Waking up, Asahi felt incredibly light and relaxed, to a degree that felt foreign to him. Realizing that he was on his bed, he turned his head, and saw Mayumi lying near him.

She smiled. “Are you feeling better?”

He turned his body towards her. “Yeah, better than I’ve ever felt before. And this is coming from someone who just got laid for the first time.”

Although she chuckled, it was clear that she was still quite worried.

He got closer to her and grabbed her hand. “I’m not deflecting with humor; I’m seriously feeling better than ever. To be clear, I’m not saying that all my issues disappeared, but it feels like a decent chunk of them just got exorcized. Sorry if I freaked you out.”

She caressed his face. “Don’t apologize, I literally asked you to let it out, and I’m glad that you did.”

He smiled. “So… Turns out that I might have downplayed a little bit how rough my life actually was.”

“Yeah, just a little bit. Can I ask you something that might be related to that?”

“Sure, you can ask me anything.”

“While you were asleep, I was stroking your hair, and felt a pretty big scar on your head. I noticed that you have a few scars on your body, but that one was something else. What happened there?”

He displayed a bitter smile. “Oh, that one. When I was a newborn, I was found in a dumpster with a gash on my head, about to bleed to death.”

Her eyes widened.

He pointed to two small scars, one on his left thigh, and the other a little above his waist on the left side. “What do you think these ones are from?”

She slightly frowned. “They look like burn marks.”

He nodded. “Don’t they? They’re actually bullet wounds.”

“What?”

“Stray bullets from a shooting. Do you see this one here?” He pointed to a cut-like scar, below his left pectoral muscle. “I got mugged two years ago, and the guy stabbed me because I only had ¥500. Let’s just say that I didn’t have the best luck so far.”

She frowned. “Dude, holy shit.”

Still holding her hand, he caressed it with his thumb. “I wanna tell you about myself again, but without sugarcoating anything, if that’s okay with you.”

She nodded. “Of course.”

They both got up and sat on the bed, leaning against the headboard, with pillows cushioning their backs.

He took a deep breath.

“As you already know, I’m a dumpster baby, and since no one claimed me, I ended up in an orphanage. For whatever reason, no one ever wanted to adopt me. Growing up, I always got the raw end of the deal with everything. Mean caregivers, mean kids around me, attempts of bullying at school. I say attempts, because I was never the type to just take it, always fighting back. Your typical bully prefers those who are scared, so it never lasted long.”

“When I was ten, the owner of the orphanage where I lived, decided to start beating me, for no reason at all. Maybe he was bored, I don’t know. I tried to go to the police, but they just took me back, and I got beaten again, ending up in the hospital. After they discharged me, I ran away. This was in Nagano by the way, I wasn’t born in Saitama.”

She remained silent, allowing him to speak freely, without interruptions.

“I pretty much lived on the streets until I was twelve, as a vagrant, eating out of dumpsters, ironically enough. During those two years, I moved around, begging and saving up to go to the next city.”

“When I got to Saitama City, a police officer apprehended me and took me to an orphanage.  I was already twelve by then. First night on the orphanage, literally, one of the caretakers took me to a room and tried to rape me.”

Her eyes widened.

“I kicked him in the nuts and hit his head with an industrial stapler. He passed out with the first stapler hit, which got him in the temple. While he was passed out, stomped his balls for a while, until it became mush.”

Her expression clearly said good.

“The guy was sent to the hospital and arrested. I’m still baffled that I wasn’t sent to juvie or something. From then onward, people started leaving me alone. I studied like crazy to catch up, and managed to get into a good public middle school. I kept my grades at the top all the way to high school, when I got my emancipation.”

“I did enough to earn a full scholarship to an elite private high school. Scholarship which was revoked, without them ever give me a concrete reason. They said that the selection was incorrect. I was never the smartest person, so I had to study like crazy for it, which pissed me off.”

“I entered the best public school that I could, and found a job as a dish-washer in a nearby Italian restaurant. Both in school and on my job, I only spoke when spoken to. Of course, trouble found me on several occasions.”

“I mentioned the bullying before, right? The funny thing about that, is that when it came the time for the teachers to deliver punishment, I was always the one who ended up getting screwed. Me, the victim.”

“Throughout middle and high school, I had twelve different bones broken, which made me really appreciate that we have free healthcare. Some of those were accidents, others being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and a couple were fights. Of course, there was also getting shot and stabbed, along with a myriad of minor incidents. With time I’ll tell you more about those.”

“Fortunately, I had games and novels to keep me somewhat sane through it all. It was really hard to keep myself from doing something stupid, even though I always tried to be as rational and pragmatic as I can.”

“And after getting accepted and enrolling in Tokyo U, I arrived here, and met you.”

“To be completely honest, this was my last attempt. If things continued as they were, I’d probably end up killing myself. I don’t think that’s a likely future for me anymore though. Like I said, although my issues didn’t magically go away, a part of them were exorcized.”

He smiled. “You being here, pretty much saved my life.”

Tearing up, she caressed his face. There wasn’t even a hint of pity in her eyes, only fondness, admiration and respect.

She then kissed his cheek and hugged him tightly. “I’m really glad that I met you.”

He reciprocated the hug, and caressed the back of her head. “Me too.”

The hug lasted for over a minute.

As they let go, she held his face. “You’re not alone anymore, okay?”

“Yeah…” He smiled, finally starting to tear up, then laughed. “Without realizing, I was keeping myself from crying. I gotta ditch this habit, huh.” He cleaned up his tears with his palms.  “So, turns out that Tomoko used to be a chef at a high-class restaurant. There are some leftovers from what she cooked today, waiting for us, including a large chunk of a Lasagna Bolognese. How about we go eat? I’m starving.”

She rubbed her hand on her abs. “Yeah, I’m starving too.”

While they ate, they talked about their weekends. Mayumi mostly spent time with her parents and a few old friends.

After they were finished, both went to sleep.

 

Waking up, Asahi smiled while he stretched his body.

[ Good morning. ]

‘Good morning. How are my points doing.’

[ You currently have 42,600P. ]

‘…’

[ … ]

‘…’

[ … ]

‘…!’

[ Indeed. ]

‘Excuse me, what?’

[ You read it correctly, you currently have 42,600P. ]

He sighed. ‘Please, buy the recording detection.’

[ Done. You might not feel any different now, but you will know when being recorded or spied on in any way. ]

After brushing his teeth, he went to the kitchen, where Mayumi was having coffee. She was wearing her usual home attire.

He greeted her and kissed her cheek, which she reciprocated, then started to make a cup of coffee for himself.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I’m going to check those practical combat classes today.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know about this...”

He raised his right eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

She got up and walked up to him. “Excuse me, I need to check something.”

She then put her hands under his shirt, then started to caress his abs, then his chest.

‘…!’

After stopping, she tidied his shirt, then nodded. “Apparently you did grow some muscles, so you can go without worries.”

As she started to turn around, he picked her up princess-style. “Come here you little pervert.”

Being carried to the couch, she started laughing while trying to defend her actions. “I’m not a pervert, it was just an examination, because I care.”

He dropped her on the couch, got on top of her, then started tickling her sides.

She laughed until almost tearing up. “I yield, have mercy!”

As he stopped, he leaned down and gave her forehead a kiss. “It’s almost lunch time, wanna go somewhere since we wiped out the leftovers?”

She smiled. “Yeah, how about we go to that ramen place again?”

“That sounds great.”

And so, they did.

They had a pleasant lunch, sitting on the same side of the booth. There was a newfound closeness between them.

 

After coming back to the apartment, Asahi changed into sports shorts and a tank top, and put a change of clothes inside a black backpack he had recently bought on sale.

He took the train, and arrived at his destination after a 13-minute ride and 5-minute walk.

In front of a large building, he looked at the sign.

Maruyama Practical Combat & Self-Defense.

Getting into the building, he saw a dozen people or so, busily walking to and from hallways.

The reception room was modern, with a receptionist in her late twenties sitting behind a computer monitor. He had already handled all the registration online, and he only had to show her his documents.

She quickly confirmed everything, gave him the MMA gloves and mouthguard he had already paid for, and sent him to a room at the end of one of the hallways, where his first class would take place. It was a class for beginners, that taught the very basics of fighting.

There were fourteen other people there, mostly already fit, with only a few a bit out of shape. ‘I don’t think that coming here while being out of shape is the best idea. There was even a warning on the website.’

They were talking among themselves, discussing what they were expecting from the class. It was the first day of it, and it would take place three times a week, which was why Asahi decided to start today.

The room itself had a few training things on the corner, like mitts and such. It had wooden floors, with no cushioning whatsoever.

Asahi put his bag down, took of his shoes, and gave everyone a short greeting, then started stretching.

They replied to his greeting and went back to talking among themselves.

Soon, a 1.84m-tall girl who seemed to be around Asahi’s age entered the room. She had light chocolate skin, curly hair tied in a ponytail, and Japanese features. Her high-impact sports bra made her B-cups look even smaller. Her legs on the other hand, were thick and strong, which were only accentuated by the leggings she was wearing. She also had the quintessential toned bubble-butt.

She looked around the room, and noticed Asahi, who was stretching. ‘That’s some nice elasticity, really good form too.’

After looking at everyone she walked up to them. “Hello everyone, I’m Trish, your instructor. I hope you all paid attention to the instructions, either on the website or at the reception. For those of you who seem to be out of shape, I hope you’re working out aside from this as well, otherwise you’ll have a bad time here. I’m not trying to call you out or be mean, just explaining that we don’t coddle people here.”

A few people grew worried.

“Well then, let’s begin, shall we?”

She spread them away from each other, in three rows of five, and started a fifteen-minute stretching session, which made the out of shape people regret some life decisions.

After they stretched, she started to teach a simple and solid stance, how to make a proper fist and how to throw a jab.

Everything was going as predicted in the beginning, but it changed when one person’s jabs started to catch everyone’s attention. Within ten minutes, Asahi was throwing jabs that belonged to a fairly-trained fighter.

Trish clapped her hands together, loudly. “Focus guys, pay attention to what you’re doing!”

The other two things she taught them was how to throw a straight punch, and a one-two. Usually, the first lesson was mostly to get them started and give them the feeling of having learned something.

However, by the end of the lesson, Asahi wasn’t looking like it was his first lesson, he looked like he was about to graduate. And unlike the rest of them, he just sweated a bit, but wasn’t even panting.

The rest of the class looked like their arms were about to fall off, because they had been basically punching the air for over forty minutes straight. It was even worse for those out of shape, of which two had already left and cancelled their enrollment.

“Good job everyone, I’ll see you all on Wednesday.”

As they dragged themselves out, Trish walked up to Asahi.

“Hi, what’s your name?”

“Asahi.”

“Were you in the boxing club in high school or something like that?”

He shook his head. “This is my first time learning how to throw a proper punch, didn’t have time for it growing up.”

She frowned, looking at him suspiciously. “Are you telling the truth? Because it will affect how I’ll proceed with your lessons.”

“Yeah, I only started working out a month ago.”

She raised her left eyebrow. “Okay. The thing is, we don’t have accelerated programs for highly talented individuals such as yourself. With that being said, how about instead of you taking this class, I teach you one-on-one?”

Asahi crossed his arms skeptically. “And what’s in it for you? I doubt you’re doing it just out of the kindness in your heart.”

She nodded. “You’re right, I do have something to gain, more writing material. It’s rare to come across super talented people, let alone observe them up close for extended periods of time, so I rather not miss this opportunity.”

His eyes widened. “You’re writer? Cool, have you been published already?”

“I released a few novels online, but under an alias.”

He uncrossed his arms. “Nice. I won’t pry any further, and I’d be glad to have one-on-one training. When do we start?”

“Is next Wednesday, after I finished teaching my class, fine with you?”

“Sure, that works for me.”

“Alright, see you on Wednesday then.”

“See you then.”

He took a shower in their facilities and changed into the extra set of clothes he had brought with him, then left.

 

Meanwhile, Trish was sitting inside a stall, in the women’s bathroom. With her phone in hand, she was looking at Asahi’s registration files. ‘Kinoshita Asahi, huh… Let’s see if there is something to my suspicions.’

She closed the app she was using, and opened another app, of which the icon resembled a clay-like person sitting in a lotus position.

Instead of promptly opening, a facial scan was initiated, and only after confirming her identity, Maruyama Patricia, the app opened.

It said Transcendent Network in bold letters.

She clicked on a magnifying glass, then typed Kinoshita Asahi in the search bar.

In a few seconds, Asahi’s life was basically inside her phone, including medical files. As she did a cursory reading, she frowned. ‘Is this guy cursed or something? Holy shit.’

She then arrived at his University enrollment files, which contained a recent picture of him, before arriving at his current housing. ‘Oh boy, that’s one hell of a makeover. Yeah, he’s quite probably a Transcendent, but he doesn’t seem to be a Super Soldier type like me, more of a Savant by the looks of it.’

She then closed the app. ‘I’ll know after I get some of his blood for analysis.’

 

Arriving home, Asahi put his dirty clothes in the laundry basket, then went to Mayumi’s room, stopping at the door. It was opened, but she was extremely focused, coding away.

He smiled and left her alone, then walked to the kitchen to grab an energy drink.

After setting an alarm on his phone, he started writing short stories on his computer, until said alarm rang.

He then went to the kitchen and started cooking. Roasted pork tenderloin with rice and vegetables.

Only once dinner was ready to be served that he walked back to Mayumi’s room. As she did with him, he waved his hand in her peripheral vision.

Upon noticing his hand, she took off her headphones and smiled. “You’re back already?”

He chuckled. “It’s 9:30, dinner is ready.”

Her eyes widened as she looked at her window, seeing that it was night time. “Damn, I really lost track of time.”

She turned her chair to face him. “So, how did it go?”

“Starting Wednesday, I get to have one-on-one lessons with the super-hot instructor.”

She smiled mischievously. “Wow, already onto your next target? You move quickly.”

He laughed. “Nah, she just saw that I was a fast learner and decided to teach me one-on-one, to use me as writing material.”

She raised her left eyebrow. “A writer? That’s neat. Did you get to talk to her about it?”

“Not really, she writes under an alias, so I didn’t pry.”

She nodded. “Fair enough. Now, let’s eat! I’m starving.”

After they ate, they tidied up the kitchen, then played video games on the couch for an hour or so, before going to bed.

During the next day, Asahi spent most of the day writing, only stopping to eat and go to the gym. Since Mayumi was coding for the most part of it, they only saw each other during meals.

 

A couple minutes before Trish’s class was over.

Asahi was waiting in front of the room where she taught her class. He got there ten minutes early just in case.

Soon, the students started to drag themselves out of there. They looked like they had just run a marathon.

As she exited the room, she spotted him. “Asahi, hi. Come with me, I’ll show you where we’ll have our lessons.”

He nodded and followed her.

She took him to the fourth floor of the building, to a large room filled with training equipment, from sandbags to body protections. There were also non-lethal replica weapons and guns.

He put his backpack on the floor, and took his shoes off.

She looked at him with an excited expression. “Shall we begin?”

---