Wicked Little Games (Worm/Kakegurui)

[Cold_Fusion]

Edge 4.1

Edge - A poker player's advantage over other players, usually referring to skill.

I'd never been able to fully decompress from my battle with Lung, but the past few days had been dedicated to far more mundane stressors instead. At the very least, school had been canceled for the remainder of the week; several of the school buildings had been turned to cinders, and from what I heard, the city was still figuring out how they'd manage that so close to the end of the year.

Once I'd been checked out of the hospital, Dad and I had taken the few belongings he'd saved from the fire, consisting of clothes and a few family photos, and moved them to the Dallon household in boxes. (There hadn't been enough of them for us to need a storage locker, which was both relieving and sad at the same time.) We'd spent a few days getting settled on the specifics of what joining New Wave would mean: with Brandish being a lawyer, you could bet she'd made sure all her bases were covered. From there, we'd gone out a few times to help clean up the city and tried to settle back into a routine.

While I hadn't gone on an actual patrol yet, I'd at least been introduced to the rest of the team, including the other recruit they'd picked up in the wake of Lung's attack. We hadn't really spoken even while we'd been helping sift through the rubble together, but while she'd seemed even more withdrawn than I'd been, at least I hadn't gotten any overtly unpleasant vibes from her.

The day that routine changed once more was a Saturday. As before, the Dallons and I met in the living room, where we were given our in-costume objectives for the day. Dad waited off to the side so he could listen in. This time, however, I was given a rudimentary map of Brockton Bay with a single section shaded in. While I hadn't gotten this before and therefore had an idea of why I'd need it, I figured I might as well ask. "More cleanup designations, or…"

"I wouldn't say the city's recovered yet, there's still some areas that are virtually uninhabitable at the moment," Victoria said. "However, the bulk of the recovery work is done, and I'm sure everyone would like to try and get back in the groove, including me. We'll do some cleanup in the process, but tonight will look more like our usual patrol."

I'd felt good just helping the citizens of Brockton Bay clear out the rubble that Lung had left behind; even if it wasn't much, I was doing something to help, which was better than a lot of people could say. However, I was ready to hit the streets again. Going back to helping people in ways ordinary citizens couldn't promised to make the warm feeling in my chest swell tenfold.

"In that case," I said, "where am I headed?"

"For now, Mom's just going to have you stick with me outside Captain's Hill so I can help you ease into things while she reworks everyone's patrol routes to accommodate two more people," Victoria said, showing me her version of the map, which was identical to mine. "She's very particular about how we handle those, and I can't say I blame her."

"Well, I don't want to mess up her system," I said. "If everyone's ready, let's get going."

The two of us retreated to our rooms to get in costume. As we prepared for our patrols, Victoria went into some detail on Brandish's patrol planning, which honestly felt quite impressive given the circumstances. Each New Wave hero covered a section of Brockton Bay during each patrol, each one having one or fewer Protectorate hero/Ward in the area. The shapes of those sections and who covered them changed on a day-by-day basis, following no obvious pattern, so enterprising villains wouldn't know who'd arrive first in the event they tried something. Furthermore, each New Wave member carried a walkie-talkie to get in touch with the rest of the members in case they either needed backup or healing. It even had a second channel to get the Protectorate on the line; nine times out of ten, the Ward or other Protectorate hero in the area would make that call first, but no one wanted things to go south during that other ten percent.

All of us congregated in the living room in costume for a brief minute, then dispersed onto the front lawn before we started going our separate ways. Perhaps because Glory Girl wasn't used to someone tagging along with her, we were the last to leave.

Glory Girl smiled at me. "So, are you ready for your first patrol?"

I nodded. "As ready as I'm getting, I suppose." I left out that this was technically my third patrol, or that both of my first two had nearly ended in disaster. Chances were third time was the charm; I'd eventually have to make it through at least one patrol without anything crazy happening. "Well, in the twenty minutes it'll take us to get there, anyway."

"I can get us there faster if you're okay with me carrying you," Glory Girl said. "Want to take the express route?"

I nodded so hard, it was a wonder my head didn't fall off. How could I possibly say no to an opportunity that incredible? "Why wouldn't I?"

"Just wanted to make sure you're not afraid of heights or something," Glory Girl said. I supposed that was understandable. She instructed me on how to get into a position where she could hold me securely, picked me up like I weighed nothing once I got in that position, and then we were off in a rush of adrenaline.

As we soared, I wondered if I could try and replicate the experience with a large number of flying insects, given that they were often stronger than they looked. It'd be a watered-down experience, the flight slower and less dynamic, but anything to recreate even a fraction of what I was feeling now without help would be incredible, and could even prove useful for hero work, such as saving someone in a tall building from a fire. I put that to the back of my mind for now: I'd probably be better off testing that in the summer, when there'd be more insects to pull from.

We weren't in the air for too long, maybe five minutes maximum. From there, she flew in a helix to lose momentum, then gently set both of us on the ground. After taking a moment to stretch and loosen my joints after the flight, the two of us began walking together as we monitored our little portion of Brockton Bay.

My first sanctioned patrol started on a rather depressing note. This section of the city frankly didn't have that much left to patrol; each building was a coin toss on whether or not it was standing, and another coin toss regarding whether it was occupied. A handful of rough-looking individuals wandered the street, but for a long time, we were neither stopped for autographs nor dispatched to handle any criminals.

Our first interruption, while not anywhere near as horrific as what had happened just a few short days ago, still displayed the signs of trouble to come. It got the drop on us before we were ready: we turned a corner and found a woman standing on the sidewalk thirty feet in front of us, wielding a crowbar and an expression that could freeze lava.

She might have still been pretty if her outfit hadn't set off every red flag possible. The Empire Eighty-Eight had forced every Brockton Bay citizen to learn about Nazi dogwhistles if they wanted to avoid getting jumped, but she'd skipped straight past that step into full-on Nazi Germany cosplay: she was wearing what looked like an intact Wermacht uniform, of all things. Someone that far gone probably had some nasty tattoos her outfit covered up, but for now, I decided not to think about that.

"You do realize these streets are off-limits for dykes like you," the woman said. "Turn back around, and I'll leave you alone. Otherwise, you're here at your own risk."

Glory Girl stopped dead in her tracks, sighed, and took a deep breath. I understood where she was coming from; I didn't appreciate being insulted by Nazis either, even if this felt less personal than anything Emma had thrown at me.

When we began walking towards her once more, the neo-Nazi's snarl somehow deepened. "You were warned."

As she launched into a tirade of threats and insults, I leaned in to whisper to Glory Girl without being overheard. "Are we taking her in?"

"What she's doing is fucking disgusting, but I'm not sure if she's crossed the line into sufficiently illegal yet," Glory Girl said. "She lays a hand on either of us, I'll start singing a different tune, though."

"Then let's move on," I said. "Maybe if we don't give her a reaction, she'll go away."

Admittedly, I was being optimistic to the point of naivete there: that'd never worked on the Trio, all that did was cause them to escalate further. However, the scenario was a bit different here, so I had some hope. Unless the woman tried to physically attack us or called in backup, there was only so much she could actually do to escalate things, and in both cases, we could call for outside help if needed, something I'd never had access to at Winslow.

We got moving again to try and lose our heckler, but either she was a cape or just worked out a lot, because she kept up with us without too much issue despite her clunky, ugly uniform, spewing hatred and insults all the while. While we couldn't necessarily tune her out, we no longer rose to the bait, either. All the woman's shouting did was attract attention from the few other people in the area, most of it rather unpleasant. Someone even chucked a half-full beer bottle at her from a second-story window, which she had to be quick on her feet to dodge.

This continued until we approached a line of half-full dumpsters that were surrounded by a cloud of flies. Here, Glory Girl stopped, beginning to rummage through one of the dumpsters without caring that her arms were swiftly getting filthy and the flies had begun congregating on her head even as I worked to keep the worst of them away from her. At first, I wondered if she was looking for another potential assailant hiding under the trash, but then the neo-Nazi spoke again, and the true intent behind what Glory Girl had been doing became clear. "What's the matter? Looking for your next meal in there? It's better than you alphabet freaks deserve."

"No, silly," Glory Girl said, her smile turning blinding. "I thought that was where you belonged, so I was trying to make it more comfortable."

That earned Glory Girl a glare from the neo-Nazi and a smile from me. Still, the neo-Nazi wasn't done yet. "I was thinking the same for you. I'm a paragon of the white race, not filth like you; you'd be better off with the rest of this trash."

"Although, we might need more dumpsters if we keep this up," Glory Girl added, ignoring what the neo-Nazi had just said and adopting a dreamy look. "I mean, given that all of them are human trash, the entire Empire Eighty-Eight needs to fit in there, so…"

Given that the neo-Nazi's face turned a color so red that she probably would have screamed something about commies had she seen it anywhere else, Glory Girl must have struck a nerve. She broke from her position in our peripheral vision to charge us outright, armed with a crowbar that had at least one suspicious splatter on it.

Fortunately for everyone except the neo-Nazi, things went just as expected: the crowbar bounced off of Glory Girl with no effect, while Glory Girl's subsequent kick didn't. Even though I could tell she'd been holding back, the neo-Nazi still tumbled a solid six feet backward, clutching at their sternum and moaning. Why she'd thought she could land a hit on Glory Girl without any powers whatsoever, I didn't know, but no one ever accused neo-Nazis of being smart.

"Thanks for doing that," Glory Girl said to the neo-Nazi once it became clear she wasn't getting back up. "That was really fucking cathartic."

I couldn't say I disagreed. The number of times I'd wanted to do something like that to some combination of Emma, Madison, and Sophia was safely in the triple digits.

Glory Girl got her walkie-talkie out and got Brandish on the line. "Would you mind dispatching the BBPD to our current location? Someone thought it'd be a good idea to come at me with a crowbar."

"Roger," Brandish said, the conversation ending there. I didn't know if they were already in the area or just jumped at catching a glimpse of Glory Girl (though those two weren't mutually exclusive), but a squad car pulled up to us less than three minutes later, the neo-Nazi still on the ground and groaning. Thankfully, it didn't take much effort for Glory Girl to help maneuver the woman into the back of their squad car.

Once the neo-Nazi had been taken away, I asked the obvious question. "With the ABB gone, the Empire has to be our next priority to dismantle, right?"

"That's the plan, but Director Piggot doesn't want to rush things," Victoria said. "Once we get a clearer picture of what their plans are, then we start moving. We don't want to let them get too established, but we don't want to fall into any traps they've set up, either." Then she shuddered. "We don't want another Fleur."

Instantly, I felt terrible for bringing up the idea. Fleur's death was fairly recent and common knowledge; I should have known better than to push on the issue for now. "My apologies, should have been more cautious about that."

"No need," Glory Girl said. "Trust me, we want the Empire gone as much as or more than anyone. It just wasn't practical for the longest time, and arguably it still isn't; competitors or no competitors, they still have a lot of capes. If we wanted to truly eradicate them and not just beat them down, we'd probably need outside help again, and we just got the Triumvirate involved."

Admittedly, I knew less about the politics of the cape scene outside of Brockton Bay than I probably should have, but I assumed that, barring S-Class threats like the Slaughterhouse Nine, each branch of the Protectorate was expected to be able to fend for itself in some capacity. Maybe needing outside help multiple times in a short period, barring those scenarios, was poor form or reflected badly on the Director or something.

We broke off our conversation there, as we needed to focus once more. After we signed a few autographs from people who'd approached us after our incident with the neo-Nazi, the rest of our patrol cycle came with no interruptions, Nazi-related or otherwise. Glory Girl offered to take me home the same way she'd taken me there, and of course I accepted: the rush had been exhilarating the first time, and the second time was no different.

Once we neared the Dallons' house, though, something made my heart skip a beat that wasn't the ridiculous fear of plummeting to my death. Someone who looked like another girl our age was walking up the driveway, every step measured and with purpose. Given the information I currently had, I'd already pinned down a likely suspect as to who that was, but when she turned around after we landed, it became impossible for her to be literally anyone else.

Were Yumeko a cape, maybe her power had something to do with impeccable timing: this was the second time in a row she'd known where I'd be and when I'd get there without me telling her anything. Admittedly, this one had better odds of being a coincidence since I'd become a public-facing hero, but it was still unsettling.

"There you are," Yumeko said. "I've been looking for you."

The look Glory Girl gave Yumeko reminded me that, because Glory Girl went to Arcadia and Yumeko hadn't come with us during Lung's attack, the two of them had never met. "Taylor, who's this?"

"She's Yumeko, my friend from Winslow," I said. I decided to stop there, because I wasn't sure how Glory Girl could or would react if she knew the whole truth.

Glory Girl relaxed a bit. "If you two are friends, I'll leave you alone: I'm going to go change out of my costume. If you need me, just holler."

She did just that, meaning whatever Yumeko had to say would likely be heard by our ears alone. Regardless of what Yumeko was here for, I decided to try and take the initiative this time. "Hello, Yumeko. How'd you find me?"

"I heard the news and made my own deductions from there," Yumeko said, though I had to admit figuring that out came nowhere close to what she was capable of. "Since it looks like you're done for today, do you mind if we talk for a bit?"

There was no such thing as a light conversation with Yumeko: every chat I'd had with her had been about as stressful as my recent conversations with Dad. Furthermore, if Yumeko had gone out of her way to find me in person instead of just calling (although, admittedly, she might not have known the Dallons' house number and our landline had been turned to ashes), it could easily mean she worried whatever she had to say would be intercepted by bad actors otherwise.

Those two facts gave this conversation a degree of seriousness far beyond what I wanted to handle right now. Nothing good would come from delaying this any longer, though: as with her initial recruitment pitch, it was best to just handle this now. "Sure, why not? Where would you like to do that?"

"Here's fine, I don't want to burden you any further," Yumeko said. "Let's just keep it down and make sure no one's eavesdropping. This is rather important, after all."

Any hope I had for a peaceful night slipped away then and there.

---

Spoiler: Author's Notes

My last two chapters were a bit shorter than average, so apparently my muse decided to compensate this time.

In case it's not obvious, I'm attempting to use cape names when the characters are in costume and real names when they're not, at least in narration. If I mess something up on that front, please let me know.

I don't really have much else to say here, other than that I hope you enjoyed the chapter. (Also, I'm going to try and revive Shuffle and Play (a Worm/Yu-Gi-Oh TCG one-shot collection I started last year) after a long hiatus if you're interested in that: I'll see if I can update that every Friday until I run out of ideas. It'll be on my AO3 and Spacebattles for now, and I may or may not migrate it here.)

That's all from me. I hope to see you next week!

 

[Cold_Fusion]

Edge 4.2

This conversation at least promised to be less stressful than Yumeko's initial recruitment pitch, because in a pinch I at least had somewhere to escape to if things got really dire. However, that didn't mean I was going to have an easy time of this. While I was sure Yumeko could turn off the gas if she needed to, such as she had at the start of our excursion on the Boardwalk, I'd seen her dialed in more often than not, and this didn't seem like it'd be an exception.

Before Yumeko said anything, she began digging through a backpack slung across her shoulders. At first, I thought she'd brought snacks, or perhaps something like a printed version of my introduction on Parahumans Online. What I didn't expect was a rectangular box with a handle, its outside covered in a pattern of black and red squares, let alone that she'd start setting up a game of checkers on it here when there was a perfectly good table inside.

"I figured if I was stressing you out, having something else to focus on would make things a little easier, and things aren't that serious now that recruitment's off the table," Yumeko said. "You want to play while we talk?"

That hadn't been the direction I'd expected this to take, but if she felt like it'd make things less volatile, who was I to refuse her? "I mean, if you really want to play, I'm not going to say no."

"Well, then let's play," Yumeko said, beginning to set up her half of the board.

I waited until I'd set down my last piece to ask the obvious question. "I'm guessing the Beautification Committee's backing off because they're worried about New Wave retaliating if they take me or something? Or are they just being polite about this?"

"Mako doesn't poach," Yumeko said. "That's how you get enemies. Or saboteurs."

That'd been about the answer I expected, so I just nodded.

Unlike when we'd played Indian poker, I at least understood the rules of checkers to know how to play and how I was supposed to win. Whether I was any good at checkers was another question, because I hadn't played much checkers in my life, but Yumeko had to be at least a decent strategist. If I beat her, that was a good sign, and if I didn't… well, that was kind of to be expected.

The two of us made our opening moves before either of us spoke again, but it became clear very early Yumeko was only half paying attention; she hardly even noticed when I made a double-jump early to king one of my men. I supposed the game wasn't important, after all: she was using it as a means to an end, nothing more. "Have you gotten any poker or anything like that in recently?"

"I wish," Yumeko said, jumping one of my pieces as she did. "I haven't gotten my fix since the casino burned down, and as much as I'd loved to start the gambling scene at Winslow, I don't think I'll be able to rope too many people in there. Plenty of people lose money they can't afford to after they've gotten gambling in their lifeblood, but it's much rarer for people to start by gambling money they don't have."

From what I'd head about gambling, once it got its tentacles in you it hooked them deep, but people who couldn't afford to gamble in the first place had a higher barrier to entry.

"I'd be willing to do a hell of a lot to get my fix back, and it's only going to get worse," Yumeko said. "But, there'll be a time and a place everything can start going back to normal, and this isn't it. Thus, I'll get everything out of the way now. I've got a couple of things I'd like to tell you tonight, but I'll start with the most important one."

I breathed deep. Whatever she was about to say had a nonzero chance of compromising my safety; I needed to be prepared for anything. The same might have said about my civilian identity, but that barrier had already been broken, so I had little to fear on that front anymore. Yumeko seemed intent on drawing things out, or perhaps she was just as nervous as I was about this and trying to hide it. She made a move, then I made a move, the silence between us seeming to stretch out forever.

After a long, long while, Yumeko spoke once more. "I hope we can still be friends, despite our… differences."

The absurdity of the situation was so strong, it was hard not to laugh. Why she'd needed to have this conversation alone and why this was the stressful part for her, I didn't know, but maybe she was just more private about that kind of thing. She was the first friend I'd made since middle school; I was probably just out of practice with friendships.

While I wasn't sure whether this was for me or for her, I dropped my voice to a whisper before I answered. "It's not like you've actually done anything yet. As long as that stays the case, I don't know why anyone would have a problem with that, least of all me."

"Well, that's good," Yumeko said, her tight smile shifting to something a little warmer. With luck, that meant everything else had a similar level of importance.

The two of us made a few more moves in silence after that. I'd gotten demonstrably ahead, making three kings to Yumeko's one as I moved them around the board, taking out most of Yumeko's pieces from behind as she tried and largely failed to do the same to me. By the time either of us spoke again, the outcome had already been determined unless I got struck by lightning during the next five minutes. I realized with a start that Yumeko's tactics had worked: I'd poured enough energy into the game that I didn't have quite as intense a focus on Yumeko, meaning there wasn't yet anything in the pit of my stomach and I hadn't needed to carefully consider every word before I spoke. Then again, I didn't fear for my safety this time, either: that likely had something to do with it as well.

To avoid doing anything that could either embarrass or anger Yumeko, I returned my attention to the game; to my pleasant surprise, all the pieces were in the places I'd left them. As I prepared to wrap up the endgame, I asked, "Was there anything else you wanted to talk about while you're here?"

"I've got a few other things," Yumeko said. "This part's not necessarily private, but if anyone asks, it didn't come from me, okay?"

Even the game didn't prevent my stomach from doing a backflip on that one. "Okay, what for?"

"I'm a bit nervous they won't take the information the same way when they found out I obtained it," Yumeko said. "Even New Wave might go that way; they're heroes, but I'm not sure how much they'd trust my sources, or even me."

That part made my head spin for a moment. Had new information come in about the Beautification Committee since my meeting with Armsmaster? If I remembered correctly, they hadn't been tied to anything illegal yet when I'd spoken with him… somehow only a little over a week ago. With everything all happening so fast, for all I know I could have just missed something. Hell, the Protectorate could have missed something, too; they were good at their jobs, but no organization was flawless.

Before either I or Yumeko could provide follow-up, I made my last move of the checkers game, taking Yumeko's only king and leaving mke as the last player with pieces on the board. "Good game. Now, what's the news?"

"I suppose I'll start with the Empire, then," Yumeko said.

I took a deep breath before producing a piece of paper and a pen; they'd originally been for autographs, but no one had stopped me for that tonight, so they'd work just fine for note-taking. "Okay, go ahead."

"It's only been a few days, but the Empire Eighty-Eight's started making moves near where the casino used to be," Yumeko said. "There aren't a lot of civilians left in the area and they've kept it quiet for the most part, but there's no doubt they have much grander ambitions for the future, especially with their most obvious rivals gone."

"Unfortunately, not surprising," I said. "Glory Girl and I had an Empire Eighty-Eight run-in during our patrol today. Clearly not their best and brightest, though, given that they thought taking a swing at Glory Girl with no powers or backup whatsoever was a good idea. I'm sure there'll be more, or at least that lady's friends."

"If that's one of their average members, somehow I highly doubt the organization is that much of a credible threat," Yumeko said.

I think she meant that as a joke, but it hadn't been conveyed well at all. I forced a weak chuckle at the idea, wishing her intelligence did represent the average for those racist pieces of shit so they'd have been driven off already, then jerked myself back to reality. Hope wasn't a substitute for a plan, and if the Empire was going to try and take over the city, we needed a plan to stop them. "In all seriousness, how many Empire capes have you seen there?"

"At least one in costume, and I'm pretty sure there's a few more in civilian identity," Yumeko said. "I saw Rune patrolling a couple of times, and I'm pretty sure I saw Victor and Othala at the highest window of one of the intact apartment buildings. None of the really big names are in the area yet, but I'm sure they're coming."

Why they were focusing on that specific area when very little of value was even left there to take baffled me for a second, but perhaps that was the point. Or worse, they were looking for recruits so they could assault the more populous and lootable areas of Brockton Bay with more disposable fighters when the time came for an all-out assault.

Either way could cause a lot of problems, though: that wasn't a bombshell I could just sit on. "I really think the hero organizations already need to know about that if they don't already…"

"Understandable, just not from me," Yumeko said. I nodded assent.

Even though we'd finished our checkers game and clearly weren't about to start a new one, I didn't feel nearly as wound up and stressed out as the last couple. Perhaps everything seemed a lot smaller and less significant after Lung's rampage. Still, I wasn't out of the woods yet, so I wasn't all the way relaxed. "Anything else?"

"Just one more thing," Yumeko said. "I'm not sure if you've seen or heard this, but I got a phone call about an hour ago; Winslow's starting classes again on Monday. I doubt they're going to press anyone for attendance for a while, given current events, but the AP exams and all that jazz aren't moving anywhere, so…"

If I had an option, I'd have never gone back to Winslow, even if I knew Sophia and probably Emma wouldn't be there. I doubted Madison or anyone else would have the guts to do much without their ringleaders around to guide them, especially now that I'd gone public, but assumptions would get me nowhere.

I looked her in the eyes once more. "You're still going too, right?

"Of course," Yumeko said. "The school's still there, and it's not like I could just transfer across town whenever I wanted. Plus, I feel like it'd be in bad form to leave you alone in there."

Whether her intentions were genuine or simply pragmatism for a gambit I didn't see the full picture of, I didn't understand, but I appreciated the sentiment. It'd be nice to have someone to walk with again.

The sun had almost vanished by this point: I could barely see the black checkers anymore as Yumeko put them back in her box before returning the box itself to her backpack. "Thanks for hearing me out. I look forward to seeing you on Monday!"

Yumeko jogged into the deepening night to find her ride, leaving me alone. With nothing else keeping me away from the Dallons, I went inside, waving hello to both my dad and the Dallon adults before heading upstairs for the bedroom I shared with Victoria. Before I could enter, though, I was accosted by Victoria and Amy, each giving me looks with a different kind of intensity; Victoria's was high-energy and piercing, while Amy's was cool and flatly determined.

That matched what I'd gotten to know about them thus far to a T. While I'd had plenty of conversations with Victoria during the first few days I'd been living in the Dallon house, I could count the ones I'd had with Amy on my fingers. She hadn't been mean or anything, she just reminded me a lot of myself before Yumeko had entered my life: withdrawn, quiet, and begging the world to not pay attention to them. Therefore, I hadn't sought her out much; if she wanted to be left alone, I wasn't going to bother with her.

Victoria asked the obvious question, since she was the one who'd seen the start of the incident. "What was that about?"

I decided that if I trusted anyone with this information, it was them, so I told them how I'd met Yumeko, as well as what she'd told me about the Empire Eighty-Eight. Maybe Brandish and Flashbang would be disappointed for not going to them first, but chances were they'd know in about five minutes anyway; one of Victoria or Amy would relay it to them.

"Well, that's good to know," Victoria said once I'd finished. "Might I ask how they know all this?"

"Yumeko lives and used to work in the area, so she's seen a lot of it firsthand," I said. Technically, that wasn't a lie.

Fortunately, Victoria didn't press me any further on that knowledge. "That's about what we expected from both the Empire and you. Coil might technically have more power, but the Beautification Committee's the only other non-heroic faction left that's any degree of showy about it. And given that the Empire was smart enough to largely sit out of the last fight, I could definitely see Coil waiting this one out and moving to take over whatever side's left."

While I couldn't find fault with Victoria's logic, I also believed a lot of that was based on little more than guesswork. Even the heroes didn't know that much about Coil outside the obvious; he had his fingers in a lot of pies (some legal, others not), and had proven an excellent strategist capable of making any situation work for him, but that was as far as common knowledge got you. No one had pinned down his powers yet, most of his allies and henchmen remained unknown, and if he had any grander plans for Brockton Bay, it appeared no one had sniffed them out.

"I'm sure the rest of New Wave will have more wisdom about that," Victoria said. "That's not something to worry about tonight, though; unless Kaiser launches a blitzkrieg in the middle of the night, it can wait until morning when everyone's fresh."

That term felt way too fitting, given the Empire's allegiance with Gesellechaft. That proimised to make things worse: if Kaiser felt like he was on the back foot, he could call them for backup, and if they answered Brockton Bay could become even more of a disaster zone very quickly.

Yumeko's news didn't exactly provide a soothing note I could end the day on, but it didn't matter that much; the combination of my patrol and my conversation with Yumeko left me properly tired regardless. I managed to brush my teeth and wait my turn for the shower, then collapsed into my sleeping bag as soon as I'd dried off. I was pretty sure I heard Victoria telling her parents about what I'd learned at some point after I got out of the shower, but I only caught a few words of it through the bedroom door and really didn't want to risk angering everyone by eavesdropping through my insects.

Being out this early was probably a good thing; no matter what the Empire Eighty-Eight did for their next move, tomorrow threatened to be a rather interesting day. Depending on how everything shook out, though, Monday could be even more interesting, perhaps even in the positive sense of the word; I couldn't say I looked forward to going back to school, but it at least promised to be an interesting experience.

All those things meant that as usual, I drifted into sleep with turbulent thoughts chasing each other through my head, all of them screaming for attention.

 

[Cold_Fusion]

Edge 4.3

The Monday morning I returned to Winslow was warm and sunny, but that atmosphere stopped cold the instant I stepped inside the doors. The hallways were far emptier than usual, and while there were exceptions, the students there either walked alone or in small groups; their voices never rose above a whisper, if they spoke at all.

Even if I didn't like most of the people here, I could understand why. Far too many of my classmates had lost their homes. Far too many had lost someone close to them. Whatever they had or hadn't done to me, none of them deserved this.

No one bothered me on the way to homeroom; either they assumed I was off-limits now that I'd become a hero, or none of them had the guts to try anything without Emma and Sophia backing them up. I didn't know which, and was hard-pressed to care: the results were the same no matter how we'd gotten them.

Mrs. Knott wasn't there this morning, a substitute taking her place. I sat next to Yumeko as I'd become accustomed to these past few days, each of us greeting the other as I did. Yumeko's tone took a weight off my shoulders I didn't know I'd been carrying: after the rather intense discussions we'd had before, including last weekend, being able to talk about something casually was a gift.

"I almost feel bad asking this, given current events, but I'll ask anyway," Yumeko started. "How was your weekend?"

"It was an interesting weekend," I said. "Helping clean up the city made me feel a little better about everything, and I've already started feeling like part of a team. I'm willing to bet things get a lot more interesting pretty soon, though."

Yumeko nodded. "I found a new apartment. That was the highlight of my weekend. What I'm going to do about my job remains up in the air, but I'm sure I'll manage."

This conversation went on for a few minutes, the whole thing feeling almost pleasantly mindless. Eventually, the substitute got around to taking attendance, plowing their way through the alphabet until they reached me. "Taylor Hebert?" She said that name with a start, like I'd just popped into existence five minutes ago.

"Here," I responded.

Those words were a rarity. My teachers didn't say a word to me all morning: even when I raised my hand for the instances I had an answer to their questions, they just called on someone else. My classmates did likewise: even Madison didn't speak a word in my direction during World Issues. However, I sensed at least three pairs of eyes on me at all times, no matter where I was, even when I went to the bathroom in the middle of third period. I supposed a hero without a secret identity had to get used to attracting attention at some point, but it came as a complete one-eighty after a year and a half of largely being ignored.

This didn't change, at least at first, when I found a seat next to Yumeko in the cafeteria during lunch block, the girl having commandeered the end of one of the tables that once housed junior-level ABB members and sympathizers. Almost all of those junior members had either scattered to the wind or cut ties following Lung's downfall, which meant that the open spot in the cafeteria was now prime real estate, even though it wasn't quite as crowded in there today.

Those first ten minutes of my lunch period were among the best of any lunch period I'd had. I got to eat my wrap in peace without being inside a toilet stall or needing to constantly look over my shoulder. Sure, I still kept half an eye out for any potential troublemakers because letting my guard all the way down still sounded unwise, but careful vigilance beat constant paranoia any day of the week.

That vigilance proved warranted before too long. While I'd noticed most of the skinheads and other Nazi-adjacent students sat in a cluster, I hadn't paid too much attention to them in the past. A pack of them, half a dozen strong, all stood up at once and began walking toward our table, carrying their lunches as they did. The uneasy feeling in my gut, the one that often told me the Trio was about to pull something heinous, began stirring up again, not that I really needed it.

All six of them stopped at our table, three of them moving to stand behind Yumeko and the other three standing behind me; without powers, those odds may as well have been a death sentence. We'd likely have to handle this ourselves as well: the cafeteria had a security officer patrolling it, but there was a lot of space, and unless things came to blows, I doubt they'd do much to intervene. Sure, there'd be some shit-talking, most of it some degree of racist, but compared to what I'd been through these past few weeks, enduring a few charged insults they'd never follow up on seemed like a cake walk.

One of the smaller ones, a girl with blond hair who might have been pretty if her face wasn't twisted into such an ugly sneer, got things started. "Locust, isn't it?"

Especially in a city as cape-heavy as Brockton Bay, the divide between our civilian lives and our cape lives was only as strong as the city's will to respect that divide. At New Wave, we had a thinner divide than most to begin with, and when hooligans like neo-Nazis got involved, it burned away to nothing.

Yet, that'd be something I'd defend, even if there wasn't any reason for it anymore. "Not here. You know better." I left it open to interpretation whether I was talking about my name or this conversation as a whole; they could draw their own conclusions there.

The largest of them, probably their leader if Nazis followed the same caveman logic for their hierarchies as they did for their hatreds, took the lead here. "We don't need to. Even race traitors can still count, right? Six beats two."

"More like one and a half," one of them added on. "Chinks can do math, right? How about she breaks it down for you?"

"I'd very much prefer you didn't call me that, thank you," Yumeko said, her tone polite but her smile growing distressingly wide as she faced the onslaught. "If you're so keen on interrupting our lunch, how about a game?"

A bit unconventional, sure, but I flashed back to that game of three-card monte: maybe that was just her way of asserting dominance. It didn't seem to work this time, though, the leader waving off his compatriots. "Fuck off, I'm not here to play games."

"Well, you're very boring, then," Yumeko said. "What's the point of life if you can't have some fun with it?"

"Like you'd know about that," the leader said. "If you really want to have some fun, how about we take this out back after lunch? We can have more fun than you've ever dreamed of."

Nope, nope, nope. If that meant anything near what I thought it did, it was tiime to try and wrap this up before anyone got hurt. Maybe this was irresponsible of me, but fuck it, they started it; they deserved everything they got. "She's done nothing to you. Try anything with her and you'll learn the joys of insects in every orifice of your body."

"Oh, how heroic of you," one of the other assailants said, every word mocking; perhaps he didn't believe I'd follow through with that. "Fitting for gutter trash like…"

He cut off mid-sentence, whatever else he had to say strangled in his throat. I wanted to believe him realizing I was dead serious was the reason for that, but then I saw where the other skinheads had started looking, and that feeling vanished in a puff of smoke.

Another girl approached our table, everyone else parting for her as if she emitted a magnetic field. Lung's attack had revealed her cape status as well, but even if that hadn't happened, I would have at least suspected; the piercings and eye patch in particular were dead giveaways. Pain Gainer (I knew her civilian identity had been revealed with the others in our group, but her real name escaped me for now) slid into a seat across from us without a care in the world and took out what remained of her lunch in silence.

The ensuing silence stretched uncomfortably long after that, at least until Pain Gainer broke it. "What? Am I not white enough for you?" She then proceeded to take what I remembered was the same knife she'd fought villains with out of her jacket pocket and began casually chopping her vegetables.

While I didn't expect any of my assailants to be Einsteins, they at least had enough common sense to understand three things. One, getting stabbed was bad. Two, judging by the look in Pain Gainer's eye, she'd do it with a smile on her face, consequences be damned. Three, if they retaliated, while my reputation might take a hit I'd at least be clear legality-wise. Had she not been a cape with her specific power, perhaps they might have still dogpiled us since it was still six on three, but for now, all of them contented themselves with hissing insults and slurs as they slunk back toward their table with bowed shoulders.

Yumeko looked Pain Gainer in the eyes, seeming like she wanted to set Pain Gainer on fire with her mind; were those assholes part of her longer-term plans or something? "Thanks for the help, Midari." (Good, now I had a real name.)

"Oh, don't worry about it," Midari said. "I was going to sit here anyway. Dealing with those idiots was just a happy accident."

"I could tell," Yumeko said. "Now, why are you really here?"

Perhaps those two had some history I wasn't remembering, because no matter who she was that didn't feel like a polite way to address someone who'd just de-escalated a stressful situation for us. Even if she also put me on edge, at least she was on our side this time around.

Fortunately, though, Midari didn't seem to register Yumeko's tone, or maybe she just didn't care. "Is it a crime to want to talk with someone?"

"If it was, you'd be the last one to find out," Yumeko retorted.

I caught Midari shuddering as Yumeko finished her sentence; given what I knew of her, that raised some implications that dunked me firmly in the gutter before I pulled myself back out again. The last thing I needed right now was to think of an underage vigilante cape's sex life. While I did that, Midari finished arranging her lunch, then, perhaps trying to raise an opening with me instead, gestured to her food. "Want to try some?"

I shook my head hard. Midari had heaped so much wasabi on her rice that my mouth burned just from looking at it: I supposed her power gave her a higher spice tolerance than most. "No thanks, I'd prefer not to turn into a dragon today."

"More for me, then," Midari said with a chuckle before digging in.

She largely ignored me after that, perhaps seeing that I wasn't a way to Yumeko either. The next ten minutes went by in cycles: she'd try to open a conversation with Yumeko, Yumeko would shoot her down hard with a glare that could reverse global warming, then Midari would return to her lunch for a minute before trying again. The constant rejections didn't seem to deter Midari at all; if anything, she tried harder every time. Maybe the pain from eating all that wasabi enhanced her brain too, not just her body.

After those ten minutes were up, I couldn't tell if Midari got tired of being rebuffed or just understood she was going nowhere, though her cheeks had gotten redder after every attempt, which implied the latter. "I guess I'd best be going now."

"You do that," Yumeko said, still steely cold.

Midari picked up her now-empty lunch box and vacated the area, once more parting everyone she passed by as she returned to where she came from. I could see Yumeko counting under her breath; it seemed she really wanted to make sure Midari was gone before she did anything else. Once she got to thirty, she stopped, took a long, deep breath, and turned to me. "You two have worked together before."

It was a statement, not a question. That wasn't a shocking revelation by any means compared to what I knew she was capable of; we'd been running through Winslow together, and news traveled fast. Then again, I could at least pretend to be surprised. "How did you know?"

"I heard even before Lung came back," Yumeko said. "She's the worst secret keeper ever, especially when I'm around. Maybe she thinks if she tells me enough information, I'll start going out with her? I'd like to think I've made it clear she's not my type, but she's too damn stubborn to give up on me. I don't know what she sees in me, but I'm not too keen on finding out."

As much as I thought Yumeko's reaction had been overkill, I had to admit she had me there. Small doses of Midari still felt like a lot. If she was anywhere near that dialed up on a regular basis, anyone who stuck around with her long-term had a level of fortitude that scared me.

"I can't say I understand that feeling," I said, knowing Yumeko recognized my former status at Winslow. "Have you tried just telling her, full stop, I'm flattered by the attention, but I'm not interested in taking things further?"

Yumeko chuckled, the sound of someone a hair from snapping after twenty-four sleepless hours. "Yes. Several times. She's just very persistent about it. I doubt she'll try anything physical with me, but I wish she'd just let this go at this point. I'm sure you're aware that she can be… a lot, and she's not the kind of handful that I'm looking for."

My train of thought screeched to a full stop, her statement raising several new and potentially terrifying questions. Sure, Yumeko had her needs just like everyone else, but I didn't know she was actively interested in the dating crowd, or even what her dating crowd looked like. That hadn't been something that'd come up before. What even was Yumeko's type?

Oh, dear. If she was actually into me, she'd tell me, right? I could ask, but that felt like far too awkward a question to handle in a location with this many potential gossips. If we did something like that afternoon on the boardwalk again, I'd try and bring it up.

We didn't speak much after that, leaving me to stew in my thoughts for the remainder of lunch period. Fortunately for us, it passed by with no interruptions, although I did see the students who'd tried to accost us in a heated conversation with their compatriots from across the room. The cafeteria had enough insects within that I considered discreetly sending one their way to pick up what they were talking about, but within the first three seconds of controlling one, it became obvious the cafeteria was too loud for them to discern anything. Nevertheless, it was rather obvious they were up to no good. I'd need to keep an eye out for the next few days for any reprisals.

With that uplifting thought on the brain, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Not wanting to stick around for any longer than I had to, so I couldn't get hemmed in, I said my goodbyes to Yumeko. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"You as well," Yumeko replied.

The two of us stood up and got on with our days, trudging our way to separate classrooms. I was fine with that, though; even though that lunch period had been pretty tame as far as my incidents in Winslow's halls went, that didn't mean I wanted anything more to handle today. There'd be enough things I needed to manage once I got home tonight as it was.

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Spoiler: Author's Notes

Fun fact: this resembles the scene I cut from Arc 2. A bit of a filler chapter, TBH, but we'll get the plot back and running soon enough. Give it a chapter or two.

My apologies for the delay: we should be back on schedule next time. A few things came up on Monday and Tuesday that prevented me from finishing on time, so I delayed things a day.

That's all from me. Thanks for continuing to read, and I hope you enjoy my next chapter!