Chapter 59
[83]
Haru Okumura sat in the living room of her home early in the morning, watching a video that’d been posted the night before and was now trending on social media. A man calling himself Mysterio promised the public that he’d attack big corporations using his ‘magic’ and bring humanity to a new age. He seemed to be a pretty strange individual, even by villain standards. Why would someone choose to wear a fishbowl on their head?
As Haru finished the video, her father came down from the stairs, much to her surprise.
“Father! I thought you’d be at work by now!”
Her father yawned as he stepped into the room. “I had a late night in the office. Shouldn’t you be getting ready for school?”
“Yes sir.” She said as she grabbed her things to leave.
“And don’t forget, you have a date with Sugimura tonight. Wear something he’d like.”
Haru shuddered at the thought of being around that man, and what kind of dress she’d have to wear. “Y-Yes sir.” The girl left for school without another word.
The ride to school in her limousine was uneventful, the driver for today wasn’t especially talkative, so she was more or less left to her own devices. When they finally arrived in front of the school, Haru exited the vehicle without a word.
As a part of her duties as Dr. Maruki’s lab assistant, Haru took it upon herself to feed the mice each morning. She found the task relaxing, and the mice were so cute. While she wasn’t a fan of experimenting on the adorable creatures, she knew that their work could improve and potentially save millions of lives.
When she arrived in Maruki’s lab, she was greeted by the sight of Ren Amamiya already completing her job.
“Oh...Hello Amamiya.” Haru greeted the boy, disappointment clear in her voice.
The boy turned around and gave her a half-hearted smile. “Good morning Haru.”
The two stood awkwardly for a moment, neither really felt like talking at the moment. Deciding to avoid further awkwardness, Haru walked over to Iggy’s enclosure and began watering her plants, her second favorite activity of the morning.
“Good morning my amazing lab assistants! How are we doing today?” Dr. Maruki greeted as he entered his lab. Upon seeing both of his students’ grim expressions, his smile faded to a look of concern. “Are you two alright?”
Haru didn’t want to get into her situation, it wasn’t something she really felt she should share with others.
Unbeknownst to her, the same thought was running through Ren’s mind at that very moment as he recalled this morning’s events.
After seeing the message by the man calling himself ‘Mysterio’ Ren headed back home to find Naoto awake and getting dressed in her kitchen while she was on the phone. From the sounds of it, she was speaking to the police captain about the message.
When she saw Ren, Naoto quickly wrapped up the phone call and addressed Ren. “There you are. I was wondering where you’d gone.”
“I saw the message. Have there been any attacks so far?” Ren cut straight to business, his concern for the city trumping his emotional state.
“No, none yet. But we’re keeping our eyes out. Our tech guys have been trying to trace the hack since it started, but we haven’t had any luck.” Naoto explained as she put on her shoes. “I’m heading into the office.”
“Naoto listen, about what happened with us-”
“Look Ren, now’s not really the time.” Naoto looked away and nursed her temple. “Earlier...Look, I just had a really long day and I was tired. It was a mistake. Let’s just...Let’s just act like it didn’t happen. Alright?”
“Y-Yeah, totally.” Ren said, dejected.
“I’m heading into the office, you should get some rest, you’ve got school in a couple hours. If we get a lead on any possible attacks, you’ll be the first one I call. Okay?”
“Got it.” Ren watched as Naoto exited the apartment. “Be careful.” He called out just as the door closed behind her.
It was pretty sad, being told to act like your first time never happened. It was only a few hours ago that Naoto and he had been...together, and now they were back to business as usual. Were they really never going to discuss what had happened between them? Maybe when all of this Mysterio business was over, they would have a moment to talk.
As Ren finished recalling the events from earlier, he snapped his attention back to Dr. Maruki. “I’m fine Doc, just...kinda tired. I woke up early, couldn’t get any rest after.”
“Well, that’s why we have coffee.” Maruki said as he walked over to the lab’s coffeemaker and started it up. “What about you Haru? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I’m tired as well.” She stated simply.
“You guys see that weird video this morning? Heard it was broadcasted across all of Tokyo. Some kind of cyberattack maybe?” Dr. Maruki asked rhetorically.
“Who knows? All we can do is wait, I guess.” Ren replied.
The trio began their work, running simulations on cross species DNA splicing until the bell rang, indicating that the school day had begun.
As Ren entered his homeroom, he saw Ann sitting at her desk on her phone. Seeing him approach, the girl set down her phone and quickly began fixing her hair. When Ren took his seat behind her, Ann turned to chat with the boy. Before Ann could start, Ren spoke first.
“Have you spoken to Futaba lately? I haven’t heard from her since...y’know. I’d ask her in person but I don’t think Sojiro wants me anywhere near there.”
Ann was surprised by the question. “No actually. I tried calling her but I couldn’t get through. I went over to Leblanc to check on her. Apparently, she’s grounded and Sojiro’s making her go the rest of the year without any screen time.”
“Futaba without screens? May God have mercy on us all.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I was hoping to get her help with this whole ‘Mysterio’ thing. She might be able to trace the hack better than the police.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Sojiro doesn’t want Futaba having any part of this vigilante business anymore. Says it’s too dangerous for her.”
Ren sighed and placed his head in his hands. Soon after, the teacher entered the room and gave Ren a nervous look as she placed her things on her desk. For a moment, Ren was confused, what did he...Oh. Right. After everything that happened last night, between him and Naoto and the potential new villain, he’d forgotten that his teacher had shown up at his apartment dressed as a maid.
Not knowing what to do in this situation, he tried giving his teacher a friendly wave, which she did not appreciate. So he just looked down and pretended to look for something in his bag.
The day continued on normally while Ren was distracted by his thoughts. Eventually, he exited the school and headed towards his next destination of the day, Takemi’s clinic. He had some questions to ask.
As he arrived at the clinic, he ran into a man in a suit leaving as he entered. The man pushed past Ren and murmured something about kids these days. Disregarding the rude man and walking into the waiting room, he saw Takemi sitting at her desk with a distressed look on her face with a sheet of paper in her hands.
“What’s wrong Takemi?”
Looking up in surprise, the doctor quickly hid the paper away. “Ren! Um, nothing! What um, what can I do for you?”
Concerned for his friend, but respecting her privacy, Ren returned to the original reason he came here. “I was wondering if we could um, run some tests.”
Now Tae’s curiosity was piqued. “What kind of tests?”
“Um,” Ren looked down and tapped his fingers together. “The kind that determines if there’s anything wrong...down there.”
Tae raised an eyebrow. Was this an innuendo of some kind? Suddenly, realization dawned on her face. “Ren, you dog! I can’t believe it! Who’s the lucky someone?”
“Wedon’tneedtogetintothatpleasejusthelpme!” Ren pleaded, face turning red.
“Alright, alright.” Tae said, chuckling. “Come in the back and then, well, come in the back.” When the two entered the back office, Ren was handed a small cup. “Do your thing.”
“...”
“...”
“Uh, Doc...Can I get some privacy?”
“Ugh fine. You patients are so needy!” She said sarcastically as she left the room.
When Ren finished his business, Tae took the cup and had it analyzed. After some time passed, she returned to the room with a clipboard in hand and took a seat in her rolling chair. The two sat in silence for a moment and Ren’s heartbeat was so strong it was nearly audible.
“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” Tae finally asked.
“Good news.”
“Welp, the good news is, you don’t have to worry about giving any of your partners cancer or giving birth to a nest of tiny spider babies.”
“Thanks for that mental image Doc. So, what’s the bad new-”
“You can’t have kids.” Tae stated right out.
“...”
“Sorry, sometimes it’s best to just rip the band-aid right off.”
Ren wasn’t really sure what to think. Having kids was the last thing on his mind right now. He wasn’t devastated, afterall, what 17 year old wanted kids? But maybe one day…
“Well um...Thanks Doc.” Ren didn’t know what else to say. He got up and walked out of the clinic.
Tae watched the sullen boy leave with a sad expression on her face. As she walked back to her desk, she pulled out the paper from before. Written in bold letters across the top were the words: Notice of Foreclosure.
Ren rode the train back to Naoto’s apartment, as he got off in Shibuya, he noticed a crowd gathered in the middle of the street, all looking up at something. As he ran over to join them, he spotted the object in the sky.
It was the same man from last night’s video, and he was directly across from a Shido Sciences building. Floating high over the streets on a cloud of green smoke, the man of mystery called out to the citizens below.
“People of Tokyo! While you are made to suffer in silence, the architects of your suffering sit in their ivory towers looking down upon you all! I, Mysterio, shall use my magic to bring these towers crashing down!”
Mysterio opened his cloak and a swarm of flaming gargoyles emerged, flying towards the building across from him.