Day 231

[from StarLight]

Upon arriving back at her house, Sanae tossed the Emblem onto her bedside table and then gratefully flopped down onto her bed. "Finally," she groaned, "I can get some sleep."

Not a moment later, Sanae was jolted awake by a terrible crashing sound coming from outside. "Another monster attack!" she cried out. "I'll take care of this!" Snatching up the White Star Emblem, Sanae transformed into White Star for the second time that night and threw open her window ready to fly out, only to realize that the crashing sound wasn't coming from a monster, but from a set of roadworks right next to her house. She couldn't remember the roadworks being there before; maybe she'd just been so tired during her first excursion that she just hadn't noticed them.

Quietly putting down the White Star Emblem and powering down, Sanae leaned out of the window and shouted, "Hey! Would you mind keeping it down? Some of us are trying to sleep!"

"Sorry," called out one of the workers in response, shutting off his jackhammer. "This is the only time we can work without causing any major travel disruption."

"You're causing some major sleep disruption!" retorted Sanae.

"Sorry," said the man, "but we're not stopping work just for one person."

Sanae pouted angrily. "Well, fine!" she shouted, slamming her window shut. "Have fun escaping from the next monster attack, because I won't be helping you!"

As Sanae stormed back to her bed, the crashing sounds started anew. Kousen felt that she should probably try and calm her master down. "Sanae-" she began.

"Not now, Kousen," said Sanae, before flopping back down onto her bed. "Ugh… I'm sure if I get tired enough, I'll fall asleep no matter how loud it is…"

***

Sadly for Sanae, this did not transpire, and the sound of the roadworks kept her up all night long. By the time the infernal crashing sound finally ceased, it was morning, and sunlight was streaming in through her curtains. The exhausted girl had bags under her bloodshot eyes, and her hair lay in disarray. As the glorious silence washed over her, she let out a weary sigh.

"At least they've finally stopped working," she groaned, closing her eyes. "Now maybe I can get a short nap in before my-"

A shrill beeping noise interrupted Sanae as her alarm clock went off. Jerking upright, Sanae shot a tired glare at her alarm clock and then slammed her hand down on the Snooze button. "Stupid monster," she snarled. "If it hadn't showed up last night, I could've slept through those roadworks and gotten a decent night's sleep! But nooooo, it had to show up at two in the morning! Now I gotta go through the whole day on just two hours of sleep! Sure, maybe I shouldn't have stayed up so late playing Medal Gear Salad V, but-"

"Uhh, Sanae?" interrupted Kousen.

"What?!" barked Sanae. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of an angry monologue here?"

"My apologies for interrupting you," said Kousen, "but shouldn't you be getting ready for school?"

Sanae let out a grunt of discontent and slipped out of bed. "Today is not going to be a fun day," she said.

***

Sanae managed to get ready for school as normal, and met up with Amaya at their usual spot. Amaya seemed shocked to see her friend in such a state. "Damn, you look terrible," she remarked. "Were you up all night playing Medal Gear Salad V?"

"No," said Sanae. "Well… I was up late playing it, but then I got kept up by roadworks for the rest of the night."

"Wow, that sucks," said Amaya. "Well, remember a couple of episodes ago when I was super-tired and had to sleep in class? You should just do that!"

"Yeah, I guess I should," said Sanae. "Say, that reminds me. Wouldn't your mother have been playing Medal Gear Salad all night as well?"

"Nah, she already completed it somehow," said Amaya. "I think she must have played it for about three days straight without sleeping. I dunno how she does it."

"Me neither," said Sanae bitterly. "I'd love to be able to go one day without sleep, let alone three."

"Trust me," said Amaya, "no you don't. It's not worth it."

Sanae nodded lazily. "So… sleep through class, eat lunch, sleep through lunch, go home, sleep some more… sounds like a good day to me."

"Yeah," said Amaya. "Sounds good to me too. I just hope we don't get a-"

***

"Pop quiz!"

The whole class groaned as Inaba-sensei started to hand out the surprise test papers, and Sanae groaned loudest of all. While this would mean fifty minutes of peace and quiet for her, it would also mean she'd have to be awake for the whole lesson in order to fill in the paper, and she was not very pleased about being kept awake yet again.

Actually, she thought to herself suddenly, I don't have to stay awake for the whole lesson! I just have to stay awake for as long as it takes me to complete the test! In other words, if I just fill in whatever answers I want without looking, I'll get it done in five minutes tops and I can sleep in silence until second period starts! Sanae, you're a genius!

With a flourish, Sanae put her plan into action. Her pen danced across the answer sheet with unwarranted gusto as she scribbled whatever nonsense came into her head into each answer box in turn. [AUTHOR NOTE: imagine Light writing in the Death Note, but every word is "cabbage" or "tissue paper". That's what I'm going for here] In a matter of minutes, the paper was complete. It's done!, Sanae thought triumphantly. Now I can rest… Without a second thought, Sanae folded her arms across the desk, rested her head upon them, and fell fast asleep, certain that when she woke up, she would be feeling refreshed and ready to face the day.

***

"Ugghh…"

This, suffice it to say, was not what transpired. Instead, when Sanae woke from her nap at the start of second period, she felt even worse than she had done beforehand. She now felt groggy, thirsty, and had a throbbing headache, and her exhaustion felt like it had merely intensified. How could this happen…? she thought to herself. How could sleeping actually make me feel worse? What kind of hellish nightmare am I trapped in…?!

Day 224

[from StarLight]

Sanae's parents had decided to surprise her with a visit one afternoon. It was five o'clock as they arrived at the house, so they knew she would be home from school by now. They did not, however, expect to find their daughter fast asleep on the sofa, happily dreaming.

"Aww, look at her," said Sanae's mother. "All tuckered out from school."

"I'll go and bring her down some blankets, so she doesn't catch a cold," said Sanae's father.

Sanae's mother decided not to wake her daughter. Instead, she sat by her side and silently watched her sleep. Actually, it sounds kind of creepy when you put it like that, she suddenly thought to herself. I guess I shouldn't do that. Hmm… I wonder what happened today to make her so exhausted…

***

FIFTEEN HOURS EARLIER

"Sanae! Time to wake up!"

Sanae's eyelids slowly slid open in response to Kousen's quiet but shrill voice. She blinked drowsily, looking at the mentor with unfocused eyes. "What time is it?" she moaned groggily.

Kousen peered curiously at the digital alarm clock. "Two-hundred and fourteen," she said.

Sanae rolled over, pressing her face against the pillow. "I'm not waking up at two-fifteen in the morning," she mumbled.

"You have to," Kousen replied. "A monster has appeared on the edge of town, and it's your duty to fight it before it causes serious damage."

"I'm not fighting a monster at two in the morning," muttered Sanae. "I'm tired, and as an anime protagonist, I need my beauty sleep."

"What's more important, your beauty or the safety of Mitsuzawa's inhabitants?" asked Kousen indignantly. Sanae's response was to throw a pillow at the youkai's face. "Sanae-"

"You go fight it, if you’re so eager," mumbled Sanae.

With a weary sigh, Kousen seized Sanae's hand, which was dangling off the edge of the bed, and tried to pull her off. "You're fighting this monster," she stated, "and that's final."

"I'm not fighting it," retorted Sanae, "and that's final."

                                                                                                ***

"Time to let the… light of…" White Star's head lolled forwards and then promptly jerked back as she tried to stay awake. "Oh, what's the point of saying the catchphrase if there's no-one awake to hear me say it? I mean sure, there's the readers… all twelve of them…"

Having essentially been dragged out of bed by Kousen, Sanae had transformed into White Star, drowsily flown over to the suburbs (narrowly missing several tall buildings) and was about to confront the monster, a large black bird with a ten-foot wingspan, razor-sharp beak and flaming red eyes. "Well, I guess you're here too," White Star added bitterly, looking the bird in the eye, "but I doubt you give a damn."

The bird's response was a shrill cry, followed by a direct swoop right at White Star's head. White Star dropped down by about ten feet a split second before the bird's beak sliced through the air right where her head had been. "Be careful, Sanae!" shouted Kousen, watching as ever from the sidelines.

The bird circled round, preparing for another attack. "Don't worry," said White Star, "I got this." She lazily raised her wand, pointing roughly at the bird. "Star Shower!"

A series of glowing stars sprayed out of the end of the White Star Wand. Every single one missed, bouncing off a nearby skyscraper and dissipating. "Did I get it?" asked White Star, a second before the bird's beak slammed straight into her stomach, carrying her with it. "Nope. Didn't get it," she wheezed.

Other than being severely winded, Sanae was unharmed, but certainly none too pleased about being hit. "Alright," she growled, "now I'm tired, pissed off and in pain. Big mistake, feathers." White Star jammed the end of the wand into the side of the bird's head, and growled, "WHITE STAR BEAM!"

A blinding white light exploded in the night sky, and the monster was incinerated, its Black Heart falling to the street below. Sanae, carried by the bird's momentum and the force of the blast, was sent flying backwards, clutching the Emblem for dear life. Kousen caught her comfortably in mid-air. "Sanae, are you alright?"

White Star's head continued to gently sway back and forth as she tried to stave off her tiredness. "I think I… got 'em that time…" she mumbled. "Which way is bed? I need bed…"

Day 220

[from StarLight]

The strange black blob in the distance turned out to be exactly that: a black gelatinous blob about twelve feet in diameter, with no discernible features. As it rolled through the streets it engulfed everything in its path, mostly just parked cars. Fortunately for the city's residents, the blob creature only seemed to travel at about walking pace, and so everyone in the vicinity was easily able to outrun it, although what exactly would happen if it did engulf them was unclear. The vehicles absorbed into its mass merely hung suspended inside it, slowly tumbling end over end.

As White Star soared above the streets full of fleeing pedestrians, their heads turned skywards and their panic dissipated. "Go, White Star!" cried one businessman, raising a fist that was still holding his briefcase. "Destroy that blob!"

White Star looked rather bemused at the sight of the monster. "A giant blob?" she remarked. "Really? Don't tell me the writer's run out of monster ideas already? What's next, a floating blue octahedron? More to the point, where's its weak spot?" White Star start to fly in circles around the blob, trying to find some point on its gelatinous surface that was perhaps weaker, but it was no use; it was identical from all angles, save for the accumulation of cars and debris now building up inside it. With each item it absorbed its size increased slightly; it had grown perhaps three or four feet since it had first appeared downtown.

"It's no use," conceded White Star after her dozenth circuit, "this thing doesn't have any weak spots. Plus I'm getting dizzy, and I still need to say my catchphrase." She stopped for a moment, her head still spinning, heavily disoriented. She shook her head to clear it, focusing on the task at hand, then pointed her wand directly at the creature, assuming her signature pose. "Time to let the light of justice shine!" she cried, to cheers from the crowd below. "Meteor Shower!"

Star-shaped energy projectiles burst forth from the end of the wand, smashing into the creature at high speed. All they managed to do was push it backwards and send shockwave ripples across its gelatinous surface; no other damage was visible. The creature continued to take in debris, growing ever larger.

White Star pouted. "How are you supposed to damage something like this?" she moaned. Sighing, she thought for a moment. There had to be something the creature was weak against. Something that would damage its gelatinous structure. If not her energy attacks, then what?

White Star raised her wand high. "THUNDER STRIKE!" she cried. High above, dark clouds formed and hovered ominously over the black blob. A rumble sounded from deep within them, and then with a loud boom a thunderbolt burst forth from the heavens... and struck an antenna on the roof of a nearby skyscraper, dissipating harmlessly.

White Star was shocked that the monster hadn't been shocked. "WHAT?! How does that even..." She looked on in disbelief for a moment, then sighed, exasperated, and sought out the White Star Fan Club in the crowd below. Fortunately, it seemed they had arrived this time; Hitomi had even brought a tub of popcorn. "Hi, White Star!" said Hitomi excitedly. "We're your biggest fans!"

"I know," said White Star. "I, uhh.. heard about you on the Internet."

"See, I told you the Blagger page would work!" said Hitomi.

White Star turned to Mio. "Mio, you're the smart one, right?" she asked. "Why didn't that lightning attack work?"

"Well, you see," said Mio, adjusting her glasses (which she had dried and cleaned earlier), "electricity, when projected in the form of, say, a bolt of lightning, will automatically arc towards the nearest conductive surface. In a battle against Black Star a thousand feet above the city's rooftops, this surface will invariably be Black Star herself, but at street level the tops of the buildings will be much closer than whatever you happen to be targeting, rendering the attack ineffective. Additionally, judging from the monster's appearance and gelatinous properties, it's fair to assume that it wouldn't conduct electricity anyway."

About half of this lengthy explanation had gone over White Star's head, but she got the gist. "So... Thunder Strike won't work on monsters on the ground?"

"Precisely," said Mio. "However, there should be some method of breaking down the monster's gelatinous structure and effectively dissolving it."

White Star nodded. "Dissolve the monster. Got it. Anything else?"

"Umm... could you dry our clothes, please?" asked Mio. "We didn't get a chance while we were at school." It occurred to White Star that she was the one responsible for soaking the other Fan Club members in the first place; ironic that she was now being asked to dry them.

"Okay, fine," said White Star, and conjuring a flame at the end of her wand, she began heating the girls' clothes and evaporating the water still left on them.

"Ahh… that's nice and warm~" said Hitomi, holding her hands out towards the flame to warm them up. "It's a shame Sanae couldn't be here to get dried off; she's missing the battle again!"

"I'm sure she's watching it from somewhere," said White Star.

The girls gathered round the flame, and within moments their clothes were nice and dry. "Thanks, White Star," said Nagisa. "Sorry to distract you from kicking that monster's ass."

"Don't worry about it!" said White Star. "And you're welcome!" With that, she flew off above the crowd again. She now had an idea for how to defeat the blob, based on what Mio had told her. But first, she needed something. Scanning the crowd, she quickly found what she was looking for; another high school student, still clutching their Chekhov water gun as they watched the blob's steady, relentless advance. White Star promptly swooped down in front of the student. "Hey, can I borrow this?" she asked, indicating the water gun.

"Uh, sure," said the bemused student, handing it over. "Go nuts."

"Thanks." White Star flew back over to the monster, water gun gripped tightly in her hand. "Alright, Mister Blob," she smirked, raising the gun's barrel, "prepare to be dissolved!"

White Star pulled the trigger, firing a stream of water at the blob. What she expected to happen was that it would dissolve, the water melting it like the Wicked Witch of the West. What actually happened was that the stream of water was simply absorbed into the blob, causing it to swell another few inches in diameter. White Star quickly released the trigger and lowered the gun, feeling quite annoyed with herself for her faulty logic.

"Whoops," said White Star feebly. "I guess Chekhov's guns don't work on this thing."

The blob continued on its way, every car in its path being sucked into its gelatinous form and hanging there, suspended like a fly trapped in amber. One driver who had somehow not heard about the chaos found himself driving directly into the blob's path; he braked hard, scrambled out of his seat and fled to the safety of a nearby cafe just in time to see his van get sucked into the advancing blob. By now the creature was so large it filled the entire street, its form pressingly slightly against the windows of the buildings on either side to the horror of those within. If it grew much bigger it would press against the buildings with enough force to do some serious damage to them. It was now or never.

White Star's brain worked overtime to try and process the additional information she had learned, and what little she had bothered learning in science class. The creature absorbed water; water made it grow larger. That meant it had to be largely made up of water. In fact, looking at it now White Star was almost reminded of the water balloons she had carried earlier that day, all round and squishy and full of water, except those had been easier to break. The plan clicked into place all too soon. It was remarkably simple, if equally stupid.

"Okay," declared White Star, "I know how to defeat the monster now! This next attack will end it!"

"You said that the last time!" shouted a sceptical man from the crowd, to laughs from those around him. White Star was somewhat grateful for the interruption, as it gave her additional time to come up with a name for the attack she was about to perform.

White Star swung the wand dramatically, posing with her arms swept behind her. "Finishing Move: Phoenix Strike!" Her wand was again engulfed in magical flame, and this time the flames spread across her entire body, burning with an intense heat that at the same time did not harm her. Pointing herself towards the still-advancing blob, White Star then swooped down, leaving a blazing trail behind her, and plunged straight into the gelatinous foe.

"She dived straight into it!" exclaimed an astonished onlooker, rather needlessly.

"Is she insane?" cried another.

"This is going straight on FooTube!" exclaimed a third, who was filming the whole thing on his cellphone.

Immediately, however, White Star's crazy yet simple plan began to take effect. As she had correctly deduced, the blob was largely made of water, and as the intense heat from her flames entered its body it began to evaporate. A dark cloud of steam rose up from the blob as it boiled away, gradually shrinking until there was nothing left but its Black Heart and the objects inside it, which one by one dropped harmlessly to the ground. The owner of the van rushed forwards to hug his reclaimed vehicle, only to be repelled by the heat that had been conducted by its metal surface.

As the last remnants of the blob evaporated away, White Star was left hovering in the air where the centre of the blob had been just moments before, clutching the fallen Black Heart in her hand. As the watching crowd processed what had happened, a mighty cheer began to rise up. "White Star's saved us again!" crowed one onlooker.

White Star smirked. "Well, it looks like that monster…" She pulled a pair of sunglasses from nowhere and put them on. "…couldn't take the heat."

***

To Sanae's annoyance, she found that when she changed back into her normal form, her school uniform was still wet. She had therefore had to trudge home with soggy shoes, a translucent shirt, and a rather uncomfortable breeze in a rather uncomfortable place. Needless to say, she and the other Mitsuzawa students had gotten a lot of stares. Sanae had never been more relieved to get through her front door.

"Finally," she sighed, as she slipped off her wet shoes. "I can dry myself off, get out of these wet clothes, and relax. Man, this day really didn't go as well as I'd hoped... but at least now everything's okay-"

The moment Sanae entered her room, she realized that she had spoken too soon. Kousen was stood at her desk, her expression an odd mixture of guilt and - unbelievably - panic. Sanae had never seen her youkai companion scared before. She quickly realized the reason for Kousen's fear: her laptop had blue-screened. "Kousen," she said in a wary tone, "what happened to my laptop...?"

"I-I don't know," said Kousen. "Someone on the In-Turn-It said that I could make your laptop run faster by deleting something called System32, but I did it and now-"

"Kousen, that was a prank!" said Sanae, indignant. "Computers need System32 to function! Now you've broken it!" Sanae muscled her way to the desk and stared in horror at her broken machine before turning to lecture her familiar. "You shouldn't believe everything you read on the Internet! There are people on there that are trying to trick you!"

"So you mean that gender really isn't a social construct?" asked Kousen. "And that that singing man really will give me up?"

Sanae facepalmed. "Please tell me you didn't fall for anything else," she said.

"No," said Kousen, "but this will cheer you up! While I was searching for Black Star using the magic Moogle, a website told me I was their one millionth visitor and that I'd won a special prize! All I had to do was give them your credit card number and-"

Kousen was cut off by the sound of Sanae repeatedly and violently slamming her head against the desk. "Is something the matter, Sanae?" asked Kousen. "Was it something I said?"

Day 213

[from StarLight]

Back at Sanae's house, Kousen was eagerly filling in the form necessary to claim her prize, only to hit a snag. "'Please enter your credit card number to continue'..." Kousen stared at the screen in confusion. "What's a 'credit card number'? Hmm... oh! I'll just ask the magic Moogle!" Opening another tab, Kousen typed in "wat is a criedt card nimber" - once again, auto-correct spared her blushes - and began to search.

***

Meanwhile, at Mitsuzawa High School, Amaya had been pinned down behind a bench by Nagisa and the rest of the White Star Fan Club. As Sanae raced across the battlefield, her enlarged breasts bouncing conspicuously, she caught sight of Nagisa's weaponry and stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth falling open.

Nagisa had not bothered with her Hyper Drencher's soda-can-sized water tank. Instead, she had taken a garden water barrel, filled it full of water and strapped it to her back, then attached it to the gun via a piece of rubber tubing. The result was that her gun resembled nothing less than a makeshift flamethrower. Not only did this set-up provide Nagisa with a tremendous amount of ammunition, but it also constituted an amazing feat of strength, considering she was still able to move and fight even with dozens of litres of water strapped to her back. Hitomi, Mio and Hinata stood sheltered behind her, all three still completely dry, Nagisa's superior weaponry having swept all before them.

As Nagisa trained her weapon on Sanae, she sprinted to join Amaya behind cover, barely making it in time. A blast of water hit the bench, splashing over the already soggy woodwork, but the pair were safely out of its reach.

"She's got us pinned down," commented Amaya rather needlessly.

"Thanks for the sitrep, Captain Obvious," retorted Sanae.

"What should we do?" asked Amaya.

Sanae winked at her friend. "Don't worry. I have a secret weapon. Or rather, two secret weapons."

Sanae reached inside her blouse, and the reason for her apparent increase in chest size and bounciness quickly became apparent. As she pulled a small water balloon out of her bra, holding it up for Amaya to see, one side of her chest promptly deflated back to normal proportions.

Amaya was torn between utter bewilderment, and flat-chest-induced relief that those hadn't actually been Sanae's real breasts. "So... you're not wearing panties, and you've had water balloons stuffed up your bra all day?" she remarked. "I don't know what to worry about more: you, or this show's chances of keeping its Teen rating on FictionPress. Especially with all the times we've said "breasts" by now."

"I'd be more concerned about the White Star Fan Club, if I were you," said Sanae with a smirk. "They're about to get totally drenched!"

Sanae hurled the water balloon at the group. As can only be expected of an anime protagonist, it was right on target, exploding right in the middle of the group before they had a chance to dodge. All four fan club members were instantly drenched as the balloon exploded. "Aagh! I got water in my eyes!" wailed Hitomi, scowling. "Hey! Stop laughing!"

"Nobody's laughing, Hitomi," said Mio as she attempted to dry her glasses on her sleeve, a futile effort since her sleeve was just as soaked as her glasses.

"I wasn't talking to you guys, I was talking to the readers!" protested Hitomi. "I know you guys found that funny, but stop laughing! Oh, and Mio, the narrator says it's pointless to try cleaning your glasses with your damp sleeve."

"So it is," said Mio, examining her lenses, which were still streaked with water. "I'll clean them properly once we get inside."

Meanwhile, the battle continued in earnest, and before long Sanae and Amaya were the only two students left. The playground around them was littered with discarded weapons, drenched students and the remnants of burst water balloons. Some students were already traipsing inside to dry themselves off and eat their lunches, others merely sat around feeling sorry for themselves, or lay still for fear of being mistaken for a dry combatant and squirted again. But the battle wasn't over yet.

"You know, Amaya," said Sanae suddenly, with a devious grin on her face, "only one of us can truly win this."

"Of course," said Amaya, returning the grin.

"Let's settle this like in the old American Westerns," Sanae continued. "We stand back-to-back, take ten paces, then draw."

"Sounds good to me," said Amaya.

The two turned and stood with their backs to each other, Sanae clutching her Kasaiki H50 and Amaya her Kasaiki H40. Each had a look of sheer determination on their face. "On the count of three," said Sanae, "start walking. One-"

SPLASH. A water balloon flew from nowhere and both Sanae and Amaya were drenched. Sanae gasped audibly with surprise; Amaya merely looked disappointed, her wet hair falling over her eyes. Sanae wiped her own bangs away from her face, wide-eyed with shock. "But I thought we were the only two students left!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, you were," said a voice coming from the side. "Unfortunately, you forgot about your teacher!"

The pair turned in unison to see the triumphant face of the victor, Chekhov SR-15 held in her hands. "Inaba-sensei!" exclaimed Amaya.

"That's right!" gloated Inaba-sensei. "Victory goes to the teacher!"

                                                                                                ***

Inaba-sensei revelled in her victory for the remainder of the school day. Most of the students, of course, felt that having a teacher win the battle violated some unwritten rule, and so the win was generally attributed to Sanae and Amaya. Inaba-sensei, however, knew just how to get her students back on side again.

"If one of you had won the water fight," said Inaba-sensei during that afternoon's homeroom, "I'd been planning to let the winner out of doing homework for the next week. But since I won the water fight instead, I'm cancelling everyone's homework!"

At this point, of course, her sodden class couldn't help but cheer for her, and so both teacher and pupils left the gates at the end of the day feeling elated. Well, most of them. Amaya had managed to towel-dry her hair at the end of the battle, but like most of the students, her clothes were still wet as she trudged back home at the end of the day.

"I still won, for all intents and purposes," she complained to Kage, her water gun still clutched in her hand. "Me and Sanae were the last students standing. Teachers don't count."

"You're just a sore loser, nyaa~" said Kage.

Meanwhile, Sanae was also trudging home. With all five White Star Fan Club members still rather bitter about having lost, not to mention rather sodden, they had agreed to cancel that day's meeting and go straight home instead. "My twintails take forever to dry!" Hitomi had said.

About halfway to her house, Sanae's attention was suddenly grabbed by a chorus of screams coming from her right, near the downtown area. Looking round, Sanae could see a vague black shape looming in the distance. "Oh, come on, today of all days?" wailed Sanae. "I already got soaked, and now I have to defeat a monster?" She sighed. "I guess it can't be helped… Kousen might not be here to nag me into doing it, but I know I still have to. Besides, at least I'll get to change out of these wet clothes. Sorry, readers."

Sanae winked at nobody in particular, then swung her bag off her shoulder, placing it on the ground in front of her. Crouching down, she retrieved the White Star Emblem from the pocket in the front and raised it high into the air. "White Star: Transformation!"

Once more, Sanae was engulfed in a blinding white light. Her school uniform morphed into a beautiful white knee-length dress with violet lace trim. White thigh-high socks and high-heeled shoes gently enveloped her feet and legs, the straps of the shoes winding their way delicately up her shins. White gloves manifested themselves on her hands, and as the Emblem transformed into the White Star Wand, she clutched it tightly in her right hand. Finally, her hair curled itself into two neat ringlets either side of her head, and her transformation into White Star was complete.

Sanae soared blissfully up into the air, performing a backflip. "Ah, it's so good to be out of those wet clothes... and wearing panties again." she added sheepishly. "Otherwise it would be really kind of awkward right now. Alright, time to go do my duty!" Sanae immediately flew off towards the strange black shape in the downtown area.

"Haha, she said, 'do my doody'," chuckled an onlooker for no apparent reason.

Day 206

[from StarLight]

As the bell rang to signal the start of the fight, it was almost instantly drowned out by the sound of a hundred water guns firing simultaneously, as Mitsuzawa High School's entire student body (and most of its teachers) sprang into action. Sanae and Amaya took out five targets instantly, swapped sides and took out four more. There was no retaliation from their victims; once you were soaked, you were out. That was the unwritten rule that everyone followed. The last one to stay dry takes the glory.

Ryouichi sprung from his hiding place and was immediately hit by three water streams, sending him off-balance. He tumbled to the ground, whereupon the water balloons on his belt burst, soaking him completely from head to foot, and compounding his humiliation. "Senpai won't notice me now..." he moaned despairingly.

Sanae and Amaya made their way through the students with ruthless efficiency, cutting them down one by one. The third-year student who had boasted that she would soak Sanae to her panties instead suffered that fate herself as the two friends ganged up on her before exchanging a high-five. "We got this for sure!" said Amaya.

***

Meanwhile, Kousen was at home, feeling slightly bored. She had elected not to go with Sanae today, having had no interest in the water fight, but now she was at a loss for what to do in the meantime. After eating cup noodles for lunch - They truly have invented some marvels, she thought to herself - she was now lying on Sanae's bed, feeling listless.

After a short while, she found herself glancing at Sanae's laptop, positioned on her desk. She spends a lot of time using that contraption, Kousen thought. Surely she must derive some sort of enjoyment from using it. Deciding to investigate the device, Kousen got up from the bed and sat down at the desk. Normally, Sanae's laptop was password-protected, but in her carelessness she had left it logged in.

Now that she was in front of the device, Kousen looked at it, puzzled. "Hmm... now how does Sanae use this...?" Mimicking Sanae's movements, she took hold of the mouse and gave it an experimental shake. The cursor on the screen shook correspondingly. "What a clever device!" Kousen exclaimed.

Once she had gotten the hang of the mouse, Kousen moused over a program on the toolbar. "In-turn-it," she read aloud. "I believe Sanae spoke of this 'In-turn-it'... she said it could tell me anything I wanted to know. So, perhaps if I ask it where Black Star is, we can discover her true identity and stop her!"

Spurred on by this idea, Kousen opened 'Internet' and found herself at the Moogle homepage. Seeing the 'Search' button merely solidified her belief, and she swiftly typed in "Where is Black Star?" Well, in her excitement and inexperience she had actually typed "where is blakc stR", but somehow Moogle knew what she meant and auto-corrected it.

Kousen began trawling her way through the search results, but to her annoyance, she could not find anything. On the fifth site, however, something on the side of the page caught her attention. "'Congratulations'," she read aloud, "'you are the one millionth visitor to this website! Click here to claim your prize'! Wow! The one millionth? And I get a prize for it! I'm sure Sanae will be happy to hear about it when she gets home. After all, humans like surprise gifts, do they not?" Without further deliberation, Kousen clicked the link.

***

Amaya was somewhat less conservative with her ammunition than Sanae, and soon began to run out of water. The stream from her gun gradually got smaller and weaker, and eventually dried up altogether. "Cover me," she said, rapidly unscrewing the water tank, "I need to reload."

While Sanae span in circles, trying to cover all angles, Amaya crouched low to reduce her own profile and give the camera a neat view of her thighs. Additional fanservice wasn't really necessary in a chapter such as this, but Amaya knew the readers weren't going to complain about it. She tossed the empty water tank aside, snatched up another from the bandolier, removed the watertight lid and screwed it on. The whole process took about five seconds before Amaya stood up again to join the combat.

One plucky little first-year, who could only have been about four-foot-six, managed to evade Sanae and Amaya's every effort to hit her, though her own water pistol was woefully inadequate and she could not get close enough to hit them. "It's no good," shouted Amaya. "While we're concentrating our efforts on her, someone else could easily ambush us!"

"I'll take care of her!" Sanae insisted. "You watch my back!"

Amaya rushed off to cover the perimeter, while Sanae continued the dogfight with the intrepid first-year, the pair darting round each other in a frantic effort to get the hit in while avoiding getting hit themselves. Finally the first-year managed to dodge round and get close enough to fire at Sanae, but before she could, she was confronted by the barrel of Sanae's water gun, mere inches from her face. The first-year bravely held her own, aiming her pistol squarely at Sanae and managing a somewhat stoic expression despite her trembling knees. She must have run out of water by now, thought the first-year desperately.

"Now, I know what you're thinking," said Sanae, sneering confidently. "'Has she run out of water or not?' Well, I'm afraid in all that chaos I have no idea how much water I have left. But," she continued, looking down confidently at her gun, "considering this is the Kasaiki H50, the most powerful water gun in the world, capable of soaking you through to your skin in one shot, you just have to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well... do you, kouhai?"

The first-year's increased trembling and look of terror betrayed the fact that she did not feel the slightest bit lucky. Once again Sanae had won the psychological advantage, if only by paraphrasing an obscure Western film. Eventually the first-year ended the standoff in the most honourable fashion she could think of: by turning her water pistol on herself.

"I really need some help over here, Sanae!" Amaya shouted from another part of the playground, a distinct note of panic in her voice.

Before rejoining her friend, Sanae briefly patted the tiny first year on the shoulder. "You fought well, kid. You'd make a pretty good protagonist someday." The first-year looked admirably up at Sanae with shining eyes and dripping hair.

"SANAE!" shouted Amaya desperately. "HEEELP!"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" shouted Sanae, rushing to her friend's aid.

Day 200 + Brief Hiatus

[from StarLight]

The lessons that day seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace. Very few students bothered to pay attention, their minds focused on lunchtime. Even the teachers didn't seem all that bothered, as most of them seemed to recognize the futility in trying to teach a class whose minds were elsewhere. Besides, many of the teachers themselves were anticipating the fight; Inaba-sensei spent most of third period absent-mindedly caressing her Chekhov water gun.

Finally, the bell rang to end the last period before lunch, a few minutes early to allow all the students to filter out and make their last-minute preparations. Sanae stood up and crossed to Amaya's desk, gun clamped in her hands. "You ready?"

"I was born ready," Amaya replied, standing up and snatching up her Kasaiki H40.

"Good." Sanae pumped her already well-pumped gun for no real reason, other than to look cool and dramatic. "Let's soak some suckers."

***

In class 1-B, Ryouichi pocketed his twin water pistols, his belt stuffed with water balloons. After I win this battle, he thought, Sanae-senpai is sure to notice me!

Meanwhile, as the White Star Fan Club made their own preparations, Nagisa was already heading towards the classroom door. "Where are you going, Nagisa?" asked Hitomi. "I thought we agreed we'd stick together?"

"There's something in my locker that I'll be needing," replied Nagisa. "I'll meet you guys outside." With that, she vanished into the corridor.

"Alright," Hitomi called after her, "but you'd better. Hinata, quit trembling!"

"B-but... I don't want to fight..." squeaked Hinata.

"Tough beans!" said Hitomi. "Everyone has to join in whether they want to or not!" The twintailed girl gave Hinata a rather creepy smile. "Don't worry... I'll protect you, Hinata!"

***

Evidently Kazuo had not gotten the memo about the fight being compulsory, as while the other student made their final preparations, he was hiding in a broom closet, as he had been the previous year.

"It's all a trick," he muttered to himself, "a trap set to catch me. They think it's ordinary water they're firing, but in reality the Illuminati have laced it with a mind-control substance that's absorbed into your skin and allows them to control you like a puppet! It's too late to help the other students, they've already been contaminated... but if I can save myself, I can reveal the truth to the wider population! This conspiracy must be unveiled!"

***

One minute to go. Fifty-nine seconds to go. Fifty-eight. Fifty-seven. And so on. Time seemed to slow almost to a standstill as the bell to signal the start of the fight approached. Fifty-three.

Sanae and Amaya were stood back-to-back in the centre of the courtyard, guns pointed in opposite directions, covering all possible angles. Both were ready to fire at a second's notice. Amaya's trigger finger, honed by years of playing her mother's video games, twitched constantly. Above them, Kage lay on the roof with a beer, a tub of popcorn, and a pair of binoculars, eagerly awaiting the chaos that was to come. Forty-three.

Ryouichi stood crouched behind the cover of a stairwell, ridiculously posed like a gun-fu action movie hero, preparing, in his mind, to fight for Sanae's love. Kazuo stood stock-still in his broom closet, scared to make even the slightest sound in case someone discovered him and dragged him outside where, in his mind, he would meet his doom. Thirty-three.

Three of the four White Star Fan Club members stood together in a cluster, weapons primed. Hitomi was looking frantically around for Nagisa, who had still not shown up. When she finally saw Nagisa approaching, her jaw fell open, and when Mio and the still-trembling Hinata spotted her as well, their jaws fell open too. Slowly Hitomi's mouth curled into a grin, her mismatched eyes sparkling. "We are so gonna win this," she said. Fifteen.

The atmosphere in the courtyard was so tense that one could cut it with a knife. In theory. Sadly, nobody present had any knives with which to test this theory. In any case, three hundred trigger fingers twitched in anticipation as the final few seconds counted down. Three.

"This is it." breathed Sanae.

Two.

"Sanae-senpai, here I come!" muttered Ryouichi.

One.

"PREPARE TO DIE!" roared Nagisa.

Zero.

[AUTHOR NOTE: Tomorrow I will be going away on holiday and I won't be back until Friday. I will continue to write Project 20:15 posts during said holiday and will post them gradually upon my return. I may even write more than one post a day, so look forward to a prolonged spell of two posts a day ;) ]

Day 193

[from StarLight]

"Ah, summer. I love summer, nyaa~. That feeling of lying out in the shade, an ice-cool beer in your hand... sheer bliss, nyaa~"

While Kage went on her usual ramblings about beer, Amaya was busily preparing her things for the first day of the summer term. Uniform, textbooks, high-pressure water gun...

"What's with the weaponry, nyaa~?" asked Kage, peering curiously over the top of her beer can at the plastic water cannon. "Planning some Black Star chaos to celebrate the start of summer?"

"Not quite. It's a tradition at our high school." Amaya walked to the bathroom clutching a handful of detachable water tanks for the gun, each about the size of a soda can, and began filling them from the tap. "Every year, on the first day of summer, all the students gather in the grounds during lunch break and have a massive water fight. Guns, balloons, even buckets full of water. Anything goes. Even the teachers join in sometimes."

"You fight with water? That's a pretty weird tradition, not to mention a waste of water, nyaa~" Kage's statement about wasting water seemed somewhat misplaced considering she did not need to bathe or drink, not to mention the beer can clutched in her hand.

"The story goes that it started in the Eighties," Amaya explained. "A couple of American transfer students arrived at the school, and brought with them this thing called a Hyper Drencher, which was a powerful type of water gun they had over there. Before long the whole school was obsessed with them, and water fights would break out all over the place, in the corridors and even during lessons." By now, Amaya had filled two tanks, placed watertight caps on them, and had started filling a third. "Of course, it was a nightmare for the teachers, so they reached a compromise with the students, and the annual lunchtime water fight was created."

"Do you really need so much, uhh... ammunition, nyaa~?" Kage indicated the water tanks.

"Of course," said Amaya. "It's quicker to remove an empty water tank and replace it with a full one than it is to just refill it. The longer you're out of ammo, the more vulnerable you are. It's what cost me last year. But this year-" Amaya jammed a lid on the third full tank in an overly-dramatic fashion, and began filling the final one. "-me and Sanae are gonna team up, and beat the entire school. Because, as Sanae would say, the protagonists never lose!"

"You're the antagonist, nyaa~" Kage pointed out.

"And Sanae is the protagonist," countered Amaya. "It all balances out."

"Here's hoping," said Kage.

***

"I still fail to see the point of this," said Kousen. "How can you derive enjoyment from soaking other people?"

Sanae, who was filling her water tanks from the kitchen sink, did not turn to look at Kousen hovering behind her. "It's fun!" she insisted. "You wouldn't understand, since fun is an alien concept to you."

Kousen raised a finger to object, then realized it was true: youkai had no concept of fun or boredom or any other emotion. "I suppose you have a point," she said.

"Besides, soaking people is only half the fun," said Sanae, screwing a lid onto her third full water tank. "The real fun comes from winning. That's what Amaya and I are going to do. After all, the protagonist never loses!"

"I'm not sure that's applicable to everything," said Kousen.

Sanae grinned. "We'll see about that. After all, I have a trick up my sleeve."

Kousen folded her arms and gave Sanae a disapproving look. "I've told you before," she said, "the White Star Emblem is-"

"I didn't mean the White Star Emblem," said Sanae. She pointed to a small cardboard box on the kitchen worktop. "I meant… those."

***

The atmosphere at Mitsuzawa High School that morning was tense and highly-charged, in anticipation of the warfare soon to unfold. Groups of students stood clustered around the courtyard, debating the merits of their various weapons and strategies.

"I'm telling you, when it comes to power, range, and capacity, the Chekhov SR-15 is unbeatable!" boasted one student.

"Nonsense," said another. "Nothing beats a traditional Hyper Drencher!"

"Psshh. Hyper Drenchers have had their day," said a third. "And the Chekhov can't hold a candle to my Hydrex 4000!"

Meanwhile, other students flitted between groups, hoping to forge crucial alliances with which to take down the opposition, all the while secretly plotting to squirt their partners in the back the moment they were no longer needed. Some tried to take advantage of the hype over the impending battle to sell extra guns and water balloons. One student had opened a wooden stall, a sort of neutral territory where students could safely refill their guns without fear of attack, for a small fee. If an outsider were to enter Mitsuzawa High School at this moment, they could well mistake the place for an army barracks preparing for war.

Amaya, as she entered the school, would certainly not have looked out of place at a warzone. Her weapon of choice, a Kasaiki H40, was clamped firmly in her hands, fully loaded, pumped and ready to fire. Her spare water tanks were strapped onto a bandolier slung over her shoulder. The school rucksack hanging from her other shoulder merely added to the illusion that she were some army general, ready to lead her troops into combat.

Sanae met her just inside the gate. She had a determined grin on her face, a bust that seemed larger and bouncier than usual, and a large water gun in her hands, even larger and more fearsome-looking than Amaya's. Well, as fearsome-looking as a blue plastic water gun can look. "Are you ready for this, Amaya?" she asked, grinning.

After glaring at her friend's enhanced chest for a few seconds, as every small-chested anime character is obligated to do upon seeing someone bustier than them, Amaya nodded. "I'm ready, Sanae."

"You'd better be, Hikari!" shouted an enthusiastic third-year from nearby. "We'll take you down, and your pet Kurozawa as well!"

Sanae's grin barely wavered. "You say that now," she shot back, "but on the battlefield it'll be your gun doing the talking, and I don't think your gun can do more than whisper feebly."

"You won't be saying that when you're soaked through to your panties!" returned the third-year.

"I'm not wearing panties!" shouted Sanae, rather too loudly and with an odd smirk on her face. At this, the third-year looked somewhat embarrassed and fell silent, leaving Sanae with a triumphant grin on her face, having gained the psychological advantage over her rival.

Amaya, too, looked rather embarrassed. "You can't shout things like that across the school yard!" she objected. "This isn't Seitokai Yakuindomo, you know!"

"Sure you can," Sanae replied. "All's fair in love and war. It's true, by the way," she added in an undertone. "Last year they got soaked and it was really uncomfortable walking home, so this year I've gone commando."

"Too much information," Amaya muttered back.

Before Sanae could say anything else embarrassing, sexual, or embarrassingly sexual, the conversation was cut short by the morning bell. "Aww, I forgot to point out to her that the protagonists never lose," remarked Sanae. "Ah well. I guess we'd better get going now."

"Yeah," said Amaya. "And don't worry, I already said that during the opening scene."

"So did I," said Sanae. "I guess it would get boring if we said it three times in one chapter."

Amaya nodded, then grinned. "Man, I am so psyched for this," she said. "Lunchtime can't come soon enough."

"Indeed it can't," said Sanae.

Day 189

[from StarLight]

It didn't take White Star very long at all to reach the industrial district. "There it is," she said, as the cluster of factories and warehouses drew close. "Alright, let's see what we're up against. Considering the last one was a fifty-foot-long sea monster, I imagine this one's going to be some giant land monster, or a… tiny dot?"

White Star halted in mid-air, confused, as she spotted a monster down below that was much smaller than she had been expecting. She could tell it was a monster, and not a regular animal, from its pitch-black colouration and sinister aura. Slowly hovering down to street level, she found herself confronted - in a manner of speaking - by something that resembled an ordinary pug, albeit with pitch-black fur, two sharp fangs, and a crimson-eyed stare.

White Star was extremely underwhelmed by this new adversary. "A dog?" she said in disbelief. "I have to fight a dog? It's barely a foot tall! I mean, yeah, it's got vicious fangs and glowing red eyes, but come on! How is this thing possibly any threat to-" White Star's rant was cut off mid-sentence as the pug monster suddenly leapt at her with a vicious bark, clawing and biting at her leg. "Kyaah! That's how! Get off me!" White Star frantically shook her leg to try and shake the dog off, but it clung on, trying to align its jaws for a savage bite.

"Careful, White Star!" said Kousen. "If that monster gets even a single paw on the White Star Emblem-"

"I know, I know!" said White Star, holding the wand aloft. "It'll absorb the chi and grow stupidly large and strong! Heck, maybe I should let it, so I actually have an - ow - worthy opponent!"

"It's clawing your leg to shreds," Kousen observed drily, noting the scratches running all the way up White Star's shin.

"I am… aware… of that!" said White Star, swinging her leg wildly to try and dislodge the monster. Finally, with a tremendous swing, she sent it flying about twenty feet away; it skidded a little across the asphalt before scrabbling to its feet again and growling silently.

White Star conjured a strip of bandages out of thin air and began to wrap up her injured leg. "I'm really gonna have to practice coming up with excuses," she said. "It feels like I'm going to need that skill. I mean, now I'm going to have to explain to my friends why my leg is all bandaged."

"You could just heal it with magic," Kousen suggested.

"Oh yeah, didn’t think of that," said White Star. "Well, I'll do that later. Right now, I should probably take out this monster before it attacks me mid-sentence again. Seriously, I had enough of that with Black Star last week."

"Maybe it's a sign that you should talk less and fight more?" said Kousen pointedly.

"Maybe," admitted White Star. Turning her attention back to the job at hand, she readied her wand for attack. "Although I still have one more thing to say: let the light of justice shine! Star Shower!"

A volley of star-shaped projectiles burst forth from the tip of the White Star Wand and obliterated the ground around the pug monster, sending it flying backwards. White Star flew forwards to get a closer shot, but found that the pug had injured its own leg, and could seemingly no longer stand. Looking at it now, it almost seemed like just an ordinary wounded dog, and although she knew it was a dangerous demon that had to be destroyed, White Star felt that she could not bring herself to do so. With a sigh, she lowered her wand.

"What are you doing, White Star?" asked Kousen. "Hurry up and destroy it!"

"I can't!" protested White Star. "Look at it! It's a hurt little doggy!" Kousen groaned and facepalmed. "I'm sorry, I know I should kill it," White Star continued, "but I just… can't! Oh gosh! I'm getting flashbacks to every anime I ever watched with a dog, because in every one, the dog dies! And it's always sad! Especially that one time in-"

White Star fell silent as Kousen suddenly rested a hand on her shoulder. The youkai, sensing that her usual impatient approach would get her nowhere, had decided to try a different approach. She had seen this in one of the TV shows Sanae had shown her: it was something called "tact". "Sanae," she said gently, "while I can't say that I understand your feelings, being an emotionless being, I can tell that this is causing you great distress. But you have to snap out of it. Despite its appearance, this creature is a vicious demon bent on destruction, and it must be put out of its misery."

Kousen then had a sudden idea. "Think of it this way," she said. "It's not actually a dog, it only looks like one. It's no more a dog than a wood carving would be. If it helps, try to picture it as something other than a dog. Picture it as something that you hate. Picture it as the embodiment of evil that it truly is, rather than just a pitiable creature."

White Star nodded. "You know, that actually makes a lot of sense," she said. "I'll try that." She looked down at the wounded monster, still trying in vain to climb to its feet, all the while growling sinisterly. She used her imagination, and slowly its face began to change into a human one.

"Kirino was best girl!" said the monster.

"YOU LIE, DEMON!" The trick had worked perfectly, and a riled-up Sanae pointed the White Star Wand at the wounded monster once more. "To hell with your blasphemy! Finishing Move: White Star Beam!"

A blinding beam of light shot out of the White Star Wand and struck the asphalt at almost point-blank range, obliterating the monster in an instant. When the beam faded away, all that was left was a smoking crater in the middle of the road, and a Black Heart lying at the very bottom. White Star scooped it up off the ground and stared at it wistfully. "Alas, poor Yorick," she remarked. "I knew him well." With a jaunty shrug, the enthusiastic smile returned to her face. "Ah well. Let's go home," she said.

"You got over that surprisingly quickly," said Kousen, as they flew off back to the centre of town.

"Well, what can I say?" said White Star. "Your trick really worked. Thanks for snapping me out of that, Kousen."

"No problem," said Kousen. "I was just doing my job… which is making sure that you do your job."

White nodded, giving Kousen a confident smile. "And I'm going to do that job to the best of my abili-" THWACK. The magical girl, not looking where she was flying, had flown headlong into the side of a warehouse, and slowly slid down the corrugated iron wall before coming unstuck and falling backwards to the floor with a thump.

Kousen leaned nervously over her charge. "Are you alright, White Star?" she asked.

White Star groaned, looking up at Kousen with dazed, unfocused eyes. "Kyon, the phone's ringing…" she mumbled.

Day 183

[from StarLight]

"I summon the ANCIENT WARRIOR OF LIGHT, IN ATTACK MODE!"

The man with the long rose-coloured hair raised the card high above his head, and from out of it burst a heavily-muscled man in silvery armour so shiny it was almost blinding to look at. "Since I have Temple of Light in play," declared the man, in an unnecessarily-loud voice, "The Ancient Warrior of Light's attack is BOOSTED BY 500! AND HE GETS TO ATTACK YOUR LIFE FORCE DIRECTLY!"

"NOT SO FAST!" His opponent, a teenager with wild blue-and-yellow hair that pointed in all directions, held up a finger, grinning. "You just activated my Trap Card, Pit of Plot Convenience!"

"WHAAAAAAT?!!!" screamed the rose-haired man, reeling backwards in shock.

"That's right!" said the wild-haired teenager. "Pit of Plot Convenience sends any monster that attacks me into the PIT OF ETERNAL DARKNESS!"

"NOOOOO!!!" yelled the rose-haired man. "NOT THE PIT OF ETERNAL DARKNESS!"

"BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!" the teenager boomed. "Since it's a Monday, my left shoelace is untied, and I had bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning, Pit of Plot Convenience also allows me to summon THE ULTIMATE DRAGON MONSTER FROM MY DECK! AND YOU'LL ALSO RECEIVE THIS FREE TOASTER!" He held up the card in one hand, and the toaster in the other.

"NOOO!!! NOT THE ULTIMATE… wait, is that a four-slice toaster?" asked the rose-haired man.

"No," said the wild-haired teenager. "It's only a two-slice."

The rose-haired man dramatically fell to his knees and let out a loud "NOOOOOOO!!!" of despair.

***

As Amaya headed out of the school that afternoon, she, like most of the other students filtering out, couldn't help noticing the extremely loud card battle going on in the schoolyard. "Huh, so there is a card game anime going on here," she remarked.

"Apparently, the loser gets sucked into the Pit of Eternal Darkness for, uhh… eternity!" said an onlooker.

"Doesn’t that just mean they die?" asked Amaya.

"Sshh!" said the onlooker in a hushed voice. "They think 'Pit of Eternal Darkness' sounds cooler!"

"Well, I think they're losers," said Amaya, a moment before the rose-coloured man let out another scream of terror as the Ultimate Dragon reaped the last of his Life Points. "Losers with no concept of volume control," she added. That reminds me, I wonder how Sanae's getting on at the Sewing Club…

***

"Okay, first order of business," said Hitomi, adjusting a pair of red glasses she had put on. She didn't need them to see, but she thought they added to her moe appeal. "We all need official roles within the White Star Fan Club. I'll be the chairman, because this whole thing was my idea. Nagisa, you'll be the treasurer. You'll be in charge of our budget."

"What budget?" asked Nagisa. "The school isn't going to give us any funding!"

"Then we'll have to secure our own funding," said Hitomi.

"How?" asked Nagisa. "And what for?"

"You're the treasurer, you figure it out," said Hitomi, shrugging. "Mio, you're the secretary. You'll be making notes of each meeting."

Mio nodded, pulling a notepad and pen out of her bag. "Leave it to me," she said.

"Sanae, you can be vice-chairman, since you're the oldest out of all of us," said Hitomi. "Now, what could we get Hinata to do…"

"Well, I-I don't really mind," said Hinata nervously, "as long as it doesn't involve public speaking… o-or anything embarrassing…"

"Hmm…" Hitomi thought about it for a moment. "Oh! Since we're an official fan club, we should have a website, right? Are you any good at HTML coding?"

"I-I don't even know what that is…" stammered Hinata.

"Then just set up a Blagger page, and write articles on there about White Star's exploits!" said Hitomi. "I'm sure that'll do!"

"Oh, please," said Nagisa, "who even uses Blagger anymore?"

"We do!" said Hitomi.

Mio seemed to have had an idea. "Could we post fanfictions on the blog as well?" she asked.

"Why?" asked Sanae.

"Oh, no reason," said Mio, her glasses gleaming. "No reason at all."

"Sure, why not?" said Hitomi. "Just make sure they're good ones, and not just stuff you stole from F*nF*ction."

"Oh, I will," said Mio, smiling, "don't you worry about that."

"And no lewd fanfictions either!" said Sanae. "This series is rated T for Teen, and that should go for the website as well!"

"I agree," said Hitomi. "I couldn't possibly picture White Star in that way! But then, I'm guessing that's the same for all of us here, right?"

Mio's enthusiasm immediately took a sharp dive. "Uhh… yes, of course," she said. "I couldn't possibly think of White Star in such a perverted manner!"

"Okay, good!" said Hitomi. "Well, now that we've settled all of that, on to the second order of business…"

As Hitomi carried on speaking, Sanae was suddenly distracted by the arrival of Kousen, floating down through the ceiling and hovering in the centre of the table, unseen by everyone except her. "Another monster has just appeared," she said.

Are you sure that's not just the card game guy doing his card game things?, thought Sanae.

"It is not," said Kousen. "This monster has appeared downtown, in an area full of giant smoking buildings. They do not appear to be on fire, but if the monster damages them, something catastrophic might happen."

You mean the industrial area?, thought Sanae. That's not good. Okay, I'll be over there as soon as I can, I just have to get out of this meeting first.

"-senpai?" Sanae blinked as she realized Hitomi was addressing her. "What's wrong? You're spacing out."

"Uhh…" Quick, I need to think of an excuse. Bathroom? Phone call? Uhh… "I need to use the phone call. I mean, uhh, make the bathroom. I mean, uhh…" Panicking, Sanae pointed out of the window. "Look! A terrible getaway excuse!"

"Where?!!" The four underclassmen all turned to look out of the window, leaving Sanae to slip out of the room unnoticed.

"Heh, suckers," she said, as she headed down the corridor. "Alright, now that I'm finally away from those lunatics, I can get back to what this show is really about: me, beating the crap out of monsters!" Opening her bag, she took out the White Star Emblem and raised it into the air. "White Star: Transformation!"

Once more, Sanae was engulfed in a blinding white light. Her school uniform morphed into a beautiful white knee-length dress with violet lace trim. White thigh-high socks and high-heeled shoes gently enveloped her feet and legs, the straps of the shoes winding their way delicately up her shins. White gloves manifested themselves on her hands, and as the Emblem transformed into the White Star Wand, she clutched it tightly in her right hand. Finally, her hair curled itself into two neat ringlets either side of her head, and her transformation into White Star was complete.

White Star flew off through the corridors and out of the main entrance, and as she headed towards the industrial area, the White Star Fan Club - still searching for the terrible getaway excuse that Sanae had pointed at - suddenly noticed their hero flying away. "Omigosh! It's White Star!" Hitomi exclaimed. "Alright, gang, you know the drill: let's go follow her and cheer her on for victory!"

"Yeah!" cheered the other members. The four of them quickly rushed outside into the corridor, heading towards the exit.

"Hey, where did Sanae go?" asked Nagisa. "She was with us just a moment ago."

"Probably making the bathroom," said Hitomi. "What a shame… she's gonna miss out on seeing White Star battle!"