A week later, Marisa waited outside of Mia's bedroom, who was putting on her new costume and hero badge, until Mia stepped out. She was wearing a long cloak of many clasps & straps, formed of Worldwide's multicolored carapaces, scraped painstakingly off from corpses she had donated to Yuruko by way of Nuiko. Occasionally for a fright she would rip her cloak open and burst forth from it a cloud of scarabs thick enough that she herself seemed only a swarm that walked.

  Thus her hero name: Swarm.

  "…oh." blinked Marisa. "Huh."

  "What?" said Mia. "What don't you like?"

  "Oh, the outfit is sick, I just thought you'd choose a different name." shrugged Marisa. "What about Queen of Scarabs?"

  Mia paused. "I'm not going to think about if that's a better name than Swarm."

  "Neat. First-year two-star, then." chimed Marisa.

  "How long does that normally take?"

  "Uh… It took me, like - last April, so."

  Mia frowned, for she instinctually felt her rank was an aberration caused by Aimee's favoritism.

  Over the next week she hunted primarily with Marisa, and she enjoyed Worldwide's third element; that of electricity, golden scarabs with white lines down their backs; and on particularly weak hosts she enjoyed coming into range and hurling a single blast of lightning that would blast them into pieces of gore.

  Just as she did so to this host, she heard more fighting a few avenues over. Marisa looked up, heard the confident laughter of a student she knew, then nodded as she crouched down to scan the Revenant they had just fought.

  Mia saw a massive spurt of blood erupt from a few avenues over, then a scent that was growing familiar to her; that of charred body parts; she inhaled deeply, smiled, realized it was not of her own source, frowned, sniffed again, then recognized it again.

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  "That's Matoi. Lemme go check if she needs help." said Marisa.

  Mia clung to Marisa, who shot a strand up to a nearby lamppost and catapulted them over down into that avenue, landing near the black-haired Japanese student Matoi and her protege Samuel. The past months had put enough muscularity onto him that Mia almost thought Matoi had gotten another protege; whether killed or executed for weakness, either would have made sense to her.

  "Need anything?" Marisa waved.

  Matoi was covered in blood and entrails, as was Samuel. Her Revenant Wedding was still summoned, a wide white hood more akin to Shinto wedding attire rather than Christian, her white dress layered in armor at spots, two deep tunnels dug at her back through which missiles would erupt and various holes throughout where lasers would emit. Her hero badge read: 'CHAPLAIN'.

  "Or a rag for all the blood?" said Marisa.

  Matoi spoke flatly: "And wipe away my civilian repellent?"

  "You call it a civilian repellent, I call it a cologne." said Samuel. "You'd be amazed how well it works for men."

  "Being covered in blood?" said Mia, and knowing hosts, regardless of gender, tended to be attracted to women: "That doesn't seriously attract straight women, does it?"

  "Only the interesting ones." said Samuel.

  "Perhaps it's that your natural face is repellent enough that anything else is an improvement." said Matoi. "Samuel has been conducting research on the differences between male and female sexuality. Eventually he might even work up the nerve for field work. Samuel, remove it."

  Ghastly blue hands emit from Samuel, their extended arms wispy as they moved telekinetically the blood off from themselves, then seemed to sputter out and lose their grip; the liquid fell to the road and splattered.

  Matoi did not look at him. "If it were acid, you would be dead."

  "If it were acid, you would have vaporized it first." said Samuel.

  Matoi seemed to laugh internally but forgot to show it, as if her emotions were oriented in the opposite direction from her physical form. "You won't always have someone else to rely on. Part of a mentor's responsibility is preparing their protege for independence rather than just carrying them up in ranking."

  Mia noted Matoi's recognition of her two-star badge, itself acquired earlier than she had heard any other students had, and a bit of guilt came over her. Over the years she would admire and even like Matoi; she had, from a narrower Revenant than Worldwide, pulled out all that she could from it, yet never did she seem bitter towards anyone else; rather her barb here had caught upon an unintended recipient.