My Normal Life Now Has A Karaoke Marathon

The lights on the cameras flickered off, and Tama patted the space next to her. “Okay, you’re good. Just—hey, I was gonna tell you not to eat that!”

Tama swatted Sarine away from a plate of wings, Sarine swatting back until Tama sighed, resigned herself to her fate, and nabbed a can of green tea as a concession before throwing herself against the sofa.

“Um—are you sure you don’t want a turn?” Chiho asked, mic dangling in her grip as her other hand scrolled through the song selection.

Tama waved Chiho off, tucking herself on her side. “Nah. You’re having way more fun with it anyways.” That, and she already took a bet with Sarine over whether Chiho could get through every single PreMure opening without forgetting any lyrics. She needed that two thousand yen for lunch tomorrow, damnit.

Chiho smiled and went back to singing. It almost made Tama sick with how perfect her pitch was, even though the other girl insisted she’d never been formally trained, oh I only sing in the shower sometimes and so happened to overhear my younger brother watching even though his classmates make fun of him for it, he still wakes me up every Sunday to—

“Tama?”

She blinked. “When’d you start using my first name?”

“It’d be weird if I didn’t!” Sarine yelled, pouting. “We’re not strangers.”

“Yeah, but…” Tama sighed. “Nevermind. It’s fine. So, what’s up?”

“I’m thinking about what happened in the training chamber,” Sarine said, grimacing when Chiho finished yet another PreMure opening without skipping a beat, queuing up the third-to-last song instantly. “The…resonation?”

“Is that what we’re calling it?”

“There’s no way you have a better name.”

“Can you give me a chance to suggest something before shutting me down!?” Tama turned onto her back, burying her face in her hands. “I mean—sure, fine, I guess that fits. It just feels like…you ripped it from a manga, though.”

Sarine landed on Tama’s chest, tucking her wings in. “Is that bad?”

“Well—yeah. ‘Cause that means I’m living the life of a manga protagonist, and they’re always getting up to weird stuff, so they become weird, everyone around them is infected with the weirdo magnet disease…”

“I think it’s too late to start thinking like that,” Sarine said, rolling her eyes. “Seriously, though, we need to talk about this. You can’t stay with Ohzora forever. What if your parents suddenly drop by and see you’ve left the place a mess? Or you might get in trouble for not living in the place your family’s paying for.”

Tama stared at the ceiling. Though she agreed to live with Chiho while they figured out what to do about the weird supposedly special magical phenomenon the human-faerie duo conjured up, she hadn’t thought much about the long term implications of it. She hadn’t planned for how her mother might react if she learned her daughter moved out.

They wouldn’t like it. Mr. and Mrs. Kimura tended to not like a lot of things about Tama, if they bothered to look for anything at all.

“We can talk about it with Chiho,” Tama said. “Maybe Society Prime can make an illusion of me…?”

Sarine stared. Tama shook her head, grumbling: “Yeah, you’re right. Stupid.”

“At least I didn’t have to say it,” Sarine said. “But I don’t want you to get hurt, okay? So don’t do anything stupid like say ‘I can totally look after myself, I’ve done it for years’.”

“I can totally—hey! Shut it!”

Sarine smiled. She reveled in her pride at reading her companion like a book for all of a few seconds before remembering what they’d been talking about in the first place. “I don’t want to make you change your life. But…I dunno. This is way harder than I thought it’d be.”

“Than you thought what would be?”

Sarine jumped, turning to face a bright-eyed Lavi. “What’re you guys talking about?” Lavi said.

“Oh—yeesh, you scared me,” Sarine said. “We’re trying to figure out our magic problem. Or at least find a solution that isn’t ‘hide at Ohzora’s house and hope the problem goes away’.”

“Right, right.” Lavi pouted. “I get that kind of thing isn’t easy for humans, even if Chiho’s the kindest, most perfect roommate anyone could ask for.”

“Yeah, I—” Tama began, but nothing slowed down the tide of adoration pouring out of Lavi as she flushed redder than a ripe tomato.

“Since the day we met, she’s treated me with kindness I’ve never known before! Um—of course I grew up with good friends and supportive people. but Chiho understood exactly what I wanted from life. She’s a great cook, she’s kind to every living creature, whenever she steps on bugs she buries them in her garden and grows a flower in their honor, she lets me take days off whenever I want and thanks me for my help before I go to sleep—”

Tama covered her ears, looking over at Chiho as she belted out the last chorus to the last song. She uncovered her ears to whoop and cheer.

“You,” Tama said, grinning, “Owe me money.”

Sarine gestured to herself. “I don’t have pockets.”

“Then why’d you make the bet in the first place!?”

“I got caught up in the moment, okay? It’s your fault!”

Chiho finally broke from the spell of magical girl anime openings, blinking with complete innocence. “What were you two betting on?”

“…What you’d wanna eat when you’re done?” Tama said, forcing a smile as Chiho beamed with joy and slid next to the other girl, Tama slipping back into an upright position to make room for her.

Chiho picked up the menu. “Can I have a pizza? I’m famished—and…I’ve also never had one before.”

“Can I share it!?” Lavi landed on Chiho’s shoulder, kicking her legs. “Splitting a pizza with Magical Girl Yearning Yuriko might become the happiest moment of my entire life!”

She patted the little faerie on the head with her index finger. “I’m sure you must have plenty of other happy memories…”

“Your first?” Tama nudged Chiho. “What’re you even gonna pick?”

“Uhm…Um…” Chiho pursed her lips, falling silent. Though she spent several minutes deliberating over the three entire choices the menu offered, after working her brain to near death, she collapsed against her seat.

And, with her last breath…

“Tama, please…order for me…”

“Hey, hey, I’ll just get you cheese, so stop dying on me!!”