I do not own Azumanga Daioh! Though that I would be blessed with the genius of its creator and the bank account of its studios...

爆裂している機械お化け　Exploding Robot Ghosts

Yomi stretched her arms up over her head, made an impressively tired sigh, and noted her page with a bookmark. Then, she set her paperback back on the shelf, stood slowly and made her way to the bedroom door she grumbled, "Good night. Try and be quiet if you're going to be playing that game all night long."

"Eeeehhh?" squealed Tomo, looking up from her new action-packed, super adventure, triple extreme video game. The moment she did her player was blasted by twelve attacking robot ghosts and Tomo furrowed her brow in annoyance, snapping, "It's only eleven o'clock and tomorrow's Saturday! What are you doing going to bed so early?"

"I toooold you," said a tired and exasperated Yomi as she rolled her eyes. "Tomorrow is the spring activities fair and I waaaahhh…" Yomi let out a lengthy yawn. Tomo hurriedly scrawled an 8.6 on her notebook and held it up, but Yomi ignored her and continued, "And I wanted to join a club this year because we don't have as much studying to do these days, and because I don't want to spend all my free time this year playing video games with you."

Tomo leapt to her feet and pointed a finger accusingly at Yomi, "A-ha! I understand! You're afraid of my Sugoi Geemu Pawaa!"

Yomi only offered Tomo a half second of her blank stare before slamming the sliding door closed and collapsing onto her futon.

Tomo, disappointed, gave a small shrug and returned to her video game determined to set a new high score before she fell asleep. By the time she drifted off around three in the morning she had achieved her goal easily and dreamt contentedly of exploding robot ghosts and pummeled pirate ninjas.

Eventually, the late morning sun streaming through the blinds woke Tomo who was still lying in front of her television and game console curled in a ball like a cat on top of a pile of laundry that had spilled from an overturned basket. Tomo sat up licking her lips, but ignoring the sock that clung to her hair as she made her way to the refrigerator for something to drink.

She could tell that Yomi had already left the apartment without even checking the bedroom. As she sat on the floor with her lips stuck to the tiny plastic yogurt drink bottle Tomo began to find the silence unbearable.

Then, surprising even herself, she suddenly sprang from the floor and flew through the air in slow motion, her arms wide and a trail of sparkling water droplets and still the lone tube sock dancing in her flowing hair. She landed in front of the full length mirror they had set by the entrance and stared at her reflection. A short pause… and then, as if drawing two imaginary guns from their holsters, she pointed at the girl on the wall and grinned.

"Getsu!"

…

Okay, Tomo, decided. "I am officially bored."

いい食べ物・いい音楽　Good Food, Good Music

Yomi came in the west entrance gate and smiled to see the dozens of booths that lined each side of the broad walkway. From the west entrance to the east, perhaps a hundred yards, and from the north entrance southwards even slightly further, students milled about chatting excitedly and investigating the colorful displays that stood at every turn. Drama Club, Hip Hop Dance Club, American Movies Club, French Appreciation Club, Political Issues Club… It all centered around the crossroads of the two main paths where for the moment there stood four or five students setting up sound equipment apparently preparing for a performance.

Yomi also noticed right away that she would not go hungry at the activities fair. There were booths selling noodles, booths selling takoyaki, booths selling all sorts of okonomiyaki, and booths selling cold dishes like rice balls, anpan, and bento set lunches. She had strictly kept to her new no-sweets-diet for a whole week so she had rewarded herself and decided that she could afford to splurge a little and had calculated exactly how many calories worth of food she could eat without undoing all her hard work. She surveyed the smorgasbord before her and did a quick mental tally, and even though it probably cut her surplus in half by a conservative estimate the smell of freshly made korokke was too much to bear and she handed over four hundred yen, savoring each warm, delicious bite.

Yomi was more than a little impressed by the festive chaos she surveyed. On the one hand, the annual culture festival put on by her old high school was every bit as varied and colorful as this, but on the other hand there was something a little more polished about the presentation of these clubs (after all, these kids had put on their own culture festivals and had a few years experience since to help improve upon their efforts). It was not only that, however, but the idea of committing herself to a new hobby and some new friends that excited her and made this fair seem somehow different.

She remembered telling Tomo one night just how much she wished that she could be like Kagura, who showed what seemed to Yomi like an almost supernatural, tireless dedication to her swimming. Kagura seemed to think that it was nothing special; she said it was simply a matter of loving what she did. Yomi didn't love anything that much, but she wanted desperately to learn to discipline herself. She had even asked Kagura if there was a swim club in addition to the school's official swim team. She hoped that perhaps if Kagura really loved it that much she'd humor Yomi and join the club just to keep Yomi company and maybe some of her work-ethic would end up rubbing off.

Unfortunately, Yomi learned, since swimming was an individual sport they didn't have a club for it, but there was certainly no shortage of sports clubs. There was a soccer club, a ping pong club, a volleyball club, an American football club, a lacrosse club, a badminton club, and on and on… And since Kagura could see that Yomi had really been hoping to have some support she assured her that they could meet up at the fair and look at some of those clubs to see if there was one they could join together.

What Kagura couldn't see, however, was that through a swim club Yomi had also secretly hoped to see more of Kagura's brother, Jun'ichirō. When Kagura suggested that they could still join one of the sports clubs together she had wanted to know if Jun'ichirō was in any of them. She knew that captaining the swim team must take up even more of her brother's time than it did Kagura's, but Jun'ichirō struck her as the type who liked to keep busy. Still, she couldn't bring herself to actually voice her question as she was still too embarrassed over what had happened on their first day of school, so she had decided just to keep an eye out for Jun'ichirō – their school was small enough that she felt fairly sure that if he came to the fair that afternoon she'd run into him sooner or later.

For the moment though she relaxed upon a bench, eating her korokke and listening to the band. She finished her snack just as they finished playing a song by one of her favorite idol groups called "The Sole Flower on This Planet." She was getting up to go look for Kagura and/or Jun'ichirō when the next band came on stage and she was almost knocked back into her seat by the wave of sound that blasted her from the nearby speakers. The cheery sing-song favored during the set by the previous band was replaced by an obnoxious, deafening wail. "ORENJI NO SURAIDO the sky that reflects SUPONJI NO PURAIDO being dangled… SPAIDAAAAAH!"

It sounded almost like…

Yomi pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Had it been anyone else she would have said to herself, "I don't believe it." Instead, as usual, she said simply, "Idiot."

She was furious with Tomo. What did she think she was doing barging in on the fair when this wasn't even her school like she was on a personal mission to ruin Yomi's life. Part of her wanted to jump on stage and throttle her right then, but she couldn't beat up her friend in front of so many people. It didn't matter to Tomo if she looked like a fool when she didn't know anyone here, but Yomi had to attend classes for another four years with these kids. So, teeth gritted she slunk away head down with her hand shielding her eyes. She thought for a second that Tomo might have spotted her, so she tried to cover even more of her face and crouch even lower to slip into the large crowd, but unable to see just where she was going she smack into a boy in the back and almost fell over. "Excuse me," she said as she wobbled a bit on her feet.

The boy reached out to steady her and she would have thanked him too if she hadn't realized at that moment that it was Jun'ichirō whom she had bumped into. "Are you all right?" he asked. Then, when he saw from her expression that they had met before he went on, without giving her a chance to answer, "Oh, wait a minute! We've met, haven't we? You're Keiko's friend, right?"

For a split second Yomi forgot that he meant Kagura, but though her heart was practically fluttering right out of her chest her head came back to her much more quickly than it had the first time they had met. Then Yomi, flattered when she realized that he had remembered her, blushed and perhaps a bit too enthusiastically chirped, "Yes!"

He smiled and nodded. "Your name's… Yumi, isn't it?"

Yomi deflated a bit. "Ummm… My friend's call me Yomi actually, but…"

"Yomi-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Yomi's eyes went wide with fear.

Tomo came up and slapped Yomi hard in the back. "Ay am za numbaah won singaah. Sank yuu…"

Tomo expected Yomi to attack her and stood waiting for their signature feud to commence. Jun'ichirō, stood there unsure of whom to ask about what was going on. A silent moment slipped by and Tomo realized that she wasn't getting the reaction she usually did.

"Ooooyyyy," she said. Yomi looked away and Tomo pursed her lips. Tomo assumed a silly face and pretended to talk like Yomi, "Hello, Tomo-sama, you are the super best number one. I am super dumb and wish I were like you. Please poke me in the belly." Tomo poked Yomi twice. "Squish, squish."

Until that moment Yomi had been blushing a violent shade of crimson. In a flash, the red that had been all over her face became concentrated in her scowling eyes that now pulsated with an indescribable power. With a move so fast that it could scarcely be seen she slapped Tomo's hand away and pinned her with a stare. Transfixed with terror, Tomo's eyebrow twitched slightly.

The instant had seemed an eternity to the terrorized Tomo, but even as she began her silent prayer she realized Yomi had turned from her to the boy and was pleasantly introducing her. "Please excuse my friend, she is very energetic sometimes." Yomi bowed slightly.

"No, no," laughed Jun'ichirō, "That's fine." He turned to Tomo and ventured, "It was very… interesting. So, you were the one singing on stage just a second ago?"

Tomo thrust out her hand signaling victory with her fingers. "That was me! Takino Tomo, world's greatest idol!" And she was on the verge of making a crack about anyone seeming like a great singer compared to Yomi when she caught a glimpse of the earlier death-glare out of the corner of her eye and swallowed hard instead.

"Oh… by the way," said Tomo to Jun'ichirō, "Who are you?"

スーパー・パンプキンズ・テニス・クラブ　Super Pumpkins Tennis Club

It had been a truly fantastic afternoon. Yomi, Tomo, and Jun'ichirō had found Kagura at the Ping Pong Club's booth playing a heated match. Tomo, of course, had disrupted it. Yomi was just glad to have her annoying someone else. When Tomo heard that Kagura's first name was Keiko and that, even better, she preferred not to have anyone call her by it (she thought it was too common) she spent the whole afternoon teasing her about it.

Now it was late in the afternoon and they had visited nearly every booth at the fair. Yomi had been particularly excited to find that there was a Cheerleading Club at the university, but Kagura had not been nearly as keen. Yomi still signed the mailing list just in case, but later they talked to the lacrosse club and had both agreed that it seemed like a lot of fun. They hadn't made up their minds yet, but the more unusual sport appealed to them because it occurred to them that there would be few members who would have had the opportunity to play much if at all before college and so Yomi and Kagura wouldn't find themselves all that far behind even as new inductees. Sadly, Yomi noticed, Jun'ichirō hadn't shown any particular interest in any of the clubs.

Though Tomo had been fairly well behaved, and had kept from provoking Yomi directly since Yomi had frightened her earlier, Yomi was still somewhat irked to see Tomo sign her name to the list of every club they talked to. When Tomo signed herself up for the Poetry Club Yomi sighed, but she knew that she'd never let the day end if she had it in her power. Unfortunately Yomi caught Jun'ichirō looking at his watch which read 4:40 and knew that it would soon have to. In fact, Jun'ichirō seemed just on the verge of excusing himself from everyone when someone called out his name and he turned to greet them.

"Daisuke!" he exclaimed. The two boys clapped each other on the back.

"I kept my eye out for you, but I haven't seen you at our booth all day," said the boy.

"What's your club, again?" asked Jun'ichirō.

"We're one of the tennis clubs," he began, "but we go out drinking together as often as we practice… so, of course I naturally thought off you!" The two boys laughed loudly.

"What do you say?"

Jun'ichirō rubbed the back of his neck and looked like he was about to politely decline, but his friend saw this and cut in again, "Look, I know that you're pretty busy this year, 'oh captain my captain' – but you wouldn't have to come to every practice. Come every Friday... Come every other Friday! I know we don't live together anymore, but I don't want to worry about you all the time; you'll work too hard and turn into a boring salary man if you don't spend time with your old friends." He saw Jun'ichirō waver and turned to the girls. "Hey Keiko, tell your brother he needs to join my club."

While Daisuke was talking Yomi realized that, if nothing else, it would prolong for just a little while longer their afternoon together and interrupting Kagura blurted out, "You should at least take a look at the booth, Jun'ichirō."

The boys looked a little surprised, but Daisuke gave her an enormous grin. "That's right. So come on buddy, I know you never disappoint the ladies."

"No, I can't do that…" smiled Jun'ichirō softly.

Yomi, following behind, blushed red for the umpteenth time. Tomo bounced next to Kagura bringing up the rear. "Keikokeikokeikokeikokeikokeikokeiko…"

At the south end of campus, as they approached the booth Daisuke yelled out, "I brought him everyone! Tell him that you want him to join!"

The Super Pumpkins Tennis Club, resplendent in their orange jackets, performed a little cheer for their group.

Yomi liked the club right away, but politely listened to the younger members as they explained why their club was the very finest. Still, no one had mentioned anything that gave her the first clue about why they had chosen such an unusual moniker and after a few minutes of pondering she gave in to her curiosity and asked Daisuke privately, "Why does the group call itself the super pumpkins?"

Daisuke replied with a deadpan look, "Well, we tried calling ourselves the plain-old boring pumpkins but people didn't find that very exciting."

By the end of the afternoon they had all become Super Pumpkins. Jun'ichirō was finally convinced that despite his other commitments he could spare most of his Friday afternoons and evenings after all. Yomi, naturally just wanted to be near him. Kagura saw an opportunity to compete with her brother at a sport in which he wouldn't have three years of a head start. Tomo just liked giving away her signature which she figured must be worth something someday since, after all, she was the world's greatest pop idol.

作家から　From the Author

I feel like I've rushed this one perhaps because I just wanted to get everyone set up and provide a stable reason for three of the girls' frequent interaction. However, if you think I've forgotten about Chiyo, Osaka, or Sakaki you're crazy! In fact, I prefer that trio to the one I've been writing about so far. I know I won't have time to write as much as I have the past few days for a while, but I promise if anyone ever gets impatient for an update, I'm even more impatient myself. I look at stories that some have written that are 100,000 words long and I just boggle at imagining how long that took. Still, as I've outlined things right now this story won't start to get really juicy until chapter eight or nine! I want lots and lots of feedback though about what everyone thinks. How does this chapter compare to the last? Is everything believable so far, especially my characterization of the girls? How's the humor? What do you think about Yomi's crush on Jun'ichirō? What do you think about Jun'ichirō himself? I'm new to this site and fanfiction in general, but I don't like to do anything halfway, so my modest goal is to be the most prolific and widely acclaimed author on the site. I want everyone reading to breathlessly await the next installment and tell all their friends to get into this fanfiction stuff and this "Makale" especially. Also, this is probably so far off that I shouldn't even tantalize anyone with it, but I have big, big plans for other stories as well; the only one I'll mention right now is a Cowboy Bebop tale that will blow your mind…

説明　Explanations

1. I thought about just writing "whaaaaat?" instead of "ehhhh?", but I don't think that captures the feeling that the noise the Japanese make in these situations expresses. It's just such an exaggerated cartoonish sound with a distinct rising pitch. Maybe I'm being a lingual snob here, but I think it's quintessentially Japanese.

2. In episode nineteen Osaka yawns and everyone (except for Yomi who thinks it's stupid) decides that it's a great yawn and they want to practice yawning like that. Still, the habit grows old, but Tomo continues to rate everyone's yawn long after others have moved on.

3. Tomo uses a lot of badly pronounced English phrases when she's being hyperactive, so I just wanted to keep that sense of bastardized linguistics by writing her in a sort of Romanized katakana when she does that.

4. Sakano Kenichi, a Japanese comedian, became famous as Dandy Sakano by inventing a nonsense phrase, "Getsu" or "Gets" in which he poses exactly like I've described and grins goofily. I always find it hysterical.

5. I'm not going to describe all of the foods that I use in the story. You know they're food. You can look them up.

6. This is a special interactive part of my story that I might try again if it goes well. The song that Yomi listens to and enjoys before Tomo shows up is titled based on a real Japanese pop song that I have cleverly or perhaps not-so-cleverly disguised and for the first person who e-mails me the real title and the group that sang it I promise to try and write that person in as a cameo (even if you have to wait a chapter or two or three for me to find a suitable spot). To be fair everyone only gets one guess, so make it a good one. Your only hint is that it has absolutely nothing to do with The Pillows or "Ride on Shooting Star"…

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