Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 364 CLASS

Anne sat on my lap, slowly breathing in and out as she rested her chin on my shoulder. Almost too relaxed I was afraid she fell asleep. Instead of worrying about it I rubbed her back slowly. Nibi was curled up on the couch next to us, already napping. 

“I’ve never felt this happy before,” Anne mumbled.

 
“That good of a kiss?” I asked. She nodded. Letting out a sigh she leaned back, looking down at me as she sat on my lap. Her cheeks were still red, but there was a wide smile across her face. “How can you do it?” 

“The kissing? Oh just naturally good,” I said. 

“Not that,” she said, smacking my shoulder, but then giggled. “It was good though. No, how can we touch?” Her hand moved to mind, intertwining our fingers. 

“If I tell you, do you promise to keep it a secret?” I asked. She nodded. “This part, not the kissing, you can tell everyone about that.” 

“Stop,” she said, annoyed but laughing. “Tell me.”

“Alright, so have you ever heard of Nen?” I asked, knowing full well she hadn’t but dutifully waiting for her to shake her head. “Nen is your lifeforce. Every living and breathing being has lifeforce. The power of our cells accumulate together to give us life grating us energy, and if you can understand it. You can learn to control it.” 

I focused Nen into my hand. Barely putting any power into it I pushed it at the coffee table behind her. The table shifted and moved. 

“That was my lifeforce. I emitted it out of my body to affect something,” I said.

“What? That’s impossible,” she said, her eyes wide as she moved off my lap. Sitting on the couch she looked from me to the coffee table. “Do it again.” I did, pushing the other corner. “How-”

“Hold your horses, I’m telling you,” I said. I noticed that her hand was still holding mine so I kept with my Zetsu. I knew her power stole mutant powers too, but somehow keeping my lifeforce in me prevented her from getting it. I was honestly surprised it worked. 

“So, this Nen has certain uses. I can use it to see other lifeforce.” 

“Like mine? What does it look like?” 

Using Gyo I studied her. “Like you have a very vague clear white aura around you. Only a few millimeters thick.” She nodded, biting her lip to keep herself from asking any more questions. “I am able to control my lifeforce and keep it in my body. So when we touch, you aren’t absorbing it.” 

“Amazing,” she said, believing wholeheartedly. I was concerned she was a little gullible. Then again we lived in a world where people could control metal, turn into giant killer robots, and explode with a thought. It was a weird place. “How come you never spoke of it before?” 

“I don’t know. Last night it just kind of clicked,” I said. “It might be related to my own power.” I could feel the question on the tip of her energy. “With luck, maybe I would be able to teach you to control yours.”

“Really?!” She asked excitedly. 

“Yes, but it would take time, and I’m not 100% sure it would help you stop your power,” I said. Although I planned to get a Weakness Eliminator for her, I didn’t want to confuse her either. “But it wouldn’t hurt and would make you stronger.”

“Okay,” she said. “What do I need to do?”

“First…” I said, thinking back. The only people I had awoken Nen in were Nami, Robin, and Hancock. I only did that because they all had training in how to control Haki. Nami wasn’t overly experienced at it, and Robin was on the cusp of understanding, but they had been able to grasp Nen fairly easily. 

“I don’t think you’re ready,” I admitted. She had a dejected look. I quickly rephrased. “I have a way to awaken it in you quickly, but this would require me to release your lifeforce fully. If you don’t get some pre-training in, you could die. Your lifeforce would leak out of your body exponentially until you were dead.”

“It’s that dangerous?” She asked. 

I nodded. “It is, but that takes a while…I think. For now you need to train.” 

“How?” She asked, too excited to not interrupt. 

“First, physically. You need to start running and lifting weights.”

“Why?”

“Because the stronger you are, the more lifeforce you have. The more you have, the easier to sense when I bring it out of you. Second, you will have to start meditating. The first step would require you to meditate for 20 minutes without thinking.” That was my first step in learning how to sense and control my chakra. It sounded as good of a reason as any. 

“Then I can learn it?” 

“No, I said first step,” I corrected.

“You said training was first,” she said, frowning. 

“You want to learn or not?” I asked. She bit her lips again. I couldn’t help but smile. The normally depressed girl seemed bubbly and excited for once. Showing me a different side to her. “So train and meditate. After you can meditate for 20 minutes without emotions changing, we will then aim for you to meditate with outside stressors.” 

“Like what?” She asked. 

I smiled and pinched her butt. She jumped, swatting at me. Then hesitating as she touched me, but she mentally reminded herself she could and grabbed onto my arm, her smile wide. She was all kinds of different in a short time. I thought I was starting to see the real her.  

“Stressors like me talking to you or touching you. When you can clear your mind well enough to not react or show emotion for 10 minutes, I think you will be ready,” I said. 

“That’s it?” She asked. 

“It’s harder than it sounds,” I said. “Why don’t we go to class and we can start on it this afternoon.” Anne gasped, looking at the clock over the door. 

“We were kissing for over 2 hours?!” She asked, jumping up. 

“I call it making out, but whatever,” I said getting up. She blushed, but risked it and moved closer. Kissing me on the cheek, then stepping away as she hid her smile. 

“Can I touch you whenever I want?” She mumbled. 

“I don’t see why not,” I said. I had Observation Haki, she couldn’t sneak up on me. “Not when I’m sleeping, but I can be sure to focus and use Zetsu when you are around.” It was actually good training. I hadn’t realized how hard it was to keep my lifeforce within my body. 

“Sleeping? Why would I ever do that?” She asked, teasing. 

“What? You’re not moving into my room?” I asked, in faux surprise. I moved closer, picking her up in a princess carry as she gasped in fear, then giggled as she realized it wasn’t a problem. The old me in this world practically melted hearing the giggle. He had never heard her do that. “We could make out more. Do other things.” 

“Hold it there, sugar,” she said, reminding me that she was supposed to have a Southern accent in canon. It was slight, but the first time I had heard a hint of it. “I am a lady. Kissing in the corner is fine, but more than that…” I leaned over, kissing her. As I did I moved some Sparks into her abs. Her legs twitched as some pleasure shot through her nerves. She shivered a little as the kiss became more heated.

When I pulled away she dazedly asked, “Can we skip school?”

“Sure,” I said, more than willing. But her Haki was a mix of emotions. Longing, regret, worried we would move too fast, fear, lust, maybe a little shyness since she didn’t take a shower that morning. I sighed and set her down. “Some other time.” It was weird to start to identify new emotions from my Observation Haki. I was getting better at it. 

Anne nodded, smiling wide at me. “Nibi,” I said and the cat jumped over to me. “Shall we?” I asked. She nodded as I opened the door. About to walk through I stopped her, pointing at her gloves on the floor. 

“Oh, right,” she said with a sad sigh. Walking back over to them she put them on. Adjusting her clothes we walked out together and headed up to the classrooms. We had pretty much the same classes so we were off to Biology. I made a joke about studying her biology, and to my surprise she cackled, laughing loudly that led into a snort. I didn’t know what it was, but I was starting to really like her, despite my reservations before. I would have to see where things went. 

We got to class and had to sit in the hall for the rest of the period as punishment for being late. I walked Anne through some exercises to clear her mind. Breathing in and out slowly, putting her emotions in a box, all that, none worked. Either still worked up from our morning makeout session or in too good of a mood she was a bundle of nerves as she pretended to meditate. 

When class ended we walked with the others. No one commented on my lack of gloves so I didn’t say anything. Anne and I held hands, her’s gloved, but I could tell she hated it. Able to take the gloves off for once, she wanted skin to skin. I wondered if maybe some weird skin contact kink had started in her just from how antsy and desperate for it she felt, but ignored that for the time being. I promised her we could do more later, she blushed, and denied it, but calmed down after that. 

From there was History class. And I finally got a good reminder of who my other classmates were. The old me had been too shy to talk to most anyone, but I learned their names quickly as I recognized them from the X-Men comics. 

There was Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat. She was able to move through objects like…shit what was his name. Mirio? From My Hero Academia. I had absorbed too many Weston’s memories lately. Where Mirio was all skill and attack, Kitty Pryde was more in the background. Ready to stick her hand into a bomb at the last second to pull out the guts instead of punch someone in the face. 

Then there was Bobby Drake, aka Iceman. Able to control ice and cover himself in it. I wondered if he would skate on ice like the old character from the X-men cartoon. As a kid he was my favorite X-Men, until I started reading Gambit comics and smoking cigarettes. 

Was that why I was so into Rogue/Anne? She was Gambit’s on again off again beau. They never did anything because she couldn’t touch people, but still, was I cucking my favorite comic character? Actually I was kind of doing the same with Hancock and Luffy…Naruto and Hinata…every girl in Gantz…maybe I shouldn’t go into that line of thinking. Just accept my luck in some worlds. 

I studied the students more as class went on. There was Warren Worthington III, aka Angel. He had large white feathered wings. I remembered that in some renditions of the comic he was a Horseman under Apocalypse. 

“Crap,” I mumbled. I forgot about Apocalypse. He was the strongest and first mutant. He would be a pain. 

Marvel had so many bad guys. So many strong bad guys. I wondered how the World would bring them along. Would they nerf the fights? Give me better rewards? Where would the canon end? 

So many questions and so few answers. I decided to let the canon of this world lead me. Unlike with Manga and Manhwa, which had linear storylines that led to 1 big end fight. Comics were more dynamic. Always changing, as one boss is dealt with, 2 more pop-up, and they could attack at the same time from different parts of the world. I had aliens to worry about here as well. It was daunting, but at the same time exciting. 

For a while now I felt like I was not myself. Some lingering effects of my fight with Mikhail, I felt hollow. Part of me had attributed it to the presence of Hancock, but hell, she told me over and over she was fine with me doing what I wanted. But I held back, not acting myself. With her no longer looking over my shoulder I wanted her with me, and at the same time was glad I could spread my wings. It was a weird feeling, but freeing. 

We moved to our next class and I noticed more people at the school. Sean Cassidy, aka Banshee. Storm, Jean Grey, and who I guessed was a less hairy Beast too. It was like going to school with celebrities. I knew a lot of their possible backstories, drama, and foes that they would face. 

But Xavier’s school wasn’t the best place to be. I wasn’t technically a mutant since I had been given my powers by a chemical spill. There was a lot of hate for mutants and I could be targeted or ostracized from the outside world of heroes if I stuck around here too much. But that was mainly the X-men. Were they still a thing in this world? 

“That’s ambiguous,” I mumbled. That quest implied there was more than 1 secret to uncover. I knew of the X-Men for sure, but not of any others. At least none I could remember.

“What?” Anne asked from beside me. 

“Nothing,” I said, trying to plan how to finish the quest as quickly as possible. “Why do I get the impression you are still thinking about our makeout session?” 

“I’m not,” she hissed, her face blushing, but I could feel her Haki as we sat side by side. 

“Don’t worry, we can do it again. Maybe we skip lunch,” I offered. She turned away, her face far more red. But from her Spiritual Energy I felt like she wouldn’t be against it.