so early in the morning..."

"Didn't Laika tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Then, it suddenly dawned on him. "Oh! Is this about the trip to Kennywood?"

Kotone chose that precise moment to walk into the room. "Hi Professor! Hi Tsunami! What's up?"

"He came to take me and Laika to Kennywood for the day," Player replied.

"Kennywood? Can I come too, Onii-chan?"

"I... uh..."

Professor pulled out a handful of red-and-yellow tickets from some indeterminable location on his person. "Of course you can come, Kotone. Where is everyone else?"

Player shrugged. 'Professor must be feeling particularly generous today.'

"Oh, I'll go get them!" Kotone disappeared as quickly as she had entered, but the three left in the living room could hear her loud and clear as she ran down the hall sharing her wonderful news.

"I rented a van, so that we could all go together," Professor explained when everyone in the house was ready to go.

"Konstantin!"

He wasn't fast enough to step out of the way of the young, energetic cat-girl. She tackled him, and it took every effort for him to separate himself from her.

Professor's attention was totally absorbed by this newcomer, so he somehow managed to miss it when the girl's younger sister (who happened to be a fox-girl) walked up to the group. "So, did you figure out why they're all just standing around out here, Anya," she asked.

The older sister shook her head.

"Professor takes us to Kennywood, Lisa-san," Haruna tried to explain.

"It's, Professor is taking us to Kennywood, but that was a very good try!" Player was still in the process of teaching Haruna English, while she taught him Japanese.

"Would you like to come with us? The more, the merrier," Professor offered, while the rest (except for Anya and Lisa) displayed monstrous sweat-drops. Tsunami even threatened to pull out her mallet.

They then got in the van – Professor drove, with Tsunami in the passenger seat, Konstantin and Anya behind them, and Laika and Lisa behind them. In the back seat sat Player, Kotone, and Haruna.

"...Professor? I can't seem to shake the feeling that we forgot someone. Why did we buy ten tickets, when there are only nine of us in the van," Tsunami queried.

Kotone looked around. 'Hmmm... There's Professor, Tsunami-san, Lisa-san, Laika-san, Konstantin-san, Anya-chan, Haruna-san, Onii-chan, and me... oh, I know!' She yelled so that her voice would carry up to the front: "We forgot Alex! We have to turn around so we can go get him!"

Professor turned to Tsunami. "Who's Alex?"

"Probably a friend from school, or something. Maybe we should go back, it'd be a shame to waste the ticket..."

When they picked him up, he sat in the back next to Kotone. Then, they were off to the amusement park.

Professor's next set of instructions came just after they got inside the gate. He looked at his watch. "Okay, right now it's eleven o'clock."

"And in five minutes, it will be 11:05." Player's face reddened as soon as the words escaped his lips. "Heh, sorry... It's a camp thing," he explained.

"I didn't know you went to camp," Kotone pointed out.

Professor cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm sure you guys can handle yourselves, and don't really want me hanging around, so let's meet by the carousel at 12:30, and we'll figure out what to do about lunch."

"So... I guess the best way to split up would be based on what rides everyone wants to go on," Laika suggested.

"Let's stay everyone together..."

"That's a good idea, Haruna," Konstantin exclaimed. 'That way, we can keep a closer eye on My Brother, in case his LSS surfaces (which is very likely to happen).'

"Let's start at that one over there." Lisa pointed to a building that was painted blue on the outside, with a water wheel, and broken (fake) windows. The group could tell that it looked like a haunted house, except that between the line to get in and the building itself, was a stream with boats in it.

"The Old Mill? It looks scary." Kotone made a face, and Alex gave her a comforting hug.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," he said.

As they walked toward the Old Mill, no one noticed the steam rising from Player's head.

"Would you protect me," Haruna asked innocently while Player's blush deepened.

"Professor picked a good day to come to the amusement park," Lisa pointed out. The longest they would probably have to wait in any of the lines was likely to be about ten minutes.

Player had his head turned, in a conversation with Haruna, so he didn't see the girl he bumped into on the way to the Old Mill A/N: btw, I'm taking longer to describe it than it takes to get there from the entrance. He helped her pick up the things she was carrying and made sure she was alright.

Laika was so angry, her eyes and hair were starting to change color a little bit. "It's already starting," she mumbled to Haruna and Konstantin.

"What do we do about it?"

"I will help My Brother's Love Sim Syndrome LSS by distracting the girl." 'Sigh Why is he always getting the girls?' Konstantin asked himself the eternal question, even though he already knew the answer. The two of them played a lot of love sim games. Somehow, this crept its way into real life, but only for Player, not for him.

"Come on everyone, meow! The line is moving," Anya called out. She, Lisa, Kotone, and Alex had already made it to the building the ride was housed in.

End Chapter 1

A/N: I feel like there's a lot of things I should be explaining, but hopefully they will be able to come up later. The most important thing right now is the reason behind one of the character's names. In the webcomic, Akira-sensei never gives "Player" 's real name. Kotone calls him "Onii-chan", and Konstantin calls him "My Brother". Nobody else really calls him by any name.

Also, some of the rides have been changed relatively recently from the way I will be describing them. My wish is to leave them largely intact from the time between five and ten years ago.

Wow, I talk too much. Anyway...

Next time: roller coasters, the carousel, and food!