Chapter Text
“Catra, please, don’t!” screams Adora, tears in her eyes. Stripped of the magical sword that gives her the power to transform into She-Ra, and tied up with her hands behind her back in the laboratory of Hordak, the cruel lord of the Horde, the blonde girl makes a last desperate plea to her former childhood friend and now bitter rival, hoping that by some miracle she will listen to her, come to her senses, and abandon her insane act of self-destruction. Both Mara and Entrapta were clear: opening the portal will cause an immense catastrophe, not only for the planet Etheria, but for the very fabric of reality. But all is useless. Catra glances at her with her heterochromatic cat eyes, smiles (is that a smile? Or rather an evil smirk?) and pulls the lever. “No!” Adora cries. A greenish light floods the room. And as the portal opens wide, Adora feels as if her heart, like the world around her, has suddenly stopped.
It’s a beautiful spring morning in Japan, and the sky, enlivened by the return of the first swallows, is completely blue. One can almost hear a cheerful piece of music in the air, like an upbeat soundtrack. The small, round, tiger-striped flying saucer hovers silently in the sky above Tomobiki-cho. It has long been a familiar sight to the residents of the neighborhood, who are no longer surprised to see it fly over their homes every day. Many have almost forgotten the panic and frenzy when, a few months earlier, Earth had been invaded by a warlike race of extraterrestrials, and was only saved because the aliens’ bizarre customs prevented them from carrying out the invasion after one of their warriors, the daughter of the alien warlord, was defeated by a randomly selected earthling – a Japanese, no less, and actually a high school student from Tomobiki! – in a tag competition.
Lum, the aforementioned young alien girl, who has now permanently moved to the planet to stay close to that boy, pauses for a moment in the doorway of the small spaceship that opens to the outside. She is ready to jump into the air; with one hand she straightens the folds of the school sailor’s uniform that hides the tiger-striped bikini underneath, and with the other she smoothes the flowing green hair at the back of her neck, from which the two horns typical of her race peek out. Before she flies down to Earth, she turns to say goodbye to her friends who are remaining in the ship.
“I’m going to stop by my darling’s house and then go to school with him,” Lum says with a smile. “I bet he’s still sleeping. If I don’t pay attention to him, he’ll be late as usual. Don’t you mind working ahead on your own?”
“Don’t worry, Lum! Go ahead and take care of your idiot boyfriend,” Benten replies. The space biker is sitting cross-legged on the floor of the flying saucer’s interior, a wrench in her hand and some grease and oil stains on her arms and the parts of her body not covered by her skimpy metal dress and shoulder chain. “I’m almost done connecting the last parts of the main generator. By the time you get back after class, everything will be working perfectly.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Lum tells her friend. “You have always been better than me with this kind of mechanical equipment. It would have taken me at least a week to install Oyuki’s new dimensional closet on my UFO.”
“It was about time you made up your mind,” says the third girl on the saucer, the ice queen Oyuki herself, a childhood friend of the other two. With her usual calmness and the impeccable elegance with which she wears her white winter kimono, she sits at the table sipping a cup of tea while watching Benten work. “As you know, the dimensional tunnel technology on my planet is the best in this quadrant of the galaxy. So you no longer will have to worry about using your spaceship’s hyperspace every time you want to visit me on Neptune.”
“Thanks to you too, Oyuki,” Lum tells her. “It was so kind of you to provide me with all the technology I needed.”
“Of course, you’ll get a regular bill for the materials,” Oyuki comments.
“Of course,” Lum says with a sigh. She is well aware of her friend’s attention to every financial aspect: she has always been tied to money. I hope at least Benten won’t charge me for her work, she thinks.
Then, before getting out of the flying saucer, she adds, “I really have to go now. I can’t wait to see my darling again!”
“I still don’t understand what you see in that earthling,” Benten says, continuing to work with the wrench.
“I like Lum’s husband, actually,” Oyuki says with a smile. “I find him funny.”
“Darling has a bit of a peculiar character, it’s true,” Lum concedes. “But that’s how he is, you have to accept him. And deep down, very deep down, he has a big heart. See you later, girls,” Lum says before she jumps from the saucer into the air and gently flies down towards the ground, towards the Moroboshi’s home, where Ataru, the boy she loves more than anything, is waiting for her to go to school together.
Yes, it truly is a beautiful spring morning on Earth.
In the infirmary of Tomobiki High School, nurse Sakura is sorting some medical supplies into the lockers. But something is bothering her. Since the moment she woke up today, she has had a bad feeling. She cannot explain what it could be. The day began peacefully. The influx of students to the infirmary pretending to be sick was lower than usual, and she herself made sure to chase away most of those who came to her door just to have an excuse to admire her bust, barely covered by her white dress. Then, in the afternoon, she has a romantic outing planned with her fiancé Tsubame, who for once had managed to get away from his duties as an exorcist and had booked a table at one of the best restaurants in town. Nothing indicates any problems. And yet...
...and yet the beautiful nurse can’t get it out of her head that something serious is about to happen.
“Your face looks gloomy. Have you been putting on any more weight?” Cherry asks suddenly, materializing on her desk without warning.
“Damn you!” Sakura yells, hitting her uncle, a traveling monk and professional jinx, on his head with a huge wooden hammer. “I told you a thousand times not to come and disturb me while I work! What are you doing here?”
“Don’t get angry, you’ll get wrinkles,” he replies. Immediately another blow follows on the bald head of the elderly monk. This time it’s so hard that the big hammer shatters.
“Wait a minute, niece, calm down... I have something serious to tell you,” says Cherry, now with a few lumps on his head, just before Sakura, who grabbed him and lifted him by the scruff of his neck, can throw him out of the window.
“What do you want to tell me?” Sakura asks. “Speak quickly. I don’t have time for your foolery.”
“No foolery,” Cherry replies. “Have you also sensed the approaching danger?”
Sakura stops abruptly and puts her uncle back on the desk. “Danger?” she asks. “What do you mean?”
“I have been feeling a bad omen since this morning,” says the monk. “It’s nothing new for me, but this time, it’s something much more serious than usual. I think there’s a threat hanging over us... and I don’t mean just Tomobiki, but the whole reality.”
“Uhmm...”, the nurse says. “Actually, I also have a strange feeling. But maybe that’s just because I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Perhaps you ate too much again?” Cherry says. “Of course you’re putting on weight.”
Another hammer materializes in the woman’s hands and hits him over the head.
“It’s not about the food!” yells Sakura, who then becomes thoughtful. “Now that I think about it, I probably had a bad dream. But I can’t really remember...”
“I had a nightmare too,” says Cherry. “A menacing luminous vortex appeared to me, growing larger and larger until it covered the entire planet. And at its center, suspended in mid-air... a strange sword, European style, with a blue gem set in the golden hilt. Perhaps the origin of the vortex itself.”
Sakura pauses for a moment to collect her thoughts. The memory of her dream suddenly comes back to her. “Yes, that’s what I dreamed too. And in fact, since this morning, I really do feel a great danger approaching. But what does it mean, uncle?”
“We must find out,” Cherry replies. “And above all, we must perform a protective ritual with our spiritual energies as soon as possible. Maybe it’s not too late.”
In the large gym of Tomobiki High School, ten students stand with their backs to the wall during the morning break, angry and annoyed at having been brought there. Once again, they have been assigned to detention, and many of them feel it is unfair. In front of them, the burly and perpetually frustrated teacher Onsenmark, flanked on his right by the bizarre figure of the giant white cat Kotatsu-neko, explains to the principal the reason for his decision: “As usual, these rascals have disrupted class and destroyed most of the classroom equipment.” The students grumble.
“Are they all students from Class 2-4, sensei?” asks the principal.
“Nine of them, yes,” says Onsenmark. “There’s the infamous Moroboshi Ataru, of course: when there’s trouble, he’s always around. Then there are Lum, Mendo Shutaro, Miyake Shinobu, Fujinami Ryunosuke, and... those four,” he adds, referring to the so-called group of Lum’s Stormtroopers – the bespectacled Megane, the slim Perm, the corpulent Kakugari and the short Chibi – four students who have taken it upon themselves to worship the beautiful alien girl and to protect her from any danger, i.e. from the advances of the other students of the class and especially from those of the most notorious womanizer of the school, Ataru. It is a paradox, however, that if there is one girl he seems to have no desire for, it is actually Lum, who instead is madly in love with him. “The tenth student is Ran, from Class 2-7,” says Onsenmark.
“I’ve nothing to do with this!” Ran cries, clenching her hands in front of her face. “I’m innocent! It’s all Lum-chan’s fault that I got into trouble, just like always!”
“What are you talking about, Ran-chan?” Lum replies, turning to her pink-haired childhood friend. “If you hadn’t come to my class during recess and tried to get back at me again, nothing would have happened!”
“How can you say that?” Ran tells her, losing her good girl aplomb, raising her voice and clenching her teeth. “Your darling tried to kiss me!”
“You’re the one who tried to seduce him!” Lum points out. “And you did it on purpose, because you know what he’s like, that he’s not able to resist temptation.”
“That idiot Ataru tried to hug me too!” Ryunosuke interjects. “That’s why I had to hit him and throw him against the wall.” As she speaks, she mimics the uppercut she gave the boy, pulling up to her elbows the sleeves of her male uniform – the only one her miserable father allows her to wear in order to hide her feminine features.
“And me too!” adds Shinobu with an angry expression on her girl-next-door face, framed by her bob haircut. “I didn’t want to disturb the class, but I couldn’t help throwing that heavy school desk at him! But Ataru’s like that, it’s true, he’ll never change!”
“Moroboshi got what he deserved,” adds Mendo, the only one of the boys who wears a white uniform instead of the regular dark blue to distinguish himself from the others, running his hand with a sigh through his immaculately combed hair, except for a cowlick that accentuates his elegant appearance. “He’s always bothering the girls. What I don’t understand is why I, the great heir of the rich and noble Mendo family, am forced to stay here with a low life like him to receive a punishment I don’t deserve.”
“Cut the crap, Mendo!” Ataru shouts. “I saw you when you slimely approached Lum and Shinobu, taking advantage of the fact that I was temporarily knocked out. You put on so many airs of seriousness and integrity, but deep down you’re as much of a womanizer as I am, and maybe worse! Learn to keep your dirty hands off Lum!” Hearing these last words, the alien girl smiles.
“How dare you compare yourself to me, Moroboshi?” Mendo shouts, drawing the samurai sword he always carries at his side and pointing it at his rival. “Besides, why are you so jealous of Miss Lum, when you always treat her so badly and constantly claim that you don’t love her?”
“The relationship between that annoying Lum and me is only our business!” Ataru retorts, bending down on one knee and taking the blade of Mendo’s sword between his hands to parry his blow. “Get over it, you and all these other interlopers!”
“Oh, darling!” exclaims Lum, “I’m so happy that you too realize that there is a special relationship between us. That’s one of the most romantic things you’ve ever said to me!”
“Shut up, you damn nuisance!” Ataru tells her.
“Ataru! Don’t insult our goddess Lum, damn you!” the four Stormtroopers shout, approaching him menacingly. “She’s an angel!” says Megane.
“No!” Ataru replies. “She’s a devil!”
“That’s enough! Everybody stop!” shouts Onsenmark, completely ignored by his students. “Don’t start fighting again. I won’t let you destroy the gym as well as the classroom. Principal, punish them!”
The principal steps forward. He sighs, cleans his glasses with a piece of cloth, puts them back on, and then begins his lecture in a gentle tone. “Boys, girls, come on, behave yourselves.” Behind him, the giant Kotatsu cat nods.
“Principal, you’re too kind,” Onsenmark insists. “With these delinquents, a small talk is not enough. If we don’t punish them severely, who knows what will happen. They are capable of destroying the whole school.”
Just then, as if to confirm his words, the entire gym wall begins to shake. Fragments and debris fall from the ceiling. “Aaahh, an earthquake!” Shinobu cries, running to seek shelter in Ryunosuke’s arms, who stands next to her and wraps her arms around her protectively.
“Please, stay calm! Don’t panic!” the principal yells.
Before anyone can react, however, the large glass window of the gym shatters, and the red space bike ridden by Benten, with Oyuki behind her, flies into the hall. “Lum, hurry, there’s an emergency!” the biker shouts.
“Benten-sama! Oyuki-san!” Ataru exclaims with a stupid smile on his face, happy to see the two alien girls and ready to jump into the air towards them. Suddenly, a strong electric shock emanating from Lum’s fingertips zaps him, knocking him to the ground. “Behave yourself, darling,” the alien says, turning then to her two friends. “Girls, what’s going on?”
“We had just finished installing Oyuki’s dimensional tunnel generator on your flying saucer,” Benten explains as her bike lands on the gym floor, “and we turned it on to test it. But something went wrong. Just as the UFO passed over the school, a strange rift opened up in the air below. We tried to turn the machine off, but it was no use: something was interfering with the instrumentation.”
“It’s very strange indeed,” Oyuki adds, keeping her composure. “The rift has formed above the roof of the school, and it’s getting bigger. But my machine isn’t supposed to work like that. If you cut the power, the tunnel should close immediately. I don’t understand what could have caused this behavior.”
“We know what it is!” says a voice. Everyone turns to the door of the gym and sees that Sakura, dressed in her traditional miko or Shinto priestess dress, has made her entrance together with her uncle Cherry. The two of them are accompanied by Ten, Lum’s little cousin, who rushes into her arms out of breath and says: “Oh, Lum-chan, I’m so scared!”
“What’s wrong?” the girl asks, caressing Ten’s head.
“There’s a hole in the sky above the school,” Ten answers. “I almost fell into it while flying here!”
“It’s a dimensional portal,” Cherry explains. “Caused by an interference between the alien technology on Lum’s UFO and the exorcism attempt Sakura and I were making... It was probably fate.”
“Damn old jinx!” Ataru yells. “As always, when something bad happens around here, you’re involved.”
“This time, my uncle has nothing to do with it,” Sakura intervenes. “A protection ritual like the one we were performing could never create a portal of this size by itself, let alone keep it open, even in combination with your alien technology. It could only happen if someone from the other side did the same.”
“From the other side?” Mendo asks. “What do you mean?”
“She’s right!” Oyuki says. “We are talking about a dimensional portal, or a passage between two different dimensions. It can only exist if it’s opened from both sides... and by a combination of magic and technology.”
Another rumble shakes the hall. Those present look up in horror as the roof of the building is blown off. High in the sky above them, they see a large, dark disk floating in the air. Screams of terror fill the room.
“Help! Somebody save me!” Ran cries.
“Lum-chan!” Ten shouts.
“Every man for himself!” Megane screams. And then, turning to his companions: “Let’s get out of here, quickly!” Kakugari grabs the smaller Chibi, puts him under his arm and prepares to run like the others.
But before anyone can take a single step, the disk suddenly falls, crashing to the floor of the gym and over the students. A flash of light fills the entire room. Every sound stops, replaced by an unnatural silence.
Slowly, one by one, Sakura, Onsenmark, the principal and Kotatsu-neko, who had closed their eyes to avoid being blinded by the light, carefully open them again. Looking around, they notice that the half-ruined gym is empty. There is no sign of the mysterious portal... but also no sign of the students. “Where did Moroboshi and the others go?” Onsenmark asks.
“The portal swallowed them... and then closed,” Sakura answers. The priestess pulls out her gohei, the wand she uses for Shinto rituals, and waves it in the air. “No reaction,” she says. “There is no trace of supernatural phenomena. The portal is gone.”
“Gone? Nurse Sakura, what does that mean? Where are the students?” Onsenmark asks.
“Lum and the others were sucked into the void... and probably transported to another dimension,” Sakura says.
“My pupils!” the principal exclaims. “We have to save them! We can’t lose them… The school’s reputation is at stake!”
“Unfortunately, it won’t be easy to find them,” Sakura says. “We have no idea where they went or how to get them back. Maybe I can do something, but...” The priestess pauses for a moment to think. Then she continues: “...I’m going to need some help.” Behind her, Kotatsu-neko crosses his paws and nods.
As the light fades, Shinobu tries to open her eyes again. The first thing she realizes is that she is still in Ryunosuke’s arms, who is holding her for protection. A slight blush colors her face. The second thing she notices... is that she and her friends are no longer in the Tomobiki High School gym. She looks around: she and her classmates, plus Lum’s alien friends, are standing in a huge hall with high green and metal walls, a sort of laboratory. The floor is littered with mechanical debris, as if there had been an earthquake or some kind of terrible battle. The humming of industrial machinery is an incessant background. In the distance, beyond two gigantic collapsed columns, one to the right and one to the left, are some people dressed in bizarre clothes. And closer, right in front of them, with a confused and astonished expression... a feline girl with a wild-looking mane and intense eyes of two different colors, whose hand is still gripping a lever, and a distressed blonde girl in a red jacket, tied to a pole, look at them, perplexed.
For a moment, nobody knows what to say. And then, of course, the silence is broken by that idiot Ataru, who jumps towards the two girls with his eyes wide open and his tongue hanging out, shouting: “Hey, pretty ladies! Want to go on a date with me? What’s your address and phone number?”