2nd Extra Chapter:
Columba
28th of May Middle School Junior Year
The alarm clock went off later than the usual six o'clock, it was a Saturday – a day to rest for most people and for Midori, but today she would be rather busy shopping. She had to buy cosplay materials, the next anime and manga conventions – her first one in Tokyo – would in about little less than a month from today. she wanted to go to the convention with a brand new cosplay and with the things she heard about Tokyo, finding the cosplays would be easy.
Sitting up on her bed, Midori turned the noisy alarm clock off. She looked around at her room. Anime figures of some of her favorite anime characters decorated the small table beside her bed. Yoko from Gurren Lagan, Saber from Fate/Stay Night, Nanonha from Nanoha Magical Lyrical Girl were the three on her beside. On her study table, there was a few more, Megumi from Burst Angel, Black Rock Shooter and Yuki Nagato from Haruhi, but her most prized figure was the one of the Kumiko Tezuka the stoic captain of the main team of the anime The Princess of Lacrosse, Hyoushun Gakuen or Hyougaku for short.
On the wall there were small shelves, filled with manga series that she had completed such as Busou Renkin, Hellsing, Lovely Complex and Card Captor Sakura.
"Hm… Maybe I should cosplay as Kumiko," mused Midori as she got up and changed into a simple white dress and matching shoes.
She then left her room and headed down to the kitchen where her mother was preparing her breakfast. She entered the kitchen to see her mother making some steamed rice for her and her father was sitting at the table, reading the newspaper.
"Good morning Mom, good morning dad," greeted Midori.
"Good morning Midori," said her father.
"Good morning sweetie," said her mother, putting her rice bowl on the table.
While her mother and father chatted about the everyday things Midori distracted herself with eating the rice and thinking about what to buy. Kumiko Tezuka had short dark green hair, wore glasses and wore her lacrosse clothes, short sleeved shirt with blue and white; and white shorts. It would very simple to find the costume for the captain; Princess of Lacrosse was a very popular anime and manga series after all.
Breakfast ended and Midori grabbed her bag, time to go and buy her materials for the cosplay. She wouldn't want to see her friends, Sato, Nakano or Hirano, she hadn't really told them that she cosplayed, she hadn't even told her friend Nao when she lived in Kobe. She had no idea how they would react and in her mind, she didn't really think that they would like to see that she cosplayed.
Midori sighed to herself as she made her way to the train station, close to the heart of Tokyo was a store that she looked up in the internet. She looked at the list which she wrote down, wig, glasses, and the uniform. That was not to mention the very specific hair clip that Kumiko Tezuka used – a black strip with a lacrosse stick image embedded.
Reaching the train station, Midori waited for train patiently, looking to the sides once in a while to see if there was any familiar person around. Fortunately for her, no one familiar was around and the train arrived. Hopping on the train, Midori sat down on one of the available seats.
After a while, Midori was very near to the heart of Tokyo, in the shopping mall where the store was. Walking through the mall, Midori found the store. It pretty large and the selections were wide; they even had almost of all sizes also, from very large to petite sizes. The aisles were long and displayed the hung costumes.
Picking through the female section, Midori found the one she was looking for. She searched for the one with her size and tried it on. It fit perfectly. The next item was the wig. The store also had the wig, but the only item that she needed that it did not have was the hair clip. She took everything to the cashier and paid for the items.
A morning well spent. She had found most of her items and the hair clip could always be bought later, after all, the convention was a little less than a month away, more than enough time to find the clip.
Having taken the train back to her neighborhood, Midori was walking home, eager to check for any details that she may have missed on her cosplay and also to find a place in the section of her closet that accommodated her cosplays. She passed in front of the tennis park, the same one where the ice cream vendor sold his ice cream.
Pock!
It seemed like someone was playing a tennis match.
Pock!
"Lucky~!"
Midori blinked. She could recognize that 'Lucky~!' anywhere. Sengoku was probably playing a tennis match here. Stopping in her tracks, Midori bit her lips in silent debate whether she would go to watch the match and maybe chat a bit with Sengoku, or if she walked directly home. It ended up that she went to watch the match.
Reaching the tennis court, Midori stopped close to the fence, Sengoku's back to her. Sengoku was there alright, wearing brown pants, a white shirt and a green coat with some orange and white lines. He was playing against another boy, apparently younger than him, who wore a blue pants, deep purple shirt and a light blue jacket with white details. An unusual detail about the boy was that he wore sunglasses while he played tennis.
"Muromachi-kun, you seemed to have gotten better since last time," commented Sengoku.
The young boy threw up the tennis ball and hit the racket. A serve. Sengoku returned it with ease. The rally continued until Sengoku gave a drop shot, forcing Muromachi to the net, before Sengoku followed with a smash, gaining the point.
"And that's game and set," said Sengoku.
Muromachi was on the floor, panting. Midori observed silently as Sengoku walked over to the boy to help him up.
"Thank you for the compliment Sengoku-senpai," said Muromachi.
"Continue improving and practicing, you'll end up in one of the regular's position," continued Sengoku, giving Muromachi an approving smile.
Midori smiled to herself. It had just been confirmed that Sengoku genuinely cared about others, just like she thought a few days back when they had talked to each other in the park. She watched as the two boys made their way to their tennis bags. Almost right after they started putting their rackets away, Sengoku noticed Midori.
"Hey, hey Hisaku-chan~!" greeted the orange haired boy, hopping, almost skipping right over to her.
Midori nodded and replied "Hello Sengoku-kun," greeted Midori.
The young boy looked curiously at the two but that changed when the tennis ace gestured for him to come over to them.
"Hisaku-chan this is Muromachi Touji one of the members of the tennis club," introduced Sengoku "Muromachi-kun this is Hisaku Midori, one of the girls in my class."
Midori mentally sighed, a little upset of the way he referred to her. Maybe they hadn't really become friends yet. Maybe if she just spent a little more time with him, maybe even talking to him after school, they could become friends rather fast, just maybe. Then again, she didn't want to look like she was trading her friendship with Nakano, Hirano or Sato for his friendship.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Hisaku-senpai," said Muromachi, bowing in respect.
"There's no need to bow," said Midori, smiling a bit.
"Hisaku-chan, did you go buy some new things today?" asked Sengoku, eyeing the bags.
Midori blinked before quickly hiding the bags behind her bag so neither the two could see the contents. She gave a nervous laugh.
"Y-Yes, just some new clothes you see," replied Midori.
"Cute clothes~?" teased Sengoku.
Midori felt her cheeks become red with the teasing. He just enjoyed doing that to her didn't he?
"Ja, ja let's go get the ice creams," chuckled Sengoku at the sight of flustered Midori.
The three made their way to the ice cream vendor. Muromachi bought a vanilla-flavored ice cream, Midori a chocolate-flavored ice cream and Sengoku a mint-flavored ice cream. The three sat down on a nearby bench.
"Muromachi-san wants to become a tennis regular?" asked Midori, licking her ice cream.
"Yes senpai, I've been working very hard, but… Maybe I'll only become one next year," replied Muromachi.
"But Muromachi-kun, you have to be positive and sure that you'll reach your goal in order to reach it," said Sengoku, encouraging the freshman.
"Really, Sengoku-senpai?"
"That and always follow your horoscopes," completed Sengoku.
"I still can't believe you follow those things," muttered Muromachi.
Midori chuckled at the two. The three chatted about quite a few things, ranging from school, sports and recent movies that were coming out. Sengoku seemed to be pretty hyped about the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie coming out. Midori listened to Sengoku talk and talk about the movie when she remembered; today was latest episode of Princess of Lacrosse! She had to get home fast.
Quickly getting up, she apologized to the two and left, running home with the bags, hoping that she wouldn't miss her favorite anime.
Author's Notes: 2nd filler chapter, this time showing more of Midori's fan side. And yes, all the pop culture references were intentional, even the Princess of Lacrosse (hint hint~). I find this chapter to be a little more dull compared to the other chapters, oh well~.
In reply to the anon, I'll use Sengoku's motto: 'Fortune telling is random, getting it right is fate and getting it wrong is fate.' That fortune telling could technically be wrong as it could be technically right. He was lucky when it came to friendship, but maybe not in love. You decide for yourself.
And for the reviewer Raf Kowalski, yes all of the main chapter names coincide with the dates where the sign rules, that's one of the reasons for the amount of timeskips. ;) Lucky~
Ah~, and one last message, this time for everyone who is following me. School will start next week, so this will probably be a long hiatus until about April. So I hope you all are patient and stay waiting for the next update~!
