Today was my first mid-term. I did well enough to pass.
The rest of the day was normal, well, as normal as it could be.
One of the funny things that happened was that Felicia was extremely pissed today because I had once again refused Black Cat's request to go on a heist, even though she had called again yesterday. My silent treatment only further increased her blood pressure.
Next, I had another study session with Gwen later today in the library.
While studying, I noticed Felicia looking at us sneakily, her face covered by a book. I was pretty sure I had heard the sound of her gnashing her teeth as she glared daggers while watching me and Gwen laugh together.
It was too much fun seeing Felicia behave like that. Her jealousy festered whenever I ignored her or spent quality time with other women. It wouldn't take long for her to reach her breaking point.
Anyway, enough about my jealous feline stalker.
After we completed our study session, Gwen and I discussed her codenames. Gwen had given it much thought the previous day, so we were ready to discuss it today.
A few potential names, such as Spider-Woman, Ghost-Spider, and Silk, were considered but rejected. Too simple. Too spooky. Too… silky.
In the end, we agreed on Arachne as her code name. Did I say it was me who suggested the name?
Sorry, Julia, in this reality, this name doesn't belong to you.
The design for her costume was still a work in progress, but I'd already corrupted Gwen enough to convince her of the importance of looting thugs. Give it a week, she'd have enough cash to fund her vigilante wardrobe.
After that, I headed to the dojo. Training was about the same as yesterday — horse stance, sparring, humiliation. But this time, instead of going another round with Colleen, she threw me at a punching bag.
So, here I was punching and kicking the bag, taking out all my frustrations from the last two days with Colleen on the bag.
"Hit faster. Don't just use a few types of attacks. Use variety and mix them up," Colleen said, standing beside me.
I grunted and tried to mix various palm and fist attacks on the bag.
"Use your legs, too," Colleen said. Then she hit my leg with the stick and said, "Do not stay in one place while attacking, keep on moving. Good footwork is as important as strength and striking techniques."
I grunted loudly and began mixing kicks into my attacks while trying to incorporate footwork into my movements.
Colleen shook her head after watching my amateur footwork. "Your footwork is too sloppy. Your stance is unstable. You take too much time switching legs."
Why does everyone have a fucking problem with my footwork?
Then she hit the stick at various parts of my legs to tell me what to fix. The stick rapped against my calves, thighs, and even my ankle, correcting every mistake. It continued until my stance was correct in her eyes.
I continued attacking the bag without stopping. Meanwhile, whenever my stance slipped, she would hit the part of the leg with incorrect posture with the stick.
After watching me for a while, she returned to her students to review their training, "Don't stop until you've done one thousand arm strikes and one thousand leg strikes."
I almost sighed in relief when she left, but my hands didn't stop moving. If I did, she'd appear out of nowhere like a ghost with that damn stick.
By the time I hit the final count, my arms and legs felt like jelly. I also received a system notification at that time.
Your Strength has improved through continuous efforts.
Strength Level Up (F1->F2)
I felt a burning pain in my muscles, which lasted for a few seconds.
After resting for a few minutes, I returned to the punching bag to test my newfound strength. I threw a straight punch at it. The punching bag was too heavy, so even if I hit it with all my strength, it would barely move. But this time, it swung back farther than ever before. I practiced on it for another ten minutes to get used to my improved strength.
By the time I finished, the rest of the students had already left. Colleen slid into a stance and beckoned me for another sparring session.
Let's see if my improved strength will be of any use in sparing against her.
I attacked first by kicking her knee with my right foot. She sidestepped easily, and my foot kicked empty air. Then she didn't give me time even to pull my foot back; she kicked my left shin, and I immediately lost my balance.
"Focus. Be quick. Your enemy won't wait for you to reset your stance," Colleen said flatly.
I nodded, quickly getting up to take a fighting stance again.
I threw a jab at her, and as expected, she blocked it easily. But it was a feint all along. I twisted my body and threw a heavy cross at her. She countered by hitting the underside of my arm with the blade of her palm. Then drove the same palm into my chest. It was too late to dodge or block, but this time I reacted fast enough to tighten my chest muscles. Even then, the air was immediately forced out of my lungs from the impact.
I calmed down after taking a few breaths. I once again took a stance.
This time, Colleen attacked me first.
In a blur of movement, she quickly reduced the distance between us, only stopping when the distance was around one palm length. She attacked with her right outer forearm, aiming at the side of my head. I hurriedly stepped back to create distance between us and somehow dodged the attack. But she immediately followed with a right cross, driving it into my solar plexus.
"Focus, Kevin. Do not relax after one dodge. A fight doesn't end in a single move."
The sparring continued. Even with my increased strength, I performed just as I did yesterday. I dodged a few attacks. Every time, they were the first ones, and then each time, I was defeated in the second move.
Just as we finished the last sparring session of the day, I got another system notification. This time, it was something I had been waiting for a long time.
You have improved your skills through continuous efforts.
[Martial Arts] upgraded to Apprentice.
I immediately sat in meditation to digest the influx of information—breathing rhythm, proper fighting stance, correct way to strike, among others.
I opened my eyes and stood up.
"Hey," I said with fire burning in my eyes. "Let's have one more round."
I stood before her and assumed the fighting stance. The slight fluctuation on Colleen's face showed that she noticed the improvement in my skill from my stance alone.
Then her gaze turned impassive again as she took a fighting stance.
She punched me, aiming for my shoulder. I blocked her arm with my right outer forearm by hitting her inner forearm, attacking her.
She didn't even flinch, whereas I felt a stinging pain in my arm at the impact location. At least, I had successfully blocked her punch.
As Colleen instructed, I maintained my focus and kept it sharp on the spar. I punched her with my other arm, but as expected, she dodged it easily.
Then came the kick to my ankle. I took a step back immediately to dodge it, but that's when my lucky streak ended. A punch hit me in the gut, and I lost the round.
Despite once again losing pathetically, I was excited this time. I dodged two of her attacks in the same round and even managed to counterattack once.
That was progress.
"Don't get complacent. The path of martial arts is long and arduous. Don't let a small victory get to your head," Colleen said and turned around and went inside.
She didn't invite me inside to apply the salve on my bruises. Maybe she thought that since I would be alright by the next day, there was no reason to waste the salve.
I smiled and left the dojo, utterly unconcerned about her earlier cold attitude. I didn't progress just in my martial arts. I also progressed further with Colleen.
Name: Colleen Wing
Relationship:
Affection: 10
Loyalty: 5
After I challenged her dojo and further thrashed her students, her affection for me had already turned negative.
It only started increasing once I showed her my resolve in our first fight. But even then, it never went past 5.
But the moment she realised my martial arts had improved and further verified it in our last spar round, her impression of me finally became more favourable.
It proved that my strategy to conquer Colleen was on the right track.
—
I went home directly from the dojo. After bathing, I started studying. First, I revised my syllabus for the next midterm, then I started learning programming.
I wrapped up studying around nine-thirty, swapped into something decent, and headed out. It was time for my "date" with Kara.
She only really talked to me — maybe because I didn't flinch at the "mutant" label. We had grown quite close since our first meeting.
Once we were close enough, I had proposed the idea of our "date" to her. She liked it, and then we started going on dates once a week. This was our third time.
It was still the early times, so the mutant hatred was in its infancy. However, people often disliked those who differed from them.
Xenophobia isn't a defect of one race. It's the default setting for all of them.
A week ago, Magneto tried to turn Cape Citadel into his personal toy box, and some new kids on the block, calling themselves the "X-Men", swooped in to spoil the party.
Since then, every drunk at every bar thinks he's an expert on the "mutant problem." Are they the next step in evolution? Are they a threat to humanity? Blah, blah, blah.
Kara's skin flashing purple every time she used her powers was enough to brand her as a freak to the "normal" crowd. Throw in mind control, then forget distrust — they'd be lining up with pitchforks.
I drove to Kara's apartment, which she was renting, and messaged her to let her know I had arrived. She came out in a few minutes, covered head to toe with clothes, without even a peek of skin showing. She sat in the passenger seat beside me.
"Are you ready for today?" I asked with a smile.
Kara's face first showed nervousness, but then the nervous expression melted off to show a firm expression.
"Yes, I am," Kara said with conviction. "I am ready to do what I had hesitated to do the last time."
I smiled hearing that, and drove us to a shady part of the city. And lo and behold, true to its nature, we could already see some shady things happening in a shady alley.
"I beg you, please let me go," a woman sobbed as she pleaded with the two thugs in front of her, with their guns pointed at her.
"Bitch, don't you understand what we said? Strip if you don't want to die," one of the thugs said menacingly as he slapped the woman.
"Why are we even wasting our time? Let's cap the bitch then we can have our way with her body," the second thug said with a lecherous expression. "Personally, I don't mind."
The first thug spat in disgust. "Keep that necro-shit to yourself. I like mine breathing."
The woman's terror only deepened as she listened to the conversation of the thugs.
"And you, why are you so slow?" the first thug barked as he turned back to the woman. He fired a shot beside the woman's leg. The woman screamed in fear but understood the warning.
Tears poured down her face like a river as she started unbuttoning her top, while sobbing in between.
Kara stiffened beside me as she watched what happened in the alley.
Since I had parked the taxi a distance from the alley on the other side of the street with my headlights off, the thugs, too occupied with forcing the woman to strip, didn't notice when the taxi appeared nearby.
"It's okay if you are still not ready," I said reassuringly.
"No, I am ready," Kara said and then left the car. I also got off and followed behind her with my gun in my hands on the off chance things got awry.
The thugs only noticed her when she reached the alley entrance.
"Looks like today is our lucky day. We can enjoy a separate woman each," the first thug said with a malevolent grin.
He pointed the gun towards Kara, "Bitch, join her and start stripping too."
But Kara didn't move and just looked at them quietly.
"Are you deaf bitch?" the thug growled, seeing Kara ignore his order. "Come here right n—"
He stopped suddenly mid-sentence and turned around to face his fellow thug. The second thug was initially confused by the first, stopping mid-way, but his eyes widened in horror as he saw the first thug looking entirely purple. Not just him, but the woman had terror in her eyes as well.
"Shoot him," Kara ordered.
The first thug pointed his gun at the second thug.
"F-Frank, wh-what are you doing?" the second thug said in fear.
The thug's hand jerked, gun flashing. His partner dropped, skull bursting red across the alley wall. The woman shrieked.
"Shoot yourself," Kara gave another order.
The thug obediently put the gun to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. The woman didn't scream this time, but her eyes were filled with dread.
"Leave," Kara said.
The woman took a moment to realize that Kara was talking to her. She hurriedly buttoned the top and ran away like a pardoned criminal.
Kara and I returned to the taxi.
I had proposed the idea that she practice her powers to improve herself. It was too easy to convince her once she was close enough to me. I had to tell her that, given her current abilities, there was no way she could match Zebediah if he were as dangerous as she thought.
I suggested that she practice her powers on harmless people to gradually improve them. At the same time, once a week, I would take her out at night to let her practice her powers on thugs, while I provided her protection.
For our last two dates, she only injured the thugs by letting them fight each other while allowing the victim to run away. On the second date, I told her that just beating these thugs wouldn't solve anything. They would return to their evil ways once they healed.
I told her how the prison was useless against them, as someone would bail them out, then these thugs would be back on the street and would continue committing more crimes.
Nothing more needed to be said. I then took her to various locations to address the scattered crimes in the city. She still made them fight each other, but I noticed the thugs sustained more injuries after our little talk, though nothing life-threatening.
I didn't force her, as that would only backfire. I was ready to wait a few more weeks to decrease her inhibitions slowly, but the last thug we met fortunately reduced that time massively.
We heard him brag to his buddy as they stood beside a dead body, with bloodied knives in their hands.
He told how he was previously arrested for two murders, but because the gang he worked for had some connections in the precinct. After some 'negotiations', the cops let him go free.
Kara once again made them fight, but this time she made sure they both ended up crippled for life.
She looked shaken after that. While dropping her off, I had only told her, "There is no need to rush. We can wait till you are ready."
Just like that day, she looked shaken today as well. I gently took her hand in mine and squeezed it lightly.
"Do you wanna go back?" I asked with a concerned tone.
"No, I am ok," she said, shaking her head.
I smiled and started the taxi. "Good girl."
We left to look for our next victim of the night.
"Did I do the right thing?" Kara asked suddenly as she looked at me intensely through the rear-view mirror.
She looked desperate for approval. The thing Zebediah couldn't give her, she sought from me.
I smiled and gently patted her head. "You did the right thing."
"Hey, you will mess up my hair." Kara pouted. But the relief and happiness in her eyes at my approval were clear.
We continued our fight against crime. After some time, we decided to take a break.
I drove to a better part of the city. At this time, a few food shops and food carts were still open, but traffic was minimal.
Kara gave me a mischievous smile as she left the taxi and walked towards an ice cream cart.
Our little game.
We had started this game for our dates. We would find a place with few prying eyes, and then Kara would go to 'buy' something. Of course, in the minds of the shopkeepers, Kara already paid them. Since the command was small and harmless, Kara only needed to turn them purple for a split second to let the command work.
This served three purposes.
First, it taught her precise control of her powers.
Second, it further reduced her inhibitions.
I knew she had also started using her powers more to get by in day-to-day life than she had before meeting me.
And finally the third. The goal was to instill in her mind the idea that using her powers for personal gain was acceptable.
The fact that she was doing vigilante work less because she cared about others and more because she wanted to train her powers, subtly reinforced the notion that it was ok to use powers for personal gain.
Without it, she might even become a female version of Punisher, which would contradict my intentions for her. Hunting criminals was only for her to get used to killing freely without hesitation.
She came back with two cones, giggling as she handed me one. She didn't even look guilty anymore. That was progress.
After eating them, we hunted a few more criminals, and then I dropped her off at her apartment.
"I am proud of you, Kara. You were excellent today," I praised her with a smile.
"Really?" Kara giggled in delight, then, with a shy face, she turned around and left. "Bye, Kevin."