Konata woke up. She hadn't been expecting to wake up, so that in itself was somewhat of a relief.

First she noticed that the horrible pain she had just experienced was completely gone. That meant... she was dead. That was pretty disappointing, she still had so much she had wanted to do. Anyway, what's going to happen back home?

But death wasn't anything like she expected it to be... She looked around and found herself in the back of some vehicle. The back was open, revealing the night sky and some dark woods. Some serious-looking machine guns were stored back here with her, along with a few first-aid kits. Strange place to end up after you died, wasn't it? And she heard voices.

"This is what happens when I leave you on your own... Do you even realize what you did, police girl? With absolutely no orders from either Sir Integra or myself?"A man's voice. Deep. Upset, yet still serious and collected. He was speaking in English.

"I- I'm very sorry, but - " This one sounded like a young woman, she was stumbling over her words.

"She would have died, yes. But that doesn't change anything. Did she give you permission to change her into one of us?"

"She couldn't have, she was unconscious, she didn't have much time left... I wasn't thinking, I'm sorry, but I couldn't just let her die!"

Konata wondered if they were talking about her... Where had she been? She had been doing a mission. In the Hellsing universe, that was right. So those voices outside... Alucard and Seras. She recognized them now. And this must be one of the Hellsing organization's vehicles that she was in right now.

And what they were talking about...

Konata slowly lifted her hand to check... Her teeth hadn't always been that sharp, had they? She sat up, noticing her shirt and jacket were torn up and absolutely covered in blood. Her own blood. Although the gunshot wound itself had disappeared. So now she was... She felt like she was going to be sick.

This couldn't be happening.

"Alucard... I thought you would want to see this."

"What's this?" A pause. "Loaded with silver bullets. I see. So looks like she knew what she was doing. Interesting..."

"And, um... We also found this on her. Her cell phone. What should we do with it?"

Konata froze. The Talisman. Her only way of getting back home...

"Well, we can't let her have any contact with the outside world now that she's one of us. Give that to me. I'll dispose of it properly."

No, this was not happening... It simply couldn't be happening...

Konata remembered that tomorrow was the first day back to school after Golden Week. At present it didn't seem like she was going to be there. Probably not ever again. So what would everyone think? From their perspective, she would have just vanished... And even if she did manage to get home, she couldn't just live the rest of her life as a vampire. She wouldn't be able to go out in the sunlight, not to mention she would need to drink...

No, she didn't even want to consider how to deal with that.

There was nothing else to do now. The injury was completely gone, so she could at least stand up and get out of this ambulance.

"Ah, so you're awake."

She looked over to see a tall, thin figure in a formal red coat and wide-brimmed hat standing beside the ambulance. His eyes were hidden behind large reflective sunglasses. Although she already recognized him as Alucard, she probably wasn't supposed to indicate she know who he was. True, her days of working for Eclipse were probably over, but...

Chapter 6

When You're Down

"Wh-what's going on?" Konata said finally.

She had a fairly good idea of what must have happened... She had been shot, apparently fatally. Seras Victoria and the other Hellsing soldiers hadn't been expecting any humans in the village, and therefore hadn't been watching their fire carefully enough. It was likely they hadn't seen her until it was too late. Konata would have been unconscious, probably minutes from death, until Seras had found her and decided to save her life by biting her, allowing her to live but only as a vampire...

And here she was now. Although she couldn't let Alucard know that she had any idea what was going on.

"What happened? I... got shot, didn't I? I thought I was dead." That much was the truth.

"You are." What a comforting thing to say. Konata didn't even have to fake an expression of shock at this revelation.

Standing with Alucard was a young woman with short, messy blond hair in a blue police uniform. Konata recognized her as Seras Victoria, apparently the one who had bitten her based on what Konata had overheard .

"I'm so sorry... You were going to die, I couldn't leave you there..."

"It's... no problem. Thanks, actually," Konata said. Blatant lies.

"If you would excuse us, Seras. I have a few things to discuss with our new recruit."

"Yes, Master..."

Alucard led Konata away from Hellsing's temporary base of operations. Once they were out of earshot, he turned and spoke to her. "I'm interested in one thing in particular... Where exactly are you from?"

She would have to make something up, she couldn't even say she was from Japan, that would raise even more questions on what she was doing here. But she didn't know any locations nearby that she could lie about... "I'm from a small town... not too far from here..."

"No. I get the impression you're from very far away," Alucard said. "From a different world entirely, perhaps."

"Huh? How did you - ?" Konata said.

"I knew as soon as I saw this." He took the Talisman out of his pocket and handed it back to her. "I have one just like it... I personally consider it just a side venture. I can't stand boredom. So tell me... where are you really from?"

So Alucard was... with them? "I'm from... Tokyo. In the... Lucky Star universe." That was what Jason usually called it, anyway. Seemed like a good name.

"And you're still living there?" Alucard said. "You aren't a wanderer?"

A wanderer... That meant what Jason or Kamina was. Someone who no longer lived in their own universe "Um... no, I'm not. I'm still going to school and everything."

"Then you should definitely use that and return." He gestured to the Talisman. "If you simply vanish it would complicate things."

Konata didn't know what to say. She really wanted to go back... but could she? "I don't know if I should... I'm a vampire now, I'm sure that my friends would notice something, and then..."

"Never mind that. If you're still living in your own world, you have to go back there regardless of circumstances." Alucard seemed insistent, even though it sounded like this was against Hellsing's policy. "I'll just say that I have no idea what happened to you. You managed to escape somehow. Now go."

Konata supposed that was the best thing to do... She entered the information in the Talisman and returned home.

Back in her own world, it was already dark. That was good, but... how long had she been gone? Surely no more than just a few hours...

Her phone rang, she hadn't even put it away yet. The caller ID said it was Jason. She answered.

"Konata! Where are you? What happened?" He sounded very upset. Did he know anything that had happened?

"I'm fine... kind of. I'm in Saitama right now. But... there was a little trouble. I... I'm a vampire now."

Silence on the other end of the line. "What...? How did that - "

"What should I do? This kind of thing hasn't ever happened to me before. Obviously."

"We'll figure something out... Hold on. I'm coming back. I took down our target when you didn't show up."

He hung up, just like that. So the mission was over, although now they had bigger problems to deal with. Within a few minutes Jason materialized beside her.

He saw the blood on her clothes. "Oh... wow. You don't look so good."

"I guess I don't. Getting shot can do that to you," Konata replied.

"You were...?"

"I was turned into a vampire so that I would survive. Otherwise I'd be dead right now..."

"So who bit you?" Jason asked. "I saw when Hellsing arrived. I really didn't expect to see them."

"It was Seras Victoria. I guess that I was hit by some stray bullets fired by her squad. They weren't expecting to see anyone still alive in there. God, this mission really went to hell, didn't it..."

"That's for sure. Do you even realize what you did? You should at least be glad that you're even partially still alive." There it was again, that painful reminder that she really was no longer alive or even human. "I thought I told you to be careful out there!" Jason was silent for a moment, and ran his fingers through his hair. He took a deep breath. "Sorry, but... Next time you might not be so lucky."

"So did you know that Alucard was with us? In Eclipse, I mean."

"He is?" Jason was genuinely surprised. "That's strange... I wonder why they sent us there, then. And they said that Hellsing wouldn't show up. I really have no idea what's going on anymore..."

"Never mind that right now," Konata said. "What are we going to do about me? I mean... This might be slightly inconvenient. I don't even know if I'll be able to go out in the sunlight tomorrow. And I really don't want to take a chance and find out that I can't."

"This is definitely a difficult situation..." He paused for a moment, then looked back at her. "You're feeling too sick to go to school, that's it. You should stay home and rest."

"What...?"

"That's the plan. The best I can come up with, anyway."

Konata couldn't believe it. That was it? She couldn't keep saying she was "just sick," eventually someone would find out it was more than that. And that was what the problem was, more than anything. This was going to blow all their cover. "That might work for a day or two, but -"

"I'll find a cure. There has to be one."

Konata suddenly felt a small twinge of hope. "What? Why didn't you tell me that? How do we do this?"

"I have no idea. But we have access to millions of different worlds, I'm sure there's a cure for vampirism in one of them. I'll try to have it by tomorrow night... whatever it is."

"So you have no idea what you're even looking for... Sorry, but that just doesn't really sound good." Finding one cure among millions of possible worlds? Sure, it was an ability that few other people had, and a definite advantage, but it could take years!

"It's the best I can do." Konata realized that really was all that could be done at the moment. This day just kept getting better and better, didn't it? They began walking towards Konata's house when suddenly she thought of something. Something quite important.

"Now... Can I even go home like this? What's my dad going to say if I walk in with blood all over me?"

Jason stopped. "Good question. That would be interesting, to say the least. Got any ideas?"

"Don't you realize that I depend on you for all of these things? You're the one with the years of experience, aren't you?" They were silent for another moment. "Wait... that thing that you did where you stopped time. Can you do that again? I guess I could... go in and get changed, then go back in like nothing happened. Would that work?"

"If you can get in and out within about two minutes," Jason said. "I could try to hold it still as long as possible, but it's a very limited ability."

"Two minutes... Okay. I'll try that," Konata said.

So here it goes, Konata thought. If we're not careful today, it could all be over.

Sojiro Izumi was waiting up for Konata to return home. How late was it? Nearly midnight now? Where could she have gotten to... Ever since Kanata had died, his daughter was all he had left. It was only natural for him to get worried, especially when she was out so late. If anything ever happened to her...

He heard the front door slam closed. That was strange. It just closed, but... when did it open? And then he heard it open and close again. What was that?

"Konata?" He headed towards the door.

Never mind the sounds the door was making. The important thing was that Konata was home now. She was wearing an orange long-sleeved shirt. He noticed that because he was almost certain that hadn't been what she was wearing this afternoon when she had left. Maybe his memory was starting to fail. He was getting old, what a depressing thought.

"Oh, hey Dad..." she said.

"Do you realize how late it is? You had me so worried!"

"Yeah... I kind of lost track of time, and then I missed the train back so I had to wait for the next one... But don't worry, I'm fine," she said. "Well... Actually I might be feeling a little sick." She coughed. "I think I'll just go to bed."

So she had done her best to come back, and she was safe. And Sojiro just couldn't stay mad at his daughter if she wasn't feeling well.

"Yeah, you make sure you get plenty of rest. I'm so glad you're alright," he said.

"Thanks, Dad." Konata headed into her room and closed the door.

Miyuki was sitting in her seat, early as usual, waiting patiently for class to start. She saw Jason enter the classroom.

"Oh, Jason-kun! Good morning!" she said.

"Oh, hey, Miyuki," he replied. "Did you have a good break?"

"Yes, thank you for asking," she said. "And you?"

"Good..." He sighed. "A bit exhausting, actually."

"Really? What happened?"

"Uh..." He paused. "Studying."

"Have you seen Konata-san, by any chance?" Miyuki asked. "She usually comes in about the same time you do, but I don't see her today."

"I don't know. Maybe late again," Jason replied. "Or she could have caught a cold or something. Who knows?"

"Oh, I hope she's feeling alright. It's probably what you said, she's just late again. Like our teacher," Miyuki said with a slight giggle.

"Oh yeah, Sensei's not here again. This always seems to happen." As Jason said this, the door slammed open and Kuroi rushed into the classroom.

"Okay, sit down everyone, class is starting! You're not on vacation anymore!"

"No need for the rush, Sensei," Jason said. "The bell hasn't rung yet."

"Oh... So it hasn't. Never mind, then," Kuroi replied. She was looking over the classroom, her eyes going to Konata's empty desk out of habit. Not here again. She couldn't help but wonder what it could possibly be this time.

Sojiro woke up when he heard the phone ringing. He groaned and pulled himself out of bed. Who would be calling at this early in the morning? Obviously someone without the slightest hint of common decency...

He stumbled over and picked up the receiver. "Izumi residence. Hello...?"

"Ah, you must be Konata's father. Is there a reason why she hasn't come to school today?" It was Konata's teacher... Sojiro couldn't quite remember her name. "And a real reason, too, not just an excuse."

Sojiro yawned. "She's didn't go to school? Well, I dunno... she said she wasn't feeling well last night. And she went to bed early. I'll check up on her. I just woke up."

"You've been asleep since -?! I see where she gets it from. Very well."

"Yeah, I'll call you back or something. I'll see what's wrong." He hung up.

What time was it, anyway? He looked at the clock, it was still early morning. Konata should have been at school about two hours ago. She usually went on her own. He noticed her bedroom door was still closed, so he knocked lightly. "Konata? You okay?"

There was a groan from inside. "Wanna sleep..."

He opened the door. The light was off, Konata was still in bed. The curtains over the window had been drawn shut, blocking out the sunlight. He was about to open them when Konata spoke again. "No... leave them there... wanna sleep." He left the curtains as they were.

"Your teacher just called. You're not feeling good today?" He felt her forehead, and drew back his hand the moment he touched her forehead. Not a fever, but instead extremely cold... Was that normal?

"I'm fine, I just need to go back to sleep..." Konata mumbled and rolled over.

Sojiro was starting to feel worried about her, why was she so cold? "Uh, yeah... Just get some rest. I'll take care of you. Just take it easy, okay?"

"Yeah... Just let me sleep..." she said again, almost too softly to hear.

Kagami arrived at the lunch table. "Hey, Konata's not here today?"

"Either that, or she's setting a new record for being late," Jason said. "She's probably at home sick or something."

"I doubt she's actually sick," Kagami said.

"What? Why's that?"

"Well, in all the time I've known her she never gets sick. It's kind of weird, actually. But she does take days off, because she's good at faking it. Trust me, she probably just wanted an extra day of break."

"I don't know, there have been some summer colds going around again," Miyuki said. "I do hope she feels better soon."

"Hey, you saw her yesterday, didn't you, Jason?" Kagami asked. "How did she seem then?"

Jason looked at her in surprise. "How did you know I saw her yesterday?"

"Just a guess," she said offhandedly.

"Really... Well, I guess she had a bit of a cough. I didn't think it was anything too bad."

"Last night when I called her, she sounded fine," Tsukasa said. "She didn't cough or anything."

"Yeah. Just what I thought," Kagami said. "Anyway, we should probably go over and drop off the work from today. There was a lot of it."

"You're sure you want to go over there?" Jason said. "I mean, she's probably really sick and all, so - "

"Why wouldn't we go visit her? I'm sure it's nothing," Kagami said. "And I mean that literally. I still don't think there's anything wrong with her."

"Yeah... I guess you're right. We should call her first, though, and let her know we're coming over." This was exactly what he had been afraid of.

"I'd like to see how she's doing, too," Miyuki said. "I'll come along with you, if you don't mind."

"Sure... that would be... just fine," Jason said.

Although at the time it seemed like a good idea, Konata was finding herself unable to just lie in bed all day. She couldn't just go to sleep. And on top of that, she was starting to feel hungry... Not for blood, of course. She may be a vampire, but it was only for a day, Jason was going to find out how to cure it and she would be fine. Or at least she hoped so. She was going to eat something normal, like... instant ramen, maybe. That sounded good.

It looked sunny outside, though she still had the curtains drawn. On any other day, that would be pleasant, she wouldn't mind spending some time outside enjoying the fresh air. But today she had a very legitimate fear of bursting into flames, or... something. She left the curtains closed and carefully walked around the small pool of sunlight they let shine through.

She was beginning to wonder what the appeal of vampires was. Everyone thought they were so cool in anime and manga, but... She was really beginning to feel sick now, on top of all the other things she had to worry about. Sunlight. Her newly-acquired pale appearance and fangs. Not to mention she no longer had a pulse, and she would stop breathing if she wasn't consciously telling herself to do so.

But on the other hand, the only alternative would have been to die back there last night, so this was better than that. A little. Maybe.

"Oh, Konata, you're up," her dad said when she walked into the kitchen. "You feeling any better?"

"Not much..." she said quietly, with no expression. "I was just going to get something to eat..."

"Tell me if you need anything, okay?"

"Yeah..."

Konata managed to drag herself over to the cupboard and find some noodles. Her only thought was how hungry she was feeling... When was the last time she had eaten anything? Since... yesterday at lunch? That wasn't too long ago, was it? Not as long as it felt...

"I'm going to take this to my room," she said. "You really don't need to check up on me... I'm fine."

"If you say so..." her dad replied. "You sure you don't need to see a doctor or something? You don't look so good."

Konata stopped. "No. That's not... You really don't need to do that. This should be gone before long. I'm really not feeling that sick, actually."

Konata took her lunch out of the microwave and went to her room. She turned on the lights, it seemed like artificial light was safe at least. She set the noodles down to cool, and found a dating sim to play for a while. There were so many piled up now, left unplayed. She was just too busy now. After a while she tried the noodles, and...

They tasted awful. She almost choked. It was similar to what she would imagine eating dirt would taste like.

The expiration date was still a long way off. There wasn't anything wrong with the food itself, it was just...

"I can't even eat regular food?" Konata said to herself. "Man, this sucks..."

She was still feeling hungry.

After school that day, they met at the train station to go to Konata's house. Jason got out his phone.

"I'll call her first and tell her we're coming," he told the others as he dialed her number. She would need a fair warning in advance, this could potentially turn out very badly... He wondered how Konata had been doing today, making sure her dad didn't find out what was wrong with her. Anyhow, it was about to get worse.

The phone on the other end rang a few times. Would she pick up - ?

"Jason? Did you find out what you need to get yet?" How impatient of her.

"Oh, hey, Konata! You feeling better?" He sounded very casual. Kagami was watching closely, although she couldn't hear what Konata was saying.

"No... You know I'm not feeling better. In fact, it's a lot worse. What are you doing, anyway?"

"Yeah, we thought we'd pay you a visit. Me, Tsukasa, Miyuki, Kagami... You don't mind, do you? We've got today's homework and everything..."

"What?" Suddenly Konata understood. "Everyone is coming over here? Why did you... Uh... I think this should be okay, but don't stay too long. I think I can manage for a little while, at least."

"Sounds good. We'll be over there in a bit." He hung up. Turning to everyone else, he said, "She said she's not feeling good, but it's fine if we want to visit for a while. She sounded pretty bad."

"Really?" Kagami was surprised. "She's not faking it this time?"

"I'm interested to see what Izumi-san's house is like. I've never been there before," Miyuki said.

"Yeah, neither have we," Tsukasa said. "Come on, let's go."

"So you must be Konata's friends from school. Come on in," Sojiro said.

"Konata's actually sick this time? That's a first," Kagami said, still surprised.

"Thanks for having us over, Mr. Izumi," Jason said. Sojiro looked at him strangely.

"You're a boy..." he said. "Konata didn't say anything about a boy coming over..."

"Really? That's surprising, we've been friends for a while now, since about the beginning of the year actually - "

"What?" Sojiro was shocked, for no readily discernible reason. "Listen, kid, if you do anything to hurt my daughter, so help me I will - "

Jason backed off. "I understand, don't worry. We're just friends. That's all it is. Nothing to worry about."

"Hmm... of course," Kagami said quietly to herself.

They heard a door open and soon Konata had come into the room. "Oh, hey guys, you're here... Thanks for coming. You really didn't have to..."

"Kona-chan, you don't look so good! Are you feeling alright?" Tsukasa said. Not looking so good? That was putting it lightly - Konata really wasn't her usual energetic self. Her skin was pale, especially in contrast with her dark hair and dark grey shirt. Tsukasa didn't like to think this way of her best friend, but... she almost looked scary, somehow.

"I guess I feel about as terrible as I must look. You probably shouldn't stay too long. I'd hate if you caught this," Konata replied. "No idea what it is, but it could be contagious, you know?"

"That's probably a good idea," Jason said. "We'll just stay a few minutes and be on our way."

They followed Konata into her room. It was very dark, the curtains hadn't been opened to let the sunlight in - but then she turned on the lights. "The sun's been giving me a headache. Too bright," she explained.

"Goodness, you really don't know what you came down with?" Miyuki said. "This seems much worse than just a summer cold. I do hope you're feeling better soon."

"Wow, I just thought you were faking it again... But I think you came down with something serious," Kagami said. "By the way, we brought you the homework for today."

Konata took the stack of papers. "Oh... you... really didn't have to," she said in full honesty as she looked through the difficult math problems.

Tsukasa noticed that Konata was always looking down at the ground when she spoke. She wasn't making eye contact, and she kept mumbling... "Are you sure you're okay, Kona-chan? You haven't seen a doctor or anything..."

"No, I don't need a doctor," Konata suddenly looked up at her, eyes wide. Tsukasa wondered... Had they... changed color? No, it was just the light. They looked more red than dark brown in this light for some reason. "Besides..." she looked down again, composing herself. "That would mean I would have to go out in the sunlight, and it's still too bright. I wouldn't be able to open my eyes to see anything out there."

"That sounds terrible..." Miyuki said.

"I'm sure I'll be fine before long," Konata said, with a slight glance towards Jason. "It's probably nothing."

They talked some more for about half an hour, before Konata spoke up again. "I'm feeling... a little tired, so maybe you guys should get going. I think I'll go back to bed for a while, actually."

"Yeah. We probably should leave," Jason agreed.

"Hope you're feeling better, Kona-chan," Tsukasa said. She still couldn't tell what it was about Konata that seemed so strange today... It wasn't just the illness, she seemed to have an entire different aura around her. But it was probably just Tsukasa's imagination, nothing more than that...

The day couldn't possibly get any stranger, so Konata was reading a manga about what she and her friends had done a few months ago. The surrealistic feeling it gave her almost distracted her from the bigger problem of the day.

So Lucky Star really was just a collection of random conversations between Konata and her friends. What else did they do, though? That was all there was to it, all that was available to write a manga of... So this guy, Yoshimizu Kagami (Konata couldn't help but notice what an interesting coincidence that name was), really believed he just made up all of it. And the people who read it thought it was all made up. Well, Konata had felt the same way about manga and anime until just a few weeks ago.

And yet Konata realized another question was coming up in her mind. Really it had always been present, just hiding in the back somewhere, never coming out into the open.

What did Eclipse see in her?

Sure, she was athletic, smart despite what her grades said, and had an impressive knowledge of different universes that she had previously believed fictional. But other than that, she was just a regular high school girl. She was short and seemed young for her age. She wasn't popular, just had a small group of close friends. Nothing especially fantastic about her.

Then there were the other members. Joshua, the lightning-fast swordsman. Kamina, who was... well, the legendary Kamina of Team Dai-Guren. And now Alucard, who was pretty much invincible.

Where did Konata fit into this?

Konata was lying awake in bed at about midnight. She was supposed to go to sleep, but... that was what humans did. She wasn't human anymore, she was meant to be awake right now, wasn't she? The thought was troubling.

The phone rang, and just as she had hoped, it was Jason. She answered eagerly.

"So you found it?" she asked. Whatever "it" may be.

"Yeah. You remember our meeting spot, right? Go there now. We'll have this all sorted out," he said. Suddenly Konata was feeling a lot better. This was all going to work...

She headed outside. Now that it was dark she didn't have to worry about sunlight. That had been a real pain. And all of it... avoiding sunlight, her fangs, everything... Nobody had noticed any of it? That was an incredible stroke of luck. Not just because the organization required her to keep it all secret, but also because if her friends had found out she was technically dead... That would have been a real nightmare.

Konata approached the spot they had agreed on, where she found Jason waiting on a bench. He saw her and smiled. She ran to meet him.

"Okay, where is it? I want this to all be over right now," she said.

"Hold on a second..." A flask of cloudy purple liquid appeared in his hand. There must have been about two liters of it. "Drink this."

"What is that? Where did it come from?" Konata asked.

"Trust me on this, you'd rather not know. But this will cure the vampirism."

Konata barely hesitated to uncork the bottle and drink... but nearly spat it out once it touched her lips. "I'm going to be sick..." It had tasted somewhat like she would imagine bleach to be like. Possibly worse. "Are you... sure this is even edible?"

"You either drink all of this, or you'll need to start drinking blood before long," Jason said.

That second option didn't sound so bad - but then Konata realized just what she was considering. That had seemed like a good idea? And it still did, even as she thought about it... And that was really scary. She braced herself and drank all of it. She almost gagged halfway through, but managed to swallow the entire potion.

"So... is that it?" She felt her neck to check for a pulse, but there still wasn't one. Her teeth were still the same. "I don't feel any different."

"Trust me. It'll work... Just give it some time, okay?" Jason told her. "You should be feeling normal in about... oh, six hours. By the time you wake up tomorrow."

Sure enough, when Konata woke up the next morning, she first noticed her teeth. Back to the normal human shape. And she was breathing. It felt good to do that again. Her skin was its usual color. She was alive. Whatever that horrible potion had been, it had helped. As of yet, there were no side effects, either. It probably hadn't been bleach after all.

It had almost been too easy. And... more importantly, nobody had suspected anything more than just a regular disease. She should probably keep it up today, though - a few coughs here and there, complain about slight headaches, but still feeling well enough to go to school.

She now realized. Being part of Eclipse wasn't just a game. If she wasn't careful, this could happen again - or worse, she could actually die next time. This was all real. It wasn't an anime, her survival wasn't guaranteed. But at least this time, things had turned out alright. For just this one occasion.

Konata got up and put on her school uniform. Life goes on.