Damn, is this really it? I thought to myself as I stared at the worn down building and the dreary brass letters affixed to its exterior labeling it as ‘Winslow High School.’ The obvious wear and tear on the building wasn’t any worse than my old school, at least from what little of its campus I could see from inside my cousin’s car, but I’d expected something... more, I guess, from a big city school. Also, probably less graffiti.

“This is a really, really stupid idea, Jake.”

“June,” I muttered, absently, as I examined a red and black tag in the form of an ‘E88.’ I vaguely recognized it from my attempts to research Brockton Bay after I found out I would be moving here, but there was only so much I could learn from the few times I could get to the library after Mom killed herself. I thought this one was related to nazis in some way, and I could still barely wrap my head around the idea that actual, real people in Brockton Bay still clung to nazi ideology in the 21st century. Madness.

“Jake...”

“Are you deaf or just dumb?” I said, finally turning to face my cousin, Masuyo, while studiously ignoring the frustration and hurt written plainly across her face. “My name is June.”

She seethed but said nothing. I shrugged, unbuckled my seatbelt, and opened the car door.

“June, please.” I turned back to look at her. Her hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly enough they shook, and she was giving me a grim look, her brown eyes looking haunted. “I know this is... important to you, but this isn’t New York. You don’t understand what Brockton Bay is like. The Empire, they might kill you over this.”

Why does she even care? I wondered. I wanted to ask her, but it was too awkward. We hadn’t met before I moved into her apartment on Saturday—she said we met once or twice when I was baby, but that doesn’t count as far as I’m concerned—and she hadn’t said then why she was taking me in either. If the Brockton Bay University memorabilia and nursing textbooks haphazardly strewn about her apartment were any indication, then she was in the middle of nursing school. She had to be under financial pressure from that, so why did she take me in when nobody else in the family did?

“I have to,” I lamely replied after the silence between us began to grow uncomfortable. I didn’t know how to say, Some things are worth dying for, but that sounded way too corny—I could never say it aloud.

She released a soft sigh and tucked an errant strand of black hair behind her ear as she reached down for her purse, her low tied hair slipping over her shoulder with the movement. After a moment of fumbling around, she pulled out a cell phone and held it out to me. When I stared at it incredulously and didn’t take it, she leaned over and shoved it at my chest. “It can only do the basics,” she explained as I finally took the cell phone. “Not a lot of data, sorry—can’t afford it. I have my night classes after work, which is why I can only drive you here today, so use that to look up the bus routes home after school. My number is in there too. I probably can’t answer calls, but if you text me, I’ll try to reply. The, uh, PRT number is in there too, if you run into any trouble.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I shoved it into the front pocket of my backpack. More students were starting to arrive, and I glanced at the dashboard’s clock. “Gotta go. Thanks for the ride and ominous warnings of my imminent death.”

Before Masuyo could reply to that, I slipped out the still open car door and threw it closed. I quickly stalked away from the car and slid into a mass of students departing from a nearby school bus. Unfortunately my plan to hide out of sight resulted, predictably if I was being honest, in me running into someone and causing them to stumble.

“Shit, sorry,” I groaned as I grabbed a hold of the girl before she could fall. Only once she was upright again did I notice she was wearing a black halter top with some kind of esoteric design made of criss crossing neon orange and green lines over a torn pair of denim shorts and purple tights, the latter matching a dyed streak in her hair. It was easily the most eclectic, loud outfit I had seen in some time, and I had absolutely no idea how she wasn’t cold, since it was an unseasonably cold, overcast day.

“Enjoying the view?”

I blushed a bit, not having meant to stare, but she didn’t look offended. If anything, she seemed to preen a bit at the attention. Still, I didn’t want to give her the wrong impression, so I quipped, “Eh, I don’t swing that way, sorry.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “That right? Props for being bold about it.”

Bold…? Oh, right. Literal gang of nazis. I guess lesbian jokes probably don’t go over well. “Being a wallflower’s never been my thing.” I made to leave, but I frowned and stopped when a thought occurred to me. “Actually, do you know how to get to the office? It’s my first day. I need to get my schedule and what all.”

She stared at me for a moment, and I idly noticed the number of students loitering outside had begun to dwindle. After a few seconds, she shrugged, “Sure, I guess. C’mon, man.”

I grit my teeth at that but tried to contain my annoyance. “I’m a girl,” I groused and promptly walked straight into my guide when she stopped in her tracks.

After preventing her from falling again, she turned around and examined me from head to foot, leaving me feeling suddenly self-conscious, especially of my lack of feminine curves and my still pretty short hair. I wasn’t worried about my clothes though, since most of my wardrobe was good quality, and I’d worn the best of the lot today: A red, corded turtleneck, bootcut jeans, black boots, and a gray jacket. All of it stolen, of course. My entire wardrobe was, since I’d only been able to skim so much of Mom’s money over the summer without giving up the game when she couldn’t afford her heroin, and I’d been saving all of that for the stuff I couldn’t steal.

“Huh.”

I tilted my head. “‘Huh?’” I parroted.

She stared at me a bit longer, not saying anything, before eventually shrugging. “My bad,” she flippantly declared before turning on her heel and starting towards the school again.

“Moving on then,” I mumbled, more or less mollified, and moved to follow.

Once we were inside Winslow, I realized that I could, in fact, be more disappointed with the school. No matter where I looked, I saw some sign of gang activity. Like outside, there were plenty of tags littering the halls on both the walls and lockers, which frankly surprised me. You would think the staff would remove them. Maybe they just go right back up, so they stopped bothering? There were obvious gang members too. Plenty of guys with buzzed away hair who were probably part of the nazi gang, and there were lots of Asians wearing red and green—the colors of the ABB, the Azn Bad Boys.

That gang I had made a point to study a bit, once I’d managed to overcome my initial astonishment that any serious gang would have such a ridiculous moniker. Despite my cousin’s worries, I thought I might be able to fly under the radar of the nazis, but a gang that was notorious for aggressive recruitment of anybody with Asian heritage? Yeah, I figured I would need to be very careful to avoid them, since I was half Japanese. That meant I needed to avoid anybody dressed like it was Christmas.

We eventually arrived at the office, and my escort gestured broadly at it. “Well, here you go. Catch you later, newbie.”

I did my best to take a calm, steadying breath as she left, trying to steel myself for explaining matters for a second time... People were always all weird about it. Dammit, this sucked enough the first time around...

I walked through the propped open door and made my way over to the secretary, a woman with a somewhat frazzled appearance. Once I was standing in front of her desk, she spared me a brief glance before returning her eyes to her monitor. “What do you need?”

Bit rude... “I’m here to get my schedule. Today’s my first day.”

“Name?”

“June Fujiwara.”

She moved her mouse and clicked on a few things, her eyes dancing back and forth across the screen. Eventually she frowned. “Jacob Fujiwara?”

“I don’t use that name. My name is June—Juniper, if we’re being formal.”

For the first time since I walked into the office, the secretary gave me her full attention. With a frown, she turned to face me and asked, “Come again? ‘Don’t use that name’?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but the door to the principal’s office opened, drawing my attention. “Is the Fujiwara boy here yet? I have that meeting in ten minutes, and I won’t be able to delay it.”

“Well... This is—”

“Hello,” I interjected, doing my best to contain my ire. “I’m June Fujiwara, and I’m actually not a boy. Easy mistake to make, what with the ‘male’ on my birth certificate and all.”

It probably wasn’t the best way to introduce myself to the principal of my new school, but damn the looks on their faces were priceless. Solid gold.

“I... see,” the principal eventually said. I was actually somewhat impressed. She looked absolutely incredulous, but her words were pretty even, all things told. Probably could have hidden her reaction, if this had been a phone call. It wasn’t though, obviously, so no brownie points for her. “That... wasn’t in your file from your old school.”

“I came out at the beginning of the school year earlier this month, then Mom... well, you know. Probably forgot to put it in there.”

“Mr. Fu—”

“Ms.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. Yeah, no poker face at all. Also, she must not have read my school file carefully enough if she thinks this is as bad as I get. “Ms. Fujiwara... I believe you may not understand your predicament.”

“Pretty sure I do.”

“Be that as it may, we need to have a discussion before you go to classes. I have a meeting in—” she glanced at the watch on her wrist and tsk’d “—seven minutes, and it truly cannot be pushed back. Please have a seat, and we will talk after.”

I might get to skip first period on my first day? Luuucky, I thought with a small smile as I took a seat. My enthusiasm quickly dimmed, however when it hit me that, since I was still stuck waiting in the office, I had nothing to do. I toyed with my new phone for ten minutes before deciding it was probably best to not blow all my data on day one, so I turned to the sole other source of entertainment in the room.

“So. Ms. Secretary Lady.”

She gave me an unimpressed look and tapped on the nameplate on her desk.“I have a name.”

“Fancy that, I do too. It’s June,” I couldn’t help but quip, purposefully ignoring the plate. She’d yet to use mine, so I wasn’t going to use hers. “Speaking of names, I’m blanking on one. What does that gang of nazi weirdos call itself again?”

“What... How... You really don’t even know who they are?”

“That would be why I’m asking. Give me a break, I just moved here a few days ago.”

“They’re the Empire Eighty Eight.” Well, that confirms the ‘E88’ tag I saw outside was nazi related. “You’d do well to watch yourself in Brockton Bay, given your... proclivities.”

Well, that didn’t sound ominous at all, I thought, but I didn’t get a chance to comment, as the principal’s door finally opened, and she beckoned for me to enter, a grim look on her face.

[New student is a Jap tranny. Called E88 “nazi weirdos”]

[no shit? name?]

[Jake Fujiwara. Calls himself June. Wearing red turtleneck and gray jacket]

[i’ll get this to the right people. good job. keep ur ears open.]

So it’s basically a huge outdoor flea market, I thought to myself as I glanced around the mish mash of stalls that made up the ‘Lord Street Market.’ The area was moderately busy with plenty of people walking up and down the walkways between stalls, and I began to casually stroll down one myself. Nifty.

My first day of school had been, as expected, boring after the morning’s festivities. Principal Blackwell had introduced herself properly and regaled me with a litany of warnings about blah blah this isn’t New York City blah blah Empire blah blah maim or kill me, all of which I ignored before reaffirming I wasn’t changing my mind about attending school as myself. I had even managed to limit myself to one joke about her fashion sense matching her name, though she hadn’t risen to the bait. Probably thought something along the lines of, Oh no, the poor transgirl isn’t long for this world, as the evil nazis we allow to roam free in our city will somehow find out she’s trans and stab her in a dark alley where no one will hear her scream. There’s no need to give her detention on top of her imminent demise by hate crime. But hey, I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth and had dutifully accepted my class schedule once she had swapped PE for Computer Science instead.

It was like she expected me to shout, “Hey there, Brockton Bay at large! Just so all of you know, I’m transgender! I wouldn’t want to deprive your pet nazis of fodder for their getting their jollies off on the oppression and murder of Jews and people like me and, I dunno, fucking Legend.” Honestly, why were Blackwell and Masuyo so worried? They were the only people in this town who knew about me. Oh, and Ms. Secretary Lady too, I guess. But she didn’t count. Anyway, the point was I passed just fine, if a bit flat-chested. There were still girls my age who were flat-chested! Like that curly haired girl in the drab hoodie I ran into in the bathroom at the end of lunch. If she could go about her day without being harassed, then so could I.

Which brought me back to the Lord Street Market. See, I hadn’t had anybody to sit with over lunch and hadn’t really made any connections with anyone from my classes, so I had decided to see if I could track down the girl who had guided me to the office that morning, seeing as she was the only person I ‘knew.’ Unsurprisingly, that hadn’t gone well, since—surprise!— a hell of a lot of students attended Winslow. I’d given it up as a bad job after about ten minutes of exploring the cafeteria, the courtyard, the front steps, and even the back entrance by the dumpster, and had simply plopped down on the steps leading up to the back entrance to eat the wrap I’d bought in the cafeteria. One of the students nearby, who I’d been surprised to see sharing a reefer with his buddies with little effort to conceal it, had mentioned swinging by the market after school.

Beats sitting around Masuyo’s apartment twiddling my thumbs. I shivered a little bit as a particularly cold gust of wind from the bay blew past, and I scowled. I really liked this jacket, but even with it zipped up, I was cold. I paused when I saw a nice blouse at a stand selling some clothes, and I briefly considered stealing it before dismissing the idea. There weren’t nearly enough people around to distract the stand’s owner, and I didn’t know the area well enough to find a good spot to lay low after. I ran a regretful hand over the fabric before moving on, thinking I could scope out the area when I was done to set myself up for the weekend. I had a feeling it would be a lot busier then. I did end up deciding to treat myself to a cola when I passed a guy selling homemade soda though. I was past the biggest hurdle, and though making friends was still a daunting task, I expected it would be easier in a city where nobody knew me yet—where nobody had preconceptions of whom I should be. In that way, at least, living in Brockton Bay would be easier than New York City.

I eventually grew bored and decided to get a jumpstart on scoping out the area for any good boltholes. From what I’d seen when looking at an online map earlier, there were some docks to the northeast, and I began heading that way. Travel by ship back home hadn’t been a thing since Leviathan first appeared, so I figured it had to be the same here. Abandoned docks meant plenty of places to hide, so that seemed as good a place as any to start. I took a quick glance at the map app to ensure I was heading the right way, slipped my phone into my bag’s front pocket, and slung the bag back over my shoulders.

Before long I had left behind the stalls and noise and found myself walking down an entirely abandoned block of road littered with potholes, a few piles of abandoned trash bags, and a car with no wheels that was covered in so much rust I couldn’t properly identify what color it had once been. I was just beginning to make a game of debating whether it would have looked better in hot pink or banana yellow paint when something that tasted like cotton was shoved into my mouth, causing me to gag. Immediately after, something hit me hard from behind, sending me flying through the air. Fortunately for my bones, albeit not my nose, one of the piles of trash bags broke my fall, but I was left breathless from the two back-to-back impacts. A muted thunk reached my ears as I tried to get my bearings, then someone grabbed me. I struggled against them for a moment, catching a glimpse of red clothing, but after a second they quite abruptly overpowered me, and I was tossed through the air. No, pulled? It strangely felt like my jacket was caught on something, and I was being yanked along for the ride. The feeling lasted only for a second, then my head hit something hard and stars filled my eyes. The light went away in time with a door being slammed shut, and when I grabbed at the ground, I felt smooth carpet under my fingers that rumbled with movement.

Is this a car? Holy fuck, am I being abducted?

I tried to yell for help, but the fabric still in my mouth muffled me, and when I tried to yank it out, my arms were thrown flat on the ground. My heart pounding in my chest, I tried to lift my right arm, but my jacket wouldn’t budge an inch.

“It’s no use struggling, really. Just stay quiet back there,” I heard a young woman—maybe a girl?—say from what, based on the motion of the car, had to be one of the seats. There was an air of forced casualness to her words, but there was still a repressed energy to them.

“Whaa tha faa?” I yelled back, my words distorted around whatever was in my mouth. “Ooo tha faa are you?”

“I’m a... Shit, what did you call us again... Oh, right! I’m one of the ‘nazi weirdos.’ Ring a bell?”

Fuck.

“I’m sure you can imagine, but the Empire doesn’t shit like that lying down, so I’m here to dispose of you.”

Fuck fuck fuck!

“Honestly, I didn’t think you’d make it this easy. I mean sure, I would’ve gotten you today regardless, but what possessed you to walk into the Boat Graveyard? All sorts of bad things could happen to you out here, and nobody would ever know.”

Tears streamed down my face as I futilely screamed and impotently tried to beat the floor of the trunk with arms, my unmoving jacket rendering the result worthless. I was going to die. A modern day nazi was going to kill me.

We came to a stop, and I heard a car door open and slam shut, then the trunk’s lid popped open. The light blinded me, and I flinched away, anticipating being stabbed or struck. The expected blow never came though, and as my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw the person standing over the trunk was a girl dressed in a dark black robe with red symbols lining its trim with a dark red domino mask over her pale face and had light blond hair spilling out from the pointed hood pulled up over her head. The sun hung low and washed the city line behind her in crimson as she held up a phone and asked, “So Jake, any last words?”

“Thaa’s naa maa naaam, you nahzee faa!” I yelled as I tried and failed to lunge at her, forgetting in the heat of the moment that I couldn’t move my jacket.

“Ooo, got some fight in ya, Jakey? That’s great for the video.” Abruptly my jacket yanked my arm around in a u-turn, and I smacked myself hard in the eye, eliciting a pained groan from me and giggles from her. “I guess it hasn’t sunk in yet. Don’t you see? You’re not the one in power here.”

Fuck, she’s a cape! I thought, the awful realization finally hitting me.

“Listen, this has been fun and all,” she remarked with a shrug, the phone remaining floating where it was in the air, “but I’ve got places to go and things to do, so let’s call it a night, yeah? Bye, Jakey!” She waved goodbye with feigned cheer, then the car lurched away from her at high speed, and the trunk’s lid slammed shut.

The car splashed into the water of what I could only presume was the Boat Graveyard with a lurch, and the cloth in my mouth pulled itself out. A part of me knew that nazi fuck was still filming me and probably pulled the cloth out on purpose in the hopes I would scream, but I couldn’t help but shriek in terror as water began to leak into the trunk.

No, please, no!

Still unable to move my jacket, I lifted my feet, planted them against the underside of the trunk’s lid, and tried to shove and kick it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

Not like this!

The water level was already high enough that my head was starting to submerge, so I struggled to lift my head up and wiggle out of my jacket as I continued to ineffectively kick at the trunk’s lid. Salty water sloshed into my mouth, and I choked as I tried to spit it out.

I was trapped and drowning. I was going to die.

I don’t want to die! Please just open—

Two beings more colossal than anything I had ever seen loomed over me, their bodies composed of lights that rivaled the stars in which they moved, entwined in a dance that captivated my attention. They moved as one, and as they spiraled amongst that starry night, the lights from each entity swirled away. They were too many to count, but one grabbed my attention as it carved its way with purpose towards a destination.

Towards me.

—dammit!

The trunk’s lid popped open.