Martelle recovered shortly after our second encounter with Pure Veins. All she did was go home and, when we met up the next day, she was completely fine, with all of her wounds gone. We met up at a bus terminal after I said goodbye to Grandma Shadow. There were a few teenagers our age talking to each other around the terminal. We were early: the bus that would take us to our province’s Hero College wouldn’t arrive until about 2 hours. We chatted in the meantime. She was wearing the same clothes as always, while I was wearing a plain black sweater, dark grey trousers and, as always, brown gloves, a hood and a scarf.

“So… Excited?” she said. She was gripping the armrests on her seat.

“Yeah,” I said. “Looks like you are, too.”

She tried to do her usual wide grin, but let out a pained grunt instead.

“I’m still hurt from yesterday’s battle,” she said, looking down at the ground.

“You certainly don’t look like it,” I said. “How come your wounds heal so quickly? The pain in my back from our first training session didn’t go away for 5 days.”

“Oh, my parents are crazy rich. They can pay for ridiculously good healthcare,” she said. “They bought me my hammer thingy too.”

Makes sense, I thought. That explains the wad of cash she paid to the grocery store cashier…

“That’s nice,” I said. “But why didn’t your parents pay for your hero education, then? You could’ve skipped the entry process entirely.”

“Well…” She put her finger on her temple. “My parents said I should get in on my own merit. Plus it gives me a chance meet new people during the entry process, so...”

“Ah, I get it,” I said. “You want to pick up girls that do well during the strength test, right?”

“Hey! That’s just a side benefit…” She crossed her arms and looked away from me.

“That’s what I thought!” I said.

After a few minutes of conversation, more and more people started to arrive at the bus terminal. All of the seats were occupied, so most people were standing around with their backpacks and their luggage talking to their friends.

“By the way… Are we going to discuss what happened yesterday?” she said. “That weird new power of yours?”

“We’ve discussed it plenty already,” I replied. “No, I don’t know what happened, and no, no matter how many times you hit me with your hammer, I can’t replicate it.”

“Don’t they have fullscanners in Hero College?” she said. “Maybe we can determine what the hell your powers are supposed to be that way. Those things are state of the art, they cost more than a house!”

“Hopefully…” I said. I wonder if those machines can scan shadow people… I thought to myself.

We kept chatting until the bus arrived. Luckily, we were close to the terminal’s entrance, so we were among the first to get on the bus. It was an enormous triple-decker, and we manage to get a seat at the front of the second deck. Everyone got on the bus and it began its route towards the Hero College campus.

“Woah… There’s absolutely nothing in this entire stretch of land besides the road?” Martelle said, leaning forwards in her seat.

“Seems so. There’s golden mountains lined up in the distance, so this road is probably kept hidden from people not related to the college,” I said.

“Well, yeah, I figured that much, but there isn’t even any signage! And the entire area around the road is completely barren, save for the golden grass…” she said. “Say… You know how there’s grass smoothies? What happens if you put golden grass in a smoothie?”

“Metal poisoning,” I said. “Those things aren’t pure gold.”

“Shit, you’re right,” she said.

It was a long bus ride. I frequently looked at the seats behind us to see what powers other students had. There was one applicant who could generate food and drinks from his hands, and he was passing that along to everyone. That wouldn’t really be useful in a fight, but maybe in a support role. There was another applicant who hung upside down from the roof and didn’t sleep at night. He looked strange, with dark purple skin and big, green eyes. He was wearing a red jumpsuit and was completely bald. I felt as if he was staring at me during the entire ride. Besides them, I didn’t notice anyone who was particularly interesting, but I did see a few species that aren’t present where I’m from, like beastpeople. Martelle slept through most of the ride. I was too nervous and excited to sleep.

I had no biological need to urinate or defecate, but I went to the bathroom to grab some paper towels for Martelle, who had spilled her energy drink all over her lap. I walked downstairs to the first deck and up to the bathroom door. The door marked that it was unoccupied, but I heard weird sounds emanating from behind the door. I knocked, but nobody answered, so I went in.

There, hunched over and fishing in the toilet with her hands, was a beetle person. She had wings, an elytra, four arms, her body was a dark brown, long horns… There was no doubt that this was a dung beetle. The only thing separating her from being a giant beetle was a human face, with her horns being more like a headpiece. When she saw me, she was mortified. I was shocked as well.

“W-Wait, it’s not what it looks like!” the beetle girl said, shaking and stammering. She backed away from the toilet and held a pair of her hands above her head.

“I-I hope so!” I said, also flustered. “I-I just came here to get some paper towels, you can k-keep doing whatever you were doing before I came in!”

I quickly pulled out a large batch of paper towels, closed the door and walked away. I saw the door get marked as occupied as soon as I closed it. As I was walking out of the bathroom, someone sitting right beside it greeted me…

“Yo, D!” he said. The voice sounded familiar. I turned around and saw Sitch, one of the school bullies from back when I made my first save.

“S-Sitch?!” I said, as my whole body tensed up. I nearly dropped the paper towels.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt you. I just wanna talk. Sit next to me for a bit, the seat’s empty. I don’t think that weird beetle girl is gonna come out of the bathroom anytime soon.”

“Alright…”

Sitch, like most people with fire powers, had dark maroon hair. He was wearing a blue jacket and black track pants. He looked well built. I didn’t have a libido, but he fit the average definition of “handsome”. I sat down next to him.

“I’ve made a lot of changes since you spooked me 6 months ago,” he said, looking forwards. “That was my first time bullying kids, and I never did it again. It didn’t feel right.”

“That’s-That’s good,” I said.

“I decided to become a hero as a sort of atonement, I suppose,” he said. He turned to look at me. “What are your powers, anyways? I mean your real powers.”

Truth be told, I had no idea what to call my powers at the time. I also didn’t want to disappoint him by saying all I could do was generate tentacles when I was in danger, so I made something up on the spot.

“A-Antimatter manipulation,” I said. That was a big lie.

“Wow. So I guess most of the rumours were true, then,” he said.

“Well, yes, but I can’t make hell portals or anything like that,” I said.

“I can’t wait to see your powers in action during the strength examination,” he said. “I’m curious. Hope you check out mine, too. It’s not just simple fire manipulation.” He snapped his fingers, generating a small flame, which extinguished itself after a few seconds.

“Y-Yeah, can’t wait,” I said. I really hated the way my body shook. “A-Alright, see you later, I’m off to hand these paper towels to my friend.”

“See ya,” he said, pointing his index and middle fingers to his forehead.

I walked back upstairs and sat down in my seat. I handed the paper towels over to Martelle and told her about my encounters with the beetle girl and Sitch while she cleaned her lap.

“You have the worst luck in the world,” she said, putting her arm around my shoulder. “This is gonna be an interesting year…”

I didn’t leave my seat for the rest of the ride. We left at 5 PM and arrived at 8 AM. The massive fortifications of the Hero College crept up in the horizon, and so did the HC crest: a blue shield with a golden outline and the letters HC with serifs. I woke up Martelle and she immediately sprung up and yelled in excitement. I heard many people in the back do so as well.

We’re finally here.