kscans

Chapter 132 - Let's Go Searching

Sunday. I was eating lunch with Sakuya-chan while watching TV. Since I would be making dinner, Sakuya-chan had made lunch, and it was amazing. It was mapo tofu with okra, and the white rice just kept disappearing.

"I feel like I could eat this forever."

"You’ll get fat. Well, if you did get fat, I’m sure you could do something about it, Hero Uncle."

"I could, but I wouldn’t."

My body would just get flabby, there would be no other inconveniences. If it made my movements less sharp, I might think about it, but that wouldn’t happen. Actually, I doubt I would do anything even if it did. You could say I’m too complacent, but it’s not like there are many people out there who can beat me.

"Sakuya-chan, seconds please."

"Yes, yes. How much?"

"A large helping."

I know your game. Even while telling me I’ll get fat, you cooked extra rice, Sakuya-chan. What is she, my wife? My quality of life is improving so much it hurts. Well, it doesn’t actually hurt.

"Here you go."

"Thanks."

I took the bowl, scooped up some mapo tofu with my spoon, and dōn, right on top of the steaming white rice. I shoveled the mapo tofu and rice into my mouth all at once. I chewed thoroughly before swallowing, then washed it down with some cold barley tea.

I feel so happy.

She treated me to such a delicious lunch, so I have to put some effort into dinner tonight. But what should I make? Lunch was rich, so maybe something light for dinner?

Shirasu don sounds good.

A generous amount of whitebait on rice, topped with shiso leaf and egg. No wait, nozawana pickles would be good too. Let’s just make the toppings optional. There’s no need to limit the choices. For a side dish, how about tofu dengaku? Tofu slathered in miso and broiled. My chopsticks never stopped moving as I idly considered the dinner menu, and I polished off my third bowl in no time. I still had room in my stomach, but I should probably stop here.

"Phew, thanks for the meal."

"You are most welcome. You’re going out now, right?"

"Yeah, got a little errand to run. Ah, is there anything you want me to buy on my way back?"

"Hmm, then please get some ice cream for after my bath."

"The creamy kind? Or the sherbet kind?"

"The latter."

"Got it."

I’ll buy the creamy kind for myself. I like sherbet and popsicles too, but I’m in the mood for something creamy right now.

"Alright, I’m heading out. Sorry, but can you handle the cleanup?"

"Okay, see you later."

I tossed my wallet and phone into my pocket and left the house. When I trotted to the station, he was already there, just as I expected.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

"No, please don’t worry about it."

The person I was meeting was Hikaru-kun. A few days ago, we had a discussion about what it means to be cool, but I had no intention of letting it end with just a discussion. I plan to stick with Hikaru-kun all the way until he obtains a new kind of cool for himself.

"Thank you for having me today."

"Mm, leave it to me."

Today isn’t for training. He doesn’t have a clear picture yet of what kind of ultimate move or ability he wants to learn. So, as part of our quest, we plan to visit some of my acquaintances who use cool techniques. Some of them Hikaru-kun won’t be able to imitate, but just seeing them should be inspiring.

"Shall we go?"

"Yes."

I placed a hand on Hikaru-kun’s shoulder and teleported to Okutama Island. Waiting for us at our destination were, as you might have guessed, Takahashi and Suzuki. I figured it was best to start with people close to home. I actually wanted to call Chika-san too, but she seemed busy with Lucifer related matters, so I decided to let her be.

"I am truly sorry to have troubled you."

"Not at all. We were originally guys too. Right?"

"Yes. I believe I understand how you feel."

Though our tastes have changed now that our minds are more feminine, some things remain the same. When it comes down to it, both of them still love flashy special moves. Rika-chan is a girl through and through, but she loves firing off heavy artillery and things like that.

"Yo, Satou. We can break whatever we want, right?"

"Yeah, I’ll fix it later, so go all out."

We’re getting a demonstration of their ultimate moves, after all. It’ll be more exciting if they smash things up in a big way. I might hesitate to destroy a real city, even if I could fix it later, but this place on Okutama Island is a replica. We can destroy it without a second thought. It’ll probably be easier for Hikaru-kun to watch that way too.

"First, let us explain our unique abilities again."

"I can control ‘gravity,’ and Suzuki can control ‘repulsion.’"

"Gravity and repulsion are so cool on their own. They sound like abilities for a powerful character."

"Right?"

"They sound very fitting for rivals, don’t they?"

Takahashi and Suzuki looked at me.

"Given his position, you’d think he’d have some kind of power to connect things."

"Yeah?"

"Leave me alone."

"Come to think of it, Satou-san, do you have a unique ability?"

"Nope. Well, I seem to have several original techniques using other skills."

"As a Child of the Stars, he’s still only at the first stage, with just physical enhancement."

"Can you stop talking about me and just get on with the demonstration already?"

You’re making me feel pathetic.

"Sorry, sorry. Then I shall go first. Repulsion. The power to repel and push things away. It has many applications, but this is one I used often."

Suzuki extended a hand forward, and a barrel made of repulsive force deployed around her wrist. The geometric patterns spreading out radially from the barrel were, of course, a result of prioritizing appearances. I mean, you can’t normally see something like repulsion, right? You can see the result of the phenomenon, but not the force itself. At most, you might see space warp a little depending on the output. But that wasn’t cool enough, so this was the result of dressing it up with other techniques to make it look the part.

BANG.

She made a finger gun and mimed shooting, launching the iron ball that had been loaded. Accelerated by the repulsion barrel, it destroyed everything in its path as it vanished far into the distance.

"What do you think?"

"Cool. That’s super cool, Suzuki-san."

"Hahaha, I’m glad you enjoyed it."

"It’s certainly cool, but in terms of flashiness, Suzuki’s is a bit lacking. My move is way more awesome."

Fired up, Takahashi stepped forward and raised a hand high toward the heavens.

Fall.

Countless falling objects broke through the clouds and rained down from the sky. They poured down over the entire Okutama Island without any mercy, creating a scene of destruction that could be mistaken for the end of the world.

"A, a starfall?"

"More like space junk than stars."

It’s a wide-range destruction technique where she uses gravity to pull in orbiting space debris and slam it down. It looks flashy and has decent destructive power, but to be honest, it’s a move just for clearing out small fry. Against a skilled opponent, it’s too slow and they’d just shoot everything down.

I wonder how Kawasaki would rule on this technique of Takahashi's.

Is it okay because the source of the power is on Earth? I’ll have to ask Kawasaki about it next time, if I remember.

"There’s no need to drag this out. Takahashi-kun, shall we do that?"

"Yeah."

They stood apart from each other, facing one another, and each thrust out a hand. Repulsive force erupted from Suzuki’s hand, and gravitational force from Takahashi’s. The space at the midpoint between them began to warp.

"Could it be… could it be…"

Hikaru-kun brought both hands to his mouth, trembling, and shouted.

"It’s a combination attack."

Heh, watching such a happy kid makes me feel happy too.