Azumanga Daioh does not belong to me it belongs to Kiyohiko Azuma
Azumanga Christmas Tales
By Tuxedodude
Kaorin's Tale
(note, this chapter starts off on the day of Osaka's get together)
Kaorin was thrilled, she was sure she had gotten the perfect present for her dear Sakaki-san. "Maybe she'll finally even start to notice me." she thought as she blushed.
She kept walking down the sidewalk in a daze that she didn't notice Chihiro when she suddenly came around a corner. Kaorin bumped into her which caused her to drop the bag she was holding. "OH NO!!!!!" The bag hit the ground hard and a huge crash was heard. "MISS SAKAKI-SAN'S PRESENT!!!!!" Chihiro stared at Kaorin as she quickly picked up the bag. "Kaorin?"
Kaorin looked inside the bag and took out a small box. She opened it and tears started to come out of her eyes. Inside the box was a cracked snowglobe with a small necoconeco inside of it. "It's smashed."
Chihiro tried to comfort her friend. "Kaorin, I'm so sorry. Come on let's go get another one." Kaorin just kept staring at the broken snowglobe. "There isn't anymore..." she said as tears continued to trickle down her cheeks. "...this was the last one in the store."
Chihiro felt guilty. "Don't give up Kaorin, I'm sure we can find another one somewhere in Tokyo." Kaorin stared at her best friend. At first she was angry about what had happened, but she knew better, they've been friends forever and she knew that Chihiro would never do anything to hurt her feelings.
"Right." Kaorin finally said as she gave a small smile.
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They went from store to store looking for another necoconeco snowglobe, but they couldn't find any. Kaorin was about to give up hope when she heard something. "Do you hear that?"
Chihiro stopped to listen. "Hear what?" Kaorin moved her head around. "I hear...music...Christmas music."
Chihiro could also hear some music. "But where is it coming from?" she asked.
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The two friends followed the sound of the music until they came to an old looking building. On the yard was a huge sign that said. "KOBAYASHI ORPHANAGE"
Kaorin was moved by the rendition of 'Silent Night' that was coming from inside. "That is so beautiful." Chihiro was also moved. "Yes it is." She turned to Kaorin. "Well we'd better keep going if we want to find that snowglobe."
"In a second I want to hear the rest of it." Kaorin felt warm inside. Chihiro was surprised. Did Kaorin just put looking for a gift for Sakaki on hold. "She must be getting sick." she thought.
Kaorin started to head towards the front of the building. "Kaorin, what are you doing?" Chihiro asked nervously. "I just want to see the kids sing." Kaorin responded as she kept going towards the front door. "This isn't going to end up good." Chihiro thought as she ran after her friend.
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Kaorin and Chihiro stood next the door as the children inside started singing 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer' "That is soooooo cute." Kaorin said.
Chihiro had to admit hearing those Children sing was heartwarming. "Okay Kaorin, we still need to find that snowglobe."
Kaorin nodded her head. "You're right, Osaka's get together is in a few hours and I need to find Miss Sakaki her gift." They were about to leave when the door opened.
"I thought I heard someone outside." It was an elderly woman, she was wearing a small pair of glasses and her grey hair was made into a bun.
"We're sorry we didn't mean to intrude." Kaorin said as she and Chihiro bowed.
The elderly woman just smiled. "It's okay, it's been a while since we've had some visitors." She opened the door fully. "Why don't you come in out of the cold, we have some hot chocolate if you like."
"Okay." Kaorin said. She and Chihiro went inside.
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Kaorin and Chihiro were surprised but the appearance of the orphanage. The paint was peeling on the walls, the floor seemed uneven, the windows were all cracked. "Why is this place so run down." Kaorin thought.
As they approached the living room they were greeted by seven girls. "Are these all the children that live here." Chihiro asked.
The elderly woman sighed. "I'm afraid so, but soon they will also be gone as well. This place is closing down soon."
Kaorin was surprised. "Why?"
"Oh where are my manners My name is Usagi Takumi, but everyone here calls me Gram Gram." Gram Gram said trying to change the subject.
"Nice to meet you Gram Gram, My name is Kaorin Aida and this is my friend Chihiro Inoue."
"Nice to meet you two." Gram Gram said with a smile.
"Now Miss Gram Gram...why is this place closing down?" Kaorin asked once again.
Gram Gram sighed. "It's that this land used to be the property of Shinji Kobayashi, he was a kind hearted man started this Orphanage over 30 years ago." tears started to form in his eyes. "But he recently passed away a few and his son Kazu has inherited the property and he's decided to tear down this building and build a business building."
"That's horrible." Chihiro said.
"He's already had most of the children who were here transferred to other orphanages...it's sad really most of the children here really cared for each other."
Kaorin seemed confused. "I don't get it if Mr. Kobayashi cared so much for these kids, why didn't he just left the property to you." she asked
Gram Gram just smiled. "I suppose he thought his son would have done the right thing and kept this place open, but as you can see, he really let this place get run down." she sighed. "All Kazu cares about is making money."
Kaorin turned back to the seven remaining girls. "Hello, my name is Kaorin, what are your names."
a cute little girl who looked about three and had pigtails walked up. "My name is Chiya and people say I'm real smart." Chiya ran over two another girl who had long black hair. "And this here is my best friend Kyoto. I really don't remember her real name, but since she originally came from Kyoto that's what we call her."
Kyoto walked up to her. "Did you know worker bees are actually female?" She asked Kaorin just shook her head. "Um no."
"Well they are, and they only seem to live for a few weeks, I don't think that's very fair." Kaorin couldn't help but to see the similarities in the two girls.
Kaorin started to see the similarities in the other girls as well. "Okay then." She turned to two other girls, one of them had long brown hair and wore glasses, while the other one had short brown hair. "And what are your names?"
"The name's Tami." The girl with short brown hair. "And the pudgy one here Is Yomo."
"I AM NOT PUDGEY!!!!" screamed Yomo. "Then why are you always trying all those diets." Yomo then proceeded to give Tami an uppercut.
"Amazing huh?" Kaorin asked Chihiro. "Yeah." Chihiro answered as she sweatdropped.
The turned to two other girls. One with shot but messed brown hair, and a one who seemed to be taller than the other girls but with long black hair.
"Hey my name's Kogora and this here is Suzuki." Kaorin noticed that Suzuki was staring out the window.
"Don't mind her." Kogora said she doesn't really say much all she does is stare out the window.
Kaorin noticed the final girl in the corner of the room. She was amazed by her appearance. The little girls hairstyle was exactly like her own. She walked up to her. "Hello and what's your name?"
"K..Korin." she answered shyly. "My name is Kaorin." But she noticed that all Korin was doing was staring at Suzuki. "Isn't she the coolest." She said as she stared at Suzuki.
Kaorin turned to see Suzuki. "She has a crush on her." she thought. "So you like her huh?"
Korin just blushed. "Well um, you see."
"So have you talked to her?" Kaorin asked. Korin blushed even more. "I try, but everytime I get near her...I freeze up."
Kaorin just sighed. "I can relate to that." she said as she sweatdropped. Kaorin once again stared at all the girls. "Like looking into a mirror."
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Chihiro and Kaorin went back to Gram Gram "I noticed you don't even have a Christmas Tree." Chihiro told her. "We couldn't afford one this year, let alone presents." Gram Gram answered as she smiled, "But at least we have enough for one final Christmas meal together."
"What's going to happen to you?" Kaorin asked. "Oh I'm going to move in with my sister in Osaka, she runs an orphanage there, I tried to get the girls transferred there, but Kazu said no."
"Why?" Chihiro asked. "He never really liked me because he thought his father cared more about this place than himself and since he knows that I love this group of girls, he decided not to have them transferred to the new orphanage in fact he fixed it so they will each be sent to a separate place... this is his way of getting back at me as well as him."
Kaorin clinched her fists. "How can anyone be so cruel." She thought.
Chihiro turned to her friend. "Kaorin, it's getting late, we have to get going." Kaorin just looked around. "Mmm." she said as she gave a Sakaki-like nod.
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Kaorin was lost in thought as they we're walking down the sidewalk. "Chihiro..."
Chihiro sighed as she already knew what Kaorin was thinking. "Kaorin, there is nothing we can do."
"What about you cousin, she's a lawyer right." Kaorin pleaded. Chihiro just shook her head. "Look, Mr. Kobayashi left everything to his son, there is nothing more anyone can do."
Kaorin stopped in her tracks. "Well I'm not giving up." Chihiro turned to face her. "What about Miss Sakaki's present."
Kaorin just stared at the ground. "I don't think Miss Sakaki will like it if I got her a present knowing that the happiness of those seven girls is in trouble." She stared at Chihiro. "Let's at least talk to the son. Maybe we can reason with him." Chihiro just shook her head. "You're not changing your mind are you?" Kaorin just gave a small smile. "Okay then let's go." Chihiro finally gave in.
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The Kobayushi building was huge. Kaorin and Chihiro went to the front lobby and walked up to the front desk. "May I help you?" asked a woman who was seated behind the desk. "Yes we're here to see Mr. Kazu Kobayushi." Kaorin told her.
"Do you have an appointment." the woman asked. Kaorin just hook her head. "No, but it is important that we speak to him." The woman sighed. "Mr Kobayushi is a very busy man and he has no time to speak with every Tom Dick and Harry that waltzes in here."
Kaorin slammed her fist on the desk. "NOW SEE HERE, I NEED TO SEE MR. KOBAYUSHI, AND I AM NOT MOVING FROM THIS SPOT UNTIL I DO!!!!!!!" The woman just gave her an angry look.
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The scene switches to the outside of the building, all is quiet...until the front doors open and two figures come flying out of the building and landed on the sidewalk, they glided for a few seconds on the snow covering it. "Nice one Kaorin." Chihiro said.
They both stood up and started to wipe the snow off of themselves. "Kaorin give it up, he's a cold hearted man." Kaorin just shook her head. "I can't Chihiro... I won't. Somehow there has got to be a way to go in and see him." She noticed a van drive up. On it said 'Yoshi's Party Central.'
"Great, those poor girls are suffering and he's throwing a party." Kaorin thought. Suddenly a young girl came out of the van. "BUT I DON'T WANT TO WEAR THAT DAMN THING AGAIN I'M SICK OF IT!!!!!!!" The driver of the van just shook his head. "Look Moniuqe, this guy is paying us top yen for this shindig, you are wearing the suit."
Moniuqe just crossed her arms. "Well you can find someone else then...I QUIT!!!!!" and with that she stormed off. "Now what am I gonna do." She noticed Kaorin. "Hey you."
Kaorin looked around, turned to the man, and then pointed to herself. "Who me?"
"How'd you like to make some yen." he asked. Kaorin just shook her head. "Look I really don't think..."
"Come on have a heart Mr. Konayashi is throwing a huge Christmas bash for his top brass and I need someone to dress up in a catsuit to dance around for the kids in the daycare while I attend to everyone else." the man seemed desperate.
Kaorin just smiled at the golden opportunity. "I'LL DO IT!!!!!!!" she said with a huge smile.
"Oh thank you soooooooo much." The man said.
Chihiro took her friend to one side. "Are you nuts?" she asked. Kaorin stared at her "Look this may be the only way to get close to Kobayashi without being detected...it's foolproof." she responded as Chihiro just stared at her. "Famous last words." she replied
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The party went on for hours. Kaorin was busy dancing away in the daycare for all the employees children. Once in a while she took a peek into the hall to see if he could spot Kuzo. "Come on where is he." she thought.
Suddenly she noticed two men walk down the hall. One of them was carrying a briefcase. (yes that briefcase) Anywhoo, the two men went inside an office.
"Sorry boys and girls, but Miss Kitty needs to take a little break." Kaorin said. She left the room and headed down the hall towards the office.
She just stood outside and listened in on their conversation. "So did you destroy it yet?" the tall blond hair man asked. "No I felt that you should do the honor." a short balding man said. "He opened the briefcase and took out some documents. The tall man who obviously was Kuzo held the documents in his hand. "Last Will and Testament of Shinji Kobayashi." he started to get an annoyed look. "I still can't believe that old man would leave everything to that old hag and not to me."
Kaorin seemed confused as she kept overhearing them. "I'm glad that you decided to help me out and created that false will saying that he left everything to me Mr. Hiro."
"For a fee of course." the bald man who was now known as Hiro said as he placed the real will back in his briefcase.
"Of course." Kuzo answered. "Now we'll just put that briefcase in my safe for now. We'll wait until after the party to destroy that will." He took the briefcase and walked over to a painting on the wall. He moved the painting to reveal a hidden electronic safe. He pushed a few buttons and the safe opened. He placed the briefcase inside the safe and then closed it. "Come, we mustn't leave our guests waiting." Kuzo said.
Kaorin quickly hid as the two men left her office. "That jerk." she thought as she went into Kuzo's office.
She took off her cat head and walked up to the portrait and moved it to reveal the hidden safe. But instead of numbered keyboard, there were letters. "Terrific." she thought.
First she tried typing in the obvious. "K-U-Z-O" ...nothing
Then she tried typing in the person he hated "G-R-A-M-G-R-A-M"...nothing
then she tried typing in the father..."S-H-I-N-J-I"...nothing
"Wow who does he think he is anyway." Kaorin started to think.
FLASHBACK
Gram just sighed "All Kazu cares about is making money."
BACK TO THE PRESENT
"No way he's that full of himself." Kaorin thought as she typed in five letters...
"M-O-N-E-Y"...the safe opened
Kaorin put her cathead back on the grabbed the briefcase.
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Kaorin slowly made her way down to the lobby. "Wow I made it without anyone finding out." she thought.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!!!!" Screamed several armed men.
"Spoke to soon." She thought and she proceeded to run out of the building.
Kuzo screamed at the men. "GET THAT BREIFCASE BACK, MY FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT!!!!!!!"
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Chihiro was wating outside by a bench. Kaorin still in the catsuit ran up to her. "Chihiro where's your cousin the lawyer."
"She has a case at the courthouse today why?" The group of men started to run towards them. "No time to explain." she said then she ran off with the men right behind her.
"What did she do now?" Chihiro thought as she started to chase after them.
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Kaorin just kept running down the sidewalk as people stared at her, they weren't used to seeing someone in a catsuit running by them. She quickly turned around and noticed the men catching up. "Gotta lose them." she thought.
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Yomi was approaching a superstore, she finally caved in and decided to get Tomo that ipod. As she was approaching the entrance. someone in a catsuit ran by her, it appeared to be holding a briefcase. "That was weird." Thought Yomi.
A group of guys that appeared to be thugs rushed up to her. "Did ya see someone in a catsuit rush by here?" one of them asked.
"Uh yeah, it went that way." she pointed down the sidewalk. "Thanks." the large thug said. he turned to the others. "Come on we can't let it get away." they ran off. "That was even weirder." she thought.
After she had gone in Chihiro ran up and stopped in front of the store gasping for breath. "How does she get into these situations." she thought for a second before she started to run off again in the direction of where Kaorin and the group of men were heading.
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Kaorin was starting to get tired but she knew she needed to get this will to a lawyer...an honest lawyer. She saw the courthouse up ahead, she noticed that Miss Sakaki was among a group of people standing outside. "Miss Sakaki." she thought as stars formed in her eyes. She could feel herself walking on air...wait she really did feel like she was walking on air.
She snapped back to reality and noticed that the men had caught up to her and had grabbed her.
"Okay now kitty, now there isn't any catnip in the case so just go ahead and give it back okay."
Kaorin struggled to get free, but it was no use, they had her. "I failed them." She thought as she could feel a tear coming out of her eye.
Suddenly someone came out of nowhere and proceeded to knock all of the huge men out. Kaorin was saved, but who did it?...Who came to her rescue?
She took off her cathead to thank the person who saved her and then she turned pale. "K...Kimura-Sensei?"
"Ah my dear sweet Kaorin, I could feel that you were in danger and I had to come to your aid."
Kaorin was shaking, she knew that he saved her life and probably helped the orphanage as well. "A...arigato." she said as she bowed.
Kimura just stared at her with that wide open mouth. "Until next time my dear sweet Kaorin...Merry Christmas." and with that he walked off.
Kaorin just stared at him as he left. "He..he didn't try anything." she thought. She gave a small smile. "Merry Christmas Kimura-Sensei." she wispered.
Chihiro voice could be heard in the distance.. "Kaorin...Kaorin.." She finally reached her and started to catch her breath. "Are you okay?" she asked as she looked around. "What on earth happened." Kaorin just sweatdropped. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
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A few hours passed Sakaki was already gone. Yuki and her parents were waiting beside Mikami, who had defended Sakaki a few hours earlier. As it turns out Mikami turned out be Chihiro's cousin. She was busy reading the Will. "Well it is a perfectly legal." she just stared at Kaorin who was still in the catsuit. "With this document I can get the judge to freeze all of Kuzo's actions to keep him from selling the orphanage as well as open an investigation into his activities." Mikami just scratched her head. "Okay I can't take it anymore...what's with the catsuit?"
"Loooooooooooong story." Kaorin said as she blushed.
"I think you can take it off now." Chihiro said. Kaorin tried to unzip the catsuit. "Um...the zipper's stuck." She struggled and struggled but to no avail. "OH NO!!!!!" she said as she started to turn red from major embarrassment. "I can't go to Osaka's get together looking like this."
"And you still have to get Sakaki her present." Chihiro added.
"THAT'S RIGHT!!!!" she fell to her knees. "It's not fair, I did something good, where's my reward." Suddenly a group of girls walked up to her. Kaorin recognized them as the girls from the orphanage. "There's my reward." she thought as she realized that now they were going to stay together.
Gram Gram was also with them. "We heard what you and we don't even know how to begin to thank you." Korin walked up to Kaorin and hugged her.
"Thank you for helping me stay with my Suzuki-san" she wispered in Kaorin's ear.
Chiya walked up to Kaorin, "We made a little something for each of you." she took out two pair of cat ears.
"Oh they're adorable." Chihiro said as she put them on."Come on Kaorin, you're already wearing the catsuit." she snickered.
Kaorin just sighed as she put on the cat ears. "Awwwwwwwww cute." The seven little girls said. Suzuki was especially moved by the way Kaorin looked. "C-cute." she said as she blushed which caused Korin to stare at Kaorin with dagger in her eyes.
Kaorin looked at her wrist and pretended she had a watch. "Well will you look at the time, I gotta go." And she ran off before she could feel Korin's wrath.
"Is she always like this?" Gram Gram asked Chihiro.
"You have no idea." sighed Chihiro.
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Kaorin was walking down the sidewalk, people stared at her because of the catsuit she was wearing. "Well, looks like everyone got a happy ending...but I still haven't gotten Miss Sakaki a present." She looked at a store window. She couldn't believe it, inside was a necoconeco snowglobe. "Lucky." she thought as she went inside to buy it.
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"Wait I do have the money to pay for it, It's in my pocket but you see, I can't get out of this catsuit and..." Kaorin kept pleading as the cashier just kept staring at her. Suddenly the front door opened and in came Kagura. She was all battered and bruised. "Oh hi Kaorin." she spit out a tooth. "I got your present...hope you like it." Kaorin just stared at her. "What the hell happened to you?"
Kagura just sighed. "It's a long story." Kagura stared at Kaorin. "So what's with the catsuit?" she asked.
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TO BE CONTINUED
UP NEXT
Kagura's Tale
Wow, I'm so sorry if these chapters are way to long, in fact this chapter itself could probably be broken down into sub-chapters. --o I guess I'm suffering from the opposite of Writer's Block I guess you could call it Writer's Charge lol. Okay please R&R and take care
'TILL NEXT TIME