Episode 12: The Can Do Anything Club II

“Toki ga kitta,” Mimori said in her best epic voice.

It was early March, the last half day of school—and it was a half day, to be exact. Her and Kasumi were in their final homeroom, and their teacher had nothing left to teach the kids since they already had their final exams so he just let the kids talk. (Because really. What are you gonna learn on the last day of school? Nothing, that’s what.)

Mimori, of course, was hanging out with Kasumi, who of course was fooling around on Snapchat.

“It is indeed,” Kasumi noted rather apathetically. “I can’t believe our last club meeting was yesterday. That’s just crazy.”

Mimori frowned in a cartoonish manner. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be our last, though! We can still hold one today after school!”

Suddenly, Kasumi closed out of her app and put her phone down.

“You’re right! It doesn’t! OMG, Mimori! You had a good idea for once!”

“But can it just be—?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll contact everyone—even Tomo.”

“‘Even Tomo?’ You know she doesn’t text, right?”

Kasumi rolled her eyes. “Did you forget she’s in my next hour? I’ll just ask her then.”

Unbeknownst to Mimori, the girl already picked up her phone again (it was pretty pointless to put it down then, huh?) and began texting everyone in the group chat.

“Hey, lookie there! Mari and Erica-chan responded saying they can hang out after school! So, what did you plan for us to—”

“-Karaoke! If there’s one thing we have done yet, it’s karaoke!” Mimori looked rather determined while saying that.

Kasumi’s eyes widened in excitement. “Damn, we haven’t?! Well, there’s a first time for everything!”

★

It may have been a notable stepping stone in the girls’ lives, but it sure wasn’t a very interesting half day… As they tended to go.

When school got out at noon, every girl was free and they all took a nice stroll down the very crowded, very dirty street towards the downtown area, where the karaoke place was. Along the way, Mimori was already getting her music on by singing in an overly-obnoxious voice.

“‘Downtown, downtown! Woah, woah, oh oh!’”

Kasumi groaned. “Can you please ‘shut the hell up and sit the fuck down?’” she said in the exact cadence of the song that Mimori was singing.

Jopi giggled cutely. “That was so good, Kasu-chan! I wish I had that on video!”

To that, the twin-tailed girl blushed furiously and hung her head down for the remaining four minutes it took to get there (via her Google Maps).

★

The rest of the walk there was rather painless, as Mimori gave up on singing and rapping the song about mo-peds and opted to “save her vocal cords” for when they got to do some actual karaoke.

And once they got in…

“Welcome! Room for how many?” a cute brunette girl said as the girls walked into the cool, air-conditioned place.

“Ten,” Kasumi said, morphing her cynical tone into a positive and sunny one.

“Alright, then! Follow me!”

More walking, but this time to the room that Kasumi reserved.

“Here you go! Let us know via the tablet if you wanna order anything!”

After the girls thanked the woman, they went into the room and got situated.

The karaoke room looked very nice. It had a Y2K vibe to it with its minimalist, white-and-lime green design, as well as some rounded chairs and two white couches accented with lime green pillows (which were also round). The only contemporary items in there were the flat screen TV and tablet which was sitting on the table… and which Mari immediately ran up to and started touching.

“Pizza! Who wants pizza?!”

Asuka groaned. “Didn’t we have pizza the last time we hung out?”

“Eh, I say why not,” Tomo countered, being the angel to Asuka’s devil.

And so an order for a half-cheese-half-pepperoni pizza was put in. It actually came out rather fast, almost like a certain pizza place that brags about its five minute waiting times.

Once it arrived, the girls gorged and got right to deciding who was singing first (screw going in order, this was the Chad way to go).

“Who’s going first?” Erica asked after she swallowed a piece of pizza. She then paused. “Oh, who am I kidding? Mimori—you want to go, right?”

Mimori did her traditional high-pitched squealing noises as she teetered up to the TV, grabbing the remote.

“I maybe kinda sorta wanna go I guess?! Oh my God, what if they had a bunch of my favorite songs on here, why didn’t I check sooner?!”

“Good question, Mimori-chan! I thought you’d be all up in there immediately!”

The girl started scrolling down the list of songs so quickly that everything was a blur, making it possible that she skipped a few of her favorite songs already.

Not even after a minute after scrolling she double clicked on a song, got a microphone, turned it on, and the song began.

A guitar and drum machine filled the room super loudly, which startled Mimori so she turned it down two notches.

“‘I wanted to be like you

I wanted everything…’”

She started off pretty solid, her voice only cracking on the first line. In fact, she sounded better than she usually did (probably because she was standing still).

That was, until the chorus hit, and she belted.

“‘IF YOU WANT TO, I CAN SAVE YOU!

I CAN TAKE YOU AWAY FROM HERE!

SO LONELY INSIDE, SO BUSY OUT HERE!

AND ALL YOU WANTED WAS SOMEBODY WHO CARES~!’”

Her voice was more than a bit overpowering on the mic, which caused the speakers to ring a little. She seemed more than aware than this, so she toned it down for the next chorus.

Once she was finished with her, um, very interesting cover of a Michelle Branch song, the metaphorical wheel spun next as to who was next.

“I think Naoko-chan should go,” Mari said, leaning in close to her friend.

“No. No.” Naoko chanted monotonously.

“Come on! I promise that if you sing at least one song, you won’t have to go ever again after this. I’ll go for you!”

Naoko sighed as she succumbed to her possible death (again, metaphorical) and started scrolling down the long, long list—while making unnecessary commentary, of course.

“Too mainstream, too overplayed, ugh, ick! Meh, really? REALLY!?”

Repeat after me: The only times Naoko ever showed emotion was when she was confronted with things she disliked.

“Just pick one already!” Behami hollered, hands cupped around her mouth like a megaphone.

Finally, at long last, Naoko picked one. And, surprisingly enough, the song she chose totally sounded like something that wasn’t: Energetic and carefree.

“‘Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk

I didn’t mean to call you that’”

The song wasn’t in her range because she had to really reach for the notes in the verses, but she was still having fun… it didn’t appear like that on the outside though.

Mimori clapped along, super happy because she chose a song that fit her wheelhouse and Mari headbanged along.

When Naoko was done the girls clapped and chatted amongst themselves. Mimori, however, did something that she always did:

“So, what’d you think of my singing?” Mimori asked Asuka, who was sipping on her sweetened iced tea.

“It was good,” she replied, smiling politely. “I can tell that you take choir class because your voice sounds very strong and in key… um, except for that first chorus. I could tell you were excited.”

Mimori giggled. “Yeah, you’re right! I was just so hyped!”

Suddenly, Suika placed her hand on Asuka’s shoulder, which actually startled her.

The glasses girl turned her head around and sighed heavily. “Why must you do that?!”

“Are you going to go?” Suika asked, and from the angle at which Mimori was at she felt more than a little intimidated.

“Yes, yes I am. Fine.”

“Woooooo!” Behami hollered at her friend.

“Yaaay!” cheered Jopi.

Asuka clomped up there and didn’t even take time to scroll down the list—instead, she went to the artists section and scrolled down there.

Once her song was chosen, Asuka used that time to drink a bit of water and clear her throat. And then…

“‘Far away

This ship is taking me far away

Far away from the memorie

Of the people who care if I live or die’”

Unsurprisingly, Asuka did a bang-up job, as she is only one of the best singers in that hour’s choir class—nay, all of the choir classes.

The girls waved their hands in the air as she sang.

Once she finished, Jopi volunteered to go next.

“Sing some ballads!” Tomo said excitedly. “Or something Disney!”

“No thank you,” Jopi replied, one of her thick brows noticeably twitching. “You know how many people have begged me to sing specific Disney songs? I’ve lost count. I will take you up on the ballad one, though.”

And then she proceeded to sing “Someone Like You” by Adele. She also did a bang-up job, aided by hands in the air once again.

“There goes us to show you there are angles,” Mimori said dreamily. Knowing what she was quoting, Kasumi glared at her friend, which was so expected of her you might as well take a sip for it.

Speaking of Kasumi, she was the next one to go up “onstage.” And unlike Naoko, she showed excitement towards the majority of the songs on the long, long list.

“Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! Ah, it’s so good…” After she said that, she looked notably flustered. “Eh heh, sorry about that. That sounded lewd.”

Erica chuckled while holding her stomach. “Ah, that’s hilarious, Kasumi-chan! No, you’re perfectly fine!”

“I FOUND ONE!”

Kasumi found a song.

After inputting it, a distorted voice crackled through the speakers, then a certain set of chords sounded.

“‘Backstreet?’” Tomo said, tilting her head to the song. “How come I’ve never been informed about this song?”

“Because it came out in 2001,” Mimori informed her. She then squealed. “OHMIGOD KASUMI-CHAN THANK YOU SO MUCH OF THINKING ABOUT ME AHHHHH!!!!”

Kasumi winked as she sang the chorus, to which Mimori sang along.

Once the song ended, Mari started to get up from the couch but then stopped because Tomo beat her to it, and she was super nice.

“Time for me to showcase my singing talent by singing a boyband song!” she declared, one of her hands balled into a fist of determination.

And so she did.

“‘Every little thing I do

Never seems enough for you

You don’t wanna lose it again

But I’m not like them!’”

Everyone was shocked at Tomo’s singing, which they had never really heard before. She never slipped up or stuttered, and it sounded like she even sang some of the harmony parts instead of the main melody.

“Now why isn’t she in choir?” inquired (lol) Asuka to Mimori, who was also singing along to Tomo’s’ song choice.

“Ummm good question!”

When that song was over Mari began whining overdramatically.

“Can I pleaseeee go now???”

Tomo smiled at her friend sweetly, arms wide open. “Go ahead, Mari-chan. No one is stopping you now!”

Happily, Mari jumped up, grabbed the microphone from Tomo’s hand and began scrolling.

“Holy crap… they have it!”

“Oooh…” Naoko ooohed, eyeing the TV screen with wide eyes.

Likewise, Mimori gasped. “Can I duet with you, pretty please with a cherry on top?”

Now it was Mari’s turn to sigh, and she did so with much gusto. “No. It’s my song. It’s now or never!”

“‘I ain’t gonna live forever!’” Mimori sang.

“Oh, look. You just got to sing,” Mari said, evil smirk on her face. “Now, ladies and gentleman… it’s my turn!”

And so she pressed play. It was a rock song, of course.

Mari began singing the song, “Smooth Criminal” by Alien Ant Farm, in the singer’s exact voice, which made it sound like the girls were listening to a bizarro live version of the song instead of karaoke.

“She’s cheating!” Kasumi muttered through gritted teeth. “That’s not fair.”

To the surprise of no one, Mimori got up and started dancing to the song in the most awkward way possible, while Naoko sat there and shook some maracas in her cute stoic fashion.

★

More time passed and the girls that hadn’t sung yet got their turn. Of course, to no one’s surprise, Mimori wanted to go back up there, so she did—with Kasumi to sing “I Found a Way.”

All in all, it was a fun time for everyone.

As the last guitars of Mimori and Kasumi’s meme song melted into the abyss, Erica was done for.

“Okay, girls! Looks like we’re done here. Man, that was a blast!” she said, recovering from a giggle fit.

“Erica?!” shrieked Mimori. She expected her friends to say the same thing but, horrifyingly enough, she spun around to see her other friends passed out as well.

“W-what’s going on?! The frick is happening?!”

At that call, Henry teleported into the room, almost like he was at her aid.

Mimori sighed as she saw him arrive. “Oh, thank God. What’s happening here?!”

Henry looked unusually solemn. “They all lost their powers. You’re the only one who hasn’t.”

“But why?! Why?!”

“I’m not gonna tell you yet,” he said, finger wagging back and forth. “Not until they wake up.”

Mimori glared at him but just as she did, she heard Kasumi whisper something. She was conscious again.

“ … Mimori? Henry?” Kasumi said as Mimori came over to her side. “What just happened to me?”

The time traveller girl’s lips quivered. “You lost your superpowers. You all did… except for me.”

Predictably, Kasumi started to cry.

“AGAIN?!” she wailed, rubbing her eyes.

At the sound of Kasumi’s deserved tantrum, everyone else regained consciousness.

“What’s going on?” murmured Tomo, rubbing her eyes under her glasses.

Mimori told everyone what she told Kasumi.

“WHAT?! Oh my Gooood…” Mari shrieked and then covered her mouth, realizing that she wasn’t able to accurately imitate that meme. “You’re so right. Awww…”

Erica plopped herself onto one of the seats, rubbing her legs, which now had bruises on them. “Wow. I can’t believe that happened. I wonder why?”

“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging.

The girls all talked at once, discussing various reasons as to exactly why they lost their powers, as they didn’t even do anything to warrant them leaving their bodies.

Mimori held her head in hands, trying to calm her mind from going wild and having an anxiety attack.

My friends… all lost their powers… but ME.

“Guys… I think I’m gonna go back in time and stop this from happening,” she announced amongst the chatter.

That was when—talk about poor timing—Henry cleared his throat and spoke.

“That’s not a bad idea, actually, Mimori.”

“Eh? Really?”

“Yeah, no kidding. I’m not gonna argue against it. Do whatever. Your friends just lost their powers because the potions weren’t strong enough.”

“Oh. Thanks for the exposition, Henry.”

Beat.

“WAIT, WHAT?!” the girls chorused.

“Yup. That was the reason. The science club apparently didn’t put in enough of the ingredients for the powers to last long enough in your bodies. Interesting that they continued to develop, however… I mean, the potions were strong, but they weren’t 100% strong—more like 60%. Potions with 100% strength tend to last forever or until they want to leave your body, but usually at they point they stay with you.”

“But what about my power?” Mimori asked, head cocked to the side.

“Oh, your power is the strongest of them all—second to the reality warping one, that one’s just too OP. Even with the weakest of ingredients the time travel one is eternal. Once it fully sinks into you, you have time-bending abilities for life.”

“Like a timelord?” queried Suika.
Henry chuckled. “No, not really. You don’t become an alien.”

Mimori balled up her fists with determination. “Alright! I’m gonna do it then!”

Tomo went up to Mimori and held her hands (without her permission, but whatever). “Good luck, Mimori-chan! Wait—how far back are you going? The day we got our powers, right? Or earlier than that?”

“Yup. The day we got our superpowers. I’m gonna make us not get them!”

Tomo creased her brows. “Um. Okay then.”

At that, her friends said different things to her at the same time. Far in the back, she could see Suika crying—likely for a certain reason.

And so, Mimori closed her eyes and thought of the day her and her friends first got their superpowers… more specifically, to the part where Kasumi and her walked into the clubroom.

❤

“ … And then that’s when I said ‘OMG! So true! Starlight Glimmer’s a major—”

Oh. This conversation.

“—Bitch. I know, you’ve already told me before.”

Whoops. That was not how I wanted to start off today’s time travel adventure. Gotta be more careful with what I say next time!

Kasumi frowned, eyes narrowed. “How did you know that I was going to say that? Are you that Mimori from the future again, because if you are, way to go possessing my friend again!”

Wait, what? She still knows about that ketchup incident? How does time travel even work?!

Mimori didn’t want that to faze her entirely though, because the next thing she knew, she found herself marching right into the clubroom.

“Hey, Tomo! Mari! Naoko! Erica!” Ah, whoops. I just acknowledged her. SHIT.

“Me?” Erica quipped, whipping her head around from where she was, surrounded by her science club buds.

“Uh, never mind. Sorry!” Mimori said, face flushed and hands moving back and forth. “Um hey, I know what the science club is doing here, guys! They’re making potions to give us superpowers!”

The science club looked at her, trying to maintain a serious demeanor.

Yamada chuckled. “Oh, wow! Really?” he said, a sarcastic tone coating his voice. “I would have never known if you hadn’t told me.”

Mimori’s greatest enemy had arrived. Sarcasm.

“It’s true!” she yelled, face red as she was flustered. “And Mr. Hadoku is behind all of this, too!”

Finally, Aoki stepped in. “It’s fine, Hamasaki-san, he’s just being sarcastic. Mr. Hadoku did suggest performing this experiment here. We thought it would be fun to surprise you guys with giving you essentially what you’ve been wishing for—thank Erica-san for that, she gathered all the facts about you. ”

Mimori gasped, almost choking on the air. It was all crystal clear now. Everything made sense again!

“Woah, woah, woah!” Kasumi shrieked, growing red as well. “What ‘facts’ did you get about us—and about me, specifically?!”

“That you want, um, biggerbreasts cough!” That was Erica, being as weird as ever.

That was it. Kasumi’s entire face—nay, entire body, it seemed like—turned red. If this was an anime, steam would’ve been coming out of her ears.

“AHHHHH WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SAY THAT?!?” she screamed. “IT—IT’S NOT LIKE I EVER EXPLICITLY SAID THAT OR ANYTHING!!”

Erica raised an eyebrow and snorted. “Context clues.”

With that funny bit out of the way, Erica began to list off other various facts she learned about the girls regarding their wishes.

“Mimori, you’re going to get the power to time travel because you love to complain about how it’s not the early 2000s anymore in history class; Tomo is going to get the power of teleportation because she’s shown a desire to travel to different countries so often; Mari’s going to get the power of—what was it again?—False voice, because she loves trying to impersonate people; Naoko is going to have the power of telekinesis because she loves Prue Halliwell from Charmed too much, and…” She paused to make spooky hand motions. “I’m going to get the power of telepathy because I wanna read minds!”

Mimori couldn’t believe it. She just couldn’t.

“Oh, and apparently the superpowers are sentient? Weird. If you do something wrong or something, they leave your body… Oooooh, spooky!”

Oh ho ho ho nooooo… She knew this whole time.

“Erica, we’re almost done here,” Aoki called out.

Mimori felt like she was frozen in place. There she was, the same place she was last year. The girls, sans her, were all sitting in the same spots…

But things were different.

They all knew now.

“So… what do you say? Wanna be superheroes? Charmed forever?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Naoko muttered, eyes twitching (because he made a Charmed reference, of course).

The positive responses from the girls were overwhelming, and at that moment Mimori was going to leave, but she realized that she shouldn’t.

She was going to have to relive that fateful moment all over again.

★

And so she did. Just like the time before that, the same stuff happened, only this time the girls were aware of the superpowers they were going to get. The girls went to Tomo’s to have a sleepover, they did the truth or dare game, and then went to bed. Mimori made sure to wake up a bit earlier at this time so she could time travel the heck out of there and back to present day, because the last thing she wanted to do was repeat everything all over again… even though it didn’t sound that bad.

That’s how she found herself in Tomo’s bathroom, looking in the mirror and getting hyped up to go back to present time.

“‘Here we go, yo, here we go yo,’” she said in rap-like flow. “‘So-wa-so-wa-so wa-sa scenario!’”

And with that she closed her eyes and thought real, real hard about where she wanted to go.

I want to go back to the present, she thought, feeling the forcefulness of her eyes being closed. March something-th, 2016, where I'm doing karaoke!

Then, she began to feel dizzy, which was a good sign, at least in her book.

❤

She was there in a flash, back in the present day, in the karaoke room.

“So, Mimori! How’d it go?” Kasumi asked her, eyes looking bright with excitement.

Mimori sighed. “Well, you guys probably didn’t get any of your powers back now did you?”

“No,” said Tomo, smiling. “But it was nice of you to try.”

Suddenly, there was a pause in the room.

“Wait… have your memories changed any since I left?”

“No, I can’t say they have,” Naoko said, lips pursed.

“Wait a second!” It was Tomo again. “I think you gained an ability for your powers too! It was probably unintentional but you went back in time and it didn’t affect the present! You can do that now!”

“ … Oh. Damn. That makes sense but… damn it.” Mimori sulked.

“That’s pretty sick!” Mari added.

Feeling like she needed fresh air and a small chat with a certain someone, Mimori stepped outside the karaoke room and gestured for Henry to come with.

Shut.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he leaned against the wall.

“Um, the girls losing their powers is a huge disappointment,” Mimori replied.

“Ah, right. That’d do it. Sorry that I didn’t tell you any earlier.”

“But…” Mimori looked up at the ceiling, her eyes turning dreamy. “I also wanted to say thank you… for, well, everything. Making the spell book, being mysterious and a bit of a jerk, possessing Hank for a little while. If it wasn’t for you, none of this would have ever happened.” She started to giggle. “Wow, that was so stinkin’ cliché-sounding! But you get a point.”

Henry chuckled. “You're welcome.” He shifted his stance a bit, signaling that he had to go. “Oh, and Mimori?”

Mimori snapped out of her sudden daydreaming about The Pretty. “Yeah?”

“Don’t worry about your friends losing their powers. We’ll get that fixed once the new school year rolls around, which is really soon.”

Cue tea kettle squeal, then silence.

“Oh, Henry, before you leave! Guess what? Me and this guy that looks exactly like Drew are getting married in the future!”

“Heh. Yup, you sure are.” With one last grin at Mimori, he waved. “Alright, see ya!”

With that, he teleported away.

The door to the karaoke room opened and the girl’s friends came spilling out.

“Hey Mimori,” Kasumi said, flashing her phone screen. “I hope you don’t mind that my mom’s going to pick us up any minute now. She says we can hang out at my house for a while, okay?”

Mimori squealed yet again and giggled whilst grinning. “Sure, I don’t mind! We can watch YTPs toge—”

Erica then signaled the group of friends to move out to the door and with that, the Can Do Anything Club were on their way to have more fun.