Episode 2: So You Want To Go To Australia?

“The goo…” Kasumi mused aloud. “That totally makes sense!”

It was the same day, same hour, and the news was still sinking in.

“She is right,” Tomo concurred. “When the science club students were here a few days ago, an explosion happened and a bunch of goo went on us. And although the goo washed off, it must have sunk into our bodies.”

“And the experiment had to do with superpowers,” added Naoko. “Not sure if the science club doing it in our room was intended or not, or if they just wanted to test it on anybody.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re right!” Tomo gasped. “I got a brilliant idea! Let’s write down our powers and see if anything happens to them within the next few months!” She began to dig into her backpack for a piece of paper to write on, as well as a pen.

“Good idea,” Mari shouted for no reason. “The literature club! Documenting superpowers since… today.”

Kasumi rolled her eyes.

“Hey! The sarcasm is my deal only!” Mimori said, fake-furious.

“Um, what was your power or ability again, Mimori?” asked Tomo politely, tapping her pen on the desk.

“I can time travel,” replied Mimori. “Although I didn’t go into the future yet… because I don’t want to.”

“What?!” Mari cried. “Not going into the future? How crazy is that?!”

“Not so crazy,” Kasumi explained. “‘Cuz we’ll be living it soon. So why do that when you can relive the past? Especially going way back before you were born.”

“She does have a point,” Naoko said. “Why enjoy the future when you can enjoy the past too? Although, your sense of the future didn’t include the far, far, future, where we are long gone. Ding!”

Mimori’s eyes drooped. “Aw man, you’re right. I’m so dumb…”

Tomo wanted to bring the subject back to fruition. “And Kasumi! You can make your, um... breasts grow, right?” She blushed as she said that.

“And shrink too,” Kasumi replied, blushing as well. “So you guys really did notice, huh?”

“How couldn’t we?!” Mari shrieked while Mimori looked down at her own chest, dreamily. “They’re well, they’re there! They’re bigger than Mimori’s! And mine!”

“Uh, umm… thanks? There’s still some padding in here from my A-cup bra that’s now fit to fill my new breasts though.”

“Oh.” Mari looked slightly unimpressed.

“Ahem. Mari?”

“Huh?” Mari’s ears perked up like a dog’s.

“You can, um… what do I call your power?”

“Uh, that I can change my voice? I can basically easily imitate anyone around me.” she gasped. “Oh my God! I could just make a living off of sounding like System of a Down! I—”

“‘Can imitate anyone.’” Tomo sighed. “And Naoko-chan can make things levitate, right?”

“No. I can move things with my mind.”

“Right. Um, telekinesis. And I can—”

“Travel the world, like Mr. Worldwide!” Mimori said while giggling profusely.

“—Teleport.”

And just like that, Tomo teleported to one of the drawers in the room to get some tape, even though it was a pretty pointless move.

“You’re gonna hang it up?” Naoko questioned. “Aren’t people gonna come in and see it?”

“No one ever comes in this room except the janitors and our advisor,” Tomo shrugged. “It’s not like he or she would be snooping around or anything. Besides, look at the header.”

Mari looked at the piece of lined paper hanging on the wall. “‘RPG superpowers’? But I don’t play any of those!” whined Mari.

“That’s the point.” Tomo smiled. “That way won’t sound suspicious. It’ll look like we’re just a bunch of nerds.”

“Hey, Tomo?” Mimori spoke up. “You said that you can teleport, right?”

Tomo sighed. “Yes, I did. Multiple times.”

“Could you try teleporting us all?”

“Ooh!” Tomo perked up, suddenly looking super excited. “I can try. Here, let’s all try holding hands!”

The girls moved closer to the front of the room and formed a circle, all of their hands clasped together. Tomo closed her eyes and thought vividly of the hallway.

“Alright, guys. Close your eyes.”

The girls closed their eyes and everything went stark quiet for a moment. A sense of warmth surrounded their bodies, and then…

When the girls opened their eyes, they truly were out in the hallway, albeit more than a few feet away from the clubroom door.

“You did it, Tomo! Now can we go to Australia?”

Tomo raised her eyebrows and cocked her head to the side. “Australia? Sounds wonderful, but why?”

Mimori’s face flushed heavily. “Because my crush lives there. H-he’s a Youtuber.”

“What’s his name?”

“Hank Williams… or Cartoon Green Pony.”

“I’ve never heard of him,” Tomo said. “But yet again, I haven’t been on YouTube a whole lot.”

Kasumi butted into their conversation. “I’ve heard of him,” she announced. “It’s not like Mimori forced me to watch all of his videos or anything.”

Tomo looked intrigued. “I’d like to meet this guy. Do you have any specific place where we should teleport to?”

“His university!” Mimori piped up. “Generick University!”

“He’s that old?!” Mari screamed. “And wait—you know his University name?! Dude, you’re crazy!”

“Do you really think you can teleport there with all of us?” Naoko wanted to know. “Do you think you’re ready for that?”

“Hmm…” Tomo paused and thought for a moment. “I’ll just teleport us to an airport, I guess!”

“Fair enough!” Mimori nodded profusely. “As long as we meet my crush, that’s all that matters!”

And so, the girls held hands again while Tomo imagined an airport that would lead them to Australia.

★

The same, slightly uncomfortable thing happened as it did last time. And when the girls opened their eyes, they truly were smack-dab in the middle of an airport.

“Oh!” Tomo squeaked, sounding quite a bit like Princess Peach.

“ … Um, Tomo,” Mari said, lowering her voice and nudging her friend. “What are we going to do now?”

“Sneak onto the plane,” Tomo replied in a just-as-hushed voice. “We ru—actually, never mind. Let’s just teleport into the plane.”

★

After the third-time-is-a-charm teleport, the girls awkwardly appeared on the plane. The girls then rushed to find seats that weren’t taken. Mimori chose a seat that was next to Tomo and Kasumi, while Mari and Naoko chose a pair of seats that were across from them, the third seat luckily being empty.

Oh God, this is so awkward, Mimori thought, closing her eyes in embarrassment. I so hope that nobody saw us teleport onto here!

The intercom came on and said that they’d arrive at their destination in about two hours.

“Man! That’s when dinner is,” Mari shouted from across the row, with no regard for airplane courtesy whatsoever.

“Time works differently with these powers. While time will continue at our chosen destination, it will resume where it left off when we teleport back to where we originally were. So, all in all, we’re not missing anything!” Tomo informed the girls under her breath, completely ignoring Mari’s complaint.

As the plane shuttered to life, Mimori and Kasumi’s stomachs had butterflies in them.

“I feel like I’m going to barf!” cried Kasumi. “Ugh, I should’ve totally brought some gum with me if I knew we were going on a plane!”

“I have a barf bag,” Tomo said helpfully, passing her a paper bag. “First time?”

“Y-yes,” she said weakly. “And wait. Where did you get that bag from?”

Tomo giggled. “My backpack. You didn’t notice that I brought it with me?”

“It’s my first time!” Mimori tried to raise her voice over the pressure of the air, but alas, she wasn’t loud enough.

As the plane started soaring into the sky, Mari was understandably ecstatic.

“And so, the first adventure of the Can Do Anything Club begins!” she proclaimed epically, although not in her perfectly epic voice.

“‘The Can Do Anything Club?’” questioned Naoko. “Where did that name come from?”

“It just came to me,” Mari said, shrugging.

★

About two hours later, the girls arrived at their destination. Once they entered the other airport, Tomo started to wonder.

“Should we teleport to his university right now? Or…”

“YES!!” Mimori said while trying not to scream. “But we better hide real quick so that way no one sees us doing it.”

“But it’s gonna take to some time to—”

“TOO BAD!”

Once the girls got into the ladies’ bathroom (there was luckily one in there at that moment), Tomo got the address out of her backpack and closed her eyes, as did the others.

★

When the girls opened their eyes, they saw the university right in front of them, vivid as ever.

The building didn’t look too prestigious, but it didn’t look run down either. It looked very pleasant and clean from the outside. There was a sign right out front that read Generick University.

“I-I’m suddenly nervous….” Mimori whimpered, shaking all over. “And I don’t even speak English! How am I supposed to talk to him?”

Naoko was close to facepalming. “Then how did you even watch his videos?” she had to ask. “Ding.”

Tomo and Mari looked at each other like they were having a silent conversation.

“I can try,” Mari said aloud, shugging. “I haven’t tried using my powers yet to speak in a different language, but who knows what’ll happen?”

“I have faith in you, Mari-chan, I bet it’ll be easy breezy!” Mimori sounded a bit too hopeful.

“Let’s bounce!” Tomo yelled, whipping out her arm and turning the handle. “C’mon, girls!”

When they walked in, their breath was taken away by how big the place was. Luckily, there weren’t many people around, so they didn’t stick out as much.

“What room is Hank in?” Tomo pondered. “Do you think he’s in a lecture hall right now, Mimo-chan?”

“I have no idea,” Mimori said, lips trembling all of a sudden. “W-why don’t we just go ask somebody in the main office?”

“Good idea!” Kasumi remarked. “I’ll go.”

Naoko raised an eyebrow. “Without Mari’s powers? You are one brave soul.”

“Don’t worry, I know a decent amount of English, I can do this!” Kasumi gave a thumbs-up and headed right toward the office, without a second thought. But then…

Oh God, why did I say that, she thought, beating herself up inside of her head. My English is laughably bad! Stupid bragging…

As she walked into the office, a blond-haired woman was sitting in a comfy-looking chair behind a professional-looking desk.

“Hello? Do you need help?” the woman asked politely.

“Uh… um…” Kasumi muttered, her voice trailing off. Frick, I barely understood a word she said.

She cleared her throat. Welp, here goes nothing.

“I am—rooking for sa loom of Heinku Wiriamusu!” The twin-tailed girl gave an aggressive bow.

The woman stared at her, giggled, and looked at another person that was standing right beside Kasumi: Mari. She could’ve sworn she saw her friend’s eyes glow a little.

Mari nodded, looking strangely humble. “What’s she’s saying, mate, is—”

“I understood her perfectly,” the woman said, continuing on. “I’ve had foreigners like her before. Are you her friend?”

“Yezzir!” Mari cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

Kasumi pouted cutely. “Groan…”

“I’m very good friends with the guy you were talking about… right now, he’s in a lecture hall, and it will be ending in about eleven minutes.”

“Where’s his room at?” Mari wanted to know.

“... It’s upstairs, Room 208, according to the computer.”

Mari smiled. “Thank you,” she replied, dragging Kasumi out of the room by her sailor uniform collar.

Once Mimori saw her friends walk out of the office, she couldn’t help but squeal and jump up and down.

“What’d she say? Where is he?!”

“He’s in a lecture hall right now,” explained Kasumi. “He gets out in about eleven minutes, according to the woman working in the office.”

As she was talking, Mari was jogging in place, clearly impatient. “Gotta go fast,” she sang quietly, in her regular voice again.

Tomo, realizing Mimori and Mari were now incredibly hyped up, instructed the girls to wait by Room 208.

★

“It’s… ah... “ Naoko looked at her phone, confused at the time. “7:55?”

The girls were now sitting on a bench that was in the hallway where Hank’s class was, waiting for him to come out.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Kasumi complained, looking up at the ceiling while playing with her hair. “Ugh, I hope he doesn’t wanna ask the professor any questions after class.”

“We’ve only got five minutes!” Mimori said coolly, doing fist pumps over and over again. Tomo whispered something in her ear.

“I can’t help it!” Mari groaned, slamming her feet against the carpet. “Five minutes seems like forever!”

“Who are you talking to?” asked Tomo, curious.

“My consciousness.”

“Ohh… makes sense.” Tomo shook her head, clearly meaning “No.”

Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling it was the end of the lecture hour.

Mimori was so excited that she could hardly contain it any longer. “He’ll be here!” she screamed but in a hushed voice.

“God help me,” Naoko said, looking like she was praying. “For whoever sees her will be weirded out. Ding!”

“So, what does this guy look like?” Tomo said in a low voice.

“Tall, lanky, long blond hair, blue eyes! He also has glasses and has a slightly nasally voice!” Mimori’s face flushed up again as she described his appearance.

“Like this?” Mari said, impersonating Kasumi. The girl in question facepalmed.

“Wouldja keep it down?” hushed Tomo. “I think that’s him.”

“Huh?” Mimori looked left and right until she made herself dizzy.

Then, she set her sights on him.

Right when Mimori saw him coming out of the lecture room, her heart skipped ten million beats, which was a lot. If he was the wind, then she would be the pages of a book that were blown off a bench at the park.

She was just simply blown away... at how beautiful and dorky he looked in real life.

“’You are the thunder and I am the lightning…’" she sang softly, which she also did quite a bit.

Hank rubbed his head, clearly confused about the fact that five teenage girls were standing by the door to one of his lecture rooms.

That's him? wondered Naoko silently. Wow, he looks really dorky. Ding!

“Uh..." he began. "What are you guys doing here? Who even are you?”

“Sorry sorry sorry sorry!" cried Mimori, hugging herself for some reason.

Luckily, Mari stepped in and saved the day for the confused Australian university student.

"This girl right here," Mari said, changing into her Australian voice while pushing Mimori towards her crush, "is a huge fan of your videos. Like, huge."

"Eh, heh heh heh..." Mimori chuckled nervously.

"What did she say?" Tomo whispered to Naoko.

"I don't know," replied Naoko, fists clenched.

Hank scratched his head, still slightly confused.

"’Aight," he said. "Ah... I was just gonna go to my dorm and work on a YouTube video, but if you wanna hang out, that's fine too." The poor guy looked visibly uncomfortable around these girls he had never seen before.

Mimori had no idea what he was saying, but she thought he looked even cuter when he was confused. She tried to fight that sweat the was now forming under her forehead.

"Sure," Mari said, nodding. "Did you hear that, Mimori-chan? Hank wants to hang out with you!"

Mimori, hearing what her friend said because she said it in Japanese for her, started jumping up and down again in celebration.

"I’m guessing that’s a yes?" the boy questioned.

"It is indeed, mate!”

Hank giggled. "Sounds good to me, I guess.”

"And you don't think it'll be weird for me to...? Wait a second, Mi—"

Mimori was already by his side in a flash.

"Yes?" the girl cocked her head to the side.

Mari touched Mimori on the shoulder reassuringly. Then, she began patting her head profusely.

Then she touched her nose for good measure.

Mimori's face was red the whole time.

"AHHHH, STOP TOUCHING ME!” she shrieked. In English, no less!

Thankfully, the hallway was clear except for a few people who just looked at the group of people like they were a bunch of freaks.

Hank, unable to speak, had his mouth wide open instead.

" … What? What did I say?" Mimori said, decently imitating a certain blue-haired Equestria Girls character.

"You just spoke perfect English," Hank concluded. "But just a minute ago, you were all speaking Chinese."

"Japanese!" Mari corrected, touching the other girl’s shoulders, heads, and noses too. All with permission now. She didn’t want a repeat of a minute ago.

"Sorry. But still! How'd you even get here!? Where are your parents!?"

The girls, who could now speak all English with an Australian accent, answered accordingly.

"Eh... Vacation?" Kasumi shrugged.

"School trip?" Naoko suggested.

"Girls, we have to let this all sink in for him," Tomo said calmly.

"Heh heh heh, wow, ya think?" Mimori giggled. "I've never seen him this quiet before.” She was using her newfound voice as much as she could.

"That's because you've never seen him before, to begin with!" Kasumi bickered, flicking her on the shoulder.

"This is messed up," Hank said, looking like he was experiencing aliens landing right in front of him. "Ah... Where shall we go now that you’re here?"

"Are there any stores that carry ponies around here?" Mimori stared at him creepily while saying that.

He sighed. "No, not anywhere close to here sadly.”

Mimori made a big pout. “Oh well. I didn’t have any money anyway…”

★

And so Hank ended up treating the girls to an early dinner at a restaurant. They weren’t sure how he was able to afford it, maybe his family was rich or something.

A waitress came over, waiting for the group’s order while setting down their drinks in front of them.

“I’d like a hot dog and fries, please!” Mimori grinned from ear to ear.

“Same thing as Mimo-chan,” Kasumi added. “Except I’d like a side of chili cheese fries.”

“A double cheeseburger with tater tots!” Mari seemed overly excited.

“Fish ‘n Chips.” Naoko was short with her order.

“A salad please,” Tomo said rather politely.

“Just a salad for me as well,” Hank finished, nodding.

After the waitress left with their orders, Mimori decided to start a conversation with her crush. “So I can tell you’re a salad kind of guy,” she said as smoothly as she could.

“Ah, um, kinda.” he replied. “I like any kind of food, really.”

Tomo, who was sitting across from Hank, wanted to ask him a question as well, like the doting-mom character she is. “So, exactly how old are you?”

“I’m 20 years old. How old are you?” he directed this back to Tomo. The look in his eyes was like he was hoping they were old enough where it didn’t look as weird that he was hanging out with them.

“Well… me and Mari are fourteen, Mimori and Kasumi are fifteen, and Naoko is thirteen, respectively.”

“Holy crap! You know all our birthdays?!” Mari was incredibly impressed.

Tomo just shrugged. “I remember things well.” She smiled sweetly.

“Coolio,” Hank said awkwardly. “Oh! Is that our food?… no.”

Mimori winked at Kasumi, who was to the right of Hank. Kasumi smiled back secretively.

“Well, ‘it’s gonna take some time for it to come,’” Kasumi sang, albeit a bit terribly on purpose.

“What?” the boy was confused. “Is that some kind of inside joke between you two?”

“N’yup,” Mimori giggled. “We have plenty of those. Right, Sumi-chan?”

Mimori pointed out her thumb and her index finger and put them under her chin. “Hey guys, it’s Caesar Orzell!” She added a phony smile to complete the look.

Kasumi’s face broke out into an even bigger grin, making her friend chuckle. “Spoiler alert!”

Hank’s face was suddenly stoic and unmoving. “That brings back too many bad memories,” he muttered, shaking her head.

“Hey, look! There’s my burger!” Mari said joyfully. “Woo-hoo! Food!”

And with that, the girls (and guy) ate their dinner, which was a really strange mish-mash of stuff.

★

When everyone was done eating, they were all happily full and content.

“Well everyone,” Hank announced. “It looks like I should be going back to my dorm now. And you too. Whoops! Not you guys. I mean, back to wherever you came from. Japan, right? Oh, and Mimori.”

Hank said Mimori’s name without rolling the rs, but she didn’t care.

“We’ll go shopping wherever you want next time.” He was looking right at her when he said that, which made her turn bright crimson.

“Uh-um-there will be a next time?” When Mimori said this, it accidentally came out in a breathy, high-pitched voice.

Hank chuckled, which made Mimori feel like a small child who was talking with her dad.

“Why not? I don’t wanna leave you, uh, disappointed. And you talk in English, too. Somehow.” The smile that was on his face wobbled a bit.

“Oh, there’s more where that came from,” Kasumi said quietly, smirking.

“Huh?” Hank heard what she said a little bit.

“Only in Japan!” she quickly added. “Uh… bye, Hank! See you next time!”

By this time, everyone was piled in Hank’s car and was ready to get out of the parking lot of the restaurant. And then, almost in a flash, they were at the front of the university yet again.

After Hank stepped foot into his school after the casual slew of farewells, Tomo breathed a sigh of relief and looked around to see if anyone else was outside, which there luckily wasn’t.

“Okay, girls. Let’s see if we can get back to our club room without having to use an airplane. I’ve had some time to think about it, and I’ve concluded that that was a pretty stupid idea, to begin with.”

“You think? I’ve been biting my tongue about it all this time.” Naoko said snidely, looking like she added a ding to her sentence silently.

Tomo drew a sharp breath. “Well, let’s see what happens.”

Ready to go back to Japan, the girls all clasped each other's hands and closed their eyes.

…

Tomo was the first to open her eyes. Then…

“Oh my gosh, girls! I did it!”

Naoko unclasped her hands and scratched her cheek. “Hey, look at that. You did,” she said dryly.

“I really did teleport everyone back to school! I knew I could do it!”

“Good,” snarked Kasumi. “IMO I think our powers are too OP anyway. I believed in you. I would have literally thrown up if we had to ride that plane again by the way.”

Mimori facepalmed. “Really? ‘Literally?’”

While the two friends were bickering, Tomo wrote proudly on the RPG powers poster something she was proud of.

Can teleport multiple people to a different country in just one go.

“Mimori, wasn’t that fun?” Mari wanted to cut the girls’ brewing catfight off and injected some positiveness into the discussion instead.

“The trip? Yeah…” Mimori sighed, seemingly melting into her chair with ease. Kasumi, who was now on her phone, grinned at her friend and returned back to her regularly scheduled Twitter feed.