The Metahuman Agency: The Superhuman War

Exploring D.C.

In an hour, Jaosn had changed. After lying on the bed for a few minutes, he had searched the closet. True to the Director's words, there was a spare change of clothes inside. A t-shirt, jeans, even a fresh pair of socks. Jason got dressed while Hiroshi was in the shower and hung up his costume. He was a tad nervous about leaving it unattended here, but then he reminded himself the Director had probably thought about that too, so he put it out of his mind.

Soon, Hiroshi emerged from the shower, dressed in a bathrobe and hauled his armor out. He glanced at Jason and said, "Already changed?"

Jason nodded and spread his arms. "Yeah. How do I look?"

"Fine, I guess," Hiroshi grunted, dragging his armor to the closet. He opened it and placed his helmet on an overhead shelf. "I thought you might wanna, uh, shower."

"Why?" Jason sniffed his armpit. "Do I smell?"

"No but..." Hiroshi shook his head. "Nevermind." He lifted up his armor, grunting, and shoved it into the closet. The suit tipped over, banging against the wall. Hiroshi pulled it back up and tried to steady but the armor tipped over again and thumped back against the wall. Hiroshi sighed and waved his hands at it. "Whatever."

Jason moved up beside him and said, "Yeah, I don't you can store that easily. That's probably the best you're gonna get. I still don't know how you fly around in that thing. It looks heavy as hell."

"It's a little heavy, yeah..." Hiroshi opened the second closet and rooted inside, tossing out a t-shirt, a leather jacket, jeans, socks, and underwear. "But its fine, honestly. I mean, I had trouble with it at first but I got used to it pretty quickly." He smiled, stopping in mid-movement. "My dad got it made really well..."

The room went silent, save for James's snores. Hiroshi's lips trembled and he looked on the verge of tears. Jason knelt down next to him and put a hand on the kid's shoulder.

"Hey," Jason said. He searched for the right words for a moment. "You're gonna see your parents again. You've talked to them, right? They're okay?"

"Okay?" Hiroshi sniffed slightly and wiped his nose. "I mean, yeah, sure I got allowed a few phone calls with them but..." He shook his head. "They're far from okay. I was missing for months and they were totally freaking out, they thought I was dead, and even though they know I'm alive now I can't go home! They're not okay, they're probably terrified. I know my dad is probably pulling every string in the book to try to get me home, throwing money everywhere..." Hiroshi looked at Jason, his eyes welling with tears. "I wish I could see them. I...miss them. So much." His voice cracked on the last word.

Jason didn't know what to say. He looked at the floor, biting his lip. Man. Poor kid. Hiroshi didn't deserve this, any of it, to have it inflicted on him. But what could he do? He didn't know what to say to encourage him nor could he really help get Hiroshi what he wanted. He felt useless and that made him angry. He hated not being able to act.

Hiroshi sat there for a few minutes, sniffing, before shaking his head. He took a breath and stood, snatching some tissues from a nearby table. "Sorry." He blew his nose and dumped the tissue in the garbage. "Sorry, I shouldn't dump all this on you. I've been trying to keep this to myself."

"Nah man," Jason finally looked up. He stood. "Let it out. Otherwise you'll go crazy. I heard a therapist say that once...." He laughed. Hiroshi smiled a small smile in reply. "But seriously..." He pointed at the kid. "If you ever want to talk about this shit, I'm here for you. 'Cause I know what its like to have the world shitting on you and to lose your parents."

Hiroshi nodded. He wiped his eyes. "That's...that's cool, man. Uh...not the dead...parents...part...but the other stuff! Really, thanks. I'll try." He smiled, seeming a bit warmer this time.