Chapter 32 School Days

“Ignorance is bliss.”

Thirty centimetres, taking in effect sixty centimetres from his body.

That was how thick the effect Aiden’s cleaver had. Anything that approached or left Aiden in a linear direction would not be able to move in those thirty centimetres. It was not a continuous effect all the way to his body, sixty centimetres, or a little over half a metre, directly from where he stood, all things could still move normally, and the effect began in the thirty centimetres directly after that.

That meant a person standing directly next to Aiden would not be affected by the cleaver. The ability covered Aiden much like a donut, covering all directions, but leaving an empty space at the centre. Ceasing in effect when the object in motion left the thirty centimetres or travelled in a way that was not directly moving to or from Aiden.

The determination of what was moving towards or away Aiden seemed to be determined by that sixty centimetre unaffected circle, where if a movement, if elongated to a straight line both ways would intersect with that circle, that would be considered moving towards or away.

Ranpo was able to escape the ability by simply moving in a way where his ‘line’ would never directly intersect with Aiden’s circle, and he was even able to directly enter the unaffected zone by moving in a circle around Aiden, slowly closing in until he was able to enter the unaffected circle. The logic here, they determined, was that the ability didn’t count moving objects with their entire width, but only as a singular point at the centre of the object in its range.

If that point was elongated and touched the unaffected circle, it would count as moving towards, but if it didn’t, then the ability didn’t affect the object. Which meant that Ranpo could move directly next to the unaffected circle, letting his line be tangential to the centre circle, and close in by circling around Aiden until one of his legs were within the unaffected zone. So long as that line at the centre of his body didn’t touch the circle, Ranpo could get a little under half his body into the unaffected zone, where the ability would no longer function on him, allowing him to haul the rest of his body into that centre circle.

But otherwise, the cleaver affected everything. Even projectiles that Aiden himself threw, which wildly limited his range options unless he deactivated the cleaver. Good news though, was that it did not affect Aiden himself in the slightest, and neither was anything directly attached to him. He could still move freely and the ability zone would follow him, not to mention his serpent/tentacle arm could move within the affected zone, but was affected once he removed it from himself.

So long as the cleaver was in contact with Aiden’s flesh, it could be activated, timing the Hume expenditure on Oro’s scales for about a minute, then multiplying the remainder of the rest of Oro’s length, got them about an hour total where Aiden could use it, not counting his Hume recharging or him spending it on anything else.

That was all that they determined through a night of testing.

“Could you try reabsorbing it to confirm if the memory is accurate to the ability?” Ranpo asked.

Aiden frowned slightly, “I’m not sure. I made it under a… very weird circumstance, I don’t know the specifics of what happened, but I’m not sure I would have the Hume to remake this thing if I reabsorbed it.”

“Don’t you get a one-to-one Hume return?”

Aiden nodded, “But I don’t know what happens yet if I overcharge, would the Hume be lost or would I gain a temporary overcharge?”

“We can test this easily,” Ranpo remarked.

Aiden nodded again, and briefly on his face flashed fur and teeth. A wolf of some kind, before he shrunk the tattoo and moved it down his body, hidden beneath his clothes. Oro’s body was turned dark by another eighth, in addition to the costs they’ve incurred by testing the cleaver.

Aiden stared at it, at the black scales and strange colourful plants that covered half of Oro’s body.

Then the eighth returned, the scales turning white once again.

“Double,” Aiden muttered. “That was the Hume increase I got.”

Ranpo stared at the serpent, “What Hume increase?”

“Last time I made a dire wolf, it cost me a quarter of my Hume, now it’s only an eighth.”

“Yeah, but I’m asking how you got it,” Ranpo asked, “is this related to the ‘very weird circumstance’ you mentioned?”

Aiden nodded, remaking the wolf tattoo to be tested later, “Yeah, I think I went through a Defining Moment, like what Isaac was talking about, but it wasn’t what I expected. I met a

(-)

Aiden wobbled, grabbing his head as Ranpo rushed to him, his voice stopped as if interrupted, the sentence he was speaking, left Incomplete.

Aiden felt pain in his head, and he tried to recall that moment, it came to his mind with perfect clarity, and he opened his mouth, “I saw

(-)

Once again, he could not complete his sentence, as if it were Aborted half-way, and the throbbing in his head increased.

Slowly, he tested his tongue, “It was a Defining Moment.”

That could be spoken.

“I saw myself being laid bare.”

Safe to be spoken.

“And I met

(-)

“Aiden! You’re bleeding!” Ranpo yelled in a panic.

Aiden reached up to his nose, where he felt a warm liquid escaping them and dripping into his mouth. Wiping it, he found blood on his fingers.

He could not speak of the one who called himself a God.

“I can’t

(-)

He could not even say, ‘I can’t speak of it.’

“Goddamnit,” Aiden muttered, before he fell to the ground.

A few tense minutes later, with Ranpo circling Aiden’s unconscious body, debating whether or not he should try to call an ambulance, did his eyes flutter open again.

He pushed himself up, groggy in his movement, dried blood still on his nose.

“What the fuck was that?” Ranpo swore.

Aiden’s eyes fluttered around, he licked his dry mouth, waiting a moment to gather himself before testing his voice, “... You know there are abilities which affect the spreading of information…”

Safe to say.

“Are you saying you are affected by one?”

“I…” he hesitated, letting the word linger, before he uttered, “... am.”

That too, was safe to say.

He understood why Isaac spoke of a Defining Moment, but not of the strange, incomplete God.

He could not refer to it. So he did not speak of it.

Ranpo angrily flapped his wings through the morning sun, feeling the wind course through his feathers.

He needed to think, and he did so best when flying.

Aiden knew something, and he could not tell him, without getting physically harmed just in attempting to do so.

And Ranpo could do nothing to help.

He was, in the end, just a crow.

A crow that could turn 2D, but in a world where people could juggle trucks and tank missiles with their face, there was nothing special about it.

He landed on the roof of the apartment complex they lived in, grooming his feathers as he saw the sun rise.

Around him, he heard the sounds of flapping wings.

Ranpo angrily shook his head, “I’ll get you your damn grapes!”

One of the crows, one missing a leg and scarred in one eye, cawed, (You better you motherfucker!)

The remaining crows cawed in agreement.

(Yeah! We know where you live! We ain’t afraid to fuck shit up!)

Ranpo let them caw, staying silent and still, until he finally asked.

“Is that all there is to your life?”

“Just living?” he cut, “No greater purpose, just scrounging from one day to the next. Forgotten as easily as the dust you stand on?”

“Why? I don’t understand. What is the point of living a small life?”

Ranpo asked the crows, he asked Aiden, he asked the world, and most importantly, he asked himself.

“Why can’t we be greater than this?”

The one-legged and one-eyed crow looked at him.

(Can greatness be eaten?)

Ranpo shook his head, “No, of course not-”

The older crow cawed, (Then greatness is not what we need. Only what you want.)

“You aren’t getting my-”

Suddenly, something hard fell from the sky, bouncing off the hard concrete building between them, and rolling slowly to a stop, right where everyone could see it.

It was a peanut.

“What the fuck?” Ranpo asked as he, and every other crow looked up.

Above head, there was a massive cloud that covered the sun. The cloud was… light brown, almost the same colour as a-

“Peanut.”

And peanuts fell from the sky.

The crows around him cawed in celebration, before one-eye poked one and started directing them to shelter. A crow was too slow and got bonked on the head by a peanut, but was able to shake it off.

Ranpo couldn’t follow them, as peanuts suddenly began crashing down all around him, he panickedly dodged, spurting expletives as he jumped off the edge and flew past the myriad balconies of the apartment complex. The sound of peanuts rattling on the ground was deafening, as he finally sighted the balcony he was heading to.

Aiden was outside, tentacle arm holding a bucket over his head to catch the peanuts, as his free hand was already cracking open a shell to eat.

“AIDEN WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!?” Ranpo yelled as he flew through the door and crashed, rolling into a heap as peanuts continued to fall.

“It’s raining peanuts!” Aiden yelled in response, the bucket above his head rattling with noise as it collected peanuts.

“WHY THE FUCK IS IT RAINING PEANUTS!?”

“I dunno!” Aiden in response, the extremely loud sound of peanuts almost drowning out his voice, “Just happens from time to time!”

He held out a handful of peanuts towards him, “Anyways! This is our breakfast now!”

“Those things are edible?”

“Of course, they’re peanuts,” Aiden answered matter of factly.

“How are you so used to this!”

Aiden paused, frowning as he mentally inspected his mind, “It seems like Bu was used to this, and I inherited his habits.”

“I need to get some of those Bu memories,” Ranpo muttered. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the only normal one.”

“I am perfectly normal,” said the transmigrator with a tattoo tentacle for an arm, collecting raining peanuts with a bucket for food. “Want some?”

“Sure,” Ranpo sighed, grabbing a peanut with his beak.

“But what about getting to your school?” Ranpo asked, “I’m pretty sure your umbrellas aren’t built for peanut weather.”

Aiden nodded, “They would get shredded in this weather. My normal umbrellas won’t cut it.”

They looked outside, the shadow of the shattered moon was covered by the peanut cloud, and the frequency of the ‘rain’ matched that of a downpour.

“They’re all coming down in a linear direction right?” Aiden asked.

“Unless gravity suddenly started to function differently, then yes, they are all falling to the ground.”

Aiden stepped back into the house, putting down his full bucket of peanuts, before taking out the deformed cleaver.

He stepped out, and the peanuts stopped falling less than a metre away from his head.

“You said names were important didn’t you?”

“I didn’t, but I understand why you would attribute such wisdom to me,” Ranpo replied.

Aiden spun the cleaver in his hand, “In that case, I’ll call this my Umbrella.”

For it was a safe haven from the rain.

“That is a terrible name,” Ranpo remarked.

JunMoon: holy sht its raining pnuts!

WrenWood: I don’t have a peanut umbrella

( ; ω ; )

JunMoon: can dogs eat pnuts @Aiden1507 ?

Aiden1507: Yes, dogs can eat peanuts safely, but they contain high levels of fat which the dog may have problems digesting, and isn’t healthy in the long term. So don’t let Fluffy eat too much.

JunMoon: how much is too much?

AspiringTubaSquire: PEANUTS! MY ONLY WEAKNESS!

WrenWood: Josh are you ok?

AspiringTubaSquire: The dastardly flying missiles struck my face! The peanut poison has entered my veins, I fear I only have seconds to live!

AspiringTubaSquire: Oh wait, mom found my epipen.

Aiden1507: How much did Fluffy eat already?

JunMoon: she got to em too fast! I cldn’t stop her chief!

WrenWood: Is fluffy ok?

(ﾉД`)

Aiden1507: Tell me the number Jun.

JunMoon: mre thn a handful

Aiden1507 is typing…

WrenWood: ＼(º □ º l|l)/

JunMoon: Will she live doc!?

Aiden1507 is typing…

AspiringTubaSquire: The suspense is killing me!

WrenWood: You sure it's not the peanuts killing you?

（○´艸｀）

Aiden1507 is typing…

JunMoon: Type faster!

WrenWood: Doesn’t Aiden only have one hand? Sorry about them, please take your time

(シ_ _)シ

Aiden1507 is typing…

JunMoon: Fluffy’s life is on the line!

Aiden1507: Almost certainly. Make sure she doesn’t eat anymore, expect an upset stomach and some diarrhea and vomiting at the worst. Restrict nuts from her diet, especially processed ones, as they tend to have an unhealthy amount of sugar and sodium for a dog. The raw peanuts that are raining down right now are mostly fine, they’re still full of proteins, carbs and minerals, so it isn’t that much to worry about. Still, dogs are facultative carnivores, and it’s likely she’s gone over her limit for saturated farts.

Aiden1507: Fats*

WrenWood: Heh, farts.

（○´艸｀）

JunMoon: I am nvr gonna eat pnuts again!

AspiringTubaSquire: I hear you sister!

JunMoon: Actually, it’s bro now

JunMoon: Wait

JunMoon changed their nickname to SolJun

SolJun: Better!

DarKing: Ayyyy

AspiringTubaSquires: The Bois!

SolJun: THE BOIS!

DarKing: THE BOISSSSS!

WrenWood: Darius! (°▽°)/

Are you on the way?

DarKing: Trying to wake Luth up, if worse comes I’ll just spend another can

SolJun: Aren’t you restricted to only one summon per person every day?

DarKing: That is why I am trying very hard to wake him up

WrenWood: I’ll wait for you guys

(￣ー￣)ゞ

SolJun: Well I met up with Aiden already, he said if you guys can’t make it, then be late suckers!

Aiden1507: That is not what I said.

SolJun: I can personally vouch for the authenticity of my statement

WrenWood: Aiden keeps adding full stops… scary~~

(ノωヽ)

AspiringTubaSquire: I shall soon be on the school grounds!

Aiden1507: Be sure to arrive on time, the Principal General is patrolling the area.

…

…

…

SolJun: Holy shit, did you hear there was a fight amongst the teachers last night?

They found their Visual Design teacher, Mr Grian, Mr, because Aiden refused to call him anything else out of habit and principle, feeling the wall as he walked.

The walking cane they saw him use yesterday was nowhere to be found.

“What happened to your cane, teacher?”

Grian perked up towards the sound, one ear turning towards Jun, “Ah, one of my students? I’m afraid I don’t recognise your voice.”

“It’s Jun.”

“I see, fascinating. Well, what happened to my cane was that I broke it in a minor scuffle last night.”

“You were in a fight, Grian?” Jun asked. “Can you even fight with your…” he gestured vaguely at the teacher’s pure black shades, before remembering he could not see at all. “Your eyes.”

“Ah, I used to, even had a pretty good power as well.”

“What was it?” Jun asked, curiosity peaking.

Grian pulled down his shades, revealing milky white eyes with numerous scars running through them, “Back in the day, whenever someone looked into my eyes, they would get trapped in a 2D painting, unfortunately, after I got blinded it stopped working.”

The blind man shrugged, “At least I got a decent pension out of it.”

“Couldn’t have gotten it healed?” Aiden asked, eyes narrowing.

Grian shrugged, “Not covered, they need a specialist healer which they can’t afford to use on grunts like me, all I got was a cushy retirement teaching kids.”

“Then you’ll have to pay for healing out of your own pocket?” Aiden continued.

Grian nodded, “Unfortunate truth of the military, our few healer metahumans are overworked to hell already, and commercial ones charge an arm and a leg, they end up forced to choose who to save and fix.”

Under his breath, he muttered, “Even if we want to save everyone.”

“Back to the fight,” Jun said, “who were you fighting?”

Grian shrugged, “Some of the teachers had a minor disagreement, it was nothing. Though keep it quiet, I don’t want people thinking the teaching faculty is fractured.”

They ended up helping Grian to his next class, before they parted ways to each of their own separate classes.

By period two, the rumours of a fight between the teachers had spiralled to the point where people were claiming Demons were summoned and the Principal General had killed and ate an entire kaiju. Why did he eat it? Because how else would you explain the lack of a kaiju corpse?

Period three, their homeroom’s first Self Defense class.

Unlike their electives and other core subjects, where the homeroom was split depending on their timetable and subjects, Self Defense was the only class where 10B in its entirety was present and instructed to head to the gym.

What they found at the gym was a grinning, athletic woman in sportswear. She appeared young, almost too young to be teaching the class, probably still in her early twenties.

She cheerfully waved at them as they streamed in, already having changed into their gym clothes.

“Hello hello!” the woman greeted, “I’m Trist Brake, your SD teacher, but please call me Trist, I don’t wanna sound too old.”

Some waves back, a few muttered greetings.

Aiden, Jun and Darius were all in this class. He hadn’t had a chance to really talk to the other students though, they kept to their own cliques.

“Now let’s quickly get started. Tell me, do you think you are weak or strong? Group yourselves on my left if you think you are strong, right side if you think you are weak.”

A pause, Aiden slowly shuffled to the weak side, noticing Jun glancing at him with a disbelieving look on her face. Darius slapped his back, smiling as they both settled in the ‘weak’ group.

Undoubtedly the smaller group, there were only five total students including the two of them. Whereas the remaining fifteen went to the other group.

“Bout what I expected,” Trist murmured. “Well! I’ll teach you all Rule One!”

She gestured to the ‘strong’ group, “Rule One: You are weaker than you think.”

She gestured to the ‘weak’ group, “Rule One: You are stronger than you think.”

One of the boys in the ‘strong’ group frowned, “Miss, with all due respect that doesn’t make a lotta sense.”

Trist turned to him, head tilting slightly, “Vince is it?”

“That’s my name.”

Trist smiled, “Right, get down and give me twenty push ups for talking back.”

“Uh- what?”

She tsked in chiding way, “That’s an extra ten pushups for hesitating.”

“But-”

“Another ten.”

Slowly, the boy called Vince got down, and started doing push ups.

“Took you a while,” Trist said, “I think I see the problem, none of you trust me enough to immediately follow through on an order. This is a problem, this is a big problem indeed. Must be a problem with my qualifications.”

She seemed to think, tapping her foot as Vince grunted in exertion. “How about this! Since this is 10B, I assume most of you are kids from Geneline families, probably powerful ones if you’re here in M.I.A. I bet you’re your family’s pride and joy.”

“Of course some of us are,” another boy interrupted.

Trist’s head seemed to jerk to him, all the while that bright smile was unrelenting plastered on her face.

“You’re Hyde correct?”

“As anyone with half a brain should know,” he replied smugly.

“And the person next to you, Jun is it?”

“Ermyeah?” Jun nervously answered.

“Jun, slap Hyde in the mouth for interrupting.”

Jun’s hand blurred, immediately slapping Hyde on the face with a smack that rang through the gym.

“Now, Hyde, get down and do twenty push ups for getting slapped.”

“But you told her to slap me!” Hyde pointed out, massaging his jaw.

“I did,” she replied with her smile, “and if I also told you to take it, then you would be getting a ‘good job’ and a pat on the back. But you didn’t dodge a hit flying straight for your face, that doesn’t fly here, especially in a Defence course.”

Slowly, the boy named Hyde also got down to do push ups, though his eyes continued to stare angrily at the teacher.

“Now! As I was saying, it seems like you don’t quite understand where you are. I’ll explain for those of you that are a bit slow. This is the first year of the Senior Self Defence Course, you may expect some slight changes to your usual fare, for one, while you are under my care, I expect absolute obedience.”

“You may ask why I am so strict? Well, that is because most of you are inexperienced idiots. You might have a few scuffles under your belt, but most of you don’t yet understand the difference in a real battle. What happens when multiple combatants are driven to absolute desperation to stay alive for a single, measly second longer. Some of you might have lost, but few of you have truly lost. Even worse, some of you are also delusional enough to think what I’m saying doesn’t at all apply to you. That you’re a true warrior in every way, so you start to believe what I’m saying isn’t worth your time.”

She clapped her hands, “So let us address such concerns. We’ll establish right now, here and now, who the authority on what a true warrior is.”

By now, Vince had finished, breathing hard as he got into a sitting position.

“We’ll play a game, you only need to knock me down onto the ground once, you may use the full extent of your ability, every single trick you have available, you may come at me in any number, whether by yourself or with a group. But so long as I also knock you onto the ground, you are out.”

She smiled, “Now, some of you might accuse me of bullying young students by abusing my position. To remove such fears, I’ll give you some advantages. I won’t use any Meta or Extended Techniques, since none of you know how to use one, I’ll keep it fair. Some might also say having more combat experience is an ‘unfair advantage’, so I’ll also tie one hand behind my back.”

“And finally, I’ll tell you my ability,” she gestured wide, “if you want to try me, step forward.”

A group of smarter people might wonder where her immense confidence came from. That their teacher, Trist Blake wouldn’t make such an offer if she couldn’t follow through on it.

Unfortunately, as Aiden looked around, he remembered he was surrounded by teenagers. Very likely, the lowest authority on intelligent decision. Heck, he suspected half of them have been waiting for an excuse to sock a teacher in the face.

So to their teacher’s widening smile, over half the class stepped forward.

“Then let me begin with the name, my ability is called Frame of Mind.”