Hello, everyone!
I'm back yet again!
I have a lot on my plate right now, so I'll be quick.
I have prepared a chapter already, but it turned out to be over 13 000 words, so I decided to divide it into two different chapters. Here is the first part, with some 6000 words (plus author's notes). I plan to post the next part in one or two weeks from now. Okay, that's it, moving on.
(* * *)
Previously on The World Kanon Only Knows:
Keima recounts the details of the taxing midterm exams and Mai-High Festival preparations to Kusunoki. Due to his skills and other reasons many of his classmates end up helping and the festival turns into competitive "arms race". Despite that, both Kanon and Keima enjoy the festival as they visit all the festival booths. Throughout all the events Keima notices new feelings and habits about him and Kanon. When arriving at Kanon's apartment one day and finding her asleep he contemplates his unsure findings, before whispering something into Kanon's ear, not knowing that someone might've been listening.
What could Keima have been whispering? Does Kanon know? Will any of this be even relevant in this chapter?
Let's find out! Enjoy!
(* * *)
"Thank you very much for your hard work," Kanon bowed.
"Oh, no," the chief of the organizational committee bent further down, "it is me who wants to thank you, Kanon-chan," the chief bent down even further, "it was an honor to have you as our guest on our stage."
Kanon was currently at Tōkyō and had just ended another one of her concerts. As expected, it had the largest number of people in the audience Kanon had ever seen and she was sure the audience in front of TVs was even greater.
It was exceptional.
And, as expected, it was also exceptionally tiring, especially since Kanon was asked for encore. Twice. No, that's wrong. She did the encore twice. The number of times she had been asked for encore was higher.
Kanon tried not let it show on her face though and only allowed herself a sigh when she entered her car with Okada. 30 minutes later Kanon was in her hotel room and plopped down on her bed.
Still, she didn't feel as tired as she should be. She could guess why that was though..
"Apollo," the idol called out. There wasn't any mirror nearby, but she still heard a voice seemingly coming straight out of the big shadow Kanon was casting on the wall.
"Yes?"
"You did it again," Kanon accused, "I told you to stop using the magic during my shows."
The reason she was not feeling the full brunt of tiredness right now was because of one of Apollo's spell. The goddess claimed it was a healing spell, but Kanon suspected it was more akin to adrenaline boost.
"It's fine!" the goddess' shadows said, apparently giving the idol a victory sign, "Kanon songs are overflowing with love so, it's not straining on me at all!"
"That's not the issue!" Kanon said. "I want to sing with my own skills."
"Suuure, it's your own skills," the shadow seemed to cross its arms over its dark chest, " the entire army of managers, directors, choreographers, sound-effects people and composers is all your own skills..."
"You know what I mean," Kanon said.
"...it's normal for your fans, including Katsuragi, to support you as well," Apollo said, "why can't I do the same?"
"Because everyone considers that unnatural and when the spell wears off I'm in a worse shape than I was without it!"
Before Apollo could answer there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Kanon said, as she sat up.
The door opened and Okada walked in, still in her suit.
"Did something happen?" Kanon asked.
"Well, yes," Okada said, "I have good and bad news."
(* * *)
Keima tapped his finger against the arm of his chair, looking at his side monitor and waiting for the poll to end.
"Alright," he said when he saw the results, "50% of the votes are on answer B, where the protagonist acts based on the acquired info to try to visit Sayako's house. 30% is on waiting at her after school. 20% is on ignoring the info, despite Sayako knowing we heard it... fufufu," he repositioned his glasses despite the fact that no-one could actually see it, "my poor lost lambs... Unfortunately, you missed the hints about another one of the heroines being a stalker. If we try to go to Sayako's house, the stalker'll follow us and intrude and, in the best-case scenario, love points of both heroines will drop. You need to shake the stalker, so the after-school event is no-go too. It's best to ignore Sayako's poison event for now. As for the proof..."
Keima started to play the game at his normal speed, not the slow pace he used for the streams and soon enough he was at the scene in Sayako's house when two girls meet and sparks start to fly. "Of course, sometimes such events can help increase the affection, but not when you're crashing an important event for one girl and giving a motive for the yandere; yes, Kirigiri's a yandere. So there's that. Now," he turned to look at the chat, "as promised, from the ones who voted on ignoring the event, I'll choose a random person who'll get a copy of limited edition 'Star-eyed Julliette' signed by me," Keima said. He wasn't 100% happy about sending his own games to people, but he had 2 more copies of this game, so it was fine. He quickly scanned the latest messages on the chat. Of course, he ignored all messages asking if he was Kanon Nakagawa's boyfriend. He read on and his eyes narrowed.
"For the last time, TheGuyWithABeard10, I won't be doing a stream from 'Voices of the past'. Games with voice commands are all crap and that one is a shitty as ever. And as for, Urusaisuke_sama, I warned you before, so permanent ban it is," he typed for a moment and pushed 'enter'. He also saw that Gyuu26 was laughing at him for being all high and mighty. That person rarely followed the actual streams or was interested in any of the girls in the games.
From that and the way they spoke, Keima was 95% sure that person was actually Chihiro.
"Ok, let's go on with the route, we stil-"
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for the answer the door opened and Eri walked in.
"Nii-sama!" she said louder than necessary as usual, before she saw what he was doing. "You were supposed to be done an hour ago."
Keima took off his headphones. "The servers were down for a while, so we had a delay."
Eri walked to his throne and half-yelled at his brand-new monitor "Hello, everyone!"
"There's no mic there, idiot," Keima told her, but he was sure people heard her anyway, as was evident by the 'Was that a girl? o.O' messages that appeared on the chat.
"Mom calls you downstairs," Eri continued and Keima sighed, before putting on his headphones. "Okay, I have to go now. Tomorrow's stream will happen as scheduled. Like and subscribe if you don't want to be lost lambs anymore."
Five minutes later when everything was shut off, he took his trusty PFP and went downstairs. His mother was of course at the café and greeted him as soon as they opened the door.
"Finally," Mari said, "what took so long?"
"My stream started with a delay," Keima said, "servers of the real as as shitty as you could expect."
"Watch your tongue, young man," his mother said, "anyway, you have guests."
Keima surveyed the room and, sure enough, spotted some faces he knew. He wasn't surprised though: it was a common occurrence for him to be visited in his house, especially by those of the girls who weren't his classmates or schoolmates. And by the girls fond of his mother's cakes like Ayumi. He could bet normal people thought he already had too many women around him.
"You could get one or two male friends too, you know?" Mari said. "What about that blond guy?"
Over my dead body, Keima thought and moved towards one of the smaller tables, further away from the rest of the café, where two girls were seated. It was pretty obvious they didn't come here together.
Nanaka Haibara had her eyes on him and the moment she saw him looking at her, she called his name and waved animatedly. Most people had body language, but Nanaka had a few or at least spoke several dialects. Her habits and quirks sometimes spoke more about her moods and opinions than her words, and she spoke a lot.
Compared to her, Tsukiyo Kujō was almost motionless, as if her body language never learned the words. She seemed more interested in her tea than in Keima and only looked at him when he sat down.
There was also a shōgi board in front of Nanaka, with all pieces already in place. Tsukiyo's part of the table had a cute cup and Luna was seated next to her. Keima put his PFP on the table.
Some things never change, it seems. It was what made them different.
There was something that made both girls similar though: they were both having heavy winter jackets. It was late January after all and they had a blizzard just a few days ago. Even still, Nanaka's jacket was obviously protecting her from the cold well, but she didn't have a winter hat: her hair providing as much insulation as Wilson's magnificent beard, except for her cheeks which were rosy from the cold. She didn't seem to mind though. Tsukiyo, on the other hand, apparently didn't like the cold and what it did to her hair, but still opted to get a cute jacket rather than effective one.
"Hey," Keima started.
"Good day, Keima," Tsukiyo put her cup down and smiled softly.
"Let's play!" Nanaka pushed the board towards Keima with a sparkle in her eye and a challenging smirk.
"Can you not think about shōgi for five seconds?" Tsukiyo rolled her eyes, but Nanaka only shrugged.
"Yer just salty dat ya lost to me dat'un time we played–"
"It was the last time we played," the blonde corrected.
"–Keima can talk with ya and play with me at tha same time, so I dun see a problem!"
"I have another solution," Keima interjected before Tsukiyo could reply, "I'm pretty sure, I have someone who wouldn't mind playing a round with you," he turned to the bar, "right, Haqua?"
The (seemingly) brown-haired woman sitting at one of the stools choked on her beverage and turned back to him, coughing.
"How did you–"
"Please... I can recognize you just from posture alone," Keima explained while Nanaka and Tsukiyo gaped, neither knew that the devil was there the whole time.
Soon, the scythe joined the console, doll and board as the four of them were talking, while Nanaka and Haqua focused on the game as well. Tactics and strategy weren't the devils forte, but she couldn't back down from the challenge and Nanaka gave her a handicap. Still, the human triumphed over the devil eventually and challenged the god next. Obviously, Keima couldn't decline a challenge either.
Keima was talking, while in his mind he was thinking about how he got here. How all of them got here.
Of course, not literally. He knew Nanaka was visiting Tenri and Haqua was just checking on him. Tsukiyo's decision to visit was most likely affected by the café's décor, including maybe even his grandfather's pottery.
No, he meant something else. They were certainly a weird bunch. A 1/4 foreign shōgi player, who looked down on any average person. A devil valedictorian, who used to look down on humans. A moon-loving recluse who used to hate humans. And an avid gamer who used to look down on the world. Perhaps the thing that connected them the most was their pride... yet, here they were, sitting together and acting as friends, more or less.
He never expected a day when the likes of Nanaka and Tsukiyo would talk o each other willingly, even if they didn't exactly see eye to eye. And it wasn't just them.
Everyone changes, Keima thought as he remembered about similar visits that happened from time to time. The pesky real won't wait, but moves on, forcing everyone to adapt.
Keima wasn't surprised the girls sought him out from time to time for advice, company or to simply pester him. What was surprising was that they sought each other out too. Keima got used to thinking of Tsukiyo and Shiori meeting together. Whenever he thought of Nanaka, Tenri appeared right next to her in his mind. But real was not what his gaming experience told him. Real was complex, unpredictable and flimsy.
And changing.
Everyone moves on, he concluded. Well, maybe except Yui. The cross-dressing girl still hadn't forgot about Keima and that was pretty much the only problem with otherwise the best school days Keima had ever experienced. At the very least he was safe at home, where he found unexpected, but very appreciated anti-Yui shield in the form of his mother. No matter what arguments Yui used, Keima and Kanon were together and that was enough for Mari and whenever Yui tried to oppose, the only thing she achieved was her mother threatening to undo her hair.
Everyone has their own life, Keima thought as he looked as Haqua was lecturing Tsukiyo about something with her finger in the air. Yes, with the looming exams many paths and goals coincided, but everyone had their own life. Their own friends.
This was something that surprised him. That there was a world beyond what the screen of the PFP was showing. That there were more characters. They might be background extras for him, but not for everyone. Everyone had families, plans, dreams and hobbies.
Everyone also had troubles, but Keima took care of some of them. He closed the gaps in many hearts and allowed their owners to grow and spread their wings, sometimes literally. The girls growing closer to each other only furthered it. They were becoming a little more similar to each other. It was the little things. He'd seen Kusunoki control her violence better and the same went for Ayumi. He could swear Jun was a bit less passionate the last time he saw her. Even Shiori was more social now, her small circle of friends extending.
The last one he heard from Tsukiyo, who Shiori invited once to meet her new friends, but they didn't seem to like Tsukiyo much and the moon-lover didn't seem to like them either, proving real remained a shitty game.
Everything changes, he repeated in his mind. Everyone discover new things. Soon their highschool days will be over. The girls were free. That thought was weird. And it wasn't because Keima realized that only now. No, he had known it from the start. From back when Ayumi's conquest ended. And Mio's. And Kanon's. And Jun's. And Tsukiyo's. He remembered his thoughts after Chihiro's conquests.
Everyone was fighting their reality, struggling, trying their best. And moving on. The event wasn't unexpected. His reaction to it, however, was.
He had filled so many gaps in the heart. He always knew there were more gaps that remained unfilled. But he never suspected one might be–
A sudden ringing brought him back from his thoughts. He fished his phone out of his pocket. The ringtone was quiet, so his mom didn't hear it, but Haqua, Tsukiyo and Nanaka did and from the looks in their eyes, even the shōgi nut recognized the melody.
"Is dat 'Love call'?" the orange-head teased. "Is it yer love callin'?"
Keima pretended he didn't hear her. He knew he shouldn't have let Eri chose the ringtone for him.
"Yes?" he said as he answered.
"Keiiima-kuun~", as expected it was Kanon. The phone call didn't surprise him at all. He received several such calls each day. "I missed you!"
"Me too," Keima said, hoping that way the others won't be able to figure out the contents of the conversation. He didn't fully succeed, seeing as Haqua and Tsukiyo rolled their eyes and Nanaka smirked in a way that reminded Keima of Chihiro.
"I take it that the Tōkyō concert went well," he asked, hearing that her voice was merry. He also noticed his mother making an obvious gesture. "Mom sends her regards."
"Thanks, say hi from me too and, yes, the concert was good," Kanon said, "I've never seen some many people in one place."
"That's great to hear," Keima said and heard a giggle from the table, but he wasn't sure which girl did it, "I was having a delayed stream today, when the real decided to bother me."
"It was you who bothered me, idiot," Haqua said to him, but didn't look angry.
"Say hi to Haqua-san," Kanon spoke, "and whoever else is there too."
"So, next is Osaka, right?" Keima asked.
He hadn't seen Kanon in weeks. Okada knew she'd have to let the idol take a breather with her exams, but that meant Kanon had to work harder before the break. Thus, she came up with a concert tour. It wasn't a perfect idea to have a tour in winter, but facts stood no chance against Okada in her business mode. She called it "reaching to people during the time of gloom and short days". "Let's liven up the boring-ass Tōkyō with pink lights!"
Of course, Kanon was used to having to travel a lot, but never so far away for so long and never with such an audience. The way it was planned and the scale made Kanon look more like a regular singer than an idol. And obviously it wasn't going to be easy and, as always, real made it even worse. But Kanon was holding up, though the frequency of her calls made it obvious how much she didn't want to be separated from Keima for so long.
Thus, Keima knew Kanon would be happy to talk to him... but not to this extent. Right now her voice on the phone giggled.
"About that, something happened at Osaka," Kanon started, it didn't sound good, which was even weirder, as Kanon's was obviously excited, "so you know that they only had one dome which was suitable for winter concerts?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, it turns out it was damaged during the blizzard a few days ago," Kanon continued, "the manager tried to assure us it was safe to perform, but Okada-san... interrogated his team. I won't be going to Osaka."
"So you'll have some time to catch your breath before the concerts in Saitama and Nara," he said, but Kanon giggled again. He could almost see her smile.
"Nope. The weather is worse than anticipated," she told him, "I won't be able to perform in Saitama either. And Okada-san promised we'll be able to push the Nara concert to an earlier date."
"Wait, you mean–"
"Yup, I'll be in Maijima in 3 days!"
"You'll be back from your tour in 3 days?" Keima said, a little bit too loud.
"Kanon-chan is coming back?" Mari asked. "That's great! I'll tell, Eri-chan!"
"Assuming she doesn't know already," Tsukiyo remarked mostly to herself.
"I don't hear her yelling from upstairs, so she doesn't know yet," Haqua said before she stood up, "I haven't hung out with her in a while, so I guess I'll go tell her, considering someone has already blown my cover."
"Maybe call 'er here," Nanaka said, "ya haven't hung out with Keima in a while either."
"Why would I want to hang out with him?" the devil pointed to the gamer who was still on the phone.
"Of course you don't want to hang out with him. Totally," Tsukiyo said sarcastically, but not loud enough for Haqua to hear her.
"Hey, how 'bout we do a reunion?" Nanaka suggested suddenly.
"Pardon?" Tsukiyo asked.
"Ya know, all o'us meetin' together," the shōgi player explained, "we haven't dun dat in a while."
Keima was somewhat following their conversation. He was visited rather often, but rarely by more than 2 girls, unless it was 2-B pencils. The biggest exceptions were birthdays, where there'd usually be a bigger crowd. Still, the last time they've all met together was over a year ago, at the train station.
Except...
"You mean all of us meeting together?" Tsukiyo said in thought. "We've never done that actually."
She was right. Haqua and Rimyuel rarely appeared just for the sake of hanging out with anybody. Jun was similar. Actually, most of the girls had never seen Hinoki. Neither of those four were at the train station. And there was one more name...
"Then we should definitely meet all together!" Nanaka announced with a smile. "Especially, since Kanon-chan is going back!"
"Are you crazy?" Tsukiyo said. "Our final exams are almost here! We need to study! The last thing we need is distractions like this!"
"Yeah, I see ya studyin' right now," Nanaka accused, "ya totally ain't come here to meet Keima."
Tsukiyo's doll-like face suddenly went up a few shades of red. "All right, you win," the blonde conceded, "we can organize a meeting after the exams then. If Keima agrees of course," she looked at the gamer.
Of course Keima agreed. Even if he wanted to disagree, he couldn't. Not after seeing Eri's excitement about the idea, hearing Kanon's approval through the phone. Not to mention that Mari offered the café for the occasion.
(* * *)
"Keima-kun! Eri-chan!" Kanon exclaimed as she hugged both Katsuragi siblings.
It was late morning on Sunday and Kanon's train had just arrived in Maijima. The idol was greeting the Katsuragis, while Okada was on the phone and rechecking if all of their baggage was accounted for.
"Welcome home!" Eri hugged Kanon back.
"Yeah..." Keima said weakly, struggling for breath. The idol had a really tight hug.
Or maybe she just missed them that much?
As expected, Kanon was in a disguise and Keima made sure to hammer into Eri's head to not call the idol by her name in public.
"I'm sorry about your concerts," Eri said, though it wasn't fully sincere: it was obvious Eri didn't mind having Kanon back in town.
"Thank you, but it's okay," the pinkette replied, "it was an unexpected, but welcome reprieve."
"I can help if you need another reprieve," Kanon's reflection in a nearby glass pane flashed weakly as Apollo appeared, "remember how I told you that mountains burst from the ground when I sing?" the goddess of arts spoke quietly with a grin. "Just tell me anytime and I'll make sure any place will have to cancel due to an earthqua-what?" the goddess stopped when Keima and Kanon gave her unamused glares.
"Anyway, are you having a stream today?" Kanon asked Keima.
"No."
"Any errands? Meetings? Anything?"
"No..." Keima said. "Why?"
"Perfect!" Kanon exclaimed, her voice brimming with excitement. "I've decided that I'll go to your house first."
"And visit your parents in the afternoon?" he questioned. It wasn't even February yet so it still was getting dark rather early. Keima didn't like the idea of Kanon going back to her apartment alone so late, even if the ad-hoc Heaven-Hell cooperation initiative (a.k.a. devils protecting Kanon) was still in motion.
"Nope! I'm spending the entire day at your place," Kanon smiled even more.
Before Keima could say something, Okada passed him, briefly putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm leaving her in your care for today then," the businesswoman said and left in the direction of the taxi stand.
As soon as Okada left, Kanon latched onto his arm, "Keimaaaa~kun," she sing-songed into his ear sweetly, before her expression suddenly turned sombre,"I've heard you've been seeing other girls when I was away."
Keima gave her a look.
"You know it's not like that," Keima said. The idol couldn't possibly act angry about the girls visiting him. Especially, since Kanon would happily hang out with any girl that visited him while she was there. "And it's not like I can avoid school either, you know, even if I'd like to."
"No excuses," Kanon pulled him even closer, "for the next few days I'm the only girl you are allowed to entertain Play~boy~san," she accentuated the last three syllables softly into Keima's ear and he shivered.
He knew she was playing him. Kanon might not be as good at acting as Keima or Mio, but in her profession she had to take many roles and be able to change between them quickly. Thus, she was very adept and switching from acting like a love-struck girl to being all jealous and clingy. The longer they were together the more diverse and deep were the facades. Normally Keima would expect that to be very jarring or straight-up concerning, but over the time they have grown comfortable together enough that Keima knew Kanon was just fooling around (something she couldn't do normally, being bound to perform on stage according to the script), while also subtly ensuring she was the only one allowed that close to him.
"You're staying at our place for the entire day?" Eri apparently got only that much, her eyes sparkling at the prospect of having Kanon over.
"Yup!" Kanon confirmed. "I don't even feel like going to my apartment today," she put a finger to her lips, "maybe I could do a sleepover?"
"That's great!" Eri was practically jumping up and down from excitement at this point. "You can sleep in my room!"
Keima just rolled his eyes. He wanted to say that they should talk to mom about that first, but he knew how that would end anyway...
(* * *)
"But of course!" Mari agreed to Kanon's request, as Keima expected, while Kanon smiled and Eri almost bounced across the room. Keima briefly wondered who'd win in a race: Ayumi or Eri with Kanon's picture hanged in front of her.
Or perhaps a firetruck picture.
"It's not a problem at all!" Mari continued. "Of course as long as Keima behaves, which he will," she added looking at her son suspiciously.
"Of course I will!" Keima said back angrily. "I didn't tell you the truth about everything only to hear you insinuate such stuff!"
"Watch your words, young man!" Mari warned him, but when Keima turned around annoyed, the orange-haired woman leaned towards Kanon and started to whisper in her ear.
"That being said, slight misbehavior isn't entirely wrong," the older woman advised.
"Huh?" the idol was confused.
"There's a lot of girls around Keima these days, most importantly that drummer girl hasn't give up quite yet," Mari continued, "as secure as your position might be, you should mark your territory, given that Keima hasn't seen you in several weeks," Mari smiled, "believe me, I wasn't exactly innocent when I was young and I know men are weak to temptation when left alone."
"Ha... ha... is that so?" the idol replied, unsure.
"Yes, so don't hesitate to be a little bolder," Mari said, "of course, not too bold."
Thankfully, Kanon was saved from having to answer that when Eri, finally calmed down, was back in the earshot.
(* * *)
The three teens stayed in the café for a while, Kanon with her disguise of course. Mari and Eri ran the café, while Kanon offered to help clean the tables and waiter for a bit to make things easier for them. Keima had half the mind to just play his games, but with basically three of the most important women in his life working he couldn't just sit on his ass, relaxing. So he got up and decided to contribute the best he could: by making coffee.
When Kanon saw him, she smiled warmly at him, like she'd do during a concert, but it was a stage smile. It was warm, happy and not fake, but not exactly true either. It was a sly smile that held something behind, something he couldn't quite decipher. He brushed it off. Not the first time he couldn't understand what made real women tick.
He turned to the coffee machine, his back to his mother, so he couldn't see Kanon wasn't the only one smiling.
After that, Mari closed the café for a bit in order to prepare and serve lunch and the four of them ate in the kitchen. Being able to eat a meal together with her boyfriend and her biggest fan and in a family atmosphere to boot was great, but still, Kanon was eager to get some privacy. Thus, as soon as Mari complained that Keima had bought more expensive equipment for his streams, the idol demanded that he shows her. Eri wanted to accompany them of course, but Mari dragged her to help in the café again. Thus, Keima led Kanon to his room.
Admittedly, Keima might not be the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to real women, but by now he had significant experience in dealing with them. He had also gotten to know Kanon in particular quite well, knowing that she acted differently around him compared to when she was on stage or even when talking to others. And it wasn't the first time they haven't seen each other too, so he kinda expected what would happen. Despite that he was still surprised when Kanon's arms embraced him from behind the moment they crossed the threshold, her foot used to close the door behind them.
"Keima-kun," the idol said, her voice a little above a whisper. It was less sing-song now and it was full of longing instead. Longing that Keima had heard over the phone more than several times, her body pressing against his back, "I missed you."
Keima gently untangled her arms long enough to be able to turn, before embracing her too. Kanon immediately got closer again as if they were two opposite electrical charges.
"I missed you too," Keima admitted, but Kanon put a finger on his lips.
"You can tell me about that later," she told him, "now I want you to show me."
And then she was kissing him. She started slowly at first, probably trying not to startle him, but her actions gradually gathered momentum, becoming more insistent, her hands and lips showing Keima how much home-sick (or Keima-sick in this instance) she was. Soon Kanon forgot her restraints, just trying to get more of him, becoming both eager and clumsy, in an endearing way.
Keima kissed back, caressing Kanon's sides. His hand slowly moved up her back and weaved into her pink locks. He found the sensitive spot on her nape where her hairline started and begun to rub softly. In response, Kanon pulled back a little and closed her eyes in obvious pleasure, her lips pursing and hands clutching more onto him.
It was later, much later, when Keima was half-sitting and half-lying on his bed. Kanon was snuggled up to his side, his hand encircling her waist, while the pinkette lazily ran her hand over his chest. Even through his shirt he could feel her nails scraping his skin softly.
"I've missed this," Kanon said softly, "I've really missed this."
"Yes, I know it was necessary, but you were away for far too long this time," Keima admitted.
"Oooh?" Kanon lifted her head and rolled onto his chest, straddling him, "did you just admit that you missed this?"
"I've said nothing of the sort," Keima denied, but Kanon only moved closer, flinging her arms around his neck.
"Oh c'mon, just admit you missed gazing into my eyes," she said, "you missed this as much as I missed gazing into yours."
"What else do you think I missed?" Keima questioned as he observed the deep pink of her eyes.
"You've missed this," she held his hands in hers, rubbing them, before slowly moving her fingertips under his wrists and forearms to his elbow, caressing all along the way, "and this," she leaned closer, sealing his lips with hers.
It quickly became obvious that Kanon hadn't quite had enough of kissing him yet, her lips working with renewed fervor.
"You're... really greedy today... aren't you?" Keima said when the separated to catch their breaths.
"We haven't seen... each other... in a while," she gasped out, "you've said it... yourself."
He shook his head.
"Even including that, you're more into it than usual."
So he had noticed. It was true that she really missed this and God knows when someone (most likely Eri) was going to interrupt them, so she wanted to make the most out of it. After all, they rarely saw each other and having private time, just the two of them, was even rarer.
However, it was also true that she was following Mari's advice. Some time ago she'd consider that a stupid idea, but now, with Keima being quite receptive, it seemed much more doable, even if a little bit inappropriate. The problem was, she was a girl, whose job was to sing sappy and lovey-dovey songs... and she was dating the guy of her dreams right now... who she hadn't seen in weeks. She'd practically done what Mari advised her before she even left the train station!
There was just a teeny weeny chance that she might've gotten carried away, if Keima's last remark was any indication.
"Is it bad?" she asked as she tucked one of her pink locks behind her ear.
"Not really," he said, helping her brush another strand of hair out of her face, "it's just..."
"Fufufu," Kanon chuckled and gave him an impish smile, "maybe this is too much for the God of Conquest to handle?" she teased.
Suddenly, she felt Keima's hands on her waist, a bit more securely then what she was used to, and the next thing she knew was that she was lying on her back and Keima was hovering over her.
"Fufufu," it was his time to chuckle evilly, "you should tread carefully, mortal," his glasses seemed to shine, obscuring his eyes from view, "mocking a God is a sin."
Kanon gulped, as the tables suddenly turned. However, she used to be a performer with self-esteem issues. She knew how to put on a brave face when on stage, even under pressure. Thus, she rose a bit.
"Is there going to be a punishment for the sinner?" she asked boldly.
"A terrible punishment," Keima said, leaning forward. Kanon, thinking he was going for another kiss, lifted her head.
Keima was waiting for that.
His face dipped past her lips and jaw to her exposed neck. Kanon gasped when he kissed the skin there and a moment later she made a sound that made Keima want to "punish" her more. His hand found one of hers, while Kanon's other hand weaved in his hair. Keima's lips explored the sensitive skin... until he discovered a spot that made Kanon giggle and try to push his face away.
"That tickles!" she complained.
"I hope you learned your lesson, mortal," Keima said when Kanon's giggles subsided.
"I'm afraid I'm a slow learned," the idol said, exposing the other side of her neck invitingly, "I might need more heavenly guidance."
Keima seemed to agree and soon Kanon was torn between biting her lip, swearing softly and making other inarticulate noises.
Holy cow, how does he do that, she thought when Keima stopped his assault for a second. That's not something he could learn from games... he didn't practice on anyone, did he? This was incre-
Kanon's inner thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Nii-sama!"
That was all the warning before the door started to open. Kanon panicked and instinctively pushed Keima off of her and of the bed.
Eri entered the room and stopped, surveying the scene in front of her: her brother lying on the floor as if he was kicked by Ayumi or fried by Kanon's stun guns again and Kanon herself, all tomato-faced and lying in his bed. Before Eri could react in any way, Keima was up and angry.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" he hollered. "Have you not heard of knocking!? What are you doing here!?"
"But I wanted to spend time with Kanon-chan too!" Eri replied as if it was obvious.
"Have you never heard of privacy!?" Keima ignored her words. "For all you know we could've been kissing!"
"So what?" Eri was suddenly flailing her arms, comical tears in her eyes. "I've seen you kiss tons of girls and it never bothered you before!"
The siblings continued to argue, while Kanon remained rooted to her spot on her bed. Her thoughts were suddenly clear and all the blood was searching for a way to her cheeks. She had half the mind to grab the bed sheets and cover her neck. She could already feel the forming of what would soon be several hickeys. She sure hoped that winter will justifying the use of turtlenecks indoors...
...otherwise she'd have a lot of explaining to do.
(* * *)
And that's the first part of the long-ass chapter. I'm sorry if this chapter didn't exactly end up covering everything you thought it should... but there's still another part of this long-ass chapter and believe me, it'll be pretty exciting!
Well, not that this chapter wasn't exciting, if the red spots on Kanon's neck are any indication. So, yeah... turtlenecks. :P
So, we have Kanon and Keima being apart for a while and reuniting, showing each other how much they've missed each other :P. I hope you like the kissing scene. I personally enjoyed the word "role playing" Kanon and Keima did. I might even use more of it in the next chapter ;)
Aside from that, some of Kanon's concerts are cancelled due to blizzards, but it shouldn't hurt her popularity too much. Keima, as usual, cannot go two days without some girl invading his home. His streams are also going well. They must be good, if even Chihiro is on the chat :P. And Eri is clueless and naive as usual... while Mari... not so much... and Kanon seems to be taking the older woman's advice to heart. :P
So everything seems to be going well at the moment... but the exams are looming near and I wonder how Keima and Kanon are going to cope with having to stay away from each other for so long?
I guess we'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out more. ;)
As always I want to thank everyone for their support, including all the views, follows, favs and reviews. As usual, below are the responses to the latest reviews.
DarkDrawerJ: you're very welcome. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. :)
ZelgadisGW: fanservice? *looks around* What fanservice? I've no idea what you're talking about *whistles*. I wonder if Kanon has a key to Keima's house though. It seems I'm a Toydarian though, as Jedi mind tricks don't work on me it seems. :P
Red Glasses: I'm sorry about making a chapter with no dialogue... I hope this and the next few ones will fill that gap, so to speak. Anyway, thank you for your kind words.
Sir Sleeps-a-lot: thank you very much for your deep, thorough and precious review. I don't even know where to start with my response. I'm glad my writing inspires you, yours inspires me too :). Yup, the school definitely could use more dark corners for Kanon and Keima ;). Heh, I take it I portrayed the festival activities well enough then :). Glad you liked the last scene. Yes, please write about the good old mo-*looks around nervously*, well you know the drill. I died at the "sports festival" part :). As for the external and internal conflicts, I guess we'll have to see, though I don't really disagree. It's just that writing Kanon is too difficult or too slow. I don't really have that much free time too... Thank you so much for your review! I hope you'll enjoy further developments!
Big Bad Beowulf: glad the chapter was easy enough to follow, I'm afraid sometimes my writing style or plot lines are not so easy to understand. Well, Kanon and Kaori are a tad similar, having a bit of yandere in them :P. I hope this chapter was worth the wait.
jargax: t-thank you so much, glad to put a smile on your face. I hope you enjoy other chapters as well. :)
Ghost Man: yup, Kusunoki has great perception and intuition and she's calmer... kinda :P. Heh, Mari isn't just a devil. She's a demon. Demon of the mountain pass (or was it snow woman? xD). Yup, Eri can be a walking cataclysm sometimes, but yeah she got better :P. Lol, didn't think about Mio-pan :P. Well, as for Chihiro knowing the kissing spots, she basically just guessed. Who knows, maybe she watched the school grounds through binoculars or something :P. Yup, Kanon would take notes... or invent her own spots. She has so many unvisited broom closets in the school too :P. Yup, though not enough scandalous in my opinion :P. I suppose goddess stay with their hosts 24/7 unless the goddess is asleep. Who knows how it works...
DeeepSeas: Glad you think so. I'm happy my developments seems plausible and adorable enough :). Thank you for the review.
I think that's everything for now. Stay tuned for the next chapter, which should be up before two weeks are out!
See you next time!