June 2010

After close to four months of planning, the day of Konata and Kagami's wedding had finally arrived. It had taken quite a bit of string pulling to make this work. You see in Japan, even though same-sex sexual contact is perfectly legal, same-sex couples are not recognized and the country very rarely (if at all) allows same-sex marriages domestically. Not to mention, they had to deal with protests from some citizens in both the Kyoto Prefecture (where the girls lived currently) and the Saitama Prefecture (where the girls grew up) who were deeply against same-sex marriage. In fact, some of their new college friends turned against them as a result. And the worst part was the fact that even their own fathers were against them marrying at first.

Both Tadao and Sojiro initially refused to allow the girls to marry each other, threatening to disown each from their respective families if they proceeded with the wedding. Worse yet, the two men were playing the blame game, saying that the other person was to blame for starting this mess. They were frequenly fighting with each other and often getting into fistfights. During one of these fights back in April at the Washinomiya Shrine, they wound up hitting both Miki and Yukari in the face, as they were trying to break up the fight. Hachiro, who was already in a bad mood, had seen the whole encounter, and finally having had enough of Tadao's and Sojiro's frequent fighting, he flipped his lid (something that is EXTREMELY RARE for him) at the two bickering fathers. Here is a flashback of that night.


Flashback to Saturday April 3, 2010

"This is all your fault, Hiiragi. Your daughter turned my girl into a lesbian!", Sojiro shouted. "My fault? Excuse me, Izumi, but it was your daughter turned my daughter into a lesbian", Tadao growled. "You want a piece of me, priest man?", Sojiro taunted. "Bring it on, lolicon!", Tadao challenged. With that, the two were at it again. Miki and Yukari got up out of their seats and tried to calm the two irate men down, but it did no good. "You two stop this right now!", Miki warned, "Your fighting's not doing any good". "Look at what it's done to your girls", Yukari pleaded, "Stop it please!". What happened next was what sent Hachiro into a rage. It was either Tadao or Sojiro that lost their grip on the other man, and regardless their arms wound up smacking both Miki and Yukari in the face. Hachiro could not believe what he just saw, and now he had reached his boiling point.

"How dare you two hit a woman! Or worse two! Especially when they were trying to stop you from fighting!", Hachiro thought to himself as he raced to the scene. He then grabbed both Tadao and Sojiro by their shirt collars and smacked their heads together. Surprisingly, they were still unaware as to why Hachiro was so pissed off. "What's the deal, Hachiro?", Sojiro asked him. "Yeah, why are you so mad?", Tadao added. "I've had it up to here with you two fighting day in and day out!", Hachiro told them, "And do you two realize that you just hit the two women who were trying to stop you from fighting?". They looked in their directions and saw that Miki had her hands over her nose and that Yukari had her hands covering her whole face and she was on her knees. "He's the one who lost his grip!", Sojiro insisted. "Me? You're the one who lost your grip!", Tadao growled. "Yeah, well you started this whole thing!", Sojiro yelled. "Oh don't pull that with me! You started it!", Tadao shouted. "SHUT UP! I DON'T FUCKING CARE WHO STARTED THIS MESS!", Hachiro roared. The force of his shout caused Tadao and Sojiro to recoil slightly.

"But believe it or not, that's not the only reason why I'm so pissed off right now", Hachiro continued, calming down a bit, "Are you two even aware how much of a toll your fighting has taken on your daughters?". The two men next to him gave him confused looks and said, "No". "Well, this afternoon as I was on the bridge, I saw Konata and Kagami leaning over the edge, and both seemed ready to jump off.", Hachiro explained. Hearing this, Miki and Yukari gasped in shock. "You mean, they were going to kill themselves?", Miki asked him. "Yes, unfortunately", Hachiro explained to her, "It's at least a 75 foot fall from the road to the water below". "Did they jump?", Yukari wondered, with obvious worry. "No, they didn't jump. Thank God.", Hachiro assured her, "But they nearly did".

He then turned to Tadao and Sojiro who both had concerned looks on their faces, and continued, "A similar thing happened to two of my old college buddies while I was still at the University of Tokyo. They were in love with each other. But at one point, unable to deal with the oppression, they jumped off the same bridge. I lost two of my best friends that day. Their bodies were recovered three days later". With anger rising in his voice once again he continued, "Now, what do they have in common with Konata and Kagami? Well, their families were fighting with each other, just like you two immature idiots are now! Now both of their families eventually reconciled, but of course by then it was far too little, way too late. And now they're going to spend the rest of their lives wishing they hadn't fought with each other". All four of the adults in the room had shocked looks on their faces.

"You were lucky this time", Hachiro concluded, "But if you two assholes don't stop your fighting and accept their relationship, there's no guarantee that they won't attempt it again, or if they'll survive it. Just remember that". With that, Tadao and Sojiro turned to each other. "Well Sojiro, I guess we let our animosity go to our heads. It's amazing what personal hatred will do to men", Tadao admitted. "Yeah Tadao, it is amazing what it'll do. And we didn't even know how much of a toll it took on our girls", Sojiro agreed. "I don't want either of our families to end up like those families Hachiro was talking about", Tadao replied. "I don't want that to happen either. That was a huge wake up call", Sojiro answered back. With that, they shook hands and apologized to each other.

Seeing this, Hachiro clapped his hands together and answered, "Well, I'm glad that matter is settled. Now you just need to get your children's forgiveness", then turning to the door called out, "Oh girls, come in here a minute". A few seconds later, Konata and Kagami came walking in the room. "Your fathers have something they want to say to you two", Hachiro explained to them. The two fathers apologized profusely to their daughters, calling their actions inexcusable, and told them that if they really wanted to marry each other, they were now 100% behind it. Luckily for them, their daughters would end up forgiving them for their actions.


Note: Sorry about putting that scene in, but I wanted it to be as realistic as possible in explaining the setbacks that Konata and Kagami had before their wedding. Now hopefully we can get back to the happier side of things with the actual wedding.


Flashforward to Saturday June 12, 2010

Anyway getting back to the real event of the story. It was a beautiful June morning at the Meiji Shrine where the wedding would take place. The sun was shining and there were only a few clouds in the sky. When the ceremony started at 11:00 am, the temperature was a pleasant 81 degrees. Now I'm not going to go to deep into the actual wedding part because it would take too long. So I'm just going to do the important parts.

Konata and Kagami were walked down the altar by their respective fathers. The former had on a white kimono with baby blue printed flowers on it and the latter had on a similar kimono but with carnation pink printed flowers on it. They had gotten pretty much everyone involved with their wedding ceremony. Inori and Matsuri were the bridesmaids, Tsukasa and Miyuki were the flower girls, and Yutaka and Minami were the ringbearers.

During the ceremony, all the girls were having their own thoughts about what was happening.

Konata: "I can't believe it. My wish is finally coming true and I'm marrying the love of my life".

Kagami: "I still can't believe we've made it this far. Now we can go along and start our own loving family".

Tsukasa: "This is so wonderful. Kagami's getting married and now Kona-chan's going to be my sister".

Miyuki: "Out of all the weddings I've attended, this will go down as the most memorable one".

Yutaka: "This is so exciting! Now our family's going to be a lot bigger".

Minami: "Now I've been to a couple of weddings myself, but I've never seen one quite like this".

Inori: "I wish you the best of luck, Sis. And to you too, Konata-chan".

Matsuri: "You know I always thought that we'd be the first ones to marry. But oh well. It's still a great day".

In the audience, many of the adults were having their own thoughts about it as well.

Tadao: "Well, it took a long time for me to accept it, but I'm very proud right now".

Miki: "I have a feeling that Konata-chan and her family will be a more than welcome addition to ours".

Sojiro: "I'm so proud of my little girl. And now I've gained a few new daughters. Living the dream, baby!".

Hachiro: "Looks like everything is turning out perfectly. I'm glad there hasn't been anymore fights between Mr. Hiiragi and Mr. Izumi".

Yukari: "(giggles) I love going to weddings. They're so much fun".

Eventually, they got to the part with the rings. Konata placed her ring on Kagami's right hand. Likewise, Kagami placed her ring on Konata's left hand. The ring that Konata had was almost just like Kagami's, except instead of little ruby diamonds, the ring was encrusted with little emerald diamonds.

And finally the moment we've all been waiting for, the vows. The priest doing the ceremony turned to Konata and asked, "Konata, do you take Kagami as your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?". "Hai. Chikaimasu", Konata replied. The priest then turned to Kagami and asked, "Kagami, do you take Konata as your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health to love and to cherish until death do you part?". "Hai. Chikaimasu", Kagami answered.

Then the priest turned to the audience and asked, "If anyone has any objections on why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace". After waiting 30 seconds without anyone objecting, he concluded the service by turning to Konata and Kagami and saying, "Then by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you wife and wife. You two may kiss now". Konata and Kagami didn't waste any time with that, let me tell you. They wrapped their arms around each other and passionately kissed each other on the lips as the entire audience stood up and applauded.


Later that afternoon

The wedding reception was held at the Park Hyatt Hotel, which was only 3.8 kilometers (about 2.4 miles) away from Meiji Shrine and started at about 2:00 pm. The Park Hyatt was more than well equipped for the 90 guests who attended the wedding ceremony. The staff already had the tables set up in the meeting room and a buffet just a few yards away from the tables.

Konata and Kagami were of course the main focus of attention. After all they had just gotten married. At one point, Konata's former cosplay cafe co-workers came by to congratulate them. "Congratulations, you two", Ayaka stated. "I hope you two have a long and happy marriage", Nanami added. "Thank you very much", Konata and Kagami replied in unison. "You guys really deserve to be together forever", Mariko contemplated. "My sentiments exactly", Chiyoko agreed.

Not long after, Yutaka and Minami came along too. "Congratulations to you, Onee-chan", Yutaka beamed as she hugged her cousin. "Aw, thanks Yu-chan", Konata replied. "And congrats to you too, Kagami-chan", Yutaka exclaimed hugging her new cousin. "Thank you very much Yutaka", Kagami answered back. "I just wanted to say congratulations to the both of you", Minami chimed in, "And I hope only the best for you two in the future". "Thank you, Minami", the two newlyweds replied together.

The reception would continue until about 9:30 pm. During dinner, the alcohol was broken out and hilarity ensued thereafter. Some of the guests were doing ridiculous dance moves and sometimes they were doing just hilarious things. For instance, at one point Inori and Matsuri were doing karaoke, but they were not quite all there and they were off key a lot. And in another instance, Mrs. Takara was riding on Mr. Takara's back as he pranced around on all fours like a horse. Understandably, Miyuki was greatly embarrassed by her parents' drunken actions. Tsukasa put her arm on her shoulder and assured her, "Don't worry, Yuki-chan. I've seen people who drink act a lot sillier than that". "Well, thank you, Tsukasa-san, that makes me feel better", Miyuki replied.

After recieving their gifts and right before heading out on their honeymoon, Konata and Kagami threw the bouquet and the garter into the crowd. Konata threw the garter and it was caught not by one of the men in the crowd, but by Yutaka and Minami oddly enough, who had caught it at the same time. "Well, Minami-chan. What luck.", Yutaka stated. "Yeah, really good luck", Minami agreed. Soon after, Kagami threw the bouquet into the crowd and it wound up being caught by Tsukasa and Miyuki who each had one hand on it. "Wow, Yuki-chan, we caught the bouquet!", Tsukasa exclaimed. "The legend goes that whoever catches the bouquet will be the next ones to marry", Miyuki explained. With that, Konata and Kagami waved to the crowd and set out in the limousine that would lead them to their honeymoon. On the back of the vehicle, you could see a sign that read "JUST MARRIED".


Author's Notes:

Chapter completed on November 14, 2011

Meiji Shrine - a Shinto shrine located in Shibuya, Tokyo dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken. It began construction in 1915, was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921 and its grounds officially finished by 1926.

Ruby - the birthstone for July. Kagami's birthday is July 7th.

Emerald - the birthstone for May. Konata's birthday is May 28th.

Hai. Chikaimasu. - literally means "I do" in Japanese.

Park Hyatt - part of the Hyatt International hotel chain. The Tokyo Park Hyatt Hotel is located in Shinjuku, Tokyo.