This World Read online

  “Ah, Ridley and Hiro, welcome back to the Chiffon Room,” a dapperly dressed man greets. His voice is really gruff that it’s a bit alarming. “Just the two of you?”

  “Yup,” I reply. What’s this guy’s name? He’s almost always the host when I come here. C’mon brain, what this guy’s name?

  “Very well, follow me,” the man says, guiding us to the nice booth next to a window. Laid out on the table are the tableware and the menu. “Will it be the usual today or perhaps a change of pace is in the cards today?”

  “I think I’ll go with my usual drink, but I’ll pick something else for food,” I say, “gotta change things up every so often.”

  “How about a change today for me,” Hiro says, “but I’ll just have water as my drink today.”

  “Very well, I will be back, please take your time looking over the menu,” the man says, quickly taking his leave.

  This restaurant is one of the few that doesn’t really dedicate any of its selections to be inspired by superheroes or anything which is a nice change of pace from the norm. However, it does have its own gimmick aside from the mass amounts of blue, this place themes all of its food items off of the major arcana of tarot cards. This lends itself to a lot of interestingly named foods. I think the one that stands out the most is the food challenge which is called the Death Pasta which is basically extremely spicy noodles. I’ve only tried it once and had to tap out midway through because I couldn’t handle the heat, and it definitely did feel like death was in my stomach that night.

  Scanning over the menu, I find something appetizing for today. I normally would go for the Sun Katsudon, but I’m feeling like changing things up. What captures my eye is the Tower Burger, it’s one of the few things I haven’t tried here yet. I look up at Hiro who looks like he’s decided on what he wants too. Good timing too, I need to use the bathroom. “Hey, if he comes around let him know I want the Tower Burger. I have to use the bathroom,” I say to Hiro.

  “Alright, don’t fall in,” he jokes.

  Stepping in the bathroom, I’m greeted by a nice sweet aroma that I can best describe as a mix between the sea and trees. The lighting in here is also strangely nice. Yeah, there’s a slight blue hue to it all, but if I were to take a selfie it would be in here. Seriously, even the bathroom is dapper. As I do my business, my mind just starts to wander. Seeing Kirika live was actually really cool. I could do without the loud crowd, but it is a concert so it’s expected. To be honest, I was kinda expecting Kirika to do her superhero thing and fight something that was going to interrupt the concert, but nothing happened. Good. I could honestly do without seeing some sort of fight happening on the daily. As great as it is to live in this world filled with superhuman people, or in some cases just not human, seeing the same things again is boring. Getting saved all the time is boring. Sure, I’m grateful, but damn it’s just boring to go through. Before my mind wanders too far, I remember where I am. I finish my business, wash my hands, and leave the bathroom.

  When I leave the bathroom, I notice Hiro looking absorbed into his phone. He’s probably just checking the latest hero news or something. Or maybe looking to see if anyone has uploaded the Kirika concert online already. “You texting a secret girlfriend you haven’t told me about? Or boyfriend, I don’t judge,” I joke as I take my seat.

  Hiro chuckles a bit, “Nah, just talking to Sadie from class. Did you know she’s the pilot of Guinevere? Oh, wait, you don’t really like talking about that stuff.”

  “Guinevere?” I question.

  “The Mobile Knight that saved us when we were on that fieldtrip earlier this week. Sadie is the pilot. How cool, right? What a small world that the pilot of the Mobile Knight that saved us is just a classmate.”

  “Oh, yeah. I guess it’s cool,” I reply. It’s not that cool considering there are heroes and villains in our class. It’s honestly just not a surprise anymore.

  “Um, yeah, sorry. I know I talk about the superhero stuff a lot, so I’ll try to cut back on it,” Hiro apologizes, putting his phone down. He looks at me with some sort of weird look in his eyes.

  A deep sigh leaves my throat, I reply, “Yeah, I mean you can’t help it though. You like that stuff, but toning it down might be good for you. Superhero stuff can be cool, but just don’t talk about it all the time.”

  “Yeah,” he murmurs. Shit, I really hope I didn’t say anything bad.

  The man comes back with food and drinks. He sets the food down first and before me is a tall burger. I honestly have no idea how to tackle this beast. In front of Hiro is a plate are nicely cut pieces of beef with rose-shaped mashed potatoes surrounding it. Next are the drinks, and I’m the only one that got something that’s not water. “Here you are gentleman. One Tower Burger, one Fool’s Special, and one Temperance Coffee. Are there any other requests?” the man says.

  Hiro and I make brief eye contact with each other, but I know what he’s thinking. I say, “Nah, we’re good, thank you.”

  “Please enjoy.”

  The man walks away and both Hiro and I immediately start to dig in. I look at Hiro though, something seems off for some reason. But I try to start a conversation, “Fool’s Special? I don’t think I ever tried it.”

  “I haven’t either, but according to William it’s pretty much the daily special they never reveal unless you order it,” Hiro explains. William! That’s the host’s name.

  “Looks good,” I say before taking a big bite out of this impossibly large burger.

  Hiro nudges his plate of food towards me a bit, offering, “You can have some if you want.”

  I shake my head, replying, “Nah man, look at this beast of a lunch. It’s as big as my head!” Seriously, I don’t know if I can finish this with how much of it there is. Maybe I’ll box it and have it for dinner tonight.

  “Alright,” Hiro says.

  There’s seriously something up with Hiro. What happened in the last couple of minutes for him to shy away from talking? Normally he’s talking up a storm. Could it be that I said he shouldn’t talk about superhero stuff? Maybe I should have phrased it better. Telling Hiro to stop with the superhero stuff is like telling me to stop eating right now. Just absolute torture. That’s probably a little too extreme, but it’s the only thing I can compare it to right now.

  “You okay there?” I ask, trying to pry into why Hiro’s quiet down.

  He looks at me, answering with a nod, “Yeah, I’m good. You?”

  “I’m doing just great with this fantastic food.”

  “Yeah, this place never ceases to amaze me with how great the food is.”

  I give Hiro a suspicious look that he seems to simply be ignoring. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah,” he repeats himself. “I just don’t really know what to talk about.”

  I raise a brow. “Really?”

  “It’s just that superhero stuff is really all I can pay attention to and talk about. Yeah, I can talk normally about other stuff, but I find superhero stuff so much more interesting. I know you don’t like superhero stuff all that much, but I keep mentioning it. Maybe I’m just being a bad person,” he says, finally.

  “Oh c’mon Hiro!” I exclaim a little louder than I wanted to, “You, a bad person? Who’s the guy that stood with those two girls because there was a creep? Or the guy who shielded his best friend from falling debris? Or, hell, is buying his best friend lunch? If you think you’re bad for that, then I have no idea what I am then.”

  “I-I guess, but you only came to the concert today because I kinda forced you to. That’s not being a good friend,” he says with the most sorrowful of tones. Even this guy’s facial expressions are starting to become sad.

  I bend forward as much as possible to pat Hiro’s shoulder. I should just tell him I really enjoyed coming to the concert, maybe that’ll cheer him up. A guy has to do his best to cheer up his friend right? “Hiro, I honestly really enjoyed going to the concert. I didn’t think I was going to, but it was great and I just might be get
ting back into Kirika. So, don’t feel bad. And don’t feel bad about anything else, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “But you said you didn’t like the superhero talk,” he adds., although he smiles a bit.

  I shrug my shoulders, explaining, “The superhero talk does get old pretty quickly, not going to lie. I get that it’s hard to focus on other stuff considering hero stuff is around us all the time, but I’m sure we can talk about stuff not related to that. It can’t be hard to talk about non-superhero stuff. Like right now, we’re having a deep conversation about how we’re feeling. We got this!”

  Hiro smiles, his usual cheery face and tone are back, “You’re right. Thanks Ridley.”

  “Yup, no problem man.”

  A light chuckle comes from Hiro, a smirk forms on his face. “So you liked the concert huh?”

  Goddammit.

  “Kirika’s newest song is good right? She definitely sounds way better in person than just off of some video or sound file online. But if you’re getting back into her, then you have to listen to the songs she had in between when you stopped and now…”

  And he keeps going. But he’s happy again now.

  We enjoy the rest of our food. We spend most of the day at the arcade. It was nice to just hang out with the guy. I can’t remember the last time we just hung out. Huh, have we only really seen each other at school? Eh, whatever. Once it starts getting late we go our separate ways home. I have to admit, it was a pretty good day especially with the lack of superhero action.

  Chapter 4

  How is Kirika’s music so good? Ever since the concert a couple days ago I looked up the songs I’ve missed and have been listening to them nonstop ever since. Definitely hooked again. On my way to anywhere I would just listen to her music. There’s just something so good about those lyrics and electronic beats that gets me. Or maybe it’s just Kirika herself. I dunno, but I’m enjoying her music again.

  It’s another school day, the wind is blowing pretty hard making the air a little chilly. I should’ve brought a jacket, it’s days like this I wish I had a car to drive. The tree leaves are starting to turn, if they’re natural, people are bundled up in their jackets, even the air smells a little different and I don’t think it’s the pollution.

  As I’m on the way to school, I look up at one of the giant TVs attached to a tall building. A news channel is being broadcasted. From what I can see, it’s a pretty serious topic. Something about a superhero murder? A brief picture of a crime scene appears; however, a lot of the photo is blurred out, but from what I can make out it’s an apartment. The interesting thing about the crime photo is that there’s a famous superhero weapon in the corner, a large hammer engraved with heavy detailing and otherworldly symbols. At a convenient time of a song ending, I can hear a little bit of the broadcast. “Investigation is still underway.” Huh, guess the timing wasn’t so convenient after all.

  A powerful grasp holds my shoulder. I’m greeted with what I can hear, “Hey Ridley, humming some Kirika huh?”

  Damn, was I really humming? I really am hooked onto Kirika’s songs now. I take out an earbud and greet, “Hey Hiro.” Maybe I should ask him about that news broadcast. If anyone should know a little about it, it should be him. “So do you know about-”

  I’m interrupted as a classmate from behind us yells out to Hiro, “Hiro! Heard the news! Congrats!”

  We look back to find a pair of students running behind us. The other student follows up with, “How awesome! You get to be a hero now!”

  “Thanks guys,” Hiro shyly smiles and waves at them as they run by us.

  “Uh, what was that all about?” I ask. What happened the last few days? Hiro is going to be a hero –that’s definitely not going to be confusing—?

  He slowly turns his head to me and says quietly, “I’m, uh, going to be a pilot.”

  “A pilot? Pilot for what?” Why is he being so quiet and secretive about this to me? For a guy who has always wanted to be a hero, he’s definitely not showing it off or being obvious about it. This is weird.

  Hiro looks away for a little bit. Why does he look so shy about all of this? It doesn’t make sense. He answers with the same hush tone, “I’ll tell you later.”

  “C’mon! You of all people I feel like would be excited about this! Just tell me what’s going on!” I start shouting which definitely causes some people to focus their attention on me. I immediately talk quietly, “Seriously, why not just tell me now?”

  Hiro and I come to a stop at a crosswalk. As I’m waiting for his explanation, another fellow classmate approaches him. She’s the girl that sits next to me in class. I think her name is Sadie. Even though her blonde hair is in a messy ponytail, she tucks some of her hair behind her ear. Her crystal blue gaze keeps darting between Hiro and the concrete ground. She’s dressed for the weather, sorta, with a grey sweater dress, black leggings, and boots. Her voice sounds familiar as she says, “Oh, uh. Hi, Hiro.” She smiles shyly at him, but quickly avoids eye contact.

  “H-hey there, Sadie,” Hiro replies. Even he’s avoiding eye contact with Sadie. His hand reaches for the back of his neck and he starts massaging himself, this is his sign that he’s nervous.

  The two don’t say anything. The two look at anything, but each other. Why are they both so nervous? Why is Sadie talking to Hiro suddenly? Maybe these two have talked before, but I don’t quite remember if they have interacted before. Hiro and I normally don’t see Sadie on our way to school too. What a weird situation. Oh, and why didn’t I get a hello? What am I, just a person in the background?

  “What’s with this awkward silence?” I speak my mind without meaning to.

  “Th-there’s no awkward silence,” Sadie mutters. She looks at me, furrowing her brows a bit.

  Hiro turns to me, smiling, but quietly saying, “Y-yeah, Ridley. No awkward silence here.” He then makes direct eye contact with Sadie, but the two quickly look away from each other. A-are these two blushing!? When the signal for us to walk across lights up, Hiro and Sadie walk on ahead while I’m temporarily stunned. Paralysis totally overcomes me as I try to process what just happened.

  What in the hell was that?

  And so the awkward silence continues on the walk to school. Sadie says nothing. Hiro says nothing. I’m too confused and don’t know what’s going on to say anything. Even after we sit in class, the two are just making really awkward eye contact with each other the whole time. When did they even start talking in the first place? Does she know that Hiro is a hero? And why doesn’t Hiro want to tell me? It’s like he’s hiding something.

  When class starts the history teacher, Mr. Thames, enters and takes center stage. He bellows, “Good morning class! There will be an assembly later today as an important announcement will happen, so be sure not to be a bad student and skip on it! Now, let’s get on with class.”

  Important announcement? Assembly? I don’t remember hearing about an assembly happening. I wonder when the assembly is. If it’s the last thing of the day, I might just dip out early and go home. Assemblies are boring, so why bother even going?

  All throughout the day, class, and even lunchtime, Hiro and Sadie were really awkward. I didn’t even really get to talk to Hiro at all since he was called aside by the principal during lunch. During class Hiro was so fixated on something that every time I tried to talk to him he didn’t really pay attention to me. He’s acting so weird today. When we first talked today, he seemed fine, but as soon as other people mentioned the whole Hiro being a hero thing—seriously this is getting confusing in my head—he started being really weird. Did something happen to him over the last few days?

  Then there’s Sadie. I’ve never really talked to her before so I don’t know how she is normally, but how she was on the way here is definitely really weird for anyone. In class, she’s normally quiet and reserved. She doesn’t talk much, but she does talk to some people, especially those who are of the super person variety. However, she’s been hanging around Hiro a lot today.
Is there something I just totally missed in class? Because I swear these two have never talked to each other before. Before today, Sadie just seemed like she couldn’t care less about Hiro’s existence. She barely acknowledged mine earlier today too. Today is weird.

  Nearing the end of the class today, Hiro was called out of class. Maybe it has something to do with the assembly? Oh man, don’t tell me it’s some sort of reveal assembly where they announce that there’s a new hero in school or something.

  Over the intercom, the principal announces, “All students and faculty. We will now have our assembly in the gymnasium.”

  With that, all of the students in class get up and start heading towards the gymnasium. A big part of me really wants to go home, but I’m just wondering if Hiro is involved with this assembly considering he was called out of class. Or maybe it was for something else. I just really want to go home. Maybe I can sneak out of the assembly like I normally do. I know for a fact that I’m not the only one that does so.

  When I go into the hallway, I notice that the mass amount of students are going towards the gymnasium. I wait for a bit and try walking the opposite direction, however Sadie emerges from the crowd and stands in front of me. “Where are you going?” she asks.

  “Uh,” I stammer, “to the assembly?”

  “You’re going the wrong way then,” she says. A coy smile creeps up on her cheeks.

  “Right.” I slowly nod, then turn around. Guess I’m going to the assembly then. I don’t glance behind me at all, but I know for a fact that Sadie is following close.

  Once I make it to the gymnasium, I find a random seat to sit down with the sea of students. I don’t know where Sadie went though. Maybe I can sneak out now? No, each exit has a faculty member at it. Guess I’m in this for the long haul. Hanging over the stage is a large screen that’s currently showing the life feed of the stage. Nothing is happening though, guess they’re still prepping.