1.17 – Who the hell wants to go to school anyway

The rest of the week passed in a blur. Nathan didn’t even realize, yet suddenly it was Sunday already, and he felt wholly unprepared for the next week.

They had all of their classes cancelled, to nobody’s surprise. Nathan received the email on the Tuesday evening and was conflicted about what it had shown.

Apparently, superheroes didn’t sleep, and so he would get to do all the things that he would have to learn in class all by himself. That included one part, which he had forgotten about completely: creating his own superhero costume. Much like his former New York self, he obviously forgot about doing so until this very day.

Or maybe he hasn’t forgotten, but he might have simply decided that he could wait a day longer. And the day after that. Aaaaand also the day after that.

Now it was Sunday, and he had not even begun charting the design for his costume. It was a bit silly. He knew that. The superhero costume was something that would represent him, and he should just go with his gut. But he must have lacked his damn intestines, because his gut told him nothing.

Superhero costumes, as cool as they were in comics, were kind of silly when he imagined himself wearing one. Most of the other students also fit the costume they had worn for their abilities, but Nathan’s abilities would change as time went on.

And so Nathan was sitting on the small patio behind Alicia’s home once again, watching the sun fall beyond the horizon, and he was still nowhere nearer the final product of what he needed to hand in by this night.

The costumes were supposed to be done on tomorrow somehow, and the students would from then on only train in these costumes. They needed to get approved first. Checked if there are any copyrights and whether they were too revealing. Alicia at least claimed that it was a common problem amongst female and male students both. Everyone seemed to like showing their skin a bit too much. Wasn’t Japan meant to be a conservative country? But superheroes and supervillains changed that, apparently.

“You done with it yet?” Alicia strolled onto the patio, clothed in a flowy black dress with purple flowers patterned all around it. It was far more girly than any other outfit he had seen on her, but it fit her nicely.

He would never tell her that.

This last week, he and Alicia have come to develop a friendship of some sorts. Most of the time, after the first two days were over, they haven’t talked much, but already he was getting used to her presence, and he could see that the same could be said for her.

She, as he had deduced during their first meeting, was an explosive sort; the kind of person to explode upon Nathan if something went wrong, just as quick to praise him if she liked something he had done. Like preparing coffee for her in the morning as an example. He had done it out of convenience; he had already boiled the water for his, so why not prepare a cup for her as well? But she seemed genuinely appreciative of even such a small gesture.

She was strange in many ways, and already he had seen far more facets of her personality that he even thought were possible. She was a true human now, not an evil game character, and to his own surprise, he was beginning to like her as a person.

“No, I haven’t even started.” He answered her question, leaning on the soft chair, watching the sky. A superhero had flown above once this day. He hadn’t recognized that one, but it was mostly because he simply didn’t see that far. “I haven’t got a slightest idea on what to do.”

“Nate, I finished the first design on Wednesday, and I got my complete costume ready by Friday. How are you planning to do it in just a few hours?”

“I guess somebody here never did things last minute.”

“No.” She scoffed. “No, because adults don’t do things last minute; adults take the task given to them and complete it as soon as possible so they can sleep for a bit longer. Also, surely you would be feeling better about yourself if you didn’t have a huge task ahead of you for the whole weekend. You could have been completely worry-free.”

“Maybe.” He gruffed. “Still… no idea means no idea.”

“Okay, again, what does your ability do?”

“Two parts: I store momentum. The other is that I can aim projectiles thrown at a certain target, even if they move away. I change abilities as I grow older.”

“Okay, that sounds kind of generic but useful. It seemed to do wonders in our fight against Vermilion Strike, at least.”

That it had. His hand still hurt from the impact. She flew him into a private hospital and had a superhero heal him. It felt as good as new.

He remembered how Vermilion Strike looked at him that day. Nathan hadn’t expected so much momentum to be released, the amount of impact that he could output, but neither had Strike.

She excused herself shortly after bringing him back, and Nathan hadn’t seen her since. Hopefully she wasn’t mad. She didn’t appear to be seriously hurt, at least. She was just stunned.

“It does sound useful, but it doesn’t really signal one type of outfit to me.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Nathan still hadn’t told her of his full ability, not because he wanted to keep it a huge surprise. He simply hadn’t told her because he could already imagine the expression of complete shock on her face once he used a different ability sometime in the future. He’d be changing them soon, and she’d realize age wasn’t the factor. He hadn’t activated his newest quest after the last time, not even once, and so his expectations were sky high for what came next. If only the quest was less cryptic.

“Well, then just choose something generic. Pick your favorite color and design a cool outfit that you can imagine yourself being represented in.”

“You do know that most superheroes change their outfits, right? Did you read the notes that the teachers had us read?”

“Are you seriously asking me, of all people, if I went over the material we were supposed to review? You? Yes, I did read it, and I do know, but still, this will be your first outfit. It should be something that you will remember and something that you want others to remember you by.”

That was the truth, but it still made the answer no clearer.

A shadow fell upon Nathan and Alicia, a familiar shape on the wooden boards of the patio. He already knew what he’d see once he looked up: the scarred face of Vermillion Strike, who was waving at them as she lowered herself to the ground. She held a bottle of beer in her hand.

Unlike the last few times, he didn’t feel stress; really, she didn’t evoke that in him now, and it probably wasn’t because of the fact that he had, by technicality, won the duel. He simply didn’t fear her anymore because he had accepted the fact that this wasn’t the game anymore. At least somewhat.

“Vermilion Strike, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Nathan asked, returning the wave.

“Oh, nothing much, you two. Just decided to check on my two favorite students, and to see if you two have recovered. You’re prepared for school tomorrow, I hope?”

“Is that standard protocol?”

“Doesn’t appear to be,” Alicia remarked absent-mindedly.