Season 2
Prologue
“THAT SUCKED MAJOR BUTT,” Kaho said, heaving a weary sigh as she sat alone in her bedroom. She’d happened to be hanging around after school when Renako had called her. That had led to, for some bizarre reason, a squadron headed by Takada Himiko lying in wait to trap Kaho in a maelstrom of violent apologies. They meant well with the apologies, she knew, but being on the receiving end of them demanded a lot of patience. If you asked her, it was friggin’ exhausting.
“Who woulda guessed Takada Himiko and Nemoto Miki had such a fraught backstory?” she said to herself.
She’d gotten home around dusk and then sat down at her desk wondering what to do next. She could read manga or watch anime, or maybe start getting ready for her next big event. Ever since the last cosplay show, her follower count had been really picking up. There’d been some haters making fun of her placement in the competition, but that was nothing compared to the benefits of making a stage appearance. That meant her cosplay motivation was once again sky high. If she put a lot of effort in this year, then maybe she could even make her own photo book at the end of the year or next summer! As a girl raised on manga, Kaho was super into the prospect of making her own book. But above all else, the question begged: would it be a solo photo book or not? If they didn’t end up flying off the shelves, she’d be disheartened…
“Eh, I’m not gonna get ahead of myself!” she said. “All righty, let’s go make some clothes.”
Just as she stood up, the doorbell rang.
“Oh ho.” Come to think of it, she had made plans today.
Kaho stampeded toward the door. Her visitor was a beautiful black-haired girl in an Ashigaya High School uniform: Koto Satsuki. Good, her ankle was doing better.
“Good evening,” Satsuki said.
“Heya, Saa-chan!”
“Thank you for having me.” Satsuki elegantly removed her shoes, lined them up, and stood while smoothing back her hair.
“Ooh…” Kaho sighed.
“What’s that for?” Satsuki asked.
“Girl, you’re freakin’ working it.”
Satsuki looked as if she didn’t have the faintest idea what that meant, but that was par for the course. Koto Satsuki was the sort of person who, by nature, would never have usually associated with someone like Kaho; as such, the two shared little to nothing of a common language. Compared to the manga and anime Kaho consumed, Satsuki’s books of choice were high literature, restricted to the kind found in libraries. She might dabble in light novels from time to time, but she was a long way removed from the internet slang Kaho employed.
“I gotta wonder, Saa-chan,” Kaho said, “how come we get along so well.”
“Where did that come from all of a sudden? Besides, I hardly think we get along so well as all that.”
“Um, rude? But it’s okay. I love seeing you act like this too.”
“Do you? Likewise, I appreciate the amount you pay me for my labor more than anything else.”
If Kaho had to say, she felt their friendship came from the fact that they both could say whatever they liked to each other. It was comfortable to be transparent about the transactional nature of their relationship.
But I wasn’t kidding when I said I love seeing her act this way, she thought to herself.
She led Satsuki to her room and immediately stuffed her into a brand-new outfit. Satsuki had agreed to participate in her next photo shoot, so today was the costume check. Kaho couldn’t help but relish the moment.
“So, whatcha think, Saa-chan?” she asked.
“Well, it isn’t too tight. It fits perfectly, in fact. However…”
Satsuki frowned as she looked down at herself in the new costume and its borderline risqué leotard that showed an awful lot of leg.
“I just feel as if the amount of fabric has shrunk again.”
“Gosh, you think? Well, now that you mention it, the focus of this costume is the faux leather leotard. Because you’re an isekai adventurer. See, Saa-chan, it’s totally you.”
“Ah.”
Satsuki, checking her reflection in the mirror, didn’t seem to be fully satisfied with that response.
Kaho, meanwhile, suffered a mental onslaught from Hurricane Satsuki. Oh god, Saa-chan, she thought. You’re so frickin’ pretty. No one else out there is better suited to wearing these 2D character costumes than you. I can practically hear the costume I made singing Ode to Joy!
She was so excited she was almost licking her lips. Frickin’ overwhelming beauty! The costume brings out the best in Saa-chan, and she brings out the best in the costume! As a cosplayer, I’m hella jelly, but as the costume maker, I couldn’t be happier. I feel like I’m gonna be pulled apart trying to decide between delight and envy!
Kaho moaned in perverted joy. She was quite adept at using her introverted and extroverted personas when the situation demanded each, but on the rare chances when her emotions were at odds—which tended to happen around Satsuki—her inner personality was all too quick to slip out regardless of her efforts to prevent that. As an otaku, Koyanagi Kaho was a real introvert at heart.
“Saa-chan, you should be a cosplayer for realsies!” she said. “You have the talent to steal hearts the world over.”
“No,” Satsuki said. “I have no interest in that.”
“Grr!”
If she’d been talking to Renako, this was the point where Kaho would have instinctively hit her with a rock, but her hands were tied with Satsuki. Holding down a part-time job to assist with her family’s finances made Satsuki the loftiest being under the sun, and for her to scorn Kaho’s beloved world of cosplay filled Kaho with an obscure thrill. Such was the ugly side of being an otaku.
“Oh, Saa-chan, I love it when you’re mean,” Kaho sighed.
“May I take this off now?”
“Wait, can’t I take another 60,000 pictures first?”
“I’m taking it off.”
Kaho grinned, all smiles even in the face of Satsuki’s indifference.
“Say.” Now back in her school uniform, Satsuki fixed her hair as she asked, “Kaho, do you like me?”
“Hm?” What an odd question. The oddness came less from the sense that Satsuki was actively asking something and more from the fact that Satsuki was curious about what anyone else thought of her. Saa-chan always stays in her own lane, Kaho thought. But I guess she’s got a kinda cute side too.
Without any hesitation, she said, “Yeah, totes! I love your face in particular. We totally stan.”
“I see.” There was a beat of silence.
Satsuki looked at Kaho for a moment and then asked, “In that case, will you go out with me?”
Kaho tilted her head. “Whatcha mean by that?”
Satsuki didn’t answer. Instead, she abruptly rose to her feet. “Never mind,” she said. “If we’re done here, I’m leaving.”
“Hey, Saa-chan—”
Satsuki speedwalked away as if trying to outrun her feelings. Kaho watched her go. She understood intuitively that if she let her get away now, Satsuki would likely never bring the topic up again. Kaho didn’t exactly mind, but nevertheless…
“Gotcha!”
Satsuki squeaked as Kaho tackled her around the waist. Both girls fell to the floor together, Satsuki in Kaho’s arms.
Satsuki twisted her head around in anger, a perfectly natural reaction, and spat, “Wh-what did you do that for? What on earth are you thinking?!”
“You can’t just not tell me anything, Saa-chan,” said Kaho.
“Yes, and surely one can’t spring violence on someone out of the blue either!”
Fair.
“Sowwy!” Kaho immediately flung herself prostrate on the ground.
Satsuki sighed, dumbfounded. “Good grief,” she said. “Look at you being ridiculous. I think Amaori’s worst points are rubbing off on you.”
“Very possible!” Kaho sat upright in the hallway and looked up at Satsuki. “So, what was that all about? Oh, I get it. ’Cause me ’n you are the only ones left over in the friend group, you think we might as well date too, right?”
“No.” Satsuki adjusted her hair.