The first day of their relaxing trip had ended without anything noteworthy and the morning of the second day arrived. Miyuki was already in the kitchen, but without Tsukasa, because she had given up on waking her up after the third try and left alone. The first years were in the kitchen was well already after a rather short night.
"Oh, let me help with that…"
"Really? Thank you very much, Minami-san." Miyuki had started preparing breakfast, and once Minami noticed that, she promptly offered her help. Yutaka and Hiyori were too busy to even notice. Unfortunately, once Yutaka became interested in something, she became really persistent, and Hiyori took the blunt end of it.
"Hiyori-chan~, about…" Ever since yesterday, Yutaka kept asking one question after another about her mangas.
"WAAAHHH!" Thanks to that, Hiyori's life was a complete hell right now.
"Why do you enjoy drawing… girls only manga so much…?" Yutaka wasn't sure to word it.
"Uhh… B-Because girls are cuter to draw…? A-Also, because I'm a girl as well… c-certain details are easier for me to draw…" Hiyori wanted to die again. Talking about these kinds of things with likeminded people like Konata and Kagami was fun for her, but talking about it with the seemingly innocent Yutaka was almost equal to torture.
"Even though those parts are censored…?" The seemingly innocent Yutaka was rather knowledgeable about some interesting details.
"W-Wha-?! AAHHH- *BAM*" Out of pure desperation, Hiyori banged her head against the next best wall with even more force than she intended to.
"Good morning~, seems like you're already having fun, huh, Hiyorin?" Konata and Kagami managed to leave their bed eventually and were standing in the door right now while watching Hiyori with a smile.
"Wah~, senpais!" Being desperate, Hiyori jumped at them the second she saw them and tightly hugged the two at the same time. "Please help me~!"
"Now, now~…" Konata patted her head, and Hiyori let go of them after a while again.
"You're surprisingly weak to pressure, aren't you, Hiyori~?" Kagami was smiling from ear to ear for some reason.
"Shut up, Kagamin~, not now…"
"Hehe." Her devious smile didn't change a bit. Today's probably going to be a lot worse for Hiyori.
"You shouldn't let it get so much to you, Hiyorin… Yu-chan isn't doing it on purpose, and she definitely hasn't any ill will. She's just curious about many things…"
"I know… it's just when I look at Yutaka's innocent eyes when she's talking about it… I just feel so… dirty…"
"I get where you're coming from and I felt the same for a long while, but I lately have the feeling that she isn't as innocent as one would think… Sometimes, it seems like there's something dangerous inside that cute appearance…"
"K-Konata-senpai…?"
"Ah, no, please ignore me. Anyways, don't get too hung up when she's interested in something."
"Yeah, I guess you're right… Thank you, Konata-senpai." Hiyori seemed to have finally recovered a little. "Still, couldn't you two have stood up about an hour earlier? It would've saved me so much trouble… Why are you late anyway?"
"Didn't I tell you yesterday already?" Konata had a slight case of déjà-vu again.
"Hmm…?" It seems like she forgot about or rather, suppressed it.
"Just like it happened yesterday, Kagamin~ had slight troubles getting up again…"
"Kagami-senpai really doesn't look like she's bad at waking up at all, though."
"Yeah, it's a mystery~." Konata didn't want to burn out Hiyori too much because she suffered enough already, but Kagami didn't agree with that sentiment.
"Don't mind it, Hiyori, you aren't really wrong. I'm normally not bad at all with mornings. It only happens when I sleep with Kona. I simply don't want to stand up then~." Kagami flashed her a seductive smile while saying so. It looked like her plan to break her had already started early in the morning. "Kona's unable to move because I don't let her, but that would be a bit too much to explain now." It seems there were still some slight limits.
"W-What…? K-Konata-senpai, is that…" She looked at Konata for confirmation, but she was unable to meet her eyes. "E-Ehh!? C-Come on, Kagami-senpai… I-I just recovered from Yutaka… Y-You can't do that to me so soon after that…" Hiyori twitched a few times, but was ultimately unable to believe her because of everything else that happened.
"If you say so~." Kagami's clearly said that she wasn't done with her just yet, but Hiyori didn't know about that at the moment.
"W-Wow… and here I though Minami and Yutaka are bad for my health… The two of you are a league on your own…"
"Hey, keep me out of that…" Konata didn't want to be included in that.
"Ehehe~." Kagami was even scarier than usual.
"Good mooorniiing~." A new voice arrived in the kitchen, and Hiyori was luckily saved. Tsukasa was really late and she sleepier than everyone else in the room.
"Ah, Tsukasa-san, good morning, you have great timing. Minami-san and I just finished preparing breakfast. "Miyuki treated Tsukasa's lateness as nothing unusual, which it has actually also been, and casually announced that breakfast is ready. Everyone then went to the dining table and started eating while talking about today's agenda.
"Minami-chan, is there anything interesting on the other side of the lake? We pretty much saw everything around here, haven't we?" Tsukasa still wanted to explore some more.
"Actually, even though my family owns this cabin, I never went to the other side of the lake, Tsukasa-senpai…"
"Really? We should take a look then!"
"Hmm… Sure, why not?" Minami agreed with her idea.
"Oh, how about we take the canoes from the pier to go to the other side? That could be fun."
"Heh~, nice idea, Tsukasa." Konata also liked her plan.
The others of the group agreed with the plan as well and the only thing they had to do now, was to kill some hours until noon. Minami dusted off an old game of Monopoly and about three hours died just like that.
….
Noon passed, and the girls started preparing for their canoe trip. Everyone packed a change of clothes to change into, in the case they ended up in the water and met up at the pier.
"Oh, I have an interesting idea~." Kagami's evil smile was working really hard today.
"Oh-oh…" Konata had a bad feeling and looked with deep sympathy in Hiyori's direction.
"How about we switch the people in the canoes from our usual groups?"
"Interesting…" The idea was received well.
"Okay, how about the following teams…" Kagami grouped the girls into three different canoes, and Hiyori noticed in that very moment that she made a huge mistake by agreeing with the idea, but it was already too late. The first group was Konata and Tsukasa, the second two were Minami and Miyuki, and the last canoe was for Hiyori, Yutaka, and Kagami.
"Yep, that's going to be a very long day for Hiyorin…" Konata sent a silent prayer towards her.
"Oh, the groups look good to me." Unfortunately, Hiyori was the only one who wasn't happy with the groups.
"Kagamin~… don't you think you're overdoing it a little with your plan to break Hiyorin?" Konata stood next to her and started whispering.
"Hmm~?" For some reason, Kagami just tilted her head with an innocent expression.
"E-Eh…?!" Konata suddenly had a really bad feeling again.
"What do you mean, Kona? I haven't even started with that, you know?"
"Y-You haven't, huh…? Then, what was all that until now?" It was obvious to Konata that Kagami was already having quite a bit of fun with Hiyori.
"A warming up, I guess~…?" Kagami changed her expression to a bewitching smile, and a cold shower ran down Konata's spine.
"I-I'm not sure what's worse right now… That I'm legitimately scared by my girlfriend or that I'm a little turned on right now…"
"I would say that…"
"No, don't answer!" There were things even Konata didn't want to know.
"Hehe~."
"Shut up, Kagamin~. It's your fault that I turned out like that in the first place… I hope you'll take responsibility for that."
"No, Kona, I'm fairly sure you were always like that. I just helped a little with bringing it out~. Then again, haven't I always properly taken responsibility up until now?"
"And I'm even more turned on now."
"It really doesn't take much for that, huh?"
"That's also your fault…"
"Ehehe~."
"Shut up, Kagamin~."
"Oh, I almost forgot…" Miyuki suddenly spoke up and finally made the two leave their own little world. "Put the clothes you brought for changing in a different canoe than your own. That way, even if your canoe capsizes, you'll still have dry clothes the change into afterward."
"Miyuki, are you a genius…?" Konata was amazed by her way of thinking, but then stopped. "No, nevermind, you actually are one…" She forgot about it that for a second.
With the preparations being done, the girls boarded the canoes and started paddling across the lake. It looked pretty awkward for a while in the beginning because no one had any experience in riding a canoe, but it didn't take them too long to make some progress.
Miyuki and Minami were lagging a bit behind because neither of them was overly competitive and they took it easy while chatting a bit.
"The canoes were a pretty good idea, weren't they, Minami-san?"
"Yeah… it was…" She agreed with her, but she was somewhat fidgety and restless for some reason. Miyuki, being her childhood friend, immediately noticed the change in her behavior.
"Is there something wrong, Minami-san?"
"N-No… nothing's wrong…"
"What's the matter then?" It was obvious that Minami was thinking about something.
"I had a very interesting conversation with Konata-senpai and Kagami-senpai about… oh…" Minami suddenly stopped in the middle of her sentence.
"About…?"
"Ah, n-no, I just realized that I maybe shouldn't talk about it, now that I think about it…"
"Hmm…? Oh, are you talking about them being a couple?" It didn't take Miyuki long to understand what she was talking about.
"Y-You know about it?"
"Know is fairly relative… Tsukasa-san and I actually somewhat helped them get together…"
"R-Really?" Minami was surprised hearing that.
"Yeah… The two were so awkward and useless that time, so Tsukasa-san and I just had to interfere and help them a bit by giving them a push…"
"Those two… awkward…? I can't see that at all…" It was really hard for her to accept, knowing the everyday Konata and Kagami.
"Well, they're dating for over a year already, the awkwardness is obviously long gone…"
"What…? I forgot to ask them, but… they're actually dating for so long already…?"
"Yes, the two had their anniversary last month."
"Wow…" Minami was genuinely impressed.
"Is there a reason you're so interested in them?"
"W-Well… they're the first same-sex couple I ever met in real life. I'm somehow pretty fascinated by the two, especially by how they're handling it. You would normally think they should try to hide it at any cost, but the two are so open about it, even to an impressive degree actually… I think that's really amazing and more people should be like them." Minami highly praised the couple, but Miyuki was feeling worse with every single word.
"Ahaha…" A dry laugh was the most she could muster right now. A part of her felt bad because she didn't tell her oldest friend that she's dating a girl as well, but overwhelmingly worse was the other part Minami was talking about. She was idolizing Konata and Kagami for not caring about society and flirting all they want in public. On the contrary to that, Tsukasa and she actually were doing their best to hide their relationship. Minami didn't mean any harm because she didn't even know, but Miyuki was feeling incredibly down right now.
"What's wrong?" Minami obviously didn't fail to notice that as well.
"A lot… N-No, I mean… nothing's wrong… Don't worry about me, Minami-san." While the atmosphere continued to be awkward in Minami and Miyuki's canoe, the other girls were chatting about various things as well.
….
Konata and Tsukasa started talking about a similar topic as well after a while, but it was a lot less awkward because they didn't need to hide anything.
"… and even though it really stinks, it was still pretty delicious…"
"Really? I should try it out then."
"You absolutely should, Kona-chan."
"By the way…" Konata decided to end their silly chat and changed the topic. "How is it going with Miyuki?"
"Pretty good, I guess…"
"You guess…? That doesn't sound very…" Konata wasn't sure how to think about it.
"N-No, there just isn't much that has changed compared to before…"
"Is that so? But knowing you, you two are probably cuddling at least a lot, aren't you?"
"We do, but like I said… Hello, my name is Tsukasa, and I like to cuddle…"
"Good point…" Konata remembered that Tsukasa doesn't need to be in a relationship to cuddle with someone.
"Well, the… kissing is new… but that's about it…"
"I think that's a pretty significant change if you ask me, though…"
"That's true… and I really enjoy it… but other than that… I actually think some things got worse… Before, I could cling as much as I wanted to Yuki-chan in public, but now…"
"Ah, you mean the hand holding thing from yesterday, huh?"
"So, you noticed… It was pretty obvious, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it was hard not to… Are you really okay with that, Tsukasa?" Konata remembered the sad expression on her face yesterday.
"Well… I was okay with taking it easy, and I'm also not perfectly ready to announce it to everyone in public, but yeah… I really don't like it…" Tsukasa was finally honest. "Then again, I fully understand Yuki-chan's side as well, and I have to respect that. I'll have to wait until she's ready to tell her family before we can be more open about it…"
"Uh…" Konata had a complicated expression on her face. "I don't want to criticize your decisions, but I don't think that's going to work out… I saw Miyuki's expression as well when you two stopped holding hands yesterday and it was obvious that she's suffering as much as you. The two of you either have to tell a few more people about it in order to get more intimate with each other around your friends or have to think about something equally effective. Else, I have the feeling this won't end so well. You'll definitely feel worse and have a fight about it sooner or later. You really have to talk about it with her and without holding back… Trust me on that, Tsukasa." As usual, Konata's relationship advice was pretty unexpected, but extremely helpful.
"Kona-chan… Thank you very much… You're right, aren't you? Yeah… it's probably for the best if we talk about it again… That being said… can't you and onee-chan hold back a little more in public…? You two are part of the reason why we're so unhappy about not being able to be affectionate in the first place…"
"Nope, no chance at all." Konata didn't even need to think about it.
"Yeah, I already knew that the possibility for that was zero… it's you two after all…"
"Ehehe~… Oh, about earlier… just how stinky is it exactly? I'm usually not very good with that kind of thing…" Because difficult topics are no fun to talk about, Konata simply stopped talking about them.
"Hmm…" Tsukasa shared the same sentiment and didn't question the sudden change of topic. "I think it depends a little on how you prepare it. If you properly wash it before cooking it a little longer, it shouldn't be that bad anymore, but I don't know how that'll affect the taste…"
"Good point… Overcooking could probably ruin it…"
"Yeah, best would be to stick with the recommended way of cooking it…"
"That's true, well, I'll just try it and hope for the best. It can't be that bad."
"Good. Oh, tell me once you tried it. I want to know how you think about it.
"Sure~."
Compared to Minami and Miyuki, the conversation of the two ended on a much lighter note. Unfortunately, Hiyori could only dream about having a light chat because Yutaka and Kagami made sure that that's not going to happen.
….
"Ah, Hiyori-chan, where did we stop at again this morning?"
"Hmm? Weren't we just talking about the weather?" It was a very desperate, but equally useless try.
"No, we were talking about your mangas, weren't we?"
"Ah… right… I forgot…" She didn't., but she had hoped Yutaka did.
"Oh, I remember now… Hiyori-chan, you said that you like to draw girls because you're better at it… being a girl yourself. But, why are you drawing… romance mangas? Aren't there other genres that would be more fitting for girls only scenarios?"
"Heh~, that's a good question, Yutaka." Kagami happily entered the conversation with a big smile on her lips. "Not only that, the love scenes are incredibly detailed and realistic. How do you know so much about it?"
"Are they? I don't know about it, but that's amazing, Hiyori-chan." Even though it was unconscious, Yutaka was a great wingman in Kagami's scheme.
"They really are. So, how did you get the details, Hiyori~?" She had no intention of going easy on her.
"W-Well… I did a lot of r-research on the internet a-and, uhm… read a lot of different other yuri mangas that were known for their realism and… created my own drawing style based on what I l-liked the most…" Hiyori was thinking about jumping in the water for a moment, but suddenly noticed something about Kagami. "W-Wait a moment, Kagami-senpai, how do you know that the details in my mangas are realistic…? Like I said, I did a lot of research, but you on the other hand… You shouldn't have done such a research because there's no need for you to do such a thing, r-right?"
"How I know that the love scenes you're drawing are realistic, you're asking?"
"Y-Yes…" Hiyori just started to notice that she made yet another big mistake.
"Why indeed~… Now that you mention it, I really wonder where I got the exp- I mean, how I know about it~." It was a good thing that Hiyori's legitimately scared by Kagami. Otherwise, the seductive grin Kagami was doing right now would've made it possible for Hiyori to fall for her right on the spot. Instead, Hiyori eyes simply grew wide while she tried to process what she just heard. She had no time to think about it, though. Just when she was about to freak out, Yutaka relentlessly started asking questions again.
"Hiyori-chan, so, why do you enjoy drawing… ehm, yuri so much…?"
"W-What…?" Hiyori had hoped that she forgot about it already, but she hadn't that kind of luck. "Uhh, I-I'm not so sure… b-because two girls cuddling and being intimate is really cute and adorable…? Also, the slight… forbidden feeling to it because of how society thinks of it makes it a pretty interesting thing to write about… B-But now that we're speaking about it…" Hiyori quickly tried to get the spotlight away from her. "Why are you so interested in yuri?"
"Uh, there's no real reason… It's just that my first ever exposure to such… g-graphic things were your mangas, Hiyori-chan…" Yutaka's cheeks were slightly red while she glimpsed at Kagami.
"W-What?!" Hiyori, on the other hand, turned completely red. "Y-Your first… was t-that…? Oh my… S-Seriously…? Somehow, I'm really sorry about that…" Hiyori obviously knows every single one of her works, and so she knows that it's surely nothing for a first timer.
"Don't worry about it, Hiyori, that was actually a really good thing to happen." The mangas probably had a really favorable influence on how Yutaka views same-sex couples after all.
"Eh…? Why's that so? Ah, no wait… I don't want to know." Hiyori was able to avoid further damage done to her mind. Well, until she made a way bigger mistake at least. "By the way, Kagami-senpai, why do you like yuri so much?" She hoped to get the attention even further away from her, but her plan was nothing but a big failure, and Hiyori immediately realized it once she looked at Kagami's face.
"You would like to know that, wouldn't you~?" Her seductive grin was back with even more destructive potential. Hiyori didn't get mesmerized, though. She broke down a little more and started hugging her knees. It was too much for her to handle and her brain decided to shut down for self-preservation. While the broken girl stared into nothingness while swaying back and forth, Yutaka took over the paddle Hiyori was unable to use at the moment and together with Kagami, the two paddled towards the shore at the other side of the lake. Hiyori was mumbling something the entire time, but because they didn't understand a single word, the two kept paddling in silence until they reached their destination shortly after.
…
Everyone exited the canoes and secured them at the beach. Once Hiyori had solid ground under her feet again, she immediately sank down on her knees and gave the ground a kiss.
"I can finally run away again!" Part of the reason Hiyori suffered so much in the canoe because she had no viable way to escape.
"Uh… What happened…?" Konata stopped in front of her and looked at the very worn out looking girl on the ground.
"K-Konata-senpai~!" Hiyori noticed her and wrapped her arms around one of Konata's legs with teary eyes. "I thought I would die… Kagami-senpai is so scaaaary!"
"Yeah, she's great, isn't she?"
"What…?"
"What?"
"Eh…?"
"So, what happened that you're looking like that?" Konata pretended that nothing else happened.
"Well… Yutaka started asking questions about my mangas again, but Kagami-senpai suddenly joined in as well and made it ten times worse…"
"That's my Ka… What did she do…?"
"She asked me about things like why my mangas are so detailed and realistic or…"
"Oh, now that you mention it… They are pretty realistic compared to most of the other works…"
"How do you… N-No, bad Hiyori! Don't ask that!" Hiyori finally seemed to have learned something.
"Hehe~. Don't worry, Hiyorin, I will take it easy today…"
"Thank you very much, Konata-senpai. That's very reassuring to hear because I don't think I can take much or of that kind of teasing before my brain melts…"
"Well, I'll try to hold back, but I can't take care of Kagamin~."
"W-Why… You and Kagami-senpai are… pretty close, aren't you? Can't you do something?"
"I'm sorry, but once Kagamin~ has planned something, there's nothing even I can do." Konata knows pretty well how stoic and stubborn she can be once she has decided on something.
"W-What is she planning…?" Hiyori had a bad feeling about it again.
"Well…" Konata only awkwardly scratched her cheek in response.
"K-Konata-senpai, I'm getting scared again!"
"You're really easily scared, aren't you~?" Kagami suddenly appeared behind Konata and demonstrably wrapped her arms around Konata's neck in order to hug her from behind to inflict some extra damage to the already half broken girl and also because she simply wanted to hug her.
"E-Eh?!" Hiyori hadn't seen her coming and was startled. She let go of Konata's leg, got back on her feet again and instantly stepped a few steps back for self-defense.
"Ahaha~." Kagami was having fun, but she, unfortunately, had no time to tease her anymore.
"Is everyone ready? We want to go…" Tsukasa wanted to explore the area already. Hiyori didn't need to be told that twice and basically vanished from the place she was and reappeared on the spot right next to Tsukasa. The others got ready as well and started walking
The groupings, too, were mostly back to normal again. Konata and Kagami were walking in the back, Minami, and Yutaka in the middle, but the grouping in the front was a little unusual. Because Hiyori judged the two as the safest choice to travel with, she decided to stick with Tsukasa and Miyuki for the time being.
The girls entered the forest and saw something slightly surprising. They thought the area around the cabin was already unspoiled nature, but the other side of the lake was at least two leagues about that. Not even a walking trail had formed there somewhere, and it seemed like the group was the first humans that ever set their feet in this part of the forest. As far as they could see, which actually wasn't that far because of the overgrown vegetation, there was nothing in sight that remotely indicated that civilization had reached this place already. Gigantic trees, ferns, weird looking plants, and tons of other stuff was simply growing all over the place.
"D-Did we travel back in time…?"
"Has anyone of you seen Jurassic P**k?" Hiyori and Konata were strangely in sync.
"Shut up you two, and Kona, you don't need to beep that…" So she retorted, but Kagami's eyes looked like she was thinking about at least something very similar when taking in the sight.
"Yuki-chan, look!" Tsukasa suddenly became excited. "There's a squirrel!"
"Where?"
"There!" She pointed at a somewhat far branch on a tree.
"How did you find it so quick…?" Even after pointing it out, Miyuki needed a couple seconds before finding it.
"Ah, there's another one!" Yutaka suddenly pointed in a completely different direction where another squirrel was currently sitting on a branch while nibbling on something.
"So cute! Yuki-chan, quick, give me a cookie or something…!"
"Cookies aren't really that good for wild animals, Tsu-…"
"Yuki-chan, cookie!" She naturally wasn't interested in that.
"Y-Yes…" Because Miyuki knew Tsukasa well enough, she didn't say anything more, grabbed into her bag and gave Tsukasa a cookie she brought with her.
"Thank you. Come here, squirrel, come over here little squirrel~." She waved around with the cookie in her hand to lure in the squirrels, but those only looked at her with a dumbfounded look. "Ehhh…"
"They are wild animals, Tsukasa-san, those don't just simply come to you just because you have a cookie, you kn-… Hmm…?" Miyuki was in the middle of explaining when she suddenly heard a rustling in the bush next to them.
"No way…" A tanuki walked out of the bush and sat down before Tsukasa while it was following the cookie with its eyes. "What were you saying, Yuki-chan?"
"T-There are always some exceptions…"
"Ehehe~…" She wasn't even listening anymore because she was too busy playing with the tanuki. She was waving the cookie in her hand and happily watched how it was intently following every move. Once Tsukasa deemed the cuteness of the tanuki as good enough, she gave it the cookie as a reward. The tanuki immediately gulped it down and disappeared into the bush again. "Aww, I wanted to pet it…"
"Well, it's a wild animal after a-… Ehh…?" Miyuki was once more proven wrong when the bush started to rustle even stronger.
"Oh, he just brought friends with him~." Two more tanukis appeared, and the three of them all sat down right in front of Tsukasa and looked with pleading eyes at her. "Yuki-chan, cookies!"
"Sure… Here, take the whole package…" Miyuki gave up and simply gave her what she wanted.
"Here~." Tsukasa waved another cookie around, and the tanukis suddenly tried to stand on their hind legs, but one of them didn't make it and awkwardly fell, knocking the other over as well, and the three somehow ended up entangled in each other as a furry tanuki ball. "Oh my god… T-They are so cuuuute! O-Onee-chan!" Tsukasa could barely contain her excitement.
"No, we can't keep them, sis…" Kagami knew exactly what she was about to ask.
"W-Why?! Look at them! They are so adorable!"
"W-Well…" She was about to fall for their cuteness as well, but she had to stay strong. "D-Don't you think they're happier out here where they can play all they want…?"
"I guess that's true…" Tsukasa gave up on her plan and started feeding them again. She gave each tanuki two cookies, and everyone happily gulped them down. Once the cookies were gone, they circled around Tsukasa legs a few times and then laid down around her, and fell asleep. "O-Onee-chan~…" She broke down again.
"N-No…" Kagami, as well, was reaching her breaking point.
"Aww… I wonder if I can pet them…"
"Tsukasa-san, I don't think that's a good…" Miyuki tried to warn her again, but her assertiveness was quite lacking today.
"They're so fluffy!" Tsukasa was already petting them without reserve. She continued to pat them for a while, but the tanukis woke up a couple minutes, and after a cute yawn, they looked at Tsukasa a last time before they disappeared into the bush again. "Bye-Bye~." Tsukasa waved after them with a small tear in her eye until the three weren't visible anymore.
"You wanted to keep them as well, huh, Kagamin~?" Konata didn't fail to miss the lonely look in Kagami's face.
"N-No, I didn't…"
"Ehehe~. Oh, let's get a dog one day…"
"…" It took Kagami a little over five seconds before she finally answered. "Shut up, Kona."
"Okay~." For some reason, Konata started to smile.
Once Tsukasa properly saw off the tanukis, the girls continued their exploration.
…
The group walked for not even five minutes through the forest until Tsukasa stopped them again.
"Wait a moment… I-Is that a deer…?" She pointed at a little glade that had opened up in the forest.
"Wow, you're right." The other noticed it as well with a surprised expression.
"Yuki-chan, cookie!" Tsukasa wanted to befriend the deer as well.
"I'm sorry, Tsukasa-san, but you fed all of them to the tanukis earlier…"
"N-No way… W-What do I do…?" She started to get desperate because she had nothing to lure in the deer, but something unfortunate happened anyway.
"Ah, it ran away…"
"Ehh… W-Why?!" She looked unbelievably sad.
"I think it was chased away by something, Tsukasa-senpai…" Hiyori pointed at the right corner of the glade. "Wait a moment… Is that a fox over there?
"What? Really? Where?!" Tsukasa frantically scanned the area Hiyori was pointing at and finally found it. "Oh my god, it's true!"
"That forest here sure is lively…" Konata wasn't speaking about the animals only and watched Tsukasa with a warm smile.
"Yuki-chan, cok- ah, dammit!" Tsukasa forgot about it again already.
"I'm fairly sure foxes wouldn't like them anyway, Tsukasa-san… Tsukasa-san…?" Miyuki tried to make the situation a little better, but then noticed that she was talking with air.
"Come here, foxy~, come here little foxy, foxy, foxy~…" Shwas already carefully approaching the small, reddish-orange fox that was trying to hide itself in the overgrown grass. She was about to reach the little animal, but the fox finally noticed her and immediately ran away from her. "Aww, so close…"
"I think that's probably for the best, Tsukasa-san… Foxes can be pretty aggressive and sometimes carry some serious illnesses…" Miyuki tried to cheer her up again, but made it many times worse.
"R-Really…?" Tears suddenly started to form in the corners of her eyes.
"Ah, n-no… some foxes may be, b-but that little guy looked friendly and really healthy!" She frantically tried to get her to smile again.
"I-I see… I'm sooo glad!" Tsukasa can be emotionally unstable at times.
"By the way…" Konata couldn't watch any more of it and tried to change the topic. "Looking at our little safari here… Minami, do you think we can find any bears around here?"
"Shut up, Kona, not this again… There aren't any bears around here…" The reoccurring theme of Konata's weird love for bears annoyed Kagami a bit.
"Uh, actually…" Minami suddenly averted her face.
"W-What…?" More than one girl broke into a sweat.
"Seriously?!" Konata's reaction was a little different.
"Two years ago, a bear tried to break into the cabin, but luckily ran away again…"
"R-Really…?"
"Yes… I probably should've mentioned that earlier, shouldn't I?"
"Yes!" Again, she got more than one answer.
"Heh~." Konata was the only one still smiling.
"Kona~." Kagami simply glared at her.
"Okay~, I'll be silent now."
Once everyone calmed down, the group continued their exploration, but everyone was way more vigilant in looking around for some reason. Just like every time before, they didn't make it very far before Tsukasa stopped them once more.
"Hey, Kona-chan, aren't those…" She pointed at some plants on the ground.
"Oh, good find… I was already wondering whether we would find some edible plants or not out here… Look at that, there are some herbs as well…" Konata pointed at a different location.
"You're right. Now I wonder if… Yuki-chan, did you see any mushrooms…?" Because mushrooms can be dangerous, Tsukasa let Miyuki take care of it. She didn't even ask whether she can differentiate between edible and non-edible ones because the answer was obvious.
"Yes, we walked past a couple edible, and not to mention delicious sorts not that long ago." Miyuki answered without any problems, just as anyone expected.
"That's awesome… Oh, together with the stuff we have at the cabin…"
"I think I know what you're thinking, Tsukasa… vegetable tempura is a very good idea~."
"As expected of Kona-chan~." She was spot on with her guess.
"Oh~." The other voiced their admiration. Nobody seemed to have anything against the idea.
"Then let's collect some of the edible ones and bring it back with us."
"Yes." Just as Konata suggested, everyone started collecting edible plants, herbs, and mushrooms. While occasionally verifying if they picked the right thing, especially mushrooms with Miyuki, the girls quickly gathered a mountain of ingredients.
"Haahh…" Kagami eventually let out a strained sigh. "You know, I don't really have anything against insects, but can't they shut up for a while… Especially those loud cicadas…" Nobody complained until now, but the area they were in was actually pretty loud. One would expect that a forest without civilization would be pretty much soundless, but the forest was bustling with life, especially insects in the middle of summer and they make tons of noises.
"Now that you mention it…" The others just noticed it once Kagami voiced it out loud.
"Speaking about that… and tempura…" Konata suddenly had a complicated expression on her face.
"Eh…?" Kagami had no idea what she was talking about.
"Are cicadas edible…?" Out of the blue and with a serious look, she suddenly asked that.
"Beats me…" Kagami didn't even want to think about it.
"They might be good if you deep fry them."
"Eat them yourself!" She really wasn't a fan of the idea.
"You know, I've been wondering… Doesn't tempura taste good because of the batter? If that's the case, cicadas would work."
"Apologize!"
"Apologize to every tempura chef in the country!" Hiyori suddenly joined their conversation.
"Ahaha~." Konata started laughing in response.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't want to interrupt your sketch, but I couldn't help myself… Endless eight sucked terribly, but the reference was awesome." Hiyori noticed the two were referencing an anime and unconsciously retorted in Kagami's place. "Even though you're really scary, you're still pretty cool, Kagami-senpai."
"Just so you know, I was referencing the light novel and not the anime." Kagami tried to defend her honor because she wasn't an otaku after all. In her eyes, that is.
"That makes absolutely no difference." She had long lost the battle, though.
"Ehehe~." Konata simply continued to laugh while watching the two bickering.
Once they gathered enough, the girls went back to where their canoes were. It was a good thing that Miyuki secretly engraved some important landmarks in her brain because they almost got terribly lost. Konata and Tsukasa tried to take the lead on the way back because Konata suddenly felt like exploring as well, but it went as wrong as it could be. After walking in a perfect circle for about half an hour, Miyuki recognized a weirdly shaped tree and took over the lead from there. They walked for about ten more minutes and finally reached the lake again. Most of them looked happy and relieved when they were finally out of the forest, but Tsukasa looked somewhat disappointed.
"Aww, we didn't see Taichi, Yuji, and Keni again when we left…" She suddenly mentioned some names no one ever heard before.
"Ehm, who are you talking about…?" Konata raised an eyebrow while asking about the unknown names.
"I wanted to see my little tanuki friends again…"
"When did you name them…?"
"Just now." Tsukasa thought about it on the fly.
"That's… amazing… in some weird kind of way…"
After Tsukasa finished waving towards the forest, the girls finally entered the canoes. Because everyone, mainly Kagami, had already enough fun on the first canoe tour, the girls were back in their usual groups on their way back again.
…..
They reached the pier of their cabin soon enough, and everyone went inside after safely getting off their canoes and directly wanted to start preparing for the tempura. Well, most of them went inside at least. After Hiyori entered the cabin, Kagami closed the glass door and stayed outside together with Konata. Hiyori looked behind her once she noticed the closed door, but simply watched them disappearing behind a tree near the cabin because she felt like it would only end bed for her if she does anything after she looked at Kagami's face. Once she couldn't see them anymore, she also entered the kitchen where the others already were as well.
They thoroughly washed and cut the ingredients they gathered early together with some other vegetables they already had as a preparation for the tempura. Somewhere along the line, Minami, Yutaka, and Hiyori suggested taking care of the tempura alone in order to do something for their senpais. Miyuki and Tsukasa reluctantly agreed and then went to their room to relax a little. Thanks to that, the first years soon ran into a problem, though. For some, to them, unknown reason, the batter kept refusing to get the right consistency.
"Why is the batter so watery…? We added more than enough flour already, didn't we?"
"It seems right to me, Minami-chan… Maybe we should ask Konata-oneechan. She's really good at these kinds of things after all. But, I have no idea where she is, though… I haven't seen her since we came back."
"Oh, she stayed outside with Kagami-senpai when we went inside earlier." Hiyori remembered what happened when they entered the cabin.
"Ah, I see, can you go and ask her what we're doing wrong, Hiyori-chan?"
"D-Do I have to…?" She really didn't want to disturb Kagami on whatever she was planning by staying outside with Konata alone, especially after she caught a short glimpse of the smile she had when they left.
"Please~, you're the only one who knows where she is, Hiyori-chan." Yutaka's pleading eyes overpowered the fear of Kagami.
"Okay…" She gave up with a sigh and left the kitchen. Hiyori went outside and followed headed towards the place where to couple disappeared to. After looking around for a while, she finally found Kagami and Konata behind a huge tree. She wasn't sure what to expect when it comes to Konata and especially Kagami, but what she saw behind the tree easily destroyed even her wildest ideas, and she completely froze up, but was unable to avert her eyes.
"…" Not even a surprised gasp could escape her lips. The scene was just too shocking to her. Kagami had pinned Konata against a tree, and while making use of a conveniently grown root to make up for the height difference, the two were currently busy with making out with each other. They continued to kiss for what felt like an eternity, but finally parted after a while. The very moment their lips were apart again, Kagami directly stared in the direction where the empty shell of Hiyori was standing. Konata looked after a second as well, but was actually surprised.
"W-What is Hiyorin doing here…"
"Oh no~, what do we do now~?"
"Uh…" Konata slowly turned her head to look at Kagami, but looking bad she wished she didn't because the smile she saw sent shivers down her spine again, but not the good kind this time. "D-Don't tell me you planned this, Kagamin~…"
"I would never! It was pure coincidence that I made sure that she was watching us when we left earlier, Kona~."
"That's go-… Wait a moment…" She noticed that there was something wrong with that statement.
"Don't mind the small stuff…"
"That's my line, and that's definitely not small!"
"Ehehe~."
"Oi!" Konata had a hard time keeping up with her.
"It doesn't matter anyway, does it? It already happened."
"Unreasonable as always, I see…" Konata gave up. "Hey, Hiyorin, somehow I'm sorry about it, but that's how…"
"Oi, Hiyori, your nose is bleeding!" Kagami interrupted her because she wasn't done teasing Hiyori.
"Oh, you're right… Do you want a tissue?" Konata tried to make her life a little easier. "Hiyori…?" She noticed that the two haven't seen a single reaction from her yet. Seeing that, Konata walked up to her and waved her hand before Hiyori's face, but there was no reaction, not even her pupils were following the hand. "Oi, Hiyorin, anyone home…?" Konata gently pushed her a little, but just like a log, Hiyori simply fell backward on the ground without a single twitch.
"Ehm…" Kagami stopped smiling a little.
"Great, I hope you'll buy us a new one, Kagamin~… What was that about breaking her a little? She's completely done for. That's exactly why we can't have nice things…"
"Shut up, Kona." Neither of them was taking the situation even remotely seriously.
Stopping the nosebleed first, the two then each wrapped an arm of the still unconscious girl around their shoulders and carried her inside the cabin. Once they were there, the two carried her into the living room and laid her down on the sofa and then sat down at the one next to it themselves. While they were waiting for Hiyori to wake up again, the two started chatting.
"Don't you think you overdid it a little, Kagamin~…?"
"It feels pretty weird hearing that from you…"
"Think about how I feel asking you that…" Konata's the one who usually is like that after all.
"Fair point… Well, I think it was appropriate…"
"Really…?" She raised an eyebrow and looked at the passed-out girl on the sofa next to them.
"Did you expect that she's so weak?"
"And who's the one who broke her and made her mentally unstable?"
"Yutaka!"
"Well… She started it, but I think your part in the story was slightly bigger, Kagamin~."
"You can't prove that!"
"Do I even have to…?" While the two continued to talk about responsibilities without any seriousness in their voices, 15 minutes quickly passed, and it seemed Hiyori was coming back to life as she started twitching.
"Oh my god!" She bolted up and directly started shouting. "I had the most vivid dream ever! I think I should slowly get help… I have to stop fantasizing about… because… ehm…" Her voice slowly got fainter as she noticed two girls sitting near her with one of them having a bright smile on her lips.
"Oh, what was that dream about~?"
"…" Konata didn't care anymore, gave up, and let Kagami have her fun.
"Ehm, w-well… That's a little complicated…"
"Is that so? Wait, don't tell me it was about me…?" Kagami tried to be serious, but she simply couldn't get rid of her smile.
"Uh… I-I'm very sorry, Kagami-senpai!" Hiyori suddenly prostrated herself on the sofa. "Because you teased me so much, I somehow ended up having a very… lively dream about you and Konata-senpai…"
"Heh~, is that so? What was it about?" She didn't plan on going easy on her.
"W-What…? I would really prefer if I keep it to myself…"
"You dreamed about us, so you have to tell us."
"Ehh…" Kagami's unreasonableness won once more. "W-Well… I dreamed about you and Konata-senpai m-making out and… I-I'm very sorry for letting my delusions ran wild like that!"
"Oh, it's just that… You don't have to feel sorry then." Kagami was a little disappointed that she just dreamed about the actual thing that happened.
"W-What do you mean with just that…?" Hiyori didn't understand her.
"Why should you feel sorry for something that you saw with your own eyes?"
"…" Hiyori froze for a second after digesting those words. "Wait, what…? Wait, wait, wait, wait… What did you say just now…?"
"That's exactly what happened earlier."
"I see…. Ehhhh?! S-Stop with the teasing already, Kagami-senpai, there's no way… that…" Hiyori wasn't able to finish her sentence because Kagami didn't feel like explaining anymore. She turned to face Konata, wrapped her arms around her neck and simply kissed her. After hearing a soft thud, she Kagami parted from her again and looked at Hiyori.
"Seriously…?" She looked at the corpse on the sofa and sighed.
"Good job, Kagamin~, you managed to break her even more… I'm really not sure how that's even possible, but you made it."
"Shut up, Kona… Is it really so easy to make someone faint?"
"For you, it sure is. Well, what now…?"
"Good question, I definitely don't want to wait for another half an hour…" Saying so, she looked around and noticed the cup of water I front of her on the table.
"You sure are mercilessness…" Konata immediately understood what she was about to do.
"Ehehe~." With a smile on her lips, Kagami grabbed the cup and emptied the water above Hiyori's head, who instantly sprung back to life again.
"Oh man, what a dream… Wait, why am I wet…? Ah!" Hiyori noticed that she wasn't alone. "K-Kagami-senpai… Konata-senpai… T-That's awkward… I didn't sleep talk, r-right?"
"Hiyori." An icy chill ran through the living room as Kagami finally had enough.
"Y-Yes?"
"Look at me." Having absolutely no way to refuse Kagami, Hiyori fearfully looked at her, but Kagami had already got into position, and once Hiyori had the right position, Kagami gave her such a hard forehead flick that Hiyori almost made a somersault in the air from the recoil before she landed with her back on the sofa. Blowing away the steam from her finger, Kagami faced Konata again and gave her another kiss. "Does this feel like it's a dream?"
"N-No, a dream doesn't hurt like this…" She carefully held the throbbing wound on her forehead with tears in her eyes, but then opened her eyes wide in shock and freezes while looking at the couple. Once she realized what just happened, only incoherent words left her mouth. "Eh… Uh… Wha-… Eh… Haa… Ehm…" It continued like that for a while, but she managed to recover, meaning she completely freaked out. "W-W-What?! After teasing me so much with super suggestive things… You're actually… Haha, yeah, sure… That's… I can't even…"
"Even though we called it teasing, we simply stopped holding back, though." With one little sentence, Kagami completely threw off Hiyori.
"Ahaha… T-There's no way that's true… That would mean you were simply f-flirting the entire time… right in front of my eyes… Impossible… I definitely would've noticed that… I have great confidence in my yuri radar after all…"
"Hiyorin, look in your heart…" Konata finally said something again. "How often did you doubt us, but brushed it off as teasing in the end?"
"Nev-… Oh…" Hiyori was about to deny it, but then had a short recap inside her head and stopped moving altogether.
"It seems like you remembered something, huh?"
"I… I… I… n-no, ehhh…" Hiyori just couldn't get herself to accept it.
"Oh, you're back up again, Hiyori-chan, that's good to see. We were worried, you know?"
"Are you feeling better?"
"You looked pretty bad earlier…"
"What happened?" The other girls were all worried about her and arrived in the living room after a while to check up on her.
"Girls~!" Hiyori seemed really happy and relieved that the others joined them because she could need some backup. "Listen to that! Kagami-senpai kissed Konata-senpai, and now they're trying to tell me that the two are a couple! Can you believe that~? Those two are pretty funny, aren't… Eh…?" Hiyori started venting on the girls, but then noticed the super lukewarm reaction of everyone.
"Wow… that's a… surprise…" Just like Tsukasa, everyone voiced out similar words and even Hiyori effortlessly noticed that they were faking it.
"H-Huh…? D-Don't tell me everyone here except me knows…?" Hiyori wasn't sure how she should feel about it, but that didn't matter anymore once she realized what this actually meant. "W-Wait a moment! No, really, wait, wait, wait… Everyone, please wait a moment!" Calming down was impossible for her already. "It-It-It-It's true?! T-They really are a couple?! Kagami-senpai and Konata-senpai are a couple? A couple as in being together? Being together as in dating?!" Hiyori had a hard time holding back her excitement, but once she saw everyone, including the couple in question nodding, all restraints flew out of the window. She immediately jumped off the sofa, prostrated herself in front of the two and started worshipping them. "Gods! You two are gods!" She finally believed them, and her fear of Kagami vanished in an instant. "Oh great Kagami-sama, and equally great Konata-same, please share your heroic story with this lowly me!" In short, she wanted to hear the details.
"Calm down, Hiyorin… Here, have a tissue first…" Konata handed her a tissue over because her nose was bleeding the entire time already.
"Thanks." She quickly wiped some blood away and then stuffed the remaining tissue into her nostrils. Hiyori didn't care about her appearance at the moment because it was too much work and there were far more important things right now. "Details! Now!"
"I think this could take a while… Girls, let's go back to the kitchen for the tempura…" Tsukasa urged everyone to leave, and Hiyori, together with the couple were the only ones that stayed in the living room.
"Just ask what you want to know, it's too troublesome else." Kagami didn't want to bother explaining everything from scratch.
"Oh~." That might've been a mistake. "Okay, first things first. How long have you two been dating?"
"About a month ago…"
"Eh, only a month…?" Hiyori was so excited that she didn't let Konata finish talking.
"… was our first-year anniversary, is what I wanted to say."
"O-Oh…" She hadn't expected that. "O-Over a year already?!"
"To be exact, on tanabata last month."
"S-Seriously…? Why on tanabata, though?"
"That's also Kagamin~'s birthday and the whole setting of tanabata wishes and birthday presents kind of was convenient for confessing… or something like that… Well, it mainly happened because I couldn't keep it in anymore and it happened to be at the same time…"
"It was long overdue, if you ask me, Kona."
"I really don't want to hear that from you."
"So Konata-sama confessed?"
"Could you stop that -sama thing? That feels really weird…"
"Oh, really now?" Kagami suddenly interrupted her.
"Ah…" Konata forgot that she occasionally calls her like that as well for fun as well. "Well, it's true that I confessed… Kagamin~ tried to attack me before that already, though."
"I never attacked you! N-Never…" Once she thought about it again, she started doubting her own words.
"Not even when you tried to kiss me before we started dating…?" She named only one example to keep it short.
"T-That's… Anyway… Oh, Hiyori, have another tissue…" While the two were reminiscing about the past, the tissue in Hiyori's nostrils couldn't hold it anymore and gave up.
"Thanks… Can I have the whole package? I'm pretty sure I'm going to need all of them…" She didn't even try to cut down on her excitement.
"Sure…"
"All done…" Having successfully stuffed her nostrils with a fresh tissue, Hiyori continued. "Why did you two start dating?"
"Why…? What kind of question is that? Because we wanted to…?" Konata didn't know how to answer this question.
"Well… Maybe you simply wanted to try out how it is to date a girl, or were bored, or wanted to play a little, or…"
"Or because we fell in love with each other?!" Konata sounded a little annoyed from Hiyori's suggestion, but then felt incredibly cringy… "Uwah, that sounded so cheesy…"
"You're pretty good at that, Kona. Still, even though it's cheesy, that's what happened, Hiyori…"
"How did you fell in love…?" Feeling a little intimidated, she stopped guessing.
"That's actually a pretty standard story… We started off as regular friends, but we ended up spending more and more time together and it somehow just happened…"
"That's all…?" Hiyori was expecting a little more.
"Well, I think we were attracted to each other since day one because it never felt like normal friendship to me and it just took us some time to realize what's going on."
"Sounds about right, but there was also all that funny stuff Kagamin~ did since I got to know her and that also helped with falling for her. Like for example…"
"Kona~."
"So, Hiyori, any other questions?" That was one of the fastest topic changes Konata ever did in her life.
"D-Does that mean you two are completely serious about it?"
"As serious as one can get."
"If you don't believe us, you can ask my mother, Hiyori. She also interrogated us already…"
"Y-Y-Your mother knows about it, Kagami-sama?"
"Stop that -sama or I'll kill you." She just gets angry when Konata calls her like that, but Hiyori didn't have the same rights.
"Your mother knows, Kagami-senpai?" She didn't even need to think about changing it back.
"Sure, we told our families about it after all."
"E-Ehhh…? S-Seriously…? You two are gods after all, aren't you?"
"Shut up, Hiyori."
"B-But…" She was convinced by it already. "Wow… That's amazing… How did it go?"
"Kagamin~'s father played the villain a little and tested us, but it was an easy victory~."
"Except for him, I let him suffer quite a bit afterward…" Kagami started to smile.
"Oh, I can see that." Hiyori had no problems with believing her. "Still, that's a really awesome and brave thing to do."
"Well, we had to because we're really bad at hiding it and also didn't want to hide it anymore."
"Weren't you scared at all?"
"A little concerned, I guess… We were lucky and already knew more or less before that they're at least okay with it."
"Not only did I find a real live yuri couple, but they're also my friends and completely serious about it…" Hiyori was about to step over to the other side in joy. "And, any plans for the future already?"
"Sure~."
"Eh?" The reaction came in stereo.
"Don't you remember, Kagami? I thought we're going to get a dog?" She referred to the tanuki incident from earlier that day.
"Shut up, Kona." There was even less malice behind than usual this time.
"Ehehe~."
"Ahem…" Hiyori tried to get the attention back to her because the two were about to enter their own world again. "Aside from that…?"
"That's a secret~." The couple answered at the same time.
"Eh?" Hiyori wasn't the only one who reacted like that. All three girls had the same response.
"What are you planning, Kona?"
"It's not yet final, so, who knows~." Konata tried to sound mysterious. "And you?"
"Interestingly enough, exactly the same."
"Is that so~?"
"It surely is~."
"J-Just to make sure…" Hiyori tried to enter their world again. "Both of your, not yet finished plans, involve each other, right?"
"Involve? It's completely built around that." Their ability to synch their sentences was as outstanding as ever.
"Heh~?" Even the couple themselves was surprised by that. "Ehehe~." Followed by a stupid grin.
"Wow…" Hiyori wasn't sure if she should give in to her delusions or vomit a rainbow because the scene was too sweet. "Y-You two sure are something else."
"Thank you very much." They simply took it as a compliment. "Anything else, Hiyori?"
"Tons of stuff!" She was just warming up after all.
"Hiyorin, change your tissue first…" After another tissue had capitulated, the blood from her nosebleed was freely dripping again.
After that was taken care off, Hiyori continued to ask question after question and half an hour passed in the blink of an eye. She didn't seem like calming down anytime soon, but the couple started to get tired of it already. Once she started asking some slightly perverted questions, they finally had enough.
"When did you two have…" Hiyori was about to ask another question, Kagami stopped her.
"Hold it right there, Hiyori."
"Ehh…? It was about to get even more interesting now…" She was clearly disappointed because after she had prepared another fresh tissue for her nose, she was getting ready for the kinky stuff.
"Kona and I are getting a little tired of it, you know? We understand that you're curious because we know your… preferences and both of us are happy that you're so interested in our story, but don't you think it's enough?" Kagami tried to stay as polite as possible because she was partly responsible for the backslash after she teased Hiyori so much, but the couple had reached the point where they didn't want anymore.
"B-But, I still have so many more questions… It's not like I don't understand, but… so… many… more… questions…" She had a hard time giving up.
"I have a proposal for you, Hiyori." Kagami had thought of a way to get rid of her endless questions.
"Oh, what is it?" She seemed interested.
"You're allowed to ask exactly one more question."
"Ehh? Only one?" Hiyori was obviously disappointed.
"One question where everything is allowed. No matter what you ask, Kona and I will answer it truthfully."
"A-Anything…?"
"Anything."
"…" Hiyori froze for a second while she thought about the endless possibilities. "A-As expected of Kagami-senpai, you're truly terrifying… Okay, let's do that, but don't change your mind!"
"I never step back on something I promised." The two exchanged a sharp glare and then nodded.
"I need some time to think about it, though… I really don't want to waste this opportunity."
"Sure, take your time~." Kagami obviously had nothing against it because that means she and Kona had more time to relax that way.
"By the way…" It was time for a slight topic change. "Have you two read my newest manga?"
"You mean the one from two weeks ago, Hiyorin?"
"Yes, that one." Even though Hiyori was genuinely interested in their opinion, it was also a test to probe how far she can go with her one question because the manga was rather graphic.
"Yeah, Kona and I read it together, and I think it was rather extreme if you ask me…"
"Huh?" Yutaka came back from the kitchen at the perfect time and looked confused. "Didn't you say that Hiyori-chan's latest work was pretty tame last week, Kagami-senpai?" She was carrying three cups and offered them to the girls. "Miyuki-senpai made some tea…"
"T-Thanks… Yutaka…" Kagami sighed and facepalmed so hard that it left a mark. After that, she looked at Hiyori and sighed again. "Haa… When you're back in the kitchen, could you ask Miyuki how much loss of blood is okay before it gets dangerous…? Hiyori… you need another tissue…"
"Ehehe~…" Continuing to ignore her nosebleed, Hiyori only kept staring at the couple with a bright smile.
"Ahaha…" Feeling somewhat awkward after getting caught, the two looked away with a dry laugh.
"O-Oh my god…" Hiyori looked ecstatic when she came back from the land of delusions. "I-I think I need to rethink my question again… I thought I had a good one, but it looks like I can get way~ more extreme with it…"
"Great…" Kagami started to regret giving her a freebie.
"Hehe~, look forward to it~." It was easy to see that Hiyori was enjoying every second of it after Kagami made her life a hell as well.
"Whatever…" Kagami gave up. "But for now, the topic is over. I really don't want to talk about us anymore. Think of something else to talk about, okay?" It wasn't a question even though it sounded like one.
"Dinner is ready~." Tsukasa's voice from the kitchen ended it anyway.
"Now that's what I call timing~." Konata concluded their conversation with a joke and the three joined the others for dinner.
….
Dinner was somewhat different than normal. The tempura with the fresh ingredients was extraordinarily good, but Konata and Kagami had a hard time enjoying it. Hiyori may have agreed to stop asking the couple about various things for the time being, but that didn't stop her from intensely watching every single interaction of the two because she didn't want to miss a single detail. Even though it was slightly awkward, dinner ended on a silent note, and once they were done with eating, Hiyori was getting nervous again.
"Thanks for the food… Now… if everyone please excuse me… I need to… room… because… sketchbook…" She didn't even have time to properly finish her sentence and disappeared from the kitchen because she had a date with her sketchbook. A lot of things happened today that greatly sparked her creativity and lots of things needed to be drawn.
"Haa…" Kagami looked exhausted. She had a lot of fun most of the day, but the last few hours mentally tired her completely out.
"Should we go to our room as well, Kagamin~?"
"That's a really good idea." The couple decided to leave as well. Yutaka and Minami then started cleaning up the kitchen and Miyuki, and Tsukasa were the only ones left. Once she noticed the two were alone, Tsukasa used the chance to talk about something.
"Yuki-chan… about what we talked about yesterday…" Tsukasa remembered the conversation she had with Konata earlier that day and decided to address the issue before it got too late.
"Hmm…?"
"Ah, let's better go to our room first… It maybe could take a while…"
"Okay…" Miyuki had no idea what's going on, but she noticed that it was important and didn't say anything more. The two then went to their room as well and had a chance to tackle their issue again.
…..
Konata and Kagami arrived in their room and immediately threw themselves on the bed. Once they had recovered a little from the very taxing last couple hours, the two started chatting.
"Haa…" Kagami sighed again. "We should've taken a different approach with Hiyori… She freaked out way too much… and all of us took way too much damage because of it…"
"Kagamin~?"
"Yes?"
"Shut up." Konata couldn't believe her. "Whose fault do you think that is?"
"Society's?" She played innocent as she cutely tilted her head.
"Oi! Since when am I the serious person in this relationship?!" Konata wasn't very comfortable or happy with her new position.
"Hehe~." Kagami completely ignored her complaints.
"Don't you think it was the fault of a certain slightly sadistic girl?"
"Who might you be talking about?"
"So, that's your game, huh?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Kona? Am I a sadist just because I had some fun with Hiyori?"
"It's not about having fun, it's about the way of…" Konata suddenly stopped. "What am I even complaining about…? Seeing Hiyorin freaking out was pretty funny and my sadistic Kagamin~ is quite sexy." She gave up on being the serious person pretty quickly again. "Well, whatever…" With that, the topic was over.
"Ehehe~." Kagami seemed happy with the way Konata gave up.
Because the chatting time was over, the two focused on something more important and started their usual evening routine. They looked for a comfortable spot on the bed and started cuddling. Konata snuggled against Kagami's side and tightly hugged her. Both continued to enjoy each other's warmth and were about to lose themselves in their embrace, but Konata suddenly stopped. She seemed to have noticed something and looked around in the room.
"Did you hear that, Kagamin~?"
"Did I hear what?" She hadn't noticed a thing.
"Hmm… No, there was definitely something…" Konata let go of Kagami, stood up, left the bed, and went to the door. She quickly opened it, and Hiyori suddenly fell into the room because she was leaning against said door before. She landed on the floor before Konata's feet and looked for a plausible excuse.
"Y-You know, I totally didn't try to listen in at all! I was just nearby by pure chance and heard some suspicious noises rooms coming from your room. Being the upright person, I am, I just was concerned and wanted to check up on you to see if everything's okay." She was a bit panicky.
"Is that so…?" Konata ignored her desperate tries and looked with interest at the dropped sketchbook next to Hiyori.
"A-Absolutely! I had absolutely no intention to find out what's happening behind your door. None at all! A-Anyway… I'm very sorry and good night!" She hastily grabbed her notebook with some rather interesting, but not further mentioned sketches and quickly left their room again.
"Have a good night and don't stay up too long, Hiyorin~." Konata waved after the fleeing figure of Hiyori and closed the door after a while again. After that, she let out a small sigh and went back to the bed. She snuggled against Kagami again as if nothing happened. Kagami, as well, sighed shortly, but also didn't say a single word and the two continued where they left off before the interruption.
Just like that, day two of their uneventful holiday trip ended with another peaceful night and a relaxing third day was about to start for the group.
.
2/3
For anyone wondering, the cicada reference is from 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'.