Work Text
Another unfortunate day of being caught. She sighs. Binders, tight blindfold and the smell of imminent death. She sits there and ponder to herself. Will there be a day that history will not repeat itself? Well, it isn’t like she could escape from the situation she’s in, so she decides that keeping her body absolutely still is for the best. Maybe she will wait till an idea or a rescuer comes by, she thinks. Yeah, that will be much better. Chances come by much more often at night anyway. Nobody will blame her for being tired. Not when she is alone. And she has always been alone. She hums a little to herself. So a small nap on the wet mud it is. Or- maybe not. Cold water splashes onto her before she actually manages to get into a comfortable position. “Oi! Have you already given up?!” She groans. It seems that her saviour has arrived a little too early. She was just about to catch a few winks that she didn’t manage to in the previous few days.
For goodness sake, will this rescue plan make any difference taking place five minutes later?
“Get up! We have to get out of here, fast!” She is forced onto her feet, but not without much pain. A strong grip is literally trying to tear off her left arm and she isn’t a little bit pleased. “Be gentle with me, woman! I can walk by myself!” A hand pulls off her blindfold and Kaotan can finally see again. Bright white light filled her vision, allowing her to register familiar faces. And obviously, the one holding onto her has to be the one she is most accustomed with. “Dasu?! What are you doing here?” “Can’t you see we are trying to save your a*s!” Minarun voiced out from a corner, while fending off a kidnapper’s attack. “You guys are rescuing me?” Kaotan don’t know whether to be confused, worried or touched. But seeing how everything slows before her eyes, the sight in front of her amuses her. Churi is literally clinging onto someone, screaming into his ear, while Kocchan is sucking his hair with a vacuum cleaner. Suzuran is aggressively poking nipples? Ew. It’s disgusting and useless. But it manages to distract the bandits, before they get KO-ed in the face with a golf club. All thanks to Rara, of course. Yuzuki is shouting baseball chants while taking a swing at every nearby bad guy she sees. The way Yuzuki bats… makes Kaotan proud somehow. And looking over to Jurina… why isn’t anyone not surprised she is trying to chokehold the man with a wrestling move? Well… Ouchan just backflipped five times before kicking a man in his groin. Kaotan wants to clap at the incredible feat, but her hands are still tied behind her back. Pride wants to swell in her heart so badly after witnessing how hard of a fight her teammates has put but a violent pull at her binded wrists snatches her focus instead. Dasu is dragging her away from here. “Oi, we will not let ‘em punks take you away!” This time Kaotan realises it is Makiko. She is here. It must have been entirely her plan after all, this rescue mission. To think they are her friends who all grew up staying in the same old dusty academy. She recalls the times back then when she announced that she would leave their tiny village for the big city to become a secret agent. Everyone supported her innocently as per usual, even though they didn’t have a single clue what a secret agent is and how she could possibly turn into one.
It’s okay, I don’t really understand what you mean but you sound cool, Donchan would say with profound excitement in her eyes. Only Makiko, their current head, knew and was aware the dangers behind it. She did warn Kaotan, knowing the many city's perils, others targeting her for stealing information and betrayal wasn’t going to be uncommon. And it is all true, Kaotan admits. During her time as a spy, she has received many scary threats and near death experiences. But now she has finally retired and decided to go home, the last thing Kaotan is really expecting is for her childhood friends to be the ones to come out to help her out of sticky situations. “You guys are risking you lives, for me…?” It is at that moment Kaotan would have been moved to tears, had the extra unnecessary tug from Dasu annoyed her more. And also… the oncoming vehicle that seems to be heading her direction. Tani pulls over a large muddy van out of the blue, inches before crashing into Kaotan and Dasu. Kaotan recognises the van to be stolen from her father’s garage. “Tani can save time later for the chit-chat, but Tani doesn’t want all of us to die!” Kaotan wants to say that Tani’s words probably don’t apply to her or Dasu since she almost sent the both of them to heaven but is timely intercepted by Dasu. “Now, get in!” The shove Dasu gave her would have easily made Kaotan conclude that she is probably getting kidnapped for the second time, had she not accounted the fact that these people are her friends. Besides, the rescue has been feeling much worse than an actual kidnap since the start- with her hair, face and body filled with a scent you can only find in Tani’s room. “A’ight kids! Let’s withdraw from here yeah!” Makiko’s shout is like music to her ears. Too bad she hates music. And that is why Kaotan hated what Makiko said. Because the last thing she could ever recall from this dream was ten more other kids forcing themselves to squeeze with her in the back seats, before Tani swerves the entire van away. ~ Kaotan doesn’t want to open her eyes if the first thing she sees is Masana’s face less than five centimetres away. “You are finally awake, Kaotan!” Masana pulls away though, and claps excitedly. “I almost thought we needed to call the ambulance~ I’ve got Jurina to grab her phone just in case.” Kaotan wants to scold the grandma for exaggerating but she realises that she cannot sit up without her body aching. It really is- that bad. “I almost thought you died!” A slap on her shoulder however, almost threatening to end her life even earlier than her current injury. It is Mikotti, who is still wearing her pink strawberry themed dress from her earlier performance, stuffing a banana into her mouth. “You blacking out made Oshirin cry too.” Kaotan doesn’t turn to see but she can hear Oshirin sobbing at a corner of the room. As much as she feels sorry for making her members worried, she doesn’t have much of a choice to feel sorry for herself more for having to suffer under their antics. She has gotten into an accident and blacked out, but because she is the main character of the day, they wouldn't leave her alone. Yuasa manager strolls in with bread in his mouth after another member informed him about Kaotan waking up and he goes off munching irritatingly in front of her. Kaotan wants to make him leave for being so bothersome, but he probably had news for her bandaged up ankle so she had to swallow most of her words. “So what now, Manager-san? Did the medic staff mention anything bad?” “Mm-they said, excuse me- *cough* almost choked back there, mm…” He licked his fingers, and smiled at himself with content. Until he realise Kaotan isn’t that amused with him. He shrugs off her glare and went straight to the point. “They said you will be out for three weeks.” The entire room gasp in shock for Kaotan and their oldest pinches the bridge of her nose. A sigh of exasperation left her lips unwittingly. To think that if only she noticed the ice cube on the floor earlier that day, she literally wouldn’t have ended up in this state!? “Does that mean her birthday stage is delayed?” Oshirin comes by with hands to her face, eyeliner streaming down her face. Yuasa manager nods while stroking his beard in contemplation, and Oshirin cries harder. “I think so. Though I am not entirely sure…” “Manager-san! What do mean you are not actually sure?!” Kaotan is about to throw hands at how the manager is not actually treating this seriously. Yuasa manager shrugs again and it is threatening Kaotan to explode. But just before she can do that, a hand reaching out to hold hers, dissipating her anger almost quite immediately. “Well I am only glad… that the graduation concert ended without problems today, Kaori-san.” Kaotan thanked the heavens that Egochan, the angel of the group, is still angelic, untainted by her crazy older members. She said it too soon, however, when Masana scoots over to the angel and hugs her. “Oh Egochan~ you have grown up!” Masana voices out, evidently very sadly. “Unhand her, Masana-chan!” Jurina screams in response, and Kaotan can see jealousy pouring out of her eyes. To make things worse, Akisun has entered the scene to cuddle with the poor angel, making Masana and her the two most tiresome guests. Kaotan regrets a million times for inviting them over. And for the final time, Kaotan wants to scream for all of them to get it together. However, something else held her back, when she realises another sleeping angel is lying beside her. As much as she doesn’t want to scare her awake, it is all but too late. Yunana opens her eyes from her short nap and Kaotan is ashamed that this child has to bear witness to the mess her members made. “Kaori-san, you are awake.” Yunana mentions with a gentle yet cheerful tone, somehow genuinely relieved her senpai is alright. “That’s right, Yunana. I am okay.” Kaotan tries to pat the little girl, using her most tender loving glance. Yunana smiles at her with a crinkled nose, and giggles in satisfaction. This makes Kaotan most content about the situation, despite all that is going on in the background. But somehow, this also makes her start to feel a little crestfallen. Kaotan is reminded that this is the last time she is going to be in the spotlight like this.
Sigh, I really wouldn’t mind for this moment to last a little longer…
And with that everything suddenly stops. Time doesn’t really stop, but the members literally froze and stared at her. Kaotan is not used to this, with this sudden serious look everyone is giving her. It was then that Kaotan realises she has accidentally said her thoughts out loud. She doesn't think it will mean anything but the members starts to get emotional. “We will miss you too.” Dasu comes by to say, tears welling in her eyes. “You know that SKE will never be the same, right? Without you, everything changes.” Kaotan wants to disagree, thinking that whatever Dasu said was just exaggeration but a huge hug envelops her before she can say anything and she sees it is... Ruka?? "Don't go." The Ruka she knows doesn't behave like this. Thinking that the girl is just sad, Kaotan tries to return the hug, but more arms start to embrace her instead. Nao? Nacky? Reona? Yuki? Even Ryoha?? The owner of one more pair, Kumachan, has dig herself particularly into Kaotan’s sweaty costume, as though it really is the final time they will ever see each other. Kaotan wants to laugh, is the world really ending? “We will meet again.” It isn’t a request, but much more of a declaration from Sakipon, while Kaotan is obliged to nod in agreement, knowing that the other kids will pester her if she doesn’t react that way. "We definitely will, guys..." She knows something has just gotten in their heads, and for now she cannot refuse their advances. In fact, she is weak against sincerely messages for her. It is then that she noticed that they all start to gather near her, and Kaotan realises that everyone probably all want to give the same message for her. Perhaps she did make an impact. She wants to shed tears again. The last member, Makiko, who have been sitting by the wall the whole time, finally stood up. It is always the captain who would deliver the last words. “Thank you, Kaotan. Truly n’ sincerely, happy graduation. We will remember you!” Kaotan laughs nervously which is unlike herself, but it is because she is never used to everyone yearning to get her attention. Still she takes the words of gratitude and keeps it in her heart. “Thank you everyone too. Thank you for your hard work.” For a long day of craziness, Kaotan is just glad. Maybe because she is satisfied leaving an impression. Or maybe it is because she finally understood that they all cared for her. Whatever it is now, Kaotan is happy. Even while she sits there for rest of the night, letting the younger kids swoon over her, Kaotan takes this time to reflect. How will she fare after this? What will she want to do? Many thoughts pass her mind but still, she is has always been sure of one thing. Knowing herself well enough, eventually, Kaotan will look back. Eventually, she will miss them too. Eventually… she will want to come back. She is leaving SKE physically, but off the stage, she will always be there for them. Kaotan is graduating and all she wishes now, is to remember this forever.