Chapter 3: Ben
"Ugh… I'm starving…"
Mikoto held her growling stomach as she trudged through the streets of New York, her steps sluggish and heavy.
She had wandered aimlessly for nearly an hour, drifting out of Manhattan's crowded forest of skyscrapers and dust into a district that looked completely different.
The buildings here were rows of red-brick townhouses. Tree-lined sidewalks cast long shadows, and the air felt calmer, more lived-in than the frantic pace downtown.
"This should be… Queens?" she murmured after spotting the street sign.
It was late, and the area didn't have the best reputation, so only a few people hurried along the sidewalks. This place reminded her of some residential areas in Academy City, except the architectural style was completely different.
The peaceful atmosphere relaxed her tense nerves a little, but her stomach protested louder and louder. All she could think about was a hot bowl of katsudon… or even a single piece of convenience store fried chicken.
Just as dizziness from hunger began to creep in, a harsh shout snapped her attention toward a nearby corner.
"Give me the car keys! Hurry up, old man!" A man wearing a hoodie and a mask was pointing a black handgun at an elderly man with gray hair.
The old man looked frail, but his eyes showed remarkable composure. He held the car keys tight and didn't submit right away.
"Young man, there's no need for this. We can talk—"
"Shut up! I'm not here to chat!"
The robber was clearly on edge. He stepped closer and dug the muzzle into the old man's chest.
"Last chance. Keys."
The elderly man was Ben Parker. He had come tonight to pick up his nephew Peter, who always managed to be both his pride and his headache.
Peter claimed he would be researching at the library, though Ben had sensed something weighing on the boy lately. What he didn't know was that Peter Parker had recently been bitten by a radioactive spider and gained abilities far beyond anything human.
At this moment, Peter wasn't in the library at all. He was still on the way, after a rather unlucky night. Hoping to earn prize money from an underground wrestling match so he could help buy a new car and ease Ben's burden, Peter had wiped the floor with his opponents only to have the organizer hand him a measly hundred dollars instead of the promised amount, telling him to get lost.
At least he got a small bit of satisfaction afterward. He watched the same organizer get robbed and calmly stepped aside as the thief sprinted past and into the elevator. When the furious organizer demanded why he didn't intervene, Peter only shrugged and muttered, "Not my problem."
It felt great… but he didn't expect that thief to trigger a butterfly effect.
Back to Mikoto.
The moment she spotted the robbery, her spirit jolted awake. Her eyes locked on the two figures.
Broad daylight or not, someone was pointing a gun at an old man? Was this world's America really this lawless? The sense of justice and the unwillingness to admit defeat within her were instantly ignited.
Without the slightest hesitation, her right hand quietly slipped into her uniform pocket, her fingertips touching the cold, familiar metal arcade coin.
"I'm counting to three. One. Two…" The robber lost his patience, his finger already on the trigger.
Ben could practically feel death's cold breath on his chest, but he refused to let go. His only thoughts were of May and Peter. If something happened to him… what would become of them?
Now.
The moment the robber's finger tensed, Mikoto moved.
Her thumb flicked the coin with blistering speed. A streak of blue-white light flashed across her bangs as a surge of electricity rushed from her arm into her fingertips.
Bzzz—
A thin, sharp hum.
Then, a beam of light tore through the darkness, hitting the robber's gun with pinpoint accuracy at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.
Bang!
It wasn't a gunshot. It was the sound of metal twisting, melting, and vaporizing under overwhelming kinetic energy.
The pistol in the robber's hand, along with his entire hand holding the gun, was instantly blasted into a shower of metal shards and blood mist.
Time seemed to freeze for a moment.
Ben Parker only saw a flash of orange light before his eyes and heard a piercing screech in his ear.
Instinct forced his eyes shut. When he opened them again, the robber in front of him had lost his weapon and was instead clutching his bloody, mangled wrist, letting out a shrill, inhuman scream.
"Aaaaaahhh!!! My hand! My hand!!!"
He collapsed, rolling across the pavement in agony. The coin that had struck him bounced along the ground and settled nearby.
Ben stared, stunned into silence. His mind couldn't keep up with what he'd just witnessed.
What was that? A miracle? Divine intervention?
He followed the trajectory of the beam and spotted, at the far end of the street, a small figure frozen in a throwing stance. A girl… wearing what looked like a school uniform.
Before he could make sense of it, the girl sprinted toward him.
"Sir! Are you alright? You're not hurt, right?"
Her young voice, urgent and clear, snapped him back to reality. Ben glanced down and saw a short-haired girl watching him with sincere concern.
She wore a brown, unfamiliar school uniform. Her face still held a trace of innocence, but her eyes carried a firmness far beyond her age.
Was it her? Was he saved by this little girl who didn't even look like she was old enough to be out on her own?
Ben's lips parted as he struggled to form words. He pointed at the writhing robber, then at Mikoto, his voice shaking with disbelief.
"T-that… just now… was that you?"
"Yep."
Mikoto nodded without any attempt to dodge the question. Her gaze slid past him toward the robber, who was still twitching on the ground.
She moved closer, spotted the coin lying beside him, and stepped over the screaming man without hesitation. She picked up the coin, blew the dust off, and slipped it back into her pocket.
A slight frown tugged at her brow as she looked at the injured wrist. Everything below the man's wrist had vanished, the edge of the wound dark and melted. The air carried the acrid smell of burnt flesh mingled with faint ozone.
Maybe she hit him a bit too hard.
Then again, this guy had been ready to pull the trigger on an old man. At worst, this was self-defense. At best, it was heroism.
That small flicker of guilt evaporated instantly.
Mikoto shifted her attention back to Ben. His nerves were still rattled, so she softened her tone.
"Um… sorry if I scared you. Things happened fast and I didn't have time to hold back. You're sure you're okay?"
"I… I'm fine. And you— you saved me…"
Ben Parker's brain was still buzzing. He looked at the petite figure of the girl in front of him, who even seemed a bit fragile, and then at the robber who had been disabled in one blow in the distance. The stark contrast between the two made it difficult for him to form words for a moment.
He took a deep breath, clenched his fist, and said gratefully, "Thank you. Truly. I don't even want to imagine what would've happened if you hadn't stepped in."
"It was nothing."
Mikoto waved him off with a casual flick of her wrist.
To her, frying a scumbag like this was about as natural as breathing, and it did wonders for the frustration she'd been bottling up since arriving in this world.
Right then, police sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder fast. A few seconds later, a police car with flashing red and blue lights screeched to a halt at the street corner.