All around her, everyone was busily taking the written part of the exam. Some, like Chiyo and Yomi, seemed relatively sure of themselves. No surprise that the younger girl finished ahead of everyone else, followed by her taller, shapelier classmate. Or that the two of them used the extra time to prepare for the oral portion that was to come afterward.
Kagura was agonizing over the words she didn't know, which accounted for more than half of them. She clutched her paper with one hand and her head with the other, just knowing it was another failure. Slowly she lowered her head til it touched the desk, her arm doing the same. If one listened closely, they'd have heard a sound much like a strangled sob and a whine.
Tomo certainly wasn't stressing over it. She even made a game of it, filling in each blank with whatever word came to mind. She paused to look at her paper with a near maniacal grin. The way she saw it, a couple of them were bound to be right. That way, she could brag she hadn't gotten them all wrong. No time to waste., she thought as she picked up the pace and went back to scribbling.
Which brings us back to Osaka. Gone was her typical blank stare and childish smile. Her brow was furrowed in thought, her mouth a thin crease on her face. For once in her life, she was actually concentrating on something. Something important, something that demanded her undivided attention.
Unfortunately, that "something" wasn't her test, but Sakaki's cute little ears and her tail.
It was the way they twitched every now and then as the reticent girl took her exam. And her tail, it wouldn't keep still! It kept swinging back and forth, like a pendulum, taunting her. Every once in awhile, it would flick then settle back into place and start the whole thing over again. It was maddening! The longer she watched, the more she felt she had to do something. She wanted to touch them, feel them... put them on her own head.
Yeah....
The pleasant thought, perfectly natural in Osaka's mind, brought a look of wonderment to her wide brown eyes as everything else seemed to fade.
Rising to her feet, she proceeded toward Sakaki's desk, prompting the reticent girl to look up from her test paper, curiously. With slow deliberate movement, Osaka reached out using both hands... and detached Sakaki's ears. A startled gasped escaped the Skit Tit's lips, her eyes whiting out in disbelief. Osaka paid her no heed. With her typical smile, she raised her arms, placing Sakaki's ears atop her own head and giggled. That is, until they began to squirm and wiggle about, finally freeing themselves.
The fuzzy white appendages, leapt down to the floor where they skittered to the front of the class and onto the window sill. There, they made something akin to a head motion, as if beckoning to Sakaki's tail. So, it freed itself from her backside and joined them. Both girls watched incredulously as Sakaki's tail bent and opened the window, letting her ears out. Osaka's feeble attempt to stop them came seconds late, ending with the girl tripping over her feet and faceplanting on the floor. She managed to raise her head in time to watch in horror as her tail leapt out the window behind them. Still on the floor, she outstretched her hand calling after them, "Ahh! No! Come back!"
Sakaki rose to her feet with a look of determination and went after them. Yomi and the rest of the class went wide eyed at the spectacle, racing over to join Osaka by the window as they watched the scene unfold.
Seeing that she was giving chase, Sakaki's detached body parts sped around the school's track, apparently having been blessed with the same speed as their owner. Nonetheless, Sakaki was relentless, doubling her effort to catch up to them. She was gaining. Near the halfway point, they gave up on outdistancing her and hopped over the fence with Sakaki hot on their heels. From there, the chase continued down the street, winding back and forth toward the horizon in manner reminiscent of a Tom and Jerry segment. The chase continued til all three vanished from sight.
The rest played out in Osaka's mind like a movie reel. In her mind's eye, she saw Sakaki as an intrepid explorer, braving the endless sea. Then as a high plains drifter in search of her missing parts. On the road, camping out beneath the stars in her never ending quest. And finally, chasing them across the rooftops of London, whose chimneys looked like tea cups. The buildings themselves, resembled blackboard erasers for some reason.
Maybe it had something to do with that piece of chalk sailing toward her head.
BAP!
Osaka blinked, her vision returning to normal as Yukari came into view. The irate teacher was glaring daggers at the girl for not paying attention. Osaka blinked again. Looking around, she could see Kagura still slumped on her desk, Tomo with her elbow propped up on hers, while balancing her pencil across the bridge of her nose. Yomi was mouthing her dialogue and Chiyo was busy rechecking her paper.
As for Sakaki, she appeared not to notice any of what was going on or that Osaka had been watching her. She was too absorbed in taking her own test. For the most part, seeming to have little difficulty. She only paused twice, lightly tapping her chin with the tip of her eraser when she was stumped. Then she figured it out, and went back to work.
In that amount of time, it dawned on Osaka that she'd simply imagined the whole thing. "Oh." was all she said, seeming surprised yet disappointed at the same time. She blinked again before looking down at her own paper which was almost entirely blank. Sadly, the moment she picked up her pencil to begin, Yukari ordered all pencils down and had Chiyo collect the papers.
Watching helplessly as her paper (and her hopes) marched toward the front of the class, she simply blinked and mouthed, "Oh."
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Nyteflite
(Posted Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:29)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.