Period 53: Blog of God

Period 53: Blog of God
Period	53
Volume	14
Previous	Period 52: Ghost Tunnel
Next	Period 54: True Intention Candy

Blog of God is the 53rdchapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series. It's the second chapter in the 14th volume.

Premise[]

Kanna doesn't stand out, but when she decides to start up a blog at her friends urging, she finds the key to popularity.

Yomi's Introduction[]

Yomi is working on her blog and she introduces the Readers to it, explaining how one is the focus of today's story.

Summary[]

In class, everyone is getting back their test scores when Kanna's teacher suggests she try harder because she's but an average student. Kanna isn't very surprised as her friends, Mai and Midori approach to see how she did. As they are admired by their fellow classmates -Mai being very smart, while Midori is good at sports- she thinks about how ridiculously average she is. In her twelve years of living she has never once stood out.

Hearing that the "MikaMika Blog" has updated today, the trio head to the Computer Room to check it out. Every day Mika brings cuteness to everyone's life as she blogs her daily life; featuring such things as manga and anime, sweets, movies, diary entries, and fashions. The trio admire her latest entry about some cakes she's made, and as usual her blog has received a lot of comments. As of late, blogs are very popular and MikaMika has been ranked #1 for some time. In fact, it's considered to be "a blog of God".

As Kanna remarks on how nice it must be to be noticed this way, Mai suddenly suggests she try to write a blog too. Kanna initially refuses as Mai brings up her hobby of making plush toys. A blog based on that could be really nice, and she can include pictures of them. Midori thinks this is a great idea but Kanna doesn't believe anyone would be interested in that hobby. She remains unsure until they remind her that she can keep the blog a secret for now, and she might stand a chance at popularity; words that cause Kanna to quickly reconsider.

At home, the girls help Kanna set up a blog when she asks what its name should be. One of them suggests Kan-chan's Blog and she agrees, entering it on the website. Then they suggests she write a post, so Kanna uploads a picture of an elephant plush she made recently and types out:

Hello, I'm Kanchan. I've started a blog. My hobby is handicrafts. I make stuff like this.

Kanna observes her first official blog entry but she's not entirely sure if its good since she isn't all that interested in it herself. The girls assure her its fine and promise to check it out every day- and just then she gets a message from someone who asks if its her first blog, then they compliments the stuffed animal. The girls are surprised upon realizing its from MikaMika herself, and watch as she sends another message to request they become friends, offering to put a link of her blog up on her own. Kanna can hardly believe her luck as the girls urge her to hurry up and respond, and she agrees to MikaMika's request.

However, she gets no response back and the girls wonder if she might have left her PC already. They notice the time and decide to get going, asking Kanna to update them after she gets a reply from Mika. Kanna agrees and returns inside, still feeling overwhelmed to have been reached out by someone so popular.

The next day Kanna wracks her brain trying to come up with an idea on what the post when she spots her count of visitors: 11,502. Seeing the large number, she rushes to school to show her friends -and several classmates- as they look to see Mika put up a link so that people could visit Kanna's. While they acknowledge its Mika's doing, they are still very happy for Kanna as she looks to see she's received many comments since yesterday. She finds two that stick out to her from MikaMika in particular:

"Kan-chan, you can become popular. I think you have the talent for it. I'll teach you lots, so let's become popular blogger friends!"

"Rather than just being popular at school, you will have the whole world's attention this way! Let's do our best together!"

Kanna remains perplexed by her sudden attention as she thinks over Mika's words and sees that her viewer count has surpasses 15,000 by now. She begins to wonder if maybe she's good at running a blog when she overhears Mai and Midori consider starting their own up. She shuts the PC down and gets up to leave abruptly, claiming her mom asked her to pick up some things on her way home.

She leaves school to rush straight home, and she hops onto the computer while thinking over what would happen if she became popular. She sends MikaMika a message asking what she should do first, and she suggests that Kanna focuses on easy to understand articles and words others can easily emphasize with. This will make her blog more fun to read. Kanna takes her advice and in no time, her life as a blogger begins. She would take pictures of her creations and post them while writing passionately about the fun she has. She also wrote about other things, such as a manga she really likes.

She spends all night writing back to every comment she gets, and she is displeased realizing morning has come. Before she leaves, she checks the blog ranking list to see hers is currently the #12 most popular as of right now. Kanna remains In disbelief as she recognizes her blog has become more popular then a comedian who runs their own blog, and one dedicated to an idol group she recognizes. She looks on MikaMika's blog to see an entry from her:

My friend has entered the rankings! I'm so happy! Everybody, please send your best wishes to her blog!

Kanna feels very good about herself and she reveals this to the girls after school. However, the girls offer their own ideas for future blog posts, including the multiple rounded three-way rock-paper-scissors game they had recently. Kanna doesn't believe it would bring in views, reminding them on how posts should be interesting. She decides to head home in order to focus on getting a new post up. Midori and Mai are concerned as they recall her hesitancy in starting a blog before.

At home, Kanna gushes over her newfound popularity while viewing her new comments; not only do the viewers love her plush toys, but its even become a must-read for entire families. She's been wasting time going to school, she gets so much more attention by doing this. While coming to this conclusion, she happens to see a message that particularly stands out:

I love Kan-chan's blog, way more than MikaMika!

Kanna can hardly believe that, especially because in order to be better than Mika, one must be ranked #1 multiple times. Caught up in her popularity and swollen ego, Kanna begins to wonder if it would be possible to overtake MikaMika. She spends the next few days at home to avoid wasting time at school that could be spent working on her blog. She writes about a trip she took recently, and her opinions on a recent movie. Midori and Mai's worry over her means nothing when compared to the 20,000 view count.

But for some reason Mika hasn't been posting lately. Kanna assumes she just goes at her own pace though, so it's nothing to worry about.

One day, Mai calls an irate Kanna to voice their concerns, and while she brushes them off they remain on the phone to say they found a strange rumor on 3CH about MikaMika. The rumor claims she's unidentifiable because nobody's ever seen her, in fact they believe she's the ghost of a girl who killed herself over her internet addiction. Kanna is momentarily startled by this, but she tells the girls it's not worth writing about, then she hangs up after telling them to stop bothering her. She tosses her phone aside and looks to see her views count has reached 53, 871 effectively placing her ahead of MikaMika.

Kanna delightfully rises from the chair while observing the congratulatory messages she's received when she hears a news report on television involving a mysterious death of a young girl- a popular blogger, owner of the MikaMika Blog. Kanna is shocked as she hears the reporter, who goes on to say her corpse was discovered around 11am today, crushed beneath her desk. The PC had still been on. As they make conversation wondering what could have possibly happened, Kanna remains silence until the power suddenly shuts off. She looks in alarm to see her PC is still on, and the mouse starts to move on its own, revealing several new comments she has gotten, with one saying "after MikaMika, it's Kan-chan's role now".

Kanna can barely fathom what this message means as ghosts begin to appear on the screen and leak out of it. Until she dies she must entertain them by writing new posts, words that cause Kanna to collapse realizing that the ghost wasn't MikaMika like the rumor said, but these guys. They must have been forcing Mika to keep writing once she became popular: the only reason she reached out to her was to pass on the role to someone else.

Realizing her popularity was never her own doing, Kanna desperately reaches for her phone. She calls Mai to beg her and Midori for help but neither girl has forgive her cruelty, telling her not to speak to them before hanging up. Surrounded by ghosts, Kanna cries as her world crashes around her.

- - - -

Years pass, and a couple of women discuss the home of a shut-in they are standing near. They feel really bad for her knowing her parents are unable to help her leave her room, even after they tried everything. They wonder what she could possibly be doing.

Within the room, the older and sickly looking Kanna continues typing away.

Yomi's Epilogue[]

As she types on her own computer, Yomi wonders if Kanna will be trapped and forced to keep typing until she dies. She remarks on how comments and sugarcoated lies can be hard to ignore, and she warns the Readers to be careful.

Characters[]

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

On the official popular blog listing, Yomi's blog is placed as 13.
This period has similarities with Period 17: Black Forum:
- The story primarily focuses on a girl obsessed with using social media on her computer.
- In both stories the Protagonist turns on her friends, and someone she knows or heard of is discovered to be dead late in the story.
- The protagonist is targeted by ghosts at the end of the story.