Akane Hoshino didn’t wake up to birds chirping or the soft beams of a gentle sunrise.
She woke up to sirens, glowing glyphs rotating across her ceiling and walls, and the sound of her bedroom window shattering as a glowing sword embedded itself into the floor next to her futon.
With the calm, resigned energy of someone far too used to this kind of thing, she sat up, sighed, and reached for the sword.
“Oh,” she muttered, inspecting the weapon’s hilt. She recognized this sword, “Not you again.”
The sword hummed with destiny. Its jewel pulsed with ancient power. Its hilt whispered cryptic phrases in a forgotten language Akane somehow understood, like “you alone are chosen,” “arise, Phoenix of the Twelfth Flame,” and “a destiny delayed shall blaze twice as bright.”
Akane beat the sword against the wall until it stopped glowing. "I've told you before, and I'll say it again", she reels back and throws it out the broken window, just like last time, "go find someone else to be your chosen one, and stop smashing my window!"
Akane picks up her trusty "emergency broom" and proceeds to sweep the mess in her room. This broom is no ordinary broom though, as the hole in the floor begins to mend itself, and the window magically reassembles back to before the sword so-rudely destroyed it.
---
She had thirteen minutes to get ready for school.
Her hair—which naturally exploded in a wild, shimmering shade of bright purple— was quickly subdued beneath a thermal-compression wig cap, two enchanted hair clips, and a knitted beanie. She had three “identity-concealment” combs on standby, two in her bag and one hidden in her shoe. You could never be too careful. Prophecy had a thing for dramatic reveals.
Her eyes, which sparkled faintly with cosmic energy, were dulled by tinted contact lenses. Her backpack was 80% spell disruptors and 20% textbooks.
Akane did appreciate a few aspects of being "destined for greatness", as access to magical items and the like was convenient when you could find yourself the owner of a wardrobe that automatically dresses and styles you in an instant. She steps into the wardrobe, the doors close briefly and open again to reveal Akane in a magical girl outfit. She elbows the inside of the wardrobe and grumbles "you know that's not what I want, normal school-day attire please!". The wardrobe doors close and open again to reveal an Akane dressed a modest school uniform. "We'll talk about this again after school" she mutters while stepping out of the wardrobe.
Downstairs, her dad was making breakfast with a sizzling spatula and humming a jingle from an insurance commercial. Her mom, still in her bathrobe, scrolled through social media while sipping tea.
“Morning mom, dad” Akane said, forcing a yawn.
“Morning, sweetie,” her mom called. “I heard a huge meteor passed over the city this morning. It made the news! Isn’t that wild?”
"Huh," Akane forced out as an attempt to not let out any sense of recognition. The "meteor" was likely the spaceship she escaped from last night crashing down from space.
They were kind, clueless, ordinary people, and Akane worked very hard to keep it that way.
They didn’t know about the sword fights in the park. Or the half-demon substitute teacher last semester. Or the time their toaster tried to abduct her into a time rift. Or last night's abduction attempt and subsequent escape plot. And Akane intended to keep it that way—even if it meant cleaning up the narrative chaos on her own before they ever noticed.
---
Outside, Kenta was already waiting with the energy of a golden retriever and the confidence of a boy who believed life should be like a shonen anime.
He held up a scroll longer than his arm, titled: “How To Finally Embrace Your Destiny: Chapter One of ∞.”
“Akane!” he shouted as she tried to walk past. “This is the perfect day for your awakening! You’ve been fighting your destiny, but I believe in you! The stars are in alignment, and I found this incantation to recite that will finally unlock your inner power!”
“Last time you said that,” Akane said, pulling her hat lower, “you summoned a dragon made of homework and nearly erased the third grade.”
“No one even remembers that anymore!”
“Because I used a memory wipe spell on the entire school, remember?”
“See?” he beamed. “You’re amazing!”
---
The walk to school was thankfully a short distance, and, to Akane's delight, uneventful. Arriving to school, Yuki was already waiting at Akane's locker. Unlike Kenta, Yuki understood the assignment: keep Akane normal, at all costs.
Yuki didn’t wear enchanted pins or glowing scarves. Just a plain hoodie, dark jeans, and a backpack lined with thaumaturgical shielding. Her laptop had more anti-magic code than the Ministry of Defense, and she always kept a thermos of black coffee and sarcasm within reach.
“You’re late,” Yuki said. “Also, someone tried to summon you as a familiar this morning. I intercepted it. You're welcome.”
Akane slumped. “Ugh. What was it this time? Another elf king? A vampire prince?”
“Worse. A first-year with an obsession with magical girl transformations.”
“Okay, ew.”
Yuki handed her a small gadget. “Charm disruptor. It should short-circuit any dramatic costume changes. Also, the student council president might be possessed again.”
“Again?!”
“I’m tracking it.”
---
Akane made it to her classroom just as the bell rang. The third floor still faintly glowed from last week’s "mirror dimension incident," but no one seemed to notice. as expected.
She was so close to just… melting into the background.
So close to a full day of math homework, quiet lunch breaks, and absolutely no declarations of fate. Akane felt it coming, something was overdue to reveal itself. Nothing good comes of an otherwise quiet day by the final school bell rings...
---
Prompt to Continue the Story:
What new narrative disaster is impending?
A lost twin with time-manipulation powers?
A magical academy hidden beneath the school revealed by prophecy?
A romance plotline involving an alien prince claiming to be her betrothed?
Write the next chapter in Akane’s endless campaign to sabotage her own story arc and cling to normalcy by the skin of her teeth.
Who will help her?
Who will make things worse?
And will her wig stay on through the shuffle?
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