“I think we can let the old ladies gossip for a few minutes,” Olivia whispered once we’d finished washing the dishes. “We can probably either sneak back and finish our homework, or… we could hang out in my room for a few minutes before my mom realises we’re going and starts harping on us.”

  “Your room? And do what?” I asked blankly.

  “Read manga, play some games, maybe watch some streams,” she replied. “There’s plenty to do! Come on!”

  She peeked at our mothers for a moment, ensuring they were engrossed in their conversation, before pulling me around the counter and into her room. Compared to my plain and unassuming room back home, stepping into Olivia’s room was like stepping into a different world.

  Posters had almost completely obscured the plain white walls, all for some Japanese shows I’d never heard of, and a series of large bookcases filled with several complete manga series. At the far end of the room were a couple of beanbag chairs sitting in front of a massive television set.

  “Ahhh… I can finally relax!” Olivia declared as she collapsed into one of the beanbag chairs. “I can’t believe how stressful today was. I hope it was the exception, and not the rule.”

  She glanced over at me, then patted the other misshapen blob next to her. “Room for one more!”

  I walked over and sank awkwardly into the beanbag. It felt like my knees were sitting too high, and the sides of the ‘chair’ were collapsing inwards, pushing into my sides. After a couple of seconds, I couldn’t help but try to reposition myself.

  Olivia laughed. “What’s the matter? Never sat in a beanbag chair before?”

  “No, and now that I have, I never want to sit in one again,” I grumbled. Every time I lowered my hands to push myself to my feet, they sank into the soft, pliable material, trapping me in the chair.

  “Come on, just relax,” Olivia exclaimed. “We deserve a little downtime after what we’ve been through today.”

  Frustrated by my fruitless struggle, I just let the beanbag take me, and sank deeper.

  “See, isn’t that better?” Olivia asked.

  “Not really, but I’ll survive,” I muttered, glancing around the room. “You really like anime, huh?”

  “Anime, no. Manga, yes,” Olivia replied, reaching towards the nearest bookshelf and pulling out a random volume. As she flipped the book open to a random page, I saw it was worn and well-read. “I love the art style and the stories they tell. They’re far more interesting than the basic fantasy or sci-fi stories you get from Western comics.”

  “I’ve never read them,” I admitted. “I’ve seen a couple of kids around my old school reading them, but they never would have shared with me. May I?”

  Olivia nodded slightly and handed over the book.

  I was surprised to find the book was all in what I could only assume was Japanese. Despite being entirely in black and white, the drawings were highly detailed, with distinctive designs and expressive characters. After flipping through a couple of pages, I handed it back to her.

  “You read Japanese?”

  “Only enough to follow the stories,” Olivia admitted. “I used to read in English, but I got so engrossed in the stories that I convinced my mother to enrol me in some language classes.”

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  “It’s obvious you love them, based on how worn that book is. Do you sketch, or write?” I asked. “I did see you holding a sketch book earlier.”

  “I do… but I’m still learning. Please don’t ask to see my sketches,” she begged. “The book is messy and full of all my rough drawings. I want to put together a fresh book, full of drawings I take my time on. Maybe a couple panels, or even pages.”

  “Sure, if you promise to share the new book once you do,” I said.

  “Deal,” Oliva agreed, sinking back into her chair. The two of us sat there, just staring at the blank monitor. I had no interest in watching anything, and it seemed like Olivia was too tired even to pick up the remote.

  “Do you think every day is going to be this bad?” she finally asked.

  “Hopefully not,” I muttered. “From what I understand, Ruptures aren’t that uncommon around campus, but having more than one appear in a day is, and having more than one appear around the same building is unprecedented.”

  “The two we encountered today weren’t in the same building,” Olivia pointed out.

  “That’s true,” I replied. “Maybe we were just extremely unlucky.”

  “Or, inversely, we were very lucky that your friends were around,” Olivia said.

  I knew it was just a passing comment, and she didn’t mean anything by it, but it immediately reminded me of when I confronted Hairy earlier. The bull was aggressive, over protective, and a little simple, but he wasn’t a liar. So did that mean he really did know my father? And if so, what did that mean?

  “Something on your mind?” Olivia asked, letting her head slowly roll towards me. “You went quiet all of a sudden.”

  “Just thinking about something that happened earlier,” I muttered.

  “Care to share?”

  I hesitated, thinking about it for several long seconds before sighing. “Hairy said something before I came over here. I asked him if he’d ever encountered a Rupture before, and he told me he couldn’t answer the question, because he promised my father he wouldn’t.”

  “Your father?” Olivia exclaimed, bolting upright. “He knew your father? How?”

  “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be so confused. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to tell me; it’s just his mouth worked faster than his brain. Once he realised what he said, he took off, sprinting down the street like an Olympic athlete, and disappeared around a corner. Angelica didn’t seem to know what he was talking about, and I haven’t seen Tyberius since he ran off towards the Rupture, so all I can do is wait until Hairy gets back.”

  Olivia nodded slowly. “Is that possible? Was your father an empowered person? You never mentioned him before.”

  “I honestly don’t remember him much; he died when I was six,” I said. “But I know he was Empowered. Or more precisely, a Renegade."

  “What? You’re telling me he managed to stay with you and your mom for six years before he was discovered?”

  “At least,” I replied, shaking my head. “There’s more to the story, at least according to my mother, but it’s not something I want to discuss right now.”

  “Do you know what his power was?”

  “No idea. My mother doesn’t like to talk about him that much, and I’ve never asked. I know she loved him, but he’s also the reason she ended up on the blacklist for the last ten years,” I growled.

  “Really? Was she on the blacklist? No wonder you guys had such a hard time,” Olivia muttered. “No company with any government associations or contracts would touch her with a ten-foot pole. How’d she get off?”

  “I made a deal with the BEI. They technically couldn’t force me to come here because the law specifies that you need to emit a certain level of Instability. Since I don’t emit any Instability, I was able to bargain with the BEI. I would attend the school for a year, and participate in whatever experiments they wanted, in exchange for getting my mother off the list.”

  “And I appreciate your sacrifice,” my mother said softly from the door. I turned, or at least tried to; I was still stuck too deeply in the chair to get up. After a couple of seconds of struggling, Olivia grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. “I’m heading home, and I wanted to check how long you were planning on staying. I didn’t expect to find you relaxing instead of doing your homework.,”

  “We were just taking a break before getting back to it,” I started to explain, but my mother held up a hand.

  “Abigail told me what sort of day you two had. There’s no rush. As long as you get it done, it’s fine with me. I need to prepare for my new job tomorrow, so don’t stay out too late. If you still want to talk, I’ll be back at the house,” she said.

  “Alright, love you,” I said.

  “Love you too. See you soon,” she replied.

  After she left, Olivia leapt out of her chair, having no problems at all. “You two are so cute,” she giggled as she threw her arms around my shoulders.

  “Alright, alright,” I said, gently elbowing her in the ribs a couple times, and eliciting further giggles, until she let me go. “Break time is over, back to work.”

  “Aww… but I’m tired,” Olivia whined.

  “There’s no point in putting it off. We need to get it done before the end of the night,” I said. “And I have something else to do tonight, so let’s get it done.”

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