Introduction (2 Sept 2021)

While taking a break from writing stories for "KanoKari" (Rent a Girlfriend) and Uzaki-chan, because earlier this year I didn't feel much like writing, I never lost interest in anime/manga. One of the series that kept getting mentioned as being worthwhile to watch, was "Tonikaku Kawaii" or "ToniKawa" in short. This summer I finally got to watching the first (and currently only) season, and enjoyed it so much, I just had to read the manga too. While this did present some unexpected surprises, these only made the story have more impact.

Flash forward, this resulted in me just having to write something for "ToniKawa", with this first chapter as a result. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Btw, I've noticed on my previous stories, that it appears a substantial amount of readers overlook or bypass the "Chapter Afterthoughts" part at the end of the main text, that comes right after "to be continued…" line. Possibly thinking it's just a standard disclaimer message. But this part actually often contains some retrospection upon the chapter, and/or foreshadowing for the next one. So, I do think that checking this part out, will add to the overall reading experience.

Note:If you want to comment on this story, or any of my other stories, you're welcome to leave a review, preferably as registered member, as this allows much 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, criticism is often what helps more to improve.


Chapter Intro:

Using Nasa-kun's genius and the connections that Tsukasa had built during her long life, as well as with the help of Tokiko's legacy, they had managed to set up a private space travel venture to get to the Moon. Dressed in their high-tech space suits, designed by Nasa-kun, they disembarked the space craft that had brought them to their unusual destination, to boldly go where just a small number of men had ever gone before. But will their mission succeed and can Nasa-kun really grant Tsukasa's long cherished wish in full?


To the Moon… (and back?) – part 1

"I almost can't believe we are really here…" Tsukasa said, looking around in awe; "instead of seeing the Moon high up in the sky, now we see the Earth like that! I've seen plenty of videos of mankind's space travels, but nothing can really compare to seeing it with your own eyes."

The young girl made a little pirouette after saying these words, her face beaming as brightly as a full Moon in a clear sky.

"It's definitely an amazing sight," Nasa-kun replied, feeling good about seeing his wife so excited.

"Dear, I am so glad that I trusted in you, to be the one to make my wish come true!" Tsukasa cheered, as she smiled at her husband.

"And I am glad that you did, and that I was able to get you here," Nasa-kun replied, with a broad smile on his face as well. "Even though we didn't travel to this place at the speed of light, as I had hoped to achieve. I guess that will be for another time…"

"What matters most to me is that we are here now, and it makes me really happy," Tsukasa praised her spouse, causing him to blush slightly.

"Now according to my calculations and other research, I am sure Kaguya-hime must be living on the so-called dark side of the Moon. Otherwise we would have seen her with Earth's telescopes, which have been used to study the visible side of the Moon in extreme detail for decades," he explained further. "Which is why I made this," he added, before releasing a handle located near the space craft's cargo section.

A little ramp automatically extended from the bottom of the vessel that had brought them all the way to the Moon, and a lunar rover slowly rolled down, coming to a full stop in front of the young couple. Nasa-kun then pressed a button on the small display that was integrated into the lower arm part of his suit, and the vehicle's gullwing doors opened up smoothly.

"Wow, you really thought of everything, dear!" Tsukasa commented, in amazement over the level of being-prepared-for-almost-everything, that was one of her husband's 'trademark' properties.

"Ah, it's actually a pretty simple design, if I would just have had a bit more time, it…" Nasa-kun started on an apologizing tone.

"It's simply amazing, and don't you dare go against that, husband!" Tsukasa quickly corrected him.

"I guess, if you say so…" Nasa-kun replied, nervously rubbing the back of his head, of better, the back of the helmet of his space suit, with his glove.

"I can't wait to meet her!" Tsukasa said with an enthusiastic voice, then paused briefly, and her face changed to a somewhat dejected expression.

"Tsukasa-chan, what is it?" Nasa-kun asked on a worried tone; "Is something wrong?"

"I must admit… I-I am a little nervous," she replied; "I know it's been quite a while, but it's still well possible Kaguya-hime held on to a grudge against my family, me included. Also, I've screamed at her so many times, often in despair, but also in anger, calling her different names…"

"I'm sure everything will be fine," Nasa-kun assured Tsukasa, as he briefly took her hand.

Even though both youngsters were wearing thick gloves, as part of their space suits, for Tsukasa it was almost like she could feel the loving warmth of her husband's tight grip, which matched the gentle expression on his smiling face and caring look in his eyes. 'Somehow, he always manages to pick me up and support me, he is just so amazing!' she thought, as her massive anxiety started melting away like snow on a sunny day.

"Ok, then what are we waiting for!?" Tsukasa chimed, fully reassured for now, before jumping into the lunar rover.

"Ok, the cold fusion reactor is fully operational," Nasa-kun said, as he momentarily checked the display on the lower arm part of his space suit. "Then it's time to see what this baby can do!" he added, as he hopped inside the rover too and closed the gullwing doors.

Leaving a slowly dissipating cloud of dust behind them, the vehicle, with the two young explorers inside, began its trip, which hopefully would be the last leg in the seemingly endless journey that Tsukasa had been making for the past ages.

For a while things were pretty uneventful. Nasa-kun stopped the vehicle a few times, to collect some cool looking moon rocks to take home, while Tsukasa took some pictures with the cameras that had been installed. Everything went smoothly, untill suddenly they felt a shudder going through the vehicle, and the front part dipped down!

"Are you ok!?" was the first thing Nasa-kun asked, after shutting down the vehicle's drive systems.

"It seems like even after being married to me for quite some time now, you still don't know me well enough, dear…" Tsukasa replied; "You should know I don't get hurt by something like this. But it is sweet of you to be worried about me," she added, blushing slightly.

They stepped outside, to see what had happened. One of the large wheels at the front of the lunar rover had apparently hit a pothole in the Moon surface and was now positioned in a weird angle. Nasa-kun looked at it from a few different sides, while mumbling some technical terms.

"I guess this means the end of our expedition for now, right dear?" Tsukasa asked, with a pouting look upon her face.

"It seems like even after being married to me for quite some time now, you still don't know me well enough, Tsukasa-chan," Nasa-kun said with a smug look upon his face, largely repeating the words she had said to him just moments ago. "It's simply a broken beam in the suspension. So, I'll just print a replacement part with the built-in 3D printer, and we'll be back on our way in no time at all!"

"Wait, you have a 3D printer in this vehicle!?" Tsukasa shouted. "Seriously, I know there is something like being prepared for everything, but this is almost scary…"

After creating the replacement part, Nasa-kun was able to fix the rover's suspension with relative ease, and soon they were moving again. After driving around for a while, they crossed the border between the directly visible side of the Moon, and the other side, which often gets referred to as the "Dark Side of the Moon". But even after covering more distance, they noticed nothing special, that would indicate the presence of Kaguya-hime.

"Shouldn't we have seen something by now?" Tsukasa inquired, getting a little worried.

"Well, we don't know the exact location of Kaguya's Moon residence, but this is definitely the area that agrees with the legend and my calculations. Unless, I made a mistake somewhere…"

Nasa-kun stopped the rover, then pressed a button to bring up the screen with a more detailed overview of the calculated navigation data, to verify some things. Meanwhile Tsukasa got outside and walked around a little, before stopping in her tracks.

"KAGUYA-HIME! I AM HERE! SHOW YOURSELF!" it suddenly sounded extremely loud and clear in Nasa-kun's ears!

He shook his head, as if to get rid of the loud noise, and almost instinctively adjusted the volume on his headset to a low value. Which was just as well, as Tsukasa cried out a few more times, and then went completely silent. As Nasa-kun turned his head around, to look her way, he found her sitting down on her knees, and beating the dusty Moon's surface with her fists.

"First of all, Kaguya-hime can't hear you, unless she has a radio herself, and is also listening in on our frequency, "Nasa-kun started explaining; "So all you could have achieved this way, was making me deaf. And second, if you are not careful you might damage your space suit."

"Oh… I'm sorry," Tsukasa apologized.

But it was already too late, due to the sheer force at which Tsukasa had been hitting the Moon's rough surface, the frustration of 1400 years of hardship coming out, a seam in her right-hand glove gave out, and the precious air quickly escaped from her suit.

"No! Tsukasa-chan!" Nasa-kun screamed, although he knew that at this point there would be nothing he could do for her. He saw his wife's face get twisted while she closed her eyes, behind the helmet's visor, as he felt a stabbing pain in his heart. 'We should never have come here…' it flashed through his mind, as he was powerless to help his beloved wife…

But… Tsukasa didn't collapse, and much to Nasa-kun's surprise she opened her eyes again, and looked back at him, seemingly unfazed, despite being deprived of oxygen!

"T-Tsukasa-chan… a-are you ok?" he carefully asked.

She nodded while Nasa-kun jumped outside and used the emergency toolkit, that he had grabbed from the lunar rover, to make some provisional repairs to Tsukasa's space suit.

"I guess being immortal has its benefits, I feel just fine, dear," Tsukasa assured him, after her suit was fully pressurized again, and she could make herself heard once more. "Although I'd rather be taking a warm bath in the Arisugawa family bathhouse, than being exposed to the Moon atmosphere, that's for sure."

"A b-bath? You m-mean with me?" Nasa-kun asked, out of the blue.

"Eeehh… where did that come from?" his young wife reacted, while blushing.

"I g-guess it j-just crossed my mind when you mentioned the bathhouse…" Nasa-kun said with a soft voice, as he looked down at the dusty Moon surface. "Perhaps it's because I got so emotional for a moment, thinking I had lost you forever… S-Sorry for embarrassing you…"

"Well, that's sweet of you, my dear husband," Tsukasa shyly admitted, as she felt her face turning red a little. Then, after she had composed herself again: "At least Kaname-chan didn't hear it, so it's not too bad, I gue…"

"When you two get back, I'll make sure there is a voucher waiting for you, entitling you to having the bathhouse to yourselves for a full day!" Kaname's voice blasted loud and clear through both their headsets' speakers.

"W-Were you listening the whole t-time?" Nasa-kun stammered.

"Duh, of course…" Kaname replied, "… after all, this is pure entertainment. Two passionate lovers fly across the Galaxy on a quest for true happiness!" she added on a tone as if doing the voice-over for a popular tv-show.

"Where do you get these clickbait captions from!?" Nasa-kun asked; "besides, we only went to the Moon, which hardly qualifies as flying across the Galaxy, you know."

"Hey, I have a lively imagination, that is a good thing in my book," Kaname defended her actions.

'Seriously, what is that girl thinking about all the time!?' Nasa-kun pondered. 'Even though with the extra communication satellite, that we deployed before touching down on the surface, so we could still communicate with Earth when going to the dark side of the Moon, I had specifically told Kaname to only use this uplink in case of emergency!'

"Btw, Aya-san is streaming the audio on her channel," Kaname continued.

"Wait! She is doing what!?" Tsukasa yelled, after nearly choking for a second.

"Oh, don't worry, we're presenting this as some kind of fantasy roleplay thing, your secret is safe. I just started a commercial prior to this little chat we are having now, so the viewers can't hear what you are saying at this moment."

'I got to hand it to her, that girl is so resourceful. If she ever were to turn to the Dark Side, she'd be a formidable opponent for sure…' Nasa-kun thought briefly, remembering a space movie he had been watching with Tsukasa not too long ago.

"Well, then you just make up a story like we got captured by aliens and they took our communication links, and stop broadcasting," Nasa-kun suggested, on a for him unusually firm tone.

"You can be such a spoilsport, senpai…" Kaname sighed, as she reluctantly gave in and switched off the audio feed from the Moon.

'Senpai did sound very serious about it, I guess he really needs to focus on the mission right now,' she thought. 'Well, I can always tease him when he gets back. Or perhaps, if he gets back...'

Even though Kaname knew her senpai was basically a true genius, a trip to the Moon was no simple undertaking, and the young girl realized there were a lot of things that could go very wrong on such a mission. She suddenly felt an uneasy feeling coming over her, then shook her head wildly, as if to rid herself from these disturbing thoughts: 'Wait! I shouldn't be worrying so much. After all, if anyone can pull this off, it's senpai, right!?"

"By the way, dear, didn't you tell me that Kaguya-hime couldn't hear me with my helmet on, because the sound only gets to you?" Tsukasa suddenly started.

"Well, yes…" Nasa-kun started to explain, "… for sounds to travel really far, it's best if the source of the sound has direct contact with the medium it uses to propagate. So, most of the sound energy gets transferred to this medium. And since your helmet prevents that contact, everything you say will not really be able to make it to the outside of your space suit. But that's not all, you also have to realize that…"

"Then how about this!" Tsukasa said, as she wasn't interested in hearing a full scientific lecture at this point.

Before Nasa-kun realized what his wife had planned, Tsukasa had opened the safety lock securing her helmet to the rest of the space suit, and took the helmet off, before trying to call out to Kaguya-hime again. But now Tsukasa couldn't even hear her own voice, no matter how hard she tried. For a few moments she looked around with a very surprised look on her face.

"Yeah, I was about to tell you that, since there is no air on the Moon, there is also no sound," Nasa-kun continued, with a smug look on his face.

Then, realizing that his baffled wife also couldn't hear him at this moment, since she was no longer wearing her headset, he tried making some gestures telling her to put the helmet back on. Then, with communication link restored, he finished his explanation why calling out to Kaguya-hime would not work in these conditions.

Disappointed, Tsukasa sat down on the small footboard that was on each side of the lunar rover and stared into the distance. With grey rocks and similarly colored vast, relatively flat areas all around them, this place was both mesmerizing, and at the same time uneventful. Being on the other side of the Moon, they also no longer had the Earth in sight, adding to the feeling of desolation.

"So… what do we do now?" Tsukasa thought out loud.

'This isn't working…' Nasa-kun frantically thought, as some drops of sweat started to appear on his forehead. 'But my calculations simply have to be correct, I checked them over and over again before we came here, and even during the flight…' he pondered. 'But what if it turns out that Kaguya-hime isn't on the Moon at all? Was it all in vain to come here? But… wait…'

"Nasa-kun, what are you doing?" Tsukasa wondered, as all of a sudden he ran off, as fast as possible as he could with the Moon's low gravity reducing traction, having a determined looked upon his face.

The young genius stopped at a small rock formation, close by, and started studying the surface. 'Did I make him lose his mind?' Tsukasa thought, as she looked at him from a distance. 'It sure was a lot to ask, to undertake this journey through space. And all because of a crazy wish of mine. Maybe, I took it way too far…'

"Dear, I am so glad you have done all this for me, you really gave it all you got, and more. But just perhaps we should turn around and go back to…" Tsukasa started.

"Eureka! This is the key!" Nasa-kun shouted enthusiastically through the speakers, this time making Tsukasa having to reduce the sound volume on her headset.

"Wait, did you discover something, husband?" Tsukasa asked, after catching up with Nasa-kun.

"Well, I may have, but there is only one way to find out!" Nasa-kun stated. He grabbed an oddly shaped piece of stone that was protruding from the side of the large rock formation, and tried to twist it while saying the words "Open Sesame!"

"Actually, that wasn't exactly what they said back then…" Tsukasa tried to correct him… but then the ground suddenly started trembling!

Without sound, because of the lack of air, but with massive vibrations that both youngsters could feel going through their entire bodies, the large rock split open, right down the middle.

"Woah! W-What is that!?" Tsukasa shouted, struck with awe…

(To be continued…)


Chapter Afterthoughts (11 Sept 2021)

First of all, it felt good to be writing again. Even though I feel a little guilty about not updating my existing stories first, this new story is what came to my mind, and I knew I couldn't write anything else until having started with it first.

I hope you will enjoy this story, which might turn into an ongoing series. Or maybe it will be just a few chapters, and nothing more. Time will tell, but I can promise you this, you won't have to wait 1400 years to find out.


Disclaimer

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 this fanfiction website, and post a review as registered member, I can even reply to your comments. I'd be happy to have some more interaction with the people who read my stories!

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

Stay safe, and maybe until soon!