Recent Breakthroughs

Professor Simmons scrawled multiple graphs for functions of numbers with imaginary components, calculus in a class prepared for advanced algebra. Smoke billowed from student’s ears, yet Yuki scrawled a copy of every graph he chalked along with her own version. Teeth clenched over her tongue and lips pursed as she went into her ultimate concentration mode.

“I’m sorry,” Professor Simons clearly enunciated every word, “those are functions of numbers with imaginary components. I’m getting ahead of myself. This is material for a more advanced class, so it won’t be on your test. If anyone has any questions, see me after class. I’d be happy to hold a ten-minute mini-lecture for those who would enjoy it.”

Yuki nodded enthusiastically with three others dispersed through the class of twenty-five. The rest of the classes’ eyes glassed over. Professor Simmons smiled knowingly, “Let’s go back to plotting imaginary numbers on a graph. You’ve already learned plotting for x and y. The steps are simple enough. In plotting imaginary numbers you’ll utilize the vertical axis of the graph for the imaginary component.”

On the other side of the class, Asami stared blankly. Yuki glanced over and visualized smoke pouring out of her eyes while the professor moved on to demonstrating an example. She found it simple to follow along. Once she understood, she waited for him to explain step by step for classmates needing a slower breakdown.

She glanced out the window. The bald old man from the stairs had a creepy big smile on his face as he stared back across a row of students. His skin suddenly turned purple. A glowing red eye opened across his forehead. Gemstones in shimmering green studded the flesh around it. Nobody noticed this display despite his glowing, beaming like the sun! He pressed against the glass until his lips smashed into a big red oval. Yuki screeched. The guy sitting across from her woke up, bounced in his seat, and dropped a pen that rolled under the next desk.

Professor Simmons pushed back his long white hair back as he raised an eyebrow. He was a foreigner but his Japanese was impeccable, “Miss Hirame, did you see a spider again?”

Her arm flung straight to her left as she pointed, “There’s a creepy old glowing man pressing his lips against the window!”

Everyone looked outside. Morning sun streamed in a warm glow from over mountaintops. The benches in the courtyard of the university were empty. Falling leaves from the Sakura trees scattered in the breeze. The window was clean without so much as a finger smudge. Yuki felt the stares of the entire class chain her to the desk.

“I don’t see anyone out there,” Professor Simmons sighed, “I know you’re ahead of the class, but please don’t distract those who are trying to learn. If you feel you’re ahead of the material, you are free to skip lectures without a penalty.”

“Miss a lecture! I wouldn’t dream of it! I’m sorry, ummm, I’ll be quiet. Sorry. It must have been a shadow. Sorry.”

Even Asami frowned at her. Yuki sunk into her seat slumped shoulders. Glances at the window confirmed no sign of the old man. The courtyard was empty as everyone was in classes. She silently sighed.

Scalp itched. Elbows rested on her desk. She stared at her open notes lined with graphs and functions. Nails scratched at the front of her forehead. Gently at first, but the skin turned bright red. A slight lump raised at the right side; another rose on the left! Running a finger across her forehead exposed a gentle rectangular ridge in the center. The sensitivity of the bump stiffened her back. She ran her finger across it again despite the sensation. The flesh on the right lump felt soft and sensitive, as did the left. Metal chair legs skid with that screech of metal against tile as she burst from her seat.

“I think I need to go check something, sorry!” she said before her grabbing her bag and rushing out letting the door slam. She ran in the hall with her bookbag dangling from her left hand until she skidded to a stop at the restroom. Inside, her palm slid across the sink countertop. The bag dropped. She leaned across a poorly scrubbed porcelain sink set into a faux marble laminated counter. The meat of her left palm pressed on the porcelain sink border as she parted glossy black hair with two fingers.

The bulge on the center of her forehead looked like she’d slammed her head against a wall. A developing complexity grew on the center of her frontal bone, but skin hid it like a cover. Exploring fingers outlined a sharp eight-sided platform. Around the top outline she felt a diamond shape. But once she stopped irritating it, it looked like a reddened lump. On the left and right side of her skull, partially hidden by hair, were bumps that now felt tight. Yuki scratched in front of the mirror. The skin felt like it was about to tear.

A breeze blew from the bathroom’s jalousie window. An old man’s hearty yet withered laugh mocked. Yuki turned to confront the window, but nobody was there.

The bathroom door creaked open. Asami held it. The cross breeze caught her hair and made it fly upwards like she was in a windstorm. It pressed her dress against her slender frame. Frills on her skirt danced until the door slammed behind her.

“Yuki! What was that about!? You’re acting more Yuki than usual. It’s getting a bit too much. You’ve never left a math lecture before. Are you okay?”

Yuki started to cry, “An old man is stalking me and I have bumps on my head!”

Asami took small fast steps, grabbed Yuki’s shoulders, and leaned in staring intently. There was indeed one big bump on the center of her friend’s forehead. The redness from rubbing it earlier already faded, but it looked like a softball smacked into her head at full pitch speed, “You’re right! You have some big freaking bumps! What did you do now, try to walk on handrails and faceplanted?”

“I think if I did that, I’d have a pretty bad abrasion. Do you see an abrasion on my face? There’s not even bruising. And you walked to campus with me his morning! I’m just lumpy. My cute smooth forehead is lumpy!”

Soft lips pressed against the raised flesh, “How did that feel?”

Yuki’s eyes widened, her mouth hung open, and she pointed to her lips, “I’m not sure. Please do it one more time. Right here.”

Asami glanced back at the door, “This isn’t the time for that, Alien.”

“I’m not being an alien,” Yuki pointed to the platform on the center of her forehead, “If you can see it, others can see it too. I’m not imagining this.”

Asami leaned forward, “Let me see the bumps in your hair,” she squeezed the irritated looking lump between her thumb and forefinger like it was a giant zit, but what she felt underneath was hard as bone. The skin felt thin, “We need to get you to the infirmary. Does that hurt?”

A bright red flush spread across Yuki’s cheeks as she leaned in with her eyes closed. Lips bulged out for another kiss, “Kiss me.”

“Okay, obviously not,” while Asami rubbed, the fleshy bump stretched between her fingers. Skin ripped. A pointed edge stabbed her index finger hard enough to draw blood, “Ouch! What the, Yuki, you have a tiny horn!”

“Well yeah, with your hands all over me like this I am kinda-”

Asami’s palm sealed Yuki’s lips, “You have a horn. You have a literal horn growing out the side of your head like you’re some kind of demon goat.”

Yuki stared into the mirror, her brown eyes glowed violet briefly. The horn made her squint as it erupted. Flesh tore like loose plastic, but cleanly. It dangled at the base of the horn. She picked at it with her fingers. It pulled away from a lip of flesh at the base. Two fingers pushed the curled horn to lift her head. The nub on the other side pushed from her hair with the skin turning bright red aswell. Yuki put her hands on Asami’s shoulders.

“I’m finished! I’m over! If anybody sees me like this, I won’t be able to explain of it. What if I’m-”

The brown door of a bathroom stall slammed shut before Asami could grab her wrist, “Yuki, what’s wrong? Are you sick to your stomach. Do you feel like you’re going to vomit?”

Yuki crawled atop the closed toilet seat and sat with her knees folded against her chin while Asami knocked at the stall door, “Leave me alone! Call the police. Call the super-secret anomalous science team to come take me away and put me in a cage! What if I’m contagious? What if I gave whatever I got to you from all the kissing and playing? If I hurt you, then I’m really a monster!”

“Well, I don’t feel any different. And if you are, it’s already too late for me, isn’t it?”

“Go away!” Yuki’s voice came muffled.

Asami went in the next stall and dropped to the floor on her hands and knees to peer at an empty floor. She shifted on her belly until she could look up the toilet and see Yuki’s slender calves pressed against thighs. Her suit dress folded between her legs.

“I can see your panties,” Asami said.

“What are you doing on the bathroom floor? Didn’t I tell you to go get the anomalous science team? I have a disease that might end the entire human race. Nobody grows a horn in minutes. Bring me some sand while you’re at it.”

They stared at each other. Asami looked up from the floor while Yuki looked down from the toilet.

“It looks really small from down here,” Asami said, “I can barely see it all. It’s kind of cute, like a piercing.”

“I hate piercings!”

“Look, I’m not reporting you to the super-secret anomalous science team, whatever that is. You’re my lover. We stick together, got it? Here’s the plan. I’m going to go get you a big floofy hat to cover up that thing on your head so you can go to your cinema class. Then we’ll meet up after classes and go back to the student dorms. We’ll figure out what’s happening to you and what to do next. I want to make sure whoever we find to help you isn’t taking advantage of you. Does that sound reasonable enough miss logic?”

Yuki nodded as she wiped her eyes. The only other response she could manage was a defeated squeak.

“Okay,” Asami slipped back into her own stall, “Wait here until I come back. Don’t let anyone see you. It should take me about ten minutes to get to locker and back! I love you.”

“I love you too,” Yuki touched the curled horn that ran up her forehead along her lower scalp. She smacked her lips with a strong craving for… salt?