Chapter 1: Finally in Japan!

"Ah! It's about time that we've finally gotten here!" the boy said putting his luggage on the ground.

"Quit complaining Lee, it only took fifteen hours to get here, and not to forget, we had first class on that plane too!" the other boy said with an annoyed look on his face.

"Oh come on Ernesto, you had to be bored on that damn plane some time or another," replied the taller boy, Lee. Lee was 5'11 and had barely tanned skin, brown eyes and averaged length black hair.

"Whatever, let's at least get settled down in this place," stated the shorter boy, Ernesto. Ernesto was five feet even and had tanned skin, brown eyes, and short brown hair.

Lee grunted as he started to carry his luggage into his bedroom. He started to regret bringing so many suitcases of things with him, but then again, he realized that bringing that many belongings for a two year stay in Japan may not have been a terrible idea.

"How are you doing with your luggage Ernesto?" Lee called from his bedroom.

"I'm doing perfectly fine because I didn't decide to bring half of my house with me," replied Ernesto, who was having no trouble whatsoever with any of his luggage.

"Well, don't be running to me crying when you realized that you left something important back in America!" retorted Lee.

"Ha you wish!" answered Ernesto.

The two were quite lucky to even be in Japan. It was only a few months ago when Lee and Ernesto's school mentioned of an exchange program for those interested in going to Japan to study for the last three years of high school. Being a serious otaku and a person with great interest in Japan and Japanese culture, Lee instantly applied. "Hey man, are you interested in that exchange program?" Lee asked Ernesto. "It's interesting, but I don't know if I'm going to apply," responded Ernesto. Lee was surprised. "What do you mean you don't know? It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, so why waste it?" Lee questioned. "I don't know, I just don't feel it," Ernesto simply answered. This type of conversation went on for a while until Ernesto finally caved in to Lee's idea, and Lee, being one of Ernesto's good friends, knew that it would work if he badgered Ernesto enough.

With the program, Lee and Ernesto managed to receive a first class plane ride to Japan. Also included with the program was their little home for the two years. They were fortunate to receive a nice home with a kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms. The house might be little, but it was dainty and comfortable.

"So where are we right now?" Lee asked while sitting down on the couch, finally down with hauling all his possessions to his room.

"Kasukabe in Saitama prefecture," shouted Ernesto from his room as he finally finished moving.

"Ryōō High School is where we're going to go to school right?" Lee said.

"Right, and remember we're going to be the ones showing up after the first trimester," replied Ernesto, who sat down on the couch and opened a soda. The two guys ended up having to come to Japan after their sophomore year in high school. They ended up leaving for Japan around the end of August, which puts them at the start of the second trimester when they actually start attending school in Japan.

"Whew, thank god it's cool here. I swear I was going to die of a heat stroke back in America," Lee sighed with a breath of relief.

"Well, we're going to be on vacation for another week before school starts, and we already got our school uniforms and everything else taken care of, so is there anything you want to do since we got all this free time on our hands?" remarked Ernesto

"Well, I'd like to- Hold up a second, are you asking for my opinion?" replied a rather astonished Lee. Lee knew that one thing for sure about Ernesto was that he never asked anyone for their opinions.

"Yeah, because I have no idea what to do, and it was your idea that we come here anyways," ranted Ernesto with a slight tone of annoyance in his voice.

"Fine, no need to be so harsh about it," muttered Lee. "Well, it is a Saturday, and it is only ten in the morning, so why don't we go to Akihabara? It's got all the things an otaku like you and I could ever want. Plus, I heard there's Comiket going on over there."

"Alright then, we've got all this time to kill anyways," Ernesto responded.

So the two set off and managed to catch the train right before it left. Lee was excited as he watched the outside world through the window. He knew there will be tons of items he wants to buy in Akihabara. He continued to daydream as he checked to his right pocket for his wallet and froze when he felt nothing, only to check and realize he put his wallet in his left pocket. Ernesto sat with a stoic look on his face, but deep down, he was as excited as a child on Christmas morning going to Akihabara. Soon, the train stopped and the two departed the train at their destination. Leaving the train station, Lee was making incredibly excited faces and emitting noises that were not human. Ernesto walked with a normal face, but he was excited too, experiencing the busyness of the city.

"So where to captain?" Lee asked in Japanese. It was beneficial that they managed to learn Japanese earlier in middle school and that they managed to learn as much as they could before coming to Japan.

"I guess Comiket then," replied Ernesto.

The two entered a large building which had a Comiket sign at the entrance. The building was filled with people, from cosplayers to creepy looking guys that appear to have no life at all. The two friends wandered from vendor to vendor looking at all the different goods each one had to offer. There was a variety of items from H*r*h* S*z*m*ya figurines to p*k*m*n collectibles. As for Lee, he went and raided many vendors that had products he desired, which ended up being two large bags. Ernesto walked with just a bit less, including several doujins that he bought with no shame as Lee face palmed. They had finally managed to find a spot that was more devoid of crazy cosplayers and creepy men. The two checked out what the other bought during the event and obsessed over their spoils of victory. Not before long, three other girls sat right by them, to escape the masses of cosplayers and other crazy people. Ernesto couldn't help but glance at who sat by them while Lee still flipped through his bags. One of the girls was even shorter than Ernesto and had long blue hair, an ahoge, and a beauty mark under her left eye. The other two appeared to be related. One had long purple hair tied into two pig tails, and the other had short purple hair with a ribbon on her head. Lee looked over to see what Ernesto was looking at before his eyes opened wide for a second as he saw something in the blue-haired girl's bag that many people would dream to own.

"Is that the limited edition G*k* figure?" Lee meekly asked the blue-haired girl.

"Yes it is. It took me all day to wait in line for it," replied the blue-haired girl with a cat-like look on her face.

Suddenly, the girl with long, purple hair shouted at the blue-haired girl, "What do you mean you waited all day in line for it! I had to stand in that line the whole time while you ran around this whole place! Plus you just had to drag Tsukasa and me to this stupid convention!"

"Now, now onee-chan," the girl with short, purple hair spoke to the girl with long, purple hair.

"Oh, I'm sorry you had to hear all of that, um, what's your name?" the girl with long, purple hair spoke calmly after that outburst.

"Oh, I'm Lee Ai, but please call me Lee. I think my last name is kind of cheesy."

"Well, I'm Kagami Hiiragi," stated the girl with long, purple hair. "And this little kid is Konata Izumi." Kagami pointed to the blue-haired girl.

"Hey! Just because I'm smaller than average doesn't mean you can pick on me!" complained Konata.

"Oh and I'm Tsukasa. I'm Tsukasa Hiiragi," said the girl with short, purple hair.

"So you two are sisters?" said Ernesto, who had been silent the whole time as he listened to the conversation, as he pointed to Kagami and Tsukasa.

"Um, yes!" Tsukasa timidly replied, "And you are?"

"Oh right, me. My name's Ernesto Hernandez, but feel free to call me Ernesto, because I'm pretty sure Hernandez is a bit too long and difficult to pronounce."

"So where are you guys from? You don't look like you come from Japan," Konata mentioned.

"Oh, we're exchange students from America and we're entering Ryōō High School starting the second trimester," Ernesto answered.

"Hey, that's where we go to school," Kagami interjected.

"Awesome! Looks like we'll be able to see you guys at school!" exclaimed Lee.

"Appears so," replied Kagami as she looked at her watch. "It's five already! We need to get going!"

Lee and Ernesto wave goodbye as the three girls run out of the building, yelling their goodbyes as well. The two friends soon decided it was time to go before traffic starts getting messy.

As the two sat on the train, they recollected on what happened that day.

"Man, I'm tired, but we managed to get some stuff we'd never imagine we could get in America with online ordering and shipping," Lee yawned. "Anyways, what did you think about those girls?" he grinned.

"Eh, they're alright," replied Ernesto, who looked like a statue just sitting there.

"Oh really? Nothing special about them? You don't happen to like any of them?" Lee inquired as he winked at and nudged Ernesto twice.

"Nah, and plus, I should be the one asking you the question," Ernesto muttered. "You're the one who used to like every girl you saw."

"Oh shut up. That was back in middle school," Lee complained. It was silent for only a few more seconds until a rumbling was heard. "Man I'm hungry, how about we just go get a burger before we get home? I'm in no mood to cook."

"Sounds good to me," answered Ernesto.

Meanwhile, the three girls were walking back to their homes after getting off the train.

"Ah, we got some great goods from Comiket today," said Konata lazily.

"That's only because you had to drag Tsukasa and me with you," Kagami said angrily.

"Anyways, one-chan, Kona-chan, what do you think about those two guys?" Tsukasa asked quietly.

"They're not bad. They spoke pretty good Japanese for foreigners too," replied Kagami.

"Hm, I like the shorter and quieter one," answered Konata.

"Why so Kona-chan?" Tsukasa questioned.

"He's probably a closet otaku, eheheh," Konata said with a cat-like look.

"How do you know that?" Kagami asked, surprised at Konata's answer.

"It's an otaku thing," winked Konata.

"God, I'll never understand you," muttered Kagami.

"Well, at least we'll be seeing them at school next week," Tsukasa spoke.

"Yeah, we might as well enjoy this last week while we can," agreed Kagami.

Lee and Ernesto went to the nearest fast food place and ordered burgers. As they ate, they thought about what school was going to be like, as Japan's education system is different from America's. But little did the two know, they are in for a crazy roller coaster ride during their stay.

A/N: Done! I hope that wasn't too bad for a first chapter. I had to introduce everything first. I hope this wasn't too bad for the start of my first story here. Read and review, but no flames please. Please go easy on me.