Konbanwa, minna-san! The fact that school is in a couple of more weeks freaks the heck out of me; why did summer go by so quickly? Augh! (T^T)
Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed, followed, favorited, or even read this story. It means a lot to me, and I hope that I can update faster! I was in a coma for a couple of days after watching the notifications stack up in my email. This praise and support is going to my head!
To my favorite Maroon Cross: Haha! Thanks? Glad to see such an energetic response from you, it brought a grin to my face. I don't think it's that funny though. D: Maybe comedy just isn't my thing? /shakes head/ Waughh! Nani yo? I have to update soon too? Noooooo! XD But seriously, it's going to be hard for me… NegiToro for life! No rice, no life. I love that phrase, we should make one up! Hmmm like "When there's NegiToro, there's no sorrow" (?) Wow, that was lame. ^ ^
To yuuki yami: Glad to know that it's intriguing! Not to worry, I shall continue contributing to the dominating NegiToro era!
To kryuu27: Again, thanks for letting me know that the story catches your eye! I was hoping someone would say that. You'll see the complexity of Luka's "prestigious" title very, very soon.
To TenebraeCaelum: Yes, another believer! Gimme an internet fistpump! Thanks for the compliment; I'm trying to regain my writing skills back! Here's your update, you greedy little- I mean, yeah! Here's your update! Yes! I am a DDR veteran and StepMania addict! I think you got the latest version 5.0, correct? I used to have it too (came with two songs) but had to uninstall it later for embarrassing reasons. Now I have the 3.9 version. I have anime otaku packs and VOCALOID packs. /le gasp/
Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid. Though it would've been one hell of a party if I did…
"Please allow me to join, Megurine-san!"
Luka sighed for the umpteenth time. She had just begun to return home after participating in club activities. The daily horde had returned, probably stronger from last year. It had been a long day, after the whole opening ceremony, filing student council papers, avoiding fanatics, and turning down several love confessions from both genders. Just when she had thought she could relax and get some quiet, some peace of mind, this girl with an unusual hair color had started to hound her.
The tealette seemed familiar, but Luka just couldn't seem to recall where she had met the persistent girl. Again, it had been a very tiring if not stressful day for the double-booked president, so new faces weren't going to come easy to her just yet.
"Like I've said before, no. The club has already reached its member capacity, we just can't squeeze in anymore newcomers, especially with the club budget's state right now" replied Luka with a stern voice.
Miku pouted. "Dakara, just kick out people who don't attend regularly or something! It isn't fair for freshmen like me who should have a choice to join whatever club they wish!"
The pinkette paused, her face thoughtful for a moment.
"You know," the sophomore turned to Miku, "that's not a bad idea. Thanks for the suggestion, ano..." "Miku. Hatsune Miku," the kouhai informed. Luka nodded, "Right," then continued on her way towards the train station. She had to hurry lest it grew any darker.
"Jutto matte yo~!" Miku grabbed the professional kyudoka's open hand, preventing her attempted escape. "Don't just forget about me! I want to join, and I'm not going to give up."
Luka turned around, blue pupils locking with teal. The goddess then looked down, staring at their connected palms.
The teal-haired teenager followed her captive's gaze and blushed, much to her own disapproval. She released her grip, muttering an apology, but it was too late. Those awkward sensations from their first encounter began to return, bombarding her senses. The poor girl decided to take genuine interest in the grey concrete.
Miku could feel the seito kaichou/buchou's eyes piercing her, but she refused to look for herself. Then suddenly, "Ara, you're that shy student from earlier!"
If it were possible, the red hue across Miku's face intensified even more. Recalling that particular awkward situation wasn't making things better,
Luka observed the uncomfortable girl and decided to directly answer her repetitive question. She gave a loud sigh, "Fine. Seeing if your plan becomes effective, more spots should be available, so you have my approval. I'll give you a registration form tomorrow. Just swing by the student council office during lunch, okay?"
Teal eyes jerked up. "H-hai! Arigato, Megurine-san!" Miku smiled.
Luka flushed, embarrassed, although she didn't know why. "Y-yeah, it's no problem. I'll see you then." The pinkette walked away quickly, not waiting for a response.
Miku blinked, alone. It had seemed the situation had reversed just now.
"Oh well," she sang.
Miku hummed, happy that she had finally got what she wanted.
"And maybe," she whispered, "if I become closer with Megurine-san, these weird feelings will go away."
"Nee Rin-chan," Miku asked during lunch the next day.
Said blonde broke away from her staring contest with Kasane Teto, a friend from her volleyball club. It turned out that the magenta twin drill head shared most of the same classes with the three childhood friends.
"Nani?"
"Megurine-san is known as the "Ice Queen" of Kinoko* High, right?"
Rin looked at Len and then back. "Hai…"
Miku took a breath. "Then how come she's so kind and polite? During the two times I've met her, there was nothing about her that could even suggest her title!"
"Mmmm, it's actually a bit more complicated." Rin grinned deviously. "What has you so interested in her anyway, Miku-chan? Not planning to confess to her, are you- Itai!" A large lump sprouted from the orange addict's head.
"Just answer me." Miku raised another fist threateningly, all the while trying not to blush.
"Okay, okay!" Rin shielded her head. "It's a given known fact that Luka-san is extremely cold and harsh, towards BOYS. I'm not exactly sure why, but rumors say that she experienced something traumatic in middle school."
"Oh…" Miku slumped back in her seat, feeling bad for asking in the first place. Somewhere else though, she was slightly disappointed from knowing that Luka hadn't been nice to her because she was special. "So, none of her friends are male?"
Rin thought for a second. "Well, I know she and Kaito-kun are friendly through a mutual friend. Some senpais from volleyball also gossiped that she's been rather close to a sensei since last year."
"Shit!" Teto sprang up from the table and immediately fumbled around looking for something in her schoolbag. For the second day in a row, classmates stared at the group strangely.
Rin gave Teto a questioning look.
The nervous teen grabbed her wallet and dashed off, her echoing yells informing her friends that she'd forgotten that the cafeteria had a special croissant sandwich today.
Rin smiled sheepishly at her brother and Miku. "Teto-chan really likes bread, French bread to be exact."
Miku sweat dropped. "You don't say?"
"Speaking of forgetting…" Len turned to Miku. "Aren't you forgetting to meet a certain someone right now?"
Megurine-san! Miku thought. She dashed off prior to Teto towards the student council room, shouting a "Thanks!" to her friends.
The twins looked at each other and laughed. Rin then smirked at her younger brother.
"How's track with Kaito-kun?"
Len blushed but cleverly retorted, "How about you tell me about this Gumi-senpai first?"
It was Rin's turn to blush.
The tealette stopped outside where she was supposed to meet with Luka, trying to catch her breath. After inhaling an abundant amount of air back into her lungs, she reached for the handle, only for the door to slide open, revealing a tall, stout young man.
Long, purple hair held back in a ponytail by two red hair sticks ran down past his black dress shirt. Messy bangs framed his face, amethyst eyes narrowed in worry. He wore white jeans topped off with black shoes. Miku had to admit that the man was very handsome, both face and body.
The male's brilliant ash mauve eyes looked at Miku, and he smiled brightly. "Konnichiwa." He then left in the direction of the teacher's lounge.
Miku stood there, dazed by the mysterious individual. She decided to ask Luka about him after receiving her registration form and walked inside.
Luka sat at a large desk at the end of the room, a pale hand rubbing at her temples. Several books and stacks of paper littered around. It appeared that she was now alone, but Miku acknowledged that the pinkette looked very tired and stressed. Still, despite her dark circles and overall untidy appearance, Miku couldn't help but stare at her, mesmerized by her beauty.
"Ah, Hatsune-san, you're here. I have the form… here." Luka grabbed a sheet and handed it to Miku. "Just return this quickly before new members fill up the slots. We have much more room and the club budget is doing better, all thanks to you." She smiled warmly.
Miku accepted the paper. "Arigato, and it was no problem! I'll try to return this as soon as possible."
Luka nodded. "Just come back here again or the kyudo club."
"Ah… hai. Ano, Megurine-san?"
"Just call me Luka, we should be at least on a first name basis if we're going to be seeing each other nearly every day."
"Okay, Luka…-chan." Miku blushed. "Um, I was wondering who that tall guy was who left earlier."
Luka's face brightened. "Oh, you mean Kamui Gakupo-sensei? He's a homeroom teacher, as well as the bukatsu advisor. We were just discussing about needed appliances for the club."
Surprised, Miku exclaimed, "Wow, really? He looks pretty young though."
"He's turning 23 this year."
Luka laughed at the astonished look on Miku's face. "Anyway, you should return to class, the bell is about to ring." The pink idol turned back to her work.
"W-wait!" Luka looked up.
Miku paused, laughed nervously, and stuttered, "I-I wanted you to c-call me by my first name too… if that's okay."
A tinge of red appeared on Luka's face. "Good bye, M-miku-chan."
Miku grinned and left.
"You don't even know what the bow is called?!"
"Gomenasai!"
It had been roughly a week since Miku joined kyudo. Today was the first time she would actually be participating in shooting targets. Too bad the tealette had trouble just putting on a hakama. Masuda Lily, a senpai and childhood friend of Luka, was assigned to help Miku. With a black headband, lengthy blonde hair, and sapphire eyes, the junior reminded her of a Luka version of an older Rin… if that even made any sense whatsoever.
Lily sighed. "Okay kid, I'm going to go over all the equipment first and then we'll get right to shooting!"
"Oi, Lily-chan! Don't forget to go over-" "The safety crap, yeah yeah, I got it princess," the blonde interrupted Luka, who was keeping an eye on Miku's training.
"This," Lily tapped on Miku's laminated bow, "is a yumi. The bowstring is called a tsuru. An arrow is a ya. There are multiple parts of a ya but that's not important. Every arrow has a gender, as weird as it seems, so us females use otoya. Still with me?"
Miku nodded.
The senpai then handed her a soft one-fingered glove. "This is an ikkongake, one of the many types of yukages. You'll be using this and a forearm protector since you're a beginner."
After Lily had explained each important item and their use, Miku was already worn out. The confused freshman was still desperately trying to memorize every word as Lily then began to demonstrate each phase of position when shooting.
"Now that you know the general basics, show me your first shot. Try firing at that target over there." The blonde pointed at the row of targets across a grassy plain, where she had witnessed Luka for the first time in action, which was nearly 30 meters from the dojo.
"Already?! Eto… I'll try," she blurted. She didn't want Lily to know that she hadn't been observing her, since the junior was uncharacteristically informative.
The teal head chose a target, and nervously, raised her bow in a manner that she had seen from action movies. Miku began to panic as her right hand clenched around the end of the arrow and the bowstring. Was she even doing this right? What if she somehow hurt herself in the process? Lily-senpai didn't even go over the safety rules! Just as she was about to release her hold (which would not have resulted into a favorable outcome), a pair of warm arms covered her own.
"Miku."
It didn't take much for Miku to know who the owner of the voice was, but what scared her was the rapid increase in her heart beats, the blood rushing to her head, the smell of lavender muddling her senses. The sudden intimate use of her name made the teenager gulp in anticipation.
"Just do what I do. Let my hands guide you; breathe and relax."
"…okay."
Lily, fellow members of the bukatsu, and the daily onlookers all watched in pure awe as the synthetic arrow from the newbie's bow released with a slight "twang". The grey dart sliced through the air, across the 28 meters of grass, and smack dab in the center of the target.
A pregnant silence permeated the area.
"Kyaaaaaa!" a couple of fan girls screamed at the top of their lungs. On cue, applause broke out from the crowd, as well as cat calls, whistles, cheers, and other nonsense. "What a shot!" "I wish Megurine-sama would hold me like that too!" "Who is that lucky girl?" "Damn that bitch to hell!" Miku couldn't help but flinch at the last remark.
She felt Luka let go of her, all warmth leaving. Miku felt lonely. The way their bodies seemed to just… mesh with each other perfectly, the feel as they had both released the arrow in synch, Luka's breath in Miku's ear when she- Wait! What am I thinking? Bad Miku! Anyway, I should probably thank Luka-chan for…
"LILY. COME HERE YOU LITTLE-"
"Itai! Stop yanking on my hair woman! Ow, ow, OW. What the hell did I do?!"
Miku watched as her beloved pink-haired savior pulled onto her brief mentor's locks harder.
"You baka! First of all, you have to give her a rubber bow, baka! Second, you have her practice the movements without an arrow, baka! I have to admit that you got down the equipment area thoroughly, but she can't just digest all that information so quickly, baka! And then you have her practice with the glove and arrow, baka! Finally, you should've had her shoot at a makiwara, not a freaking mato, BAKA!"
With each "baka" the pinkette uttered, a fresh new lump appeared on the poor blonde's head. The other club members sweat dropped at the painful, but familiar scene. However, it was quite obvious that the buchou was truly angry.
The resilient blonde managed to stop her violent friend by locking her arms around Luka affectionately. "Gomen."
The pinkette sighed and pat Lily's bumpy head. She smiled and said, "It's okay."
Lily pulled away and giggled. "Still, I guess I should apologize to Miku-chan. Where is she anyway?"
Unbeknownst to Lily, the tealette had watched the whole scene. Her chest hurt, and it wasn't from the tight muneate she was wearing. She felt pain, pain all over her body. All the places Luka had touched before now burned like poison. Her head hurt, her heart hurt.
W-what is this anger I'm feeling? Could it be that I'm jealous? But why? I don't have any romantic feelings towards Luka, and she and Lily are close friends anyway! I have no right to care. Still…
"A-ano… Miku-chan? Are you alright?" Lily timidly asked. No matter what she did, the kouhai kept a hateful glare that seemed to burn through her soul. This dark aura… it's quite suffocating.
"Miku-chan?" A light tap to the freshman's shoulder woke her up from her rage gaze. "Club activities are now over, so I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Luka rubbed her head lovingly, smiled, and headed to the changing room.
Miku stood there dumbly. She touched her head where Luka had. If I was such a dear friend like Lily to Luka, I could experience this every day.
She shook her head, horrified at what her mind came up with these days. It's as if I'm in love with Luka! W-well I have to admit that I may have a small crush on her… but I'm sure it's just a phase or something, yeah! It shouldn't be normal to like a girl anyway, it's just not… right.
"Hey."
Miku turned around, only to face a serious Lily.
"We need to talk."
Teal eyes scanned around the dojo; everyone had already left to change. She and the suddenly hostile blonde were alone, much to her displeasure.
"N-nani yo?" Miku gulped. The junior had begun to approach her slowly, threateningly, causing the freshman to walk backwards into a wall. Lily slammed her right hand, barely missing Miku's terrified face, against the wall, making the blonde appear more menacing.
"Listen here," she hissed. "I don't know what your connection with my Luka is, but I'll have you know that you better stay away from her."
Miku became pissed. "What. The. Hell. First of all, Luka-chan isn't yours; she's a person for Kami's sake. Secondly, Luka-chan and I are friends, good friends to be exact. Third, you have no right to tell me whether I can be with her or not. Leave. Me. Alone."
The diva left on that note, hurrying to join the others. Her heart was pounding in her ears, raw fear eating at her insides. She probably hadn't made the wisest move, and now there was nothing she could do. "What the heck was that…"
Lily watched her rival scamper away before she could reply; coward. The blonde ran a hand through her long bangs and chuckled.
"This is going to be interesting."
Yatta, another chapter down! And finally we get some drama really start to cook up, hehehe. I'm seriously starting to question whether writing a chapter in one go is a good thing or not. Before I do so, I procrastinate… a lot. And when I DO start writing… I can't stop. I waste a lot of time by doing so, such as finding random music to listen to on Youtube, looking up interesting stuff about Kyudo on Wikipedia, looking at pictures of Vocaloid characters when describing them, etc.
I haven't introduced all of the characters who will appear yet; there are 5+ more to go. *sigh* It doesn't help that my room is unbearably hot.
I've added some new Japanese terms, so here you go!
dakara- Google Translate says "so"; I translate it as "That's why I'm saying"
Jutto matte yo- literally "Hey, wait!"; "Wait a minute" or "Hold on" are also correct
Arigato- "Thanks"
nee- "hey" or "right"
Kinoko*- literally means "mushroom"; don't ask my choice in high school names! It's better than the common "Vocaloid" or" Crypton High"… right? (^ ^'')
sensei- "teacher"
Konnichiwa- a daily used phrase which means "Good afternoon"
bukatsu- "Kyudo club"; it gets rather boring just saying "kyudo"… "kyudo"… all the time, nee?
Gomenasai- "I'm sorry"
Oi- "Hey" or "Yo"
(Here's the difficult part. Some parts of the kyudo gear have already been explained in the story, but there are still some that were vague.)
yukage- a glove worn on the right hand; made of deerskin
baka- "stupid" or "idiot"; very offensive, but not in this case
makiwara- a specially designed straw target shot at from a very close range (roughly 7 feet)
mato- a normal target for kyudo practitioners. Sizes and distance vary, but most common is shot at from 28 feet
Gomen- a shorter version of "Gomenasai"
muneate- a chest protector worn by female archers; typically a piece of leather or plastic designed to protect the breasts from being struck by the bowstring during shooting (lol)
I think that's all. Sorry it's another short chapter (Is it? I honestly don't know), and I'll try to update soon! School is super close, and I still haven't touched my summer assignments let alone look at them. ;) Please review and critique is much appreciated! I love you all.
Bye bee~
DarkWolfHunter