The strange boy

Despite the previous problems, Jess was taking a new direction in her life, she decided that now it was time to leave all that behind and move on, as she always did, except that now with a difference: She would work hard to prove to herself and Aiko that the value of a hero is in his attitudes and not in his weakness.

The first whole month the girl had the same routine, woke up early, made the preparations then went to the park, where she trained both her body and its release of light until dark, where she returned home exhausted to sleep and repeat the same routine at the following day, the month had already closed and some days had also passed, normally the academies sent their answer before the end of the first month so that their students had adequate time to prepare and Jess had not received any answer so far of the various academies she had signed up for, but she wouldn’t let that shake her workouts that were of total focus at the time. She tapped an abandoned toy iron plate with her hands, thus improving her strength and endurance until the cuts started to spill blood, this being her milestone for the end of the hand training, then the kicking would come and so on.

A doubt that can reach my dear reader after reading these verses, the genetic condition that gave human beings the capacity for gifts, is also responsible for a possible increase in physical attributes such as strength, agility and etc. Not something common to everyone who has gifts, but only those who train their physical part at superhuman levels.

Her training was intensified today, with only a third of the day to go, her body could no longer stand, making Jess fall to the floor and she was startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder turning her body on its back, the person who had looking at him, he seemed as surprised as she was to see that the girl was still conscious, but the surprise on that boy's face lasted only a few seconds, and his face was serious again. His hair was black as well as his eyes that seemed empty, his pale skin and strong dark circles gave him the impression of being a person who lived in eternal sadness, his clothes looked like rags being just a brown robe that went up to his feet with a cap that he wasn't wearing it at the time, the various patches told Jess that the robe must be extremely old. He helped her to sit down by giving her a bottle with a yellow juice inside, Jess held the bottle for fear of taking the liquid from it and keeping watchful eyes on the boy.

— It's just orange juice. Your body needs electrolytes right now, don't be afraid to drink.

She then took a short sip, just to say that she had taken it and then thanked the boy. She noticed that his cold eyes focused on her hands that with a slight shame, Jess hid them because she did not like people to see her marks of effort.

— These marks, you train a lot. But I believe that this is not the best way to exercise. Work your mind first, then your body and gift, you will have better results.

— Are you... a... superhero?

From the way Jess spoke, as if the words were foreign to her, the boy noticed that there was something different about her, deducing that it must be deaf.

— Hero?

The boy's voice sounded weak and distant, for Jess it was very strange, normally the word hero lit a sparkle in people's eyes, a flame of hope that was common to everyone even in Aiko, which Jess secretly noticed when it appeared some superhero subject, she saw her eyes fill with that ardor, but this boy seemed to have only the cold inside his body.

— I am not one, I never was one. Do you want to be one?

— Yea!

— Why?

This question took her by surprise, after all, everyone wanted to be heroes, there was no clear and obvious reason, usually people just wanted to, which made Jess think for a while.

— People... They need... Help... And I want to be able to... Help them.

He watched her for a moment, making even the girl feel uncomfortable with that questioning look on her.

— You will be a great super heroine. Those who train only their bodies and their gifts, tend to achieve strength, with strength comes glory and recognition and with these comes arrogance, lust and pride, the ideal is tarnished when doing good does not become the priority of a hero and bound by rules, they cease to do what is necessary, but the one whose mind is polite does not allow himself to fall into temptations like these, so he does not deviate from his path, when falling, remember the reason why you fight and need to win.

She was glazed on her lips so as not to miss a single word of what he spoke, for some reason she felt that even if she didn't agree with exactly everything he said, there was a lot of wisdom in her words, a wisdom from someone who seemed to have lived a long time although he doesn’t seem to be much older than her. Jess thanked him for his advice, now feeling safe to drink the drink he had given her, she wanted to ask him some questions but the boy said he had to do something very important at the moment but before leaving he told her if Jess would follow the path of her dreams and become a super heroine, probably her paths would cross again, she watched him leave the park walking calmly, while Jess reflected on his words, his last words were something a little strange to say. After a few minutes she also decided to go home.

Lying on his bed the words of that strange man came to mind, his body despite its fragile appearance was probably capable of handling an ordinary adult man without problems and its blasts of light, although weak, were able to at least bring down a person what it is clear that for an official superhero, it was just a joke, she put herself in various scenarios where she would face a criminal with some gift and the answer she had was always the same: in her current condition she would probably be defeated with ease after all, her gift served more as a support than for a direct confrontation, the answer became increasingly clear in her mind, she could only be a student at some academy if she was able to overcome the limitations of her body using her mind.

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