Childhood Part IX – Another Day – Start
Tsumugi walks into her classroom, noticing that just a small portion of the students had arrived, the blue-haired girl sighs in relief, she goes to her desk, but as she walks past the other students, all of them glare at her, some with pity, others with jealousy.
Tsumugi sighed, it was always like this.
Sitting down quietly in the back of the class, the girl brought her arms over the desk and rested her head on them.
Closing her eyes, Tsumugi's mind wandered back to the events of the previous day and a small grin forms on her lips. "I wonder…" She whisper wistfully to herself. ' Naegi-san and her friends seemed so nice.' The blue-haired girl turns her head to face the window.
"Ahem." Snapping her head back up, Tsumugi turns around to face a redhead girl. "How's it going, otaku-chan?" She asks with a smirk.
"O-Oh, H-Hotaru-san!" The blue-haired girl says nervously. "I-I'm doing q-quite w-well." She nervously laughs as the other girl gets closer to her desk.
"That's great to hear!" Hotaru smiles as she stops in front of Tsumugi's school bag. "Now let's see here." She crouches down and opens the other girl's bag. "You already know the drill otaku-chan, so-" The redhead lifts a eyebrow as she pulls out the manga that Komaru brought yesterday. "-Hey, hey, hey! I'm pretty sure I threw this thrash away last time." She looks towards Tsumugi, making her freeze in place. "So you bought another one?" Getting up, Hotaru smirks maliciously, before opening the magazine on a random page. "I really don't get what you see on this crap." She glances towards the drawings, before closing the magazine once again. "A classy girl like you should be into more proper stuff don'tcha think?"
"O-Oh, I-I-" The blue-haired girl starts, put it's interrupted when Hotaru passes by her desk and opens the window. "W-Wait!" She cries but it is already too late.
The other girl tosses the magazine out the window, making it fall onto a tree by the backyard of the school.
"Oops!" Hotaru turns around shrugging, before opening a smile as all of the other students present in class turn their heads towards the duo. "It escaped my hand." She walks past Tsumugi's desk and puts her hands on the girl's shoulders. "But I think you can forgive me on that one, can't you otaku-chan?" Hotaru blinks as her grasp on Tsumugi's shoulders get tighter.
Looking down, the blue-haired girl nods weakly. "Y-Yeah." Hotaru let's go of her shoulders and she sits back down, a vacant expression on her face.
"Good girl!" The redhead crouches down again and goes back to looking out for something on the other girl's bag. "Oh, hoho, that's quite a lot!" Pulling out of the bag some amount of money, Hotaru smiles as she gets up. "Oh my! That's a lot more than what you normally bring!" She looks towards the other girl and smiles. "Why is that?"
Tsumugi, not even lifting her head, replies. "M-My Mom gave me that." She grabs onto her own skirt and bites her lip.
"How generous of her!" Hotaru says while turning around. "Well, thanks for the money like always! See ya later otaku-chan!" The girl laughs outloud as she walks away towards her own desk.
Tsumugi let's go of her skirt and looks out of the window. "It's always like this." Sighing, she brings her arms over the desk and rests her head on them once again, but the soft smile from before, now gone. "Just another day." Closing her eyes, she whispers.
The bell signaling the start of lunch break echoes through the school, making most of the students sigh in relief.
One of those was a very hungry Komaru, who was already pulling her bento out of her bag.
"Wait!" Their teacher, Kaori, says before anyone can get out of the room. "Before you all go have your lunch. There's something I forgot to say yesterday."
"What is it?" Chieko asks impatiently.
The blond teacher smiles. "At the party next month, we'll be having a costume contest." She leans against her desk. "So you all better put some real effort into your costumes!"
Komaru's eyes sparkle. "That's so cool!" She looks towards the older woman and asks. "What is the prize if we win?"
The teacher smirks. "A trip to the Fuzumi hot springs!"
The brunette girl blinks. "And what is that?"
Chieko face palms. "It's the hot springs outside of town, you moron!"
"Ah! I remember it now!" Komaru says while scratching the back of her head. "Although I don't have a lot of good memories from there." She whispers to herself.
"Ahem, anyways. That would be all, you're all dismissed!" Kaori says and the students start to head out.
"So, what do we do now?" Hina asks as Komaru slams her bento on the desk.
"What do you mean?" The younger Naegi asks, already opening her lunch.
"Aren't we suppose to look for Shirogane-san?" Chieko reminds and Komaru eyes widen.
"Oh yeah!" She gets up and looks outside the window. "She doesn't seem to be at the courtyard today."
Hina gets up. "We should go look for her." Chieko also getting up.
"Okay!" Grabbing her bento, Komaru points to the door. "Let's go find Shirogane-san and have lunch with her!"
The other two girls giggle at their friend's antics before the three get out of the classroom.
After looking for Tsumugi on the courtyard, they girls tried her class, where they are told that she was by the school's backyard.
Walking towards the back of the school, they find the blue-haired girl looking up a tree.
"Hey Shirogane-san!" Komaru calls, scaring the other girl yet again.
"Ah!" She yells before turning around. "Oh, Naegi-san!" The blue-haired girl smiles for a split second, before frowning. "W-What are you doing here?" She looks to both sides, as if waiting for someone to be hiden somewhere.
The brunette blinks, before pointing to the bento in her hand. "We're going to ask if you would like to eat lunch with us."
This time, Tsumugi is the one to blink. "M-Me?" She asks, pointing to herself.
"Yeah." Komaru replies, before looking towards the tree. "What exactly are you doing back here?"
"O-Oh." The blue-haired girl shakes her head and laughs awkwardly. "N-Nothing!"
Hina eyes her suspiciously, before looking up the tree and squinting her eyes. "Hey!" She calls, getting the attention of the other girls. "Isn't that the manga Komaru bought you yesterday?" The black-haired girl points to one of the branches, where the magazine was stuck.
"You're right!" Chieko exclaims. "But what is it doing there?" She asks before the realization falls in her head. "Wait, don't tell me-"
"I-I threw it there!" Tsumugi interrupts the other girl. "I-I slipped and threw it there!" She scratches the back of her head and laughs suspiciously.
"How do you even-" Komaru starts, but remembers what Makoto told her the day before. "-a-anyways-" She shakes her head, before turning towards the tree. "-let us help you out!"
"Y-You really don't nee-" Before she can say anything, Komaru turns to Chieko and claps her hands.
"Chieko-chan! Do your thing girl!" As the brunette exclaims this, Chieko smirks.
"Heck yeah!" The green-haired girl exclaims while pumping her fist into the air. "It's my time to shine!"
Next thing Tsumugi knew, Chieko had already jumped onto the tree and started climbing it. "W-Wow!" The blue-haired girl says as the younger girl gets to the branch with the magazine.
"Neat ain't it?" Komaru smiles while watching her friend grab the magazine. "Chieko-chan is the more athletic of us three and she just so happens to really like climbing trees!" As the brunette explains, Chieko makes her way down the tree.
"And here you go!" She smiles, handing the magazine back to Tsumugi.
"T-Thank you so much!" The otaku girl grabs the manga and brings it close to her chest, before smiling and bowing. "That's the second time you girls help me out!"
Hina shakes her head. "It's nothing really." She smiles softly. "But what do you say? Want to eat lunch with us?"
Tsumugi stops bowing and her smile disappears from her face. "O-Oh, I don't have any lunch." She holds onto her manga tightly.
Chieko raises a eyebrow. "Really? Not even money to buy something to eat?" As she says that, the older girl flinches, before nodding negatively.
Silence falls as the three younger girls watch the older one tap her feet nervously. That is until Komaru throws her head to the sky and yells. "THAT'S IT!" She looks down towards Tsumugi with a determined expression. "I'm going to be your friend!" The brunette declares while grabbing the hand of a very confused Tsumugi.
"H-Huh?" The blue-haired girl looks towards a smiling Komaru. "W-Wha!?" She looks to the sides again. "W-What do you mean by that!"
"Exactly what it sounds like!" Komaru turns around and closes her eyes, before smiling even more. "From today on, you're my friend!"
"I-Uh-I-" Tsumugi opens and closes her mouth like a koi fish, still not sure of what is happening.
Hina giggles. "Well, I guess she decided to go with the direct approach." She then sighs although a smile appears on the black-haired 's face. "That's Komaru-chan for you!"
"I-I don't know what to say." The blue-haired otaku adjusts her glasses.
"Well, then don't say anything!" Pulling on her hand, Komaru leads them back into the school. "Also, here!" She let's go of the other girl's hand and opens her bento. The brunette pulls out a rice ball and gives it to Tsumugi. "Seeing that you don't have any lunch, you can have some of mine!"
Tsumugi holds onto that rice ball and blinks. "I-" She inadvertently smiles. "T-Thanks!"
"It's nothing!" Komaru smiles. "It's what friends do right?"
The blue-haired otaku opens a large smile and nods. "Uhuh!" She then bites onto the rice ball.
Without any of the girls noticing, Hotaru and her lackeys are watching them from a hallway.
Focusing on a smiling Tsumugi being guided by Komaru back to the courtyard, Hotaru clicks her tongue. "Stupid otaku-chan." She turns around and walks back towards her classroom.
Childhood Part IX – Another Day – End
Well, this time we have a Komaru-centric chapter, well what did you all think of it? Also, don't worry, those chapters where Makoto isn't necessarily present won't happen frequently, but I felt like I needed to build Komaru's and Tsumugi's friendship a little bit before we can finally get her to start interacting with Makoto.
Welp, that is it for now, hope ya'll liked the chapter!
See you around!