Episode 1: I'm Alright, I'm Alright

Not only was she a senpai, but she was also the current president of the Can Do Anything Club, which was still called the literature club.

Ding! I’m gonna have to fix that soon. Somehow.

And so, her new school adventures were about to begin—or rather, at this point, had also begun.

★

It was two weeks into the beginning of her ninth-grade year in Yoshima Middle School, and everything felt oddly normal… And not even “going with the motions” normal.

No, this was “before the science club experiment” normal.

Because, if you remember from the last episode of the series (season 2 episode 12, to be more specific), the girls had lost their powers. And so, the club was about as normal as you can get.

In fact, you could just call them the literature club again—or the “hanging out” club because only one of the three girls was reading (and that girl was Suika).

Anyway, today was the first meeting of the literature(?) club for the new school year.

It was hardly surprising that the room wasn’t bursting with energy and noise. Mari wasn’t there, blasting her metal music, Kasumi wasn’t there, nagging to Mimori—and Mimori wasn’t there, going on and on about Flugle—Behami wasn’t there, playing games on her Nintendo DS with the volume on max.

It was eerily quiet… and Naoko didn’t like it.

However, the show had to go on—because there was a knock at the door.

Naoko got up to open it and was greeted by two girls she hadn’t seen before—undoubtedly freshmen.

“Hi there,” Naoko said, an uncharacteristic grin plastered to her face. “Please, do come in.”

Why am I acting so polite? Ding!

The new senpai ushered the two girls into the room and gestured to two empty seats.

Naoko cleared her throat and began. “Um, it’s very nice of you two to join our club,” She smiled, but her mouth wavered. “We’re very excited to have you have you here, you know. In our club. Uh…”

Wow, did that go downhill quickly. Ding!

Two sins already, damn.

“Basically, we hope you guys have a nice day here!” Luckily, Jopi came in to save Naoko’s cringe introduction. “What are your names?”

Ean snickered and did a slow clap. “Good job, guys. Ah—my name is Ean. Ean Sasaki.”

Miharu pursed her lips together and looked to the side. “Miharu Komatsu.”

Naoko felt like she was going flatline then and there. “Um… you guys stay here, okay? My friends and I need to talk for a few minutes outside.”

With that, the three girls went outside, with very little tact but it was better than talking at the back of the room like every show ever.

“What was that all about?” Jopi whispered fiercely. Naoko forgot that she should never piss Jopi off.

I crossed the line. Ding!

Naoko decided to play it cool and rolled her eyes. “So, what are our plans? Are these girls joining our club or not?”

Suika tilted her head to the side. “Considering we just saw them for barely a minute, I feel like we should marinate on that for a bit.”

Naoko sighed. “Alright, nice. Good talk.” She gave a thumbs up and smiled a weak smile… One that was reminiscent of a shark, she figured.

When the CDAC members sauntered back in, everything was how it was when they walked out. Both girls were sitting in the same positions, but both of their phones were out. (Of course, this generation is trash.)

“Can I leave now?” asked Ean in the whiniest voice she could muster. “I have, like, a million other clubs I could check out. I heard the science club one is pretty sick.”

Naoko looked at Suika and Jopi and noticed that they were already looking at her.

“Ah, the other clubs, huh?” Jopi said, a sweat drop falling down her cheek.

“Yeah, I like, signed up for, like, a dozen others, and science club was one of them. You gotta problem with that?”

Suika, who was being quiet this whole time, spoke up. “Hm. I guess I don’t.”

Miharu giggled. “Ean’s been bugging me about those stupid clubs while you three were outside.” She then perked up, as if she remembered something. “Wait—the science club? My big brother told me they apparently do magic and stuff.”

Ean chortled and waved a hand around. “Yeah, but that’s gotta be a load of bullshit. Magic totally doesn’t exist, right? It’s fuckin ridiculous!”

Every word that Ean said felt like it was piercing into Naoko’s heart. However, she couldn’t just go and outright state that magic was indeed real, so…

She lied.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she said smoothly. “Magic isn’t real!” (She tried to do her best poker face, but she cracked under the immense pressure.)

Ean stood up. “Screw this shit, I’m leavin’! Peace!”

“I’m leaving too,” echoed Miharu, also getting up from her seat.

Right as the door to the club room slammed shut, the girls breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well that was… stupid,” Jopi said.

“And pointless. And dumb.” Suika sighed. “We definitely dodged a bullet there, though.”

Naoko nodded. “Correct.”

The girls sat quietly, going back to what they were doing. About a half hour passed and there was a knock on the door.

Naoko got up and opened it, and…

In came Ean and Miharu, looking bored and disappointed.

“So we checked out some of the clubs, along with the science one,” Ean announced, playing with her hair. “And they were all fuckin’ boriiing.”

“Yeah,” Miharu echoed. “We decided to come back here because you guys actually are interesting. I think you’ve got some things that you’re hiding.” She smiled a smug smirk.

Naoko could feel her face flush. Her mouth started quivering.

Aw, damn. This is what I get for lying, huh? Ding!

“Uh, um…” she started. “YES! WE WERE LYING!” She didn’t mean to yell, but it just came out that way.

Ean put a hand on her hip, a dark look on her face. “Hah! I knew it. Spill it, bitch.” (This girl really loves to swear, now doesn’t she?)

Naoko took a deep breath and exhaled. “Magic is real. Sorry for lying to you.”

Suddenly, Suika stepped in front of the new president, holding the photocopied spellbook in front of her chest. “Also, we’re witches.”

Jopi and Naoko both glared at her.

Ean chuckled. “HAH! Knew it! I knew you guys were sus! Woo-hoo! It was all true!”

“The witch part isn’t,” Naoko grumbled, rolling her eyes.

Miharu clapped her hands together. “Yay, I knew it as well! I know I’m just regurgitating what Ean said, but I just knew something was up with this club!” She paused and looked at Naoko excitedly. “Is there any way that we can get superpowers, too?”

“Yes,” Suika noted. “But you can only have one, so it better be good.”

Ean growled in a metal-like way that would make Mari happy. “You fuckin’ kiddin’ me?! That’s not fair, we should both get a ton of them!”

Jopi shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, that’s just how it is.” She perked up. “Ah, what a coincidence! I think we should all get powers! Well, new ones for us.” She giggled.

Jopi then felt a nudge on her shoulder. She turned to face Suika, who had a hint of excitement on her stoic face.

“Okay… does that mean we’re officially in the club now?” Ean asked, clearly having recovered from her previous outburst.

Naoko thought for a moment.

Well, they’ll probably be the only ones interested in the club anyway, and they look like nice enough girls… Subtract one sin point.

“Sure.” Naoko sighed. “Suika, let the girls flip through the spellbook. We can decide after they look through it.”

The three senpai watched as the two new girls (not official-official since they still had to sign the forms but close enough) poured through the stabled-together booklet. Naoko was pondering whether she should stick to her original power or go with a new one.

“You know what?” Ean said, a few minutes later. “As ridiculous as all of this is, it’s fuckin’ sick. Oh hey, maybe I should get the power of, like, conjuring fire or some shit?”

Naoko shrugged, a small smile breaking out on her face. “Go at it. There are no limits.”

Really though. There were basically no limits.

★

In the end, the girls ultimately chose their powers, with the senpai deciding to choose new powers just because. Naoko chose teleportation, Jopi went with telekinesis, and Suika picked conjuration. Miharu went with Life Alter (the power to alter reality, which sounds scarily OP), and Ean went with fire conjuring (yes, that actually existed).

So there the girls were, all lined up the best they could in the somewhat-small room, ready for the goo to explode onto them. By now, they had already gotten the materials needed for the potion, and luckily there was still some black powder left in the club room from when the club had done the previous potions, and Naoko knew exactly where it was.

Yes. It was time. Things were serious—well, it was about as serious as you could get with seventh graders in the room. Ean was blasting some annoying rap music as Suika was preparing herself to put the black powder in (she wanted to be the one to do it). Miharu was sharing some excitement too, but it was more subdued—she was more “cautiously optimistic,” actually.

Meanwhile, Naoko was shaking although not visibly. More like she was shaking inside.

I’m not ready to get powers again, but I know it’s time…

Without further ado, Suika poured the black powder into each vial and stepped back into line.

Not even ten seconds later, the girls witnessed the goo exploding from the containers and onto the girls (and also, onto everything that was in the vicinity of the room… which was luckily covered by plastic sheets that were in the cupboards that Naoko also brought out.

It’s just as magical as it was the previous times. I’m never gonna get sick of this.

Miharu squealed, which Naoko thought was rather uncharacteristic of her, but yet again she knew almost nothing about the girl. “That was amazing!”

“It was pretty sick but the goo got all my uniform fuckin’ sticky!” Ean complained as she touched the offending mass.

Naoko, at this point, had to take a mental note of the girls’ goo colors. Miharu had mint, Ean a reddish-orange, Jopi orange, Suika yellow, and hers purple, just like Tomo.

It truly is the start of a new generation of the CDAC. Minus 10 sin points.

Now that everyone had gotten their superpowers, the most logical thing to do was have a sleepover, just like the first time… Too bad it was a weekday.

So now what do I do?

Then, she had an idea. But it involved Mimori, so…

“What do you think of a sleepover?” Naoko asked tentatively.

Ean perked up. “Hm, not a bad idea, even if it's a weekday.”

“This is the idea I had,” Naoko prompted. “My friend Mimori, who’s a time traveler, can freeze time and we can have a sleepover that way. I have to make sure all of our powers develop sooner or later.”

“Oh.” Miharu looked notably surprised.

Jopi raised her hand, seemingly having taken up Naoko’s habit of raising her hand when wanting to share a statement. “That sounds like a good idea, but where are we going to sleep over at? The school?”

Naoko pondered that for a moment. “I was thinking my house, not the school. Since none of us here can obviously teleport, we’d have to recite a spell to teleport over to Mimori-chan’s house, because she posted on Facebook that there was no club today so she’d be at home, and then she’d freeze time and we’d be set.” She sighed. Augh, this is all too complicated for essentially being muggles. Ding! … Also, a Harry Potter reference. Ding!

★

The long, complicated, and intricate string of sentences that consisted of Naoko’s plan was put into motion. Yay.

Where they were at now was that time had been frozen, so that meant that the next however many “hours” the girls were having a sleepover would essentially not exist. You know how it goes.

The whole sleepover thing in general made Naoko simply miss the times she had them with her good ol’ CDAC friends (which wasn’t that long ago, to be honest).

She especially Mari being there, even though she was pretty annoying half the time. The fact that her strange, lively presence wasn’t there, as well as her other friends, made her a bit sad.

I only really know two people here. Ding!

Anyway, the location of the sleepover was Naoko’s house. Although time was frozen, it was a relief that her parents weren’t that anyway, due to them both still being at work.

As the girls settled down in their gym clothes and Jopi and Naoko in pajamas (she could fit into Naoko’s PJs fine), Ean breathed a sigh of something.

Now that the girls were all in their pajamas, Ean sighed a sigh and started a very sleepover-core conversation.

“So,” she said, voice slimy as a snake. “You guys got crushes on anybody?”

Naoko took a menacing glare at Suika. “Prepared to be barraged,” she said in a dark voice.

Suika looked to take what she said as a challenge because the next thing out of her mouth was what Naoko feared.

“Yes,” Suika answered, her face beginning to flush. She twisted her short hair around her index finger girlishly. “I have a crush on Chris Halliwell. He has the clean-cut charm of a boy band frontman.”

Naoko facepalmed with both hands. And that reference…

Even if she had a dozen, they’d still all facepalm. It was just that cringeworthy to her. Couldn’t she get over him already? He’s a fictional character!

Mimori wasn’t any better, either. Both girls were just insane.

Ean tilted her head to the side. “I’m sorry. Who?” The next thing she knew, the girl picked her phone up off the ground and went immediately to Google.

Suika edged closer to her. “Chris. Halliwell.” She repeated slowly and carefully… a bit too slowly and carefully, actually.

Ean nodded. “Okay. Wait, how do you spell…? Oh. Oh. OH.”

Suddenly, everyone but Naoko was gathered around Ean’s small device, even Jopi despite having seen Beha-Chris a bunch of times before.

Cue the reactions.

“Oh my God, he’s so HOT!” Shrieked Ean. “Mm, not bad, Suika-chan! Not bad at all! I totally thought he’d be some nerdy dude!”

Miharu narrowed her eyes, looking intensely at her fellow kouhai’s screen. “It says he’s on a show called Charmed and that his actor is—”

“Ooh yeah, let’s click on that!”

“No,” Suika suddenly said.

The page loaded for Ean. She howled. “HAH! Holy FUCK! Did you know he’s thirty-five years old now? Holy sh—”

“YES!” Suika’s face turned a bright shade of red and she rushed out the door.

Slam!

Ean snickered. “Wow, what was that for? I just mentioned his age. There’s no need to throw a fit about it!”

Sighing, Naoko said, “That’s the problem. She doesn’t like that he’s twenty-something years older than her. She just likes him when he played Chris Halliwell on Charmed.”

“Oh. I kinda get that. Well, I’ll try not to bring Draw Four up again. Man, it’s gonna be so hard not to, because I wouldn’t mind—”

“Would you please cut it out?!”

A voice that definitely wasn’t Suika’s rang out from the hallway, and without even seeing them, Naoko knew exactly who it was.

Naoko opened her mouth. “Suika?~” She lilted. She tried to get up off the floor but she felt like her butt was glued to it.

Thump, thud. Something was knocked over in the hallway, and the door opened.

And there she was. A still red-faced Suika, and before her…

Chris Halliwell. (Or Drew. But probably Chris.)

The young man looked exactly how he did on the show, and the times that Behami had shapeshifted into him, just different clothes and hairstyle.

Also, his eyes were yellow as opposed to green.

Naoko knew what that meant.

After letting everything sink in, Naoko drew in a deep breath and asked the question.

“Suika… did you conjure him, by any chance?”

“Ye—”

“S.”

The boy and girl seemed to be on the same page together because they both talked at the same time.

“Well, well,” Ean smirked. “Look who we have here! Hot daaaamn!”

Chris looked disgusted by what Ean said—probably because she was underage. “Suika, you didn’t tell me this was a sleepover.” He looked down to find that a girl was on her knees.

“Please please please,” Miharu said excitedly, her eyes sparkling. “Tell me all about witches and warlocks!”

“Um… maybe another time.” He turned to face Suika. “It would be nice if you could take me back now. I was in the middle of fighting a demon.”

Suika sighed, looking very disappointed. She then closed her eyes and made him disappear in a bright yellow light.

Jopi gasped. “Wow! I don’t remember that happening when I summoned stuff. But yet again, I didn’t summon guys or anything.”

“And it looks like somebody got their powers early,” Naoko remarked, making a mental note in her mind.

★

The rest of the night—er, day—was spent talking about various subjects, none of which included boys, surprisingly enough. After that, Suika summoned some light-blocking curtains and they slept for however many “hours”.

The strangest thing to happen that “night”, though, was when Naoko woke up at some hour in the “morning” to find herself in the bathroom.

“Ah.” she said uneventfully.

I can teleport now. Cool.

Though she was still somewhat drowsy, Naoko decided to head downstairs to the living room, just to relax and digest what was currently happening.

What she didn’t expect to find there was Jopi, who was awake and relaxing on the loveseat.

“Jopi-chan, what are you doing here?” she wondered as she took a seat next to her.

“Oh, you know. Just relaxing.” Jopi said, smiling. She then sighed. “Also, when I got up earlier to find this book I wanted to read, it came right towards me. So, yeah… I got telekinesis now!” She grinned, and it was adorable.

Naoko smiled back. “Good for you. I got—”

“—I know. I saw you sleeping in the bathtub when I went to the bathtub a while ago. I figured so.”

Even though Jopi, her kouhai, just shared that very embarrassing tidbit with her, she still wanted to hug her.

She’s just so darn cute! Subtract one sin point.

-1 sin points this morning. It felt good.

Anyway, it seemed that it was time for the other girls to wake up too because after that exchange she could hear Suika, Ean, and Miharu being aroused from their sleeping bags. (Naoko and Jopi were speaking as quietly as they could. Perhaps the girls are all light sleepers?)

Wait—the ends of Ean’s hair are tinged…

“Morning! ‘Sup, everyone!” Ean said, being way too cheerful for just waking up.

Naoko raised an eyebrow. “Um, Ean. Your hair.”

Ean picked up the ends of her hair and frowned. “Huh, look at that!” she said, super casually. “Cool, my powers have arrived! Kinda regret it but it can’t be all that bad, right?”

“Make up your mind,” groaned Jopi. That made Naoko chortle.

All was silent for a second, as all the girls situated themselves on Naoko’s furniture.

“So,” Naoko drawled. “We all got ours. Any news on your power yet, Miharu-chan?”

Miharu blinked. “Ah, yes! Uh, maybe. Sorta. Kinda? I guess.”

She’s so indecisive too. Ding! Zero sin points.

Suika’s eyebrows angled cartoonishly. “So, yes or no? What is it?”

Miharu sighed. “Well, you see… I’m pretty sure that I got them because I somehow feel powerful, but I just don’t know who or what to test them on.”

Suika raised her hand. “Me.”

“Umm… okay.”

Naoko played with her fingers. So soon?

Miharu took a deep breath. “Umm… I wish you could have Chris’s voice.”

All the girls’ eyes widened… even Suika’s.

And the next thing they knew, Suika opened her mouth and a completely different-sounding voice came out. Chris’s.

“Uh, why’d you do that?” The fangirl asked although it was pretty obvious she was trying her hardest to contain her excitement.

Miharu shrugged. “Well, I’ve seen a few things that Chris’s actor was in before and I think he has a nice voice so I thought you would enjoy it too, ‘cuz, you know.”

Suika blushed big time and actually smiled a bit. “Thanks.”

“Hey, Miharu,” Ean said rudely, after a beat. “You think you could change her voice back? Chris’s voice is hot, but not on a fuckin chick.”

★

And that was basically that day in a nutshell. The CDAC tested out their powers a bit more, Naoko teleported the members back to their homes, got Mimori to unfreeze time, and then after that life resumed as usual.

The next day, however…

“Hey, everyone!” Naoko announced, trying to put on her best club president voice. “We should make a chart!”

“A chart for what?” Ean asked, clearly confused. “For our powers or something? That’s pretty nerdy.”

Naoko nodded. “Exactly. When my senpai were here, we did just that. It helped us figure out what powers we had and if they grew or not. Trust me, it’s pretty useful.”

Miharu clapped her hands together. “Okay, let’s do it!”

Ean giggled and chimed in. “‘O, le’ do it!’”

Jopi cringed. “Ew, you actually like that song?”

As if on a terrible cue, the girls’ club advisor, Mr. Fujiwara, walked in. “How’re you girls doing today?” he asked innocently.

A bead of sweat dropped on Naoko’s cheek. “Oh, you know. Fine.”

Mr. Fujiwara took a seat and folded his arms as Suika started making the chart with a piece of paper she ripped out of one of her notebooks.

“So…” he said. “I see that you got two new members. Very nice.”

Miharu looked super flustered. “And we, well, um, totally—”

“You can tell him, Miharu,” Naoko said gently. “He knows.”

Miharu took a deep breath. “We got magic powers.”

Mr. Fujiwara chuckled at the new girl saying what she said as if it were a big deal. “You did? Yeah, that’s nothing new, trust me.” He continued to chuckle as he looked around the room as if scanning for something.

“What’s wrong?” Jopi said, eyes wide.

“I just miss Mimori and the girls, you know? It’s gonna take some time to get used to them not being here.”

Naoko very well knew what he meant by taking time. (Ding!)

“Oh, hey, guess what?” Ean interjected. “I got fire powers!”

Mr. Fujiwara’s eyes narrowed. “God, that sounds dangerous.”

“And I can alter reality!” Miharu added, eyes sparkling.

“Even more dangerous!” Mr. Fujiwara actually looked disturbed by what she said.

Naoko giggled quietly as she watched their counselor and the new girls continue to banter.

It’s good to be back. We’re alright. We’re alright.