Lonely No More
by Cyberchao X

Chapter 17

Disclaimer: You know this already.

CCX: 15 new uploads in the month of June and not one of them is a new chapter of Lonely No More. There's something wrong with that. Here's to making sure my favorite major project doesn't get completely left out, though I'm still kind of past due because the festival itself should be somewhere around the solstice…which was last week.

"Thanks for inviting me to join you for the festival, Ari-san," Kaburagi said. "Being part of a group makes it seem less lonely. You don't…"

Arisa shook her head. "Better for appearances. Hers, not mine." "Also I'm not sure if I'd be able to deal with her fanclub." "I would've thought you had other friends to go with, though."

"It'd be awkward. They all have boyfriends. I'd just drag down the mood. Uh, not that the mood's bad here or anything…"

"Of course it isn't. It's more fun just going to these things with a group of friends! Less…restricting," Suzuka said. Shinamori giggled.

"You really have changed since junior high, haven't you, Tsukimura-san?"

"I don't think so."

"I meant that in a good way. You always seemed kind of shy, but now you're… okay, maybe you're a bit of a flirt, but it's not just the boys that you're more outgoing with."

Arisa and Shinamori sweatdropped. "You have no idea…"

"Aheheh… oh, hey, Miki-chan. Izei-kun."

"Hey, Suzuka-chan. No guy today?" Miki asked teasingly.

"I'm not that much of a flirt, am I?"

"You kind of are. Hey, would it be okay if we joined you guys for a bit? I promise we won't ruin your 'singles' vibe. Too much."

"I dunno; guys might not be as willing to approach if there's a guy in our group already…" Shinamori said.

"Kanna-chan!"

"Come on, it'd be five to one! Please…?"

"I'm just teasing you. That shouldn't be a problem, right?" Everyone agreed.

"Good. Is that okay with you?" she called out behind her.

"Yeah, fine; have fun!"

"Uh…"

"My father. I think he thought he was staying out of sight, but I knew he wouldn't let us get too far away. This way Sakura-chan can at least go wherever she wants without having to worry about allowing him to still be able to spy on me too."

"Your father is kind of overprotective, isn't he?" Suzuka asked.

"…He's very protective of his daughters; yes."

Everyone picked up on the fact that Miki's response didn't exactly match Suzuka's question, but glances from Suzuka and Izei told the others that they shouldn't say anything about it. "You look quite nice today yourself, Miki-san. Very, um…" Suzuka struggled for the right words.

"…Almost actually convincing as my own age? Well, I wouldn't quite go that far, although I do enjoy the fact that my lack of curves isn't as immediately evident when I'm all dressed up like this. I am, after all, still quite short."

"True, but there's more to looking grown-up than just height and shape. You carry yourself in a very mature way, so it's easier to believe the truth when there's, uh, not as much evidence to the contrary. Oh, I think introductions are in order…I think you've both already met Shinamori-san, and have you met Ari-chan?"

"I have," Miki said, "but I'm not sure if Izei has."

"Right. You mentioned that there was someone close to you," Arisa said. "I'm Arisa Bannings, Suzuka's best friend. This is another friend of mine, Kaburagi Kimidori…or should I have said it the other way around?"

"No, you said it fine," Suzuka said. "Just because you have a western last name doesn't mean you have to introduce other people in western order when introducing them at the same time."

"Why not just introduce yourself in Japanese order as well?" Izei asked.

"It just…sounds wrong."

"Well, I'm Kumaya Izei."

"And I'm Ichirei Miki," Miki added, since she hadn't been formally introduced to Kaburagi either. "And in case my discussion with Suzuka-chan didn't make it obvious, I am fifteen."

"That's…good to know…"

"…Maybe this was a mistake. It feels even weirder being the only one with a boyfriend when I look like the little sister that got dragged along. Or…maybe I just put my foot in my mouth."

Arisa laughed. "No, no, you're absolutely right. I do have a girlfriend, but she's not part of our group today. She's, um…she's with her boyfriend. We all decided it was probably better if she went with him than with me."

"I'm…not sure what to say."

"Nobody who knows about our arrangement ever does. Although I'm not sure how many people that is. The whole idea is that at least publicly she appears to be straight…well, aside from her appearance at the school dance."

"Right. You said something about that. She's still in junior high?"

"Yeah, that's the one. At first she was keeping her relationship with me a secret from just about everyone, but eventually she decided to tell her boyfriend the truth. I think we'd both like to have her all to ourselves, but we both know that the other one has something to offer her that we can't, so we have a grudging agreement."

"Suddenly the fact that my girlfriend looks exactly the same now as she did when I first developed a crush on her five years ago doesn't seem like such a huge problem." Miki pulled Izei down to her level and kissed him. "Well, except for the strain that she puts on my neck whenever she wants to kiss me." Miki glared at him.

"Yeah, I…wasn't going to say anything…" Kaburagi said.

"I think we all know what you were thinking. Most people probably do. I'm not really that surprised, because Kuma-kun was your champion all throughout middle school. There…might have been some whispers in third year, but most of us figured that he wasn't really a lolicon, just really into Itty-rei—Ichirei-san." Shinamori looked down at the ground. "Sorry. Force of habit. Suzuka-chan has told me to stop."

"It's… well, you're making an effort. Was it really that obvious?"

"Was what really that obvious?"

"That Izei liked me like that."

"He always stood up for you when people made fun of you. People like me. In first year, it didn't seem so weird, because there were other small girls, too, who also had people standing up for them—and he wasn't alone in sticking up for you, either. But they eventually grew, and you didn't. And he always stood by you. So…yeah, kind of."

"I really feel awful about having remained ignorant of your feelings for so long, Izei-kun. I…wish I would grow up a bit more so I could repay you."

"That's…that's fine, Miki-chan. I'm willing to wait for as long as it takes. Just knowing that you feel the same way about me is enough for now."

"Yeah, I know…but still, I'm not really your 'type', physically…"

"That's not important. I love you for who you are on the inside, not who you are on the outside."

"All the more reason for me to grow up and… um…" She turned red and hurriedly mumbled, "letyouin."

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Oh, hey, I wonder what's with that group of girls… Look to be about my sister's age. Probably nothing, and I don't want to risk being mistaken for one of them, but…damn my natural curiosity."

"No, you're right. It is absolutely nothing of any importance," Arisa said.

"Bannings-san?"

"Hey, is anyone else hungry?" Arisa ran off to get in line at one of the food stands.

"…What was that all about?" Miki asked.

"…Nothing we have to be concerned about, since they don't know us," Suzuka replied. "Actually…maybe it is best if we keep our distance so that it stays that way. I'd love to say hi to Suki-chan, too, but…now isn't the time."

"Suki-chan?" Miki felt as though she'd heard the name before, but couldn't place it. "Wait, isn't that… Bannings-san referred to a 'Suki-tan', but you called her by a different name. A last name, probably. You've grown more familiar with her since last month."

"Yeah…I felt that since we both really care about Ari-chan, we should be more friendly to each other." Suzuka tried not to show her nervousness; Miki was a very bright girl, and Suzuka could only pray that her naïveté extended to other people's relationships as well.

"That's…good to hear. I'm happy for you. Come on, Izei; I'm hungry too." She took Izei's hand and led him in the direction Arisa had went. Suzuka breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, Tsukimura-san…why so nervous when talking about Arisa-san and her girlfriend?" Perhaps relief had come too soon…

"Ah…Bannings-neesan, I mean sempai, I mean –sama, I…oh, no!" A rather flustered young girl who had been carrying far more food than she alone would be able to eat had just dropped some of it. "Uu…maybe Hanna-chan was right. I'm not cut out for this job…"

"Er…do I know you?" Arisa asked, looking confused but thinking "Oh fuck, I tried to avoid her fan club and ended up heading straight towards it!"

"N-no, probab-bly not…I wasn't introduced to you, anyway. I'm Sasukari Reina. Y-you're…Maki-sempai's senior, right? The special one?"

"Rei-san, you're not supposed to run off! Neesan said that you had to make sure we didn't get separated if I went along to help carry the food." A girl who appeared to be even younger ran up to Reina, carrying just as much food, though with considerably more grace. "Is that true, Rei-san? This girl is oneesama's sempai?"

"Y-yeah…" Arisa said hesitantly. "I, uh, I guess I should help you out with that…"

"But you're still on line…"

"Tell me what you need. I'll buy replacements for everything that was dropped. You just…sit down, or something."

"Yeah, Rei-san's kind of a klutz. Can I stick with you? Neesan said I should stay with Rei-san, but if oneesama has faith in you, I'm sure neesan would have faith in you too." She paused. "Although I suppose I'm looking after Rei-san just as much as she's looking after me. I'm the youngest, but I think I'm more reliable than Rei-san. I'm Natsume. Neesan said something about meeting a sempai who was very special to oneesama. I guess that was you. She sounded a little jealous, but that doesn't surprise me. She didn't mention what your name was, though, and it would be weird for me to call you sempai because you're in high school and I'm still in grade school. So, what should I call you?"

"I guess you should call me Bannings-san…"

The grade schooler shook her head. "If you don't give me a given name I'm just going to have to call you Anesan."

"That's…kind of odd. Aren't kids supposed to respect their elders?"

"Yeah, I guess… But you'll still call me 'Natsume-chan', won't you, Bannings-neesama?"

Arisa sweatdropped. "I…guess that works. And I wouldn't know what else to call you, Natsume-chan. You haven't told me your family name."

"Didn't I? Well, I'm sure you'll know it when we bring all this food to Suki-neesama."

"What have I gotten myself into…"

"Hey, Bannings-san! What's with all of the food? And, um…the little people?"

"Who are you calling 'little'? We're the same age, aren't we?" Natsume replied. "And Rei-san is older, so…"

"Chill, Miki-san…" Izei said, trying to hold back his enraged girlfriend. "Picking fights with 10-year-olds is not the way to conduct yourself maturely."

"I will not stand for this! I've had enough of that shit from our classmates!"

"Don't make me pick you up." He leaned down, kissed the back of her head as he held her tightly. "Be the bigger person. She wasn't trying to start a fight."

"B-but…" Miki trailed off. "Could you hold me a little higher up? Yeah, right there…"

"…Nice try."

"My body isn't good enough for you?"

"No, that's just not acceptable public behavior."

"They need all the attention they can get."

"I…really don't think that actually works."

"But you don't know, because you're still too chicken to touch them."

"…Like I said, we're in a public place. And this behavior isn't like you, Miki-san."

"…Yeah, you're right. I thought a public display of affection would show how mature I was, but I'm just being immature again."

"Well, I think there are some public displays that are a bit more socially acceptable," he replied, keeping one arm around her and holding her close as they continued to advance through the food line.

"There you are, Natsume-chan! What took you so long? I was worried that you and Reinan got separated!"

"No, Rei-san just got clumsy and dropped some of the food. But this nice anesan offered to pay to replace it."

"Ane… san…"

"Hello, Himiya-chan."

"See? I told you you knew my family name," Natsume said.

"Sempai! Reina-chan brought back something even better than food!"

"Better than…" Suki paused. "Hi."

"Hey, Suki-chan. Fancy running into you here."

"Yeah. Enjoying the festival?"

"Oh, sure, plenty of fun."

"I wouldn't want to keep you; I'm sure you weren't just here by yourself."

"Uh, yeah, I was actually just hanging out with some friends…I think there are some you haven't met, and… well…"

"They wouldn't really want to hang out with a bunch of junior high students, right?" Katsura finished. "Yeah, you're probably right. I wouldn't want us to keep you from your high school friends. Good seeing you again, Bannings-san."

"Be nice, neesan; one of her friends looked like she was my age."

"She wasn't," Arisa said, and left.

"…What was with that tense atmosphere?" asked the one who had reported on Arisa's presence.

"I think you're imagining things, Mayu-chan. Isn't that right, Hayama-sempai?"

"Why are you asking me, Watagami-chan? Shouldn't you be asking Suki-chan, or maybe Himiya-chan?" Tatsuke replied.

"…You don't know. Forget I said anything."

"Don't know what, Hanna-chan?"

"Nothing."

"Don't know what, Hanna-chan?" Katsura repeated, a bit more forcefully.

"Sempai? Would you like to tell Katsu-chan?"

"…I don't know what you're talking about, Hanna-chan."

Hanna pulled Suki aside. "Last month, my older brother's high school held a dance. Now, he doesn't make this known to anyone outside of our family except his boyfriend, but he's very much gay. But there was a girl who came to pick him up, a girl who I thought looked very familiar, but I couldn't quite figure out why because it was already starting to get dark and I was looking down from a second-story window. But now I think it looked a lot like Bannings-san. Now, maybe my brother was just trying to give off the appearance of having an actual date—it wouldn't be surprising—but it would certainly make the most sense for his 'date' to be a lesbian. Which brings up the question of who her 'real date', Rakusa-san's date, was. Perhaps it was a certain second-year junior high student who refused to answer her phone for practically that entire weekend? I thought Katsu-chan was just being weird when she started freaking out, but you usually only do that when you're with Hayama-sempai, but you wouldn't spend two nights in a row with him, would you?"

"…I think you're being paranoid."

"Tell her. For her sake, tell her that her feelings of jealousy towards Bannings-san aren't unfounded."

"…Jealousy?"

"She loves you. I mean, we all love you, Sempai, but…I don't think it's the same for Katsu-chan. She's my friend, and I see the way she looks at you. She really idolizes you—not the way the rest of us do, but…you know. She should hear this from your mouth, not mine. But if it comes down to it…she will hear it from mine."

"...Your—" Suki had just started to speak when she was interrupted.

"HANNA! Stop monopolizing Suki-neesama!"

"NOT NOW, KATSURA!" Hanna yelled back. "What were you saying, sempai?"

"It's exactly as you said. Arisa told me that when she told your brother the name of the girl that he was to have his boyfriend take to the dance, he got a bit hostile and told her to keep me in line. Your brother really cares about you, Hanna-chan. I don't think he ever wanted you to know this. Ironic that in the end he'd end up being the reason you found out."

"Hayama-sempai knows, right?"

Suki nodded. "Yeah. He and Arisa have agreed to share me."

"Then he's…"

"He's straight, and legitimately my boyfriend. I'm bisexual, not a lesbian. But you and he are the only two people who know—well, the only two that I've outright told. Some of my teammates on the basketball team know, because this all started in the locker rooms. And…I'd rather it stayed a secret."

"I wish I could do that. But…my brother was wrong, because my loyalty was never to you."

Suki's eyes went wide with realization. "…Then why do you want her to know? Wouldn't it be better for you if she wasn't… with me?"

Hanna shook her head. "Is that what you think? That I feel that way towards her? That's not it at all. I care about her more deeply than that, and I want to make her happy."

"And would telling her that I've been keeping my sexuality a secret from her—that it isn't an incompatible orientation that's preventing her feelings from being returned—make her happy?"

"Natsume-chan calls you 'oneesama' too, sempai. She looks up to you the same way we all do."

"…Don't you mean 'the way they all do', Hanna-chan? You just said that your feelings were never for me."

"That's… that's not true. I thought of you as a role model, too. But I was just following Katsu-chan. You're her role model… her idol."

"That's the thing about idols. If you put them on a pedestal, they're bound to fall."

"…Fine. But I'm still going to chew out my brother for trying to keep this from me."

"You think you can do that without him trying to stop you from being a part of our—my—her group?"

"He'd better; it's his fault that I know. Because I'm not going anywhere. Not while Katsu-chan is here."

"Good girl. I admire your tenacity."

CCX: Oh, dear, it took a turn for the dramatic again. This wasn't supposed to be one of those stories.

CC: Gayngst. Kind of unavoidable. Also, most of this month's ridiculous output was in a fandom far more dramatic than this one.

CCX: True. I noticed the same "Eros vs. Agape" theme developing here that I'd had in The Scene, in this case with Suki mistaking Hanna's Agape feelings towards Katsura for Eros, and I remembered seeing some other parallels, too…

CC: It's okay, you can say it. You already revealed that Mrs. Ichirei is dead, although it would be folly to really call her a "parallel" given the way Miki feels about her mother.

CCX: …Point taken.

"So I suppose you weren't able to avoid them…" Miki said, as Arisa rejoined the other girls.

"There's just too many of them, I guess," Arisa replied. "Didn't expect to end up carrying food alongside an actual 10-year-old, though. She seemed nice enough, if a bit annoying. Her sister hates me, though."

"How could anyone hate you?" Suzuka asked.

"I think she can somehow tell that Suki-tan and I aren't just friends."

"Oh? You have a rival now?" Shinamori asked.

"Hardly. I trust Suki-tan; she won't cheat on me with that kitten."

"…Kitten?"

"Never mind."

"Well, I guess I'm actually a little disappointed. After Izei calmed me down, I got to thinking that maybe I'd fit in better alongside some of those younger children."

"Wouldn't that just make it worse?" Shinamori asked. "In a group with only other high schoolers, it would at least merit consideration that you might just be a high schooler who looks younger than she is. In a mixed group, it would be easier for anyone who didn't know you to just assume that you were one of the youngest members of the group—and by extension that Kumaya-san's embrace was that of an older sibling rather than that of a boyfriend, even though you two don't really look like siblings at all."

"…I guess you have a point, Shinamori-san."

"Of course I do. Joining up with us might have been the best thing for you. I was just teasing about the presence of a boy cramping our style, but really, a lone guy with a bunch of girls, the obvious assumption is that one of them is his girlfriend." ("I thought the obvious assumption was that he was the 'gay friend'," Suzuka said, but Shinamori didn't even stop talking long enough to acknowledge this) "and since you're the one who he has his arms wrapped around, that makes you the girlfriend. Whereas if it were just the two of you, well, people try to ignore that which they don't want to see, so unless you two got very affectionate, people would opt to view it as a loving brother taking his cute little sister to see the festival."

"…You really think so?"

Shinamori nodded, and Izei added, "Yeah. I had noticed that people hadn't really been staring at us the way they did at the dance. I guess as long as I keep it subtle, I can keep you close to me here and no one will even think it's weird. I definitely like that."

"Yeah…makes me long for the day when you don't have to worry about being seen with me at all."

"Miki. You know that I'm not ashamed of loving you. Yes, I agree that it would make it easier for us to be seen as a couple in public if you were more physically mature, but like Shinamori-san said earlier, I have always been your champion and I will defend my love for you against anyone who challenges it."

"…Idiot. This is why I always carry an ID with me wherever I go, so that I can always prove my age."

"…Most people would just accuse it of being an obvious fake anyway. No offense…"

"Hey, I have started developing a little."

"I know. It's the first time in a long time that you weren't depressed as hell on measurement day."

"I was hoping you'd noticed for yourself… Anyway, if anyone challenges my ID as fake I'll tell them to wait a week or two and I'll bleed on their head."

"Perhaps 'champion' wasn't the best word. You truly can be so foul at times…but then again, you have every right to be a bit grumpy. And I'll…make everything better." He picked her up.

Normally Miki protested whenever someone did this, but…she just blushed. "…Pervert. I knew you couldn't resist forever."

The others giggled. "I like these people. Jugo-san turning me down might have been the best thing to happen to me in a long time. Yeah, rejection hurt, but…it wasn't so bad."

CCX: Well, good for you, Kaburagi-san. I'm just sorry that my tardiness robbed you of another spotlight chapter for when you asked him out in the first place (which also would've covered Kokuro's date with Kusakabe; he got an even rawer deal than you did) and then Hanna kind of stole this one. The "reference document" is up to two pages now with the addition of three new OCs, though it's not strictly an OC list—the story of Miki's tragic past is in there too. So I forget, is 16 updates in a calendar month a new personal record, or did something like May 2011 beat that out?

CC: Probably just as likely June as May, what with both Yukkuri Story and The Adventures of Team 9 Catering updating. But yeah, I doubt you've—we've—ever been this prolific in a month.

CCX: Well, May and June of last year were my two biggest months for traffic.

CC: Larger fics—The Scarlet Devil was still in progress a little, too—and Touhou's a bigger fandom than Katawa Shoujo. But this is definitely a month to be proud of, and there's still time for more if you want.

CCX: Might do that. Probably more likely to be Chapter 6 of The Scarlet Devil 2 than Chapter 18 of this story, though—all I've really got planned for Chapter 18 so far is Hanna confronting Atsuya.

CC: That's a shame. This largely OC-centric story is actually pretty good for us, I think.

CCX: …You obviously missed the tweet where I previewed Chapter 6 of The Scarlet Devil 2. It's…going to be a bit like Chapter 4 was. For the second time today, it's both CCX and the original CC, signing off!

CC: ...Hold it. Whatever happened to Kaburagi seemingly catching on to Suzuka's true sexuality just before a cutaway?

CCX: I knew there was something I'd forgotten, a reason why I'd wanted to go back to the high schoolers at the end. That's what it was. But in retrospect, it would've broken the flow. Not enough meat to it to warrant its own section. I guess it happened off-screen. So, yeah, Kaburagi knows the truth now. That makes...four-well, seven including the three Aces over in Mid-Childa-who know the truth about Suzuka. And of those seven, four have slept with her.

CC: Four?

CCX: ...Well, maybe only three, but take another look at the end of Chapter 11. It certainly seems to imply that Suzuka and Shinamori have at least some sort of physical relationship, though looking at the beginning of Chapter 12, I don't think they've gone all the way. But, yeah, Suzuka has kind of gotten around.