Hip 4: Enter the Meta
Thud
"Am I the only one here who finds these textbooks weird as hell?! Asstrology and... and Boobology?! What in the... am I the only one here who thinks the fact there's a textbooks for this crap absurd? Or am I overthinking things again?!" Mikado flopped down in the chair at the desk he'd claimed, putting his hands over his face, one eye not covered and glaring at the textbooks on the desk, "Never in my life did I think i'd have to research things I'd be branded as a pervert over in a normal school."
Kiss took an adjacent seat, resting his chin on his hand as he gave a pout that could be interpreted as sassy to Mikado. "Well… It's not that weird….oh who am I kidding.. To be honest I thought there'd be only one sorta on the small side textbook by combining all four major subjects. Asstrology, Boobology, Agent Process, and Metaology. But no. There's three books…"
"That's the absurd thing…" Mikado muttered, and one could swear smoke was coming out of his ears as he spun around in the chair while staring at the ceiling, seeming to start spacing out, "If Chi was here she'd never let me live it down… no, she's not… even if she's not here directly..."
Kiss waved his hand in front of Mikado's face, getting no reaction. "Mikado-kun? Mikado-kun? Mikado, snap out of it!" Kiss lightly slapped Mikado's face, only to then slap him across the face when the lighter ones weren't getting a reaction.
"OW!" Mikado yelped, rubbing his now sore cheeks, giving Kiss a glare, but shaking his head, "Ugh, forget it, probably deserved that one. But, seriously, why are there books on this stuff? This… Metaology thing, I guess I can get that one, actually seems interesting, but these two?!" his hand slammed down on the remaining ones to accent his point, "How and why? It cannot be that complicated!"
Kiss gave Mikado a shrug, a look of defeat spread across his face. "I've never read the books… Never wanted to and never needed to.. to be honest I think most of the books are basically about different sizes and body types and how to use them in the sport…. so not really something important in a way…"
"Then I'm stowing these in the desk and not touching them again… y'know, like most college students with their textbooks. At least I didn't have to pay, ha!" He knew the joke was terrible as he did it, but Mikado got a chuckle out of it either way, Kiss rolling his eyes with a sigh.
"We have very different senses of humor… but talking about that is irrelevant… Besides Professor Kelly's walking in!" Like he introduced the very woman, a long cream haired woman with glasses in a platinum lab coat, cameras and recording equipment hanging from her sides and pockets walked into the room, walking behind her desk in a practiced actor's stride.
"Hello everyone! Sorry about not being here for the first week, as I was out on an 'excursion' for the last few days, and I had to remake the class material due to some new findings, so to make it up to all of you and get to the point, you're going to enjoy a PowerPoint I've constructed!"
Without even wasting a moment to let the students in the room process her rapid arrival, she pulled a universal remote from one of her many pockets, and with a myriad of button presses, a projector screen slowly went over the way behind her, an electronic projector coming out of the center of the classroom ceiling.
As the projector warmed up, a title screen with the words "What is a Meta-type?: An intro to Metaology".
"Now, I'm sure many of you may are asking this in your heads, what is a Meta-type? Well, simply put, Meta-types are the next stage of humanity!" The professor proudly slapped her hand onto the projector screen as the classroom looked around, chuckling as she used her other hand to adjust her glasses, "Allow me to explain it in simple terms. A Meta-type is a human who's at what we can call a "peak", displaying abilities that can be considered downright superhuman. Immense speed, strength, heightened senses. It's only in recent years that we've seen a prevalence of the gene belonging to such types, one dubbed the Unknown Gene."
"Uhm… Professor, if it's "Unknown" then…"
"Why do they call it that? Good question!" The teacher answered the question completely, the student who asked lowering their hand, "It is defined as such because the gene Meta-types show is as said, unknown. But, unknown in the sense that no two versions of this gene are similar. As you may remember from basic biology, a person's genes come from their parents, an even 50/50, though in some extremely rare cases, a child may share no genetic similarities at all! The Meta Gene is such a gene. It's random, unpredictable, yet surprisingly not hard to find nowadays."
"Ma'am, how is it not hard to find if it's random?"
"Another good question! And that's why you are here! You see, the Unknown Gene, well, let's just call it the Meta Gene…" she then pressed a button, the slide changing to one of multiple chibi-styled characters, all in various sports outfits, "Has been displayed rather prominently in the recent generations of athletes for the past decade. To be specific here, within Keijo, a prime field to study this topic due to the players showing rather unique skills and abilities unlike any other athlete!"
"What kind of abilities?"
"Three, two one." Mikado counted down, the teacher adjusting her glasses again and slapping a hand back onto the projector screen as she changed the slide.
"That shall be our next topic today. Now, with only the time allotted, I have summarized the basics of each current broad type of Meta Type we know of. Currently the scientific groups researching this phenomenon have recently come to the consensus of five types existing currently, with almost an encyclopedia worth of subtypes under all of these categories." She pressed a single button on her remote, the presentation going to the next slide with an embedded video.
"Let's start with the most mundane yet dangerous of the bunch, Kinetics!" The video started to play. Showing a woman in a ring fighter's attire, stretching as she waited in the completely white area. The camera shifted to the right showing a brick wall, the woman walked to the walk and poked it, showing the durability of the wall. Only to punch an arm shaped hole into the wall, a small cloud of dust filling the air as the fighter pulled back her arm, only to punch another hole in and lift her arm up causing the whole wall to shatter with a resounding pulse. Large stone debris coating the once white floor. The woman just giving out a sigh before easily picking up large sections of brick lifting it to her rear, the stone outright disintegrating as it contacted the center of the woman's buttocks. The video fading to black as she continued to do this to the rest of the stones.
Professor Kelly only had a smile made of pride and joy on her face as the video ended. "I hope this filled your minds with questions, and if some of you already know what this is, good on you. Enjoy the demonstrations by S-rank Keijo Pro-players." She changed to the next slide, an embedded video going through a looping preview of the video's contents.
"Now for the more… finesse heavy of the types, Redirectives!" The video started to play, showing the same set as the previous one, yet a woman in a runner's outfit was sifting through things on a smartphone. Only for the quiet moment to be broken by a woman wearing a shoulder strap shirt and skull charmed jeans' flying hip strike, only for the woman going through the smartphone to not move and for the assaulter to slide down the person off the screen, a look of offended shock written across her face. The runner looked off screen with a look of apparent surprise before the video cut to black, transitioning to another scene with the runner. She was bouncing a twelve kilogram medicine ball off her rear in the air with complete ease, launching the ball far off into the screen only for the runner to fade into a blur as the ball bounced to either end of the screen, increasing at speed until the ball bursted into a metal ball that loudly fell to the ground. The video seemingly paused only to rewind itself, playing in slow motion showing the runner pass the ball to herself as such intense speeds it appeared that were fourteen versions of the woman, only for the video to speed up, showing the ball reacting to being hit multiple ways at the same time before the falling to the ground, the video ending as the runner looked embarrassed.
"That one was a fun time to shoot. Had to pull a few favors and see some old friends, but I think it turned out pretty great. Well to the next ones and this one is very special… Some of you might know this buff champ of a stud, and yes it was determined he was an Anti-kinetic meta, the most resilient of the types!"The presentation moved to next slide, the next video playing within moments.
"What's in store this time hmm?" Mikado thought, his expression one of… processing the situation as the video began.
The video started a clip from a european international MMA tournament's after hours security footage, where the current three time champion Kasimir Vogel was in a widescale gang fight, very much winning the fight, until the sound of a gunshot, which caught the classroom to flinch in recoiling shock. For which the men and woman fighting the champion ran away, the footage zooming at Kasimir picking the bullet that flatten against his shirtless muscular frame and threw the bloodless metal fragment to the ground, pulling out the knives that fully pierced his skin yet were completely clean of blood. The video went to black and transitioned to the familiar white film set. A slender yet muscular man with thinly waved very dark brown hair crouched in front of the camera. It was Kasimir Vogel, yet it was a decent time later than the previous footage, and as Kasimir was about to say something someone slammed a sledgehammer into his back… Kasimir didn't react to the hammer's blow and grabbed it from the assailant. The video transitioned to Vogel fighting his opponent, his punches causing them to seemingly stop moving or just not appearing to have any motion in the other person's body before the video ended as Kasimir cleaned house.
Kelly clasped her hands together in a show of finality. "That might have been a partially… drastic change of tone, but that's the most direct showing of an Anti-Kinetic that has utilized it to the utmost potential. I will explain the finer details of all the types after giving the last video demonstration,everyone understand?"
"That was… terrifying."
"Yeah… like something out of a movie."
"Was that seriously real?!"
"Of course nobody can believe it… that was insane!" Mikado thought, looking even further caught off guard by things, one of his eyes twitching, and a glance at Kiss who only had a weird knowing smile on his face.
"I know that may be rather hard to process, but I'll answer any questions after this last video. But, I assure you, that was not something from a movie. We truly do live in a crazy world, don't we?" Kelly chuckled, the looks on the classroom faces showing all of them, for the most part, thought that was an extreme understatement, "Now, onto the last, and trickiest, of the types, the Adaptive type!"
With another press of a button the presentation moved to the next slide that last of the four videos playing. The feed started off with a blurred view of light red, the microphone indicating the camera was being manipulated into place, the blur moving back to reveal Kelly herself, the woman nodding as it was set up, moving back and revealing to others present, the audio was replaced with a calming melodic beat as Kelly and two other women went into positions. Kelly and the woman at the other end of the screen gave each other a thumbs up, and once both were in position at each end of the screen, they started to do hand motions as if they were fiddling with a mechanical device, causing the woman in between the two to have each half of their body act very differently. As the woman in the center was internally marionetted, four different screens appeared in the corners of the video each showing a different example of adaptives. The top left had a woman holding a burning stick and had her hand in a pool, the pool water freezing into solid ice. The Top right had a woman holding her hand against a stone wall and then pushing her hand through it like clay, almost outright swimming through the solid stone. The bottom left had a woman counting on her fingers, and when she counted to a certain number, caused a person in the crowd in front of her to lift their arms, and in the bottom right was a line up of women and men with special bodily differences varying from long tongues to razor tip fingers and toes. All five aspects kept playing until the woman in the center fainted, the corner videos fading one by one until it was only Kelly and the other woman. The video ending as Kelly pressed places on her other hand like a remote.
Kelly smiled as the video ended. "That was a very fun experience to create and since I don't have a video about informatives, we will now start to go over the specifics of each type and then end it up with Informatives, as that type will likely be relevant to all of you here. So anyone want to suggest which type we go over first?"
Kiss and another young man leapt to their feet, immediately staring at each other murderously and cockily respectively. Kelly started to smile. "Cathal, you can sit down. Isozaki, what do you think we should start with?"
"I was thinking if we could start from the top, Kinetics." Kiss suggested, Kelly clapping her hands together in visual amusement.
"Kinetics, always the simplest one to start with, and while we're at it let's do Anti-kinetics at the same time as well, why don't we? The first three types, which coincide with the three types of Keijo players are directly based on the concept of 'Bio-Kinetic Energy' and the other two types go off of the concept of 'Bio-Data' but we'll go into that later. A Kinetic is a Meta-type category that is directly based off the understanding that they all naturally store kinetic energy and then release it in many different ways to achieve certain things. Most Kinetic types are based on using this energy in different forms of output, and storing the energy within to then have larger output. This increase in natural storage leads to having resistances to other meta-types' kinetic energy being forced upon them, usually leading to them not dying from the hundreds of newtons of force impacting their bodies. I will go into the various sub-types and how they work in their beautifully quirky and unique ways at a later date. Now that the concept of Kinetics are shown, let's go to Anti-kinetics, which is very much like Kinetics but their natural growth is very much the reverse of Kinetics. They naturally increase the levels of input they can take and then even absorb the kinetic energy of others, as shown by the lovely Vogel in the video. It almost goes without saying that how the energy is absorbed and repurposed varies to Type to Type and those will be looked deeper into as we go along in the course, but while we've picked up the momentum let's move to Redirectives. The Redirection category are the finesse filled speedsters or assassins of the types if you want to gamify the concept to help you remember. They don't naturally have ways to input or output Kinetic energy in the direct ways the other two do, but as they train themselves, they naturally refine their own body to naturally multiply their own Kinetic force and speed, and their levels of force are created from the intense speed they go at. This speed is achieved from redirecting all of the kinetic energy in their bodies to such a precise degree of particle sized motions they can go up to Mach speed. And though this way of achieving such intense levels of speed causes limited damage upon the body, but as Redirectives train and refine their own type abilities, they grow this interesting natural affinity to intense levels of air resistance and force, letting them achieve higher and higher speeds as they grow. So any questions?" Kelly scanned the classroom again for any more raised hands to thing, Mikado giving a sigh and raising his hand, "Yes, Ryugu!"
"So if these three types all use kinetic force, what about the last ones you mentioned? Is it the same or something different? Since those types seem to be the wildest of the bunch." Mikado stated, Kelly nodding.
"Very much so. The other two types are the more special of the categories. Adaptives and Informatives are direct users of Bio-Data instead of Kinetic energy. Adaptives are very vast in many ways, and it's partially the 'Unique' ability category in a sense, most adaptives are based on using Bio-Data, which is hard to explain within a single day at the quickest, but the simple way to say it, is that it's the digital energy code every person that has a meta ability has. And using this code to cause bodily changes, reactions, and just general bodily manipulation. Informatives are the most self explanatory and are known for being an exclusive type for Agents, or it's the other way around, but that's not really the point of discussion at the moment. They have higher levels of perception and their abilities can go in very different directions, most are based on certain social aspects of themselves, from social skills to just being able learn everything about a person's abilities."
"So in layman's terms bio-data can be described as being similar to a line of coding in a computer or something, and Adaptives or Informatives can read it?" Mikado inquired, getting a nod from the teacher.
"Precisely, well, at least it's the basic idea behind. In fact, we have quite a few Adaptives among this year's crop of players, so I suggest you all specify what kind of ability the player's you're working with have. And with that, that leads me to your biggest assignment of the year!" Kelly spun around as she clicked the remote, her hand again slamming onto the projector screen, "Refining the abilities of your players! Learning to master one's natural skills and how to control latent abilities is an important part of being a Keijo player! It's an agent's utter duty to assure their clients' ability development!"
"I have this sudden chill about things for some reason…" Mikado shuddered a bit as murmuring went through the class, his scan showing that amid the unease, the other members of his dorm room, plus the one Kelly had referred to as Cathal, looked utterly confident in themselves.
As for Mikado… it was a mixed bag. Understanding how a sport runs and how to manage the players was easy, considering he double timed as team manager during his highschool years, it was an idea he could wrap his head around. But this? Something straight out of a manga?
"This… is going to be an interesting year in my life." A sigh came from the red haired young man as he leaned back in his seat until he was staring at the ceiling, glancing over and out the window as Kelly excitedly began answering any questions given to her, watching the Elite Class students go about their own training. "I wonder when I entered a coma and found myself inside of a manga universe…"
"Mikado-kun, you really didn't know did you?" Kiss scoffed as he laid his face against his balled hand. "It's amusing that such a prime Redirective doesn't know what he could do in the years upon years of sports you did. I would know of all people, I knew your whole team were Meta-types… to what I remember since I was only around to make plans and help team efficiency."
"Eh?"
Mikado's expression at that moment could best be summed up in one word: Dumbstruck. Blank, wide eyes filled with surprise to the point of seeming to be completely white, and a twitching lip betraying the urge to yell in shock, but not a sound came out as his head slanted to the side like the joint had just fallen loose.
"Mikado, okay this joke isn't funny anymore. You know the Generation of Miracles were all Meta-types right? And you have to know the reason behind how our middle of nowhere Kyoto basketball team were really good…" Kiss just covered his face to hide his growing shock. "Oh..Oh.. oh no, Mikado, you really didn't know did you?…How much denial were you in all these years?!"
"Eh?"
Still that blank, dumbfounded look. It was rather clear that one statement layered on with everything he'd learned today very much went and shattered whatever perception of reality Mikado was keeping intact before hand. And this was the result. If one were to hook a monitor up to Mikado's brain, odds were they'd get a blue screen.
Kiss gave out an audible sigh, one of honest nervous fright at the situation in front of him. "O-Okay, Let me break it down for you. You were an Omega Redirective, and since you were crippled, your body has moved most of the natural refinement that went towards your legs and balance towards your other senses, which now makes you a Scan Informative secondary type Omega Redirective. To give you comparison I'm a evolution adaptive that's borderline informative with how I just seem to drool everytime I'm near a very intense power source I haven't tasted before… and I might have a secondary… but I haven't figured that one yet… I will eventually. Gives me a goal I guess…. Anyway, Masumi-chan's an Awareness Informative, Hishikawa's a Life Adaptive, and I have no idea what Pixie has going for her…"
"Ehhhhh?!" Mikado's response was still the same muttering sound, though his eyes slowly began returning to a normal look… his head then meeting the desk with a solid thunk. "Any perception I had of reality has been smashed to itty little pieces… There ain't no way I'm recoverin' from this one easily, nope, no way."
"Oh hey, you're slipping into your Kyoto accent again… I honestly thought you'd fade into nonexistence over an anal-obsessed stalker admirer...not just learning about the truth of the sports world you were always in…" Kiss muttered in a nervous tone Mikado rarely heard from his old friend..
"Ughhhhh… my brain feels like it just crashed into a wall." Mikado muttered, steam downright coming out of his head.
Kiss pushed his glasses back over his eyes. A glare flashing over his lens as his scarf sagged, showing his Arrowhead choker pendent before he pulled his scarf over his features, hiding his sudden epiphany. "Maybe we've always been in separate worlds…." Kiss groaned to himself in pain. "Why do I even keep trying to catch up with you... Why do I even keep hoping things will work out."
"You try dealing with years of hopes and dreams being ripped from under you like a rug." Mikado grumbled, his hands on the side of his head as he let out a pained groan, a glum, tired deadpan shift in his tone. "But… whatever…"
The glare on Kiss' glasses stayed even though he shifted his position, shrugging towards his best friend. "Sorry, I guess. I couldn't do anything while I was jumping between agencies for a year.. I don't know what happened to you, so I can't really say much more than I know. So let me atleast give a piece of advice to possible help. You're going to need to adapt and just roll with the punches as they come flying at you, mainly in the shape of rears in skin tight sportswear." Kiss advised in a very matter of factly tone as he started to gather his things. "We're going to get the rest of the crew and go meet up with our Clients for the free period. So once you push yourself together let's try to help you get used to things."
"What is with you and puns?" Mikado sighed, placing his head in his arms.
The whole room's attention was ripped towards the front by the sound of a triumphant horn. "Okay everyone, that's enough questions for today. Let's get into the meat of this course's long assignment. I want each and every one of you to collect data on your clients, yourselves, and by course end we'll have a building directory of the possibilities of this generation's meta-types. And before you start saying how letting everyone know your clients' abilities will give everyone advantage against them, know that part of the sport is learning about your opponent. I'm going to leave the secrecy to yourselves to handle, but you must all keep full progression logs throughout this year, and I will want to see these logs each week. Any Questions?"
With a wave of silence and a few people raising their hands before swiftly pulling them down, Professor Adrian Kelly clasped her hands together. "Alright good. Now all of you will need to start making some text documents or grab a notebook or two from the storeroom or store, don't ask me about the specifics with that." The former movie director looked at her phone, checking the time.
"We'll talk about specific a Meta-type and its subtypes every week, starting next time, so talk between yourselves or just prep yourselves for the course for the rest of the term." She walked out of the room after grabbing a flash drive plugged into a camera that was hanging in the upper corner of the ceiling, waving as she exited.
As the room broke in chatter and exchanging of information, Kiss looked to his half conscious friend that just seemed to be on the brink of drooling from internal mental overload… "Might as well just carry him somewhere...comfier."
"Why is it dark? And… is something on my face or something? It's soft… and warm…" Mikado's return to stable consciousness only led to confusion as he opened his eyes, letting out a confused noise as his vision cleared up, the black changing to a deep navy blue with a starry night sky pattern, the weight of long bare legs wrapped around his neck and shoulder entering his senses as he felt the luxuriously soft cloth go down his face as two pointer fingers hooked under it and pulled it down, slowly getting Mikado to slide into the warm, soft, blissful crevasse before him.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT!" Mikado shouted, pulling up but being stopped by the legs holding him, his face nearly as red as his hair as Aoi turned back with a confused glance at him."The heck is happenin'?!"
Aoi loosened her leg lock and turned around from her position on the couch she and Mikado were on, her starry night panties still covering her front, yet leaving a tasteful view of her inner rear to her roommate as her legs still locked him in proximity, her face growing slightly rosy from her usual process being broken, unable to remove the pleasant mix of womanly lust and kind concern from her face. "Uh, Ryugu-kun, nice to see your better now, but what's wrong? We're about to do phase two, no one's ever had issues with phase two before… some weren't okay phases three and four, but no one's had issues with making me feel good, wait are you not okay with this?!" She asked in sudden confusion, the moment seemingly unnerving to the usually quirky yet composed young lady.
"E-Ehhhh?! What are ya' goin' on about? Phase two? What?!" Mikado yelped, his tone again slipping into his natural Kyoto dialect, utterly confused by Aoi seeming off guard by his own confusion to things, "Wait… why was I… y'know, in the first place?"
"Aoi-chan, you should go de-stress. I think your feathers are falling off…" Masumi suggested as they handed Aoi's angel feather patterned pants to her.
Aoi grimaced, unwrapping her long legs from Mikado and pulled her panties back over her angelic rear, starting to slide her pants back on. "Uh.. Sorry about that Ryugu-kun, I'll note you're not willing to do anything past phase one, unlike what Fujimoto-san told me…"She quickly gave an annoyed look to Masumi. "And to answer your question, you were out of it and I healed you. Sorry, healing people gets me in a mood… or it's just how things usually get after I heal people, I guess. I'm going to go find my Crested in the engineer dorms, see you guys in a few hours." Aoi explained before walking off, only to be prevented from leaving the room from Kiss holding a gray fiber bag.
"Hishikawa, you're not going anywhere. Just sit your miracle butt down and have a drink,I made sure It's the kind you like." Kiss prevented Aoi from getting through the door, handing her a glass bottle of lemon-lime soda.
Aoi's face curled up and she sat down in one of the lounge room's many couch seats, focusing entirely on her drink to hide her unprofessionalism.
Kiss handed Masumi a pinkish yellow bottle from the bag before crouching next to the prone redhead. "You doing okay now, Mikado?"
"I am so very lost right now…" Mikado muttered, "But I feel better… less like my brain just blue screened thankfully… if confused at what the heck just happened. I feel like I did something wrong here for some reason though." A glance at the still troubled looking Aoi, then a sigh from the redhead as he adjusted his shirt. "I passed out from the mental shock, didn't I?"
Kiss just nodded, handing Mikado a glass bottle filled of red liquid from the bag. "Drink, you'll feel better if you get fluids in your system after such a crash…. and don't worry about Hishikawa, she's just used to her own thing…. and I get how to you it seems like you did something wrong, but it's more of she expected a little bit too much when we got her to wake you up."
"Still not following but, noted." Mikado hummed, sighing again.
The Evolution Adaptive leaned to his best friend's ear, whispering something that caused Mikado to sit up straight from surprise."Well now that you're awake and processing again. I thought we could all just talk about our clients. Since we're all friends here, why not just help you learn about the types you'll be seeing a lot of."
"Doesn't sound like a bad idea. Mio-chin for one has a most interesting ability!" Masumi piped up, attention turning to them as they let out a chuckle.
"Really?" Mikado hummed, leaning on his free hand, Masumi nodding with a smirk on their face.
"The Frequency Adaptive? That supermodel Hafu got Kaminashi's Bio-Code… it's going to be such a difficult time when they have to face off… just got to be lucky that they don't…" Kiss contemplated, taking a seat next to Mikado on the large leather L-shaped couch in the small lounge room.
"I take it that means Kusakai is a tricky one?" Mikado piped up, Masumi nodding.
"Quite. Her ability makes her an expert on gathering the Bio-Data of others and manipulating it. All it takes it a touch, and she can read someone like a book." Masumi stretched a hand out and tapped Mikado on the shoulder for emphasis, Mikado giving a hum in response.
"Masumi-chan, you know that's not the whole story, right?" Kiss added in, Masumi winking while putting a finger over their lips.
"A maiden doesn't reveal every secret hidden between their curves. Even to a sexy pair of boys like you and Ryugu-kun."
"I'll be straight and admit I have no idea how to take things with you." Mikado stated, Masumi giggling as they put a hand up to their mouth.
Aoi dropped her empty drink to the ground, stretching as she got comfortable on the couch. "Since we're getting into the heat of it, I'll go ahead. Hanabi Kawai is a Precision Kinetic, she can basically project kinetic energy in very dense but small points, to cause massive internal and external damage to her target. She uses pressure points to give a...lethal edge to her attacks, it's sorta scary the more you think about it…. And my other client for the course is Kogatana Saya, the kendo champ, she's the next in her family's legacy of Iaido women. She's a Blade Redirective, she makes psionic blades to my understanding… however that works.. You'll have to find that out yourself as I'm still...figuring it out.."
"Sounds like a handful. An overspilling handful." Mikado murmured, "So can one more person go so as to allow me to avoid saying anything again?"
Masumi bounced in their seat in their illogically cute standard. "Oh me, me, let me join in making Ryugu-kun flaccid! So my other booty babe client Rinrin is a pretty slender girl, and she's not that special when it comes to Meta-types, just a disposition adaptive, her body is just structured differently… nothing really special, but she's cutely full of herself do to all of the brutal work she's done over the years."
Kiss started to drink his peach soda, laying back into the couch onto his side to hide his boundaryless anticipation. "So speaking of disposition adaptives, where's the pixie?"
Aoi had an amused smile run up her face. "Almina-chan didn't want to stay here after Kiss left to get drinks and I went to wake up Ryugu-kun. So might feel inferior body wise… she was always such a high strung mess. She's only had two boyfriends and ever since the second one left her due to job locations she's been bitter almost hateful of men in general… that or she somehow watched the Nurse party I had with my last part time shift at the Hououin Medical Center…" The young lady looked to see the looks of confusion and immense interest from her roommates in abrupt shock and horror.
"Uh, I-I'm sorry about that… I got stuck in my thoughts. Where we again.. oh yes Almina-chan's clients. She's got nothing special really but with the right touch they'll be effective. Both can just change the internal or external density of their bodies in certain ways. Not useful unless they train really hard for it."
Kiss throw his empty drink into the bin across the room, shattering into many pieces inside the trash. The room going silent as they all stared at him. "Well, my turn I guess. Kaminashi's got bulk to her but she's a Sense Adaptive, something all of the current Goketsu have to a degree. She basically has a radar to those with energy output or manipulation, with how her record's been she might be a savant at the sport, just gotta hope all that muscle and gymnastic flair she's got will push her through all the walls that will try to cripple her. Then I have Miyata-san, she's fast… and I mean fast, she's what one could call a Gear Redirective. It's not a type one can naturally obtain to what I can understand, but it will let her achieve levels of speed to surpass human perception time…. once she's trained enough to trigger that dormant potential."
"All this chat about superhuman abilities could make one feel inferior, couldn't it?" Mikado hummed, clearing his throat, fully aware he was sounding like quite the hypocrite at the moment with that phrase, "Sorry if that came out wrong… so now it's my turn eh? Well… since I wasn't aware of the whole Meta-Type thing until recently, I can't exactly go and peg down what Kawaguchi and Kazane's Types are, much less an exact nature of their abilities. Kazane, first off, won't even talk around me without mumbling, but I did notice she tends to twitch her right hand a lot… maybe that has something to do with her own abilities."
Kiss refitted his long scarf. "You didn't read their records that deeply, did you?"
"Admittedly I'm still going over them." Mikado stated, sitting up and leaning on a hand, "As for Kawaguchi… I don't even know what she can do. I've watched the Elite Class all week but I've got nothing from just watching. All I get in my head are stupid numbers…. Well, actually, there is something kinda weird I noticed the other day."
"So you noticed Kawaguchi was a Kinetic right? I knew that the first time I saw her… and to give you a tip, Kazane is an Adaptive, I don't know what she can exactly do, but it's something to do with changes to her body's...makeup, I honestly have no idea what she's doing though." Kiss explained to his friend in a positive manner.
"I'll keep those in mind. This is all still so… surprising." Mikado sighed deeply, a subtle look of frustration on his face before it relaxed back to the usual tired look, "What I found weird was the fact if someone so much as brushes against Kawaguchi's posterior they flinch… like some kind of fight or flight reaction kicks off in their heads."
Kiss couldn't help but give an off putting open lip smile. "That's… interesting. I've never heard of a reaction like that wasn't from a higher class player just touching a lower class player… It must be an ability that hasn't ever been used in the proscene yet… this might one of those latest generation types…."
"What?" Mikado muttered, tilting his head in slight confusion.
"Around every other year or so, different types are found, most are just varying degrees of an already existent type or the rare case of a different combination between primary and secondary ability, but there is always the chance of a new ability entirely having been discovered on a public level. Meta-types aren't cataloged like beings you'd find in a manga series about superhumans or something, so it's more about recording the data after it's been found and if you have a client that's carrying a brand jiggling new type, you might have the edge against the rest of the course. In the sense of how your Metalogy project will be absolutely easy, and in the slight advantageous drawback that you won't have much of an idea on how to train her power."Kiss continued to explain, excitement and intrigue building in his voice.
"So basically I've been handed a Joker among the deck of cards this year eh?" Mikado hummed, leaning back again, putting his arms behind his head as he stared at the ceiling, "Ain't that convenient."
"Pretty convenient… but that's if you're viewing it without how rigorous the process will be. You'll see what kind of winning hand I have by the end of this, I assure you. " Kiss taunted, leaning towards Mikado only for Masumi to pull him back with an amount of strength unassumed for how slender and curvy they were.
"Now's not the time to be getting competitive Kiss-kun… Let Ryugu-kun figure himself out first…. We might have Aoi-chan here to heal him, but I don't think she needs to have long lasting trauma out of your antics' results." Masumi stated, clicking their tongue like a scolding parent, "After all you did drop what he thinks is the biggest of bombs you could on the poor thing in class today. With the state Ryugu-kun was in, I'm surprised he wasn't frothing at the mouth!"
"Now I can't tell if you're on my side or making fun of me." Mikado murmured, Masumi chuckling at the quip.
"Ever the sarcastic one aren't you? Were you like this in high school, or is the deadpan snarker role a new thing for you, Ryugu-kun?" Masumi hummed, Mikado tilting his head with a raised brow yet again.
"To be fully honest, Masumi-chan. That was my role, though I personally don't like social role labels. But whenever did my personal tastes have long term meaning anyway.." Kiss muttered to himself, standing up to get more bottles from the temperature preserving bag.
"Ohhh? So then how would you have described Ryugu-kun back then, eh Kiss-kun?" Masumi hummed, Mikado sighing.'
"I haven't even been out of high school for more than a year, don't have to phrase it like Isozaki and I have just seen each other again after a couple decades. Granted I only met the guy after he moved to Kyoto from whatever town he's from… Morioh, or something." Mikado hummed, leaning on his free hand as he pondered over it.
Kiss handed Masumi another "Elephant Pink lemonade", and Mikado another "King's Blood Fruit Blend", grabbing another "Peach Passion Queen" for himself. "Morioh-cho, Walls eyes and all. But I haven't been their since Kuzma-Onii left me alone with those bastards that refused to even acknowledge I existed. I'm lucky Kaori took me in I guess, still don't know if the passion she gave me is a blessing or a curse sometimes… but whatever I guess, thinking about it won't solve anything."
"You'd be surprised when a good while of self reflection can do." Mikado murmured, then showing a tenseness in the way his hand suddenly flexed, "Not that I can say much about that myself."
"Hey Ryugu! You coming over here to do it with me or not!?" The door swung open, revealing Makina in green with orange lining one piece swimsuit and a sports jacket, Mikado tilting his head towards Makina as he adjusted himself on the couch.
"That needs context." Mikado responded, stretching his arms at the meanwhile.
The others just stayed quiet, Kiss and Masumi giving thumbs up as they laid back and continued to drink as Makina just gave a confident, wide smile, sauntering ever closer to Mikado. "Ryugu, It gets boring when I do it alone nowadays… I wanna go a few rounds with you there. So you gonna just sit there, because you're my agent right? A green haired pixie told me you were assigned to watch me do it and even keep records of it, so don't go trying to weasel your way out of it!"
"I'm gonna ask for context again because I feel like you're insinuating one thing over another. I can guess but I don't find anything satisfactory in blowing the gambit ahead of time." Mikado shifted so as to move from being under Makina's gaze, sitting upright and adjusting his track jersey a bit, "So, care to tell me exactly what you mean behind those ambiguous phrases perchance?"
Makina leaned over Mikado, resting an arm on the couch to add to her presence of confidence. "Well arentcha just a stick in the mud. I was going to do some after hours training, and just because I think you're a sexy bastard and my ass is a little horny at the moment, I could just find some fun jerking you around my butt… but you made that gate close up in exasperation. So, you gonna come with me and get data on me while I do my usual routine or just sit here being a cold blooded pile of snark?"
"See… the problem with that line of thinking is I'm not the type to jump into that sort of thing. I won't just screw someone I barely know, that's wrong." Mikado said, sighing in an equally exasperated manner, "I will watch training though. It is kind of an assignment and something I planned to do anyway Kawaguchi."
"You're just a stick in the mud, aren't you." Makina objected, slumping into her perch, her left knee resting on the couch cushion next to the redhead as she groaned in annoyance, Mikado sighing.
"How the hell am I being a stick in the mud? I just replied that I wouldn't sleep with you because I barely know you!" Mikado replied, stretching his arms again and shifting his stiff left leg a bit. "Let's… not get into that… I can see that getting messy. And we're training to be professionals… sometimes you gotta be a little rigid."
"Well then Mr. By-the-book, what do I have to say to get you to cooperate?"
"It's not by the book, it's knowing when and where to apply things. And… I'unno, maybe just ask me nicely to watch and/or help you train rather than framing it with innuendo." MIkado responded, tugging at a bit of his hair, Makina sighing.
"I do not understand you one bit."
"Kawaguchi, Mikado's not going to act like the other guys. Maybe you should find out what he likes?" Kiss teased, moving over to the other end with Masumi and Aoi.
Makina got to her bare feet again, taking a deep breath and then letting out a slight chuckle as she exhaled, looking towards to Kiss briefly. Before looking directly into Mikado's eyes" Oh shut-up butt prince… Well Ryugu-san, would you perhaps like to join me outside and help me get some progress with my training, maybe we can make this a regular thing?"
"Don't have to use "san", in fact, ditch the honorifics with me, please. I'm not some bulwark person in a business to be overcome. I'm meant to be a helpful ally, right? So yes, I'll watch your training and make it a consistent thing. I'd at least suggest lightening up with the attitude. Wouldn't want your fellow trainees ganging up to knock you out of the running." Mikado pocketed his hands as he walked off, Makina clicking her tongue and rushing ahead to take the lead, Masumi humming as they watched the two leave.
"I wonder if Ryugu-kun was always like this… Kiss-kun?" Masumi inquired, glancing at Kiss as he refrained from watching the previous scene, "Ryugu-kun did tell us a bit, but he never gave any hints as to his personality. Has he always been so tightly wound?"
Kiss took off his glasses and loosened his scarf to where it sagged off his frame. Revealing a golden ornate arrowhead attached to a choker at the base of his neck. "The Mikado I used to know was someone I at least understood, if you could call the overly kind captain of an all-star high school team quick to understand. His left leg got broken in a..car accident I think, but the point is that ever since it happened his leg was never the same. So, after trying to brute force it after the direct injury healed, he could never be the same as he used to be, and when everyone I could recall tried to help him through it emotionally… he changed, he didn't want to be told he could do other things. He was always stubborn but I guess it just grew into the bitter and jagged core of his personality… He used to be a lot more fun to talk to back then at least, now I feel like nothing I do actually reaches him anymore… but what am I supposed to do? What the hell am I supposed to do about this?"
Kiss went quiet as his explanation cracked into an emotional episode. The Regalia-bound agent briefly sulked, staring at the ground before looking at the other two with a smile. "Well enough of that. Hishikawa, I'm curious.. Wanna tell Masumi-chan and I about some of your past… endeavors, maybe even some about the direct applications you've learned and done over the years?"
Masumi placed a hand on Kiss' shoulder. "Isozaki-san. Let me do what i can to help.. Smooth out things between you and Ryugu-kun. Aoi-chan would love to help you two sort things out."
Aoi gave a helping smile, the leather cushion her rear was on becoming fresher than it was as at the period of creation. "Isozaki-san. Let us help you out...Also I wanted you guys to give me some ideas on how to use this gift of mine."
Kiss gave a slight smile. "..Thanks.. And I'd gladly help you figure out ways to make use of that very.. Special power of your's Hishikawa."
Aoi got to her feet, in a single effortless motion unclasping her belt, her signature drawn feather patterned pants sagging around her curvy waist. Masumi and Kiss smiling like the most fortunate people in the world as Aoi regaled them with her confidentiality respected tales of sex and healing before eventually getting herself and her usual partners riled up for a demonstration on recently broken things.
A/N
Seiker: Well, that ended on a heavy note.
Axor: A heavy note and a very vigorous 'demonstration' threesome, maybe.. I think. But that's not important right now. To give some insight on the matter, what Kiss is saying is his opinion, not absolute fact. It's sad that I have to mention that… but anyway. Makina! Mention what you like about her.
Seiker: Plenty of room for development and amusing ideas behind all of it. BUUUT that's spoilers so can't say much more beyond that.
Axor: Yeah…. Well that doesn't just apply to Mikado (You were only talking about Mikado right?), Kiss has a lot of room to grow.. And we got powers to eventually reflect that too, Jojo's style!
Seiker: I was talking about Makina in this context. And course it doesn't just apply to one character, I'm not so insane as to do that.
Axor: I still have to check you about it. I would be a bad friend if i didn't make sure you don't go over the deep end like you have in other works. But anyway, everyone reading hope you enjoyed the beginning of this long journey, remember to review with legit thoughts to give!