MIS:24: Friends

Synopsis

Chiaki, Belial, and Verity continue the tour without Nagisa. Chiaki's mind wanders as they go, and she notes that her present company is much more pleasant than Honoka and Ai were back home.

Author Notes

This section contains copyrighted content by Jocelyn Samara DiDomenick.

A little flashback into Chiaki's school life here. Apparently, things have always been a little rough for her when it comes to other people. The style of bullying from Ai and Honoka is somewhat based on what I dealt with a lot as a kid, where they act nice and sound interested in the things I'm interested in. And then, because I'm the way I am, I'd fall for it every time and get excited and start gushing about it because I think they're being genuine, only to leave myself wide open to be laughed at. It's made it hard for me to open up about things I like for a good chunk of my life, and I've only really started being able to do it again as of my 30s (and I still have moments where I hesitate to open up). That stuff really sticks with you. :/

Chiaki at least had Fumiko to keep them reined in, but not all of us are so lucky.

All things considered, these new kids - albeit "not entirely human" in this strange new world - seem pretty nice, at least.

And on a lighter note, I'll add that it's actually a GameToy Color (as opposed to the original GameToy). You can tell by the side angle shots, where it flairs towards the lower half of the unit. And Minimon Argent is a play of Pokemon Silver in this case, if it wasn't obvious. If you're familiar with my work with Rain you probably expected the "bland name product" names. But I guess this is the first confirmation; if I'm gonna do it in one comic, I'm gonna do it in all of 'em! XD

Transcript

This section contains copyrighted content by Jocelyn Samara DiDomenick.

Chiaki is thinking to herself:

Chiaki Koizumi:
Things carried on with just these two. Nagisa-san never came back.

Chiaki Koizumi:
I was just starting to feel comfortable too. At first, it scared me a little to be around these not-entirely-human girls.

Chiaki Koizumi:
But beyond the obvious differences, they were pretty normal. Like, shockingly so. They kinda reminded me of my friends back home.

Chiaki Koizumi:
Well… my only friend was Fumiko, really. But they reminded me of Fumiko’s friends.

Chiaki Koizumi:
Honoka Ishii.

Chiaki Koizumi:
And Ai Nakano.

Chiaki Koizumi:
They didn’t look like they’d really be friends, but apparently they go way back.

Chiaki Koizumi:
And they seemed to bond over the mutual enjoyment of harrassing me.

Flashback to April 2000:

Aika Nakano:
I can’t believe you brought that GameToy to class, Chiaki-chan. What are you, a grade schooler?

Honoka Ishii:
What are you playing, anyway?

Chiaki Koizumi:
Oh, uh… It’s Minimon Argent.

Aika Nakano:
Minimon? Are you serious? My 7 year old brother is into that.

Honoka Ishii:
Ha ha ha! Maybe you should hook her up with him. It’s not like she wants to date anyone else.

Fumiko Tanikawa:
Guys, stop making fun of her. Chiaki-chan’s allowed to like whatever she wants.