Morning Melancholy

She was dreaming. She was in a pod of some sort, flying through space. She could see the stars whiz past her in a blur. She couldn’t sense anything, she couldn’t feel anything, she was simply drifting through the stars.

There was a splash, suddenly her peace was disturbed. The window in front of her that had shown the stars now showed nothing but water. The front opened up, the water rushed in, cold and salty. She swam toward the light above, the pod that had been her world sinking into the deep beneath her. She broke the surface, taking her first breath of air. All around her was nothing but water, but as a wave caught and lifted her, she could see land far off in the distance. She started kicking with her little legs and swam her way there.

Memories from her childhood flashed before her eyes. Being picked up by two men in uniform. Those two running away after she hit one of them. Going to the orphanage. Dealing with other children. Having to deal with the authorities after getting into too many fights and putting too many in the hospital. Realizing that if this continued, she would find herself having to fight the pro heroes that were everywhere. Taking the Hail Mary and applying to Shiketsu, being amazed after being offered a chance. Passing the Entrance exam and meeting her new classmates.

Visions of the future overtook the dream. It was raining. Those she called her classmates, and even friends, were laying around her, dead and dying. They had stood against her, and all had failed. She saw her hand ripping off Orochi’s heads until her regeneration failed and she bled out. She saw herself smashing Shinkan’s train head open, smoke and steam bubbling from the coal-streaked blood. She grabbed Jugo’s arms from behind, and with a push from her foot on his back, ripped them out of the sockets. Her hands were covered in blood. Her clothes were covered in blood. Everything was covered in blood. She was happy that everything was covered in blood. She was laughing. Goading them. Mocking them. Pro-heroes arrived, trying to stop her from destroying everything. She gathered energy in her hand, launching it forward, the explosion swallowed everything, and…

Kaylee’s biological alarm clock woke her up at the normal time for her: 4 AM. It wasn’t that she went to bed super early, she just didn’t need much sleep, never had. If she slept more than 4 hours a night, she considered it sleeping in. She sat up in her sleeping bag. It was half her size, but she had a second one for her torso. Her dream was already fading from her memory, as it almost always did. She rarely remembered her dreams, but she assumed they were pleasant as she always seemed to wake up happy.

She looked around the room. It was a storage closet, one that was out of the way, and she hadn’t had any troubles with anyone coming in yet. She stood up, rolled up the sleeping bags, and put them away in a crate she had broken open where she stored her other stuff. She got out a pair of training clothes, put them on, and put her pyjamas away next to the sleeping bags. Just in case someone did come in here, they would be unlikely to find it. With her morning storing sorted, she made her way out of the closet, and into the gym.

Kaylee was proud of herself finding the room that had become her home in this foreign land. When she realized upon entering Shiketsu’s gym that it was 24 hours, she put 2 and 2 together to get free accommodations. She hadn’t thought far enough ahead to sort out housing, her Japanese wasn’t proficient enough at the time, and she hadn’t the money anyway. She had been one of the first to arrive on entrance exam day and had had enough time to scout out the massive place. The closet was on the lowest level, normally reserved for heavy duty quirk training, but there was a larger storage closet that seemed to have been built, leaving this one empty aside from empty crates. Since everything Kaylee had fitted into a backpack, she had no issue moving in. She simply entered the gym at 10 minutes to 10 pm, just before the end of the receptionist’s shift, kept herself busy with either exercise or homework until her bedtime, then made her way to the closet when no-one was looking.

Walking out of the closet, her footsteps were the only audible noise. How many people would be training at 4 AM? She liked fitting a couple of hours of exercise in these early hours of the day. No-one was there to argue about who’s turn it was on the equipment, no noisy background arguments or non-students using the services. It was peaceful and let her put thoughts out of her mind. She loaded up her barbell with a couple of 100kg plates for her Overhead Press warmup. She had to use specialized equipment if she really wanted to push herself, but this was just lightweight. She was (rightly, in her mind) considered the physically strongest in her class, and if she didn’t want Shinkan, Orochi or even Bobby catching up, then she had to work for it. After a dozen reps, she upped the weight to something a bit challenging. Now that she was decently warmed up, she went through a range of exercises and lifts; bench, curls, squats, etc. until she felt that she had put in a decent showing for the morning. It had taken her about 45 minutes all in, which was just right for her exit strategy.

She made her way to her favorite changing room, the one on the ground floor. Each floor had their own changing rooms, with specialized facilities for each one, but this one was connected to the swimming pools, along with the Jacuzzi, sauna, and steam rooms. She loved getting to steam, sauna, shower in the morning, and not having to share the rooms with anyone was the cherry on top. As she relaxed in the sauna, Kaylee thought about how her life had been since getting into Shiketsu. She had gone from bottom of society, to living in what was basically a 5-star hotel, with complimentary clothes, sundries, food, and (even if they weren’t aware of it) housing. She had fallen on her feet, to be sure!

10 minutes, she left the sauna and went through the shower. Free body soap, shampoo, and conditioner! Unlimited hot water! What a place! Stepping out of the shower onto the heated tile floor, she thought, how could things be better?
She stopped. Her mind snapped back to yesterday’s events. Her team losing, to one of the bitches no less! HER losing to one of them! Her hands balled into fists, her Ki rising the temperature around her. Christopher messing up the distance. The water on her began to boil off. Sora flitting Edith around, out of her reach. Kaylee’s hair began to move. Noah fucking up, not securing the items! Had he just done that; they’d have won whatever happened! The air began to crackle, the sound snapping her out of her anger. She took a deep breath. She had to control her anger; it would surge up inside her, and if she wasn’t careful, it could cause her to do real damage. The upside was that she was now dry without having to lie around in a towel. A useful trick to remember. Going over to the automatic clothes cleaner, she got her clothes on for the day, and walked out of the changing room.
There was no-one else in the facility aside from Kaylee and the night receptionist. Kaylee timed her exit of the building for just after their shift began, so they would not know if she had been in there for 10 minutes or 10 hours. She waved to the receptionist and walked out into the pre-dawn morning.

She walked about in the early hours. The city was quiet, but still not silent. Guess that was part of modern society. Cities never slept. That was fine, just meant there was no one to complain when she ran too quickly or jumped too high. There was a beauty to a city slumbering; all the hidden details of various architects got their chance to stand out when there weren’t people trampling all over the place. She liked taking the time to look around in these hours, it let her build a sense of familiarity without having to deal with others either staring at her for being a foreigner, or staring at her for being almost two feet taller than most women, let alone teenagers. She stopped in front of a café with a cheesy name. Did “Thanks a Latte” even translate into Japanese and preserve the joke? She looked at her reflection and sighed. It wasn’t that she was jealous, certainly not of one of those bitches, but she had a bunch of solid friendships and a boyfriend, while Kaylee… well she wasn’t alone, but it still felt like she was an outsider. Bobby, Hifumi, and Shinkan were all thick as thieves, Jugo and Noah would ramble on about esoteric topics she could hardly follow, let alone join in, she just felt on the outside. She put her hand on her head, then stepped back, so she could see her height from a more outside perspective. She was tall, taller than anyone else in the school. Was it that off-putting? She looked at her right arm and flexed; were girls with muscle doomed to unpopularity? Putting her hands on top of her chest, Kaylee looked down and sighed. Maybe “cowtits” really was an insult in Asia.
She felt hands grabbing her, looking down expecting for there to be some pervert, and while there was, it was far, far worse…