Chapter 4 : Effort and Results.
"This is going to be the longest day of my life." Konata said woefully as she met Tsukasa and Kagami in front of their school.
Konata looked relatively more haggard than usual this morning. Without having to ask, Kagami knew Konata had been so excited she couldn't get to sleep. Hoping to catch an early surprise delivery, she had spent the whole night exploring the new areas of her MMORPG. It was a distressing sight.
"Why couldn't this have happened over Golden Week? Do they know what they're putting young otaku's through?"
"I take it nobody has gotten the package yet?" Kagami asked.
"No, but there's plenty of trolls all over 2Chan. Some people are saying they have the package but they can't afford a digital camera to take a picture of it and show everyone. They just might be telling the truth."
"Can't you go to the store and buy the regular edition and see if you won?" Tsukasa asked.
"Good idea. It doesn't come out for another week. No stores have it and there hasn't been a leak."
"This is a very minor inconvenience." Kagami reminded Konata.
"Speaking of which, I've got your new computer assembled. Yutaka helped. I think you'll be happy with it. Yui-neesan will be its police escort."
"Great, I can't wait to see it." Kagami said.
Apparently Yutaka had given the case a custom design. Konata had dropped her old graphics card into it at no extra charge, which was strong enough to run all modern games. Her new card had four gigabytes of memory instead instead of two. At this point it was overkill, but eventually it would come in handy. The processor clocked in at 4.0 gigahertz and possessed six cores. Though that was more than enough to dominate the Hiiragi family, she had still overclocked it. Five gigabytes of RAM in the motherboard meant it would never have problems multitasking. The hard drive the OS rested on was solid state, which would eliminate any bottlenecks, and could hold three hundred gigabytes. The second hard drive was magnetic and could hold a terabyte. If Konata had more money to work with, she would have cooled it with water just to be fancy.
Konata had once heard the phrase everything in moderation, but only once. A Blu-ray burner, modular power supply, and a free HDMI cable were miscellaneous extras. Kagami suspected Konata might have been generous and spent some of her own money on the case just so she could build a raging beast.
"You two wanna hang out later?"
"What, and watch you run around your front yard until you collapse from exhaustion?" Kagami asked.
"Got anything better to do tonight?"
"It is Friday. How about we catch a movie and go glow bowling after we're done studying?"
"Kagamin, you know I can't leave the house this evening. If they take my package back to the warehouse and I try and break in tonight, Yui-neesan is going to have to choose between her family and her profession."
"Fine. I'll come over."
"Me too."
"Great. Time for the gauntlet." Konata said, heading into the school.
The gauntlet, as Konata so eloquently put it, was less challenging than usual. Kagami had to make sure she didn't start daydreaming about how she was going to spend the money if they won. Her impulsive side was tempting, but Kagami chose to ignore it since her logical side said to save it for her very own Kindle. She was over broken spines caused by how aggressively she read and she hated how some covers dug uncomfortably into the space between her thumb and forefinger. Kagami would save the cash and avoid taking a trip into town over the weekend. If she could make it to Monday without spending the money, she would win.
During lunch, she took a few minutes to pull a small folder from her briefcase. Kagami had begun making notes for a few ideas which had occurred to her after completing Tempo. One was original and would probably become the novel she tinkered with, but never finished. In order to be noticed, she was trying to combine two very unlikely genres into a feasible story. There were also a few notes for future fan fics should her previous venture with them prove lucrative. She would need to get around to asking Tamura for sponsorship in a way which conveyed disinterest so as not to embarrass herself.
Eventually the day came to an end. A quick trip home was required. Konata's father was a delicate individual and knowing there were two girls dressed in their sailor uniforms wandering around his house was far too much stimulation for him. This also gave Kagami an hour to study by herself where she could actually retain the facts she memorized. Yui had already dropped their new computer off while they were at school. The black case had a lovely cherry blossom pattern on the left side of the black case and looked as though a handful of them had been blown in the wind. Yutaka had done an excellent job. Yui said that since her family looked after a shrine, it only seemed natural.
Tsukasa found herself captivated by Chime, one of the games Konata had sent them on Kagami's new Steam account. Before heading out, Kagami texted Konata and asked if the grand prize winner had revealed themselves yet since 2Chan was not a place she ever ventured into. Negative. She reluctantly packed up the Kindle and took Tsukasa with her. On the way, she wondered how long this was going to take. It was getting a little late. She should have checked to see when their courier stopped making deliveries.
Her phone vibrated as someone sent her another message when they reached the station in Konata's neighborhood. Tsukasa took hers out as well. They had both been sent a picture by Patricia, who had recently acquired an outfit from Toyosato Elementary. A headband and some golden contacts were all she needed to dress herself up as a startling rendition of Ritsu. In the second picture she sent, she was holding a crowbar in one hand, two fake eyes in the other, and grinning in a rather unsettling manner. Kagami found this so morbidly amusing she didn't bother pointing out that Patricia had used an important particle incorrectly in her message. She asked Patricia to E-Mail her a better copy of that particular photo. Tsukasa didn't get it since she wasn't able to make it very far in the K-On horror stories stored on the Kindle.
When they reached Konata's street, a delivery truck drove past them and stopped at the end of the block. They watched as Konata bolted out of the front door holding a wireless Playstation 3 controller, tripped over herself, and scrambled forward to receive the large package from the bewildered postal worker. Her father came rushing out right behind her and Yutaka walked outside to see what exactly was going on. Konata danced with the package all the way back into her house, stopping once to wave at the Hiiragi twins. Kagami and Tsukasa bowed politely and apologized to the confused gentlemen before heading into Konata's house.
"Sorry to. . ." Kagami began as she took off her shoes.
"Shrine maidens are always welcome in my home! Get in here!" Konata demanded.
Yutaka was getting a camcorder ready in the living room where the box sat like the Ark of the Covenant on top of their coffee table. Konata's father was double checking the label of the package with a perplexed look on his face while Yutaka adjusted lighting and Konata tore through the house in search of scissors. Unable to locate a pair, she emerged from the kitchen with a butcher knife. Tsukasa took a step back.
"I knew you would eventually resort to yandere." Kagami observed.
"I'm gonna take you home, Kagamin."
Konata opened the package very carefully while Yutaka filmed her unboxing ceremony. She delicately pulled back the cardboard flaps and gazed at the contents within. A letter with congratulations written very clearly was the first thing she unveiled. Konata passed out, hitting the floor with a very loud thud. It didn't look like she was faking at all. Kagami had underestimated just how badly she wanted these rare figurines. Everyone gasped, but Yutaka was the first person to react.
"Hold on, I know what to do." Yutaka said as she placed the camera strategically inside their entertainment center.
Yutaka straightened her cousins body out and raised her legs so they were resting on the coffee table. Konata's feet looked positively ridiculous dangling in the air covered by black socks. Her skin was getting a little pale. The camcorder was positioned in such a way it was capturing the entire scene.
"Ojisan, would you please get something sweet and a glass of. . ."
Konata's father already had what was needed. Nobody had seen him move.
"Water." Yutaka finished.
"How very dramatic." Kagami whispered to Tsukasa, who snickered.
"She's so hardcore." Tsukasa replied.
Yutaka tapped at Konata's cheek softly, gently coaxing her back to consciousness. Konata came around sluggishly. Her father and Yutaka carefully helped her sit up straight.
"Where am I? What happened? Why are the Fujibayashi twins hanging out with Kamina?" Konata asked.
"You're seeing things. Konata, it's your cousin. Yutaka Kobayakawa. You're at home. You got so excited that you fainted."
"Whoa!" Konata yelled, jerking forward too sharply.
Her father and Yutaka restrained her so she wouldn't faint again. Konata was looking at a spot in their couch with intense interest.
"What's wrong?" Kagami asked, a little concerned.
Unbeknownst to any of them, Konata saw a distinct image of her mother on the couch. It was fixed, so it didn't move. Yet it was there, more real than anything else had ever been to her. She should have been more alarmed, but she felt at peace. The image of her mother disintegrated right before her eyes and the blurriness of her living room corrected itself. She became aware of how fast her heart was beating and clutched absently at her chest, feeling the warmth of her hand meld with the sudden warmth of her body.
"It's nothing. Wow, what a rush." Konata said.
Konata carefully opened the congratulatory envelope, quite experienced with making containers seem as if they had never been disturbed. Inside was a brief note from the judges explaining why her entry had won. Essentially it had been what they were looking for, which was fairly obvious. A picture of the noticeably more mature band all together at the club was also included.
"Hey, this is interesting. Take a look." Konata said as she handed the image to Kagami.
Kagami was absolutely shocked Kakifly had actually drawn a scene from the story. That hadn't been in the list of goodies the winner would acquire. Each seiyuu and Kakifly himself had signed the back of the image. This would need to be framed. Konata found the check next, which she casually laid to the side. Konata peered inside the envelope to make sure she had gotten everything and then went back to the box.
A copy of the new issue was there. The drama CD featuring a modified version of the story was inside. Konata didn't bother flipping through the magazine and set it next to the contents of the envelope. What she was looking for was at the bottom of the box buried in peanuts. Konata couldn't suppress her giggling as she pulled out a beautiful figure of Azusa Nakano sculpted by Alter. Konata's father read the letter while she continued playing with the box. Kagami looked a bit worried. He was going to find out she had participated in this. Didn't she want to avoid that?
"Hey, this is for that K-On thing! Konata, you actually won first place?! That's amazing!"
"Actually, Kagami wrote a story for me. I put our names on it. She gets the money. I get the figures." Konata explained as she modeled each item for the camera Yutaka was holding so that there would be no doubt that she had won.
"That's what I was hoping to do. It placed third!"
"You wrote something for this contest?" Kagami asked.
"Yeah, I figured Konata would really want those figures, so I gave it my best shot."
"What was your story about?" Tsukasa asked.
"I wanted to go for something totally out there and amazing. I cyberpunked it!"
"How could you possibly cyberpunk K-On?" Kagami asked.
"They have to prove traditional instruments are better than instruments that play themselves in a world set in the not too distant future where auto-tuning has replaced creativity to the point where anyone can make any kind of song sound good and idols have become slaves to their music, existing only as sex symbols." Sojiro explained dramatically.
Kagami and Tsukasa exchanged a look of absolute shock.
"That. . .that actually sounds very interesting." Kagami said, knowing better than to praise him.
"Really?" Sojiro asked, a lecherous grin spreading across his face.
"Otosan, your approach has failed. Don't hunch over when you talk to younger women. Look her directly in the eye. Make her want to talk to you."
Sojiro stood up so straight his back popped.
"Kagami, I would be honored to read your story. Might I persuade you to read mine as well?"
"Sure, why not?" Kagami said reluctantly, sensing the intent Sojiro was doing a poor job of hiding.
"I'll go get it right now! You can read it whenever you like!"
Kagami picked up the magazine and flipped to where her story had been published. The reality of the situation did not dawn upon her until she saw her work towards the end of the issue. It amazed her they had published something like this. Her story did not portray the series in its usual light. If this were an actual episode, most of the audience might revolt. Then again, perhaps she was not giving herself enough credit. This had won. That meant all the other stories failed to impress the judges to the degree her story did. She would need to check that archive this week and take a look at the stories that didn't win, Sojiro's included.
The new chapters of the manga were included. Kagami paged through them while Konata wrapped up her film. New characters were introduced and it made Kagami wish she would have had the gift of foresight. Readers going from the manga to her story would receive quite a jolt. At least the ending had been a happy one. Kagami briefly considered having Ritsu go through a bunch of potential buyers until she finally decided selling the drums was not such a good idea after all. Then she figured it might be nice if Ritsu gave them away for free to a little girl that reminded her of herself. The reunion with Azusa had come out of nowhere, seemingly writing itself as if the story was merely using her as a means to find a way into her world.
Konata set the camera down for a moment. She picked up the envelope with the check inside and presented it to Kagami as if she were handing a katana to a daimyo, using both of her hands to let the envelope lay flat in her palms as she knelt down on her knees. Kagami played along and accepted it eloquently, popping the check out of the envelope before sheathing it and placing it against her side.
"I'm going to go make 2Chan mad after I edit the part where I pass out." Konata announced, retrieving the camera and heading up to her room.
Sojiro intercepted them and thrust a copy of his story right in Kagami's face. She recoiled and accepted it, being very careful not to touch his hands, which was somewhat difficult due to how he was holding the story. Kagami waited until she was in Konata's room to fold it and set it aside for the time being even though she knew Sojiro would prefer she read it right that instant. It did not take Konata long to prepare the video clip and while she did so Kagami entertained herself with the Kindle while she still had a chance and Tsukasa played around with a 3DS.
"I think I'm an internet celebrity." Konata said as she kept refreshing the page to see all the hate she was getting.
"Yeah, you're welcome. By the way, could you go to Kirara's website? I want to see who I went up against."
"I don't think they have updated yet, but I'll look."
"Oh, right. If they had done that, you would have known in advance if we had won or not." Kagami said.
"Wow, it looks like they did. That delivery guy must know somebody important." Konata said.
Konata did some navigating to get to the page that highlighted the top three entries.
"There's yours. There's dad's. And the first loser is. . .N-Oh. Set during the end of the warring states period, the girls put together a humorous musical demonstrating how pointless war is to prevent a devastating conflict between two opposing clans and improve public opinion of those in the performing arts at the time." Konata read.
"Noh. N-Oh. Yikes."
"Wordplay is so much fun."
"That story sounds better than mine."
"Key word. Sounds. I have to admit, this really surprises me. My guess is that they were deliberately looking for something different. In this issue, we get to see the girls going to college. As we both know, that doesn't usually happen. In the magazine, the manga comes before the story. The reader is set up for something new and different, so a zany beach adventure probably wasn't going to cut it."
"I see. That does make sense."
"Exactly. This is the one time outside of a convention that this can happen. It's a good thing. In any case, I think we should definitely do something like this again sometime. What do you say, Kagamin?"
"Maybe. It depends on what it is."
"I'll hold you to that."
X
The meek peasants of their school followed Konata around like she was a queen the following Monday. Kagami wondered why none of them would give her any credit. Perhaps they believed she had not played a vital part in the whole ordeal because they could not imagine her doing so. Or maybe she did indeed look rather scary and difficult to approach, just as Konata had once said. At the same time, she could do without the attention from the otaku's. It was indeed a shame those afflicted with any type of mania were usually less attractive than normal people who invested their time in more productive areas. Wanting attention and then not wanting attention. Kagami grinned in spite of herself. Sometimes being a woman was tough. No wonder people said they were like cats.
Lunch time rolled around and Kagami made her way to Konata's classroom. She was stopped in the hallway along the way by Kuroi, who was holding a copy of the fabled magazine that had seen far too many hands today.
"How much of this is you and how much of this is her?" Kuroi asked, quite interested.
Kagami smirked. Kuroi had been wise enough to notice.
"It was all me."
"I thought so. Did she even write a story for this?"
"Yeah. Do you want to see it?"
Kuroi thought about that for a moment.
"Nah, I think I'll pass. Don't tell her that, though."
"You got it."
Kagami continued on her way to Konata's classroom. A strong sense of déjà vu came over her followed by a feeling of dread in her stomach which erased her hunger. The premonition followed. Konata was waiting for her. Somehow, Kagami was being drawn to her. She had something else in mind. Kagami turned to walk back to her classroom, but she couldn't. What if she was wrong? No, there was no mistaking her intuition. Though she knew better and wished she could sense these things beforehand all the time, she continued forward, if only to protect her sister from whatever Konata was scheming this time.
It looked as though Patricia and Tamura would be joining them for lunch today. Tamura had one of her many sketchbooks with her and the entire group of girls were fawning over what they saw inside. The moment she put one foot inside the classroom Konata's ahoge wiggled and she looked toward the entrance on the right side of the room to see Kagami make her appearance.
"Hello, Kagamin!"
That tone again. Kagami noticed Patty had those fake eyeballs with her and was using them as chime balls. Konata energetically beckoned her to hurry up and come over. Kagami took her time, waving at some people she knew. Konata had almost torn the top half of her desk off by the time Kagami finally took her seat, adjusting her skirt so there were no creases.
"Remember how the other day you said you would help me with contests again and stuff?" Konata asked, quite animated.
She hadn't quite said it like that, but there was no sense in arguing with Konata. Instead, Kagami would tease.
"How has your day been, Tsukasa?" Kagami asked instead.
"I'm doing okay." Tsukasa replied honestly.
"What about you, Miyuki?"
"I am doing rather well. Congratulations on winning the contest."
"Why, thank you. Patricia, how did your American friend do?"
"As I'm sure you know, he didn't even place. I warned him his story may have been a little too extreme." she replied, her accent as noticeable as ever.
"What was it about?"
"Ritsu going nuts."
"Is this the same guy that wrote Waltz?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't tie into that story like I hoped it would. How did you guess?"
"Your cosplay. How old is this guy? Do you know?"
"Nope. He doesn't talk that much about himself."
"Speaking of cosplay, there's something I would like to discuss with you, Kagami!" Konata interjected rather loudly.
"How many times do I have to tell you I do not look like Kyou?" Kagami demanded, finally giving Konata the attention she sought.
"You could never convince me otherwise, but that is besides the point! Have a look at this!"
Konata presented a regular piece of paper to Kagami. It was a picture of her dressed up in the outfit Section Nine wore when they were out in the field. She could tell this was done by Tamura and it appeared to be a relatively quick doodle.
"We were talking about cosplay and everyone began wondering who you could dress up as. Since you aren't interested in portraying Miku Hatsune or Rin from Fate Stay Night, I came up with that concept instead based on your personal taste." Tamura said.
"See? You're not acting like another character. In this outfit, you are your own character! You, Kagami Hiiragi, are a member of Section Nine! If you placed first I think it just might be enough to convince Production I.G. to do a third season!" Konata said.
"Give me a break! My hair is so outside of regulations that it's not even funny." Kagami said.
"People aren't going to be looking at your hair, Kagamin." Konata said with a wink.
"No, I won't do this!"
"But the person who wins the contest will get an autographed poster of Nichijou."
"Konata, you have absolutely no taste in anime." Kagami said with a great degree of finality.
"Shonen Ace is running this contest. You have to have your photos taken professionally. It just so happens Patricia is pretty good with photography and you know what it takes to impress me. Tamura is a Photoshop guru and Miyuki's uncle has a set we can use!" Konata said.
"Where are you going to get this kind of outfit?" Kagami demanded.
"No problem! My brother can help us with that!" Tamura replied.
"If you want money, I'll pay you to do this. Please, Kagamin. I really want that poster and you would look positively gorgeous. Besides, I thought you liked that anime!"
"Do not pull that into this."
"I'll let you get to pick the gun you get to hold." Konata offered.
"Oh, then in that case I'll do it." Kagami said sarcastically.
"Might I recommend the airsoft version of the SCAR-H?" Patricia ventured.
Kagami sighed in defeat. Konata perked up eagerly, knowing she had a strong foothold.
"What do you think, Tsukasa?" Kagami asked.
"I believe it could be really fun." Tsukasa replied.
In the best interest of making as many memories as possible before they finally went their separate ways, her answer was rather obvious. Kagami was a sucker for peer pressure. It did sound fun. However, it was more than a little embarrassing and she believed her father was going to start worrying about her sooner or later if she kept this up. Ritsu's regrets suddenly came to her. Why should she restrain herself? Everyone was looking at her so eagerly except for Tsukasa, who would undoubtedly serve as her support during the shoot.
Kagami made her decision.
"Fine." she said reluctantly.
Real life wasn't that far off. As everyone cheered for her, Kagami felt somewhat relieved as she realized something. As an adult, memories like this would be needed to remind her of what she was capable of. In the midst of stress, debt, and other obligations, moments like this would keep her going and remind her that she was able to do anything when all else seemed lost.
And she had Konata to thank for that.
Though they had their differences, it was indeed a fortunate thing they were friends.
"What are her measurements?" Tamura asked,
"Eighty two, sixty four, eighty six." Konata said a little too loud.
Kagami turned bright red with embarrassment and began to rethink her opinion of Konata. Tamura scribbled down the data. Though they were only centimeters, they still sounded humongous.
"And her weight?"
"One ten before New Year's Break, one fifth-teen afterwards for three weeks." Konata replied quickly.
"That's enough!" Kagami shouted.