Later that night, Mia was out patrolling with Matoi when they passed by a flyer posted on the wall and frowned. Pictures of Matoi, Mia, and Serena were captioned with their Revenant's abilities & 'TRAITORS TO THEIR SEX'.
Including Serena with that was ironic, Matoi felt, as she had picked up a few traits of Serena and was wondering if she was transgender. This would be no issue to Matoi: in her view transgender women were no perverts. She figured it took a lot of guts to sign up for an academy where she was likely the sole representative of her identity.
As Mia reached out to peel the flyer down, Matoi grabbed her hand. "Use your Revenant." (Worldwide burnt it to ash.) "They usually tape razorblades underneath them to cut you if you try to remove them."
Mia nodded, then sighed as they started walking again.
"I wouldn't worry about anything they say." said Matoi. "They're insects. There's no reason to care about what an ant says before it's stomped."
"It's hard for me to accept that when I've seen people online say the same thing about us. Maybe not exactly the same way, but..." Mia sighed. "…I don't know. I'm not sure if it's because of Worldwide, but it's hard for me to not feel a little sympathy with a group of lesbians, either. Even if they are violent."
"They aren't an innocent group of lesbians, Mia. They're a cult. There's a reason we haven't run in to Medusa in three weeks."
"You don't think she fights?"
"I doubt it." Matoi frowned. "And it's extremely frustrating seeing something I know well being distorted by a group of scum who've confused anger with principles. It's not as if Dworkin suggested women go out and castrate their cashier. Radical feminism has an actual history behind it." She glanced back to where the flyer had been. "And one rarely about targeting individuals, either."
"I suppose you're right. It's just that -- even when you mentioned what they said about male students, I thought... whenever I asked a student to walk me home, there was a reason I almost never chose a male student."
Matoi shrugged. "I'm sure you had a few other reasons."
Mia laughed. Along with what she had told Serena a few weeks ago, Matoi also knew some of her more embarrassing crushes. "Yes, but still."
"Still, you can't allow any of it to fester." Matoi glanced over to the next street and recognized a spot, still slightly unclean. She laughed. "I can't believe the audacity of that woman refusing to fight me."
"Maybe she recognized you." chimed Mia. "I wouldn't want to fight you either."
"Again." said Matoi and the two laughed. "But you'll have to, eventually -- I was planning on putting you in my squadron as president."
Mia smiled a little self-consciously. "Er, are you sure?"
Matoi nodded. "You're a good fighter, you're my friend, and you have the same pride I do with Urasaria. Serena, she... seems to be doing well, also. I saw her ranking."
This was a good point of confidence for Mia, so inside she was giddy, then outwardly tried to mature herself. "Then I accept." She had no clue how to follow that, so she quickly gestured to a nearby ATM outside of a nearby bank. "Er, I need to withdraw some money."
They walked up to the ATM. Mia took her card out of her pocket, and as she inserted it -
" - here we go." she groaned to the text on the screen.
Matoi peeked over. " 'Feed me a stray cat.' "
"I doubt it's going to give me my card back, either." frowned Mia.
"Do you care if it's destroyed?"
"No."
"Good." Matoi nodded, taking a thin missile from her shoulder and shoving it in the card-slot, and as the explosion erupted inside -
- and shoved it in to the card-slot; and as the explosion erupted inside -
- she shrieked as an unseen force sucked her veil in to the slot; her grip shot to it as she was pulled against it, fingers curled deep around -
- and leaving her trapped against it, veil halfway to being shredded by the machine.
"For fuck's sakes." winced Matoi, slumping halfway against it, and a new message appeared on screen.
"'Revenant or $100,000'." murmured Mia.
"Find Henry and shove him in to this fucking thing, then. It must be attempting to take my Revenant, then."
"Or $100,000, but... I don't want to leave you here."
"Go. Steal for it, whatever you need to do." said Matoi. Wedding's lasers flashed.
With no time to waste, Mia nodded and rushed up the street.
+++
She returned a minute later, carrying a blue vase. "They - did not want to give me any money, but -"
" - of course." groaned Matoi. "Try it."
With a nod, Mia shoved the vase against the slot -
- and an unseen force shrunk the vase, sucking it direct in to the machine, still leaving a trapped Matoi.
"It says - " - Mia sighed - " - $99,950, but -"
- Matoi nodded, and Mia set off again.
+++
"There's a trading card store the next block over." panted Mia, deck in hand. "They said they were valuable."
Matoi glanced over her. "Are you sure it wasn't for some other reason?"
"I- what-? -oh." She sighed, nodded, then began setting them in to the slot. "They smelled like Serena's room, I- $80,000 left?!"
+++
Mia came back with a stray cat. "I- alright, look, I really did not want to do this, but-"
"Did you name it?" said Matoi.
"I-I didn't name it. I just found it." Mia frowned, remembering another stray cat she had once found.
"If we're going to sacrifice him, it should have a name." smirked Matoi. "Like Fido."
"This is hard enough." murmured Mia, feeding the cat in to the machine -
- and it was launched with the speed of the dozen out of the machine, flying over the buildings behind, meowing as it disappeared.
"…er. That's new." murmured Mia, reading the new message. "It says 'You're a horrible person. $100,000.'"
+++
Mia arrived again with a cardboard box full of phones. "Er, I had to take my badge off for this, but..." She dumped the box in. "$40,500!" She frowned. "…but that was their entire stock."
"You could rob a bank." yawned Matoi. "Like father, like daughter."
Mia gave her a dirty look: one that unnerved even her.
"…er. I'm sorry." said Matoi. "I shouldn't joke about that."
"Yes." Mia frowned as she stood over the ATM, then seemed to get an idea. She held her hand over the slot and water began dripping. "$1 per... it'll take a while, but... if I can call Serena to speed it up..." She muttered to herself for a few seconds, then was interrupted by Matoi saying she had an idea. "What is it?"
"Cars."
Mia glanced out to the street, nodded, then ran up to one of the parked vehicles. A platform of ice formed underneath it & Mia, and as she pushed it along, a ramp of ice drove it down in to the ATM -
- and the two laughed involuntarily as the car crashed in to the machine and split it in half -
- and freeing Matoi, a second swarm of ice scarabs freezing the car in place as she stood.
"Much better." chimed Mia -
- and a terrified scream rose from the bank beside. With new freedom, the two rushed up through the doors, and as they came inside -
- they saw a dead female teller at the other end, hunched over her desk and split in two, the only woman to be seen in the room.
Mia felt Matoi's eyes on her.
"...perhaps I should have." she mumbled, and the two set off.
++++++
Most female readers have known a Henry or two in their life. As seen earlier, he suffered the usual sort of inferiority complex a gangly body & a terrible haircut inures, but even before this, he had always had issues with attracting women. In highschool he would read through ridiculous manuals on how to pickup girls his age, and even as he 'grew' out of these, he eventually replaced it with material that had much the same thrust, if put a little more intellectually.
Throughout his life, he felt it was far easier for women to get laid than most men, as they were more selective on who they bedded, but that culture or state should step in to correct nature's wrongs. He knew over in Denmark there were government-hired sex workers for the lonely & disabled, and he wondered why, with the rise of sexist violence in recent years, there was never any possibility of that here? Just as with any other human right, there should be a right to sex.
One would expect this should've blacklisted him from dating for life, but as shall be seen later, even someone like Henry had two relationships. That's not to say that the cliche about nice guys finishing last is true, merely that the same traits that your local drunk with a temper possesses attracts women with self-loathing strong enough that his misogyny confirms herself.
The details of his first relationship are not important besides how it ended: a sixteen year-old Henry decided that he could do better than this girl who was growing pudgier, thought it would be courteous to break-up with her in person, and did so at a local diner. She began sobbing, and as he looked around, noticed that other patrons were noticing her, he leaned over and mumbled to her: "Please stop. You're making me look bad."
Sitting in a hotel room while healing his wounds, from a host he & Grant had fought earlier, and now sitting alone with him, was Serena, a woman whose romantic situation had once been much like his own. Even being transgender, she had still taken in conflicting messages about what it was to be a man or a woman: this sometimes led her to scorn herself for being enough of a loser in highschool that no girls *liked* her, yet despise now whenever her face grew hair: so would clear it twice daily with Blackburn.
But there was now a woman who *liked* her, so she enjoyed remembering their first date a few nights ago. It was at McDonalds as aforementioned, and a few minutes in, a woman entered wearing a dress that let no man's eyes escape her: nor Yuruko's. Serena thought Yuruko suspected her to be a host until she turned back and mumbled: "God, what a slut."
"Huh?" said Serena.
"You saw what she's wearing, right? I mean, a come-fuck-me dress in a fucking McDonalds?"
"Um, I guess." Serena sipped her soda, fog dripping from her tongue to keep her straw full.
"And you just know if anyone tries to hit on her, she'll bitch about how she's being harassed or something. I mean, what does she expect?"
"Um, she doesn't deserve to get harassed, though. She probably just wants to look nice."
"…yeah, okay, sure. But there's a lot of chicks who want to blame everything on men, even though women are much bigger shitheads because they think they can't be. Like, my mom is like that, and... I'm sorry, um." Her free hand scrunched. "Sorry, I know this is our first date. Being kinda weird."
Serena shrugged. "It's okay. Um, do you want to talk about something else?"
"Sure."
"Anime?"
Yuruko nodded sagely. "Anime."
So they talked about anime & videogames, and when they returned to Urasaria, Serena asked Yuruko if she could kiss her. It had indeed been a good date, and she smiled to herself before coming home to Mia.
Yet knowing both Henry & Yuruko, she was glad she had not been nor become them.
She finished healing his wounds. "Um, done."
"Thanks." he muttered, watching her fog disappear. "That used to be Saya's Revenant, right? Blackburn?"
"Yeah. She swapped with me my first week, or, um, around there."
"Then you must have had that... that tattoo needle she has now." He rubbed his neck. "God, I hate how it pricks you, honestly."
"It pricks you?"
"Yeah, whenever she's writing whatever that name is she writes. I mean, it's just one of those things where -- I don't know. I liked it better when she had Blackburn, but, I guess, uh..."
Serena blinked. "…um. I guess. What's your Revenant, anyway?"
Henry nodded. "Crosslink. Lets me change elasticity - stuff like that. Here, give me your jacket sleeve."
She gave out her jacket sleeve, and he tried to resist touching her hand as he grabbed it. He pulled it back, and the leather stretched out like rubber.
"Cool."
"Yeah." he nodded, setting it back to normal. "I can also make stuff brittle - but I wouldn't want to mess up your jacket."
"I mean, it was pretty expensive." Serena shrugged.
"I-I bet." He looked to the closed door. "You know, uh -- I'm rank 6. If you were wondering. Three-star."
Serena blinked. "Three-star?"
"I-It's rank 25 or higher." said Henry hastily. "Or better than rank 25." He went over the perks associated with 3-star (mansion, salary & contractual preference) and began scooting in closer to her. He was pleased she didn't move away, and took this as confirmation she was likely not a lesbian.
"Oh, um. That's cool." said Serena. "I knew about the salary stuff, but not the mansions."
"You never wondered why there's that big row of housing?"
Serena glanced down. "Uh, not really." She scooted away, then paused for a few seconds, and stood up.
"Where are you going?" he said.
"Um, I'm tired. I was going to go to bed."
Henry sighed. "You're- you're not going to wait for the others to get back? I mean, what if a Revenant shows up? I'll be left here all alone, y'know. You, um… you sure you don't want to stay for a bit?"
"Uh, I'm sure."
As Henry watched her walk out, he was reminded of another girl he had once tried to date. It was also the first time he had tried to have sex, but though he tried to maintain an erection with her, he could not, and he became aggravated when she laughed as he shrunk. She said it wasn't out of malice, but never went out with him again.
That he didn't realize Serena meant nothing sexual or romantic in the prior conversation was irrelevant to this memory's trigger, as it was Henry's habit to extrapolate lust from any kindness a woman showed him. He was also delusional to believe he was physically attractive, but such misconceptions about ourselves arise from the need to deal with the general treadmill life forces us upon. Such delusions are no issue in ambitious people like Matoi & her mythicization of herself, but in Henry it blocked both recognition and any impetus to change: yet neither are the same in reality or art.
You may already be comparing him to Grant in your mind, so this novel shall return to him to explain his fuckup of the night. While the rest were occupied, he had gone to a fraternity party and succeeded in ambushing a member of the Gorgons. He drank through some of their beer on the way back, and he was approached by a sorority woman trying to loosen him up a little. This roused no suspicion in Grant; he had the type of charm with straight women that usually drove other men insecure -- a confidence that rarely needed proving -- and that he was good-looking & just budding in to his prime didn't hurt, either.
This often allowed women to overlook the oddity of sex with a steel-armed man, and sometimes attracted the type who found it kinky: like this woman. He eventually remembered that Matoi would beat his ass in to the next week if he spent any time alone with this woman, so he excused himself after getting her number, rushed back to their hotel, and never noticed he was being tailed by a second woman. She checked in to their hotel that night and activated her Revenant, Lucidity, which if left undisturbed for seven days, would lull the rest in to forever remaining in their pleasurable dreams.
The form of this pleasure was particular to each victim, and for reasons not immediately apparent.
Henry's began by walking back to Urasaria Academy after having defeated the Gorgons: mostly by himself. He looked back at the others in the distance, and could see that they had no expressions or faces that required any understanding or expenditure. He did not need to walk, as the world shifted in the direction he needed. He was not only at Urasaria's entrance, but in the infirmary and with no burden of needing transportation. Saya was standing over him, and she had no face or expression. She began writing on him with Odyssey's needle.
"I improved. Odyssey's needle no longer hurts."
He saw a bowl of food beside him. So as not to present an obstacle to his sight, the bowl was transparent, and as he reached out to it, it was digested, just as the remains of his unnecessary senses.