The next morning.
The moment Kara Danvers, wearing a pair of old-fashioned black glasses, clutching her backpack, and walking with her head slightly lowered, stepped through the school gates, the sounds of the entire sprawling high school opened themselves to her.
From the intense stomping and thudding of soccer and basketball on the school field to the faint tremble of a hibernating insect in the small woods behind the school building. From the loud discussions and whispers of students nearby to the sleepy yawn of the guard at the back gate on the other side of campus.
Even without deliberately listening, an overwhelming flood of sound poured clearly into Kara's ears.
Kara frowned slightly in discomfort. Fortunately, more than three months had passed since her super-hearing awakened. She did not reveal the slightest abnormality and entered the school building as naturally as usual.
Unlike Kara, who had instantly seen through the secrets hidden within them, the students outside and in the corridors merely glanced at her before quickly looking away.
To them,
a female student like Kara neither knew how to dress up nor had an outgoing personality. Lonely and gloomy, she was practically invisible at this school.
Kara secretly breathed a sigh of relief instead. Without drawing the attention of even the students in her own classroom, she briskly made her way through the back door and reached her seat in the corner against the wall.
She gently pulled out the sturdy chair, as though afraid she might accidentally destroy it. Only after she was fully seated did Kara let out a light, happy breath.
Such cautious behavior played out nearly every time she came to school.
"You can do this, Kara. Nothing went wrong this time either. You didn't break anything." Kara Danvers silently encouraged herself, a bright, sweet smile blooming on her face. Even her thick black glasses could not conceal her beauty, though unfortunately, no one was there to appreciate it.
That was right.
Kara was a Kryptonian hidden among ordinary people in the modern world, and the second-to-last surviving Kryptonian in the universe. Her true name was Kara Zor-El.
The first Kryptonian was naturally the superhero already famous on Earth—Superman, her cousin: Carl-El.
As for
why Kara looked even younger than her cousin, only at the blossoming age of fifteen, it all began with Krypton's destruction.
When Krypton was destroyed, Kara's parents sent her to Earth, intending for her to protect her infant cousin Carl. Unexpectedly, Kara encountered a wormhole while traveling through space and lost more than a decade in an instant. Her spacecraft only reached Earth half a year ago.
By then, her cousin had fully grown into Superman and no longer needed Kara's protection. Instead, he helped her find a foster family—the Danvers Family—so she could live like an ordinary person in an Earth city.
Kara glanced at the clock on the wall. There were about five minutes left before class began.
She took out her textbook early to review it, while sounds from around the school continued to reach her ears. Most of them, naturally, were conversations and discussions among students.
Yet unlike the usual gossip about school couples or famous superheroes, nearly ninety percent of the students were discussing that morning's news.
Though it was called the morning news, the incident had happened the previous night.
A gigantic greenish-yellow monster had appeared in an outer district of Washington. Armed troops had been dispatched to suppress it immediately, only for the soldiers to suffer devastating casualties. In news reports interspersed with blurry, shaky on-site footage, the greenish-yellow monster could be seen demolishing and ravaging the city and military with terrifying strength.
Afterward, Spider-Woman, the Silver-Haired Goddess, and the Golden Armor Knight appeared one after another on the urban battlefield. Among them, a brief segment of the confrontation between the Silver-Haired Goddess and the greenish-yellow monster had been aired. The clash between shield strikes and giant fists immediately caused an enormous sensation and response around the world!
Naturally, the most talked-about topic was the Silver-Haired Goddess, who defeated and beheaded the green monster!
"I hereby declare that the Silver-Haired Goddess is my superhero idol from now on!"
"Pfft! Get lost. You said Superman was your idol before."
"Who says you can't support the Silver-Haired Goddess just because Superman is your idol?"
"As a Batman fan, I also love the Silver-Haired Goddess. It's her fault for being too cool..."
It was not just students. In the span of a single morning, the Silver-Haired Goddess had become the most popular superheroine in Washington.
Quite a few teachers at the high school, especially the male teachers, were even slapping their desks in the office and exclaiming excitedly, "Does this mean the Silver-Haired Goddess is a superhero who lives right here in Washington?"
"Hard to say. For superheroes with extraordinary gifts like them, the distance between cities isn't as great as we understand it to be," one teacher analyzed rationally.
Several other teachers immediately nodded in agreement. Take Superman and Iron Man, for instance. While the public knew that they lived in Metropolis and New York City respectively, no one would be surprised if they appeared on the far side of the Earth with their extraordinary abilities.
"I don't care. From now on, she's the goddess of my dreams. If they release any hero merchandise, I'm buying it!" the male teacher declared with a resolute expression.
If only he knew the identity behind the Silver-Haired Goddess, who knew what he would think.
"Silver-Haired Goddess, Spider-Woman, a giant monster..."
Kara murmured the words softly, but she was completely uninterested.
She was the exact opposite of ordinary people.
Kara was only interested in ordinary human things. As for anything involving the so-called extraordinary—her existence as a Kryptonian was the most extraordinary thing hidden in all of Washington. So there was nothing worth caring about.
"Class is about to start." Kara froze slightly. She had sifted through the countless sounds in the school, yet had not heard the gentle voice she wanted to hear most.
That person had not passed through the corridor along the wall beside her seat as usual, either.
Ding!
The school bell rang through the building.
Kara quickly looked toward one side of the upper floors. To her eyes, several layers of walls instantly became as insubstantial as air, allowing her to see a certain higher-grade classroom. Amid the classroom packed full of students, two empty seats stood out conspicuously.
The male teacher who had just been discussing buying hero merchandise walked onto the classroom platform carrying a thermos and explained, "Today, Prince Xi Nian and Gwen Stacy have taken the day off because they aren't feeling well."
"Not feeling well? He looked perfectly healthy yesterday."
Kara frowned slightly. What concerned her even more was that many students in that classroom began whispering among themselves.
"How could it be such a coincidence that both of them took leave at the same time?"
"Looks like my guess was right. Maybe they really are a couple!"
"So that means I don't have a chance?!"
"You never had a chance. Ah, my goddess Gwen..."
Hearing the heartfelt wails of so many students, Kara's heart involuntarily trembled as well.
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