Hisashiburi! Every-nyaan! Sorry I've taken so long to update. I know I have another fanfiction unfinished, but I don't know how to continue it, so I'm just going to write random drabbles in the mean time.
Inspiration: My own thoughts and curiosity.
Notes: Foreign words are in italics.
Disclaimer: All of the characters used belong to Kiyohiko Azuma-sama, not me.
Please enjoy this fanfiction.
Drabbles
Chapter
1: Bonkuraazu Study Session
The time was nearing. Seconds slipped away, melting into minutes, hours, though they were unnoticed by the three teenaged girls crowding around a desk. These three girls, known amongst their friends as the 'Bonkuraazu', were doing something one wouldn't expect from a group of such a name; studying. The reason being that there would soon be an English test.
"Nee…" Osaka said slowly, tearing her eyes away from her textbook to gaze at her companions. "A duckling is a baby duck, right?"
Tomo and Kagura nodded simultaneously, murmuring what sounded like "Mm, mm" as they did so.
"…And… a gosling is a baby goose, right?" Osaka didn't wait for the reply on that one, itching to ask what she needed to ask. "That would make a ceiling a baby sea, wouldn't it?"
There was a brief pause, before Kagura spoke up. "That makes sense…"
"So… would that be a river? Or would it be a puddle?"
Tomo pondered the matter for a moment, and then grinned. "It's a puddle, of course. A puddle's a baby, a lake is a toddler, a river is a child, the ocean is a teenager, and the sea is an adult."
"Ah, but… but isn't rain the adult? Because adults make babies, right? Rain makes puddles."
"You're right… maybe the sea is an old geezer."
"Hey… we're supposed to be studying English," Kagura said. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to fail another test."
"Um…" a new, high-pitched voice said. It was none other than Chiyo, who had heard the entire conversation. She had wanted to correct them earlier, but she didn't want to interrupt them. She waited until she had their attention before speaking again. "A ceiling isn't a baby sea, it's a ceiling," she pointed upwards.
"Ooh…" the 'Bonkuraazu' nodded in understanding.
"Ah… about ceilings…" Osaka said suddenly. "Do they exist?"
"Of course they do," Kagura replied, raising an eyebrow. "What made you think that they…"
"No! They can't do! That, or the floor doesn't exist. Which is it?"
There was a long, awkward silence.
"W… what do you mean, Osaka-san?" Chiyo asked, though she wasn't sure that she wanted to know what was going on in her friend's mind.
"In a two-story building, the only thing separating the stories is either the floor or the ceiling." She frowned, struggling to find a better way to phrase her query. "I mean… when you look up, are you looking at the ceiling or the underside of the floor? And when you're looking down, are you looking at the floor or the top of the ceiling? I don't get it! One of them doesn't exist!"
There was another long, awkward silence. Even Chiyo was stumped on how to answer that question.
Fortunately, the whole conversation blew over, and the three continued studying. Chiyo had left them to work on her own studies, since they didn't seem to need any help.
"Why do we learn English?" Osaka asked, not long after they started studying again.
"Dunno," Tomo said. She didn't mind the disruptions, since it gave an excuse to not study. Kagura, however, tried her best to ignore it and figure out what 'ridicule' meant on her own.
"If we learn English, why don't we learn all the other languages?"
"Maybe because mostly English foreigners come here," Tomo said. "I think we should learn Tomoglish."
"Tomoglish?" poor Kagura couldn't concentrate on her studies, and so felt that the only thing she could do was join her fellow 'Bonkuraazu'.
"Yeah, my language!" Tomo smiled smugly. "I bet you guys don't have a special language of your own, so I'll teach you mine…"
"No, no, Tomo-chan! That's no good!" Osaka waved her hand vigorously. "There's only one of you, so learning your language would be no good. I think we should learn cat language, since there's lots of cats in the neighbourhood."
"But… that's…" Kagura started, but her voice trailed off.
Sakaki, who happened to walk past as Osaka made her last statement, froze. Cat language… If she knew their language… would the cats be more willing to accept her? A blush swept across her face as she nodded and walked away briskly.
"Speaking of languages…" Osaka continued, staring vacantly into nothingness.
"Not again, Osaka… we should be studying…" Kagura sighed, exasperated. There was no way she could focus with the air-head's constant randomness, and Tomo was just going to encourage her.
"Why is there a language for signs, but no language for fenceposts? They might get jealous…"
"I thought sign language was for those who can't hear, not for signs," Kagura said, trying to fight a battle she knew wouldn't cease.
"I know signs can't hear!" Osaka proclaimed, pounding her fist, rather weakly, on the desk. "They only understand sign language, that's why we can't hear them, either! But what about fenceposts? What language do they use?"
"Maybe they do, but we don't know about it," Tomo suggested, leaning back on her chair. "Because we can't hear it."
"Then how do we know about sign language?"
"Signs are Okoyominosata and gagatsuyomi, so they show their language off to everyone."
"What?" Kagura asked with raised eyebrows.
"Oh, that's Tomoglish!" Tomo said proudly. "Okoyominosata means stupid and gagatsuyomi means egoistic."
"Isn't that just incorporating Yomi's name into the words? That's mean."
"No!" Tomo placed a hand to her chest, offended. "They're Tomoglish words!"
"But aren't you showing off your language now? That makes you stupid and egoistic!"
"What!"
Osaka sighed and shook her head – those fenceposts were going to be jealous for sure, being left behind the scenes. And what about lamp-posts, and kotatsus? Her eyes suddenly became heavily, most likely due to all of the 'studying' she had been doing. The last thing she heard was Kagura's yell of "You Bonkura!" before drifting off.
At the end of the day, Yomi, who was on day duty, walked into the library. She picked up the suggestions box and tipped it upside down, grabbing the paper that fell from it. She glanced at it, and her eyebrow rose. She wasn't sure what to make of it.
"Lessons on cat language?" she asked aloud.
A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it. Sorry it's not very good, I can't seem to word things correctly, having writer's block.
Oh, Tomo's 'Tomoglish' aren't exactly original (I thought that would work, since Tomo isn't very creative with names). Okoyominosata is a play on Okonosata, which means 'foolish'. Likewise, Gagatsuyomi is a play on the Japanese word for 'egoistic', Gagatsuyoi.
Preview
Chiyo: I
miss my friends from Elementary School… Do you have somebody you
knew from when you were my age, Sakaki-san?
Sakaki:
No…
Kagura: Me
neither. I don't think any of us has, since Osaka came from Osaka…
Osaka:
Actually, I was in Kobe at Chiyo-chan's age.
Tomo:
Aren't you forgetting someone? I've known Yomi since Elementary
School!
Chiyo: How
did you become such good friends with Yomi-san, Tomo-chan?
Tomo:
Remember the 'Mouldy Bread' incident I told you about? I saved
her back then, and she has worshipped me ever since!
Yomi:
That's not what happened!
Osaka: So,
the 'Mouldy Bread' incident IS true…
Yomi: NO!
Next time:
The Start of a Beautiful Friendship. Please look forward to it!
