Introduction (19 sept 2020)

When I had just started writing this introduction, most of us were probably also still processing the cliffhanger at the end of anime episode 11? That sure was a dramatic surprise ending, sheesh!

The next episode did resolve things almost instantly though, and it felt a bit like they wasted a really good cliffhanger by showing it was just about Uzaki not having done her summer break homework. Still it had impact, as in the manga and anime you rarely see Uzaki crying. Rest assured it's highly unlikely I'll be using similar dramatic tricks in my stories, though I can't fully promise it…

A part of the idea for this chapter came from a friendly Youtuber, 'Zenos Hitomora', who posted some dialog between Ami and Sakaki, which instantly appealed to me. This person kindly allowed me to use that part for a chapter in this Uzaki-chan fanfic story, and so it was done. Thanks for that, and I hope you will all like the result and how this dialog was incorporated into the main story.

Just realized it's almost (hmm, as I am adding the final touches, it actually is… ) October now, because I haven't been working on this story a lot, due to being very busy writing a new story for yet another anime, 'Kanojo, Okarishimasu' (aka 'Rent-a-Girlfriend') for the past weeks. This took up a lot of my spare time and creative energy. Should you be interested in reading how that new story is starting to turn out, it can be found among the list of my other stories. It's called 'Matters of the Heart' and is currently two chapters long, with more chapters likely to be added soon.

But I won't let you all down on this Uzaki-chan story, and aim to update it on a regular basis too, time and inspiration permitting, naturally. I may have tried your patience a little, hopefully not too much. But I'd rather write a heartfelt story, than force myself to come up with something, and look back on it later, with regrets. I think it even helped to improve this new chapter of 'Graduation Day, taking a step back, and picking it up later. Anyway, I hope you will all understand.

Note: If you like this story, please leave a review, preferably as registered member, as this allows more interaction between writer and reviewer. If there are parts you felt lacking, or disliked, please let me know this as well. Things can appear amazing in my perception, while others might think very differently. I'm eager to hear such feedback as well, since praise is always nice, and can confirm being on the right track, but criticism is often what helps more to improve.

I still don't have (and probably never will) a release scheme for this, just like in the past, I write when I feel like it, because it's so much fun. So as always, this chapter will be ready when it's ready.

Story Prologue:

After the recent drinking party with Uzaki and Sakurai, where Ami had been impressed by Sakaki's muscular build, the two 'wingmen' hadn't seen each other for a few days. Ami had finished cleaning up in the café, and had just slipped into something a bit more comfortable, when she suddenly heard her phone ringing…

It was Sakaki, and in no time both 'shippers' had gone back to discussing Uzaki and Sakurai.

Double Date

"So we've taken those two to the beach, stayed over at your parents' holiday home, a hot spring, a museum, and a couples' matchmaking shrine," Ami summed up. "So where should we go next?"

Yet no reply came from the other side of the line.

"Hey, you there?" Ami wondered.

"Um yeah, I'm here..." Sakaki replied, hesitatingly, "…I was just thinking, maybe we should leave them alone for a while?"

"Why! Don't tell me you're giving up on them!?" Ami shouted over the phone.

"Of course not," Sakaki said, while holding the phone a little further away from his ear. "I'm just thinking that we've been working together to push those two closer for a while now, but I don't really know the first thing about you."

"I'm not important here, Baka (=idiot)!" Ami shouted again, though a little less loud than before.

"Yes, you are! And you really need to focus on yourself more instead of only worrying about 'Sak' and Hana!" Sakaki explained; "Otherwise you're just as hopeless as these two, when they at first mostly wasted their college years. Come on, isn't there something you wanna do?"

Ami felt a bit baffled by Sakaki's words. Indeed she had been totally pre-occupied with Sakurai and Uzaki. Even after they finally confessed, Ami had felt they had to keep 'nursing the delicate flower of their love', and make it grow stronger. So far all she had really wanted, was to be there as much as possible, and watch 'the show' as it unfolded before her eyes. 'Is there anything else that I want, and not related to these two hopeless lovebirds…' Ami wondered. Suddenly something came to mind.

"Well, there's a concert I kinda wanna see happening this weekend..." Ami started.

"Ah, I think I know which one you mean. I'm pretty sure I can get tickets," Sakaki suggested, with a cheerful voice, "…so let's say I will pick you up Saturday at 8?"

"Fine!" Ami replied, relieved to get that out of the way.

"Well, alright, see you on Saturday!" Sakaki ended the conversation with his usual upbeat voice.

Both hung up the phone, then at the same time started thinking 'Wait, did we just plan a date?'

Meanwhile, back at Sakurai's place, someone was knocking on the door. He didn't have to wonder who it could be, the persistence in the knocking gave it all away.

'Maybe I should give her a key, before the neighbors start to complain,' Sakurai thought. 'She's practically living here now anyway…'

"You got my message?" Uzaki asked, as Sakurai let her in.

"Well 'hi' to you too," Sakurai started, reminding Uzaki about her manners to greet someone when entering their home. "And yes, I got your message, but I'm not sure if we…"

"Whaddaya mean you're not sure!?" Uzaki yelled; "Don't you want your only friend to be happy?"

"Hey, I do have more friends than Itsuhito, you know!" Sakurai objected. Then, rubbing his chin, he added, "but I have to admit you are right, while he seems to be having a nice and rich life, always doing fun things and visiting these nice places, he's never had a lasting relationship with a girl for as far as I know…"

"See, I told you!" Uzaki smirked; "You're both prime members of the 'born to be loners' club! That must be the reason you became friends, right?"

"We're not loners, and a guy can have a perfectly good life without having a pesky girlfriend hovering around him all the time!" Sakurai countered Uzaki's hidden insult.

"I-Is that how you feel about m-me…?" Uzaki stuttered, suddenly putting on a sad affectionate face.

"Yes… wait, no! No-no-no!" Sakurai quickly corrected himself, frantically waving his hands.

Already tears had started to form in the corner of Uzaki's eyes, but Sakurai's words came just in time to stop the floodgates from opening.

"A-Are you sure…?" Uzaki carefully asked.

"You know I am," Sakurai said on a gentle tone, while smiling at her. "Sure, when we started hanging out, I wasn't always happy to have you around, but now I am most of the time."

'Oops, she might take that the wrong way, saying I like her company often, but not always!' Sakurai thought. Uzaki wiped away the tears from her eyes though, which seemed to be a good sign.

"I like your blunt honesty, you may be very good at controlling your emotions, but I know you can't lie, at least not to me…" Uzaki stated, "…and you bet I'm going to try hard changing that 'most of the time' into 'always' instead."

"Maybe you should just simply be yourself," Sakurai replied; "That's the Hana I eventually started to like and appreciate."

Hana started to blush, even more so than when Sakurai had once told her he preferred 'the usual Uzaki' above the 'meek and mild' act she had been putting up, after he had told Uzaki her mother was so much more polite than Hana.

"Stop it, I can't focus on what we came here to do, if you continue to compliment me," Uzaki said.

"Ok, I'll try…" Sakurai agreed "…although that new shirt does look great on you, you know?" he added, teasingly.

So a few more compliments later, and maybe some 'non-verbal' ones, the young couple started discussing their plans…

[a few days later, right after visiting the concert…]

"That was amazing!" Ami cheered, as she stepped outside of the concert hall, accompanied by Sakaki. "Nice that they did an acoustic version of that one song in the encore!"

"So I take it you don't regret coming?" Sakaki said, with a big grin on his face.

"Well, I must admit at first I felt like it would be a waste of time, but the concert was really good, and did you see those beefy arms of the drummer?" Ami gloated.

"Uh… I guess I must have missed that…" Sakaki replied, while he laughed nervously.

"Just take a look at that billboard, and you'll know what I mean," Ami said as they turned around to face the front of the concert hall.

"Ami-san! Sakaki-kun!" they suddenly heard a familiar voice yelling, coming from behind them.

It was Uzaki, who came running at them at full speed, across the road.

"Seeeenpai! They're over here!" she yelled at Sakurai, who was still standing at the other side of the street.

"Hi! Fancy meeting you two here as well," Sakaki commented, after greeting his friends.

"Well, when we were at the café earlier today, Ami-san's father told us she would be going to a concert tonight…"

[at the same time, the café owner looked up, thinking: 'or wasn't I supposed tell them?' with a devious smile on his face…]

"… and then I remembered that close to the concert hall there is this great restaurant I wanted to go to with Hana." Sakurai explained. "You wanna join us for a bite maybe? Drinks are on me. At least, if none of you should decide to drink so much they get sloshed, that is. My wallet can't really handle something like that, and having a cute girlfriend at the same time," he added, laughing.

"Hmm, I'm not sure if Ami wan..." Sakaki started hesitatingly, but got interrupted.

"That's a great idea! Let's go together!" Ami cheered.

'What a fortunate turn of events…' Ami thought. 'I got to see that concert, and now there's also some more entertainment by Sakurai and Hana for dessert!'

"Guys, give me a second, ok?" Sakaki said, as he grabbed Ami by the arm, and took her aside.

"What are you doing?" he whispered in Ami's ear. "I was more thinking of going to a quiet restaurant, remember it's your evening, not theirs. I thought we had agreed on that?"

"Don't you see?" Ami replied, also whispering; "Watching these two would be the cherry on this evening, right? Do it for me, please?"

'She's probably right…' Sakaki thought, considering his options. 'I guess it would probably be fun to join Sak and Hana and observe them. And at least Ami has been enjoying herself so far. I did succeed in getting her to not be constantly pondering about these two for a few hours, and think about her own needs for a change, so that's a big step already.' Then, realizing something else; 'Besides, she actually asked me to go along with this, instead of making demands, which is what she would do normally. That is even more progress!'

"Something wrong, Itsuhito?" Sakurai wondered, as he saw Ami and his friend talking, but couldn't hear what it was all about.

"No, we're good…" Sakaki laughed, "…I just thought I had already made reservations in another restaurant, but turned out I didn't, so we can tag along with you two, as you suggested."

"Great, this is going to be so much fun!" Uzaki cheered, with a smirk appearing on her face for a brief moment, as she winked at Sakurai.

'What was that all about?' Sakaki wondered. 'It's probably nothing, just some lovey-dovey stuff between these two airheads. Seems like they've really caught the love-bug now! Ami was probably right, this could the cherry on the cake for this evening!"

So the four youngsters went inside the restaurant that Sakurai had been referring to, and sat down at the table, in a private room. This time Sakurai was sitting next to Uzaki, so that left Ami sitting next to Sakaki. Everyone had ordered and received their favourite beverages, and soon the first platters of food had been brought in, containing a variety of different smaller dishes, like a tasting. Naturally Uzaki was the first to grab a bite, of what seemed to be chili shrimp.

"Senpai, hmm… hmmm! These are delicious!" Uzaki commented; "Here, try one!" she added, picking up a shrimp with her chopsticks and feeding it to him.

"It's yummy! Just like you," Sakurai said, making Uzaki blush.

"Oh, wait, you'vegot to taste this too!" she continued, feeding Sakurai another tasty snack.

"You take such good care of me, with this delicious food. I'm such a lucky man…" Sakurai further complimented Uzaki, "…but still, nothing beats your cooking, my 'little flower'. Your chili shrimp are simply the best!"

"Aww, you really mean that?" Uzaki said, blushing even more.

Meanwhile Ami and Sakaki couldn't eat a single bite, they were too stunned by the spectacle playing back right before their eyes.

"Wait, I just realized I'm not sure if I locked up the rental car we came here with…," Sakurai suddenly said "… just let me check, I won't be long, it's parked nearby." And he stood up and left.

"And I need to get to the bathroom…," Uzaki stated, "… just got some sauce on my hands, and it won't come off very well with a tissue. Be right back!"

"So, I know this is what we've been aiming for all along…" Sakaki said to Ami, "… with these two being so overly lovey-dovey, even feeding each other, and making those corny compliments. But honestly, I'm not sure if I can take much more of this right now. It's almost a bit too much." Sakaki briefly paused; "How about you, Ami? Still having a good time?"

"This is the best 'date-that-isn't-really-a-date' ever!" Ami replied, her face beaming.

'Well, glad she's having a good time. Maybe I should just take a breather and go to the bathroom as well to freshen up.' Sakaki thought. 'Wait, why does she keep staring at me? She's not looking at my muscles this time. Eh… Ami?'

Before Sakaki could realize what was happening, he felt Ami's lips getting pressed on his, for what felt like a minute, but in reality lasted maybe 5 seconds or so.

"Huh, o-ok…?" a baffled Sakiki stuttered; "So, I suppose that further answers my question if you feel this date is a success or not…"

"Oh yes… Wait? Date!? We're not on a date!" Ami frantically denied; "What are you thinking, you idiot!? This is naturally all part of our plan to get these two to behave even more lovey-dovey in our presence!" she continued, speaking with a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"I…uh, see?" Sakaki replied, while still feeling somewhat confused because when Ami had just been kissing him, Hana and Sakurai had not yet returned, so they were just by themselves at this moment.

'No matter how much you deny it now, that kiss sure felt real enough to me though…' Sakaki thought. He knew Ami was a master at scheming but he had doubts about this seemingly spontaneous action also being part of her 'master plan' with Uzaki and Sakurai. 'At least Sak and Hana are usually very easy to figure out what goes on in their minds, but this girl… Ami, you are still a mystery, bigger than all Scooby Doo episodes combined…' Sakaki pondered.

Before Sakaki could think any further, Uzaki and Sakurai came back in again, together.

"Anything happen while we were gone?" Uzaki asked, as she noticed something a change in the atmosphere now.

"N-Nothing!" Ami and Sakaki replied instantly, both suddenly very focused on their food.

After this unexpected kiss, the four youngsters further continued to have a good time eating and drinking, and then decided to call it a day, to go home. But which home?

(To be continued…)

Epilogue (5 oct 2020)

As briefly mentioned in the intro, the idea for this chapter came after discussing Uzaki-chan episodes on Youtube, and thinking how things could be if there would be a second season of the anime. One suggestion a few people, including me, came up with, was that after finally confessing, Uzaki and Sakurai might become a 'shipper team' for the other main characters in the anime, Ami and Sakaki. Chapter 7 already ventured in this direction, and this chapter further builds upon that.

Please let me know what you think of this story and leave some feedback in the form of a review. If you are logged in on , and post a review as registered member, I can even reply to your comments. Looking forward to some more interaction with the people who read my fanfics!

See you in chapter 9!

A few last reminders:

Besides this main story, you can find two more Uzaki-chan fanfiction stories in my story list. One has been added most recently, and is called 'The Picture'. This story is based upon the ending credits of most episodes in season one. At the moment it's a oneshot, but maybe I'll update it at some point.

The third story is called 'Back & Forth'. This story is set to play around the same time as the anime at this point in time (season 1) and contains short stories that could have been parts of actual episodes. You can find both stories among the other stories listed on my account, on the same website this story is currently hosted.

Btw, since I am not a native speaker, there will likely be some silly mistakes in my writing. And in punctuation, maybe I made the same mistakes as in previous stories, or even made some new ones. Hope you can bear with me and see through that. Helpful tips and suggestions to improve my writing are always welcome.

Stay safe, and maybe until soon!