This World

by Lee, TD

  Ainia walks quickly past us, making her way through a crowd that separates apart as she walks. The rest of us give each other a confused look, but follow after her. The comments on Drake continue as we walk through the crowd, but Drake isn’t paying attention to any of them. Or, at least he’s trying not to.

  “Die Deviant!”

  “You’re a stupid hero!”

  What’s their problem? Drake just saved everyone, yet they’re treating him as if he’s some sort of criminal. Is it because he’s a Deviant or because he’s him?

  We find Ainia leaning against Adele’s car, repeatedly tapping her umbrella on the ground. She looks over at us, but returns her gaze back at the ground.

  Adele’s the first one to break the silence between all of us, “So you can spontaneously combust.”

  “I can, I don’t do it often since it takes so much of my energy. I only do it if I really have to,” Drake responds.

  “Did you do it so Winona’s gas wouldn’t affect you?” I ask.

  Drake looks at me, with a small smile forming at the edge of his lips. “Yeah, exactly. When I’m completely fire, I kind of lose my solid human body and just become pure flame. It takes a lot to keep myself all together so I don’t just separate a limb from my body by accident,” he explains. “How do you know Winona?”

  “Um, well, she was kinda the assistant of when I got mind controlled,” I answer slowly.

  Drake immediately turns around, his eyes are wide. He says with urgency, “What? When was this? What happened? Who was behind all of it? Are you okay from the mind control?”

  “Um, it was about a month or so ago. I can’t remember exactly. She posed as a member of SAVE and everyone that went to that particular meeting was mind controlled. We wore these bomb vests that would explode. Y-you actually saved me that day,” I answer as best I can.

  “That was the same day I worked with Hiro, was it not?” Drake asks.

  I nod. “Y-yeah, the same day.”

  Drake sighs deeply. He stands straight up and asks again, “Are you okay from the mind control?”

  “I sorta am now. I haven’t really been affected by it recently. But it hit really hard after the first time it happened and it got a little worse after that day at SAVE,” I answer.

  “When did it happen to you the first time?” Drake asks.

  “It was after Hero con. You were there too actually.”

  “So when I was tracking down King,” Drake murmurs. “Sorry that I sprang all of that on you. It’s just a personal thing.”

  “Um, no worries,” I say. I wonder what all of this is really about. I’m a little intimidated by Drake to even ask further.

  “Even fire man here has emotions,” Ainia remarks, breaking her silence. “So what now chief?”

  Adele answers, “Well, we have succeeded in our goal today. We have found the true cause of Hiro Watanabe’s death, asphyxiation by a supervillain. You can confirm that for me correct, Mister Meteor?”

  Drake nods, agreeing, “Yeah, I can confirm that for you. Winona is definitely the cause for Hiro’s death, and probably among others in these murders. She turns into a toxic cloud state and can get into people’s bodies. She probably didn’t expect for me to be here today.”

  “Who is that cloud lady to you anyway?” Dom asks Drake as she’s petting Shiko.

  “Let’s just say I’ve had a long feud with her,” Drake answers with a long sigh.

  Dom chuckles a bit to herself, “I take it that you two go way back?” Drake replies with a nod. Dom continues talking, “It’s still strange that they would attack the hospital even though they attempted to go after Carmen last night. You would think they would try on a different day at the very least.”

  “Exactly, you would think that way,” Adele remarks, “Winona and whoever her conspirators are used the false sense of security to attempt again. However, since weapons did not achieve their goal last night, they resorted to asphyxiation.”

  “So, you’re claiming that there’s more than just the one person involved with these murders?” Ainia asks.

  “Precisely. It has not been a solo mission. For certain, there is someone scheming behind these murderers. Winona and whoever this weapon replicator is are simply just pawns. It is our duty to find whoever it is that is masterminding this whole ordeal,” Adele answers. “I will contact Carmen about today. Other than that, I would call today a success, all things considered. That is all for today.”

  “Great,” Dom remarks as she stands up, “couldn’t take another second of having Drake’s abs scream at me.”

  Chapter 25

  I spent the rest of yesterday just thinking about what had happened. We found out that Hiro actually died because he was asphyxiated by Winona. And there’s a whole league of people just scheming all of these murders. Or at least, Adele thinks so. She’s so interesting, how she can devise and come up with all of these things. Is her power some sort of telepathy or precognition?

  What was with that crowd yesterday too? They just kept berating and yelling at Drake and Ainia. It’s like they were some sort of supervillain. I don’t understand the super world. I don’t get how they could take the pressure of a crowd loving you one moment, then hating your guts the next. It’s all so weird. I’m starting to slowly understand Ainia’s distaste for people, more than I already did. There’s so much that I need to understand from all these super people around me. What’s Ainia’s history as Blind Justice’s sidekick? What happened to Drake for the world to hate him? What happened on the island with Dom? Shiko, probably doesn’t have any secrets I’m aware of. Why is Adele so involved with these murders? Why is Kirika even helping? Considering the singer is probably the least damaged of all the super people, as far as I can tell.

  “Ridley!” Mrs. Campbell’s commanding voice gets me out of my head.

  “Yeah?” I remark, looking at her.

  “Stop daydreaming and answer the question!” the teacher yells at me.

  “Sorry,” I say, looking around the familiar classroom. Mostly everyone has their eyes on me. God, it feels like it’s been ages since I’ve sat in this place. Even though the class is completely full, it feels so empty. Hiro’s not in here. Sadie’s not here either, she’s probably still recovering. “Um, what was the question?”

  The class laughs, even though I didn’t say anything funny. Mrs. Campbell rolls her eyes and says, “For the last time. Digital media has been popular in assisting our view on the super world. Blind Justice is the most well renowned of them all. Blind Justice is often with his trademark blindfold. What does the blindfold stand for?”

  “Um, I don’t know.”

  Mrs. Campbell audibly sighs in frustration. She wanders around the classroom then looks at Ainia. Oh no, this can’t be good. Mrs. Campbell asks, “Then let’s ask the former sidekick of the number one hero. Ainia, could you?”

  Part of me is scared that Ainia is going to take the umbrella resting against her desk and start pummeling the teacher with it. She has more control than that, I hope—maybe not considering what I’ve seen her do. I can see Ainia tense up a bit, even from behind, but it looks like she’s just staring back at the teacher.

  A couple of awkward moments later, the teacher says, “Fine, moving on. The answer I’m looking for is the blindfold stands for indiscriminate vision while on the pursuit for justice.”

  I sigh. Good, Ainia didn’t freak out and beat the teacher. She’s such a wild card sometimes that I always get worried when she’s around. I’ll have to get used to it though considering I’m working with her on this case with Adele.

  Lunchtime rolls around, finally. I take my usual spot outside, by myself. It’s so weird being at school after the things that I’ve seen and gone through. I keep forgetting that a whole month has gone by in the time I was in Veritas. Knowing that there’s so much more out there, I wish I could go out and discover and do more things rather than just sitting in a class, but I can’t. With the case, I have no idea how to really help,
so I’m surprised Adele is still keeping me around. I don’t really have anything to contribute to the group. Drake has the instincts and fighting prowess. Kirika probably has some sort of connections as well as the fighting prowess. Ainia is all about fighting with some knowledge of stuff. Dom is a fighter. Shiko too. Oh my God, even the dog can fight. What the stupid hell am I to the group? I can’t fight at all. Adele hasn’t shown anything with fighting, but she’s amazingly smart and intuitive. Damn, everyone sure is something to the team.

  My phone buzzes. I check it and, speak of the devil, I see a message from Adele.

  Please come to the agency after school.

  That’s a bit cryptic, especially for someone like Adele, but it has to be something. She didn’t say to come by before so maybe she made a breakthrough? Oh well, it’s not like I have anything to do after school anyway.

  A couple of rough sounding shouts fill the courtyard. I look around to find a group of students surrounding Ainia, who’s just sitting by herself, not really bothering anyone. Oh no.

  “Hey there sidekick,” one of the male students mock, “nice stunt you pulled yesterday.”

  A bigger male student agrees with a horrible laugh, “Yeah, yeah! Nice stunt!”

  One of the girls speak while twirling her hair, “Yeah, my dad said that you attacked his friend out of nowhere! You’re such a barbarian!”

  “Ainia the barbarian!” the first male student exclaims.

  “Ainia the barbarian!” the group starts to chant loudly, getting everyone’s attention in the courtyard.

  Ainia is just sitting there, as calm as she can possible be—which is basically just her gritting her teeth and tightly gripping her umbrella. I can feel Ainia’s rage just radiating from her.

  I should do something, otherwise Ainia is definitely going to beat up these guys. But what can I do? I’m just a person with no powers, but I have to do something. Shit, what would Hiro do? He would step in without any hesitation. How in the hell does he do that? Just going in guns blazing.

  My body shakes. I can’t just let Ainia take this stupid mockery, it’s not even clever. I slowly stand up. I can do this, I can do this. It’s just telling them to back off. If Hiro can do it, I can do it. I can do it. I can do it.

  I can’t do it.

  “What’re you looking at?” the girl says to me, disgusted.

  “Uh, um,” I stutter.

  “Well, what is it?” the girl presses.

  Ainia takes mercy on me and is able to step up for herself, not that I had any doubt she could. “Careful there, wouldn’t want your hair to be messed up do you?” Ainia responds.

  “Wh-?”

  Before the girl could finish, a harsh breeze randomly flows by. The breeze circulates around the girl’s hair and starts tangling and knotting it in random places, ultimately making an amalgamation of a bird nest and beehive. The air also lifts the boys’ shirts over their heads so hard that they fall back. If I didn’t know any better, I would think all of this was a dumb old school prank.

  “M-my hair!” The girl exclaims, she takes off running for the doors to get back into the school. The boys follow her, although they fumble and crash into several trees and people on their way.

  “Whoa, so you do have wind powers,” I remark, watching the group wide eyed.

  “How’d you know?” Ainia questions.

  I can’t tell her that I read an entire dossier about her, that would sound so wrong. I come up with an explanation, “Um, Adele told me. You know how intuitive she is.” I laugh, trying to play off my explanation.

  “Right,” Ainia remarks. She stands up and straightens out her clothes. She says, “Also, that was pretty pathetic.”

  “I know.”

  Ainia shakes her head, but chuckles to herself. “But thanks.” She stands up and starts walking away. “I’ll see you after school.”

  A sigh of relief escapes my mouth. That could’ve been a really bad altercation that I would not be prepared for, but I’m glad Ainia has superpowers too. Although, she hasn’t really used her wind powers that I’m aware of. This is the first time, ever, that she’s used them. I wonder why that is. That’s a question for another day. The bell rings for classes to start again, so I head back into the school to resume the rest of a boring day of school.

  When school finally ends, I make my way to the agency. I don’t make it far to notice Ainia seemingly waiting for me as she rests against a building. She pushes herself off and says, “About time.”

  “How’d you get here so quick, we’re in the same class,” I remark. Seriously, is super speed one of her superpowers also?

  “You’re just slow,” she responds, “let’s go.” She spares no time in starting to walk in the direction of the agency.

  Maybe now is a good time to bring up her wind powers and why I haven’t seen her use them. “Hey Ainia, how come you don’t use your wind powers that often?” I ask.

  She answers, “I don’t have the thing that really channels that power, so just by myself my wind manipulation isn’t strong.”

  “What’s this thing you need to amplify your power?” I ask.

  “An old friend that’s locked away,” she answers somberly.

  I try to remember the dossier about Ainia. Didn’t it say something about Ainia owning a sword at one point? “Is it a sword?” I ask.

  Ainia suddenly stops moving and turns to me. “How do you know that?”

  Uh oh, did I mention the wrong thing? Again, I can’t say that I read a dossier on her and I already used Adele as an excuse. I have to come up with something quick. “Er, uh, well. My best friend really loves superhero stuff so he knew that you had a sword that you would use.”

  She looks at me suspiciously, but turns and starts walking again, saying, “Fair enough.”

  I continue following her, but the walk is the all too usual silence—I really hope I’m not turning into the Prospector. It’s just strange how a group that’s supposed to be working so closely together to be solving this murder case are just so quiet with each other. For me, I just don’t even know what to talk about with them.

  We’re nearing where the agency is, but on the corner of the street I see a familiar face. I reach out and greet her, “Mari, hey! I always feel like we only see each other in random places.”

  Mari turns to me, a bit startled. “Yeah, funny how it always turns out that way,” she says with a small smile. “Busy life you know.” She’s really fidgety today. Her arms crossed, but she keeps running her hands up and down the other arm. Are those bruises or teeth marks peeking out of her sleeves? Even her stance is weird because she’s awkwardly making small movements with her feet.

  “Yeah, I totally understand,” I say, eyeing her strangely. “Where’d you go after yesterday? Did you just get carried off with the crowd?”

  “Yesterday?” she mumbles, her eyes wander upward. “Oh, yeah, the crowd just totally took me away. Fan boys you know, totally crazy.” She giggles.

  “Fan boys?” I question. Why would she mention fan boys? I feel my brows automatically arch.

  Mari notices the shift in my expression and quickly corrects herself, “Sorry, the hospital is what you meant. I’m totally just mixing up the days. Again, busy life.” She laughs awkwardly. “Anyway, I have to go!” She runs off, crossing the road and almost getting hit with a car.

  When I turn around, I see Ainia with her brows arched. Is she angry? “You sure seem to see that girl pretty often,” Ainia remarks.

  “Oh, Mari? Yeah, it’s always at random places too, it’s really weird,” I respond. Mari was acting really strange though. I wonder if something happened to her. Not that I know her very well in the first place, but this was a really weird interaction.

  “Whatever, we’re at the agency,” Ainia says, turning around and walking again.

  We enter the agency and go into the familiar office. Everyone else is here, that I’ve met. There’s a weird sort of feeling in the air that I can’t quite describe. It feels te
nse, similar to the awkward silence after Dom and them fought the people from the Kilmer group the other day. Adele looks fairly normal, though she does seem a bit disoriented. Dom, however, looks angrier than she normally is, her arms seem a bit cut up and bruised. There’s a bunch of rips and tears in the floor and walls. The bookshelves look even more unorganized than they previously did. The room in itself looks like more of a mess than it normally is. I wonder what happened.

  “Ah, you have arrived,” Adele greets me and Ainia with her usual smile.

  “Why’d you want us to come in today?” Ainia goes straight for the point.

  Dom lets out a disgruntled sigh. “If you two would’ve gotten here earlier, you would’ve been here for the explanation.”

  “Well, sorry that we have school to attend to first,” Ainia retorts mockingly.

  “No matter, I will give you two the run down like I did for everyone else,” Adele speaks, immediately quelling the potential argument that could’ve happened. “Dom and I were targeted by the murderous assailant last night.”

  Both mine and Ainia’s brows rise in surprise. “Really? Wow, what happened?” I ask.

  “It was about five in the morning, I had an epiphany so I rushed here, to my office, to put it with my other notes. Thanks to Shiko, who had been accompanying me for the night, I was able to avoid a flying dagger from the assailant who had been in here when I turned the lights on. Shiko confronted the assailant and Dom had heard the ruckus and rushed in here as well,” Adele explains, while briskly pacing around the office.

  “Yeah, damn bitch got me good a couple times with those knives she had,” Dom adds.

  Adele continues, “The struggle continued until the assailant fled outside where Dom had continued to pursue. The assailant, unfortunately for our cause, had covered all means of their identity with a mask and dark clothes. From what Dom and I were able to gather, the assailant is very likely a woman of rather short stature. Their figure was rather slim. Dom was able to land powerful blows on the assailant before they had fled into the night.”