Disclaimer: I don't own anything, although some of the stuff here is probably in the public domain already.
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Once upon a time, in the deep, deep ocean.
There lived a little mermaid, Kagami Hiiragi. She was famous among her undersea friends because this little mermaid had a fantastic voice. Among her family she was the best singer and frequently scored highest during their underwater karaoke parties. For this her parents were proud of her.
"It's great that our daughter has such fantastic talent," said Tadao.
"Yes, indeed, my dear," said Miki. "I feel she could really go places with that voice of hers."
Kagami's sisters, though they loved her dearly, were even a little envious of her.
"It's kinda unfair that she gets all the talent." said Matsuri.
"Now, now, Matsuri," said Inori. "You can't hold something like that against our sister."
"Besides, onee-chan works really hard," said Tsukasa. "She deserves to have great talent like that."
However, even among her admirers, The little mermaid felt a little lonely and thought that there was something missing in her life. While many didn't know it, the little mermaid had a fascination with the outside world. Though it was forbidden by her people's law to be involved in anything involving the surface dwellers, the little mermaid couldn't stop herself from being curious.
"I have to see the outside world!" she declared to herself.
And one day, she managed to get away from her friends by telling them that she had a stomach ache and that she couldn't join them on their usual after school meetings. Once away from her friends, the little mermaid swam up to the surface as fast as she could. Once she broke the surface, she took in all the wonderful new sights and sounds of the surface world.
The open air felt different yet a bit nice on her skin and the brightness of the open sky was shocking at first but once she got used to it, it was beautiful to her. The songs of the birds sounded funny to her ears. But the most shocking sight to her was when she turned her eyes to the beach a short distance away.
Because when she turned, she saw a handsome prince riding on the back of a white horse. The little mermaid blushed as she stared at the prince while he rode tall across the beach, her heart thumping like mad. She couldn't stop staring at him and she knew she fell in love then and there
It was then that she decided she needed to meet this prince. The little mermaid retreated back into the water. She was determined to find a way that she and that prince could be together. She knew she couldn't live with him as a mermaid. She had to turn into a human. It took a lot of courage but she decided to meet with the old witch of the sea.
So the little mermaid swam to the old witch's layer. There she told the old witch, Misao Kusakabe, about her plight. And the witch told her: "Ho ho, I see. For that request my dear you must pay a high price. If you give me that sweat voice of yours, I will give you legs that will let you be with your dear beloved prince."
"As you wish," said the little mermaid nervously. She knew her voice was her best feature. It would be tragic to have to give it up. But she felt that the prince was worth it. So the old witch granted the mermaid's wish and soon, the little mermaid became a human with legs. As soon as she got her new pair of limbs, the little mermaid went to the beach and began to search for her beloved prince.
She soon spotted the young prince riding on horseback some distance away. She started running towards him with a big smile and attempted to call out to him but forgot for a moment that she didn't have her voice anymore. That little moment of confusion caused her trip her footing and fall down onto the sand in a clumsy moe sort of way. Fortunately for the mermaid the price spotted her and soon went to assist her like the dashing guy he is. Getting off his horse, the prince bent down to assist the mermaid.
"Are you alright," he asked.
The mermaid looked up to find her prince, Tetsuya Shimakage, looking down longingly at her. She couldn't help but blush at the sight of him. She tried to answer his question but soon remembered she had no voice. The prince was confused for a second but soon figured out the problem.
"You...don't have a voice?" asked the prince in a soft voice.
The Mermaid looked away sadly and began to sob. She answered him with a simple nod of her head.
"Well...that sucks!" the prince exclaimed in a clearly annoyed and exasperated tone.
The mermaid's eyebrow popped up in surprise.
"If you don't have a voice, then what's the point?" he said. "I even thought you looked pretty too but if you can't even say anything...nah, this definitely won't work out."
The mermaid's jaw dropped to the sand at her brand new feet. Her eyebrow twitched uncontrollably.
"And here I thought some perfect girl would come along on this beach if I kept riding on a white horse like some idiot with nothing better to do. Fairy tales never work out the way you want them too." He looked at the mute, shocked mermaid. "I mean, you probably went through some crazy magical spell to get this far right? And it turns out I don't have a thing for mute girls. Bad luck huh?"
Veins were popping all over the mermaids temples.
The prince started to turn back to his horse. "Well I guess that's that. See you arou--"
The prince suddenly lost half of his teeth as the mermaid's fist came flying at his face at the speed of sound.
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Back in reality, Friday morning.
Last night's little shower was turned a tropical storm around the late hours of the night. These overnight storms happen every now and then. They last quite shortly, usually just around 12 hours of wind and rain, but they are still intense enough to cause some damage. Due to extensive flooding and damage caused by strong winds the night before, schools and some offices have decided to close for the day. It was a Friday anyway. No one wanted to go in on a Friday
Thankfully though, the skies have cleared and the roads, while still very wet, are at least usable. The skies were still quite cloudy but at least there was only little gray that morning. Looks like the storm has passed.
Back at Tetsuya's apartment, the sun slowly seeped through the one window of the whole abode, down on the sleeping figures of Tetsuya and Kagami. Tetsuya was sprawled across the bed on his back while Kagami was soundly lying on her side on the extra futon provided for her. Because there was no school and it was both their off-days from work, both Tetsuya and Kagami planned to get as much sleep as possible.
It was around 9 am when Kagami started to rouse from her sleep, three hours from her usual wake-up time on a normal school day. She would've slept a bit longer but that weird dream of hers seem to have jogged her mind a bit. Kagami groaned lightly as she groggily started to open her eyes and recovered from that crazy dream. But with the dream already fading from her mind, she decided that she'd just go ahead and greet the new day.
However, the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes were another pair of big angry, but strangely cute eyes.
A beat.
"AHHH!" yelped Kagami in what was the jump start of her young life.
This in turn caused Tetsuya to jump out of bed in a bit of a crazed panic. "What?! What's going on!?"
He sprung out of his sheets and frantically looked around the room expecting to see it either on fire, flooded with water, or both. His apartment was neither and he soon spotted Kagami with her back flat up against the side of his bed. While that was a surprising and curious enough sight, Tetsuya quickly found something much more curious.
Seated on the floor right next to Kagami's recent and hurriedly vacated futon was the figure of a little girl that couldn't no more than eight years old. She wore bright blue denim overalls, a bright red t-shirt under that, and matching bright red tennis shoes with frilly socks. Her long dark brown hair reached down to the small of her back and kept out of her face by a pair of hair clips just above her ears.
Her displeasure was obvious in the way one side of her mouth was puffed up and her eyebrows were scrumped in the middle of her face in a scowl to form a pouting expression along with her crossed arms. In the back of her mind, Kagami thought that the girl looked ridiculously cute like that.
Tetsuya couldn't care less how cute the little girl was at that moment. The only thing her was wondering was how the heck she was sitting in his apartment when she was supposed to be in another prefecture.
Kagami was pretty surprised to see the little girl, but Tetsuya was surprised even more...mainly due to the fact that he knew the little girl.
"Sayori?!" said the dumbfounded Tetsuya. "Wha--how--when did you get here."
The little girl, Sayori, turned her attention from Kagami to her older brother sitting up on the bed and gave her older brother an interrogating look. "Who's this girl, onii-chan?!" she pouted.
Kagami, who had calmed down some, raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Onii-chan?
"Hang on. Answer my question first," said Tetsuya, extruding a bit of brotherly authority.
Sayori stood up off the floor and stomped her foot on the floor angrily. "No! You answer my question first, onii-chan! Who is this girl sleeping next to you?"
"She's not sleeping next to me!"
"She's right next to your bed!"
"That's different! Anyway, you need to tell me how and why you're here."
"No, you first! You tell me who's this girl! What, is she your girlfriend or something?"
Both Tetsuaya and Kagami turned beet red. "No, she's not!" exclaimed Tetsuya.
"But she's sleeping in your place wearing those pajamas I picked out for you last Christmas."
"It's just that...um...the rain and...her clothes got wet and... I said you answer me first, Sayori!"
"Answer me first!"
"I'm the big brother here Sayori, answer me first."
Sayori, clearly upset about how the conversation was going, puffed up both her cheeks in a bigger pout. She then suddenly charged at the bed, past a surprised, sweat-dropping Kagami, and hopped on the bed and placed herself right next to Tetsuya. At that point she began to liberally beat her closed fists lightly but firmly on her brother's head like it was a bongo drum.
"Stop arguing with me!" she exclaimed. "Tell me who that girl is!"
Tetsuya tried desperately, and rather unsuccessfully, to block his sister's blows to his head with his own arms. "Hey, Sayori, cut that out!"
"No I won't! Stupid onii-chan must be punished!"
Sayori quickly grabbed the pillow from the head of the bed and started to pound on Tetsuya with it with a fury only an eight-year-old can make look moe. Now while Tetsuya didn't seem to be enjoying this, Kagami started to snicker as she was watching the scene in front of her.
"Ow! Ow! Sayori!!" exclaimed Tetsuya.
Kagami was now finding it rather hard not to laugh. The little girl was just too cute in the way she tried to beat her brother to death with a pillow and Tetsuya seemed to be completely dominated by this girl. Tetsuya, to his credit, looked rather funny to Kagami for he main reason that he's been lording over her for the past week and generally being that bossy older brother she never had (though Matsuri filled in the role for Kagami). An now here he was at the mercy of some kid half his age.
By then, Sayori had tossed away the pillow to the side and started to wrap her hands around Tetsuya's neck in a chokehold. The surprised Tetsuya repeatedly tapped at the little girl's arms to try and get her to let go.
"Sayori...knock it off!" he said in a strained voice.
"No! Not until onii-chan tells me who that girl is."
"Can't...breath!"
"Tell me!"
As the little girl continued to choke her big brother, Kagami just lost it. She tried to cover her mouth with her hand to be polite but it didn't work to hold back that laughter. Kagami tried to look away but the image stayed and she continued laughing anyway. Kagami's humored breaths didn't go unnoticed as Sayori now turned her attention to Kagami who was laughing at the side of the bed.
"What's so funny?" asked Sayori.
"You know," replied Kagami, "even if you keep asking him, I don't think he'll be able to answer him if you choking him like that."
Sayori was about to offer a rebuttal but then realized that the older girl was right. Tetsuya, unable to speak, raised a hand and pointed to Kagami in a motion that said he agreed with her. Kagami just sat there with a smile plastered on her face.
"She's right, Sayori," said the voice of an older woman.
Kagami was caught off-guard for the second time that morning as she did a double-take towards the other end of the apartment. There stood a tall woman, who looked to be in her late twenties and still had a good figure. She was dressed in a casual attire consisting of white denim jeans and a sleeveless peach colored blouse with brown leather sandals. Her auburn red hair was cut to the length of her chin and parted in the middle showing her forehead.
Upon seeing the presence of an adult, Kagami stood up out of trained politeness. The two siblings on the bed seemed to have calmed a bit but Sayori still looked pretty ticked off.
"You shouldn't tease your brother like that you know," said the woman. "And if you want to know someone's name you should ask for it yourself politely."
The older woman then extended her hand towards Kagami who took it with slight hesitation.
"Hello there," said the older woman. "I'm Hitomi Shimakage. I guess you've met my daughter, Sayori, and especially my son, Tetsuya."
Kagami was taken aback by this a bit. As unlikely a situation as it was, she had just met Tetsuya's immediate family, after waking up at his apartment, with his clothes on, after sleeping next to him. She would've been embarrassed but she was to flabbergasted by everything to think about it. So much so she actually forgot her own name for a second.
"Um, I-I am...uh...Kagami! Um, Kagami Hiiragi...uhmm...nice to meet you."
Sayori giggled a bit at Kagami's expense. "Haha, she's so nervous she almost for got her name."
At that point, Tetsuya took advantage of Sayori's loosened grip, grabbed her, pulled her forward so now she was in front of him with her back to him, and gave her a noogie.
"Hey, stop being rude to her, shrimp!" ordered Tetsuya with more brotherly authority.
While Sayori may have been caught off-guard by Tetsuya's action, Kagami was a little more affected. Without hesitation, Tetsuya jumped to her defense like that when she would've expected him to join in laughing.
Sayori yelped in pain. "Ow, ow, ow! Alright! I won't make fun of onii-chan's girlfriend anymore!"
Tetsuya pressed his knuckle a little harder. "She's not my girlfriend!"
As Sayori continued to cry in pain, and Kagami went on to look as confused as ever, Hitomi had a nice laugh at all their expenses. "My, I guess we picked a wrong time to dropped by."
"Why did you drop by?" asked Tetsuya, letting go of Sayori, much to her relief.
"Sayori missed you when you didn't come home last week because of work. And since we didn't have school today because of last night's rain we decided to visit you here before you left at your usual Saturday morning. Besides, Sayori wanted to see the city. Good thing the roads dried up quickly enough."
Sayori nodded in agreement. "Yeah. But we can see now that the reason you didn't come home last week was because of your stupid girlfr--OW OW OW!" Tetsuya, this time, drilled at both her temples with his knuckles.
Hitomi sweat-dropped at the sight of her two kids. Kagami, while wearing an amused smile on her face, mentally took back what she said to herself the night before. This was the weirdest day of her life.
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Meanwhile, Izumi household.
Sojiro yawned loudly as he walked down the halls of his own home. It was a lazy Friday morning for him it was that time of the week he had to do a few chores. He was making his way to where they stored the dirty laundry when he passed by the living room where his only daughter was seated in front of the TV with her eyes glued to the screen watching an anime.
Sojiro isn't one to be surprised at her daughter's habits of fully concentrating on an anime on TV. Being a fan of manga himself, he couldn't blame all the little idiosycrasies normally attributed to otakus from his daughter. So he learned to live with that as Konata grew up. But he distinctly remembered that she'd been watching this movie for a while now. Actually it's already been two hours.
Then he noticed the DVD case on the floor next to her. Konata had bought the DVD yesterday, talked a little bit about it at dinner, and put it away for the night. This morning, because there was no school, she decided to watch it right after breakfast, which was over two hours ago. Sojiro knew an anime OVA based on a two volume manga, can't be this long, not counting what ever special features were on the DVD.
"You're still watching that?" he asked. "It's not finished yet?"
"Actually, I finished it already," replied Konata. "It's just that right after it said "end" I went back to rewind a few parts."
"Why?"
"Well, you see that black haired girl?" Konata pointed to the screen. Sojiro could a character with long black hair, strange looking, diamond-shaped bunny ears, and wearing a long white kimono that didn't show her feet, mostly because she was floating a few inches off the ground.
"Yeah? What about her?"
"Her voice is strange to me. She doesn't sound like any of the seiyuus I know but at the same time...she sound familiar. I wonder who voiced her. I've been replaying this scene over and over again but I can't figure out who she is."
Sojiro sweat-dropped. "You know, you could just read the credits at the end."
There was a bit of a silence. Eventually, Konata lit up as if a light bulb popped over her head. "That's right! I'll just go watch the credits! Glad I thought of it!"
Sojiro sighed as Konata reached for the fast forward button.
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Author's note: Update was a bit late. Sorry 'bout that. Been rather busy lately with work. Not much to say about this chapter. I guess all that's left is pls. R&R. I'll try to hurry it up a bit with the next chapter.
Other notes: That dream sequence at the start was inspired by a similar joke from the manga Zettai Karen Children.