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 5: Shopping and Hana-chan


A break from homework.

Kotake picked up a stalk of celery, examined it for any blemishes, and plopped it in a plastic basket. Currently, he was at the nearby grocery store picking out the ingredients for his mother's absolutely luxurious dinner that she had been planning to make. Curry? Bring it on.

He smiled at that thought, a small famish starting to grow at the pit of his stomach. He licked his lips as he imagined the steamy sauce staining the perfect snow of the rice, and he could almost trace the faint smell of warm potatoes and soft carrots.

Kotake's mother had sent him out on this errand, and he was obviously glad. Hey, would he rather stick around in the house with those annoying girls flocking around him? Even if he had to fork a couple of days figuring out which bushel of spinach had the most luscious leaves, it was better than doing homework.

He finished scanning the premises for potatoes, and then moved onto the aisles before him. The curry mix was probably in aisle 3.

"AH! KOTAKE-KUN!" screamed an all-too-familiar voice. The boy spun around and immediately found himself wheeled around in the taut embrace of a young girl named —

"MAKIHATAYAMA!" cried Kotake in surprise, thrown off-guard by the happy-go-lucky girl.

"Cheese!" she squeaked in response, holding up a pallid hand and squeezing up her tiny face for a wide Cheshire Cat grin.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" questioned Kotake absentmindedly; it was the first question that suddenly popped up in his mind. The girl only threw up her arms, stretching them up into the sky.

"Hana-chan's shopping!" Makihatayama squealed, jumping up and down as if she were fed too much caffeine, sugar, and coffee. "Hana-chan's going to buy lots of yummy food for Pao-chan and Doremi and Hazuki and Aiko and Onpu and Momo and —"

"Whoa, whoa,"interrupted Kotake, backing away slowly, looking for a way to stifle Makihatayama's babbling. "That… that… um, sounds great."

"It is!" agreed the blonde, pumping up her fists in excitement. "What about Kotake-kun? Is Kotake-kun buying yummy food for his friends and family too? What is he getting?"

Man, this girl could talk for hours, but a little company never hurt. Kotake shrugged and chuckled, "I'm just getting some food for dinner."

Makihatayama seemed delighted with his answer. Clasping her tiny hands in excitement, she giggled,"Kotake-kun should get some pudding! Pudding makes everyone happy-py! Hana-chan loves pudding, so she's getting some!" She gestured to her shopping basket for emphasis.

"WHOA," was all Kotake could say when he saw the immense pile of pudding packages in Makihatayama's shopping basket. It looked like she had practically ripped off the pudding section in the cold products aisle and stacked them in ridiculous mounds in her basket.

"You call that some?" gasped Kotake, his bulging eyes still located on the basket.

Makihatayama giggled childishly again. "Majorika sent Hana-chan shopping. This is Hana-chan's first time shopping, so she's going to get a lot of pudding before Majorika can go again!"

"M-majorika?" repeated Kotake in a nervous tone. He had never heard of this "Majorika" before, and yet at the very sound of her name brought chills down his spine for some reason. "Y-you mean… your grandma, right?"

Makihatayama fervently shook her head. "No! Majorika is..." She stopped before she ended her sentence, her cheerfulness forgotten. The blonde ended up lost in thought, shamefully looking down at her sunny-orange sneakers. "… yes, Majorika is Hana-chan's grandma."

The boy was confused at Makihatayama's sudden change in mood, but he did not press on. "Well, I'm going to go buy some more food for dinner. Later!"

He waved at Makihatayama's slim figure, and turned on his heel to continue picking out the proper vegetables for tonight's curry… now, what else did he need to get? Oh, yes, he could consult the shopping list his mother scribbled for him. Kotake ran a tongue over his dry lips as he dug his hand into his pocket, searching for the small, slightly waddled list.

He let out a small grunt as his hands drew out the slip of paper. The soccer player shifted the weight of his basket to one arm, and unfolded the squashed paper with the other. Instead of seeing if he needed lettuce, he saw —

"AAAH! I THOUGHT I GOT RID OF THIS!" he screeched in surprise, throwing down the letter that he —no, those blasted comrades of Dojimi had written for the girl herself. Ignoring the bypassing people that shot him weird looks, Kotake crinkled up the letter, his face as red as a tomato.

"Kotake-kun!" squealed the same voice from before.

"Hana-chan's here to save you! Kotake-kun was screaming! Is he hurt?" Makihatayama grabbed Kotake's arm, checking his body for any physical marks. With a surprised expression, Kotake withdrew himself, staring at the young girl with an odd stare. Makihatayama only ended up lunging towards his arm again, and the whole pattern repeated until Kotake tried to put a stop to it.

"Get away from me!" screeched Kotake, pushing her away.

Makihatayama's caramel-brown eyes started tearing up. "But… but Hana-chan only wanted to help! Kotake-kun's in danger, right? Right?"

Kotake huffed, "Not that I know of."

"Hana-chan wants to knoooooooow," the girl continued warbling, her wavering cries loud enough for the whole supermarket to hear. "Hana-chan wants to know Hana-chan wants to know Hana-chan wants to know Hana-chan wants to know Hana-chan wants to knoooooooow!" she continued in a non-stop, repeating screech.

Spinning around, Kotake noticed a few odd looks here and there again from people nearby pushing their metal shopping carts. Makihatayama was being so loud that Kotake knew that if any of the employees found her, they'd literally throw her out of the supermarket. Correction, him, because they would think that Kotake bullied the girl, making her wail as she was doing right now.

"Ma-Makihatayama," stammered Kotake, trying to soothe and ease Makihatayama's seemingly endless wails. "Calm down —"

Immediately, the girl was up and ready for some action again. "Hana-chan will never give up! Hana-chan will find out what's wrong and Hana-chan will fix Kotake-kun's problem!" She turned around on one foot and ran away with her basket of pudding, arms spread out as if she were an airplane.

Kotake's eye twitched as he watched the peculiar sixth grader speed down the aisle. He murmured to himself,"I don't know whether I should be comforted or whether I should go impale myself on something."

He narrowed his gaze to the basket he was holding and remembered that he had some shopping to do. Rummaging in his pocket for the shopping list, he realized his pocket felt relatively empty… but that was strange. Kotake didn't remember throwing out anything. At last, his fingers grasped a corner of a piece of paper. He pulled it out and…

"Found it!" he cried in happiness. Finally, that goshdarn shopping list was in his clenched fist, and he was ready to commence shopping for whatever his mom needed.

"KOTAKE-KUUUUUUUUN!"

Ugh, it was her again.

"Now what?" demanded an irritated Kotake as once again he came upon Makihatayama.

"Cheese!" she yipped happily.

"Cheese?" wondered Kotake in an annoyed and mordant tone.

"Ah, Hana-chan found something,"squeaked the girl, digging her hand into one of the pockets in her blue shorts. "Hana-chan found Kotake-kun's shopping list!" She dangled a familiar-looking crumpled paper in front of Kotake's blue eyes.

"That's odd," commented the navy-haired boy. "I already have my — OH, SNAP."

He recognized the paper during mid-sentence. His worse nightmare had come to life again. Surely the blonde in front of him would scribble whatever sappy, romantic idea occurred to her and leave him in distress. Kotake felt as if the world was going to explode, and he didn't even know how Makihatyama had gotten a hold of his letter... he must have dropped it and she must have picked it up.

Life was so cruel.

Makihatayama ran her brown eyes quickly across the messy handwriting and yelled, "Kotake-kun's going to buy tulips and spring beauties! Is Kotake-kun planning on throwing a party? Hana-chan wants to come!"

Kotake lost his momentum for a moment and nearly fell over at Makihatayama's incorrect interpretation. "I guess she is too air-headed to understand after all…"

Makihatayama placed a finger on her pale cheek and mused for a moment. "Kotake-kun is missing something on this list…"

The boy snapped up. She couldn't mean…? Was she going to put in something ridiculous like elephants? Beads?

Doremi, even for that matter?

"AHA!" she hooted, plucking her favorite pencil from her pocket and jotting down her ideas.

"Give me that!" the soccer player ordered as he turned to the girl. Kotake jerked his hand across hers, snatching the piece of paper.

Thank goodness Makihatayama couldn't read much of the scribbles on that piece of paper. Kotake opened his fist and Makihatayama slammed a hand down onto his palm. "Look what Hana-chan put! Look, look!" she urged in an excited voice.

Kotake was hesitant and tried to maintain his cool. He managed to straighten up with the best Yada Masaru impression he could muster as he rolled his eyes. "Why would I want to do that?"

Makihatayama jumped up and down. "Because Hana-chan put something cool on the list! Look, look!"

It was good that Makihatayama didn't seem to know what was really going on with the paper, but Kotake somehow didn't know whether to sigh in relief or in exasperation. The little girl continued gesturing and pointing madly at his hand as if she were having a seizure.

"Kotake-kuuuuuuun!" pleaded Makihatayama in an impatient voice. The soccer player looked around and people were staring at them again. If this was the only way to get her to be quiet, then he'd go for it.

Kotake let curiosity take the better of him and slowly unwrinkled the already-crinkled paper. His eyes suddenly widened at Makihatayama's whimsical words and he shot his stare towards her, blue eyes narrowed.

"PUDDING?" was all Kotake could shoot at her.

Makihatayama's round face bobbed up and down. "Yep! You can't have a party without pudding! That wouldn't be fun at all!"

The soccer player took a step back. "But… pudding," he sputtered, still in a frightened and unsure voice.

The odd blonde started to spin around in what she would call "the Pudding Dance." Kotake's eye twitched, and he backed further away. He examined Makihatayama's handwriting again on the paper, only to be distracted by his watch.

Whoa, he was late. His parents were probably wondering what he was doing right now. Kotake wondered how he would answer to them if they asked him where in the world he had been the whole hour and a half that he was gone. Well, Kaa-san, Tou-san, I bumped into a certain scary classmate of mine, and we talked about pudding. Funny, huh?

How convincing that would be.

"So, Kotake-kun, am I invited to the party?" Makihatayama suddenly asked, light brown eyes shining brightly.

"I'm late for something," Kotake sharply cut in. "Um, I'd, uh, love to stay with you to chat some more, but I gotta get going now. Later!"

He walked, no, ran away as fast as his legs would take him.

And because of Makihatayama, Kotake nearly forgot to buy the curry mix.


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.

Doremi-chan, you don't know how much you mean to me. How can I go on without telling the person I deeply care for about how I really feel? I'm surprised that I haven't shattered like a mirror yet. Every night and day I suffer from the pain of being pushed away from the warmth of your kindness. My true feelings towards you are too deep to fathom. I can't survive without you. Please accept my love for you or else I'll die.

Through the times that we've had, all the times that I've been bad were for the sake of you. This proves that I love you true.

Even though I don't show it, I guess it's true to say that I care. As they say, "You tease the ones you love." I may pick on you because of your hairstyle, but deep down I don't really think you're as horrible as I say you are.

PUDDING