Mia awoke in an unfamiliar room and was bound tightly to a bed by several bars of steel. Before she could react, the pink-haired woman standing over her was already speaking: "-gue host, I state again! You thought that you could escape the long eye of Urasaria Academy, but your criminal days end today, mongrel. I will give you two choices: to fight for the military or fight for Urasaria. If you refuse, you shall be ground alive and scattered among us students as food. I have killed and eaten hundreds of rogue scum like you, and one more will be no different. Your bones will provide great power to my Revenant."
"…er... I'm not a host…" mumbled Mia.
A trumpet appeared in the woman's hands. "Would you like to retract that little statement, worm? I could kill you with a single toot of this horn of truth. You are kept ignorant by the media we control as to how us students truly act, but now I will exact-"
"I know students don't act like this."
"Uh, yeah, we do."
"No, you don't. You're normal women, just desensitized to violence and lesbianism. You just think it's funny to lie to civilians."
"One, it is, and two, fuck you for not playing along. I already hate you."
Mia sighed. "Well, I-I'm not a host, so why am I bound up?"
"Uh, because you are a host."
"I'm not."
"No, you are."
"I'm not."
"Fuck this! I'm waiting for Aimee."
She turned and walked out. Mia waited for her to realize if Mia actually were a rogue host, she could not leave her alone in here, then the woman quickly realized and stepped back inside.
The woman sat down and browsed absentmindedly on her phone. Her name was Makoto, and she took it as a rigid fact that anything involving work should be left to someone else: typically Aimee. Whether the fear she could have induced in Mia was wrong did not really enter her mind: to Makoto the discomfort of others had always approached her as ideas to be dispelled, whether via humor or minimization. It was not entirely that she was insensitive to the suffering of others, but rather that she viewed them as she did fiction: there was always a relentless failure of reality in Makoto's mind.
Soon another woman entered, and Mia felt a little excited as she recognized her as Urasaria's student-president, Aimee Sato. She was a muscular butch whose black hair was rather uneven, and she wore a denim vest to which she always had a knife affixed. Her Urasaria badge read: MAD DOG. "Okay, what happened?"
"This chick claims she's not a host, but she is, so I'm pretty sure she's either lying or brain damaged." said Makoto. "She turned up unconscious at the front gate. She's already been tested."
"…okay." Aimee sat down. "Um, why do you claim you're not a host, miss…?" She looked to Makoto. "…miss…?"
"Er, she doesn't know my name." said Mia. "It's Mia. Mia Schultz."
Aimee looked over to Makoto, and as she had many times, wonder what it was that drove her to be friends with this monumental moron. She had become a friend of location for Aimee, someone whom she only interacted with primarily because they were in the same place and that she had known her since she entered Urasaria. "Okay. I'm Aimee, and this other woman here is not important. I'm Urasaria's student-body president."
"Decided by kills, not popularity, by the way." said Makoto. "Violence over democracy. Like the Urasaria motto says: when a host-"
"She doesn't need to know that." sighed Aimee.
Mia knew the rest of that motto: when a host by their reprehensible behavior practically cries out to be destroyed, it is our moral duty to oblige them of their wish. It is mostly a motto students prefer not to tell civilians of, along with similarly violent language; she knew that students referred to what they did not as investigating but hunting. She had often attempted to appropriate student language in such a way, as if her own individuality was a strand of hair unfortunately intruding upon the bald nape she desired.
"But, um, Mia." said Aimee. "It's okay if you're a rogue host. I don't know what Makoto told you before I got here, but we're not going to hurt you. You would just need to have your Revenant removed or join Urasaria or the military."
Mia sighed. "B-But I can't be a host. I don't have the gene for Volgari proteins, I can't… I can't host a Revenant. I wish that I could, but I can't."
"Do you have a test result proving that?"
"My mother would have it. Alina Schultz. I-I was tested when I was 16."
"Her phone is over here." Makoto picked it up out of the corner, and before she could go through it, it disappeared from her hands and into Aimee's. "Hey, what the fuck?"
"You couldn't even ask her what her name was, I'm not letting you handle this." said Aimee. "Mia. Do you remember anything before you woke up here?"
"I was visiting my father at Ocean Prison. I left, and I felt someone- someone attacked me, and I woke up here. I was on my way home to my mother."
"Okay. Um, gimme a minute, please. I'm going to have someone from the infirmary give your mom a call and explain what's going on, so she doesn't worry." Blue tendrils burst from Aimee's wrists and she disappeared. In the ten seconds she was gone, Mia became aware that there was blood on her own mouth, though it seemed not from any wounds she bore. Aimee reappeared, blue tendrils retreating into her wrists. "Okay. Just need to wait, u-uhm. Probably feeling uncomfortable with all the restraints, right?"
"A-A little bit." Mia coughed.
"Let me undo them some." Aimee reached over and bent a few of the steel bars restraining Mia back. "Better?"
"Thank you."
Makoto noted that Aimee had fumbled some with unrestraining Mia; clearly she was nervous for rather predictable reasons, physically attractive as Mia was. She resolved to treat this new weakness in Aimee as she did any other in her friend: mercilessly mocking her for it in private. And throughout every following conversation she observed between the two, did Aimee stutter or tense in some way; not entirely expressed only in word but through the architecture of her body.
Aimee spoke. "So, we have to keep you here until we confirm you don't have the host gene, but…"
"Yeah, except you're either a lying host or a medical marvel and one of those is way more common than the other." said Makoto. "Rogue hosts lie as easily as they breathe. I wouldn't believe you if your tongue was notarized."
"I don't think she's lying." said Aimee.
"Well, I guess she did have brain damage when she got brought in. Maybe her memory is all busted up. Plus that glassy-eyed shit at the start? ... Tell you that later."
"Brain damage? Glassy eyes - what are you talking about?" said Mia.
"Makoto, just leave." sighed Aimee. (Makoto snickered and left.) "I'm sorry that you have to live in a world where Makoto's mother chose to give birth."
"What was it she said about brain damage? Both of you keep saying I was tested, but I-I don't understand what you mean and I feel like I'm being p-pranked again. You took a blood sample?"
"I promise you aren't being pranked. Maybe Makoto would, but I'd never do something like that. Umm... specifically, it's that Saya, one of our medics, was able to heal you. Medical Revenants don't work on non-hosts. You had some brain damage from being knocked unconscious by an electrical Revenant, but it's fully healed now."
"…alright. But I still feel some blood on my mouth. Is that not mine?" She made to move her arms, and Aimee nodded as she bent back her restraints fully, so Mia could wipe her mouth on her sleeve.
"I don't think it is. She said there weren't any other wounds on you. But you probably have a Revenant now for the same reason you had someone else's blood on your mouth, since, umm… that was the only other trace we found."
"...I d-don't understand." muttered Mia. "I don't understand how it could flip my genetics l-like that. I-It's not that I'm not grateful if it's true, it's that it shouldn't be possible. I don't produce Volgari proteins."
"Well, um… I don't know. It'd have to be gene therapy, but I thought that doesn't work in humans. Something about the immune system shutting it out?" Aimee winced. "Hey, the important thing is you're a host now, and… look, I-I don't think you're lying. Maybe a Revenant did this to you. Maybe- um, I don't- sorry. Do you want anything to eat or drink while we wait for your test results? I-I should've asked that earlier."
"Er, water, if that's alright."
"Okay."
Blue tendrils burst from Aimee's wrists, and she disappeared, then reappeared outside of the room, in Urasaria's infirmary.
"You can thank me for making you look great by comparison, by the way." said Makoto. "I'm always looking out for you."
"Yeah, thanks, now she'll associate me with you." said Aimee. "I can't believe Hirogane was stupid enough to leave you alone with her. You didn't even ask her what her name was?"
"Hey, I was leaving that for you, stud. Not my fault you're fucking hopeless when it comes to acting normal around women. Stuttering and anxiety are not attractive traits, you know."
"Yeah, okay. I remember when you told me your first year that you masturbated so much your fingers were pruned for a year. You've never met a situation you couldn't ruin with your sexuality."
"At least I don't have to repent every time I think a woman is hot, unlike you."
"I just don't judge women by their appearance like you do."
"No, you're just ashamed of being a lesbian, but you call yourself predatory because that's a nicer word than sinful." Makoto shrugged. "Anyway, what do you need?"
"I was just getting her a glass of water."
"Oh, that's nice."
This type of banter was typical between the two; why Aimee put up with it, she surmised only as loneliness and that Makoto's debauchery provided a useful antidote against the conservatism of her own religious upbringing.
Aimee sighed and went to Saya's office in the infirmary. Saya was a black-haired woman who dressed modestly, and the infirmary's secondary medic - she always referred to herself as a medic rather than a host. "Hey, I just need a glass of water."
Saya nodded, pulling one of the glasses out from her desk and handing it to Aimee. Streams of black fog extended from Saya and transformed into water as it filled the glass.
"Is Luna in today?"
"She is, but she asked for time alone. She wanted to try socializing a little."
Aimee nodded, but figured the infirmary's freckled chef was likely cooped up in her office. It was known around Urasaria that it took Saya to get anything out of Luna - whether they were best friends or best girlfriends was something speculated but never certain. "How's that going?"
"She's… still in her office. I should check on her."
Saya left, and Aimee sighed as she sat in her chair, turning to Makoto. "Okay. Anyway, I'm not letting you back in when I give this to her, so get out what you wanna say now."
Makoto snickered. "She's so fucking hot."
"Not really what I was focusing on."
"Oh, now we're back to religious guilt again? Won't let yourself admit it?"
"Look, she's pretty, but I don't even know if she's a lesbian."
"If she keeps the Revenant, she'll become one anyway. And if she's not single, she'll leave whoever she's dating once the personality changes start and she sends them a bouquet of severed heads for Valentine's Day thinking it's cute."
Aimee frowned. She wished someone would get her such an adorable gift. She had become marinated in host culture, more specifically student culture, to where death and gore had long ceased to have any effect but pleasure on her. She felt frustrated over her attraction to Mia, though it was not a religious guilt she felt, rather a general guilt she always had over her attractions; she had not only a fear of being misinterpreted, but an interrogation of her motives behind such, as if they needed to be purified before she would allow them to become action.
She wondered if it was because she had felt not much to be proud of in herself; her Revenant was naturally strong enough that she had thought almost anyone could have become student-president with it; and if she were attempting to compensate such with a surplus of empathy away from herself. This was another difference between herself and Makoto; Makoto would let her bitchiness be known, yet Aimee internalized everything and grew ulcers.
Lastly Aimee checked in with Hirogane, who was Urasaria's primary medic and a man who wore an ornamental white robe with black splotches. "What did her mom say?"
"Said the same thing -- swears she doesn't have a Revenant or the gene for Volgari proteins. I asked if she could fax over her test result. Should be coming over in a few minutes."
"A fax? Why not a fucking email?" said Makoto.
Hirogane shrugged. "S'what I grew up on."
"I forget sometimes you're much older than you look." said Aimee. "Kinda nice hosts don't age."
"Until you're 800 and you were born in a country that doesn't exist anymore." said Makoto. "Old age, lesbianism, and hosthood. Most people barely survive the loneliness of one of those."
Aimee rolled her eyes, then went over to Mia's door. Makoto mimed like she was following her, until with one hand Aimee picked her up by her collar and deposited her around. "Go." She stepped through the door and sat across from Mia. "Hey, sorry for the wait. Your mom said she's sending over the test results now, so."
"Alright."
"Um, so- I guess I mentioned who I was earlier, but I wanna reassure you again that you're not in trouble. Maybe you're not a host, maybe you are, but I'm not going to hurt you or let anyone else hurt you."
"You're Urasaria's student-president, aren't you?" Mia laughed nervously. "I'm- a bit of a fangirl, but I've never gotten to see you out and about before."
"Um, yeah, that's right. I… mostly handle students getting themselves in trouble. Assigning investigations, helping out if something happens pretty close to campus. Medical marvels getting dropped off at the front gates and m-making me nervous, that type of stuff. Sorry."
Hirogane stepped inside holding a sheet of paper. "She didn't have Volgari proteins before. She has them now. You were tested when you were sixteen."
Mia nodded. Her pillow had been damp the entire week after that result.
"So, medical marvel to host a Revenant without proteins, or another Revenant gave it to her." said Hirogane. "She doesn't have an allergy to Penxeno, either. Saya already checked her with Blackburn."
Mia smiled and was a little giddy, although with that there was a counterwax against such hope. "I- is there any possibility it could die out? I-If I weren't actually producing proteins."
"The colony won't take without proteins." said Aimee. "Right, Hirogane?"
"S'right."
"When will it activate?" said Mia.
"Sometime within the next few weeks." said Aimee. "And then, um… do you want to keep it?"
Mia nodded. "Absolutely. I've always wanted to join Urasaria, assuming it- yes, I do."
Aimee smiled as Hirogane left. "Okay, good. I can go over that with you now. So, you would start out with being given a tablet, and-"
"I know." nodded Mia.
"…the mentors?"
"Yes."
"The rankings?"
"Yes. I've read about it all online or heard it from students directly."
Aimee wondered how much of Mia's information was correct; she knew of one redheaded student who told civilians that all students had a bomb implanted in themselves that destroyed their Revenants upon death. "Alright. But ask me if you need any clarification, okay?"
"Er, I did need to ask something. I know that Revenants turn women gay. What happens if you're already a lesbian?"
"You keep your sexuality."
"Oh, thank god."
"Yeah, it's just a flip in the rate of sexuality. Sometimes you get straight women who get turned gay and they aren't sure whether to be grateful or not."
Mia laughed. "So they're doubly-blessed. God, I just hope it actually does take, I've just... I've wanted to be a student for so long, but I-I couldn't produce the proteins, you know?"
"Kinda surprising to hear you say that. I mean, not that it's bad, but civilian women usually don't like Urasaria. I didn't really consider that someone could grow up wanting to kill for a living like we do."
"Then perhaps I'll continue to surprise you." Mia sat up and smiled as Aimee pulled up a chair. "But you're ridding society of violent people. You're in a community where lesbianism is the default. Civilian mockery and insults and abuse don't mean anything, and you're the architect of your own circumstances. That's what appeals to me about it."
Aimee subtly noted that Mia had not spoken of the actual primary purpose of Urasaria; to protect civilians from violent hosts; but perhaps that was such a foundational assumption it was not worth noting. "Can't say I didn't feel a lot of that when I first joined, too. Guess it's different since I was born with my Revenant. Feels like it's mostly been a different type of stress compared to civilian life, but I wouldn't have anything else to compare it to, really."
"Then I'll be sure to fill you in." chimed Mia. "But you're providing a much kinder introduction to Urasaria than that other woman did."
Aimee nervously laughed. "I'm sorry again about Makoto. I mean, I'm going to talk to her about that and tell her it's not acceptable, and-"
"I get the feeling she's been told that a lot." Mia laughed.
"True. But I got presidency a few months ago, so now she has to listen."
Mia nodded. "Since May 1st, yes. You're... a lot nicer than the fan profiles made you out to be, admittedly. But most of those student profiles that fans write are from non-locals."
"That makes sense, yeah. Only time most students run into civilians is investigating them." Aimee looked to Mia, thought about saying something, then did not.
"I know you recognized my name."
"Same one?"
"My father is Stefan Schultz, yes, and the memorability of that acronym didn't help with the media." Mia sighed. "But we've both been caught in that distortion, haven't we? The way I was treated when I was just a young girl. Sometimes I worry if I let myself display all of the anger I actually had around it, I would end up... well. We should, er, switch subjects. Something else. Back to my sudden Revenant?"
Aimee nodded. "So, as for the original kidnapping, one issue with Revenant investigations is hosts don't typically leave much evidence, so…"
"I assume there weren't any samples taken of my clothes. But I did wake up with blood on my mouth. Was that my own?"
Aimee felt embarrassed. "Kinda assumed it was your's. We didn't check it or anything. Most we're going to be able to do is find who dropped you off here, at least, since the academy is under surveillance. They're already working on that, but um, once your Revenant activates, we'll have a better idea. Might be a clue there, too, depending on what it is. Kinda why they're not going to let you leave until then."
Mia shook her head. "That's alright. I thought they wouldn't, but I've wanted to be a student for years. Getting to look around campus will be wonderful."
"You mean around the infirmary? They're not going to let you out anywhere besides here."
"…oh."
Aimee nervously laughed. "Sorry. I trust you, but it's not my decision. I'm sorry. But I'll be helping you find out once we know more, u-um, if you want."
"I would. Thank you."
Aimee would not be normally involved in an investigation, yet she knew she would be because of Mia; for a moment she could delude herself into believing that a single woman on the planet cared if she was a good investigator. Yet this ostensibly altruistic act guilted her, and she wondered at her own desire, for by some strange sanctity did she feel things needed to be pure with herself; others were allowed ulterior motives, but not herself.
This construct had bound itself with intensity through her corporeal being, however spiritually located such origins were; it had been easy for her to cast God out in thought, but harder still was why he remained in herself. Her own thoughts walked through a hallway of groping hands that interrogated her movement, and she thought such a self-centered restriction strange, for none others she encountered had such limitations of thought.
For now she blinked such things clear from her mind. She had always been adept at stowing such things away into the vacuoles of the every day, however heavily these anxieties would later exert themselves upon her being. She had been student-president for about two months after leading the rankings in May, yet still could not settle herself into her role comfortably. She was expected not only to continue her student role as the finder and murderer of criminal hosts, itself no difficult task for her, but also the mediator of student issues; of translating the dictums of the academy's facility; and dealer of punishment as necessary. These were not skills she possessed.
Though there are many words yet to be spilled over the lives of hosts, what will suffice for now is to note the integralness of their Revenant to themselves and from which all traits flower. A glance at the personality of a host in some ways always suggests back to hosthood, whether it be in the many uses or abuses of their legal immunity, or in their tendency for rebellion, the ability to destroy others and themselves far more than is allowable by laws natural or written; thus there is always the difficulty of reconciling a population whose survival is not dependent on traits of kindness nor agreeableness, but rather methods of murder and measures of violence.