I only got to see the last vingette of the fourth ep, but I liked what I
saw.

Another Azumanga fic. This is just the first part of a much longer series,
and it's a bit more serious than you'd expect...C&C welcome.

Well, Since I've seen so little my expectations are almost nil. :)

~hitotsu~ matamata, ayumu ya...

My vast knowledge of Japanese... helps me not here, since it is not vast. :P

She woke slowly,

The ambiguous 'she' leads things off, I see.

Just as she was removing it from the hanger, she blinked. "Oh yeah...I
forgot."

Hmm. Osaka was the spacey one, as I recall.

Carefully, she returned the uniform to its place hanging inside the door.

A full minute passed during which she didn't move. Then, still clad in her
pajamas, she shuffled over to the bed and crawled back under the covers.
"Oyasumi," she murmured.

Heh

the open closet door.

Just as she was removing it from the hanger, she blinked. "Oh yeah...I
forgot."

Heh.

Three minutes passed.

A knock on the door made her open her eyes again. A muffled voice called

to

her from the other side.

The voice on the other side bemoaned, "You're dreams sequenceing. Stop it.
It's going to wear on the readers soon'

^_^

A full minute passed during which she didn't move.

Finally, she stripped off her pajamas, pausing in front of the mirror for

a

moment to look at her near-naked reflection. She then reached into the
closet, selected a simple lavender skirt and white top, and dressed.

There we go. :)

A moment later, she realized she forgot to put on a bra.

Several seconds of debate later, she decided it didn't matter,

Prolly not. She wasn't that busty, if I recall correctly.

*You wouldn't remember if you did, most likely,* Usami thought, sighing
mentally. She loved her daughter dearly, but the girl was so
scatterbrained...

Heh

"I'm really through with school, huh?" Ayumu said after a long moment.

"Sou," her mother replied, deciding for the moment not to mention college.

Prolly for the best.

"No more Yukari-sensei...no more Chiyo-chan and Tomo-chan and everyone

else.

Nobody callin' me Osaka anymore. I'm just Ayumu again."

"Ee," Usami nodded, sipping her miso. She'd winced when she discovered her
daughter's nickname at school. She'd winced even harder when the grade
reports started coming home with simply 'Osaka' on them.

hehehehe

"You know," Usami said, "your friends are probably going to be busy

getting

ready to go to college soon. You might want to make sure they all let you
know how to keep in touch, so you don't lose track of them."

She's trying to plant seeds in her daughter's head. It isn't going to work.
:)

Usami's face fell into her miso bowl with a splash. "Ayumu, can't you even
remember a thing like that?" she asked with an aggravated sigh.

And gurgled a bit too, her face being in the soup and all. :)

*And I've heard that for how many years now?* Usami thought wearily,

feeling

a headache coming on.

She loved her daughter dearly, but the girl was slowly driving her insane.

Yep. It's just the way she is.

                       __().()__

With nothing important to do, Kasuga Ayumu left the house at around nine

in

the morning to wander around town and have fun. A block from home, she
bought a cold juice, and sipped it as she walked along, enjoying the warm
sun and the mild breeze.

No more school. All those times were over. Now every day would be like

this

morning, lazy and free and--

Oh. Wait. College.

Heh

"Ohayou, Ayu-chan," a stocky, round-faced, cheerful man in casual clothes
and an apron greeted her. In his forties, Nobuta was a travelling vendor

who

moved his yatai around every two years or so. Shortly before she finished
junior high, he'd been set up near her old neighborhood; she'd been somewh

at

surprised to see him selling less than five blocks from her new home in
Tokyo near the start of senior year.

Nah. It's plot contrivance to keep him around. :)

 "Nice day, isn't it?"

"Ah, hai!" she said, smiling cheerfully. Nobuta-san was such a nice man,

and

made really tasty steamed pork buns. She could smell the first of the
morning's wares already, warm and ready in the small travelling kitchen.

With a hand on her shoulder, Nobuta guided the teenager behind the folding
screen he used to provide extra shade and an atmosphere of coziness for

his

customers. His hand slipped from her shoulder to her chest, and gave her
breast a quick squeeze. "Ah, someone isn't wearing a bra today, I see."

Heh. Quite the pervert. :)

Ayumu giggled. She always giggled when Nobuta-san squeezed her chest. And

he

always gave her a free pork bun after. He was such a nice man.

Hey, if she regards it as a fair trade...

"I'm telling you, Kasuga-kun," the man said, brushing a hand through

short,

stiff salt-and-pepper hair, "You're better off setting up an omiai and
trying to marry her off. She's not cut out for college."

Hehehehe. He is right, you know.

She thought again about college. It sounded like a lot of work. She was
tired of school. Not that she ever really did much in school, though she
thought it was nicer to sit out in the sun and do nothing rather than sit

in

a stuffy room doing nothing.

Hehehehe

By the time she was finished eating, the only thing Ayumu was sure of was
that she had no idea what she wanted to do, and that the hamburger she'd
just eaten was making her stomach hurt.

Hmm

"I was talking to an old friend today. You know, Marubishi-kun."

"The one who's dean of admissions?"

Dean of Admissions (I think, since it is his title.

"Well, what are we supposed to do? Let her go through life daydreaming and
dozing off and eating and doing nothing at all? Usami, the girl needs a
focus."

"And college will be that focus!"

"Like high school was? Or junior high?"

Silence.

It is hard to argue.

"But..."

"Maybe having a family of her own will change her," Iyao said gently. "It
really is the last resort. Something's got to give, Usami-chan."

Usami stood with her head bowed, tears brimming in her eyes. "I just hate
that it's come to the point where we're ready to pawn her off on some
foolish boy...

"I don't want her to make the same mistakes I did." She caught the look her
husband shot her. "Darn, I meant to think that, not say it aloud."

"

Upstairs, Ayumu sat in her room, back against the wall. Her eyes, normally
vacant and gazing off into dreams, were unusually sharp and clear.

Oops. Guess she found out. Wonder how she slipped past her mother.

Think I'll go on to the second chapter.

D.B. Sommer

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