Akari lay on her futon, her eyes tightly shut, with little light attempting to seep through her eyelids. She sighed and pulled the covers up to her neck, nuzzling against them slightly, before rolling onto her side. She thought it would be a good idea to go to the hot springs with the Amusement Club, but now she was starting to garner some doubts about her decision. She had never felt particularly lonely when she was with her friends, despite how much Kyoko-chan and the others made fun of her apparent, 'lack of presence.' No matter how upset it made her feel, she couldn't get angry at her friends.
Could she?
Akari gripped the top of her sheet with an iron grip, as if she was squeezing the life out of it. When she finally let go, she exhaled loudly.
"My face..feels different. "Akari thought.
She ran her hand down the side of her cheek, following a faint trail of liquid with the tip of her finger. The trail stopped, and Akari cast her sight down onto her pillow. There, lay a few solitary tears. She had cried out of frustration.
"I can't be that angry at them…can I? " Akari thought once more, now quivering at the thought of being hostile towards those who she cared so dearly for.
Akari bit her lip, and she brought her now pale hands to her eyes, clasping them and restricting them from sight. She began to tremble, and then the tears began to flow.
"If I don't want Kyoko-chan and Yui-chan, and even… Chinatsu-chan to make fun of me, I need to…I…I need to change! Yes! That's it! Change! "
Akari's tears stopped as she had what seemed to be a eureka moment, or as close as Akari could come to one. If she wanted to escape the constant talk of her small presence, she had to do something about it.
"No! The time for accepting this is over! No more jokes or mocking, I'm going to show them all just how big my presence really is! "Akari announced in her mind triumphantly, lest there be anyone around to see her sudden revelation.
Akari slipped under her futon covers once more with a sizeable grin on her face, happy that she now had something to commit herself to. The only problem was..
"How..." Akari muttered under her breath, twiddling her thumbs next to her chin. She thought back to what the Amusement Club had told her to do earlier that year to make a larger presence. Akari immediately remembered the ludicrous idea of what Kyoko-chan had coined, 'Boob Missiles', so she gave up that venture. She eventually settled on the most logical approach. She decided it would take time, enough so that the group wouldn't feel strange about Akari's sudden change of mind or her way of acting around people, and not too long that Akari would always remain in the back, out of the spotlight. Not that she neededthe spotlight, but sometimes she felt it was necessary to feel it's warmth on her, to remind her that people do care about her.
For the last time that night, Akari shut her eyes, this time in a significantly better mood than before. Her last thoughts before she drifted off to the land of Nod were of her childhood, where her friends had felt she did possess a presence. Akari reminisced on these times for several more moments, before finally swearing that she would see their revival, and falling abruptly to sleep.
Author's Note: I'm still unsure as to if this short 'prologue' of sorts is actually any good. Any feedback would be appreciated, be it harsh criticism or outright hatred, I'll take it into account as I'm sure their are half a dozen ways I could improve this opening already. Also, I'm not too sure if people still watch Yuru Yuri, because I had only heard of it a few weeks prior, so I don't know if this will be popular, so to speak. If not, I don't suppose it will hurt to continue uploading stuff for my amusement, but hopefully, for yours (Yes, I'm looking at you, potential fans.) too.