Episode 1: Everyone Else is Doing it, So Why Can’t We?

It had been two weeks since the middle school cultural festival and a few days since the high school cultural festival, which wasn’t very eventful in the long run.

This day, however, certainly was like any other day in the Can Do Anything Club room, previously known as the literature club.

Mimori was shouting the lines to a Sum 41 song she was currently obsessed with, “What We’re All About.”

“Augh, Mimo-chan, mate, please can it!” Kasumi growled. “You’ve been singing that every chance you get! Between that one and ‘A walking disaster the son of a retard’, I can’t get any silence!”

Mimori stopped and pouted. “That’s not how it goes, Sumi-chan!”

“Yeah, I know.” She chortled. “And guess what? I don’t care.”

Over the past two weeks (ever since she was in the middle school festival performance, actually), Mimori suddenly became super obsessed with the pop-punk/hard rock band Sum 41. She was into them over the summer for sure, but she really only started to go down a rabbit hole for that band recently, and she couldn’t find her way out.

“C’mon Kasumi cut her some slack,” Behami said, giving her a sly smile. “They’re really not that bad. She could’ve gotten into something far worse, like Staind or something.”

“Hey!” Kasumi said, pouting this time. “Staind is not that bad! They have feelings in their music and stuff!”

“And Sum doesn’t?” Behami raised an eyebrow and smirked.

Kasumi groaned. “Ugh. Okay, fine. I’ll give them a try, even though I don’t really care for the singer’s voice. His voice literally sounds like he swallowed sandpaper.”

Well, she’s not wrong!

“Agreed,” Mimori said. “Make that three pieces of sandpaper on their first album… God.”

Behami shrugged. “Yeah, I can say that.” She then looked back down at her phone and continued playing whatever mobile game she was playing, Mimori wasn’t too interested in her friend’s video game stuff.

Tomo put a finger to her chin, her mouth an upside down V. “Who is this ‘Sum 41?’ Are they anything like that ‘Blink-182?’”

“Pfft.” Mimori had to vocalize that. “No!”

Ah.

Suddenly, the girl had a brilliant idea.

“I’ve got an idea!”

“Do you now?” teased Mari, who took a headphone off one of her ears. The sound still emitting from it, Mimori could tell that it was Metallica.

“Uguu. Yes! A-anyway! Sum is coming to our town this week, and I wanna go see ‘em! They’re even doing an acoustic show at two!”

“Oh, really? Sick!” From the look on her face, Behami wasn’t aware of this. Heh. What a casual. “I want their autographs!”

Mimori’s face began to flush. “Aaaand I kinda sorta wanna meet their bassist, Cone…” She let out a sigh. She was getting a bit too excited. “You think we could maybe go there? You know, as a group? Like, teleport?”

Tomo had her phone out. Mimori could already tell what she was doing. “Is Cone this guy?”

Mimori walked over to her friend and saw that she had his Wikipedia page up, which made Mimori’s heart start to beat fast again.

She saw Kasumi shrug out of the corner of her eye. “He’s alright,” she said bluntly. “Nothing special or anything.”

“Alright?! ALRIGHT!?” Mimori shrieked. “HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY THINK THAT?! WHAT THE FUCK?!”

Asuka clapped her hands together, which was usually Tomo and Erica’s thing but alas. “I think it’s a good idea. It would please Mimori, after all. What do you think, Erica?”

The girl gave a thumbs up. “It’s a neat idea, I always like seeing concerts! And since Tomo’s teleportation power freezes time from the area where we teleport from, we won’t be skipping school. That’s the best part.” The girl grinned evilly and it kind of gave Mimori the creeps.

“YES!” Mimori pumped her fists. “Operation 41 starts now!”

Erica snerked. “I’ll give you guys some more details of our adventure tonight then. It’s official.”

★

Operation 41. Alright, partner. Keep on rollin’, baby. You know what time it is. (Wrong band but Mimori just had to do it.)

It was Wednesday morning, around seven thirty, and Mimori was rereading the messages sent by Erica the previous night.

Tomo- at 7:35 on Wednesday morning, start teleporting us all to the clubroom. Then, once everyone’s there, teleport us all to the JPM casino. Hopefully there won’t already be a line there (I doubt it). Then, Mimori speeds up time so that it is 1:45- so that way we won’t have to wait that long! Everyone, if you want autographs, make sure to bring paper and pen!❤

Mimori was all prepared. The day before, she even forced her mom to drive her to Tower Records so she could buy their latest album, 13 Voices, for the sole purpose of getting it signed. (The only other albums she had of theirs, Does This Look Infected? And Chuck would not do, she decided.)

While Mimori was slipping her iPod Nano into her bag (she may need it at some point), an orb of purple light flashed behind her, making her jump.

“Hey, Mimo-chan! Ready to rock out!?” Tomo sounded as excited as ever but her use of the phrase “rock out” caused her to cringe.

“Mmhm.” Mimori nodded and did her best disappointed dad sigh.

“Rad!” Tomo took a deep breath and began to sing as Mimori finished packing things up. “‘Well I know I’m not the one you thought you knew back in high school!~’”

“Ehhh?! You know that song now?!”

Tomo giggled. “C’mon, Mimori-chan! You posted that song in the group chat last night and I gave it a listen!”

“Oh. Right.” Sometimes Mimori couldn’t remember all the dumb things that she did in the recent past.

“It was a good song, it gave off some real Beastie Boys vibes.” The girl’s mouth formed a cat smile. “And you know what, the bassist guy is pretty cute, in a dorky way. Hey, isn’t the word for that ‘Adorkable’ or something?”

The cringe deepens. “Yup, uh huh.” Mimori’s eyes were a tad soulless at this point. Kinda odd because I’d want her to get into Sum, right???

Tomo waved her hands back and forth. “C’mon, Mimori-chan! We don’t have no time to waste!”

“Isn’t that grammatically incorrect—?”

In that same flash of purple light, the two were off.

❤

Mimori was slightly disappointed that she didn’t get to experience the thrill of going to the JPM Grand Casino (full name) because they just teleported there.

Sometimes the car rides there are worth it…

Once they got there, Mimori sped up the time to two o’clock so they could get in and watch the acoustic show immediately instead of just waiting in line. (In case you’re wondering, yes they did teleport in behind a wall so that no one saw them just magically appear out of nowhere.)

Mimori closed her eyes and let her mind take her forward in time. Cold air swirled around her even though the air itself in the part of the city they were in was nice and pleasant.

When she opened her eyes, she heard the crowd bustling.

Huh, she noted internally. A lot of people here are wearing some outdated-looking outfits. They’re trying to get into the early 2000s aesthetic, I bet.

One of the guards that were standing by the front door opened the door and the crowd started to stream in. A crowd that, Mimori also noted, wasn’t especially big nor was it ridiculously small. Doesn’t surprise me. After all, they aren’t the most relevant band in the world right now.

Once the girls were in the concert venue, Mimori’s eyes scanned the scene and once again her body was filled with excited nerves.

I gotta dance. I just gotta right now.

And, in pure Mimori fashion, she started to sing as well.

The dancing, she knew, wasn’t actually dancing. It was really just spinning around and circling, occasionally losing her balance and almost falling to the ground.

The girl heard her friend Kasumi clear her throat so she stopped.

“Get a grip, dude.” Facing her friend now, she saw that her face was annoyed and red at the same time.

What a fuckin tsun!

“Ah ha, gomin!” Mimori said, scratching her hair in that classic anime way. From the stage, she could hear the Sums tuning up their instruments but she didn’t dare look lest she sees Cone and freaks out again (funny how that works).

“Alright, girls. Where are we sitting?” Erica did her usual business clap, this time a quieter version as she was trying not to disturb the people around her.

“We gotta go to the front row!” Mimori cried, pumping her fists up and down. “That’s where the epicness begins!”

“Epicness?” What is this, 2010?

Mari raised an eyebrow. “Really? As much as I wanna do that I know you and a few other girls here won’t be able to withstand the mosh pit that’s gonna erupt here.”

Ah. Mimori’s face fell. “Fuck, you’re right.” The girl sounded extremely bummed but knew instead that she understood.

The gaggle of girls instead made their way to the side of what looked like a glorified gymnasium, which was actually a great idea because they were still towards the front near the stage but also not in the way of people. Even better was that there was a long ledge that the girls could all sit on and set their stuff down on. It was amazing.

Because she was as antsy as ever, Mimori felt like getting up again and stretching when she accidentally bumped into someone.

“Ah, sorry!” she said, voice trembling a bit.

The girl looked up and saw a man who looked to be in his late teens there, dressed in a super baggy t-shirt and what looked to be JNCO jeans.

Uuuh, those aren’t relevant anymore.

“Hey, you’re fine.” The boy waved his hand back and forth, a chill look on his face. Then, his eyes brightened up. “So you’re here to see Sum too?”

“Yeah!” Mimori nodded up and down happily.

“Who else are you going to see? MXPX is gonna be on in a bit, really looking forward to them. Their new album was tight.”

The girl blinked. “Eh?”

The boy dug around in his ginormous pocket and produced what looked to be a brochure. “Here, have a look.”

Mimori took the booklet and simply stared at the cover.

“‘OngakuFes… 2000?”

Her heart almost stopped then and there.

“T-Tomo-chan?” The girl called out her friend’s name and she came over.

“Yes?” Tomo looked blissfully unaware but she asked her anyway.

“Did you do this?” Mimori asked this in a lowered voice. “Did you take us back to 2000 by accident?”

Tomo stared at her friend, her mouth a soulless smile. “Ahhh no, I didn’t. If anything, Mimori-chan, that was your doing. You somehow took us here.”

Fuck. “I did? But I didn’t even know that this festival was even a thing!”

Tomo put her index finger in the air. “What must have happened was that you internally wanted to go see Sum 41 play the last time they came here to Kanagawa because you wanted to see a younger Cone play. While you were thinking about this, your power began to override mine, sending us here.”

“Hmmm…” Mimori didn’t have to think for that long. It made too much sense. That was what had happened.

Still holding the booklet in her hand, Mimori briefly skimmed it, found no other bands that interested her (okay, Good Charlotte interested her but she hadn’t listened to any of their albums yet so she wouldn’t know all the songs they were going to play) and gave it back to the young man, politely thanking him in the process.

Heading back to the ledge, Mimori was a bit bummed. I’m not gonna be able to see them playing “The Hell Song” or “We’re All to Blame” or “Fake My Own Death”...

It was a bummer indeed. However…

Mimori finally looked at the stage, particularly at the twenty-year-old Cone that was currently on stage.

He could stand to be a bit younger than that but if this is what I get I’ll take it! HAH!

Yes. Boy Crazy Mimori had returned. (Or, to paraphrase Prince, “Boy Crazy Mimori never left.”)

Upon staring at the stage, the boy Mimori had her sights on glanced at her and smirked.

“EHHHH?!” she shrieked. Kasumi slapped a hand over her mouth.

Yeah, I actually deserved that.

With perfect timing, a familiar set of chords sounded and the performance began.

Ah, right. Another downside of this performance: It’s gonna be smaller than the other ones, it’s a festival and also they only have so many songs.

Their set started off with “Makes No Difference”, which was a perfect one to start off with.

“‘You’re running fast and missing but cannot help convincing…”

The lyrics are as wordy as ever.

As the song continued on, Mimori couldn’t help but notice that Cone looked at her two more times. Why? Does he find me that interesting? But also, EEEE!!!

★

Time flew by all too quickly. The Sums essentially played every single song off of their first album (or EP, whatever you wanted to call it—Mimori preferred to call it an actual album since there were eleven tracks on it) and it was enjoyable to listen to.

Partway through the performance, Miharu showed up for whatever reason. Mimori was a bit confused as to why, but once she thought about it, the girls did talk about this in their group chat. Just because Asuka barred any kouhai from attending didn’t mean they couldn’t break the girl’s flimsy rules. The bow-adorned girl simply stood near the end of the ledge as there was no more room, and smartly added a mint-colored barrier to the air to protect her from any crazy boys (let’s face it, just boys) or crowd surfers that might bump into her of injure her by accident.

When the performance was done, the boys left the stage, like they were supposed to…

All except Cone, who quickly handed his bass to Dave and leaped off stage. A few people noticed this and reacted accordingly. (For the most part, everyone was leaving to go to the next venue which was across the street, apparently.)

The boy was dashed immediately up to Mimori.

OHMIGOD WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!

“Hey there,” Cone said innocently.

“Hhhh…” All Mimori could do was let air travel out of her mouth like a tea kettle, including the accompanying sound effect.

He’s so close to me AHHH!! And so sweaty…! But HE’S SO CUTE AHHHH!!!

With Cone being so close to her, Mimori realized that something was incredibly off about the boy’s eyes.

His eyes were a bright mint color.

They weren’t supposed to be that color.

He has the prettiest sky-blue eyes I’ve ever seen—this is TOTALLY off!

The fact that his eyes were mint-colored and Miharu randomly being here… there was only one possible thing that happened.

More like that was totally the thing that happened.

“Uh…” Mimori regained her voice and finally spoke as (she was sure this was the case) her friends were staring at the two of them in the background.

“Heh heh.” Cone giggled awkwardly. “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy huh?” All of those words sputtered out of Cone’s mouth in rapid succession, as if he couldn’t control what he was saying.

The two continued to stay there as the gymnasium was fully empty, aside from a bunch of men taking everything down that was on the stage. The atmosphere was incredibly awkward and almost totally silent. It would be totally silent if it wasn’t for Cone giggling all weirdly.

“AHEM.” Miharu said that aloud.

The two kids both looked at the girl.

“Yeah. Sorry, Mimori-chan.” Miharu smiled weakly. “I kinda did something for you but clearly that was a bad idea.”

Mimori’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah. Thanks. I can tell.”

“CONE, DUDE! WE NEED YOU BACKSTAGE!”

A voice hollered from backstage. Mimori could tell it was Steve. Cone turned his eyes back to Mimori and nodded curtly.

“Don’tworrythiswillonlytakeamoment!”

After saying that long-winded sentence at the speed of the Micro Machines guy, the boy disappeared once again behind the stage once more.

A few seconds passed. Mimori turned to face Miharu for real this time.

“So why’d you do it? Like, it sounded great in theory and it did get me all excited and stuff but at the same time… it’s kinda creepy?”

Miharu giggled. “Yeah. I wanted to try changing someone’s mind, like brainwashing you know? I thought you’d get a kick out of it but yeah it did actually end up being pretty creepy.”

“Yup.” Mimori smirked and shook her head. “So, when’s your change gonna wear off? Hopefully sooner or later.”

Miharu cocked her head to the side. “Whenever I want it to, of course. It’s not a spell or anything. When do you want it gone?”

Oh, how the tables have turned. (Ha ha, Sum reference!)

Mimori thought for a moment. How much do I want him to suffer? Even though she loved Cone (even though didn’t know everything about him at the moment, though that would soon change), she wasn’t sure how long she could stomach him being all crazy for her.

Wait—this implies that we’re gonna be hanging out or something, isn’t it?!

“Um… I guess I’ll let you know?”

“Okay.” Miharu’s eyes went to the stage, and the next thing she knew, Cone was bounding down to the main floor again.

“Hey, what’s-your-name! You wanna hang out tonight? What’s your name?”

Mimori almost choked on her own spit. Holy shit. What timing.

“Mimori,” she managed to choke out. “Mimori Hamasaki.” The girl tried calming her pounding heart. “I-I have school tomorrow, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work.” Lies. You can freeze time!

And also… oh god, I’m gonna have to take him to the future, won't I?!

“Oh.” Cone looked down at the floor, looking disappointed. His head then bobbed back up. “Well, it won’t be for that long? How ‘boot until 9?”

Heh. That Canadian accent though, which I can luckily hear because Mari just so happened to use her powers on us beforehand.

“Um, sure?” It just came out by accident.

Cone’s already bright face brightened even more, somehow. “Really? I can do that?”

Mimori looked back at her friends. They all shrugged and gave the reactions that she expected them to.

“Sure,” Erica said. “Nothing’s stopping you. As long as you take us home first.” She put extra emphasis on that part.

Mimori nodded and prayed that Cone was stupid enough at the moment that seeing actual time travel happen wouldn’t phase him.

“Well, let’s get going!” the girl said, signaling for her friends to do the thing that they always did. She gestured to Cone as well, who joined in without question.

Touching his hand gave her an electric shock of sorts.

❤

“What’s this?”

“What’s that?”

“Wait, that’s a phone?!”

The reactions that ensued were expected from a young man who was just discovering the objects of the future. Mimori remembered that Tomo had the same reactions to the objects too, and that warmed her heart.

This is oddly wholesome to watch, she decided.

And yes. He took to time traveling to the future extremely well, almost like he had the part of his brain that questioned things that were happening completely turned off.

… Except for it came to wondering what some objects were.

“Yup, that’s my mom’s which she left here by accident. And this is mine, which is an outdated model.” Mimori held up her purple LG smartphone, making it dance around.

“Wow! Really? That’s crazy!” Cone’s eyes were wide. “It should be smaller though! That’s how phones work, right? They get smaller?”

Mimori chortled. “Not always,” she retorted.

By now, half an hour had passed, and Mimori was already considering having Miharu teleport into the room and change Cone back to normal.

But, she wanted to endure it. She wanted Cone to show interest in her.

Just a little longer.

★

Another hour passed and Mimori ended up showing Cone Sum’s professionally-recorded concert Go Chuck Yourself! from 2005. Unsurprisingly, the boy was in amazement at how much better he got at playing the bass… And of course, how much more grown-up he was.

“Wow… look at me go!” he exclaimed, watching himself bounce up and down onstage.

Mimori ended up grinning the whole time and when they got hungry she brought some popcorn down from the kitchen and the two snacked on it—yes, they ate out of the same bowl.

When the concert was over Cone said that he was tired from playing the festival that day and asked Mimori cutely if he could “crash out on the couch.” The girl reluctantly agreed and with a flick of the TV, the lights were completely out.

Welp. Time’s up for me then.

In a matter of minutes, the boy was out like a light, leaving Mimori to go the bathroom upstairs lest she turned the fan on in the downstairs one and accidentally woke her up.

When she got to her bedroom she went on her phone and went into the Facebook Messenger app where she privately messaged Miharu.

He’s sleeping on the couch. It’s time for you to the thing, she texted her.

Miharu responded not even a second after her message was sent. Damn, she must be pretty fuckin close to her phone then.

Alright. I’ll be over then. You want me to take him home too cuz I can do that.

Go ahead, Mimori responded. I’m feeling pretty tired too and I still gotta unfreeze time after this!

★

“So how was it~?” Kasumi said in a saucy tone the following day.

Mimori sighed. I’m still pretty tired… Wait, that’s just me every day.

“It was something,” she remarked. “I showed him some ‘futuristic’ things. We watched a future Sum concert on the TV. We ate. That was about it. … Oh, and he also slept on my couch.”

“AHHH, he did?!” Behami shrieked. Then, her mouth formed into that of a cat’s. “So did you sleep right next to him?!”

“Uh, no.” Mimori blushed fiercely. “Once he was asleep I had Miharu come over and undo that warp she did on him.”

The copper hair girl’s tongue clicked. “Talk about boring. But what do I know, anyway? I know as much romance as the other gamers do.”

Mimori rolled her eyes. “Pfft.” She then clapped her hands together. “So, ANYWAY! Everything’s good now! Alright?”

Kasumi was staring daggers at the girl and she was wondering why.

“I wonder how long this crush is gonna last,” the girl remarked without further probing.

Mimori blinked. “Uh, I don’t know? As long as I want it to, whether I’m aware of it or not.” She let out a heavy sigh and suddenly felt nostalgic for only a few weeks ago.

Back when I was in love with Drew… That didn’t last very long, did it? Just a little over a year.

The thought of that kind of blew her mind, actually. How long that crush (obsession, more like) lasted.

She was then filled with a bit of dread as to how long the crush on Cone (okay, more like obsession) was going to last.

However long, Mimori knew one thing for sure: She was too deep in the rabbit hole now. “In Too Deep,” if you will.