[Time Warp] And so it begins... (Vincent)

[Koty Hura]

[Japan. Eisai gakkō. March 2011]

Outside of an administrative person's office stood a very nervous boy, freshly thirteen, who was very clearly trying to make himself look as small as possible. He wore a brand new school uniform, brand new shoes, and his books were held tightly behind him. He'd been running his butt off to make it to the administrator's office on time, so his short spiky hair was a bit disheveled, and it was all anyone would manage to see if they payed him any attention. His face and eyes were pointed quite firmly at his toes.

Inside the office in front of him he could hear two male voices.. One higher pitched and a bit cocky, the other significantly deeper and more angry. Koty knew that the higher voice was the administrator.. He'd heard the man speaking with his mother on the phone the night before.

His first day at Eisai and Koty had already been late. He hadn't had time for breakfast, he had no money for lunch, his mother hadn't been awake to see him off, and here he was already causing friction with the staff. Stupid mutant powers.. But then they'd saved his friend's life, hadn't they? That had to mean something... Still, for the moment he was living in fear every time someone came within five feet of him.. that they would touch him and he would be blasted with their thoughts and fears and deepest, sickest desires....

Then the yelling stopped.. and the latch on the door clicked open. Koty jumped in surprise and stood quickly at attention. His eyes were wide and fearful and.. still pointed directly at his shoes. Today.. was kinda awful. And if the owner of the deeper, angrier voice was his trainer or teacher, today wasn't getting much better as it went on.

[Vincent Meian]

Vincent Meian was not amused.

He wasn't quite to the point of furious yet, but it was a fairly near thing as he argued extensively with the headmaster of the school. He had told the man two years ago that he wouldn't be taking on any new students, due to his contract with the school being negotiated to close in 2012, and his family to move to the United States immediately after. Taking on students now would mean abandoning them if he couldn't finish their training in the remaining time between now and then, something that the abnormally tall man detested. Even more than being backed into a corner like this.

He could do it. Theoretically. The boy's power wasn't one that he was immune to, but that was nothing new. Nor was it one that he could understand completely, but he at least had some defense against it. Telepathy of some sort - the school wasn't sure yet exactly what triggered it. It would be his duty to find out and manage the training of it as long as possible. Make detailed notes in case the boy needed to be transferred in a year and a half.

Eventually, it was proven that the younger man wasn't getting out of this. Despite the fact that his was one of the lowest case loads of the teaching staff, he had all of the hardest cases - the students that were too difficult to train, who rebelled and resisted, or who had other problems with the system or themselves. In other words, he had the students who would take a while. Well, now with this boy added, he'd have to up the timeline on the lot of them; more training each week, finer control and focus, fewer breaks.

Leaving the office in a bit of a huff, the tall man glanced around to find the young boy sitting (and the standing as if his seat had shocked him out of it) just outside. He was young, probably thirteen if Vincent read the file correctly, and he looked scared half to death. Then again, most kids did when they came here.

Well. Time to go, then.

["You're Hura Koty?"] he asked, stating the name clearly to the boy as he shut the door of the office behind him. At the affirmative, he nodded. ["Good; follow me."] Turning smartly, the older male walked off, his long legs putting him easily ahead of the much more normal-sized teen despite the fact that he slowed his strides to compensate. Still, he didn't move so fast to make the poor kid trip over himself - just fast enough to get back to his lesson room while he still had time to use it.

[Koty Hura]

The half-terrified young man hastily nodded to the trainer. "Yes S--" Whoops. Wrong language. ["Y-yes, Teacher. Hura Koty."] And with no introductions of any sort, the man had ordered Koty to follow him and take off. The boy looked up in surprise, then deadpanned to the side where Vincent was already walking away, his mouth moving wordlessly for a moment before he turned and sprinted for a moment to catch up, nearly dropping his books and tripping over his own feet in the process.

This man was.. large. He was very tall, especially for someone who appeared to be native here, and his walking speed, despite being reduced, was quite fast as well. All the yelling that Koty hadn't wanted or been able to make out had somehow been about him.. Guh. To top off the situation, Koty had extremely limited experience with male authority figures. Many of his teachers throughout the years had been female.. and certainly none of the men had been nearly as imposing or threatening or .. just large.. as this one.

If he'd been nervous and anxious before, he was terrified now. He shuffled quickly along behind the man, trying to gauge how far to follow, if he should stay directly behind the man or off to the side, if he should apologize for inconveniencing the man, if he should ask for this person's (who he could only assume was his new teacher) name.. After several moments of intense internal deliberation, Koty decided on being dead silent and keeping his terror to himself, walking just to the left of center behind the man so that he could be seen easily with a glance over the man's shoulder, and staying juuust out of reach. This put him close enough that he could stare straight down and still see Vincent's feet.

Unless Vincent had anything to say that required an answer, Koty would follow this way in dead silence all the way to the training room.

[Vincent Meian]

The slip of another language made the man quirk his eyebrow slightly but little more before he gave his order and made to follow it himself. Though he was upset (and rightfully so), it was not with the boy. Thus, as they walked, the amount of irritation drained until there was little to nothing left of it. It would not do to have his student be completely terrified of him on his first day.

Having become used to his unusual stature from his late teens onward, the teacher ahead of Hura was accustomed to people staring at him or avoiding eye contact, of having to defend himself and work not to frighten people, and how to learn when to duck in buildings made for much much smaller people than himself. It came with the territory, as it were; big people needed to be careful. As such, when he noticed that the boy had a hard time keeping up, his strides shortened to compensate and he paused to check rooms as they walked. Most were occupied; some were scheduled to be in use soon.

Once the room he'd been in previously had been identified, the tall man gestured the boy inside, still holding the file he'd been given. ["Come in,"] he stated, his tone already softer. ["Make yourself comfortable."]

[Koty Hura]

The change in pace had been easily recognized, and Koty cursed himself internally.. He was already a burden on this giant man, now he was making him wait. Horrible, horrible first impression. Not to mention that he'd slipped up in his nervousness and used English. English to speak to his new teacher! Gah! Surely, this man was going to.. Well, honestly Koty had no idea what he was going to do, but surely it wouldn't be pleasant in the slightest. Physical punishment was unlikely unless Koty somehow managed to truly offend him or break any rules he was unaware of, but.. There were an awful lot of ways teachers could exact revenge (deserved or not) on a student without ever laying a hand on them. Or even looking at them, honestly. In fact, just ignoring a student could be a fairly huge thing. Was that it? Would this unusually tall man even be able to bend his head down far enough to see Koty? Ugh. New schools sucked.

When they did finally reach a training room, though, the man's voice was softer. It was no less intimidating, and the man's figure was no less imposing.. and the entire situation was just as nerve-wracking as before.. but at least this man sounded less angry? That was.. probably good.... right?

Koty was told to come inside, and nodded hurriedly as he nearly jumped into the room. He took two steps to the side of the door and assumed the same posture from earlier. Hands holding his things clasped behind his back, shoulders dropped, eyes pointed firmly at the toes of his shoes. Softer voice or not, a command was a command, and Koty did not want to be on this person's bad side. Any other teacher.. just not this one. This guy could be scary wearing a maid's outfit holding a kitten in one hand and a bunny in the other in the middle of a field of pink flowers.

Wait.. comfortable? ..Fat chance of that happening. Still, maybe this was a test? Of, uh.. Maybe of Koty's understanding that this was this teacher's space? Or.. um.. uh....

["I am.. C-comfortable enough, Sensei? I am most sorry to be Sensei's b-burden. I would never intend to bring stress or.. o-or more work onto Sensei. I-if it pleases Sensei, I am perfectly able to stand... I-I am.."] Gulp. ["I am happy to wait here since Sensei has likely had no.. n-no previous warning that I was to be his student.. A-and.. Sensei likely has not had time to.. to create a curriculum?"]

In some fantasy timeline, Koty's picture was appearing in every dictionary under the word 'nervous'.. Likely also 'terrified' and quite possibly in quite a few under 'emasculated' as well. Koty felt like some tiny fragile porcelain toy next to this man. One that would be all too easy to accidentally drop and break.

[Vincent Meian]

New students were often nervous. Afraid, more like, but the way they expressed it was unique to themselves. Some became angry and lashed out, others cowered, some became meek and obedient. Regardless of the expression, though, a lack of certainty in the future and the imposition of something very big and very new into the life of a teenager meant that concessions had to be made. Thus, it was out of politeness that the tall man slowed his pace as much as a releasing of his own temper. He would not hurt the boy, not unless the teen was more violent than he'd been led to believe. Any punishment, then, would be less for being a scared child and more for being insubordinate.

The reaction to his command was immediate, though - apparently this Hura Koty was used to being ordered about by people he found intimidating. Which, of course, meant he found him intimidating. With a soft sigh, the trainer closed the door and walked into the room where he stood a good distance from the boy and waited. This was not a good first impression.

The stammering and overuse of his title gave the older man pause, but he held comment until his new trainee was through... apologizing, it sounded like. ["I do not need a curriculum to teach,"] he stated simply. ["I'm not that kind of teacher. I'm a trainer at this school; my work is to help you discover how your abilities work and learn to control them."]

The tone was calm and matter-of-fact, and it continued in that vein as he spoke. ["You also have no reason to apologize. You didn't choose to manifest when you did, so don't think that you are inconveniencing me simply by being here."] Really, the idea was a little ridiculous. But, nervous children and their imaginations.

["Let's start again. My name is Meian Vincent, and I will be your trainer here at Eisai."] Despite the English name and lack the 'v' sound in Japanese, the individual name was spoken perfectly, something that would be surprising to anyone who knew that the tall man was (for all he knew) fully Japanese. "Yoroshiku."

[Koty Hura]

Okay.. So this trainer was perhaps the tiniest bit less demanding or militant than his appearance and posture suggested? He was very to-the-point, but then most teachers or people in positions of any authority whatsoever often were.. The use of the much more formal greeting caught Koty by surprise.. Starting over, then....

"..Hajimemashite, Hura Koty desu.." Urgh, speaking casually felt so very, horribly strange. But Vincent had pronounced 'Vincent' perfectly in English.. Was the man perhaps bilingual? --May as well cover every possible base, right? Since starting over was happening? "It is my pleasure to meet you, Meian-sensei. I am Hura Koty."

But.. what else? It.. --He'd said he was a trainer here. Supposed to help Koty discover how his ability worked and learn to control it... May as well include that, right? Kinda important as far as introductions went for a trainer, right? ["I can.. read from and .. speak to people's minds. See their thoughts, Sensei. I have.. only had this ability for less than three days, Sir. I do not.. know how to control it."] Koty swallowed, finally glancing up from his shoes hoping for some sign that Vincent did or did not want to know more..

Not that there was much more to tell. Koty had been a meta for two days at this point. Had no idea about telepathy, no idea about control, very limited knowledge about other meta abilities.. ["I will.. e-endeavor to be a good student, Sir."] At least this particular stutter seemed to be more a product of searching for something to say rather than fearing speaking.. That was progress..right?

[Vincent Meian]

While Hura wasn't wrong, he certainly would have been more accurate with his first impression. Meian-sensei was a very militant individual in a number of his training sessions, mostly because he had to be with the students he was assigned. It was tempered, of course, with an understanding that not all students needed to be treated alike and the fact that his stature was often intimidating enough on its own to not require help from his personality. For students like this new boy, of which there were very few on his roster, such a level of sternness and discipline would only serve to frighten rather than teach.

The fact that the boy spoke English startled him, though - normally, secondary languages were taught at a high school level, and the trainer's own grasp of the language came from studying more recently for his change in contract. "It is good to meet you," he replied, the intonation not quite accurate and the words halting in his surprise. "Where have you learned spoken English?"

Yeah, conversational English was still a bit out of grasp.

["No one expects you to have control right away,"] he replied, issuing a small 'calm down' gesture with one hand. If the teen looked close, he'd notice a menagerie of scars lining the long-fingered appendage, though the long sleeves of his shirt prevented any further observation. ["That's why you're here - learning to control your abilities is like learning any other skill. Practice and diligence will go a long way."]

Flipping through the file under his arm briefly, the tall man notated what the recruiter had stated about the power itself, then set the folder aside. ["Without testing you intensively,"] he began, maintaining eye contact with Hura as he spoke, ["we can assume you have a version of telepathy that relies on touch. Telepathy is a mental ability that allows you to sense the thoughts of others, whether through 'hearing', 'seeing', or simply 'knowing'. Do you understand?"]

If not, there were other ways of explaining - this was simply the most direct and straightforward without resorting to a physical (or rather, psychic) demonstration.

[Koty Hura]

It was obvious enough to Koty that Vincent didn't speak English nearly as well as Koty himself did. The trainer's interest was a good sign, but Koty making assumptions? Not so much. A stupid mistake, but one that hadn't exploded like it could have. That was good at least. Still.. the boy wasn't going to go rubbing his bilingual skill in his superior's face. ["My father is a westerner.. My mother wishes for us to join him in America and has had me trained in western customs and language for as long as I can remember, Meian-sensei. It was not my intention to.. to flaunt, Sir. You pronounce what I understand is a western name flawlessly, Sir.. Please forgive my assumptions. I will make every effort to refrain from making more."]

Vincent's scars were definitely noticed.. as Koty was definitely looking very closely.. and not only because Koty was trying his best to read the notably imposing man's body lauguage, but also because.. hands were fast.. and very easy to lash out and touch with. Koty was afraid of being touched.. touch meant visions.. memories that weren't his.. hands touched. Koty saw every detail about hands like small children saw every detail of monsters in their nightmares...

Control. Not expected to be an expert.. that's why he was here. Practice and diligence. ["Touch. Yes, Sir. I see and experience when I touch.. or when I am touched.. I understand.. That sounds accurate, Meian-sensei. I am.. I am ..very afraid of being touched, Sensei.. I fear if you were to touch me I would understand Iingreat detail how you acquired those scars on your hands and.. what others you possess... Feel the anger I overheard outside of the administrators office... I do not believe I have any right or desire to understand any of those things..]

[Vincent Meian]

Flaunt? No - Hura spoke very well as a benefit of growing up bilingual. It wasn't something to be ashamed of, and the boy seemed quite modest for the fact. ["It's the name I was born with,"] he answered simply. ["I pronounce it accurately from needing to say it my entire life, just as you speak English so well through your mother's own dedication to your culture. It's not shameful to be better at something because you've grown up with it - in fact, it's quite the advantage."]

Ruefully, and with a touch of humor, the trainer added, ["Truthfully, I'm glad to have someone who can correct my mistakes from a native perspective, so don't be afraid to do so if you hear me say something incorrectly."]

The scars on Meian's hands were mostly small, straight scars - nicks from blades, and a few longer ones from sword training. All were faded to white with time and stood in stark cross-hatch against his tanned skin. It was clear that they were very old and likely not very painful, simply plentiful. Clumsiness as a youth for most, cockiness for the rest - legitimate reasons, if somewhat embarrassing, and stories that he would willingly tell if asked. But given that he knew the boy's powers were touch activated, the likelihood that he would simply reach out and strike were very low.

However.

["You may not have the desire to learn such things,"] the tall man stated bluntly, his passive expression gaining an air of skepticism but not quite scorn. ["Yet at some point you'll have to. You'll need to learn how to block out incoming thoughts whether people touch you or not. You can't simply live your life in fear of touching other people."]

Holding out his own left hand casually, gold-colored eyes stared straight into his student's face without flinching and a worn silver band glinted on the second to last finger. ["I also have some protection against your abilities, which I can teach you. But only if you trust me to."]

His mental shields, rudimentary but strong, were already in place and focused upon strongly. Hura wouldn't be getting past them, not with his current level of ability and training. Such was his confidence.

[Koty Hura]

Alright, so there were reassurances that English was okay.. followed by what was nearly a request for Koty to tutor his new trainer in the language. This was both a huge relief and.. well, as per usual on this day, terrifying. Koty had never taught anyone anything before. It seemed very strange that his trainer would give open permission to Koty to correct him. That was ordinarily a bad thing to do.. even when done respectfully. Then again, ordinarily a teacher would be in front of an entire class. It made sense here that there would be much less disrespect because.. there was noone for Koty to belittle his teacher in front of. Only the two of them.

Ugh, however long this training took, Koty was going to be meeting with this man several times a week. Alone. Just the two of them.

However.. the man did have a point. He would have to just dive into this whole mutant ability of his eventually. He had to learn about it and control it at some point. He couldn't go through life terrified of accidentally brushing up against any passing stranger. And.. did this ability make him an easier target for other people with the same or similar abilities? Protection.. it sounded like a necessity.

Koty visibly shivered as he swallowed and stared out at Vincent's hand. ["I.. I do not trust you yet, Meian-sensei. I am more than a little afraid of you. But I.. I will do my best to have faith in you, Sir."] No.. Koty hadn't grown a backbone. In fact, his dialogue was more to stall for a moment than anything else, spoken slowly an deliberately as it was. But he knew this man could outrun him, and he was just as sure this man could simply pin him down and make contact with him with or without his consent. It made no sense to avoid the inevitable.

Koty swallowed hard and set his books carefully on the floor, staring with scared eyes at Vincent's outstretched hand. He moved carefully forward, only getting close enough that his own outstretched hand could meet Vincent's. His hand hovered for several seconds as he glanced from Vincent's features to his hand and back again, before gritting his teeth and letting his hand drop.

The instant contact was made Vincent would likely receive a knee-jerk reaction to duck and cover, stop drop and roll, run the hell away, yank his hand back, anything to avoid the danger that was this contact... Given his shielding, Vincent would most likely only get these things as a feint impression.. A small child screaming in fear and running headlong into the concrete wall that was his shielding. But after a few moments of intense fear and foreboding, Koty's own mental state would shift to that of curious anxiety.

Koty's own mind was full of rocky, concrete walls.. strong, thick vines.. And nothing more. At this realization, the boy looked like me might faint from relief for a short moment.. only to slump and let out a deep ragged breath he hadn't know he'd been holding. Mind full of vines and thick impenetrable walls, Koty simply stood there and breathed, his hand resting gently on Vincent's.. waiting for analysis or instruction or.. whatever came next.