Mari:

  School sucked.

  It was pretty bad when she was just ducking from groups out to get her and sneaking into class at the last moment just to not have to talk to anyone while waiting. Even so, she was still able to get something out of her lessons, even if the information didn’t come easy for her.

  Things had changed, though. Being a sixth tier cultivator of the mind took an insane amount of pressure off. She didn’t forget a single word spoken in the monologues by the teachers, and the logical function behind every math or science problem just clicked. She felt like a new woman.

  More incredibly, it was as if all the issues she hadn’t figured out in past classes made so much more sense. She didn’t just have to work her brain to remember formulae anymore, because she knew the reason behind why the formulae worked. It suddenly was so much easier to look at a problem and just know how the numbers complemented each other and the best way to find the answer she was missing.

  When she sat down in physics, and the teacher, as always, called on her to tar and feather her publicly, she just smiled. An honest to the heavens grin of satisfaction as she puzzled out the friction problem with ease.

  And then she did one better.

  She proposed her own question.

  “Why don’t we try something a little more practical, teacher? I have the perfect question in mind.” She turned to the board without an answer and began to sketch out the problem and the components.

  It was the information needed to land a perfect bullseye from a hundred fifty meters away based on the given variables of the force and wind speeds applied by her own sniper rifle.

  When prompted, she offered the entire design of the bullet and let them all work out how the wind would affect the trajectory for themselves. Even the teacher spent the entire class silently combing over equations.

  In reality, she’d have to relearn all the skills Marielle had. The gravity was slightly different on Sylpharia, making the bullet fall off sooner. Still, she had all the information she needed to figure it out for herself.

  When there was only five minutes left, she called out the answer.

  Only the teacher got the answer right, which was a good sign for his qualifications.

  “Where did you even dig that question out from? Some old war records?”

  Mari scoffed at his question, feeling proud of herself for the first time since the day prior.

  “Of course not. I’ve just done it before. That range isn’t even very far. I could even make that shot if I had to lead a moving target.” She felt Marielle stabilize her against the slight shudder that almost overtook her at the memory of Marielle taking lives with those skills.

  “Nonsense! If you’re going to spout lies, do it elsewhere.” He grumbled, waving for her to leave just as the class ended.

  “Teacher, if you request the space to do so, I’ll gladly demonstrate any time. I’ll clean my rifle tonight and have it ready.” She smirked, striding out the door. She’d already scanned and pulled copies of her textbooks in her HUD, so she didn’t even have to carry them.

  Her final class before lunch was classical literature. Mari wasn’t expected to have already done work on material she missed in the two months she was in a coma, but she still needed to turn in the material that was due before the procedure. Someone had ‘accidentally’ misplaced her folder during one of the sessions earlier where a teacher had called on her in order to make her look bad. That meant the literature assignment was missing.

  “Miss Mari. You owe me a synopsis on three poems written before the empire began its conquest of the world. I see you have nothing with you, so am I to assume that implies your grade?” The woman sounded smarmy and arrogant, but she was usually one of the better teachers. She’d been an Anvien in a small town, which had allowed her to read books when no work was required of her. It made her one of the instructors with the least reason to have a chip on her shoulder. Not that people got over having certain emotions written out of their biology, though.

  Mari shook her head, holding out her hand as her HUD handled searching for the appropriate homework. With a thought and the consumption of a single percentage of her Affliction, the paper she had already scanned knit itself together as she handed it over to the teacher.

  In full view of the rest of the class.

  Whispers of magic and other theories drowned out the other conversations, but the teacher took the paper with an amazed look in her eyes as she lifted glasses to her face, studying the assignment.

  “Impressive theatrics, Miss Mari. I’ll accept this, and Council Chairwoman Karin has already ordered the dismissal of all assignments you missed during your absence. Without further preamble, welcome back.” They were the warmest words anyone besides Kris had spoken to Mari all day.

  She fought the urge to shed a tear, but the warmth in her heart was very tangible.

  Then Mari frowned. “You said the Council Chairwoman dismissed all assignments from my absence?”

  “Yes, that was what the announcement to the staff said.”

  “Could you tell me why none of my other teachers followed those orders? I was given stacks of material in every class before yours.” Mari could feel the warmth being snuffed out and replaced by a frustrated tension that pressed in on her mind and refused to dissipate.

  More than ever, she needed to crush the assessments that replaced her afternoon courses. Then she could be free of Elitheen’s education system, paving the way for all the important things that demanded her attention.

  By the time lunch arrived, Mari was wondering what it was that had her so skittish before. The idea of actually getting a meal was enough to bring back those fears, though.

  Cliques and an insurmountable clamor of voices were enough reminder.

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  She hated dealing with such large crowds of people, and Marielle didn’t really help with that. Her predecessor wasn’t much better with noises that had any risk of dredging up memories of the horrors she witnessed. Active combat brought on a sort of intense focus that somehow changed the experience. It hadn’t been an issue because Mari didn’t have places she truly considered safe. She’d always been worn down to the wire, her focus stripped away like loose wires.

  While she had improved by leaps in her morning classes, she didn’t want to enter the communal eatery of the school. Her legs didn’t allow her to.

  “Heya, sport.”

  Mari jumped, surprised by the voice that came from behind and… below.

  She turned.

  Anise waved at her with a grin. “Having a rough day? You can talk to me about it. I’m a teacher now.”

  Mari’s face paled. “How?”

  “Gonna teach about the culture and life back on Earth. Mostly to give the rest of the cloned people here an idea of what memories they might’ve had from their old lives.” Anise’s grin grew even wider, with a playful glint in her eye. “You’re exempt. Just like the big guy is. But I’m still supposed to be around to support you. You’re gonna need it based on the rumors I heard earlier. Come, walk and talk.”

  Anise stepped into the eatery and Mari followed behind, trying to recover some of whatever spark had made her confident in her classes.

  “That incident this morning was apparently a big deal.”

  “How so?” Mari didn’t really want to know how Anise had heard about it, but there was only one incident she could think of. Kris standing up for her.

  “Well, when people see their idolized figure suddenly defending a group of people everyone else hates, some number of the fans will believe the people they dislike did something to their idol to get them to change their tune. In this case, Kris painted a larger target on the backs of the humans attending here.”

  That news settled on Mari like a weighted blanket, only that blanket was damp and sticky.

  “I’ve got a plan. No need for you to go all Mission Impossible to try to fix it.” Anise reached the counter and hoisted herself up with both palms on the counter, her legs dangling beneath her as she looked at the ingredients and prepared foods available for her to order from.

  Just as she was about to speak, Mari realized that nobody had accosted them yet, and she looked around. A lot of people were staring at them, but nobody had gotten close. It was like there was a two meter gap around her and Anise that nobody had stepped into.

  That gap vanished as soon as Anise began to rattle off her order, and Mari twitched as someone approached.

  “Hey, trash.” Cynthia muscled her way in, having gained a lot of the musculature her older sister once had back when they’d beaten Mari after school. “Heard you got the princess to talk back for you earlier. The fuck did you do to her?”

  Mari flinched, balling her hands at her sides. Literally moments after Anise had just said something similar would happen.

  “Well, you gonna talk, trash?”

  Cynthia used to be soft-spoken, only willing to talk if it was in support of her ringleader. That had changed when her sister had moved on to a harbor job, leaving Krystal’s group short their muscle.

  Cynthia apparently grew fed up with waiting, and threw a punch at Mari’s face.

  Mari, no longer being quite so lacking in the physical department, didn’t take it on the cheek the way she usually did. Instead, she was ready for it, and turned aside, her right leg arcing behind her as she planted her feet better, then stepped with her left leg once the initial motion had her face turned out of the line of the sloppy hook.

  The punch sailed by her eyes, undoubtedly to be followed by more lunging, punching and kicking right after.

  If only Cynthia hadn’t been unaware of just who was behind Mari at that point.

  The burly girl stumbled forward when her attack missed, and she almost lost her balance.

  For her part, Mari didn’t even touch the girl as she stumbled into Anise. And Anise didn’t budge, nor did she even seem to react to being bumped into. She was immovable as a mountain, even just suspended by her hands on the counter.

  Mari couldn’t quite decide how she felt. On one hand, bullying had left her feeling so helpless for so long that the deep-seated tension refused to leave her mind. There were worse things than being pushed around. She just couldn’t really figure out what it was anymore.

  Seeing one of her tormentors stumble past her with a truly awful right hook just made it all fade into the background. Anise, despite somehow being a teacher, wasn’t giving the situation any attention at all. The question was what Mari would have to do to handle the situation.

  Fight back? Bad idea. She’d just become the human oppressor beating on them like they imagined in their heads. Let it happen? Also not a great plan. Scars might be sexy, but Kris might take issue with bruises in schoolyard scraps.

  She settled on making Cynthia look like a fool instead.

  The girl rounded on her, anger in her eyes, as if Mari had insulted her by not getting punched in the cheek. The next attack that came her way was more of a rugby tackle than any attempt at martial arts. It was harder to dodge, so maybe it was Cynthia’s correct choice, but situational awareness was apparently not her strong suit.

  The girl tried to grab Mari as she lunged forward, and Mari lowered her hips, set her feet, then turned around the charge as it happened, even as one of Cynthia’s arms caught her at the waist.

  The reason Mari didn’t dodge entirely was obvious the second she sidestepped half of the charge. There was a table behind her, and if she’d dodged, Cynthia would’ve given herself a table-shaped dent in the face.

  Instead, Mari relied on her enhanced muscles to brace and then arrest Cynthia’s tackle, even going so far as to cushion the space between the girl’s face and the furniture.

  “You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep going.” Mari offered a warning, but Cynthia disregarded it, instead grappling Mari and trying to throw her in another vain attempt at martial arts.

  In some ways, fighting a random thug—not that she wanted to call Cynthia a thug—was harder than fighting someone with training. Thugs did stupid things that risked injury to both parties in pursuit of violence. All that to say, Mari had options. Bring her elbow down on Cynthia’s skull and deliver that dent to her face using the table as a backstop. Bring her knee up and pin the girl’s right arm against her chin. She could even reverse the grapple and eventually pin her into the ground.

  The issue was that Mari didn’t want a single scratch on Cynthia at the end of the fight.

  So as the punch came towards her in slow motion, Mari chose to take it. Cynthia’s legs weren’t planted, there was no rotation in her hips or driving momentum to risk much damage.

  You’re a fool. Marielle mentally flicked Mari in the forehead as she subtly shifted that plan of action.

  Mari’s left hand moved, palm down, and just pushed Cynthia’s fist wide.

  It was as easy as that. Yes, Mari could’ve taken the hit, and it wouldn’t even have hurt too much. But she’d ignored that she certainly had the superior position and physique. A weak punch with no form was easy to guide away from herself.

  “Enough!” Mari looked up as a commanding tone echoed around the room like a drill sergeant in basic. “Major, why are you being assaulted by a child?”

  She let go of Cynthia, who squirmed away the moment a figure of authority made themselves known. “She’s got a problem with humans. In her defense, her parents were both killed back in the war.”

  Barclay, done up in his military fatigues, worked his jaw as he sat down on the table, ignoring a perfectly good chair. Then, he gave a lazy salute. “Orders, boss?”

  Mari rolled her eyes. “What are you playing at? Making a scene here like this?”

  “We have a lot to catch up on, so I’d rather not have to wait for all the punishments to have to go out for this schoolyard shit before that can happen.”

  Anise stepped in, setting her food tray down on the table between them and hopping onto the chair the greying soldier had ignored. “You two can do that after all the school classes and announcements are done tonight. More importantly, Clay, you interrupted the entertainment.”

  Mari rolled her eyes. She was so lost already.

  Anise shooed with her hand towards her. “Go, you have like twenty minutes to eat before your assessment thingies. Chitchat later, alligator.”

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