The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 385

Chapter 385: 385 | The Disaster Competence Thing [GT BONUS]

Sloane’s eyebrows went up. "Steele said that to you?"

"Camille said it to me. Steele repeated it back like it was hers."

"Ortega." She rolled the name around, and I felt the bond spike, that flare of territorial heat, and then felt her put a lid on it with visible effort. Her calves tensed on my lap. "Fine. She’s right. Annoying, but right."

"You’d have caught it too."

"Don’t manage me."

"I’m not managing you, I’m telling you that you’d have caught it, because you would have. You’ve been running rescue metrics since Radiant pulled two hundred and sixteen people off a flooded street when you were seven."

She looked at me for a long moment.

Then she kicked me. Not hard. Her heel just sort of thumped against my thigh.

"Two hundred and sixteen," she said quietly.

"I remember what you tell me."

The bond went warm in a way that had nothing to do with anything physical, that slow spreading thing that came through her when she stopped defending herself, and she stared very hard at her notebook until it passed.

"Okay," she said. "Different homework. What did Crane give you? Because Crane gave us something insane and I need to know if she gave you the same insane thing."

"Hero name and brand positioning statement. Workshop next week. She said some of us are going to cry."

"She said that to my block too. She said it and then she smiled." Sloane made a small strangled noise. "Lukas, she wears a mask to a lecture. To a lecture. She has a face and she covers part of it with purple satin and then teaches us about authenticity."

"That’s the joke. She’s demonstrating the thesis."

"I know it’s the joke. I hate that it’s the joke." She flipped to a page in her notebook and then covered it with her hand.

I looked at her hand.

"No," she said.

"You have it done."

"I have a draft."

"You have it done and it’s been done since you were fifteen and you’ve revised it eleven times."

The silence lasted about three seconds.

"Seventeen." Her ears were actively red now. "And that’s not even the assignment, the assignment is the positioning statement, the name is just context. I already had the name. Everyone already has their name. Stop acting like this is weird."

"Everyone does not have their name. I don’t have my name."

"Yeah but you’re you. You showed up to Halloran without a training suit and with a file that says you were Unmarked until last year. Having your entire identity mapped out at fifteen would break the brand."

"What brand?"

"The disaster competence thing. You walked into an S-rank exam site with no preparation and came out third in the country looking like you’d gotten lost on your way to a library. That’s the brand. You can’t also have a hero name picked out in advance. It ruins the vibe."

"I don’t have a name."

That got her. Her hand came off the page and she stared at me.

"You don’t have a hero name."

"I’ve been slightly busy."

"You’ve been at Halloran three weeks and you’re a class rep and you gave an interview on national television and you don’t have a name."

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