Tamura Hiyori, 16, first year at Ryoo High School. In a short time period, I have become the school's idol and role model. Blessed with unique talents, overflowing youth, incomparable intelligence, and outrageously good looks, all boys, as well as girls, have fallen for me and admire me greatly. Senpais are burning with jealousy and envy, they strive to become like me. Heck, I even got stalkers following me around! But then…Gasp! A vat of toxic waste that came out of nowhere falls upon me and I become Magical Lyrical Girl Hiyori! I now Battle evil mystical creatures from the underworld with my newly gained magical powers while keeping my identity hidden from everyone, including my fan club, back at school.
My life story is so great, isn't it? Too bad it isn't real…I am just your average high school girl attending an ordinary high school with normal students. But oh, how I wish my life really was something of that nature—cool and overwhelmingly exciting!
Ever since I was a kid, or for as long as I can remember, I had been fascinated by Anime, Manga, or anything of that sort. That's when I came across doujinshi—something that would change my life as I had known it. My father thought I had reached the age where I was old enough to attend a Comiket event all by myself(that is, without my brother), so he let me go without hesitation. It was a fateful meeting—that's how I like to recall the event—I met Maki Murakami, creator of the popular Manga and Anime "Gravitation." I was overcome by joy, something all too difficult to explain to non-otakus. I stood in line for over an hour so that I could get my hands on her new released doujinshi. Yes, she was a doujin artist. I finally reached the table where she was oh-so-gloriously sitting at. That was when that terrible sign which contained the most dreaded words in otaku history appeared right in front of my eyes: "SOLD OUT."
I'm not what you'd call the most fortunate person in the world, in fact, my luck sucks. I was shocked. More than shocked, I had died a little on the inside. Maki-Sama quickly picked up the disappointment displayed upon my face and said, very kindly said, "You must not let your spirits down, little girl. I promise you that there will be more next year. While you're in the wait, why don't you give drawing doujinshi a try, no?"
I will never forget those words in my lifetime. I tried following Maki-Sama's advice and started to draw a few doujinshi of my own. At first, they weren't exactly masterpieces or the best works of art you'd ever seen, but as time passed and I became older, I also started to improve in my drawing skills. After long hours of reading "How to Draw for Dummies," I finally got the hang of it and everything else just came to me naturally. One Saturday afternoon, there was nothing interesting to watch on TV so I just clicked away on the control remote and flipped through the channels until something caught my eye—two girls. At first I had thought they were just close friends but it became more than that, way more than that. It was something new to me, I felt excited through each passing second. It was just too good. That was when I started to draw Yuri and Yaoi doujinshi.
I went back to Comiket the following year, and the year after that, and all the other years that followed up until now. Maki-Sama still sells her Gravitation doujinshi even after the Anime series has already ended, but it pleases the fans, anyhow. I managed to buy a few, actually, but each one of them came across a horrible fate. Issue No.1 got splattered by a car and became impossible to read. Issue No. 2, I was in the restroom, reading my doujinshi oh-so-gleefully, and then when I reached for toilet paper, it accidentally fell into the toilet—you can guess what happened next. Issue No. 3 got blown by the wind and ended up being drawn into a sewer as I read it on the way back home. My mom threw Issue No. 4 into a recycling bin. I don't think I can go on anymore, it's too painful…
Until recently, I had been faced with a disease that has been known to end many artists' careers—"Artist's Block." Yes, it was very pitiful. I was completely out of ideas and every time I finally came up with something, I immediately forgot it. As soon as the light bulb in my head lit up, it went out and everything was dark again. Iwasaki-san and Kobayakawa-san hadn't been able to give me the Yuri spark I needed to get back on track again. That was, like I said, just until recently, for I have discovered a couple that has caught my interest… Let me start from the beginning, okay?
I was in class trying to think of something to draw, but I just wasn't feeling it. So then I started to continue a piece of mine I was working on, it was a cool-looking guy sketch drawing. I started to superimpose his expressions onto my face so that it'd be easier to get his expression where I want it, but then—
"T-Tamura-san, is something wrong?" A small, sweet voice interrupted me. "You've been making a lot of faces…"
I quickly turned around to see whose angelic voice that was—Kobayakawa-san. I smiled and rubbed the back of my head as I replied, "Well, you know how when you're drawing you tend to make the same faces as your characters?"
"Really?" Kobayakawa-san smiled down at me. "So you were drawing."
I nodded, and then returned to my sketch. She approached my desk slowly, looking over my previous works, and then picked one of them up. "You really are skilled, Tamura-san!"
I followed her gaze, leading to the piece of paper she was holding. I looked over it to see which ones of my drawings she had picked up. The moment I saw it, I let out a defeated sigh and said, "Nah, I've been in a slump lately. That one's a bust." But then I picked out one of my most recent drawing that I had thought I'd done I good job in. I handed it to her as I said, "But this is probably one of my better recent ones!"
She took it and then compared the two—she shook her head. Right then, Iwasaki-san came into the classroom and approached us both. Kobayakawa-san showed her my two drawings to compare and she, too, shook her head. I sighed again. Who would have noticed or picked up the artist's habits or subtle touches? I already knew almost nobody did, but I didn't give up hope.
Lunch hour came and I took my usual seat with Kobayakawa-san and Iwasaki-san. I had brought some egg rolls, while Kobayakawa-san had brought some traditional avocado sushi. Iwasaki-san had forgotten her own lunch so Kobayakawa-san, such an angel, shared some of her food with her. Beautiful… Simply beautiful. I tried daydreaming about the two like I was prone to doing, but I couldn't. This time it was just no good. The three of us began to eat and started up some random conversation. Some things led to another and Kobayakawa-san asked, "Tamura-san, I didn't know you drew manga."
"Yeah, but they're mostly doujin," I replied a little embarrassed.
"What kind of manga do you draw?" She asked innocently.
There was silence. The mood was tense. I had to think. . . BRAINFART!
"N-normal stuff like four panels o-or romance with game characters I like…" I replied, looking down at my food, I couldn't face the two. How could I? That was so hard to answer…
"I-I'll be back!" I told them as I rose from the seat.
"O-okay…" Kobayakawa-san dismissed me, she looked taken aback.
Iwasaki-san just nodded. So cool~
It was still lunch time so I had plenty of time left for walking around and just spacing out. I tried to think of new ideas to use for manga stories and such, but there was nothing. Boys' or girls' love—nothing seemed to work for me. Nobody liked normal boys, at least I didn't, they were uninteresting. Everyone loved the ones that stood out, which is why I drew doujinshi based on those kinds of things. I was not one to go for the average "girl meets boy" stuff—it gets boring. I became really frustrated and my steps gradually became angry stomps. I roamed the empty hallways—maybe everyone was eating in their classrooms or cafeteria— to nowhere in particular. That's when I heard it… The voice—or voices—that would inspire my artistic sense once again.
"You're late!" one of the voices hissed.
"Sorry, sorry," the other one apologized, whispering as well. "How was I supposed to know where the music room was?"
The music room…I most definitely knew where the music room was! My head quickly turned right and my feet started walking toward the direction where the voices had last been heard. I tried taking soft and quiet steps as I made my way to that classroom's door. I let my back rest upon the door and tried placing my right ear as close to the it as I could—I stopped pressing after my ear started hurting.
"Anyway, now that you're here," the first voice continued. It sounded awfully familiar but I just couldn't get my hands on figuring out who it was!
"And why is it that Kagami-Sama has specifically called me here at lunch time?" the other voice mockingly asked. But that was when my amazing deduction skills finally came through for me! I figured out one of the two was Hiiragi-Senpai. But what was she doing in the first year's floor?
"I told you not to call me that, Konata!" Hiiragi-Senpai replied angrily to whom I suspected to be Izumi-Senpai. All those years of having watched Detective Conan weren't pointless, after all! "Anyway," she continued, "you know why you're here…"
"Yeah," Izumi-Senpai didn't deny it. "So let's get to it, hmm?"
I heard one of them reach into their pocket or something of that sort. Then I heard something being unwrapped; aluminum foil, maybe? No, it had to be something else.
"Here," Hiiragi-Senpai said, command in her tone. "Lick it."
Lick it? I thought confused. Lick what? I kept my ear pressed against the door, hoping the mystery would be solved.
There was silence in the room. Finally, Izumi-Senpai spoke up, "Kagami, it looks weird…"
"I don't care if you dislike it," Hiiragi-Senpai continued, but during her next sentence, her voice softened. "Y-you said you wanted to be the first, so take some responsibility…"
T-the first!? The first for what!? And lick what!? My thoughts started going berserk. What could they be talking about?
"I know, I know," Izumi-Senpai said, resigning. "I did say that, and I will take responsibility."
S-she's going to take responsibility!? For what, for humanity's sake, WHAT!?
"Tell me what you think, okay?" Hiiragi-Senpai said, uncertainty clouding the words.
That was when I heard it, the lick. It sounded more like a slurp, though. My whole body shivered, like when you hear someone write on chalk board. The lick was just like chalk sizzling on the board, but faster. Just what was going on in that room? The material, it was good. Great, in fact. How I wished I had brought my pencil and started taking some notes on what they were saying. But I had forgotten it back at my classroom. I was nothing without her!
"H-How was it?" Hiiragi-Senpai asked, anticipation clearly noticeable.
"It was…" Izumi-Senpai started to answer.
It was... I started getting anxious. IT WAS…?
"Gooey," Izumi-Senpai finished her sentence with such bluntness. I was puzzled. Gooey?
"I-it's supposed to be like that!" Hiiragi-Senpai said in her defense. "But the taste, that's what's important, how did it taste?"
W-what could be gooey? I don't know a single thing that's small and gooey except for… Oh.
"It was okay," Izumi-Senpai said casually. "Not bad, not great—just okay."
"That's all you have to say?" Hiiragi-Senpai's voice was filled with disappointment.
That's all!? Be more detailed, please, Izumi-Senpai!
"Kagamin," Izumi-Senpai took the initiative, her tone suddenly turning gentle and delicate, caressing the syllables of the taller Senpai's name. "You have to lick mine, too, you know?"
"We never agreed on that!" Hiiragi-Senpai countered.
"I did yours, so you do mine!" Izumi-Senpai whined.
"F-fine…" Hiiragi-Senpai was the one to resign now.
This… What is all this? What am I even doing here? I shouldn't be listening to their private conversation, this is eavesdropping! I thought as I felt my back slide down the door like melting chocolate that had been stuck there for a week. I was now sitting against the door, no longer standing, still listening. The sound of another lick came again. I couldn't take it anymore! This was not something you did on school grounds! Even if they were my Senpais and I was a little excited, I knew I had to stop the madness. Before I knew it, I was already back on my feet. I closed my eyes, swished around, slid the door open, and then finally yelled out, "SENPAIS, STOP!" I had forced myself to open my eyes and show them that I was serious and that I could support the words I had just spoken. "I'm sorry to interrupt but we can't have this sort of thing happening—eh?"
Hiiragi-Senpai was sitting on the table while Izumi-Senpai was resting on a chair. They both held lollipops in their hands and wore the same puzzled look as they stared at me in wonder. They both had their clothing in place, not that I had been expecting them to have taken it off or anything like that...yeah. I just stood there frozen, mouth agape. I recovered after a few seconds and fixed my glasses, repositioning them, stalling. Then one of them finally decided to speak up, "Hiyorin, what's up?"
"N-nothing out of the ordinary… Sorry to interrupt," I said as I slowly slid the door closed behind me and walked away from the room. It wasn't only after being a few inches away from the music classroom that I realised I wasn't going to give up this easily. I deserved an explanation and the Senpais were going to give one to me! I dashed back, violently slid the door open once more, and said, "May I ask what was going on here just a minute ago!?"
Hiiragi-Senpai was the one to speak this time, her tone was calm and casual as she said, "You see, Hiyori, I've been having some trouble with the Home Economics class and yesterday our teacher said that for homework we would have to make any sort of dessert we liked. I couldn't really think of a dessert, so I just made some candy—a lollipop." She lifted up the hand holding the weird-looking lollipop, but then let out dejected sigh as she looked at the object with dreary eyes. "But as you can see, it didn't turn out the way I hoped…"
"Oho~" Izumi-Senpai put her hand on her mouth as if covering up the fact that she had just let out a mocking laugh, but not really trying to hide it. "Kagamin, I thought it was meant to look like that. At least that's what you told me."
"Zip it!" Hiiragi-Senpai snapped, and then she turned back to me and continued, "I asked Konata if she could help me out in taste-testing and she agreed. That explains our being here. But what brought you here, Hiyori?"
I was back in the corner, the invisible flashlight of guilt being reflected upon me. I, as a good Japanese citizen, answered to Hiiragi-Senpai's question truthfully and without hesitation. "I-I thought you were doing… well… weird things, Senpai."
There was silence in the room. Izumi-Senpai grinned broadly and her eyes sort of squinted, an expression I had never seen before. She put her right hand on top of Hiiragi-Senpai's left shoulder and her other hand only let her index finger stick out as she placed it upon Senpai's chest. She then mockingly said, "Kagamin, Hiyorin here thinks we've been doing naughty, weird things~"
"H-Hiyori, you've got it all wro—" Hiiragi-Senpai began to deny it, but was quickly interrupted by none other than me.
"Don't worry, Senpais," I reassured them. "I won't tell a soul about your special secret meeting, I swear!" I finally understood that my Senpais were like that. I knew the lollipop thing was just cover-up, even if they were trying to hide it, I could tell right away! Thank you, Detective Conan, you have taught me how to make deductions and easily reach resolutions.
"Wait, Hiyori, Konata's just messing with you, we're not—" I couldn't hear the end of Hiiragi-Senpai's sentence for I had already ran out of the classroom, not wanting to be a third wheel anymore.
Before I was actually aware of it, I was back in my classroom, trying to catch my breath after all that running. I had gained back the ability to daydream and imagine beyond all possibilities—my unique and special artistic sense! And all before lunch was over.
I skipped happily back to my seat, humming as I did. I found her, my special pencil, resting on my desk, waiting for me. I grabbed her and started to draw, trying to catch up and make up for all the time I had lost while I had been in the state of stagnation. Nothing could ruin this moment; everything was beautiful, perfect, dazzling. Drawing came to me naturally, like it flowed within me. As I let my beautiful pencil become entranced in the art, I heard footsteps approach me from behind. I turned my head to the right to see who it was, stopping the movement of my hand for a minute. There I saw Kobayakawa-san approaching me, as if in slow motion.
"Tamura-San!" Her voice echoed beautifully and she emitted a radiance that was believed only the sun was capable of having—until now. "I have a question!"
"Ask away, Kiddo!" I responded in high spirits. That day was unforgettable; it had started out as the worst day of my life but ended up as one of the best. That was until Kobayakawa-san…
"What's Yaoi?"
This fiction was SUPPOSED to have taken place in episode 19 of the actual lucky star series. You know how Hiyori had been in a slump and depressed during that time? That's why, when I saw her drawing before the "what's yaoi?" part, I figured I could come up with a story that explained how she was able to get her energy and spirit back.
ps: Since this is first person, Hiyori does not realise that she actually misunderstood Konata's and Kagami's situation. They were not doing anything weird, okay?