🥏Doorway into Summer Arc☀️
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Written by EmtenDew
Edited by P. serrulata
Art courtesy of Joaquinthatboi:
https://www.deviantart.com/joaquinthatboi/gallery/all
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Author's note:
ED: The party hasn't run out of steam yet!
You may notice a shift away from "third person limited" in this chapter and from now on. The story has been restricted to Naoto's POV for almost the entire thing, but you'll start seeing more from the other characters too.
My characterization of Nekoba is based on what we knew about her prior to me starting my story, so at the time, we hadn't seen her since the Christmas chapters.
...
Just to include it, my editor and I remotely watched the new episode of South Park together on Wednesday night, each of us able to see the other in the corner of the screen. The episode was called "Japanese Toilets".
Hearing the name of the episode, we were both thinking it would be about Japanese STYLE toilets (those awful looking troughs in the floor), but it was a little different.
It was one of the stranger half hours of my life, but for him, it was probably no crazier than cleaning his glasses.
...
It's really lame that animators have everything done for them on computers now, and it still looks crappy, even when the material presented necessitates quality.
In canon, yet another nothing chapter. Nagatoro being a c*ck tease and her worthless siblings trying to c*ck block her and Naoto, not that anything happened anyway.
Instead of reminding Nagatoro that she still had to beat Orihara and encouraging her, Naoto should've just gone for the kiss. She won't be able to win anyway, and that's about how much SHE respects HIM, after all.
I think the only way Nagatoro would win is if she fought dirty, and I would L-O-V-E to see that happen. It's the kind of person she is, at her core, when she's against a wall.
Unless Naoto gives it to her, she'll have to use the ticket she's been sitting on for a year to get her kiss. But maybe she lost it, or maybe Naoto will rip it in half to repay a percentage of all the times she hurt him. What a twist that would be.
If the new chapter was like something else of Nanashi's I made the mistake of reading, Naoto would probably get tired of her teasing him in the bath and get "sex nuts and retard strong" (I watched the Clerks movies after hearing PS talk about them, and I could've lived without seeing them) and take a lot more than Nagatoro had bargained for. Nasty stuff.
Speaking of Kevin Smith movies, PS inserted a small reference last chapter when Naoto and the rest talked about the convention coming up, but I think only a few people would've caught it. I didn't know the reference. I never saw the two movies they were attached to.
BTW, I asked my editor if there was a female version of "c*ck block", since that is meant more for men.
Of course, he had something horrible on ice, just waiting for such an occasion. I ASKED HIM, you need to remember, so it's on me.
"C*nt blunt".
Jeepers! I didn't know they could be sharp!
I also don't know if he heard that somewhere or if he came up with it on his own.
Please look at the Q&A section I set up at the end of the chapter. Ask us anything, and we'll add another section in the next chapter. I would be happy if you ask questions.
Please enjoy what I wrote.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Maki Gamo proudly touted from the karaoke suite's sofa, "I call this trick 'The Can-crusher'~!"
With a war-cry and a solid 'wumph', she slammed her breasts together with her hands.
The empty milk-coffee can, wedged between her monumental melons on the public side of her blouse, didn't stand a chance, and it fell into her lap, flat as a pancake.
Poor lil' fella...
"It worked~!" Yoshi Yamazaki, to Gamo-chan's left, their suit jackets and hats arranged over the backrest, commended her fiery friend.
Gamo-chan puffed up like some loathsome toad, attempting to scare off the family dog in the backyard. "Well, it is me we're talking about~."
Nekoba, on the right, was less impressed. "I'm glad you had fun with my coffee can, but how is that a trick?"
She'd indeed supplied the prop, having run out to a vending machine, the slender girl not finding an iced-coffee she liked at the karaoke club...
"It's a trick because not everyone can do it~!" Gamo-chan took a dig, exemplifying her Maki-mounds.
Nekoba retaliated, "It's easier for me to find a bra I like, at least~."
Gamo-chan didn't mind having to hunt around or specially order bras.
"Hey, I'm good~!" she hyped.
She loved her girls~!
"We're all good~!" Yoshi hollered, cupping her girls, including the reluctant Sakura Inori with the Maki and her own self, as being joyful of their jubblies.
Sakura shook her head at Gamo-chan, nestled in the chair "next door". "You could've stained your blouse... and didn't that hurt?"
"Dark colors... and Nekoba didn't waste a drop~," the other disdained. "And it didn't hurt. There is a trick to doing it."
"Whatever..." No way would Sakura ever attempt such a buffoonish feat.
Gamo-chan was already onto bigger and better things.
She abruptly flung the aluminum can across the room. "Think fast, Bozu!"
It was a good throw!
It was meant to score a hit on "Bozu", sitting center on the opposite couch, but he coolly caught the can with his left hand, not letting it hit his shoulder.
Naoto Hachioji and Shuu Aisho, on either side of him, were startled by the sudden movement.
It was hard to talk about nerd stuff with your pals when a girl kept effing with you...
"Nice try, Xena..." Tohru Hijikata commended, the tiniest smirk extant. "But maybe you shouldn't warn me the next time."
He spun the can back to Gamo-chan, a most awkward little Frisbee-like device.
She snatched it from the air, rebounding it into the recycling bin in the corner. "Aw, you didn't like your present~?"
"I don't know where it's been," he retorted smugly. "Anyway, I wanted a new Switch game."
He knew full-well where it came from, seeing the "trick", hence his cruelty~!
"It can't be that bad of a place..." Yoshi regarded the valley existing between Gamo-chan's boobs.
Gamo-chan was somewhat affronted, pinkening in the cheeks and covering up. "Yoshi...!"
Sakura and Nekoba had a hearty laugh.
The big girl had failed yet another attempt to rouse Tohru~!
Back on the other side of the room, Tohru returned to his guy-friends and their discussion.
"She just won't give up, will she?" he chuckled, seeing Sakura scold Gamo-chan regardless of the chuckles produced, but he quickly got back to business. "Now, what do you two think of the fall lineup for new anime?"
Yes, Tohru was getting a kick out of these Gamo-games...
But Gamo-chan's persistence surprised Naoto... and scared Shuu.
Man, was she being weird today...
...
...
...
On the tail of The Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea", Yoshi still enforcing a number of, not only songs in English, but Disney tunes, the seven were taking another short break from the microphone.
Most of them had familiarity with at least a few of these songs, so it went over well!
It had been Sakura and Yoshi on the mic, and they'd surely had fun with it.
With that—and "Titty-time Recycling Center"—in the rearview, Gamo-chan was leaning at Sakura's shoulder, looking over the song catalog, the gal sitting in the "captain's chair", contentedly clicking her boots together on the ottoman.
They'd migrated to the other end of the room, the light better...
Unlike a certain twiggish girl, they both enjoyed the iced-coffee the club made, one French vanilla and one caramel.
Searching for some old rock standards in English, they came across something that offended the very soul.
Sakura scowled at the title of the section they currently had eyes on. "Elvis Presley... Feh! 'King of Rock'n'roll', my ass..."
"My dad tells me Chuck Berry was the true King of Rock'n'roll." Gamo-chan shifted her weight to one side, dipping out of her opposite pump, scrunching and cracking her toes against the floor.
The Fawns were MURDER on the feet...
"Hey, my dad says the same thing~!" Sakura chirped. "When Berry died last March, Daddy was playing his records on-loop..."
Though they'd known each other for more than a year, it was this day they learned their respective fathers both loved American and English rock music... a lot.
Yoshi's parents were into folk music, domestic and abroad, and so were all of their parents, but the gal and the Amazon shared the commonality of daddies appreciating such rock music.
Sakura had heard Live at Budokan by Cheap Trick so many times, riding in the car with her old man, it now drove her crazy...
And Gamo-chan had heard Alcatrazz's album Power Live (Tokyo 1985) a fair number of times, hanging out with hers.
"Alcatrazz..." Sakura pondered. "Isn't that the band that had Graham Bonnet fronting, with Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai on guitar?"
The girls knew a few classic rock trifles~!
"Alcatrazz had three lead guitarists, each at a different time for each of their three albums," Gamo-chan mused, her foot searching its way back into her right shoe. "Malmsteen was on the first, Vai was on the second, and... what's his name was on the third. I can't remember the last guy, but Dad didn't like Dangerous Games anyway."
"I didn't know that..." Sakura had learned something. "I do know that Bonnet was one of the singers for Rainbow too."
"Rainbow had at least three singers over the years," Gamo-chan reflected. "Dad's favorite stuff was the stuff with Joe Lynn Turner, but he's got a yen for the Bonnet stuff too, even more than the Dio stuff."
Sakura twittered, "I think my daddy and your daddy would get along~."
"Maybe they could exchange music..." Gamo-chan scratched under her arm. "Dad's music library has grown stale."
"Does your dad go mostly for the harder stuff?" Sakura asked. "Mine likes the lighter stuff. Rainbow is about as hard as he goes."
Gamo-chan nodded. "Yeah, he really does prefer the harder stuff... but not always the heavier stuff (there's a difference). I dunno what his favorite band is, but I know his favorite concert was when he won tickets to see Metallica in Tokyo in '93."
"Ooh~!" the blonde cooed.
"Yup, March 17, 1993." Gamo-chan sipped her coffee. "He claims he keeps the ticket-stub in an omamori with the character for 'happiness' on it in his dresser drawer. Happiest day of his life, supposedly!"
"And not when he and your mom got married~?" Sakura giggled. "Or when you, Riko, or Himari were born~?"
"Maybe it's his fifth happiest day then..." Gamo-chan chortled.
...
...
...
With Gamo-chan and Sakura having left to chat music, Yoshi and Nekoba found themselves alone, sliding to the far end of their sofa.
"Hey, uh, Yoshi..." Nekoba took a pause from her third Shirley Temple.
Yoshi took a drag off the straw in her Oreo milkshake, procured at an additional fee. "Yeah?"
Nekoba fiddled with a button on her blouse, a small blush cropping up.
Unsure of how to go forward, wiggling a little, she just asked, "So, uh... do you think Shuu-kun or Tohru-kun is cuter...?"
"..."
"..."
"...?!" Yoshi, in alarm, nearly inhaled her straw. "Ehhhhhhh?!"
"Not so loud!" Nekoba hissed, desperate to keep their voices down.
Yoshi covered her mouth and glanced around. "...!"
No one had noticed...
Just as Yoshi had gotten a grip on herself, Nekoba got closer and more comfortable.
"So... whadda ya think~?" she entertained, her blush increasing. "Shuu-kun? Tohru-kun?"
"Why are you asking me?!" Yoshi whisper-screamed, even redder.
Why else WOULD a girl ask such a question?!
"Well, I wanna talk about it..." Nekoba fidgeted. "And it's 'cause... I know you wanna talk about it too..."
That happened to be very true!
While Yoshi rarely—if ever—dabbled in that sort of girl-talk, there were times she did.
Nekoba...
The two were kindred spirits of a sort, and they weren't about to make fun of each other, not over "boy stuff"...
So, they could talk about many things seriously.
And Yoshi was serious about certain things.
She was also reluctant, being where they were. "I dunno..."
Nekoba insisted, "C'mon. Why not?"
Yoshi didn't really HAVE a reason not to...
Nekoba pressed, "Hayacchi is pretty worthless for this sort of talk, but it's not like she's here anyway..."
This was a fact...
"I can't do this kind of thing with Gamo-chan..." continued the girl with the peculiar eyes.
"She doesn't..." Yoshi wouldn't argue.
Yeah, Gamo-chan didn't handle this sort of thing well—at all...
The reasons kept coming, "And I can't talk about this kind of stuff alone with Sakura... If I do that, I need a wingman..."
RABI-CHAN was good for that kind of thing, if she was good for anything...
"Oh..." Yoshi knew she herself wasn't much of one, but—
Yoshi and Nekoba could talk about almost anything...
Thus, in the end, they were still wingmen, at least of a certain cut.
"But I don't feel that way about either of them, Nekoba..." Yoshi, even now, defended.
"Neither do I..." Nekoba denied. "It's just what we think about them... how they look... the sort of guys they are... that kind of stuff..."
"..."
"..."
"Well," Yoshi began, cerise in the face. "If I had to choose... I'd go with Shuu-kun..."
"If you 'had to'?" Nekoba puzzled. "What's that mean?"
Yoshi wouldn't say, demanding something from the other first, "Now, it's your turn."
It wasn't like the girls would be FIGHTING over the boys, so—
"I like Shuu-kun too," Nekoba agreed. "He seems like a pretty nice guy~."
"Yeah..." Yoshi reinforced. "Seems fun too."
"Doesn't he~?"
He did...
Yoshi knew she'd had fun with Shuu, initially terrified of getting pulled into a duet with him at the insistence of Gamo-chan and Sakura, but he'd been a little scared himself.
It could be said that singing a few songs from One Piece together, even scoring an 86 for one of them, had them no longer scared shitless.
Maybe still with a little less shit than they'd NORMALLY be carrying~, but...
"Yeah..." Yoshi gave a shy smile. "It was fun, singing with him..."
"It was~." Nekoba had sung a couple songs with him herself.
"Hmm..." Yoshi returned to her milkshake.
"And he is kinda handsome~..." Nekoba alleged, not quite drooling.
Yoshi allowed, wiping ice-cream from the corner of her mouth, "He's alright..."
True, Shuu was no MODEL, but he wasn't a bad-looking guy, not at all...
"What about Tohru-kun?" Nekoba ventured. "What do you think of him~?"
Yoshi thought she wouldn't be calling him "Bozu" or "Short-pai" without Gamo-chan by her side, that was for sure!
"I guess he's kinda funny..." Yoshi settled.
"Kinda scary too..." Nekoba added. "Tohru-kun's interesting, but... no."
"..."
"..."
"Really, why are you asking?" Yoshi wondered. "You said you weren't interested that way, but..."
Was Nekoba actually on the hunt?
The would-be "huntress" maintained, "No, I'm not interested... not really. Isn't it normal to talk and think about this stuff when you meet new guys?"
"I suppose..." Yoshi slurped away on her beverage.
Nekoba took on a very catlike mien, her chin resting in her palm. "But... hypothetically, I could see asking Shuu-kun out~."
"Eep?!" Yoshi almost dribbled milkshake down her front.
"...~" Nekoba snickered, at full-flush.
"..."
"...~"
Yoshi had to ask, setting down her shake, "Do you think Sakura knows that Shuu-kun likes her, Nekoba?"
"Well, I'd assume so!" This seemed to annoy the taller girl. "She has 'love-radar' capabilities. And it's obvious as heck anyway..."
"I dunno... She's been... different lately."
Nekoba couldn't repudiate, "Yeah... she has..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Nekoba hadn't forgotten...
She tittered, a predatory grin all her own taking over. "~...~!"
Oh, crap!
Yoshi hoped she'd forgotten, but it had been in vain. "...?!?!"
"You said if you 'had to choose' between Shuu-kun and Tohru-kun~..." Nekoba reminded her, unnecessary as it was. "Just what did that mean~?"
"...!" Yoshi sought escape.
Nekoba wasn't backing down. "Does this mean you finally have your eyes on someone~?"
Yoshi was really happy that Nekoba seemed so excited for her over such a prospect, but that wasn't the case.
"No..." she didn't leave the other hanging. "That's not it."
"Then... what?"
"I just don't think Shuu-kun or Tohru-kun are all that good-looking..." Yoshi tried to edge around the subject. "And I don't know them that well at all."
Nekoba pursued, no longer playfully, "Well, you're comparing them to someone..."
"..." Yoshi drummed her fingers on her thighs.
Seeing that Yoshi needed a push, Nekoba did so, "Who is it?"
"..." Yoshi really didn't want to say.
"..." Nekoba wouldn't force it out of her, but she was curious.
Knowing she was "safe" with Nekoba, Yoshi let loose, blushing with abandon, "I think Sensei's pretty good-looking... and he's a really nice guy..."
"Hachioji-kun...?!?!" It was as if Nekoba couldn't believe it.
How no one heard her interjection was a small miracle...
Yoshi, nevertheless, wouldn't back down from saying it, "Yeah..."
"...?!"
"..."
All the same, Nekoba supposed, "He does look a lot better than he used to... getting contacts and taking better care of himself... and he is a pretty nifty guy..."
Slurp~... Yoshi just couldn't leave her milkshake alone, the cup materializing between her hands.
"You know that Hachioji-kun is totally, absolutely, completely off-limits..." Nekoba whispered, as if it needed to be stated.
It really didn't need to be stated; Yoshi was almost annoyed. "I know. I'm not interested that way. You asked."
"..."
"..."
"Those two just need to fess the heck up already and get it over with..." Nekoba expressed of their male senpai and Hayase Nagatoro, almost spitting her words, glancing towards the male half of the problem, clear on the other side of the room.
This was preaching to the choir if ever there WAS such proselytization...!
Yoshi shared, "Gamo-chan's... been thinking about trying something new on them."
"How do you know?" Nekoba hadn't heard this.
"She's up to something... or she was. I've heard her talking about it with Sakura, but that was a month ago... and Sakura's been spending a lot of time with Sensei, so..."
It didn't mean that Yoshi wanted ANYTHING to do with it, no matter what was up...
"I see..." Nekoba said.
"..."
"..."
"But I don't know what'll happen with Hayacchi in trouble like this though." Yoshi furthered. "Whatever Gamo-chan and Sakura were getting at, I bet it's not gonna work anymore."
"..."
"..."
"I still can't believe that Hachioji-kun just forgave Hayacchi for what happened last Monday." Nekoba said.
It wasn't only those present that knew what had occurred that day...
"I don't know how he did it either," Yoshi acknowledged. "It was pretty bad..."
"But, now, Hayacchi can't be here... and she won't be going to the beach either..." Nekoba tacked on. "It must be hard for her..."
"She only has eyes for Sensei." Yoshi nodded. "She can't be happy that he'll be there with all of us and not her."
"But he only has eyes for Hayacchi," Nekoba rebutted. "I mean... he still has eyes. When we were there, at the beach, last time, he was still looking at all of you. Hayacchi seemed really pissed that he'd do that.
"And that's stupid; it's normal for boys to look at girls. But at least she didn't have to be pissed about me too..."
Unfortunately, the slim girl of sufficient height didn't always feel like much when compared to Sakura and Yoshi... or Gamo-chan, though the Maki had missed the most recent big group trip to the beach, working for her parents on her birthday of all days.
Yoshi, being most impressive in the dairy section of the "bodily supermarket", couldn't sympathize with Nekoba, but she could argue against her statement, Nagatoro having plenty of reason—unwarranted as it was—in such possessive feelings against Nekoba.
And Yoshi did argue, "He was actually looking at you a lot too. Like, 'a lot' a lot..."
"...WHAT?!" Nekoba cried out, startling.
Yoshi jumped at her jumping.
But she came back with, "Well, he was... Like you said, he still has eyes..."
It didn't compute for Nekoba. "Why?"
Why not?!
"Maybe he just liked how you looked in your swimsuit..." Yoshi imagined that was reason enough.
"Me?!"
"Yeah."
With a lost expression plastered on, Nekoba tried wrapping her mind around this. "Me..."
"You did look pretty good, Nekoba..." Yoshi opined.
"Me~..." Nekoba considered. "Hm~..."
This pleased her enormously...!
That is to say, she wasn't completely staggered that some guy might've enjoyed seeing her in a swimsuit.
She HAD been trying to dress to impress (though hesitant to show TOO much skin), and she WAS without favoritism a more than decent-looking girl, she knew...
That a guy as close to her as any might see her as something worth looking at was a delight!
If she'd known that only Gamo-chan and Sakura had placed ahead of her in Naoto's "beach babe lineup", she'd be even MORE thrilled...!
As happy as she was over plausibly holding such a position in the eyes of a "pretty nifty guy", Nekoba had other things on her mind too.
Since they HAD been talking about Nagatoro...
Nekoba changed gears, saying, "As far as Hayacchi's whole situation goes..."
"Eh?" Yoshi wasn't expecting such an abrupt departure from Nekoba's basking in the realization that a boy had ogled her more than just a little.
Naoto's "number-three" dared, "Did Gamo-chan tell you what happened?"
"..."
"..."
"I got the same group-text that you got." Yoshi was trying to not let it bother her. "She didn't tell me anything else. I don't think she will either."
"..."
"..."
Nekoba questioned, "So... you think it's worse than what Gamo-chan is letting on?"
"..."
"..."
"...Yes..." Yoshi was almost certain of it.
...
...
...
An unexpected scene came about, the seven again taking up mics, a thing that wowed the five of them not involved.
What Gamo-chan showed them might not have been as rare as rubidium, but it WAS like it had fallen out of the sky...
She was practically begging Shuu for a duet.
None of the other girls had EVER seen Gamo-chan beg a boy... for ANYTHING...
It was new territory, even for Yoshi. "...?!?!"
"Let's do one, Shuu-kun!" she pleaded excitedly. "You're the only one I haven't been able to sing with today."
This was true...
In the three hours of on-and-off-again singing, Gamo-chan and Shuu had sung at least one song with everyone else, be it in a duet, trio, quartet, or more.
Even Tohru, singing the least of them all, had been in a trio with her...
Despite feeling far less afraid of the big girl than he had been a few hours before, she was definitely no Yoshi... or Nekoba... or Sakura.
He was hesitant, but he was running out of reasons to refuse. "Aw, it's okay... you enjoy one."
"Oh, please, Shuu-kun~?" she implored.
"...!" Shuu was cracking.
"We can even sing an anime song!" Gamo-chan offered. "You prolly know a hundred of those, right~?"
Nine times out of 10, one might take that as an insult, but it was plain that she was completely sincere.
She REALLY wanted to sing a song with him!
And Shuu could see it. "...!"
To everyone else's glee(?), he stood up, answering the call. "Ehh...?!" "...!" "Eek~! Go, Shuu-kun~!" "Ooh~...!" "...?!?!"
Shuu got on stage with the ecstatic girl.
Gamo-chan was only a couple of centimeters shorter than Shuu, but, in heels, she currently had him soundly beaten in height, and he knew it, needing to turn his head up just a hair to meet her eyes.
He asked tepidly, "O-okay... what's one you know...?"
"Do you know 'Bink's Sake'~?" she shot back immediately, a grin not quite so heavy in Maki-menace bestowed. "From One Piece?"
Most kids were familiar with that one! And what had Shuu been singing with Yoshi not so long ago?!
A sudden sureness taking him, he said, "Of course...!"
And, so it was, they sang "Bink's Sake" together, Shuu miming playing the piano while he laughed at Gamo-chan's crappy air-guitar, something not part of the normal musical arrangement.
They all joined in for this one!
And it didn't take long to see Yoshi marching in circles, over the furniture, beating the ever-loving shit out of a tambourine—thankfully—in time with the music.
No one accompanied Yoshi on her climbing trip, but they definitely enjoyed the performance!
"..." Naoto saw magic in Gamo-chan's face, the girl having as good a time as he'd ever seen her have.
It astounded the senses that this was the same girl that cried on his shoulder, little more than a day before...
It had never been on Naoto's bucket list, but they'd given the musical anime scene at the end of "Thriller Bark" a run for its money.
...
...
...
Naoto returned from the bathroom to find Shuu and Tohru finishing some newer pop song he didn't quite regret missing~.
He'd run to the can at a good time, it seemed!
No one had a song immediately up on the queue, so the seven had a little downtime, quietly debating whether or not they should order one more round of appetizers.
They would certainly order more from the fountain!
Most fulfilled, Naoto sat down in the chair furthest into the room, letting someone else have the ottoman.
The calm was nice...
"...~" All seemed right in the world of Naoto.
But this lull saw a new bit of trouble rearing its ill-behaved head.
As has been well-documented, Gamo-chan had been trying to get a rise out of Tohru.
She and Yoshi had succeeded once, turning his nickname for Gamo-chan into "trombone noises", mildly riling him, but she'd had no luck otherwise...
And she'd tried a handful of things!
Most of her endeavors had been altogether harmless... and humorous to boot.
As it happened, Gamo-chan was really good at flipping a hat through the air, landing her fedora and Yoshi's Panama hat cleanly on the boys' heads multiple times, greatly entertaining those present but scaring the b'Jesus out of Naoto every time it happened to him.
That and the act itself HAD gotten a few smiles out of Tohru...
But when she'd leaned over behind Tohru as he was sitting, resting her gazongas on top of his head, saying, "Hey, this shelf is so very comfy-womfy~," he hadn't even flinched!
It almost shocked the room that she'd do such a thing, and if Tohru had been a different sort of person, not seeing the comicality in it, it might've been a real problem.
Naoto was certain she only did it because she knew she could "get away with it", the same as she had with HIM in the past...
And what Tohru was getting surely didn't stack up to the (volume of) sexual harassment he'd gotten in the past, suffered for doing nothing but existing.
As for Tohru, he didn't have to say more than a few words, and he'd been able to fend off Gamo-chan each time!
Naoto couldn't help but be impressed, if that was the word for it.
Relating to the prankish atmosphere, Yoshi had done nothing since Tohru had leered at her.
She gave him nothing but kindness and clean fun, even belting out a kids' anime theme or two alongside him, though she was still wary.
But Gamo-chan kept trying, and Naoto could tell she'd keep going until she properly got his goat.
Or until she lost decisively...
He was watching—unknowingly at first—her newest maneuver taking shape, though it had begun innocently enough.
Late in the afternoon, the girls electing to wear uncomfortable shoes had jointly allayed themselves of the cumbersome foot-prisons.
Nekoba was fine, lounging in the chair, flats up on the ottoman.
There were perks to wearing reasonably wearable shoes, even to such a party...!
The other three were on one of the sofas, making themselves quite at home.
Sakura, on one end, had long resisted the temptation but now sat Indian style, her little white ankle socks peeking out from under her knees, her pink vinyl boots unzipped and piled on the floor.
The other two had taken to the coffee table in front of them...
Yoshi, at the other end of the sofa, had done okay most of the day, wearing strappy pumps of reasonable height, but she'd joined in, her hose-opaqued toes peeking over the tabletop, the balls of her feet resting on the edge.
Then, as one might imagine, the last of them, loafing in the middle, was committing a serious party foul, not that Yoshi wasn't.
Sticky and miserable all day in her 100 mm pumps, fiending to shoeplay the whole while, Gamo-chan had tiredly dropped out of them, and she was presently stretched out, relaxing and rocking her bare feet on the tabletop.
They ATE off of that table.
But no one said anything, so nothing changed.
Thank goodness for plates...
"..." Naoto almost wished he was still in the crapper, a nice powerhouse round of diarrhea keeping him seated there.
Anything to not be around for THIS...
Gamo-chan had taken to "this" just as he sat down, and he reasoned playing it cool was better than raising a stink or causing a scene by making himself scarce.
...
He was tired... Maybe he'd take a nap~...
But he knew that wasn't likely.
Whatever happened, he needed to keep his mind clean and out of the sewer in which he often found it!
He'd made a decision—conscious and unconscious—to not view Sakura's... appendages... the way he viewed Nagatoro's.
The same was a goal with Gamo-chan, maybe even MORE so!
And it wasn't like Gamo-chan was doing anything wrong; she was just trying to get comfortable.
A girl's comfort didn't end where his stupid appetites began!
He laughed to himself, thinking of how stupid it would be for that to serve as any kind of mantra.
He could deal with this...
Then, with a happy murmur, Gamo-chan flexed her toes, shifting around and giving a great, big yawn.
"...!" Naoto increased his resolve.
Don't think about astrology! Don't think about anatomy! Don't think about ANY of that crap!
He didn't even want to think what the other girls might be thinking...
And above all, DON'T think about how Nagatoro fits into all of this...!
...Still...
When everything was right in front of him, it was almost impossible to not make a few observations...
He couldn't get away from his "artist's eye"...
Having become quite familiar with Sakura's... appendages... Naoto was reminded that Gamo-chan and Yoshi had rather petite features when compared to Sakura.
Rather, and to reiterate, Gamo-chan was "normal" in her proportions; YOSHI had petite features...
He wouldn't have even needed for them to be side-by-side to compare them.
Sakura had them beat... in hands and feet...
Also, Naoto knew that Rabi-chan must've been fucking nuts, calling any of Gamo-chan "mannish".
Gamo-chan's were... very pretty; he could leave it at that.
And she DID take far better care of hers than Nagatoro ever seemed to, as rough-and-tumble as she could be...
Naoto didn't want to, but he remembered the... "philosophy", or whatever the Hell it was called, that a foot was like a woman's body, and that this may have partially leant to 25% of the male population's fixation.
Yoshi's were rather curvaceous... high arches too...
He was convinced that this "philosophy" might not've been complete malarkey.
This wasn't all that big of a deal...
"..." Naoto could handle this.
There was no evil in any of this...
That's what he'd been led to think, until it wasn't so.
...
It seemed Gamo-chan really wanted to discomfit "Short-pai", and she took extreme measures.
Naoto first noticed the unusually impressive Gamo-grin, widening ear-to-ear, a strong ruddiness developing around her cheekbones, but he wasn't entirely sure what she was getting at.
From there, the "Hellscape", seen much earlier in the afternoon, again rose up behind her, and a savage leer set in.
She was leering at Tohru...!
It was that thing again, the thing with the dotted-lines shooting from her eyes, focusing in on the young man of meager height.
Naoto wasn't sure if it was Yoshi or Sakura who first realized what was going on in between them, but it was probably Nekoba, sitting at a 90-degree angle from them, as he was.
Shuu probably caught on pretty quickly too!
Zeroed-in on Tohru, Gamo-chan began to hum, letting out little groans of pleasure as she splayed her toes, pivoting on her heels. "~~Hrn~~..."
She's NOT...?!
"...?!" "?!" "?!" Sakura, Yoshi, and Nekoba didn't miss this, their anxious eyes trained on the tootsies, their colors beginning to drain.
Oh, for the love of...!
Sakura seemed appalled.
Nekoba might've been facing some giant rat, crawling out of a canal, dripping with stuff you didn't want to know about.
Yoshi was worst though... Naoto could almost see the comically large bead of sweat hanging out near her left pigtail, the rest of her shaking like a leaf, not even able to keep her eyes still.
Naoto couldn't believe this shit!
And he couldn't BEAR to look at Shuu, afraid of what he might see...!
It was about as obvious as a dog turd on an otherwise clean kitchen floor that Gamo-chan was looking for attention.
Oh, what is she doing now...?!
He knew the answer, having already given it to a question yet to be asked:
She was trying to get Tohru to notice~!
And she was doing it by rotating onto her thigh, presenting a whole other angle, leisurely running her foot up and down her other leg, calf to ankle, caressing to-and-fro.
She wasn't being the most careful about her SKIRT either, much to the girls' chagrin!
Looking away, Naoto did wind up seeing Shuu, and he was probably pretending like he was at the circus or something, judging by the untenanted countenance and eyes pointed to the corner of the ceiling.
Yikes!
Naoto had always thought that Gamo-chan was a little more creative than this!
But he was positive this would get most men's goats, and why fight with what works?!
Tohru wouldn't be able to stand up to THIS!
For that which got Naoto off like a rocket-ship, blasting with enough force to reach the Oort Cloud in six weeks, and which Shuu appreciated in a semi-formal fashion, Tohru valued about as much as fresh air in a stuffy room.
Yes, each young man liked him some leg and leg accessories, if at varying extremes~...!
"..."
Even so... it didn't seem to be working.
"...?"
Naoto, Shuu, and the girls were watching this disaster unfold, but Tohru was more interested in whatever he was doing on his phone.
Though... there was a good chance that Tohru had ALREADY comprehended the situation, and he finally gave the impression that his consideration was had...
It would be difficult to trust he hadn't noticed.
Gamo-chan caught him looking her way~!
"~Mm~...!" Crimsoning, she puckered up, going for a new perspective and giving him an ephemeral kissy-face.
"Huh...?" Tohru responded... as if he didn't know... "What is it?"
She had him RIGHT where she wanted him~!
"You like what you see, Short-pai~?" Sneering, tantalizingly, Gamo-chan slowly furled and unfurled her toes, legs crossed at the knees. "Enjoying the view~?"
Naoto never thought she could be so ham-fisted in a taunt, usually far more inventive.
Why...?!
But Tohru did take in the view, and he locked eyes with her.
"Eh, it's alright..." His sneer was so slight, one might've missed it. "I'm not the one you need to worry about though."
"Ewww!" Yoshi caterwauled.
She couldn't take it anymore, and she sat on her feet, retreating further into the softness of the cushions.
"Eep...!" Gamo-chan recoiled at his response, jerking her feet back off the table, curling and concealing her toes under the lip of the sofa.
The Hellscape evaporated, as if it had been sucked back into the very bowels of the Earth via some small, short-lived blackhole.
Scattering the demonic landscape as dust in the wind, Tohru gave his own leer. "...~"
Somehow, it was far more threatening than the typical Gamo-grin!
Sakura and Nekoba were clearly horrified, and Shuu was no better off.
Naoto was probably more resilient to all of this, having had quite the year with the girls and knowing Tohru for a while, but this was pretty gonzo.
He didn't' think THAT was going to happen!
But what he did have trouble with was the fearful eyeballing Gamo-chan and Yoshi now showered him with, making sure their leggy assets were well-hidden.
It was that damn thing with the eyes and the "dotted-lines" again...!
They knew, he had to remind himself.
Sakura had told him:
...
You, uh... I know you kinda like legs...
...
The gal also had her guard up, scowling at him like he was a pimple on her back, just out of her reach.
...
We ALL know, Senpai-kun...
...
Even Nekoba was watchful of him, as if he was gawking at her flats, wearing a pair of x-ray specs that actually worked.
That put the kibosh to the small security he had believing at least one of the girls he knew didn't know...
...
Yep... and it's prolly MORE than 'kinda'...
...
Naoto wondered if he really deserved this shit...
Well, "deserve" had nothing to do with it...
He just hated being "outed", even more so at a time like this, not that the girls' contempt would last.
It didn't hurt for the girls to be occasionally reminded he was a man with desires, opposed to being a worm, but did it have to be like this?!
He didn't think so!
Tohru, you little cocksucker!
A contemptible little cum-guzzler he might've been, but an impressive little jizz-monger he definitely was!
He'd even brought an end to "hostilities"~...
Gamo-chan didn't call him by his proper name, but she metaphorically waved the white flag.
"Short-pai...?" she eked.
"Xena?" He was "open to negotiations".
"Truce?"
As if she had anything to bargain with~!
But Tohru was generous in his terms. "Truce."
...
...
...
Having decided to order no more snacks, having consumed enough junk food and spent enough money, the group's fun afternoon was winding down to its final half-hour.
"Bink's Sake" had been fun, but the songs sung in English continued to be the most memorable stuff.
Yoshi had cracked the "oldies" pages again...
Naoto, Sakura, Nekoba, and Tohru were led by Shuu through a delivery of The Association's "Windy".
Gamo-chan had done the "Witch Doctor" song, Yoshi acting out the ear-grating Alvin and the Chipmunks segments.
As much fun as was had, Gamo-chan bequeathed upon them what Naoto viewed as the highlights of the day.
He knew she could sing, but wow~...!
She managed a 96 with "You're My World", the English take, naturally, commissioned from the Italian "Il Mio Monde".
Even better was her 97-rated delivery of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water".
She got an ovation for that one!
Naoto didn't understand half of the song, but he was thankful the room was dark.
He hadn't almost cried for a GOOD reason in a couple of weeks...
Not only oldies, but the club's catalog had an impressive array of counter-culture songs from the 1960's and early 1970's.
Yoshi sang "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", popularized during that time (though Pete Seeger had penned the tune in 1955, setting it to an old Irish tune).
Then she sang "Eve of Destruction", the club's version closer to the recording by The Turtles than to Barry McGuire's.
The Yosh was an interesting girl...
But the clincher, perhaps Naoto's "tied-for-first" song of the day, standing on par with (spoiler alert) the very last staging, yet to come, was Gamo-chan singing The Red Birds' "Tsubasa Wo Kudasai", the quintessential modern folk tune holding a special place in the hearts and minds of millions.
Hearing her convinced him that there weren't NEARLY enough alto recordings of this one...
There probably wasn't a non-vegetative person in Japan who hadn't died before 1971 that didn't know it...
Naoto couldn't even remember the first time HE'D sung the song, learning it before kindergarten...
It was one of the songs Gamo-chan and Hana were going to sing together, having run out of time on June 21.
And since Naoto had the best camera on his phone of anyone there, he'd been the one roped into recording the video of it for their kohai.
This might've been a mistake, using him...
There was no stopping the crying this time, and he wasn't alone in that.
Though she'd pretty much made scoring the song moot, so Heavenly it was, the karaoke machine DID cough out a 99 for her efforts...
Naoto had heard the song or sung the song—without exaggeration—a thousand times, and if he ever heard a better rendition than he just had, he'd take it as a sign that the Apocalypse was in sight.
...
And if there was ever any remaining doubt—any—siding with Rabi-chan's shit-for-brains allegations of Gamo-chan being mannish, Naoto watched it turn to ashes.
Gently clutching the microphone, hands nestled in her bosom, eyes softly shut, her toes pressing firmly into the floor of the stage, singing her heart out, he was possibly never more convinced of anything...
Gamo-chan was a girl, and she was a very pretty one.
Anyone convinced otherwise probably wasn't worth knowing...
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Q&A Section
Are there any other stories you look to for inspiration? If so, what ones?
ED: I'm having trouble thinking of anything specific, but I do use elements and devices I see in anime and manga. Just about everything has been done, so an original idea is hard to claim. But I think PS is capable of coming up with original ideas, so that's helpful.
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Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading! Questions and comments are welcome!