Kagami saw Jason and Konata leave the school building that afternoon... together, as usual. She could tolerate it, except for that they kept to themselves so much. She often felt like whatever topic they were discussing would change the moment they noticed she was around. Not that Kagami didn't know what it was they were hiding.
She had mentioned it to her before, how much Konata would overreact if she thought Kagami had overheard any of the conversation.... But Konata still wasn't admitting anything about their relationship. It was so obvious what was going on, did she really think nobody knew about it?
On this occasion, they weren't talking to each other at all as they walked out.
"Hey, you guys free after school today?" Kagami asked.
"Nah. I've got kendo team today," Jason said. "Maybe some other time."
"But of course, you don't have anything like that, do you, Konata?" Kagami said.
"Well, actually I just got a part time job, and I start working today."
"What? You got a...?"
"Yeah, I should get heading over there," Konata said. "I'll see you guys later, then?"
Kagami hadn't been expecting that. As Jason headed towards the gym and Konata left for the train to Akihabara, Kagami couldn't help but wonder... What kind of place would hire somebody like Konata?
Chapter 7
Don't It Feel Like Something From A Dream
This was actually more of her second part time job - not that anyone had to know that. And this one she was doing for the money. Sure, every night Konata was out there battling evil and saving lives, but that wasn't going to pay for her other hobbies.
She was dressed in a blue school uniform, almost like the Ryoo one but with some slight differences. She also had on a yellow hairband and a brigade leader sash on her left arm. She looked just like Haruhi, except her hair was longer... But management had been impressed with how well she could imitate Haruhi's voice and mannerisms.
Konata passed out the menus to her customers. She recognized them from school - Yamato Jiro and Kihara Yuji. "The first hour's going to be 800 yen. Enjoy," she said.
"Okay. Thanks," Jiro said as he looked over the menu.
Yuji was smiling. "This looks fun, I've never been somewhere like this before -"
"Now are you going to order something or just sit there?" Konata's voice had changed completely. The two boys stared at her, their eyes wide. "Come on! If you take too long it's the death penalty!"
"Huh? Wh- what? I haven't even gotten a chance to look at the menu!"
"Excuses, excuses! Your brigade leader commands you to wait here," she said. "And you better have decided by the time I get back!" With that, she left the two customers with their jaws open nearly to the floor in shock. In other words, a job well done.
A thought occurred to her. If her otaku knowledge was really what Eclipse seemed to like about her, then it was only a matter of time before they let her go into Haruhi's world, right? After all, you couldn't find a bigger fan of the show than Konata. She was perfect for it...
All she had to do was wait it out. Keep taking these missions, probably go to every other world of anime and video games that she had ever heard of... and before long they would trust her enough to let her meet Haruhi.
But until then... It was time to do their Hare Hare Yukai performance. She'd been practicing. She headed up to the stage.
The sky was clear the day of the festival. In the distance, you could hear the sound of the ocean waves, steadily beating against the coast. And of course, Leene's Bell was ringing to celebrate the Millennial Fair, up at the tip of a polished stone archway in the center of the square.
Konata stood on the steps, leaning on the handrail as she watched a boy with red spiky hair run straight into a girl, dressed in white with a blond ponytail. They were sending up event flags right there. And, Konata reminded herself, they actually were - this marked the beginning of a journey through time, to save the very existence of their world... although that wasn't what she was here for.
That was how it was supposed to work, or at least how Konata used to think it worked - heroes are drawn into a long, epic quest against a powerful enemy and all his minions, fighting for the greater good of mankind. And for some people, like those two over there, that was what happened.
For Konata, it was just more random missions in unrelated worlds each night. Was it wrong to wish for some long, drawn-out conflict against a rival organization or something? That would be so much more exciting.
The two were looking for the girl's necklace, which had fallen off. Konata had been watching it. She saw exactly where it had landed, but she still stood and watched. Once the boy found it, he gave it back to the girl and they set off together to enjoy the rest of the festival.
There it was - this was the beginning of Chrono Trigger, a great classic of a game and one of Konata's dad's favorites. If he knew where she was now, wouldn't he be impressed? And of course, if he knew what she was here for he'd probably be scared to death. But he didn't have to know about any of that.
Konata decided to leave this area. She was supposed to be asking around, gathering intel about... something or other. They hadn't even told her what it was. She saw one of the villagers walking past and decided to ask him. As good a place as any to start.
"Hey, uh... sir? Could I ask you something?"
"Certainly." He looked at Konata strangely, no doubt examining her armor and the sword on her back. A kodachi, which she had just bought from a merchant today. "You're not from around these parts, are you?"
"Great observation," Konata replied. Time to have the same conversation she had had with at least seven other villagers today. "I was actually wondering if... you know, anything strange has been going on?"
"Like what? People showing up to a festival fully armed for battle?"
"I have a good reason for that!" Geez, everyone she asked was always so put off by that. "Well, you see... There's this old... legend, I guess you could say. A portal to another dimension is supposed to open around here. I'm trying to figure out where that is, and if anything dangerous is coming from it."
Now the townsman was looking at her like he was absolutely certain she was insane. "Another dimension? You serious? You think things like that actually exist?"
"I suppose it's possible," Konata replied. And like every other person who asked if she "actually believed in crazy things like that" (that had been the usual phrasing they used) she wasn't allowed to say any more than that. Just some old legend, that's all. Not a mission briefing. And she definitely wasn't from one of those alternate dimensions herself, that was important too.
Konata already knew what he was going to say next. And just as she predicted, the next thing this man said to her was, "I'd check out what Lucca's been working on. Some sort of dimensional... transport device, or something like that. Says it'll 'teleport' stuff. Whatever that means."
"Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to check that out," she replied. Not like I've heard the same thing over and over again from everyone here.
Was that really all there was? She had played this game before, it was a great RPG, and all that happened with Lucca's teleporter was someone else's quest. And no sort of "interdimensional threat" appeared after it was used. Just a time hole. Still weird, but it was meant to happen. Fate, you could say.
"Interesting," Konata said. "I'll check that out."
It was so tiring getting the same responses from everyone she asked. Konata figured she might as well watch the demonstration, it would be better than nothing. But until that was ready, she decided to check out the rest of the festival.
There was just so much food... Mountains of it, in every place you looked. Konata laughed a bit, thinking about how much Kagami would love it here.
Although Kagami was such a realist all the time - she was always the one telling Konata that life wasn't an anime and all that. She just wouldn't be able to adapt to something like this. And Tsukasa? She had enough trouble figuring out just their own world, let alone any extra ones. Miyuki... Konata did love her moe-ness, but out here it wouldn't be any good. She had learned early on that the danger in these places was real.
No, none of them would ever be part of this.
As she was thinking over that, someone announced that the demonstration of the teleportation device was about to begin. There was a surprising lack of interest, although a few people started heading towards it. Konata decided to join them.
The machinery was set up in a small courtyard towards the north end of the festival grounds. Two large makeshift metal platforms were set up about ten feet apart, with some complex-looking control panels. They looked out of place, considering the relative lack of any technology around this place.
Konata saw Jason standing towards the back of the crowd. "Hey," she said as she went over to stand with him. "You came to watch, too? How'd the investigation go?"
"No luck. Everyone said that this was the only thing happening that was out of the ordinary, and like you said earlier... This is exactly what happens in the game, nothing we need to concern ourselves with," he said. "Usually when portals appear there's something leading up to them. They don't just come out of the blue. Somebody would have seen something..."
They watched as the red haired boy from earlier entered with the girl. He volunteered to test out the machine. Just as Konata had known he would. As he stepped into the first teleportation chamber, he seemed to evaporate... and appeared safely in the opposite chamber. He repeated it several times.
"Looks like it's working fine," Konata said.
"I suppose that's a good thing," Jason said. "But what was the mission report about, then?"
That was when the girl stepped up and decided to try it out.
"Watch this, it's going to react to her pendant and send her back in time..." Konata said. "This should be fun to see in person."
And, as she had predicted, a swirling blue portal opened up in the center of the courtyard, pulling the girl into it instead of to the other chamber. Everyone else in the audience who wasn't expecting it was shocked, and the red haired boy quickly went in after her.
The blue portal faded and closed, leaving no trace behind. There was silence in the courtyard, all of them shocked into silence except maybe Konata and Jason, who had expected this entirely.
"So that's it, then?" Konata said. "Nothing's happening. Let's go."
"Yeah... I'd say I was disappointed, but at least the festival's still okay, right?" Jason looked around, knowing that it was definitely not still okay, with the time portal opening up and taking away two people just like that. Lucca, the girl genius who had invented this whole apparatus, was working on the power systems furiously, trying to figure out what to do. "Maybe that's not quite the right choice of words, but... This was meant to happen."
"Yeah," Konata said. They turned to walk away, to find some isolated spot to warp back into Konata's own universe.
That was when there was a noise like lightning fizzling.
They turned around to see what appeared to be a portal opening again in the same spot, although it was red and moved chaotically. Lucca's face brightened up. "I think I got it - "
And then there was a howl. An unearthly, ear-shattering howl coming as if through a long tunnel.
As the portal took shape - although there was no shape to it, not really - a long, curved beak came out of it. That was the closest anyone could compare it to, it wasn't like any sort of animal's beak that Konata had ever seen.
"Hey, looks like we got our target," Jason said. He drew his weapon. Then, louder, he said, "Alright, everyone get away from here. Now." People were already leaving without anyone telling them to. Turning to Konata, who was frozen with shock, he told her, "Get your weapon ready. This one looks big."
Konata suddenly snapped back. "Wha- ? yeah. Okay." I really need to calm down... We can take this. Whatever it is.
The creature had left the portal, which was shrinking but had not entirely disappeared. It was unlike any sort of animal Konata had ever seen - real or fictional. It most closely resembled a bird, although it would have been a bird that was twenty feet tall, had an extra leg, had suffered third-degree burns all over its raw and pinkish body, and - maybe most disturbingly - did not have any eyes. It was stumbling around blindly, crashing into the scientific equipment and knocking one of the two teleportation portals to the ground.
"What the hell is this thing?" Konata said.
"Damned if I know," Jason said. "Just kill it." They were speaking loudly over the thing's pained screeching and clawing - and it heard them.
It turned its long neck towards them, and its beak stabbed down, missing Konata by inches as she jumped back.
"You okay?" Jason said.
"Yeah," Konata said. "I think it can hear us, but it can't see us."
The bird-thing turned towards her again, this time grazing by Konata's arm and leaving a long gash. She winced at the pain.
"You okay?" Jason said. They were used to taking some damage - no way that it could ever turn out as bad as Konata's first mission had been, that was for sure.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Hold it off for a while, alright?" She crouched down. Time to see if she remembered how to do this healing spell. As she passed her hand over the wound, it began to fade away gradually.
Jason stood by one of the control panels, clanging his sword against it which was enraging the enemy. Konata reminded herself that was all it was - just a boss enemy, albeit a large, disturbing-looking one that was not just an image on a screen. But a boss enemy all the same. It turned its attention to the noise, as Jason vanished and reappeared behind it to attack it from the rear.
"Let's double-team it," he said. "It's confused."
"Right!" As it turned towards Jason, on the other end of the courtyard, Konata also attacked it from the rear, following his example. It was good having an experienced player to help you out, wasn't it?
Now it whirled around again, almost comically. Konata waited for the right moment - as it tried to attack with its beak, she thrust the blade directly into its face. If you could call that a face. With an agonized squawk, it fell to the ground, one of the three legs twitching.
God, that thing was ugly.
"So... it's dead now, right?" she asked. Even when it was still, you still couldn't quite tell what it was. It definitely wasn't from Chrono Trigger - not even the mutants from the game were quite that disgusting.
"It would appear so. Nice work," Jason said.
"We're just going to leave it there?"
"I'm not touching that thing."
Konata could agree with that. Whatever universe it had stumbled in from, she hoped she would never have to go there. It was worse than the effects of nuclear radiation, genetic experiments... anything that was possible in the normal world, really.
Where had it come from?
"So you know that mission we did last night... I've always wondered why we don't use any sort of magic to erase memories of what we do. It seems like they always do that kind of thing when you read about it," Konata said.
It was after school the next day. They were waiting at the train station, which was largely vacant as usual at this time of day. It was quiet except for some cicadas buzzing. That sound always let you know when summer was almost here...
"That's a good question..." Jason replied. "They never told me that I have to. I guess I just never considered it."
"But wouldn't it be better if they didn't remember when creatures like... that thing... appeared? I thought the whole alternate universes thing was supposed to be, you know... secret," Konata said.
"Hey, I thought I might see you two here," Kagami suddenly said from behind them.
Konata whirled around in shock. "K-Kagami! How long have you been here?"
"I just got here... No need to have that look on your face. This is what I was talking about earlier, whenever I come up to you it's like you instantly drop your conversation."
"Well, yeah, b-but..."
"You're just talking about some anime or something, aren't you? Why do you get so nervous?" Kagami said.
Konata said nothing. That was what it sounded like, wasn't it? So there was nothing to worry about... There was no reason for any of her friends to suspect anything. It all sounded so crazy, anyway, if you didn't know it was for real.
"You're always wandering off on your own lately, and you've been acting so strange. You didn't even stop to talk to me after school today. What's with you lately?" Kagami really seemed worried. She was a good friend, but... If she ever found out what was really happening, Konata couldn't even imagine how she would react. Not to mention how Eclipse would react.
Kagami changed the subject. "Anyway, you said something about a part-time job yesterday? Me and Tsukasa just couldn't think what kind of place could possibly hire you."
"Oh, just a regular old cosplay cafe. You know," Konata said.
"Seriously...?" Kagami said flatly. "I guess I should have known it would be something like that. It's perfect for you."
"Yeah, it's really fun! Not to mention all the extra cash it brings in," Konata said. "I finally have enough to pay for all the new manga and games coming out."
"Or you could just stop buying so many copies of everything, and that would leave you with a lot more money..."
"Kagamin, you just don't get it at all, do you..." Konata shook her head and sighed. "Anyway, we're heading over to Gamers. You wanna come?"
"No thanks. You two... go do whatever it is you do."
The train pulled into the station. Once they were on, Konata said, "Speaking of my new job..."
Jason interrupted her. "What made you decide to go out and get a job, anyway? Just curious."
"Well, I was reading that part in the manga where I decided to get a job, and I thought it sounded like a good idea, you know? So I decided to do it."
"You decided to get a job because you read about yourself doing that in a manga based on events in your life which haven't happened yet..."
"That's not against any rules, is it?"
"No, I'm just trying to wrap my head around it."
"Okay. Anyway, I found out I do a pretty good imitation of Haruhi's voice. I didn't even know I could do that. And it got me thinking... who does my voice on the anime of Lucky Star? I mean, it's probably some person I've never heard of, but..."
Jason looked over at her. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you it was Aya Hirano, would you..." he said.
She laughed. "Of course not. How could she? I mean, she's part of this universe too, isn't she? Who really does my voice?"
"Well..."
Suddenly Konata realized he was serious. "You mean... Aya Hirano plays me in the anime? That's just... crazy, and yet... totally amazing!" She could hardly sit still. "She exists in other worlds?"
"Of course. Considering all the possible worlds out there, there's hundreds of copies of just about everyone."
Konata was beaming. That was understandable, considering she had just discovered her voice actress was her idol. Jason couldn't help but wonder how she could be so much of an otaku that knowing her life was all considered fictional wasn't a problem for her. Konata was just ecstatic to find out new things about her manga and anime, not to mention her fandom. She didn't even realize just how much of an icon she herself was.
"Hmm... you know what else I just realized?" she said suddenly.
"What's that?"
"Well, with my new job at the cafe, and with my organization membership... Not to mention the mission last night took place in 1000 A.D., that would make me..."
"Yeah?" Jason couldn't see where she was going with this.
"A battle waitress from the future!" Konata exclaimed.
He was silent for a moment, and then burst out laughing. "Oh my god, you're right. Now you're just like Mikuru Asahina..."
Konata was one of those people who truly enjoyed their lifestyle.
