I woke up earlier than usual.

6:30 AM. Grandma Shadow was still sleeping, so I served my own breakfast. I hadn’t looked at myself in the mirror, but I still felt that I was smiling. As close to a smile as you could get without a mouth, anyways. As per usual, I threw the toast I had served into the void I call my face, and felt satisfied. I had plenty of time until I had to go to school, so I took a walk around my neighbourhood.

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While I was walking to the last class of the day, I heard something rustling in a nearby locker. I stopped for a second, and the locker door suddenly opened and out came Martelle. She fell on the floor and stood back up immediately.

“Hey, D! Don’t forget about our training session after school!” she yelled for the world to hear.

“Huh? Why were you in that locker?” I said.

“I saw you coming up the hall in snuck in to give you a surprise and to remind you!” She was still yelling.

“Alright, then,” I said. “Why aren’t you wearing your uniform?” She was wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

“I lost it,” she said.

“Okay. See you after class.”

The bell rang, and I walked out into the schoolyard. I saw her waiting for me in one of the basketball “courts”. The “court” was surrounded by a cage, and the floor was hard, grey concrete. It felt prison-like.

“Yo! Over here!” she yelled at me.

Class just ended… I thought. How did she get here that fast?

I entered the court, and she walked back a few paces.

“Alright, before we begin…” she said. “I’d like to start with a little interview. We’re not gonna train together if we don’t know anything about each other, right?”

“Uh, yes, sure,” I said.

“So, first, the big one: why do you look like that?” She calmed down the tone of her voice. Slightly. She pointed her finger directly at my face.

“My mother was a darkling, and my father was a shadow person,” I answered.

“Woah, what? I’ve heard of darklings, but I thought shadow people were a myth!”

“To be frank, I don’t know much about them either. My parents died when I was 2 months old.”

“Okay, this got dark, it’s kinda putting a damp on the session,” she said. “Maybe we can talk about this stuff later.”

“Alright… I have a question for you too,” I said. “Why does your hair look like that?”

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She paused. Then, she went into what I assumed was a battle position, slightly crouching down and putting one leg before the other.

“Taunting me before our first fight, eh?” she yelled. “I’m all too familiar with that strategy!”

“It was a genuine question…” I muttered, to nobody.

“Oh, and one last thing,” she said. “Shouldn’t you wear gloves instead of tucking your hands into your sweater like that?”

“Good idea,” I said.

She threw the small metal stick from before up in the air, and the hammer automatically assembled itself, like before. She grabbed it with her hand.

“So… shall we begin? Don’t forget to use your power!” she said.

She charged at me. A chill creeped up my back, and I felt them coming out of my body.

“Ah, there they are!” she yelled.

She swung her hammer, and they caught it. They slithered around the hammer and put Martelle in a bind, before raising her into the air.

“Woah!”

I shifted downwards slightly to put her down. The tentacles slammed her face first into the concrete. She let out a groan.

“Gah…” she said, on the ground. Her glasses had flown off her face. “I really need to steady those…”

“S-Sorry!” I apologized, flustered. My tentacles got shorter. “I didn’t mean to-“

She grinned, got up, and ran towards me with her hammer. She attacked again, but this time, she aimed for the tentacles. I didn’t have time to react. A direct hit on one tentacle. The struck tentacle fell to the ground, bent. It dislodged itself from my back. I felt a smaller chill, and a new tentacle sprang up in its place.

“Now that’s interesting!” she said, stepping away from me. She pointed her finger again. “But if one of them got downed by my hammer, then they’re weak as hell!”

She went in for the attack again. This time, I tried catching the hammer with my tentacles. As it was about to strike, she jerked it away. She spun the hammer towards the other direction, and directly hit me, knocking me back. My body slammed against the pole of the basket that was behind me, and I fell to the ground on my hands and feet.

“Oof! My bad!” she said. “Are you good?”

“Yeah,” I answered. I got up and dusted myself off.

“Wait, since you’re weird, do you feel pain?” Her hammer began to retract back into a metal stick.

“Not all the time,” I said. “But I definitely felt some of that.”

“Sheesh. Apologies.” She reached out her hand and helped me up.

“Something’s bugging me,” I said. “What exactly is your power?”

“Oh, I can lift things that are way heavier than me!” She brought out her hammer again, spun it around and planted it into the ground, damaging the concrete. “Try picking this up!”

I put both of my hands on the handle and tried to pull it up. I couldn’t. Maybe if I used my tentacles…? I tried to bring them out again, but all I did was shake in place.

“Hm? What are you doing?” she said, with a puzzled look on her face.

“I’m trying to bring out my tentacles so I can pick this up,” I said, still shaking. “But I can’t!”

She rested her chin on her hand for a moment, and then sprung up.

“So they only come out if you feel as if you’re in danger!” she said, pointing a finger at the sky. “That’s a challenge you have to overcome.”

I took my hands off the hammer and stopped shaking. I stared at the hammer for a short while.

“Why do you use a warhammer?” I asked her. “Why not a sword, or a gun? Those are much more effective at hurting people…”

“Hammers are more fun,” she replied. “I could try using something else, though. Guess we both have to improve on that front, right?”

She walked up to me and put her arm around my shoulder again. This time, it felt even heavier.

“We got a nice workout today!” she said, with a wide smile on her face. “Let’s do this again tomorrow!”

“Sure,” I said.

“By the way… We’re 3 months away from finishing school,” she said. “Then, we can apply and train to become heroes, right?”

“Yes, I think that’s how it works.”

“So, you know how heroes have to live in some fortified campus while they’re training?” She smiled even harder. “Why not be my roommate when we get there?”

“Well, first we have to pass the initial te-“

“Great, so you’re in!” she interrupted. “Alright, see you tomorrow!” She patted me on the head, and then climbed out of the court.

What a weird girl.