Chapter 2

Adonis sat quietly in a waiting room with 30-something other 15 to 14-year-olds. After waiting almost an hour, he applied at a reception desk with a long line of kids and their parents and was told to sit in the waiting room. Adults occasionally entered the room, called out an examinee's name, and brought them away to take the exam.

He witnessed many kids return, some with golden slips and others on the verge of tears. One girl clung onto her examiner's leg, begging desperately to let her pass. Eventually, her father had to be called to extract her from the premises. He apologized profusely on her behalf and heaved her onto his shoulder.

"Excuse me?" Another kid tapped on Adonis' shoulder. Adonis turned to see a spiky orange-haired boy his age.

"Mhm," Adoins mumbled.

"Uh, is this seat taken?" He asked. Adonis shook his head. "Sweet." The boy sat next to him and nervously tapped his feet. "Lotta people here today."

Sensing the boy wasn't gonna give up talking to him, Adonis sighed, "Yep." from just one word, the boy could tell Adonis wasn't a native.

"You're not from around here, are you? Where are you from?"

"America," Adonis said.

"Oh, that's so cool. My parents took me on a couple of vacations there. I don't know much about America, but I know most major cities. What city are you from?" The boy explained.

"I grew up in Detroit."

"Isn't that an awful city?"

"It is."

After people began getting Talents, some already crime-ridden cities were utterly lost to villains. Detroit was pretty much a city controlled solely by criminals. The American government didn't find it worth raiding a city with millions of criminals living in it. And as long as they did nothing to infect other areas with crime, the government took a hands-off stance. Adonis was raised in extreme gang violence and drug-riddled streets.

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you come to Japan? Did you come just to apply to the hero schools here?" The boy asked.

"No. I moved here to live in Japan. Nothing special." Adonis had nowhere else to go.

"That's cool. It's not cool how tons of people come here just for hero stuff. What do your parents do?"

"They are both, uh, still in America." Adonis lied.

"I see. Who do you live with then?"

"I live by myself. Or with a roommate."

"Sometimes I wish I could live by myself." The boy chuckled. Adonis was unamused. "Anyway, I'm Adachi Banko." He held out his hand.

Adonis took it and dabbed him up. "Adonis. I don't know anything about Japanese names. What should I call you?"

"Oh, uh, ok. Yeah, Americans call each other by their first names... I remember this being a confusing thing in America. My first name is Banko, and my family name is Adachi. Normally I would only want people I just met to call me Adachi, but I find it interesting that Americans are so different. You can call me Banko." Banko deliberated briefly before deciding he could live with this foreigner calling him his first name.

"Nice to meet you, Banko." Adonis was surprisingly starting to warm up to the guy. He was generally charismatic and straightforward. Adonis found himself genuinely hoping this kid passed the entrance exam. Banko rubbed his sweaty hands against his pants.

"Are you nervous, or is it just me." Banko said. A thin layer of sweat covered his forehead.

"Hm, I'm not really nervous. I either pass or I don't. Being nervous would only make me perform worse." Although this was an incredible opportunity for Adonis, he hadn't gotten nervous. He had very little chance against all the thousands who applied for the school and were at least educated decently. He needed to perform his best to show his strengths and hide his weaknesses.

"I guess I know what you're saying, but it's not that easy. I feel like I'm gonna explode." A balding man in a tight all-black suit opened a door and entered the waiting room.

"Hm? The headmaster?" Adonis heard people murmur.

"Adonis?" He called out, his eyes almost immediately locking on Adonis. Somewhat hesitantly, Adonis followed the man into the school.

"Good luck, bro!"

Adonis sat across a desk from this serious-looking man on a wooden chair. They went through a bunch of formal paperwork and began the exam. The man had a strong black goatee that was the most eye-drawing part of his face. His eyes were a bright blue that stared holes through Adonis' head.

"What is the reason you want to become a hero?" The serious man began interrogating Adonis.

Adonis took a second to come up with the most appealing answer. "I want to help other people. It's been my dream ever since I was a kid."

The man's eyes narrowed. "Do you know who I am?" He asked.

"Um, no?" Adonis knew no one but the top hero in the celebrity scene.

"I am the Headmaster of this school. Normally I don't examine students who are trying to enter the school, but I was approached by a government official. Do you know my Talent?"

Adonis shook his head. "Are you famous enough that the average person in Japan would know?" Adonis guessed.

"Yeah, you could say that. My Talent is Intuition. It's very helpful for many things, but the most important right now is that I can tell when people lie. So tell me, Adonis, Son of Hades. What is your reason for coming to this school?" He leaned across the table and looked into the boys eyes.

Adonis scrunched his nose in disgust and subconsciously touched his back. If the man knew his name, he knew at least a little about Adonis' past. "Do not say his name. What do you know about my past." Adonis probed.

The man smiled coldly. "A Japanese government official warned me that you were planning on trying to get accepted into my academy. He told me to not admit you under any circumstances. You are from bad blood. A boy from the worst part of America is invading this country's good name. But I thought..."

He stood up and beckoned Adonis to follow suit. "I thought I could judge that for myself. I mean, you know my Talent. I tend to have a better feeling about these kinds of things." The man led Adonis down a series of empty halls. "You can call me Mr. Jiro. Do you have time? Your exam will take much longer than the others."

"I have time." Adonis shrugged.

"Good. Now tell me. Why was your only demand of the American government to come to Japan." Mr. Jiro asked.

Adonis cringed. His past wasn't a pleasant time, and talking about it was painful. "They were going to kill me. I felt it. The government couldn't let me stay in Detroit or America. I wouldn't tell them my Talent, and I was a threat. I thought if I did, I would only be killed faster." Adonis explained.

Mr. Jiro glanced at Adonis. "There is something else you aren't telling me." Mr. Jiro insisted.

Adonis smiled and shook his head. 'Incredible talent.' He thought. "My sister wanted to come to Japan. To become a professional hero." Adonis croaked out. It hurt, even more talking about his sister.

"I heard about your sister. But what did she want you to do here?"

"She wanted me to become a pro hero with her." Adonis' throat was hoarse.

"Whys that."

"So we could be the ones to put away our parents." He whispered.

An 8-year-old boy sat in a rusty weight room. His arms were up, holding the bar at the lat pulldown machine. Sweat poured down his back and stung his eyes. Behind him, the same goliath of a man sat on a bench. He sucked down a bottle of water and threw the empty bottle at the back of the boy.

The man slashed his belt against the boy's back whenever his workout form was off. "Three more!" The man slammed the metal part of the belt against the boy's shoulder, causing a slight loss of grip. The other arm shot up with the bar, and a horrible cracking noise resounded from the boy's shoulder. It had been dislocated.

The man stood up, gripped the arm, and pushed it back into place. The boy screamed in pain and fell off of the machine. He crawled into the fetal position as blows rained on his body. His cries were silent. An 11-year-old girl entered the room to the sight and desperately ran to her father.

"NO, NO, NO. Stop it!" She beat her tiny fists against his thigh only to be struck and hit the floor. The boy pushed himself up and got on the machine.

The man tilted his head and smiled. "Oh, so that's it." Experimentally, he struck the girl again. The boy reached up, grabbed the bar, and resumed his workout with perfect form. Two hundred pounds moved easily despite his age. The man laughed hysterically as he realized how to motivate his son.

"Hello?" The Headmaster called out.

Adonis shook his head. "Oh, sorry, what? I zoned out."

"I said, why do YOU want to go to Japan." He reiterated,

"She wanted to be here."

"Then why did you apply to this school."

"I have no money. I have no redeemable skills except, you know. I'm already going hungry. I'm afraid to survive... I will have to turn to crime." Those words displeased Adonis, as well as Mr. Jiro. Mr. Jiro sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Do you want to help people?"

"Yessir."

"If you come to this school, what is your goal?"

Adonis took a second to think. He hadn't considered these questions before. "I would want to become a good enough hero to assemble a group of heroes to destroy every single villain in Detroit."

Mr. Jiro laughed. "Destroy is not a word we use in Japan regarding villains." His laugh stopped abruptly. "Two more questions. I know you have the physical skills to enter this school. If I admit you, will you be willing to study as much as possible to compensate for your lack of skills now?"

"Yes, sir. I am unable to study right now. But once I get classmates who can help me, I am prepared to sink all my time into it."

"Good. Final question. What is your Talent?"

"Increased physical skills."

Mr. Jiro rolled his eyes. "I told you I can tell when you are lying. And with your father's and mother's Talents, I know you have an interesting one."

Adonis took a deep breath. He had never said his Talent out loud to anyone before. "I can summon things I have killed." Mr. Jiro's eyes narrowed.

"Explain it to me."

"My Talent allows me to summon things I have already killed. For example." Adonis held his hand out. A small rabbit made of dark purple and black energy sat in the palm of his hand. "I can summon them and make them do my bidding. I can also manifest the animal's abilities. For example, again." The rabbit disappeared, and black energy snaked up his legs. "I can't have the thing summoned and use its abilities simultaneously, so I have to dismiss it to manifest its skills."

Adonis took off down the hallway running at about 3 times the average person's speed. Normally he was twice as fast as an average person from raw training, but the rabbit's power helped him quite a bit. "I normally just use bugs and small rodents. I only really use the ant, mantis, rabbit, and tick. The ant increases my strength, the mantis my striking, the rabbit my legs obviously, and the tick for durability. But since they are small animals, the change isn't huge. Like the tick just helps me take punches. It doesn't negate them at all."

Mr. Jiro absorbed the information. "I am glad I made that official stay away. Cut off your Talent, please. Does it work with humans?"

Adonis lowered his head. "Yes."

"How do you know?"

"My sister's killer."

"You killed him?"

"Yes. But I do not control his summon anymore."

"Why?"

"The first time I summoned it, I beat the image of him so bad I destroyed it. I lost control of it."

"Could you manifest his Talent?"

"I sensed I could. But I didn't."

"This is incredibly interesting. Have you thought about killing anyone in Japan?"

"Yeah. I've been mugged twice. Fortunately, they weren't capable enough to be a threat."

"What? Where do you live." Adonis told him the area of Osaka.

"Oh, of course." The man sat down on a bench. He thought for a few minutes while Adonis waited awkwardly. "I'm not gonna be one of those Japanese that think killing should be avoided at all costs. But under no circumstance should you kill while in service of this school. Do you understand that?"

"I understand, sir. But I don't plan to kill anyone to defend my life."

"Why not?"

"I am not that valuable."

A little later, Adonis walked out of the administration building with a bag of school uniforms and materials like books and pencils. Mr. Jiro had been so thoughtful and even gave Adonis a phone. He said it was a temporary setup until Adonis got enough money to buy his own. Adonis was incredibly grateful for this help and told the man he would do anything he asked.

"Adonis!" He heard someone shout his name. It was Banko.

"Oh hey, what's up. Did you get in?" Adonis said.

Banko tackled Adonis in a hug. "Yeah! At first, I was super nervous, but I thought about what you said about nerves. That was my best showing ever! Did you get in?"

Adonis smiled to himself. "Yeah, I did."

"Nice! Oh, wait! Do you live in Osaka?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Great, do you want to come over to my house? My parents set up a party if I were to get in. There's gonna be my whole family and friends there!" Adonis stopped and thought. He had never gone to a party, much less a social gathering. But he was hungry, and certainly, there would be food there.

"Sure, why not."