“How do I look, Emi?” Asami asked, spinning around dramatically.

“Strike a pose, girl!” Emi demanded. “You’re a tiger!” Asami hooked her hands in claws and screwed up her face into a snarl. “Fierce! Show me the catgirl!”

“Nya!” Asami cooed, hands clutched in paws.

“Adorable! Show me the duck face!” Asami pursed her lips and put her hand on her hip. “Sassy! You look like a bespectacled Princess Kako! One more! Give me the booby shake! The booby shake!” Emi raised her hands dramatically in the air. Asami looked confused for a moment before awkwardly shaking her chest side to side, pushing her breasts together for good measure. “Slinky! And we’re resting. We’re resting. You got this, girl!” Emi clapped excitedly.

“Do you really think so?” Asami asked as she and Emi stepped out of the room and walked down the hall toward the stairs.

“Of course! I met the student council, and they all seem like decent, upstanding young women of fine breeding and excellent taste in tea. So long as we don’t let the proverbial weasel out of the bag, we should be fine. They’ll love the presentation! Besides, we’ll be right there with you.”

“I’ve never been part of starting a club before,” Asami tittered nervously.

“Me either, especially one with such a noble and righteous goal. But we are on a mission from Inari to liberate the masses. To free them from the yoke of oppression and deliver them unto the true land of Zipangu. The land where the freedom to love is as golden as the roof of the queen’s palace!” Emi declared grandly, waving the arm not carrying her backpack grandly for emphasis.

“Oooh!” Asami clapped excitedly.

“We are doing Inari’s bidding in this,” Emi shrugged with a blush. “We are her white fox leading the true believers to a better place.”

“Like a cult!” Asami exclaimed excitedly.

“Ehhh…maybe not the cult thing,” Emi shook her head. “The optics of doing culty stuff aren’t ideal.”

“Ah, yeah, you’re right. So…not a cult, then.”

“Precisely that, yes,” Emi nodded. “Simply an innocuous club with dreams of changing the world. So, plainly not a cult.”

“Oh, obviously not, no. It’s very exciting, though,” Asami enthused. The pair hurried down the stairs to find Suyin and Momo waiting for them at the bottom. Asami bounced down the last few stairs and stood before the pair, arms spread wide.

“How do I look?” She grinned. Momo blinked at her slowly.

“Momo is unsure of what she is supposed to say,” Momo glanced at Emi as if searching for some sort of direction.

“Asami look amazing!” Suyin enthused. “Sugoi!” She repeated for emphasis. Asami’s eyes flicked to Momo and Emi momentarily feared for the small Moo’s life.

“Yes,” Momo glanced at Suyin for a moment before giving a thumbs up after a long pause while cycling through the options of what she could say. “Plushy chan looks very…sugoi.” Asami narrowed her eyes for a moment and the tension in the entry hall of the dorm seemed to coalesce into a palpable thing.

“Arigatou gozaimasu,” Asami finally said with a grin before bouncing out the door.

“Thanks, Moo,” Emi smiled at her encouragingly. “You just made her day.”

“Momo does not know how,” Momo shook her head.

“Let this be a lesson to you, young Moo,” Emi stepped between Suyin and Momo, placing a thin arm over each of their shoulders and heading toward the door. “How a person feels directly impacts how they look. In Asami’s mind she looks wholly different because she used some eyeshadow. By saying she looked good you’ve given her confidence enough to think she looks exotic and different and incredible because your words made her feel like she does.”

“But she looks the same as always,” Momo declared in her familiar monotone.

“Not in her mind, Moo,” Emi grinned. “In her mind she looks amazing because you said she did.”

“Momo was frightened and did not want to get hurt,” Momo replied.

“There was a very real possibility of that, yes. Keep in mind, also, that self-preservation is an important part of interacting with others, Moo. You did well and came through the fire unscathed,” Emi nodded.

“Eyeshadow is against the rules,” Momo added.

“I know, Moo,” Emi patted her shoulder. “I know.”

“Asami is intimidating when she wants to be,” Suyin said in Korean. “I was scared.”

“Same,” Emi nodded.

“Ladies!” Emi grinned at each in turn. “We have come through the crucible of a dab of pale peach eyeshadow and emerged on the other side stronger for it. Now! Let’s enjoy this beautiful day and go get our club started!”

“Th-This weather s-s-s-sucks,” Emi managed through chattering teeth as the four made their way along the road leading from the dorm toward the gates of the school, heads bent low against the howling wind, snowflakes falling steadily from the heavily laden grey skies.

“H-Heh,” Asami managed to respond, putting one arm up to try to deflect the blowing snow from her face.

“S-Stil n-not a b-bad word, As-s-sami,” Emi shook her head. “I thought th-the weather was s-supposed to improve. That’s what the internet s-s-said.”

“A o-one day out w-w-weather forecast is only 90 p-percent accurate,” Momo managed through her shaking.

“M-My b-bachan can tell the weather by h-how much her h-hip and knee h-h-hurts,” Emi shook her head, trying to pull the jacket tighter against her throat with little luck.

“Th-They need hire you b-b-bachan,” Suyin noted.

“D-D-D-Definitely,” Asami nodded with a grin.

Through the blowing snow the gates to Seitosha Sakurai loomed, other girls rushed through to try to get out of the snow and wind. Emi clenched her jaw. Today was the day when the club would spring into existence, like Athena from Zeus’ aching brow. Fully formed and ready to…to what?

Honestly, if she asked herself to spell out her plan, she would have been hard-pressed to be able to do so with any real detail. The reality was she didn’t really know what she hoped to accomplish. It wasn’t enough just to create a club and sit around drinking soda and eating sweets. That would, obviously, be a part of it, of course, but there had to be more. What did she want to do with the club? She said she wanted to change the lives of these pretty, rich, caged birds, but what could a little club do to create a large enough tectonic shock that would pull these herd animals out of their comfort zone and let them think for themselves?

What could Emi and her small band do to help these girls open different paths to the ones mapped out for them by their parents and whoever they’d been auctioned off to? It would have to be something spectacular. Something amazing and attention-getting. It would have to be something legendary. But what?

Eh, Emi thought with a shivering shrug, there was time for hammering out details once the club was up and running properly. One must learn to walk before one can run after all; Emi reasoned. Today was the day they took that first, tentative step toward the marathon ahead.