by Rocco Ryg
Principal Asashi grabbed the microphone from Michiko. “Mr. Chillingworth, everybody. Please give him a round of applause.” The nervous class clapped for the intimidating foreigner. Minsei sat back down, still unsure as to what was happening.
Renka and Chikara looked at the five strangers in disbelief. Chillingworth, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, had black hair and wore a trench coat, expensive shoes and dress pants in that same color. His haunting gray eyes distracted attention from his blood-red collared shirt. When he turned around, the witnesses could see the shape of Atlas holding the world embroidered on the back of his coat, with a coiled snake in the center threatening not to be tread upon.
His skills with the Japanese language confounded everyone. He spoke the sentences perfectly, although he used the rudest, most direct words possible, but he pronounced many of the syllables like an English speaker would say without practice. It was as if he knew Japanese fluently, but had never spoken it.
Chikara’s face widened when she saw the necklace around the menacing stranger’s neck. A jade stone with the Japanese symbol for “remember”, held by a gold chain, erased all doubts she had with her mother’s story of the incident in Sierra Leone. She felt stupid for never considering the possibility of Maxwell Chillingworth having other children. “Renka, what do you feel from this guy?”
She scanned him. “He’s excited. He wants to... hurt something... anything.” When in sync with Chillingworth’s mind, she felt like a superior human being surrounded by insects unworthy of her notice.
Chikara then looked to the American’s associates. The blonde-haired young man in a white suit had a golden Christian cross around his neck, the same cross she saw Jeremiah Neuhaus wearing in his videos. Despite his unconcerned expression, Renka could feel his anxious desire to leave.
The redheaded girl in the green and black, skin-tight leather and vinyl wore a golden shamrock for a necklace. Chikara also noticed her green high heels and clover earrings. Renka felt her uncontainable excitement, similar to Chillingworth’s but without the hostile desire to fight. In a strange way, the situation kind of turned her on.
The dark-skinned young man in a black suit stood on the side of the blonde. Tall and handsome, he looked like someone from a Latin-American romance movie. He held a cell phone in one hand, but didn’t use it. Renka felt from him a passing feeling of interest in the situation but a complete ignorance of its purpose.
Lastly, Chikara looked at the short black girl in the yellow dress. She wore her hair in a traditional African fashion and looked around the audience with delight. Most of the witnesses focused on her, having never seen a kokujin up close before. Renka felt a sudden admiration for Chillingworth when she scanned this girl, a naive attraction that she couldn’t understand.
Chikara took another look at the whole group and realized that they looked just like the survivors of Sierra Leone. All seven children of the ones that found the nomoli were now united under one roof. She grabbed her cell phone and moved to call the police, only to find that the device wouldn’t respond. She couldn’t call, text or even take a picture. She noticed the other students fiddling with their phones, proving that something had taken control of the machines.
Just then, Renka felt her mind clear. The emotions that swirled around her stopped. She tried to turn her ability back on, but she could feel nothing from anybody. “Chi, my powers are off again. I can’t feel anything.”
“Just like before.” It seemed Gen was right when he said powers could be inherited. These strangers had unique talents just like their parents.
Chillingworth stalked to the stage and spoke in his deep, condescending tone, “Nagasado Michiko… at last we meet. Great speech, by the way. It really touched my heart.”
Michiko couldn’t speak. She could only gaze into the identical gray eyes that approached her step by step. As a little girl, she would look into the mirror for hours wondering why nobody else had eyes like hers. Now those eyes pierced into her soul like knives.
“What’s wrong,” asked her stalker, laughing at his prey’s fear-induced paralysis. “Hello Kitty got your tongue?”
“John Galt.”
“Please... call me Chillingworth.” He pulled a corsage from his pocket. “Here, Prom Queen. You’ll be needing this.”
Michiko took a step back, refusing the gift. She shook off her terrified face. “What do you want?”
“I want a dance with the Prom Queen. It’s every guy’s fantasy.” He turned to the Prom King and asked, “You don’t mind, do you?”
Confused and a little threatened, Hiroshi said, “Sure. I guess so.”
Chillingworth looked back at Michiko. “There’s also the matter of the missing money.”
“What?”
“My father died recently, and I noticed that my inheritance came up a little short. The lawyers blamed it on overseas expenses and tax havens, but you and I know the real story… don’t we, Mich?”
Michiko scowled at her stalker. She had to get rid of him. “Get out!”
Chillingworth flashed an amused grin. “But I came so far. I can’t leave before I have my dance.”
“I said get out!”
“So assertive. I like that.” He reached down to grab the pictures she had dropped and stuffed them in his pocket.
Michiko didn’t understand how her gift had failed her again, just like in the cafeteria the week before. Scared beyond her threshold, she walked off the stage and headed for the exit.
Chillingworth laughed to himself and held his hand out in a claw-like shape. Michiko stopped in her tracks and struggled to move. She felt like some invisible force held her in place and refused to let go. In front of the entire audience, Chillingworth spun his finger in a circle, making she spin around and face him.
“Get your yellow ass back here.” Chillingworth pulled his arm back, forcing her to slowly slide towards him against her will. The students watched in shock as their Prom Queen’s body glided across the floor without moving her feet.
The terrified Prom Queen poured all of her strength into her voice. “Stop it! Let me go!”
Chillingworth pointed to his head. “Are you trying to get in here, Michiko? Having trouble?” He and three of his four followers laughed at her, the blonde one not amused by the situation.
“That’s right, baby… I’ve found a way to disable it. Takabe Ryouta was my test subject. I hired him to see if I could shut off your voice, and it worked like a charm. Then, of course, your little buddy Yukiko helped me get you here right where I want you. Too bad Kaijin had to turn them into burnt marshmallows. That wasn’t part of the plan, but as promised, I took care of that nuisance. I still don’t know how he got those powers... you wouldn’t know, would you?”
She still moved closer to him against her will. “Please... Damian, this is a mistake.”
“Oh... like you were?” Once again, his cohorts laughed at his mean joke.
Chisato, although afraid of this maniac and what he was doing to her friend, got out of her seat and approached him. “Hey, leave her alone, you bully! She didn’t do anything to you!”
Chillingworth rolled his eyes in annoyance. He stretched out his hand, connected his thumb to his middle finger and flicked into the air. Chisato felt a powerful impact smash into her nose, propelling her backwards. The students screamed and gasped as they saw her land on the ground, her broken nose bleeding like a faucet. Her attacker gave her a threatening look. “Michiko just lost a good friend, Chisato. Do you want her to lose another?”
Michiko screamed, “STOP IT! PLEASE, JUST STOP!”
“You can’t control me, little sister...” She felt an invisible force slap her across the face and hurl her to the ground. Then it lifted her four meters into the air upside down. As she floated there powerless, her tormenter pulled her closer to his face. “I control you.”
The Hispanic boy slipped the DJ some money and told him to take a break. Heavy metal music played over the speakers without any change of
disc, prompting Chillingworth to lower Michiko to the ground and begin their dance. He spread his fingers and manipulated her movements like a puppeteer controlling a marionette. She spun and twirled, ducked and flipped in impossible ways, holding a terrified expression the whole time. Her body danced against her will no matter how hard she struggled. At last she knew how her previous victims felt.
“Please...” she managed to speak, “I’ll pay you back, I promise.”
“I don’t want your money, Michiko,” he said as he pulled her closer and pointed to her throat. “I want this... your voice. You’ve been wasting your gifts on powerless teenagers, but think of what you can do to people with real power. Your voice can enslave, but it can also liberate... free their minds from the shackles of everything that imprisons them. Government... religion... philosophy... with your voice and my brain, we can make the world… shrug. And to think... if you didn’t blackmail Dad, I never would have known.”
The audience watched in awe at the dance that defied gravity. Hirono hit her cell phone in hopes that it would work, but the screen wouldn’t activate. The Hispanic boy smiled to her. “It won’t work, chica. I told it not to.”
Hirono replied, “And just who are you again?”
“Miguel Soto-Morales. I’d ask you to dance, but we’re on a tight schedule.”
“I might’ve accepted if you didn’t keep such bad company.”
“Oh no, Damian’s great company. He’s got a plan that’ll stick it to the man and keep it there.”
Clover O’Shaughnessey snuck up on Miguel and hugged him from behind. “Forget about her, hot-stuff. You can dance with me anytime.”
Miguel groaned, “I know where you’ve been, Clover.”
She pouted. “At least I’m more fun than Jesus-freak over there.”
Quinn Neuhaus gave a disappointed growl from the exit he guarded. A student approached him and asked, “Uh, I need to use the bathroom.”
He looked to her and said in almost-perfect Japanese, “Hold it until we’re done here.”
“Come on, I really need to go. Please open the doors.”
Quinn touched the center-line where the double-doors met. The doors melted into each other and merged into a solid wall. He looked back at the terrified girl and asked, “What doors?”
Chikara watched Chillingworth and Michiko’s physics-defying dance and whispered to Renka, “That’s him.”
“What?”
“It all makes sense now. He’s the man my mother wanted me to stop.”
“You mean your arch-nemesis?”
“Whatever. With Michiko’s powers under his control, he could do anything he wants. We have to save her.”
“But how? He’s disabled me, and Gen-kun’s in the hospital.”
“Then it’s up to us.” She signaled to Hiroshi, who walked back to the table. “Hiroshi-kun, gather your fighters. We’re going to face him and save Michiko.”
He looked back at the dancing partners. Chillingworth spun Michiko around in the air like a cartoon as the speakers played a hardcore metal solo. Then he flung her away and pulled her back in like a yo-yo. “Are you sure about that? I don’t think that guy is human.”
“If you’re worthy of that crown you’re wearing, you have to prove yourself.”
Hiroshi nodded and told his club members to prepare for a fight.
Chikara turned to Kayoko. “Tell the girls to ready their weapons. We have to take this guy down.”
Kayoko didn’t argue. “We’re with you, Chikara, until the bitter end.”
“Let’s hope not.”
Once the song ended, Chillingworth pulled Michiko close and said, “Now, let’s have a demonstration of our combined might. Here’s what I want you to do...” He whispered into her ear and pointed to the microphone in the principal’s hand. It pulled itself out of his grasp and zoomed across the air, landing in his hand. He gave it to his half-sister and prompted her to speak. “Don’t even try turning it on me, or you’ll regret it.”
Michiko did as instructed. “Everybody... never reveal what happened here.” The entire audience felt the familiar tingle in their minds. Chikara now understood that Chillingworth wasn’t so reckless after all. With the witnesses silent and all recording devices frozen, nobody outside the gym would even know he was here. This was a demonstration of his power and cunning, like giving up the queen in Chess.
“Good, Michiko,” he said, confident with his cover-up. “I knew you’d see things my way.”
He looked over to the snack table and spotted his African accomplice stuffing her mouth full of as much food as she could. “Josephine, calm down on that. You’re going to expand like a blimp.” He blew into his cheeks and made himself look fat.
Josephine Gawanas put down her marshmallow treat, smiled and extended her middle finger while sticking out her tongue. Chillingworth found it cute and smiled back. He then noticed Quinn pointing to his watch from the back. As much as he enjoyed his diabolical masterpiece of a set-up, he figured he had frightened his target enough. “It’s time to go, Michiko. Good night, Eisai High! Don’t have too much fun!” He dropped the microphone and approached the exit with his valuable hostage. Quinn prepared to unscramble the molecules of the doors.
Before they could escape to freedom, Chikara and her team sprung their trap. The ten students ran to the door and blocked the only exit, holding their weapons in a threatening pose. Chikara stood in the center of the pack and gave Chillingworth a menacing stare. After a brief moment of surprise, he laughed and asked, “What anime did I walk into?”
“Big brothers are supposed to protect their little sisters,” she said, “Not smack them around.”
“Do I look like someone who cares about your norms and mores? Hey, I know you... you were snooping around Michiko’s room last week. What were you looking for?”
Chikara now knew that Chillingworth had been watching his half-sister for some time. This also proved that he didn’t know about his father’s rings. That was why he had to search the world and recruit the children of the other Sierra Leone survivors... he didn’t know of anyone else with such power.
She ignored the question. “You’re not leaving here with her or anyone else. Get out!”
Standing behind the blockade of Kendo students, Quinn Neuhaus said, “Just push them aside, Damian. We have to get out of here.”
Chillingworth shook his head. “I swear, Quinn, you’re no fun at all.” He pointed to one of the boy’s swords. He forced it out of his hands and made it float in front of his accomplice. “Come on, make me my favorite.”
Neuhaus growled and grabbed the sword. He slid his hand across and carefully rearranged its molecular structure, giving it a round hilt, a guard and a straighter blade. He kept the blade blunt so his battle-hungry partner wouldn’t cause his opponents too much pain. The wooden katana had now become a European rapier. Neuhaus threw the sword to him. “If you kill anybody with it, I’m out.”
Chillingworth caught the weapon and pushed Michiko towards Clover. “If she moves, blow out an eardrum.” He held his sword to his ten opponents in a classic fencing position. “Okay ladies... its showtime!”
He charged his enemies, who stood in their most defensive stances and prepared for an attack. Just before he got close enough, Chillingworth jumped over the group with a gravity-defying leap. As if in slow motion, the students looked up and saw him soaring over them and giving a mocking wink. He landed on the other side and slashed his rapier through the air, creating a terrible gust of force that flung the whole group backwards. They slammed into other students’ tables and into the walls, prompting the scared bystanders to run to the corners and watch. Chillingworth raised each of the young male fighters into the air and slammed their heads against the walls, knocking them out cold.
Before they could regain their senses, the girls fell towards the gymnasium’s ceiling, leaving the boys behind. They plummeted upward in a diagonal path to avoid the skylight and stopped just before they hit the roof. Th
ey then fell onto the ceiling free of injury. Chikara looked up and saw her classmates gazing in amazement from the ground. She had underestimated her enemy. He didn’t just move objects through the air... he could literally bend gravity itself.
Chillingworth flew straight up and hovered just above the ceiling. He then rotated 180 degrees and landed feet first, walking upside down across the roof like it was the floor. He pointed to the ground. “Hey... what’s up? Get it?”
Not amused and with no time to adjust to her new sense of direction, Chikara charged him. He held his best fencing stance and diverted her blows with expert skill. Kayoko and Takako charged from the side, but without looking, he pushed one into the other, knocking both over. He punched the air and sent Chikara flying backwards into the large Japanese flag draped from the wall. It fell off, entangling her and forcing her to navigate her way out.
Mizuho, Kayoko, Takako and Mayumi came after Chillingworth in a square formation to hit him from all sides. The crafty villain spun himself like a tornado and gravitated to the youngest, stabbing and thrusting at her with a relentless assault of sword play. She held him off the best she could, but as soon as his sword pushed hers away, He punched her in the face with a hard left and pushed her to the wall.
Mizuho slashed her opponent with a newfound fury. “You’ll pay for that, you bastard!”
Chillingworth pushed her into the air, flew from behind and smacked the back of her head with his sword’s pommel. “Unlike you, I can afford it.” Mizuho hit the ceiling on her back and struggled to get back up.
When Kayoko and Takako charged him from both sides, he flung the two into the air and crashed them into each other above him without looking. This gave him a funny idea. He pulled the four girls towards him and threw them high. As each fell into his hands, he juggled them like a clown, laughing at their misfortune.
Chikara freed herself from the flag and saw her enemy juggling her friends. With his satisfaction peaked, he let them fall back to the ground, softening their impacts on the plastic tables. Chikara clutched her bokken and gave him a deathly gaze. “Are you that weak that you have to use your gifts to beat up women? Fight me normally, you freak!”