Chapter 22

Akira finds a new female friend with Aoi. Little does Akira know or suspect that finding such friendship and shipping with Aoi will set off Rumi's jealousy like a wildfire.

## Features of This Chapter

### Time Line

One day, at the very beginning of the new school year

### Transition Milestones

Akira is agreeable to wearing the female school uniform for Jr. High, a sailor suit with a pleated mini-skirt.

### Relationship Evolution

Akira actually has more in common with Aoi then she does with Rumi. A sure setup for a misunderstanding.

### Lessons Learned

Akira seems to understand that one can have many intimate female friends without any trouble or jealousy. Rumi needs to learn that very lesson.

ORE GA WATASHI NI NARU MADE ( UNTIL I BECOME ME )

CHAPTER 22 OF THE MANGA (REVISED ENGLISH TRANSLATION)

(Part 2 of the Friendship Lost to Friendship Regained Story Arc)

## Previously

It is the first day of middle school. Akira is ready, all dressed up in her new, clean middle school uniform of that of a sailor suit with a short, pleated skirt. Mom insisted that Akira wear the male school uniform, but Akira would have none of that. She is on the road to being a girl, and will not backtrack! At school, Akira is in the same class with most of her girl friends from sixth grade. However, there are new girls to meet and befriend. Complex social circles of friends and schoolmates are being quickly formed. Akira and Rumi are still shoujo ai (girl-with-girl romantic couple), but Akira meets a new girl who has more in common with Akira than does Rumi. Not to mention that the new girl is a tomboy.

## This Chapter's Story

At lunchtime at school, the social circle of friends, including Rumi and Akira, almost always eat their bentos together. At this lunch, Akira quietly thinks to herself that it seems as if the new girl, Shion-san, has blended into the group rather quickly and easily. Today, all the girls, including Shion, are talking about getting hand-me-down clothes. Shion comments that she almost never likes the clothes that are given to her, as they are not her favorite fashion style. However, Akira dismisses herself to go to the girl's bathroom. As she walks there, she tells herself that she honestly is not good about getting along with Shion. Shion really gets on her nerves. Then again, the other girls in the social circle get along with her just fine......could it be that ***I*** (lit. *Ore*{masculine}) am the only one having trouble in becoming sociable, including with Shion ?

In the girl's toilet, Akira meets another new girl, Fujiki-san. The new girl immediately makes the offer to call her by her first name, Aoi (a first name usage means intimate friendship). The two girls talk privately. Out in the hallway, Aoi exclaims to Akira that she knew it, Akira used to be a Duel Oh! King (Yu-Gi-Oh!). That was a long time ago, however. Aoi then asks Akira to come over to her place this afternoon. She explains that her dad and brother are both hardcore geeks. As such, she is geeky, too, but doesn't have any female friends that she can hang with and talk to. Akira asks herself if there really are girls who like boy]s stuff, like Duel Oh! ?

" I'll go! ", exclaims Akira.

That afternoon, after school, finds Akira at Aoi's home. In Aoi's bedroom, Akira is told to sit on the floor anywhere. However, notes Akira, the floor is littered with all manner of stuff, and the room looks like it needs a necessary and complete cleaning ! Nevertheless, Aoi randomly tosses off her backpack onto a pile of whatever, and breaks out two decks of Duel Oh! cards, giving one to Akira. Akira found a (relatively) clean place to sit down. Aoi suggests that they play a match ! **GAME ON !**

    During the game play, the competition becomes heated, but the play remains friendly. Akira carefully remembers to repeatedly call herself **'Watashi'** (lit. *I,me,my* {feminine}). At the climax of the battle, Akira summons up her long ago hero, "Mannish Man" to defeat Aoi's cards. **" I lost! "**, exclaims Aoi, as she, in her school uniform, rolls backwards onto her back without thinking, and inadvertently shows Akira her white panties, underneath her pleated mini-skirt. "Akira, you're so good at this!", exclaims Aoi. Akira says that she was just given a strong deck to begin with! Akira confesses that she wants to begin to collect the cards again and get back into the game play.

Suddenly, the door to Aoi's bedroom swings open, and her older brother yells at the two girls that they are being (supposedly) too loud ! Both Aoi and Akira apologize. "You with a friend?", quips Kouta, the brother. When the door closes, Aoi bluntly tells Akira that she thinks that Akira caught her brother's eye, from seeing her when she entered the house. Akira insists that he obviously does not like ***me*** (lit. *Watashi*{feminine}), not at all. Aoi says that he does like her, because Akira is a beautiful and attractive girl. Akira moves on by remarking that she was surprised that girls, like you, Aoi, like boy stuff like Duel Oh!. It seems so weird. Aoi says that she was teased and ridiculed for liking those very things. Akira thinks to herself that she suspected as much from Aoi. Aoi is a tomboy, and firmly believes that it doesn't matter who you are or what you like. Aoi was told by family, and others, to 'be more feminine, do feminine hobbies', over and over. But she can't do that. Not at all. You don't have to be ultra-feminine, just because you are a girl, Aoi offers to Akira.

Akira goes silent for a while, as she thinks about what Aoi just said. Akira recalls many of the past times when others would tell her how to act and what to like, both as a perceived male, and then as a girl. Akira concludes that maybe ***my*** (lit. *Ore*{masculine}) thinking about herself was, in some ways, wrong, if she thought that she should conform to what others say about her. She felt that she had to give up all things that she preferred as a boy, and embrace many things that were foreign to her as a girl.

While Akira was arguing with herself, Aoi was rummaging around her disorganized and unkempt room. Finally, she finds what she was looking for---

"Wanna watch this DVD of *'Mannish Man'* ?"

"Sure!", says Akira with a smile on her face.

"It's okay to like things like this!", remarks Aoi.

## Chapter Lookback, Commentary, and Opinion

Akira comes to the stark realization that she has more in common with Aoi then she does with Rumi. But one can have multiple friends of various levels of commonality and intimacy, can't one ?

## What Manga Fans Are Saying About This Chapter

**Noy\_Telinu / 28 days ago**

I really wonder what would have happened if these two [Akira X Aoi] met first ?

**daijiob / 29 days ago**

Reminiscence of the Yu-Gi-Oh days!

**YuriHeimurinn / 30 days ago**

That's right, I love Fujiki-san, you don't have to do what you don't want to [just] because you are a girl.

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(Click on Chapter 23 to be taken to the next chapter.)

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