Sacrifice
Sacrifice. Sometimes, that's all it takes for things to start changing. For Konata, the blue haired, pint-sized otaku, it was the sacrifice of someone else that made her begin to change. The sacrifice of her friend, Kagami.
"Come on! You're the one who wanted to go to this in the first place, shorty! Get the lead out!" The twin pigtailed girl cried, from the end of the long, LONG line of people. She had an aggravated look on her face, the source of which was the girl whom she had referred to as shorty, Izumi Konata. The girl was walking slowly, and had an expression on her face that, to Kagami, looked almost identical to the : 3 ASCII face.
"You're already in the line…that means I can take my time…it's cold." The girl whinged, as she shook in her coat. She wasn't a fan of any situation that had extremes of temperature, but this was one exception she was willing to make. Even so, she wouldn't do it without a whinge. However, she didn't have the heart to keep it up for long. Her friends were all here, they were all cold, and they were all doing this because she had asked them to.
Even as she thought that, the other half of the quartet arrived. Tsukasa Hiiragi, Kagamis younger (by a few seconds) sister, who was incredibly spacey, as bad as Konata at schoolwork, and, generally, an average person. Not that Konata minded, the girl was fun to be around, even if she had a blank expression on her face whenever she didn't understand, which was most of the time.
"Heya, Kona-chan!" She squeaked from within the confines of her own coat.
The final member was, as always, spacing out, even beyond Tsukasas standards. She was walking down the street, staring upwards at the stars in the sky. The trio of girls stared at the girl, before glancing at each other. In unison, they all bellowed "MIYUKII!!!" The girl jumped suddenly, and turned to face the three girls.
"Ara, ara. Sorry, I was watching the stars…" She muttered, as she rejoined the group. The girls arranged themselves into a line orderly, Tsukasa, Kagami, Konata and then Miyuki. They stood for a while before Kagami turned and asked why they were queuing up. Tsukasa was also curious as to why they were in the queue, and she asked Miyuki, who also had no idea. Konata merely said, "now, now…" and grinned her mischievous little grin.
The queuing time passed slowly, and with relative discomfort. It was like a queue anywhere, cold, boring, slow, but, with friends around, it was bearable. The four girls passed the time by discussing things. Anything that popped into their heads could become a conversation starter, or, even, a conversation derailer. Hours passed until the time came for the girls to be at the front.
"And there you have it…" Kagami said, as she stared at an incredibly disheartened Konata, who was staring at the 'lose' counter in her right hand. Konata turned to the girl with teary eyes, but got no solace from the brash girl. "Tough luck, I got a loss too."
"Um…"
The girls both turned to Miyuki, who had just uttered the noise. She was holding her counter up for everyone to see. "I drew a winning ticket."
"Me too!" Tsukasa piped in, an angelic look on her face, one full of pride and happiness.
"MY TRUE FRIENDS!!!" Konata squealed happily, clasping onto the hands of both the winning girls, and gazing at them lovingly, leaving Kagami to whinge "Hey, what about me?" forlornly.
As it turned out, the queue, and the tickets, had all been about getting access to a concert, one that Konata was desperate to go and see. She had been psyching herself up for weeks in preparation, but, as always, fate plays its cards at the worst times, and, when she finally got to her seat, she found that a rather tall, rather large man was in the seat directly in front of her. Try as she might, she couldn't see past the behemoth of a man. Suddenly, she felt firm hands on her shoulders, and felt herself moving to her left suddenly.
"Here" Kagami said, smiling softly, switching places with the short girl, leaving her to stare up at the stage, blushing slightly. K..Kagami...why did she do that for me? I thought that she didn't like me… Konata thought, as she continued to stare up at the crimson haired lead singer, strumming at her guitar. The rest of the concert passed in a blur for the blue haired girl. She couldn't stop thinking of her purple haired friends' gesture, the simplest of things that had shaken her to her very core. She was still thinking about it when the group of girls were walking back to their respective houses.
"That was so incredible!" Tsukasa squealed, still on a buzz from the concert. "It was so moving1 I really liked the guy who came out first!"
"Eh? That guy?" Kagami muttered as she looked across at her sister with judging eyes.
"Huh?"
"People actually go for that, then, huh?" She mused, before a realization hit all of the girls. Konata was walking along, her head tipped forwards, in complete silence. Normally after events like this, it took all three of them to shut her up.
"Konata, you haven't said a word…" Kagami said, and it was her voice, hers alone, saying her name, that was the thing that shook the short girl from her daze. The shorthaired girl could only mumble, though, so lost in her thoughts that she was. She was going over everything she had done in the past, everything she had said, trying to find something, anything that would make the purple haired girl do something like she had just done for her, but all she was coming up with was nasty. Nasty words, nasty actions, she had been really, really mean to Kagami over the last few years.
"Guess it's the whole fatigue setting in after an event has ended, huh? I gotta admit, I was moved by the concert too."
"Mmh." The girl mumbled. I wonder what this feeling is…could it be regret? Or…Sorrow?
The girls approached the train station that was their dividing point, and said their goodbyes. Tsukasa and Miyuki began to pad down the steps to their station, with Kagami lagging behind. Konata watched the girl walking away, fighting a battle within herself. If you don't say this now, she'll not be in the right mood, and neither will you by the time tomorrow comes. TELL HER NOW!
"Wait, Kagami!" Konata said, suddenly, moving forwards. The girl halted, and turned back to face her friend. "Yes?" The blue haired girl began to squirm about, she hadn't actually though about how she was going to say what she wanted to. It wasn't something she normally had to do.
"Uno…" She mumbled, trying to figure out a good speech, but her mind had shut down, thanks to the fatigue of the concert.
"Kona-chan, what is it, my train's nearly here."
"Uh……I…Uh…" She muttered, playing at the zipped of her coat with her fingers, staring down at the ground. She could feel her cheeks begin to heat up, feel her heart beating a little faster.
"Kona-chan, I have to go."
"THANK YOU!" Konata yelled suddenly. She felt herself suddenly wanting to be smaller, so small she couldn't be seen or heard by anyone. But no, she remained the same size, and she had definitely been heard by all three of the other girls. Kagami baulked, and then smiled softly.
"Hee. This is about switching places, isn't it? It was no problem; I know how badly you wanted to see the concert, so I let you stand in my spot. It was no biggy."
"A..also…I...I'm sorry." Konata mumbled, her voice barely higher than a whisper. She was shaking, yet she had no idea why. She felt nervous, and her stomach was giving her grief. She didn't even wait for the girl to speak before dashing down the stairs behind her, and leaping onto her train. She then dashed down the aisle, hoping to get away from the possibly chasing girl. Eventually she sat down in a chair, gasping for breath.
Damn….why…why did I do that? I need to talk to Cousin Yui about this; I have no idea what's going on me. I could…I could even...ask...Kuroi-sensei…