Jack is getting excited. Not because Nitte is still sitting on his thighs. Definitely not because Jack can feel her warmth touching his crotch.
No, he is excited because if he really could acquire some superpowers, that would be awesome. He grew up dreaming to be a superhero.
OK, a girl is sitting this close to him is making his blood flowing a little faster.
"So, what energy source should I use?" Jack asks.
"Do you have food at your apartment? I'm hungry." Nitte doesn't answer his question. She is always doing that.
Jack shakes his head slightly to himself. "Ugh. Yes. I have some. Do you want to just go get some fast food?"
"Aww. Is this a date? You are asking me out on a date?"
"Yeah right." Jack snickers, "Geez! No! If you're hungry, you can go get food. All I said was, you want to just go get some fast food? That means you can do that."
"Do you want tacos? That's what I'm getting."
"I guess. I don't care."
Nitte laughs, "I see. You want a sugar mama. You want me to buy you tacos. Sure. But, just so you know, I'm younger than you. Come on. Sugar mama is buying you dinner."
So they leave the apartment. After they get their food, they find a nearby park. There isn't anyone around, surprisingly. She puts a hand behind his back, patting him like he is a pet.
"So, can I tell you my best source of energy?"
"Go head, tell me. I've been waiting for you to tell me."
"My best source of energy comes from hurt. From pain."
"OK? So you feed on being hurt?"
"Doesn't have to be physical pain. Mental one works very well, too. And once you get hurt big time, you just need to reuse that. You don't have to necessarily keep getting hurt. You just need one big pain in your heart and you'll just go from there. I think you can definitely start from your most recent heartbreak."
"You think I'm heartbroken right now?"
"Yeah."
"If you're talking about my ex girlfriend, I'm not. I'm just a little disappointed. Because I have proposed to her. She refused."
Nitte laughs and claps happily. She then speaks in a sing-song tone, "Falling in love with a woman who doesn't want to marry you. Poor Jack."
"Is there anything else you can talk about?" Jack snaps.
"OK. Sorry. What animal would you like to shapeshift to?"
"I don't know. What would you recommend?"
"I was thinking wolf. But to track down the hacker, it might be better that you become something smaller. Maybe like a bug. Something smaller than me."
Jack thinks to himself in his head: Of course, something smaller than you, so you can control me.
"OK. I don't know what is smaller than a mouse. Mouse is what you are choosing, right?"
"Yeah. Hmm. Maybe like a bug. You should be a bug. You kind of have to zone out and think of the environment, the habitat of that bug that comes to your mind."
The first thing that comes to Jack's mind is spiderweb. He uses his normal method of gathering energy, which is from his disgust and anger. He thinks he gets enough emotions, and he tries to change into a spider.
"Am I any different?" Jack asks.
"Nope."
Jack tightens his fists. He focuses on his emotions really hard one more time.
"Your ex girlfriend never wanted to marry you. She wasted so much of your time, just to find out she didn't want to give you any commitment," Nitte starts to whisper. Jack can hear her loud and clear in his head.
"But she is happy now, isn't it? With a rich guy. She seems to know a lot of rich guys. So maybe not being with you is better for her."
Jack seems to be hypnotized and he is pushed to think about the same stupid topic again. He has never imagined his ex girlfriend marrying someone else. She was his first. She made it sound like she wasn't ready to be married yet. Now, she is off to be married. Is he really not that good of a man for her?
How do people ever know if they could find their true love? He thought she was his true love. What if he would be all alone for the rest of his life? He feels despair and darkness. If someone you think is true love turns out not liking you back, what kind of chance does he have? He thinks his body is falling apart, falling down, and breaking into pieces.
Even though Jack never tells anyone, but there was another reason why he wanted to quit his police job. Not just because he was tired of the rigidness and lack of new challenges. He wanted to quit and maybe considered taking Keith Hutchins's offer, because he wants to start making a lot more money. Keith told him, by working with him, he can make a lot more money. And with that, maybe Jack can afford a house, and not stay in this small apartment, where he only eats instant noodles. He thinks once he can make more money, a girl like his ex girlfriend would certainly say yes to him.
A wave of energy is hitting him.
Suddenly, he feels himself dropping to the ground. He blinks and he gains so many view points, like he has multiple surveillance cameras operating for him. But he also notices he is basically looking at the ground.
"Great! You're a spider! Haha! You should thank me for giving you all the pain!"
Jack is now a palm-sized spider with multiple eyes and eight fuzzy legs.
Nitte carefully fetches the spider into her palm and brings it in front of her face.
"I don't know exactly what you were thinking, but if you are thinking about her, then this pain is only just the beginning. It's not the huge pain that can keep you going yet."
"You think it's not painful enough?"
"When I was hurt, I fell like I was falling into infinite darkness and I was dying. I was physically and mentally hurting. No men ever treated me right. And I was so sad that I was never loved."
Although Nitte sounds sad, her face is emotionless.
"My dear Jack, you are just like me. Fox Fairy told me she gifted me her power so I could punish the terrible men. You are certainly not one of those men. You are hurt just like me."
Jack wants to argue that he was not like her. But he also feels that it is not too important right now.
Nitte then shapeshifts into a mouse.
"Come on, jump up onto my back," Nitte says.
Jack hops onto the mouse's back, and they start running.
"Where are we going?"
"Let's go find the hacker's girlfriend."
"You know where she is?"
"I think so." Nitte doesn't explain further.
They arrive in front of a university hospital building. Jack jumps off and crawls into a pipe opening. Nitte changes herself into a mouse and follows him. Jack can see the benefit of being an animal now.
"This is great, I don't have show my badge. I don't have to ask for permission to get in. I don't have to sign paperwork. And I don't have to worry about talking to anyone." Jack says.
"Told ya! Traveling with me as a small animal is the best!"
They climb through an air vent that goes through the hospital rooms. Jack shoots out a single elastic thread, and he lowers himself into a room to check.
After he comes back up from the room, Nitte stops him.
"You don't have to check each room, the hacker is not a patient or a doctor here."
"Oh. What does he do? An IT technician here?" He laughs.
"Could be. I just know the girlfriend knows someone here."
Jack then thinks it is very strange that Nitte knows all about this.
"Wait a minute, Nitte. How do you know to come here anyway?"
"I told you. I found his girlfriend earlier before I came to you."
"But how do you know who his girlfriend is?"
Nitte laughs, "Let me decide if I should lie to you."
And because Nitte is now a mouse, her laugh sounds squeaky, which is quite comical, making Jack laugh, too.
"I can't believe you are saying this out loud, telling me you want to lie to me. Just don't lie to me!" Jack then laughs some more.
"Oh my gosh, Jack. When you laugh as a spider, you look so ugly! Don't laugh when you are a spider."
"Well, thanks a lot. Is that supposed to hurt me so I can stay as a spider?"
"No. You just simply look super ugly."
"OK. Fine. I'm ugly." Jack shoots out a thread aiming right next to Nitte to surprise her.
Nitte squeals. "Hey!"
"So how do you know who the girlfriend is?"