Yeah, it's been a while, I had been planning to get out a new A Real Life Lucky Star, but I REALLY didn't like how I typed it. I tried typing it so many different ways, and even stretched the truth a little, but it all just sounded REALLY bad and dumb. Also I really wanted to get this typed up. Next chapter I get out should either be ARLLS, or Quarter Life, because I've kinda pushed that back also. Now, in one of the next two chapters I'm gonna bring something back that no one was expecting. First Person POV from Kagami! Yes, everyone remembers the whole "Kagami said to the audience" thing that I used during Runaway Otaku, and how horrible it sounded. Well since I started writing The War Inside My Head (I also really need to get back to that too.) I've figured out where I went wrong at doing the first person POV, and now know what to do! There will also be some Acsuperman references in the next chapter, and also this chapter! Now for this chapter it's gonna be a bit longer than I had originally planned. This has been a chapter that I had planned since before I had the idea for the Barricades, or Shi. I had originally planned to have it be one chapter, but it'll actually have to move into 2. Also expect some more singing, I have 2 songs that are going to mix in with my Acsuperman reference, and a song that IS a reference. Now for the songs that aren't an Acsuperman reference, I'll name now. They're going to be Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Mis, and Bring on the Men from Jeykll and Hyde (Yes, I'm still doing Jeykll and Hyde). Now if you HAVENT seen the new Les Mis movie, which is amazing by the way, then it sucks for you, watch it. For those who did, (SPOILER) it's the song that Marius sings back at the building in front of the barricade after everyone was killed. Well I've run out of things to ramble on about. Enjoy!
Miki Hiiragi stood in her kitchen, cooking dinner for her family, while her two oldest daughters were out with friends, and her two youngest were at home. The youngest twin was in the living room watching the television, while the oldest was upstairs talking to Konata. Ever since Tsukasa's depression started to set in, the entire family seemed extremely distant. The twins didn't have as good of a bond, and Tsukasa even stopped clingy to her mother's side as much as she used to. Miki felt like the world she knew was starting to slowly break apart, and it was starting to take a toll on her. Even though she was only a stay at home mom, she still couldn't handle the amount of stress she was undergoing. Her eyes were baggy, and she was starting to put on a bit of weight. Her husband, Tadao, was starting to feel some pressure too. He was getting slower at work, and wasn't able to take care of the Shrine like he used to be able to. Miki married her husband over 20 years ago, but she had never known him to do anything but his best, so to see him slacking was a rare and serious occurrence.
Suddenly, the pot that was on the stove started to boil so she ran over to it, which gave her a small view of the living room, and her youngest daughter.
Tsukasa was sitting on the couch, watching the news, which were talking about the newest repairs to Ryoo High School.
"The High School has been around for about 30 years now without repair, and the newest discovery of an underground level that was sealed up makes the school board worry about it's ability to take the weight of the school above it. The school will be paying..." the reporter said on the news, but Tsukasa couldn't keep her attention on the screen, she was looking down at the bow she had in her hands, the same one she had worn every day for the past twelve years, since the day she got it.
Twelve years ago
It was the first day of school for the Hiiragi twins. They were now six years old and old enough to enter their first day of Elementary School, and the oldest twin was as excited as ever to start her new school, make friends and learn all sorts of new things she never knew before.
At the front of the group, Kagami gripped her father's hand and was pulling him as fast as she could towards the school. "Hurry up, daddy! Today's the big day!"
"Yes, yes, Kagami. Slow it down though, the school isn't going anywhere." Tadao said calmly with nostalgic happiness for his daughter. "You've been looking forward to this day for awhile, haven't you, Kagami?"
"I sure have!" Kagami began to pant as they neared the school. "I can't wait to start learning and to make new friends!"
Behind them were Miki and Tsukasa, who clung to her mother like a leech, crying the whole way there. Unlike her sister, Tsukasa was afraid of leaving her mother, who she had clung to and hardly got more than thirty feet away from for her entire life.
When the family reached the front gate, Kagami was more than happy to go inside, while Tsukasa tried desperately to get away, but to no avail. The young girl then looked up into her mother's eyes, and continued crying, as she managed to speak in-between the constant tears.
"Mommy…please don't make me go." She cried and continued to gasp for air between chokes. "I promise I'll be a good girl. Please don't leave me, mommy. I love you."
Miki almost died seeing her daughter so sad, but she knew that she had to let her go, or else she wouldn't go to school like she needed to. Miki then turned around, bent down, and gave Tsukasa a big hug, which made the girl calm down a little, before moving back.
"Now don't make such a fuss, Tsukasa." She said, looking straight into the small girl's eyes. "School is going to be a lot of fun. You're going to learn so many things and make new friends. Plus your big sister will be there with you."
"I don't want to leave you, mommy." Tsukasa said as she continued to cry.
"How about this; when you're done with school today, we'll spend the rest of the day together in the kitchen and I'll teach you how to make Madeleines." Miki offered as the time for school to start was approaching.
That made the girl cheer up a bit, but she was still worried "O... okay mommy... but... what about... the others?"
"The others?" Miki asked, curious.
"The other kids. What if nobody likes me? What if everybody's mean to me?" Tsukasa asked with another sniffle. "Everybody loves sissy; sissy is the best. But what if I can't be like sissy and nobody likes me?"
Miki sighed, trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly, she got an idea, as she stuck her hand in her purse and tried to find the object to help. Finally, she pulled out a yellow ribbon, and brought it to the girl's head.
"What's that mommy?" Tsukasa asked curiously staring up, as if she could see the ribbon on her head. Miki then finished wrapping the ribbon into two bows on top of the smaller girl's head.
"I was planning on giving this to you a little later, but now is as good a time as any," Miki said "This ribbon automatically makes you ten times cuter than any other girl in this school, Tsukasa. When you go into that school and everyone sees your ribbon, they'll be so impressed that they'll want to be your friend instantly."
"Really?" Tsukasa said excitedly as she started to perk up a bunch.
"Absolutely…in fact, I think I'll need that ribbon to make my own friends today. I changed my mind, I'm taking it back." Miki said playfully and quickly tickled her daughter's stomach, sending the youngest Hiiragi twin into a laughing frenzy as she covered her ticklish spot. Miki continued to tickle Tsukasa until she pulled her close and kissed her on the head. "Feel better?"
Tsukasa smiled and nodded once. "Can…can we still bake Madeleines after school?"
Miki closed her eyes and giggled. "Of course, sweetheart."
Miki then kissed Tsukasa on the head a second time before the girl ran off to join her sister as they walked into the schoolyard.
Back to the Present:
Tsukasa was snapped out of her flashback by the News program starting up again, coming back from the commercial break it was on.
"And for our final report, we go to our reporter in the field for a special report on the update to the tragic events of the revolution in the downtown area." The News Anchor started before the camera cut to the reporter in front of a Police Lieutenant.
"Hello, today I have with me Lieutenant Kodaka Dasegawa of the Downtown Police Station, who is in charge of investigating the revolution that took place, and is currently attempting to find those responsible who have fled from the scene. Sir, what kind of work have you done so far to find these deserters?" The reporter asked, before putting the microphone to the man's mouth.
"Well, currently we're studying rubble around the borders of the area where the barricades were, and we're also looking around the sewers for those who could have gotten out through there." he said
"Any leads so far?" The reporter asked
"We'll we found some finger prints all over the place, but we found some in the sewers that haven't matched anybody's finger prints that we've found so far, and we managed to trace them back to some other people." Kodaka said into the mic.
"How difficult of a job is it?"
"Well we're currently looking for someone who was last in the very middle of the Downtown area, and somehow, managed to almost disappear from nowhere. There was a large amount of destruction and blood in the area, but for some reason there were no bodies in the area, and the DNA trail matched no one of any form of record that we could find, meaning this person has to be either a High Schooler, or a Young Adult. The oddest fact is how his DNA trail stops dead center in the middle of a random area, and by the looks of it, he was bleeding profusely, the chances of that happening are akin to winning the lottery. It's making our work much more difficult." He finished before the Reporter turned back to the camera.
"There you have it, not only a grand crime fighter, but a finder of the truth too. Back to you, guys."
'High School? Could that be Kyon?' Tsukasa thought to herself as she looked at her phone. After losing her last phone, she had to save up a lot of money to buy a new one, but finally she managed to get one. Like the last one, she had her picture of Kyon as the wallpaper, having remembered what Konata said a while ago.
"If you keep the person you like on your cell-phone wallpaper for three weeks without anyone finding out, your feelings will be answered."
She could have sworn that Kagami had scolded Konata for making another anime reference, but what could it hurt?
'It probably won't work anyway...' She thought to herself, unable to remember if it had been a reference to an anime or fact. 'I need to get out of this house.'
"Hey, honey, do you want to help cook some Madeleines?" Miki asked, peeking her head around the corner to look at where Tsukasa used to be.
In Kagami's Room:
"Well, to tell you the truth, It actually smelled like crap after it finished, and no one even tried it." Kagami said to Konata over the phone,
"Wow, how did it get messed up?" Konata said, half laughing and half amazed.
"Apparently, I added a BIT too much salt!" Kagami said, laughing. She was in a huge fit of laughter when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, right outside her window.
When she looked, she saw Tsukasa walking out of the house, and out into the cold and gloomy day. She had her hands in her pockets and was looking down at the ground as she hurried away.
"Hey Konata, I'm gonna have to call you back, I gotta go." Kagami said, as she said goodbye to Konata and put on her coat. She ran downstairs and out the door, hoping to catch her sister before she could manage to get away from her.
POV Kyon:
Kyon hobbled down the sidewalk with his leg in a cast, and a crutch helping him move. He slowly moved through the Saturday morning Downtown crowd to Gamerz to see if he could buy the newest Elder Scrolls: Skyrim DLC. It was a gloomy day out and it showed all around. The gray that was given off by the light fog that was almost barely noticeable added to the usual greyness of the buildings of the downtown area. Everyone looked unhappy and, ever since the Barricades were torn down and the bodies removed, everyone had been in low spirits.
The Barricades were finished being taken down a week after the ending of the battle, but there were still quite a few bodies lying around the streets. That took another day and a half for the streets to finally be cleared. By the time the shops were finally opened, and the people were willing to go back into the downtown area, it had already been almost a month since the battle had ceased.
Kyon walked into Gamerz and, after a couple of minutes of talking, finding the game, and paying for it, he came out of the store, bag in hand, still hobbling on his injured leg. He stepped out into the street, and looked around. It was a bit less crowded now that when he had entered, but there were still a large number of shoppers around. When he was about to walk back down the street, back towards home, he looked over one last time and noticed a place he had never seen before.
It was a bar, just sitting there on the corner of the street, and it didn't look very crowded. A few cars outside, almost all of which that must have belonged to workers at the bar, were there. Once he had his eyes on the place, he almost felt drawn to it, like it held something of importance, and no matter how hard he wanted to continue walking down the street, he kept finding himself looking over at the small bar.
'Heck, I'm old enough now, I could go for something to relieve the pain.' Kyon thought as he hobbled his way across the street until he reached the door to the bar. As soon as he opened the door, the musk of alcohol and tobacco hit his nostrils instantly, which was unfamiliar to him. He had never actually had any more alcohol than a few sips.
The bar itself was pretty dark, and a bit damp. On the one side was the actual bar itself with its drinks all stacked behind it, and in front of the drinks was a small, salmon haired girl cleaning a glass. On the far was there was a stage where multiple women were performing almost burlesque type dances in risque type clothing. Kyon sat down in front of the bar, and put his crutch on the seat next to him.
"What'll you have?" Akira Kogami asked from behind the counter.
"Uh... I don't know, I guess I'll have a lager." Kyon said, having never actually gotten any beer before, he just ordered one of what he knew existed. After about five minutes his beer came down to him, and he started to drink it.
Almost immediately, Kyon felt regret for having bought a beer. To him it tasted terrible, and he almost choked when he first tasted it. Still, despite the taste, it felt good, and soon he found himself enjoying the drink. When he was done, he ordered another beer, and he drank that down too. Soon after another he was feeling a completely mixed feeling, both happiness, and sadness, and when he looked around, he wasn't in the bar anymore. He looked around and he saw that he was back in the warehouse where the revolution was being planned, or at least he thought he was there, but really he was only having a drunken illusion. It killed him inside nonetheless, and he sat back down in the chair, and started to cry.
"There's a grief that can't be spoken." He sang, still crying.
"There's a pain goes on and on."
"Empty Chairs at empty tables, now my friends are dead and gone." Kyon looked around and saw a few shadowed outlines standing over the table he was sitting before.
"Here they talked of Revolution, here it was they lit the flame.
Here they sang about tomorrow, and tomorrow never came.
From the table in the corner, they could see a world reborn,
and they rose with voices ringing, and I can hear them now!" He continued as the shadows soon grew more clear, and even began to get a bit of color to them.
"The very words that they had sung,
became their last communion.
On the lonely barricade, at dawn." Kyon sang, as one of the shadows came up to him and put his hand on Kyon's shoulder.
"Oh my friends, my friends forgive me
that I live, and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken,
there's a pain, goes on and on." He sang, as the shadows finally cleared to his vision, and he saw that Enjolras was standing behind him, while everyone else was at their appropriate spot around the table.
"Phantom faces at the windows!
Phantom shadows on the floor!
Empty chairs at empty tables, where my friends will meet no more!" Kyon sang as he stood up still singing as he pushed the beer bottle of the table, where it shattered onto the ground.
"Oh my friends, my friends, DON'T ASK ME!
What your sacrifice was for.
Empty chairs at empty tables
where my friends will sing no more."
He put his hands to his eyes and started to cry even more, still feeling the hand on his shoulder. When he finally looked back up, he was back in the bar, and it wasn't a shadow that put its hand on his shoulder. It was Akira, who was shaking him to see if he was alright.
"Hey, are you ok?" Akira said with a worried look on her face.
"Y-yeah, just give me a minute, I probably shouldn't have another drink for a little while." He said, now noticing that everyone had their eyes on him.
"Okay, just tell me if you need a cab or something." She said as she went back to behind the counter.
POV Tsukasa:
Tsukasa walked down the downtown street, just hoping to get her mind clear from everything that was going on. With Kyon dating Misao, and Kagami and Konata angry at her, she had no one to go to, so the only thing she found that she could do was to walk a little. She loved walking, whether it was to the movie theater, or just to the convenience store, it made her feel like she was one with nature, and that she didn't have to worry about everything else. If for that moment, everything in the world was alright.
After about a half hour of looking around, she found herself at a four way, and was waiting for the light to change so she could cross the to the other side of the road, but when she looked over, she found herself looking at a quiet little bar on the corner of the next street over. She didn't know why, but she found the bar almost calling out to her. She had never seen it before, and yet she soon enough found herself wandering over there, and inside the bar.
The bar musk hit her hard, and she almost couldn't take the smell, but she soon grew accustomed to it, and found herself sitting at the bar, where she ordered a light beer, hoping not to get too drunk. She herself had only tried a bit of alcohol in her time, but she grew to like light beers, as it didn't affect her too much, and it tasted pretty good.
When she looked over she saw a guy crying into his hands, and whispering something softly, before suddenly speaking much louder.
"The veerry wourds that thhey had sunngg, became... deyre lest comnuinom" He sang, obviously very intoxicated and not able to properly pronounce the words because of it. Akira came over to him and put her hand on his shoulder and tried to say something to him, but he wasn't really paying attention to her.
Tsukasa, hoping to not get involved in the issue, despite not having seen the man's face or recognizing the voice, turned around to face the stage to see what was going on onstage.
The girl onstage, who was about twenty five years old, was wearing the ordinary skimpy clothing, but when the music started, it didn't sound like the usual kind of stripper music. It had a more orchestral feel to it.
"There was a time, I don't know when, I didn't have much time for men
But this is now, and that was then, I'm learning." She sang all alone on stage, her voice like a succubus, drawing the attention of everyone in the bar (Except for Kyon of course).
"A girl alone, all on her own, must try to have a heart of stone,
so I try not, to make it known my yearning.
I try to show I have no need,
I really do, I don't succeed." She said before stamping down her foot and looking down. As she brought her head up, she had a different look from the sad and pitying look she had before, and it was a look of intrigue and of lust.
"So~ let's~ bring~..." She sang prolonging each word before snapping he fingers and continuing the pace.
"...On the men, and let the fun begin.
A little touch of sin, why wait another minute?
Step this way, it's time for us to play!
They say we may not pass this way again, so let's waste no more time
bring on the men." Before all the girls came onstage and joined in for the song.
"Solet's bring on the men, and let the fun begin
A little touch of sin, why wait another minute?
Step this way! It's time for us to play.
They say we may not pass this way again, so let's waste no more time." the girl on stage sang as she breathed in deep for her big finisher.
"Bring on~ the~ MEN~!"
"Big men, small men, short men, tall men, I guess that means almost all men. I'm a player long as they are men men men!" All the girls shouted at the same time that the girl on stage was holding her note, and they all jumped in the air when they finished, getting a huge round of applause from everyone in the bar, which only meant a small amount of clapping from the small amount of people there.
Suddenly, the guy next to her grabbed the bottle in his hand and threw it to the ground, and it smashed to pieces, as everyone looked at him while he finished singing his slurred song. He opened his eyes and realized where he was and what was going on. Akira and the guy exchanged a few words, and as Kyon looked over he noticed Tsukasa, who also noticed him.
"K-Kyon?" Tsukasa said, surprised to see it was him.
"Tsukasa?" Kyon said clearly, which surprised Tsukasa from the way he was talking earlier.
"What are you doing here?" she asked
"I could ask you the same." He retorted
"You aren't a guy who would drink, why are you here? What happened?" She demanded, knowing Kyon as a better person than that.
"I really messed up. I hurt Misao, and now I don't know how she could believe the truth after what happened." Kyon said, saddened.
"It's okay Kyon-kun." Tsukasa said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Do you want me to buy you another beer?"
"What's the point? Nothing helps. I'm disgraced." he said, slumping down.
"Who you? Never." Tsukasa said, trying to keep optimistic. "Kyon-kun, you have to pull yourself together!"
'I don't know what to do... I know! I remember this from Disney!' Tsukasa thought as she began to sing.
"Gosh it disturbs me to see you Kyon-kun, looking so down in the dumps." Tsukasa sang, hoping to cheer him up, but he just turned away.
"Everybody here loves you Kyon-kun, even though you're in a slump.
Everyone here'd want to be you Kyon-kun,
you'd never even have to try,
Any girl here'd want to date you Kyon-kun,
and it's not very hard to see why!" She sang, but he still wouldn't budge. So she upped the ante a bit.
"No~ one's~ cool like Kyon-kun,
no one fools like Kyon-kun,
no one can ever play pool like Kyon-kun,
he has so many wonderful talents,
his singing is Broadway grand~
you can ask any soldiers in their tents,
and they'd tell you for who at attention they'd stand.
No~ One's~ smart like Kyon-kun,
No one's art's like Kyon-kun
Not one person can play... harp like Kyon-kun." Tsukasa sang, stumbling over words to rhyme together, after only having just started the song, but was soon interrupted.
"Stop, please, just stop Tsukasa, I'm not in the mood to sing anything happy right now. I'll see you at school." Kyon said as he stood up, left some money on the counter, grabbed his crutch, and walked outside again. Now it had started raining outside, so Kyon was soaked the moment he stepped foot outside, and he hobbled down the road, back towards home.
Tsukasa, after a little bit of thinking, decided to get up, pay her dues, and leave also. She wished that she could have managed to cheer him up, but it didn't work and now she had to go.
POV Minami and Yutaka:
Minami and Yutaka were walking quickly, holding an umbrella overhead, trying to get home before the rain got them soaked. Luckily, because it was raining, everyone had already gone inside, and so they were able to go quickly. They decided to cut across the park to try and cut some time out from the transit home.
"Are you okay, Yutaka?" Minami asked the small girl in her deceptively monotone voice
"Yes, I'm fine Minami-chan!" Yutaka said looking up into the taller girl's eyes, before they both turned away from each other, blushing.
That's when they noticed the figure in front of them, she wore jeans and a greyish blue hoodie that concealed her face in darkness, making it impossible for her to be recognized.
"Who are you?" Minami asked, instantly knowing something was wrong. The girl had yet to move at all.
The girl didn't answer, she only stood there for a prolonged period of time, the rain beating down on her, and on the two other girls.
Suddenly, the girl ran straight at them, and tried to attack Yutaka with amazing speed.
The punch was only mere inches away from Yutaka's face before it was caught by a bewildered Minami, who turned the girl around, and kicked her in the back of the knee, causing her to have to go on one knee, before doing a sliding kick, which tripped Minami, making the taller girl fall down onto the ground.
This gave the girl the chance to attack Yutaka again, but before she was able to make a hit, Minami grabbed the girl again, and threw her to the ground. Then the hood moved as she hit the ground, and a bit of Purple hair was seen, before the girl fixed her hood and stood up, but her leg writhed in pain.
With that the girl knew she was defeated and ran away, limping the whole way out of the park, hoping that Minami wouldn't come after her again.
Lucky Channel!
"HIYA LUCKIES!" The overly excited Akira Kogami screamed to the audience "How was today's chapter? Did you see me? Did you see me!?"
"I think everyone saw you Akira." Minoru said to the excited girl "Now we skipped the introduc..."
"WHO CARES ABOUT THE INTRODUCTION WHEN I WAS IN THE FRIGGIN' CHAPTER?!" Akira screamed in his face causing Minoru to fall back and knock his chair over.
Suddenly the music to signal the end of the show went off, interrupting her yelling in his face.
"That's all for now! Make sure to tune into the next Lucky Channel!" Akira said normally again. "Bye-niii!"
With that the Curtain dropped, and the voices of the other two could still be heard.
"So Akira-Sama, you finally got a role!" Minoru said excitedly
"I know! I even got to tell the whole WORLD about it!" She said excitedly "Though we didn't really finish off the show very well."
"What do you mean?" he asked
"We'll we needed a good joke, and we got cut off again!" She said before pondering a bit. "I know!"
"What is it? What's the joke?" Minoru asked.
"Dragonball: Evolution." She finished.
FINALLY, my GOD! This chapter took me SIX MONTHS TO FRICKING WRITE, am I lazy or what? -_- First I got REALLY lazy during the Flashback scene and I went like 3 months without doing anything there, then I got lazy RIGHT AFTER the flashback scene, then I finally got the last half done yesterday and today, and It's finally finished. I'm going for my drivers license in about a month, and I have a cool Idea for an Easter Story I could write revolving around the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and I FINALLY found what I was looking for for the BIG FINISHER of this story. All around six months have been good. So now if you didn't figure it out, that whole bar scene (Mostly the No one like Kyon-kun song) was a big reference to Acsuperman. I had also originally planned to have the girl who sings Bring on the Men in the bar have a larger role in this chapter, but when I thought it over, it sounded really bad, and I decided to scrap it, but at the last second I decided to keep the song, just because I can! (Also it would help me by giving a reason that Tsukasa didn't pay attention to Kyon while he was in Drunken Kyon mode! Drekun kyun mod, heh heh *burp*. Excuse me! Anyways, that's all for now! The next chapter will be the Kagami POV thing again and It'll be shorter than this one, at least. I'll also be introducing a new character. That I had in this chapter, which actually cut in place of ANOTHER character. You see I originally had a TV News report with Tadao in in, which would introduce Miki's father who if anyone read The Loss of Innocence, would know is a son of a %$# ! I wanted to introduce him, but I felt that halfway through this chapter it would do NOTHING for this story, so I scrapped it, and took out the news report too. I'll post it below, just so you can see what It was originally. See ya next time!
Back to the Present:
Tsukasa was snapped out of her flashback from hearing the name of her father on the TV.
"Here's the owner of the Hiiragi Family Shrine, Mr. Tadao Hiiragi, who owns the shrine that has been passed down during the many years that the Shrine has been around. They have always had great attendance to the shrine, but even they have been hit with the recent Economical Crisis." The Reporter said, who then faced Tadao "Mr. Hiiragi, can you go into more detail about how the money is affecting your shrine?"
"Yes, well our shrine has been around for almost 100 years, meaning that it always needs some form of repair, and the money is starting to get to our family. With all of our daughters doing some form of College, the money is almost running out the door, and the shrine is just adding onto the costs. Even after New Years we were having difficulty, and that's where we always get the most money." Tadao said into the microphone.
"There you have it, not only has the recent crisis affected the businesses around the area, but even the shrines and other places that usually need the money the most." The reporter finished before the screen switched to another segment.
'I forgot that the report with Dad was going to be on today.' Tsukasa thought
