Day 7

[from Vanishing Point]

"I'll go first! I'll go first!"

Kiyoko, Kamui, Hanako and Cobra were gathered round the table, playing 20 Questions. Scattered on the table were a number of face-down sticky notes, each with a person or object written on it. Hanako selected one at random and stuck it to her forehead for everyone to see. "Okay...am I a male?"

"No."

"So I'm a female?"

"No."

This threw Hanako for a loop. "Asexual?" she asked, confused.

"That's a sexuality, not a gender," Cobra pointed out.

"Technically, though," admitted Kamui, "you would be asexual as well, I guess."

"Do I not have a gender?" asked Hanako.

"No, you don't," said Kamui.

"Okay..." Hanako thought for a moment. "Am I an object?"

"Yes."

"Can I fit in someone's hand?"

This question seemed to be amusing for some reason. "No," said Kamui, smirking.

"Can...people fit inside me?"

"Yes."

"Am I a car?"

"No."

"A train?"

"No."

"A plane?"

"No."

"A boat?"

"You're not a mode of transport," said Cobra, slightly irritated.

"Although you do move," added Kamui.

"I-I thought we were only supposed to say yes or no..." said Kiyoko, timidly raising a hand.

"You're not helping, guys!" Hanako complained. "Wait, how can I move and fit people inside me but not be a mode of transport? That doesn't make sense!"

"I'm not answering that," said Kamui. "And Kiyoko, you have a point. From now on, we're only answering yes or no."

"That's not going to help either!" moaned Hanako. "Ohh...am I a mobile home?"

"No."

Hanako pouted in frustration. "Oh, I give up!" she said finally.

Kamui accepted her surrender with a nod. "Okay. Who wants to go next?"

Before anyone could answer, Hanako, who had removed the sticky note and was now looking at it rather indignantly, exclaimed, "Who put 'International Space Station'?!!"

"That was me," said Kamui.

"How was I supposed to get that?" asked Hanako.

"You could have asked, maybe, "Am I found on Earth?", to which I would have answered, "No"," said Kamui. "That would have been a big clue."

"But you said it moves, and the International Space Station doesn't move, does it?"

"It moves a lot," said Kamui. "It orbits the Earth 18 times a day, and slowly falls back toward Earth at 2 kilometres a month."

"Well, I didn't know that!" exclaimed Hanako.

"Anyway," said Kamui decisively, "now that we've cleared that up, who wants to go next?"

"I'll go next," said Cobra. She picked up another of the sticky notes and stuck it to her forehead. "Okay…am I a woman?"

"Yes."

"Am I Japanese?"

"Yes."

"Am I in this room?"

"No."

Cobra glanced at Hanako's slightly eager face and rolled her eyes. "Am I Mizuki Sato?"

"Yes," said Kamui.

"I hate this game," said Hanako.

Day 6

[from GodMode]

After twenty minutes of downloading various apps that might come in handy, Jun was about to stop when he noticed a curious app named "GodMode". It had no picture icon, and checking the app page, there was no description, no reviews, no ratings...nothing that said anything about the app at all. Yet this secrecy intrigued Jun. He was curious to find out exactly what kind of an app this "GodMode" was.

Activating one of the apps he had downloaded earlier - a scanner app - he scanned to see if GodMode contained any viruses or malware. When the scan came back clean, a satisfied Jun pressed the download button. A moment later, his mother called him down to dinner, and he left his phone lying on the bed while the app installed.

***

When Jun came back, the app had fully installed. A new icon had appeared on the phone's menu, the letters "GM" spelled out in foreboding black letters. Time to see what kind of app this is, he thought to himself.

Opening it, Jun was confronted with a long list of buttons, that ran past the bottom of the screen. Each button had a label; there were "GRAVITY_HACK", "OBJECT_SHIFT", "VISION_SHIFT", "BARO_SHIFT", and scrolling down, there were at least a dozen more. They all had similar names, like the names of programs. At the top of the list was a simple command: "CHOOSE A FUNCTION". His curiosity intensifying, Jun pressed "OBJECT_SHIFT".

Upon pressing the button, the app appeared to activate his phone's camera, for the screen changed to show part of Jun's room. Jun didn't recall the app asking for any permissions when he installed it, and it would need permission to access his camera, so this was the first sign that there was something strange about this app. At the top of the screen was another simple command: "DRAG ON TOUCH SCREEN TO MOVE OBJECTS".

"A virtual-reality app?" remarked Jun. "Interesting...so if I just..." Jun moved the phone to face his bedside cabinet, so that his lamp was displayed on the touch-screen. Placing a finger on it, Jun slowly dragged upwards, and sure enough, the lamp on the touch-screen moved with his finger. Even the shadows it cast seemed to shift slightly as he moved it; for a VR app this was remarkably detailed. He set the lamp back down on the desk and, out of curiosity, decided to see what would happen if he tried to open one of the cabinet drawers.

Placing his finger on the top drawer and sliding, the drawer opened, and it was at this point that Jun realized something was seriously off. Inside the drawer on the screen were all his clothes, just where he had left them...but they shouldn't have been there. Not on the app, which couldn't possibly have known what was inside the drawer. Unless...

With a growing sense of foreboding, Jun lowered the phone to look at the bedside cabinet.

The top drawer was open.

Jun reeled back with a cry of surprise. That's...not possible...it can't be... With a shaking hand, Jun raised the phone back up to the drawer and, with another slow swipe, closed the drawer on the screen. He moved the phone away again. The actual drawer was now shut.

"Jun?" His mother called from downstairs. "Are you alright? I heard a shout just now."

"I'm fine, mom," said Jun quickly, "I just accidentally hit my toe on something, that's all."

***

While on his way to school the following morning, it occurred to Jun that others could make use of this app. The applications were boundless; OBJECT_SHIFT alone must have a dozen uses. And so as he walked, he began to compose a message on his social networking profile, telling people about the app.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Turning round, startled, Jun saw a girl leaning against a lamppost several feet behind him. She was wearing a white cloak, with a hood pulled over her face so he could not make out the features. "Huh?" said Jun. "What do you mean? Who are you?"

"If you had any sense," the strange cloaked girl continued, "you'd uninstall that app and forget all about it. You have no idea how much trouble you're about to get into."

"What? What trouble? What are you talking about?" asked Jun. "Who are you?"

"Uninstall that app." the girl repeated. "That is all you need to know."

Before Jun could ask her any more questions, and to his great surprise, the hooded girl turned and suddenly vanished, leaving no trace that she had ever been there. In his shock, it took Jun a moment to realize that perhaps this was yet another function of the GodMode app. She certainly seemed to know about it, so it was reasonable to assume that she had it. But what did she mean by trouble? Why did she want him to uninstall it? What was this app...?

Day 5

[from CC BattleGrid]

"You're challenging me to a game of BattleGrid?"

Alexa smirked. Did this kid have no idea who she was? Probably not, as he seemed to be a first-year. A first-year with quite some bravado.

"That's right!" said the first-year. "And if I win, you have to go out with me!"

Alexa grinned. So that's his game. "Alright then," she said. "But if I win - and I will - you have to do everything I say for a month. Got that?"

"You're on!" said the first-year, blissfully unaware of what he was getting himself into. Before him stood Alexa Fielding, one of the top CC BattleGrid players in the entire country, despite only being seventeen and still in high school. Already a crowd had gathered round them in the grounds, anticipating a battle that would most likely be a total walkover.

Both Alexa and the first-year took out their stacks of BattleGrid chips - 25, as per the regulations - and shuffled them face-down, before sliding the first six into the special slots in their arms. This game was made possible by the CC System - a powerful cybernetic system that greatly increased the capabilities of the average human.

The CC System consisted of two parts. The main part was a computer installed in the user's non-dominant arm, with a built-in OLED touch-screen and six slots for Program Chips to be inserted. These Chips worked like the floppy discs of old computers, installing various programs, but in CC BattleGrid, they were used as slots for the player's hand. The second part was the holovisor, a holographic display worn on the left ear that wirelessly received information from the arm computer, providing audio-visual feedback via a holographically projected display. It was the pinnacle of human technology, and almost everyone who was old enough had one.

Having installed the six Chips in her arm, Alexa's holovisor whirred into life. The health display appeared in the top-right corner of her vision: as always, both players started with 10,000 Charge Points, or CP. The names of the six cards she had installed appeared on the left, numbered from 1 to 6; pressing the corresponding numbered button on the touch-screen would activate each one. Running her gaze down the list, she grinned. This will be easily.

"I'll be nice," she said, "I'll let you go first."

The first-year grinned with unwarranted confidence. "Alright! First, I activate Power Shield and Torrent Shield!" he said, pressing two buttons on his arm. These were Passive Chips, providing permanent boosts; Power Shield reduced the base damage the boy took, and Torrent Shield further reduced the effectiveness of Water-type attacks by half. Through the holovisor, Alexa saw a faint white shield surround the boy, followed by a blue watery shield; special effects, to provide a greater level of immersion. That was part of the reason for the game's popularity.

"Next," said the boy, "I activate Minor Drain!" Minor Drain was an Active Chip; only one of these could be activated per turn. Ordinarily, this would drain the opponent of 1000 CP and add it to the user's CP, leaving Alexa with 9,000 CP and her opponent with 11,000 plus two shields. But Alexa had other ideas.

"Not so fast!" said Alexa. "I activate Negation Protocol and cancel Minor Drain's effects!" Negation Protocol was a Dormant Chip, which could be triggered by an opponent's actions. In this case, it did exactly as Alexa described: it cancelled out the boy's Minor Drain. A red beam with green sparks flying from it shot out of the boy's holovisor, but an identical one flew from Alexa's to counter it and as the two beams met in mid-air they disappeared in a shower of sparks. The excited crowd edged closer.

"My turn now," remarked Alexa. "I use Ultima Firestorm!" The crowd cheered as a red holographic beam engulfed in flame shot out of the holovisor and struck the boy, causing him to flinch even though there was really nothing there. Ultima Firestorm was a powerful attack, but its strength meant it could only be used once before "burning out" and having to be replaced. In CC BattleGrid there were two ways to lose: run out of CP, or lose too many chips. As the boy's health trickled down to 6,850 CP, the Ultima Firestorm chip popped out of Alexa's CC System; she took it out, pocketing it, and replaced it with the next face-down one from her deck.

The boy, it seemed, wasn't going to be deterred. "Now it's my turn!" he said, his confidence seemingly undiminished. "I activate Blaze Strike!" Not a bad move, thought Alexa, as a holographic fireball surged towards her. But I'm still three steps ahead of you.

She activated the card she had just drawn. "I activate Perfect Reflection! Your Blaze Strike gets thrown back at you twofold!"

"What?!!" exclaimed the boy, now starting to realize the trouble he was in, as the fireball bounced off Alexa and surged back towards him at twice its original size. His Power Shield again reduced the damage slightly, but he was now down to just 3,100 CP, and now it was Alexa's turn. All it would take now was a single good attack, and as the Perfect Reflection chip burned out and popped back up from its slot, she already knew that she had the perfect attack installed with which to end it.

Sliding in the replacement chip, she grinned. "Game over, kid," she said. "I activate Ultima Overclock!"

The crowd gasped, then cheered. Ultima Overclock was the rarest, most powerful attack in the entire game. It burned out all the user's Chips in the process, but that wouldn't matter one iota at this point. Even with the first-year's Power Shield, it really was game over.

The boy cried out as he was engulfed in a giant beam of light fired from Alexa's holovisor. His shields faded away as the last of his CP was powerfully drained away. Alexa has beaten him, in only two turns, without taking any damage at all.

With the game over, both player's installed Chips popped up out of their slots, and Alexa started to stack her Chips away back inside their case. The boy did not. He just stood there, dumbfounded, trying to process the sheer comprehensiveness of his defeat. "N…no way…" he stammered.

Alexa put the last of her Chips away, then advanced on the shell-shocked boy, grinning. "I believe you remember the terms of our wager?" she asked.

"Y…yes…" said the boy.

Alexa thought for a moment. "One hundred star jumps. Now."

"What?"

"Believe me," remarked Alexa, "you could use the exercise. Hundred star jumps. Now."

As the crowd around them started to laugh, the thoroughly humiliated boy reluctantly got started on his star jumps, while Alexa strode off with a grin on her face and her head held high.

Day 4

[from Space Hunter]

"Prepare my personal shuttle."

As Princess Aurelia entered the royal hangar, barking an order at the mechanics stationed there, her advisor hurried behind her, startled. "My lady," he asked, "what do you intend to do?"

"For too long we have stood back and watched our people suffer because of this virus," said Princess Aurelia, not looking back as she strode purposefully towards the gleaming silver shuttle. "It is time to take action."

"But what exactly can you do?" asked her advisor. "If a cure cannot be found in the Zeta system, who's to say there's a cure anywhere?"

"All diseases have a cure," said Princess Aurelia. "One must exist somewhere."

"But my lady--"

"I will not back down on this," said Princess Aurelia firmly, coming to a halt next to the shuttle as the mechanics set about preparing it for flight. "I have spoken to my father, and he has given me his blessing for this trip. He too realizes that this is not something we can face on our own anymore."

Her advisor opened his mouth to argue once more, but decided it was futile. Aurelia had made up her mind, and she was clearly not going to be swayed, no matter what. Besides, if she had the king's approval, what power did he or anyone else have to stop her? Heaving a great sigh, he conceded defeat. "Very well," he said. "But please, my lady, be careful."

"I shall," said Princess Aurelia, "don't worry."

"Shall I contact Dr. Sonara?" asked the advisor. "If you're looking for a cure, her help could be invaluable."

"Very well," Princess Aurelia replied, nodding once. "Bring her here; she may have some upgrades for the shuttle as well."

When Dr. Sonara arrived a short time later, she did indeed have an upgrade for the shuttle. An advanced spectrometer instrument, placed in the shuttle's nose cone, would automatically scan the atmospheres of planets. "If there's life there, this baby'll let you know," she said. "Take this as well," she added, handing Princess Aurelia a handheld gadget with a circular readout. "Once you're on the surface, it'll analyze the chemical make-up of anything you point it at. Chances are we'll be looking for very specific compounds, and that should help you find 'em."

"Okay, thank you," said Princess Aurelia. "These should definitely help."

"I'll stay here, and continue to analyze the virus," said Dr. Sonara. "I'll try and pin down the cure, one ingredient at a time, and let you know via radio what you'll need to get. It'll be all up to you to track 'em down, though."

"Thank you, Doctor," said Princess Aurelia. "I'll do my best, for the good of our people."

Dr. Sonara bowed in farewell, and Princess Aurelia returned the gesture before retreating to the lockers. By the time she re-emerged, now clad in a black-and-silver spacesuit emblazoned with the royal crest, her shuttle was fuelled and ready to go. Its main engines were powered by hydrogen, the most abundant substance in the universe, so refuelling, if necessary, should be a trivial matter. The mechanics quickly ran through the pre-flight checks, making sure everything was in order.

"Everything seems to be okay, ma'am," said the chief mechanic once the checks were complete. "Flight conditions are good. You are cleared for take-off."

"Very well," said Princess Aurelia, bowing once more. "I shall be off, then." As the door of her craft slowly lowered, providing a walkway inside, she paused for a moment, looking pensive. "I just hope all is still well here when I return."

"It will be, my lady," said her advisor, bowing again. "The king and queen will see to that. Take care on your voyage, and…good luck."

"Thank you," said Princess Aurelia. Not knowing what else to say, she ascended the walkway and entered the ship, the door slowly closing itself behind her. The mechanics gathered around to wave goodbye to their princess, and Aurelia waved back to them until the door closed completely, sealing her inside the gleaming shuttle.

Aurelia entered the cockpit, sinking into the pilot's seat. Her headset sat on the dashboard, waiting for her; she donned it and switched it on, adjusting the mic so it was positioned properly in front of her mouth. A calming voice from mission control floated into her ear from the speakers: "Okay, Your Majesty, you're free to take off whenever you're ready. Do bear in mind that as you get further away from the planet, it'll take longer from our communications to reach you, and for yours to reach us. Don't panic if we don't answer you straight away, okay?"

"Okay."

"The people of Zeta-4 are with you all the way," said mission control. We all wish you the best of luck."

"Thank you, sir," said Princess Aurelia. "I'll be taking off now."

The hangar door opened, and Aurelia fired up the ship's thrusters, propelling her out onto the runway. Once she had gathered enough speed, she pulled up on the control stick and before long the craft was pointed vertically upwards, soaring up through the atmosphere. Quickly reaching escape velocity, Aurelia watched as the sky around her slowly darkened to black, the air rushing loudly around the ship and buffeting it slightly despite its luxurious suspension. Aurelia's hands gripped the controls tightly, gently riding out the turbulence.

All at once the buffeting stopped, and silence fell within the cockpit. She had left the planet's atmosphere. Before her lay the unfathomable vastness of space,  the blackness permeated by innumerable stars. To her right, she could see a swirling, blue-green nebula, the gases within slowly coagulating into a whole new star system just like her own. Sadly, there was no time for her to spend admiring the scenery.

Before activating the ship's warp drive, which would propel her beyond the solar system in a matter of minutes, she took one last look back at the planet she was leaving behind. It was a planet in turmoil. A strange, deadly virus had swept across it in a matter of months, leaving many thousands dead and millions more seriously ill. The virus had resisted every attempt to cure it, treat it, or contain it. The royal family, unable to help their people, had felt powerless. But now, that was all about to change. The cure lay somewhere out there, among the stars, and Princess Aurelia was going to find it, no matter what.

"Computer," said Princess Aurelia, "activate the warp drive."

"Destination?" asked the computer in a cool female voice.

"The nearest star system." said Aurelia.

"Activating warp drive." There was a sudden whirr as the warp drive warmed up, preparing to blast the ship forwards at the speed of light. The ship's computer determined that the Sigma system was the closest, and automatically set a course for it.

"I sure hope there's somebody there," she said.

Then the ship was gone in a flash, the warp drive propelling it at half the speed of light, ferrying the princess away into the empty void before her.

Day 3

[from Project Nero]

The human phenomenon known as "Focus" has persisted throughout recorded history. It is thought that this mysterious power is what allowed homo sapiens to survive, diversify, and ultimately becoming the dominant life force on the planet. However, the exact biological mechanisms behind it are as yet unknown, and numerous studies have failed to identify what causes this power to manifest itself, or why only humanity is blessed with it. Focus is thus deemed by most modern civilizations to be a form of magic, or a gift from the gods.

What is known is that, once a person has turned sixteen, they are able to unlock an ability beyond what an Unfocused human is capable of. This ability is itself usually known as "a Focus". To unlock this power, one must consume a quantity of liquid taken from a "Focus Spring", a special natural spring of which hundreds are known to exist. In modern Focus rituals, this consumption is undertaken at the person's house on their sixteenth birthday, rather than at a Spring itself. The traditional dosage is 100ml, though for most people, anywhere between 50-75ml is sufficient.

Focuses were once thought to be unique to each living human, however in modern times it is known that even with the millions of possible Focuses that can be unlocked, it is almost inevitable that at least one other human, living or dead, will share that same Focus. Some cultures believe that a person's Focus is retained between reincarnations; others believe that two people with the same Focus are natural soul-mates. While there are a handful of recorded instances of the latter, neither theory has ever been definitely proven.

The Focus that a person receives does not appear to follow any logical pattern. Focuses are not passed down through family lines, and are not usually linked to the life the person had led prior to unlocking their Focus. The Focus a person receives is thus thought to be completely random.

Focuses vary in power, restrictions, and other specifics. While there is a proven correlation between the power of a Focus and the restrictions governing its use, this correlation is weak and there are numerous outliers. For example, one man's Focus may be the ability to jump ten feet in the air, while another's may be to jump fifteen feet but only at night. A third may be able to jump twenty feet without restriction.

Even after it has been unlocked, a person's Focus is unknown to them, however, in the immediate aftermath of the ritual many experience a "strange and sudden urge" to perform an action which, when performed, reveals their Focus. For example, one whose Focus is the ability to walk up walls may have a sudden, inexplicable urge to walk up the wall in front of them. Discovering the person's Focus in this way is usually treated as a second part of the ritual, and the traditional advice given to newly-Focused people is simply: "do whatever comes naturally".

A number of Focuses have destructive capabilities, and it is estimated that around 100 people are killed every year worldwide by people using their Focuses for the first time. However, newly-Focused individuals are immune from prosecution for any crimes they may accidentally commit upon first using their Focus, and almost all insurers cover ritual-related damage as standard.

As with almost anything in modern human society, Focuses can be misused. Many criminals use their Focuses to help them either commit their crimes or escape from the law, and there are numerous accounts of people using their Focuses to facilitate crimes ranging from fraud and deception to theft, kidnap and murder. For some of these individuals, the nature of their abilities makes apprehending or incarcerating them extremely difficult, and in some countries (but not Vale) a "Focused homicide" is punishable by death. Famous Focused fugitives include Rachel "Cammy" Adams, who evaded Vale authorities throughout the 1950s, Eduardo Conceição, who started the Great Santa Lupe fire that killed over 400 people, and the modern-day gangster and hitman known as Nero, who as of the time of writing has been evading authorities in Port Elizabeth for over two years.

In rare cases, people may choose not to undergo the ritual; those who do not are known as the Unfocused. In exceptionally rare circumstances, a person may have no Focus at all or be unable to complete the ritual. Attitudes towards the Unfocused vary between societies. Some treat lack of Focus as being akin to a physical disability; others shun those without Focuses and make outcasts of them; still others believe that having no Focus means that God has deemed them perfect as they are, and revere them. In Vale, for the most part, public perception of the Unfocused has shifted towards the positive within the last century and they now enjoy legal equality. Efforts are underway to make it illegal to force a person to undertake the Focus ritual against their will.

Day 2

[from StarLight]

The shrill beeping of her alarm clock roused Sanae Hikari from her slumber. Cracking an eye open, she looked at the LCD display. 7am exactly. Class started at 8:45. No good, she thought. It's the first episode; what kind of protagonist wakes up bright and early for school in the first episode? Turning the alarm off, she went straight back to sleep.

About an hour later, she woke up again, smiling as this time the clock showed a more acceptable time of 8:07am. Perfect. Just enough time for me to conceivably make it, but still late enough to cause a panic. Speaking of which... Sanae cleared her throat then, feigning shock, shrieked, "HOLY CRAP I'M GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!" and scrambled out of bed.

In a hurry, Sanae showered, got changed into her school uniform, grabbed her rucksack, and headed downstairs. There's no time for breakfast, she thought, I'm gonna have to do the toast thing. Jamming a slice of bread in the toaster, she waited impatiently for it to pop up, then snatched it from the slot, clamped it firmly between her teeth, and dashed off the road towards the school.

As she rushed past the buildings, bag-in-hand and toast-in-mouth, she took a moment to admire her reflection in the windows she passed. In her blue-and-white uniform, with her breakfast dangling from her mouth and her lavender hair trailing behind her, she looked every bit the anime protagonist. "Nailed it," she mumbled. "Now all I need to do is-"

WHACK. Not looking where she was going, Sanae ran straight into someone waiting at a crossing and tumbled face-first to the floor, the toast falling to the ground. Silently mourning the loss of her breakfast, Sanae started to pick herself up, looking up to see who she'd run into. Please be a hot love interest...

It was not a hot love interest. It was a girl wearing the same school uniform as Sanae, and looking at her with concerned eyes. Concerned, mismatched eyes. One was purple, one was green. "Are you okay?" asked the girl.

"Your eyes are different colours," blurted out Sanae.

"Yes, they are," said the girl, bemused, "but that's not important right now. Are you okay?"

"I guess so," said Sanae, picking herself up. "I'm gonna be starving by lunch, though," she added, staring longingly at the dropped, now inedible toast.

"You're supposed to eat it on the way, not run the whole way with it dangling from your mouth," the girl pointed out. "I learned that from experience in middle school."

"Oh. Well, hopefully I won't need to try it again," said Sanae, dusting herself down. As the light at the crossing turned green, Sanae and the strange girl both sprinted off towards Mitsuzawa High School.

"I'm Hitomi Murasakime," said the girl, choosing to introduce herself as they ran. "I'm starting my first year."

"I'm Sanae Hikari," said Sanae. "I'm starting my second year."

"Oh, so you're my senpai!" said Hitomi excitedly. "That's cool!"

"I guess," said Sanae, shrugging as best she could while frantically running for the school, her stomach starting to hurt from hunger. Being an anime protagonist is hard work, she thought. The plot hasn't even started yet. At least I think there's a plot.

Finally, the pair made it to the school with only a few minutes to spare. Sanae and Hitomi went their separate ways, dashing towards their respective classrooms. As Sanae approached the door to Class 2-2, she saw a familiar and very welcoming sight. Standing outside the classroom door was her best friend, Amaya Kurozawa, holding out two pieces of buttered toast.

Sanae squealed in delight at the sight of the food, skidding to a halt and snatching a piece from Amaya's hand. "How did you know, Amaya?" she asked in amazement, before greedily munching down the slice. It was still warm.

"I figured, since you're the protagonist, you'd probably end up doing the running-to-school-with-toast-in-your-mouth thing," said Amaya. "I also figured you'd probably end up dropping it, since that scene is only ever parodied these days, so I brought along a couple of spare pieces of toast just in case.

"Thankff, Mmmayum, yuwa wife-thaffer," mumbled Sanae through a mouthful of toast, already taking the second slice.

"Don't mention it," said Amaya. "Now hurry up, class starts in two minutes."

Quickly polishing off the rest of the toast, Sanae headed inside the classroom, and Amaya followed her in. They were the last to arrive; mere moments later, their teacher, Inaba-sensei, arrived, carrying the register. As she started to call out the student's names, Sanae wiped a few breadcrumbs off her blouse and prepared for what she thought would be an ordinary first day back at school.

Day 1

[from Aura of Chaos]

In the beginning, there were the six Divine Spirits who created the world. Terra created the land. Neptunia created the seas. Sylvia created the skies. Lucia created the light; Nocturna, the darkness. Finally, Vita created all the creatures of the world, including humans in Her own image.

At first, all Vita's creations had eternal life, as the Divine Spirits did. However, the other Divine Spirits were indignant. How, they argued, does a lesser being such as a cow or a dog deserve to live forever as a goddess might? Vita argued that the other Spirits' creations were as ever-lasting as they, and that depriving only Hers of immortality, deservedly or not, was unfair. 

Eventually, the Spirits agreed on what became known as the First Divine Compromise: all the creatures of the earth were given mortal bodies, but humans, created in the Spirits' likeness, would receive eternal life through their souls, which would live on in a special realm crafted by Sylvia and Lucia that they called "Heaven".

In order to test these new designs, the Spirits descended to Earth and asked for a sacrifice. A young woman volunteered and was swiftly struck down by a bolt of lightning, becoming the first human to die and ascend to Heaven. To honour her sacrifice, the Divine Spirits gifted her their power; the woman was thus reincarnated as Cassandra, the seventh Divine Spirit and the guardian of Heaven.

As time passed, and the souls of the living began to depart to Heaven, Cassandra began to protest that some humans were not worthy of eternal life, and did not belong in Her paradise. The kind and the virtuous, the brave and the innocent, were forced to share the afterlife with rapists, murderers and all manner of depraved beings, many of whom carried on their wicked ways in the afterlife where there was little that could be done to stop them. Cassandra's eternal paradise was in danger of becoming anything but a paradise.

After much debate, the Spirits came to the Second Divine Compromise, and a new realm, Hell, was crafted by Terra and Nocturna. Those that Cassandra would not allow into Heaven would be sent to this new realm instead, where they would be forever punished for their sins. Using their powers, the Divine Spirits created an eighth Spirit, Lilith, to watch over this new realm.

Over time, skewed by her experience of dealing with only the worst of humanity, Lilith began to despise all humans, and eventually resolved to destroy all living humans so that none would ever enter Hell again. The other seven Spirits, fighting alongside their creations, managed to defeat and subdue Lilith. In the Last Divine Compromise, the eight Spirits sealed themselves away inside crystals for all eternity, only to be woken should they be discovered by a truly virtuous human - and should this event ever occur, it would finally convince Lilith of the inherent goodness of humanity.