Disclaimer: I don't own Azumanga Daioh.
Old Past, or New Present?
Tomo got home after an exciting day at school. She had just been in a snowball fight with all her other friends in the schoolyard.
"Wow, I haven't had that much fun for quite a while!" she remarked. "Now if only Mr. Kimura was out there too, I would have been able to pile in his head, snow and all!"
Tomo kicked the snow off her shoes before entering the house.
"I'm home!" she called out, despite knowing that no one was home.
Tomo's mother worked a full daytime shift as an office secretary and rarely saw her daughter at home. Fortunately, that was the only price that was paid for the divorce of Tomo's father. He had a nasty habit for drinking too much sake, which was effective in fueling his temper. In the present, family time was something that Tomo didn't have very often. The lack of her parents' presence was still a blessing in disguise though: she wouldn't have to be constantly reminded about the past. According to what she'd always see, her mother would continually obsess over her father and how he wronged the family. Tomo could do nothing about it and she, too, would end up breaking down and crying herself to sleep at night.
Tomo walked about halfway into the house until she stepped on a fallen picture frame. The glass cover crunched underneath her foot.
"How did that get there?" she asked herself as she picked it up.
Her eyes widened in horror after seeing the photograph. It was a picture of the family standing in front of a Mount Fuji sightseeing spot. The scene was complete: her father, her mother, and an energetic, happy Tomo. She was seven years old in this picture.
At first impulse, she quickly threw the picture frame away and bolted upstairs to her room. Tomo fell on the floor, the horrible memories coming back…
"That's the fifth time this week!" Tomo's father yelled in a drunken stupor. "I come home from a hard day of work and you still haven't prepared dinner yet!?"
"I'm almost done", his wife said in an attempt to calm him down. "Just give the rice five more minutes."
Tomo's father raised his arm to backhand his wife across the face.
"Don't you dare hit me!" she screamed.
Her husband only grew more agitated by his wife's command.
"Fine, then your daughter will just have to do!" he snorted.
Meanwhile, a young Tomo was busy finishing her homework. In her early elementary years, she was a duteous student who always got reasonable good grades. She was struggling to solve a persistent multiplication problem when she heard loud footsteps come up the stairs. Recognizing the sound, she immediately dropped her pencil and cowered in the corner. It was always her studying time in the evening when her father would come home from an overdose of sake rice wine.
The door flung open, and Tomo's father staggered inside. He was unhappy and furious, as usual.
"And you!" he yelled. "You're no better than any other dumb student at your school!"
"But!" Tomo faltered. "I'm trying my best! Please don't hurt me!"
"How the hell is an eighty-nine percent average your best!?" her father blustered.
With that, he immediately grabbed his daughter by the neck and began tightening his grip.
"No…please no!" Tomo thought, unable to speak.
A few seconds later, her father's grip loosened, and she keeled over in a coughing fit. He tried to kick her, but missed. Intoxication still clouding his mind, he staggered out the door.
Tomo lay there, frozen. She knew that he would eventually sober up, but tomorrow's day wouldn't fare any better.
Soon, it was the next day of school. Tomo nervously paced around the playground, still traumatized from the usual last night's punishments. Then the usual boys approached her for the usual daytime punishment: another dose of bullying and putdowns.
"Where's your friends?" one of them sneered.
"I don't have any", Tomo responded.
The rest of the group laughed while she stood there in humiliation.
"You're a freak", another boy answered. "Why don't you crawl back underground where you belong?"
"Why don't you leave me alone!?" Tomo screamed as she lunged at him.
She fell flat on her face, and the rest of the group continued to jeer at her.
Just then, another girl ran over to aid Tomo.
"Hey!" she called out.
The group of boys spun around and saw Koyomi Mizuhara approach them.
"Leave her alone!" Koyomi firmly ordered. "Or you'll have to deal with me!"
The girl backed up her actions by cracking her knuckles.
"Yeah, she's right", one of the boys agreed. "Come on, let's go".
The bullies left the spot without further delay. The girl that helped Tomo would eventually become friends with her, but sometimes that friendship wouldn't be enough to fully dissipate Tomo's aversion to the opposite gender…
Tomo's memories finally stopped plaguing her mind, and she stood up. She was still disturbed, and all of a sudden found herself thinking about the classmate that earlier offered his concern without being asked.
"Masaaki Ohyama", she thought in her mind.
Thinking of the name had a calming influence on her. It was odd to her to feel that way for someone outside of her usual group of friends. Maybe someone in this world really did care about her well-being. The way she saw it, her friends didn't seem to care very much. Most of them usually ridiculed her for her impulsive stupidity and lack of careful thought. They didn't know her before high school. Not even Yomi paid much mind to Tomo's past. In response, Tomo would throw up her emotional walls of confidence and energy. That was the only part of her that carried over from her childhood. She was notoriously good for hiding her true manner.
Soon, Tomo's calm feelings were replaced with feelings of affection: affection for Ohyama.
"No-"
She stopped resisting her thoughts and thought about what to do with them. But first, she had to think about all she knew about him.
"What do I know about him?" Tomo asked herself.
Masaaki Ohyama was a background character as far as anyone would be concerned. He wore glasses and looked like a top honors student. Tomo remembered him from student council. She, as class vice president, knew him as the former class president who was soon replaced by Chiyo-chan. Otherwise, he didn't seem to have any apparent friends. During study hall, Ohyama would be busy with his schoolwork. During the homeroom's free time, he would be leaning against the wall with a neutral expression on his face. He seemed like the loner type to Tomo. Maybe…maybe it could be.
"Okay, now what do I see in him?" Tomo pondered.
Tomo didn't know Ohyama very well, except for the times when she used to work with him in student council. That was all she knew.
"What am I going to do about it?" she asked.
She considered trying to avoid him, but that would prove difficult: he was in the same homeroom she was in, and many of their lunches coincided. Not to mention, her unusually cautious behavior would be noticed.
Tomo then considered trying to show him her feelings, but that option was as unfeasible as the last one. In the past, Osaka had noticed that no one in her group had boyfriends. Tomo began to wonder how would her friends react. It probably wouldn't be good. Everyone else: Sakaki, Kagura, and Chiyo would view her differently. She didn't even want to think about what Yomi would do.
However, today's unexpected encounter with Ohyama cast his personality into view. Could it be that his common concern for her was a side effect of his nicer side? Did his loner personality finally break during the moment when he asked her if she was okay? Tomo took a deep breath at the absurd thought.
"Then it looks like I'll have to reply back in kind", she decided.
Tired from thinking too much, Tomo fell backwards onto her bed, and went to sleep.
Expect the next installment, Chapter 3, to be up soon.
