Author here. Submitting my first chapter during midterms. Yeah, I've got balls. Let's hope I don't regret this. Also, my English tends to get garbled when I spend a lot of time speaking other languages so if you see mistakes, let me know. Thanks.
~~~
“Did you hear?”
“Yeah! He struck again!”
“He robbed a mob office single-handedly!”
“He fought off more than 20 gangsters!”
“He’s so cool!”
“Gaze, my true love, come find me!”
~~~
“This is it?” a young man asked excitedly. He’d been waiting desperately to see this video ever since word had first come in of the most recent incident late last night.
He hurriedly removed his apron and stepped out from behind the café counter as he pulled out his banged-up smartphone and joined his friend at one of the rickety wooden tables.
His friend Sam, was the type who was too good-looking for his own good. He had nicely-groomed rich brown hair and bright blue eyes. He was popular with the ladies and plenty of friends in high places, but his mischievous personality always caused him to mix in with troublesome types.
The young man, Theo, was good-looking too, with relatively short black hair and golden hazel eyes. Many would even consider him to be more attractive than Sam, however, his introverted personality tended to drive others away.
Theo knew that his friend was involved with some kind of underworld information gathering, but left it at that. They’d been friends since they were young and although Theo didn’t want to get involved in that side of things, he did value Sam’s connections for exactly this reason.
There had been a recent rash of burglaries and vigilante-style beatings in the area recently. According to witness reports and video evidence the perpetrator was a young man dressed head-to-toe in black and wearing a vividly colored mask depicting a cartoon raccoon. Every inch of his body was covered in black so it was impossible to tell anything else about him from his appearance, but he had gained quite a following due to his vigilante tendencies, which many citizens secretly agreed with, and the fact that he used a particularly beautiful and quite unique style of martial arts to fight. In honor of the raccoon mask and his supposedly bright yellow eyes, the local news had taken to calling the thief Gaze, dubbing the public's intense fascination with him the Gaze Craze.
Theo was no exception the Gaze Craze. He was a fan of the vigilante thing and all, but even moreso, he was completely enamored by the thief’s martial arts style. Theo was a longtime fan of martial arts, but never had he come across a style that so perfectly conserved momentum and used the absolute minimum amount of force necessary while still looking so beautiful.
Through Sam’s connections, Theo was able to get copies of exclusive security camera footage of the masked thief’s fights. He would watch them over and over and over and finally, when he went home, he would copy the thief’s movements himself, trying desperately to emulate them.
That, of course, was something that Theo kept to himself. As a young man who was just preparing to enter high school, it would be pretty embarrassing if anybody found out about his hobby. Even Sam was under the impression that his friend was just a hardcore Gaze fan.
Sam transferred the video over to Theo’s phone and entertained himself by watching his friend’s animated expressions as he devoured the feed. He considered his longtime friend to be quite naïve and laughed at his childish fascination with what would normally be considered an unacceptable act of violence.
In Sam’s world, this kind of violence was commonplace, though he did admit that this thief had style. Sometimes he wished that Theo was a little bit more aware of the dangers that the underworld posed but at times like this he was glad that Theo could maintain his innocence.
This fall, they would be attending different schools for the first time. Theo would be enrolling in the local public high school while Sam would be attending an elite private high school. It would, quite likely, bring an end to their 10 year long friendship. Although Theo had gone and gotten a job and Sam was busy with his information gathering hobby, they still made an effort to squeeze the most out of their last summer together. For that reason Sam had become a regular at the cramped hole-in-the-wall coffee shop where Theo had found employment.
Theo had been hired immediately after applying without even meeting the owner. He didn’t really want to work but he needed the money. After his parents had died in some kind of accident while working abroad, he had begun living on his own. He had stayed with Sam and his grandmother for a while, but he didn’t like depending on his friend and had worked hard to get permission from the state to stay alone in his family home with frequent check-ins from various state employees.
While his parents had never been short on funds. His mother was a talented surgeon and his father was a biology and anatomy professor at the prestigious local university. When they died they had left Theo a considerable amount of money, but he didn’t want to rely on that either. He used it to pay the bills, but he was determined to earn his own spending money. This was also the reason Theo had decided to attend a public high school instead of enrolling in a pricey private one like Sam. He regretted that they would be seeing less and less of each other, but Sam had been growing distant lately as he begun spending more time with his delinquent friends. Perhaps this was just meant to be.
Theo sighed as he shoved the phone into his pocket. This was a really good video. All of Gaze’s movements were clearly illuminated by nearby streetlamp. It would be easy to practice with this kind of quality. At one point, one of the gangsters even managed to pull Gaze’s hood off revealing short black hair similar to Theo’s. This was the first time something like that had happened. Theo was secretly pleased with the similarity, but he hoped that the video wouldn’t fall into the hands of the police and give them any leads.
Theo played the video over and over again in his mind as he trudged wearily back to the counter and tied his apron back on. Business was slow for a Saturday so he spent most of the rest of his shift lost in thought as he methodically tended to the regulars’ needs.
A girl sat in the back tapped leisurely on her tablet as she sipped a diet soda. Tufts of light-colored hair stuck out from her black beanie at odd angles and you could just barely see a hint of silver attached to the upper part of her ear. She was probably about Sam and Theo’s age and had been by the shop every Saturday recently.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Sam tried to hit on her once, but she immediately shut him down with a glare. Sam called her an ice princess and, in response, she called him a weasel. The exchange had given Sam, who wasn’t used to being insulted, a considerable bit of trauma. Sometimes when they got bored they would glare at each other until one of them got uncomfortable and left. Every hour or so she would need a refill.
An old man sat at what had probably once been a bar. He was in the shop every evening until close to drink a cup of coffee and read his newspaper. He probably didn’t have any family at home and spent his time here to avoid feeling lonely. Theo had thought about talking to him once, but he was nervous about interrupting him while he was reading. Life was hard for the introverted.
The other regulars were the most troublesome. A group of high school students had picked this shop as their weekend hangout and would spend all day causing a ruckus and making unreasonable demands of Theo. The two females in the group had made a pastime of jokingly flirting with Theo and laughing when it made him uncomfortable. He was quite sick of their harassment and had almost taken Sam up on his offer to get one of his underworld friends to beat them up, but he was too level-headed for that. They probably went to the same high school that Theo would be attending in the fall. He dreaded encountering them there.
As the day came to a close, the number of guests began to decrease. The high school students left first, followed by the ice princess. The old man would leave shortly, and Sam would wait until close and walk with Theo back to his house. Theo was preparing to wash the floors and grabbed a mop from the closet in the back. As he ducked behind the counter to fill up the bucket of water, the doors burst open and three heavily-muscled guys wearing ski masks ran in. The two in the back had bats, while the leader was wildly brandishing a handgun.
“Put your hands in the air!”
Like hell.
Images of Gaze’s past fights as well as his fight from today blended together with Theo’s memories of his nights spent recreating those elegant movements. Without a second thought, he lept over the cafe counter and immediately dropped to the ground, avoiding the bullet that had been fired at his afterimage. He seamlessly spun from thug to thug, disabling them with precision that didn’t even waste a breath. The entire ordeal was over in under six seconds.
Theo crossed his legs and leaned against the counter trying to figure out how he was supposed to wash the floor, which was now occupied by the unconscious bodies of the robbers. He didn’t have the strength to move them himself, and he didn’t really want to wait for them to wake up. He had decided to ask Sam for help moving the bodies when suddenly a cry rang out.
“What the hell was that?!”
Sam was having a difficult time understanding how his friend had suddenly obtained strong enough fighting skills to take out three armed robbers in under six seconds.
Theo was also confused. Sure he didn’t have a history of beating up thugs, but he had always been good at sports. It was only natural that he would be able to pick up something like that.
One person, however, was completely certain of what had just happened.
“You’re Gaze!” gasped the old man at the counter.
Wrong.
“I’m sorry, Sir, but you’re mistaken. I was just copying things that I saw Gaze do in the videos I watched of his fights. I’m not actually Gaze.” Theo replied, embarrassed. He hadn’t really wanted to admit that in front of his friend, but he needed to clear up this misunderstanding.
“Nonsense!” the old man exclaimed. “It’s impossible to learn techniques like that just from watching videos a couple of times. I may not look like it, but I know a considerable bit about martial arts. Those were Gaze’s techniques and there is nobody except Gaze who can perform them!” He laughed amiably. “Don’t worry though, Son! I have no intent of turning you in!”
Theo was a bit relieved. He had no intention of going to jail for crimes that he hadn’t committed.
“How old are you?” the old man asked.
Theo was hesitant. “I’m 15.” he responded.
“Good! Good! Getting ready to attend high school next year?”
Theo was even more confused. What exactly did this geezer want? “Yes.” he answered curtly.
“I have a proposal for you then.” the old man said. “I happen to belong to the administration of a certain private high school. This school collects students from across the country and sometimes even from overseas. These students all have special skills like yours. Our school fosters these talents and provides education in fields that the rest of the world tends to look down on. It’s a school for children of the underworld to further their interests. I would like to offer you a scholarship to join us. We would love to have a bright student like yourself who has already made such a name for himself.”
Sam, who had been silently recovering from his shock suddenly spoke up. “You wouldn’t be talking about Chthonus Academy would you?” he asked warily.
“How do you know that name?” the old man exclaimed?
“I’ve been accepted there. I’ll be attending in the fall.” Sam said.
“I see!” said the old man. “All the more reason for you to join us, young Gaze!”
Theo was surprised. He had no idea that the private school Sam would be attending was one specifically targeted at raising young criminals. Just what kind of trouble had Sam been up to lately?
Whatever. This old man was clearly very excited at the prospect of getting the infamous Gaze to attend his academy, but Theo couldn’t help him there. He had thought briefly about going along with it so that he could follow Sam, but he sincerely had never robbed anybody in his lifetime. There was no way he could survive in a school for thieves.
“I’m sorry,” Theo responded humbly, “but there has been a misunderstanding. I am not Gaze. I appreciate your offer, but I cannot accept on the behalf of a person who I am not.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” interjected Sam sharply. “Stop playing dumb. I’m upset that you didn’t tell me earlier, but this is fantastic! Now we can go to school together! Why do you object?”
Theo was shocked. Even Sam was convinced? How could he get out of this? Theo sighed. There was no getting out of this. Nothing, apart from the real Gaze falling from the sky and bursting through the roof of the cafe to correct them, would get Theo out of this.
“Fine.” Theo agreed reluctantly, looking the old man in the eyes. “I graciously accept the invitation to join your academy.”