Rising Shards

I fidgeted with my sleeves as we got onto the bus. I figured Kalei would call me out for looking suspicious with how much I was playing with my shirt, but she didn't say anything about it. We both agreed to not bring up what had just happened with people around, deciding on a keyword to say if I started feeling buggy.

I took a window seat, wondering if I'd feel anything on this trip. Hopefully I wouldn't have to use our secret code word, but it was better to be prepared.

So far...I wasn't feeling anything.

Well, when Kalei scratched me, there was definitely a reaction. She dragged her claw against the glowing line down my forearm. The glow remained for about a minute after, making me worried this was completely pointless and that my weird glowing arm was from something other than Kalei's prior scratch. I felt a chill run down my spine, like someone just dropped an ice cube down my back. Then my arm went back to normal.

"Are...are you good?" Kalei asked. She looked like she just revived me from a deep coma or something.

"I think so?"

My brain was oddly logical about this. It was likely that Kalei's Downside self had some effect on me when she cut into me on accident, and whatever that effect was it was only soothed by her doing it again, canceling her own power out. Even if it didn't make a ton of sense, in that moment I felt more like shrugging and going, "Huh. Well, that's that." I didn't worry about what it'd do to me. If I got a monster form like Kalei that'd be awesome, but if that was the case I didn't have any immediate signs of it.

What really surprised me was Kalei pulling me in for a hug as soon as I was back to normal. She held me in a way she'd never done before, one arm on my back and the other on the back of my head, almost gripping my hair, or like she was about to pet me or something. My mind flashed back to us in that lake, swimming side by side, fully bare. I was so lost in that that I almost forgot to hug her back.

"If anything gets messed up from this, I am so, so sorry," Kalei said.

"It's fine," I said. "If I get messed up, I'm messed up with my favorite, so. It's all good whatever happens."

"Heh, you're way more relaxed about this than me, huh?" Kalei said.

"I guess so," I said. I let out a little content sigh, always loving how nice it felt to be in Kalei's arms.

I knew Kalei was my friend. I knew I had feelings for her. I didn't know what she thought of me past being a friend. If she didn't like me as much as I liked her, in that moment of odd logical clarity, I supposed that'd be alright. The important thing to me was just being near her, staying her friend.

"You're sure you're good?" Kalei asked, unfortunately pulling away from me. She grabbed my arm again, looking it over.

"Yeah, I'm totally fine, I think," I said. "Hey, you're back to normal too."

"Hm?" Kalei looked at her own arms, realizing she didn't have one arm in huge monster mode anymore. "Oh, yeah..."

"Guess we can still go to the event then, huh?" I said.

"I mean...if you're sure you're good," Kalei said. "Like. Not just vibes, like. You have to be actually good."

"I...I really think I'm fine," I said. "I don't feel weird or anything at all anymore."

I somehow convinced Kalei that I was good enough to go to this stupid event. I mean, I wanted to go, but if Kalei decided she really didn't want to and we both went all monster mode or something I'd be fine staying in. But my gut told me to go. We set some ground rules on what to do if one or both of us had a Downside moment, or a moment for whatever my potential equivalent of Downside would be. That seemed to make Kalei more confident about it, but I could tell by her glances that she wasn't fully sure. I supposed it was one thing to take whatever that drink she found at the Taramin labs for herself, and another thing to give someone else that power. If, of course, that was how it worked. It was entirely possible getting scratched by Kalei in Downside form just gave the one who got scratched a glowing whatever until it got scratched again.

While I could spend my third bus ride of the day staring out at the side of the road, I figured Kalei could use some help getting her mind off of her immediate worries.

"I was meaning to say earlier, did you hear that Project Flyswatter recast news?" It wasn't my best effort at starting a conversation, but it was something.

"Yeah, I'm not too surprised," Kalei said. "Seems like that movie's falling apart, which is a total shame given the source material. Well. Some of the source material."

"Yeah..." Kalei was a big fan of this comic called Hado Diconius, which was I'd say about seventy percent total garbage, something I didn't hesitate telling Kalei, something she argued with me about but respected my take on. I also told her that other thirty percent is pretty awesome though. "Seems like Hado Diconius hype is kinda fading in general."

"For real," Kalei said. "It's like, once you get past the hype of the first few volumes, you notice they don't like...ever get to the point. I still love the early stuff, but I kinda wonder if it's all bluster. I think Unkillable Girls Getting Exploded is gonna be the next big hit though."

"Oh, hell yes," I said.

Kalei laughed. "Forgot you recommended that one to me."

"I told you it's awesome!" I said. "It's like. That free wild spirit of those early Hado volumes."

"Heh, glad you're still into Hado Diconius a little though,"

I hadn't even noticed that others took seats on the bus near us. Kalei's old friend Risa turned around from the chair in front of us. I was hoping for a nice bus ride, but with her, Ovie, 09, Chellsi, and Mikeila-Keila suddenly surrounding us, I had a feeling this ride would get a bit stupid.

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