CoT: Chapter 4

Shopping had been an experience that I would rather not repeat in that way, ever again. Partially, because Mayumi and Sandra had done their level best to make sure I knew just what the different things we bought were and how they were used. The memory of my sister, not only explaining but showing me how a bra was correctly sized and worn is one I would rather forget but I suspect it will be with me, until the day I die, maybe even after that, haunting me in the afterlife.

Sadly, that particular memory was one of the more benign experiences I had that day, the event that took the spot of “Number one experience I would rather never repeat again” from being the main attraction in some sort of ritual sacrifice, was in an innocuous aisle at the supermarket, the health aisle to be precise. Yes, I am and was aware that menstruation is a perfectly natural process, that almost every female between certain ages goes through, regularly. Listening to my sister describe it in detail, with help from Sandra, was not something I wanted to experience. But, if I was perfectly honest, listening to them was far preferable compared to being forced to ask someone at school, so I sucked it up.

Finally, we were done, I had an interesting selection of clothes, they even allowed me enough input to make sure I was happy with the choices, which caused the clothes to be mostly on the conservative variety, so I was not showing a lot of skin, and there was not a single dress or skirt in sight. Mostly, the clothes were for the outdoors, something done due to a suggestion from Sandra, or lounge-wear. The crux of the matter was, that the Academy had a mandatory school-uniform that every pupil had to wear during school hours, so most of the time, I would wear that anyway.

Shoe-shopping was rather simple, I had only to balk at the idea of putting me in heels. I was already amongst the tallest percentage of females, no need to make me even taller, even as Sandra had jokingly explained the possible usage of thin heels as weapons. Every advantage one would have in a fight by having thin heels to concentrate the force of kicks into a small area, making it almost into a spear-attack had to be negated by the issue of keeping your balance in stiletto-heels. Even if they were named after a thrusting dagger. 

Underwear had been another bone of contention, I had managed to get mostly shorts and sports-bras, forcing them to abandon the idea of lingerie. They claimed it was an essential item, if I wanted to have a hot romance, but I managed to convince them that I was not planning of having any romance, never mind a hot one. I would have to get to grips with my own situation to even consider anything in that regard. 

But not everything went well, when we were almost done, we almost got into serious trouble. Sandra had gone off by herself, taking a call, and Mayumi and I had been at the food court, waiting for her. Sadly, a couple of guys were under the impression that two foreign looking girls were easy pickings and just had to try their luck. If they only had tried to pick us up by flirting, Mayumi would most likely managed to send them off without an incident. But after she had politely declined their company, the three of them turned vile, calling us various racist slurs and going on about the fact that we were in their country.

I felt myself get angry, angry at the fact that those three pieces of human garbage were interrupting the last day I had with my sister for months. Gently pulling Mayumi behind me, words were flowing out of my mouth, softly spoken words in a harsh language I had never heard before. But I knew what they meant, even if I had no idea why I knew them. It was like a dream, half-forgotten upon waking, only spectres of memory remaining.

The words I was speaking were telling the three of them what would happen if they kept pestering us, in great detail, promising them to pull out their spines and beating them with it, describing how I would rip out their innards to roast, before feeding them with the result. None of them understood what I was saying, as they were making jokes about me not speaking english and that I was retarded because I was not speaking the language of the land. As I was speaking and they were joking, I felt my anger slowly shift and grow, while my body got calm, calm and ready to do violence.

I was just about to shift into a combat stance and start making good on my threats, when Sandra returned.

“Hey, Kana, Kana-chan!” her voice cut through the angry fog in my brain. All three of us had appropriated the japanese form of address for the outing, in the beginning it had just been me, to make a little fun of Mayumi and to sell the role of the japanese traveller if we ran into people Mayumi knew, but after some time, the two of them had joined into the fun, Mayumi and I had even started to address Sandra as our sister. Only, I had started to address Sandra as a higher rank, compared to Mayumi, just to get her goat. 

“Hai, Sandra-neesama?” I answered, the strange language forgotten, switching into Japanese, instead of English.

“English, Kana-chan, remember?” she played her role as guide to the hilt, distracting me from the thoughts of violence I had just had.

“Ah, yes, I apologize, Sandra-neesama. I was just telling these three young man that neither of us has any interest in them.” I kept my voice level, hiding the anger I was still feeling. But it was only hidden, not forgotten.

“I am sure these three will leave now. Or, I would have to call mall-security and nobody wants that, right?” Sandra asked, with a smile that did not reach her eyes in the slightest.

Faced with a clearly adult and fearless presence, the three of them decided that they were no longer interested and swaggered away. With their departure, the anger I was feeling dissipated and terror set in. I had been ready to harm others, for nothing but offensive language. And not just slightly harm, I had been ready to strike a blow that would either result in lifelong disability or death.

I quickly buried my agitation, so neither of my companions would see it, when Mayumi gave me a quick hug, thanking me for protecting me. I noticed that there was confusion in her voice, no doubt because of the strange language I had spoken. I wished I was able to explain to her what was going on, because that would mean I knew what was going on.

“I think we have everything we need, right? Your mother invited me for dinner this evening and it would be rude to be late. So, let’s get going.” Sandra announced in a cheery voice. Hopefully, she had not realised what had happened with me.

We carried the bags out to the car and Sandra set off, towards her own house. When I looked at her in question, she stated that there was no way she would arrive for a nice dinner in her current attire and that I should take the time to change into something better as well. I had a few options now, after all. 

At Sandra’s house, Sandra vanished into her own space, while Mayumi helped me carry the bags inside, using the same room I had slept in.

“Want to tell me what you were saying when those guys got pushy?” Mayumi asked when we had everything inside.

“Want to? Not sure I can. The problem is, I have no idea where the words came from, it’s all a blur.” I answered, trying not to let out how much the event had disturbed me. “Maybe it is some strange part of my new powers, who knows how exactly Metahuman powers work. I certainly don’t.” There was a slight hysterical edge to my voice, the fact that I had been speaking a language completely unknown to me but knowing what it meant at the same time was disturbing to say the least. 

She looked mollyfied and disturbed at the same time, before plastering a slight smile over her face and starting to go over possible clothes I could wear for the evening. I was thankful that she changed the topic without pressing further, I was worried enough as things were.

After puttering around for a moment, she presented me with the singular pair of black slacks and a dark-blue blouse to wear, following my usual taste in clothes, a strong preference for dark colours. 

Mayumi and I chatted some more, as we sorted and packed the clothes we had bought, just swapping stories, some funny, some not, with both of us carefully avoiding the fact that I would be gone the next morning and tonight was a bit of a farewell. It was strange, while we had mostly got along, we had our fights from time to time. Yet, now that I would be leaving, it seemed to hit her quite hard. As we talked, a realisation came upon me, while I had been just talking to pass the time, Mayumi was trying to impart some knowledge on how to be a girl, using herself as an example, sharing experiences that she would normally not share, especially not with her brother.

Maybe half an hour after we had gotten there, Sandra emerged, dressed very much like a young professional, looking ready to take on the world. 

“Let’s go, it would be rude to leave your family waiting.” she said, gesturing for Mayumi and I to move. 

Our way did not take us to our home, we ended up in front of Grandfather’s house, obviously Sandra had been told where to go. When we got out, Grandfather quickly ushered us in and various delicious smells were already filling the air, making it obvious that Grandmother and Mother had teamed up to demonstrate that they could cook up a feast.

Inside, we were not only greeted by Grandmother, who had emerged from the kitchen for a moment, but also by Uncle Kenji and his wife, Kasuki. After exchanging bows and pleasantries, we soon retired to the dining room and mother served tea before dinner. The dining room itself was one of the things Grandfather had completely westernized, with a dinner table and chairs, while the tea was served in a traditional bowl, instead of a mug or cup.

Afterwards, it was time to eat and everyone was served. Conversation was subdued with only the traditional blessing before the food and the clinking of chopsticks against bowls being audible in the room. Again, the food was an interesting compromise between western convenience and japanese custom. Normally, there would be various bowls for everything under the sun, but today, there were only one dish per course. First, a bowl of miso-soup, followed by a small bowl containing tofu and crab-sauce and afterwards the main-course, chirashi sushi, was served, each of us getting a bowl of rice, mixed with a variety of vegetables and seafood. The sushi was followed by more fish, that one charred cod on sautéed vegetables.

The desert marked the exit from tradition, less with the served dish, mochi alongside green tea, and more because my Grandfather and my mother started to talk, probing Sandra about the school I would soon attend and my current circumstances.  I felt that it would be rather rude to interrupt the adults, even if they were talking about my future, but I listened carefully what they were saying. 

“Now, Miss Cassandra, could you please tell me more about that Potestatem Academy? I looked it up on the internet but saying that the information was limited would be an understatement. Don’t get me wrong, their presence looks good but real information, other than flowery language, is sparse on it.” Grandfather asked, starting the interrogation.

“Please, when I’m like this, I’m Sandra Castle. About the internet presence, well, Potestatem Academy is not really a secret but everyone involved tries quite hard to keep things from being too well known. You need to understand, not every Metahuman is as lucky as Calvin, or rather Kana now, is. Yes, she changed a great deal from what she was before but she still looks entirely normal and can live among humans without trouble.” Sandra stopped, gathering herself before continuing.

“When I attended the Academy, there was one student who was unlucky. Nobody really knew why it was happening, but her power was truly a curse. Her power was to slowly draw in pollution around her but it did not supply a way to get rid of the pollution, at least not all of it. She slowly became more and more toxic and that is not an euphemism for bad behaviour it is meant literally, her blood slowly turned into toxic waste. Her power helped her survive but at the same time, it got worse. When I was a senior, that student tried to kill herself for the first time, the pain was simply too bad to cope with. They put her on strong painkillers and it helped but not for long. As far as I’ve heard, she died a couple of months after my graduation. And that is only one story I know about, of people whose power are curses.” she looked at all of us.

“You all know the old pirates of the caribbean-movie, right? The one with Davy Jones? I’ve heard of a Metahuman who thought about suing Disney for using his likeness. In addition to the disfigurement, he needed to spent about half his time in water or he was getting sick. The Academy provides refuge for people like those, helping them to cope with their needs. That is one part of its hidden nature.

In addition, there are still elements in our society that paint Metahumans as dangerous and use intentionally malicious language to rile people up against them, to alienate them. If someone like that knew where and what the Academy was, there would be protests, maybe even attacks. The Academy is supposed to be a safe space for young Metahumans where they can use their powers, simply live and learn without being judged, thus the need for secrecy.”

Finally, Sandra wound down and took a sip of tea. Grandfather was keeping his silence, still waiting for more.

“To help that secrecy, the Academy is in a valley deep in the rocky mountains, I would explain it better but that is the best I can do. The road up there has no name and I’m not sure if the valley has one. The valley itself is well hidden and there are no official trails or anything like that in the area, just the academy. There is a small town, called Fraser’s Spring about five miles down the road but that town is inhabited by those who know about the academy and help to protect its secrecy.”

The location sounded very remote and I had the sinking feeling that it was not only to keep the students safe, but also to keep the world safe from the students. In days past, they had built prisons on islands for security, in a way, a remote mountain valley was not much worse. As I was thinking about possible implications, my uncle spoke.

“I know you told us it is a scholarship, but someone must pay for it. Could you tell us, who we will be indebted to? I have a hard time to believe that someone would set something like that up out of the goodness of their hearts.”

His question was at the edge of impropriety but it was one that had to be asked, I had no desire take on some future responsibility without reading the fineprint. Even just going to the school hinged on the fact that it was suggested by one of our City’s Heroes, someone trusted to keep our city and community safe.

“The school is mostly privately funded by donations and almost every alumnus gives some of their money to the school, as we know how valuable the time we spent there was. So, in a way, I pay for her to go there. In addition, the Academy gets some money from the government as they have a vested interest in the work done there and they would have, even if not a single graduate went on and joined one of the official Hero-groups.” She stopped herself, taking a deep breath. 

“The most valuable thing the Academy teaches is how to cope. You have heard the old saying, power corrupts, right? Young Metahumans are suddenly given power, some more, some less but there is no manual to go with the power. They generally figure out how to use some of their power but what they do with it? That is left to them and their impulse control. It is especially bad for those who have indirect powers, as most people have some apprehension against attacking people directly but if they don’t see the harm in what they are doing? Things can get out of hand, fast.” Sandra’s voice got tightly controlled towards the end, but she forged on.

“The result of them getting out of hand is delinquency or outright criminal behaviour, sending them into a life of ever escalating crime. Those are the ones we, the heroes, have to take down. Sadly, there is almost no rehabilitation when it comes to Metahuman criminals, they lack the skills to make it without their powers. So, the Academy tries to make sure that graduates can earn a living, with or without powers.”

The conversation went on some more, with Sandra talking about the great courses and instructors at the Academy that would likely prepare me to get into a good college, possibly even with a scholarship, if I chose to go that way. It was quite interesting that she said little about the actual Metahuman parts of the school but focused on the mundane, educational parts of it.