Chapter 288 Realizations, Plunder’s Backstory, And Grandparents

One moment Orbroznar was hovering, the next moment, it disappeared. In a blink of an eye, Orbroznar disappeared and teleported right behind Death Metronome. He then shot out three wind slashes which hit Death Metronome squarely on the back.

With a weak stretched moan, Death Metronome floated down on the ground like a gliding piece of fabric, it then lay flat on the ground as it lost consciousness.

Another gasp was heard from the audience.

"And the winner... the winner is none other than the challenger himself, Jean Grey!" The referee announced as he raised his fists in the air. No one, not even him, had expected such an outcome. Ever since the match started, he had assumed that Jean Grey would lose big time and that's why he didn't really expect anything from him. However, not only did he stand up to the challenge, but he also managed to defeat the defending champion by the skin of his teeth! It was a pretty close match, but it was obvious that he had won, kicking White Mist off of his throne as the defending champion.

Jean Grey raised his fist in the air as his head tipped down toward the ground in a heroic position. This was one of the many poses he would assume every time he won a match, and today was no different. Not only did he win a beast battle, but he also managed to beat the best beast tamer from another world. He felt a great sense of victory in him, and of course, he had all his tamed beasts to thank for that said victory.

"You did well, Death Metronome" White Mist said as he brought Death Metronome back and undid its summon.

"That was a great fight." Jean Grey said, extending his hand so White Mist could shake it.

.....

A couple of minutes later.

News about the fight spread around the globe like wildfire. The defending champion of the Official Beast Tournament had lost and he had been kicked off his throne. Moreover, the one who kicked him out of that said throne was an unknown beast tamer— a tamer who just came into the scene via the recommendation of Star Spangled.

Jean Grey's debut was met with cheers and interviews from reporters who came from different broadcasting stations. In just one instance, he became as popular as White Mist and he was held as the new champion of the Official Beast Tournament... well, even though this wasn't really accounted for as part of the Official Beast Tournament, the people unanimously agreed that Jean Grey is now the champion— much to White Mist's disappointment.

While White Mist was utterly devastated due to his loss, he felt a great sense of relief himself. Honestly, being the defending champion for the beast tournament was quite boring, and he had always wanted a challenge. Now, he was able to get rid of his boredom as well as the responsibility of being the defending champion. With this, he finally had a good reason and motivation to strive to get stronger. Jean Grey was now his goal.

And during that exchange they had, White Mist had a change of heart. The American and the Japanese Government had given him a mission to eliminate Jean Grey and Star Spangled from this life. But now he realized that these two governments were requesting a ridiculous request. A man who had such passion for beast battles couldn't be a bad guy, and White Mist told himself that he would deny the request that the American and the Japanese Government had given him.

At first, when White Mist received the mission, he was told that Star Spangled had possibly allied himself with an enemy, a threat. And that threat is someone from another world, a threat that could endanger the world. That's why he had to do some reconnaissance and try to engage the two in a fight. Even then, it's as if fate was lending a hand since he was unable to get rid of them. And now that he realized that Jean Grey couldn't possibly be an enemy to Earth, he decided that he'd apologize as soon as the interviews and the craziness of the fight's outcome had died down.

But first, they had to take care of the interviews as well as the attention that everyone was showering them.

"Jean Grey... I did pronounce your name right, right? Jean Grey?" White Mist called out before Jean Grey walked out of the field.

"Yeah, that's right." Jean Grey responded back with a smile on his face. During the fight, he realized that White Mist could possibly be their attacker in the Beast Dimension. Nevertheless, he didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of the fight since there are a lot of people and they could get involved if he acted recklessly. That's why he bought some time and opted to confront White Mist about it as soon as everything was over. Unbeknownst to him, White Mist was also thinking the same thing— a good decision really, since the misunderstanding that they have with each other might escalate and endanger everyone who was present.

"I needed to talk to you about something, you know, catch up and clear a couple of things up. Would it be okay if we meet later on after the interviews?" White Mist asked.

Jean Grey, who didn't want to cause a commotion as mentioned before, nodded along and agreed to White Mist's demands. "Sure, I'd love that. The weird thing is, I also have a couple of things in my mind. We can talk about it over a couple of drinks, yeah?"

"That would be satisfactory. If Star Spangled wouldn't mind, he can join us as well. Oh and also, that guy... the number one hero of Japan. If he'd be able to join us for a round of drinks that would be nice."

"I'll bring it up to them." Jean Grey said before waving his hand as he was dragged to one corner to get interviewed by a couple of reporters.

...

Meanwhile,

"Are you sure you can finish that? We still have plenty of time before bedtime. You don't have to finish all that." Tatsuki concernedly brought up as he watched Aira holding a couple of candy apples in hand.

"Aira is going to finish this," Aira responded as she licked the candy apples faster.

"Slow down Aira, no one's going to get your candy apples from you," Emma advised, even though he was eating dried noodles as if she hadn't eaten for days.

"You do know you don't have the right to say that right?" Ash said. As for him, he had bought a couple of cotton candies for himself, downing it as fast as he could so he could buy another batch. Back in their world, cotton candies didn't exist. This was the first time Ash tasted cotton candies and he had already fallen in love with them.

"I wouldn't be surprised if all of you get stomachaches." This time, it was Shiroi who commented. At the same time, she continued digging through her bag of fries.

"You guys... er... hmmm..." Satoshi muttered to himself. He didn't even know when to start. The three of them kept on commenting about their voracious appetite when they were all doing the same thing. Satoshi couldn't help but sigh. Just seeing them eat already made him feel nauseated. 'Aren't they enjoying this a little too much?' Satoshi asked himself in his mind.

"That guy's your friend, right? He's pretty strong." Tatsuki finally signed the last autograph he needed to sign before settling down beside Satoshi. "He's a beast tamer as well, a little bit like your superpower. I wonder if he's as strong as you. You should learn as much as you can from him before the Official Beast Tournament."

Satoshi nodded as a smile plastered itself on his face. "Dad?"

"Yup?"

"When you were young, what kind of special training did you do?" Satoshi asked out of the blue.

"You mean... when I finally discovered my superpower? I just practiced day in and day out, that's it. Whenever I'm not doing anything, I would go outside to practice my superpower. Did you know I was caught by the authorities once and was put in jail?" Tatsuki said. He just realized that he never spoke about this particular story to Satoshi. After all, back then, he was careful not to talk about superpowers that much since Satoshi didn't have a superpower.

"You went to prison?" Satoshi exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"Yeah, I did. I was acting like a vigilante, plundering superpowers off of lawbreakers while I tried to gauge the maximum amount of superpowers I could plunder. Well, I didn't reach my limit, but the police caught wind of my vigilante acts and they had to put me in jail. I was a minor back then so I was only put on hold for a couple of days before my mom picked me up."

"You mean grandma?" Satoshi's voice trailed off as he realized something. "Wait, grandpa and grandma are in America right now, right? Where exactly in America? Are we going to visit them?"