Chapter 7: Gon Learns a Lesson

10 years later

Gondor

I jogged next to my parents though for me it really is more like a run. We had gone on family jogs for as far back as I could remember, and apparently even before that. We had gone on many adventures together, whether it be exploring the cratorized wastelands that few others ventured into or exploring the jagged ridges of what was left of Mt.Fuji. The former pride of Tokyo, and of Japan had been blown to shreds but parts of the once proud symbol still stood tall. My father told me that few people still ventured to her slopes. These trips, aside biking and jogging had been a major part of my life, I thrived in physical activity.

School was boring and nobody really talked to me. We could do school from anywhere for the most part. One could attend in person if they wanted or they could just connect to the Interwebs and attend remotely and nobody could tell if I was really there or not. At first my parents made me attend school in person, they said it would be good for me. But, most of the students acted like I didn’t exist and those that did know I existed seemed to know a little too much. They would belittle me, for not having a prolific life on the Interwebs, and those that did know too much would pick up on how their parents talked and would sneer at me calling me the ‘son of nobody.’ I suppose this was because their parents had abandoned our lineage and my father had not. But they seemed proud of this, and their new lives. At first it bugged me, but my parents had taught me to control my thoughts, and emotions as best as I could. Especially with the amount of access to the Interwebs that is allowed at school it is fairly easy for my thoughts to become portrayed for all to see if they dig into my interface. It seems the reason I am allowed to attend school remotely is because the Interwebs connects to my live body but also my subconscious. In this way, unless one guards their thoughts extremely well teachers can tell if you are actually learning or not. The advantage of this is they can directly tell what a student needs help with. This disadvantage is the system. I am one of the students who excels at studies but doesn’t control my emotions very well. So the teachers and upper class students who are proficient in using the Interwebs to their gain can easily read me. As such, I am considered a ‘special student’ and am taught lessons inferior to those of the ‘upper class students.’ This doesn’t really bother me because I feel like I am smarter than most of my classmates anyways. But after a few years of this I convinced my parents to just let me always be remote and doing other things. I would turn off my live avatar and just listen, while doing other things, like our family jogs.

People always seemed to look at us funny, even though my mother’s popularity seemed to help us have nice things, people still treated me differently no matter where I went. I didn’t really understand it. Wasn’t I better than them? They made fun of us for exercising, but I was healthier than them right? If anyone should be making fun of anyone it should be us to them? I looked up to my father a lot. Nobody seemed to be able to do what he could do. He was always calm and collected, unlike myself. I wished I could be more like my father but every time I thought of how people seemed to worship my mother calling her Eleanor of Soma, I would get mad. Our name was Aragon? Why was that so hard for people to understand? What had my father done to make people ignore him? He could beat up just about anyone that I had ever met, and he seemed smarter too. So why was he not treated with the same respect? I turned into the cafe, it seemed we were going to visit Uncle Escanor once more. We visited with Uncle often, sometimes he was a little condescending but for the most part I liked and respected him. He was smaller than my father, but still athletic, unlike many of the people I had encountered in my life. He was also insanely smart. I could hardly track the conversations between the adults. I always made sure to stay off the Interwebs around him as well because the second I went online it seemed he could instantly tell what I was thinking even if I wasn’t trying to communicate anything. I don’t know if he was some kind of hacker that could hack into peoples thoughts once the Interwebs went to their neurological brain cells or what. But either way he was the one man that could make my father not seem larger than life.

Unfortunately this was one of those times, that I was in ‘class’ while hanging with the family. So it seems Escanor had worked his magic, and intruded into some of my more inner thoughts. After class, he asked if I had been bullied, and how I reacted to these bullies. I shrugged and told him that I didn’t let them bother me because I knew that I was better than them anyways, regardless of our ‘ status’ or what they thought of me. He laughed and said, “ That must be the Soma blood in ya. I had similar thoughts when I was your age, except I let ‘status’ affect me, I attended a Somaian private school. So everyone knew who I was and would try to take me down. But I wouldn’t let them. You know why Gon?” I shook my head, he laughed and said, “ Well part of it was because your mother, the Madonna of the school, always had my back unlike the rest of my relatives who wished to see me fail. The other was because I made myself mentally stronger than them.” He paused and flexed his muscles, winking at the waitress that walked by, “ I also became stronger then them all. Soon I overpowered them, mentally and physically, and with my status by the time I was in highschool I was practically running the place.” I tried to look impressed and conceal my thoughts. I wasn’t connected to the Interwebs anymore but I didn’t really know the extent of my Uncle’s abilities. I swear sometimes he seems like a psychic even without cracking through the Interwebs. I tried to act tough and look him in the eyes, but I quickly averted them. He was just too intimidating sometimes, I started with a little quip but it took all my courage. “ Well uncle when you were my age, you were probably just hiding behind my mom.” Everyone at the table laughed, I smiled and then couldn’t help my face from turning serious. “Are you trying to say that I should be like you Uncle?” My Uncle’s usually jovial and confident demeanor slipped for a second. “That is what I am saying, however thanks to your father, it will be near impossible for you. The reality is I had status once I forced everyone into acknowledging my status, I then showed them my superiority and proved that I deserved my reputation and even surpassed that what my ‘status’ allowed me. It put me on the path to become the great man that I am today. Sadly, you will never be able to achieve that because you have negative status right now. So no matter how strong you become mentally and physically the bullying will never stop simply because of your birthright. Those who don’t know about it will treat you like a nobody, and those that do, will treat you like less than a nobody, this my boy is the world you will come to know.” My parents looked somber, my mother looked almost angry, I had never seen her angry so I can only assume that is what that look meant. My father, who usually carried himself in a unfazeable way, looked distraught. I couldn’t understand why, but it hurt me to see him look like that. I didn’t understand why it was so bad to be an Aragonian…. I tried to wrap my head around the discussion but I couldn’t. So instead I just laughed, “Uncle Escanor, you are just afraid that I will be more popular than you, just like Eleanor was.” Everyone laughed again, my mother smiled and said, “I can’t rival your Uncle’s popularity now but rest assured he couldn’t be where he is today without my help.” Escanor smiled and said, “For that I will always be in your debt.” my mother smiled the smile that seemed to charm the entire room. “You just remember that next time you decide to try to teach Gon a lesson like that. He is just a boy, when you were his age you weren’t ready to accept your lineage either. But now look at you, the face of the Soma’s and one of the main voices in Japan. If you could overcome the trials of your heritage I am sure Gondor can too, afterall he does share that, ‘ Soma blood’. Escanor laughed, “ I am sure you will wontcha Gondor?” I smiled and flexed my muscles, “ I am already part way there.” This brought a smirk to my father’s face, he had been oddly quiet this meeting. I couldn’t understand why Escanor had been slandering my family name. But I learned something and not from school that day. It was something that I probably didn’t need to know at my age but I was glad that I learned. In this society, it seemed that no matter the age, or who you are, this land status affected everyone.