Chương 8: R&R Ch. 8 — Untalented and Underwhelmed

Jasmine's ponytail bounced as she ran along the track, absently humming to herself as she went through the motions. The workout was good, but she was far from struggling. It was easy for her to pick out who were her fellow super scions, who were like Nicholas and just people who got powers somehow. And finally, the group of people who had no interest in being super at all but got powers. Though Nicholas was flagging, this was going to be the third time she lapped him in the run.

"You sure you don't want me to run with you?" Jasmine asked, slowing down, so she was in step with her partner.

"It's fine." Nicholas said, keeping his sentences short so that he didn't waste too much oxygen.

"Just run." Same thing he had told her last time. But she was going to oblige all the same. Jasmine picked up her pace, enjoying the moment where Nicholas tried to speed up to keep up with her even though he began falling behind quickly. She was going to make sure he could keep up eventually, but this class was going to solve some of that. Without hitting E-Rank, their physical ability was still stuck at basically human plus. Jasmine had been beyond human since she could walk. Here she didn't have to hold back.

And the fact that there were a few others who were ahead of her made her drive to improve sing. Not all of them had physical powers. And she would be number one in that group before the month's end. She couldn't accept anything less. Not if she wanted to prove to everyone her value. Once the warmup run was done, they went through a myriad of exercises focusing on full-body workouts. With everyone being superhuman, and more importantly having healers on staff, let them cheat.

During the cooldown run, despite him telling her to take it seriously, she ran with Nicholas the whole time, chatting happily even while he gave curt responses. They were all dismissed back to their suites to shower and change for their classes. Jasmine quickly showered and changed into clean clothes before tying her hair up into a tight bun and slipping on a pair of glasses. She was pretty sure she looked studious, though the leather jacket and ripped band t-shirt weren't helping the look.

"You ready to go?" Jasmine asked, skipping out of her room to find Nicholas making what looked to be lunches for the two of them. She hadn't asked him to do that, but it was touching of him to do so. Nicholas glanced up at her, his eyes betraying nothing.

"Your hair is up, and you're wearing glasses." Jasmine nodded. Those were both things she had done, but she was taking the moment to look at his outfit. Headphones around his neck, black t-shirt and blue jeans, he looked as if he couldn't be bothered to care what people thought about him. And his messy sandy blonde hair only added to that. It was identical to how Nicholas had dressed before they came here, so she wasn't sure why she was surprised. She had dressed differently so he could have too.

"So why glasses? You don't need them, do you?" Jasmine touched her glasses subconsciously.

"I was supposed to need them. And they make me look smarter. So when I'm trying to concentrate and focus at my maximum, I tie my hair up and wear glasses." Nicholas mulled that over as he handed her the lunch he'd made. He spun an orange in the palm of his hand as he slung his own bag over his shoulder.

"You never did either of those at school, did you?"

"Uh, yeah, no," Jasmine agreed, grabbing her own orange to attempt and mimic his spinning trick as they started making their way to class.

"School wasn't for focus; it was to have fun and make friends. So I just had fun." Nicholas waited until they were in the elevator to speak again.

"What did you mean were supposed to?" Jasmine wilted.

"My grandma, when my mother conceived me, she made sure my mind, body, and soul, were the perfect vessel for her legacy. So she corrected my vision I would have inherited from my dad." Jasmine couldn't bring herself to look at her friend, finding the ceiling incredibly interesting.

"When I got my powers, my belief was set at two. One for me, and I presume one was you." Nicholas said quietly.

"What?" Jasmine squeaked, trailing behind him as he walked away.

"You shared something private, so I thought it was fair," Nicholas said, seeming perfectly okay with the statement he had just made. Jasmine's belief was. Well, it was way higher than that.

"Yeah, but mine is like a goofy quirk of my family; yours is like genuinely terrible." Jasmine said, still trying to figure out what that meant. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. She couldn't remember what her belief had been at the start, but it had ballooned fast once she finally made it — just from the posts her mom made on social media had caused it to grow.

But the fact was, if the number was two the day he got his powers, that meant there were only two people who had believed in him.

"Doesn't bother me. Come on, we need to get to class." Jasmine wanted to say something. There had to be something she could say that would make it better, but there was nothing. They had a total of five classes each "school" day if you counted the gym in the mornings and focused study with instructors with similar powers. Jasmine shared classes with Nicholas for three out of the five. And the two they didn't were because she couldn't be in his class.

She was far from a domain power, and she was far beyond the basics of power manipulation and meditation. She wasn't happy that it was clear someone knew who her family was, and she was sure that a spy was here. Otherwise, her grandma would have sent her somewhere else. Their first academic class was almost old hat for both of them. Jasmine because she had been hearing these conversations since she was a toddler and Nicholas because a man obsessed with becoming super had done research.

However, there was something viscerally real about the lesson and discussion now that she would do it in a few weeks' time. About powers, Beyonders, match-ups that are commonly preferred, and the ideology supers can use to grow. Well, the class wouldn't be covering all of that. It was the first day, and they were covering one of the more common powers of pyrokinetics. Everyone said fire powers were cool, and she had to agree. It was why her next weapon was going to be a flaming lance and horse combo.

The second class was much less interesting. Full of the scions of various supers, they were all left for self-study. They all knew the paths they were traveling, so it wouldn't do to teach them the basic techniques that everyone used. Jasmine had several. She picked to practice the one she needed to most today. She was going to work on strengthening her soul.

When she was a kid, she had thought it was better to find a way to repair her soul fast, but her grandma had said it was a waste of time, so Jasmine was only barely better than a normal human at recovering her soul. But it was stronger; it was why her hammer was as strong as it was without needing massive chunks of her soul. In her mind's eye, in front of a sealed gate, lay her soul, an orb of green energy with wisps spinning around it. Or the wisps should be.

They had all been used to make the hammer, so there wasn't anything for her to work with there. The ninety minutes didn't make any noticeable difference, but she felt better going to her third class. Though she and Nicholas both had to work hard to help keep the other awake, since it was about all the laws that would apply to them as supers. Worse was she knew it was bunk too. Nobody at the top end followed the rules. Jasmine quickly separated to go meet her tutor.

Apparently, she was the only soul artist they had in the city and wasn't even an active tutor. The dean had to pull a favor to get it. Jasmine hoped that meant neither was the plant spying on her.

"Hi!" Jasmine said, greeting the older woman.

"Jasmine right? I'm Vanessa. Sorry that I'm not the best fit." Vanessa said apologetically.

"It's fine. I didn't think that there would be someone here for me in the first place," Jasmine said with a laugh.

"I didn't meet another person with a self-focused soul power till I was approaching B Rank. I know how it goes," Vanessa agreed. Jasmine paused for a second before deciding to speak up.

"My power works on other souls too. I'm just not going to use it on others. Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"My partner thought it could work if I used Beyonder souls, at least for practice, so I want to try that." Jasmine said, not wanting to be pulling the wool over her eyes.

"Would that work?"

"They leave remains like a super, so I think there's a chance it works, but I'll find out over the weekend," Jasmine said, shrugging.

"Well, one of the big problems I have, and you experience because of your morals, is we only have so much soul to work with? And destroying our mental health to get power is the fast track to villainy, right?" Vanessa said as a large ephemeral lion stepped out of her to watch Jasmine. Jasmine waved at the spirit lion.

"My power includes creating and summoning my spirit guardians, and they're immortal. But they can be destroyed temporarily. At least until their souls are fully regenerated. So, about a decade ago, I created a method to recover soul damage fast." Vanessa said clearly, proud. She should be, Jasmine knew how amazing it was to develop something like that, but she had a question.

"Can you do it mid-fight?" Soul damage needed time and comfort to regain its power. There were ways to speed it up a little, but a full method should be impossible?

"Sort of, but it mostly works by maximizing what you're already doing. With your background, it shouldn't be too hard, so I'll walk you through the basic steps." Vanessa said.

"Right, my background." Jasmine said, wilting at those words. She knew it was going to be impossible to hide the fact that she was a scion of some super; it was obvious to everyone who knew what to look for. But the tone and deference. That meant Vanessa knew exactly who Jasmine was a scion of.

"You're not going to tell anyone, right?" Jasmine asked, almost begging.

"Of course not." Jasmine let out a sigh of relief. Then the lesson began in earnest, Jasmine doing her best to understand the basics of this technique. How she breathed, how her power cycled through her, how her soul needed to spin in response, and how to use belief. It was hard. Worse, it was contrary to everything she had learned so far. Jasmine narrowed her focus and pushed forward. She would learn this technique, maybe not today. But she would.

An hour later, Jasmine was on her back, sweat coating her body as she tried to choke back her own irritation. She wasn't succeeding. She knew that. Her body, mind, and soul had literally been sculpted by her grandmother to be the perfect vessel, so why was she failing?

"We can start with some easier exercises if this isn't working for you well tomorrow, since we're done for the day." Vanessa offered holding a hand out to Jasmine.

"No, I'm going to get this even if it's the only thing you teach me." Jasmine practically growled, forcing herself to her feet. It wasn't Vanessa's fault, but Jasmine burned.

"At the rate you're going for it will be. It's okay to have things you're bad at. Focus on where your talents lay." Vanessa said.

"No." Jasmine stomped away, not listening to her teacher. She knew what she meant. Vanessa was calling Jasmine untalented. Everything her family poured into her and she couldn't figure out something as simple as a meditation method to heal her soul. She was the warden of her soul, and she would figure this out. She had to. She had to prove to everyone that she was worth it.