A little more. The sections are going to be fairly short, which is fairly in
keeping with Azumanga itself. Though the tone is still going to be more
serious (although we have some comic relief in this part...)
AFTERMANGA DAIOH
2002 Studio ELL productions
based on 'Azumanga Daioh' by Azuma Kiyohiko
used without permission
not intended for sale or profit
===========================================================================
~futatsu~ mihama-ke asogohan
Ayumu was up and dressed early the next morning.
Usami blinked as she saw her daughter coming downstairs before the time she
usually woke up. "Ayumu?" she asked.
"I'm leaving early today, Kaa-sa," the teen replied. "Chiyo-chan called last
night and wants to have breakfast with everybody today while she has time."
"Ah, okay." Usami smiled. "Have a good time, dear."
A short while later, Ayumu walked up to the familiar house where the
youngest graduate of the class lived. She pressed the intercom buzzer on the
gate, and a moment later, the front door of the house opened, emitting
twelve-year-old Mihama Chiyo and her large pet dog, Tadakichi-san. Chiyo
smiled happily at her. "Ohayou, Osaka-san!" she chirped merrily.
'Osaka' smiled back, and waved. "Ohayou, Chiyo-chan." She blinked at the
younger girl. "Where's Chiyo-chan's pigtails?"
Chiyo blinked, then ran a hand through her slightly dissheveled brown hair.
"Ah! I decided not to put my hair up this morning. I'm going off to college
soon, so I need to look more mature, ne?"
"Ah...sou," Osaka said, looking down. Her expression faded, and her eyes
seemed to lose a little of their usual spaciness.
The younger girl frowned, and leaned forward. "Osaka-san? Daijoubu ka?"
Abruptly, the dark-haired girl snapped out of it, and smiled. "Ah, it's
okay, Chiyo-chan. Don't worry about it."
---...---
Less than an hour later, the Mihama residence was full of life, as the group
of friends who had endured high school together, as well as their two
favorite teachers, sat around the large, exquisite dining table, stomachs
growling at the large breakfast spread laid out before them. "ITADAKIMASU!"
everyone cried, then began digging in.
"Ah, this is good!" enthused Takino Tomoe. "Better than breakfast at my
place!"
"I'm going to go way off my diet eating like this," Mizuhara Koyomi groused,
even as she folded some scrambled eggs and a strip of bacon into a slice of
toast.
"So Chiyo, you're really going to America then?" asked Kagura, the
well-tanned, competitive athlete of the group.
"Un!" Chiyo nodded. "I'm not sure when exactly, but before the end of the
summer I'll be moving to America. I'm excited, but a little nervous."
"So what school?" Tanizaki Yukari, the former homeroom teacher of the
recently-graduated girls asked. "Harvard? Berkeley? MIT?"
The young girl giggled. "Texas!"
The others blinked. "Texas?" Tomo asked.
"Un!" Chiyo said, taking a bite of pancake. "That's what my dad's setting up
for me. An exchange program at a university in Texas."
"Texas..." Osaka said contemplatively. "What's a Texas?"
The others sweatdropped.
"Don't you know?" Yukari asked. "That's where they raise cows and drill oil
and have big ranches and big cars and lots of money!"
"OO~H!" Tomo enthused, standing up. "I know about Texas! Everyone wears a
big cowboy hat and says 'Haodi padonaa!' Right, Yukari-chan?"
"Hai, hai!"
Osaka thought about that, then looked at Chiyo. "So if Chiyo goes to Texas,
she's going to have to drive a big car and wear a cowboy hat?"
"I'm not old enough to drive!" Chiyo exclaimed, giggling. "But..." She
hopped up from the table and dashed out of the room suddenly.
Everyone glanced curiously at one another.
Chiyo returned a moment later, giggling, and waved around a large white
cowboy hat, which she then placed on her head.
The tall, aloof Sakaki stared at her, then her cheeks started to flame.
"...kawaii..." she murmured softly.
"OO~H!" Tomo cried. "Chiyo looks like a Texas!"
"Texan," Yukari corrected. "It's very cute on you, Chiyo-chan."
"Yes, it's very cute," Kurosawa Minamo, the girls' former gym teacher,
added, smiling at the young girl.
Osaka frowned thoughtfully. "So instead of riding Tadakichi-san, Chiyo-chan
is going to ride a cow in Texas?"
Chiyo sweatdropped. "I hadn't thought about riding a cow..."
"Nobody rides cows!" Tomo said, slapping her palms on the table and standing
suddenly. "In Texas, you ride a BULL!"
"EEEH!?" the others chorused.
"Riding a bull sounds fun!" Kagura opined excitedly.
"It sounds a little scary," Chiyo disagreed, tears gathering in her eyes.
Osaka stood suddenly, eyes wide. "I KNOW!" she shouted.
Everyone turned to look at her.
"Cows are girls, right? And bulls are boys. And they have cowboys in
Texas..." She turned to look at Chiyo. "...so they probably have bullgirls!"
"...bullgirls?" Chiyo asked.
"Un! Chiyo-chan will be a bullgirl if she goes to Texas!"
"A-ano..." Chiyo ventured, sweatdropping nervously.
"I've never heard of a bullgirl before," Yomi said.
"I don't think there is such a thing," Minamo replied.
Tomo leapt onto the table, nearly upsetting several dishes. "Boy or girl,
cow or bull, it doesn't matter! Because Chiyo-chan is going to go to Texas
and take the bull by the balls and be the best!"
Everyone stared at her.
Chiyo turned an unusual color. "I don't want to take a bull by the balls,"
she whined.
"Don't they eat bull balls in some places?" Osaka asked.
"It's a delicacy," Yomi nodded.
Breakfast ended shortly after that.
---...---
A while later, many of the others had left to take care of things, but Osaka
and Sakaki were still at Chiyo's house. Sakaki was presently engrossed in
playing in the yard with Maya and Tadakichi-san, and Osaka was relaxing in
the spacious furo, not having taken the time to bathe that morning or the
night before.
She was about to fall asleep when the door slid open and Chiyo joined her.
"Ah, Chiyo-chan," she said sleepily. "Thanks for lettin' me use your furo."
"It's no problem at all," Chiyo smiled. A few moments passed in silence as
the younger girl scrubbed and showered, then slid into the hot water across
from her friend. Chiyo frowned cutely. "Ne, Osaka-san," she began.
"Hmm?"
"It's...you seem a little...distracted today."
"Ara?" Osaka looked at the younger girl, and smiled. "No, really, it's okay,
Chiyo-chan. I'm just thinking."
Chiyo shook her head. "No, I can tell something's bothering you." She looked
down, eyes shimmering. "I...I want to help, because Osaka-san is a good
friend, and I just want to help if I can. I don't like seeing my friends
upset."
Osaka tilted her head back against the edge of the tub, and sighed.
"Please, Osaka-san?" Chiyo asked, tears threatening to break free.
The dark-haired girl looked back at her, and Chiyo was shocked to see a
clarity in Osaka's eyes that was very unusual for her, and an apprehension
totally alien to the normally spacey girl.
"Kaa-sa and Tou-sa...they're giving up on me," Osaka began.
Chiyo blinked. "Eh? Giving up...?"
"They don't know I know yet. I heard them talking yesterday. Talking
about...an omiai."
The younger girl's eyes widened. "An omiai?"
Osaka nodded. "They wanna marry me off."
"But...why?" Chiyo asked, tears brimming in her eyes.
The dark-haired girl shrugged. "I can't ever get my head together, so Tou-sa
thinks sending me to college is a waste of money. They say I don't have any
ambition, so the best thing is to get me married so I can have kids."
"But...that's..." Chiyo ran a wet hand through her brown hair. "They're
wrong though, aren't they? You do have ambitions, don't you?"
Osaka was quiet for a long moment. Finally, she shook her head. "Not
really." She smiled then, but it wasn't her usual vacant, happy smile. "I'm
useless, aren't I?"
"Osaka-san...no! You're...you're not useless..." Suddenly, Chiyo flung
herself at the older girl, embracing her tightly and crying against her
shoulder. "It's not right! They can't make you do something just because
they--"
"It's alright, Chiyo-chan," Osaka said, wrapping her arms around the smaller
girl. "I can't daydream forever, even if I can't manage to do anything but
daydream." She pushed Chiyo away slightly, and looked her in the eyes,
smiling. "Besides, I could end up being really happy as a wife, ne?"
"But..."
Osaka disengaged herself from Chiyo, and rose from the furo. Drying herself,
she turned for a moment. "Thank you, Chiyo-chan. I feel better now."
Chiyo remained in the furo long after Osaka had dried, dressed, and left.
Long past the point where her fingers began to prune from the water, she sat
there.
"Osaka-san..."
-------------------------------------------
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