Capítulo 9: Plunder and Counter

Just like any other aspiring student, Mayu transferred from her province to the bustling city of Tokyo to pursue her dreams. She was taking architecture as her major and just as expected, the tuition fee is quite expensive. That's why she had to balance her time between two part-time jobs— one, a late-afternoon shift in a nearby cafe, and two, the Mgronalds branch in Tokyo which is conveniently positioned at an intersection of busy streets.

It was only her fifth day on her part-time job at Mgronalds so she was still learning the ropes. That's why when a nearby explosion happened and public unrest became rampant in the streets, she still didn't dare move from her position. Her cold sweat dripped from her forehead to her cheeks to her chin as she watched the scene outside unfold. It was like a scene taken straight out of an apocalyptic movie— balls of flames erupting everywhere, smoke coming out from the distance, and people running around the streets. The view was all too shocking that she couldn't move her feet. She was fixated on the floor, even her head wouldn't turn when she told it to.

"What's happening." She asked, trying to recall if she fell asleep during her shift and that right now, she was having the worst of nightmares... but so far, she couldn't recall such a thing happening. The only thing she could conclude is that what's happening in front of her is real, and there was no way she could wake up from it.

"How's your food?"

"It tastes the same as yours, probably,"

Amidst the screaming outside, she started hearing voices that sounded like they were the same age as hers. The voices weren't screaming at all, they were casually talking to each other like nothing's happening outside. When she scanned the area, she noticed that there were still two people sitting by the window seat of Mgronalds, they were facing outside so there was no way Mayu could see who they were. As far as she knows, they might as well be aliens or monsters.

"Um, excuse me?" She stuttered, carefully approaching the two customers who were left behind. Since they were on the same boat, it wouldn't hurt if she talked to them— or so that's what she assumed.

"Oh, good timing, do you have one more jumbo fries, we'd like to order one more. Shiroi, how about you?" Satoshi called out to Mayu as she approached them.

"Um, I'd like to get some iced tea please." Shiroi softly said.

"Ah-uh... right away," Mayu didn't know what to do so she just took their orders and received their payments. She felt as if she was in a daze while trying to figure out why Satoshi and Shiroi weren't budging from their seats even though people were screaming right outside.

"Here's your order, sir, ma'am." She professionally dealt with them like it were a normal day to get a customer.

"Thanks, and oh, you'd better stay inside this restaurant, it's dangerous outside," Satoshi advised before digging into the jumbo fries he just ordered. As he did so, he and Shiroi continued watching the live broadcast on television.

.....

"What are you?" Tatsuki called out as he used his superpower on the Slime but nothing happened. He was getting a bit panicky but his wife stepped in and deflected a 'tentacle' from the slime who was about to hit her husband.

"Take it easy, dear. Even if your Plunder Superpower doesn't work on this man-thing-whatever, I can still hold it off with my Counter Superpower. Just don't overextend and end up being turned into mist."

In the span of five minutes, the Slime 'Alien' already made enough damage in a huge portion of the city of Chiyoda. Apparently, its body is so malleable that it could extend it indefinitely, smashing everything in its wake and causing explosions here and there every time it whips its tentacles. And as if that wasn't enough, every single living being it touched would instantly turn into smoke and a vague resemblance of the slime.

The slime would then feed off of that liquid and grow even bigger, becoming a huge monster. And as it grew in size, its speed and strength relatively grew with it as well. When Tatsuki, Ayumu, and Shiroi's father first engaged it in combat, it was still sluggish and its tentacles were easy to dodge. But now that it grew to ten times its size, it could move faster than Tatsuki's eyes could track them.

"Hey, Yukino-san, can't you stop this slime with your ice powers?" Tatsuki asked, barely dodging three tentacles that shot at him with great speeds.

"If I could, I'd have done it a long time ago." Yukino was doing all he could dodging the tentacles as well.

"How about you? Don't you have some sort of superpower that could counter this thing? You have a lot in your arsenal, right?"

"Yes, but none of them seem to work." Tatsuki stole a glance towards his wife before shooting out spider-webs at the Slime. And when that didn't work, he shot out some ice shards, then sand, then water... but as expected, nothing worked.

"How about fire, don't you have any Fire Superpower That you've plundered?" Ayumu screamed out.

"No, I haven't gotten hold of one in a month... tsk, this is bad."

To further explain Tatsuki's superpower, which is 'Plunder', it enables him to steal someone's superpower and use it for a month. For the remainder of that time, the victim wouldn't be able to use any of his or her abilities while Tatsuki utilizes it. Tatsuki has no idea how many superpowers he can accumulate in a month but the most he could get was thirty. Although his superpower, in and of itself, is useless, he is one of the most powerful superheroes to ever exist. After all, his superpower is useless if superpowers didn't exist.

Tatsuki's 'Plunder' is also used to punish criminals, well, sort of. That's why he frequents certain prisons to 'Plunder' superpowers from criminals that reside there. It may seem a bit underhanded but the public views it as 'using criminals for good' so they deem it acceptable. Of course, Tatsuki doesn't just go around every prison and taking someone's superpower. He goes as far as to ask the criminal if he would like to 'lend' his superpower to him in a month. If he agrees, then that's an additional superpower for Tatsuki. Tatsuki also has the power to cancel his superpower when he decides that he doesn't need it anymore. So even if the deadline of next month is still not met, Tatsuki could still return the superpower at any time.

As for his wife, who is ranked second in the SAO rankings, she has the 'Counter' superpower. Just like Tatsuki, her superpower doesn't amount to much without the existence of any other superpower. That's because her superpower allows her to counter any attack aimed at her. No matter how strong the enemy is or how powerful their Kamehameha's are, she could always counter them. That's how she never lost against any fight, the only one she couldn't defeat in her prime was Tatsuki. That's because Tatsuki could just steal her superpowers from her and of course, she couldn't counter it because— one, it wasn't an attack, and two, she wouldn't have her 'Counter' anymore if someone steals it from her.

It was twenty or so years ago when Tatsuki first met Ayumu in a competition. And that's where they fell in love with each other.

In any case, the couple may be the strongest superhero under the Superhero Assembly Organization, but they were surprisingly powerless against a Slime.

"The best we can do is hold them off, we need backup." Tatsuki gritted his teeth as he continued to throw every superpower he could at the Slime.

"Dad!" Someone suddenly exclaimed from behind him.