In a certain neighborhood by the outskirts of Tokyo, where the houses were a bit more expensive compared to normal, a certain two-story house stood by the edge of it, with a spacious lawn and a pristine white wall of a fence surrounding it. Ironically, it may be one of the more expensive houses therein but compared to the nearby houses, it didn't look that grand at all. Nevertheless, its aesthetic look definitely made it earn its place in that neighborhood.
The house was a modern one, with two slats of thick bricked roofs. From a distance, the house could be seen as having an L-Shape, but from another angle, it's just a rectangle with a bigger first floor.
A black sedan was parked in front of the car and five people came out. After admiring the house for a few seconds, the driver talked to the one seating by the front seat and he immediately opened the gates. With a hospitable gesture, he welcomed the two visitors to his lovely abode, then he accompanied them inside.
Before he did so, he looked at the White Lion that seemed to be following them ever since they left the location of the incident. This White Lion stared at him, then proceeded to lick its paws. Left with no choice, he decided to lead the White Lion to their lawn, hoping that it won't destroy anything. Unexpectedly, the White Lion was surprisingly obedient to him, going to one side of the lawn and lying down there. On top of the White Lion, there were two whitish-blue balls of flames while four small caskets filled with nails floated up and down on top of it as well.
"You got a nice house here, huh, and it's not even that far from school," Yukine commented as his eyes wandered off around the house. He was eyeing the White Lion and the mysterious entities floating on its back but he didn't address them since Satoshi would just explain everything to them later. After all, that's what they came here for.
"Oh please, as if you're house is not that nice." Tatsuki chuckled pointing far off into the distance since Yukino's place is just a five minutes walk from theirs. "Please come in!"
"I'll go prepare the second round of dinner then," Ayumu cheerily excused herself as she headed straight to the kitchen.
"I'll help!" Shiroi offered.
.....
Sometime later,
Satoshi gulped a cupful of water as he nervously helped himself with the cornucopia of food in front of him. Although everyone was being quiet, staring right into his soul, he decided to not mind them for now. He wanted to explain it as clearly as possible but there was no way he could do that since his mind was out of sorts. Adding to that, the constant pressure in his mind, telling him that he had to explain everything to them, worsened his thought process until it short-circuited.
"P-p-please stop staring, I'm trying to figure out how to explain everything." Satoshi spluttered, pushing down the chicken he ate with another cupful of water.
After 'licking' his plates clean, he slapped his thighs and thought of what to say. Steeling his resolve, he looked at both his parents and looked down again as he felt guilty. He only ever hid his superpower in one day, but for some reason, he felt like he lied to his parents for years. "I need to tell them now, you can do it!"
Sigh.
"I found out how my superpower works last night. And I didn't want to tell you anything since I still don't know the full extent of my powers." Satoshi finally admitted. "That's why when I first used it, I had a hard time adjusting, you might've noticed how sloppily I floated during my fight with Hiroshi."
Silence.
"Um," Because of the deafening silence that filled the entire room, Satoshi grew a bit concerned. His parents and the Yukino's were all staring hard at him. '
"So— " Yukino Yukine finally broke the silence after heaving a sigh. "What's your superpower, really? Wait, let me rephrase that... what do you think is your superpower right now?"
Everyone nodded as he asked that. They were probably waiting for Satoshi to explain it, hence the awkward silence In response, Satoshi scratched his head as he looked up at the wooden ceiling fan whirling around, performing 70 rotations a second... and then Satoshi had an idea.
"I think it'd be best if I just show it," Satoshi called out as he stood on his chair and extended his hands towards the ceiling fan. "Um, Dad, is it all right if I get this ceiling fan for myself?"
"Um... sure, why not?" Tatsuki easily responded. Although the ceiling fan costs at least a hundred thousand yen, it wasn't really that important and they could always replace it. That's why he easily granted his son's request without thinking twice.
Satoshi didn't need another heads-up as he tried activating his superpowers. Once again, bluish flames formed on his hands and it started smoothly growing bigger. And just like before, Satoshi was doing this embarrassingly weird dance until the flames were to his liking. Everyone watched with keen interest, trying to figure out what would happen next— all except Shiroi since she had already witnessed the same thing twice.
One moment, he was swaying his arms and body around, the next moment, he shot the bluish flames towards the ceiling fan, enveloping it with the flames. Just like before, the flame somewhat consumed the ceiling fan before it turned into something rather different.
When the ceiling fan reappeared, it didn't look like a ceiling fan at all, but rather, a small rotor as big as the palm of Satoshi's hand. Compared to the expensive-looking ceiling fan, the 'upgrade' looked lackluster, as if the ceiling fan downgraded into a kid's toy.
"What's that?" Ayumu asked before realizing that it was just a small rotor.
But before she could say anything, the small rotor floated up and pointed itself at the bulletproof glass that acted as windows in their house. With one rotation, a strong gust of wind shot through the dining area, puncturing the bulletproof walls with ease. And then, before anyone else could recover from shock, the rotor grew big and started blowing warm air around the room, then it started blowing cold air next. For its last trick, it performed a mini-blizzard that almost froze one part of the dining room before it settled down.
After realizing how overpowered the ceiling fan turned out to be, Satoshi swallowed his dry saliva, drank a mouthful of water, and continued eating away at his steak. "It's pretty much like that... I don't know what it is either... " He continued
For a few seconds, everyone at the dinner table stopped eating. They couldn't believe what they just saw. How could someone get such a simple yet complicated superpower? And why is it so broken that he could very well be one of the most powerful superheroes in the world?
Tatsuki and Ayumu squinted their eyes, trying to figure out what their son's superpower really was. Their gaze then landed on the window towards their left, overseeing the lawn where the White Lion, the Ball of Flame, and the Casket-looking Nailguns were idly spending their time together.
"So... it's some sort of 'upgrader' that improves a certain object?" Tatsuki verified. "Well, if it was only objects, then it would be a bit manageable... but to think that you can upgrade animals as well? How?"
"How many times can you use it in a day? And what's the maximum amount of 'upgraded items or animals' can you get all at once? Is there a limit to how you can control them or can you control them all at once? How about inventory? Can you store them in your mind or something like that?" Yukine asked, pulling out a piece of paper from his pockets. As a former reporter, he couldn't stop the urge of getting into interview mode as soon as he sees something interesting.
"I... I don't know. So far, I have about five of these 'upgraded' ones. Right now, I don't know if there's a limit. So far, I could always activate the blue flames every time I want. And regarding my control over them, I could control the ones that came from objects or equipment. As for the White Lion, I could command it what to do, I don't exactly have full control over it."
As Satoshi was trying his best to explain what he could do exactly, Tatsuki stood up and headed to the corner of the room. Was he angry at his son for some reason? Or maybe he needed some time to think? One could only wonder. Even Satoshi felt like something is wrong with his dad.
After getting to the corner of the room, he then stared at the switch and placed his hand underneath it. Suddenly, a green glow came from the wall underneath the wall switch. And then, the empty space that's supposed to be the lounge part of the house suddenly disappeared, revealing a stairway that led further underground. Everything that happened was a surprise for Satoshi and the Yukino's. The only one who wasn't shocked was Ayumu, who probably frequented the underground with her husband.
"Satoshi, I was going to show this to you on your eighteenth birthday but I guess that could be pushed a little earlier," Tatsuki said. "First, can you command your familiars to go here underground with you? This is rather urgent."
"Don't tell me, Tatsuki, you're letting your son go to your lair?" Yukine asked, his eyes widened in surprise. "But that's the one and only secret every superhero has! Even my daughter hasn't been to my lair yet!"
"You have a lair, dad?!" Shiroi exclaimed.
Satoshi didn't need telling twice. Everything that happened today seemed like a rollercoaster for him that he couldn't help but shed a tear. He knew that a superhero showing you to his lair is nothing short of great honor, that's why Satoshi willingly obliged, calling his 'familiars' (or so that's what his dad called them) down to the underground lair where he presumed his dad did most of his planning before he would confront a villain.
The staircase leading to the underground was pitch-black, but when they came to its lowermost step, the lights suddenly filled the entire space, leaving no corner unlit. To Satoshi's surprise, it was more spacious than he'd thought.
"Why are you surprised, it's not like you haven't been here." Tatsuki chuckled as he patted Yukine on the back.
"What do you mean? This space changed a lot since I first came here. Of course, I'd be surprised." Yukine continued.
Shiroi also gazed in awe at the size of the underground lair, it must be at least three stories high. 'But how come we only went down a couple of flights of stairs? This should only be one story, right?' She asked himself.
And that's when she saw it. The staircase was actually a high-end escalator that worked with electromagnets. Even though they're going down, everyone didn't feel it because of how smooth the escalator was rolling down.
"Now, before we start, let me welcome everyone to me and my wife's lair, once again.
Tatsuki extended his hands. "As you can see, it's just your regular lair with all our costumes displayed, the awards we received, as well as hero equipment that we're working on. Once you become of age, you're going to inherit everything in here, son."
With great awe, Satoshi looked around the lair. Ever since he became aware that his parents were superheroes, he dreamed of getting his exclusive lair where he can formulate plans and hire a guy in the chair. However, that dream was crushed when his superpowers never manifested.
But now, that dream was revived in his mind, making him somewhat emotional at the sight. "How could you hide something this big underneath our house?" He couldn't help but ask. "This is nice."
"We've slowly worked on beautifying it. What do you think?" Ayumu said in a high-pitched tone. She wasn't expecting her husband to show everyone their lair. Somehow, she felt like her son was finally living the dream like a superhero. She could tell, based on his expression, that is.
"In any case... " Tatsuki cleared his throat and motioned for everyone to gather around as he wore a serious face. "I've gathered all of you here because of one thing. I know you're probably aware of it but son, your superpower is something that could tip the balance of the society, just like my and your mom's superpower... "
"... I know you probably want to show it off to everyone... but right now, you have to hide it from everyone."
I'm so tired today, lots of meetings, and meet-ups. I was able to write three chapters before the deadline but I'm only uploading one. I hope you liked it! Thank you so much for all the support and the power stones! I'll try to release as much as possible but my second book is not yet done. It needs at least twenty or so chapters before I finish it. Also, school just started, so less time for me :(
Have a great day everyone! I'll try to pull an all-nighter to write more chapters
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