Chapter 10A: Cats

The past few days have been days of preparation and training. Those three days seemed to pass like months—from the day Hajime Takashi confessed his feelings toward Hiiragi Kagami up to the day where both boy and girl would settle things once and for all. She was given a period of three days to decide on something that could make or break her destiny. During these three days, she kept this issue to herself to avoid involvement of her friends. This course of action led her to a great disaster that almost cost her life in the form of a bolt of lightning; all because of a change of heart. A chain of unfortunate events was then formed that affected those very close to her. Through the report of a school girl being struck by lightning, Tsukasa let out various reactions: sadness and later on determination. Her father also let out a stream of passionate emotions and never heeded the word of his beloved wife. Konata and Miyuki, failed to stop Tsukasa from doing something that spelled death, couldn't do anything at all but hope that the twins would return in one piece. The father's expedition turned out to be very successful; the opposite could be said for Tsukasa. But the bond of sisterhood never faded away from them—it was still in their grasp. Despite her failure, everybody was still proud of her for her display of courage and bravery in the midst of a grave disaster and in a time of disorientation. From that point on, Kagami swore to her friends and family that she wouldn't be keeping any more secrets especially those that required their help. Despite her irrational actions in the past few days, they all helped with the preparations for the occasion. While most of her friends and family provided moral support, a chosen few like Tsukasa prepared the gift and the mother-daughter Takara pair arranged a special romantic dinner. Konata provided the most bizarre lesson of all by a demonstration of force—implying that even the nicest of guys could turn from better to worse. The late Izumi Kanata appeared in a ghostly manner as a continuation to Konata's bizarre lesson—telling her that temptation is a strong being and can strike anywhere anytime. In other words, her admirer may be tempted into doing a heinous crime such as sexual abuse. These past few days have trained Kagami to face the inevitable. On Sunday, she will take the battle…to the metropolis.

There was a break in the weather upon the break of dawn. The heavy gray clouds that brought rain to the vicinity for the past few days broke up in clusters. The bright sun shone down during that morning. Indeed one would be overjoyed by the unexpected change in weather. The chilly wind remained but at least the people could now get a taste of natural warmth. Sunshine went in every window in every household or building around town. It's Mother Nature's way of telling the sleepyheads that it's time to rise and shine. Small birds flew around tree to tree and chirped a morning medley. The drops of precipitate that tagged along with the leaves split white light in seven rainbow colors. The once grayish cotton candy in the sky, thanks to sunlight, became pure white; as pure as the light of day. Sunday morning was a great day to start the week with the sun shining and a new hope rising out of the gloomy water.

A minute before seven, Kagami's bedroom laid silent. The only thing that freely came in her room was the sunlight. Like a little angel, she slept under the covers of her blanket. Even with closed windows the room temperature was comparable to that of a fridge. The chilly temperature made her sleep all the more. The second hand moved the hour hand directly to 12 as it went past 12. Then a loud ring cut her beauty sleep short. The ringing was more annoying than the flapping of windows last night since the alarm clock was one of the closest things to her. A few seconds after seven, the alarm clock succeeded in waking her up. Then she realized one big mistake: she never asked him what time would they meet today. Then again, Tokyo Tower doesn't open as early as this; so she presumed that he would come at around nine o' clock. An hour before that would be too early and an hour after that would be too late. She did what was necessary in a Sunday morning: take a bath, freshen and dress up, read the morning paper while having breakfast, not to mention making final checks before the offensive. Her dazzling outfit, not the attractive type but really lets out the beauty within, would take more than words to describe it. Her mother was the only one awake on a very early morning, fixing breakfast for the family as soon as they broke the spell of the sandman.

"Good morning" Kagami greeted like the usual.

"Good morning too, dear…" Her mother replied like her cheerful self. "Today's the big day."

"I'm pretty nervous right now. I might screw this up."

"Whether the date fails or succeeds is not what matters now. The important thing is you have fun out there."

"I guess so."

"By the way, he called a while ago; saying he forgot to tell what time you two would meet. He said nine-thirty."

"Figures…I was also thinking of the same thing."

A different kind of surprise confronted the Izumi household, not to mention Konata. She had been hacking and slashing creepy thingies and going on different quests since yesterday afternoon after school. Konata is the type who can go on gaming for three straight days (although she took a break when she visited Kagami for a special lecture). But like any human being, she too has her limits. Believed that she had leveled up a lot since yesterday, she decided to stop for a while to smell the roses. If today was a school day, she could barely keep up with the lesson and frequently receive real good wallops from her world history teacher. She wanted to observe Kagami today to know how the date would go but she could barely keep her eyes wide open as effect of all-night gaming. Still, she had done her part in preparing her friend for the inevitable. Time would handle the rest.

"Konata, come down here for a second." Kona-dad called.

She was dead tired from leveling up her character; still she went down as instructed. In the dining room, she saw her dad with a certain visitor—a visitor whom she knew better than anybody else.

"Ah good morning, Kuroi-sensei…" Konata greeted, dead tired and sleepily yawning.

"Correction: I'm now Izumi Nanako."

"SAY WHAT???"

Souijiro further explained the unexpected declaration. "I know it's too sudden, Konata. But I have decided to love again. She will be your new mother from now on."

"D-Dad, you're joking. Tell me you're joking!" Konata said.

"You didn't disagree when I thought about remarrying. So I did…and your teacher is the perfect candidate."

Konata had no other choice but to accept Kuroi—no, Izumi-sensei as her new mother. Deep down Kanata will always be her original mother but for the case of healing her dad's broken heart, there was a new name in town: Izumi Nanako. The proper ceremonies would have to wait.

Kagami left the house at around eight-thirty, carrying her handbag and a small bag of cookies as her gift to Hajime. The train was the fastest means of transportation to the metropolis. Waiting for it to come from the adjacent station was time-consuming. The country's symbol of economic power didn't have all day to wait for boy and girl to meet; it too has its opening and closing times. Fifteen minutes later, the train bound for the capital city arrived and opened all of its doors to both incoming and outgoing passengers. As soon as she stepped foot inside the train, the doors behind her closed and the entire vehicle moved. Along the way, she thought of several ways to greet her date in a beautiful Sunday morning. After all, a good morning deserves a good greeting.

"(Hello senpai, how are you? No that would be too ordinary.)"

"(Hey senpai, the weather's pretty nice isn't it? A little too perky…)"

"(A pleasure to meet your acquaintance…? Too formal…)"

"(Greetings, I come in peace? Like I'm some alien from another galaxy…)"

"This is making me look like a complete idiot. I should greet like usual."

Stations later, the train stopped where she needed to get off. Since her friend Miyuki lived within the metropolis, she followed the route going to her house. Hopefully she could be sure of where she was going by asking directions from someone who had been living in the metropolis for so long. There wasn't a need to look for her because Miyuki was anticipating her just outside of her home.

"Ah Miyuki, what a coincidence; I was going to ask you the way to Tokyo Tower." Kagami said.

"I'll be happy to take you there. I'm about to run some errands anyway."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it."

Back at the Izumi residence, a war was about to erupt with father and daughter as the opposing forces or powers.

"You didn't disagree when I thought about remarrying." Souijiro defended his stand. "I think you were too busy reading your manga back then."

"I don't disagree with you if you want to remarry." Konata replied. "But with sensei as my new mother…it's completely out of this world."

"Konata, don't blurt out things like that in front of her!"

"She's the type who would fix me up real good whenever I'm asleep."

"Well that's…, wait a second; you fall asleep in class?"

"I have a good reason for that. I always finish my assignments late at night."

"I'm on to you, Konata. One more and its goodbye to every single one of your stuff in your room..."

"Whoa, dad…! You can't do that! I spent my entire lifetime collecting those!"

"Unless you'd be nice to your new mother and get your grades straight, all of your manga and video games will be in danger of confiscation."

"Dad…!"

It took them a while but Kagami and Miyuki finally reached their destination: the Eiffel Tower-like Tokyo Tower. Kagami has seen it several times on TV but never up close and personal. The TV made the illusion of the tower being small than the usual. But when the tower was only a few meters away, the illusion fooled her completely.

"Well, I have to leave you here then." Miyuki said. "I still have some errands to run."

"Well okay, thanks for your time." Kagami replied.

As soon as Miyuki was out of sight, Kagami looked at her wrist watch—fifteen more minutes before the said time. What could she possibly do with fifteen more minutes? She could grab a quick bite at a nearby 24-hour convenience store or buy another gift to go with the cookies. With only a handful of yen inside her purse, buying another gift or grabbing a quick bite was out of the question. The money she had with her today was reserved for emergency purposes so overspending was not her style of a date. All that thinking made her spent all fifteen minutes of waiting. Hajime had already spotted her.

"I'm glad that you came after all." He greeted. "I thought you would have me waiting here for nothing."

"Oh please, I'm not like that."

"Before I forget, this is for you."

Hajime handed out a medium-sized box with fancy decorations in it. It needed not to be wrapped because it was fancy already from the inside out. When Kagami opened the box, inside it was a black stuff toy cat with a smooth fur and the softness enough for it to serve as a pillow.

"Wow, a stuff toy cat." Kagami said. "Oh, this is also for you."

She handed out the bag of cookies that Tsukasa made yesterday. She felt a little bad because her gift to someone else was made by somebody else.

"Wow, chocolate chip cookies. They're my favorite." Hajime commented.

"Sorry if I didn't make them. I actually…uh…am not good at household chores."

"It doesn't matter. Your presence here is enough of a gift for me."

"Uh...that's…" Kagami blushed. "Flattery won't get you anywhere."

"Shall we go, then? Tokyo is waiting." Hajime let out a loud laugh.

"Sure."

It had been a grueling three days—being struck by lightning, fighting confusion with focus and concentration, upholding her position as Tsukasa's older twin sister (although neither of them are actually older nor younger), being physically and mentally prepared for the inevitable, and not to mention getting lessons from life. Today was the day she would put all that she had learned during the past three days to good use. It didn't matter if the date was a failure or success. Safety was still a top priority and also the measure of her happiness. It was now up to Hajime to make her happy throughout the entire day by seeing sights, buying her gifts, and more importantly bringing her home safe and sound back to Saitama.

TO BE CONTINUED