Chapter Prologue
"Hey, Dad," Cassian said. Calm. Always calm. "Looking for something?"
"My glasses."
---
That night, Tanaka tried talking to Alicia.
"Have you noticed anything strange about Cassian lately?"
She looked up from her files. "Strange how?"
"Just... distracted. Spending a lot of time alone."
"He's fourteen. That's called puberty." She returned to her work. "Francis is the one I'm worried about."
And that was the end of that conversation.
Part A : New school year
The teacher welcomed him and one other new transfer in with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
He didn't look toward the girls' side of the room. Not out of disinterest—more like eye contact there would mean something he wasn't ready to name yet. He knew how to read guys. Distance, timing, posture. This wasn't that.Girls were different. Harder to read. He'd made mistakes before—
couldn't calculate where they'd gone wrong even in hindsight.
Better to avoid it for now.
He kept his eyes forward and found a seat.
Ms. Hara paused at the front of the room, shuffling two cards between her fingers.
"Cassian. Junior."
A few heads turned.
"This is administrative," she said, already moving down the aisle. "Transfer placement."
She handed them the cards directly.
Cassian glanced down. 29.
Junior's was 30.
"Keep these," Ms. Hara added. "You'll need the number."
"Scan these for attendance , daily"
That was it.
She turned back to the board.
No explanation. No ceremony.
The room reacted anyway.
Someone near the middle whispered, "Oof."
Another voice, quieter: "That low already?"
Junior leaned toward Cassian. "Dead last," he muttered. Not angry. Just registering it.
By the third day, the desks nearest Cassian stayed empty longer than they should have.
Not avoidance.
Just… preference.
That's good Cassian told himself. More time to himself .
The bell rang.
Ms. Hara didn't raise her voice. She never did.
"Phones away. Those who haven't already , go submit them in the main office . You will collect them by end of day"
The chairs shifted. A few students fumbled their pockets. Someone sighed like they'd been caught doing something minor but annoying.
A few of them stood up, resigned , and walked out of the class with their heads hung low .
Two rows ahead, a boy hesitated half a second too long.
The vibration gave him away.
Ms. Hara stopped mid-sentence. Walked over. Held out her hand.
The boy flushed. Passed the phone up. No argument. No drama. Just quiet compliance.
"See me after class," she said, already turning back to the board.
The lesson resumed.
Cassian leaned back in his chair.
Three seats to the left, near the windows, a screen lit briefly—dimmed fast, but not fast enough.
A girl glanced down. Thumb moved once. Then the phone disappeared into her sleeve.
Ms. Hara walked past her desk.
Didn't slow.
Didn't look.
Cassian didn't react.
He waited.
Another glow. Different student this time. Same area. Same calm. No rush. No panic.
Ms. Hara passed again.
Nothing.
Cassian's eyes flicked to the front of the room, then back.
Okay, he thought.
He didn't assign meaning yet. Just logged in.
No warning. No hand out. No request to open a bag.
Cassian leaned back in his chair.
Okay.
Part B :
It happened in the driveway.
Alicia didn't see the start. She heard it—Francis's voice rising, sharp and jagged, the way it got when something had gone past argument into territory he couldn't articulate.
By the time she reached the door, Francis had Cassian against the car.
Not hitting him. Worse than that.
Holding him there. One hand on his shoulder. Leaning in close. Saying something low and repetitive, words Alicia couldn't make out but could feel—pressure building, structural failure imminent.
Cassian wasn't fighting back.
That was the part that made her stomach drop.
He wasn't shocked. Wasn't scared. Wasn't even tense.
He was just—waiting.
Like he'd calculated how long this would take and was prepared to endure it.
Francis shoved him. Once. Hard enough that Cassian's head knocked against the car window.
Still nothing.
No reaction. No sound.
Just that same flat expression. The one Alicia had seen before but never named.
"FRANCIS !!" Her voice cut through sharper than she'd intended.
Francis stepped back immediately. Breathing hard. Hands still fisted.
Cassian straightened. Adjusted his collar. Walked past both of them into the house without a word.
Francis stayed outside.
Alicia stood in the doorway, heart pounding, trying to process what she'd just seen.
Not the violence. She'd seen Francis lose control before.
It was Cassian.
The way he'd stood there. The way he'd let it happen. The way he'd walked away like it was routine.
Like he'd been through this calculation before and knew exactly how it ended.
That night, she couldn't sleep.
She kept replaying it. The pressure. The silence. The awful patience in Cassian's posture.
She didn't know which one of them that scared her more about.
She went inside and dialed her husband
Part C : Tanaka
Tanaka pulled into the driveway.
The front door was open. Alicia stood in the frame, arms crossed. Waiting.
He heard about the driveway incident from Alicia .
Went to Francis's room.
Francis was sitting up already as if he was expecting someone to come talk to him .
"Lets go grab a drink" Tanaka said tossing the keys
Francis drove. Tanaka watched the road. Twenty minutes to the diner on Route 9. The one where nobody from their neighborhood went.
"You want to tell me what happened?" Tanaka asked.
"He needed a lesson"
"What kind of lesson?"
"He wants to help mom win her case , by.."
"There's this lawyer. 100% win rate. Cassian thinks he's cheating."
"He wouldn't shut up about it," Francis continued. "Showed me blueprints. Talked about security systems. Asked if I could teach him how to fight."
"So you beat him up."
"I didn't.. I didn't hit him . Just showed him what happens when someone bigger grabs you. When you can't talk your way out. When all your planning means nothing because you're just a kid and you're not strong enough."
Tanaka sat there, processing.
Not one son to worry about.
Two.
One who was violent.
And one who was so calm about danger that he'd walk straight into it just to solve a problem.