Disclaimer: All characters, titles, franchises, etc. are solely copyrighted 1999-2004 to companies such as but is not limited to Toei, TV Asahi, BANDAI, etc. unless stated otherwise. I am not affiliated with any of the companies noted above, nor do I have contact with them. This is solely created for fan enjoyment.


Chained to a Letter
Part 1: Parallelograms and Momoko


All in one, the weirdest things in the entire world can happen in just a delivery of misplaced notes.

Poor Kotake Tetsuya was a miserable victim of this fate. But let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Kotake Tetsuya was busy in his room, doing one his least favorite thing in the world.

If you guessed homework, you're correct. If you guessed something else, then... I don't know what you're thinking.

"Umph..." grumbled Kotake, throwing a fit over problem #17. Why did the teachers have to assign him math problems that he'd never actually use in his life? It's not that one day when he went to the nearby park with his dog, he'd actually have to find the area and rate of the water was spurting from the water fountain.

Really.

"Grrr." Kotake idly doodled on the side of his paper, hoping that some inspirational lightning bolt would fire down at him. (Not literally, though.) He grimly stared at the parallelogram printed in his book with such frustration he could have ripped it right out of the book and shredded into tiny miniscule pieces. All because of that cursed parallelogram he was unable to break out of the curse of homework.

Math homework, of course. Math being his least favorite subject; it was hard for words.

He couldn't stand this any longer. He couldn't get the answer even if he spent eternity in his room.

Procrastination was like taking a dip into heaven. Kotake looked around his room, and his eyes landed on a photo of him and Doremi pinned to his bulletin board. He had manage to conceal the photo whenever his friends dropped by, knowing that they would tease him forever for liking that pink-haired girl. But still, Dojimi was funny and pretty likable, even if she was clumsy all the time.

The doorbell rang. Yay. Kotake would rather answer the door instead of suffering another minute in his dull room, even if it was just mail. He could feel procrastination rising up over him.

It chimed again. Kotake picked up his pace and ran for the door. His mom was in the kitchen, busy preparing dinner. She was about to head for the door when Kotake waved and yelled, "I'll get it!"

He swung the door open, and there stood a girl his age, with lime-blonde hair and sparkling jade eyes. "Kotake-kun!"

Kotake tried to hide his surprise. "Oh. Hi, Asuka."

Asuka beamed a smile, and handed him a stack of papers. "Here you go."

The boy looked stunned. "What's this, Asuka? Don't tell me we have more homework already!"

Asuka looked confused, but shrugged. "Of course it's not homework, silly! On Friday you left your notes at school, so I brought them here."

Kotake frowned, trying to recall the memory. Oh, right. When he remembered that he had to pound Kimura for something he couldn't remember, he had forgotten his notes. He remembered turning his entire room inside-out looking for those cursed notes. But thank heavens that at least he could stop beating himself upthinking they were gone.

"Uh, thanks, Asuka,"Kotake said, taking the stack of papers from her. Asuka nodded her thanks and turned around to leave.

"Oh, hey, Asuka. By the way, could you help me with a math problem?"

Asuka shrugged again, this time speaking in English. "Okay."

She slid on the slippers that the shoerack provided, and marched up the stairs into Kotake's room. Her eyes widened as soon asshe saw the problem.

"Kotake-kun, tell me you're joking!" she retorted, changing her language settings back to Japanese. "This problem's easy!"

"Easy for you,"huffed Kotake, lounging on his chair with his pencil balanced above his upper lip.

Asuka snatched the pencil off of Kotake's face and then proceeded in scribbling her work on the side of his paper. "On the side of the parallelogram, you multiply x twice and then you'll get the answer."

Kotake stared for a moment, and fumbled with his pencil. Suddenly, something in his mind clicked as he jotted down a series of equations. "Ohh!" he gasped in surprise, now understanding the question. "It does work! Thanks, Asuka!"

"No prob!" she said in English, sticking a finger up. Her eyes traveled around his room and she was about to comment on it when something caught her eye.

"Haaa! Kotake-kun, you have a photo of Doremi-chan on your bulletin board!"

In his attempt to finish homework, Kotake had forgotten to hide the photo. He slapped himself on the forehead and proceeded in slamming his head on his desk back and forth; back and forth.

"Aww, Kotake-kun, I think that's really sweet! So it is true!"

Something in Asuka's voice contained the tone Kotake was not in the mood for hearing. "What... what is true?"

"Weeeeell," started the Japanese-American with an oh, so innocent expression. "Rumors at our school indicate that you plus Doremi-chan equals love! You're always making fun of her until she tries to kill you and at the same time you protect her with so much love as if you're saying, Oi, only I can make fun of Doremi-chan!"

The soccer player's face turned into an unusual shade of bright red. He gritted his teeth, and he looked like he would pound Momoko in any second. "SHUT... UP... ASUKA..."

Asuka took a step back, giggling. "No, no! Don't take this the wrong way; I just think it's very cute! Now, Onpu-chan on the other hand —"

That was enough. Knowing that another one of Doremi's goonies knew did not make Kotake feel any better than he was already feeling. "WHAT DOES SEGAWA HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?" roared Kotake with so much fury that Asuka fell backwards. With dizzy eyes, she finally sat up and gave a sheepish grin.

"I think you should tell Doremi-chan how you feel," stated Asuka as-a-matter-of-factly. "It wouldn't really make a difference, considering everyone in the whole 6th grade knows that you're nuts over her."

That wasn't something Kotake would like to hear also, but Asuka-san was up to something.

"Your point being?"

"The old and clichéd love letter!" suggested Momoko, striking a fancy pose. "I know what Doremi-chan likes because I'm her friend, so I can help with the letter!"

"Don't you think you're taking this a little bit too far?" Kotake murmured, eying her.

"Nonsense! True love will always prevail!" Without another word to that, Asuka grabbed a clean sheet of paper from Kotake's desk before he could yell at her for touching his stuff. She flipped the paper over his homework and then gave a few pats to it.

"There! Now you can start! I'll be here when you need me."

The boy only responded by shoving the paper off his desk. "I'll start by getting this paper off of my table, thank you very much."

Asuka gasped, and did a football dive for the paper as if it was the queen's royal tiara. Dusting herself off, she slammed the paper over the table again, her lime-green eyes blazing. "Come on, Kotake-kun! This is your chance before she turns away and finds someone else! You don't want that to happen, do you?"

"Whoever said I liked that freak?"

Those green eyes bored into him. "Kotake-kun... do you?"

He couldn't look straight into her eyes, but he managed to answer, "Of course not."

Asuka smiled. "You do. You're such a bad liar. In the future if you want to lie to me, make sure you make eye contact."

She won. How could she? Kotake moaned in defeat, and now she was making him write his feelings for one person he "hated." Life was cruel. Life was so cruel! Just why did he have to forget his notes in class? If he hadn't, then none of this would have happened.

"Let's start this,"said Asuka, snatching the pencil again and writing neatly in English. The cursive words looked fancy to Kotake, even if he hadn't had a clue what she was writing.

"Dearest Doremi," she read aloud, proud of her work.

Kotake, on the other hand, thought the English was too much. "How will she be able to read that, stupid?"

"She doesn't have to read it. Besides, I'll tell her what it means."

Kotake was suspicious of what she had written. Could she have written "the stupid one loves Doremi?" He all up on his feet, and hollered, "YOU BETTER NOT HAVE INSULTED ME IN THERE!"

Asuka held up her hands confidently, but something showed Kotake that she was still slightly afraid of his anger. "I didn't, I didn't!"

She drew a few tiny hearts on the top of the page, and some fancy curlicues. Wow, art lesson. Kotake rolled his eyes, and then the blonde said, "Here, now's your chance to shine. Just jot down a lovely sonnet that enhances her beauty. Like, Flowers bloom in your sweet presence."

Kotake snorted. He pretended to think, and then suggested, "How about, Each time you walk by, the flowers die of your stench?"

Asuka wagged her finger. "No! Not funny! You have to prove your love instead of making her mad! Remember, you don't have much time! This is also a good chance for you to work on your Japanese!" The girl thought for a minute, and then shrugged. "Well... Shakespeare wrote his sonnets that way, but no one knew what the heck he was talking about anyway."

"Heh, you're the one who needs Japanese lessons. Heck, on your first day of school, you couldn't even say hello."

After a few minutes, Kotake scrawled a poem in the messiest handwriting he could muster. Eraser streaks were flying here and there, and the words were so blurry Asuka had to squint to read them. Lots of smudges were curved over the characters.

"Hmmm... seems all right. Not so poetic, but not so bad, either. Doremi-chan will be flattered! Got to work on your handwriting, though. It's atrocious! After all, the first rule of being an artist is to write like an artist!" Asuka confirmed her statement by adding more fancy swirls on the margins, and more flourishes from the ends of the heading.

"You need more poetry," she commented again, this time more bluntly. She seemed to like taking control of things and ordering others about. Much to Kotake's displeasures, she scribbled down something, and then showed it to him.

"See? Now that's poetry." The girl looked satisfied at her neat work, and gave the paper back to him.

"Whatever." The blue-haired boy rolled his eyes, not bothering to read the paper nor care about it. (Shades of Yada Masaru.) "Hey, don't you have to do something now? Like watch the grass grow?"

"Huh? Oh, right!" Asuka cried, looking at the digital clock resting on Kotake's bookshelf. "See you, Kotake-kun! Remember what I said!"

She ran out the door, and Kotake sighed. He was glad this part of his wasted life was over.

The letter made its way to the trash can.


Dearest Doremi,

You remind me of a tulip I saw at the garden in the park before Kimura accidentally trampled over it. Its petals are really pretty, and the color of it looks like the same shade of your hair and your eyes.

Your name is just exquisite. Harukaze Doremi; just perfect for you. Your soft personality is as gentle as the spring breeze, and your voice is as musical as your name. All the spring beauties envy you whenever you stand in their presence.