Jack chimed in as well: "Honestly, this whole neighborhood has been really unsettled lately. Luc Besson had already finalized his cast — they were practically ready to start shooting nearby. But once the incident broke out, the crew suspended all location scouting and moved on to filming interior scenes first."
He paused, then asked: "Have you been keeping in touch with that Natalie Portman girl?"
"Yes, we write letters back and forth — everything goes through the school mailroom. Why do you ask?"
Jack's expression turned complicated. "No reason. I just think she's a remarkably impressive young lady."
"What do you mean by that? Are you still working with that film crew? I thought the French guy's script was finished ages ago."
Jack looked flustered and quickly explained: "I'm not doing script rewrites for other people anymore! Mr. Weinstein placed me with this production as an assistant director — basically helping watch the framing on set. It's mainly about accumulating experience, laying the groundwork so I can direct my own projects someday."
Maya didn't press further about why he'd called Natalie impressive. How impressive Natalie was — Maya understood that better than anyone in the world.
After dinner, Maya turned in early. Genuinely early — as in, actually going to sleep. There was a big battle waiting for her tomorrow night.
March 5, 1993. Friday. Around 9:00 AM. Clear skies.
Manhattan Community Public School. The small sports field. Upper-grade spring athletics meet. Women's 200-meter sprint final.
"Go! Go! President Maya, I love you!"
"Oh my God — she's already four or five body-lengths ahead and we're not even halfway through!"
"Maya, you're incredible!"
"President Maya, will you be my girlfriend?!"
"Elsa, come on! Elsa, fight for second place at least!"
"Unbelievable! President Maya just won the 100-meter crown, and now she's going to take the 200 as well — that's a sprint grand slam three years running! How is she better than Jordan at this point?!"
"What is she doing?! She's almost at the finish line and she's looking back at her competition!"
"That's so over the top — but even if people think I'm into girls, I'm still screaming it! President Maya, I love you, I want to be your girlfriend!"
"She's nine meters ahead! Is anyone checking if she broke the world record?!"
"Are you kidding me? World record? The other girls are just that bad. None of them deserve to share a track with her."
"Does anyone else think President Maya looks adorable in that white short-sleeved athletic shirt?"
"All I see are those long pale legs under the black shorts. She doesn't even seem that tall normally, so how are her legs that long?"
"You can finally see President Maya's chest in that fitted athletic shirt — I'm so emotional right now."
"You animals. Did none of you notice that when she accelerated earlier, both her twin tails went flying? That means she was going fast. And then toward the end, when she clearly still had gas in the tank, her ponytails settled back down. She wasn't even going all out."
Quite the analyst, that one.
Maya accepted the bottle of water Nana handed her and wiped the sweat from her forehead — sweat that didn't actually exist.
"You're supposed to be managing things," she said. "Why are you over here?"
"I came to cheer you on! Maya, that look-back at the finish line was so cool! I wonder if anyone caught it on camera." Nana was vibrating with excitement.
Maya could only sigh inwardly. She'd honestly just wanted to win quietly. Her foot injury still hadn't fully healed. The problem was that by the time she neared the finish line, the footsteps behind her had gone completely silent. It wasn't like she'd been running a track event with her sensory perception turned on — so she'd had to actually glance back.
Turned out she'd left everyone behind by several meters.
"I wasn't doing it on purpose. Nana, do you believe me?"
"Does it matter if I believe you? A few of the other girls are nearly in tears."
"Forget it. I'm going to check my time." Before she could finish the sentence, the field's PA system crackled to life.
"Congratulations to Maya Hansen! With a time of 21.91 seconds, she has broken the school record for the women's 200-meter sprint! She has also broken the national under-17 women's 200-meter sprint record! President Maya Hansen is, without question, the fastest elementary school student in recorded history — the sprint queen of American primary and secondary education!"
The announcement played three times. Every student on the field heard it.
The fastest elementary school student. Sprint queen. Why not just call her the Cannon Queen while you're at it? Maya quietly added the name of the student council staffer who'd made that broadcast to her private mental blacklist.
She genuinely hadn't meant for this. In past years, without chakra, she'd always run at full effort and won by the thinnest of margins. This year was different. Even without channeling chakra into her legs, a full month of the Hansen Immortal Ninja Method had dramatically elevated her physical baseline.
She'd realized it during the 100-meter race. She'd only managed to keep it somewhat reasonable by listening carefully to the footsteps of the runners behind her. But during the 200, she'd failed to dial it back and ran the whole thing at 100-meter pace. By halfway through, the gap was so demoralizing that the other girls had unconsciously slowed to a jog while Maya kept her steady rhythm.
When she'd finally noticed the problem near the finish line, it was too late to do anything except that slightly obnoxious glance back.
The one thing that did bring Maya some comfort was that she hadn't broken the senior women's world record — 21.34 seconds, if she recalled correctly. Though honestly, when she put it that way, it still sounded a little strange.
When Maya went to retrieve her jacket from her locker, she quietly checked her Influence Points — she'd heard a soft chime a moment ago.
Her notification threshold had been adjusted: a single ping for every 1,000 points gained, to avoid the constant interruption of individual alerts.
Hum. A panel appeared in her mind:
Influence Points: 416
Gained today: 129
Just two sprint championships, and she'd somehow cleared almost 2,000 Influence Points today. That was a far cry from previous years, when even a first-place finish had netted her two or three hundred at most. The 200-meter run had genuinely shaken the student body.
Since today's luck was running strong, Maya figured she might as well try the Black Market.
Same as always — a vortex swirled open beside the old shopkeeper, spinning and spinning, and then a translucent pale-blue stone the size of a fist materialized.
She read the description. Her expression flatlined immediately.
A low-grade spirit stone. What on earth was she supposed to do with this? Her dantian energy sea ran on pale golden chakra — a fusion of natural elemental energy and standard chakra. Spirit stones technically supplemented elemental energy input, but without sufficient chakra, all the elemental energy in the world was useless.
Maya had never been short on elemental energy. The reason she couldn't sustain the Hansen Immortal Ninja Method around the clock was chakra depletion, not energy depletion.
Still, she didn't throw the stone away. One of her shop slots was empty anyway, so she might as well hold onto it. Her gaze drifted to the other slot, where the sealing scroll sat waiting.