Clannad Another Story:Another Story1
Copier's Note: This is not a translation, well, actually, it is. I found the Japanese Drama Audio for this on YouTube (FREE RESOURCE) and decided to copy the translation word by effing word (not really). I have no part in the translation or creation of this chapter. Seeing as this is the only chapter not protected by copyright laws...I'll steal it ^^
This was done as a storage space to hold/promote the novel for fan purchase.
Bring out your Courage[edit]
It was the first day of my third year. I raise my head to look at the class listings in front of the faculty room. I...am still unable to start a conversation with any of my new classmates. After class, the school corridor was very busy, full of students preparing to go home.
"Ah! Here, Kimura-san. This is our classmate sitting in the front row!" The two of them looked at me, waiting for an introduction.
"N-Nice to meet you. My name is Furukawa Nagisa...ehehe." I put on a smiling face and greeted them.
"Kimura-san and I plan on checking out the department store after school, would you like to come with us?"
"Um..." I still hesitate. "I'm not allowed to loiter after-school, so I plan on going straight home." I said my decision.
"Come on now, there's nothing like that these days. Come on, let's go!"
"Hmm..." I...still hesitate.
"Don't worry! It'll be fine!" They were really pressuring me.
"Then...today is fine...I'll go with everyone!" I close my eyes and answer.
"Ahaha, such a formal answer! You need to lighten up!" Kimura-san laughed while looking at me.
"You're a really interesting person, Nagisa-chan!" Even as we were walking, I was still the subject of discussion.
The three of us entered the department store, looking around excitedly... "Ah...my heart is beating so fast...If we get discovered by a teacher, we'll be punished for sure..."
"Don't worry, there are tons of students wearing our uniform here!"
"Oh, hey! This dress isn't bad at all! It might really suit Nagisa-chan! C'mon, try it on!"
"But I'm just so nervous..."
"You can't buy it if you don't try it on, now can you?"
"But it's okay...I can tell it fits just by looking..." I said.
"Just try it on!"
The dress was pushed to my chest. Sighing, I moved into the changing room. Right after I finished changing and opened the room door, I heard a loud whisper.
"The teachers are here...Hurry and run!"
"Huh...Wha-Wha~?"
And just like that, still wearing the dress with its price tag, I ran. Afterwords, I found out that it was only a prank. Still though...it was really fun...
"So...what are we doing?" I asked, take a look at the court yard sign.
"Helping to prepare the welcoming of new students," said Sunohara, hammering.
"Why are we doing this...?"
"This is punishment."
"Why are we being punished?"
"Because I was seen hiding behind a curtain during class."
"So...you're an idiot," I said.
"You're wrong! My success was guaranteed 100%! Not even God nor the Devil could have figured it out! But...that Kyou...'Sensei! Why are there feet below the curtains?' and she gave me a nasty look!"
"That's because you're a dumbass...Hey...why am I here?"
"Aren't you a truant too? You're just as guilty!" he said.
"I was clearly basking in the sunlight in the courtyard. To compare me with someone who hides behind curtains is unacceptable."
"Arg! Gah! I've had enough of this! Why does someone like me have to make a sign for new students?" Sunohara angrily threw aside the hammer.
"But isn't life about making choices? Whether you want to cut class or make trouble is up to you. Still, you ask yourself afterwords why you're being punished."
"Hey...Okazaki...how about we set a trap?"
"A trap?" I asked.
"Yeah...we can shock all the new students. To show them all that delinquents like us exist even here! To show them all how much this school sucks! How about it?"
"No, well...it might be a good idea..."
"All right! But first, let's finish this hammering! Be enthusiastic!"
"You're quite responsible for a delinquent, aren't you?" I said.
The sky was getting dark by the time we started going home. Kimura-san had already parted with us.
"You too Nagisa-chan! Get someone to hang out with us after-school tomorrow, okay?" The girl encouraged me as she was leaving. It was very loud.
"Mm," I nodded lightly.
I can gradually become friends with this girl, and even Kimura-san, because...from now on...we are classmates. I'm sure of it. I thought about this as I walked back alone.
I enter the door of my home...a bakery. We were closing shop early that day.
"Welcome home!" Mom stopped what she was doing to welcome me back.
"I'm back!"
"Welcome home! Well, is there anyone you know in your class?" my dad, who was smoking, asked, stopping his steps to face me.
"No...everyone has been divided into different classes."
"Oh, how about new friends? Have you spoken to any of your seatmates?" my dad asked.
"Not at all..."
"Ugh...why didn't you create a topic? Introduce yourself, 'Hello, everyone! It is I, the cheerful and loavable Nagisa. It is so nice to meet you! I'm so excited!" he said in his high pitch voice.
"That's not right..."
"But you have to at least look that cheerful."
"When I was in second year, I was also like this. I couldn't converse with any of my classmates. Maybe it will be the same this year..."
"That's because you didn't introduce yourself to anyone until it was too late."
"In other words, how about you find an opportunity to start talking?" Mom interjected to help me out.
"Well...yes...but if there isn't anything like that, I can't talk..."
"Then let me, your father, give you some top-secret advice!"
"Really? Is there really such a method!?"
"Of course! Haven't you ever accidentally called your teacher 'mother' by accident? Well, take advantage of the humiliation to call her 'Mother of Ultra'"
"Please, no more..."
"Wait! Let me finish what I was saying! Using this method, rumors will spread like wildfire! 'Could it be that Furukawa-san is related to a superhero? Could it be that she can transform? Please do it for us Furukawa-saaaaaaaan!'"
"I'll go prepare dinner," I said.
"Eh..?"
The next day was Saturday. It was just after first period. The two girls in front of me were talking with each other. One of them forgot the name of a popular mascot character. She pondered it loudly. Ah! I remembered it! But the girl in the last row shouted it out before I could. I sigh softly...Why is it always like this? I have to think of a way to create a chance...an oppurtunity...I think desperately.
Mother of Ultra...Furukawa-san, are you, perhaps, related to a superhero?
I fervently shake my head.
"Huh?" The student across from me gave me an odd look.
"Ehehe..." I just laughed nervously. After a while, she just went back to her conversation with another classmate. I'll just prepare for the next lesson.
In the end, I'm still unable to converse with anyone on that day...
"...Why do I have to do this?"
"Huh...? To make confetti."
"Ain't that obvious?"
Sunohara and I are cutting pieces of colored paper.
"What I meant was, 'We already finished the sign, right? So why are we still doing this?'"
"That's because we have to make our trap. Go get that Kusudama (party ball, open it up and let random items drop out. Japanese tradition as seen on Super Smash Bros. Melee), it should be dry by now."
"I feel like we've already become quite the irresponsible senpai already," I said.
"Don't be stupid! Where's the harm in using a simple disorganized method to shock our kouhai?"
"What shock?"
"Err, no, it's a greeting. Just a greeting to let our kouhai know that their senpai have no understanding of conduct our good manner."
"Whatever, just hurry it up."
"Once we're finished, there'll be a strip of paper hanging from the kusudama!"
"That's quite the shock..." I said sarcastically.
"And what is to be written, you ask? 'The Sunohara-Okazaki Combo, by Yoro Shiku!' How's that!?"
"There are too many tsukomi holes in there. In short, don't write it."
"Then 'Youhei and Tomoya Duo is the Greatest by Yoro Shiku!'"
"That doesn't even make sense..."
"Don't complain! How about YOU write it then?" He shouted.
"Why do I have to write it?"
"Then 'Sunohara-Okazaki Combo & Omega Tribe with J-WALK featuring Southern Metro Frontier by Yoro Shiku!'"
"Just hearing it makes me wanna die."
"Then leave the metro part out!"
"No, actually, removing that doesn't change it much."
"Then YOU write it"
"...Fine."
I grab the pen reluctantly, feeling that I was easily tricked into writing it.
"After this word scroll reveals itself, THAT thing will fall down?"
"Yeah!"
"Then this is fine."
We placed the finished paper strips into the Kusudama and finally sealed it. After that, I watch Sunohara hang it from the second story gym railings.
"Say..."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"No one is really going to pull it..."
Right there in front of me hung a string and attached to it was a sign that read "Please pull! Something Amazing will Come Out!"
"Alright then...I'm looking forward to seeing the students' reactions in two days! Ahahahahahahahaha!!!" Sunohara's laughter echoed through the gymnasium.
It was Monday. The day of the new students' entrance ceremony. After homeroom, the class immediately went to the gym. Because I'm always alone while walking, I attract a lot of attention, which makes me feel bad. 'Let's go together," why can't I say this?
Ah...if tonight's dinner is croquette, say, fried potato chips...and what's the complement to that again? Fried lotus roots? Yeah, that sounds good. I encouraged myself by thinking about what dinner would be, when, finally, I arrived at the gym.
The entrance ceremony itself was quiet, but I could hear students chattering over the seats. There were some first year students covering their mouths and yawning as well, maybe because they had already talked too much. Back when I was in their place two years ago, I felt too nervous to yawn. When the headmaster's speech was finally over, the year representative, a girl with glasses, made her speech. After that, the new students walked in ceremony along the flower decorated path. It was followed by a welcoming applause from the families. It was time to go back, and I was still alone.
The kusudama was there, hanging from the gym railings. It had yet to be opened.
"No one...has pulled it yet..."
Sunohara was there beside me, getting fidgety.
"Who would actually pull that thing, they'd have to be an idiot."
"Don't tell me that those freshmen are smarter than me..."
"That's because you're the dumbest."
"...No...wait...there's someone standing below it."
I glance over to where Sunohara is staring, and sure enough, there is a girl standing underneath the ball.
"A first year? No, she's from that third year class that just got out, isn't she?"
The girl extended her hands.
"She wouldn't...?"
...She pulled it.
With a big bang, the ball burst apart and confetti fluttered all around her, then came the word scroll that was put in there, and finally...
She was hit in the head and collapsed on the spot.
"Hey...Okazaki..."
"...it was a really stupid thing to do."
---
When I woke up, I was laying in bed. Beside me were classmates I recognized. Two people who sat in the front row.
"Um...your name is Furukawa-san, right? Are you okay?"
"Ah...yes, but my head hurts a little. Not too badly though."
"I heard it was someone's prank, an iron pan. We were watching from behind when it happened, thought it was funny and laughed a bit. Sorry about that."
"It's okay, I was the one that was careless."
"You really are an interesting person, Furukawa. A while ago, you were like a puppy. All alone and shaking your head."
I realized my face was going red. However, I decided that I would surely speak. Otherwise, I'd have to apologize to Really-Complex-Kanji-Name-Person that gave me this valuable opportunity. I began to talk with my classmates. Because from that kusudama fell a written scroll of paper that gave me the courage to step forward.
"Fear not difficulty, diligently strive forward...by Yoro Shiku."
