"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (But it's the BioShock Version)"

I stare and sniffle into my pillow for a long time. I can hear Michi working hard at the table in my room - the shuffle of flashcards, the scrawling of a pencil, the…eraser noise of an eraser. Every so often, Michi lets out little sighs, little gasps, little chuckles. When she’s stuck on something, there’s a tap-tap-tap of her pencil on a notebook.

I feel bad for her.

“Michi,” I say into the pillow. “Let’s just give up.”

“Huh?”

“We don’t have a chance. Why waste time on something we can’t succeed at? The History Club is too smart for us. It’s obvious the HRC is gonna be dissolved. There’s no point in trying if the outcome is already determined.”

“Never say never, nee-san. There’s always hope-”

“Cut that out.”

Michi grows quiet.

In what might be kami-sama's toughest battle, I just barely manage to lift myself off the pillow and flip myself around so I stare at the ceiling. “Sorry, Michi. It’s not your fault. I appreciate that you’re working so hard. But I don’t want you to waste your time. You’re smart and funny and pretty. You should be spending these days enjoying the culture festival and your high school life. Not wasting time helping out your sister’s doomed club.”

Michi stands. I shift my eyes - she’s placed her hand across her chest. “Nee-san, this is my club, too. Not just yours. If we give up, then we won’t win for sure. But if we try, then either we go down fighting, or snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!”

“That’s not how life works, Michi.” I stare at the ceiling. “I wanted to make the Historical Research Club into a welcoming place for people who feel like they don't belong. Somewhere they could be comfortable and relax. Because you don’t really get that anywhere else in life. I feel like everybody has each other under a microscope nowadays. Everyone’s judgmental and angry.”

I close my eyes. “So I thought my purpose in this world of anger and sadness would be to make a nice little home for people. But even that’ll get taken away, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Maybe I just need thicker skin. We live in hard times. I just wasn’t made for them. I’m no good.”

When I open my eyes, Michi looks at me with her goofy smile. Raven-black hair falls to her shoulders as she holds my hands in hers. “Nee-san, I know these are hard times. And I don’t think I was made for them, either. I know what people say about me. Being mean to Michi is like taking candy from a baby. It's not like you can be mean to someone like Michi. I’m just a girl who chases cats around all day. Just a goofball that nobody will ever take seriously.”

Her hands feel warm. “But that’s okay, nee-san, because that’s who I am. You have to accept who you are, because you can only be you. I’m happy with being Saito Michi. I hope you’re happy with being Saito Fumi. You may not think it, but you’re smart and funny and pretty, too. You always inspire me with your kindness.”

I slowly sit up in bed. She sits next to me and continues. “It would’ve been great to have been born in an earlier time. But we don’t get to choose that. Here we are. We live in hard times, nee-san. But as long as we have each other, we’ll find the strength to meet it.”

Michi suddenly stands, inspired. She’s still holding my hands, so I fall halfway out of bed. “That’s it, nee-san! We just need to support each other. If we live in hard times, then we need to get just as hard!”

“...uh, Michi, there’s probably a better way to put it-”

“We’ll make each other hard, nee-san! Hard as rocks, hard as diamonds!”

“...seriously, Michi, I appreciate the words, but-”

“I’m feeling pretty hard right now just standing here with you!” Michi yanks me to my feet. “Let’s go do something, nee-san. Let’s go outside!”

Before I can protest, Michi hauls me out of our room and down the stairs. If anyone saw this, they’d probably think Michi was the older sister. She’s a head taller than me, her dark hair shines like polished obsidian, and she’s leading the way with her words of inspiration and wisdom.

I don’t really have a high opinion of myself. But Michi says I inspire her, so in a way, her strength is because she believes in me…rather than her hauling me out of the apartment, I start running alongside her.

Mom and Dad are still in the basement. I guess I can’t run from that forever. I can handle the world’s problems tomorrow. For now, I just want to hang out with my sister.

We slip into our shoes and step out into the night. The road’s crowded with other denizens of Ni-Machi, all of them gathering to watch the continuing missile barrage overhead. I glance up and gasp - there’s enough missiles and drones to blot out the moon. They move in waves, all of them shaped like sleek tubes or small planes, but with no pilots inside.

The missiles lead the way, huge shapes in the night sky, with the drones trailing behind. All of them sparkle with the rainbow colors of cold fusion, creating an aurora borealis that seems to rain down upon us. This must be what comets look like. I've never seen the real stars in the sky either, so perhaps this is what they look like, too. 

Somebody starts playing music as the street takes on a carnival atmosphere. A barrage this big must mean something serious is going down, but nobody here wants to think about it. Michi's hands drop away. The smile is gone - she chews on a fingernail as she comes to understand the sheer scale of the attack and everything that implies.

“Michi,” I say, taking her hands in my own this time. “Thank you for always being there for me. I think some really big stuff is gonna happen these next few days. So, for right now, for tonight, let’s just enjoy ourselves. And then when tomorrow comes, we’ll find strength in each other and take on the world! Maybe we’ll lose our club. Maybe we’ll win. Maybe I really am the chosen one. Maybe it’s somebody else entirely, or nobody at all. But in any case…it’s just like you said. We’ll find strength in each other, and as long as we believe in one another, then we’ll give this crazy world our best shot.”

The trademark goofy grin returns to Michi's face. “Nobody can stop us, nee-san. And if they do, it’ll be after we leave it all out on the field. Let’s take on this crazy world, nee-san. Let’s get hard!”

I go to correct her, then exhale and smile. “Let’s get hard, Michi.”

She pulls me around in circles to the music. I resist, because other people are here and I don’t want to look like a fool, but there’s a certain point where you stop caring what other people think. I follow Michi into a dance, and we go round and round, spinning to infinity. The rainbow colors wash over Michi’s face, bathing her in a kaleidoscope of color, greens and reds and blues and purples.

Other people follow our lead. Soon, the whole block is dancing to the beat of the music and the colors of the comets above. What a moment. I wish I could store it in a bottle.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow for sure. For once in my life, I feel ready for tomorrow. And it’s all because of tonight.

The sound of ticking clocks echo across Shikishima, blaring from loudspeakers and sirens hooked up to the telephone poles on every street. The whole system is linked to the tallest building in Shikishima - the aptly-named Clocktower on Ichi-Machi at the top of the island, where Elder Nakashima himself lives. This can only be a broadcast directly from his office. This is a rare occurrence, so in another moment, we might’ve stopped and listened, but I’m too focused on my sister and the dancing to really care.

This strange, warm feeling arises in me as we continue to spin around.

MY FAIR CITIZENS, Nakashima proclaims, WE HAVE STRUCK A TREMENDOUS BLOW AGAINST THE GREAT SATAN TONIGHT.

What is this feeling? I feel some sort of fire rising in my stomach, in my fingertips, in my toes.

WITH JUST A SMALL PORTION OF OUR JADE ARSENAL, WE HAVE DESTROYED HIS FLOATING CITY OF COLUMBIA BEFORE IT BECOMES FULLY OPERATIONAL, ENSURING SHIKISHIMA RULES THE WAVES FOREVERMORE.

I feel the fire when I gaze at Michi, when I see the lights, when I see the missiles and drones, when I see the street, when I see the people.

WE HAVE KILLED HIS MERCENARY COMMANDERS IN THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE AND HORN OF AFRICA SO WE MAY CONTINUE OUR GRAND CIVILIZING MISSION.

I feel the fire in the way Michi’s warm fingers intertwine with my own, in the way my feet dance across the asphalt.

WE HAVE SUNDERED HIS CANAL IN PANAMA SO HE WILL THINK TWICE ABOUT HIS ANSWER TO OUR CHALLENGE.

What is this feeling?

BUT LET THE GREAT SATAN ANSWER, I SAY. LET HIM DO HIS WORST. AMERICA CAN’T DO A DAMN THING AGAINST US. SHIKISHIMA SHALL FOREVER BE THE TORCH THAT LIGHTS HUMANITY’S WAY.

Ah, I get it now. I, Saito Fumi, really am alive.

END OF BOOK ONE