Episode 4: Kasumi's Undying Love

Ah, youth love. For Kasumi, she could feel it deep down in her soul.

Well, at least for her. She didn’t know about her crush, Peter.

She could feel something else in her soul as well. Excitement.

It had been exactly one month since Kasumi lost her powers because of that incident onstage. Even though that still disappointed her, Kasumi learned that after a month, she could get a new power, which really made her excited.

It was kind of like redemption. A sweet kind.

Even better was that since it was her ordeal, she was going solo on making the potion, with only Tomo supplying the holy spellbook for her and Mimori helping her with suggestions for new powers.

It was truly Kasumi’s dream come true.

★

“So what do you think about the power to run super fast?” Kasumi mused, sucking her lips in for no particular reason at all.

“Meh…” Mimori moaned.

Kasumi was relaxing on her bed, flipping through Tomo’s copy of the spell book with her cell phone beside it, Mimori on speaker phone. Speaking of which, Mimori was giving next to nothing when it came to any input.

“‘Meh’? Is all you gotta say? Eh, I guess you’re right. Onto the next one.” Kasumi turned the page and then thought of a gem to tell her friend. “I still don’t get why no one but Henry can have the same powers. It’s bullsus!”

Mimori giggled. “AHHHHH!!!” She fake-screamed. “It’s so much more fun speaking with you on the phone, Kasumi-chan!”

Kasumi sighed, but not in an exhausted way. “Same. Even though I’d like to talk to you longer, I’d really like to pick out a superpower sooner or later before my parents and brother get back home from… whatever they’re doing right now.”

There was a brief silence.

“Oh crap,” Mimori said dramatically. “Yeah, you’re right. Oh, also! When you do find a power, are you gonna have all the ingredients ready?”

Kasumi turned her attention to her phone and gave it a Look, only to remember that Mimori wasn’t physically there. “Oh yeah… I’ll ask Tomo to get me them if I can’t find what I’m looking for. No biggie!” She waved her hand as she said that, chuckling a little.

As she continued to flip the pages, Kasumi noticed something.

“I like how each power is color-coded, like, none of them are the same. Man… I would have gotten super strength if Nathan didn’t already get it. Having light blue was real nice, I’d like to get another blue one if I can.”

“Ah, I think blue suited you too! But what about purple? It would match a lot of the clothes you have in your closet—not that I’ve ever looked at, heh heh.”

“Huh? Oh. Oh. OH!”

“What’s wrong?!”

That was when she noticed it. You could almost say that when she did, it was kind of like a “duh” moment.

“Why didn’t I think of this sooner?!”

“What? The suspense is killing me!”

“Screw, let’s try orchids, that’s kinda like purple! The power in question is to manipulate someone’s hormones! Dude…”

“Um… why is that a power? I mean, I know that one girl from that one show had that, but—”

“I’ve looked and looked in this book for things like hypnotism and mind control and this is the closest I can get! With this power, I can make Peter fall in love with me!”

“Dude…” Mimori echoed. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay? I’m pretty sure you only get one shot. You do not get two shots.”

Was Mimori dead serious about that? Oh wait, that was just a reference to that YouTube Poop that she loves so much.

“Yeah, yeah. The powers go away when I fuck up and stuff. Still don’t get why you didn’t get your powers taken away, though. You abused yours way more than I ever did… isn’t that right?”

Mimori made some noises reminiscent of a tea kettle.

“I thought so. So anyway, for this potion, I’m doing it the goo way for permanent usage, you need… corn starch, turmeric, purple grapes, one orchid petal, and black powder… geez, talk about milk, bread, eggs, and squick! I already have everything but the orchid petal! Wait—Tomo mentioned that she had a garden in her backyard, I wonder if she has any orchids? I’ll have to ask…”

“Um, she might,” Mimori said dubiously. “Are you actually going to go check? And wait—you have the black powder on you?”

“Yup!” Kasumi’s mouth formed a cat smile. “I took some from the science club yesterday when they weren’t looking. I’ve been wanting to get new powers for, like ever.”

“Okaaay then.”

“Okay! Imma let you go so I can call Tomo and tell her about the orchid petal, sound good?”

Mimori sighed. “Okay, fine! Call me back later after you’ve done the whole potion ritual thing.”

“Of course, and I’ll make sure to do it in a place where it’s easy to clean up.” Kasumi had to relay this information to her friend so that she wouldn’t go all worrywart on her.

After the two hung up, Kasumi pressed Tomo’s number to prepare for the bashing that she knew was about to happen.

★

Let’s just say, predictably, Tomo wasn’t too happy about Kasumi’s choice in superpowers. She did, however, teleport to her and give her the missing ingredient, so that was good. Oh, and a warning.

There was also that.

“Make sure to not overuse your power, Kasumi-chan. I don’t want you to go all crazy and gung-ho like you did with your last power, alright?”

Kasumi sulked. It was like getting talked down to by her mother. “Okay, Mom…”

As she was putting the ingredients all together in the garage, Tomo’s bit reverberated around in her head for some reason.

Is this what they call “character development?” Tomo’s Mom Act must be getting to me hard.

“Alright, everything’s in the bowl!” she declared triumphantly, standing back up and clapping her hands together. “The scoop of corn starch, a pinch of turmeric, a cup of mashed purple grapes, an orchid petal, and then the black powder! Yay.” She said that last part flatly, a la Naoko.

Dressed to the nines in her bathing suit, despite it almost being winter, she was more than prepared to start. She noticed that already, the potion in the bowl had already taken on an orchid-like color.

Funny how science works like that, huh…

Now it was time for the finishing touch.

“Okay, black powder… do your thing!” After dumping in the teaspoon she needed, she quickly got up and raced to the front of the garage, where the garage door was closed, because who knows what the fumes from the black powder would do to her?

…

Boom!

Although not as impressive sounding as the previous two times (probably because there was only one potion this time), the goo still got all over Kasumi and, as predicted, on the floor, and a little bit on the walls. She groaned at the thought of having to clean up her mess, and also at another thing she despised.

Kasumi touched the goo that was splattered on a bit of her hair. It was sticky somehow, and grimey. “Ick!” she cringed. “I forgot how this felt.”

Not knowing that the goo mostly landed in the places it needed to in order for the superpower to work, she was less than pleased to know it was all over her hair and face and not mostly on her chest this time. Fortunately, just like last time, she could take a shower and wash the goo off with nice, hot water. Unfortunately, also like last time, she had to wait overnight for the powers to actually take effect.

Slowly walking back over to the now empty bowl, Kasumi giggled evilly to herself and picked it up, heading inside to the kitchen to rinse off the bowl and get a towel so she could clean up her mess.

For some strange reason, Kasumi caught herself singing as she put the rinsed-off plastic bowl on the side of the sink.

“‘I know, I know for sure!

Ding dang dong dong deng dong dong ding dang~!’”

She sang, then stopped herself and put her palm to her head reflexively. “Curse you, Mimori for getting your dumb songs in my head!”

Somewhere in her house, Kasumi had a strong feeling that her friend sneezed.

★

When Kasumi awoke the following morning, she was greeted immediately on her phone by a text from Mimori.

So???

Did she really need to use three question marks???

IDK, she answered, which was the truth, as she had yet to do anything besides reach for her phone that was on the side of her bed. Doesn’t it take at least about a full day for the potion to fully take effect?

Oh. Yeah, you’re right.

Knock, knock.

Ugh, does someone gotta bug me right now of all times?

“Who is it?!” Kasumi hollered.

“Your brother!” the voice shouted through the door. “Did you ransack my room last night? One of my CDs is missing from my shelf!”

Kasumi laughed, trying to play innocent. “Oh, that one? Never!”

“Can I have it back, please? If you’ve finished listening to it?”

Kasumi heard the door begin to crack open, and she suddenly felt self-conscious. But why…?

“B-b-b-butI’mnakedorsomething!” she shrieked.

It was too late. Kasumi’s older brother, Shinji, was in her room.

“So did you listen to it?” he said casually as he walked in. Kasumi noticed his eyes flicking over her body, he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Woah… what happened to your face?”

Kasumi’s blood ran cold.

“Whuh… what are you talking about? Is it bad?” Her eyes were as wide as she could make them and was suspiciously avoiding her brother’s eye contact.

“No! You look great! Mature and stuff! Like, um… wow. The rest of your body, too! What happened?

Now, this concerned her. She was going to have to take a good look at her appearance after she got her pesky brother out of her room.

“The CD’s by my nightstand next to my laptop and yes I did listen to it,” she confessed. “Now out!”

Shinji sighed. “Alright, alright. Fine.”

Shud.

Kasumi began to migrate to the nearest mirror, which was ironically right next to her bed, as it was attached to her closet door and took her reflection all in.

“Talk about an overnight age-up,” she said in a lowered voice full of awe.

Shinji was right, though. She’d definitely grown a few inches in height as well as in other places because her pajamas felt tight on her, especially in… well, the area she was most self-conscious about. Her face was also free of any and all acne and it looked elegant and mature. Her hair had also mysteriously grown too, going down almost to her butt.

“Woah indeed,” she said aloud, then froze in place.

Well, shit. Now what?

After going through a ton of solutions to the problem at hand in her head, Kasumi came to the most logical conclusion: She was going to have to tell her brother the truth.

Well, not the entire truth. But at least what she did the previous day.

★

“You told your brother?!” Asuka said, alarmed. “Did you tell him everything?!”

Kasumi shook her head, her longer hair (which she had still put up in her classic twintails) swooshing along with it. “No, not exactly. I just told him that I made a potion last night to make Peter fall in love with me and me glowing up was a side effect that I literally did not read about.”

It was Monday morning before classes started and Kasumi had bumped into one of her clubmates in the hallway and decided to tell her the news. Asuka’s reaction was to be expected, as it was in character for her.

On an unrelated note, Kasumi was somehow able to perfectly mask her grown body in her usual uniform. How and why she was able to do that she wasn’t sure, but she knew magic had to be involved.

“Huh. Okay then.” Asuka raised an eyebrow and smirked. “That’s why you always have to read the fine print, Kasumi-san.”

Kasumi shrugged as if she didn’t hear her friend and turned on her heels in the opposite direction. “Now then! It is now time to seduce Peter!”

Asuka looked at her friend, obviously startled. “You what?”

“Did I say ‘seduce’? I mean ‘talk’! I am going to ‘talk’ to him!” Kasumi started to cackle almost evilly… and for whatever reason, she was speaking in an extremely haughty voice.

“Okay now, who turned Kasumi-chan into the hormone queen?” a voice said from behind Kasumi.

Kasumi perked up and stopped in her tracks momentarily. “Ah! Behami, hi! I didn’t see you there.”

Behami smiled in a smug manner. “Maybe that’s because I disguised myself as someone else! Really, who knows?” She laughed in a way that indicated that she, in fact, did.

Asuka rolled her eyes. “I really wouldn’t be surprised. After all, you have been doing that a lot lately.”

Once Kasumi was out of earshot, the girls got to gossiping.

“But really, what’s she planning on doing with that power? That is so like her!” Behami said, getting dangerously close to her friend.

“It shouldn’t surprise you,” Asuka intoned. “We probably know full well what she’s going to do, and it involves one person.”

Kasumi was walking down the hallway where she knew Peter’s locker was, and sure enough, she saw him standing in front of it.

Dark, shaggy brown hair. Marvelous green eyes. A body that looks just toned enough.

Peter Shichimiya Junior… the love of my life.

Kasumi just knew that she had to go up and talk to him. In fact, she was itching to.

Once she got to his locker, she cleared her throat dramatically and looked straight at him.

“Hey,” she decided to start with, nice and easy.

Peter looked at Kasumi for a second before returning his attention back to his locker. “Ah… hey, Kasumi,” he murmured.

It’s time to put this power to the test! She touched his shoulder gently, which made him look at her, finally.

“One more binder and those are all going to fall out of your hands,” she teased, pointing at what looked to be fifty points of school stuff on his person.

Peter, whose eyes seemed to be permanently locked on Kasumi’s, blinked. “Oh! Oh yeah, you’re right. Gotta get to class,” he muttered, slamming his locker shut and gripping tighter onto his big textbook and two binders. “See you later in bio,” he replied, ripping himself away from Kasumi.

Kasumi sighed and pouted, staring at her hand that had just touched Peter rather sadly.

“Bye,” she said quietly back, waving as he almost speed-walked away.

★

Oh, biology. How boring it could be, just learning about the human body and other organisms’ bodies… not to mention that she only knew and liked two people in that class, Peter and Mari.

Oh, speaking of Mari—She was the only saving grace in biology. She answered all of Mr. Patchouli’s questions correctly and also made some jokes here and there that even got the teacher laughing.

And yes. Peter was in this class. And she was ready.

I’ve got to tell Mari about my new power too… unless Asuka, Behami, Tomo, or Mimori already told her about it.

At that point, she actually began to feel bad that she only told a select few and not the whole club—but yet, perhaps she just did it like that because she likes surprising people? Yeah, that had to be it.

That was when Mr. Patchouli’s droning caught her from going deeper down the rabbit hole she was taking herself down.

“Today we’re going to pair up into groups of three or less to do this worksheet packet together. You get the whole hour to work on it.”

How generous! The teacher’s—AHHH!!

The class had already begun milling around the classroom, looking for people to group up with. Well, I already know who I’m going to pick! No doubt abo—

“Hey, Kasumi-chan!” Mari said excitedly, poking her in the back. “Let’s get this thing done and over with!”

“Shhh,” Kasumi shushed her friend, which she ended up feeling bad for doing. “I want to be in a group with—”

“U—Uh, Kasumi. Can I be in your group? Um, if you don’t mind, that is.”

Kasumi looked back at Mari and she could see her mouthing the words “Speak of the devil and he doth appear.”

Kasumi looked at Peter, who was standing at the front of her table and smiled. “Why, of course, Peter! Why not? We’re gonna rock this out with the Legendary Mari here with us!”

A smug smile formed on Mari’s face. “Aww, shucks, Kasumi-chan,” she said in a doofy voice. “You didn’t have to say that!”

“Uh, thanks.” Peter’s face was flushed, for a reason that Kasumi knew about and was very hyped for. “I’ll go g-get a packet for myself, then.”

Mari waved her hand. “Go, go. We’ll see what pages in the textbook we’re gonna need to look at” She said that while pulling out hers and Kasumi did the same.

When Peter departed, Mari looked at Kasumi curiously. “Has someone been dabbling in magic? I can tell by the not-so-subtle look on your face and your rockin’ bod that something happened over the weekend. Spill.”

“Cliffnotes version,” Kasumi said, keeping an eye on her crush. “Potion. Hormones. Brother. Peter.”

Mari looked like she still didn’t get it. “Umm… Brother? That makes me concerned.”

“Don’t be.” Kasumi chortled. “I’ll tell you more after school.”

As Peter was coming back, Mari quickly and rather professionally changed the topic to be about music, which caught Kasumi off guard.

“Did you hear that new song by that one band?” said Mari, hand under her chin.

“What song?” Kasumi blinked. “Oh, that one! ‘Snow’ is my favorite by them… of all time.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Peter asked inquisitively as he sat down next to Kasumi and opened his textbook, which it looked like he also grabbed along the way.

“The Off—”

“—Chili Peppers.” Kasumi gave her friend a Look.

Peter shook his head. “Never heard of them. Personally, my favorite band is the Shut Up and Do Your Work Band.” He said that while still keeping a cute grin on his face.

“Alright, let’s begin!” declared Mari, clapping her hands in a suspiciously familiar pattern. “Okay, now which cell helps the immune system…?”

Kasumi could hear Mari talk, but everything started to sound canny, which made it hard for her to focus on her work.

Peter… Why are you sitting right next to me? Like, I want you next to me, but… still… you’re making me…

She glanced up at Peter to see what he was doing and he looked back at her, head cocked to the side.

“Kasumi, are you okay?” he asked. “I can take you to the nurse’s office if you want.”

Kasumi gulped and nodded. She could feel her whole body being coated in sweat. What made her feel just as uncomfortable was that she could feel just about the whole class’s eyes being on her, even though she wasn’t even being noisy or particularly obnoxious.

Great, she thought. Just great. Add that to my list of things that’ll keep me up at night…

That was when she felt Peter’s hand grabbing hers as he began to drag her to the nurse’s office.

The trip there felt dizzying and warm like she was drowning herself in a jacuzzi or something. Although the trip there wasn’t long at all, it felt like it took hours to get there.

Once she vaguely saw that they were in front of the nurse’s office, Kasumi stopped dead in her tracks, which predictably made Peter stop too.

“Peter…” she said in a low voice, which to her felt like she was talking underwater. “I… love you.” She fumbled, getting her hands out of Peter’s grip and slowly making them go to his face. She leaned in to the best of her abilities, and…

Kissed him. Right in the hallway.

That was all she remembered.

★

“Ka… umi! Ka… chan! Are… alright?” Kasumi could sort of hear Mimori’s voice echoing around in her head, but it was hard to decipher what she was actually saying to her having what felt like a splitting headache.

When Kasumi opened her eyes she saw Mimori, Tomo, Mari, and Peter staring at her concernedly.

Turns out, after doing a quick survey of the room she was in, she was laying in a bed in the nurse’s office.

“Ehhh…? Ehhh?! I fainted?!” Kasumi could feel her face turning red as she said that. “Oh my God, I am so sorry!”

Peter flinched, but probably because she kind of yelled at him. “Nah, no need to worry about it. As for your confession, ah… I have to admit, I like you too. Would you mind if I give it some thought, though?”

Kasumi’s eyes darted across the room as if something in the room would give her the answer.

“Ah, um… YES! A million times, YES!”

Once again, everyone was startled at her super loud reaction.

“That’s nice, Peter. But do you think you could go back to class now? We’d like to have some time to talk alone.” Tomo said politely.

Peter nodded. “Alright, I get it. See you tomorrow, Kasumi-chan!”

And with that, Peter left the room.

Tomo did a nose laugh before returning to her usual collected demeanor. “So… Can you tell us what happened back there?”

Kasumi scrunched up her face and looked down at the sheets on the bed. “I got this power of like, letting off pheromones so I could attract Peter and get him to fall in love with me and… Honestly, I don’t think I can handle it. In fact, it was a stupid idea, to begin with. I’m still figuring out my sexuality and identity and stuff, I don’t need this power. I don’t think it’s meant for me.”

“Mm hm,” said her friends all in perfect unison. (It kind of creeped Kasumi out.)

“But I do like one thing about the power,” Kasumi noted. “It got me the courage to confess my love to Peter.”

“That is true,” Mari said, snapping her fingers for emphasis. “

★

It was finally the end of the day, luckily, and Kasumi was once again looking through the spellbook.

“This may sound stupid and cliched,” she said. “But—”

“It will sound stupid and cliched,” finished Naoko.

Kasumi narrowed her eyes. “But I’ve always wanted the ability to fly.”

Mimori giggled. “Me too! That way I could fly over traffic while going to the store!”

“You sound like my mom,” Erica joked. But then on a serious note, “There’s a levitation spell and potion in there somewhere.”

Kasumi flipped through until she found the page and began to drum her fingers on it. “Okay, cool! I’ll do this one then. I’m going to replace my current superpower with one.” She took a deep breath as if steeling herself for something. “Jopi-chan! Are you going to read that spell out loud or not?”

“The power stripping one? Yeah, of course!” She smiled sweetly.

As her underclassman began reading the spell, she could already feel the power that brought her the not-very-good day being erased.

It’s like a weight is being lifted off my back…

“Kasumi? Did it work?”

When Kasumi opened her eyes, Jopi looked a tad concerned.

“Did it?” Kasumi pointed to herself. “It sure did!”

“Okay then, Kasumi-chan!” Tomo said proudly. “Remember when I used to get the stuff instead of Jopi-chan? I already got the water, the corn starch, the hydrangeas, and the black powder!”

Someone’s hype. Kasumi looked at Jopi, who nodded and gave her the thumbs up.

“Someone’s chipper,” remarked Behami, snorting (although she was aware she was a bit late to that, but whatever). Hey, she copied me!

And with that, Tomo got the potion ready and Kasumi was ready to start her life anew… again.