Disclaimer: Whatever I said in the previous chapters!
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Haneda Airport (Better known as Tokyo International Airport).
It was just a few fours before lunch and the day was getting pretty bright. The hustle and bustle of everyday travel showed in the hundreds of people, foreign or otherwise, moving about in the terminals coming and going with the sometimes indiscernible announcement of the PA system guiding them on. Those who weren't going anywhere in particular, like a certain blue-haired girl staring out the window, had a chance to enjoy the spacious terminals all they wanted.
Konata looked somberly out the window at a 747 that was flying off into the distance. Its destination: Vancouver. Onboard: Kirio and his mom.
The farewells were short and simple. They exchanged simple words which pretty much said all that had to be said. Although is wasn't that sad. Both Konata and Kirio knew this wasn't a final good-bye or anything like that. They'll meet again someday, they both knew that. Even so, the moment Kirio went past the plane's door and it closed behind him, Konata felt a little lonely already.
As the 747 disappeared into the distance Konata let out a somber sigh.
"Aww, don't be so sad, Kona-chan," said Tsukasa.
"Yeah, it's not like you won't see him again," said Kagami.
"I'm sure he misses you too," added Miyuki.
"I bet he's thinking about you right now, Onee-chan," said Yutaka.
Konata's somber expression turned into one of exasperation accompanied by a large sweat-drop dropping down the side of her face. Standing behind her were her three best friends and her younger cousin who, despite her protests, managed to tag along on the trip to Haneda Airport along with her, her dad, Kirio, and Mrs. Sato.
"Why are you guys here again?" said Konata in an annoyed tone.
"Well, you know what they say," said Kagami, "the more the merrier."
"That's not always the case, Kagamin."
"Oh, c'mon, don't be like that. We've rarely been to Tokyo so we wanted to come along. Kirio didn't seem to mind our company that much. He was pretty a nice guy actually. And besides, you wouldn't introduce us to him so naturally we wanted to meet him ourselves."
Konata let out an exasperated sigh. "Well, that's because…"
"You wanted to spend as much time with him as you could, right?"
Konata choked. Her friends got a hardy giggle out of her reaction. For some reason Konata felt like not that much as change even though Kirio must've been twenty miles out to sea by that point. Konata let out a softer sigh and turned to meet her friends.
"Well, let's just forget about that, alright?" said Konata, wanting to switch to another subject, "Let's go to where my dad is before he decided to complain to me that we left him alone for too long. You guys must also be hungry by now."
Her three friends and cousin nodded and the four of them shuffled off to where Sōjirō was waiting in a restaurant somewhere in the terminal.
Konata followed suit but took one last glance at the window before she left.
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At a nearby restaurant.
All six of the gang that came to the airport were all there eating their respective orders of lunch. They were all pretty eager to get lunch over with since Sōjirō has agreed to take them a little sightseeing later on. Konata and Sōjirō come to the city Tokyo regularly (for Konata it's usually for Comiket) while the other do so rarely. The last time the Hiiragi sisters came here was during Comiket 71 on Konata's behest.
"So Konata," spoke up Sōjirō, "how are you faring?"
Konata seemed confused for a bit. "What do you mean?"
"I hope you don't feel too lonely now that Kirio's gone."
Konata choked on her Ramen when she heard this and the other girls got a giggle out of it.
"Dad, knock it off!" said Konata. "It's not like I can't contact him. We exchanged e-mail addresses."
"Oh, great. That's gonna give me a harder time to get you to allow me to use the computer."
"By the way," said Kagami. "How did you guys first meet anyway?"
Konata seemed to blush at that. "Well…that's uh…"
"Please tell us, Kona-chan," added Tsukasa. "I've been wondering about that too. Is it a romantic story?"
"Oh, C'mon Tsukasa, get real."
"But I'm sure it's a nice story," said Miyuki. "Maybe you guys met under some interesting circumstances that formed the bond between you two."
"No, we just met!"
"Maybe it's like one of those dōjin Hiyori-chan owns," said Yutaka. "You know, the romantic ones?"
Konata blushed more. "It's nothing like that, you guys."
"Oh just tell us, Konata-chan," said Kagami. "What, are you gonna make us have to guess how you guys met?"
"You can try."
"Oooh, can I try?" enthusiastically said Tsukasa. Maybe it was like…"
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On some rainy day.
A young blue-haired girl was rushing down the road on her way home with her schoolbag held over her head to try and cover herself from the rain. However, the bag did little to help as she continued to get soaked up to her collar. Even more unfortunate for her was the fact that she was on a dirt road and in all directions she could see nothing but grass fields. And then, just when she had given up hope, she saw sanctuary in the form of an old bus stop waiting shed.
She ran towards it and ducked under its meal roof. She dropped her school bag and panted uncontrollably. She took her seat at the wooden bench and doing so made her realize just how soaked she was.
"Aww, man, I can't believe I'm all wet," she fussed to herself. "How am I gonna get home now. It's my turn to cook dinner too. Dad will get mad at me if I don't have dinner ready by the time he gets home. Darn this stupid rain! Why'd you have to start falling now?!"
It wasn't until she stopped panting when she realized that she was not alone in the waiting sed. Seated no more an a few feet away from her was a young boy about her age and who seemed to also just come from school. By the time she realized he was there he had already been looking at her with a slightly amused face. This prompted Konata to blush.
"Oh! Um, didn't see you there!" she blurted out. "Uhh, sorry you had to hear all that."
"It's okay," he replied in a mild-mannered tone. "I feel like that sometimes too."
"Oh, right," she said, scratching the back of her head while still a little embarrassed. "I suppose we all fee that way from time to time."
"That's why I always bring an umbrella with me," he said while raising his hand to show that he did have an umbrella.
"Good idea. Wish I had thought of that too,"
The boy suddenly stood up and opened his umbrella. He turned towards her. "Well, let's go then."
She was taken aback by this. "Wh-what do you mean?"
"We can share my umbrella. Didn't you say you might get in trouble if you're not home early? I feel that we're both headed in the same direction anyway so I might as well help you stay dry as much as you can."
"Wait. How come you were sitting here if you could go home already?"
"Well…" the boy looked out into the grass fields as the rain continued to pour down. He had a peaceful, almost serene, expression on his face. "I love the rain. Watching it helps makes me feel relaxed…It's like the world is purifying itself with the rain."
The girl was speechless. She found herself looking up at this boy in admiration.
He turned to her and smiled at her. "Well, we'd better get going before the rain get heavier."
She nodded and moved next to him so that they were both under the umbrella. Together they came out of the waiting shed and walked down the dirt road side-by-side. As the walked the girl seemed to press herself closer and closer to the boy, who didn't mind. Even though they just met, it was as if they had know each other for their—
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"No!!" exclaimed Konata. "That's not how it happened! I never met Kirio like that! I've never met anybody like that!"
"Well, I guess it is a little outrageous," said Tsukasa who came up with the idea.
"But it still sounded nice though," said Miyuki.
"Wait!" exclaimed Yutaka. "Can I have a guess at how they met too?"
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Nighttime. Behind some alley.
A blue-haired girl was knocked down onto the hard concrete by a bunch of Bōsōzokubikers. There were three of them, their figures illuminated by the headlights of their bikes behind them. They all carried wooden bokken which they rested on their shoulders trying to look intimidating.
The girl started to slowly move back and away from the three men. "Please, leave me alone!"
"You trespassed into out territory ," said the apparent leader of the small group. "You have to pay the price, girl!"
The here men started laughing ominously. The girl started getting more nervous and it showed in her shivering lips and increasingly sweaty brow. The three men started walking towards her when suddenly…
"Leave her alone!"
The voice came from be hind the girl. All four looked towards where the voice came from. There stood a young boy wearing a school uniform and carrying a shinai on one hand. The boy was walking towards the group obviously not intimidated by the bikers and their wooden weapons.
"Picking on a girl," said the boy. "You guys are lower than I thought."
"You stay out of this, kid!" said one of the bikers.
"No way. Somebody has to teach you guys a lesson."
The boy walked passed the downed girl and positioned himself between the girl and the three bikers. He held his bamboo weapon ready and motion with one hand for the three bikers to charge him if they dared. The bikers got mad and obliged.
"You asked for it!" exclaimed the first biker to charge.
The biker held his bokken high and made to swing down but the boy was quicker with a thrust that flattened the biker's nose. The biker took a step back as he screamed fro his broken nose. The boy wasted no time in delivering a finishing swing to the side of the head which knocked the biker into the wall, bringing him down to the floor.
The other two bikers charged in unison thinking that would give them an advantage. They were wrong. The boy ducked as the two bikers swung towards his head. While crouching, the boy quickly jabbed the handle of his shinai at the foot of one of the bikers causing him to yelp in pain then hop back wards on one foot. The boy finished him off with a quick rising slash to the chin as he was getting up. The biker was instantly knocked down to the floor.
The last biker turned around after missing the boy once to try again. The boy quickly spun around and parried the biker's slash away with his shinai. The boy then followed up with a very fast and very powerful 360 degree spinning slash to the stomach of the biker knocking the wind out of him. The biker fell down to his knees.
The boy stood over them victoriously. Behind the boy the blue-haired girl was staring up at him with great admiration.
The three bikers eventually got back up and rushed to their bikes to escape. "You'll pay for this!" one of them exclaimed just as they rode off into the night. The boy let out an exasperating sigh.
He then turned to the girl behind, walked up to her (to which she slightly regressed) and offer out his hand. "Are you okay?"
She slowly nodded her head and soon took his hand. He gently pulled her up. She continued to look up to his face which wore a reassuring smile.
"Thank you," the girl said.
"Well, it the job of the noble hero to save the damsel in distress, isn't it?"
The girl blushed some more and moved closer to the boy. She seemed to sink in his deep eyes. As if her very soul was being whisked away by the soft stares he was giving—
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"Alright, I think that's enough, Yu-chan," said Kagami, stopping Yutaka in her theorized scenario on how Konata and Kirio first met. "I thought that Konata was bad with all her fantasies but you two are even worse."
Tsukasa and Yutaka blushed and rubbed the back of their heads while sweat-dropping.
At one end of the table Konata was sighing exasperatingly. She really wanted to change the subject of their conversations. A second later her bladder started calling to her and she stood up off her seat.
"I have to go to the bathroom," said Konata. "Where is it anyway?"
"It's all the way at the end of the terminal," said Sōjirō.
"Aww, man…I'll be back in a few minutes."
Konata left the table and proceeded out of the restaurant to find the rest room. the rest of the crew continued on with their meals. After a while, when he was sure Konata was far enough away not to hear them, Sōjirō called the attention of the other three girls.
"Hey, do you guys really want to know how those two first met?" he asked.
The four girl sitting around in the table with him suddenly turned their heads up towards him in interest.
"You know how they first met, uncle Sōjirō?" inquired Yutaka.
"Kirio told me the story once but Konata doesn't know that. I feel that I should tell you guys about it. What do you say."
The girls all looked at each other and then nodded their heads towards Sōjirō.
"Well, it was around twelve years ago…"
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On a familiar playground.
A six-year-old Konata Izumi sat alone on one of the swings with a depressed expression on her face. Above her, the sky was not helping the mood. It had just rained, like it usually does in the fall season just before winter hits, and the sky was the dark and gray despite it being around three in the afternoon. It seemed to reflect her mood perfectly. There was no one else in the park which was the main reason she decided to stay there. On her other days, she wouldn't have bothered coming to the play ground. She didn't like playing there anyway. She wanted to be alone.
She went there following an argument she just had with her father. It was a pointless argument about something trivial but somewhere along the line of that argument, Konata's mother Kanata, came up. That led to an emotional roller coaster that neither father nor child was ready for. Eventually, they both dropped it and Konata just opted to take a walk outside to get some air.
She has been like this, ever since her mother passed away about over three years ago. By then, she would've moved on but the loneliness seemed to persist. When in public, she would put on a nice face for the sake of the crowd, pretending she has forgotten. But on somber times like this she can't help but remember and when that happens all she wants is to be alone.
Knowing that she's alone, she thought about her mom, as if trying to keep that memory alive. At such a young age, she barely got to know her all that well aside from the maternal side which Konata misses the most. And while she loved her father dearly, there was still a spot for her mother that just never got filled and that was the source of her loneliness most of the time.
She looked up at the sky and saw the sheer grayness of it. She looked back down to her own feet and let out a long sigh. Before she knew it, she actually started to cry a tiny bit while indulging herself in her memories and brought a single hand up to wipe the tear in her eye.
"Why are you crying?" asked somebody in front of her.
Konata was startled and looked up. She was surprised to find a boy, seven-year-old Kirio Sato, standing in front of her with an inquiring question. Konata wondered how this boy could've snuck up on her.
"Are you hurt or something?" he asked with concern.
"None of your business!" she pouted, than angrily turned her head away.
Kirio was taken aback by this. "Hey, that wasn't very nice of you. I was just asking if something was bothering you, that's all. You were crying after all."
She glared at him. "I wasn't crying!"
"Yes you were."
"No I wasn't."
"Yes you were."
"No I wasn't!"
"Yes you were."
"No I wasn't!!!"
"You are now."
Konata then realized that he was right. In the heat of their argument, she was starting to cry again. She tried to come up with a comeback but her mind drew a blank. So, on the brink of tears and not wanting this boy to see it, Konata quickly got up and off her swing and ran past the boy. Kirio tried to call out to stop her but the inevitable happened before he could say anything
In her haste, Konata forgot that it just rained and the ground was still wet. She slipped on the wet soil and fell with her arms flailing in an almost cartoonish manner onto the stone pathway and scraped her knee in the process. Kirio cringed at the sight of her falling down.
Konata got off her hurt knee and sat on the stone path. She tried to hold it back but eventually the tears flowed out of her eyes and she was crying again.
Kirio sighed exasperatingly and sweat-dropped slightly at the sight of this girl on the pavement. "I was about to say, 'be careful' just then too."
Konata glared at him again. "This is all your fault!!"
Kirio looked back at her with an accusing stare. "What do you mean? You're the one who ran. You even puched me a bit."
"You made me cry first!"
"I thought you said you weren't crying?"
Konata was speechless again and found herself without a comeback at that. She angrily turned her head away instead, trying hide her expression of defeat.
Kirio ignored her obvious contempt towards him and moved closer to her while taking out a handkerchief out of his pocket. He moved down to her scraped knee and proceeded to bandage it. Konata was taken aback by this but didn't do anything to stop the boy. Watching him work actually made her flushed slightly.
"I get scraped a lot myself," said Kirio. "I'm used to doing this. But my mom gets really mad when I keep bringing home all those stained hankies."
"I…I see," said Konata.
Kirio finished off with a tight knot to secure the make-shift bandage in place. "There you go."
He stood up and offered her his hand. Konata was a bit hesitant but took it eventually. Kirio helped her back up to her feet. There was a slightly awkward silence that followed until Konata spoke up. "This doesn't mean I'm no longer mad at you, you know!"
"You still sad?" Kirio asked.
Konata turned away. "Well, not really but…"
Before she could react to it, Kirio closed the gap between them and wrapped her in a light hug. Konata went wide-eyed and blushed beat-red but she didn't do anything to stop it. The hug lasted only a few seconds. Kirio pulled back eventually and Konata just stood there dumbly.
"What was that for?!" she exclaimed with an embarrassed face.
Kirio wore a knowing smile on his face. "My mom once told me that if a person is feeling sad, a hug usually cheers them up again. I haven't tried it before. I guess she was right."
Konata just stood there, scrunching her arms to her side and her legs together with an almost completely flushed face. Kirio smiled to himself since the hug seemed to work. She wasn't crying anymore.
"I was gonna get some ice cream just now," said Kirio. "My mom even gave me extra money in case I wanted more. But you could just come with me and I'll by you a cone."
Konata looked up at him. "Why would you do that for me?"
"To make sure your not sad anymore. Next best thing after a hug is ice cream. That's what I heard anyways. And I don't want to see you crying again too."
Konata looked angry. "I wasn't--!!"
"Please don't start that again."
Konata stopped in the middle of her pouting. Kirio quickly grabbed her hand before she could say anything and pulled her along towards the ice cream vendor he was headed to a moment ago.
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Some years later at Haneda Airport.
An twelve-year-old Konata and a thirteen-year-old Kirio stood somewhere in the terminal waiting for a certain flight to start boarding. Somewhere off to the side, their respective parents were having their own conversation. Both kids had a slightly saddened expression on their faces. Both knew what was going on and both knew what that meant for each of them.
"So, you guys are really leaving, huh?" said Konata.
"We have to," said Kirio. "My mom and I can't miss this opportunity."
"I guess you're right."
"Don't be like that. It makes things harder for me too, you know. And, who knows, me and mom might come back here some time in the future."
"I'm just worried I'm gonna be lonely here once your gone. I've never been that popular with the other kids. Plus I'm going to a new middle-school starting next year."
"Then that only give's you a chance to start anew."
Konata looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"
"It'll give a chance to make a whole new first impression on everybody at that school. You know, chiisai kitsune-chan--"
"I told you to stop calling me that!"
Kirio laughed that protest off much to the annoyance of Konata. "What I'm trying to say is. You can be pretty outgoing if you want to. You can make so many friends of you just let yourself be more expressive."
"But I'm not like other girls. That's what worries me."
"What's so great about the other girls. Compared to someone like, other girls are pretty boring. So what If you're interested in other things? You should be proud of that. It sets you apart, you know."
Konata looked at him weirdly for a moment but a smile eventually formed on her lips. Kirio returned the sentiment.
The flight announcer sounded off the boarding call for a flight. It was the one that they've been waiting for. Kirio's mom, Tomoyo, called for him to pick up is bags and move. Kirio called back with an affirmative remark. He picked up the duffel bag full of his stuff sitting by his lg and stood up Konata followed him as they walked to where he would board the plane.
"What about you?" asked Konata.
"What do you mean?"
"Won't you get lonely in the west?"
"Maybe. Depends on the people at my new school. Hopefully I won't be too lonely there."
Konata grabbed his shoulder to stop him just before he followed his mother into the plane. She pulled his face towards her with her hand. Before Kirio could ask what she was up to, she shot her face up and met her lips with his in a soft kiss. Kirio went wide-eyed and blushed slightly but he didn't do anything to stop it .It lasted only for a second. Kirio simply stood there looking curiously at Konata.
"What was that all about?" he asked, a little flushed.
Konata blushed. "My dad used to tell me that if a boy feels lonely that a kiss on the lips usually makes them feel better…so, you know…just so you won't get lonely."
Kirio couldn't help but giggle slightly and the cute absurdness of it all. Konata just got more embarrassed.
"Thanks," said Kirio. "Now I'm sure I won't get lonely."
Konata looked up at Kirio with a bright smile on her face. "You're welcome then."
They exchanged smiles and farewells until Kirio had to board his plane with his mom. Before disappearing into the plane. Kirio looked back at Konata and gave her a wink. Konata waved him off knowing somewhere in her gut that this won't be the last time they'll see each other.
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Author's Note: I couldn't end this story without tell how they first met so here it is. Well, that was a fun little story to write! Hope you guys liked everything so far. For this chapter I wanted to squeeze in as much fluff without over-saturating it. Plus, I wanted to get in my favorite romantic encounter clichés that are just too common in most animes and mangas. Pls. R&R!
Other Notes: A bokken is a wooden sword resembling a Katana used for practice. A shinai is a bamboo sword used in the sport of kendo.
P.S. Happy Holidays!