[START OF URASARIA ACADEMY: YEAR FOUR]
[ARC 22: TEMPERATURE RISING]
In early August, the Royal Four visited the staff again. They'd replaced the dead guard with a man.
"Only a few requests." chimed Mia, setting her legs up as she sat down. She'd had no trouble over the summer, aside from finding a maid of honor dress Serena liked. "For the traveling group - it'll be reformed this semester. I'll let you know who I choose for it."
"Yes." muttered Armstrong. Samuel had been right; he'd been emasculated. Little was left that either Matoi or Mia didn't know about his proclivities, or anyone else on the staff besides Hirogane. In private they spoke ill of him, thinking this could've been avoided if he'd agreed to remove her Revenant back in her first year. "Any other requests?"
"Gender neutral bathrooms in every building." said Serena.
Samuel had thought it a peculiar request, but he'd known her as odd before, and over the summer her & Yuruko spoke in anime references he hoped to never understand. In private, he might've admitted to finding her attractive, if only because being around lesbians for so long made a bisexual woman (even one taken) pop out like a tree in a desert. Of course, he never indulged these thoughts.
"Lastly - look in to hiring an assistant for Hirogane." Mia smiled as she stood up, glancing at the new man. "Howitzer."
The four stepped out, laughing as the door closed.
"Sheesh." laughed Samuel. "They really are scared shitless of you."
"Yeah." laughed Serena as they started walking. "What was - why'd you say Howitzer at the end?"
"It's his Revenant's name." laughed Mia. "Aimee told me yesterday."
"Nice."
"Do you think they'll actually find an assistant?" said Yuruko and Mia shrugged.
"He asked me to request it."
"They'll probably find three." nodded Samuel and the rest laughed. "Still. Think we should go out to eat to celebrate -"
" - here we go." laughed Yuruko, already used to him -
" - fine." laughed Mia. "We'll try it."
Samuel nodded satisfied and the four walked down & out of Urasaria. Mia relayed the new blackmail she'd sent to Armstrong as they walked.
"His wife is a fan of me, apparently." she said as they came up to the all-you-can-eat buffet. "She was rooting for me over Kirihara."
"How did they even find that out?" said Yuruko.
"Must've had a few posters of you." nodded Samuel and the four laughed as they went inside. Once they got up to the counter, the manager recognized Mia & the others, and though he offered a free meal, she paid the regular price with some embarrassment.
"Jeez." laughed Yuruko. "I would've just taken it, you know."
"Yeah." said Serena and Mia smiled nervously.
"I'm - not used to being recognized like that."
"Someone might ask you for an autograph soon." said Samuel and the two laughed, remembering Matoi's awkwardness.
The four took their plates and filled them with food. Outcast's ghastly hands balanced three plates for Samuel as they sat down.
"Guess that's one use for it." laughed Serena and Samuel nodded.
"Should be able to lengthen your fog a bit further, too."
"And now, she can be extremely violent from thirty feet away." laughed Mia, relevantly.
"Yeah." grinned Yuruko. "We'll probably, like - all end up getting it by the end of the year. The extremely violent Royal Four."
"One can hope." nodded Samuel. "Apologies for how I'm going to look for the next ten minutes." He started eating.
"Oh, uh - that reminds me, too." said Yuruko. "Mia, can you have Aimee look up my profile?"
"Yes." Mia nodded, sending a text to Aimee. "Why?"
"I'm kinda, uh - curious what my threat level is, 'cuz like - I haven't really been fighting a ton, but… I mean. Medicinal's an atomic manipulation Revenant, so."
"Um, and it can break the economy." chimed Serena and Yuruko laughed.
"Yeah, but I mean like - that guy who blew up Los Angeles and Moscow had an atomic manipulation Revenant, too, so…I mean, he could turn people in to gold statues and shit like that, supposedly."
Mia paused and sent another text to Aimee.
"His name was Daigo, right?" said Samuel, wiping his face as Yuruko nodded.
"I think so, yeah."
"Didn't Ryumi kill him, too?" said Serena and Mia nodded.
"That - that was her last fight before she died, yes."
(Aimee) "Here's Yuruko's profile - she's national because of Daigo, yeah. [Picture Attached]"
(Aimee) "your's doesn't say existential yet, though"
She frowned. Was there a fire hotter than purple, or a purple Solar Beam? Would she ever need to go beyond blue for any host? Frustratingly, she had never found any footage of the woman, no tricks with Worldwide she might've learned from her, and they had refused Aimee's request to unlock her profile. Ryumi's image in her head, despite Era, was about as perfect as the woman who married Magnus could be. For all she knew, Era may have been her Kirihara - but that didn't make her evil. It made her human.
She sat up as she heard Yuruko speaking.
"Yeah. It's super…" Yuruko frowned. "…ugh, I dunno. So - it's all cumulative, too, and - I mean, y'know, it's a new field, so - something will get discovered like, the day before an exam and it'll be on it -"
" - sheesh." laughed Samuel and Yuruko winced nodding.
"Yeeep."
"Er - sorry, I was thinking about something." said Mia. "What are we talking about?"
"Yuruko's going to be a Revenant researcher." said Serena.
"Yeah." said Yuruko. "It's for like - seeing if they can make people's Revenants stronger and stuff like that. It's a bunch of like - I mean, some people try to find ways to remove Revenants quicker, too, right? Some of it is to see if - like, if we could make stuff that just instantly gets rid of Revenants."
"I hope that never happens." winced Mia. Over the years, she'd found Worldwide comforting.
Yuruko nodded. "I mean, it'd be super dangerous to develop anything like that, so."
"Yeah." said Serena. "Um. Being able to preserve Revenants and stuff, too, I guess."
"Yeah." said Yuruko. "I actually, uh…" She laughed. "…okay. So. I had to do like, an essay for my final last year, right? And I was looking through - uh, I actually - I kinda wanted to interview you, Mia, but - staff doesn't know about the… multiple Revenants thing, right? The conduits?" (Mia's head shook.) "Yeah. I actually found a paper by that dude, though."
"By Magnus?"
"Yeah. It was back in like, 2008, I think. It was about, uh… man, it's like -" - she laughed - " - it's so weird looking at Revenant research papers, because - science papers are - experiments are supposed to be replicable, right? Like, able to be repeated. But most researchers have their own Revenants, so it's just - it's just such a mess -"
" - because they - because it's specific to their Revenant?" laughed Samuel and Yuruko nodded.
"Yeah. And you can - they make it so you can look it up, too, what their Revenant is. Like, I already added Medicinal to the database or whatever, but. But for Magnus, it was like, uh…"
"Did he use Scourge for it?" said Mia and Yuruko nodded.
"Yeah. I guess he knew like this - pair of Siamese twins or whatever who had a Revenant."
"Probably Mirena." said Serena, relevantly, and Mia laughed.
Yuruko grinned. "But it seriously just sounded like he was torturing them. 'cuz like, you know - Siamese twins have two hearts, so - I guess he figured that that's how you'd find out how to put two Revenants in one body."
"Two hearts good." nodded Samuel.
"Two hearts good." laughed Yuruko. "But yeah, it's seriously just like -" - her tone deepened - " - ' - day eight. Subject only offered an hour of his slash their time due to massive pain Scourge inflicts. Little of note.'"
"Jeez." laughed Serena.
"What did he find out, then?" said Mia.
"Well, apparently he was just like, ripping their hearts out and shit constantly. It was so metal." said Yuruko, relevantly. "It's like looking through, uh, old fluorine research papers where they'd just - just like pages of journals that are like - ' - tried to see how fluorine reacts when you heat it up to seven hundred degrees. Somehow did not die. Will try to ingest later to find out if poisonous.'"
"Dark ages of science." nodded Samuel.
"Yes." said Mia. "But, er - what did Magnus find out?"
"Oh. Yeah." said Yuruko. "Uh… He just found out that you could make something that kinda acts like Volgari proteins. It wasn't that special, since like - I mean, we've been able to just make actual Volgari proteins for a while, so. They just don't do anything you'd expect them to, for some reason."
"…ah. Did he have any other papers?"
"Uhhh… there was some other one, back in like… 2004, I think… Just some experiments seeing how Revenants react to super high or super low temperatures. Him and Ryumi. And then - yeah. I think there was another temperature one in like, 2012 or something, but that was kinda it. Just testing temperatures again. Seeing how they react at absolute zero."
"Wouldn't they just not move?"
"Yeah. There's a few ice Revenants that can do that, too, so. They showed us a few papers about that."
"Yeah." said Serena. "Um, it's kinda neat, since like - it was really hard to get stuff that cold before Revenants."
"Yep." chimed Yuruko. "And some day, we might even be able to buy Dipping Dots." (The four laughed.) "They said there's not really any research on like - super, super hot Revenants, though, so."
"Might be able to help them out." nodded Samuel and Mia laughed.
"If they reach out to me, I will."
"Nice." chimed Yuruko. "But yeah. Probably'll be pretty tough this year, but I'll uh, I'll manage."
"Will you be alright still fighting?" said Mia and Yuruko nodded.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"Yeah, no worries. I might have to take a week off sometimes, but it'll be fine. Plus, I mean. Pretty much unlimited with Medicinal now, anyway."
"I still can't wait to see it." grinned Serena and Yuruko laughed.
"I only had to shoot Samuel like two hundred times for it."
"It's alright. I'm used to it." he nodded and the three laughed. "Might wanna look in to marketing those, you know."
"Nah." said Yuruko. "Like, I have to basically - they wouldn't be able to produce them anyway, since I have to stick my finger in the cartridge every time. Just kinda a, uh, on the fly thing."
The four's table was next to a head-high wall with the front counter over it. Mia heard someone gasp to her left, and being the tallest, she looked over and saw a man at the front whispering to the hostess (but not that kind). Her tablet vibrated, and she set it silent quick.
"Silent alarm." she muttered to the others, and Yuruko glanced to the front.
"He's robbing them?"
"Uh, do you want to try it?" laughed Serena and Yuruko grinned.
"Sure."
"Go ahead."
The man looked towards them, and in the next instant -
- his head burst open in a shower of gore; the four shot up -
" - you're safe!" shouted Mia, Yuruko disintegrating her handgun.
"Hell yeah." laughed Yuruko, and Mia vaulted over to scan.
◆◆◆
A week later, Serena & Naomi had been called in to one avenue for a musical & smooth criminal. Naomi put her ear up as they came on to the sidewalk.
"…uh." She frowned. "Is that Flight of the Bumblebee?"
"What's that?" said Serena and Naomi paused.
Over the summer, she had become more cultured than her mentor through Julia, and thought Serena was a little immature for still being in to cartoons at 21 - but she didn't let it affect her friendship with her or Yuruko.
"Uh, it's - classical music." chimed Naomi, relevantly, and in the next instant -
" - Gershwin!" shouted a man's voice behind them; the two swept forward and turned -
- and saw their earless foe standing 30ft away on the corner, stores at their right as the two stepped back, one ear planted on the sidewalk ahead, and as they backed away near one door -
- in to a thousand shards of glass it burst -
" - Blackburn!" winced Serena, tentacle catching every last shard, swift streams of fog filling her suction cups to corrode them away. She glanced right just in time to see a left ear falling off of the shattered door hinge; beside, Naomi's stone arm formed -
" - Avalanche!" she shouted, gripping the sidewalk and starting to rip it up -
- but she sighed as the sidewalk's ascent stopped right before the section where his right ear was planted; beside, Serena rushed up to his severed left -
- and staggered back as she clutched her ears, classical music filling her veins as she staggered back, streams of fog filling her pockets as she pulled a knife out -
- and slit her wrist open; a jet of blood burst out & towards the man -
- and the acid within left half of his melted face clinging for life to the other. Do I have to say how he gurgled -
- and a chunk of concrete slammed right in to his torso and sent him flying across the street, leaving a mark in the fish store opposite as he smashed right through the window -
"- b-blood - blood pressure - really fucking high." winced Serena, music exiting her veins as their foe's ears reappeared in their rightful place ahead, his bleeding & melting face suddenly stopping once his right ear appeared. Naomi frowned as the two rushed in pursuit across the road and up to the store, streams of fog & Avalanche's stone hand ready. Running in to the store, they saw him fleeing & flinging fish all in their path, leaving a trail of oil as the two rushed through -
- and their step suddenly slowed as his left ear appeared in the trail ahead, then stopped as his face started melting again & the oil hardened solid -
" - I - fuck -" winced Naomi - " - gotta be - stopping or something, but -"
- streams of fog flew in to the oil below -
- but couldn't even penetrate, Serena sighing as she pulled her cup out -
" - Avalanche!"
- and the next scene was instant. Naomi pulled Serena in with her flesh arm, stone fingers snapping and putting a crack in the ceiling. It started to collapse -
- but she laughed as their foe threw his left ear up to the ceiling & paused its demolition; oil liquiefying, the two rushed in pursuit down the aisle as they saw him running out the back door & slamming it shut. Naomi snapped to stitch the ceiling's wound as they came up to the back door -
- and frowned as she couldn't pull it open, left ear she knew was on the other side keeping it locked. Serena laughed as a cloud of fog cleared another exit through the back wall, and out to the back alley swept the women -
- and saw their foe climbing up a hanging ladder on the wall of the apartment complex left, tenants having always hated the smell of fish ten feet away from their windows; with no time to waste, Serena & Naomi rushed in pursuit, and as Serena gripped the ladder -
- the bottom half collapsed with their foe still climbing up, right ear separating the two halves -
- and Naomi laughed as streams of fog reached the top half of the ladder & filled it with hydrochloric acid&copper, causing it to rust & begin to collapse -
" - G-Gershwin -" panted their foe, left ear forming on the ladder to keep it stable as he kept climbing, bits of his face melting & hitting Serena's jacket below. Naomi winced as Serena called him a few words not to print, wondering why it'd befallen her to have such a creative mentor -
" - if I were you, I'd jump now!" shouted Serena - " - don't fuck with - um - Urasaria's #1 otaku!"
Above, he glanced down in time to see Naomi stomp for a stone wall, then paused as Serena placed her cup on the ground -
- and another stomp blasted the grenade inside at him with the force of a thousand and the explosion sent both of his arms in to the sky; grip obviously lost, he shrieked as he started to fall -
" - G-Gershwin!" he shouted, right ear forming on his bloodied stump & spraying blood to Serena as he came 10ft within -
- but one Avalanche-punch left nothing but a red dot on his neck and they knew he was dead. Serena nodded as she wiped it out of her eyes.
"…pretty, uh, pretty gross." chimed Naomi, relevantly.
"Yeah. Do you want to scan?" laughed Serena, offering it to Naomi.
"Sure." she grinned, careful to take it with her non-stone hand. "Uh, just gotta tap this, right?"
"Yeah."
Naomi nodded, crouching down to scan. "…uh. Think I got it, right?" She showed it to Serena, who nodded as they started back home.
"Yeah." said Serena, taking it back and yawning. "…um. At least we're not too far, though."
"You and Yuruko still have to move your stuff out, right?" said Naomi and Serena nodded.
"Yeah, um. Would you be cool helping?"
"Ummm…" Naomi smiled nervously. "…uh. Actually, I was - feeling pretty tired too, so…"
"I could ask Samuel to come." grinned Serena and Naomi laughed.
"Fiiine. What's he like, anyway?"
Serena laughed as they came up to the gates. Naomi scanned her badge and the two went inside. "Still single -"
" - I meant his personality, doofus -" laughed Naomi -
" - uh - he barely talks unless it's to make some stupid joke. so -" laughed Serena, relevantly - " - I mean, he's cool, but he's still a guy, so -"
" - yeah, but that's who I have to date." laughed Naomi. "I mean - is he nice?"
"I guess." laughed Serena. "He's super violent, though. Like - his government profile actually says 'extremely violent.'"
"Is that the same profile that says you're, uh…" Naomi glanced back and Serena hesitantly nodded.
"…um, yeah." said Serena. "It says extremely violent on my profile, too, though, so."
"Yeah." nodded Naomi. "Sorry, I just - uh, yeah." She laughed nervously.
For some reason, after Kamon, Serena had been reticent on any trans-related topic, and though Naomi had become good friends with Julia over the summer, there had always been an ember of contention between the two that only Kate's presence kept from flaring up. Whether it was bitterness, dysphoria, or some other emotion Naomi did not know.
"…um. I guess this is our last day as mentor and protege, right?" said Serena and Naomi nodded.
"…yeah." Naomi smiled, and tears started forming as she hugged Serena tightly. "Y-You're - you're a really, really good friend. You a-and Yuruko. I'm, I'm really glad I… I-I guess I didn't get assigned to you, but." She pulled away, still smiling. "J-Just. Having you supporting me really, really helped."
"I'm - I'm really glad about that." Serena smiled. "Um, I think I should be able to - if you need help with your protege, I mean. Mia doesn't really train us that hard, so."
(Last week, Samuel had gotten his first eight hours of sleep in four years.)
"C-Coolio." Naomi smiled and the two went off to Serena's home. Serena texted Samuel as they came inside to Yuruko already disintegrating everything she could recreate in their new mansion. After a minute, the door knocked, and Naomi grinned as she opened it for Samuel.
"Hey." she chimed. "You're pretty strong, right? Can you help me move something?"
Yuruko looked at Serena as Samuel nodded. Of all the proteges in the world, it'd befallen her to have a heterosexual one - but no matter, they accepted Naomi for who she was.
◆◆◆
[February 3rd, 2021]
(We're currently in 2021, as a reminder.)
It always irritated Nicholas that most students skipped class on recruitment day, or ignored his presentation if they didn't. Partially because no one else had wanted the job, he visited every public highschool in Florida every year, growing more tired of the younger generation each round.
His eyes were pulled up from his desk to a woman from the school's staff poking her head in through the door. "There's a student here to see you."
"Send them in." he said, and she laughed.
"Send -her- in, you mean. Her name is Natasha Flagg."
He nodded. In the northern part of the state, religious groups in power still denied the existence of heightened homosexuality in hosts, staging demonstrations against Urasaria's last three presidents & anyone they found to be representative of them. Little wonder was it that many lesbians grew to love the bottle that dimmed the slurs that lingered in their ears even after the protests scattered.
Little wonder was it that they were the most likely to sign up.
She opened the door for a young woman, muscular enough that he wasn't sure if he'd misheard her gender, and he nodded to her as she sat down. "Good morning." he said. "Came in to ask a few questions? - Natasha, right?"
"Um, Natasha, y-yeah. I think I want to sign up for Urasaria, um, maybe."
"Well, that's good. Can already see that you don't need any help on the fitness side of things, right?" he said. "What makes you want to sign up, though? Was my presentation that good?"
"Um, a little." she said, nervously pulling out a list from her pocket. "I - I still have a lot of questions, though, and - I kinda get nervous easily so."
'A whole lot of questions.' he thought, reading it as he took it from her. "…first question is about your grades?"
"They're - pretty bad." she winced.
It was a point of insecurity for her that her first three years had gone poorly, often prioritizing her fitness over school. She felt stupider than most people, and was already falling behind this semester.
"…well." he said. "I'm sure that can be straightened out, but - yes, I can tell you right now that there's no requirement for joining Urasaria. You've definitely gone quite thorough here, though. That's good."
Natasha nodded. At the least, she was aware of her anxiety and took steps against it, planning everything out beforehand and rehearsing conversations in her head. This habit of self-reflection had served her well in lifting weights, and she had hoped everything else in life would've been as simple as a barbell.
"I'll have to go through these myself later, just to make sure that I can give you the right answers for all of these." he said, folding it in to his drawer. "But I'd like to ask you a few questions about yourself, too, if that's alright. Making sure you've thought everything through first before we go any further. What made you think of signing up for Urasaria?"
"Um, I just - think it would be good for me since it's something physical, and - um, kinda simple. I-I don't really know what I want to do after highschool, so…"
He nodded, glad it wasn't the same nonsense about superpowers being cool he'd heard before. Urasaria took everyone they could, but he always privately disliked those recruits in particular, often coming out the other end of four years with no new discipline or dead. "That's something we could do for you then, yes. Give you something to do - you'll learn more in four years there than twenty years anywhere else in the world. No desire to go in to the military branch, though?"
"No."
"I don't blame you." he said, having told this to everyone. "Between you and me, I think Urasaria's the better option - but I'm not supposed to say that. Better living here at home in a nice air-conditioned house rather than out in the desert someplace - unless you've got a buddy with an ice Revenant. Still, though. Have you looked in to what you'll be doing? Type of work that entails?"
"Yes." nodded Natasha, trying to ignore the criticism of Urasaria she had read online. If she was going to make a bad decision, she would prefer it be her own. "Um, I looked at all the - the brochure you gave out, yeah. It - it sounds - it makes sense, um. Sorry, just nervous."
"That's alright. A lot of students are nervous the first time they come in here." he said. "I saw you asked about how soon you'd be living out of state, too, and… a few other questions about… you're eighteen, right?"
"Yeah. Um, I live with my dad, but…"
Recklessly he decided to check her. "How's your relationship with him?"
"Um, it's… He doesn't really like me, but - that doesn't really matter." (He paused.) "Um, it's not because I'm - gay, um - he doesn't abuse me or anything, he just - doesn't really like me."
"…sometimes that - right." he nodded. "Sometimes a little time away can do good for that. I noticed that... well." His head shook. "I saw here you were asking about - what the people are like there. I can tell you I go down there once a year and they've always been good, fine students - but most of them started just like you, too." He paused, trying not to speak left-handedly. "…lot of - lesbians there, too. Lot of them. Don't ever have to worry about - if you're - gay, don't have to worry about anyone not accepting you. Last three presidents have been gay. One of them even met her wife at Urasaria."
Natasha nodded. She was a bit of a fan of Swarm, and admittedly had fantasized about becoming the center of the school - some muscle-bound confident woman, with a Revenant that could match Worldwide's strength. One of the reasons she'd taken up lifting weights in the first place is, for whatever reason, she always held that Amazonian ideal in her head, even when how she actually acted around women was just as full of stuttering as she was now.
There were a few other lesbians she knew at her school, and she'd already ruined her chances with two of them, enough that they all now stayed away from her. It always seemed like she couldn't ever help being aside from the crowd - whether it was her stupidity or orcish appearance, there just always was -that- Natasha. So she had no future in this state - probably her situation at Urasaria would be a little better.
"But as for the rest of your questions, that's something I want to make sure you can get all the information you need." he said, pulling a form out of his drawer. "Would you be able to fill this out? Just some information so I can contact you if I have any questions myself."
"Okay." She filled it out and handed it back to him.
"Good. Let's try to schedule something a bit more thorough - maybe during one of your classes. Got any in particular you dislike?"
"Um, World History."
"I'll see what I can do." he said. "But there's something else I wanted to mention to you, too. I don't want to rush you, but there is…" He sighed. "…well. There's a Revenant that - a facility nearby got recently. It's a very good one, but they priced it a little too high. Do you know how that works?"
"To buy it?" said Natasha. "Because - um, I don't have that much money. I just have my - my dad saved up money for me to go to college, but…"
"You don't have to worry about that if you decide to sign up. Normally, it would be $10,000 for this one - now, don't ask me, I mean - it's a good, very good Revenant - but it always seems to me they price those damn things too high. What's the use of charging someone who wants to help serve their country? Makes about as much sense as if they started charging people to vote for president. But about the Revenant - it's going to end up expiring within two weeks. If you are going to sign up, it's better to have the best one you can, right?" (She nodded.) "If you do, I can pull some strings and make them give it to you for free. No one else is coming by to claim it. I'll even have them put it on reserve for you just in case."
"That - that sounds good, yeah." nodded Natasha. "Um, maybe. I just need some more time to think about this and yeah."
"Of course." he nodded. "Still. Shouldn't keep you too long. You can go now - thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you tomorrow. Think about if you've got any more questions, too, Natasha."
She left, and the other woman came in after.
"She was asking about Urasaria." he nodded to her. "Was thinking about signing up."
"Do you think she will?"
He shrugged, checking her grades on his computer. "A girl like that, I doubt she'll ever achieve anything otherwise."