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Sunday morning, Kasukabe city.
Tetsuya Shimakage, yawned openly without bothering to cover his mouth. He groggily got up from his bed and scratched an itch on his side. He slept in nothing more than a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. He looked around his small studio apartment which he currently lives in with sleepy eyes. It was a mess. Dirty laundry was strewn all over the floor. There was a small desk at the side of his bed that was topped with scrap paper and the dishes in the sink in his small kitchen was still soaking in oily water. Boy, did he need to clean up.
He yawned again while stretching his arms out to get some blood flowing in his system. He reached out to his desk and grabbed his glasses which were sitting there were he always left it. He got up from bed and mad his way past the bathroom and into the kitchen/dining room reached up into the cupboard and pulled out plastic cup of instant ramen noodles. He set the boiler on and while the water was heating, he decided to do the dishes as well as pick up all the laundry on the floor. When the water was heated he poured it into the ramen cup, resealed it. and proceeded to clean his desk. As he was cleaning his desk his eyes wandered to a small framed picture. It featured a young boy, a small girl and a fairly young woman with a slim figure, posing for a sot in front of a temple. Tetsuya lost himself in the picture for a moment or two.
His phone suddenly rang. Tetsuya moved to the phone planted on his wall in the kitchen are. He picked it up and greeted the caller.
"Onii-chan!!!" replied the caller in a very loud, high-pitched voice. Tetsuya had to pull the receiver away from him in order to save his eardrum. He cautiously put it back to his ear.
"Sayori, how many times do I have to tell you not to so that," he said to the young girl on the other end.
"Why didn't you come home?!" she said with in an upset voice.
"I told you the reason. That Q-ko-chan thing got extended and I had to stay."
"That's not good enough! I wanted you to come home!"
"Oh C'mon Sayori. I'll be home by this Friday like usual."
"But, Onii-chan!..." the girl was interrupted by something and Tetsuya could here a shuffling in the background and a short conversation happen on the other line between the little girl and an older woman. Soon the line was picked up again but this time the person on the other end was different.
"She misses you quite a lot, you know?" said the voice of an older woman.
"Yes, mom," replied Tetsuya, "that part I got."
"And frankly, so do I. We were a little sad when you didn't come home like you usually do. But as long as it was for your job, right?"
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"Don't be sorry. I'm proud of you. Having a job like that at your age."
"Well, college is a bit far off, still."
"But your working on it anyway. And you know me and Sayori support you. Sayori is working hard too. She just got a perfect score on her recent art project. She was really eager to show it to you, you know."
"I'll make sure to check it out when I get there on Friday."
"Okay. Well, we were just calling to check up on you. Guess I should go now. Breakfast is about to burn. Oh, and say goodbye to Sayori too."
A slight shuffling on the other side of the phone. "You'd better come home this weekend!!"
Tetsuya again had to pull the receiver away then slowly brought it back. "Alright, I promise. See you then."
"Okay, Onii-chan. Bye-nii!"
The line was cut. Tetsuya placed the phone back on its cradle with a sigh and a satisfied feeling. He proceeded to eat his ramen noodles.
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A little later.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, Tetsuya walked out of his apartment building and walked south for about 15 minutes. At the end of that walk he was now in front of Studio Peach. He supposed it was lucky that his apartment was so close to his work place that he practically spent no money on daily commutes. His only travel expense was the two way trip he took about once a week to go home to his hometown of Onjuku in the Chiba prefecture. Which was fine by him. His week consisted of four days of voice work. He had Fridays through Sundays off which he usually spent with his family in Onjuku.
Today was an exception. Q-ko-chan was a something that was a bit rushed and only got finished yesterday. That was the reason he couldn't go home to Onjuku that weekend. But now that it was done, all that was left for him to do was pick up his paycheck as usual and try to think of something to do to spend the rest of the day with.
As he walked into the building he greeted the usual people he met. He made his way lazily to the accounting office where they would have his pay ready for him. on the way there he came across a familiar face seated on the couch of the reception area reading a manga.
He continued walking for a few steps. He stopped. He slowly turned around and walked back to in front of the couch.
"What are you doing here?" he asked the person on the couch.
Kagami Hiiragi looked up from her manga and looked up towards Tetsuya. "Oh, it's you."
"I thought they gave you your pay yesterday."
"They did."
His eyes narrowed. "...Then why are you still here?"
Her eyes narrowed. "...Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?"
Tetsuya decided it was too early for an argument and tried to avert his sight. By chance he spotted the title of the manga she was reading. And when he read it, it all became clear. "...She called you back, didn't she?"
Kagami gave a barely noticeable grin. "...Yup."
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Thirty seconds later.
The door to Aoi Omori's office flew open to reveal an irked Tetsuya and an exasperated Kagami behind it. "Omori-san!" exclaimed Tetsuya. "Please explain this to me!"
Aoi calmly looked up from her work not looking surprised in the least. Tetsuya and Kagami had the sneaking suspicion that she was somehow expecting something like this to happen. She flashed them a knowing smile as they both walked into her office. "Oh I see you two are getting along nicely."
"You hired her back didn't you?" asked Tetsuya.
"Yes, I did."
"Why would you hire her back?"
"Why do you keep saying that likes it's a bad thing?" asked Kagami.
Aoi stood up from her desk. "Now, now, Tetsuya-kun. I think you know why I hired Kagami-chan back."
Hearing that, Tetsuya thought: Oh great, she's started calling her on a first name basis. She really is planing to keep her. Kagami thought something in the same vain after hearing her given name with a chan honorific at the end. Well, at least she hasn't called me Kagamin yet, she thought.
"We're still a fairly new studio and on top of that we're not even based in Tokyo like most of the other big studios," continued Aoi. "It's still pretty tough for us to get some regular talents to work for us. I mean, you're working in two productions already. This new one is gonna be your third and it also happens to have the biggest cast of characters we've ever done. We need all the available people we can get for Fairy Tail. And it's more convenient to hire freelancers like Kagami-chan here so I don't have to go through all that paperwork with those talent agencies."
You're just too lazy to do so, thought Tetsuya. "That's not my biggest worry. She hasn't been trained properly. I bet she hasn't even been to a vocational class."
"She has acting experience though."
Kagami chocked a bit and started to whistle innocently at that.
"That's different from voice acting," continued Tetsuya. "You can't just hire someone like tat because they did a good job once."
Aoi simply walked up to Tetsuya and gave him a knowing smile. "Hmmm, really now? I wonder how a certain somebody here would've gotten this job if he hadn't by chance ran into this building for an audition despite having no previous experience."
Tetsuya choked for a moment. He looked like he was about to say something then seemed to pull it back. Aoi gave him a knowing smile as if to say that she was expecting this sort of reaction and that she somehow understood him and his concerns. Kagami was a little perplexed when she saw Tetsuya suddenly go timid and wondered how that stubborn jerk could submit so easily. Then she realized it after thinking back on that brief exchange. Suddenly all those previous illusions she had about him started to fade into doubt.
"Well, I guess you do have a point," continued Aoi. "Actually I already thought of that myself so I hatched a plan that'll turn Kagami-chan into a pro in no time!"
The two of them looked at Aoi curiously. "What plan would that be?" asked Tetsuya.
"I'll be assigning Tetsuya-kun to be Kagami-chan's personal tutor starting today."
There was a long silence in the room as that message slowly sank in.
"WHAT?!" both Tetsuya and Kagami exclaimed.
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Back at the Hiiragi residence.
Tsukasa suddenly tensed up as if a sharp chill just ran up her spine. As a result she dropped the spoon she was using to eat a bowl of cereal with and the utensil clattered loudly on the surface of the table. Miki, who was sitting opposite her youngest daughter, looked up from her newspaper as she heard the clang from the spoon hitting the table.
"Something wrong, Tsukasa?" asked Miki.
The short-haired girl was struggling for words. "Umm...I think Onee-chan just got extremely upset."
"Kagami? How would you know that?"
"Well...Konata-chan told me that sometimes twins have this mental link which allows them to feel what the other twin feels or something like that."
Miki sweat-dropped. "I see...Even so, what would make Kagami that upset?"
"I think onee-chan just got stuck with somebody she didn't like."
Miki sweat-dropped a bit more. "Now, now, Tsukasa. I'm sure she's fine."
"Um, where is onee-chan? When I woke up and checked her room, she wasn't there."
Miki wore a knowing smile on her face. She thought back to earlier this morning.
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A couple hours earlier.
Miki was in the kitchen preparing breakfast while most of the family was still asleep. She was almost always the first to wake up in the morning, especially during the weekends. Part of being the mother, she guessed. After some light stretching as she got up from bed, she was immediately headed for the kitchen to prepare last night's left overs for a quick breakfast.
She was surprised to see, her second-to-the-youngest daughter there standing at the table with a pen and paper. Kagami looked like she was thinking of something to write. That was Miki's first observation. He second observation was that Kagami wasn't exactly dressed for the indoors. She was dressed in her usual outdoor attire consisting of a purple long-sleeved polo shirt, dark red tie, yellow cargo shorts with matching suspenders, and tennis shoes.
Miki wore an amused smile on her face. "Are you planning to run away or something, sweetie?"
Kagami jumped at the sound of her mother's voice, nearly dropping her pen. She turned around with a nervous expression as if she got with her hand in the cookie jar, as the expression goes.
"Um...No, mom, I just...Wanted you guys to know where I'm going."
"And where are you going?"
"Um...I, uh..." Kagami struggled for words. Miki got the general idea of what was going on then and there, the way only a mother could. She let out an exasperated sigh.
"Does this have anything to do with that job you took yesterday?"
Kagami sweated nervously for moment when she realized she had been had. She dropped her head down a bit and replied timidly. "Um, yeah. It does. They actually called me to ask if I wanted to go there again."
"And that's where you're going this early in the morning?"
"Uh...yeah."
"Do you want to go that badly?"
Kagami didn't answer immediately, thinking that the answer was going to be met with stern disapproval from Miki. Miki on the other hand understood her daughter more than Kagami thought. Miki walked up to her daughter and patted her on the shoulders. Kagami looked up to her mother who had an understanding smile.
"Well, well, I guess I can't help it then," said Miki. "Do you at least have enough money for a big lunch? Though you did mention you were dieting."
Kagami was of course caught off-guard. "Wait...M-Mom, are you saying, you--"
"To tell you the truth, sweetie, I've actually never seen you so enthusiastic about something until now. What ever it is you're doing right now, you enjoy it quite a bit, don't you? And the fact that they called you back so quickly, well you must be really good, huh?"
"W-Well, I wouldn't exactly say I'm really good at it...but, I think it's because they're a little short handed."
"Oh, don't worry about that. You just go and have fun."
"Mom, are you sure you're okay with this?"
"I know I can trust you, Kagami. And as your mother, I'll support you in anything you pursue, got it."
Kagami finally relaxed at that point, finally realizing everything was alright. "I got it. Thanks mom."
"Don't mention it. Now get going. You don't want to be late."
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Author's note: I took this chance to fill you guys in more on my OC, Tetsuya. Since he's gonna be a significant character here, might as well expand on him a bit. Also, It seems a reviewer wants to use this story for an audio-book style pod cast. Actually, I got a similar request with my previous LS fic where somebody wanted to turn my fic into a fan-made comic. To those people, I say: Sure, no problem. I have no problem with people using my stories in such projects as long as you guys give my pen name credit for the story.
Other notes: Fairy Tail is an award-winning fantasy shounen manga by Hiro Mashima, who is famously known for his other manga/anime Groove Adventure RAVE. I personally think that Fairy Tail has a lot of anime potential but a studio has yet to pick it up (as far as I know) so I decided to use it for my story.