This World

by Lee, TD

  Not too long after a loud song plays. Appearing all over the stage is the dance club of school. Do all assemblies consist of dancing as an opener? Not saying the dance club is bad, they’re actually pretty good. I just think it’s interesting. They’re all in close sync with each other, but most of them are amateur at best. The dance club even has a superpowered person who they take advantage of as they fly high into the air and basically do the same dance, but in the air.

  When the dance ends, the principal walks onto the stage. The principal is a scarily large man in both stature and appearance. He’s huge and also looks like a wild lion. His hair is wild, yet he’s wearing a really nice suit. The strangest thing about the principal is that his large hands kind of look like sharp claws, like a lion. The principal has also had a weird history of being a principal. He was somehow brainwashed by a student of a different school to try to rule the country. However, his son stopped him and snapped him back to “normal.”

  The principal taps on the microphone attached to a podium and speaks, “Let’s all give a round of applause for the dance club for that wonderful performance.” Every student does indeed applaud. “Hello everyone. Today, I have you all gathered here because there are a couple of announcements. The first, is the school festival will be happening again this year as it was a hit last year. It is set to happen next Friday, so all clubs best be prepared for the event. Next, we have a couple of hero announcements. One, we have Marlene Darnell who will be transferring to Destiny Point High School as the Ultimate Biologist. Let’s all give her our support as she makes the big move.”

  Marlene walks out onto the stage. She’s a larger girl, but she does look extremely smart. I don’t what it is, but something about her is intimidating in some way. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s so much smarter than me to the point she’s transferring to the school filled with talented students.

  “Second, she has been here for weeks now, but did not properly introduce her. We have the pleasure of having Ainia Freeman. She is also known as Cutlass and has worked closely with many famous superheroes all around the world.” Ainia, a classmate of mine, walks onto the stage. She’s very fit, which is understandable considering she has been a superhero for so long and has been on tons of notable teams. But Ainia total attitude looks annoyed and frustrated with the situation she’s in. She’s tapping her foot impatiently.

  “Last, we have the new Mobile Knight of the Round Table pilot, Hiro Watanabe.” Hiro’s a what? He’s going to be a what? What? What? Whaaaaaaat? He walks out onto stage with a smile. “He will be piloting the Mobile Knight Lancelot. Please give all three of these wonderful students a round of applause as well as your support as they all will have stressful jobs ahead of them.”

  I hear a couple of students around me whisper, “Hiro’s a pilot?”

  “I guess that’s cool, but what happened to Lancelot’s old pilot? Hiro’s just a replacement right? I really like Lancelot’s old pilot.”

  “Me too! Why couldn’t they just have Hiro be another mech’s pilot? Lancelot’s old pilot was so cool!”

  “And of all of the Mobile Knights he gets Lancelot. Lancelot is like the best Mobile Knight there is before Arthur came around.”

  Aw man, screw these people. They should be happy for a fellow student for being a hero.

  The students all cheer and applaud. The three students on stage move off stage and I can definitely see the smile that Hiro had. “With all of that announced, please have a safe weekend. And now, let’s enjoy a performance by the Magic club!” the principal leaves the stage only to be replaced by a puff of smoke and several people dressed in magician wear.

  I can’t even focus on the magic show happening on stage. Hiro is a pilot of a Mobile Knight. Why didn’t he just tell me that? Or did he want me to come to this assembly so I would find out this way? Him being part of the Mobile Knights makes a lot of sense as to why him and Sadie are talking, but it doesn’t explain why they’re so awkward around each other though. Seriously, why are they so awkward with each other? They’re teammates.

  After the assembly is over, I move back into the hallway, but I wait for Hiro wherever he might show up. A bunch of students are surrounding Marlene, all of them congratulating her and saying that they’ll miss her. Other students surround Ainia, she has a very professional approach to her which is probably why so many of the students surrounding her aren’t being that loud. However, around Hiro is a mass of loud students as they all hug and cheer for the guy. A wide smile is on his face as he tries to talk to everyone. Hiro finally made it. He’s a hero now. It definitely shows too.

  Hiro and I make eye contact through the crowd and he somehow makes his way over to me. As soon as he gets to me, I immediately interrogate him, “What!? You’re a pilot for the Mobile Knights? How come you didn’t tell me? When did you find out?”

  He starts rubbing the back of his neck again. The words slowly start coming, “I uh. I just thought that you didn’t want to know.”

  “Didn’t want to know? Why wouldn’t I want to know?”

  “Well, you do say that I talk too much about superhero stuff and just that you don’t really like that stuff anyway so-”

  "So nothing! My best friend is a superhero, you achieved your lifelong dream! You've wanted this since you were a kid, that's awesome!" My arms go to his shoulders and I start shaking vigorously.

  Hiro smiles widely. "Yeah, it is awesome!” There it is, there's the happy Hiro that I know.

  I put my arm around his shoulders and we start walking. “We’ll have to celebrate! What do you want? The usual place? Something different maybe?”

  “Uh, well, I’ve heard of this restaurant called Gourmet Duel that sounds pretty-”

  Hiro’s interrupted by a student whose most distinguishable feature is the sheathed sword at his hip, “Nice to have such a cool guy like you be part of our ranks now.” Surrounding this guy is a whole squad of other students each equipped with a different weapon and hair color. My whole arm gets pushed off of Hiro only to be replaced by this guy’s arm.

  “Uh, excuse-”

  I’m interrupted by another one of these weapon guys, this guy in particular has a bow and fully-loaded quiver on his back, “Hey, we’ll have to celebrate! We’re friends after all. My treat!”

  One of the girls among this squadron places her hand on Hiro’s shoulder, purring, “It’ll be fun.” Her fingers slowly glide down the side of Hiro’s face and caress his jaw.

  “Um, y-yeah, sounds fun,” Hiro replies nervously, looking away from the girl. This is unlike him. Normally when Hiro is interacting with any super people at school, he would be the really excited guy who is in fanboy mode. Most super people just ignore him or try to shoo him off quickly. But right now, Hiro doesn’t look like he knows what to do with this attention. Could it be that only now that Hiro is a hero that super people are actually going to try to talk to him? “B-but I already-”

  “Yeah! You free right now? We can go to Karaage’s place! They serve really good food and it’ll all be on him!” the bow guy says, guiding Hiro and the squadron towards the exit.

  Karaage, a guy who’s equipped with hatchets, exclaims, “What? No, you still have to pay for your tab you have!” For a brief second though, Hiro and I make eye contact and it looks like he’s nervous. Hiro gets pulled and dragged by the squadron all the way out the doors.

  Rude.

  Well, I guess I can ask Hiro about that restaurant he wanted to go to later. But I honestly still can’t believe that he didn’t tell me about being a pilot earlier. What was that weird thing about him not wanting to tell me because I’m not interested in superhero stuff? That’s a really strange jump to conclusions. Whatever, I know now though and it’s pretty cool. My best friend, a pilot for the Mobile Knights of the Round Table. The guy finally made it as a hero and that’s pretty damn awesome. I wonder if he gets any special discounts or anything for being a hero. That’d be convenient, especially with food.

  Since that sq
uad of people pretty much kidnapped Hiro from me, I should just head home. I’ll be able to celebrate with the guy this weekend of something. When I exit through the school doors, Sadie stops me. Her eyes examine me from head to toe. Why is she doing this? She doesn’t seem like the quiet girl that sits next to me that I always that she was.

  “Uh, can I help you with something?” I ask. Almost any direction I try to move around her, she’ll just step in front of me.

  She leans in a little closer to me which only makes me instinctually lean back. “I don’t get it,” she mutters backing up a bit, “you’re nothing special, not important, not a hero. So why, why does he choose to be around you?” Her fingers touch her chin as she furrows her brows in thought.

  “Wow, rude,” I respond instantly. I’m not really offended though, considering those are all things I already know about myself. Just hearing it from someone else rubs me the wrong way a bit.

  “Just, who are you?” she murmurs quietly to herself. What’s with that question? “Listen, Hiro is a great guy so you better not do anything to harm him!” she says aggressively. What happened to that shy looking girl earlier today who was blushing whenever she looked at Hiro? This is like the polar opposite. “I mean it, he’s great so you better be nice to him!”

  My brows automatically furrow in confusion to her words. Again, why is she doing this? “Believe me, I know. I’ve known the guy for a long time now, so you don’t have to tell me something that I’ve known for a long time now.”

  Her face becomes quizzical, as she says, “How much do you know about him?”

  “What?”

  “How much do you really know about him? He claims you’re his best friend, yet I’m getting a vibe from you that you don’t know as much as you think you do.” Her words are so blunt, it’s almost as if she’s trying to agitate me on purpose. “You really don’t know him do you?”

  “What do you think you know? You only started talking to him, from what I can tell, today. If anything, you’re probably only talking to him because he became a superhero and is your teammate now. Where were you before then huh?” Uh oh, I’m starting to get a little aggro myself, but how could I not? She keeps harping on me about Hiro. And it’s so sudden too! What the flying Hell is up with her?

  She’s immediately taken aback by what I said, almost as if I hurt her. A shocked expression forms on her face as she slowly murmurs, “I-I.” The serious expression returns. “Whatever! Just be good to him okay?” Before I can reply, she walks off on her own.

  A long sigh escapes my lips. Seriously, what the flying Hell was that? Whatever, I should just start heading home. But as I’m on my way home, I can’t help but think about what she was saying. Just remembering what Sadie said is heating me up. How much do I know about Hiro? I know a lot! Right? I’ve known him for years. Sure I might tune the guy out every so often because of his superhero talk, but I do know stuff about him. His favorite color, his favorite superhero, Hell I even know his favorite brand of deodorant. What’s with Sadie? Before today, she never talked to me or Hiro. Now that Hiro is a hero she’s talking to him a lot and berating me. What’s happening? I’m not directly involved with Hiro’s involvement with being a hero, yet it seems like people are making it seem like it is.

  As I’m walking, I feel my phone buzz. A text from Hiro pops up, reading:

  Sorry about that Ridley! I just kinda got dragged. . . (-.-) Lol

  But there’s a place called Gourmet Duel that sounds really good if you’re ok with going there.

  I reply quickly:

  whatever u want man. i’ll look in2 it n make reservations for tmrw

  He answers back:

  Sounds good! Lemme know! =]

  After receiving the text, I start looking up the restaurant on my phone. So, this restaurant has chefs that are from some prestigious culinary school. Wait, most of these chefs are still students from this culinary school? What!? These chefs are younger than I am!? The more I discover about these super people in one way or another, the more my self-esteem starts to lower. Outside of these chefs being supposedly amazing, another main feature of the restaurant are these duels they have as chefs. Apparently if one chef challenges another chef, they duke it out in the kitchen under certain restrictions, ingredients, and/or rules to see who is the superior chef. This supposedly happens on the daily. Some of these reviews about the restaurant are really interesting. One review writes, “Your clothes will be blown away with deliciousness!” Why clothes though? Most people say senses or taste buds, not clothes. Overall, this place has a really good reputation and reviews going for it. The prices aren’t too high either, so it’s definitely within my budget. Perfect. Just gotta make that reservation and I’m golden. Reservations are done in time slots rather than just having a table. So I pretty much have to reserve a specific time slot that’s available.

  I finish making the reservation when I go through my house door. Someone is humming happily to themselves in the living room. “Hey mom,” I say walking by the living room. With the brief peek of the living room, I can see she’s crocheting as she’s watching some movie on TV.

  “Hello Ridley, how was school?” she asks loudly.

  Before I make my way upstairs to my room, I answer, “Same old, same old.” I set all of my stuff down when I get into my room. My whole body just plops down onto my bed and refuses to move. It’s interesting just how comfortable your bed feels after being away from it for so long. I haven’t even changed yet, but I really don’t wanna get up.

  I catch myself dozing off and decide to change into something more comfortable. Calling me from downstairs is my mom projecting her voice, “Ridley, come here!”

  Damn, I kinda wanna take a nap, but she might have me do some chores or something. My feet drag their way all the way down the stairs. I pop my head into the living room to find that she’s no longer watching a movie, but the news program. Huh, another broadcast about this superhero crime thing? On screen is the blurred crime scene, but what I can make out is a long sword poking out of a white bed and, what I can assume, a pixelated body. Sure seems like it’s that time of year where crimes are on the rise again. Normally crimes like these die down or just don’t get broadcasted, but maybe there’s more to it this time around? Eh, whatever. Not my problem.

  “The earlier news story says that there’s a new pilot for the Mobile Knights named Hiro. Is that our Hiro?” my mom asks, although it seems like she’s paying way more attention to the crochet needles and yarn in her hands.

  “Yeah, I just found out today at school. They had an assembly for it and everything,” I answer. Hell, even the news is telling people now too? I mean, I guess it makes sense so civilians can know who their defenders and protectors are.

  My mom smiles as she says, “That’s wonderful! I always knew Hiro would make it big someday and look at him, a pilot for the Mobile Knights. You tell him that I’m proud of him for achieving his dreams.”

  “Will do mom, although I’m sure his parents have been telling him nonstop about how proud they are of him.” It only makes sense right? If anyone, other than me, knows how much Hiro wanted to be a hero, it would definitely be his own parents. I wonder how proud they are of Hiro. Hopefully, very proud considering the guy did achieve his dreams after all.

  As soon as I’m about to leave the living room, my mom says, “Oh by the way.” There it is. “Can you go and get some milk? I want to make some congratulatory cupcakes for Hiro and the recipe I use needs milk.”

  I sigh deeply. I just wanna nap. “Sure thing mom, be back in a bit,” I say. I don’t even bother changing, my relaxation clothes look normal enough to go out into society. I do grab a jacket first since it’s getting a bit chilly.

  The closest convenience store isn’t too far of a walk from my house. All around me are a bunch of students though considering school just got out for everyone. Some are just hanging out around some stores. Others are walking home, but spend way longer just chatting. It’s a pretty standard
Friday. Now that students don’t have to worry about going to school the next day, they just hang out as much as they can before they get into trouble. Now all that’s missing is…

  “Stop!”

  I’m grabbed from behind, a strong arm wraps around my neck. Something sharp trembles at my neck. I’m pulled all the way around to face two nicely dressed people. One is a woman with shorter auburn dressed in a button-up shirt, black jacket, and skirt. Her eyes are filled with determination as she’s pointing a scary looking gun in my direction. The tall man next to her is dressed in a similar fashion, except he has pants and his shirt is half tucked in. A cigarette hangs from his lips as a small smirk creeps up on his face. He too has a scary looking gun and is pointing it at me. There’s a small crowd of people that are witnessing everything that’s happening.

  The man holding me against my will here is trembling really hard. He can’t even hold the knife steady. “T-take a step closer, I-I will kill-”

  “You got two options here buddy,” the tall man smugly remarks, “one, you can let that person go and we can just take you in. Two, you keep being like this and you lose an arm. If I were you, I’d go with the less painful option.”

  “Please, if you would just settle down, this could be settled in a much peaceful way. Put down the knife and we can move on. You don’t have to do this,” the woman speaks calmly.

  “Y-you, put down your guns first!” the scared man yells angrily.

  I sigh in unison with the tall man, most likely for different reasons. For me, I just want to get to the store and get milk. The tall man is probably just done with this guy. I would be too if I had his job. This tall guy and lady are part of a small law enforcement organization called the Adjudicators. The scary gun they have is famously known as the Revelator, it has the ability to scan a person’s psyche and predict their behaviors even before the person takes them. With the Revelator, the Adjudicators work in a way that they are constantly keeping tabs on everyone. While they know the mind or psychological state of everyone in the world, they will only act when the time comes for certain people to act accordingly to those predictions. Honestly, it’s kinda terrifying that we ourselves don’t know our psychological mindset, but an organization does before we do. But, they do what they do pretty well.