[Third Person Pov]
“So what did you say your name was again?” Momo asked, a faint grin still playing on her lips as she channeled her psychic energy outward. A soft, shimmering glow enveloped her body, gently washing away the gruesome blood and gore that had splattered across her clothes and skin, leaving her looking far more composed than moments before.
The boy shyly adjusted his glasses, pushing them up the bridge of his nose with a nervous finger as he introduced himself. “Ken… Ken Takakura—”
BOOM!!
A deafening explosion erupted behind Momo. Part of the massive alien spaceship was suddenly lanced through by a brilliant, searing beam of heat vision. The violent detonation sent flames and debris shooting outward in a spectacular fireball. Momo’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at Ken, momentarily frozen in place.
“Huh…?” she muttered quietly, completely speechless for a rare moment.
…
[Flashback]
A much younger Clark and Momo were sitting cross-legged at the foot of the couch late at night, their faces illuminated by the glow of the television as they watched an old Japanese action movie. Seiko lounged on the couch behind them, an eye mask covering most of her face as she tried to sleep.
“I want to find a guy just like that one~” Momo sighed dreamily, hugging a large cushion tightly to her chest before dramatically flopping over onto her side.
“Grandma, Momo is developing a fetish for older men. I told you these movies were bad for her development,” Clark said dryly, leaning back against the couch with a knowing smirk.
“It’s not a fetish!” Momo protested, smacking him square in the face with her cushion. “And it’s not older men I’m into! What’s wrong with liking an awkward guy, huh?”
She suddenly stood up on the coffee table, planting her feet dramatically. “I’ve decided! I’m going to marry someone just like Ken Takakura!”
Clark glanced over at Seiko with a raised eyebrow. “If she starts bringing home men old enough to be her dad, I’m blaming you.”
“If that does end up happening, you have my full permission to beat them all up,” Seiko replied in her usual dry, unbothered tone, lifting her eye mask just an inch.
“Ughhh! You guys aren’t listening to me at all!” Momo exclaimed, throwing her head back in exaggerated frustration.
“Yeah, yeah. You’ll marry Ken Takakura. Good for you,” Clark muttered, leaning to the side to keep watching the movie.
…
“Nope!” Momo suddenly denied it in the present, crossing her arms into a firm X shape and rapidly shaking her head back and forth. “Absolutely not!”
“Huh? What do you mean ‘no’? That’s my name — Ken Takakura,” he said, looking genuinely confused as his transformation finally began to fade away, his appearance slowly returning to normal.
“I rebuke it! O-Okarun! Your name from now on is Okarun!” Momo exclaimed, pointing at him bashfully while her cheeks flushed a bright, embarrassed red.
“Okay,” Okarun accepted almost instantly, without a single hint of shame. He looked away, a faint, bashful smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“Wha—” Momo was stunned by how readily he gave in. “That’s it?! You’re not even going to challenge me about it?! Where’s your dignity?!”
“Sorry, but I’m an awkward guy—” he started to say shyly, once again fixing his glasses out of nervous habit.
“Stop saying that!!” Momo shouted, cutting him off before he could finish.
Okarun simply continued wearing that soft, bashful smile, but it froze on his face when he glanced past her toward the ongoing alien invasion in the distance.
Momo turned around to follow his gaze. Thick, billowing clouds of black smoke rose heavily from the massive hole punched into the side of the alien spaceship, drifting ominously across the sky as the battle between Superman and the invaders continued to rage on.
“Right, the alien invasion!” Momo said brightly, seizing the opportunity for a convenient topic change. “Come on, let’s go!”
“Miss Ayase, wait!” Okarun called after her as she began lifting off into the air.
“What?” she asked, pausing mid-flight and glancing back at him over her shoulder.
His entire body was trembling visibly as he tried to take a single step forward. “I can’t move a muscle…” he whimpered, his voice laced with genuine pain.
“What do you mean you can’t move a muscle?” Momo exclaimed, hovering back down with a look of disbelief on her face.
“My body isn’t used to moving that fast,” Okarun explained weakly, every muscle in his body screaming from the immense strain and pressure he had endured during the battle. “It’s really taken its toll on me…”
“Ughhh! Come on, four-eyes,” Momo grumbled. She reached out with her psychic energy, gently lifting him off the ground and carrying him alongside her as they soared into the sky together.
“Ahhhhh!!” Okarun cried out, frantically holding onto his glasses with both hands so they wouldn’t fly off in the rushing wind. Despite the initial panic, his expression quickly shifted to pure excitement. “Yay! I’m finally going to meet aliens for the very first time!”
“Just what is your obsession with aliens?!” Momo questioned in exasperation, clearly hearing the unfiltered joy in his voice as they flew over the landscape.
Okarun fell quiet for a moment, watching the streets, houses, and trees blur past beneath them. “I’m sure you can tell—”
“If you say you’re an awkward guy one more time, I’m letting go of you,” Momo warned in a flat, monotone voice.
“I wasn’t going to say that,” he replied softly. “I was going to say that I’m sure you can tell just by looking at me… that I don’t have many friends. In fact, I haven’t really been able to make any friends at all.”
“Oh… I’m sorry,” Momo said apologetically, feeling a pang of guilt for cutting him off so rudely.
“Ah, no, no — don’t apologize, Miss Ayase,” Okarun said quickly, turning to look at her with sincere, grateful eyes and a gentle smile. “In fact, you’re probably the closest thing I’ve ever had to a friend in the first place.”
Momo immediately looked away, her face burning hot as a deep blush spread across her cheeks. His earnest expression had caught her completely off guard, leaving her flustered and unsure how to respond.
“Anyways,” Okarun continued, gazing off into the distant horizon as the wind whipped through his hair, “since no one ever wanted to be friends with me, I thought I might have a better chance with beings from out there. If I could somehow make contact with aliens, maybe… just maybe, there was a possibility that they would want to be my friends.”
Momo remained quiet, her gaze softening as she glanced sideways at him.
“Honestly,” Okarun said, a small, bittersweet smile forming on his lips, “part of me always knew it was probably nonsense. I was just lonely… desperate to make even a single connection. I was starting to lose hope.” His voice grew quieter, more reflective. “But that completely changed when Superman appeared. He showed me that I wasn’t crazy, and I wasn’t alone. Aliens really do exist… and there are those out there willing to be our friends.”
“That’s why I was so desperate to meet them — especially to meet Superman,” he admitted wistfully, closing his eyes and letting the cool rush of wind wash over him. “Because I knew for certain that if anyone would be willing to be friends with a guy like me, without judgement or remorse,… it would be him.”
Momo’s eyes began to water as she fought hard to hold back the tears threatening to spill over. “Don’t worry,” she said softly, her voice steady despite the emotion swelling in her chest. “Superman would love to be your friend. I just know it.”
‘Even if I have to beat the concept into him!’ she added fiercely in her thoughts, a determined glint flashing in her eyes as they continued flying toward the chaotic battlefield in the distance.