The school lunchroom was crowded as students sat down, eating their food and chatting the time away. All eyes turned to Sanda Yuko when she strolled inside the room. A tall boy walked over to her.
“Sanda-san,” he said. “Can I get you food?”
She replied without emotion, “No thanks. I’m good.”
“Hey, Sanda-san!” a short boy called out. “Why don’t you sit next to me?”
“No, I like to sit alone.”
Yuko got her food and found a table in a distant corner. Several students sat down next to her anyway, but she didn’t complain. As long as she kept focus and they didn’t go out of their way to bother her, Yuko could turn their voices into background noise.
“I just need to concentrate. Studying is key right now,” she looked at her books as she ate.
Hera smirked at Yuko from a nearby table, thinking, “Enjoy your popularity while you still can. I’ll make you the enemy of every girl in the school with this!”
She pulled a golden apple from her lunchbox. On it were the words: to the fairest. It was still dripping with golden paint.
“Sure, I painted this apple gold this morning,” she thought. “But why would I give a real golden apple to a daughter of Zeus?”
The goddess hid and waited for a moment when no one was looking at her. Then, she got in a baseball pitcher’s stance and hurled the apple at Yuko. It sped at her head, but Oda Hideyoshi stepped in the way by pure accident and the apple slammed into his face instead. Students rushed up as he fell to the ground.
Hideyoshi grabbed his throbbing head and turned pale.
“My hair’s wet!” he said. “I’m bleeding!”
Yuko walked over with no trace of emotion, “You’re not bleeding. It’s paint.”
“What?” Hideyoshi removed his hand and saw that she was right.
He then noticed the apple and picked it up, “To the fairest? Is there a Greek mythology fan around here?”
“What do you mean?” Yuko asked.
Hideyoshi answered, “In Greek mythology, a golden apple with those words on it was thrown into a feast at Olympus. Three goddesses: Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena, started fighting over it. They asked Zeus to arbitrate, but he was smart enough to get a mortal to do it so he wouldn’t piss two of them off. The mortal was a prince of Troy, he chose Aphrodite, and this caused the Trojan War. I’m surprised you don’t know this story.”
“W-Well,” she became flustered. “I don’t care about Greek stuff! Why would I want to hear about a bunch of divine perverts and their bitchy wives?”
Hera’s eye twitched. The goddess clenched her fists so hard they turned white.
“Then I presume you’re more a fan of Norse mythology?” Hideyoshi wondered.
Yuko replied, “I don’t like it when siblings fight, and Thor and Loki are archenemies.”
“Thor and Loki aren’t brothers. They aren’t archenemies either,” he said. “Loki’s nemesis is Heimdall, who isn’t his brother.”
A blush crept over Yuko’s body that turned her red as a tomato. Embarrassment flowed through her.
She tried to regain her composure, “I knew that! I was…just…testing you, yes. I’m not a fan of Norse mythology; because, it’s foreign. I really like Shinto gods, like the god of rice, Susanoo.”
Hideyoshi didn’t say anything. He realized how embarrassed she was, and he didn’t want to cause her further distress. The other students, on the other hand…
“I can’t believe she thinks Susanoo is the god of rice! He’s the storm god,” the tall boy whispered.
A girl nodded, “That’s common knowledge. How could she not know that?”
“Maybe she isn’t as smart as people think she is,” another girl suggested.
Yuko covered her face and ran out of the room. Hera smirked and turned away. She didn’t see Hideyoshi run out after Yuko; because, a posting of the school grades caught her eye. The goddess walked over and her smile widened.
She thought, “So, that’s why you humiliated her. It seems we have a mutual enemy, Oda Hideyoshi.”
Hideyoshi found Yuko standing alone in the hallway.
He said, “Sanda-san, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you like that.”
She turned to him. There was a cold look on her face, devoid of feeling. Hideyoshi took a step back. Her icy eyes locked with his.
“I want to crush you,” Yuko told him. “Do you want to crush me?”
“No, I don’t, I swear,” he promised.
“Oh, never mind, then,” she started walking away.
Hideyoshi blinked, “What was that?”
Yuko stopped, “I thought you might want revenge on me for taking your spot. That would have made you useful. So, since it was an accident, you’ll remain useless.”
She started to walk again, but Hideyoshi’s voice stopped her.
“Hang on. Are you calling me useless just to get me to go after you?”
“No,” Yuko replied. “I’ve only just now realized that I want a rival to crush, and I called you useless before then. I’m calling you useless because you are useless. Why do you even like mythology? It’s a bunch of useless stories.”
“It isn’t useless, and I’m not useless. Even if the events aren’t true, there are truths within them, truths about humanity. Mythology has done so much to influence world culture, and Western mythology influences Japan too,” Hideyoshi said.
“What kind of truths?” she asked.
He answered, “Heracles once had to clean a stable of horse shit for a king, and the king agreed to pay him for it.”
Yuko wondered, “Why would you have Heracles clean horse shit? Even I know he’s the strongest demigod.”
“They were trying to humiliate him, now pay attention,” Hideyoshi continued. “The king refused to pay Heracles when he finished, so he sued the king.”
“He sued him? Is Heracles actually American?”
“Suing a king didn’t work since the king just banished him from the city,” he decided to ignore her. “Heracles came back in and killed the king.”
“Why did he think suing the king would work? Is he stupid?” Yuko wondered.
Hideyoshi explained, “Heracles isn’t stupid. He was trying to do the right thing. But the king was powerful enough that he thought he could get away with cheating Heracles. That’s the first truth. People with a lot of power can get around the law.”
“That’s pretty pessimistic. What’s the other truth?”
“It’s in the king making Heracles mad enough that he killed him,” he told her. “The king thought he could get away with cheating anyone, but Heracles was powerful enough to do something about it. It doesn’t have to be Heracles either. It could be another king or someone who’s ruthless enough to assassinate him. The truth is that no matter how powerful you are, there’s someone who can make you pay for your actions, so you need to be careful who you make mad.”
Yuko said, “That’s pretty optimistic.”
“Hang on! Didn’t you say the last one was pessimistic?” Hideyoshi shot at her.
“I did,” she nodded. “No matter what you said, I’d have criticized it.”
He groaned, “Then you’re just doing this to provoke me?”
“Yes, but you’re willing to defend mythology, aren’t you?”
Hideyoshi replied, “I am.”
“That’s good. You’re not as useless as I thought you were,” Yuko stated.
She started walking away, “Even if knowing about mythology is useless.”
“I’m not surprised an idiot like you doesn’t see the value in it,” Hideyoshi shot back.
Rather than turn back or retort to that, Yuko gave Hideyoshi a thumbs up.
Ved'ma Story 