Asahi, Fumiko and Mayumi walked down a quiet street, with Mayumi in the middle.

Mayumi untied her beautiful wavy red hair, then sniffed it. “Do I smell like sweat?”

Asahi smirked. “Nice try, you’re not using the cleaning device.”

Mayumi lightly slapped his shoulder. “Stingy man.”

Asahi hugged Mayumi with one arm and kissed her cheek. “You smell great.”

Chortling, Mayumi looked at Fumiko who was grinning, seeming to have her mind somewhere else, and gently poked her shoulder. “What are you so happy about?”

Fumiko looked at her, smiling. “I haven’t been to that arcade center since I started going to Tokyo U, so I’m really looking forward to it. The only reason I know that it’s still really good is because Tomoe often goes there with her friends.”

Mayumi looked at her quizzically. “Do any of your friends still go there?”

Fumiko shook her head. “Only a couple of my friends went there, but they all moved to other cities. Most people that I played with there, were acquaintances that I only saw when I went there.”

Mayumi wrapped her arm around Fumiko. “At least you have your back-up friends here with you.”

Fumiko raised her left eyebrow. “Bold of you to think that you have ascended to the back-up level.”

Mayumi started tickling her. “Oh, I’m sorry, I meant reserve secondary back-up friends.”

Fumiko Laughed and gave her butt a light slap. “You forgot the ‘with benefits’ part.”

They laughed and joked round all the way to the arcade center.

 

The arcade center was fairly large, with a second floor.

There weren’t that many people on the ground floor, but Asahi could feel a dozen people or so above, where the fighting games were located.

Before going up, the three of them bought cards with abundant credit so they could play without worry.

Arriving at the second floor, they encountered a quite diverse group of people mainly crowded around a couple of machines. Both had the same game, Martial Apocalypse, the current hotness in terms of fighting games.

From the way the four players were playing in both duels, and the conversation around them, it was clear that all of them were part of the local sweat-lords of that game.

When the three newcomers approached them, there was a short pause due to their attractiveness, but since they were there to play the game as well, they quickly blended in. In the end, being a sweat-lord comes first.

The three of them had fun talking and getting to know everyone there, even though it was just for that day. When they finally got to play, they really blended in with their skills and trash-talk, especially Fumiko, she was home.

One of them, a twenty-year-old overweight tall guy, incredibly well dressed in streetwear with stylish hair, snapped his fingers as he looked at Fumiko. “I know you! You’re the girl in braids and braces who used to always pick random characters and wiped the floor with everyone, aren’t you? No wonder the name Fumiko was familiar to me.”

Fumiko giggled. “Took you long enough, Itsuki-san. I was wondering when you would connect the dots since you’re the only one here from back then. What happened to the rest?”

Itsuki shrugged. “Most of them are working right now or moved away. The ones that still come here only come on Sundays. Since I work from home and make my own hours, I can come here and fiend a little bit.”

Mayumi looked at him with curiosity. “What do you do? If you don’t mind talking about it.”

Itsuki shook his head. “It’s fine. I do artwork for streamers, like emotes, overlays and alerts. Although I do stream as well, it’s not my main source of income, since I don’t take it seriously.”

Fumiko slightly tilted her head. “I really thought you would go pro.”

Itsuki pulled his left sleeve, showing some scars on his left arm. “Got hit by a car a couple years ago. After that, I couldn’t play at that level anymore.” He then shrugged. “It’s fine, I have a really good job that gives me freedom to do whatever I want. This might have been the better outcome.”

Fumiko sighed. “It’s a shame, but if you’re fine with it, then it’s all good.”

One of the girls, wearing boots, tight jeans and a hoodie, nodded at the three newcomers. “The three of you play at a such a high level, why didn’t any of you try to go pro?”

Mayumi shook her head. “I rather make games.”

Asahi nodded. “Same.”

Fumiko shrugged. “I’m a Comp-Sci nerd, irredeemably so, especially when it comes to encryption. Don’t get me wrong, I love video games with a passion, but they’re for me to relax.”

They kept chatting for a bit more, before being interrupted by Itsuki’s groan.

Itsuki nodded towards the stairs. “Ugh, King Douche incoming.”

As they look in the direction of the stairs, they saw three tall guys in their late teens coming.

All three wore casual, but expensive clothes. Although they were all in shape, the one in the middle was more so. He also wore a diamond earring in each ear. They were smiling and laughing.

Asahi rolled his eyes and sighed.

The guy with the diamond earrings spoke. “So, there were new people here. What’s up ladies? The three of us are going to a very exclusive karaoke, wanna join us? VIP treatment on me.”

Mayumi looked at him with indifference. “Nah, we’re good.”

Fumiko didn’t even look at them “Yup, have fun by yourselves.”

The guy kept walking with a smile. “Oh, come on, there’s no need for the cold shoulder. Let’s…”

Before he could finish, Asahi stepped in front of him. “They said that they don’t want to, and no one here seems to like you or want you here.”

Although Asahi seemed completely calm, he was boiling inside. He absolutely hated that kind of people, and with the swirl of emotions that was his day, it made even hard for him not to interfere.

The guy with the diamond earrings smirked. “Whoa, you seem like a tough one. Tell you what, how about we make a bet? Let’s go to the punch machine back there, and each of us punch it three times, with only the highest one counting. If you win, we leave. If you lose, I’ll finish my chat with your friends.”

Itsuki immediately exclaimed. “Wow, the Karate champion trying to show off using a random dude. Trying to compensate for something bud?”

Everyone there stifled a laugh.

The earring guy smiled at Itsuki. “Haha, funny guy, I’ll talk to you another time.”

Itsuki gave him the middle finger. “Any time, any place, you weak-ass little bitch.”

Ignoring Itsuki, the earring guy looked at Asahi again. “So, how about it?”

“Sure.” Said Asahi, turning around, walking towards the punching machine.

As Asahi passed, Mayumi looked at him slightly worried. Although he was visibly fine, she felt that something was off. She wasn’t the only one; Fumiko felt so too.

The punching machine was an extremely sturdy cylinder, instead of those from years before that bent backwards.

Asahi stood a few meters from the machine. “You can go first.”

With everyone watching, the earring guy stood in front of the machine with a smirk, as if he wanted to go first to begin with.

He lowered his stance, extended his left hand, and contracted his right close to his body.

“Hya!”

When his extremely fast straight connected, the machine trembled.

{ 423kg }

Everyone widened their eyes, except for Asahi, Itsuki and earring guy’s companions.

He then repeated the move two more times.

“Hya!”

{ 448kg }

“Hya!”

{ 492kg }

Earring guy smiled smugly at the results, then walked away from the machine.

Asahi looked at the machine, then at earring guy. “Pick a number from one to two hundred.”

Earring guy looked at Asahi quizzically. “Huh?”

Asahi repeated himself with a monotone voice. “Pick a number from one to two hundred.”

Earring guy furrowed his brow. “147.”

Asahi nodded. “Okay.”

Nonchalantly, Asahi approached the machine, unleashing a combination of three blur-like punches, making the machine tremble violently.

{ 570kg }

{ 595kg }

{ 639kg }

Everyone widened their eyes even more so than before, except Fumiko, Itsuki and Mayumi.

Asahi walked towards earring guy, who had his mouth slightly agape, trying to process what just happened.

Upon standing half a meter away from him, Asahi spoke. “There you go, +147, now get the fuck out, unless you wanna actually fight me.”

Earring guy didn’t even muster a response.

Asahi nodded as he spoke, before turning around. “Thought so. You’re just a pathetic little bitch that likes to oppress those weaker than you.”

As soon as Asahi turned around, earring guy’s face contorted in anger, and he started a punch with all his weight behind it.

Before the forward momentum of the punch even started, Asahi turned back around, looking at earring guy’s eyes with a cold glare.

The punch stopped, as he felt a deep sense of fear, that started to slowly turn into despair.

Asahi took a step forward, making him take a step back, and spoke with a cold and mocking tone. “Oh, come on, punch me. I’m right here.”

Asahi then took another step forward, making earring guy and his companions both take a step back. As they did, it was like their legs turned into jelly, making them fall on the floor.

Crouching in front of earring guy, Asahi spoke. “I thought you were the Karate champion, what happened? You seemed so confident before. How does it feel? Does it feel nice to be powerless? Maybe I should break your arms and legs to really drive the point home.”

As he spoke, Asahi’s eyes turned even colder, staring deep into him, like he was preparing to devour the guy whole.

Earring guy started to tremble as the floor started to get wet with his urine.

Before he spoke again, Asahi felt a hand on his shoulder. He was so lost in the moment, that he wasn’t even paying attention to his surroundings.

Yes, he had a System, Composure 9 and many passives. However, the longer you bottle things up, the more they fester, and the worse it is when they blow up.

Slightly startled, he felt who the hand belonged to. He didn’t need the System or powers to be able to tell who was the owner of that hand.

Mayumi had an extremely worried expression, speaking with a gentle tone. “I think that’s enough.”

Asahi then realized that everyone else there seemed frightened, aside from Itsuki who seemed indifferent, or Fumiko and Mayumi who looked quite worried.

He caressed her hand, and slowly got up. “Sorry.”

Asahi looked at everyone. “Sorry about that, I got a bit worked up. I hope that we can meet again, I’m gonna leave now.”

They seemed to want to say something, but couldn’t find the words.

Asahi then left with Fumiko and Mayumi.

 

Outside, the girls stood in front of Asahi.

Fumiko held his hand. “Do you want to go to my parents’ place or do you want to stop somewhere else?”

He sighed. “I’d rather stop somewhere; my mind is kind of a mess right now.”

Fumiko nodded. “There is a park nearby, let’s go there and sit down for a bit.”

He smiled faintly. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

As they left, he held Mayumi’s hand. “Thanks for stopping me.”

Mayumi got closer and caressed his arm.

They walked in silence to a nearby park, where they sat on a bench, with Asahi being in the middle.

After a couple minutes, Asahi sighed, starting to tear up. “I nearly lost it there. I really wanted to break that guy, in more ways than one. The thing is, he was just trying to pick up some girls and being a dick about it. I didn’t use the System or anything to see if he even deserved that to begin with. I train so much to become stronger, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt so weak as I do right now.”

He dried his tears with the back of his hand. “It’s so fucking hard to do nothing when you have as much power as I do right now. It was the same with Reina-chan earlier today. I wanted to give her everything that I never had and make sure that she never lost the smile on her face, but I had to stop myself. Well, not completely, because the plushie I gave her cost 500,000P. It’s like in those old samurai movies, where to truly master the sword meant to never unsheathe it, or some shit like that. I’m scared that I’m gonna do something that I’ll regret, or even worse, that’ll make you look at me differently in a bad way.”

Mayumi caressed his back. “How about we limit social activities to our classes while you look for the new therapist?”

Asahi nodded. “Yeah, maybe I’ll have to do that. I mean, outside our friend group that is. I feel really comfortable with all of you, so I don’t think anything bad will come from it. It’ll only take a few days for me to find a new therapist though, so I’ll be fine, hopefully.”

Fumiko caressed his thigh. “You can always talk to us about how you feel as well. We might not be trained, or have gone through anything similar, but we can still be there for you.”

Mayumi smiled. “Even if you don’t feel like talking, you can lay on my lap and I’ll stroke your hair anytime you want.”

Asahi smiled faintly, leaning his head on Mayumi’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

They stayed there for a while, mostly in silence, before leaving.