The ride back home was… silent… to say the least. Which was weird… in its own way.
One: my parents, as I learned over my four years of being a bean bag with hearing, never shut up.
Two: they never shut up unless it's a serious situation.
Three: they are silent… like one of those 'oh shit, we are both proud and scared of our four year boy who has the potential to reshape reality like its play dough' kind of silence.
And that's what scares the fuck outta me! Like, imagine wanting to live a perfectly normal life in a world of superpowers and getting to know your case is the rarest case in existence. Like a cosmic joke or something.
Fuck you universe, by the way!
Anyways, this time, we used a car which made the silence more terrifying and when I asked my parents about the powers, they awkwardly laughed and fell silent again.
Well, I'm screwed.
Getting home, I went straight to bed, cuz, well, you cannot tell me that being in a four year Old's body gives you enough energy for both the five stages of grief and a minor existential crisis.
Fast forward a few months and my parents calmed down a bit… thank God. Plus, due to my old man brain, I managed to convince them to let me join school when I get old enough for high school, so I managed to delay my suffering… Yay!
About my powers, I had two choices;
One: pretend I had no powers. Pros: I cannot be seen as OP. Cons: I stand out like a sore thumb since everyone else has powers.
Two: flex my powers at every opportunity. Pros: none seen. Cons: stand out like a sore thumb and will either be worshipped or taken to area 51 or any other government facility and studied.
And like the matured adult I am (mentally) I decided…
To do none of the above and just wing it.
I felt the hole in my hand glare judgmentally.
And… there's… a girl.
Mawata Amari.
The first time I saw her, she was getting her ass handed to her by three bigger kids. Not metaphorically. I mean full-on tripping, hair-pulling, tear-streaming, "please kill me now" level bullied.
And me? I was five. Barely had coordination enough to walk in a straight line, but apparently, that didn't stop me from charging in like some tiny, angry tornado.
"Hey! Leave her alone, jerks!" I yelled, waving my tiny fists cuz I'm not allowed to swear outwardly yet.
The bullies turned, blinked at my neon-orange snot streaked face, and promptly forgot she existed. Or maybe they just decided small humans were too weird to fight. Either way, crisis averted.
She looked up at me, confused, her lip trembling. "Uh… thanks?"
I puffed out my chest. "You're welcome. I am a hero. Bow or something."
She frowned, then slowly gave me the tiniest bow. "I'm… Mawata. You're… weird."
"Thank you, I get that a lot," I said, straightening my imaginary cape.
That was it. That was the beginning. Over the next few years, I taught her a few survival tricks (mostly how to throw rocks and hide from bigger kids), and she taught me… well, that being slightly less of a terror sometimes helped you make friends.
By the time we were ten, we were inseparable. I thought it was because she owed me her life. Turns out, it was because she secretly liked having a tiny, obnoxious, slightly murderous-kid-genius as a best friend.
And yeah… eventually, she'd learn to punch me in the shoulder instead of the bullies, but that was a long way off.
Lots of things had happened since then, strengthened our friendship.
Like one time we were seven, we build a "fortress" in my backyard. It's mostly cardboard boxes and hope. It survives exactly three hours before the neighbor's dog attacks. We mourn like it's a national tragedy.
Once when we turned eight, she starts standing up to bullies on her own, mostly since I threatened to ignore her if she didn't start. I cheer loudly from the sidelines, making her look like a pro athlete or a crazy person. Either way, it works.
When we were ten, we argue over whether cookies are better than cake. The argument lasts three days. We both refuse to eat dessert until the other apologizes.
Once when we were thirteen, she starts teaching me how to read emotions without terrifying people. I mostly fail, but sometimes pass by accident.
Even now, ten years since meeting, still inseparable, still worst enemies.
We were lying on the grass outside my house, staring at the sky like two idiots who had nothing better to do. The topic of the day?
High school.
High school was coming up in a few months, which meant one thing: the entrance exams. Everyone in the country had to take it. Written test, physical exam, and… the part that made every child pee themselves just thinking about it…
The golems.
Seventy feet tall, stone-forged, spirit-infused golems that made grown adults cry. You could outrun them, outsmart them, or outblast them, but no matter what, they scared the soul out of you. It's basically a two story building that can punch.
Mawata groaned. "I still cannot believe they send children to fight giant monsters. Who approved that?"
"Probably the same person who decided homework should exist," I said.
We both shivered.
She sat up, brushing grass off her hair. "You ready for it? The exam, I mean."
"As ready as someone who has no will to live but still wants to pass," I said.
Mawata laughed, then paused like a thought stabbed her brain. She squinted at me. "Wait. I just realized. I have never asked you this… what are your powers?"
I froze.
Ah. Shit.
I had been dodging that question for years. But we were sixteen now and it felt stupid to hide it from her any longer. I sat up too, looked at my hand, and then showed her the hole in my palm.
"Well," I said, "I inherited my great great great great grandfather's power. Turns out I can create and manipulate energy with the help of this. Let's me do shit like matter creation, energy shaping… all that cracked nonsense."
She stared. "So… you are…"
"Broken," I finished. "I know."
She blinked three times. "Tensei. That is not a power. That is a problem."
"Exactly."
She sighed like she had been spiritually exhausted by my existence. "And you did not tell me this for ten years because…?"
"I wanted to be normal."
"Tensei. Nothing about you is normal."
"Hey! I am normal adjacent."
She gave me the most done-with-my-life look I had ever seen.
But then I realized something.
"Wait. I never asked you for yours either," I said.
She grinned. "Oh? You want a demonstration?"
Before I could blink, the world blurred.
A rush of wind hit my face as Mawata vanished, reappeared behind me, flicked my ear, and disappeared again. She zipped around me in circles, fast enough that I could only see flashes of her hair. I watched her blur around me like a caffeinated mosquito on crack.
Then she skidded to a stop right in front of me, smirking proudly.
"I have super speed," she said.
I stared at her. "Bro."
"I know. Do you like it?"
"No. I love it. I fear it. I respect it. I want to run from it but I can't because you're faster." I muttered while she just giggled like she didn't just violate at least five laws of physics.
"How fast was that?"
"Fast enough that you looked like your soul was buffering."
I clutched my chest dramatically. "I feel personally attacked."
She rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. "Anyway… what school did you apply to? Please tell me it is not the one with the psychopath teachers."
I showed her my admission form.
Her jaw dropped. "You are going to Rensai High?"
"Yep."
"Tensei… I am going to Rensai High."
We stared at each other like two idiots who had just realized we were doomed to be classmates forever.
Then she elbowed me. "Well, at least I know someone there. That helps."
"Yeah," I said.
"Wait… do they build the golems themselves or what? That's like a bug middle finger to the economy… isn't it" I drawled as Mawata thought for a second.
"Well, it says there's a guy, the exam officer, has some kind of spirit summoning ability. Maybe it has something to do with it. Though they say he's a real shady guy." She answered after a brief moment of thinking while I rolled over on my face and groaned into the grass.
She stood up, dusting her shorts. "I am going to train. The exam is soon. You?"
I looked at the hole in my hand, then at her. "I am going to try taking the exam without using my powers."
Her eyebrows shot up. But she did not question it. She never did.
"Do what you think is right," she said simply. I wondered if she always just agreed with what I say.
Nah, not possible. Past arguments have taught me that much.
She turned, waved, and ran off the street, a blur disappearing into the distance with enough wind pressure to almost knock me over.
I watched the empty street. Wanting to keep the conversation going. Missing her warmth and acid tongue almost immediately.
Then a thought hit me so hard I nearly choked.
"Oh no," I whispered. "Fuck. Oh no."
I put my head in my hands.
"I am in love."
The universe laughed.
I cried internally.