1.16 – Yukiko

Vermilion Strike

Yukiko hovered above the house that she left the students at only two days ago. Or was it yesterday? She wasn’t quite so sure. Days passed so quickly these days, and with the new teaching gig that she got, combined with her agency calling her into places on overtime, it was hard to keep track of when certain events happened.

But she knew that this was the house at least. She remembered the technocratic look of it, something that even she envied, though she probably could buy something of similar value. Time constraints wouldn’t allow her to really be involved in the process of building it, however.

The two students were in the backyard and were bickering about something that she couldn’t hear. She had better hearing than most, yes, but that didn’t help. From this far away from those two, she would have seemed like a dot in the sky. If they looked in her direction, that is.

The two seemed to go back and forth and the male student, Nathan, as Yukiko came to discover, was doing something with a rock that he picked up. Her interest was piqued more than it was before.

They rushed into a full-blown crime scene, trying to help.

Because of them, that one student, back in the agency hospital, lived to see another day. The only survivor of the bomb attacks that happened today.

She knew that this was out of protocol, that she shouldn’t be here, and yet these two deserved to know that they helped, right? Back when she herself started as Vermilion Strike, she would have liked to know that her antics actually saved someone. Surely they would need a mood boost after what they’ve seen today. Scratch that, they would need it for sure.

So much blood. The memory still made her stomach rise when she thought about it and these two were students without any training, without any experience.

She came toward the ground, letting herself down slowly, though not too slowly. Nathan was just about to do an attack, but he stopped.

She interrupted him just as he was about to unleash whatever he had been doing. Not that she wasn’t interested—she was, far more than she would have liked to admit. But it would be more interesting if she found a different way for him to test his abilities.

The records showed that this man in particular was placed into F class only because his ability was too unclear on what it could do. Some of the committee placed him there because it seemed unpredictable or undefined, but Yukiko wondered what exactly was going through their heads when they made the assessment. It was clear that his ability would grow far more powerful than most heroes of the world, at least if he got a chance to hone it.

“Hey there, students.” She swiped her eyes from one to the other. Both seemed surprised at the fact that she was here. Boo. She liked them! Hopefully they’d come to learn that she wasn’t scary or anything of the sort.

Nathan seemed not pleasantly surprised though, as if he was battling with a fight or flight instinct. She knew the look, saw it many a time. What was he afraid of? Yukiko would never hurt him, or do him any other harm. He was one of her precious students.

“Miss Strike! I am… happy… to see you?” Nathan mumbled, confirming some of Yukiko’s worries. The young man had something against her, some pre-disposition though she didn’t understand. Why?

But as she usually did, she played it off with humor.

“Was that a question? I certainly hope not, cause I am happy to see you too.” She accentuated the last part slowly, pointing her finger between Nathan and Alicia. She did like seeing them both do well, honestly! They were so cute, these two. She wondered whether they were dating. The fact that he lived here made her question that a bit.

Some of the students seemed to take being a superhero as their sole goal in life, and though she didn’t think that these two were without that ambition, it was nice to see twenty-year-olds just be twenty-year-olds. She continued talking to them and as much as she hated to admit it she actually really liked these two. They were just natural at talking, and the atmosphere that those two had going made it easy to join in their bickering.

For a moment, she almost forgot that she was almost ten years older than these two, but then she remembered her original goal for coming here. Well, the second original goal.

And so she asked him to hit her with the ability that he was winding up. He genuinely seemed to be concerned for her, making that strange look that he gave her when she arrived even stranger. She would actually have to force him to use it.

He was a first-year student. No matter how powerful he thought he was, it surely wasn’t enough to hurt her too badly. As far as she understood it, his ability needed time to grow in power and that meant that right now he just wouldn’t be that powerful.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Even if he was one of those who awakened their power early, that would still give him what, two years with the ability? And that was very, very unlikely in the first place.

“I can’t just fire on a lady that stands still, defenseless.”

A slight blush hit her cheeks as she nodded. So he took her for a woman. How surprising! Or maybe not so much. Yukiko was fully aware of the effect that her costume had on some of the men. It was why her agency chose this costume after all, as much as she hated it.

But the comment took her aback for a second. It was just so pure.

Snap back out of it, Yukiko. He’s a student, for God’s sake! “How gentlemanly, but I wanted to see the ability.”

“As I’ve said about five times by now, you could just move to the side and I’ll fire at the tree.”

The other student, Alicia, punched him in the shoulder after she told him that he could do no such thing. Oh she was sooooooooooooooo cute.