There Was No Secret Organization to Fight with the World's Darkness so I Made One

There’s no Limit to my Superpower! (Is There?)

Part 1

Kaburagi-san’s time stopping superpower’s primary foundation has been named “Time Suspension Protein”, or [Stoprotein]1, since it’s a mutation of [Nenrikin]. Also, if you use [Stoprotein] in the same way you use [Nenrikin], it will grow just as much. Yet when Kaburagi-san heard what I was naming it, she let out a roar of laughter. My naming sense is too good, I’m sorry, ok?

Kaburagi-san did try to start training and had the goal of “Seeing things and moving within the stopped time”. She wanted to rid herself of her near-death state and gain an advantage in the stopped time, but she said she was still unable to move or see anything and stopped training. From my experience, it’s better to stop trying to apply training within the stopped time if you haven’t acquired what I call ‘the main foundation’.

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At first, I could only ‘push & pull’ with my psychokinesis, you know. I tried to train it to move along the up and down, front and back, and left and right vectors, but only after training ‘push & pull’ in a steady way and improving the output was the training successful. If I hadn’t done vestor training as well as output improvement training, I most likely would’ve been unable to get a response and have failed.

The foundation of Kaburagi-san’s superpower is stopping time. At first it is better to concentrate on extending the time stop. At any rate, she can still only stop time for no more than 0.5 seconds, you know. It should be possible to reach the point of being able to stop time for about 9 seconds, since even the application isn’t slow.

It would be good if from there it reached the point of being able to stop time all day if you want, but from what Kaburagi-san says, within the stopped time, everything comes to a stop, even the air, with the exception of her own body and the inside of her body. She would inevitably suffocate from lack of oxygen if she stopped time for a long period of time. If it can reach the point of stopping time for about one minute, I assume that, for the sake of avoiding suffocation, an applied technique that excludes air from the time stop will be essential.

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Kaburagi-san agreed, and zealously began to work on basic training. As for me, I went to Kaburagi-san’s house every day. And while we were discussing plans for the steadily approaching solidification and establishment of our secret organization, I was secretly trying to stop time with my psychokinesis. If it’s possible to stop time with [Stoprotein], which is a mutation of [Nenrikin], I imagine it’s possible to stop time using the originator, [Nenrikin], you know?

I used theories from things like sci-fi/fantasy manga as references for a concrete method of using my psychokinesis to stop time. Namely, the theory of molecular/atomic/particular suspension. The world is composed of molecules. In other words, if you can stop molecules, you can stop anything, thus it’s possible to attain a pseudo time stop… !

Let’s try to make this a reality. OK. To start with, analyze the movement of the molecules with psychokinesis… the movement of the molecules… molecules… ?

I’m a little confused. How do you get a good grasp of something so small that you can’t even see it under a magnifying glass? Will I understand it if I use psychokinesis while observing them under an electron microscope? Because self-directed research seems reckless, for now I will go politely ask Kaburagi-san for an electron microscope.

“I need an electron microscope! Buy it buy it buy it–!”2

…was what I was thinking, so I went to Kaburagi-san’s work room with the goal of asking her for it, but I suddenly realized something right before I knocked on the door.

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If you think about it carefully, stopping molecules won’t stop time. The movement of molecules creates heat. Even if you stop molecular movement, you won’t stop time. If there’s less heat, it’ll just get colder3. If I stop time using molecular suspension, upon understanding the behavior of each individual molecule, I’ll have to bring them to a standstill while preserving their intrinsic motion, then it has to be restored to its original condition after the cancellation of the stop. I don’t have the amazing brain processing ability to stop and remember a huge number of molecules that isn’t even in the thousands of trillions one by one.

I can stop them altogether or cause all of them to move together in the same direction, but even if I can do things like that, it’s impossible to stop time. Looks like it’s impossible to use psychokinesis to stop time. I was an idiot to believe nonsense theories from creative works. That was close, I would’ve been laughed at by Kaburagi-san if I hadn’t realized it and said something to her.

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And while somehow avoiding acting like an idiot, I used up the last two months of my ‘paid’ leave that I had accumulated in my two years of corporate service, and the day where I officially retired came. Naturally, it seems like saying “I’m suddenly retiring from work for selfish reasons” as the excuse for forcing through my paid leave application won’t even have an affect, so I won’t be getting that two months’ salary. I was aware of that (eye-roll). Kaburagi-san was indignant and wanted to arrange for a lawyer, but I said that I refuse because I wanted to devote my energy to establishing the secret organization, rather than waste time in a shitty, tedious trial. *Ha-n*! The fact is that, at best, you ‘gratefully accept’ the small amount of money that was left over after they stole your salary! I choose bigger things.

However, in addition to retiring, I’ve now finally become a NEET4. A secret organization is meant to be secret, therefore I can’t call it my occupation. Outwardly, I’ll appear to be a straight-up NEET. But in reality, I’m the boss of a secret organization! That’s not cool!

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Because I won’t be able to settle down if I don’t have a job, due to by instincts being trained for heavy labor (as one would expect of the nation of Japan, which has a bad reputation for this among the major powers), I consulted Kaburagi-san. She was working at her PC wearing elegant ‘blue light reducing’ glasses; she tilted her head curiously.

“Sago-san is the boss of the secret organization. I am an investor/assistant. That’s how we divided our roles, right? It’s fine if you don’t work at all. I earn more than enough, you know.”

How reliable! Crap, at this rate, she’ll be supporting me. I’ll become a himo5. I tried to object, as it would damage my pride as a male.

“Yes, that’s true, but you know? Outwardly appearing to be jobless is stabbing my heart. I want to earn money so I can at least cover the cost of my own food.”

“Hmm, you’re right. If you want to earn it yourself, how about using your psychokinesis at a casino? I think you’d easily be able to win big, right?”

“That’s no good. I don’t want to commit gambling fraud.”

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Actually, I would be able to win big if I used a psychokinetic method to commit fraud since there’s absolutely no way I’d get exposed. I am able to use my psychokinesis skillfully and subtly to that extent. But, I’ve heard from my uncle on my father’s side that owns a casino and comes to our family gathering on New Year’s every year a ‘hardship story’ or ‘heroic saga’ about how fraudulent bastards trying to make easy money almost cause the store to shut down; and about how my uncle, his employees and their families risk unemployment; and how as a result, at the last minute they expose the source of the fraud and have them thrown in jail and therefore succeed against crisis.

I don’t really understand such stories, so I would definitely be unable to do such a thing. Instead, I would go to the casino, “ah—, if I win, the establishment’s money pool will decrease, and the accountant will have trouble making adjustments, you know—”, and etc.; such thoughts would cause my motivation to be reduced. If it’s managed normally, the store won’t immediately reach a deficit, though. But still…

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“If that’s the case, then why don’t you try being master of the bar? The plan was to keep the bar closed the whole time and only use it as the public face of the secret base, but I just brought in the alcohol to create the atmosphere yesterday, and I think it’s okay to actually open it. The location is good, I think it could be profitable just as it is. If it goes into the red though, I will compensate for it, ok?”

“Umm-hmm!” (nodding head)

To be honest, it was a very attractive proposal. I can participate in secret organization members’ discussions if I pretend to be a bartender who generally knows about the existence of superpowers, but has no talent as an ESP’er; except I’m not an ordinary person who’s a collaborator, I’m actually the boss of the secret organization! It took as much as three seconds to reach this point of delusion. It seems like it will be insanely fun.

Footnotes:

1: The first is (時間停止タンパク質): (時間) ‘time’, (停止) ‘suspension’, (タンパク質) ‘protein’. The second is (ストップロテイン), a combination of (ストップ) ‘stop’, and (プロテイン) ‘protein’ with a shared ‘p’. I guess since his is a muscle, hers is a protein?

2: Electron microscopes can cost anywhere from $35000 USD – $1000000 USD. That’s a big chunk of their budget.

3: Referring to the relationship between the kinetic energy of molecules and temperature. If he could completely stop the motion of molecules, he’d be the first to reach absolute zero (0°K). Scientific explanation ⇒ Thermodynamics

4: Acronym for “Not in Education, Employment, or Training” ⇒ NEET-Japan

5: (ひも) ‘himo’ = man who is financially dependent on a woman. There’s no real good equivalent in english, so I left it as is.