“Oh boy, today’s the day! Today’s the day I get to sell all of my wonderful totally real comics about my great fun times doing magic and fighting dragons when I totally went to my original boarding school for magical-type peoples, Woghearts!” Mary was all smiles as she skipped towards her stand on the pitch, a large stack of comics in her arms. This is the day she’d been looking forward to for ages– the school festival! Everyone from every grade, both the boys and girls schools, and all of their parents and friends would be here to see what the school had to offer and what each class had created, but more importantly to Mary Sue, she’d finally be able to share her great adventures with a wide audience.
For years, kids laughed at her and told her she’d been making it all up. To them, she was just a crazed fan of a popular book series about wizards, but she knew better. She’d actually BEEN to the wizarding school. She tried to explain that her powers had to be sealed so that fogels, that is, non-magical-type peoples, wouldn’t be scared of her. But she had to explain her amazing adventures somehow! Mary may not have been allowed to use magic in the fogel world, but she didn’t see any reason to make things up and lie to people. She wanted her classmates to know her for who she really was, even if that meant using every crayon she had left!
Mary spread her comics on the table, lining up every booklet side by side, having only made a handful of copies of each one. For a dollar a pop, she figured her stories would fly off the table in a matter of minutes! With just an hour until the festival was underway, her spirits couldn’t be higher. “This is the day I’ve been waiting for!” she said quietly to herself.
“Oh, and why have you been waiting for today, Mary Sue? Or should I say, ‘Moonlight Sparkles’?”
“That’s LUNA Sparkles! But what do YOU care, Cindy? Get lost!” Mary snarled at the blonde bitch and her two cronies. Cindy knew not to use Mary’s magic-name in the fogel world. Its magical properties could be devistating if she-who-probably-musn’t-be-mentioned ever heard it. Cindy just scoffed and began flipping through one of Mary’s hand-drawn comics.
“Who the hell is Perry Hotter? And why’s he making out with this blond guy?” she said in disgust.
Mary reached out over the table and tried to take the comic back but Cindy pulled away and showed the page to her two friends, who snickered. “Perry was my best friend when I went to Woghearts, and that’s his boyfriend Blako Dulfoy.” Mary tried to grab it again, to no avail.
“And just when DID you go to this ‘Woghearts’ school? We’ve been in the same class since kindergarten.”
“…over the summer…” Mary looked down at her feet. She wasn’t sure where this line of questioning was going but she didn’t like it.
“Really now. And why do you call yourself Luna Sparkles in your stories?”
“I had to have a unique name when I went to Woghearts because if she-who-probably-musn’t-be-mentioned knew that I was the prophecised Special Snowflake that was destined to defeat her, she’d kill me!”
“…so you have someone from the magic world out to kill you dangerous enough to require an alias, but here you are just telling everyone everything in these comics?” Mary blushed and turned away. She’d never put that together before and seemed to have backed herself into a corner she didn’t want to admit. “You really believe this stuff, don’t you? You really believe you’re some… what’d you call it, a ‘Special Snowflake’? You really shouldn’t be peddling this Harry Potter fanfiction of yours like this. We’re taking these for your own good, Mary. You need to snap out of it and face reality!”
In an instant, Cindy and her two friends had grabbed all of the comics Mary’d worked so hard on and dashed away, crushing her dreams. She didn’t know what she’d ever done to Cindy to deserve this. Were her stories harming anyone? So what if she thought they were real? Who were they to crush her imagination? Having lost all of her hope, Mary keeled over atop the table, burrying her face in her arms with a quiet sob.
“Hey, you ok there Mary?” A sweet voice and a gentle hand on her shoulder made her raise her head to find her new friends Jessie and Ashley looking down on her with worried smiles.
Mary brushed a tear from her eye with her sleeve and sniffed. “H-hey guys, what’s up? The right uniform looks good on ya, Jess.”
With a tinge of red coming to her cheeks, Jessie tried to brush it aside by getting back on topic. “What happened, Mary? What’s wrong?”
“It’s..” *sniffle* “It’s Cindy, she… she took my comics and ran off with them…”
“Don’t worry Mary, we’ll help you get them back! Right Ash?” Jessie said with confidence.
Grabbing her arm in a pose of strength, Ash agreed. “Right! Let’s get going! Where’d they run off to?” Ash was ready to kick some ass.
“I don’t know… towards the woods, I think…” Jessie helped Mary up and with a nod of agreement, the three girls ran off towards the woods near the back of the school’s grounds, but with no sign of Cindy or her cronies. The gang decided the best course of action would be to split up and search for clues, so they took off; Jessie in the direction of the girls’ school, Ash in the direction of the boys’, and Mary Sue towards the middle where, after several minutes of running through dark forest, she heard giggling.
“‘Take THIS, she-who-probably-musn’t-be-mentioned! Expellidermus!’ she shouted, pointing her wand at the banshee’s face.” Cindy fell over in a fit of laughter. Mary watched from the shadows as Cindy and her two friends sat with their backs against an old stone well, reading the stolen comics and laughing aloud to each other. Jessie and Ash weren’t anywhere nearby, so what was Mary to do? Run after Ash and Jessie and come back? Go find a teacher? No… They’ve already made fun of Mary enough tonight, she wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction of having the teachers laugh at her too! This was something she’d have to do alone. Taking a deep breath, she found the courage to rush into the small clearing.
“Hey, give me back my books!” She yelled, red in the face.
“Oh, there’s our snowflake.” Cindy said, looking up from her book and getting to her feet.
“Give them back!!” Mary yelled again.
“Or what? You’ll cast a spell on me?” The trio laughed.
“No… I can’t use magic in front of fogels!”
“WHAT did you call me?” Cindy crossed her arms.
“A fogel! A non-magical-type person! I’m not allowed to use magic in front of you unless it’s an emergency!”
“Oh, I see. Does THIS count as an emergency?” Cindy gathered the books as did her confidants, and together they held them all over the well. “Can you use magic to save your precious books?”
“No, please! Don’t!!” Mary ran at them in a panic and Cindy and crew dropped the books in the well. Mary collapsed where she was, tears streaming from her wide eyes. “How… how could you? Why would you do this to me? What have I ever done to you?” she whispered through heavy breaths.
“It’s for your own good, Mary. C’mon girls, let’s go.” With a snap of her fingers, Cindy and the Snood Crew stalked away. Mary got to her shaky knees, and wobbled over the well. Her hard work and her dreams for the school festival, gone, fallen into a black pit of despair. Mary leaned over hoping to see anything in the well, any sign of where her books may be, when a stone loosed and she tumbled into the depth with a scream. Luckily, she landed on the soft mud below, but in the darkness she could only see that her books had been ruined by the mud.
Mary began to panic, shouting up the well for help, but to no avail. Nobody was around in this area of the woods and she didn’t have a phone. Her books were ruined, her clothes filthy, and now she was going to die down here. Alone. And why? For her silly fantasies? Maybe it WAS time she grew up and faced reality. She knew deep down that her stories were really just fanfiction. She didn’t know who she was fooling with this endeavor. And now her imagination and unwillingness to grow up has gotten her killed. And there was nothing she could do about it.
Quietly sobbing against the cold stone with her knees drawn in close, she didn’t notice a faint blue glow coming from within the cave that was once a flowing waterway. A faint glow that grew stronger and stronger until it approached. In it was a silhouette of a person that could hardly be made out.
“Why are you crying?” the figure called in what seemed like barely more than a whisper. Mary slowly looked up, not believing what she was seeing, and let out a piercing scream.
“S-stay away from me, ghost! Don’t take me yet!! I know I’m going to die down here but not yet, not yet!” She backed away from the misty figure but was trapped against the stone wall with nowhere to go.
“I’m not here to harm you, I’m here to help, my dear.”
“H-help? How so?”
“I can grant you any wish your heart desires.”
“…any wish?” Mary thought, her head swimming with options. Should she wish for a ladder to escape? To have her books fixed? Or perhaps a way to get back at Cindy? As she thought back to Cindy and looked down at her muddy, tattered work, she knew exactly what to wish for. “Alright…” she said with a large sinister grin. “I wish…”
—
“Jess, the scream came from over here!” Ash yelled as she ran to the small clearing.
“Do you think she fell down the well? Twice in one day, go figure.” Ash said, running over. “Mary, are you down there? I’ll go get some rope!” she called, but before she could start running towards the gym, the well exploded in a shower of dirt and rubble. Jessie ran to Ash to see if she was alright and together they witnessed a strange sight– Mary, wearing a long purple robe, eyes alight with flame, laughing maniacly as she ascended above the well, floating ten feet in the air.
“What the hell…? Mary, is that you?!” Jessie called.
“No, I shall no longer go by my given name! I am no longer the same simple girl as Mary Sue… I am Luna Sparkles, the greatest witch to have ever existed! And now I shall wreak my vengeance on all who have mocked me!!” With a cackle and a flick of sparks from her wand, a giant white fireball flew out towards the school, disintegrating all the trees in its wake. The skirts of the two scared girls on the ground were singed at the hem.
“What the hell was that?! Mary, wait!!” Jessie called, getting to her feet. Together, she and Ash followed the sorceress as she floated through the path she made, making her way to the school pitch where crowds began to scream.
“Yes, peasants, fear me!! I AM LUNA SPARKLES!!” Another wave of the wand and a wall of flames shooting far into the air began to spread out around the school property, trapping everyone inside. Including the ones she was looking for. There, a few rows over, she spotted her first victim, one of Cindy’s goons. “THERE!” Luna used her magic unicorn horn wand to draw the girl in like a tractor beam, but in her screaming feeble attempts to escape, her friends below held onto her hand.
“That won’t help you! You’ll never escape from me!!” With a wave of her other hand, Luna spawned a group of fierce, hungry lions to surround the girls, causing them to let go of their friend. She was on her own floating helplessly. Her screaming turned to panic as Luna held her in mid air, kicking wildly above her friends. Luna drew in closer.
“W-what do you want with me?! I didn’t do anything to your stupid comics!” She spat in her face. Luna didn’t flinch. She just grinned wider and raised her wand.
“Expellidermus.”
In an instant, the girl’s skin was ripped from her body, her blood raining down on her mortified friends. The girl was in such pain she couldn’t even scream. Luna, her face splattered with blood, slammed the girl down on top of her friends and with a nod, the lions finally pounced on their meal.
“Holy shit!” Jessie and Ash screamed in unison. They couldn’t believe the sight before their eyes.
“We have to stop her!” Jessie panicked.
“But how?! She’s pure magic! She’ll just kill us, too!” Ash replied.
“There has to be a way to stop her! I don’t know how, but I know where to start!” Jessie grabbed Ash by the wrist and began running back towards the gaping hole in the treeline of the woods.
“Do you have an idea? Where are we going?!”
“Back to the well, of course! If the spirit could turn me into a girl and Mary into a homoicidal magical-type maniac, maybe it can help us stop her!”
When they arrived at the clearing, Jessie didn’t hesitate when jumping down the hole in the ground left from Mary’s explosion. Ash was skeptical, but followed suit, and within moments the two girls were greeted by a familiar blue silhouette.
“Why, if it isn’t the girl from earlier. What is it you desire now?” the voice eerily whispered.
“Well for starters, I wish you’d turn me back into a boy!” Jessie yelled. Ash was confused as to why Jessie was taking that lie so far, but didn’t think to question her conviction.
“I cannot do that. One wish per person. Besides, you’ve always been a girl, have you not? You just had a little growth that I cleared up for you.”
“It WASN’T little!” Jessie yelled.
“Calm down, Jessie! What we need now is a way to stop Mary! Can you help us stop her before she kills everyone?” Ash pleaded to the spirit.
“Hmm… we need to fight fire with fire, or in this case, magic! I’ve got it, why not wish to have the spirit turn you into someone from her comics? Someone she’ll have to listen to!” Jessie dug at the muddy pages trying to see anyone that fit the bill.
“Like her teacher or something? How would that work?” Ash asked.
“Like this!” Jessie returned from the pile of books and held out a sheet in front of her. Ash looked it over and a smile crept over her face.
“This just may work… Spirit! I wish to become the headmaster of Woghearts, Alice Hottermore!” Ash yelled.
“As you wish.” The spirit raised its blue arms and enveloped Ash in a blinding light.
—
“Where oh where can little Cindy be? She has no chance to hide from me!” Luna cackled as she flew above the sea of screams, randomly turning people into dogs, trees, and blades of grass. Lions roamed free, feeding on whomever they fancied. Fire ate its way through booths on the pitch. Luna inhaled the screams of anguish with great pleasure. However, her prey was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until she made it to the carnival area of the field that she heard a familiar voice coming from the exit of the spook house.
“Do you think that she really believes she’s a witch or something? It’s completely ridiculous.” Cindy walked down the steps of the spook house with her friend, completely unaware of the danger surrounding them.
“Heh, yeah, maybe… do you hear those screams? They seem pretty loud.” The other girl asked.
“It’s probably just the roller coaster. Hey, what if we made our OWN comic to teach Mary a lesson! We could make it about her and her comics, making fun of them the whole time! It’ll be great!” Cindy laughed.
“Yeah! We could even throw in that ‘Perry Hotter’ character and make him some stupid emo goth vampire kid or something!” The two girls laughed at their totally original idea but were stopped dead in their tracks when Luna Sparkles let herself be known.
Floating above the two girls, Luna shouted, “THOSE ARE MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS! DO NOT STEAL!!!”
“Oh, what are you doing now Mary? What’s with the getup, is this that ‘cosplay’ thing you nerds are doing these days?” Rhoda’s comment got a laugh out of Cindy but not so much as a twitch out of Luna. Just a swift flick of her wand. That instant, Rhoda dropped her bag.
“Rhoda? What’s wrong? Speak to me, Rhoda!!” Cindy grabbed her friend by the shoulders, but it was already too late. Rhoda’s eyes had rolled into the back of her head and her body twitched violently. Blood then began seeping out of her nose and eyes, the shaking getting faster and faster until with a sickening crack like a melon being split, Rhoda’s head exploded in a splatter of blood and brains all over Cindy’s shocked face.
“You see Cindy, I AM Luna Sparkles, and you WILL suffer for the pain you’ve put me through!” Luna’s sadistic grin returned from the pleasure of seeing Cindy’s reaction to her friend’s sudden demise. Nothing felt more just in all the world. Nothing at all.
“Y-you’re a monster! Get away from me!” Cindy yelled. She ran as fast as she could trying to get away, but it was futile. Luna followed slowly after her as she ran into the house of mirrors. Cindy ducked around corners thinking she’d be able to hide, but around every turn she saw the laughing reflection of her worst nightmares.
“You can’t run from me,” the reflection said.
“What are you going to do to me?! It was just a stupid comic! It wasn’t even that good!” Cindy yelled back.
“Stupid as it may be, it was still my own, ORIGINAL story and you had no right to destroy it! You even wanted to make your own using MY characters!! For that you will suffer!”
“Are you going to kill me too?!” Cindy cried.
“No, for you, I have a special form of torture in mind. Look in that mirror and tell me what you see.” Luna pointed. Cindy cautiously looked at the mirror beside her and saw herself warped by the curved mirror to make her appear as if she weighed several hundred pounds.
“It’s nothing, it’s just a stupid mirror!” Cindy yelled.
“I see a girl striving for perfection and beauty with lucious golden lockes and perfect makeup, trying to hide how ugly she really is inside…” In an instant, Luna’s reflections vanished in a poof of smoke leaving Cindy alone with hers, reflecting the giant form in every mirror. It was then she realized the curse Luna had placed upon her.
One by one her fingers plumped like sausages, lining her skin with stretchmarks and weighing her arm down. The expansion followed to her palm and then up her arm. Cindy panicked at the sudden sights, screaming at what was to come. The burning sensation running up her arm mirrored to the other and before she could reach the exit, her legs collapsed and she rolled down the small flight of stairs to the grass below. Collecting herself and picking herself up, she found herself face to face with Luna holding a mirror right in front of her. A shiver ran down her spine as she watched herself in horror blowing up like a balloon. When the inflation reached her neck she began to choke on the rapidly-tightening collar of her top.
“P-please! Mary! I c.. I can’t… breathe..!” she gasped. Luna watched with her sadistic smile as Cindy began to turn blue in the face, but just as her vision blurred into grey nothingness on the brink of fainting, the collar popped under the pressure and Cindy took in a huge breath.
“Oh, we’re not done yet. I won’t kill you so easily. But look! Look at how beautiful perfect little Cindy looks now~!” Luna said with a cackle. Cindy looked up into the mirror with heavy breaths and saw what had become of her– she was now inflated like a parade balloon, her jelly rolls rolling over into a valley of chins, all covered in grotesque blue stretch marks and warts all over.
“Just… kill me! Please! Just put me out of my misery!” she sobbed.
“I told you, we’re not done yet!” Luna raised her wand to attack but was suddenly hit by a green flash of light that knocked her twenty feet away.
“You leave that poor beached whale alone!” A voice shouted. Luna got to her knees, livid that someone had the gaul to attack her, but froze when she saw her assailant.
“Y-you! It can’t be! How?!” she stuttered.
“That’s right, ’tis I! Alice Hottermore, your old headmaster at Woghearts!” Ash bellowed, her magnificent beard and pink faux-hawk swaying in the breeze.
“B-but, you’re she-who-probably-mustn’t-be-spoken-of! That’s MY original character, not yours! HOW DARE YOU ATTEMPT TO STEAL MY COMPLETELY ORIGINAL IDEA FOR YOURSELF!!” Luna’s fury was sent into a rage. She raised her wand and in an instant, a metal pike ball formed out of nothing in front of her and with another swing, the ball hurtled at Ash so fast she didn’t have time to block, but luckily at the last moment an arrow flew from out of nowhere, hitting the pike ball off course and into an apple of the tilt-a-whirl behind them, where it exploded upon impact.
“You really look ridiculous with that beard, y’know.” Jessie ran up to her friend carrying a compound bow with a large quiver strapped over her shoulder.
“And you look ridiculously cute in your little green huntress outfit! I’m so glad I was able to magic that up for you~!” Ash teased, making Jessie blush a little. She agreed the hooded green dress was cute, but wasn’t about to admit it. At least she wore white pants with knee-high boots underneath so she didn’t have to worry about the short skirt. “You’re like a cute little Robin Hood!”
“Who are you?! How dare you interfere with a magical-type-person’s duel?!” Luna shouted, not recognizing Jessie in her green getup. After sharing a quick look of question with the bearded lady, Jessie decided to assume a false identity if she was going to play a super hero.
“I’m, uh… Joan Arrowman! Badass archer and stopper of bad people and stuff! I’m here to stop you from laying waste to this school, starting with saving that poor marine animal you conjured from the sea!” Jessie nocked an arrow and took a stance with it aimed right for Luna’s head.
“I’M NOT A DAMN WHALE, I’M A HUMAN BEING!!” Cindy shouted, trying to get to her knees but failing miserably. Ash and Jessie shared a look of shame at their mistake and they both apologized to the poor baby wha-er, girl.
Luna took the moment of confusion to take action, however. A swish and flick of her wand threw sparks at her enemies, turning into balls of fire before they hit the ground where Jessie and Ash were standing, but both girls dodged in opposite directions before the flames hit.
With a tuck and roll, Jessie returned fire with an arrow straight to Luna’s head, but it was burnt to a crisp mid-air before it could get anywhere close. Luna threw her arms forward and with a grand whirling motion giant roots sprang from the ground beneath Jessie and tangled her up in a snare.
Ash ducked the blast and made her way back to Jessie, but she couldn’t think of a way to free her. Fire was out of the question because it might hurt her friend, but she couldn’t think of anything else.
“Hold on Jessie, we’ll think of something!”
“Hurry, she’s coming! Watch out!!” Ash turned around just in time to see Luna swish her wand and with a flick at the bare skin of her forearm, she chanted the words:
“Sanguine Manducemus!”
From the point of her wand, her veins in her arm became black as ink, the blackness spreading all throughout her body. Her eyes shrunken and smile gone, a red mist began surrounding her body. Ash gulped. Luna took her wand from her arm and with a swift flick, the mist shot out in thick streams towards the girls.
“I’m sorry, Jessie!” Ash yelled as she ducked out of the way. Immobile, Jessie could only scream as she was hit head on with the blood needles, stinging every part of her body they hit.
“Damn!” Luna shouted. Ash ran away shooting blasts of light at Luna, drawing her away from her trapped friend. She might not be able to free her, but she won’t let her take a hit like that again.
“Fight me! I’m the one you want!” Ash yelled. Luna saw through the plan but followed nonetheless. Nothing would please her more in the world than destroying her totally not-fictional former mentor.
“Why did you expell me from Woghearts! I was your top student! Even better than you, headmaster!” Luna yelled while sending sparks. Ashley had no idea what she was talking about but decided to play along with the delusional sorceress.
“You were the chosen one! I had to expell you to… to… protect you! That’s it! It was for your own good!”
“It was nothing of the sort! You were jealous of my power! I’m afraid to break it to you, but the student has surpassed the master! Your time is up, Professor Hottermore!”
“Damn, if I could just break free of these roots!” Jessie squirmed from side to side, but to no avail. Her face and clothes were covered in blood from Luna’s last attack. How was she going to get out of this mess? How was she going to help Ash and defeat Luna Sparkles? The futility of her struggle made her yell out in frustration when out of nowhere a rose shot down from the sky landing right in front of the roots; the stem wedged into the ground like a knife.
“What the hell…?”
The rose began to glow a pink, spreading the light bigger and bigger until Jessie and the entire root structure were coated in a bubble of pink light. The roots began to shake little by little and before Jessie’s eyes they distintigrated, dropping her to the ground flat on her butt.
“My apologies, Arrowmanhime-chan.” A voice called.
“‘hime’ what?” Jessie asked, looking up at her savior. He wore a white mask over his eyes and a black school uniform that seemed almost naval in appearance, right down to the stiff high collar. She wasn’t sure what to make of this strange fellow as he held a rose to his face with his white-gloved hand.
“I am sorry I did not arrive in time, but I’m glad I was able to help you.”
“Do I know you from somewhere…?” Jessie said, rising to her feet. The boy seemed very familiar to her but she couldn’t quite place it.
“Uh, no! No you don’t! I am a mysterious masked person whom you have never met before! My name is Seifuku Kamen… but you can call me… Uniform Mask!” With a twirl of his cape, rose petals seemed to radiate from him. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss.”
“Uh… yeah, totally. So what’s with the rose? How’d you do that glowy thing?” Jessie asked, not being taken in by his suave appearance.
“I too have magical-type powers bestowed upon me by the kami… and together I wish to defeat Luna Sparkles and return her to the wonderful girl she once was. I have an idea on how we might do that. Follow me!” Seifuku Kamen took off towards the fray between magical-type girls with Jessie following suit. Whatever plan this mysterious boy had had better work.
By the time they caught up, Ash had been pinned against a wall with fire blazing all around and a wand jabbed right at her throat.
“This was you own doing, bearded one. Nothing will get in the way of my vengeance. It is time you met your end! Evana Kadabr– What?!” Luna’s spell was cut off by a rose shooting right past her face and sticking into the wall by its stem. “Who’s there?!” She whirled around in a fury.
“‘Tis I! Sekifuku Kamen! Mysterious master of magical-typeness and defender of mahou shoujos everywhere!” The boy whisked his cape in the air, once again conjuring an image of rose petals dancing around him while he smiled with a gleam. Luna was caught off guard by this magically handsome stranger allowing Ash to slip away unnoticed.
“Wh-what are you supposed to be? Just because you’re handsome doesn’t mean I won’t kill you too!” Luna shouted, fighting the blush that crept to her cheeks upon seeing him.
“You won’t be killing anyone else tonight! I will use my powers to return you to the cute, wonderfully imaginative girl I once admired!” Luna was stunned by his words. Someone actually thinks she’s cute? A hot guy admires her for her imagination?
“D..do you actually like my stories?” Luna said, dropping her guard.
“Of course! But I must defeat you for your own good!” The boy threw open his cape once more and dashed off, throwing roses at Luna as he ran. Roses which burnt the moment they came in contact with her forcefield.
“I’m afraid your flowers won’t stop me, pretty boy!” Luna yelled.
“No, but maybe this will! NOW!” Jessie shouted. Ash waved her wand and a blue bubble appeared around Luna, trapping her movements and levitating her off the ground.
“Damn you! I’ll kill you when I get out of this stunning spell!!”
“I can’t hold it for much longer! Take the shot!” Ash yelled to her friend.
‘I hope this works…‘ Jessie thought. Drawing a bloodsoaked arrow from her quiver she took aim for Luna.
“That won’t work, you fool! My forcefield will burn your arrow like the last one!” Luna shouted, struggling to free herself.
“Maybe, but it’s worth a shot!” Jessie released the arrow. It shot as fast as it could towards the trapped sorceress and slowed in mid-air as it hit the forcefield.
“See? You can’t harm me!” Luna laughed, but her smile soon faded when she saw that the arrow was pushing through her barrier in a shower of red light. “H-how? That’s not possible!”
“That arrow is coated in your blood! It can penetrate any barriers you put up!” Seifuku Kamen shouted. With a green spark, the arrow finally pierced her bubble and hit her hand hard, knocking the wand loose. “You’re powerless without your wand!” he said, dashing in to grab it before the stun wore off and Luna dropped to the ground.
Purple smoke covered the witch, changing her purple robes back to her normal school uniform. Luna Sparkles was finally defeated, now Mary Sue once again.
“W-what happened you guys? I deamt I was the unicorn wizard, fighting for justice against some crazy super heroes…” Mary rubbed her head, not sure what to make of the wreckage and fire around her. Buildings were crumbling, rides completely destroyed, and booths burnt down to the ground. For some reason though, all of the blood and body parts didn’t phase her.
“You went on a rampage to destoy those who wronged you but it’s all over now, Mari-san” Seifuku Kamen told her. Mary Sue couldn’t help but be smitten with the hansome mysterious boy in the mask. His school uniform was like something she’d never seen before; his charming demeanor and gorgeous smile enchanting every fiber of her being. Mary didn’t know what to say when he handed her a single rose the color of her cheeks.
“Th-thank you, mysterious stranger… but I didn’t catch your name,” Mary shyly asked.
“It’s Seifuku Kamen, mysterious master of mysteries and bishounen looks!” He said, striking a pose.
“I don’t know what language that is, but it sounds fascinating~” Just as Mary was about to take a step forward, perhaps to hold her hero in an embrace, Ash and Jessie made their presence known with a perfectly synced awkward cough.
“Ash! Jessie! When did you get here?”
“We’ve been here,” Ashley said tartly, stroking her glorious beard. “Do you really not remember anything?”
“Well, not really. It’s all so fuzzy and– JESSIE! What happened to you?! You’re all covered in blood! Are you ok?!” Mary said, finally noticing Jessie standing there in her bloodstained hunter gear.
“Uh… time of the month?” Jessie replied with a shrug and a smile. The gaggle of giggling girls enjoyed a hearty laugh at the joke, with Seifuku Kamen awkwardly turned away, unsure whether it was appropriate for him to laugh or not.
“H-help… me…!” A voice called. The voice was gruff and low, barely more than a growl. “Help..!”
The girls all turned to see a giant Cindy waddling toward them as fast as her tree-trunk like legs could carry her, her giant protruding gut sloshing with every earth-shaking step.
“BOOMER!!” Mary yelled, but it was too late. The second Cindy made it to the group her gut exploded, showering the four kids in a sickly yellow bile. “Damn! Everyone, run for your lives!”
As if spawning from nothingness, a horde of zombies ran straight to the girls, but Ash’s wand, Jessie’s arrows, and Seifuku Kamen’s magic roses weren’t enough. The zombies ripped through their flesh, tearing them limb from limb in their quest for brains. In Mary’s final moments, all she could hear was screaming, the squish and snap of flesh and sinew, and… a faint voice.
“Mary… MARY!” the voice called. Slowly the world around her faded away to nothingness and Jessie’s face came into view. “Finally, she’s waking up!”
Mary yawned and looked around to find Ashley, Jessie, and a strangely-dressed male student hovering over her at her booth.
“Hey everyone… what’s all the ruckus? I was having a good dream… there were zombies and I was the unicorn wizard, and you were there… and you were there… and… hey, who are you?” She said, stopping at the nerdy looking boy. He wore a strange black uniform with a high collar, a sort of uniform Mary thought very familiar, but she couldn’t quite place where from.
“I…” the boy said, pushing up his glasses in such a way that they glinted in the light, obscuring his eyes, “am Otakun. I like your work here. I was wondering if you’d be interested in… swapping stories.” He reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a small thick book that he opened backwards and presented to Mary. “You see.. I write doujinshi.”
Mary’s eyes widened with awe as she looked at the hand-drawn book and flipped pages. Some of the characters were familiar from those weird Japanese cartoons she watched on Saturdays, but they were all together making out with each other in strang situations.
“This… is beautiful… I’d love to swap stories with you! I never imagined that someone with such talent would go to our school~!” Mary was in pure ecstacy reading through the otaku’s book. It was like everything she’d ever wanted to do, but so much more.
“Oh god, not this otaku crap… Let’s go, they’re going to be at this all night.” Ash said rolling her eyes at the scene. The two girls began walking away, leaving the dorks to their fantasies and fanfiction.
“They really are perfect for each other, don’t you think?” Jessie teased. It was then that she caught sight of her father walking toward her down the aisle of booths. Grabbing Ash’s wrist and pointing in the direction of her dad, the two girls decided to run in the opposite direction, towards the carnival rides. Perhaps there they could finally get away.
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