March 4

Ryōō High School, 9:30 AM

Kagami stopped in front of the gates to her school, ignoring the people walking past and instead focusing only on the four-story tall building.

"I've spent three years at this school, but I'm already starting to miss it.." She took in the smooth gray walls and the narrow windows. Her gaze didn't miss the grounds in front of the school; she watched the cherry blossoms float free of the trees, blanketing the sidewalk with pink dots.

A presence by her side snapped her out of the trance the scene had put her into. She looked at the person who was standing there with her, and smiled.

"Konata," she said. "This is the last time we'll be coming here as students."

"It feels different, doesn't it?" Konata glanced at her.

"When we walk off the grounds today, we'll be legal adults," said Kagami.

Her companion said nothing, but she didn't mind. It was one of those moments where words served no purpose. Anything that was important didn't need to be said.

Kagami was broken out of her thoughts by a tug on her arm. "Hey, Kagamin. It's weird if we just stand here, let's go."

"Oh, yeah.. wait, don't pull me like that!"

As Konata pulled Kagami towards the entrance of the school, two more people followed after them at a more reasonable pace. Tsukasa Hiiragi giggled at the sight of her older sister being dragged along by the shorter girl.

"They get along really well, right Yuki-chan?" She smiled at the person walking next to her.

"They're more compatible than anyone else I know," Miyuki told her. A smile formed on her lips as she looked back towards the school building.
"We're graduating from high school today. This is the day that we take our first steps into our adult lives. Shall we?"

"Yeah! Let's go, Miyuki!"

Line Break

Ryōō High School, 1:20 PM

"Listen up, you previous third-year students! You're now officially young adults, free to do whatever you want in the world." Some of the students cheered at this. The blonde woman who was speaking waited for the cheering to die down before she continued.

"Congratulations on graduating! Let your parents know that without your wonderful teacher, you wouldn't be sitting here today. I prefer money and alcohol, but I'll accept any sort of gift you want to give me," she laughed off all the stunned looks she received. "In all seriousness, good job you guys. For the most part, you guys passed with pretty good grades. Some of you cut it a bit close, but nobody from our class actually failed this year. Isn't that great?"

Nanako didn't wait for an answer. "As you all know, graduating from high school is an important part in your life. Like I said before, you can do whatever you want whether it's in Japan or in another country. That includes committing crimes, getting drunk, and having access to adult-rated entertainment. Hopefully none of you are planning to do so, right Izumi?"

"Right, teach!" Konata grinned, not at all surprised or embarrassed to be put on the spot so suddenly.

"Right. In all seriousness, you guys better know where you're going from here," she tilted her head back and laughed again. "College, university, work, living in your parents' basement for the rest of your life. I won't judge your choices, so decide for yourself what you want to do. And one last thing.."

Her lighthearted demeanor vanished and her eyes narrowed into a glare that panned the classroom. "If any of you go and get engaged, do not ask me to come your weddings. I will start a fire just so I can burn the invitation." Some of the students' reactions including averting their eyes, nodding fearfully, and swallowing dryly. Konata was the only one who met her teacher's gaze with an audacious grin.

"Kuroi-sensei! Please come to my wedding!" She yelled out, putting her hand high in the air. Every pair of eyes in the classroom turned to her.

"I'll think about it," the teacher eventually said. Then all of a sudden she smiled, breaking the tension that her glare had formed.
"Okay, you guys know what to do. You're free to find your friends, leave campus, whatever. Now, this is probably the last time you guys will hear this from me, so enjoy it or leave it:

"Class dismissed!" She announced, smiling at the momentous feel of the words as they left her mouth. The class reacted immediately; chairs scraped the floor and hands went up as students cheered over their freedom. Half of the classroom made a beeline for the door, while the rest met up with their friends and hugged and high fived and cheered some more.

Konata waited for a couple seconds to let a couple groups of people past her, then she stood up and made her way over to Tsukasa's desk, where two of her friends waited for her with expectant smiles.

"Group hug!" As soon as she was within range, she instantly latched onto Tsukasa and pulled her into Miyuki, then squeezed both of them in a nearly-suffocating embrace.

"H-hey, Kona-chan!" Tsukasa protested but she started to giggle as she returned the gesture.

Miyuki beamed, but her voice was as calm as it always was. "Let's not forget about Kagami-san.."

"Oh yeah, she's probably going to be here any second. I should tackle her as soon as she walks in!" With a sly grin on her face Konata let go of her friends and positioned herself at the door. After a couple seconds of waiting, the door slid open and in walked her target.

Konata lunged forwards with her arms outstretched, but she found herself being lifted up off the ground and squeezed tightly.

"Got you!" Kagami grinned, shifting Konata's body so that instead of having her in a bear hug, the otaku was slung over her shoulder.

"Hey! Put me dooooown!" The smaller girl complained. "That's not fair, you can't do that!"

"Says who? Let's not forget who started it," Kagami chuckled. She walked over to where Tsukasa and Miyuki were watching the incident, setting her cargo down on top of a desk.

Konata huffed and crossed her arms. Her annoyance was all in good fun, and it only took a couple seconds for her to pick up her normal behavior once again.

"Hey guys!" The newcomer greeted her friends with a wave and a smile, like she always did. "Congratulations!"

They chatted idly about school and graduation, and how it felt no different than before. Not enough time had passed before the public announcement system sounded, alerting all the students that the school was closing soon.

"We'd better go. Are you guys planning anything? Maybe we can go out, or all meet up at one of our houses," Kagami suggested. It might have been the occasion, but she was more excited to hang out with her friends than she normally was.

"Ah! We should go eat at that cake restaurant! The one that we go to pretty much all the time!" Konata offered. She looked around her circle of friends and saw no resistance. "We could always do other things too, but I think we should eat together. To celebrate the event, and later we can all go to a bar and drink!"

"Maybe we should avoid the bar for now, but I think that's a good idea. Tsukasa-san, Kagami-san, what do you two think?" Miyuki was the first to speak, which was a somewhat uncommon thing in the group.

"I'm.. fine with everything except the bar," Tsukasa laughed nervously. Kagami nodded, a serious look on her face, and she gave her girlfriend a threatening stare. To avoid being on the receiving end for too long, Konata coughed and turned away.

"Ah, no objections? Let's go, then! Our first group date as non-minors awaits us!"

Line Break

Izumi Household, 11:50 PM

"Good night, Konata!" Sojiro whispered, freeing a hand from the sleeves of his robe to wave at his daughter, who in return smiled and also held up a hand in farewell.

"Night, dad. See you tomorrow." Turning, Konata gripped the handrail and climbed the stairs leading to the second story.

Out of spontaneous curiosity, she approached a different room and opened the door as quietly as she manage. Peeking inside, she smiled at the sight of her cousin resting in the bed. "Yutaka is already sleeping, huh?"

Konata retreated back to her own room, where she closed the door and made directly for her bed. She let herself fall forwards onto her mattress with a relieved sigh.

"Ahh.. I'm exhausted. Celebrating is so tiring!" Her face stayed planted in her pillow for a couple moments but eventually she needed air.

Rolling onto her back, she put her hands behind her head and took a deep breath. With the exception of her own breathing, there wasn't a sound to disturb her.

Konata continued to stare at the ceiling for about a minute, at which point she began to feel restless.

"Grr.. I don't feel like doing anything, but at the same time I'm so bored!" She groaned. Even though her computer was the first thing that came to mind, she dismissed the idea. "Servers are under maintenance, and I don't feel like browsing the internet.."

She sighed out of frustration, then sat up and crossed her legs. Of all the ways she could've ended the day, she was sitting in her room without motivation to do anything.

"Come to think of it, Kagami is already packing her stuff.." Konata thought back to an off-handed statement that had been made earlier that day.

"Hey, Kagamin!" She turned to the person she was addressing.

"What's up Konata?" Kagami put her chopsticks down and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"Wanna come over to my house today? My dad is making dinner and he wanted to know if you were gonna be there," Konata told her.

"Tonight.. Sorry, I can't," the purple-haired girl's face fell. "I have to pick out what I'm going to bring with me to college, and I then I have to help Tsukasa, and then there are things like shrine duties.."

"Oh.. That's okay. We can- wait, already?!"

"Well, yeah. I don't want to leave it until the last minute, then forget things. You know, you should start getting ready too. This is important, you know!"

"Okay, okay.. I'll start thinking about it.."

Konata blinked a couple times and shook her head as the memory ended. She looked around at her room, which was filled with all of her possessions. All of her possessions.

"Wow.. I have a lot more stuff than I realized," she muttered as she scanned the room. Her eyes landed on several side-by-side stacks of manga and light novels that almost reached her own height. That collection was located right next to her bookshelf, which she used to store even more books and also her collection of figurines and everything else related to her favorite fandoms.

As she took in the contents of her room, her heart sank at the sight of her collection in all its glory: huge, comfortable, and somehow organized. "There's no way I'll be able to take all of this with me."

She had seen this coming, but the reality of it still hurt- a lot. It wasn't easy to come to terms with the idea of leaving behind the things that she had spent her whole life on. Konata looked down between her knees, hopelessly wondering if there was any alternative.

"I can take a couple things with me, right? I'll just choose what I want to bring.." She told herself. But immediately she knew it wouldn't help much; there were too many things she wanted to bring with her, and she knew that if she picked them out first then there probably wouldn't be space for the necessities. "Nn.. I guess I'll have dad help me out later."

She sighed again. It seemed hopeless- no, it was hopeless to keep this part of her lifestyle the same. There was no way in existence that would allow her to keep all of her possessions with her as she moved out.

The hopelessness gave way as she realized there was more to the situation than her belongings. When she moved to whatever dormitory or apartment she would live in for her college years, she would no longer have her family around to keep her company.

A tear formed in her eye, but she didn't even notice until it dropped onto the back of her hand.

Blinking in surprise, she wiped it away and shook her head. "No, I won't be alone. I'll have Kagami, and maybe Tsukasa, and maybe Miyuki. Even if they live far away, I can still keep in touch with them, and I can keep in touch with my dad and Yutaka and her friends too."

A lot of things were going to change. She had just realized it, but she knew it was a definite. Her life never really stayed the same for a long time, and it could even be divided into arcs: infancy, toddler, elementary and middle school, high school, and now college. She smiled at the thought of it. "I should be the main character in a slice of life or something like that."

Her life was definitely changing. High school was over, and college was coming up. She wasn't exactly sure how much was going to change, but there was one thing that was resolute.

"Well.. Time for me to get real. I'll have to put on my serious face."

End

A/N

I want to thank everybody who had reviewed, followed, favorited, or even just read this story. Every one of you means a lot to me, whether you read a couple chapters or the whole thing, whether you liked it or didn't like it. I'm grateful for everything, because as a writer I have a lot of room to grow. All of the comments, compliments, and criticism help, no matter how short or how detailed.

Special thanks to Gigarot, who's been following my story for a while, and Redler Red7, who doesn't necessarily follow this story, gives me a lot of feedback on my other work. And thanks to every other reviewer, even though they aren't mentioned, has helped me grow in some way or another. That includes growing my ego.

There may be some issues with the site that have caused a couple reviews to go "missing." I couldn't find them anywhere, even though I got an email notification. Don't worry, I haven't ignored you two- I just couldn't reply. Thanks.

And guest reviewers, I guess I owe you guys some thanks. Excluding the guy who just wanted a lemon, I still read your reviews and think about them, even if it doesn't show.

All that aside, this story is over. Thank you for coming. But who knows.. Maybe it'll have a successor? If you're interested, make sure to follow me as an author. You'll know it when you see it.