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Short chapter, next 2 ones are much longer
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After a long and gruelling 10 hour flight on the plane Akira had finally arrived in America. Thankfully, Nezu had been nice enough to book him first class, so he slept most of the flight in a nice and comfy bed. He even had a shower on there.
He glanced outside the window, gazing at the horizon which hosted a massive string of buildings that eclipsed the sky. He smiled with excitement at the sight.
The plane stopped, and the flight attendant announced their arrival at the capital of the USA, Washington, DC.
"Mhm…" A groan left Akira's lips as he forced the stiffness out of his muscles. He stood up, letting out a short yawn. He grabbed his backpack and got to leave, but was stopped in his tracks by a flight attendant standing there unmoving at the front door.
ゴゴゴゴ
Akira looked at her with a strange look, "Uhhh, excuse me…" Akira tried to pass, but the flight attendant still wouldn't budge.
"Please wait Mr. Endo. I will soon escort you to the location of Stars and Stripes." The women sounded emotionless, putting on a convincingly real cheerful voice.
Akira nodded, "No problem." It wasn't like this was a complete surprise. He sat back down, relaxing in his chair, "Please call me Akira from now on though, Mr. Endo feels…strange."
"Very well, Akira." She nodded and the two descended into a silence until she gestured towards him. The flight attendant escorted Akira out of the plane, and instead of escorting him into the airport, she took him further into the landing area until she stopped outside of a fighter jet.
"Please get on Akira." She bowed and nodded, walking off in a professional manner.
When he entered, Akira noticed two pilots at the front and decided to introduce himself, "Hello, I'm Akira." He said in perfect American like it was his first language.
"David." He put his hand up.
"Name's Cathleen, nice to meet ya!" The women turned around, flashing Akira a wide smile. His eyes widened.
"Awww man!" Cathleen shouted.
"I told you Star, that's 5 bucks you owe me."
"Fine…" She grumbled, quickly turning her attention to Akira, "Sorry about that, we had a bet on if you would recognise me, I clearly lost. Let me introduce myself again, my name is Cathleen Bate, or as you may primarily know me as, the Number 1 American Hero, Stars and Stripes!" Cathleen paused for a moment, thinking it was some grand reveal before she continued, "It's nice to officially meet you, hero to hero, man to man."
Akira was about to respond, but was interrupted before he could speak, "I'm really looking forward to sparring with someone with the same quirk as myself. Haha! Never thought I'd ever be saying that before! Wait, how old are you again?"
"14…" Akira found himself slowly being consumed by the energetic and bubbly energy his future mentor(?) gave off.
"14 ayy? You're at that age, so I'm sure with a quirk like that that you've tried some crazy stuff with it, and lived out all your fantasies."
"What?"
"What?"
"Star, shut up, we've arrived." David chimed in. Akira wondered where they had arrived, so he glanced out the window to try and get a good look. He didn't know what he was expecting to see, but he certainly wasn't expecting to see the damn Pentagon!
"Get's them every time." Cathleen grinned at Akira's reaction. Once the jet had landed and they had all left the vehicle, Cathleen let out an impatient sigh, looking at her watch with mild irritation.
"I need to get dressed and have some food, I also need to stretch these muscles, it feels like I haven't worked out in ages."
"Cathleen, it's been 2 hours." She shrugged at David's words, giving him one last sorry look, "Give him the tour David, thank you!" She ran off before David could answer, who by the looks of it had a very annoyed look on his face.
"Hahhh…What did I expect," He turned to Akira who had a smile on his face because of the antics, "Cmon, let's go."
Akira followed David, the sound of silence accompanying them, occasionally broken by the loud roar of jets landing. David eventually broke the silence, "Excuse Cathleen's…upbeat nature, it was something she was forced into because of her profession. As a hero, especially in this country, you truly see the horrors of humanity and the worst the world has to offer. Normal people can't stomach it, and even heroes can't get used to it, so they turn to other things to block it out. Some turn to alcohol, drugs, or sex as a way to relieve stress and forget what they see on the job. Star on the hand deals with it another way. At first it was a mask, a mask of happiness and smiles which she showed to all people of the world, but mainly the people she saved. Cath has been in this industry for over 30 years, and one day she just couldn't take wearing that mask anymore, so she forced herself to be that person. She forced herself to see the good in things, crack jokes, and smile all the time. Sometimes I still don't know if she turned out better for it…"
Akira had a sad look on his face, was America really that bad that Cathleen forced herself to become something she wasn't.
"I know that look, and the answer to your question is yes. America has always been said to be the land of the free and it's still true in that sense. Insane beliefs, religious zealots, deranged lunatics, America had it all. Add quirks into the mix and you get a recipe for disaster. Without the heroes of this country, America would be fucked, pardon my french."
Akira was beginning to make a big picture of America in his mind, and the main point of the picture is that America was fucking dangerous. He didn't know whether he should feel excited or scared.