7:54 am

Everyone was looking at the bulletin board to see how they did on the finals for their respective classes. Konata scanned the board trying to find her results, which she finally saw after like 30 seconds of searching. "All right!" she shouted. Kagami overheard her and asked, "So how'd you do, Ms. All Nighter?". Konata responded, "I got an 82. So that's a solid B- for me". "Wow, you actually passed. That's great, Konata", Kagami congratulated, then added under her breath, "But I swear, I'll never understand how your trademark all-nighters always seem to work out for you". "So how did you do, Kaga-min?", Konata asked. "I got a 96. So if I'm right, that's an A.", Kagami replied.

"Hey look, Sis. I got a 86! That's a B.", Tsukasa said excitedly. "Wow, that's great, Sis. Much better than the last final.", Kagami answered. "All that tutoring you gave me really paid off.", Tsukasa said. "Maybe it did.", Kagami replied back. Then Konata asked, "Hey, Miyuki-san. How did you do?". She didn't get a response the first time. "Miyuki-san?", Konata asked again. "Oh, sorry. Uh, what was that again?", Miyuki asked. To that, Konata reiterated, "How did you do on the exam?". Before she could even say anything, Konata saw Miyuki's exam score on the billboard, and exclaimed, "No way! A perfect 100! That's an A+! That's the best of the class!".

Kagami and Tsukasa also took a look. "Not only best in the class, probably the best in the whole school!", Kagami chimed in. "Yeah, that's way better than I could ever do!", Tsukasa added. Miyuki blushed and simply said, "Well, it's might be because I've been doing a ton of studying over the last couple of weeks". To that end, Konata disagreed and said, "Oh come on, Miyuki-san, don't be so modest. You're the only girl I know of that can explain things just like they do in an encyclopedia!". Miyuki turned an even deeper shade of red and said, "Well, I guess it could be how I got into the habit of looking things up as a child".

At that time, Mrs. Kuroi came out of her classroom, looked at the students gathered around the billboard displaying the results of the exams, and said, "All right, people! I know you're interested to see how you did, but you should all be getting to your homerooms right about now. It's almost time for class to start.", before walking back into her room. Most of the students got the hint and scrambled to their classroom.

Meanwhile, Sakura walked toward the billboard, and was at first having second thoughts about what she planned to do. But when she saw the results, she was shocked. She not only had the lowest score of any girl in the school, but the lowest score in the whole school. She ended up only getting a 30 and even she had enough of a brain to know that was a big fat F. When Sakura saw Kagami's results, that is when she was pushed over the edge. "WHAT? Hiiragi got a 96 and I only get a 30?", she screamed out loud.

It was at this point that Sakura had made up her mind. She would go forward with her plan to get revenge on Kagami. "Oh, now she's gone too far! That little bitch is gonna get it now! When I see her again, I'll beat her to a quivering pulp!", Sakura thought to herself. "Oh I ain't gonna kill her. No, I won't take it quite that far. But by the time I'm finished with her, she'll be wishing she was dead!", she continued on. "Anyway, before I dish out my own form of justice, I need to get myself pumped up", she added into her thoughts.

No one knew how she had done it, but Sakura had managed to smuggle in Deiselbolan v2.0 and Anadrol 50, two of the strongest steroids known to man and a hypodermic needle into her bag. She ran into the girls' bathroom, walked into an open stall, and locked the door behind her. She then filled the syringe part of the needle full of a combination of the Anadrol and the Deiselbolan, and injected the needle right into the big vein on her arm. "Oh yeah baby! I feel those juices flowing", she said to herself, laughing, as she felt the steroids taking effect, "Hiiragi will never know what hit her".

9:16 am

Ms. Kuroi got up out of her seat and said, "Well, once 3:30 comes along, you guys will be out of school for the next two months. But now don't forget, you're all still students here, so please behave yourselves this summer and don't go out and cause trouble, all right?". The students remained silent. "Because if you guys get all delinquent out there, you're gonna ruin my vacation", she continued, "Behave yourselves! I'm begging you!". The other students sighed and murmured that they'd behave. As Ms. Kuroi continued going over the things to watch out for during summer break to the other students, Konata and Tsukasa managed to quietly have a conversation.

"Hey Tsukasa, what are you going to do this summer?", Konata asked. "Oh, we really don't have anything planned for right now, except for Sis and I having our 16th birthday next week.", Tsukasa answered, then she asked, "What are you going to do during summer break, Kona-chan?". "Oh, you know, the usual stuff, watching anime, reading manga, and playing video games.", Konata responded, then she asked, "By the way have you ever heard of the Haruka Seventeen manga?". "Yes, but I've never actually read one. Isn't that a manga for guys?", Tsukasa answered.

"Well, yeah I'll admit. Anyway, I've read all of the issues, and they made a live action version of it. I can't wait to see the first episode tonight. l got to remember, 11:15 pm on Channel 38 (the TV Asahi station for the Saitama prefecture)," Konata replied back, then she added, "Oh, and that War of the Worlds movie came out a couple days ago. I can't wait to see it this weekend". To that Tsukasa asked, "Why do you want to see such a scary movie, Kona-chan?". Konata replied to her question with, "I love these kinds of movies, especially those with aliens and being able to watch stuff blow up. It actually seems pretty similar to some of the video games I play".

Meanwhile, Ms. Kuroi finally finished explaining things, and said "Okay, now before you guys leave, I'm going to hand back the exams you guys took yesterday so you can show your families how hard you worked". As she went around the room, she commented on each student's performance.

Ms. Kuroi handed Konata her exam and said, "Well Izumi, nice job. Let me guess, another all-nighter?". Konata shrugged and answered, "You know me too well, Ma'am". Ms. Kuroi then handed Tsukasa her exam and said, "Very good, Hiiragi. Much better than your midterm". Tsukasa blushed and said, "Thank you, Ma'am. Sis helped me study for it this time.". About a minute or two later, the bell for next class rang, and the students headed out. Ms. Kuroi called out to her students, "Have a nice summer, class! And remember, don't cause any trouble!".

10:26 am

After another long class ended, Konata and Kagami finally met each other in the hall. "Hiya Kaga-min! What's up?", Konata asked. "Oh hey, Konata. Nothing really.", Kagami replied. "How about you?", she asked. To that, Konata admitted, "Actually, I had a really bizzare dream last night, and its been bugging me all day.". Kagami wondered, "Oh really? Well, we have study hall in the library together next. Maybe we could talk about it there". So with that they went up to the library. They found a table and they both sat down.

"So Konata, what was this dream you had?" Kagami asked, "Did you dream that you turned into the incredible shrinking girl, or wait, wait, did you dream that you actually cared about your schoolwork for once?", she added, giggling at the thought. Konata glared at her and said, "No. For the record, it was much worse, and you were in the dream too".

"Hey now, wait a minute, what's that supposed to mean?", Kagami demanded, angered by what she had just heard, "Do you mean to say that you hate me". "Just hear me out, all right?", Konata reiterated, "This is serious" Just as she was about to speak, Tsukasa appeared and said, "Hi there Sis. Hiya Kona-chan. What's going on?" as she sat down. Konata explained, "Well Tsukasa, since you're here, I might as well tell you too". "Tell me about what?", Tsukasa wondered.

Konata then explained her nightmare to the two in full detail and how scary it was. Tsukasa, who was clearly freaked out stated, "Wow, that is scary. I hope nothing like that ever happens to any of us". Kagami, on the other hand was skeptical, and replied to her sister, "Don't worry Sis, dreams like that almost never happen in real life". Then she saw Konata next to her, who was near tears again.

She got up, put her arm around her friend and said, "Oh, come on, Konata. Don't worry about that. Like I said, what are the odds of that happening to any of us?". Konata wiped her eyes and said, "I guess you're right, Kagami. I mean, really, who'd want to hurt any of us? We haven't done anything wrong to anyone". Kagami responded, "There, now that's positive thinking". Not another word was said on the subject after that.

10:37 am

Anyway, the three were looking through their bags looking for books to read. Kagami looked in her bag and thought, "Ah crap. I must have left my books in my locker" after she discovered she didn't have any reading material. She looked at Konata and Tsukasa and said, "Hey I'll be right back. I need to go to my locker to get my books". Konata started to rise out of her seat and asked, "Do you want me to go with you?". "No thanks, my locker's right down the hall." Kagami replied.

However, upon seeing the clearly concerned look on Konata's face, Kagami tried to reassure her by saying, "Don't worry Konata, I'll be all right. I promise." With that said, she then walked down the couple of steps down to the hallway. As she walked down to her locker, Kagami thought to herself, "Gee, it sure is quiet in here. In fact, maybe it's a little too quiet in here".

It was quiet, except for a few classes on the far ends of the hall, the whole second floor was pretty much deserted during this period. What Kagami didn't know, was that Sakura, still high on Anadrol and Deiselbolan, and carrying a metal pipe in one hand and a pocket knife in the other, was watching her every move from the stairwell nearby and waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. As Kagami got out her books and closed her locker, Sakura decided that now was her chance and ran towards her.

She called out, "Hiiragi! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!". Kagami replied, "Oh hello, is there something I can help you with?". Sakura then removed the pipe from behind her back and answered, "You bet there is! I've been putting up with your bullshit for too long! Now it's payback time!" as she raised her weapon to attack. Kagami, realizing what Sakura's true intentions were, asked fearfully, "H-huh? W-what's going on? W-What did I do?", as she braced for impact.

Meanwhile, back inside the library, Konata was pacing anxiously around the table, growing both impatient and worried. "Where the hell is she? It doesn't take her this long just to get a goddamn book!", she demanded. Tsukasa, trying in vain to calm Konata down, replied, "Please calm down, Kona-chan. I-I'm sure she'll be back any moment now". At the same time, Miyuki walked up to the two girls and replied, "Hello Konata-san and Tsukasa-san. What are you two doing?". Tsukasa answered her with, "Oh hi there Yuki-chan. We're waiting for my sister to come back and Kona-chan's got herself all worried about her".

Suddenly, they heard a painful, blood curdling, high pitched shriek from outside the door. Konata felt her heart plummet into her stomach at that instant as she thought, "Oh God, no!". "What on earth was that noise?", Tsukasa asked jumping back. "That's the same thing that I'm wondering", Miyuki answered, equally stunned.

"I have a hunch, but I just got to pray that I'm wrong. But just in case, you two wait by the door in case I need you", Konata commanded. To that, Tsukasa and Miyuki nodded "yes" and replied, "We will!". And with that, Konata ran out the door and down the stairs. Much to her horror, she was seeing her worst nightmare playing out right in front of her, as this random girl had appeared out of the dark shadows of the hall and was now beating the living daylights out of Kagami.

Author's Notes

Chapter revised on Sunday April 15, 2012

Haruka Seventeen (はるか 17) - a live action TV drama series based on the seinen manga written by Sayaka Yamazaki (山崎 さやか). It ran for 10 episodes on TV Asahi on Friday nights at 11:15 p.m, from July 1, 2005 to September 16, 2005.