Disclaimer: I do not own Lucky Star or any of the characters/plot points/dialogue associated with it and other franchises.

Of Galge and Imaginary Friends

Chapter 3

Kanata -I-

Kanata giggled uncontrollably as her hauntee stalked off the train, muttered curses flowing freely from her mouth while her sister followed fearfully. Since meeting Konata, Kagami had not been in a good mood, though whether that was due to Kanata's newly-proven existence, her daughter's behavior, or both the incorporeal woman did not know.

But it was hilarious.

"-acting so freaking familiar with me even though we've never met," continued Kagami's complaints, "and what was with her falling out of her chair? Surely the bell didn't scare her that much."

"Maybe," interrupted Kanata, not stuttering only because opportunities to tease were the only way to stop giggling, "she has a thing for miko." Giggles once again stole the tethered spirit's speech at the sight of the twintailed girl's face.

"Sh-shut up!" Kagami hissed as quietly as she could while still fully expressing her rage.

However, that's not the only emotion she conveyed. "You only stutter when you're embarrassed, Kaga-chan."

"Ugh! You two are exactly the same: short, annoying, and loud! And is that any way to be talking about your daughter?"

"So you admit that she's my daughter?"

A pause, then, "Ghosts don't exist."

She hadn't answered the question. "Then that our height, hair and eye color, 'annoying and loud'-ness, and tendency to tease you are 'the same' are just coincidences?"

"…I told you to shut up!"

"Um, Onee-chan?" Tsukasa finally spoke up, catching the attention of both her sister and the invisible woman; the former's glare seemed to hit the shorter-haired teen with the force of a small vehicle, and she almost fell backward. Still, she asked, "D-do you not like Kona-chan?"

Kanata watched in amusement as Kagami's anger fled her body at the sight of her cowering sister-she never could stay truly mad under the childish gaze of her twin. Still, an annoyed tone of voice remained in the reply. "She tried to force me into a chair just to interrogate me. What do you think?"

"You didn't answer the question,"Kanata noted during another giggle lull. It was one of her friend's ways to avoid embarrassing questions, like, "Did you just tell the air to shut up?" However, that she hadn't used her first defense against such questions-heavily veiled sarcasm-was telling; either Kagami wanted to avoid accidentally hurting her sister or just didn't have the presence of mind to come up with such a reply.

Kanata believed the latter, and it just made her giggle even harder than before.

Of course, one does not spend nearly every waking minute of their life with another without learning some of their habits, and Tsukasa showed she was no exception. "Onee-chan~!" she whined.

"You don't dislike her, do you, Kaga-chan?" Kanata prodded-both figuratively and literally, as her otherwise intangible finger repetitively poked the taller, younger girl's shoulder. "Just like you still like me, despite your complaints."

The shoulder the ghost was playing with twitched away, a sign that Kagami had decided to ignore her ever-present companion. Once again, this just made the entire situation funnier for Kanata.

At the time, at least.

After a pause, though, Kagami answered her sister. "She's annoying, nosy, and I'm positive that she made several references to something I didn't get throughout the interrogation. A few times, her questions nearly became too personal. But…it seemed like…she just wanted to get to know me and had no idea how. I can't really hate someone for that, can I?"

This was enough to mollify Tsukasa, who beamed in adorable happiness and skipped ahead a few meters.

Kanata, whose giggles subsided long enough to hear the short monologue, commented, "Or she just has a thing for miko."

There was no response, spoken or not; Kagami just followed her sister.

And, thus, the ghost's biggest weakness clawed its way out of her head; Kanata grew bored. Admittedly, though such a state of mind overcame the ghost quite easily, this rarely happened, as fourteen years of spending a third of the day staring at a sleeping child tends to teach one how to avoid this problem. It didn't take long for Kanata to create innovative ways to maintain her happiness at night; teasing her tether kept her sharp during the day, but Kagami had to sleep, after all.

Still, Kanata easily succumbed to boredom, and she hated it. "Hmph," she sounded, turning herself away from Kagami. No sound or sign of triumph emerged from the twintailed girl; it seemed she would carry through this time. "Stubborn girl."

By the time the trio entered the Hiiragi household, though, Kanata had slipped into her own thoughts, one of the many defenses against her most hated adversary, the Monotonous Tedium of Having Nobody with Whom to Talk.

This did not mean she was silent, however; only one person could hear her, after all, so she nearly always thought aloud. "I can't believe I never tried that before!" exclaimed the excided apparition rather suddenly, startling her only listener-she'd only been muttering before, a habit taken up when she needed to avoid waking her only tie to the corporeal world-and alerting Kanata ("Completely by coincidence, of course," she would later claim) to the end of her time in the metaphorical, metaphysical doghouse. That Kagami tripped over her own shoes and landed face-down in her house's entryway, though, made the ghost wince.

"Tsukasa!" Hiiragi Miki, the twins' mother called from somewhere nearby. "What did I say about watching your-Kagami?"

That, on the other hand, got Kanata's giggles going again.

"I'm fine," responded Kagami, with barely-discernable curtness, to her mother's and sister's shock and concern. The vein throbbing in her head promised pain for any annoyances, though, despite its owner's even tone.

Wisely, both Miki and Tsukasa fled.

"What the hell was that?" Kagami hissed with her ever-present talent of imbuing nearly silent sentences with anger.

"What was-oh," Kanata said, before losing herself again. Her attention, like her state of boredom, changed rather quickly, and she once again dived into her mind. "I wonder if I can eat in this form," the ghost thought aloud. "I'm surprised I never tried it before, though I suppose that-"

"You. Come. With. Me." More rage than Kanata thought could possibly be communicated in words filled the staccatoed sentence.

And, perhaps because she lacked a self-preservation instinct (she was dead, after all), Kanata's light laughter sparked once again at the wrath displayed on Kagami's face. Then…

Whack!

"Ow!"

"You two even respond the same way," Kagami muttered, lowering her hand.

"So you accept that I'm real?"

"No! How did you reach that conclusion?"

"You aren't being logical, Kaga-chan."

"Ghosts cannot exist. It's as simple as that."

"Then explain me."

"Maybe I saw Konata when we were really young." Kagami was growing desperate; she never used indefinite words like "maybe" if she could help it.

Kanata grinned triumphantly. "She spent most of her time in the hospital at my bedside, and she didn't look very much like she does now."

"You can't prove that, and my mind must have predicted how she would look in the future. It explains the differences."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, like the mole, ahoge, perpetually half-lidded eyes, annoying cat-grin…" she listed, then trailed off, staring at Kanata suspiciously. "What?"

A wide eyesmile had lit up the blue-haired woman's face, and she knew that Kagami knew what that meant. "Oh, nothing, just that you seem to have noticed quite a bit about my daughter. I wonder why that is, hm?"

An embarrassed blush bloomed across Kagami's face. "Sh-shut up!"

"Kagami?" the slightly tentative voice of Miki sounded from the kitchen. "Why are you still in the floor?"

AN: And cut! Thus ends the -Introduction- Arc of Of Galge and Imaginary Friends! I've also finally decided how I'm naming chapters: the initials of the Arc name followed by (if necessary) a number. For example, say that there were two Kagami -Introduction- chapters. In this case, they would be called Kagami -I01- and Kagami -I02-. Not only that, but, just for fun, I won't reveal what the Arc names are until the last chapter of that Arc. Anybody who can guess what they are will be recognized then and be given an invisible, metaphorical ghost cookie.

Furthermore, I decided on an update schedule. Up to this point, I've updated every two days, and I will continue doing so this week. However, it's currently my spring break, so school might just ruin my carefully-maintained streak. Therefore, I will try to keep a Tuesday-Friday schedule starting April 1.

Lastly, if I need to take a break for more than a week, I'll try to post filler a filler chapter, concerning aspects of the story not otherwise covered, each week I miss. These will be marked, Character Name -F[total number of filler chapters thusfar]-.

Thank you very much for last chapter's reviews, comments, favorites, and follows! Here's a preview for the next chapter, Chapter 4, Kagami -NA-:

Next time, in Of Galge and Imaginary Friends, somebody notices Kagami's behavior.

"You're not that clumsy, and you'd rather go to school half naked than have Matsuri see you like that, so will you please tell me what's going on?"