This World

by Lee, TD

“Cool! I’m just gonna walk Sadie back to her table and then we can go see if we can talk to Kirika,” he says, taking the lead with Sadie through the crowds of people.

  I don’t know what Mari was talking about. Look at Hiro, he’s being a good friend like he normally is. Maybe she’s gone through that with friends of her own, but not my best friend. He’s great.

  I follow Hiro and Sadie back to the usual spot. Some fans recognize the two and briefly stop them to ask some questions and pictures. I, as a person of unimportance, take their picture. When we make it to Sadie’s table, Hiro kisses her goodbye which causes a bunch of nearby fans to go into an uproar of screams and cheering. He moves towards me with a wide grin on his face. I-is he blushing?

  “C’mon Ridley! Let’s go see your favorite person in the world,” Hiro says, passing by me to take the lead.

  I quickly catch up to him to joke, “I didn’t know those chefs from Gourmet Duel were going to be here.”

  “Well, actually they have a food stand set up outside. Sadie and I went to it on our break. There’s tons of the Gourmet Duel chefs out there just cooking away the day. I think they have competition on which chef can sell the most food,” Hiro remarks with a happy tone and completely subverting my joke.

  “Wait, what? And you didn’t tell me earlier? We have to go after meeting Kirika,” I demand. My hands grab onto Hiro’s shoulders and I shake him. “We. Have. To. Go!”

  Hiro laughs loudly. “Okay, okay!”

  “H-hiro!” a voice calls out for our attention. Cutting in front of us is another fan, this guy is on the shorter and younger side. He looks at Hiro with a wide-eyed expression, like he’s in total awe. In his hand is some sort of book. He holds it out to Hiro asking loudly, “U-um, I know it’s rude for me to ask you while you’re trying to walk around, but c-can you sign my copy of your comic!? I’m l-like your biggest fan!” The cover is a glossy picture of Hiro posing in front of Lancelot’s shadow.

  “It’s okay, I’d be glad to sign it,” Hiro says with a wide smile. He’s really good with the fans isn’t he? He pulls out a marker from a hidden pocket of his suit to quickly sign the inside cover of the comic.

  When Hiro hands back the comic, the fan stares at Hiro’s signature intently. A large grin forms at the fan’s mouth. “Wow, thank you so much!” the fan tightly hugs the comic. “I-is it okay if I ask you a question too?”

  “Of course, go ahead,” Hiro replies.

  “O-oh my God, you’re so nice,” the fan quickly says before asking his actual question, “s-so is it true that you fought off a gang in order to save a girl?”

  “It’s a little more exaggerated in the comic, but for the most part, yeah that really did happen,” Hiro confirms.

  “Wait, what?” I interject. I’ve never heard this story before. I know Hiro can throw down if he needs to, but I’ve never heard him fighting a gang before.

  “It was a couple years back, for some reason they really wanted to add that into the comic. They added a lot of sentences that I never said, but they thought it would sound cool,” Hiro answers me.

  “Th-that’s so cool! I want to be just like you!” the boy says happily.

  Hiro gently ruffles up the fan’s hair as he says with a calm and reassuring tone, “You can do it bud, but don’t get into fights just for the sake of it. Keep that fire in your heart burning.”

  “Y-yes sir!” the fan says before running off into the crowd.

  “I think he’s the first fan that I heard call you by your actual name,” I remark. Hiro smiles gently. “So seriously though, you fought off a gang? Where? When? Why?”

  Hiro starts walking, I follow next to him. “It was a couple years back when we first started hanging out. Nothing major really.”

  “Alright, if you say so,” I say. It’s in the past after all, but I was kinda hoping for an interesting story. “I can’t believe you actually have your own comic now though.”

  Hiro chuckles. “Yeah, I can’t believe it either. When they interviewed me to start the comic off, I thought it was weird since I was so new still. I thought I was just going to be in the Mobile Knights one.”

  “Do the other pilots have their own?”

  “Some do, some don’t. I’m really lucky to have my own,” he explains briefly, “but it’s not a big deal to me. There are some heroes that do a lot of stuff just to have comics made of them.”

  “More exposure for them I guess,” I remark.

  We approach Kirika’s unoccupied booth that weirdly has no people lining up. The Spectral Singer booths next to her are completely crowded with fans despite them being unoccupied as well, yet Kirika’s is empty. Maybe people were here earlier or will be coming, but it’s so weird to see any booth empty of people. It’s a weird contrast compared to her street concert where there were so many people excited to see her.

  Hiro and I stand in front of the table waiting for Kirika to return. There’s a tall speakers standing on the side of the tables, gently playing the song that Kirika sang at the concert. She did perform not too long ago and she probably had to stay for the whole thing. Even though I didn’t stay for the rest of the concert, I know it should’ve ended a couple minutes ago. Looking around, there’s tons of the musical based superheroes or notable people hanging around here. There’s an entire wall dedicated to the Musical Maids decorated with overly cutesy designs, patterns, and pictures. Famous musicians line up next to each other, each booth blasts their more recent songs.

  “Kirika’s manager said that she’ll be here as soon as she can after the concert, so hopefully the wait isn’t too long,” Hiro says as he’s looking around with eyes of wonderment. “How was the concert though? Sorry again that I bailed last minute, I should’ve planned better.”

  “It’s fine. I didn’t stay long anyway,” I reply. My finger rhythmically taps my thigh as I continue to listen to Kirika’ song.

  Hiro looks at me. “Did you only listen to Kirika then left?”

  “Not just Kirika, I also listened to the first song from those Musical Maids,” I answer.

  Hiro chuckles quietly to himself. A grin forms at the edge of his mouth. “Right, right. Classic Ridley.”

  “Hiro!?” a muffled voice calls out from somewhere.

  Hiro rolls up his sleeve a bit to show off a high tech watch. Hiro speaks into it, “What’s up Arthur?”

  “Where are you!? You’re supposed to be at the north lawn for the Mobile Knights shoot!

  A confused tone takes over Hiro’s voice, “I thought that was tomorrow.”

  “It’s obviously not if I’m calling you, dumbass! Now get over here you lazy bastard! Why do I have to remind you of everything!?” Arthur screams through the watch before buzzing out.

  Goddammit not again. Does Hiro really have to leave again? What the shouting hell is up with Arthur too? Couldn’t he just talk to Hiro normally?

  Hiro looks at me apologetically. “S-sorry Ridley. I really thought the shoot was tomorrow. I have to attend it.”

  An agitated sigh escapes my throat. “Do you really have to go? We haven’t hung out at all since I got here.”

  “I know and I really thought I at least planned this out right, but I guess not. I’m so sorry,”

  “Whatever, just go,” I say dismissively.

  “Seriously, I’ll make it up to you. Just stick around and-”

  “I get it, you don’t have to explain anything, just go,” I remark.

  A saddened expression overtakes Hiro’s face as soon as he hears my words. “I really am sorry,” he remarks. He quickly gives me a tight hug before he takes off running.

  How goddamn annoying. I’m only here because of Hiro and yet I can’t even spend time with him. How come he can’t plan this kind of shit out better? If you want to hang out with someone, maybe you should actually set aside time for them. Oh wait, he did and it was for his girlfriend. Maybe Mari’s right, he probably will start forgetting me and hang out with super people. Whatever.

  Well, what do I do no
w? Sure, waiting and meeting Kirika would be cool and all, but I was hoping to do that with Hiro since he’s a fan too. I don’t want to be that person who looks awkward standing by themselves, even though at this exact moment I am exactly that person who looks awkward standing by themselves thinking about how awkward it is that I’m standing by myself. I’m just gonna go home, there’s nothing else left for me to do here. Well, before I go I should stop by the Gourmet Duel area just for the food.

  Before I leave, I hear a familiar voice behind me, “Would you like something?”

  I turn to find Kirika in the flesh. She changed her outfit to be one of a long cardigan over a white button-up shirt. Her pants are black and cling closely to her figure. She loosened her hair to flow freely. There’s no flaw on her skin at all. Maybe it’s makeup, but she looks absolutely stunning in person. Up close, I can see her deep emerald green eyes the stare at me in question.

  “Uh, I, uh,” I ramble. I must look like an idiot being star struck like this. It’s not the fact that it’s Kirika talking to me that’s really getting to me, it’s the fact that she looks so abnormally perfect that it’s hard for me to comprehend.

  “You must be Hiro’s friend, he told me you wanted to meet me.” She speaks with such a mature, and a bit raspy, voice. I’m so used to just hearing her sing that her normal voice took me by surprise. She looks at me with a gentle smile.

  “Er, uh, yeah,” I murmur, slowly approaching her.

  “Well, is there something you would like me to sign or would you like a picture? Unless you simply just want to have a chat,” she maintains her smile.

  I rummage through my bag of free goodies to find the program of the concert. I flip to a random page and place it on the table. “Um, here you go,” I say.

  Kirika quietly chuckles as she takes a pen to quickly sign the page. She hums as she signs the program. “Here you go, I hope you enjoyed the concert.” She pushes the program towards me. Her handwriting is so elegant that it looks like a computer wrote it out rather than a person.

  “I did, er, well I enjoyed what I watched,” I quietly remark. Would it be flattering or rude if I mention that I left after her song?

  She smiles nicely. Whether the smile is something that she practiced a lot to perfect or it’s genuine, her smile is really serene. There’s something oddly peaceful about her smile.

  “Th-thank you,” I stammer, taking the program and putting it back into my bag.

  “May I ask, it seems like you’re struggling with something,” she says before I leave. My eyes unexpectedly meet hers as she stares at me. It feels like she’s staring straight through me, like she knows everything about me and all of my secrets. Yet, her general presence is so calming right now that I’m letting her just analyze me openly. Even my breathing is a little more composed.

  The words slowly come out of my mouth, “U-uh, yeah. But I feel like I should be the one asking you questions.”

  She chuckles quietly again. She leans forward a bit and speaks in a somewhat hush tone, “May I ask why it seems you’re struggling? Maybe I can help?”

  “Oh, well, uh, you don’t have time to really deal with small fries like me. You definitely have way more important things to take care of,” I say. How is she getting this vibe from me? Am I so obvious that it’s just written on my face?

  “I care about all of my fans. I may not understand, but I will certainly do my best to try. And there doesn’t seem to be much of a line for me is there?” she says with a smile. I quickly turn by head to find that there’s still no one lining up to see or talk to Kirika.

  Maybe she’s just bored and wants to kill some time by talking to me, but I really wonder why she’s going through this trouble of asking me about my problem. Then again, is this stupid Hiro thing a problem? Probably not, maybe I’m just getting too emotional about it. Sure, it’s annoying but this is new for Hiro. I should be happy for the guy, not annoyed. Yeah, happy. Be happy.

  “You seem to have calmed down,” Kirika remarks.

  “Er, uh, yeah, I guess I did.”

  “Well, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, I am a stranger after all. But you have people there for you, whether you know it or not. Take it from me, you may feel alone in this world, but you’ll always have someone,” she speaks with such wisdom that it makes it seem like she’s way older than she actually is. “What’s your name, by the way?”

  “R-Ridley.”

  “Ridley, it was nice to meet you. I hope whatever problem you have, you get it sorted out soon.” She smiles at me, almost as if she’s triumphant. It’s like she knew that I kinda just sorted things out in my head. She reaches her hand out for a handshake.

  I reach for her hand and we exchange a gentle handshake. “R-right, yeah. Um, thanks again for the signature, have a good one,” I say before I leave the table.

  That was definitely an interesting moment with Kirika. Didn’t think such a big name superhero like her would even pay attention to someone like me like that. She’s cool. She carries herself differently compared to other heroes. She’s a lot more down to earth. Hiro’s the same way. Even though he’s a hero now, the guy is just as he was. I feel like I should apologize to the guy. I pull out my phone getting ready to send a quick text. Hmm. On second thought, maybe I should apologize in person instead since he’s probably going to be too busy today. Yeah, next time we hang out, I’ll just talk to him. It’s not like he’s a hard guy to talk to either.

  I wander my way through the show floor and into long hallways. Is it just me or does it seem like there’s even more people in this building now? It’s so crowded in some areas that it takes me a couple minutes just to get through because I’m just trapped in a vortex of sweaty attendees. All I’m trying to do is get to where the Gourmet Duel people are. Some good food sounds nice. Now if only these people will just move out of the way, I’ll get to the food!

  After what seemed to feel like an eternity, I finally make it to the lawn where the Gourmet Duel people are. The whole area here smells so good. There’s a mixture of aromas, sweet and savory, fruity and meaty. Doesn’t matter the smell, each whiff I take only makes my stomach growl louder. There are dozens of food stands just lined up next to each other. There are several tables spread out so people can enjoy the food, but it seems like people are using the tables as more of a recovery lounge after eating amazing food. All of these chefs look like street performers with the way they’re making each of their unique foods. Some are actually dancing as others are using extreme dexterity as they cook their creations. It’s beautiful.

  Looking at what’s around, I want one of everything, but I don’t have that kind of money so I have to choose wisely. There’s so many good choices here that I’m sure that what I choose will be more than satisfying. A large flame captures my attention. What’s being made by the flame is definitely not anything I expected. Like many others around me, we all move towards the food stall, entranced by the flames.

  It takes a couple of minutes, but I approach the chef wielding the giant flame and say, “I’ll take one frozen s’more.” I place the money on a small tray where many before me have placed their money as well.

  “Coming right up!” the chef says with powerful enthusiasm. In front of the chef are several sticks with a large marshmallow at the end. He bunches the sticks together and takes a blow torch to set the marshmallows on fire. A large flame quickly darkens the marshmallows, however the chef performs some theatrics in the form of juggling our food. While yes it is very impressive they can juggle, I just want my food. The flames dissipate the more the chef juggles, once the final marshmallow is no longer on fire, the chef sets the marshmallows in several colorful trays and places them on the counter for the paying people to pick up.

  Immediately, I grab my marshmallow and start munching on it. You would think that since it was on fire, it would be really hot, but the marshmallow is warm and gooey after biting through the slight sugar shell. Once you hit the center though, it’s
a tasty haven of ice cream, chocolate, and graham cracker crumble. It’s a sweet marriage of warm gooey marshmallow outside and endearingly cold ice cream. Many people around me moan as we indulge in amazing food. Even though each bite sends me to some blissful safe space, it also grimly reminds me that I’m a little closer to finishing this food.

  As I’m in search of another meal, I’m tapped on the shoulder. When I turn, I see Mari. “Hey! Fancy seeing you again so soon!” Mari says with a wide smile on her face. On her cheek is a streak of some sort of sauce.

  “Uh, yeah,” I reply, trying not to look disgusting while I keep chewing on my s’more. What Mari said to me the last she saw me, which wasn’t that long ago, still leaves a bad impression on me. She doesn’t know Hiro at all, she can’t say he’s going to just ditch me.

  “So, I see that you’re not really hanging out with that so-called best friend of yours,” Mari remarks with a sly smile.

  “What?” I say.

  “Look over there.” She points through the crowd. In the distance is Hiro among a large group of people, most of which are dressed in a wide array of costumes. However, these other people don’t look like Mobile Knight cosplayers, but other cosplayers and even some other heroes in our class. It looks like he’s just really hanging out with a group of friends.

  What the? I thought he had to do a photo shoot thing or whatever. Why is he just hanging out with people? He’s all smiles and laughs from what I can tell. While, sure, he can hang out with whoever he wants, but it wasn’t even that long when he said he needed to get to some shoot. If he just wanted to hang out with other people, he should’ve just said something. Was I just some person that was in the way of him wanting to hang out with better people? Shit, am I just being replaced by these people.

  “You don’t look happy,” Mari remarks.

  An annoyed sigh comes out of my mouth. “Yeah, you can say that.” I’m losing my appetite and this is the last place I want that to happen. Why didn’t Hiro just say he wanted to hang out with his friends?

  “Some best friend,” Mari speaks nonchalantly, “looks like he’s having fun with his super friends.”