things are going forward
When I got back home, it was late, and knowing Kasumi—the beautiful and lazy bastard she is—she was probably sleeping fully clothed. I shouldn't bother; if she doesn't show up to school on time, that's on her.
If she does wake up on time and crawls through the makeshift hole in the wall, I'll push her back into her room. I walk into my room, turn on the lights, and proceed to get ready for bed.
"Marie, what did you think of my performance today? Did I do well?" If I remember correctly, her ghostly form would disappear and be replaced with a more corporeal form.
"We did great, Ren. I thought you'd never try manifestation. I was getting a little bit sad there, but I was proven wrong!" she said, bouncing off the walls in excitement.
What the hell was past me doing? Did he not see that he was making the only French girl I would ever consider marrying sad? "I did great in your eyes, and that's all that matters to me. As much as I would excitedly love to gush about today, I have to go to school tomorrow." I get up, turn off the lights, and go back to my comfy bed, not realizing the shit show that would happen the next morning.
---
"Hey there, Striker. Do you mind explaining why you were slumped up against that wall earlier?" A man wearing a suit with a black face mask asked in a smooth tone. Usually, a question asked in such a smooth and motherly tone would imply good intentions.
Not him. Not the mysterious man in front of Striker—a man who always made sure his shit stayed his shit, for lack of a better term.
"I got a little too overconfident while chasing a new wannabe hero, and his friend surprised and attacked me. The dude came out of nowhere." Striker's hands were shaking a little bit. It was scary to be in front of the big man himself.
"Now what did I tell you about being careless? I might have to punish you. And the next time those boys show up around here looking to be heroes, they'll learn very quickly what being a hero means here on my turf."
---
Hey, you know that guy that's been called a Yusa rip-off? Yeah, that's me, Ben Hawksley. But that's enough of breaking the fourth wall. Some idiot has gone and upset one of the major gangs in the city.
For some damn reason, they're terrified of a half-competent hero popping up. I guess Batman really left an impression on them—he did take that symbol of fear shit to the max. Eh, no matter, not my problem.
"My problem is this damn déjà vu. Nothing feels new!" I say out loud. To who? My beautiful girlfriend Ellie, who coincidentally has the same power as me. I'm classifying it as a power until proven otherwise.
"Have we tried meta-nulling cuffs? It might be some sort of prediction-based power that we have," said the Ren look-alike. It never occurred to me how much they look alike, which means they might be related.
"You know that implies we're related in some way, right?" I said while taking a cigarette from my pocket and preparing the lighter.
"Like you would care, Mr. Bad Boy extraordinaire," she said casually in that teasing tone. It didn't even make me budge, not one bit. This was expected banter coming from her, but hey, I couldn't care less.
"Probably, but knowing how you feel about your family, you wouldn't even give me the time of day, let alone break one of society's most looked-down-upon taboos." I 'eloquently' put it into words.
"Now you made me forget about my damn cigs. Maybe the cuffs would work, maybe not. The cops keep those under lock and key, eh." This damn club was a godsend, to be honest. No one really comes to this part of the damn thing because of rumors we spread on the net.
"Eh, don't worry about that. You know that we could pay some of the locals. They don't ask questions anymore," Ellie said as she was loading her gun. It was customary for her to ensure the déjà vu didn't make her an instant win button. In fact, when they get into combat, they usually come back with broken bones or severe muscle tears.
"Well, we can't be moral all the time. Let's go."
---
I woke up and then got ready for school. With the final touch of adjusting my tie, I opened the door to the outside.
"Welp, I gotta get that blockhead up." If the world hasn't gone mad, she's probably still sleeping in. If not, assume that Darkseid made a visit and Lex decided to ambush Superman with his favorite radioactive rock.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Yo, Kasumi, you up, sis?" As cute and hot as she is, you have to remember that her family basically adopted me. But if she wants to take it to the next level, I will have a hard time refusing because she's quite good-looking at times.
Thanks to my enhanced senses, I can hear her slowly dragging herself out of bed. Thank you again, enhanced senses, for existing.
She opens the door, only to slightly recoil as the sun's brilliant light blinds her.
"Thank you for waking me up when you do, Ren."
"As much as I would love to leave you behind, your mother would kill me if I were to let you be late to class one more time," I said, totally ignoring the fact that I could move fast enough to get her to school within literal microseconds if I really wanted to.
"Oi, you'd do this without her effectively holding a knife to your throat, right? Right, you would. You totally would," she said, which made me audibly sigh.
"Yeah yeah, let's get moving. Hurry and get your uniform on, and let's go!" I then pushed her head back in the doorway. Usually, she'd bark at me for doing something like that, but today was different. Nothing special was to happen today, but something felt off.
---
As we walked to school, I noticed Marie was unusually quiet. She would usually be curious about what we were learning and would sometimes ask me about things on the way to school. From previous talks, she can best be described as a sheltered kid.
"Hey, Marie, you okay?" I asked internally.
"Yes, Ren. Just thinking about... things," she replied, her voice echoing in my mind.
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" I reassured her.
"I know. It's just... I worry about you, Ren. This world is dangerous, and even with my power, I can't protect you from everything," she admitted. Yeah, there are a lot of things and people above my current power and speed, and that's just taking into account pure destructive force and speed.
"I'll try my best to be safe. Don't worry about it too hard. Here in this town, we don't get the hard hitters like Metropolis or Star City does. In fact, you got pretty lucky being bonded here, Marie."
I quickly snap my attention back to reality as time resumes. Each time I talk to Marie, I temporarily push my body processing speed to the max it can go, making my perception of time slow down. That's how I avoided getting questions about spacing out.
"Ren, isn't it ridiculous that people go ahead and throw me in the dumb kids pile whenever it comes to any competition? I make good grades, you know. It's not fair. Even Rea-sempai treats me like an idiot sometimes. It's just not fair," she quickly rattled off her problems to me. And really, what was I supposed to do about it?
"Maybe, and just maybe, it's because you wear your heart on your sleeve, so you naturally don't carry yourself like people think a smart person would." She looked at me like I'd grown a second head for a second, and then it looked like something clicked in her head.
"So what you're saying is that if I started wearing glasses and walked around like I was holding a briefcase while adjusting an imaginary tie, people would think I'm a genius or something in that vein," she said, a little bit shocked at how easy it would be to trick people into believing something like that.
"Yes, Miss Kasumi Ayase, that's exactly what I'm implying. If you want people to think of you in a certain way, dress and/or act like it. It's really that simple." I said nonchalantly. At the end of the day, you have to play to people's sensibilities if you want them to think of you in a certain way.
"I don't believe you!" It seems she thinks I meant it the instant change kind of way. Gotta pop that bubble.
"No, silly, not if you change your demeanor in an instant. The only way you can trick people like that is with first impressions, and an idiot like you would open your mouth and ruin any progress you had, to be honest with you." She closes her mouth, and with that, our school day finally starts.
End chapter.