I was in a reporter's kind of mood today... XD
Today we are with our favorite character (or maybe not), Kazune Kujyou, in his cram school. He is facing a most difficult, serious, yet highly embarrassing problem.
"I can't believe I have to buy panties for Karin. Where am I supposed to find inexpensive underwear?" Kazune muttered to himself. Lately, he has found that he has developed an irritating habit of talking to himself.
"Whoa, Kazune-kun! I didn't know you were a pervert!" Kazune spun around in his seat, his face beet red.
"Wha-I'm not-It's because--!" Kazune stammered. Then he noticed it was Michiru. "Oh. It's just you."
"Nice to see you, too," Michiru said sarcastically. "You're lucky it wasn't Ms. Shimuzu! Look at me, I'm Kazune-kun and I need to buy panties!" Michiru mimicked.
"Shut up," Kazune said.
"So, what kind of naughty stuff have you gotten yourself tangled in?" Michiru said, smirking.
"Will you just shut up?! It's nothing!" He snapped. "By the way, what happened to your laptop?"
"It was a huge ordeal, no thanks to you! It took me two full days to get her running again," Michiru said. "Plum!" He called into his bag. The small persocom came crawling out of the bag, good as new. She went on screensaver mode, dancing around. "All of her data was backed up, but I had tp replace her RAM, and her video card was completely fried. I kept the receipts, to you can pay me back."
"You know I'm broke."
"I'll take what you got."
"Gee, thanks," Kazune said sarcastically. Michiru grinned.
"By the way, did you meet up with that Karasuma kid?" He asked.
"Yeah. Are all the junior high kids wired up like that now?" Kazune said.
"If they were, I'd go back to junior high in a flash."
"How did you meet up with Kirika?"
"On the internet. He posts a lot of the custom persocom BBS forum thing. He helped me out with some things and we traded emails," Michiru explained. "So, did you find out anything about Karin?"
"He plugged in four of his persocoms, and they still couldn't find anything. She was protected or something. All we found out was that she's homemade and she has the ability to learn," Kazune said miserably.
"That's awesome! You really must've found a powerful persocom if you could crash four of Karasuma's custom jobs!" Michiru said cheerfully.
"Well, of course you think it's awesome. You don't have to worry about paying for her," Kazune mumbled. "My landlady gave us some clothes, but I still have to but underwear."
"You know, some guys prefer that their persocoms don't wear underwear," Michiru pointed out.
"I know she's a persocom, but--!"
"So that's all that worked up about?" Michiru said, thinking it was no big deal. Kazune stared at him.
"What would you say if you saw me buying women's underwear?"
"Will he put them on his head? Will he wear them?" Michiru said playfully. Kazune twitched.
"Who would do that, you ?!" Kazune screamed.
"I'll find you a nice, inexpensive shop to buy sweet-nothings. That's the least I could do for a friend. Plum, could you do a search?" Michiru instructed.
"Okey-dokey!" After a few seconds, Plum found a spot. She grabbed a pencil and paper and drew out a map.
"Thanks. You're the best!" Michiru praised. The door suddenly opened.
"Michiru... You're here early, too, Kazune!" Ami said.
"Good morning, Ms. Shimizu! You're pretty early, yourself. Did you find your way here alright?" Kazune asked.
"Haha. Yes, I did. I had some things to do in the office, so... You're early, too, Mr. Enthusiastic!" Kazune rolled his eyes and smiled.
"I hope you did your homework. I'm going to call on you, Kazune!" Ami said happily.
"What?!"
"C'mon, it'll be good for you!" Ami said. Meanwhile, Michiru was staring at them, his expression losing its charisma...
"Ugh. Ms Shimizu really wasn't kidding... She made me answer the first question! Why couldn't she pick on Nishikiori? He was early too!" Kazune muttered. "Come to think of it... Why was Nishikiori there so early?" He snapped out of his thoughts as he arrived at the store. The sign read, 'LaLa Lingerie'. "...Well, let's get it over with."
Karin was sitting down, and she suddenly sat up as she heard running in the hallway. The door slammed open. "Karin!" She said happily. There appeared Kazune, out of breath looking all flustered.
"I was right!" Kazune shouted. "They thought I was a sicko! The girl at the store treated me like a total pervert!" Karin watched as he continued to beat himself up. Suddenly, Karin picked up the underwear and pulled them on top of her hair. "Wha - Karin! That's not what you're supposed to do with them!"
"Well, I'm off to work now," Kazune told Karin.
"Karin!"
"No, no. You're supposed to say, 'Have a good day'!" Kazune said gently.
"Karin?"
"Have a good day." Karin put her hand up to her mouth, making her look like an adorable little kid.
"Have... a... good?"
"Have a good day," Kazune said firmly.
"Have a good day," Karin repeated.
"Right!" Kazune said, satisfied. "When someone's leaving the house, you say, 'Have a good day'."
"Have a good day!" Karin said cheerfully. Kazune smiled, then remembered something.
"Oh, yeah! My name's Kazune, alright?" He said.
"Ka...zune?" Karin questioned.
"Right!" Kazune said. "Kazune." Karin suddenly seemed to remember what Michiru called him, with honorifics.
"Kazune-kun," Karin said. Suddenly, she pointed at the table. "Kazune-kun." Then she pointed at other things, calling them Kazune. Kazune sighed, exasperated.
"Man, why is teaching so hard? Why did Karin think everything was Kazune?" Kazune said to himself. He suddenly felt a pat on his back, and he turned around.
"Kazune-chan!" It was Himeka, a high school student and Kazune's friend. She had long, black hair, hazel eyes and was very cute.
"Hey, Himeka!" Kazune said.
"What's up?" Himeka asked.
"You're always so... energetic!" Kazune said, smiling. Himeka is pretty cute... They continued to walk to work, since they worked together. They finally arrived at Club Pleasure.
Kazune saw a perscom calculating something, and came up to it. "You can even calculate sales? I wonder if Karin will be able to do that one day..."
"Kazune-chan, did you buy a persocom?" Himeka asked, with that soft voice of hers.
"I found one. In the trash," Kazune said.
"Really? Was she an older model or something?" She asked curiously. Kazune sighed.
"I don't know," he admitted. "Hey, do you have a computer?"
"Yup! I've got a great set-up at home. But when I'm out, I have this!" Himeka pulled out a small, bunny-shaped persocom from her pocket.
"What's that?"
"It's a PDA. It's not too powerful, but it's great for checking emails, taking notes, and stuff like that," Himeka explained.
"It's not even shaped like a human," Kazune commented.
"Well, we have one at home that's human shaped."
"Is it shaped like a guy?"
"Mine is shaped like a bunny rabbit!" Kazune laughed.
"How typical of you," he said. Himeka looked at him and smiled.
"My sister has one shaped like a guy," she told him.
"Why didn't you get one like hers?" Kazune asked.
"I did. I had one like that before. It's just... I got really sad," Himeka sad, having this faraway look. Suddenly, their boss appeared.
"Kujyou, Omura! We're opening up!" They turned around and said their motto:
"With pleasure, sir!" ...Though Kazune wasn't too energetic.
"I'm home!" Kazune called. Sad, huh? Kazune thought, thinking of what Himeka said. Karin ran up to him and hugged him.
"Kazune-kun, Kazune-kun!" She said.
"When I say, 'I'm home', you say, 'Welcome home', okay Karin?" Kazune instructed. I'm not the least bit sad when I'm with Karin...
"Welcome home! Kazune-kun!" Karin said happily. Kazune patted her head.
"Right. You're doing well," he said softly - very unlike him. "The restaurant manager game me a uniform. Want to try it on, Karin?" He gave the uniform to her as he turned around and covered his eyes.
"Karin!" Kazune turned around. Karin was wearing a grey kimono just above her knees with a black apron below her waist. It was a bit big for her, but it looked cute.
Kazune smiled at her again. "Looks nice." Karin hugged him and knocked him to the floor. but by now, it was practically a routine.
Kazune sighed as he worked on his homework. "Go get 'em!" Karin cheered. She was really progressing well. The only part that Kazune found annoying was one time when she was watching this television show...
FlAsHbAcK
"If you had any brains, you'd know when the party is! Of course, you being a girl, I wouldn't expect you to know that! Or maybe it's just you!"
Karin was currently watching a show intently, and processing the information.
"You are so... mean! UGH!"
"WHACK!"
If you couldn't guess, the girl's friend was insulting her (and it is a boy), and she ended up punching him.
A few minutes later...
"That girl was a total idiot... It was fifteen dollars, but noo, she said it was seven! Can't even calculate!" Kazune muttered to himself. Nearby, Karin heard what he said and put on an angry face. "...Huh? Karin?"
"You are a very mean person!" Karin said with a huff, then punched Kazune right on his cheek. He was so shocked he didn't even think about what she said, let alone dodging! He landed on the floor with a thump.
"Karin... Where did you learn that?" Kazune asked sternly. Karin noticed his tone of voice and looked down, looking almost dejected.
"Did Karin do something... wrong?" She asked. Kazune stood up and walked over to her.
"No, no... I was just... surprised. Well, next time just don't--" The phone suddenly rang before Kazune could tell her what to do, so he really never told her not to punch him.
EnD fLaShBaCk
"Huh. You can be pretty violent sometimes..." he said. "But... you are kinda... cute. For a persocom," he added hastily. Karin stared at him.
"...Cute...?" She said, confused.
"Uh... yeah..."
"Cute. Is Kazune-kun cute?" Karin asked, tilting her head to the left. Kazune blushed.
"Uh... no, I... Cute is... more for..." He stammered - again, very unlike him. It was getting annoying - he never stuttered! Karin smiled a kind-hearted smile.
"Kazune-kun is cute," she said. Kazune blushed even more and told himself that she was just a machine... right? Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
"It's your landlady. I made some stew. Care for a snack?" Kazune opened the door and let Suzuka in.
"Thanks!" Kazune said gratefully. Meanwhile, Karin was looking at the things.
"This is a bag. The bag is from the restaurant manager," Karin said to herself.
"I'm so sorry to bother you," Suzuka said. Kazune shook his head.
"This is a television. This is the power button. Push," she said to herself.
"Thanks. You're a pretty good chef," Kazune said to Suzuka. She smiled and handed him a bag.
"Here are some more clothes for... Karin..." her voice faded as she stared at something. Kazune looked confused, so when he turned around he was stunned for a moment.
The channel that the television was turned to was very... inappropriate, showing a woman undressing herself - and Karin was currently imitating the woman. "Karin!" Kazune exclaimed, and hurriedly went over to her. "This is - uh, - put your clothes back on!" He ordered. Suzuka seemed to snap out of her daze and smiled. She left, whilst saying,
"Good luck!"
"Good luck with what?!" Kazune said as Karin finished dressing herself. He looked into the bag. "Oh man, and she gave Karin a schoolgirl sailor uniform!"
Later that day...
"Ugh, now everyone thinks I'm a pervert!" Kazune said, frustrated as they walked down the street. He took a sideways glance at Karin. Karin has no idea of how she's supposed to act, what she's supposed to say... She's got no clue. It turns out I still have a lot to learn...
Karin suddenly noticed Kazune looking at her and smiled - the kind of genuine, soft smile that made you blush or stare at. Kazune spotted the Yamatani Bookstore and led Karin in with him.
She started to look around curiously, trying to figure out what everything was. "This is a bookstore," Kazune said. "Where they sell lots of books."
"Books?" Karin asked.
"How can I explain this... Books are pieces of paper bound together with lots of things printed on them. They can be funny things, useful things... Well, they can be a lot of things," Kazune explained to Karin. Karin held up some random book.
"Book?"
"Yes."
They started to look around and browse, while Kazune looked for any cheap dictionaries or textbooks. Whilst looking around, Karin spotted a book and immediately stopped in front of it. She stared at it... with almost a lonely face. It was faraway - she was gazing at something only she could see.
Suddenly, Kazune picked up the book she was staring at. "A City With No People," Kazune read.
"Karin?"
"I'll buy this for you as a gift," Kazune said.
"Gift?"
"Yeah. From you to me. ...But it's just for your hard work, okay?! It's not like I'm randomly giving something to you because... never mind," Kazune said hurriedly.
"To...me?" Karin said.
"There's a lot more you could learn from books than I could ever teach you," Kazune said.
"Kazune-kun! Kazune-kun!" Karin said, hugging Kazune gently.
"When someone gives you somethink, you're supposed to say, 'Thank you'," Kazune said, smiling.
"Thank... you!"
"Ahem... excuse me, kids, no loitering or whatever it is that you're doing..." The manager said. Kazune blushed and immediately pulled Karin away.
"Ah... sorry!"