Chapter 9
[17]
As Ms. Kawakami continued her lecture to the class, Ren stared out the window watching rain batter against the windowsill. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t stop thinking about that night. Even though it had already been a week since the attempted mugging, Ren kept playing it over and over in his head.
He hadn’t really done anything besides catch the mugger’s attention for a moment, but if he hadn’t, things may have gotten bad. As much as Ren didn’t want to admit it, there was a certain thrill in the danger of the situation and a certain amount of pride when the woman thanked him. The mask had concealed his identity and no one saw him leave so he probably didn’t need to worry about being questioned by the police. Maybe, with these new abilities and a mask to hide his face, he could-
“Mr. Amamiya!” His head spun back towards the board.
“Is my class boring you?”
“No ma’am, I apologise.” Ren quickly began copying down what the teacher had written.
“Tch, they don’t pay me enough to deal with kids.” Kawakami’s lesson was cut short as the bell rang, dismissing the final period. “Okay class, don’t forget, there’s a quiz coming up next Thursday!”
As the class got out of their seats and headed out the door, Ann turned to Ren.
“Thank god the teacher only caught you spacing, I was afraid she was gonna see me on my phone again. I cannot get another write-up.”
“Y’know how you keep saying how you don’t understand the homework Kawakami gives us? I think I figured out why.”
Ann gave him a small push. “Oh hush.” She said with a pout. “Hey I’m going to the mall after class today, wanna come? You can hold my bags!”
“Gee when you make an offer like that how can I refuse?”
“C’mon, I’ll buy you food as thanks.”
Ren thought about it for a moment, when a voice from close behind them spoke.
“I’ll hold your bags for you Lady Ann!” A boy with dark blue hair and a handsome face quickly snaked his way between the pair.
“Jesus! Stop doing that Morgana!”
Morgana Mercurius Philemon was a rather strange boy, the son of a family who owned a nightclub in Kichijoji and made bank on a regular basis, he was in the grade below Ann and Ren but didn’t seem to have any interest in his peers. This was a shame for the girls in his grade who constantly confessed their love for him. Instead, ever since he had first seen her, Morgana had become obsessed with Ann Takamaki. He tried to flirt with her in the halls between classes, offered to take her out to expensive dinners, and always referred to her as ‘Lady Ann.’ Ann was flattered, but declined every time, she would have reported him for stalking, but she did appreciate having someone willing to wait on her and buy her sweets when she was lacking in funds (Ann didn’t claim to be a saint, she had needs).
“Maybe afterwards, we could go out for a romantic evening? Just the two of us?”
“Oh look, the simp’s back at it again, what a surprise.” Ryuji approached the trio who had now made it to the first floor.
“Stupid blond monkey.” Morgana muttered quietly.
Ryuji looked over to Ren. “Hey are you doin’ anything today? The ramen place in Ogikubo is doing half off tonight!”
Before Ren could respond a brown haired figure approached the group. “Excuse me! I need to speak to Amamiya.” The quartet stared at her. The girl sighed. “Alone.” The group didn’t move an inch.
Ryuji was the first to speak up. “Can’tcha just leave him alone? He hasn’t done anything wrong so just get off our backs already!”
The girl looked ready to aggressively counter, but composed herself before speaking again. “I just need to have a brief chat with Amamiya so I can check in on him.” She turned to Ren. “Could I please speak to you in the student council room?”
Ren begrudgingly obliged and the two walked back up the stairs towards the third floor. Behind him, Ren heard his friend mutter, “This is bullshit.” It made him happy that he had friends who had his back now.
As they entered the student council room and sat down, Makoto pulled out a stack of papers.
Makoto Nijima was the student council president at Shujin Academy and, more relevantly, was the student asked by principal Ushimaru to watch over Ren during his year at Shujin. Shujin Academy took in Ren purely for publicity following his expulsion from his last school. They believed that reforming a criminal would make them seem even more prestigious than they already were. Makoto Nijima was the embodiment of the perfect student, earning straight-A’s for three years, running the student council almost single-handedly, and volunteering for every extracurricular event the school held. Even some of the teachers thought this girl was too uptight.
“I’ve reviewed your recent test scores and I must say I am impressed. You did quite well in all subjects.”
“That’s great so-”
“However! I’ve been informed by some of your professor’s that you’ve been inattentive in class as of late. This kind of behavior needs to stop, otherwise, regardless of your test grades, I will report you to the principal.” Makoto’s red irises stared daggers at Ren.
“Uhh s-sorry, I’ll be sure to work on that.” He raised his hands disarmingly.
Makoto grunted, seemingly satisfied.
“One more thing. Mr. Kamoshida appears to have left the school’s employment, I’m aware that you and your friends all had problems with him as an educator. I trust that you had nothing to do with his sudden departure?”
“Wha-are you serious?!” Ren stood up, offended at the accusation. “We had nothing to do with that, I know it's tempting, but you can’t blame me for everything that happens at this school!” He slammed his hands down and the table the two were sitting at, split apart, collapsing to the ground and sending the papers on it sliding to the floor.
Ren was angry, angry that once again he was being accused of something he was innocent of, angry that trouble seemed to follow him wherever he went, and angry that even when he did good, he was still hated.
Makoto was shocked at Ren’s sudden outburst. In his two months here, despite constant rumors suggesting his violent nature, Ren had never even so much as raised his voice, even to defend himself from the constant harassment he received. Now, for the first time since meeting the student under her supervision, Makoto was afraid of him.
As Ren realized what he’d just done, he looked down at his hands. Up until now he hadn’t used his strength to destroy something, if he was being honest it scared him how easily he’d broken it. What if it had been a person he hit after losing his temper? Ren had to learn to control this newfound power, otherwise he could end up doing more harm than good.
Makoto said nothing, only staring at him with her mouth agape and her eyes showing a glimpse of her fear. Ren once again put his hands up to show her he meant no harm.
“I’m so sorry, it was an accident. I didn’t, I-” Ren couldn’t find the words and instead left the room as fast as possible.
Makoto stared at the closing door, then once again at the remains of the table and its scattered contents. What had she just witnessed? What kind of a person was Ren Amamiya? And just what kind of a threat did he pose to the school?
[18]
“And… there. You’re all hooked up.” Kamoshida stood in the workshop of the specialist that Kingpin had sent him to. Munehisa Iwai otherwise known in the underground community as ‘The Tinkerer’ finished strapping Kamoshida into the harness of the special equipment he had requested.
“Now the controls of this device are pretty simple.” Iwai explained. “You’ve got your power source right here.” He tapped Kamoshida’s hip where a recreation of the original battery he’d brought in rested. “In order to discharge electricity from your hands, simply flex your finger tips and point where you’re aiming.”
Kamoshida tested the device on a mannequin standing in a nearby corner. With a loud ‘ZAAPP’ the mannequin was left charred and smoking.
“Excellent.” He chuckled, staring down at his smoking palm.
“Now you’re going to be using a lot of power, so when you need to recharge just place your hands on any electrical device and the gloves should soak up power. The wires of the suit are graphene, the most conductive material in the world, so you should be able to discharge and recharge very quickly.”
“I must say, you do incredible work.”
Iwai ignored the compliment and sat back down at his desk and began work on his next project. “We’re done here.”
“What about the costume?” Kamoshida questioned.
“Costume?”
“Yeah like what’s my motif? What’s my gimmick?”
“Your ‘gimmick’ is you get the hell out of my workshop. I only do what I’m told by the boss” Iwai responded coldly.
Kamoshida did not appreciate being spoken to like that. Sparks flew from his clenched fist.
“Y’know, I may need to do a test run on the new device.” He said with a sick grin on his face.
Iwai didn’t even look up from his work. “You touch me, you die Kingpin will make sure of that.”
Kamoshida let out an angry grunt and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Once he made it back out to the streets of Shinjuku, Kamoshida looked out at the busy streets before him.
Maybe a test run wasn’t such a bad idea.