Disclaimer: Oh look, another disclaimer.
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Ryoo High School.
In what could be her most frustrating weekend to date, Kagami was pretty much obliged to indulge all that she was hiding in terms of her new career to her family and friends. They all knew that she was now a voice actor. They all knew that she voiced the character of AA-ko-chan in the OVA production of Q-ko-chan: The Animation. They also knew that she is currently voicing another main character, Lucy, of the new anime Fairy Tail based on the popular manga of the same name.
First she had to endure the usual questions from her sisters and parents (those were bearable). Questions like: Does it take long to record an episode? Do you get a script with every episode? How many takes do you usually do? How are the other voice actors like? Those kinds of questions. She had to admit though, it felt almost liberating getting everything off her chest. Like an enormous weight disappeared. She felt...good.
But then there were the kind of questions that could only come from the mind of totally obsessed otaku that were Konata, Patricia, and Hiyorin. Kagami was simultaneously dreading but wholly expecting this day to come. And on that Monday lunch hour her usual crowd of four was suddenly a little larger.
"So did they make you do voice work for some pervy erogame before you got this gig?" asked Hiyori.
"No," replied Kagami, chewing on a dumpling from her bento.
"How about a dating sim?" asked Patricia.
"No, I didn't do that either."
"Oh you two," butted in Konata. "Kagamin would never do stuff like that!"
"Thank you, Konata," said Kagami with an appreciative sigh. Konata, as a friend, was coming through for her.
"She probably started doing the voice of a maiden character in some low-budget hentai flick that's sold in specialty stores. Erogames and dating sims are still pretty mainstream in comparison, and our shy little Kagamin would wanna start out with something small and low-brow, isn't that right Kagam--"
The chopstick in Kagami's hand audibly cracked. Konata and the rest sweat-dropped nervously.
Most people who know their anime know that most seiyuu struggle to get a good mainstream job the first time. Often, when desperate for cash, freelancing seiyuu would take jobs in, shall we say, a more shady market. Though a perfectly legitimate industry, pornography was the last thing any self-respecting seiyuu would want to participate in but it does however give them good experience and it pays rather well. Also, seiyuus are allowed to trade their names for aliases while in production to protect their professional reputations.
Many of today's popular seiyuus have their roots in pornographic animation and games. Some, who have grounded their staying power in the entertainment industry, have publicly revealed this fact, along with the aliases they used. While many fans wouldn't mind any of this (and in fact, many fans actually show a degree of respect and admiration to those who admitted their roots) there are still those parents and groups that think once you're dirty you're never clean.
Kagami knew what Konata and the others were getting at and she was lucky that her very first voice acting gig was in a "clean" production and that's what she's continuing with this second gig as well. As the daughter of a priest and a shrine maiden herself, she felt she was obliged to keep her career as clean as possible.
"Oy, oy, relax, Kagamin. We were only kidding around,"
"I know," said Kagami with a calm voice. "But that doesn't stop it from annoying me."
"So Q-ko-chan was really you're first acting job, huh? Lucky for you. I suspect you'll become quite famous for this."
As they have told Kagami, Q-ko-chan as the manga was not exactly what you'd call mainstream but over the years have developed it's own little cult following. The animated OVA based on it was released to much positive reviews from critics and enjoyed rather successful sales rates. Something the blossoming Studio Peach needed to establish itself in the industry. Now with Fairy Tail on the way, everyone knew that the new studio was now growing tremendously and wasn't stopping for breath. And with it, Kagami's career.
"She'll probably have to go to a number of press conferences for this and do a whole bunch of interviews," said Hiyori. "Then fan sites of her will probably spread all over the net. You'll get your picture on magazines like Newtype, they might even put you on the cover! Then, soon, you'll release your own song album and--"
Kagami shut her up by stuffing a dumpling in her mouth. "You're getting carried away there, Tamura-san. I'm nearly that famous, and I'm not gonna be for quite a while...and that's if I actually decide to continue this voice acting thing for the long haul."
Suddenly, all three otaku were right in her face with disapproving looks. "No! You can't do that!" they all exclaimed.
Kagami sweat-dropped. This must be how Emiri Kato feels, she thought.
"Kagamin, being a seiyuu is an honorable occupation!" exclaimed Kagami. "You should never quit! You must keep this art form alive!"
"Yeah! You have no idea how many people would kill to have your job, Hiiragi-sama!" said Patricia (Kagami thought: Oh, so just because I'm a seiyuu now it's "Hiiragi-sama" now?)
Hiyori finished eating the dumpling Kagami fed her and said "Yeah! Besides it's not like there's anybody at work that you hate, right?"
Kagami was taken aback by that last statement. Only stuttering came out of her moth as she had a bit of a hard time finding the right words to say. On single person popped into her head. Her fiends noticed this and found it quite curious. They were about to ask her about it when someone else cut-in.
"Oi, oi, oi! You guys annoying Hiiragi-san again?" said Kuroi-sensei. "Lunch is almost over. Izumi, get back to your seat. Martin-san and Tamura-san, you should get back to your classrooms. You too, Hiiragi-san."
"Um, yes. Thank you, Kuroi-sensei." Kagami started to get up and get back to her own classroom, thankful that Kuroi-sensei saved her butt again. There was just some things she didn't want to think about in the company of her closest friends. However, as she was reached the classroom door...
"Oi, Hiiragi," called Kuroi-sensei quietly.
Kagami turned around with a curious look. "Yes, sensei?"
Kuroi-sensei was giving her a weird smile and was holding out a DVD of Q-ko-chan that she kept hidden in her folder. "Can you give me your autograph on this. This thing is bound to become valuable the more famous you get. Oh, and good job by the way."
Kagami's hand slapped her forehead. "...Kami-sama..."
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Studio Peach.
Right after school, Kagami went straight to work. That was her usual schedule for the week. For that particular day she came to work rather exasperated. Her little episode with Konata and her otaku group really brought to home what it's like to be famous for something. With the commercial success of Q-ko and the predicted to be a success anime series Fairy Tail she got the feeling that this was something she might have to get used to. She continued to enjoy doing voice over work and continued to improve as well so there was plenty of professional satisfaction to be had. But of course there were still those times when even enjoyable work wouldn't keep her spirits up.
"You seem down today," said Tetsuya, walking up to a exhausted looking Kagami. "Anything happen in school?"
"Not really. It's just my friends," replied Kagami in her usual exasperated tone. "They found out about my job. Well, I guess that's to be expected, considering how those guys are hardcore otakus and everything. They would've found out eventually."
Tetsuya visibly winced. Kagami took that to mean that he had his own personal experiences with hardcore otaku.
"So we're getting famous, are we?" he said with a wry smile. "Hope you won't let that get to your head."
Tetsuya was a bit surprised when Kagami simply smiled back. "Well, I think you can forgive me for letting it get to my head a little bit. I mean, I love how my sisters are saying I'll become a celebrity now and got a bit jealous about it too."
Tetsuya was silent. He had this look of curiosity and subtle surprise.
Kagami had to hide her amusement. She tilted her head slightly as if to question his lack of response. "What?"
"I wasn't expecting you to answer like that."
"Well, it's true. I can have my own share of pride every now and then. I don't care if people think I'm being prissy about it. I believe I deserve it. Don't you think so, Shimakage-san?"
Tetsuya slowly started to form a smile on his face. "Does that pride extended to your oh so amazing skills?"
"I'll admit I'm not perfect and I do feel my voice acting can be a bit dry sometimes. Guess you were right about me."
"...Really?"
"Omori-san was right to assign you to be my voice acting coach. I was foolish to think that I could progress well on my own at a fast enough pace. I mean, I wouldn't even have this job now if it weren't for you helping the first time around. And I still let my pride got in the way despite that and tried to ignore you all through out the last couple of weeks. I guess I can't really blame you for teasing me so much."
Tetsuya didn't move for about a second then he started looking around worriedly. Kagami noticed this, put on a slightly annoyed look, and asked "What are you doing?"
"You just admitted I was right," said Tetsuya, "there must be a quake coming or something."
There he goes again, was Kagami's first thought but a half-second later she picked up on something. Kagami didn't feel his usual amount of barely held back scorn in the comment. He was teasing her no doubt but it was actually...friendly this time around. No hint of malice. He was just being playful.
And Kagami suddenly found herself forming a small smile unconsciously. As if she liked this new reaction from him. At the back of her head she found that little detail weird. She told herself it was because she was expecting the usual 'i-told-you-so' reaction and it caught her off-guard. That's why she found it weird. After all, it's not like she was looking for his approval...wasn't she?
The thought became persistent in her head before she knew it. And for some strange reason it brought a barely noticeable red glow to her face. Kagami was aware she was blushing slightly and instinctively turned her head away. Tetsuya didn't seem to pay much mind to the gesture.
Tetsuya was about to make the suggestion that they should get to the recording booth to at least rehearse their lines a bit when a commotion at one end of the floor caught their, and actually everybody else's, attention.
There was a young woman, dressed in such a manner that made sure you knew she was as important as she thought she was, was arguning with a bunch of staff members over something. The young woman was in a tirade, practically billowing steam from her ears. The argument was loud enough that Kagami could hear some of it faintly but far away enough that she couldn't understand any of what they were saying. "Who's that?"
She turned to Tetsuya who was giving the young woman a somewhat disgusted look. Kagami had never seen that look on him before. It was kind of frightening for some reason. "Never mind that woman," he said. "She's not someone we need to worry about. Let's just go rehearse our lines in the studios."
"Um...sure, I guess."
Kagami got up to follow Tetsuya as he started moving in the direction of the recording studios which is where they both did most of their work. Kagami looked back one last time at the angry young woman who was already attracting quite a lot of attention to herself. She decided to take Tetsuya's advice and ignore her. Kagami turned her head away.
However, the moment Kagami turned her head away was the exact moment the angry young woman turned her head towards her. Someone she was talking to (more like yelling at) pointed to Kagami and the angry young woman spotted her without a needing a second she needed to see was that school uniform.
"Hey you in the school uniform!" she exclaimed.
Kagami heard that and instantly stopped in her step. She though, no way could she be talking to me! She had to make sure so she turned around. The moment she did, the angry young woman was so close to her, she completely filled her view, causing Kagami to nearly fall back in surprise. Tetsuya turned around as well with a look of frustration on his face, as if he knew this was not going to end well.
Up close, Kagami could better study the young woman's features. High fashion blouse and skirt under an authentic leather trench coat and designer high-heels. Flawless facial features accented by meticulously applied make-up. Long, curly, blond hair. Yup, thought Kagami, definitely upper-class stuff. She was also slightly taller than Kagami by about half a head and Kagami estimated about four years older.
"So your the girl in the school uniform everybody's been talking about, huh?" said the woman, giving Kagami a condescending look.
Kagami momentarily wondered why she mentioned her uniform and what it could matter. Then she remembered. Because she always came to work after school, she always came in her school uniform, not really bothering to change into casual clothes mainly because it was too inconvenient to pack and it wasn't like her uniform would get messed up (except for that one very rainy day last week but that's another matter). As a result, she actually developed a bit of a reputation around the studio being always recognizable due to her school uniform. Kagami assumed that's how the woman recognized her, if by nothing else.
"You got some nerve, you know that!?" the woman was practically screaming to Kagami.
The high school student managed to stand her ground but just barely. Kagami's head jerked back in surprise at this woman's apparently misplaced rage. What the heck was going on here? What was her problem? Kagami searched the woman's expression for answers but couldn't find any. Only more anger.
"Um...excuse me?" asked Kagami, trying to sound docile.
"Who do you think you are?! You think you can just walk up here and take my gig like this? You had absolutely no right! I ought to have you arrested for this!"
"Wait, hold on. I don't even know you, miss."
"Don't know me?! I'm only the person whose job you stole!"
This time, Tetsuya moved in. "That's enough Natsume-san. You have no right to blame Hiiragi-san for this."
Kagami was slightly taken aback when Tetsuya called this strange woman by name. "You know her, Shimakage?"
Tetsuya turned to Kagami with an exasperated look. "Sort of. She's Yoko Natsume. She's also a voice actor that works here."
"Really? Which production?"
"She was the original cast for the voice of AA-ko-chan in the Q-ko-chan OVA production. However she didn't show up to the scheduled recording sessions because of personal reasons. She was also originally cast to play Lucy, the character you're playing, in the ongoing Fairy Tail anime production but again, didn't show up for recordings. During the rare occasions she did show up, she was...hard to work with. Essentially, Hiiragi, you replaced her."
Kagami's eyes went wide. This was the woman who was she replaced. She hadn't thought much about it before, that there was someone assigned to her jobs before her.
"She's replacing nobody!" exclaimed 'Natsume-san' so that everyone can hear. "She doesn't deserve to be here!"
Tetusya turned to Natsume with a very perturbed look on his face. "Excuse me? What makes you think you can say that about Hiiragi, huh? You, who couldn't even show up half the time due to personal reasons. What are those reasons anyway? Too lazy to get out of bed?"
Natsume turned her wrath onto Tetsuya now with a glare. Kagami was getting uncomfortable. Natsume closed the distance between her and Tetsuya. "Are you telling me this girl is better than me?!"
"Oh, definitely! No doubt!" he replied without the slightest hesitation of hint of bluff. Natsume was a bit taken aback but Kagami's face turned red. Did he really mean that? "Hiiragi has a way better professional attitude."
"She's a hack! She's probably never even had professional training before!"
"That doesn't matter. She's doing an excellent job and she does it with a true professional attitude. Honestly, I've never met anyone with a more professional attitude than her. You could stand to learn from her, Natsume-san."
"You're gonna have to do better than that to explain to me why someone who doesn't even have professional training can take my place like this?"
"Do I have to spell it out? Hiiragi is more professional, naturally talented, very adaptive, works well under pressure, dedicated to her work, very cooperative and social--"
Kagami was turning very red. Darn it! Stop complementing me! She didn't know why he was doing this. Maybe it was mainly to make Natsume angry. That's what she concluded and that was the only logical explanation for it. There's no way he would complement her like this and meant it. Right?
"--and that's the truth!" concluded Tetsuya. Kagami, to her own surprise, tried to search his face for any hint of dishonesty. Any hint that he was just doing this for spite of Natsume. But she couldn't find any. His face was firm and his eyes sharp. He wasn't lying.
Natsume looked angry but slowly her scowl turned to a smirking grin. "Just like another hack to defend one of his own, huh?"
Tetsuya hesitated by only the slightest bit when he answered back. "W-What do you mean by that?"
"Let's not forget who was a total amateur only some time ago as well."
Tetsuya did not answer straight away. He was tense and defensive. He knew where Natsume was going with this and he didn't like it. She always did this when she wanted to get her way with him. When she wanted him to shut up.
"The only reason you were hired was for the sake of convenience. No-one was available at the time and you just happened to be in the vicinity job-hunting. If Omori-san wasn't so nice, you probably would have had to get on your knees and beg for this job. You think you'll last long here? In this industry? You little wise-ass. The studio just needed you to get off the ground. Soon they'll get rid of you and will quickly decide to get better voice actors. Both you and this little hack girl over here. Mark my words, you'll--"
"Will you just shut up!" Kagami was suddenly in between Tetsuya and Natsume, separating the two. She was glaring straight into Natsume's eyes, the fear from before now completely gone, replaced by plain ol' anger.
"Where do you get off coming down on other people like that?" exclaimed Kagami. "I've barely met you five minutes and already I can tell that you are no professional. You have no right to say those things to Shimakage, you hear me?"
"You're actually defending this jerk?"
"He deserves to be defended. He's worked really hard up to this point and no one can fault him for that."
"You can't seriously be saying some jerkish, unlikable, wannabe upstart like this guy?"
"Yes, I am. Because it's the truth! And so what if he's a little jerkish and a bit of a wise-ass sometimes? I like him just fine!"
A beat. Another beat.
It took quite a while before what Kagami said registered in her own mind. It didn't take nearly half that time for her face to turn completely red. Tetsuya was looking at her from behind with the kind of expression a doctor gives to a patient who swallowed his own cellphone. Natsume just plain ol' stared.
Another familiar female voice: "Alright, that's enough! All of you!"
The three seiyuu looked to the side and saw Aoi standing only a couple of meters away, hands on her hip in a gesture of obvious annoyance. Natsume jumped at the chance to talk to her first before anyone else. "Omori-san. Good thing you're here. I want to talk to you about--"
"Quiet, you. I don't want to hear anymore whining from you considering that all you've been doing is slacking off and much of your work is under par."
"What? but--"
"Zip it, missy!" That, and a sharp glare, kept Natsume quiet. "I didn't catch most of that little spat between you guys but I heard enough to know that two people are in the right here. Can you guess who, Yoko-san?"
Natsume stayed quiet. She tried to say something back but the aura emanating from Aoi was impenetrable. She almost couldn't bear looking into Aoi's eyes.
"But like you said, I'm nice...too nice actually," continued Aoi. "Testsuya may have been right about you but I'm not gonna totally fire you just yet. If you want another shot at this career, I'll give it to you. But it will be on my terms and not yours. I don't care if you did go to a voice acting school. I don't care that your uncle also happens to be a chairman of this company. If you jeopardize anymore productions by not staying to the schedule, I will cut you off...completely. Understood?"
Natsume didn't answer right away. "I want an answer, young lady," demanded Aoi.
Eventually Matsume gave a subdued, almost mute, "Yes." It wasn't much but Aoi took it anyway. "Good. Now wait in my office. We'll have tons of stuff to discuss."
Natsume, knowing she was defeated, didn't wait another second to be embarrassed any further and quickly walked away from the scene. The moment she was gone, Aoi let out a sigh of both relief and exasperation. She then looked up at Tetsuya and Kagami who stood there with confused looks on their faces. Aoi gave them a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry," said Aoi. "I'll take care of Yoko-chan over there. Despite what you think, she's still valuable to us and has some potential. You two just concentrate on your own work for now."
With that, Tetsuya and Kagami both gave their respective yeses. Aoi took their responses and made her way to her office. Around them, the rest of the people in the hall who got interested in the commotion also started getting back to whatever they were doing. The two were left on their own and soon started off towards the recording studio where they would do their voice work for the day.
The whole walk there, both avoided eye contact as much as possible.
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Some time later.
The sun was just about to set and the sky above was turning from a rich blue to a deep orange. With work done for the day, both Kagami and Tetsuya walked out of Studio Peach in order to start their daily short journeys for home. Out onto the side walk, Kagami and Tetsuya exchanged the usual farewells of the day and Kagami headed for the train station as usual.
Beneath her calm exterior her mind was running wild with thoughts of what happened earlier just before recording started. That incident with Natsume-san was still very fresh in her head. She remembered everything, particularly the things that were said. Particularly, the things Tetsuya said. Particularly, the things she said. Unconsciously, she blushed again. And, also unconsciously, before she could control herself, she looked back to look at him.
That's when she noticed that he was waiting to cross the street. That was not his usual way home. His apartment was a few blocks down the same street from the studio and not the opposite one. Curiosity piqued and Kagami called out to him.
"Hey! Shimakage!"
Tetsuya turned around to acknowledge her. "What is it?"
"You going somewhere? Isn't your apartment that way?" She pointed down the street.
"Oh. Yeah, I need to visit the grocery store down that way," he pointed down the opposite street. Kagami knew which store he was talking about. It was the same store she went to to buy onions on the day they met for the first time. "I'm out of food at home. Need to buy some more or else I'll have no dinner tonight."
"Oh...I see."
Kagami turned her sights to the side and Tetsuya would've taken that as the end of it but he noticed that Kagami was deep in thought. There was something she wanted to say, something she wanted him to know but it seemed that she was hesitating in saying it. Tetsuya patiently waited and after a moment or two Kagami looked back towards him.
"Have dinner with me," she said.
Tetsuya blinked. It took a moment for that to sink in. "Huh?"
"I want to treat you to dinner today. Even though I got this job, my mom still gives me an allowance even though I tell her I don't need it anymore so I got cash to spare so..." Kagami trailed off. He eyes averted him and found something to look at at the sidewalk. He cheeks started to turn red.
Tetsuya blinked again. He explored her expression, he stance. Was she serious about this? He noticed that she held her hands together behind her back and that one foot was unconsciously digging into the pavement. Definite signs alright, he told himself. She was anxious, waiting. At the last, she shyly looked up to him with almost pleading eyes.
At that moment, he found it absolutely impossible to say no.
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Author's note: Took a while but I do have an excuse. My computer went bust on a lot of things and it took me a while to fix it and find the replacement parts. That took the better part of a week and totally put me out of the mood for any writing. But I persevered. And now here's chap 10. As usual pls. R&R.