One late night, Yukari turns up at her best friend Minamo's house. This is not surprising to Minamo. Yukari frequently crashes at her house in the middle of the night. What is surprising is Yukari's state. She's bruised, her clothes are torn, and she looks like an all-around mess. To make it worse, she's completely oblivious to her own condition. Yukari can't remember what happened to her or even why she turned up at Minamo's house. She's too high on drugs to know much about what's going on,
Control
is an Azumanga Daioh fanfic by Teris24. It was first published in 2004. Control revolves around both Yukari's downward spiral into drug abuse and Nyamo's feelings towards Yukari.
No relation to the 2007 Ian Curtis biopic or the Remedy Entertainment game.
Control provides examples of:
- Afraid of Needles: Yukari hates needles, which is why she never tried injecting drugs until the start of the fic.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: The man Yukari buys drugs from is laidback. Yet, he pushes drugs onto Yukari, kisses her without her consent, allows men to to rape and beat her up while she's in her drugged state, and also rapes her himself.
- Alternate Universe Fic: The story takes place during the series, with Chiyo and the others being present, yet Yukari is away from school for most of the fic. This didn't happen in canon, making it an AU work.
- Arranged Marriage:
- Yukari's parents are in an unhappy arranged marriage. Their personalities don't mix and, as a result, they argue a lot.
- In high school, Nyamo was set up with a boy named Yukio. It didn't work out between them due to Incompatible Orientation and his own abusive nature.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Nyamo notes that her and Yukari's relationship is full of belligerent sexual tension: They're constantly fighting yet she always guessed there was a mutual attraction.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Nyamo finally finds Yukari she beats two men nearly to death with nothing but a crowbar, her fists, and the barrel of a gun.
- Cerebus Retcon: Some of Yukari's behavior is due to either drug abuse or an implied emotional/mental health problem.
- Child Hater: Yukari isn't fond of little kids, or anything else cute and innocent. They make her feel vulnerable.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Yukari's excuse for her injection mark is that she delivered blood to a blood bank the previous day. She passes off her bruises as being due to her defending a senior from a robber.
- Dark Fic: Control takes a fluffy comedy like Azumanga Daioh and turns it into a dark drama. Yukari is drug addicted and ends up involved with bad people who abuse her, amongst other things.
- Dead Fic: The fanfic itself is finished, however its planned sequel never came to be. The story just ends on an ambiguous Bittersweet Ending.
- Domestic Abuse: In high school, Nyamo dated a boy named Yukio for a few years. She wasn't interested in boys, but her parents pushed them together. He started out a good boyfriend but quickly his negative traits became apparent. He was possessive and emotionally abusive. He also sexually abused her. Nyamo ended up dependent on him, and stayed with him despite the abuse, until they eventually broke it off in an unclarified manner.
- Driven to Suicide: Sick of her life and running from gangsters, Yukari drives herself and her two passengers off a pier. Yukari quickly regrets it due to her fear Dying Alone in a lake, but she's saved by the guys who were chasing her. If Nyamo hadn't appeared, they would have murdered her.
- Eye Scream: Yukio's left eye pops out of his head when Nyamo slams his gun into his face. To make it worse, a cat ate the eye.
- Fell Asleep Standing Up: Yukari caused a scandal during her first year of high school when she splashed the vice principal with water. What actually occured was that she was made to hold water in the hallway, but she fell asleep standing up. The vice principal noticed her and accidentally spooked her awake. Yukari accidentally splashed him with water when she awoke. Gossip Evolution led to exaggerated versions of the story, such as Yukari intentionally splashing the vice principal with chemicals.
- Forced Out of the Closet: As a teen, Yukari found one of Nyamo's secret love letters to a female student and threatened to out her as blackmail.
- Gayngst: In high school, Nyamo suffered from a lot of Internalized Categorism and was insecure in herself. She stayed in an abusive relationship due to this insecurity.
- Generation Xerox: Yukari is practically a miniature version of her mother. They have the same look and same volitaile personality.
- Keep It Foreign: Control uses the English dub's usage of this trope by making Yukari a general language teacher. She can speak at least a small amount of French, Italian, and German.
- Manchild: Lampshaded in the first chapter. Nyamo notes that Yukari is essentially an overgrown teenager and it's a wonder she's qualified to be a teacher.
- No Name Given: Yukari's drug dealer is called "the dealer". It isn't late into the story that his name is revealed as Hyang-sung Horikoshi.
- Omniglot: Yukari can speak at least four different languages.
- Resolved Noodle Incident: Chapter 20 deals with the series' "love letter" Noodle Incident. As it turns out, in high school Nyamo wrote a love letter to the Class Representative. Yukari found the letter and used it as blackmail, knowing that Nyamo's reputation would be ruined if anyone found out that she liked a girl.
- Salaryman: Yukari's father was a salaryman. He used his job as an excuse to stay away from his daughter and wife.
- Slash Fic: Control is a Yukari/Nyamo fic. Most of the fic revolves around Yukari's drug addiction, but her romantic relationship with Nyamo also plays a major part in the narrative.
- Sleepyhead: Deconstructed. Yukari sleeps in class because of her drug habit and poor sleep schedule.
- Stepford Smiler: Yukari's chipper attitude and laidback behavior hides her crippling insecurities.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Nyamo's abusive ex-boyfriend Yukio is implied to have been only 13 or 14 when they began dating.
- Wham Line:
- In chapter 21, a doctor talks to Nyamo and refers to Yukari:
"Well... she's pregnant."- In chapter 28, the dealer's name is revealed:
"Are you Mr. Horikoshi?" Hyang-sung Horikoshi?"
