Saviors

After the girls introduced themselves, they didn’t exchange another word. When the teachers switched rooms, lunch break, and even the limited gym class. Both Jessica and Yuuki stayed silent.

The students in each class are always together, it’s the teachers who move from room to room in order to teach different subjects. The 9th and 10th graders are on the first floor, 11th and 12th graders on the second, and the third floor has a small number of rooms used for meetings or clubs, although after school activities are prohibited.

The only time students leave their designated classroom is to go to the cafeteria for lunch and for the final class - gym. Due to more than half of the students choosing virtual classes, gym occurs every other day depending on grade levels. For Jessica it’s on Tuesday and Thursday, with study hall replacing the other 3 days.

Today’s gym class consisted of light exercise and jogging, with the last bit of time spent outside. After 40 minutes, the teacher announces the end of class, calling the students inside to change back into their regular clothes before going home.

Having worked up a sweat, Jessica uses the sleeve of her shirt to wipe away the moisture on her forehead. Although it’s a cool 70° F outside, the beating sun, coupled with jogging, makes it feel much warmer. Jessica starts walking to the school, looking forward to the air conditioning, until she feels a light tap on her right arm. It’s the same girl from earlier, Yuuki, holding a bottle of water with a smile.

“I noticed you didn’t grab one, you must be thirsty.”

It’s true there were a few water bottles on the bench by the racetrack, most likely brought by the teacher to prevent anyone from becoming dehydrated, but can she really be trusted? She was carrying a sword this morning after all.

Despite feeling weary, Jessica thanks her and takes the bottle. She twists off the cap and takes a few big gulps. The water is warm from being outside, but still very refreshing. As Jessica lowers the bottle, the strange girl leans in to whisper,

“Meet me on the third floor in room 313.”

Watching her run off, Jessica repeats room 313 in her head and it stuns her for a moment. If memory serves right, there are only 12 rooms on the third floor. It was built specifically for student clubs, like sports or art. In recent years students are sent home right after classes end as a safety precaution.

Jessica has been up there before. Each year, new students tour the building before school starts, so she’s sure a room with that number doesn’t exist.

With her curiosity piqued, Jessica decides to follow the instructions she was given and starts heading there after getting changed and grabbing her bag. Before leaving the gym, she takes a quick look around and doesn’t see Yuuki anywhere. Even though it’s possible this could be a prank, that doesn’t stop her.

The gym is on the first floor in the farthest corner of the building, leaving her two flights of stairs to ascend. As she starts up the second set of stairs, she stops to watch as all the other students go in the other direction to go home, still not seeing that girl. Jessica shrugs her shoulders and continues to climb. She’s mostly here to confirm the room numbers anyway.

Starting at the end of the hall, Jessica continues her short journey, reading each room number from left to right. “301, 302, 303, 304 …”, then to the end of the hall with room 312 on the right. She turns to her left and is shocked. Above the door are the numbers 313.

“It…really is here.”

Drawn to the room as if under a spell, Jessica grabs the knob, and without a second thought, she turns it and pushes the door open. Inside, it’s just a regular classroom. The windows are on the opposite wall, with a virtual board to the right, facing three long tables filled with chairs.

However, there’s no one here. She arrived as requested, but the girl who asked is nowhere to be found. Feeling slight disappointment, Jessica closes the door behind her and decides to wait, even if she may never come.

She takes a seat at the first table, placing her bag on the floor beside her. Leaning back in the chair, she looks out the many windows with a solemn expression. There’s nothing waiting for her at home anyway. Although she lives with her grandmother, any interactions are few and far between. If she never came home, it would probably take at least a week for her to make a missing person report.

Waiting mere minutes turns into an hour, then an hour and a half until someone arrives. It’s not who she was expecting, but instead a young African American girl. The girl is also surprised to see an unknown person. Rather than talk, she closes the door and takes a seat on the other end of the same table.

Not even a minute later, Yuuki finally arrives, entering with her usual smile and sword by her side.

“You decided to come after all!” Before giving her a moment to respond, Yuuki is seemingly upset to see so few people. “Wait, he’s not up yet? You didn’t have to wait for me to wake him.”

“Yes, but you can explain all this better than either of us.” The other girl says. Despite appearing to be younger, she speaks in a condescending manner.

The short conversation leaves Jessica wondering what she has gotten herself into. Noticing the confusion on her face, Yuuki asks her to wait a moment as she walks towards the windows.

She pushes on the wall next to the virtual board and a small opening appears as if it were a door. It’s not the size of a normal door either, maybe only 4 feet tall and wide. From her seat, Jessica can’t see what is in there or how big the inside is, but can tell from Yuuki’s movement that she’s pushing something around.

Shortly after, she takes a step back and a man exits the doorway. With blonde hair and blue eyes, he’s sitting at the edge with his legs hanging down, looking disheveled as if he was just woken up.

“Thanks, Yuuki.”

He scratches his head, trying to wake up, until he glances over and notices the new face sitting near the door. Taking his messy appearance into consideration, he slouches over and whines.

“Why didn’t you warn me you were bringing someone new?”

“Sorry, we met after you fell asleep.”

While they continue their ‘normal’ conversation, Jessica closes her eyes and lowers her head, placing her finger on the middle of her forehead as she processes everything she witnessed today.

An apparently invisible sword, a classroom that should not exist, and a man exiting from a strange door in a wall. The only thing she did differently was wake up a bit later than usual. Is this some sort of punishment? Or did she not actually wake up? Jessica starts tapping her finger on her head as she can’t make sense of any of this.

The man notices her off behavior and turns to Yuuki, “You didn’t explain anything to this girl did you?”

Yuuki giggles and approaches Jessica while removing the sheathed sword from her belt loop, holding it in front of her. This is the first time she got a good look at it. It’s a Japanese sword of average length with a black scabbard and blue fabric tied around the handle.

“This sword was given to me by my mother before she passed away. She said it came from another world, and the only people from our world who are able to see it are those with limitless potential.”

“Potential for what exactly?”

“To aid in our mission - to cleanse this city.” The man says, “Though it would probably be easier to understand if you saw it for yourself.”

That doesn’t make things more clear, but she can get a general idea that this small group intends to help the city in some way. It’s difficult to imagine how since there are never any reports of heroes or less crime over time. She made it this far so she feels she might as well.

“I’ll agree to go with you for now. Just don’t tell me anything else that may change my mind.”

Any other person would have left once the man exited the strange door, but the thought of cleansing the city is intriguing. Especially because there has been no attempt at reform in such areas even decades after the problem escalated.

Before going out, the man asks that Jessica leave her cell phone here in the classroom. The tracking from cell towers, and sometimes even voice recorder programs, make it too much of a liability for their mission so the group all agreed to not bring it with them while working.

At first, Jessica is unsure of what to say. Each chip contains all the necessities one needs for communication; phone numbers, the popular platform ‘Spaceline’ which has replaced emailing, and a sensor that will call authorities when needed. This has helped tremendously to shorten the arrival time for police, fire, and medical aid.

Due to all of this, phones themselves have become obsolete in the safety zones. Even cellular companies in the country have been reduced to two: Express Mobile and Y&BT, with both of them providing services to the chips in addition to cells in the dangerous cities.

Since Jessica has this chip in her wrist, she has had no need for a cell phone her whole life. She wants to avoid mentioning that. After some thinking, Jessica says, “I leave it at home. I have no reason to use it anyway.”

She can tell they find it to be strange, but decide not to push it.

Yuuki pulls up the hood from her jacket and places the sword at her side, “Let’s go.”

The young girl walks over to Yuuki and Jessica follows. The man wishes them a safe trip, but for what exactly? Yuuki places one hand on each of their shoulders and then all of a sudden, Jessica’s body feels weightless and the next thing she sees is the rooftop of a building.

Completely shocked and confused, and feeling her weight hit her all at once, Jessica loses balance and falls on her back. Going from one place to another in a split second with the lack of gravity. Was that some sort of teleportation? Even if that’s true there’s no logical way to explain this.

“You did say you don’t want to know anything else.” Yuuki says with a laugh, reaching down to help her stand. Jessica can’t help feeling annoyed by her laugh.

“I’m pretty sure all my reactions can be considered normal in this case.”

“I suppose you have a point.”

On a rooftop in the middle of Philly, the building isn’t tall like a skyscraper or small like a row home. Instead, it’s one of the many apartments in the city. The sun hasn’t completely set. It’s hiding behind the tall buildings making it seem as if it has.

Although crime can occur at any time, it is more prevalent at night. From break ins, to carjackings, to shootings, there’s no limit to the type of danger that occurs.

Having just made it outside, various sirens alongside a few gunshots can be heard, drowning out the noise of any people in the streets. Jessica has never been out at this time of day and fear washes over her. Yuuki notices her hesitation,

“Don’t worry so much.” she says while placing her arm on the sheathed sword to remind her it’s there.

The sword definitely is reassuring and calms her down a little, until they suddenly hear a gunshot nearby. Jessica jumps at the sound of the loud bang. Meanwhile Yuuki speaks to the young girl.

“Was there a hit?”

“Yes. 3 blocks to our right.”

She points in that direction, indicating their next destination.

“You’re about to get a glimpse of our mission.” Yuuki calls out to Jessica, adding that they just have to ‘move’, as she puts it. Jessica grumbles as she walks over, not really prepared for another teleportation, but grabs her hand anyway.

Now at a row home 3 blocks away, Jessica loses her balance again, except this time Yuuki helps pull her up as they are still holding hands. Despite moving closer to the scene, Yuuki tells her to remain where she is. If they get too close to the edge, there’s a higher possibility of being spotted, making the center of the roof the safest spot at this moment.

“Bling, it’s up to you.”

The young girl closes her eyes and seemingly assesses the situation further, telling them what she sees, “There were 2 victims, ages 17 and 25. Both killed on the spot.” She doesn’t see either of them, but is able to understand what is going on below. She can only get the basics, though. It isn’t clear if the targets are innocent of any crimes themselves, and the suspect who shot them also appears to have run off, intending to leave them to die in the streets.

“Please, rest in peace.”

She holds out her hand and slowly raises it and with it, comes two glowing orbs, steadily rising above them. Jessica can instantly tell what they are. The first thing she doesn’t need explained. These are souls from the victims, ascending to the sky as their bodies can no longer continue living. A mix of beauty, tragedy, and sorrow, she can’t help reaching up as she watches them in awe, shedding a tear in the process. When they vanish, Jessica lowers her arm and rubs her watery eyes.

“This is what you do each night?”

“Every school night, at least. Unfortunately, we can’t protect people ourselves. The most we can do is help them pass on, to prevent their souls from lingering, from suffering any further. That is our mission.”

Although she can’t understand how this helps the city, Jessica believes that was the most beautiful sight she has ever seen. Humans have many layers. They can easily lie, cheat, and attack one another to get their way. To think that a soul attached to all of that could remain so pure, even in death.

Yuuki glances at the other girl and notices her exhaustion despite only helping two people. Much to her dismay, she suggests they stop here for tonight. The young girl may act tough, but she’s been hard at work due to her counterpart being sick. She’s overdue for a much needed break. Besides, they were able to accomplish a lot tonight, especially if Jessica decides to join them.

Swept up by the excitement, Yuuki displays a big smile and wraps her arms around both girls and teleports back to the school. Since she took them by surprise, they both fall to the floor once arriving. Yuuki lets out a laugh while the young girl shouts at her rashness.

“I told you to be careful when you do that!”

“So this is a usual thing, huh.” Jessica says, starting to understand how this works.

“Yeah, get used to it-”

She stops herself, realizing Jessica hasn’t said she will join them just yet.

The man from earlier is now sitting at one of the tables flipping through a few books. He seems to have cleaned himself up, wearing new clothes and perhaps having showered. It’s possible he sleeps during the day, having first woken up when Yuuki opened his strange door. Is this for their mission as well? He has no problem reading Yuuki so he can tell it went well, but still asks them as a group.

“So, how did it go?”

“Just perfect!”

Yuuki couldn’t be happier. The young girl on the other hand is quick to complain.

“I was only allowed to help two people! There was almost no point in going out.”

“Of course we’d like to be able to do more, but you’ve been working hard recently. Taking care of yourself is more important. And how about our newcomer?”

The man asks Jessica for her thoughts. Nothing makes any sense, but the way she felt as she watched the two souls, it was the most exhilarating moment throughout the entirety of her life. Bypassing the possible danger, Jessica no longer hesitates in her decision, smiling for the first time in a long time.

“I’d be happy to join you.”

The man is pleased by her response and stands to properly introduce himself.

“Thank you for trusting us. My name is Kahler. You already met Yuuki so that leaves–”

They all look at the African American girl. With a scoff, she gives her name; “Shayna.” Since he’s used to her attitude, Kahler moves on to continue his explanation.

“Being able to see the sword signals a person having a latent ability, similar to Yuuki’s teleportation and Shayna’s reaper. The ‘potential’ that was mentioned earlier. If you’re ready, I can wake it.”

“What ability will I get?”

“I have no way to find out ahead of time. It should fully awaken by morning. I can at least promise the process is harmless.”

One last step to joining them: gaining an ability to be able to aid in cleansing the city. Jessica simply nods to comply. Kahler places his palm on her head. He closes his eyes and whispers “Exsuscito.” This causes her body to be engulfed in a clear, white cloud. Jessica can only watch as it unfolds. Feeling energy surge through her body until it steadily disappears, another exhilarating moment. Kahler removes his hand and takes a step back.

“All done. How do you feel?”

Jessica clenches her fists and laughs, “All that power, that was amazing!”

“Yup, that’s the normal reaction. That just means it worked!”

Yuuki taps Shayna’s shoulder to get her attention, “Are you ready to go home?”

“I think it’s too early, but I know I should.”

Although she would rather argue further since it is only 5 pm, Shayna agrees to heed their advice and rest for today. Yuuki tells Kahler and Jessica that she will be right back and in a flash, she and Shayna disappear, teleporting once more. But why would she have to take her home? Jessica gets an answer to that right away.

“To protect our identities, Yuuki takes you to and from school each day rather than having to walk or take the bus. You never know what will happen. So don’t be surprised if you see her in your room one morning.”

With the way he describes it, he makes her sound like a stalker who breaks into your house. That’s definitely creepy.

“One last thing before she comes back: your homework.”

“You give homework for this?” Jessica asks with a look of dread.

“It’s simple. Everyone has a one syllable codename to make communication easier and to protect their identities. Yuuki is Sky and Shayna is Bling. Just think of something you wouldn’t mind being called while out in the field.”

She does remember hearing Shayna being referred to as Bling earlier. She thought it was a regular nickname.

“What about your name?”

“Kahler is my real name. I can only help all of you from this room, so I won’t be joining you out there.”

Is that supposed to be another form of protection? It’s true Kahler didn’t yet reveal what his ability is. Jessica wants to ask, but she already took in more strange information than she’d like. It’s better to give her brain a break and save it for another day.

Once Yuuki arrives, it’s now Jessica’s turn to go home. She lives at the Edgewater Apartments along the Delaware River, room 510. Yuuki asks her to visualize it so they can teleport to the exact point. Once she’s ready, Yuuki places her hand on her shoulder and she successfully teleports to her room, right beside her bed. With this being the 4th time within an hour, Jessica is able to keep her balance on her own.

“Hey, you’re getting the hang of it already! It took Shayna a couple weeks.”

“I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Get some rest, I’ll see you in the morning. Bright. And. Early.”

Yuuki is sure to highlight that point so she doesn’t forget. Just as she’s about to leave, Jessica stops her.

“Before you go, can I ask you one thing?”

“After all that you only have one question?”

There are actually a lot of things she’d like to ask about, but right now there’s one thing bothering her. She doesn’t want to admit it, but Jessica feels stuck with the so-called ‘homework’ she was assigned. She never had the opportunity to use any sort of creativity, so to have to come up with a short name on her own, she has no idea what to pick.

“What do you think would be a good codename for me to use? I know I won’t be able to pick something.”

“Your codename, huh.”

Yuuki hums as she tries to come up with a good name. Everyone was able to pick their own, making this the first time she was tasked with this. Not to mention she barely knows Jessica, so she decides to focus on what they will be doing. She’s suddenly silent as if a lightbulb went off in her head.

“Hope. To desire, to wish, to want. A positive thought to help ease one’s mind. How about that?”

Jessica is surprised by her answer. She didn’t expect a name with any deep meaning to it. Comparatively, sky and bling are simple words that appear to suit their personalities if anything.

After thinking about it some more, this suits her as well, showing her satisfaction with a grin.

“That sounds good, I’ll go with that.”

Yuuki waves goodbye before leaving for the night.