It was the gang's turn to clean up the classroom at the end of school. They were working quickly so they could leave as soon as possible. Well, save two.
"Wah! Quit it, Tomo!"
Tomo laughed as she kept sticking the broom in Chiyo's face. She suddenly stopped as she looked at the clock.
"Shit! Sorry Chiyo, I can't play anymore, it's time for my first appointment to make me a genius."
"As if. I don't know how some quack convinced the school to go along with this nonsense" said Yomi.
"Eh, you're just scared at the idea of me being smarter than you."
"About as scared as I am of being eaten by the Loch Ness Monster walking home from school."
"Ah wouldn't worry 'bout that, Yomi, he's all the way in Scotland, and I don't think he goes on land any- oh, ah get it, you're saying you're not scared at all. Heh, that's pretty funny, Yomi."
Tomo grabbed her things and left the class.
"Bye guys, see you later when I'm a genius."
"Ah wish he chose me, would have been nice to be ah genius."
"I don't" said Kagura, "I didn't like that doctor at all, he was creepy."
"Creepy?" asked Yomi. "Like Kimura creepy?"
"No... in a way even worse. At least Kimura is open about what he is, I don't know what this guy's deal is."
Kagura noticed how worried Yomi looked now, and regretted her words.
"Hey, forget about it. I'm bad at judging people."
"Yeah, ah remember your first day yah told me how Miss Yukari seemed like ah nice and thoughtful teach-"
A ruler came down on Osaka's head.
"Less talking, more cleaning!" yelled Yukari.
"Lay down here" said Dr. Akayama, pointing Tomo to a chair looking like the ones at the dentist.
Tomo felt an unease when she looked at the machine to be used on her. It looked uncomfortably close to a death ray in a sci-fi movie, like a futuristic gun or cannon.
"Uh…you're sure this is safe?"
It suddenly occurred to Tomo that perhaps she was chosen because they wanted someone who wouldn't be missed if things went wrong.
"My Prometheus Ray is perfectly safe, I assure you. It only effects things on a micro level. It will create new neural pathways in your brain, increasing your cognitive abilities."
"Oh. Okay" said Tomo, not really understanding but figuring this guy knew what he was talking about.
Akayama switched the machine on.
"Let's begin."
In another part of Tokyo, the compound of Tomorrow Research was silent.
It's five residents composed of organic matter were out on a job, but it's two artificial in nature remained, one of whom was presently hard at work, thought he would have appeared to be roosting still. In fact, in his mechanical mind he was going through mass amounts of data, at a speed impossible for any human (and most extraterrestrials) to match, hoping to find something, big or small, to aid his charges in their fight against the enemy.
Suddenly, a message appeared in front of the data.
HISTORICAL ANOMALY DETECTED
Tac promptly stopped his work to check on this new disturbance.
Had he been able to, he would have frowned.
"No...this isn't right at all..."
Tomo felt dizzy, but otherwise fine as she got off the chair.
"The dizziness should wear off in a minute or so."
Once it did, Tomo was deep in thought.
"Hey I don't think it took. I don't know anything I didn't before."
"That's not how it works. You still need to learn information, what the Ray does is increase your ability to remember and understand it."
"Oh" said a disappointed Tomo.
"We'll do this twice a week, every Monday and Thursday. Goodbye, Miss Takino. I think is the start of a very fruitful endeavor."
"Mooorning everyone" Tomo yelled as she walked into class, interrupting a pleasant discussion Yomi was having with Chiyo.
She took her seat behind her long time friend.
"Hey Yomi can I copy your homework?"
Yomi stared at Tomo in disbelief.
"You didn't do your homework?"
Tomo just looked at Yomi in confusion.
"You just underwent treatment to increase your intelligence and you didn't try doing your homework to see if it worked?"
"Eh, why take the chance?"
Yomi sighed in resignation as she handed the papers over to Tomo.
"Christ, I'm a moron for even considering that anything could make you change. You're always going to be this lazy albatross attached to me-"
"Hey Yomi, I think you got question #4 wrong."
"What?"
Yomi had been letting Tomo copy her homework since the first grade, and never had she heard her say that.
"Well, either that or your first three are wrong. I'm just going by the formulas you're using."
"Let me see that" said Yomi, grabbing the paper from Tomo's hands.
The others waited in anticipation as Yomi went over her work. Eventually she looked one, frowning.
"She's right" said Yomi quietly, her eyes glaring.
The others were in shock.
"Wow Tomo, it worked, yur ah regular Einstein now."
"She got one question right, let's not go nuts. Besides, I'm pretty sure Einstein did his own homework" said Yomi.
"Well, if this is the kind of shoddy work you're giving me, maybe I will..."
"You got a 68, Tomo, guess whatever that Doctor is doing is working."
"You bet your ass it is Miss Yukari."
"Excellent short story, Tomo. I was really impressed at the pathos you got for your character Koyo, despite how mean and ugly she was."
"Oh it's no big deal, Mr. Inoe, I had a good model for her."
"You got a 88, Miss Takino, very impressive. Your intellect is finally starting to match your beauty."
"Uh, thanks Mr. Kimura."
"Tomo, I'm afraid I'm going to have to fail you at the rope climb."
"Huh, I guess Kagura was right, being smarter really doesn't make you better at sports."
"Miss Yukari, would you mind putting a 100 inside my 100?"
"Uh, all right."
"The bridge is lit up. That's a diamond adventure to another dimension. Mysteries are here and there..."
Great, even Sakaki is happy, Yomi thought, seeing the girl smile as she sang.
It was a Friday night, and they were at karaoke for Tomo's Retirement Party, her retirement from the Knuckleheads to be precise, and everyone was having a fun time except her.
It was a fine conclusion to the previous two weeks. Yomi had been in denial at first, dismissing it as luck at first, then the placebo effect. But eventually she had to admit the truth: the process worked. Tomo was smart now; she was getting even higher grades than Yomi.
She should have figured. Out of the two of them, Tomo always had the luck. She always stayed thin despite her poor diet and lack of exercise (indeed, Yomi realized, she had been looking even thinner than regular of late). She had friends despite her selfish and annoying ways. And now she was smart through no effort of her own, and got to go down in history to boot.
"Here you go, Yomi."
Yomi snapped out of her thoughts to see her young friend had put the glass of juice she asked for on the table.
"Thanks, Chiyo"
"Miss Yomi, are you okay? You don't seem like you're having much fun."
"Chiyo, doesn't it bother you, what's happened to Tomo? You, Sakaki, and I all work hard for our grades. Even Kagura and Osaka at least try their best. But for as long as I've known her Tomo has done just the bare minimum at any schoolwork and actually been proud of it! Now she gets to be smart without any effort. It just doesn't seem fair, does it?"
Chiyo thought for a moment.
"Well, to be honest Yomi, I've never had to try very hard at schoolwork, it just comes naturally to me. If someone can help Tomo and others be as good as it is as I am, I'm happy for them. There's all kinds of things to help people, after all. I stand on a chair to write on the blackboard. You have glasses to help you see, don't you?"
Yomi sighed.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, Chiyo."
"Chiyo-Chan! You're up next!" called Osaka.
"Coming!"
Chiyo, one of these days we have to teach you to know when a friend just needs someone to bitch to.
"It ain't gonna be the same withoutcha. Ah don't know how we're going to replace yah" said Osaka to Tomo.
"I think if Kaorin finally snaps she might make a good candidate" said Kagura.
"You know guys, I want to let you know, I'll never forget my time with you. I may be smart now, but in my heart, I'll always be a Knucklehead."
"Oh, ah promised myself ah wasn't going to cry!"
The three embraced in a tight hug. Once they were done, Kagura jumped on the table.
"All right, karaoke is done! Next up is-"
"Uh, actually guys, I know we planned a lot more, but I'm actually feeling really tired. Would you mind if I went home?"
"What? Tomo, you never get tired."
"Guess it's really true - Tomo's ah nerd now. Probably wants to head home and curl up with a book, huh?"
"Uh yeah, I guess so" said Tomo, trying to play it off.
"Well, yeah it's no problem, honestly I'm feeling a bit tired too" lied Kagura.
The rest, with varying degrees of truthfulness, concurred.
The group gradually broke apart as they headed to their respective homes. Tomo and Yomi were now alone as they entered their neighborhood. The two had been mostly quiet.
"Hey, Yomi? Can we talk?"
"About what?"
"You know, the thing about this that's worried me the most is how it might effect us."
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"I can tell you haven't been thrilled about this, and I understand. We've known each other for so long, we both know our roles. Now we have this X factor and we don't know what's going to happen. Maybe we can't stay like we were, but I don't want us to grow apart. I know I don't do a good job of showing it, but I really respect you, Yomi. I know Chiyo's a genius, but you've always been the smartest person I've known, and I'm not going to think any less of you for being the dumb one now."
A tears fell from Yomi's eye.
"Tomo...I, I don't know to say. I guess I always knew deep down all that was true, but to hear you…wait…WHAT!? You being smart doesn't make me dumb!"
"No, there's a cosmic balance to these sort of things. But don't worry, you'll always be welcome to copy my homework!"
Yomi grabbed Tomo's neck and squeezed as hard as she could.