“…I wanna try telling you my secret. You see, a few months ago, I found out I was being haunted by an evil spirit. Whenever I got in trouble, it would lash out at people, and even-“
Utano slides into frame and stops you right there. “You mean a Benzin.”
“…The German word for gasoline?” You boggle at how the raccoon dog seems to know more about your condition than you do before you’ve even said anything. Having your monologue interrupted like that was more than slightly irritating.
“Hoi, the very same! We call them that because they’re not evil spirits at all! They’re a manifestation of your willpower, the fuel that keeps you going! Each and every single one of them is a unique reflection of the user’s personality, so each and every one has a unique Benzinkunst.”
Pan opens one eye long enough to blink in surprise. “Is that really correct German?”
“Yeah, I think so. But the point is, this club has a rule for Benzin games.” Utano opens a ledger and flips through it. “Because we care about continuity in this school, no student may manifest a Benzinkunst which has been already chosen by another student. Don’t want to step on each other’s toes, right? ‘Throw fireballs’ got taken really early, for instance.”
Your eyes briefly become white circles as the sound of a bamboo deer scare goes DONK. Now she guessed what you wanted your superpower to be! You’ll have to think outside the box for this one.
“I want… the power to repair any object instantly.”
“Taken,” Says Pan. “I’m actually the one who started the whole Benzin thing, but Utano keeps shouting over me. Shame, shame.” Her smile widens slightly. “One more shame and I’ll have to use my [Don Quixote] on her.”
You turn to the panda and continue. “Okay, then… the power to freeze time.”
“Taken. Twice. [Polaris] and [Sol].”
“But you just said-“
“They were the reason WHY I made the rule against duplicate powers.”
You absentmindedly chew on your lower lip- you never used to, but Tammy’s front teeth barely fit in her mouth. “Okay then, the power to rewind time? How about seeing the future? Time travel, but only forwards?”
“Taken, taken, and… taken,” says Pan as she skims over the tanuki’s ledger. “Just assume most of the broken time travel stuff is taken already.”
“Ability to turn people into dinosaurs.”
“Taken last week.”
“Ability to turn people into children.”
“First of all, eew, and second, taken.”
“What do you mean, ‘eew’, we’re all- nevermind. The power to erase objects just by touching them?”
She shakes her head no. Too good to be true…
“The power to…” You strain your brain to think of an obscure superpower, causing a vein to bulge on your forehead. “The power to make origami come to life, and if anyone touches the origami it messes with their eyesight?”
“Taken literally yesterday!” Juno appears between you and Pan, somehow rising up from the floor instantaneously. “I told her it was dumb, but she said winning a fight with it would be really cool!”
Smoke is pouring out of your ears. “Can I just have a gun or something?”
Pan considers this for a moment. “…Sorry, ‘literally just a gun’ is also taken.”
“Yare yare gawa…”
“If you’d like, we could give you a list of Benzinkunst ideas which HAVEN’T been claimed yet.”
“PLEASE.”
Pan takes the ledger and flips to a notes section on the last page. One of them stands out to you…