Genshiken Omake!

Fanfiction round table.

"Well," Harunobu Madarame said dramatically as they all sat around the large central table of the Genshiken club room, "it's time for the 369th 'This week's Kujibiki Unbalance fanfiction discussion' meeting."

Kanji Sasahara blinked in confustion as the younger man offered, "Have we ever had a fanfiction meeting before?"

"Don't sweat the details," Souichiro Tanaka said mildly.

"And what are you and Kugapee doing here?" Saki Kasukabe demanded, her short blonde hair framing her face, "you're employed, aren't you?"

"I had the day off," Mitsunori Kugayama shrugged shyly.

"That's not important," Madarame said, not mentioning he had returned to school recently. "So, what did everyone think of the story?"

Mitsunori Kugayama looked up as he stuttered, "I.. I.. I thought the first short story had Yamada be very out of character."

Sasahara nodded slightly in agreement as he said, "Yeah, I can't see Yamada being that aggressive with Renko."

Kasukabe was looking at them like they were all idiots. "You're seriously discussing this fanfiction you found on the internet?" she asked.

Madarame gave her a imperious smile, "As true fans we need to encourage interest in Kujibiki Unbalance, even it's fanfiction."

"Here," Makoto Kousaka mildly offered as he booted up the laptop computer they had started to store in the club room for games and looked up the site, "you can read it off here."

"Yeah, yeah...," Kasukabe grumbled, reading the story. There was a moment of silence while everyone waited expectantly then she exploded, "It's more anime porn!"

"I knew she was going to say that," Madarame looked amused. He added, "So, do you think Yamada was in character?"

"Hell, no," Kasukabe shot back instantly. She paused for a moment then she added reluctantly, "Though she did get jealous of people hanging around Renko in the desert island episode. That could hint at deeper feelings...."

Kousaka nodded as the blond haired man said, "That's a very good point."

"And how did you know that?" Tanaka asked mildly.

Kasukabe blushed slightly, "Kousaka watches them when I'm over there, sometimes."

Deciding it might be better to get back on topic, Kanako Ohno offered her opinion, "I thought it was... kinda sexy, actually."

"You read it too?" Kasukabe gave her a stunned look. "I thought that just guys were into this kind of stuff."

"That's a common misconception," Tanaka offered in scholarly tones, "while women are mostly in yaoi, there are some into yuri too."

"Though this writer is a guy," Madarame added, undermining Tanaka's point.

"And why aren't you running the meeting?" Kasukabe asked Ohno, noting she was the current president of Genshiken.

"If Madarame wants to, why not?" Ohno shrugged. "If we do a yaoi discussion, I'll run it."

"Ugh," Kasukabe sighed.

Chika Ogiue shook her head, the top-knot in her hair pointing straight up as usual. "There are some girls in the manga club who are into that," she pointed out. Adding her own opinion she sniffed, "It was clearly a 'Plot? What Plot?' fanfiction."

"So, who liked it?" Sasahara asked curiously.

Predictably, Madarama, Tanaka and Sasahara raised their hands. Surprisingly, so did Kousaka and Ohno. "You all liked it?" Kasukabe asked, disappointed.

"It was all right for what it was," Madarame shrugged. He sat back thoughtfully, "So, what did you think of the second part?"

"The Kasumi/Ritsuko conversation?" Sasahara asked. He tilted his head, "It was pretty out of character, don't you think?"

"It's open to interpretation," Tanaka pointed out. "Consider how Kasumi shielded Ritsuko from the darker aspects of being student council president."

Kousaka nodded, "And then there's the manga...."

"But do we consider it canon?" Madarame jumped in. "Yes, it's by the same writer but still!"

"It may not be canon," Ohno said, "but it gives us insights into the character."

"That's fair," Madarame had to concede the point.

"And taking the manga into account, there's a lot of evidence that Kasumi has feelings for Ritsuko," Kousaka said eagerly. He ticked them off on his fingers, "She got very upset when Risa accidently groped Ritsuko, she takes on unpleasant jobs for her, she resents Chihiro because he reminds her of Ritsuko, she tries to kill Chihiro because she 'cannot be in love with a man'...."

"Does that last one count?" Oguie asked. "Could be a vow of chastity or something."

"Not likely," Kousaka laughed, "In a later scene she overheats when she runs into Ritsuko, she can't handle the emotions. Not to mention how blushy she got in their final scene, when Ritsuko offered to be her friend."

"I think it's fair to say Kasumi has feelings for Ritsuko," Madarame nodded.

"Sh... she's a real tsundere," Kugayama nodded eagerly. "She's a... all hard and stuff with others, but she stammers and blushes around Ritsuko."

"But did the fic handle it well?" Madarame asked the group pointedly.

"No," Sasahara said firmly.

"Yes," Ohno answered almost as quickly.

"Ladies first," Madarame offered, nodding to her.

"I think the story handled it the only way it could, looking at the anime series," Ohno said. "Ritsuko had to stay available for Chihiro to still be interested in, if they resolved the love triangle there couldn't be a season three."

"He was following canon, mostly," Madarame nodded thoughtfully. He looked at Sasahara, "Your thoughts?"

"The fan fiction is clearly a seperate world," Sasahara said firmly, "the story would have been better if they paired off Kasumi and Ritsuko." He shook his head, "And tossing in Lisa having a interest in Kasumi? What was up with that?"

"Uhm, I... uh, I read a few of his stories when we talked about doing this meeting," Kugayama looked a bit sheepish, "that writer really has a thing about tying up loose ends."

"So he paired them up just so Kasumi might have someone?" Ohno blinked.

"Pre... pretty much," Kugayama nodded.

"I thought only yaoi writers did that," Oguie shook her head wryly.

"So," Madarame looked around the group curiously, "who liked the second part?"

This time Sasahara did not raise his hand, but surprisingly Kasukabe did. Ohno blinked as she asked her, "You liked it?"

Kasukabe flushed slightly as she admitted, "It always bugged me that they never explained why Kasumi held back against Ritsuko. I liked that he tried to explain why, even if the explaination was kind of perverted."

"Examining things canon does not explain is a primary purpose of fan fiction," Madarame agreed. He looked the group over, "Want to do this again next week?"

Ohno shrugged as everyone looked at her, "Why not?"

End

Notes: According to the Genshiken back ups in the Kuji-un manga, Madarame is back in school taking courses, and Ohno is still president. I've written added chapters where characters from my other stories discuss the story itself, but I thought it might be fun having the Genshiken cast talk about my kuji-un fic. I figured they'd be critical, but kind, considering they did a adult dojin on the series. LOL