Lazarus

While the bulk of this novel has been concerned with contouring the emotional landscapes of the students of Urasaria Academy in the years 2018-2022 (and perhaps eventually 2022-2026), this will not be done for Naomi: yet. This is because in her first month with Serena, the gamut of opinions & viewpoints & experiences she came across were so familiar yet new to her senses, that to properly catalogue it all would nearly give her whiplash.

To attempt to chart how she felt about certain things, or why she did, at this point in her life, would then be foolish. Each memory resonated equally in timbre and were only later to be boiled down to their nubs, to where some of the music and sights and conversations and people and trees and homes of her first months could be in front of her again from the smallest of triggers. Others were convection currents that beached themselves upon her, whose foams distilled underneath the sands and formed fossils that only years later her movement would shift to surface again.

For now, it will suffice to say Naomi had a highschool education, familiarity with most of the concepts Serena & Yuruko taught her, but no relevant knowledge beyond the address where she had once lived or her name Naomi Eskel. Within a week, she was registered as a Urasaria student with no Revenant nor hero name, and as Serena's protege. Both had gone through the property records of her old address, and agreed not to risk investigation until her Revenant had fully activated.

Now, while a part of Serena was excited to have her own protege, a part of her worried that this would expose her plans as a mentor as shitty and ineffectual. This was not reality, but what was, was that Serena was eventually not a bad mentor, but merely a good one at best, and whose successes were more on Naomi than in her own skill at teaching.

Serena could later sense this, whether it was in investigations and when Naomi would make a connection Serena had not, or when Naomi would get herself out of a mess Serena had not realized she was in. Thankfully, she handled this with maturity, and developed pride rather than envy towards her protege.

Yet part of this stemmed from that at a base level, Serena had a growing awareness that she was not a Mia or Matoi in terms of intelligence, nor likely ever would be. As a mentor, she would essentially try to emulate what Mia had done with her on a far narrower Revenant: her own mentorship was a mix of what Mia had done with her, what her idea of Mia thought sounded good, and how her peers talked about their own proteges (peers who were likely doing the same with their own mentors). In this manner, her mentorship was a pastiche of interpreted imitations and ideals, so whether her training of Naomi could be called the product of an original mind depends on whether an amalgamation of copied components constitutes an original whole.

Such is the norm in life, however, so even as Serena feared that she was what she thought her peers were not, she was much more like others than these passages elide.

On August 31st, 2020, Serena decided it would be time for Naomi's first actual fight, and reassured herself not by asking Naomi or Mia, but by asking Mia to ask Naomi if she felt prepared to hunt. Naomi had already met Mia in passing, and even Serena could tell she had imbued certain things in to Mia & instinctually she trusted her. Perhaps it was the height & age difference, but often there is some ineffable thing to these connections which words cannot clarify.

The two came in to the store midrobbery, cashier already held up on the register, man they knew as their foe; his pistol's aim raised to Serena -

- and she laughed as six shots entered her chest, tentacle waving Naomi's fear down.

"Gun's not a Revenant." chimed Serena, streams of fog pushing the lead out with new flesh. The man rushed right and down the aisles, and as the two readied to chase, his hand swept in to one shelf -

- and an unseen force yanked him direct in, disappearing in to the shelf of chips, Serena and Naomi rushing down -

- and a familiar fist burst out of the shelf and smashed Serena's nose; she staggered back, Naomi huddling at her back, another arm seeking Serena's cheek -

- but Naomi's stone grip shot to the man's wrist, throwing it off of her -

- and in to the shelf disappeared the man again, Serena nodding as she recovered. "Naomi - are you feeling - durability good?"

"Y-Yeah." nodded Naomi, utterly clueless as streams of fog flew in to the shelf -

- and filled it with acid; the man's top half burst instantly outward, acid traveling down and corroding the entire shelf as he threw himself out -

- and not in time for the corrosive agent to burn his right leg clear off as he leaped to the back wall, leaving a laughing Serena, ready to shittalk for her protégé's benefit -

" - possession bitch!" laughed Serena, seeing the man's right arm disappear -

- and reappear on his right leg's stump, rapidly reforming to another and leaving him one-armless as he backed against the back wall -

- and in to the wall he disappeared.

"Only need to do that three more times." chimed Serena, and up she and Naomi stepped; the man's arm burst out of the wall again -

- Naomi's stone grip shot to his wrist, yanking ferociously at it -

- and pulling the man himself out; she threw him to the front wall -

- and he smashed through to the sidewalk beyond, Serena nodding as she led Naomi along her first chase, seeing the man running left&down the sidewalk. They came out to meet him there, starting their chase up, abandoned lots left & ahead, fifty feet separating them and he still - but starting to catch wind.

"That's good, okay?" nodded Serena - " - trust your instincts, okay?"

"Y-Yeah." nodded Naomi; they saw a squirrel scurry by the man, and in the next instant -

- he was yanked&shrunk direct in, animal suddenly possessed as it rushed across the road, five-floor buildings ahead -

- and up it leaped and leaped; with no time to waste, Serena and Naomi rushed in pursuit and came to the wall. A sweep of Serena's tentacle brought her to the wall, suction cups keeping her tethered - beside, Naomi nodded, strength of a boulder in her left arm as she climbed alongside, seeing the possessed squirrel disappear up to the roof.

"Just, um - careful you don't pull too hard, right?" chimed Serena, and Naomi tried to laugh out her adrenaline.

"Y-Yeah."

They swept up on to the roof, seeing the prodigal squirrel still rushing ahead, crows perched on the ledges -

- and out of the squirrel burst the man, body shrinking as he sought one casual crow, starting to fly out of range -

- and a stone appeared suddenly in Naomi's left hand; confused but pleased, she threw it -

- and the keen end tore through the crow and out its body; and down fell the possessed animal past the ledge and out of sight, street below like the previous.

"That's - new." she panted, Serena and her rushing over to the ledge. Down they slid, suction cups and stone arm's friction keeping their descent careful as they reached the street below -

" - there!" shouted Serena, rushing suddenly left -

- and there was the newly armless man running out on the road, weaving between parked cars, having used his flesh to repair his broken bones. Serena laughed, halting Naomi as they passed by one car -

" - can you pick this up?"

Naomi nodded, stone arm scooping it clear up. Streams of fog filled it as she hurled it ahead -

- and the keen end of the hood bashed the man's skull in; his body shrunk in to the vehicle as it flew -

- and Serena laughed as it exploded in a storm of shrapnel and gore; and underneath twelve shards she dodged -

- that cleaved Naomi's chest in a shower of crimson; she shrieked as she staggered back, collapsing and screaming -

- and streams of fog filled her with new flesh, Serena crouching down -

" - hey, it's - it's alright! You're okay - you're okay - you're okay." nodded Serena, saying it for her benefit as much as Naomi's, streams of fog filling her with new flesh. "Got you. Got you."

"Y-Yeah." gasped Naomi. "I-I - o-oh g-god."

"I'm - I'm sorry, I - I should have let you know." nodded Serena. "But - I've got you, and you're safe. Right?"

"…y-yeah." Naomi clenched her eyes. "O-O-Okay. I-I'm fine. I'm fine. A-All good."

She felt Serena sit down beside her. "…hey, um. You - you don't have to act tough for me. I - I know you're probably feeling pretty scared. I - I could tell you were nervous while we were fighting, too."

"…s-sorta." panted Naomi. "My - my heart's, b-beating so f-fast." She lifted her legs up, and as she set them back down -

- a stone burst out of the ground; she shrieked -

- and Serena's tentacle caught it mid-air, yanking it back and examining it. "It's - okay, it's okay - uh." She paused. "…wait. Can I see your arm?"

Naomi's eyes opened as she gave Serena her left arm. Serena held the stone to it.

"These are the same color. Right?"

"…y-yeah." nodded Naomi. "Does that mean - could it be some new ability?"

"Maybe." smiled Serena. "You're getting stronger. Right?"

"R-Right."

Serena stood and offered her tentacle out, and Naomi took it up. "I know how you're probably feeling. Do you want me to talk while we head home?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Alright. Um - I gotta go scan his Revenant - that way we both get credit. Right?"

Naomi nodded as they went over. Serena crouched down to scan, and nodded once they started back. "But, um, "Hey, the first fight I was in, um - it went so bad I nearly died and I had to get a new Revenant." Serena winced. "Um, but you don't have to worry about that, right? Since I can heal you, and you're already doing better than me?"

"I-I guess that helps." nodded Naomi.

"Um, plus, let me give you some advice Mia gave me. She said that when you're in trouble, make a decision, and if it's a good one, even better."

Naomi nodded again, and rested for a minute. "…uhm. Do you think Mia would mind if I-I called her up? I just thought she, u-uh, might wanna know."

"Um, sure, lemme text her."

(Serena) "Are you busy?"

Ten seconds.

(Mia) "She's training. - Matoi"

A picture of Mia running with Marisa strapped to her back.

"Um, she's training right now."

Naomi shrugged, stood up, and ended a fangirlism that had not even properly started.