A/N: With the exam over, time to get serious! (I need to drown the fact that I totally goofed Statistics and Fluid Mechanics.)
[-x-x-x-]
"So, how did it go well?" The girl on the screen teasingly asked. She had long untied purple hair and was hugging a pink pillow while clad in her purple pajama. Of course, the headphone she used was an expensive one and her room was well-decorated.
"I think it didn't go well…" Honoka sighed as she fell on her bed. For her case, her room was tidy and she was putting her laptop in speaker mode when speaking with her friend. "She is very cute but kind of scary once I got to know her."
The other girl chuckled. "Well… Must have been tough, Konokacchi~" The girl by the nickname of Mikozomi teased as she took a small notebook where she noted few important things. "I have made some research on my own and found out that Mitori-chan is elite among elites at her school. She is always smiling to the point of being creepy so some of her classmates are afraid of her."
"Eh! Even though she's that cute?"
"Yes. Her mother is a total authority in the domain of education and is very possessive of her daughter so everyone fears her."
The ginger sweatdropped at the new information. 'That explains the letter… though I don't think they are bad people.' She pushed her back so she could be in a sitting position. "Well… I think I want to stay friend with her though. Kotori-chan can be very fun to be around if it isn't for her creepy smile that made the waitress run in fear when she split coffee on my shirt."
"Wait. What?" Nozomi gave a tilt of the head.
"Ah. I didn't tell you? During our date this week-end, we stopped at a coffee and the waitress made an accident so Kotori-chan gave her a very creepy smile. I even got scared even if I wasn't the receiving end."
The other girl chuckled after a while as she fell flat on her bed, her laptop resting on a kotatsu beside her bed. "Well… Honoka-chan is a funny and odd girl so I guess the two of you make a cute couple."
Honoka felt embarrassed at the praise and so gave an awkward smile, rubbing the back of her head until she realized something and gave a yelp. "Hein? What do you mean by odd girl? I'm not that weird."
The answer just came in form of an all-knowing smile. Nozomi just decided to ignore that part and went with another topic. "By the way, you know about the new join raid? It's for this Saturday night and starts at 08:00 PM. Maki-chan and Eli-chi said they will be joining us."
"Yeah. I heard about it." Honoka's smile returned as she stood up and walked over to her kotatsu to switch a small tab. "Already 9 people has joined. And I think no one else is going to join."
"Really?" Nozomi also switched the tab on her laptop. "Let's see… There's Tomaki-cha, Elichika, Mitori-chan, Konoka-chan, Mikozomi, NyaRin, PanaPana, Nico-Nii and Sonoda Umi."
"Sonoda Umi?"
"Something wrong, Honoka-chan?" The purplenette noticed the pause and switched back into the video chat.
"I had a childhood friend with the same name…" She paused while scanning the avatar. "Her family had to move away for various reasons so I couldn't get in touch with her." Honoka explained. 'Gender: Female, Class: Samurai, Level: 56… Her character is till low-level but she has already completed two SS-rank missions. That's so like Umi-chan; she knows how to plan things well. A difference of level shouldn't handicap her.'
"…chan…noka-chan… Honoka-chan!"
"Ah!"
"Honoka-chan, are you listening?" Nozomi asked with a serious expression as she saw that her friend was oddly quiet.
"Y-yeah. Sorry I was thinking…"
The purplenette made a shocked expression at that reply, earning a very childish pout from her friend.
"Nozomi-chan is so mean!"
"Sorry, sorry…"
Just as Honoka was about to counter, the door to her room was opened by an angry younger sister. "Onee-chan, will you shut it out?!"
"Yukiho? You were home? I didn't hear you?"
The red-head's face turned red as she stepped in and leaned in to give her sister a hard headbutt. "Onee-chan, you are lazying around again, aren't you? I was just cleaning you room and now," she pointed at a potato chips' cover on the floor beside her, "what is this?"
"I can explain…" Honoka eyed at the screen, hoping that Nozomi could help her but she just got an apology smile.
"I suggest you take your responsibility, Honoka-chan. Consider it like a training for your future situation with your future mother-in-law."
"Wait, Nozomi-chan!"
Too late as the Miko has already logged out, leaving the ginger alone with her furious sister.
[-x-x-x-]
The next day, Honoka was on shopping duty. Since she liked moving her body, the girl has cheerfully got changed into her tracksuit and ran around. It usually took her more time shopping because she ended up goofing around too much but her mother knew that and took it in account.
While the ginger was at the mall, she enjoyed looking at everything knew and most of the merchant there knew her. She was a nice girl who did smile at everyone after all. It took her half an hour sightseeing before deciding to get serious.
Walking up the stairs, her eyes caught sign of something though from the other side of the upper corridor. Realizing the familiar aura emitted by it, Honoka could guess who it was and ran after the individual.
"Kotori-chan!"
Perfect! She guessed right as the casual dress-clad young woman turned around to see her newly made friend running in her direction. "Hello, Honoka-chan!"
It took the taller girl a couple of second to get her breath back to normal and then waved a very bright smile. "Let me guess… You are on shopping duty as well?"
"Yeah." The other girl nodded as she showed a cute handmade basket she was holding with her left hand. "Want to shop together?"
"Sure thing!" The cheerful girl agreed and started to lead the shorter girl until they reached the bakery. They needed bread after all and when bread is said, the ginger became crazy as it was her favorite thing to eat. The two of them entered the shop and were greeted cheerfully by the owner. They then started looking around. "What should we get for now?" Honoka took a piece of paper from her pants' pocket and walked around. "Baguettes and Pain farçi…"
Kotori smiled as she picked few types of bread and paid for them at the counter. Honoka did take her time though and didn't fail to try the sample they put for the new product. Seeing how happy the ginger seemed as she was swallowing the bread, the shorter girl decided to give it a try and did enjoy it. "It's delicious~" She said with her usually pitchy voice. "How about I take some? I am sure Mom is going to enjoy it."
Honoka smiled happily. "You should definitely! It's delicious." Her smile then slightly fell as she made a comical face. "Unfortunately, I have spent most of my allowance with a new earplug so I don't have any more marge. I am sure Yukiho would be happy to try it though…"
The ash blonde noticed her friend's expression and decided to grab her hands. "In that case, I shall buy some for Honoka-chan as well. It's only normal for friends. Consider it as a gift for what's up ahead."
"What's up ahead…?" The ginger echoed her friend's words, not understanding what she meant by it.
Before she could get it though, another customer accidentally pushed Honoka from behind as they were in a rush. She would have fallen face first on the floor if it wasn't for the other net gamer who has managed to grab her in time. With Kotori's left arm wrapped around the taller girl's thin waist and her other hand on Honoka's chin as a support, the ginger had the feeling the stylish college student seemed stunning. It felt as if the background has changed.
"Are you okay, Honoka-chan? Aren't you hurt?"
"Y-yeah…" Honoka's voice got caught in her throat as her imagination was making her hear odd sound like some violin playing in the background or having the impression that the shorter girl was wearing a prince's suit, her voice being 'ikemen'.
"Are you really sure?"
"Y-yes. I am fine."
Kotori smiled at these words, her frown disappearing as if it never was there in the first place. "I am glad in that case." She helped the other girl standing back and that was when she has noticed the young man—presumably a college student—who has almost caused Honoka's accident. She turned to him and so did he to see a very creepy look on the girl's face. "How dare you hurt my dear Honoka-chan?" Her voice was somehow scary and dark-toned.
Such thing made the man scared as he quickly bowed his head. "I am very sorry. Sorry."
"Are your sorry enough I wonder?" Kotori crossed her arms as the look in her face only turned darker, her eyes seeming as if they had no compassion whatsoever. It was the same look a serial killer usually had. It was as if the blonde was a different person from earlier. "If I report that act as violence, you could take some damage from it."
"Just from accidentally knocking someone?"
"You have almost made my beloved to fall on the floor. Such act is an unpardonable act for me." The little bird insisted, her dark aura growing stronger, making the older college student to tremble in fear.
Honoka has realized the situation was a replay of what happened at the café and so quickly stopped the girl from doing anything else or they might get into trouble. That and she felt sorry for the man. "I-I am fine, really. There is no need to worry. Let us just buy these breads, Kotori-chan!" She forced a smile while holding onto the shorter girl's arm as to calm her.
Kotori instantly calmed down as she felt her friend's hand on her skin. Her expression softened as her smile returned. "You are right, Honoka-chan. We can't waste such precious time worrying about such thing."
The ginger sweatdropped as she had no clue what the other college student was saying. She just decided to go with the flow and gave a bow at the man though. Of course, such action totally made Kotori pissed as her bad self made a short appearance, allowing a click of the tongue to escape her. Fortunately, the boy quickly made a run for it and she has calmed down when Honoka grabbed her hand again, this time to go to the counter.
[-x-x-x-]
"I'm so tired…" Honoka fell flat on her bed as she let go of a very long sigh. After their shopping with Kotori-chan, the two of them has decided to have a little look around Akihabara and she ended up totally tired. After all, the other girl would turn into her aggressive self every time someone was getting in their way.
The worst case was when they were walking around the park on their way home when two guys stopped them and Kotori has flatly told them to go die. They didn't take it well and tried to assert themselves, causing the shorter girl to become physically violent by judo-throwing the one on a nearby trash bin and giving the another one a high kick on his face that threw him on the lake.
"I didn't imagine Kotori-chan to be that strong…" The ginger placed a hand over her eyes as to hide the light of her room's light tube. "She has told me she was member of the Judo club back in high school but I never expected her to be this strong." She thought and compared that to her high school life. "I mean I was member of the Computer Research club in high school so I didn't train that much question physical… though I used to be a member of the Kendo club in Middle School…"
Her eyes fell on a framed picture on the bedside table and the ginger stood up to have a look at it, a smile on her face. On the picture were two girls—a cheerful ginger and a meek blue-haired yamato nadeshiko—and a tall man behind them. It was a picture taken several years prior after the duo of girl has managed to beat their teacher for the first time and so decided to take a picture as a memorial.
"I wonder how Umi-chan is doing…" She thought aloud before standing up and powered her laptop on. "Well… no point in overthinking! I might as well do some grinding for Saturday's sake!" Honoka sat down on the carpet, the laptop on the low table. It didn't take long for it to fully boot so she opened the Love Live game and logged into her account. She was lucky as someone she knew was also online. "It looks like NyaRin-chan and PanaPana-chan are online. I might as well send them a message."
As she sent the messages, a popup has notified her that the two girls wanted a video chat. Well… she has already seen their faces so it came to no surprise as they were apparently high school girls and childhood friends. Moving the cursor, Honoka decided to accept the video chat.
[-x-x-x-]
Saturday morning…
Honoka was at Nozomi's place. There was also a quarter-foreigner blonde in there as well. The three of them has been having a conversation after the ginger has arrived. Apparently, the blonde—Eli—has been staying at the wanna-be fortuneteller's apartment for the night and they have called for Honoka to come by as they had something to discuss about.
While mostly talking about the possible strategies for the upcoming raid, they occasionally talked about their families. The conversation went smooth until Honoka's stomach grumbled and so they had a snack.
"I talked with NyaRin-chan and PanaPana-chan the other night." The ginger initiated another conversation, mouth full of bread. "They proposed we have an official meeting someday."
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea." The quarter-Russian nodded as she took a sip from her teacup. "We have known each others for a year now so it's only fair."
"Ain't it?"
"Yep!" The purplenette agreed. "We should invite ToMaki-chan as well in that case. I bet she is a real-life tsundere as well."
Honoka remembered something about said player. Her character was a Paladin and had lot of cool skills. She would usually reject video chat and the rare time they chatted via message, she would always sound bored and overconfident in her abilities.
"Well… I doubt she will accept but let us try anyway." Eli placed her cup back on the low table before standing up. "Anyway, it is already 09:00 AM so how about we get some supplies?"
By supplies, she meant snacks and drinks for the night when they will have to do the raid. The three of them would usually buy snacks together and coordinate themselves before going home. This time, it looked like the two older girls were going to both stay at Nozomi's apartment though. It wasn't as if Honoka was jealous or anything but she just wanted to know how it might feel to play together on a MMO while having a sleepover.
With a sigh, she brushed these thoughts away as the trio walked out of the apartment and started walking toward the supermarket. On their way there, the ginger glanced up at the sky, a smile on her lips. "I wonder what Kotori-chan is doing right now…"