It was fortunate for Naomi whenever Mia would call Serena up to chat, for she enjoyed hearing Mia's voice and the way she stated things.
"Yeah, I was going to visit her for... I guess Thanksgiving or Christmas. Um, with Yuruko and Naomi, I guess, yeah." (Mia asked Serena something.) "Yeah, go ahead." (Mia asked Serena something.) "Um, I dunno why, actually. I think it's cuz she still thinks of me like a kid. She's told me about going on dates and stuff like that, but she just always finds some reason to reject the guy 'cause it doesn't *feel right*. I guess my dad sorta still has that grip on her. I don't know if it's really healthy, though."
"…thinks of you... a kid? …makes two of..."
Serena laughed. "Stop it, c'mon."
Despite only two years apart in age, Naomi considered Mia an adult and herself a child. That the two rarely spoke only increased the aura Mia seemed to possess around her, and she felt that were Mia her mentor instead there were things about her she could grab on to and ride up with. Others in her class seemed stuck in their respective, usually self-created circumstances and lived rote lives: they hunted & dated & shat & ate. Not Mia, however.
This was largely extrapolation on Naomi's part, for she had no friends on campus besides the three aforementioned.
As they were patrolling in this neighborhood, Serena said bye, hung up, thought of something she apparently hadn't mentioned to Mia 3 seconds later and texted her.
They felt a pencil dropped behind their feet; the two turned -
- and swept with the speed of light back as a spike burst out from the ground, already seeing Rich fifty feet away up the road, pencils clenched between his knuckles -
" - real fight." chimed Serena, amnesiac nodding as Avalanche & Blackburn formed, and as more pencils flew at them from ahead -
- streams of fog flew in to them as Serena dodged left -
- and shrieked at her suddenly spiked fog, sharp ends slashing all up her right tentacle; she swept away as blood burst from her wounds -
- and turned suddenly spiked again, wounds opening further as more spiked red geysers burst towards Naomi -
- but Avalanche's arm blocked it as frantic streams of new fog filled Serena's wounds, grunting and cursing as the two staggered close again -
" - gotta be - forming spikes - hurts really bad -" winced Serena; at her side, Naomi nodded, more volleys flying towards them. She stomped -
- and a wall of asphalt burst up ahead -
- and the two swept back just in time to avoid the spikes growing from the barrier, more pencils hitting the other end and new sharp edges growing. Naomi whispered to Serena as they rushed left & past the wall, streams of fog flying underneath the pavement as they ran up the road, only fifty feet separating them and Rich, and as the next barrage came towards them -
- the next scene was instant. Avalanche's arm bashed the road; a miniscule hole grew in the ground ahead -
- and the pressurized air within blasted the pencils up&away; nodding and grinning, the prodigal duo kept up their pace until forty feet away, Rich starting to back away ahead -
" - fucking Christ." he groaned, single pencil readied as he glanced left. "Door-to-Heaven!"
He threw it to them again; Naomi bashed the ground again, and as the wind blasted off again -
- a green tennis ball flew in to the fissure and swallowed the air; counter suddenly wilting, the projectile kept it's trek toward them -
- but as a true hero might, Naomi took the hit Avalanche-arm on, layer of spiked stone falling off her arm as she staggered back - but they had no time to rest. Their eyes turned left, seeing the tennis ball's source now, Gaspari in a home's second-story window with racket readied -
" - Serves-Up!" he laughed, batting a dozen yellow balls towards them; Serena yanked Naomi back -
- and dodged narrowly the explosions ahead, sudden clouds of smoke bursting outward, vision of Rich lost but new pencils swarming ahead. Streams of fog filled the smoke with wind -
- and the two split separately to dodge the next swarm of pencils, and as it flew past -
- an unseen force yanked them left -
- and right -
- and back -
- and left again, sidewalk & lawn of Gaspari's home only a dozen feet left now, green tennis balls scattered all along the road -
" - got it!" shouted Naomi, Avalanche blocking another pencil; she stomped -
- and spikes of asphalt burst out of the ground, piercing pierced every last green tennis ball, vacuuming projectiles disappearing -
" - other guy first!" shouted Serena; Naomi nodded as they ran left to the sidewalk, and as they rushed on to the lawn -
" - wait, shit -" winced Serena, and in the next instant -
- the two felt a dozen pencil hitting the leaves of grass, turning them literal and threatening a shredded death -
- but the next scene was instant. Avalanche's arm gripped in to the dirt -
" - jump!" shouted Naomi; the two jumped as her arm clenched -
- and flipped a strip of the lawn upsidedown, ground bowing to her mental command, soil top & grass below as the two hit the ground running. More yellow balls erupted around them, but streams of fog dissolved them as the two came to the front door, Gaspari still in the window above; Serena ripped her cup out, streams of fog filling it with warcrimes -
" - breathe deep!" shouted Serena as she threw it up & in to the window -
- and the last they saw was a cloud of yellow devouring him as he staggered back to the room.
Behind, new spikes grew from the dirt, source that wasn't Naomi's. Serena opened the door and rushed in to the living room, stairs on the other end, Naomi slamming it shut behind as they ran -
" - I can neutralize it if - mustard gas -" panted Serena; Naomi nodded as they ran to the stairs. Starting up, Serena's tablet vibrated, and she took it quick -
" - we know!" she groaned, relevantly as they ran up the stairs, one bedroom door opened, yellow gas starting to seep out of the aperture as they cleared it. Her tentacle swept as they rushed in, dispersing the foul vapors, Gaspari dead on the other-end with face peeling & eyes dissolved -
The two crouched down beside the second-floor window, hearing new pencils thrown below, spikes growing in the first-floor's walls.
"Got - got a minute." nodded Serena, fog refilling their wounds, Naomi wheezing beside.
"Looks like - he's in, same spot as before -" she said, gesturing to the window - " - but - lawn is all spiked, a-and, u-uh -"
" - it's alright." nodded Serena. "Just - got a minute to think, right? We can do this."
"R-Right." panted Naomi, daring not peek out, entire lawn turned spiked outside.
"When, um - it hit you, how did you counter it?"
"I - m-made Avalanche's arm - an extra layer of stone."
"Can you do it again?"
"Yeah, I - yeah -"
" - okay." winced Serena, sweeping her jacket off, fog filling as she handed it to Naomi - " - okay. I need you to go first. Land on this when you leap out. I can heal you if you get hit, right?"
"Right -" Naomi nodded as she stood, mentor's jacket readied - " - and just get him, right?"
" - get the bitch." chimed Serena, and the two laughed.
With no time to waste, Naomi rushed to the window, throwing Serena's jacket down as she leaped out -
- and landed directly on it, steel within keeping her from being impaled by the lawn's spikes, Rich still in his position thirty feet ahead; another leap brought her to the road, and as his wrist flicked -
" - Avalanche!" she shouted; a stone erupted out of her palm, staggering Rich's aim as she cleared the clearing, and as her stone-arm gripped his neck -
- she slammed him hard enough in to the road that it burst up like a mismatched seesaw ahead, and another smash crunched Rich's bones to dust. She glanced behind, seeing Serena leap out to the normal lawn again, retrieving her jacket as she came up.
"Think I got him." panted Naomi, corpse like a crumpled cloth below.
"Think so." grinned Serena, crouching down to scan, streams of fog refilling their wounds.
As Serena scanned, Naomi looked to the lawn and noticed that there was an ant mound, atop of which was a rotting caterpillar. A few ants had managed to kill it, yet it was now positioned in such a way that the caterpillar had trapped them inside of the colony. Once, twice they attempted to move it. But nothing answered unless it was the dripping pus.
She wondered if she was the only person who had such thoughts.
++++++
Later, Serena's tablet would vibrate, and in the middle of watching some silly anime she would check it. "It's close."
Naomi nodded and rushed out with Serena. On their way to the apartment, they heard two men shouting on the third floor in a lit window, which then dimmed as the lights were smashed. Serena confirmed that the call had mentioned three men fighting, and Naomi held her Avalanche hand out -
- and a barrage of stone bullets shot through the window; they heard a masculine scream and a few words unfit to reprint, then the rushing of footsteps. A minute later, their own rushed up the stairs, and Serena nodded as they came up to the door -
" - just whoever was fighting here, I bet." she chimed, Blackburn's tentacle readied as they pressed against the wall. Dipping her tentacle in, acid corroded a section clear through, and in to the dark room swept the women. Serena turned her phone's flashlight on and revealed a corpse slouched against the windowsill; his heart was still beating and his skull was shattered. Serena's fog filled the lightbulb with new life as they rushed up and crouched down.
As Naomi checked him, she noticed something on his neck -- a tattoo of an eel, and she realized something: Why the hell did Mia buy Serena manga in a language she wouldn't be able to read?
"Oh shit." winced Serena. She instinctually reached over to cover it before she realized Naomi had already seen it.
"Um, Serena, it's fine... Just haven't seen one in a while. I guess he's with that gang, so he wouldn't have attacked us anyway."
"But did he attack some other host? Or did somebody attack him?"
Naomi wondered, then did not. "I guess."
Serena looked at Naomi, hugged her, then said they probably should call the police.
Why Naomi never investigated further in to the eels perplexed Serena, yet it shouldn't if one thinks about it logically. Deeper reasoning was generally not a skill Serena carried, for she was essentially a series of moments & memories given movement and mostly unable to fully comprehend them in their interrelatedness, even as they have been well-catalogued and explained throughout this novel.
This was not to say Serena was stupid or ignoble, but Naomi thought through things better, even if so doing made her more miserable. Humans are distinguishable from animals in that they are able to think through their self-created circumstances and how to change them, even if in the end they cannot entirely evade them. Sometimes they recognize this but reconcile themselves to it, just as Naomi quickly was, or are stuck in reaction to forces in their past that confronted them like alien powers, just as Serena's girlfriend Yuruko.
But Naomi liked them both. They had always been good to her. Serena had told Naomi that she was transgender, Yuruko was bisexual, and Naomi was straight; all traits made them oddities at Urasaria. Naomi's sexuality was unfortunately known to her class, whose men now attempted to fill her tracksuits with themselves. Sometimes she was tempted to accept it, for although still feeling out her type, she felt a desire to be desired, and this only increased in proportion to the bullying she took from Urasaria's lesbians for being heterosexual.
And that you may laugh at the reversal of such a scenario proves the point: cruelty is not limited by sex or sexuality.
Yuruko knew this as well, and for these months she had given Naomi advice on how to deal with them. It often progressed in to one of her rants about how women could not be trusted, women were too sensitive, and lesbians on campus were even worse because they always were able to find another bitch who would put up with them. Compared to her girlfriend Serena (who implicitly saw other women as superior to herself), Yuruko's misogyny made for a well-worn yet opposite trait in their relationship; an objective negative is sometimes positive in the eyes of a lover.
So were Yuruko one day to cease her fixation and simply Yuruko, Serena would feel a void; it held geography in her brain.
"That's how women are, too. Not you, but I remember these bitches who lived in my neighborhood, and they used to give my dad so much shit, saying he didn't take care of me just because they saw he wasn't home that often. You know, women bitch about beauty standards and all kinds of shit, but what's the first thing they do when they hate a guy? Oh, he has a small dick, he's ugly, or he's a fat slob. At least guys aren't such hypocrites."
Naomi had looked over at Serena, who was nervously scratching her neck. "Okay, what about, like -- what if we need to go on a contract with one of them, though?"
"Um, we'll go on a contract with Mia or Kate." nodded Serena. "Kate's straight, too. She's nice."
"Yeah, they're cool."
"Okay." said Naomi.
"But that's what I'm saying. Don't listen to the shit they say about you. Yeah, you'll hear lesbians talk about how they *feel deeper* than guys, but you and me know what's not true. They just drink that shit up so they can beat men over the head about it."
As Naomi leaned back in her chair, Yuruko continued rambling on, a practice even Serena did not fully listen to -- nor did Yuruko expect her to. She was no longer only at Urasaria, but in highschool classrooms, at home with her mother, standing in front of her locker as another kill-yourself note dropped from its vents, yet in such things was her ken evenly upheld.