As the sun began to set across the quaint little town of Kantarijji, a group of students in black uniforms had their backs against a cement wall, with one of them peeking her head out to see the road ahead. The girl peeking out had purple hair with red highlights going through it. Her uniform had its top two buttons unbuttoned, with her bowtie dangling on one side, untied, and she had a large chain hanging at the waist of her skirt, hanging down beside her black stockings. Most people would call her crazy for wearing these during summer, but she didn’t care. In one hand she held a half-empty bottle of beer and in the other a school bag. Unbeknownst to anyone, she also had a birthmark on the back of her left shoulder shaped like a sun, a symbol of her family bloodline.
“Shiho, are they still there?” one of her friends, Kami Kaze asked. He was a stocky boy with a shaved head who was smoking a bent cigarette.
Shiho Sunfast kept her eyes on the street. Everything was quiet now, but she was sure they were still searching for them or waiting for them to make the first move. No, she wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction.
“We’ve done it now…” Another friend, Spinner Udon, was nursing a cut across his head. He had sharp cheekbones and sunken eyes, a sign of his many nights of staying up late. “I told you they would strike back after what we pulled on Monday.”
“We can’t just give up. They started it by burning my homework!” Shiho’s final friend, Ban Kai, shook her fists. She had red hair and was about as skinny as a stick. “If I was strong enough to punch the living daylights out of Starburst’s face, I would do it!”
“Shhh, quiet!” Shiho hissed. She knew they had been following them. There would be no reason they wouldn’t come down this street.
By now, the sun was getting lower and most people were already home, preparing for dinner or having a nice cold shower, but not Shiho and her friends. All they wanted to do today was skip school and drink, but Starburst’s gang had come out of a bush, waiting in ambush as revenge for throwing them all in a lake a few days earlier.
Shiho smiled at the thought, remembering Starburst’s angry, but extremely confused face as he broke the water’s surface, gasping and flailing his arms about. It had been a simple trick, something even her friends didn’t know about, something that only a few people in the world seemed to understand. She had thought about telling her friends before, but they couldn’t see it anyway, so they would probably just think she was high or something.
Movement caught Shiho’s eyes and she pressed herself more firmly against the wall. It was a black school shoe, sticking out from the road going down the right. Someone was peeking across the road, just like she was.
“There, there they are!” a voice rose up in that next street as Shiho ducked back.
“They saw me…” Shiho sighed and flipped the bottle in her hands, emptying the remainder of its contents down her throat. It would at least steel her for some pain. That’s if they manage to hit her. “It’s now or never. We’re gonna teach Starburst who not to mess with.”
Kaze pulled at his shirt collars. “Time to bring out one of my famous punches, then.”
“I don’t think I can stomach another fight…” Spinner groaned. “I’m brainy, I’m not much on brawn…”
“No time to complain now, here we go!” Shiho threw the empty beer bottle to the side and cracked her knuckles. “If you’re so unsure of yourself, you can look out for the cops. They’ve been creeping around lately and interfering with our fights.”
“Man, I don’t want to get arrested again…” Spinner shook his head and got up. He scratched at his cheek, then shrugged. “Let’s do this, I guess.”
Starburst slid out from around the corner, his shirt sleeves rolled up, revealing two dragon tattoos, one just under each elbow, slithering across his arms. He had a messy hairstyle, with strands of hair sticking out at all odd ends, making him look like a porcupine. Behind him followed three of his goons, lumbering down the street like gorillas that had just escaped from a zoo.
“It’s payback time, Sushi!” Starburst pointed a crooked finger at her and drew a pocket knife from his pocket. “You’re not going to run from me again!”
“You couldn’t find me even if you had a GPS right to me.” Shiho stretched her arms out at her sides, welcoming him to attack. “Oh wait, you probably don’t even know what a GPS is.”
“Why you…!” Starburst ran forward, readying a punch behind him.
Shiho ducked under his amazingly obvious punch, then stuck out a leg, tripping him before she spun around and kicked him in the back. Starburst skipped one step, then rolled down on his back.
“To war!” Kaze yelled and was the first to start running.
Shiho’s friends yelled at the top of their voices, then ran along from behind the wall, rushing right past her and throwing themselves at the rest of Starburst’s crew. Seeing that they could likely hold out against the rest of them, Shiho returned her attention to Starburst, who was pushing himself back up.
“Come on, Starburst,” Shiho taunted. “I thought you were made of tougher stuff than this. Or are you going to run away like a little girl?”
“I’m no little girl!” He got back up and wiped at his nose. He had likely hit it on his way to the ground. He whipped his knife in the air. “I don’t care about jail. I’m gonna gut you like the pig you are!”
Shiho eyed his weapon, then snapped her fingers together and smiled at him. “Come and try. Tell you what, I won’t even move out of the way. How does that sound? Try and stab me and when you find that you can’t, then you’ll know how much of a real failure you are.”
“You’re dead meat, Sunfast!” Starburst bellowed before running at Shiho with his weapon.
True to her words, Shiho stayed standing there with her arms at her sides. Starburst went for a stab at her midsection, and felt the knife’s hilt hit his target.
“Wow,” Shiho said sarcastically. “You actually managed to get me. Too bad for you, you brought a knife made of foam. You really should talk to your knife dealer about that.”
“Huh? What?” Starburst looked down at his weapon, which was now a chunk of styrofoam in his hand. “How did you…”
Shiho smirked and pulled back her arm, striking Starburst on the nose with a mighty punch that sent him flying backwards onto the ground. His eyes rolled back and he dropped his arms to his sides.
“Maybe check on your weapons the next time you wanna start a fight.” Shiho turned her body sideways, then wrapped her skirt’s chain around one hand before pointing at him with her other hand.
“Shiho, police!” She heard Kaze call out to her. She turned back to them just to see him get punched in the face. “Ouch. We’ve got to get out of here!”
Shiho ran to her friends, pushing one of Starburst’s groupies off Kaze before kicking another in the side, knocking him to the ground. Three police officers came running at them from the other end of the street, shouting at them to remain in place.
Obviously, they didn’t. Spinner was the first to take off, dashing down a side street as Ban and Kaze followed. Shiho snorted at the beaten boys before running after them.
“Good fight, guys!” Shiho congratulated her friends as they ran. “Beers are on me next time. Now, run for your lives!”
“Stop right there!” A policeman yelled as he chased after the four students. “In the name of the law, halt!”
“Not likely,” Shiho said aloud before shouting over her shoulder, “You want us, you’re gonna have to catch us!”
Two of the policemen stayed behind to round out Starburst’s group, while the third chased after them, waving one arm around wildly in hopes to get them to stop.
Shiho followed along behind her friends, with Spinner Udon still leading the way. The brains of their group, he was the most knowledgeable, meaning he knew the streets better than the rest of them. Or so they had thought.
“You mouse, you led us down a dead end!” Kaze swiped Spinner on the back of the head. In front of them was a brick wall, too high for them to climb and if they weren’t likely to make it out of the alley they were in before the policeman could stop them.
“Watch the head, I’m injured!” Spinner brushed around his hair and rubbed at his cut. “And don’t blame me, I can’t think straight today, alright? Look at this wound!”
“Stop arguing and start hoisting me up!” Ban slapped Kaze on the shoulder and reached up the wall, trying to grab its ledge. “And don’t look up my skirt!”
“That’s what you’re worried about now?” Kaze pressed his index finger to his forehead, then sighed and planted both hands on top of his knee. “Just get it over with!”
Shiho watched them. It would take too long for all four of them to get over the wall. Unless…
“You three, stop.” Shiho ran over to them, getting their attention. “We don’t have time for that. We can just go through.”
“Go through? Are you joking?” Spinner put a hand against the wall and laughed. “We can’t go th… through…”
He looked back to where his hand was resting and there was where the brick wall had once been was now a giant sheet of cardboard.
“W-What the…” Ban ran a finger over it. “It really is cardboard!”
“And no time to be wasted!” Shiho kicked a foot through it, before sliding her hands in and ripping it from top to bottom. “Come on!”
As the four kids raced away, the policeman finally managed to catch up, turning down the alley to inspect it. There were vending machines, a dumpster, buildings on both sides and a brick wall at the far end of the path.
“There was no way they ran down this path. I’ll have to look elsewhere,” he said to himself, then jogged on.
“That was a close one…” Kami Kaze wiped a hand across his forehead, dragging as many sweat droplets along as he could. “I thought we were goners.”
“What was up with that wall?” Ban Kai asked. “I could’ve sworn it was made out of bricks.”
“The light must’ve been playing tricks on you. Or it could’ve been the heat.” Shiho slowed to a walk. For some reason, she wasn’t as sweaty as her friends. “But we were fortunate that someone put a cardboard wall up. It was easy to break.”
“Man, this makes the third time this month that we’ve had a run in with the cops,” Spinner Udon complained. “Why can’t they just leave us alone?”
“You think that’s bad?” Shiho scoffed. “You haven’t met my folks. Why do you always smell like tobacco smoke, Shiho? Don’t drink so much, Shiho. Don’t skip school, Shiho. Bleh.”
“At least you have family that care about you.” Kaze rubbed his hands together. “Mine don’t even care what I do. I could be rotting in a drain for all they know. They wouldn’t lift a finger to even bury me.”
“Don’t say that.” Ban Kai gave him a slap on the arm. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to bury you.”
“Funny.” Kaze rolled his eyes.
“Anyway, we better split up here. We’ll get home on our own,” Shiho briefed her friends. “Just… try not to look suspicious or stand out.”
“Very well.” Kaze dusted his arms and clenched a fist. “Then we’ll see you tomorrow. Update us if anything from Starburst comes up.”
“I hope he gets jailed…” Spinner wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. “Then it’ll be the end for him.”
“Please let that be it.” Ban held her hands to the air.
Shiho bade her group of friends farewell before walking down the opposite side of the street, disappearing around the next turn. Once clear, she let out a sigh of relief, glad that her friends and her had made it out mostly unscathed. Starburst had been making things harder for them in the last month, and if not for what little morality she had left, she would’ve just socked him there and then.
Thinking about it was making Shiho more annoyed, so she took out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a long drag of the tobacco and letting the taste roll over her tongue. Letting it hang out of the corner of her mouth as she strutted back home, she was pleased to see that there was nobody else on the road except some old crone coming the opposite direction. Her head was tilted down and she had on a hat that hid her eyes.
Strange… the old woman looked kind of familiar, though Shiho couldn’t quite place why. Shiho shrugged and kept on walking, putting her hands behind her head as she went.
As she and the old woman passed, Shiho saw her reach out and grab her by the ear, almost making her fall over.
“Oi!” Shiho exclaimed, spitting out the cigarette. “What’s your problem, old woman?” She reached up to remove the elderly woman’s hand, but it stayed clamped onto her ear. “Let me go, or I’ll knock out your teeth!”
“Shiho Sunfast…” the old woman said. “Is that any way to speak to your grandmother?”
The girl stopped struggling and looked up at the woman. Now that she was next to her, she could see up past her hat’s brim into the stern eyes of her grandmother, Sunset Shimmer.
“Good grief, what the devil are you doing here in Japan?” Shiho sighed. “You’re supposed to be back in Canterlot.”
“Am I not allowed to visit my family?” Sunset asked, letting go of Shiho’s ear. “I’ve come all the way here to visit my one and only precious daughter and my sweetest granddaughter, only to learn that my granddaughter has somehow lost all that sweetness! How can this be?”
Sunset reached into the air with both hands, then tilted her body back while lowering her left leg.
“Why the heck are you standing like that?” Shiho said, giving Sunset a confused look. “And I can do what I want. I don’t need someone coming from Canterlot to tell me how I should behave.”
“Why, why has this happened?!” Sunset cried out to the sky. “How did my granddaughter turn out like this! After everything I’ve taught your mother and with her doing the same to you, I was so proud of the way you were!”
“I am my own person. I don’t have to follow someone else’s rules. You should focus on how you live instead of how others live.” Shiho wasn’t impressed by Sunset’s dramatic sorrow. She attempted to walk on, but Sunset grabbed her arm and held her in place. “What now?”
“You, young lady, are coming home with me right now.” Sunset’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head. “I’m going to sit you down and lecture you all about your behavior and your attitude.”
“No chance, granny. I’m going down to the ramen place to eat on my own. I’ve told mom that I don’t want to eat with them, even if she continues to cook for me like I’m going to be there…”
“Why you! How could you say that about my daughter!” Sunset raised the back of one hand. “How could you say that to your own mother!”
The back of Sunset’s hand whizzed in the air, aimed for Shiho’s cheek, but as she stood motionless, a pinkish being with flowing cloth around its shoulders emerged from her chest, parrying the incoming slap with its own hand, sending Sunset back a step from the force of its arm.
“I may be your granddaughter, but I’m only going to say this once...” Shiho slid one foot forward. Her other foot was placed behind it, making the back end of an ‘L’ shape as she raised a palm up, placing two fingers of her other hand on the sides of her right eye. “Don’t ever try to hit me again. Don’t even try to touch me.”
“How dare you use the power of Stands against me! I taught you how to use it!” Sunset swiped a hand to the side. “I’ll have to beat some lessons into that thick skull of yours. I came all this way to visit and this is what I get?”
“I didn’t ask you to come.” Shiho sighed in exasperation. “Now, I’m going to go. And unless you want to go home with a black eye, you’re going to let me go, granny.”
Shiho turned around and attempted to walk away, but then she found herself back in front of her grandmother, facing her again. She blinked, her surprised face quickly turning into a frown.
“Good grief, I forgot you can do that…” She shook her head and ran a hand over the top of her head. “So that’s how you want to do this, huh granny?”
“I don’t want to do it. But if I have to knock some sense into you so that you come back to your senses, I’m going to do it!”
“You didn’t need to say sense twice.”
Sunset grumbled and her Stand burst forth from her, rushing through the air for Shiho as it let out a shrill neigh. Shiho still remembered the name of her grandmother’s Stand.
Alicorn Fantasy.
She had seen her grandmother use it a few times in her life. Her Stand was incredibly strong, able to lift the heaviest of objects and it had the ability to reset something to its original position or state. That would mean if someone were to lose an arm, she could simply reset it back on them.
In Shiho’s case, Alicorn Fantasy reached a hand out and as her Stand left its position to wrestle her grandmother’s Stand to the ground, she found she was back in the same position she was earlier and her Stand was behind her again.
Shiho was caught off guard and she didn’t get out of the way as Alicorn Fantasy delivered a punch to her Stand’s midsection. She doubled over and pressed one hand to the ground as she spat out a mouthful of saliva and bile.
“You’re a madwoman, that you’ll even hit your own granddaughter…” Shiho coughed.
“I only used ten percent of my Stand’s power.” Sunset folded her arms. “I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to educate you, dear. You’re a Sushi. Do you know what your mother and I have done in our time?”
Shiho stood up and dusted her stockings. “No, it’s not like you’ve told me your life story a thousand times…”
She called up her Stand, which did a forward somersault before pulling out a curtain from nowhere, holding it up in front of itself. Alicorn Fantasy tried to grab Shiho again, but before it could reach her, her Stand whipped the curtain away, revealing a fire extinguisher which it used to whack Sunset’s Stand in the face.
Alicorn Fantasy dived to one side, with the extinguisher only barely nicking its snout. A bruise formed across Sunset’s right nostril, but she remained unfazed. Alicorn Fantasy knocked the extinguisher from Shiho’s Stand’s hands, then grabbed it around the neck, lifting it into the air.
Shiho felt a tightness around her neck, her airflow immediately cut off from the Stand’s grip.
“I forgot your Stand could change an object into something else.” Sunset walked closer to her granddaughter as she snapped her fingers. Her nose was instantly reset, healing her injury. “Please just avoid deeper wounds. I’m not as adept as I used to be in my youth. I won’t be able to reset anything too grievous.”
“I’ll hurt you anyway I want if you keep trying to get me to do what you want! And besides…” Shiho hissed as she fought against her grandmother’s Stand’s grip. “I had a plan. C-Curtain Call! Now!”
Shiho’s Stand had thrown its cloth under Sunset’s feet earlier without her noticing. She looked down and widened her eyes, but it was too late. Suddenly the pavement beneath Sunset collapsed and she fell into a pit that was full of water. Alicorn Fantasy lost its grip and hit the ground.
“Bleurgh. Shiho!” Sunset bobbed in the water and sniffed. She grimaced. “This isn’t water!”
She attempted to climb out, but Curtain Call reappeared above, sliding its cloth over the hole.
“I’ve learned how to use my Stand a lot more efficiently in the last two years of rebellion against my parents,” Shiho said from above ground. “Curtain Call doesn’t just change a simple object like my school bag into a fire extinguisher. It can also change the floor you stand on. I just changed the asphalt into paper and your fat butt did the rest. And now, I can just change it back.”
As Curtain Call removed its cloth, the road had returned to normal and Sunset was now trapped in the sewers below.
“About time…” Shiho struck a pose, crossing one leg around another while running two fingers across her face. “I better get out of here before mom or dad shows up too.”
As she turned to walk away, the ground rumbled and a muscular fist shot out from under her, grabbing her around both ankles. Alicorn Fantasy erupted from the ground, flipping Shiho upside down as Sunset leapt back up onto the road from below, drenched.
“Game time is over, Shiho. What you’ve done now is unforgivable!” Sunset squeezed sewer water from her gloves. Alicorn Fantasy attempted to reset her clothes and hat, and it succeeded, but Sunset’s body was still left drenched. “Bah, a perfect time for my Stand’s powers to not work as intended.”
Curtain Call attempted to throw its cloth aside, but Alicorn Fantasy grabbed it firmly, halting it in the air.
“You’re not doing that again. Now, you’re coming home with me, young lady, and you’re going to apologize to your mother for your bad behavior!” Sunset pointed a finger in her face.
“Like hell I am,” Shiho said, her Stand attempting to pry off Alicorn Fantasy’s fingers. “Nobody asked you to come and get me!”
No matter how hard Curtain Call struggled, it just could not overpower Alicorn Fantasy and Sunset began walking back, Stand and Shiho in tow.
But before she could take four more steps, something exploded in the distance and both of them turned their heads over the row of houses on their left.
Smoke was rising into the air further away and there were already the sounds of crying and anguish faintly tapping against their ear canals. Shiho didn’t like the sound of it. This was beyond a prank from her group or Starburst’s. There were reports of violence across the world from certain activist groups, but it had never been anything as extensive as an explosion until now.
“It seems dinner will have to wait…” Sunset clenched a fist. “I was so looking forward to your mother’s cooking. Ugh. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
Shiho suddenly found herself back on the ground, Alicorn Fantasy’s grip on her gone. She dusted her clothes and was about to give an earful to her grandmother, but Sunset had already walked off, heading in the direction of the explosion.
“Foolish old hag…” Shiho watched her go.
She was about to continue on to the ramen stall when her phone began buzzing in her pocket. She fished it out, surprised to see Ban Kai’s name on it. She slid a finger across it before putting it to her ear.
“Shiho quick! Come quick I need help please come!” She received a burst of words from her friend.
“Ban? What’s going on? What happened? Is it Starburst?” Shiho quizzed. “Where are you now?”
“I-I’m at home! I don’t know what’s happening! There are these crazy masked people with guns, they just stormed my home. They blew up our front gate and part of the house! My mom’s dead. I saw her… please, help, I don’t know what to do!” There was a brief pause. “O-Oh. Oh no. Shiho-!”
There was a buzz and something metallic before the phone line went dead. Another explosion rang out across the sky and Shiho’s head jerked back in the direction of the smoke.
“That’s where Ban lives…” She came to the realization. “Good grief. Just what is going on?”
Without another moment, Shiho ran down the street, going in the direction her grandmother had gone. For now, she was going to have to see that wizened old face of her grandmother for a little while more.