Uh yeah, very otaku fic. Series that I just started tonight. I've got an idea of the general length that I'd want it to be but am not promising anything because I tend to lose interest.
AN from tumblr: Gonna start a series because I seem to be in the mood for it. Won’t add explanations, just know that this is an AU since I’ve always done in-00048-verse up till now. Will admit to ripping off the likes of Lucky Star, Bakuman and numerous other manga/anime. It’s one time-line, but the order flits between the past and the present so please take notice of dates and times.
Chapter 1:Tanabata 2012Furukawa Airi lay on the grassy slopes beside the Arakawa, gazing up at the heavens. Being back in Tokyo was such a strange experience. There were fewer stars here - or rather, the only stars that stood out were the brightest. The rest were hidden, invisible against the backdrop of a bright Tokyo Greater Area skyline. The sound of the Arakawa soothed her, the sound of water lapping against the banks rhythmically, the buzz of the city never too far from her consciousness. Staring up at the summer night sky, wrapped up in a light jumper to ward off the slight chill of the evening, Airi felt more at peace than ever.
“It’s Tanabata,” Airi turned to the girl next to her.
“So it is,” she replied, smiling gently.
“Do you think they met?” the girl asked, never taking her eyes off the sky.
“We can only have faith that they did,” Airi replied, facing the sky again.
“Faith.. It’s so uncertain.” the girl commented lightly, squeezing Airi’s hand with hers.
“It can be much stronger than logic,” Airi paused.
“…and time.” the girl finished for her.
“Yeah, it is,” Airi smiled, turning to face her as their eyes met.
“Rena-san.”
Airi felt herself being gently pulled back into consciousness. ”Rena-san…” She muttered, hugging her soft toy frog Edgar a little bit tighter.
“BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ”
As she reached out to hit the alarm, she sighed. Not again. ”It’s been 4 years since I graduated high school, you’d think that I’d stop having those dreams.” she muttered, climbing out of her futon and pulling on her slippers.
At the age of 22, Furukawa Airi wasn’t what you’d call particularly successful. She had skills at drawing, sewing and designing, having gone to schools to learn clothing manufacture and design, however, these skills were not particularly useful in obtaining a high-paying job. Mainly, she worked as a manager in a small local clothing firm in Nagoya, spending her weekends on her hobbies such as anime, games and cosplay.
Not that she was unhappy about that, of course. Not everyone had the luxury of being able to make a living from their interests, and she was one of the very few who genuinely loved what she did on a daily basis. Nevertheless, the passing of time and her lack of progress with her life since graduating from the associate’s college two years ago bothered her slightly.
Plus, the dreams. They had started as a bother and irritant when she’d first graduated from high school and was trying to force herself to “get over it”. Now, however, she looked at them with an air of gentle wistfulness, almost a guilty enjoyment. The last time she’d seen Rena-san was the day before her high school graduation.
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Spring, the day before graduation, 2008“Airi-chan… Airi-chan!” Rena-san called, gently tugging on her sleeve.
“Ah-yes, Rena-san?” Airi turned towards her, a look of gentle affection on her face.
“…I said, you are going to spend time with me even when you go to college, aren’t you?” Rena anxiously inquired.
”..I.. actually… I… am moving to Nagoya.” Airi looked at the ground.
“…what?” Rena dropped Airi’s sleeve, pulling her shoulders to face her.
“Say it clearly. To me.” Rena demanded, tears in her eyes.
“My family’s moving. To Nagoya. Next month. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you earlier, it was too difficult,” Airi said, not meeting Rena’s eyes.
“Why..? Why now?” Rena’s quavering voice, her shaking hands as they held Airi’s shoulders… it was too much for Airi to take, as she broke down.
“My Dad got a new job, and they were waiting for me to finish high school so we would start a new life together in Nagoya,” she explained, choking up.
“We.. we had so much fun together that I.. I couldn’t find the right time to tell you.” she continued.
“… and it’s been decided?” Rena looked devastated.
“Ye-yes. I… I’m going to Nagoya.”
“Are you still planning on becoming a clothing desginer?” Rena suddenly blurted out.
“Yes,” Airi’s jaw clenched with determination.
“Good,” Rena replied, her eyes shining through the tears.
“…then we will meet again when we’ve both achieved our dreams.” she continued.
“…what?” Airi looked shocked.
“Until then, no emailing, no calling, no seeing each other. This will spur us on towards what we want, and when we have achieved it, we can share it with each other.” Rena looked at Airi seriously.
“It could be years, Rena-san” Airi looked at her, desperately.
“We must have faith,” Rena smiled for the first time since the conversation began.
Stepping back a little, she held Airi’s head, petting her as if she were the older one, not Airi, and gently held her.
“See you later, Airi-chan”.
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Winter meeting, 2007Having just obtained her ideal job in Akihabara at a cosplay manga cafe, Airi was certain that things just could not get any better for her. Although school sucked and her grades never went beyond mediocrity, this job was more than she could ever ask for. To be paid to indulge in her passions manga and cosplay? This must be a really great dream, she thought.
This came about through a friendly connection in the form of a senior at school who had just graduated, who used to hold the job and had recommended her for the position. Although sad at Yuimin’s graduation, Airi was beyond excited at the thought of starting the job. Cosplaying in maid outfits didn’t faze her, and she’d gone to the interview wearing her self-made Suisuiseki outfit, which had apparently impressed the owner (a 50 year old man who felt a little creepy). Nevertheless, creepy old men were something that she was used to dealing with, and they all seemed to lose interest immediately once she pretended to be extremely enthusiastic about R-18 yaoi manga.
Truth is, she had always been more interested in bishoujo. From the classic Key games to harem anime, Airi had an almost obsessive interest in the developing genre of “moe”. Working in a manga cafe, while providing lots of material for her obsessions, also gave her the chance to talk to many people with similar interests. One such person was a year-mate at her school, Hata Sawako, whom others picked on for giving off a Sadako-like creepy air and being extremely shy.
Sawako also worked at the cafe, joining a few months after Airi, and although their genres of interest differed, Airi enjoyed their conversations about games, and gradually they began to speak outside of work, even at school.
Then there was her.
She would come into the shop every Wednesday during Airi’s shift, wearing the school uniform that identified her as being one of Airi’s school mates, and would stay for a couple of hours at the time.
She had long, black hair, extremely fair skin, contrasted against the dark blazer of the school’s uniform. There was the pin on her collar which identified her as a class representative, but as Airi didn’t know many people in school, she had no idea who the girl was. She simply mentally identified the girl as “silent Wednesday 3pm Class-rep-san”, her eyes sweeping across the girl’s clear, beautiful features every time she did a walkabout in the cafe.
How Airi wished that she could dress up Ms silent Wednesday 3pm Class-rep-san. With those features, that slim body, her extremely pale complexion… She was perfect for cosplaying as Rei! Or, Nagato! Or any number of those kuuderes… Airi was almost boiling over with excitement and anticipation every single time Ms silent Wednesday 3pm turned up.
“Airi-senpai, please stop drooling,” Sawako would deadpan, expressionlessly flipping through a weekly issue of Jump as they stood at the front counter.
“Wh-what? I’m not…” broken out of her admiring reverie, she glared at Sawako, taking care to wipe the corner of her mouth.
”Why don’t you talk to her? We’re all from the same school, after all,” Sawako continued, almost as if she hadn’t just spoken the unspeakable.
“Ta-talk to her? Are you crazy? She’s… like, I mean, she’s, she’s a class-rep and we’ve never spoken before and I don’t even know her and she would think that I’m some creepy otaku and what if she runs off and never comes back again and I wouldn’t get to see her any more and she would be so awesome for that Nagato cosplay I’ve been making and how would I even begin a conversation with her…” Airi trailed off despondently.
“Just pass her a coffee on the house,” Sawako spoke as if she hadn’t been interrupted by that tirade.
“Oh.” Airi blinked.
Now that it was said, it seemed so obvious.
“If you could stop drooling and imagining her as Nagato with you cosplaying as Mikuru at this year’s winter comiket for one minute, I’m sure that you could have a reasonable and decipherable verbal exchange,” Hata noted tonelessly, passing her a cup of hot coffee.
“I-” Airi didn’t get a chance to reply before she had a tray with the coffee in her arms and was shoved in the direction of the corner that Ms silent Wednesday 3pm always occupied.
Before Airi realised it, she was standing in front of the girl, thanking her ability to remain professional.
“Excuse me,” Airi started, bowing.
“We’ve noticed that you’re a regular customer here at our cafe, and we would like to give you a little something to keep you warm this winter,” she continued smoothly, sliding the hot coffee on the table towards the girl.
The girl stared at her, dark eyes piercingly examining her features, as if looking for an ulterior motive.
“Uh, ac-actually, the truth is, Shawako over there at the counter and I are from the same school, and we don’t want to scare you off or anything, but we were really curious and there aren’t many people with our interests at our school, you know how they’re always talking about boys and dramas and stuff and not so much anisong and manga and anime and uh yeah I’ll shut up now.” Airi stumbled over her words in a poor attempt to explain.
“Uh, I’m so sorry for disturbing you, and we promise never to approach you without consent again,” mortified, Airi bowed again deeply, turning to go.
“…Thanks.” Airi half-turned around, surprised.
“…Airi-chan” the girl read her name tag, smirking.
“You’re very welcome,” Airi bowed again, automatically.
Heading back to the service counter, Airi’s mortification turned into a smile. She didn’t have a name yet, but she was sure that the girl would be back. She could feel it.
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Nagoya, present dayFurukawa Airi opened the door to the SKE clothing firm, based out of Nagoya. ”Good morning,” she called, looking around.
“Mornin’ Furukawa-pro” her senpai, Nakanishi “Nishishi” Yuka, called out from her desk.
“Morning Nakanishi-san,” she smiled, heading for her own desk.
“I see you got some sleep last night. Didn’t spend it reading manga as usual?” Nishishi teased off-handedly.
“Nah, I fell asleep while texting,” Airi replied, casually slinging her bag over the back of her chair.
“Boyfriend?” Nishishi grinned.
“No, a stupid bird” Airi grumbled.
“Who are you calling a stupid bird?!” came a squawk from the tea room.
“Oh, she’s here already.” Airi rolled her eyes, turning her work computer on.
“I’ll have you know that Papi-tan was just sooooooooo adorable last night! I mean, you saw those vids that I sent through my phone didn’t you? He totally cuddled up to me, Airin! Not that I don’t love Pucho, Pinot and Popo, but Papi-tan is…” as Takayanagi “Churi” Akane went on and on about her parrots, Mukaida Manatsu arrived.
“Good morning!” Manatsu called from the door.
“Ah! Manatsu!” Churi got up, excitedly repeating everything she’d just said about her birds to Manatsu, who coldly ignored her.
It was yet another ordinary day at SKE clothing.
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TBC
Topic: SKE fic (RenAirin): Then, Now and Tomorrow (2/?) (Read 4126 times)