There was once a boy who had a miserable school life, and even though he was in his last year of High School, he was often bullied due to his small frame and weak body. All he wished for was the strength to fight back and do something about it, and one day, without warning, that’s exactly what he got. The boy got the power to Strengthen himself at will, and without thinking of what the origins of this power could be, he promptly strengthened himself to a level where he felt comfortable knowing he wouldn’t be bullied again by the same people he did so before. That, however, wasn’t enough for him.
Strengthen goes to the group of people who used to bully him who were hanging out together in the nearby park, and punches the self proclaimed leader of the group. Because of how strong the boy's made himself, the bully has a hard time fighting back, and no one in his group even tried to help, and although he didn’t care for the bullies themselves, seeing their scared faces as he attacks their leader made him feel bad about this, to attack the weak who can't defend himself, is something the boy sees as being weak and petty, and perhaps because of him strengthening himself, he couldn’t push himself to attack them further, deciding to walk away as the bigger person in the situation instead.
Deflated, and questioning his own values, the boy walks his way home, but as he does, he hears a huge explosion nearby. Still wanting to be able to put his powers to use, the boy goes up to where the explosion sound came from, and there he sees a woman with short black hair with bangs covering her eyes, sat amongst the ruins of what used to be a generic office space for an accounting company, around her are a plethora of scared people. The woman explodes into maniacal laughter, and walks slowly towards one of the men around with her right hand raised towards him.
Before she can reach the man, Strengthen throws one of the plastic water coolers that survived the explosion at the woman, who falls over. She turns to Strengthen, muttering something about how he must be another person trying to hold her back, and she's going to make him explode like the life she was forced to bear. Explode picks up a small piece of debris and throws it at Strengthen, the throw was weak, and Strengthen easily dodges it, but just as he does, the piece of debris quickly burst into an explosion, shooting out shrapnel that hits Strengthen's arm as he's forced to defend.
Understanding that throwing something at her directly won't work anymore as she’s following Strengthen’s every move, Strengthen tries to charge at her, but seeing her touch a metal bar left over from the ceiling, he's forced to retreat, assuming that her power to explode things come from what she has direct contact with. Explode is delighted, the powers she suddenly awakened are incredible, she thinks, with this she'll finally be able to have her revenge.
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Strengthen darts around Explode, leaving himself into open territory for her to throw more pieces of debris at him, missing quite a few, but having the resulting shrapnel fly around wildly as a result, hitting Strengthen, or so it seems. Unfortunately for Explode, her explosion powers work by creating immense amounts of heat inside anything she desires by touching it, making the heat try to escape in any way it can, resulting in an explosion. Said explosion, however, also leaves behind a large smokescreen, due to the energy created vaporizing the inside of the aforementioned item close to the source of the heat, leading to its powder form to fill the air. Strengthen banked on the fact that she would get careless and throw multiple debris at once, allowing him to take cover in the smokescreen, and it paid off. Rising out of the smokescreen where she least expects it, with one swift punch Strengthen uses his power again to make his arms stronger, and is able to knock down Explode in one go.
A while later, Explode wakes up on the floor of Strengthen's house, right in front of her is Strengthen sitting at the ground with his legs crossed. She's prepares to attack him, but Strengthen stops her just before she's able to do so by telling her that he's put three layers of gloves on her hands, and if she tries to use her powers, she'll just end up exploding her own hands. Instead, Strengthen just wants to have a conversation with Explode, and understand why she was doing all of that.
She breaks down crying and begins explaining how she couldn't bear the corporate life anymore, that all she wanted was to finally be able to let it all out and 'take revenge on this horrible world', and how she wasn't able to hold back the impulse when she noticed she suddenly had these powers. Strengthen tells her that because of the problem she's caused, he was forced to pick her up and strengthen his body even further to quickly escape and hide her from the authorities, thankfully no one followed him, but with his power being only to strengthen, he can’t reverse it, meaning he’s permanently stronger every time he uses it.
When asked why he went through the trouble of saving a criminal such as her, Strengthen simply says:
"Because you're just like me."
Without the need to inquire further, Explode understands, and starts crying again. Strengthen sighs, but tells her that for now she can hide here until they can think of something to do with her. Explode thanks him, and promises not to cause any trouble. Strengthen asks himself how he’s going to explain all of this to his mother, but decides to think of that later, happy that he could put his power to good use at least once.