Arthur finished his story exactly at the point where Jeanne Alter had agreed to stay by their side.
"...And that's how I met Jeanne Alter and managed to bring her over to our side."
As soon as he finished speaking, the office fell into a brief silence.
Arthur leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms with a small smile of satisfaction. Meanwhile, the little Eevee, who had spent the entire time comfortably curled up in his lap, remained there as if it had listened to every word.
It was then that Arthur noticed the four girls were all looking at him in exactly the same way.
Ritsuka wore an expression that suggested she couldn't decide whether to laugh or complain.
Shion rested her elbow on the desk, supporting her face with one hand as she stared at him in silence.
Chloe swung one leg with an amused smile, clearly holding back a comment.
As for Luminous... she simply looked at him with complete disbelief.
"...Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Luminous sighed.
"Because this story was supposed to be about how you met Ritsuka."
Arthur blinked.
"...Was it?" he repeated.
"It was," Luminous answered without hesitation.
Shion immediately agreed.
"That was the original topic."
"Exactly," Chloe added.
"You started by talking about the First Singularity, and at some point it turned into an autobiography about how you won over yet another girl." Ritsuka concluded, pointing at him.
Arthur remained silent for a few seconds.
Then he simply shrugged.
"But that story was much more interesting."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The four of them continued staring at him.
Chloe was the first to laugh.
"He didn't even try to deny it."
"Not even a little," Shion commented.
Ritsuka pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Arthur... You completely went off topic," she grumbled.
"I didn't."
"The last three hours prove otherwise."
Arthur seemed to think seriously for a few moments.
"Maybe I made a small detour."
"Small?" Luminous raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, a... relatively small detour."
"You spent almost an hour explaining how you convinced Jeanne Alter to join your side," Luminous said sarcastically.
"It was an important part."
"But not for the story of how you met Ritsuka," she shot back.
Arthur opened his mouth to respond but thought better of it.
"...You have a point."
"Finally," Ritsuka let out a helpless sigh.
"But I still think it was worth telling."
Chloe burst into laughter.
"Unbelievable."
Arthur simply smiled.
Without saying anything else, he looked down at the little Eevee, who was still peacefully asleep in his lap, completely indifferent to the discussion.
He gently picked it up.
"Eevee~"
The little Pokémon slowly opened its eyes, yawned, and looked at Arthur for a few seconds before being placed into Ritsuka's arms.
Ritsuka accepted it automatically.
Eevee simply snuggled against her and went right back to sleep, as if changing laps were the most natural thing in the world.
Arthur stood up from his chair and stretched.
"Well..."
He looked out the office window.
"...It's getting late."
The four girls immediately had a bad feeling.
"So I'm going to bed."
"Hold it right there." Chloe was the first to react.
"Not, Nein, Niet," Arthur replied.
"You didn't even hear what I was going to say."
"It was probably for me to continue with another story."
"...It was." She sighed.
Arthur nodded in satisfaction.
"I knew it."
Shion pointed at him.
"You can't just stop there."
"Yes, I can."
Luminous crossed her arms.
"Arthur."
"Yes?"
"Get back here."
"No."
Ritsuka raised one hand.
"You haven't even told us how we met."
"You tell it yourself. Good night."
He simply opened the office door.
"Arthur!" Chloe called.
"See you tomorrow, lovely ladies," Arthur said with a wave.
"Get back here!" Ritsuka complained.
"Don't run away from the conversation!" Shion added.
"You started this story!" Luminous finished.
Arthur merely waved one hand over his shoulder without even looking back.
"To be continued next session."
He walked out and closed the door.
For a few seconds, the office remained completely silent.
Then Chloe burst out laughing.
"...He actually did it."
Ritsuka looked at the closed door and sighed deeply as she petted Eevee.
"...I knew he was going to escape the moment he looked at the window."
Luminous rubbed her forehead.
"That man..."
Shion simply smiled.
"Well... at least now we know how he met Jeanne Alter."
"And we still don't know how he met Ritsuka," Chloe replied.
The four exchanged glances, and the next instant, they all started laughing together.
Outside the office, Arthur walked calmly through the hallway of his mansion in New Uruk.
"...Mission accomplished."
At least for today, he had managed to escape the most difficult questions.
"Now, I have to go see Gwen," he said as he headed toward the portal connecting his mansion in New Uruk to the house in Queens.
---
xXx
After the battle against Loki and the Chitauri invasion in 2012, many things changed.
Not just for me.
But for the entire world.
For decades, mutants had been treated as monsters, threats, or walking weapons. But when the skies over New York opened up and an alien army began descending upon the city, it didn't matter whether someone was human, mutant, or anything else.
Everyone bled the same way.
The X-Men were among the first groups to respond to the attack. They fought side by side with civilians, police officers, firefighters, and even the Avengers themselves. They risked their lives to save people who, just a few hours earlier, would probably have crossed the street just to avoid them.
The whole world saw it, and for the first time in a long time, people also began to see mutants as heroes.
Of course, that didn't erase decades of prejudice overnight. There were still opportunistic politicians, extremist groups, and people incapable of abandoning their fear and intolerance. But it was enough to open a door that had once seemed completely shut.
Thanks to the persistence of the Xavier Institute and a few particularly "influential" people, the government finally agreed to create initiatives aimed at integrating mutants into society.
Among them was a program that merged Midtown High School with the Xavier Institute.
It was in that context that I received an invitation from Charles Xavier himself to become a teacher.
Naturally, I turned the offer down.
I had never imagined myself teaching a bunch of teenagers at the peak of adolescence.
However, Charles asked to speak with me before I made my final decision and asked me a simple question.
"How many people can you save by yourself?"
I answered without thinking much.
"Everyone who's standing in front of me."
Charles simply smiled.
"And how many people will your students be able to save after learning from you?"
That question stayed in my mind for several hours.
To be honest, I had spent most of my life solving problems with my own strength. Whenever a threat appeared, my first thought was always to eliminate it before it could endanger anyone.
It worked.
But that mindset also came with a price.
The more I solved everything on my own, the less room there was for others to grow.
If I simply continued resolving every crisis before anyone else could react, I would be taking away their opportunity to improve.
For the first time in a long while, I began to see my strength in a different light.
Perhaps my greatest legacy wasn't defeating every enemy.
My true legacy could be training people capable of defeating them without needing me.
That's how I ended up accepting the position.
Of course, calling it "teacher" might have been a bit of an exaggeration.
In practice, I was more of a guest lecturer than anything else. Two or three times a week, I would show up at Midtown High School to give a few lectures before returning to my normal routine.
The subject was History. After all, while I could certainly teach physics, mechanics, or chemistry at a level that would make many university professors break into a cold sweat, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to dump that kind of content on a bunch of fifteen-year-olds. Most of them still complained about algebra homework; explaining advanced concepts of engineering and physics might have been a bit too much.
Besides, History was a subject I could genuinely speak about with authority, considering I had personally known most of the people involved in it.
---
(End of Chapter)
A/N: The current year in the Marvel universe is 2015. I could have set it further in the future, but there wouldn't be much interesting happening. Unfortunately, I don't know the Marvel comics very well, so I'll be using what I know, along with the movies.