Day 51

[from StarLight]

It had occurred to Sanae that, having been gone for almost 400 years, Kousen was going to be rather out of touch with modern society, and especially modern technology. While this would be a great source of comedy, she didn't really want to come home one day to find Kousen had smashed open the TV because she thought there was someone trapped inside it, so she felt it would be best to try and give Kousen a crash-course in modern technology.

Firstly, she reverted back to her normal form, placing the White Star Emblem safely on her desk. She had no idea what effect its energy might have on her electrical devices; for all she knew, it might wipe her hard drives or fry her phone's circuitry. With that done, she help up her smartphone for Kousen to see.

"This is a cellphone," she explained. "It lets you talk to other people over long distances. These days you can do all sorts of other things on them as well, like play video games, watch movies, surf the Internet… oh right, you won't know what the Internet is, will you? I gotta show you that!"

"I don't know of these "video games" and "movies" you speak of, either," said Kousen, looking thoroughly perplexed. "And what is "surfing"?"

"Ehh…" A bead of sweat formed on the side of Sanae's face as she realized just how much her familiar had to learn. "This is going to be difficult…"

"You don't have to teach me everything at once," said Kousen reassuringly. "I'm sure I'll pick up plenty of information about this time as we go along. But if you must, try and start with the basics."

"Like what?" asked Sanae. "I know there's all kinds of stuff you didn't have in the 1600s, but I don't know everything that's been invented since then."

"Well…" Kousen looked around the room briefly, trying to find something simple-looking yet unfamiliar that Sanae could explain easily. After a moment's searching, she spotted the lampshade hanging from the ceiling, and the light bulb glowing brightly within it. She floated up to the ceiling, staring curiously at the light source. "What is this magnificent light?" she asked.

"That's a light bulb," said Sanae. "You didn't have light bulbs in your time?"

"Light bulbs…" repeated Kousen. "No. We lit our houses using candles. This lightbulb is far brighter… how does it create so much light?"

Sanae was a little relieved to be asked something with such a simple explanation. "Well," she began, "there's a little coiled-up wire inside, and when electricity passes through it, the wire gets really hot and starts to glow. It's not very efficient compared to more modern designs, but it works."

"I see," said Kousen, nodding as though she understood. A moment later, however, she asked, "What is electricity?"

At this point, Sanae was completely overwhelmed. "Ehh?! You don't even know what electricity is?!" she exclaimed.

"No," said Kousen blankly. "Is it some kind of energy?"

Sanae quickly recovered from her initial shock, thoroughly relieved that Kousen was able to grasp the concept for herself. "Uhh… yeah, basically," she said. "It's a special kind of energy that can pass through metal wires. It's used to power pretty much everything these days. My cellphone runs on electricity, for example."

Kousen floated down to take a closer look at the device. "But it doesn't have any wires," she said, perplexed. "How does the electricity get to it?"

 "We have these things called batteries that can store electricity in them," said Sanae. "I mentioned them earlier, remember? They work kinda like the Emblem does. When the battery's connected to the phone, and it has power in it, the power flows through the wires inside the device and allows it to work, just like how the Emblem's power flows through me while I'm holding it. If you remove the battery, or the battery runs out of power, the phone will stop working. Does that make sense?"

"I see," said Kousen, nodding. "Yes, that makes sense. So the electricity flows through wires to get to the house to power the light bulb?"

"Yep," said Sanae.

"Where does the electricity come from?" asked Kousen.

"Well, there's a bunch of different ways of generating electricity," said Sanae. "Can I explain those later, though? This scene is starting to drag on a bit and the audience are probably getting bored."

"You could continue your explanations off-screen while the scene cuts to something else," suggested Kousen.

"Hey, yeah, good idea!" said Sanae. "Let's do that then."

***

Meanwhile, in one of the three large rivers that flowed through Mitsuzawa, a strange, ominous shadow had appeared beneath the surface of the water. The shadow slowly made its way upstream, headed towards the densely-packed centre of the city. Nobody seemed to notice it, or pay it much attention. Perhaps those who saw it assumed it was a whale, or a dolphin, or some other animal. It was not. It was far worse than anyone in Mitsuzawa, save Kousen, could have imagined.

The shadow advanced along the water's surface until it reached a suspension bridge spanning the length of the river, ferrying cars from one side to the other. Nobody on the bridge could see the dark figure lurking beneath the surface, so even as it began to emerge from the depths, those on the bridge were entirely unaware of the danger they were in.

Suddenly, the water erupted, and out of the river burst a creature the likes of which had not been seen in almost 400 years. It was a gigantic sea serpent, easily fifty feet long, with a large gaping jaw and two long, sharp fangs. As it let out an almighty roar, thrashing in anger, everyone in the vicinity screamed and ran, as people are prone to doing when gigantic monsters appear from nowhere. The bridge quickly jammed with traffic as those on it tried to get clear; finally, those on it resorted to getting out of their cars and fleeing on foot.

The bridge was cleared just in time. The monster, enraged by the screaming, roared once more and slammed its head into the bridge. The bridge shattered under the impact and collapsed into the river, the numerous abandoned cars on it sliding irretrievably into the depths. Those gathered around watched on in horror, especially those who hadn't finished paying off their now-lost cars.

The monster did not seem the slightest bit scathed, despite having slammed headfirst into a heavy suspension bridge. It did, however, continue to roar and thrash angrily, kicking up tremendous amounts of spray as it did so. As the reality of what was happening began to sink in for those watching, various questions began to form in their minds: what was this creature? Where had it come from? What did it want? And who was going to stop it before it caused any more damage? What the city needed right now was a hero.

***

Conveniently, the city already had a hero. Inconveniently, she was currently occupied with other matters.

"This is a television," said Sanae, waving her hand at the device. "Did you have plays back in your time?"

"We did, yes," said Kousen. "They were the pinnacle of entertainment."

"Well , you can think of a television as being like having hundreds of theatres in your own home," said Sanae. "Each theatre is called a "channel", and most of them run 24 hours a day. As well as plays, or "programmes", they show documentaries - those are programmes about real-life things - and news programmes that tell you what's going on in the world. They're great for both entertainment and for learning things."

 "I'm not sure I understand," said Kousen, looking puzzled. "This small box is a theatre? How do the actors fit inside?"

Sanae had seen this coming a mile off, but even so she still facepalmed quite hard. "There's nobody inside it," she said. "It's electronic, like my cellphone." Sanae thought for a moment about how to explain the inner workings. Uhh… did you have flipbooks in your time?"

"No," said Kousen.

Sanae sighed and nodded. "Right… well, how television works is, a series of static pictures are transmitted to it through the air, one after another, like electronic portraits. The television then shows these pictures one after the other, really really fast, and it looks like the pictures on the screen are moving, but actually it's just a bunch of still images. Does that make sense?"

Kousen looked thoroughly mystified. "Not in the slightest," she said.

Sanae sighed again. "I'll just show you, then." She turned on the TV, and by sheer coincidence, was just in time to catch the start of what appeared to be an emergency broadcast.

"We interrupt this programme to bring you an urgent news announcement," said the news anchor in a serious tone. "What appears to be a gigantic sea monster has emerged from the river in the centre of the downtown area, demolishing a bridge and sending dozens of cars plummeting into the depths. Nobody is thought to have been killed or injured, but as the strange creature continues its rampage, fears of a city-wide catastrophe are starting to spread-"

Kousen's technology-induced confusion rapidly gave way to concern. "So, it's begun already," she said. "Monsters are starting to converge on Mitsuzawa. You'll have to teach me how this device works another day, Sanae. Right now, your destiny awaits."

Sanae nodded innocently, then suddenly did a double take, an expression of shock emerging on her face. "Waitwaitwait… I have to fight a giant freaking sea monster?!!" she exclaimed. "I can't fight a giant sea monster! I only got this Emblem an hour ago! I don't even know how to use it!"

"I know how inconvenient this is for you," said Kousen. "I personally would have liked to have been able to teach you how to harness the Emblem's power before the first monsters appeared. But I guess it can't be helped now. I'll have to explain how to use it on the way there."

"You mean I'm really going to have to fight it?!" cried Sanae. "But I'm not ready! What if it kills me? Oh God, I can't die in Episode 1! I'm the protagonist!"

"Don't be so concerned," said Kousen. "With the power of the Emblem flowing through you, your endurance will be far greater than that of any ordinary human. That monster may be huge, but it'll be no match for you, even with your lack of experience. As White Star, it is your duty, nay, your destiny to defeat that monster, and defeat it you shall! This city needs you, Sanae Hikari. This storyline needs you."

Sanae nodded, her confidence returning. "You're right," she admitted. "It might be tough, but I'm an anime protagonist! I can probably do anything! I might fail the first couple of times for comedic or dramatic purposes, but I'll always succeed in the end, because the protagonist never loses! And even when they do, they always win the second time!"

Sanae switched off the television and strode over to her desk. As she gazed upon the White Star Emblem, she could see her determined face reflected in its shining surface. She was ready - at least mentally - to face her destiny, and kickstart the series' plot. All she needed now was a fancy catchphrase to yell as she transformed. She thought of one quickly, then swiped the Emblem from off of the desk and held it high above her head. "White Star: Transformation!" she yelled, and once more she was engulfed in a blinding white light.