Friday finally came and Raito had planned out his whole day before he had to leave for the play. He went downstairs to eat breakfast his mom had made.
“Raito, your dad finally got back to me,” Raito’s mom said in her best English.
Excitedly Raito shouted out, “And what did he say!?”
“He will agree to your plan under two conditions. One, you must get a job while you’re not in college. Two, if you haven’t earned money from your comic in six months. You had to apply for college.”
“Okay, that sounds fair. I can do that.”
Raito’s fan comic had actually started to pick up some steam. Fans from the I Am Hero loved the idea of expanding the universe with lesser-known heroes from the school. After he had finished his breakfast, he ran back to his room so he could get back to work. He didn’t want to just write fanfiction as a way to get noticed and had been working on a new story. Of course, the story had to be about superheroes but he decided to give it something to stand out. The main character was from a comic book that got transported into the real world.
He began drawing all the scenes for the first chapter. Using ideas from comics he had read and thinking about all the different art styled that he loved. It was a good way for him to create his own style to draw in an audience.
The day went by fast and knew he needed to get ready for the play. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to dress casual or fancy for it. He just stared at the two shirts that were in his hands; moving his head back and forth from one shirt to the other. “Dress shirt or t-shirt? Dress shirt or t-shirt? On one hand. I don’t have a date so t-shirt. But on the other hand. I’m going to be meeting someone that was in the play, so dress shirt. Ugh! Why is this so hard!?”
He ended up picking a button-up shirt instead.
By the time Raito got to where the play was showing, he was already ten minutes late. “Stupid traffic and no parking spaces,” he mumbled angrily to himself. He eventually found his seat and sat down to enjoy the rest of the play. During most of the play, Raito would try and guess who the Gift was. Paying attention to each detail, trying to spot a character whose physical appearance might have been slightly altered. He hardly paid attention to the story at all until he heard this.
“I challenge you to a duel to the death. To restore my family's honor!”
“Finally, some action,” Raito whispered.
The rest of the play went by smoothly and Raito actually enjoyed himself once he started to pay attention. He almost left the theater before remembering the whole reason why he even came to the play. He made his way to the backstage, showing his ticket to the security guard, and looked for the dressing room. He eventually found the women’s dressing room and got ready to knock on the door before remembering something important, “Flight never told me her real name!”
“How can I ask for someone when the only name I know her by is her Gift name?” He thought to himself.
“Excuse me, are you lost? No one should be back here.” A soft voice said.
Raito turned around to see a woman with black hair, green eyes, long legs, and a curvy figure facing him.
“I ummm. Had this VIP ticket,” he said holding out the ticket. “I was supposed to meet someone, but my friend forgot to tell me her name.”
She took the ticket and began to examine it before having a depressed look on her face. “This ticket wasn’t meant for you. I hadn’t seen him in a year and was hoping he was watching me out there.”
“Flight didn’t tell you I was coming?”
The woman shook her head no.
“I can go if you want me too. I didn’t mean to make you sad.” Raito replied, feeling slight anger towards Flight.
“You’re here now and I guess there must be a reason why he wanted us to meet. Follow me, I have my own special dressing room.” She said.
Raito followed the woman to her own dressing room. It wasn’t what he was expecting. It was nearly empty besides one pair of clothes on a rack and a table with a large mirror on.
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“Are you sure this is a dressing room?” He asked.
“I don’t need much thanks to my Gift. Since I haven’t heard about you, just call me Morph for now.” She said as she snapped her fingers. The clothes she was wearing changed into an oversize t-shirt with baggy pants.
Raito scratched his head and couldn’t help but look down at the floor. “Thanks a lot Flight. This isn’t awkward at all.”
“Did you say something? You’re mumbling.”
He cleared his throat and started to repeat what he knew about her and Flight’s reasoning for them to meet.
“The hardest part of my past is that I don’t even know what I look like. I was constantly changing my appearance and never once had the opportunity to just change back to my regular self.”
“That must be difficult to deal with.”
“It was and still is. It’s been really difficult for me to trust men and understand the difference between a touch that is malice and one that is kind. Flight has been the only person I could really trust outside of the friends I made here. Flight and these team of actors made it easy for me to learn English and do what I’ve always dreamt of doing.” She moved over closer to Raito and rested her hand onto his face, caressing it. “In order to move on you have to surround yourself with people you can trust. And acknowledge that you might never get over it. Just think of your life in the moment and all the good that has come from it. It’s okay to have scars but it’s not okay to look at them. Thinking that they define you. We are not special. Our life is not special.”
“That took a dark turn,” he said while feeling his face get warm from Morphs touch.
“Let me finish okay? We are not special, our life is not special, there is no destiny. So go out there and make yourself someone that IS special. Give your life meaning and create your own destiny. Not being special is a gift of its own because that means you don’t have to follow some sort of guideline for your life. That is how I overcame my scars.”
Raito had never been this close to a woman before. He liked the sound of Morph’s voice and the caring way she was treating him. He wasn’t being judged or asked to not be a superhero. Just offering advice to move on from his pain. If he had any…
“I like your advice. I’m going to make sure I do just that.” His words were hollow though. Ever since the day after the fight with Blight. He hadn’t experienced any form of PTSD. Not even a little from bright flashes of light. It didn’t make sense to him, he nearly died! But he didn’t want to ruin the moment.
“You think maybe…you can. I don’t know. Help me make a new costume?” He asked.
Morph pulled her hand back and laugh. He thought the laugh was cute too. “You have a one-track mind don’t you. I think I have the time to spare. Sure!”
The two ended up spending a few hours in the dressing room making Raito’s new costume. There wasn’t a moment of silence. They talked about their dreams, hopes, and favorite type of sandwiches. It was like he was talking to Flight. He was comfortable talking about himself and learning more about Morph. Within the few hours they spent together, they got closer and closer. They both were really happy to have met each other.
By the time they were done it was nearly one in the morning. He walked her to her car and she left. But not before she handed Raito her number. With the sound of her car far away, he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“I see you two got along quite well.”
Raito turned around to see Flight. “It’s not fair sneaking up on me like that. I can’t tell the difference if I’m hearing the wind or you!”
Laughing, he playfully pushed Raito, “what were you guys doing that took so long. I wanted to see how it all went and have been waiting out here for like 3 hours.”
“Sounds like you need to get a hobby,” Raito gestured Flight to follow him, “I parked on the other side.”
As the two made their way around to the other side, Raito continued to talk, “we were getting to know each other. She also helped me make a new costume.” Raito lifted up a bag containing his new outfit. “She’s really kind and sweet. We plan on meeting up again soon.” Raito couldn’t help but blush at the thought.
“Sounds like you have a crush.” Flight teased.
“Naaaa, besides, you two love each other. I don’t want to make anything complicated.”
Flight wrapped his arm around Raito’s neck. “There are many different types of love my dude. Our love for each other is platonic. Just like my love for you. Love doesn’t have to be romantic.”
“I never really thought about it like that.”
“Just take it slow if you really want to be with her.”
“I will. I think just starting out as friends is a good start for both of us. Here is my car.” Before getting in, Raito glanced over the area to see that they were all alone. “Huh, we are like the only people here.” Those were his final words before passing out.
The concept of how much time had passed was unknown. His eyes opened and found himself laying on the floor. His vision was incredibly blurry as he tried to focus in on a strange red dot near his face. His eyes widen as the images began clearing up. It was blood. He then saw another dot and another and another. He followed the trail with his eyes which led him to a body. It had the same shirt and pants that Flight was wearing. He didn’t want to but knew he had to see more. He moved his eyes higher to see a foot on Flight’s stomach. He followed the foot up to see that the person was wearing black jeans with a metal chain wrapped around the left leg. He continued looking up to see the person was wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt with a black start graphic design in the middle.
“I see you’re awake now,” a voice said.
“I heard this voice before.” Raito thought to himself.
Raito picked up his head to see this mysterious person’s face. That’s when he saw a mask. A grey mask with turquoise stripes and cat eyes. It looked like it was supposed to be a chesire cat mask but the bottom half of it was missing. Instead it was the person’s actual smile. His mouth was covered in blood, so much blood that it was even dripping off of him. The man raised his right arm and tried to wipe away some of the blood. It did little help as even his hand was drenched in blood. He then spoke again.
“My name is Leech. I’m Flight best friend. I’m sure you’ve heard of me….AHA…AHAH…AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”