Scratching The Inside Out

[Kentaro Itonokogiri]

Kentaro had been feeling a little weird on the stomach lately. On being the important term here, as it was not inside his stomach. At least, he didn’t think it was. He knew he had been travelling a few things around in his abdominal pouch lately. It was not as useful as one would think though. Sure, his hands were free, but people tended to be a little grossed out when he had to reach inside of himself to pick them out. He really hoped he only left something in there and that it was not something more important and dangerous, like a result of his organs being compressed.

It really started to annoy him though, like something was scratching him from the inside. Noticing an empty classroom, Kentaro tried the door and, as it opened, walked in to check this out. Better to do it in a room than in the hallway, where he may be in the way of people walking around. Pulling up his shirt, he held it up with his chin while he reached for the light scar on the left side of his stomach. Gently, he pushed the skin off and put his hand in the opening. He groaned softly as his hand kept searching. The pouch wasn’t too big though, and he quickly grabbed something. He let out another sound, that could be compared to a grunt of approval as he pulled his hand out.

“Uh. And what do you open?” he said as he looked at a tiny key. It resembled the kind of keys there were for diaries but that was ridiculous as he had no such thing. He kept the key held up in front of his eyes until he caught glance of something else. Something moving. He turned his head and focused on the person that had just walked in, wondering how much they have seen and whether or not they were disgusted by it. “It’s really not as gross as it looked,” he assured.

[Devinder Singh]

Devinder's eyebrows shot up as he entered his classroom only to see a man...... reaching into his own stomach? It wasn't the weirdest thing Devinder had ever seen but it certainly was up there. "I sure hope not," Devinder replied cheerfully. You really never could guess what you'd see on a mutant campus. As a teenager at St. Bethany's, Devinder once saw another student detach their own limbs and wriggle across the ground like a snake. That had been an interesting semester. Another time, he had seen that same student detach their hand and scream on the top of their lungs to scare their teacher and attempt get out of writing a test. This happened, of course, after the limbs had grown back from the human-snake incident. Teenagers were obnoxious individuals at the best of times. Throw mutated powers into the mix and the mutant teenagers often outdid themselves when it came to shenanigans.

"Did you find anything else interesting in there?" Devinder asked in his Punjabi accent as he walked over to his desk to set down his teaching materials for the day. He was crawling with curiosity over the man's power, but he didn't want to pry too much. He recognized the man, another staff member at Bellefonte. Devinder was a fairly new teacher at the school, only having started at the beginning of the semester. He was still meeting people and learning names. "Kentaro, right?"

[Kentaro Itonokogiri]

Kentaro looked at the man. Was it his classroom? It was possible, as Kentaro highly doubted he was a student here. He could have walked in here for a similar reason to Kentaro, but he didn’t believe in that kind of coincidence. Anyway, the man didn’t seem too grossed out or shocked, so either he had seen worse or he believed what an adult would say. Made sense, as Kentaro was less likely to pull that kind of trick than a teenager. “I’m not reaching in my gut or anything,” he still felt the need to assure the other man. “It’s my power.” Kentaro had a somewhat sheepish shrug after that, almost apologizing for such a weird power.

He was even joking about what he found in there. Kentaro smiled at this, actually amused by the turn it took. “No, but it’s a good thing because there wasn’t supposed to be anything.” The man had a strong accent but Kentaro could hardly point it out, as he himself had a Japanese one. Between the two of them, anyone who wished to listen to their conversation better be good with accents. “Ah, so it’s your class. Sorry I used it like this, but that was really itching me out.” In what class did he walk in exactly? He was not really sure. It was open and he walked in, he didn’t bother with anything more than that.

He was a tad surprised the man knew his name. Maybe he was good with those. Kentaro couldn’t say he paid much attention, especially to teachers’ names. “Yes,” he agreed with a nod. “Kentaro Itonokogiri. I’m a recruiter here. And a trainer.” Well, he hoped, but there was no reason for him to mention that. “And you are?”

[Devinder Singh]

"My classroom is your classroom," Devinder said, nonplussed and riffing off of the common phrase "mi casa es tu casa". He began sorting out the handouts he needed to give to his students that day. There was still quite a bit of time before his class would start. That was one upside (sometimes a downside) to his power-- super speed. He usually arrived very early to things. He tried to slow down, but he rarely succeeded. Oh well, that only meant that he had more prep time. And, now, he had time to get to know a coworker. 

"Nice to meet you officially, Kentaro," he said with a warm smile. He had heard the recruiter's name before, from his colleague, Arcadio Buendia in passing in the staff room, but he didn't know Kentaro personally. "I'm Devinder Singh. I teach foreign studies here."

He gathered up the stacks of handouts for his students, once they had been sorted out from his lesson plan, and moved to start putting them on his students' desks. He flitted from desk to desk at one of his lowest speeds, but it was still faster than the average human. "What exactly is your power, if I may ask?"

[Kentaro Itonokogiri]

Kentaro had a smile at the expression Devinder used. He was not very familiar with the “mi casa es tu casa” phrase but he could at least understand he could continue what he had been doing. “Don’t mind if I do,” he told him before putting his hand inside once again, just to make sure there was nothing else left in here. If he managed to leave keys behind, who knows what else could be stuck in there. But he felt nothing else and removed his hand from his stomach. He didn’t bother with the skin, he knew it reattached itself on its own, he merely made sure his shirt was alright. No need to have people question why he looked so disheveled, their guess could easily land far from the truth.

Kentaro gave the man a nod. “Likewise.” It was always nice to meet with new colleagues, even if Kentaro started to feel like he was in between students and his colleagues in terms of age. Or maybe he just kept bumping into the older ones. “Foreign studies? What’s it about, exactly?” he asked, out of curiosity. “Is this about business or culture? Or is it about languages?” He thought there were people teaching those foreign languages but he had no idea what foreign studies actually was about and he wanted to know. The closest to that he could remember doing at school was probably learning basic Mandarin and he somehow doubted it was the same, again because there were people teaching languages.

While looking through his stomach, Kentaro had placed down the key on a desk. He took them back and shoved it in his pants pocket. He’d figure out later what it opened. If it was in him, then it must open something of his. He just had no memory what for now. Devinder seemed to be running around to place down his student’s papers. He was about to ask if he came at a wrong time but Devinder asked him something before. “Well, how to say...? Basically, I have a pouch on my abdomen I can stock things in. Not inside inside me, they don’t get covered in blood and guts. More like, something attached to my abdomen?” His power didn’t sound all that impressive and the whole explanation process often made him feel like it was more gross than it was. But the man saw it, so he must already know about that part and made his own opinion. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting you? I can leave if you have a class soon.” It wouldn’t be the first time Kentaro was kicked out of a room before he disturbed the class in there although it may be the first time here at Bellefonte.

[Devinder Singh]

"Foreign studies is a mix of things," Devinder said. "It's like, culture and language and politics and history all rolled into one. This is an intro class, but I teach advanced studies for when students start to narrow down what they want to learn about. I specialize in British Colonialist history, as well as Indian history," he motioned with his hand, starting at his turban and sweeping down as if to say 'well obviously', "But there are also correspondence classes that students can take, which I offer support for."

Kentaro's power sounded interesting. Devinder was always curious about physical mutations. His was technically physical, but it was all internal. If he wasn't moving, no one could see his super speed. Well, looking at Kentaro, he wouldn't have guessed that the man had an abdominal pouch either, but it was still more visible than Devinder's power. Ever curious, Devinder restrained himself from asking to see the pouch. He imagined it looking somewhat like a kangaroo pouch, if he ever got the chance to see it close up.

"You're not interrupting. I've got class in twenty minutes but as you can see," Devinder had already finished putting the handouts on desks. "I've got time to spare." 

[Kentaro Itonokogiri]

Kentaro didn’t consider his question stupid. People were always afraid to ask stuff, as they didn’t want the people they talked to think they were idiots, but Kentaro didn’t see it that way. When you don’t know something, you don’t know it, but if you can remedy that with a simple question, then you were an idiot for not asking it. Just now for example, he learned what foreign studies was about. “I see. So it’s kind of a condensed class of history for those who don’t need to narrow it down? Like... journalists and the like?” That sounded nice. Kentaro was all for learning new culture. “And you know a lot of languages?” By the man’s look, he could easily figure Hindi must be something he knew but he was curious to know if there was not a language other than English they both spoke.

Kentaro didn’t consider his power as particularly extraordinary. Useful, true, and with little side-effects compared to some, but maybe not the most impressive. He knew a few people who found it gross. Devinder showed no sign of discomfort about it. He didn’t even seem all that disappointed in how simple it was. In fact, he looked almost... interested. “I can store all kinds of things in it, and it will remain hidden from most detectors,” he said, encouraged by the man’s attitude.

Kentaro understood an invitation for a conversation when offered one. He had about twenty minutes to discuss with Devinder. “You’re pretty efficient, you’ve been doing that for long?”

[Devinder Singh]

"Sort of," Devinder replied. "It's more about the rest of the world as opposed to American history. But the socio-cultural aspect of different countries comes into play more heavily than simply historical facts. But yes, I do have some journalism students in my classes."

Finished with setting up his class, Devinder hopped up on his desk to sit. "Punjabi is my first language, but by virtue of similar roots, I can understand and kind of speak Hindi and Urdu. I tried picking up Pushto once, but all I remember are the swears and insults."

Devinder's eyes lit up when Kentaro explained his power. That was incredibly interesting. The pouch could hide things from sight. What about other modes of detection? "Will it shield from x-rays? Like at an airport?" Devinder hated American airports. The pin in his turban when he wore a pagh and his silver bracelets always set off the metal detectors. He was always being pulled aside for additional security screenings, too.

"My power is super speed," Devinder admitted. He wasn't actually more efficient than the average person, just quick.

[Kentaro Itonokogiri]

Kentaro nodded. It sounded like a rather difficult class to explain but he believed he figured it out, or at least most of it, from the man's description. The socio-cultural being precisely what interested him the most about history, it piqued his curiosity. He was also glad that his idea that journalism students may be interested in this class proved to be right. "This is the part of history that always interested me, this... socio-cultural aspect," he told him. If he hesitated, it was not so much because he was trying to look good towards Devinder than because he probably wouldn't have known exactly how to say it in English had he not used that term.

He smiled as he heard the name of various languages he could only assume were spoken in India. Well, he was pretty sure, but it could also be spoken elsewhere and he wouldn't know. He laughed about the swearing. "Always easy to remember those, no?" he agreed with a laugh. "I can't say I speak any of those languages. I do speak basic Mandarin, we can get some Chinese at the school, but there is one in India, I believe." He squinted his eyes as he said that. He was pretty sure of himself but he could also be mistaken and it was why he looked as though he was waiting for Devinder to either confirm or correct him.

He noticed the light sparkling in Devinder’s eyes. It pleased him to know some people could find his power interesting when there were just so many amazing abilities around here. Too bad answering the question could make it less impressive. " Well, X-ray, no, if you put me in a machine like that, it will show. But metal detectors like at airports, they can’t read anything," he told him with a nod. Still wasn’t so bad, right? It was not like they made you go through more than a metal detector. And he could resist other form of detectors. X-rays just proved to be too invasive for his power to properly hide anything.

" Super speed, really?" That sounded like something that could prove a lot more useful, and definitely a lot less illegal, than what he had. " At least one of us has a power that doesn’t need further explanation," he let out with a little laugh. Even if there could be a lot more to it than mere speed, little differences between people having a similar ability, you could usually understand what it was and consider it a power when someone said super speed. Must be the super. Kentaro couldn’t say he had a super stomach.