Omake: Sharing The Same Tears
Omake: Sharing The Same Tears
Mami worried as she hurried over to the house. She wasn't sure what was going on this time. Taya had not been very coherent on the phone. Near as she could follow, after saying goodbye to Kaori, Kaoru had locked herself in her room and was singing the same song over and over while everyone else was outside her door crying.
Kaoru was so stable, this wasn't like her at all. Mami was used to counting on Kaoru as one of the more mature girls. Not surprising, as Kaoru was the only other girl as old as Mami. Although, when Mami thought about it, the one time Kaoru had grief spiraled it had taken 4 cubes to break her out of it. Maybe when Kaoru broke, she broke hard.
On her way, Mami reviewed what she knew about Kaoru Gima. While Kaoru was in the same grade as Mami, she had far less time as a magical girl, since she had contracted at an older age then usual. She didn't get to see her parents much. Her father was in Tokyo working as a producer or something. Mami wasn't sure on the details, but had picked up that she better not ask. Her mother worked as a hostess at a night club in Kasimono. Not doing anything sleazy, Kaoru had hastened to assure her, just signing for the customers. Still Kaoru had preferred not to let the other girls know much about her home life, and Mami had understood. As it was, Kaoru only got to see her mother regularly for a few minutes after school when she got home and her mother was leaving for work. With her mother not getting home until early in the morning, Kaoru was pretty much on her own, and had to make her own breakfast. Though her mother usually prepared a lunch for her before going to bed.
Kaoru had been a magical girl for less then a week before Kuybey brought her into the first meeting Mami had for setting up the group that would eventually become the Serenissima Imperium Magicum Puella. (Mami insisted on using the full and correct name, even if everyone else didn't!) Mami remembered her as having been a rather shy and reserved girl, who was usually quiet, but when she did say something it was always something important to think about. Kaoru had gained a lot of confidence since those days.
Some of the other girls had teased Kaoru about her costume when they had their first training session. Her outfit was basically a white leotard with a short skirt, big bows, and a sailor uniform collar. About as stereotypical a magical girl outfit you could get... from the nineties. It was unusual for a magical girl to be so... old fashioned in her uniform choice. When she summoned her weapon and a large harp appeared, the other girls had down right laughed. Mami had felt a strong sense of kinship, remembering when she only had ribbons as weapons. She had even told the story of how she once only had ribbons to the group as a way of reminding them that you never knew how powerful a girl could be.
Despite the amusement, Kaoru had actually turned out to be something of a prodigy. In addition to being able to fire energy spears with the pluck of a harp string, it turned out that Kaoru had a very useful ability to disable and confuse demons over a large area by playing cords on her harp. It was perfect for pack hunting, and had really helped increase the harvest of her groups in those early days. With the added maturity of her age, it wasn't a surprise that Kaoru had soon become a leader among the girls who spent their time hunting.
There had only been two incidents with Kaoru while hunting. Once she had been injured rather badly when she froze up after seeing Hitomi killed right in front of her. That was perfectly understandable. The two of them had been pretty close despite Hitomi being a year younger, and several months more experienced at being a magical girl. In many ways Hitomi had been Kaoru's hunting mentor. The other incident had occurred when Kaoru was uncharacteristically sloppy, and while hunting stabbed Sayaka through the throat with an energy spear. Even though Sayaka had laughed it off, it had taken 4 grief cubes to stop Kaoru from grief spiraling in guilt over the incident.
Mami's eyes narrow in thought. Actually... Kaori had come home all bloodied and injured just a couple days before the hunting accident. Mami had never considered the two incidents connected before, but maybe there was a reason Kaoru was distracted, and perhaps other reasons for guilt besides just the hunting accident.
Kaoru had taken a large interest in the youngest of the girls. She had given both Yuma and Kaori special attention, including some extra combat training, just the three of them. Kaoru would often come by the apartments late at night since she didn't have to worry about a curfew. On a few occasions when Mami had checked in, she had heard Kaoru singing Yuma to sleep with lullabies.
Singing talent must run in her family. If her mother sung anything like her daughter, Mami wasn't surprised that she could make a living based on her voice. In fact, some of the few times Mami had taken some time off to just enjoy life she had spent going to karaoke with Kaoru. It was just nice sometimes to spend time with a girl who was her own age and didn't treat her as a mother figure.
Mami reminds herself to stay focused on the crisis at hand. Still, it might make sense that Kaoru was having some special difficulty handling Kaori moving away. Mami was having a hard time herself. Kaoru had just barely moved into the house, after having finally convinced her mother that it was safe for her to stay and that her mother should move to Kasimono, at least until the water contamination was solved. So maybe there was some homesickness involved as well.
Mami left her musings behind as she arrived and entered the house. Things did not seem as bad as Taya had made it sound over the phone. It looked like all the girls besides Kaoru were in the living room. There was some sniffling going on, and a quite a few hugs, but not the waterworks Taya had described. Mami could hear singing faintly from overhead and to the back of the room. It seemed to end for a few minutes before starting up again. Mami felt herself become a little melancholy listening to the melody, but she shook herself and focused on finding Taya.
Mami soon spied Taya, but she seemed to be the worst of everyone, sniffling so bad Mami wasn't sure it was worth trying to question her. Fortunately Aiko approached Mami on her own and filled Mami in on what was happening. "I managed to get everyone away from the door during one of those pauses. It doesn't seem to effect people as much down here." Aiko seemed cross, which was a strange mixture with her red and puffy eyes. "You need to get up there and tell her to stop. I'll be in the kitchen, I have a couple blueberry pies I have to finish cooking."
Mami decides to leave Aiko to the baking. Aiko has always been pretty good at handling others during grief spirals, though Mami hopes they won't be going through the "nothing but blueberry pies" stage again. Going up the stairs, Mami could feel the melancholy inside herself increasing. Approaching the door, she starts to sniffle. Strangely Mami seems to be remembering a lot of the good times she had with Kyouko, and just feels a sadness that those time are gone. Pulling herself together, Mami knocked on the door, "Gima-san?"
Kaoru stopped singing, and Mami realized now that Kauro had actually been singing along with a CD or something. Mami heard the music pause, and then Kaoru opened the door, looking for all the world as if nothing was more wrong then listening to a sad song for a little while. "Tomoe-san? What are you doing here?" She stepped back to let Mami enter the room.
Entering, Mami looked around the room. Kaoru didn't have much in the room. A bed, a dresser, an 30 year old portable TV with a battered VCR connected to it. A faded old idol poster above the bed. Mami realized that the music had been coming from the TV, on which was paused a very old and familiar magical girl anime. Kaoru sat down on the bed as if nothing was the matter, "What's up?"
"Uh... Gima-san, were you aware that everyone in the house has been crying?" Mami was a little confused as she had been half prepared for a grief spiraling girl, not the calm and collected girl in front of her.
Kaoru seems surprised before blushing and blurting out, "It's not supposed to be a sad song."
Mami raises an eyebrow. "You don't seem surprised that your singing is having an effect like this."
Kaoru shifts uncomfortably, "I never told you my wish did I?"
Mami nods before prompting: "I think everyone assumed it had something to do with music."
"You could say that," Kaoru pauses to collect herself before continuing. "I wished to have perfect pitch." Mami blinks. "Yeah, pretty stupid thing to waste a wish on. Well, ever since then my singing tends to, um... make people more emotional."
"It makes people sad?" clarifies Mami.
"Well, if the song is sad. Depends on the emotion of the song, you know." Kaoru pauses, "I'll be more careful in the future."
Well that solved the problem, but Mami decides she should probably stay awhile and see if Kaoru wanted to talk about what was bothering her. "I guess you wanted to be like your mother."
Kaoru sighs, "No, actually my mom never cared about me being tone deaf, it was more about my father." Kaoru stops long enough that Mami thought maybe she was done before suddenly continuing. "You, you know my father and mother aren't a.. you know, married, right?" The words spilled out of Kaoru like water breaking through a dam. She didn't even wait to hear Mami's response, "He's an idol manager for a record company. He, well, he's a.. a lot older then my mother."
Kaoru pauses to look at Mami who wasn't sure at all what she was supposed to say or do to that. "Well, I guess there's no real nice way to say it. He was my mom's manager when she was a teenage idol. I think you can figure out the rest." Mami's eyes suddenly shift to the poster above Kaoru's bed, "Naru Gima" was the faded name under the picture, which looked nothing like Kaoru. Maybe it was the heavy makeup and big hair.
Kaoru was smiling shyly when Mami looks back down at her. "She never made it big or anything, just local. Maybe she would have, expect, well, she had me. My father tried to get her to get rid of me, and my grandparents told her so too, but my mom insisted on keeping me. That's why we don't really have anyone else but each other."
Kaoru looks away, "I didn't really know all that until later. I just knew I had a father somewhere in Tokyo managing idols at a record company. I used to dream about entering an idol contest and then meeting him, and he would be so impressed with my voice that he would come back and live with my mom and me. Silly dreams really."
"Then I actually decided to try when I was 15 and old enough to enter an audition being held by my father's company." Mami wasn't sure what emotion the half grin on Kaoru's face was supposed to show. "I kept it a secret from my mom because I knew she wouldn't approve. I had to save up for the train fare. He was actually there at the audition. The look on his face when they called out my name wasn't anything like I thought it'd be. He went white, like he'd seen a ghost. And then I started to sing." Kaoru was back to looking at the wall. "Well that was that. Nobody had ever told me before how bad I was."
Mami tries to console her, "I'm sure you weren't that bad." This just got her a flat look from Kaoru.
"One of the judges suggested I have my throat checked by a doctor." Seeing Mami's horrified face Kaoru rushes to clarify, "I actually think he was trying to be nice." Mami just sighs at that. Kaoru continues, "My father took me to lunch afterwards. He tried to be nice, gave me all the money in his wallet, but I could tell he was really hoping I would leave and wouldn't come back. I think he was afraid of me."
Kaoru looks over at Mami with a knowing grin this time, "That's when Kuybey came to visit. You know, I didn't realize it then, but he likes to approach girls when they're vulnerable." Kaoru flops back on the bed. "Anyway, I wished to have perfect pitch, thinking I would go back and show my father what a big mistake he made writing me and mom off. Of course, then I was so busy just trying to survive being a magical girl I haven't had time to worry about anything else."
Kaoru lets out a long breath, "It's strange, a year and a half ago he seemed like the biggest thing in the world. Now he just seems small and unimportant." Kaoru lapses into a comfortable silence.
Mami was loath to interrupt the mood, but she felt that Kaoru still had some more she wanted to say. "You still haven't told me what brought on the song though."
Kaoru seems to come back from whatever peaceful contemplation she'd been having. "Oh that, well when I got to highschool one of the Glee Club members heard me singing and made me join. I told them I was too busy for club meetings, so I'm sort of a ghost member. They asked me to sing a song for the cultural festival though. I figured I ought to practice."
Mami tilts her head and looks at Kaoru. "Okay, well not really. I mean I did get asked to sing at the cultural festival and I picked this song awhile ago. I mean, you know this episode right? Ami was about to leave, but then decided to stay because..." Kaoru makes a vague hugging motion, "because being together is important, even if you're crying together, at least you're together." Kaoru rolls over onto her stomach, "My mom used to sing this song with me all the time. Then when Kaori left," Kaoru pauses for a moment, "Well the way it's supposed to work is she stays at the last minute, but she didn't." Kaoru hits the mattress in frustration, "She didn't." Kaoru sits up and glares at Mami, "What are we going to do sempai? We can't leave her alone!"
Mami sighs, "I don't know."
Kaoru hesitates before speaking, "I've been thinking maybe I could transfer to Itawa." Mami looks at Kaoru in surprise. "Or even drop out altogether." Kaoru cuts Mami off before she can interrupt, "It's not like I'm going to go to college anyway. Being a magical girl is basically my career now."
Noticing Mami's hesitation, Kaoru continues to press her point, "I'm not as useful here now that we aren't pack hunting all the time." Mami points out that Kaoru is actually good in Pairs and Solo Hunting too. "Well, not as much. If it weren't for Sayaka showing me how to summon those musical platforms, I wouldn't really have the mobility I need to Solo."
At this point a short digression occurred with Mami and Kaoru discussing Sayaka's power set, as Mami hadn't realized Sayaka's power was musically related. She had thought Sayaka was mainly healing with an apparent water theme. Kaoru blushes as they circled back to why she approached Sayaka in the first place, "Yeah, well, I was kind of hoping that with the water theme Sayaka had going and my harp that maybe I could figure out how to.. well you know..." Kaoru's voice drops to a mumble, "A..wa..Rah...s..dee," Mami asks her to repeat herself, and Kaoru turned bright red before speaking more loudly, "Aqua Rhapsody okay, I wanted to learn how to do Aqua Rhapsody."
Mami just starts laughing and laughing. Kaoru keeps saying "It's not that funny," but each time it only makes Mami laugh harder. Finally Kaoru just sat there sulking until Mami finally laughs herself out. Mami couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so hard.
"It's not fair," Kaoru grumps, "You got your ribbons to turn into muskets. I ought to be able to get my harp to shoot a blast of water." Mami fought the chuckles down as she pointed out that the physical differences between sound and water are more significant then the differences between magically hard ribbons and steel. Kaoru looks so put out that Mami promised to take some time to train with her a bit and see what they could make Kaoru's sound waves do. Kaoru became rather excited about getting "a real finishing move like Trio Finale." Together they came up with a few ideas to start with. About then Mami realized she had already spent an hour talking with Kaoru, and she had a lot of other things to do.
As she got up to excuse herself, Kaoru brought up moving to Itawa again, and asked Mami to at least consider it. "I will Gima-san," Mami promised.
As she reached the door, Kaoru spoke up again, "Sempai," Mami turned back to look at her, "you can call me Kaoru."
Mami blinks for a second and then replies, "Alright Kaoru, and you can call me Mami." As she left, Mami reflected how nice it was to have someone she could talk to who didn't see her as a mother. Meanwhile, the more calculating part of Mami's brain added 'idol singer' to the list of possible money makers for the Serene Imperium.
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Whew, that took forever. Now to proofread.
Mami worried as she hurried over to the house. She wasn't sure what was going on this time. Taya had not been very coherent on the phone. Near as she could follow, after saying goodbye to Kaori, Kaoru had locked herself in her room and was singing the same song over and over while everyone else was outside her door crying.
Kaoru was so stable, this wasn't like her at all. Mami was used to counting on Kaoru as one of the more mature girls. Not surprising, as Kaoru was the only other girl as old as Mami. Although, when Mami thought about it, the one time Kaoru had grief spiraled it had taken 4 cubes to break her out of it. Maybe when Kaoru broke, she broke hard.
On her way, Mami reviewed what she knew about Kaoru Gima. While Kaoru was in the same grade as Mami, she had far less time as a magical girl, since she had contracted at an older age then usual. She didn't get to see her parents much. Her father was in Tokyo working as a producer or something. Mami wasn't sure on the details, but had picked up that she better not ask. Her mother worked as a hostess at a night club in Kasimono. Not doing anything sleazy, Kaoru had hastened to assure her, just signing for the customers. Still Kaoru had preferred not to let the other girls know much about her home life, and Mami had understood. As it was, Kaoru only got to see her mother regularly for a few minutes after school when she got home and her mother was leaving for work. With her mother not getting home until early in the morning, Kaoru was pretty much on her own, and had to make her own breakfast. Though her mother usually prepared a lunch for her before going to bed.
Kaoru had been a magical girl for less then a week before Kuybey brought her into the first meeting Mami had for setting up the group that would eventually become the Serenissima Imperium Magicum Puella. (Mami insisted on using the full and correct name, even if everyone else didn't!) Mami remembered her as having been a rather shy and reserved girl, who was usually quiet, but when she did say something it was always something important to think about. Kaoru had gained a lot of confidence since those days.
Some of the other girls had teased Kaoru about her costume when they had their first training session. Her outfit was basically a white leotard with a short skirt, big bows, and a sailor uniform collar. About as stereotypical a magical girl outfit you could get... from the nineties. It was unusual for a magical girl to be so... old fashioned in her uniform choice. When she summoned her weapon and a large harp appeared, the other girls had down right laughed. Mami had felt a strong sense of kinship, remembering when she only had ribbons as weapons. She had even told the story of how she once only had ribbons to the group as a way of reminding them that you never knew how powerful a girl could be.
Despite the amusement, Kaoru had actually turned out to be something of a prodigy. In addition to being able to fire energy spears with the pluck of a harp string, it turned out that Kaoru had a very useful ability to disable and confuse demons over a large area by playing cords on her harp. It was perfect for pack hunting, and had really helped increase the harvest of her groups in those early days. With the added maturity of her age, it wasn't a surprise that Kaoru had soon become a leader among the girls who spent their time hunting.
There had only been two incidents with Kaoru while hunting. Once she had been injured rather badly when she froze up after seeing Hitomi killed right in front of her. That was perfectly understandable. The two of them had been pretty close despite Hitomi being a year younger, and several months more experienced at being a magical girl. In many ways Hitomi had been Kaoru's hunting mentor. The other incident had occurred when Kaoru was uncharacteristically sloppy, and while hunting stabbed Sayaka through the throat with an energy spear. Even though Sayaka had laughed it off, it had taken 4 grief cubes to stop Kaoru from grief spiraling in guilt over the incident.
Mami's eyes narrow in thought. Actually... Kaori had come home all bloodied and injured just a couple days before the hunting accident. Mami had never considered the two incidents connected before, but maybe there was a reason Kaoru was distracted, and perhaps other reasons for guilt besides just the hunting accident.
Kaoru had taken a large interest in the youngest of the girls. She had given both Yuma and Kaori special attention, including some extra combat training, just the three of them. Kaoru would often come by the apartments late at night since she didn't have to worry about a curfew. On a few occasions when Mami had checked in, she had heard Kaoru singing Yuma to sleep with lullabies.
Singing talent must run in her family. If her mother sung anything like her daughter, Mami wasn't surprised that she could make a living based on her voice. In fact, some of the few times Mami had taken some time off to just enjoy life she had spent going to karaoke with Kaoru. It was just nice sometimes to spend time with a girl who was her own age and didn't treat her as a mother figure.
Mami reminds herself to stay focused on the crisis at hand. Still, it might make sense that Kaoru was having some special difficulty handling Kaori moving away. Mami was having a hard time herself. Kaoru had just barely moved into the house, after having finally convinced her mother that it was safe for her to stay and that her mother should move to Kasimono, at least until the water contamination was solved. So maybe there was some homesickness involved as well.
Mami left her musings behind as she arrived and entered the house. Things did not seem as bad as Taya had made it sound over the phone. It looked like all the girls besides Kaoru were in the living room. There was some sniffling going on, and a quite a few hugs, but not the waterworks Taya had described. Mami could hear singing faintly from overhead and to the back of the room. It seemed to end for a few minutes before starting up again. Mami felt herself become a little melancholy listening to the melody, but she shook herself and focused on finding Taya.
Mami soon spied Taya, but she seemed to be the worst of everyone, sniffling so bad Mami wasn't sure it was worth trying to question her. Fortunately Aiko approached Mami on her own and filled Mami in on what was happening. "I managed to get everyone away from the door during one of those pauses. It doesn't seem to effect people as much down here." Aiko seemed cross, which was a strange mixture with her red and puffy eyes. "You need to get up there and tell her to stop. I'll be in the kitchen, I have a couple blueberry pies I have to finish cooking."
Mami decides to leave Aiko to the baking. Aiko has always been pretty good at handling others during grief spirals, though Mami hopes they won't be going through the "nothing but blueberry pies" stage again. Going up the stairs, Mami could feel the melancholy inside herself increasing. Approaching the door, she starts to sniffle. Strangely Mami seems to be remembering a lot of the good times she had with Kyouko, and just feels a sadness that those time are gone. Pulling herself together, Mami knocked on the door, "Gima-san?"
Kaoru stopped singing, and Mami realized now that Kauro had actually been singing along with a CD or something. Mami heard the music pause, and then Kaoru opened the door, looking for all the world as if nothing was more wrong then listening to a sad song for a little while. "Tomoe-san? What are you doing here?" She stepped back to let Mami enter the room.
Entering, Mami looked around the room. Kaoru didn't have much in the room. A bed, a dresser, an 30 year old portable TV with a battered VCR connected to it. A faded old idol poster above the bed. Mami realized that the music had been coming from the TV, on which was paused a very old and familiar magical girl anime. Kaoru sat down on the bed as if nothing was the matter, "What's up?"
"Uh... Gima-san, were you aware that everyone in the house has been crying?" Mami was a little confused as she had been half prepared for a grief spiraling girl, not the calm and collected girl in front of her.
Kaoru seems surprised before blushing and blurting out, "It's not supposed to be a sad song."
Mami raises an eyebrow. "You don't seem surprised that your singing is having an effect like this."
Kaoru shifts uncomfortably, "I never told you my wish did I?"
Mami nods before prompting: "I think everyone assumed it had something to do with music."
"You could say that," Kaoru pauses to collect herself before continuing. "I wished to have perfect pitch." Mami blinks. "Yeah, pretty stupid thing to waste a wish on. Well, ever since then my singing tends to, um... make people more emotional."
"It makes people sad?" clarifies Mami.
"Well, if the song is sad. Depends on the emotion of the song, you know." Kaoru pauses, "I'll be more careful in the future."
Well that solved the problem, but Mami decides she should probably stay awhile and see if Kaoru wanted to talk about what was bothering her. "I guess you wanted to be like your mother."
Kaoru sighs, "No, actually my mom never cared about me being tone deaf, it was more about my father." Kaoru stops long enough that Mami thought maybe she was done before suddenly continuing. "You, you know my father and mother aren't a.. you know, married, right?" The words spilled out of Kaoru like water breaking through a dam. She didn't even wait to hear Mami's response, "He's an idol manager for a record company. He, well, he's a.. a lot older then my mother."
Kaoru pauses to look at Mami who wasn't sure at all what she was supposed to say or do to that. "Well, I guess there's no real nice way to say it. He was my mom's manager when she was a teenage idol. I think you can figure out the rest." Mami's eyes suddenly shift to the poster above Kaoru's bed, "Naru Gima" was the faded name under the picture, which looked nothing like Kaoru. Maybe it was the heavy makeup and big hair.
Kaoru was smiling shyly when Mami looks back down at her. "She never made it big or anything, just local. Maybe she would have, expect, well, she had me. My father tried to get her to get rid of me, and my grandparents told her so too, but my mom insisted on keeping me. That's why we don't really have anyone else but each other."
Kaoru looks away, "I didn't really know all that until later. I just knew I had a father somewhere in Tokyo managing idols at a record company. I used to dream about entering an idol contest and then meeting him, and he would be so impressed with my voice that he would come back and live with my mom and me. Silly dreams really."
"Then I actually decided to try when I was 15 and old enough to enter an audition being held by my father's company." Mami wasn't sure what emotion the half grin on Kaoru's face was supposed to show. "I kept it a secret from my mom because I knew she wouldn't approve. I had to save up for the train fare. He was actually there at the audition. The look on his face when they called out my name wasn't anything like I thought it'd be. He went white, like he'd seen a ghost. And then I started to sing." Kaoru was back to looking at the wall. "Well that was that. Nobody had ever told me before how bad I was."
Mami tries to console her, "I'm sure you weren't that bad." This just got her a flat look from Kaoru.
"One of the judges suggested I have my throat checked by a doctor." Seeing Mami's horrified face Kaoru rushes to clarify, "I actually think he was trying to be nice." Mami just sighs at that. Kaoru continues, "My father took me to lunch afterwards. He tried to be nice, gave me all the money in his wallet, but I could tell he was really hoping I would leave and wouldn't come back. I think he was afraid of me."
Kaoru looks over at Mami with a knowing grin this time, "That's when Kuybey came to visit. You know, I didn't realize it then, but he likes to approach girls when they're vulnerable." Kaoru flops back on the bed. "Anyway, I wished to have perfect pitch, thinking I would go back and show my father what a big mistake he made writing me and mom off. Of course, then I was so busy just trying to survive being a magical girl I haven't had time to worry about anything else."
Kaoru lets out a long breath, "It's strange, a year and a half ago he seemed like the biggest thing in the world. Now he just seems small and unimportant." Kaoru lapses into a comfortable silence.
Mami was loath to interrupt the mood, but she felt that Kaoru still had some more she wanted to say. "You still haven't told me what brought on the song though."
Kaoru seems to come back from whatever peaceful contemplation she'd been having. "Oh that, well when I got to highschool one of the Glee Club members heard me singing and made me join. I told them I was too busy for club meetings, so I'm sort of a ghost member. They asked me to sing a song for the cultural festival though. I figured I ought to practice."
Mami tilts her head and looks at Kaoru. "Okay, well not really. I mean I did get asked to sing at the cultural festival and I picked this song awhile ago. I mean, you know this episode right? Ami was about to leave, but then decided to stay because..." Kaoru makes a vague hugging motion, "because being together is important, even if you're crying together, at least you're together." Kaoru rolls over onto her stomach, "My mom used to sing this song with me all the time. Then when Kaori left," Kaoru pauses for a moment, "Well the way it's supposed to work is she stays at the last minute, but she didn't." Kaoru hits the mattress in frustration, "She didn't." Kaoru sits up and glares at Mami, "What are we going to do sempai? We can't leave her alone!"
Mami sighs, "I don't know."
Kaoru hesitates before speaking, "I've been thinking maybe I could transfer to Itawa." Mami looks at Kaoru in surprise. "Or even drop out altogether." Kaoru cuts Mami off before she can interrupt, "It's not like I'm going to go to college anyway. Being a magical girl is basically my career now."
Noticing Mami's hesitation, Kaoru continues to press her point, "I'm not as useful here now that we aren't pack hunting all the time." Mami points out that Kaoru is actually good in Pairs and Solo Hunting too. "Well, not as much. If it weren't for Sayaka showing me how to summon those musical platforms, I wouldn't really have the mobility I need to Solo."
At this point a short digression occurred with Mami and Kaoru discussing Sayaka's power set, as Mami hadn't realized Sayaka's power was musically related. She had thought Sayaka was mainly healing with an apparent water theme. Kaoru blushes as they circled back to why she approached Sayaka in the first place, "Yeah, well, I was kind of hoping that with the water theme Sayaka had going and my harp that maybe I could figure out how to.. well you know..." Kaoru's voice drops to a mumble, "A..wa..Rah...s..dee," Mami asks her to repeat herself, and Kaoru turned bright red before speaking more loudly, "Aqua Rhapsody okay, I wanted to learn how to do Aqua Rhapsody."
Mami just starts laughing and laughing. Kaoru keeps saying "It's not that funny," but each time it only makes Mami laugh harder. Finally Kaoru just sat there sulking until Mami finally laughs herself out. Mami couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so hard.
"It's not fair," Kaoru grumps, "You got your ribbons to turn into muskets. I ought to be able to get my harp to shoot a blast of water." Mami fought the chuckles down as she pointed out that the physical differences between sound and water are more significant then the differences between magically hard ribbons and steel. Kaoru looks so put out that Mami promised to take some time to train with her a bit and see what they could make Kaoru's sound waves do. Kaoru became rather excited about getting "a real finishing move like Trio Finale." Together they came up with a few ideas to start with. About then Mami realized she had already spent an hour talking with Kaoru, and she had a lot of other things to do.
As she got up to excuse herself, Kaoru brought up moving to Itawa again, and asked Mami to at least consider it. "I will Gima-san," Mami promised.
As she reached the door, Kaoru spoke up again, "Sempai," Mami turned back to look at her, "you can call me Kaoru."
Mami blinks for a second and then replies, "Alright Kaoru, and you can call me Mami." As she left, Mami reflected how nice it was to have someone she could talk to who didn't see her as a mother. Meanwhile, the more calculating part of Mami's brain added 'idol singer' to the list of possible money makers for the Serene Imperium.
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Whew, that took forever. Now to proofread.
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