CHAPTER 12

  Suddenly we have superheroes?

  “What do you mean?” I said, trying to keep the look of incredulity off of my face. After all, I was one who was usually saying impossible things.

  “Heroes, real, actual heroes, like the ones on Sunday morning kid shows.”

  I couldn’t help it. I looked at the man, a middle aged, slightly overweight, geeky looking guy wearing an anime T-shirt and cargo shorts, with all the skepticism I could muster.

  “I’m serious! I saw a guy burn down a whole building full of monsters with flames shooting out of his hands, and another one ripped a gob in two with his bare hands.”

  “Are you saying that ever since the earthquake, people are getting super powers? Like in some anime?”

  “Yeah, though it’s more like Masked Rider powers than Super Hero Squadron. The heroes all have individual powers, and no one knows why or how they are chosen. It’s like in Masked Rider Miracle. You know the one where random people are gifted special powers, but then they later turned into monsters? Well, I mean, I don’t know that these people are going to turn into monsters, but the system is just like that. There’s this one kid with an elemental sword! A real elemental sword. I’m so jealous. They all said that after the quake, they heard this voice in their head, telling them they were chosen to save the world, and what their powers were and how to use them. Man, that would be so cool. I wish I got powers. Like super speed, or flying or something. But only a really small number of people got them. I don’t think anyone in our building got one, that’s a bummer, it would have been a dream come true, you know? But now there is a real-life team of heroes in the area, and they are cleaning out the gobs. It’s not safe at night yet, who knows how many of them are hiding in the shadows, in the basements and collapsed buildings and such, but now it’s clear enough that I can finally get out of the house! It’s been more than a week since Saori let me out. Oh, thank you for taking care of her. I couldn’t live without her. She’s my personal hero, but she doesn’t have powers, well, maybe the power to scare people she doesn’t like. You know? She used to be a delinquent in school, did she tell you that? Blond hair and everything. I should show you a picture sometime. I wish I could have known her back then. I can imagine her in a long skirt, swinging around a bamboo practice sword. Isn’t she so cool? She’s watching the kids today, so I can finally go out. Thanks to the heroes she let me come and swap out the battery this time. I think she’s tired and needs a break. She’s been going around every day, installing the app so people can come and use the store. Too bad all the good stuff is gone. But you still have water and power. No one else does. What I wouldn’t give to have the power back.”

  This guy’s special power must be talking without breathing.

  I could feel a headache starting to build from the back of my skull. This was the first time I met Mr. PTA Mom. His name was Kazuo, or Kazuya, or something like that. It was honestly hard to keep up with him. He had only been in the store for five minutes, and I felt like he had been trying to force-feed his entire life story into my head the whole time.

  His story about heroes was almost as unbelievable as an AI-possessed magic convenience store, but at the same time, it explained some things I had been seeing. It had been more than a week since PTA Mom first showed up in the store, and after the big showdown with President Jerk, new people had been showing up at the store every day.

  Word must have spread, including information about my working hours, so they would only start showing up after 11, and usually in small groups. Apparently, PTA Mom had been scouting out neighborhoods in the area every day, acting like some kind of messenger, providing a lifeline of information to the local survivors. She must have been telling people where this store was, and what to expect. Frankly, it was greatly appreciated as things had been going smoothly since that blowup.

  Mr. PTA Mom had been at home the whole time, taking care of the kids. His wife had mentioned he had a leg injury, and I was wondering if he had been hurt by the quake or the monsters, but he had admitted that he had crashed his bicycle a few days before the earthquake even hit. He definitely wasn’t the outdoorsy type. I think he mentioned something about being a programmer, or engineer, something like that. It was just so hard to keep up with him.

  Maybe his special powers is knowing the names of all the anime TV shows ever made.

  I wasn’t really annoyed at him. He didn’t seem to be a bad guy, and after all, his wife had been the reason the annoying ones like President Jerk were leaving me alone. Not that those types could do anything to hurt me, but it was troublesome to have to deal with people screaming demands at me. Instead, thanks to her, the store had been treated as a kind of independent state, surrounded by enclaves of survivors from the area.

  The downside was that with so much attention, the store had been picked clean faster than I could have imagined. All the food was gone now. That included the dry food, canned food, candy, snacks, all of it. I still had a small supply of things I kept in the back. My supply should be enough for me for at least another couple of weeks. Unlike the people outside, I couldn’t leave the store to forage for supplies, so I needed to give myself some buffer room.

  One helpful fact that I had learned in my program was that Tokyo, like most major cities, lacked self sufficiency. There wasn’t enough space for big warehouses and production factories, so the required staples for survival had to shipped in constantly. That’s why the streets were always full of trucks. A constant flow of goods into the city. Now, without any way to renew our supply, it wouldn’t be long until we were all starved out.

  If the people outside were able to locate other supplies remained, in supermarkets and shopping malls, or even other convenience stores, the situation could be improved, for a short while at least. Without electricity, however, most of the fresh food had started going bad, if it wasn’t already too late. Without the government showing up and fixing everything, things would start getting bad in a few days.

  The only good news was simultaneously depressingly grim. A lot of people hadn’t made it. Mr. PTA Mom told me about hearing about entire areas of Saitama that had been flattened by the quake. This area was actually one of the least damaged, and there was a cloud of smoke that seemed to be coming from Tokyo blocking everything south of the Arakawa River. The monsters had managed to further drop the number of survivors. The stories of what happened the first day made me sick, and some of the people who had come into the store still showed injuries and scars that seemed unreal. I admit, I was starting to feel a bit guilty about how selfish I had been those first days, complaining about being stuck in the only safe place in the area, maybe even the whole country.

  “Wait a second.” I put up my hand and escaped into the back room. I emerged moments later with a six-pack of premium beer.

  “You want this, right?”

  “No way! Are you serious? Ming, I take it back. You, my friend, are the real hero!”

  I swear, I could see tears forming in the man’s eyes. I admit, I was grinning as my nose grew a centimeter or two. It felt good to help people and give them what they needed or wanted.

  I still had a few cases of beer left in the back, as well as boxes full of bottles of whiskey and other hard spirits. I hadn’t put them out on display, thinking that they would make the best materials for barter should things go bad for the store. I had already sold most of the rest of the supplies. Even my bed had dropped one layer and the back room was more spacious now. The only thing was that the empty cardboard boxes were starting to pile up.

  “Not much left, but it’s okay. I owe you, and PTA… Your wife. For you guys, I’m happy to dig into the secret stash.”

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  “Ming…”

  I stepped back as it looked like the man was about to hug me.

  BING BONG

  We both turned to the door at the sound of the chime. I would have been less surprised if a goblin had been standing there. What I saw, was not a giant frog, however. If anything I was even more intimidated by what was standing in the entrance.

  Whoa…

  A giant wall of a man stood and walked deliberately toward the counter. He had short, cropped hair, was remarkably well-groomed, and wore a suit without a single speck of dirt on it. Even his shoes managed to be clean, which must have been a physical impossibility, noting the condition of the streets right now.

  Just a large, well-built, well-dressed man might not have been that shocking, but the details, that’s where the devil had taken up permanent residence.

  Underneath the dark sunglasses he wore, you could see a thick, deep scar that ran from his forehead, down his cheek, and even down his neckline and into his expensive-looking silk shirt. He had another scar on the other side of his face and a large chunk missing from his left ear. His suit was not the cheap-looking, office worker suit that you usually saw in this area. It was both expensive and informal. The shirt was not the standard white, but a mustard yellow color, and the collar was opened one button below what would be acceptable for a casual look. He wore no tie, but had several large rings on both hands, which, even from where I stood, I could easily see were covered in even more scars.

  My blood ran cold, and I noticed that Mr. PTA Mom had clammed up as well.

  The man walked over and took off his sunglasses, revealing that the scar ran through one eye, which was now a sickly white.

  Urk

  “Stationery.”

  Gah.

  “Uhhh… Welcome to… um. One Mart?”

  “Stationery.”

  His voice was rough and full of gravel, like a lifetime of cigarettes and alcohol could be wrapped in every word.

  “Huh?”

  “Stationery.”

  “What?”

  “Stationery. Pens, paper, that kind of stuff. Do you have any?”

  I blinked a couple of times as I tried to grasp the situation. Finally, a couple of neurons in my brain clicked, and I pointed to the aisle by the window.

  “Uhh. Yeah. End of the aisle, Opposite the magazines.”

  The man nodded, then turned and moved to the section I had indicated.

  Mr. PTA Mom and I exchanged glances. We didn’t need to say a word. Instantly we were able to communicate telepathically through guys non-verbal bro-code.

  He’s a you-know-what, right? I epressed by subtly nodding my head.

  Totally, What else? My fellow hostage told me with his eyes.

  What should I do? I beamed.

  How should I know? Saori~ Save me! He looked like he might start crying.

  “Do you have any more of that?” The man asked.

  “Huh?”

  “That. Do you have any more?”

  The intimidating man was pointing at beer on the counter.

  “Ehhh.” I hesitated. Multiple things crossed my mind in a flash, though the strongest thought pushed through the others to the side.

  Do not let him know you have more in the back. Who knows what he’ll do?

  “Here, sir. Take this one… hehe. Times like this, you know. Share and share alike. Hehe”

  Carefully, like offering food to a cat, the geeky middle-aged man pushed the six-pack along the counter.

  Nice one! Mr. PTA Mom. I owe you one!

  “Appreciated.” The man said, then dropped a full basket onto the counter beside the alcohol. As he put the basket down, I got a good look at the scars that covered the man’s hand, as well as a peek at the dark lines of a tattoo that started at his wrist and likely went all the way up his arm.

  “Thank you, One moment please.”

  I peered into the basket. It was full of things I hadn’t seen anyone buy once since the earthquake. There were pens and pencils, reams of paper, erasers, a couple of rulers, some pen cases, even a few things that I didn’t even know what they were for. The man must have just swept everything in the section into the basket. Luckily, I was sure that none of it was from the list of restricted products. It was strange that anyone wanted this stuff at all.

  I quickly rang up all the items as well as the beer. It totaled up to an impressive amount. Items like these tacked on a premium, since it was usually only purchased by really desperate people, like a student trying to print out their homework at the last minute, or a salesperson who needed to fix a mistake on a report right before heading up to a meeting.

  “Thank you, The total is 18,354 yen. Would you like to pay using Wanma Digital Money?”

  Are you crazy? Mr. PTA Mom’s eyes were bugging out.

  I don’t have a choice! The store better save me!

  “Gimme a couple packs of Dragon Stars too.”

  “Which ones? Regular or menthol?”

  Luckily we still had plenty of cigarettes. Most smokers had switched over to HNB cigarettes, but of course, the heating devices stopped working, rendering them all useless. Rather than switch back to traditional cigarettes, it appeared that for now, the smokers nearby were trying to quit. Fortunately, Dragon Stars were a perennial best-seller, so I still had plenty left, despite already selling a few boxes.

  “Menthols”

  I grabbed two boxes, and then held them up for the man to confirm that these were what he wanted. A nod, then I scanned them to add them to the cart.

  “I can pay with this?”

  He reached into his coat, and for a second my heart stopped, but I saw the cellphone screen as soon as his hand reappeared. He swiped at the screen until the One Mart Digital app appeared.

  “Certainly! One second.”

  I hit a few buttons on the screen.

  “Thank you for using the Wanma Digital Wallet! As we are running a campaign right now, I have applied your discounts. With the cigarettes, your new total is 19,103 yen. If that is okay, please hold your phone to the scanner to—“

  BEEEEP!

  Oh shit!

  “I’m sorry, customer, you do not have enough funds in your wallet for this purchase.”

  crapcrapcrapcrapcrap

  “Would you like to charge your digital wallet?” I asked in what I assumed was a barely audible whisper.

  For a moment, the man stared at me. Then he reached into his jacket again.

  Oh sheeeet!

  “Right. That woman mentioned it. Here.”

  He withdrew a few bills from his wallet. Then placed them on the counter without even counting them. They were perfect, brand-new bills. Not a single mark or crease on a single bill.

  I bowed slightly, then slowly counted them. Then I counted them again.

  “Sir, there’s two hundred thousand yen here.”

  “Fine.”

  “Sir… I don’t think there is even that much product left in the store, total.”

  “Whatever, just throw in another couple of packs of Sevens. Wait. Make it a carton. Just don’t ever tell anyone, alright?”

  What the hell…?”

  “Uhhh. Sure. A plastic bag will incur a five yen charge, would you like a plastic bag for your purchases?”

  He stared at me again.

  “Sure. Might as well.”

  My heart beating wildly, I charged the wallet, rang in everything again, prayed to any God that might still exist that I hadn’t made any mistakes, then took out a plastic shopping bag and moved the contents from the basket.

  “Wait.”

  He reached into the basket and pulled out the two packs of cigarettes and dropped them into his suit jacket pockets. Then he took the carton and slid it inside his coat, on the opposite side he had pulled his wallet from. When he took his hand out, it was impossible to tell he was holding anything inside at all. The cut of the jacket was truly impressive.

  “Remember. Our secret.” He said with a piercing gaze into my eyes. His single good eye exerted more pressure than I had ever experienced before in my life. Then he looked over at Mr. PTA Mom.

  “Hehe… Right! Nothing. I wasn’t even here.”

  BING BONG

  We stood there silently for a few seconds after the man left the store. Finally, I let my breath out. I couldn’t actually remember breathing the entire time he had been inside the store with us.

  “Oh, wow. That was crazy! Right? I almost crapped my diapers. What would Saori do if I came home like that? Kcik me out, probably. That was scary though. I mean, I’ve never even seen a real… you-know-what? I mean, not like him. He was like, right out of the comic books, you know? I mean, he could have been a main character in one of those books. Like, he was super intense, but what was with the art supplies? Ming, have you ever seen him before? Holy crap that was scary. I gotta tell Saori. I think she might know who he is. Didn’t he say something? I mean, he had a charged phone, so she must have charged it for him. How do you think she knows him? Oh wow.”

  “Hey! Breathe!”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah, right.”

  We both took a moment to catch our breath.

  “Wow! The way he dropped that cash, it was so cool! I really want to do that someday. You know, ‘Here’s a million yen, keep the change,’ waah!, what a life.”

  At the mention of a million yen, I remembered something. That charge should have taken me over the million yen challenge in the digital wallet campaign. I turned to look a the register and saw that indeed, there was a new pop-up box on the screen.

  [CONGRATULATIONS! Store #11,512 has cleared the first challenge and is ready to upgrade to Tier 2!]

  [A million yen! That’s amazing, but it’s just your first step. Are you ready to upgrade to Tier 2? Yes/No]

  Indeed, the counter in the corner of the register had already been updated.

  [Progress to Tier 2, 1,072,600/1,000,000][ COMPLETE]

  I was about to hit the “yes” button when I saw the other message on the screen.

  “Oh! Your timer! You only have one minute left!”

  “Go out and wait for ten minutes, then you can come back inside.”

  “Ohh… Oh yeah. Right. Gotcha. Be right back.”

  I watched as Mr. PTA Mom stepped outside. He waved at me through the glass doors. Luckily he still had time to spare. There wasn’t any long-term effects from the eviction process, but no one who had been through it wanted to talk about it, and they all seemed a little off for a while afterward. I was about to go into the back room to fill up the empty bottles that Mr. PTA Mom had brought with him, when I remembered the message.

  Might as well. Let’s see how many merit points I get at least.

  I hit the accept button on the register.

  Then the world exploded.