Disclaimer: Azumanga Daioh is the property of Genco and J.C. STAFF, distributed in the U.S. by Sentai Filmworks, and created by Azuma Kyohiko. The character of Ashitaka Nitobe is one of my own creation and is NOT a self-insert. This is being written purely for the reading enjoyment of those Azumanga Daioh fanfiction fans out there. I profit in no way other than knowing my readers have enjoyed my work. Thank you.
Description: As a fan of Azumanga Daioh and a big fan of Sakaki, and being the hopeless romantic that I am, I thought I'd give my favorite character a boyfriend. But it won't be easy going. Sakaki is very reserved and isn't looking for romance. So things will be slow going, and even when things do progress, there will be people and events conspiring against them. I hope you enjoy this as much as I know I'll enjoy writing it.
This story starts at the beginning of their final year of High School and is an AU of that year. Events do not take into account any of the events that took place during the last school year in the anime or manga.
Azumanga Daioh: A Heart to Love (A Sakaki Love Story)
Chapter 1: The New Transfer Student
"Okay class. I've got some exciting news for you," Yukari-sensei said cheerfully. "Not only are you all third year students now, but we all get to welcome a new transfer student to our school and our class." She turned towards the door and waved the young man in. "Come on in, we won't bite," she laughed.
In walked a handsome young man, standing 188 centimeters tall with a lean but muscular frame, sandy-blond hair neatly cut, sparkly blue eyes, and a somewhat sad expression on his face. He walked over and stood next to his new homeroom teacher.
"Everyone, let's all welcome, Ashitaka Nitobe. Ashitaka-kun recently moved here from Morioka, which is in Iwate Prefecture." Yukari gave her new student a big grin. "I bet you're glad to get away from those freezing winter temperatures, huh?" she giggled.
"Hmm, actually, ma'am, I rather enjoy the cold weather," Ashitaka replied in a hushed voice.
"What!" Yukari screamed. "Are you crazy?"
"Huh?" The startled boy's eyes went wide in shock as he took a half step back from his teacher.
"No one likes freezing temperatures!" she insisted. "Unless," she looked him over from head to toe, "you enjoy snuggling up close under a warm blanket with your oh so cute yet worldly, older girlfriend." She batted her eyes at the handsome, tall teen.
"Huh?" Nervous sweat began to trickle down the boy's forehead. "May I have my seat assignment now, ma'am?" he asked, taking yet another half step away from the drooling teacher.
Yukari laughed loudly and said, "Silly boy. Don't you know when you're being teased? Now introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself."
"Umm…" Ashitaka hesitated.
"Go on, go on. We don't have all day." Yukari said with a big grin on her face.
Ashitaka turned towards the class and said, "Hello, my name is Ashitaka Nitobe. I'm seventeen and I was attending Morioka First High School before transferring here."
"Very good, Ashitaka-kun." Yukari said. "Now, where will you sit? Yes, right there, the seat in front of Sakaki-san. You can sit there. Though having the new transfer student sitting next to the window is rather cliché, isn't it? Don't get a big head now and start thinking you're the protagonist of this class's little high school drama." She laughed again.
Ashitaka's eyes grew even larger along with everyone else's eyes in the classroom. He slowly nodded, and then headed down the aisle closest to the window. As he walked, all eyes were upon him. The boys marveled at his size, the girls at his handsome good looks. Everyone was in awe of the new transfer student; everyone, except one girl who was staring out the window and hadn't even noticed his arrival.
"Ah, excuse me, Miss… excuse me." He attempted to get Sakaki's attention.
Sakaki, with the placid expression, slowly turned towards the source of the request. Her hypnotic dark eyes grew large in surprise. Softly, she asked, "Yes?"
"Are you Sakaki-san, or is she?" He pointed behind her. Gradually turning around in her chair, the long-haired girl noticed for the first time that not only was the seat in front of her vacant, but the seat behind her was as well. In the following seat sat a girl whose name eluded her at the moment, whom she noticed was staring dreamy eyed at the boy in front of her. Turning back she replied, "Yes, I'm Sakaki. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, Yukari-sensei told me to sit in front of Sakaki-san." He looked down at the chair. "I guess this is my seat then." He offered her a weak smile then bowed and sat down.
Sakaki stared at his back a moment longer, and then pondered; I wonder when he joined our class? I wonder, what is his name? With class starting, she turned her attention to her teacher.
"Okay, class." Yukari addressed her. "Like I said earlier, you are all third years now so that means entrance exams. You all need to crack down on your studies if you hope to get into college. Of course, for some of you, it won't matter." She stared pointedly at Tomo.
.
During lunch, Sakaki sat quietly at her desk and ate the meal her mother prepared for her. Glancing about the room, she noticed that there were fewer students still in the room than usual. "I wonder where everyone's gone off to?" she whispered to herself, and then went back to eating her lunch.
In the cafeteria, Ashitaka jockeyed for position in hopes of getting something to eat. Never one to take advantage of his size or strength, and always raised to be respectful of the opposite sex, he allowed several girls to cut in front of him, but he felt as if he had gone too far when one girl, whom he thought he recognized from his class, shot in front of him, offered him a big grin, then whispered under her breath, "Sucker." He felt like a real sucker when the girl purchased the last four pork cutlet sandwiches. The only thing left were tuna sandwiches and melon sandwiches. Ashitaka whispered softly to himself, "A melon sandwich sure would taste better, but I need the protein to get me through the afternoon." "What will it be?" The cafeteria lady asked. "Tuna sandwich please." He said grudgingly. Returning to the classroom, he walked over to his seat and stole a glance at the girl who sat behind him. She was nearly done with her lunch and was casually flipping through a magazine.
"Hmmm…" He gave a slight grin.
Looking up, Sakaki gave him a questioning stare.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to disturb you."
"You didn't disturb me," she assured him.
A faint smile appeared across his face. "So you like mountain bikes?" He turned his gaze to the magazine she was flipping through.
"No, not really," she followed his gaze to the magazine. "It was just something to look at while I ate my lunch," she replied, flipping a few more pages until she came to a page with an ad that included a picture of three small kittens huddled together, sleeping. Instantly, Sakaki's eyes went soft as she ran a trembling hand over the picture.
"They're really cute," Ashitaka whispered.
Sakaki just nodded, not taking her eyes off the picture.
"Well, sorry again," Ashitaka said, then sat down and began opening the bag his sandwich was in.
Sakaki looked up at the boy.
Only one sandwich?Looking him up and down, she reflected; He's awfully big to be eating just one sandwich for lunch.
She looked down at her own food. She had finished most of it already, but three dumplings remained untouched. I wonder if he would like to have the rest of my lunch. I'm not hungry any more. I should ask him.
Just as she had decided and was about to stand up and ask Ashitaka, a group of boys came into the room and made a beeline straight to the new transfer student's desk.
"Hi! You must be Ashitaka Nitobe-san? I'm Tojero Mifune from class 2-3 and captain of the basketball team," said the first boy.
"I'm Keiichi Sanada from class 2-4 and captain of the baseball team," said the second boy.
"And I'm Senotsuke Torogawa, from class 3-4 and captain of the swim team," said the third boy.
Ashitaka just nodded, stealing a glance at his still uneaten sandwich.
"We just wanted to welcome you to our school." Tojero said.
"And extend an invitation to you to come and join our team," Keiichi added.
"Our teams," the other two corrected.
"Rumor has it you're quite the athlete." Senotsuke grinned.
"Rumor?" Ashitaka raised a curious eyebrow.
"Our school counselor is a big supporter of our athletic programs," they said in unison, then looked at each other with sarcastic disgust.
"Anyway, he just casually mentioned that you made your old school's varsity swim team, baseball team, and volleyball team all in your first year of high school," said Tojero. "Pretty impressive."
"Very impressive…" said Senotsuke.
"So what do you say?" said Keiichi.
"What do I say about what?" Ashitaka replied.
The three boys laughed. "What do you say about joining our teams?" Tojero asked.
"Yeah, we could really use someone like you," injected Keiichi.
"Yeah," added Senotsuke.
Looking from one boy to the next, Ashitaka quietly replied, "Someone like me?"
"Right, someone just like you." Keiichi repeated.
Looking down at his still uneaten sandwich, Ashitaka began to unwrap it before answering. "I'm afraid I'm not the person you think I am. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to be able to finish my lunch before class starts."
The three boys gave each other a surprised look, then got up and left, none too happy.
The new transfer student sighed, then went about eating his sandwich. Yuck… I hate tuna.
Sakaki had long since put her lunch away, having left the room to wash her hands.
The rest of the school day went by rather uneventfully, with the exception of the extra attention Yukari seemed to be paying the new student, having called on him five times during the afternoon session.
Following her normal routine, Sakaki gathered up her belongings and made her way out of the classroom. With no extracurricular activities to occupy her afternoon, she made her way out of the school.
"Hey, Sakaki-san!" she heard yelled out from behind her. Turning, she saw Kagura, Tomo, and Yomi running towards her.
"What's up, guys?" she asked placidly.
"Come on, don't hold out on us!" Tomo yelled, jumping up in her face.
While the taller girl held her ground, she arched her back to provide a little distance between herself and her over excited classmate. "Hold out?" Confusion etched itself across her brow.
"She means, Ashitaka-san. What's he like?" Yomi elaborated as she grabbed Tomo by the collar and pulled her back a step.
"Ashitaka-san?" Her confusion was multiplied. "I don't know anyone named Ashitaka-san," she explained.
"Sure you do, the new boy that just transferred in today. Weren't you paying attention, Sakaki-san?" Kagura replied.
Sakaki's cheeks burned red in embarrassment as she recalled what had captured her attention early that morning in class. The sight of two kittens playing in the tree just outside the classroom window was too much for her not to be captivated. Though the branch was narrow, they played with such confidence, unconcerned that any misstep could send them 8 meters to the hard ground below. They were so cute, so adorable, that Sakaki even failed to rise and bow when Yukari came into the room. And she certainly was not paying any attention when the new transfer student was introduced. "Oh, him," she said sheepishly.
"So, what's he like?" Yomi asked, struggling to contain her excitement.
"Well…"Sakaki considered the question for a moment before replying."He's tall."
The three other girls looked at each other in disbelief.
"Well, duh! No kidding, he's tall," Kagura snapped back.
"Hellooo! Earth to Sakaki!" Tomo added.
"No kidding, Sakaki-san, that's the sort of reply I would've expected from Osaka-chan, not you," concluded Yomi.
The tall girl stared blankly at her friends for a moment, considering how to reply. They stared back, expecting her to say something, anything. Instead, she just turned and started walking home. Again the three girls exchanged looks of confusion and disbelief. By the time they recovered, Sakaki was well over a block away.
"Damn!" Kagura shouted. Checking her watch, she hissed. "Shit, I got to go or I'll be late for swimming practice." She turned and went back into the school.
"You think Sakaki-san was holding out on us?" Tomo asked Yomi.
"She must be," Yomi acknowledged, "Sakaki-san never acts that spacey." Checking her watch, she sighed. "I've got to go too. See you tomorrow, Tomo-chan."
Sakaki walked at a brisk pace, hoping to reach the brick wall where the gray cat often lay at this time of day. But as she approached the wall, she could already tell he was not there. Looking about, she tried to see if anyone had walked past that street recently.
"Who could have chased him off?" Looking straight ahead, she saw a rather tall boy facing the same direction she was heading. She whispered to herself, "He's from my school. Did he chase the cat away?"
She began walking purposefully towards him, quickly closing the gap between them. As she drew close, she realized there was something faintly familiar about this boy. The broad shoulders, the narrow waist, the neatly trimmed sandy-blonde hair and the height. It must be…
Just then, Ashitaka went down on one knee and from his hands sprang the gray cat, casually walking away, though taking a moment to look back at him and smiling, before running off. He stood back up and walked away, totally unaware of Sakaki who stood about two meters behind him, now in tears.
To be continued…
AN (2016): So, I recently re-read this story and thought, I really need to finish this story. But before continuing it, I thought I'd go back and correct the obvious errors I observed while I was reading it. I was going to delete my original author's notes but after reading them I decided to keep them. They add some insight into what I was thinking at the time I was writing this story and about some of the research that took place which helped define the character of Ashitaka.
AN: Well, I hope you liked my introductory chapter to my newest fanfic. I haven't seen all of AD yet, but I hope to soon. But what I have seen I've loved. I especially love Sakaki. She's so cool and so misunderstood by her friends. This story is about when kindred spirits meet; I hope I can make it interesting for you. If you are wondering, Ashitaka is not a SI. While I do use the name Ashitaka as a handle and username from time to time, it is in no way me. I chose the name very carefully. His given name, Ashitaka, holds two significant meanings. One, it was the name of the hero in Miyazaki's masterpiece, Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke), a young man of great character and courage. And two, Mt. Ashitaka is the second tallest mountain in Japan, about half the height of Mt. Fuji. Our hero's surname comes from Dr. Inazo Nitobe from city of Morioka in the Iwate Prefecture. Dr. Nitobe was a university professor who lived from 1862 to 1933, and was a strong advocate for the internationalism of Japan. Through his efforts, the city of Morioka now has several sister cities around the world, the most prominent being Victoria, British Columbia. I am having Ashitaka be a descendant of Dr. Nitobe. The reason for that will become clear in later chapters.
While this story is a romance and a drama, I hope to try and incorporate some of the humor from the anime into it as well. Nothing side-splitting, but enough to bring a smile to your face. I hope I succeeded in that once or twice with this chapter. Please let me know what you think, I'd really like to know.
A. Amishi