kscans

Chapter 89 - The Sorrow of the Have-Nots

Complete eradication of aberrations that harm humans is impossible. Some types can be wiped out by eliminating their queen bee equivalent, but naturally occurring ones are hopeless. Organizations maintaining the supernatural world's order set up mechanisms in places thick with negative energy to lure these naturally spawning aberrations. It's basically like roach motels. They isolate them in one spot and clean up regularly. The alternate realm we came to today is one such place, though they must have neglected it for quite a while. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them swarming around.

"This feels like that massive outbreak of gray mullet we saw before."

"Gray mullet, huh... Does that stuff taste good? I heard it's fishy."

"If the water quality where they live is decent, the fishiness isn't too bad. Even the really fishy ones taste good if you prep them properly."

Well, that's good to know... but anyway.

"No using massive firepower to take them all out at once."

"It's a competition, right?"

"Yeah. I'll put limiters on everyone to average out our power levels, then we'll decide reward shares based on kill count."

"Minimum of 100,000 yen with bonuses based on ranking?"

"Yep."

Back in the day, Chika-san was way ahead of the rest of us by a mile, while we three were all bunched together. So we used to compete on kill counts. After getting everyone's agreement, I applied debuffs to the group and pulled out a starter pistol used for track meets.

"Hiro-kun, why do you have something like that?"

"Well, I wanted one, so I just..."

"You're seriously weak when it comes to material desires."

"A man who openly gives in to temptation."

"Shut up. More importantly, get ready. On your mark... get set... GO!!"

I fired the pistol as I shouted "GO!"

"Alright, die you bastards!!"

Takahashi moved first. He held out his hand, pulled an aberration toward him, and killed it by punching as it charged forward with its own momentum. Just slightly behind him, Suzuki grabbed the neck of a nearby aberration and used repelling force to blow its body apart. Chika-san also got one with a wind blade, SLASH! Meanwhile, I scored one kill with a completely artless kick.

(...I've always thought this, but these guys really are unfair)

Chika-san is fine, I get it. She was different from the start. Not just SSR tier, but LR or UR level. But Takahashi and Suzuki... these two don't have any special background or anything. They were complete amateurs who got dragged into this for the same reasons I was, right?

(Yet they have such cool unique abilities...)

As I mentioned before, I was originally classified as a Star's Fallen Child, a type of psychic. Star's Fallen Children have awakening stages, like 1st phase, 2nd phase, and so on. The first stage is just awakening with only physical enhancement. The second stage manifests unique abilities. If I had to classify Chika-san, she'd be Extra tier so I'll exclude her, but Takahashi and Suzuki both properly reached 2nd phase. Their unique abilities are "attraction" and "repulsion" respectively. The power to pull things in and the power to push them away. Fitting for two people who used to hold completely opposite ideologies.

(Standing between those two, I should normally awaken to some kind of connecting power or something)

Or maybe a nullification ability... I think it would've been fine to have that kind of protagonist-like power. My unique ability? I don't have one. I stayed stuck in the first stage the whole time. I did branch out into other techniques to compensate for what I lacked, but my abilities as a Star's Fallen Child never awakened, and the story ended like that. And even now I haven't awakened. Even though I can do all sorts of other things now...

"Hey, Satou's getting all jealous again."

"Those eyes... we used to get a lot of resentment from him. 'You guys have it so good' and all that."

"Come to think of it, I remember being told 'Chika-chan has it so nice' several times too."

The misery of the have-nots...!

"In the end, you became the most abnormal of all of us, so isn't that fine?"

"That's a completely different matter!!"

I grabbed a nearby aberration and swung it around in all directions like a nunchuck. Since I picked up the pace, the other three seemed to get fired up too, and the competition got even more intense from there. Chika-san ended up with the top kill score. It's not like I went easy on her though...

After completing the request, we took the slow route back instead of teleporting for the report. These days they do electronic payments so you can get your reward with just a phone call, but back then it was all cash handouts.

"Chika-san gets 400,000, Takahashi gets 250,000, Suzuki gets 200,000, and I get 150,000..."

"Good thing we went with a minimum of 100,000 plus score bonuses, huh?"

"Shut up."

As we were talking about this and entered the building,

"Wh-whaaaaaaaa! A d-d-d-doppelganger?!"

We ran into Rika-chan and the others at the reception desk. Rika-chan saw the rejuvenated Chika-san and let out a scream. Well, if you didn't know what was going on, that would be your reaction. Though Chika-san looks like her high school self, so there are differences in development.

"It's not a doppelganger. It's Mama, Mama."

"Ma... huh? What? Mama?! Why?! Anti-aging?!"

Hikaru and Sarna-chan also seemed too shocked to speak. I would've liked to watch a bit longer, but... it would be bothering other people.

"Well, calm down. I'm just temporarily younger, that's all."

"Who are you to be so familiar... hm?"

"...Um, could you possibly be... Satou-san?"

Hikaru called out hesitantly.

"That's right. It's Uncle. More precisely, Uncle from when he was a teenager."

"..."

Rika-chan and Hikaru were speechless.

"I'll explain the situation, so go collect the money."

"Roger."

"If you're going to the break room, buy some drinks. I want orange."

"I'll take something carbonated."

"Yes, yes."

I went to the lounge with Chika-san, bringing the kids along. When I explained the details there, they understood what had happened.

"Mama, well, yeah. Lots of people have said you look exactly like Mama did when she was young, so I get that... but huh?"

Rika-chan stared at me, looking me up and down.

"So FLASHY! I mean, wow, you're like a textbook example of flashiness!!"

"H-hey, Rika-chan... that's rude!"

"But come on! Can you imagine Uncle with bleached blond hair, wearing tons of jangling piercings and sucking on candy?!"

Lollipops were one of my must-have accessories back then. Even though I was flashy, I properly waited until I turned twenty before drinking or smoking. That's thanks to my parents' upbringing. They always told me not to break the law when I was just a kid who couldn't take responsibility. Huh? Arson? That was supernatural world business, so it's fine.

"W-well, that's... yeah. You did dress flashy at the beach too, but honestly I didn't think it would be this extreme..."

"By the way, Sarna-chan doesn't seem very surprised. Uncle looks like this, you know?"

"Well, yes. I've heard that it's not particularly unusual for men to have been wild in their past."

Not everyone's like that though. There are plenty of people like Hikaru who study seriously as students and become serious adults.

"By the way, were you three coming back from a request?"

"Ah, yeah. We wanted to work on our teamwork and stuff, so we took on something simple this morning."

How diligent... but that drive for improvement is good!

"And we were talking about going somewhere fun after collecting our payment."

"In that case, why don't you play with us mamas?"

"Huh, is that okay? Isn't this precious time for Mama to reclaim her wasted youth...?"

What a thing to say, Rika-chan.

"Um, I'm also kind of interested."

Not that unusual... or maybe it is. Hikaru's still a kid too. Given his personality, he probably doesn't fool around with classmates, but he was interested. Maybe he thought that with adults around... in a weird way, he could safely act foolish.

"How about you, Sarna-chan?"

"If I wouldn't be in the way, I'd love to."

"Then let's all play together."

The collaboration between real teens and fake teens was decided.