Chapter 2
I don't deserve to escape
Classes weren't as boring as one would think for a person who had memories of having done it long ago. The lessons taught at the school were like a fresh spring washing away the grime of old memories, bringing his core skills to a more sturdy foundation. But of course, the history lessons were his favorite. Learning about how the giants of science or powered dictators changed the world's history would never cease to amaze him. From the Justice Society of America during WW2, to the more recent Justice League and their achievements, it was like learning about comic book stories in a history class, it wasn't too difficult to pay attention. When the storm outside didn't steal his attention, that is.
I'll have to go visit Neto after this. He should be alright, but it never hurts to check. He reminisced about all of the times the old man helped him survive in the streets, from teaching him safer routes, to how to waste as little as possible. Hell, he even gave Kira the location to his current spot after the last one got looted. "Nobahdy have been leeving here fór years, shood be good tchoo leeve in bai nau." He had said in his weird accent, Brazilian, he had said it was, as he showed him the old fire station. Old Neto was a more elderly homeless man that had all the tricks to not just live, but thrive on the streets. It wasn't really enough to help everyone, but it was enough for him.
"Proféshionals héve stendards, Kira."
"And what are you, a professional hobo?"
"Yes! Nau yoo gét eet!" He gives a deep belly laugh, the walls of the alley practically vibrating with his joy.
Kira grins at the memories of all the silly things the old man did just to make him laugh. Maybe another visit truly was in store.
"Mr. King! I'm glad learning about order of operations brings such a smile upon your face, so maybe you could answer number 5 on your worksheet?" Mr. Graham (or just Mr. G to most other students), his math teacher, asked out of the blue.
Kira snapped out of his reverie to look at the teacher, blink, and then back to the worksheet. "Hmm." He had a habit of doing all of the work on all worksheets and homework the moment that the lesson "clicked" in his mind, using past memories to pull the weight, and recent rediscoveries to patch the holes in his skills. "457, Mr. Graham, as per the correct order of operations." He gives his teacher a small smile.
"Tch, I'll get you one day, King." The teacher jokes, smirking at the placid student. He reaches under his desk and grabs a piece of candy his way.
Triumphantly, Kira catches the piece of hard candy out of the air. "Not likely, Mr. Graham." He smiles pleasantly.
Mr. G scoffs quietly in disbelief, but continues the lesson all the same. The rest of the day goes much the same way, with some easy end-of-year tests here and there, and not much really bothered Kira, except for Minerva's pestering during his last class.
"... Hey, psst, Kingsley, hey."
"..."
"Hey, Kingsley, King Kong, Killa Instinct, psst, kung fu, heyo."
"... Yes, Minerva?"
"Whaddya think I'd be if I was an animal?"
Their art assignment at the moment was to draw something that represented themselves, likely just something designed to pad out the curriculum. Kira already started to sketch a cat laying in the sun, head empty, no worries. To be a cat, such a life was a luxury no one could imagine… he wished he was a cat. Style, unmatched sass, and swagger uncontested and uncontrollable. He cleared his head of straying thoughts with a shake and focused on answering her question. The answer was obvious to him. Yes, it was perfect.
"A rat."
"... Y'know what, I'm not even offended, I can totally see it. Street rat, lab rat, or domestic?"
"Rich rat, like the one from Flushed Away." He nods to himself seriously. Honestly, his genius was unparalleled sometimes.
"Got it."
She got some weird looks from Ms. Cappitani, but overall, they were satisfied with their results. As they left the school he noticed that the freezing precipitation had finally let up. After seven hours. Seven hours too many. He thought bitterly.
"Hey Kingsley, you coming over for dinner today? No idea what Dad's making, but that's half the fun sometimes, hehe." She chuckled. Her dad was kinda wacky when it came to food, making something new or exotic every night. Usually it was delicious, but there were a few… miscalculations, sometimes. Never talk about the haggis, forget about it and burn the memories away.
"Sure. I gotta go visit Neto today though. That storm looked bad." He looked at the slowly draining streets, small marbles of ice moving with the currents like stars against the dark asphalt. "Is five alright?" He glanced back at her questioningly.
"Yeah, that should be good. Dad's getting quicker with his cooking these days." She nods, satisfied with being able to eat earlier every day.
A car pulls up to the driveway in front of the school. It was a newer Wayne Auto model that was released a year or so ago. He couldn't remember what was even new about it, just that it was newer than the rest. They were also promising an electric car, but that was almost two years ago too, and the investors were getting antsy. "Oh, there she is, see ya Kingsley! Don't forget dinner or I'll kill ya, byeeee!" She waves to Kira as she runs over to the car and climbs into the backseat. The woman driving the car noticed Kira and waved at him. She was basically a scaled up copy of Minerva, or vise versa, that is. Her longer black hair up in a ponytail, and green eyes were some of the only visible differences. He waved back with a smile. Mrs. Mauzer was a nice woman, although she had to work all of the time. Even now, he could see an earpiece in her ear, possibly listening in on an ongoing meeting.
As the car pulled away, he saw the license plate, "ZIPZAP". He chuckled, they always had the weirdest license plates on their cars. Kira trudged back around the school to put his backpack into the vent again, and thankfully, the vent was still dry enough for him to stash his belongings. He started the trek to the old man's alley to check on him. I gotta start thinking up something for Christmas. I can't just be receiving every time.
"News coming right from the site of Gotham's latest disaster, after supervillain Condiment King planted and ignited explosives around last night's Winter Gala, covering all of the guests in quick-drying tartar sauce…" Kira turned to the television on the other side of a shop window as the reporter squinted at something beyond the camera, then sighed. "What even is my job… Anyways, Condiment King then pilfered all of the jewelry on the guest's immobilized bodies, before getting the absolute shit beat out of him by two of our resident vigilantes, Nightwing and Robin." She said matter-of-factly. "Here's what the host of the gala, our very own Prince of Gotham, Bruce Wayne, had to say." Kira shook his head and walked away as the billionaire started saying some prideful platitudes about his two not-kids. If only they knew.
At this point, there were so many Bats in the city that they almost outnumbered the villains. Well, not really, but you get the point. The two Robins, one being of the Red variety, Batgirl changed every year, it seemed, Red Hood, Orphan, Bluebird, Batwing– there's a lot to pick from. It got so bad that they needed to start day patrols in the form of The Signal, Gotham's only daylight vigilante, since everyone started doing their crimes during day time to avoid the Bats. Of course, Kira knew most of them by name, and their origins by heart. He didn't dare write any of his memories regarding things he shouldn't know, though. Any code he thought of could easily be cracked by the geniuses on both sides, and he wasn't willing to risk it.
His journey continued through the mazes of badly planned streets and false dead-end alleys, until he reaches what looks to be a tarp-covered plywood tent, raised up on wooden pallets, just sitting at the end of an alleyway. Kira hears some singing coming from inside the tent, surprisingly pleasant for someone of his size. "O tic tic tic tac do meu coração, marca o compasso do meu grande amor~!" Old Man Neto was a big one, with a gray-brown beard reaching halfway down his chest ("Fór de leidees, Kira, they lóve de beard!") Wearing a surprisingly whole ugly Christmas sweater and cargo pants, which Kira learned had much practical use, evidenced by him wearing the same kind of pants. His hair situation was an unfortunate one, with his bald head being hidden by a large ushanka hat. He appeared to be cooking what looked like leftover rice and beans, with cut up hotdogs sprinkled in on a beat-up propane burner. The tent itself was several two by fours put roughly in a cubic shape on top of several wooden pallets in order to avoid flooding. It was surprisingly spacious for something so… patchworked. The floor was made with plywood panels, and there was a chair, a bedroll and a small table with the propane burner, as well as a large locked chest to keep his belongings.
"Hey Neto. Did you survive the storm alright? It was raining pretty bad." Kira quickly looked around for any sign of damage to the older man's "headquarters". It looked pretty solid, with only the wood being slightly darkened from dampness.
Neto quickly turned around and his broad smile brightened even more at the sight of his young pupil. "Ah, Eef eet eesn't de leidee keeler heemsélf!" He poked Kira on his chest. "Worried abóut me, eh?"
"No… Well, yes." He sighs. "Why did you have to teach Minerva how to be sassy? There didn't have to be two of you."
"Ha! Yoo complain all yoo want, but yoo wood not héve her any óther whey, eh?" Neto smirks knowingly at Kira.
"..." Kira looks away.
"Hahahahaha!" He laughs at Kira's embarrassment, but sets up a chair for him nonetheless. "Here, seet. Deed yoo already eat?"
"No, but I'm heading over to the Mauzer's house to have dinner later." He sits on the weathered beach chair. It was better than the alley ground, he supposed.
"Hmm, good." He turns back to his food, taking it off the heat and sitting by the table to start eating.
"She also… They invited me over for Christmas, to stay at their place from the twenty fourth to the twenty fifth."
"Really? Dat's grea-"
"I refused."
Neto looks up from his food to look at him, and speaks after a moment. "Why ees dat?"
Kira looked away again. "I was thinking about the people who don't get to celebrate and have to survive Christmas by freezing and being hungry… I don't deserve to just escape that."
Neto looks sadly at the child he's been helping all of this time, but this is a lesson he still had yet to teach. Being exposed to so much suffering on the streets for years didn't do him any good. The old man sighs heavily. "Yoo shood go."
"What? Why? Look, I don't need-"
"No. Yoo shood go. Yoo are young, yoo shood héve fun een de taime yoo héve." He shifts around to look Kira in the eyes. "Look, I weel bee going around, chécking on évryone fór Natal, yoo don't need tchoo worry abóut us, yeah?" He pats Kira's shoulder with a grin. "Nau go, I héve some stahff to do, and yoo need to go to eat, eh?" He gets up and unlocks a chest nearby and takes a tape player out. "I'll just reláx fór a beet ferst." He shoos Kira away. "Go, go. And tink abaut what I said."
Kira sighs and reluctantly gets up. "I'll see you later, Neto. Thanks for… well everything, I guess."
Neto shoots him some finger guns and starts fiddling with the tape player. As Kira starts to leave he hears what sounds like… anime openings, coming from behind him. The day I understand Brazilians is the day that all the secrets of the universe are revealed to man. He shakes his head and keeps walking out into the street. He glanced at the clocktower in the distance, and starts walking to his best friend's house. Maybe… maybe I can hope? Maybe this time won't be too bad? Maybe I could cut myself a little slack, just this time?
Author's Note: Ta daaaa! Second chapter, done. A bit more exposition, a reveal about when in the timeline he is, and a few more characters are mentioned. A warning, though, there's going to be a few crossover elements to this story, to be revealed later, going further than just Kira's power, although I don't intend to add any other stand users. If you don't like that... I'm sorry.
Look, I'm gonna be honest here, I'm not really sure about a schedule for uploading. I'm at a very busy time in my life, and I only started writing because of... New Year's resolutions, I guess. Or something similar. I just wanted to create something for once instead of just consuming. Chapter 3 will come out sometime this month, I think, but after that I can't really promise any hard dates. Thanks for reading this far though! See y'all next time.