Nugar
18th January 2005, 02:40 AM
Osaka walks up wearing her school uniform and a coolie hat
with a pair of kitty ears sticking out the top. "Azumanga
fanfics!" she cries.
"This is a series of similarly themed vignettes with little
in the way of continuing plot and no unified title," Chiyo-chan
adds.
"Oooh, oooh, and they're written by Nugar!" Tomo adds,
jumping up and down in excitement.
"Email the author at nugar@tds.net with any comments,"
Sakaki says quietly. "And visit
http://www.livejournal.com/users/nugarwrites/ for updates and
new parts."
"Don't forget, all Azumanga Daioh characters are owned by
Kiyohiko Azuma, Genco, J.C. Staff, and ADV Films. This is
strictly a nonprofit work only," Yomi warns.
"Yukari as she walks by waving her hammer and sickle,
dressed in thick felt boots, a heavy overcoat, and a fur hat,"
says 'In communist Russia, titles say you.'
Sexy.
"Hmm..." Minamo Kurosawa said thoughtfully as she slid
hangers full of clothes along a rack, glancing at each one.
"Oh, my God! Look at that dress!" Yukari said loudly,
drawing Minamo's attention.
She turned to see a full mannequin in a short black dress
directly beneath a store spotlight, which gave in an almost
heaven-sent look. The loose, swirly skirt was long enough to be
decent, but had a slit up one side that would probably give
tantalizing glimpses of thigh as it moved. The top of the skirt
split vertically at the waist into long thick folded trailers of
cloth which criss-crossed several times, overlapping completely
at the waist and lower back, but spacing farther and farther
apart as it continued up. A narrow, diamond shaped gap was left
in the front to frame the belly button, and the final cross was
just below the breasts. Each breast was covered, but a wide vee
of exposed flesh was left between them as the cloth climbed each
side of the neck and fastened in the back.
Minamo knew without a doubt that she'd look gorgeous in it,
and immediately started searching through the racks of clothes
for one just like it. She had just finished searching the third
rack when a startled yell alerted her to a commotion behind her.
Her jaw dropped as she saw Yukari undressing the mannequin
and keeping an irate store clerk away with one foot.
What price beauty?
"Twenty thousand yen?!" Yukari screeched as she waved the
dress in front of the cashier's face. "No way!"
"Aww, I'm sorry," Minamo consoled as she patted the
despondent Yukari on the back. "It was a really pretty dress."
"Yeah," Yukari groused as she turned away from the vacantly
smiling cashier, "but there's no way I can afford that. Unless
you were to buy it and let me borrow it?" She gave her very
bestest friend in the whole world a hopeful smile.
"Sorry, no."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Absolutely not, no way, no how," Minamo said in her most
resolute voice.
"Rats," Yukari said without much force as she balled the
dress up and tossed it over her shoulder. "I'm going to the
electronics store, they've got a huge sale on cheap computers
going on. Are you coming?"
Minamo shook her head. "Sorry, I want to look around here
some more, first."
"Suit yourself," she replied as she casually walked away.
A thought occurred to her as she stepped out the exit into
the mall proper, and she stuck her head back in. "Hey, Minamo,
where do you want to meet back- The dress!" she cried as she saw
her friend rather guiltily paying for it at the cash register.
Which?
"Chiyo-chan, there's something I've been meaning to ask
you," Osaka said one day, more or less at random.
"Okay," Chiyo replied, looking at her friend attentively.
"You're smart, right?"
"Uh, I think so..." she replied.
"So which is it?" Osaka asked intently. "Let's say I'm
writin' in english and I accidentally spell angry 'a-g-r-y'.
Would I say I had accidentally left an 'N' out of the word, or
would I say I accidentally left a 'N' out of the word?"
Chiyo blinked. She'd never thought of that. "I'm not sure,
I mean, maybe we should ask Miss Yukari."
"I did," Osaka replied. "But she hit me with a book and
told me not to poke holes in that ridiculous language."
"Oh. Well, Yomi is pretty good at English, maybe she'd
know."
"I don't know," Yomi admitted when asked.
"It's the same with 'N', 'F', 'S', and 'X'," Osaka added.
"Miss Yukari said to always use 'an' before words that start with
a consonant, and those letters _are_ consonants, but it don'
sound right. I mean, when you pronounce 'N' you pronounce it
'inn', which kinda starts with an 'I', which is a vowel."
"How do you know that?" Yomi asked in bewilderment. "You
don't know anything!"
"I don't know whether or not to use 'an' before 'N'," Osaka
replied reasonably.
The three contemplated that for a moment.
"Oh, well, I'm failing English anyway," Osaka said sadly,
and walked away.
Generous of her.
Yomi smiled faintly while she pulled out books and papers
from her bag, ignoring the usual murmur of voices and activity
from the students around her. Selecting a small folder of papers,
she left to join her friends where they clustered around Osaka's
desk watching her attempt to solve a Rubik's cube.
"Hey, Tomo, I know you're gonna ask, so I might as well get
it over with," Yomi said with an air of resignation. "Here's my
homework," she said unnecessarily as she pushed the folder of
papers into Tomo's hands.
Osaka shook the cube in frustration as she twisted, each
side a jumbled mass of colors.
"Yay!" Tomo cried gladly as she immediately flipped it open
and started reading the parts she hadn't done from the night
before. This was, of course, all of them. She didn't get more
than a few paragraphs into it before she noticed something was
amiss. "Hey, this is typed!"
Yomi yawned. "Oh, oh, yeah. I did it on my new computer
last night."
Tomo gasped as everyone turned to stare in envy at Yomi.
"A new... computer?"
Everyone oohed, except Osaka, who had begun the delicate
task of the alternate solution to the Rubik's puzzle, which was
to take all the stickers off and paste them back on.
And your little homework, too.
"Yeah, my parents bought it for me to help me prepare for
college," Yomi said smugly. "It's a really good study aid, and
there's so many other things you can do with it I'm surprised
none of your parents have bought one."
"Mine did!" Chiyo replied brightly. "Right after I took
that computer class!"
Osaka smiled in triumph as she finished putting all the
stickers back on another side. Only two black, stickerless sides
were left.
"You suck~ and your homework too!" Tomo cried as she bashed
Yomi in the face with the folder full of homework.
Yomi hit the floor in a dazed heap, her glasses askew and
the folder on top of her head.
"And I'm not talking to you any more," Tomo added as she
stalked away, full of wounded prided.
Yomi put a hand up to her face and straightened her glasses
as everyone, except Osaka, who was putting on the last sticker,
gaped.
Tomo returned and plucked the folder of homework off of
Yomi's head. "I'll just be taking that."
"All finished!" Osaka exclaimed, dropping the cube into
Chiyo's startled hands.
Intel inside.
"Hey, guess who's parents just bought them a new computer
so they could turn out homework just as good as Yomi's!" Tomo
yelled as she burst into the room of first period.
"Oooh," came the collective sigh from her friends, except
Osaka, who pointed at Kaorin and said, "Kaorin's did!"
Kaorin nodded happily.
"Wow, what did they get you?" Chiyo asked.
"A computer," Tomo said smugly.
"No, I mean, what processor and speed? Pentium four, 2.8?
AMD 3200 plus?" Chiyo clarified, looking up at Tomo.
"It came with a CD full of cute animal pictures," Tomo
added smugly.
"!" said Sakaki.
Splorch.
"Hey, Yomi, can I look at your homework?" Tomo asked.
"What? What about that big speech you made about being
able to turn out homework just as good as mine with your new
computer?" Yomi asked in disbelief.
"Ah hah, I uh, I also got a copy of Counterstrike last
night and I was so busy playing it I forgot to do my homework,"
Tomo said sheepishly. "I got fragged so many times by this guy
with a rocket launcher...."
"Hmm," Yomi said, her smile growing as a thought played out
in her head of Tomo walking along with a plasma rifle, oblivious
as she snuck up behind her with a BFG.
SPLORCH.
"What server do you play on?" Yomi asked as Tomo was about
to walk away with her homework.
German?
Chiyo and Sakaki ate lunch quietly as they watched Tomo's
attempts to steal a fish pastry from Yomi. Osaka wasn't eating,
however, as she toyed with a hiragana letter cutout.
"Come on, Yomi, it's not like you need three with your
weight problem!" Tomo said as she made another aborted snatch
attempt at an orange colored fishy treat. "You know I love the
orange ones!"
"Hey," Osaka said suddenly, apparently having reached a
decision. "Do you think the word 'stencil' is german?"
"What?" Tomo asked.
"I don't know," Chiyo answered. "Why?"
"Wouldn't it make sense, though?" Osaka reasoned. "Think
about how it sounds. Stencil. Sten-cil. Kinda like Hansel.
Ooh!" she exclaimed. "Wouldn't that make a cute fairytale?
Hansel and Stencil, the story of a young boy and a stencil, lost
while painting signs to a witch's bakery in the woods!"
Sakaki tried to imagine that, but failed.
"Uh, I guess that makes sense," Yomi admitted, turning away
from Tomo and leaving her plate unguarded. If you put it that
way, she thought.
Tomo used the opportunity to snatch the orange tanyaki and
cram it in her mouth, chewing ferociously before she swallowed.
Almost immediately, though, she began frothing at the mouth and
flapping her hands.
"Tomo!" Chiyo yelled.
"Oh, you got it," Yomi said, a smug little smile on her
face. "What's wrong, Tomo? I thought you loved habanera
tanyakis?"
Tomo could only gulp water in reply.
"Oh, I get it now," Osaka said in awe. "So that's why you
love spicy food."
"Hansel and... Stencil...." Sakaki said quietly,
shuddering.
Pwned.
Yomi stalked into class with a tight frown on her face,
pushing rudely past people in her way.
"Whoa, what's wrong with Yomi?" Kagura asked aloud, having
been brushed just a few moments previous.
"I don't know, but she sure looks mad!" Chiyo replied as
she hung back a safe distance.
"I know!" Tomo cried happily as she jumped in. I know why
she's so upset! She's mad cause I 0wn3d her last night!"
"What?" Kagura asked.
"Huh? What's that mean?" Osaka added.
Tomo did a little happy dance. "It means she's not a l33t
h4xx0r like me, and I wasted her like the n00b she is last night
in Cstrike!" she exclaimed, shortly before Yomi decked her.
Too short.
Yukari whistled a happy little song as she entered the
school copy room, glad that it was finally payday again. She
needed some folders to organize the tests she'd just inflicted on
her class, and there they were, sitting in a box on a shelf right
above one of the big copy machines.
She frowned slightly, realizing that they were probably out
of reach from someone of her stature. One of the tall office
workers must have inconsiderately placed them there. Sure enough,
even leaning over the copy machine and stretching on her tiptoes
left her fingers a couple of inches too short to reach the box.
The copy machine lid creaked alarmingly when she leaned on
it, and it had several plastic bits it used to feed papers in
through the top that looked breakable. Yukari quickly hit upon
the idea of lifting the top and using the broad, strong glass as
a platform to allow her access to the folders.
It took some grunting and hitching up her skirt, but she
was able to climb up and sit sideways on the top while she took
out several empty folders from the half-empty box. That done,
she rolled and spun to the side, accidentally mashing the control
panel with her thigh, so she was able to slide down to the floor.
Folders in hand, Yukari smoothed her skirt down and strode out
the door happily, never noticing the copy machine start spitting
out copy after copy into its tray.
Embossed.
"Touga, I need you to run an errand for me," the school
secretary said.
Touga, who was actually a student but had been selected to
act as an office assistant on some days, quickly stopped
straightening the folders in a filing cabinet drawer and gave the
secretary his full attention. "Yes, Ma'am, what is it?"
She smiled at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I seem
to have left some embossed letterhead in a copy machine down in
the copy room. Could you get it for me?"
"Yes, Ma'am," he replied, and hurried away to get it.
Official memorandum.
Touga whistled happily as he strolled into the copy room,
happy that today was a Friday and that tomorrow was going to be a
short day. As he'd been told, the embossed letterhead was lying
on top of one of the copy machines, strangely open, and the
letterhead was skewed out of place.
The machine was running when he came up to it, too, and
produced one final piece of paper into the tray as he picked the
letterhead off the glass.
His mission accomplished, he picked one of the copies from
the tray and looked at it. At first it didn't make any sense to
him, being too alien to what he would normally expect to find in
the faculty copy room, but then, suddenly, it made sense.
The top of the school letterhead could be seen across one
side, having been pushed out of place, but not out of the picture
all together. A little left of center was a picture of Hello
Kitty in coveralls, a pail and shovel at his feet, holding a sign
that said 'Tuesday'. A faint crease could be made out running
down the center of the picture, and lines came in from each side,
getting to within about an inch and a half from each other.
Touga could make out that it was panties, now, and he could see
how a fold of what must have been skirt covered one corner, and a
little bit of skin had overlapped the hemline on one side of the
part of the panties that covered up what must have been....
Touga blushed bright red, but grinned widely. He didn't
know teachers would do things like this. It was his duty, nay,
his trust as an office assistant to make sure that others saw
this.
Let me see!
"What are they looking at?" Kagura asked idly, not
directing the question at anyone in particular. In the lunchtime
lull before the afternoon classes started, a large group of boys
had gathered around one table in the lunchroom, all focusing
intently on something as they spoke in a mixture of awe and
laughter. After a few moments they split up, each going back to
his own seat with a folded piece of paper in hand.
Tomo, her curiosity aroused, deliberately stepped in front
of one who was staring at the piece of paper with a faint blush
on his cheeks. He was moving slowly, so the resulting collision
was a gentle one.
"What, excuse me?" he said as he straightened his glasses,
surprised.
"Yuzuki, right?" Tomo asked brightly.
"Uh, yeah-"
Tomo snatched the paper from his hand while he spluttered,
walking away without a second glance as she studied the paper.
Her jaw dropped in shock.
"Here you go... there's enough for everyone...." said one
boy in a sing song voice as he breezed through and dropped a
short stack of copies in front of Yomi.
Shock and awe.
"I can't believe those boys," Yomi murmured, blushing.
"Heh, Tuesday," Osaka said, grinning.
Chiyo blushed and turned hers over.
Sakaki stared impassively at the picture. Those are cute,
she thought.
"You perverts!" Tomo cried, shaking her fist at Yuzuki, who
was refusing offers of new copies and was sitting primly in his
desk.
Kagura laughed. "Wow, someone had some guts!"
Drawn by the action, Kaorin came by and picked up a copy.
"Hello Kitty?" she said out loud. These kind of look like the
ones Miss Sakaki was wearing, she thought, glancing at the tall
girl.
Sakaki continued to stare at the panties expressionlessly.
She didn't know they made any with days of the week on them.
One girl's trash.
"I can't believe those boys were passing these out!" Yomi
says, scandalized, looking at her copy as they all walked down
the hall to their next class.
"Yeah," Kagura added. "Who ever did this must have been
pretty bold!"
"I wonder which teacher it was?" Osaka asked.
"What? You think it was a teacher?" Chiyo asked.
"Yeah, look at the letterhead, it's for this school. See
the date?"
"Friday the 23rd," Tomo said. "That's today!"
"Tuesday panties," Osaka said, grinning.
"This must have been done on the copy machine in the
teacher's lounge," Yomi reasoned.
"That's really, really bold!" Kagura exclaimed.
"I wonder how it got all over the school?" Chiyo asked.
"Doesn't matter, it's filth and it should be thrown away,"
Yomi declared.
They all nodded and threw them into the garbage can, then
walked away.
A few minutes later, when they were out of sight, Kaorin scuttled
back and fished hers out, tucking it carefully in her folder
before hurrying to keep up with the others.
Focus.
Minamo Kurosawa paced irritably before her chalkboard,
preparing for a brief lecture on the hazards of leg cramps and
wishing the day was over. She had a sneaking suspicion she was
coming down sick, and was ready to simply do her job and go home.
As soon as she turned to the class, however, she saw a boy
handing a piece of paper to another boy, who noticed her
attention and hastily stuffed it in his shirt.
She sighed and coughed as she walked to him. "Now boys,
you know I don't allow note passing in class. Hand it over."
He blushed furiously, but made no move to give it up.
"Now," she said firmly, controlling her urge to raise her
voice.
Resigning himself to his fate, he reluctantly pulled it out,
folded, and handed it to her, the paper tearing slightly as it
was pulled from between his clenched fingers.
Minamo looked at it evenly, one eyebrow rising slightly.
"So, who is this?"
"Umm, we think it's a teacher," he said helplessly.
"I see. Why?"
"Umm, the stationary, ma'am."
"Ah." Minamo digested this in silence for a moment, then,
improbably, her eyebrow rose higher. "You were looking at the
stationary?"
Not what it looks like.
Yukari looked up to see the principal striding towards her
purposefully.
"Excuse me, Miss Yukari, do you know anything about this?"
He handed her a confiscated copy of the printout.
Yukari instantly recognized her own very characteristic
panties, and panicked as she felt the fear and embarrassment
creep up in her throat. "It's not what it looks like! I haven't
worn those in years, but my laundromat has been closed for a week
and I haven't had a chance to make it to another one! They were
my last pair!"
Yukari paused, as the principal stared in shock.
"What!" she exclaimed. "Wait a minute, how'd you get
that?!"
"!" replied the principal.
Need to pick up something.
At the end of the day, the group of friends strolled out
the front gate together, laughing easily over the day's events.
"Man, I still can't get over that picture," Kagura said
mildly, watching Kaorin jog into the distance. "And I wonder
what her hurry is?"
"Who knew there was a teacher at this school as crazy as I
am?" Tomo said with a chuckle.
"I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"Who? No one could be as wild as I am!" Tomo insisted.
"Yukari."
"Yukari."
"Yukari."
"Yukari."
"Yukari."
Yukari, Sakaki thought.
Chiyo waved goodbye as their group splintered as people
took different routes home, leaving her walking with Sakaki,
whose home lay on much the same route she took. "Well, looks
like we're walking home together again," she said brightly.
Sakaki was a quiet, yet comforting presence. She'd make a great
teacher or social worker, but Chiyo had never figured out a good
way of telling her that.
"I'm afraid not today, Chiyo-chan" Sakaki said quietly,
with regret in her voice.
"Oh?" Chiyo replied. "Where are you going?"
Sakaki looked pensively into the distance, her face framed
perfectly by the fading sun when viewed from Chiyo's angle. "I
have some... errands... to run."
"Really?"
"Shopping...."
"Oh, well, okay! Have fun, Miss Sakaki!"
"See you in the morning, Chiyo-chan," Sakaki said as she
broke into a run, visions of cute kitties holding days of the
week signs in her head.
The project.
"I'm home, Mom," Kaorin called as she entered her parent's
apartment. "I'll be in my room doing homework!"
"Study hard!" her mom called back as she disappeared into
her room, closing the door behind her.
Her bed was small, with a dark red comforter. A single
plush turtle sat on a corner shelf above the head. A large
rainbow colored rug lay on the floor. There were a number of
pictures hanging on the wall, mostly her family, and one good
class picture from her first year in high school. Her brand new
computer was on a desk up against the wall beside the door. Her
old full-length mirror, which used to hang on the wall opposite,
had now been moved so that it couldn't reflect the monitor screen
at anyone standing in the doorway. And bit by bit, thanks to the
scanner she'd talked her parents into buying along with the
computer, her secret project was being converted into a smaller,
more easily hidden, and certainly pgp encrypted, digital format.
This latest one, though, this latest acquisition was going
to be one of the centerpieces.
Kaorin pulled the salvaged photocopy out of the folder,
arranged another sheet of homework on top, and set about scanning
it into the computer. That done, she opened the file up in an
editing program, removed the letterhead from the side, and added
two sentences in a faint, nearly transparent layer across the top,
where it wouldn't distract from the picture.
'I've seen her panties in the locker room on several
occasions. She always wears cute ones.'
Kaorin sat back and stared critically at the image. A few
tweaks to the transparency and a color change and she was happy.
As a stand alone picture, it wasn't much. But....
Her computer groaned under the strain, taking several
minutes to process her command as she opened up her main project
file. It had taken three intense nights of scanning and tweaking
to get everything in it, and she was still hesitant to begin the
final composition. One copy and paste later, and the picture was
with its brethren.
Still life pencil drawings of running shoes. Pics of
Sakaki running. Pics of Sakaki sitting at her school desk,
staring out the window. A haunting watercolor of an empty school
desk in front of a window, the sun streaming in from the outside.
Pics of Sakaki in different clothes. Pics of Sakaki, for lack of
a better word, looking cool. One rather out of place picture of
an ice cube, which Kaorin had had a mind to delete for a while,
but had yet to do it.
A smile grew on Kaorin's serious face as she stared at the
many facets of Sakaki.
"Hmmm, facets," Kaorin said out loud. "I need a good
picture of a diamond."
The internet.
Tomo clicked aimlessly about on her computer. Yomi wasn't
responding to email or IM's. She wasn't on any of the
Counterstrike servers they had used the night before, either.
Tomo had played for a while, but it just wasn't the same. Now,
despite the wondrous things available to do on a computer, things
she had elaborated on in great detail to her parents, she was
bored.
Google jp stared back at her mockingly.
She slumped in her chair, one finger randomly tapping keys,
then deleting them from the search box. Almost without her
control, the finger hit an 'L'. Then a 'U'. Then a 'T', but
accidentally hit the delete key early. The next letter was a 'P'.
Then an 'I'.
Tomo stared at the screen for a moment, the almost word
slowly registering on her optic nerve. Then, firmly, she added
an 'N'.
*click*
Immediately, a page full of Lupin related links popped up.
Tomo considered those for a moment, scanning for one that looked
the most interesting. Official website, nah. Voice actor bios,
nah. Picture gallery, now that looked interesting. Lupin
hentai....
"That's interesting." Tomo stared at the last one
impassively.
*click*
*click*
*click*
*click*
A few more clicks later, Tomo went back to Google to
redefine her search parameters.
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with a pair of kitty ears sticking out the top. "Azumanga
fanfics!" she cries.
"This is a series of similarly themed vignettes with little
in the way of continuing plot and no unified title," Chiyo-chan
adds.
"Oooh, oooh, and they're written by Nugar!" Tomo adds,
jumping up and down in excitement.
"Email the author at nugar@tds.net with any comments,"
Sakaki says quietly. "And visit
http://www.livejournal.com/users/nugarwrites/ for updates and
new parts."
"Don't forget, all Azumanga Daioh characters are owned by
Kiyohiko Azuma, Genco, J.C. Staff, and ADV Films. This is
strictly a nonprofit work only," Yomi warns.
"Yukari as she walks by waving her hammer and sickle,
dressed in thick felt boots, a heavy overcoat, and a fur hat,"
says 'In communist Russia, titles say you.'
Sexy.
"Hmm..." Minamo Kurosawa said thoughtfully as she slid
hangers full of clothes along a rack, glancing at each one.
"Oh, my God! Look at that dress!" Yukari said loudly,
drawing Minamo's attention.
She turned to see a full mannequin in a short black dress
directly beneath a store spotlight, which gave in an almost
heaven-sent look. The loose, swirly skirt was long enough to be
decent, but had a slit up one side that would probably give
tantalizing glimpses of thigh as it moved. The top of the skirt
split vertically at the waist into long thick folded trailers of
cloth which criss-crossed several times, overlapping completely
at the waist and lower back, but spacing farther and farther
apart as it continued up. A narrow, diamond shaped gap was left
in the front to frame the belly button, and the final cross was
just below the breasts. Each breast was covered, but a wide vee
of exposed flesh was left between them as the cloth climbed each
side of the neck and fastened in the back.
Minamo knew without a doubt that she'd look gorgeous in it,
and immediately started searching through the racks of clothes
for one just like it. She had just finished searching the third
rack when a startled yell alerted her to a commotion behind her.
Her jaw dropped as she saw Yukari undressing the mannequin
and keeping an irate store clerk away with one foot.
What price beauty?
"Twenty thousand yen?!" Yukari screeched as she waved the
dress in front of the cashier's face. "No way!"
"Aww, I'm sorry," Minamo consoled as she patted the
despondent Yukari on the back. "It was a really pretty dress."
"Yeah," Yukari groused as she turned away from the vacantly
smiling cashier, "but there's no way I can afford that. Unless
you were to buy it and let me borrow it?" She gave her very
bestest friend in the whole world a hopeful smile.
"Sorry, no."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Absolutely not, no way, no how," Minamo said in her most
resolute voice.
"Rats," Yukari said without much force as she balled the
dress up and tossed it over her shoulder. "I'm going to the
electronics store, they've got a huge sale on cheap computers
going on. Are you coming?"
Minamo shook her head. "Sorry, I want to look around here
some more, first."
"Suit yourself," she replied as she casually walked away.
A thought occurred to her as she stepped out the exit into
the mall proper, and she stuck her head back in. "Hey, Minamo,
where do you want to meet back- The dress!" she cried as she saw
her friend rather guiltily paying for it at the cash register.
Which?
"Chiyo-chan, there's something I've been meaning to ask
you," Osaka said one day, more or less at random.
"Okay," Chiyo replied, looking at her friend attentively.
"You're smart, right?"
"Uh, I think so..." she replied.
"So which is it?" Osaka asked intently. "Let's say I'm
writin' in english and I accidentally spell angry 'a-g-r-y'.
Would I say I had accidentally left an 'N' out of the word, or
would I say I accidentally left a 'N' out of the word?"
Chiyo blinked. She'd never thought of that. "I'm not sure,
I mean, maybe we should ask Miss Yukari."
"I did," Osaka replied. "But she hit me with a book and
told me not to poke holes in that ridiculous language."
"Oh. Well, Yomi is pretty good at English, maybe she'd
know."
"I don't know," Yomi admitted when asked.
"It's the same with 'N', 'F', 'S', and 'X'," Osaka added.
"Miss Yukari said to always use 'an' before words that start with
a consonant, and those letters _are_ consonants, but it don'
sound right. I mean, when you pronounce 'N' you pronounce it
'inn', which kinda starts with an 'I', which is a vowel."
"How do you know that?" Yomi asked in bewilderment. "You
don't know anything!"
"I don't know whether or not to use 'an' before 'N'," Osaka
replied reasonably.
The three contemplated that for a moment.
"Oh, well, I'm failing English anyway," Osaka said sadly,
and walked away.
Generous of her.
Yomi smiled faintly while she pulled out books and papers
from her bag, ignoring the usual murmur of voices and activity
from the students around her. Selecting a small folder of papers,
she left to join her friends where they clustered around Osaka's
desk watching her attempt to solve a Rubik's cube.
"Hey, Tomo, I know you're gonna ask, so I might as well get
it over with," Yomi said with an air of resignation. "Here's my
homework," she said unnecessarily as she pushed the folder of
papers into Tomo's hands.
Osaka shook the cube in frustration as she twisted, each
side a jumbled mass of colors.
"Yay!" Tomo cried gladly as she immediately flipped it open
and started reading the parts she hadn't done from the night
before. This was, of course, all of them. She didn't get more
than a few paragraphs into it before she noticed something was
amiss. "Hey, this is typed!"
Yomi yawned. "Oh, oh, yeah. I did it on my new computer
last night."
Tomo gasped as everyone turned to stare in envy at Yomi.
"A new... computer?"
Everyone oohed, except Osaka, who had begun the delicate
task of the alternate solution to the Rubik's puzzle, which was
to take all the stickers off and paste them back on.
And your little homework, too.
"Yeah, my parents bought it for me to help me prepare for
college," Yomi said smugly. "It's a really good study aid, and
there's so many other things you can do with it I'm surprised
none of your parents have bought one."
"Mine did!" Chiyo replied brightly. "Right after I took
that computer class!"
Osaka smiled in triumph as she finished putting all the
stickers back on another side. Only two black, stickerless sides
were left.
"You suck~ and your homework too!" Tomo cried as she bashed
Yomi in the face with the folder full of homework.
Yomi hit the floor in a dazed heap, her glasses askew and
the folder on top of her head.
"And I'm not talking to you any more," Tomo added as she
stalked away, full of wounded prided.
Yomi put a hand up to her face and straightened her glasses
as everyone, except Osaka, who was putting on the last sticker,
gaped.
Tomo returned and plucked the folder of homework off of
Yomi's head. "I'll just be taking that."
"All finished!" Osaka exclaimed, dropping the cube into
Chiyo's startled hands.
Intel inside.
"Hey, guess who's parents just bought them a new computer
so they could turn out homework just as good as Yomi's!" Tomo
yelled as she burst into the room of first period.
"Oooh," came the collective sigh from her friends, except
Osaka, who pointed at Kaorin and said, "Kaorin's did!"
Kaorin nodded happily.
"Wow, what did they get you?" Chiyo asked.
"A computer," Tomo said smugly.
"No, I mean, what processor and speed? Pentium four, 2.8?
AMD 3200 plus?" Chiyo clarified, looking up at Tomo.
"It came with a CD full of cute animal pictures," Tomo
added smugly.
"!" said Sakaki.
Splorch.
"Hey, Yomi, can I look at your homework?" Tomo asked.
"What? What about that big speech you made about being
able to turn out homework just as good as mine with your new
computer?" Yomi asked in disbelief.
"Ah hah, I uh, I also got a copy of Counterstrike last
night and I was so busy playing it I forgot to do my homework,"
Tomo said sheepishly. "I got fragged so many times by this guy
with a rocket launcher...."
"Hmm," Yomi said, her smile growing as a thought played out
in her head of Tomo walking along with a plasma rifle, oblivious
as she snuck up behind her with a BFG.
SPLORCH.
"What server do you play on?" Yomi asked as Tomo was about
to walk away with her homework.
German?
Chiyo and Sakaki ate lunch quietly as they watched Tomo's
attempts to steal a fish pastry from Yomi. Osaka wasn't eating,
however, as she toyed with a hiragana letter cutout.
"Come on, Yomi, it's not like you need three with your
weight problem!" Tomo said as she made another aborted snatch
attempt at an orange colored fishy treat. "You know I love the
orange ones!"
"Hey," Osaka said suddenly, apparently having reached a
decision. "Do you think the word 'stencil' is german?"
"What?" Tomo asked.
"I don't know," Chiyo answered. "Why?"
"Wouldn't it make sense, though?" Osaka reasoned. "Think
about how it sounds. Stencil. Sten-cil. Kinda like Hansel.
Ooh!" she exclaimed. "Wouldn't that make a cute fairytale?
Hansel and Stencil, the story of a young boy and a stencil, lost
while painting signs to a witch's bakery in the woods!"
Sakaki tried to imagine that, but failed.
"Uh, I guess that makes sense," Yomi admitted, turning away
from Tomo and leaving her plate unguarded. If you put it that
way, she thought.
Tomo used the opportunity to snatch the orange tanyaki and
cram it in her mouth, chewing ferociously before she swallowed.
Almost immediately, though, she began frothing at the mouth and
flapping her hands.
"Tomo!" Chiyo yelled.
"Oh, you got it," Yomi said, a smug little smile on her
face. "What's wrong, Tomo? I thought you loved habanera
tanyakis?"
Tomo could only gulp water in reply.
"Oh, I get it now," Osaka said in awe. "So that's why you
love spicy food."
"Hansel and... Stencil...." Sakaki said quietly,
shuddering.
Pwned.
Yomi stalked into class with a tight frown on her face,
pushing rudely past people in her way.
"Whoa, what's wrong with Yomi?" Kagura asked aloud, having
been brushed just a few moments previous.
"I don't know, but she sure looks mad!" Chiyo replied as
she hung back a safe distance.
"I know!" Tomo cried happily as she jumped in. I know why
she's so upset! She's mad cause I 0wn3d her last night!"
"What?" Kagura asked.
"Huh? What's that mean?" Osaka added.
Tomo did a little happy dance. "It means she's not a l33t
h4xx0r like me, and I wasted her like the n00b she is last night
in Cstrike!" she exclaimed, shortly before Yomi decked her.
Too short.
Yukari whistled a happy little song as she entered the
school copy room, glad that it was finally payday again. She
needed some folders to organize the tests she'd just inflicted on
her class, and there they were, sitting in a box on a shelf right
above one of the big copy machines.
She frowned slightly, realizing that they were probably out
of reach from someone of her stature. One of the tall office
workers must have inconsiderately placed them there. Sure enough,
even leaning over the copy machine and stretching on her tiptoes
left her fingers a couple of inches too short to reach the box.
The copy machine lid creaked alarmingly when she leaned on
it, and it had several plastic bits it used to feed papers in
through the top that looked breakable. Yukari quickly hit upon
the idea of lifting the top and using the broad, strong glass as
a platform to allow her access to the folders.
It took some grunting and hitching up her skirt, but she
was able to climb up and sit sideways on the top while she took
out several empty folders from the half-empty box. That done,
she rolled and spun to the side, accidentally mashing the control
panel with her thigh, so she was able to slide down to the floor.
Folders in hand, Yukari smoothed her skirt down and strode out
the door happily, never noticing the copy machine start spitting
out copy after copy into its tray.
Embossed.
"Touga, I need you to run an errand for me," the school
secretary said.
Touga, who was actually a student but had been selected to
act as an office assistant on some days, quickly stopped
straightening the folders in a filing cabinet drawer and gave the
secretary his full attention. "Yes, Ma'am, what is it?"
She smiled at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I seem
to have left some embossed letterhead in a copy machine down in
the copy room. Could you get it for me?"
"Yes, Ma'am," he replied, and hurried away to get it.
Official memorandum.
Touga whistled happily as he strolled into the copy room,
happy that today was a Friday and that tomorrow was going to be a
short day. As he'd been told, the embossed letterhead was lying
on top of one of the copy machines, strangely open, and the
letterhead was skewed out of place.
The machine was running when he came up to it, too, and
produced one final piece of paper into the tray as he picked the
letterhead off the glass.
His mission accomplished, he picked one of the copies from
the tray and looked at it. At first it didn't make any sense to
him, being too alien to what he would normally expect to find in
the faculty copy room, but then, suddenly, it made sense.
The top of the school letterhead could be seen across one
side, having been pushed out of place, but not out of the picture
all together. A little left of center was a picture of Hello
Kitty in coveralls, a pail and shovel at his feet, holding a sign
that said 'Tuesday'. A faint crease could be made out running
down the center of the picture, and lines came in from each side,
getting to within about an inch and a half from each other.
Touga could make out that it was panties, now, and he could see
how a fold of what must have been skirt covered one corner, and a
little bit of skin had overlapped the hemline on one side of the
part of the panties that covered up what must have been....
Touga blushed bright red, but grinned widely. He didn't
know teachers would do things like this. It was his duty, nay,
his trust as an office assistant to make sure that others saw
this.
Let me see!
"What are they looking at?" Kagura asked idly, not
directing the question at anyone in particular. In the lunchtime
lull before the afternoon classes started, a large group of boys
had gathered around one table in the lunchroom, all focusing
intently on something as they spoke in a mixture of awe and
laughter. After a few moments they split up, each going back to
his own seat with a folded piece of paper in hand.
Tomo, her curiosity aroused, deliberately stepped in front
of one who was staring at the piece of paper with a faint blush
on his cheeks. He was moving slowly, so the resulting collision
was a gentle one.
"What, excuse me?" he said as he straightened his glasses,
surprised.
"Yuzuki, right?" Tomo asked brightly.
"Uh, yeah-"
Tomo snatched the paper from his hand while he spluttered,
walking away without a second glance as she studied the paper.
Her jaw dropped in shock.
"Here you go... there's enough for everyone...." said one
boy in a sing song voice as he breezed through and dropped a
short stack of copies in front of Yomi.
Shock and awe.
"I can't believe those boys," Yomi murmured, blushing.
"Heh, Tuesday," Osaka said, grinning.
Chiyo blushed and turned hers over.
Sakaki stared impassively at the picture. Those are cute,
she thought.
"You perverts!" Tomo cried, shaking her fist at Yuzuki, who
was refusing offers of new copies and was sitting primly in his
desk.
Kagura laughed. "Wow, someone had some guts!"
Drawn by the action, Kaorin came by and picked up a copy.
"Hello Kitty?" she said out loud. These kind of look like the
ones Miss Sakaki was wearing, she thought, glancing at the tall
girl.
Sakaki continued to stare at the panties expressionlessly.
She didn't know they made any with days of the week on them.
One girl's trash.
"I can't believe those boys were passing these out!" Yomi
says, scandalized, looking at her copy as they all walked down
the hall to their next class.
"Yeah," Kagura added. "Who ever did this must have been
pretty bold!"
"I wonder which teacher it was?" Osaka asked.
"What? You think it was a teacher?" Chiyo asked.
"Yeah, look at the letterhead, it's for this school. See
the date?"
"Friday the 23rd," Tomo said. "That's today!"
"Tuesday panties," Osaka said, grinning.
"This must have been done on the copy machine in the
teacher's lounge," Yomi reasoned.
"That's really, really bold!" Kagura exclaimed.
"I wonder how it got all over the school?" Chiyo asked.
"Doesn't matter, it's filth and it should be thrown away,"
Yomi declared.
They all nodded and threw them into the garbage can, then
walked away.
A few minutes later, when they were out of sight, Kaorin scuttled
back and fished hers out, tucking it carefully in her folder
before hurrying to keep up with the others.
Focus.
Minamo Kurosawa paced irritably before her chalkboard,
preparing for a brief lecture on the hazards of leg cramps and
wishing the day was over. She had a sneaking suspicion she was
coming down sick, and was ready to simply do her job and go home.
As soon as she turned to the class, however, she saw a boy
handing a piece of paper to another boy, who noticed her
attention and hastily stuffed it in his shirt.
She sighed and coughed as she walked to him. "Now boys,
you know I don't allow note passing in class. Hand it over."
He blushed furiously, but made no move to give it up.
"Now," she said firmly, controlling her urge to raise her
voice.
Resigning himself to his fate, he reluctantly pulled it out,
folded, and handed it to her, the paper tearing slightly as it
was pulled from between his clenched fingers.
Minamo looked at it evenly, one eyebrow rising slightly.
"So, who is this?"
"Umm, we think it's a teacher," he said helplessly.
"I see. Why?"
"Umm, the stationary, ma'am."
"Ah." Minamo digested this in silence for a moment, then,
improbably, her eyebrow rose higher. "You were looking at the
stationary?"
Not what it looks like.
Yukari looked up to see the principal striding towards her
purposefully.
"Excuse me, Miss Yukari, do you know anything about this?"
He handed her a confiscated copy of the printout.
Yukari instantly recognized her own very characteristic
panties, and panicked as she felt the fear and embarrassment
creep up in her throat. "It's not what it looks like! I haven't
worn those in years, but my laundromat has been closed for a week
and I haven't had a chance to make it to another one! They were
my last pair!"
Yukari paused, as the principal stared in shock.
"What!" she exclaimed. "Wait a minute, how'd you get
that?!"
"!" replied the principal.
Need to pick up something.
At the end of the day, the group of friends strolled out
the front gate together, laughing easily over the day's events.
"Man, I still can't get over that picture," Kagura said
mildly, watching Kaorin jog into the distance. "And I wonder
what her hurry is?"
"Who knew there was a teacher at this school as crazy as I
am?" Tomo said with a chuckle.
"I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"Who? No one could be as wild as I am!" Tomo insisted.
"Yukari."
"Yukari."
"Yukari."
"Yukari."
"Yukari."
Yukari, Sakaki thought.
Chiyo waved goodbye as their group splintered as people
took different routes home, leaving her walking with Sakaki,
whose home lay on much the same route she took. "Well, looks
like we're walking home together again," she said brightly.
Sakaki was a quiet, yet comforting presence. She'd make a great
teacher or social worker, but Chiyo had never figured out a good
way of telling her that.
"I'm afraid not today, Chiyo-chan" Sakaki said quietly,
with regret in her voice.
"Oh?" Chiyo replied. "Where are you going?"
Sakaki looked pensively into the distance, her face framed
perfectly by the fading sun when viewed from Chiyo's angle. "I
have some... errands... to run."
"Really?"
"Shopping...."
"Oh, well, okay! Have fun, Miss Sakaki!"
"See you in the morning, Chiyo-chan," Sakaki said as she
broke into a run, visions of cute kitties holding days of the
week signs in her head.
The project.
"I'm home, Mom," Kaorin called as she entered her parent's
apartment. "I'll be in my room doing homework!"
"Study hard!" her mom called back as she disappeared into
her room, closing the door behind her.
Her bed was small, with a dark red comforter. A single
plush turtle sat on a corner shelf above the head. A large
rainbow colored rug lay on the floor. There were a number of
pictures hanging on the wall, mostly her family, and one good
class picture from her first year in high school. Her brand new
computer was on a desk up against the wall beside the door. Her
old full-length mirror, which used to hang on the wall opposite,
had now been moved so that it couldn't reflect the monitor screen
at anyone standing in the doorway. And bit by bit, thanks to the
scanner she'd talked her parents into buying along with the
computer, her secret project was being converted into a smaller,
more easily hidden, and certainly pgp encrypted, digital format.
This latest one, though, this latest acquisition was going
to be one of the centerpieces.
Kaorin pulled the salvaged photocopy out of the folder,
arranged another sheet of homework on top, and set about scanning
it into the computer. That done, she opened the file up in an
editing program, removed the letterhead from the side, and added
two sentences in a faint, nearly transparent layer across the top,
where it wouldn't distract from the picture.
'I've seen her panties in the locker room on several
occasions. She always wears cute ones.'
Kaorin sat back and stared critically at the image. A few
tweaks to the transparency and a color change and she was happy.
As a stand alone picture, it wasn't much. But....
Her computer groaned under the strain, taking several
minutes to process her command as she opened up her main project
file. It had taken three intense nights of scanning and tweaking
to get everything in it, and she was still hesitant to begin the
final composition. One copy and paste later, and the picture was
with its brethren.
Still life pencil drawings of running shoes. Pics of
Sakaki running. Pics of Sakaki sitting at her school desk,
staring out the window. A haunting watercolor of an empty school
desk in front of a window, the sun streaming in from the outside.
Pics of Sakaki in different clothes. Pics of Sakaki, for lack of
a better word, looking cool. One rather out of place picture of
an ice cube, which Kaorin had had a mind to delete for a while,
but had yet to do it.
A smile grew on Kaorin's serious face as she stared at the
many facets of Sakaki.
"Hmmm, facets," Kaorin said out loud. "I need a good
picture of a diamond."
The internet.
Tomo clicked aimlessly about on her computer. Yomi wasn't
responding to email or IM's. She wasn't on any of the
Counterstrike servers they had used the night before, either.
Tomo had played for a while, but it just wasn't the same. Now,
despite the wondrous things available to do on a computer, things
she had elaborated on in great detail to her parents, she was
bored.
Google jp stared back at her mockingly.
She slumped in her chair, one finger randomly tapping keys,
then deleting them from the search box. Almost without her
control, the finger hit an 'L'. Then a 'U'. Then a 'T', but
accidentally hit the delete key early. The next letter was a 'P'.
Then an 'I'.
Tomo stared at the screen for a moment, the almost word
slowly registering on her optic nerve. Then, firmly, she added
an 'N'.
*click*
Immediately, a page full of Lupin related links popped up.
Tomo considered those for a moment, scanning for one that looked
the most interesting. Official website, nah. Voice actor bios,
nah. Picture gallery, now that looked interesting. Lupin
hentai....
"That's interesting." Tomo stared at the last one
impassively.
*click*
*click*
*click*
*click*
A few more clicks later, Tomo went back to Google to
redefine her search parameters.
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