Superpowers exist

I have always believed that every single phenomenon could be proven with science. It could all be explained with molecular reactions, atomic bonding, protons, neutrons, electrons, and then quarks. Of course there are still some gaps in our theories, but this was the basis of explaining how our universe work.

So, when I saw a guy on the internet controlling water, I thought that he was controlling the loadings of each H2O-molecule, but you wouldn’t be able to control it to the extent of making rain drops stop, splitting a small river in half and holding an orb of water in their hands. My second theory of this was that AI has advanced so much that this looks real. I thought that until I saw it with my own two eyes.

On a sunny day in Tokyo, I was walking from my apartment to the lab I work at, when I saw a huge crowd. Since I had a little time to spare, I have gone to check it out, to find out what all the ruckus was all about. There was a guy at the center of it all. He had water flowing around in the air, dancing at the palm of his hand. None of this made any sense. How could any of this be possible?

After his performance finished and the crowd reduced, I walked up to him to question him on how he could control water. He simply explained that he one day woke up with this ability. It sounded so stupid, it’s illogical. For the following week, I did research on how this could occur. But there were no results.

Can something so fictional really happen…?

The next time I saw the man performing his little water tricks in front of a crowd, I walked up to him. Pushing myself through the crowd, getting into the eye of the storm. When I finally got to the front of the crowd, I ran towards the guy and grabbed his hand. He looked confused at me. I inspected his hand for 5 seconds before pulling out a knife from my pockets and jabbing it straight into his palm.

This little act of violence was to see if he had a real hand, or if it were some artificial hand that could control the charges of water to the extend of some fictional superhero.

A hurdle of water then formed in front of him and hit my chest like a truck, pushing me back a couple of meters. The guy was screaming in pain. I was also in pain, but I tried to ignore it and look at him. Water was wrapped around his hand, preventing blood from spurting out.

“What the hell is your problem?!” He shouted out in anger. He had dark brown eyes, black messy hair, a simple but un-ironed white shirt with black trousers and rough black shoes.

I grinned, I laughed, I spoke: “I know I just stabbed you, but… Wanna come to my lab to do some experiments.” I asked him. I sounded like an absolute maniac. 

“W-What?” He was still angry.

“Perhaps after we send you to the hospital.” I then suggested.

“Hold it! Why would I just follow you after you attacked me? Do you think I'm some kind of masochist that loves pain?!”

“I did a lot of research, looking for a trick, an illusion, some kind of explanation on how someone can control such a huge volume of water, but I got no results. But you got pretty popular on the news because of your ‘superpowers’, so I did a background check on you I did some research on the internet about you." I took a file out of a backpack I was carrying.  "I found out that you are a poor and homeless person with nowhere to go. You used to go to school, up until junior high. After that, an accident occurred, making you homeless." 

"What are you suggesting?"

"If I could adopt you into my lab, I can find out how your powers works.”

“And why do you think I would accept?” He interrupted me.

“A little inpatient aren’t you?” I said back. “If I could biologically prove that superpowers are possible, I… No, we could win a lot of awards. One of them being the Nobel Prize for Biology. What do you think? That’s a lot of money you could earn.”

“Tch…” He sounded annoyed. Naturally, after someone attack you, you will hat them very much. But in his situation, He doesn't have much of a choice. "Will all the papers you write also have my name?” He then ask.

“Pretty much. And since the price is around 1,2 million dollars in the US, divided between us two will be 600.000 USD. What do you think? Big money numbers mean good life. I do not actually know how much that is in yen, but I'm sure it's a lot.”

He took a deep breath, thinking about whether he should accept this offer or not. “Bring me first to the hospital, I will decide there.”

×××××

“So, when is the Nobel Prize going to happen?” He asked sitting on a hospital bed. The doctors has stitched his hand and wrap it in bandages. 

I was sitting on a chair next to him, peeling apples with a knife. “December 10th." I answered. "The anniversary day of when Alfred Nobel died. It is currently April 23rd, so we have 8 months to find out how your body work, write a paper about it and publish it. If we miss the deadline then no stress, we have many years afterwards to figure out more.” I then handed a peeled apple towards him.

He grabbed the apple and took a bite. “You won’t put me into a tube with weird liquids to do experiments right?”

“This is no kids movie. You will still have all your human rights. Unless you do evil deeds and I don’t want to kill you, I might have to preserve you in a tube.” I started eating an apple myself.

The hospital door then opened and a nurse walked in. “Tsushima-San, your hand is fine now. Make sure not to move it too much. And with that, you are discharged and free to go.” The nurse said, bowing down in a polite manner.

“Thank you very much.” The guy said, standing up from the bed.

“By the way, what was your full name again. I’m bad at remembering names.” I asked.

“It’s Nicolas Tsushima.” He answered.

×××××

“Alright Nicolas, welcome to the lab.” I said dramatically, letting him walk in. “Remember to wear a lab coat, lab glasses and currently also gloves since I didn’t clean up properly since the last time I worked with irritating substances.” I let him wear a coat, put some glasses on his face and gave him rubber gloves.

“Is this much safety really needed.” He then asked, setting the glasses properly on his face.

“Always.” I answered. “You can never know when a scientist wants to throw a liquid on your face for shigs and giggles.” I joked.

“W-What…?” He sounded now worried.

“I’m just messing with you." I patted his back. "But accidents where irritating liquids end up on your face happens a lot in a lab. That’s why there is always a build in shower to quickly get the substances off you and eye shower in case you take off you lab glasses at the wrong time. Chances are low, but it can still happen. Just have to be safe just in case.”

“That’s good to know.” He said slightly relieved.

Suddenly, a liquid splashed onto my face. It made me completely wet. “Kasane you brat!” A high-pitched voice shouted at me. “How dare you let me clean up the lab after you last worked here!”

“What did you throw on me?” I asked covering my face. Acting as if my skin was tearing off my body.

“Hmph! It is HCl.” She answered.

“Liar. This is not killing my skin.” I spoke, standing up.

She sighed. “It is just distilled water. I don’t want to traumatize some random guy.” She looked at Nicolas.

"Oh, so if I were alone here, you would?" I asked. 

"Yes." She simply answered.

I then took a towel and wiped my face. “Nicolas, let me introduce the second and only member in this lab beside me. Her name is Chihiro Mizuki. Despite her anger issues, she is a pretty good and helpful scientist.”

"Anger issues?" Mizuki asked angry.

“Nope, I am definitely worried.” Nicolas said.

“So, are you a new guy or something?” Mizuki then asked.

“Well, I still need to sign a contract and stuff, but I am planning to join.” Nicolas answered.

“That’s good.” She said. “I was starting to get sick of Aki.”

“Aki?” Nicolas asked, noticing that he never knew my name.

“Have I never introduced myself properly?” I then asked.

“Now that you mention it, you haven’t.”

“Well in that case, my name is Aki Kasane, the scientist that will rule over the world with my discoveries. Muhahaha!”

“Am I joining some kind of terrorist group?” Nicolas whispered to Mizuki.

“You can still flee and find a better place to work at.” Mizuki Whispered back.

“I can hear you guys.” I said.

“Anyways Nicolas.” Mizuki then grabbed a paper. “Let me interview you.”

“S-Sure.” Nicolas answered, stuttering a little by the sudden act.

“What degree do you have?” Mizuki asked.

"Like a school degree?" Nicolas asked back. 

"Yes." Mizuki answered. 

“I don’t.” Nicolas then answered.

“How much science knowledge do you have?” Mizuki asked next.

“Nothing advanced.” Nicolas answered.

“Aki, did you pick up a gosh darn stray dog?!” Mizuki got mad at me again.

“Yes.” I simply answered. “The thing about Nicolas isn’t about his intelligence, more about what he can do.”

“What can he do?” Mizuki asked.

“Nicolas, show her.”

Nicolas then took a bottle of distilled water from the table, opened the lid and made the liquid float up in the air. He stretched it, squeezed it, played around with it like a child playing with clay or slime.

“By stabbing his hand and getting hit by a hurdle of water, I can confirm that this is a superpower.” I started to explain the situation more. “But since believing in superpowers is ridiculous, I took him in to find out how his powers work.”

“I see…” Mizuki said. “And what does Nicolas get out of this?”

“Money and possibly the Nobel Prize.” I answered.

She laughed. “This sounds so stupid, but this is an interesting occurrence. Fine… I’m in with this research.”

“Congrats Nicolas Tsushima. You are now officially a member in our lab. After you sign a couple of contracts.”

“Thank you, I will try my best!” Nicolas answered, pleased to have a proper meaning in life again. 

This is where our journey of working together to achieve the Nobel Prize began.