2 Life Growing Up With Monks

POV - Ban (1st Person)

Completing another exercise given to me by the man I considered my Grandpa in this life, I stood to my full height and dropped the weights I'd been using from my wrists and ankles.

Taking a deep breath, I settled down into a stance before simultaneously flexing every muscle in my body. Within less than a second after I did this, the sweat that had collected on my body flew off of my skin, leaving it dry.

'I still need a bath but this'll stop the sweat from drying and making my skin all weird,' I smirked to myself before I walked over to the side of the courtyard I was in and picked up my shirt. Once I'd put my shirt on I began doing a small stretching session before I picked up into a jog. I had stuff to have a bath.

It'd been 11 years since I was reborn, fully conscious as soon as I left my mother, and found out I held what you'd call a defective physique. My body just couldn't contain mana. It just seeped out of my body as soon as it was produced. Now, there's no negative effects to this - other than not being able to cast magic that requires mana - and I'd be able to live a normal yet fulfilling life if I chose so. Yet I didn't get a choice.

I was born to a family I can only describe as magical eugenics-obsessed twats. Because I wasn't born with some special Mark that allows the casting of quicker, more powerful and more efficient Magic. And because I was born with a defective physique that couldn't use any magic in general.

It was also quickly discovered I held no affinity or talent for Magic in general anyway, so even if I had mana...I wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

All pretty sucky, really. Especially when you think about how I've been transmigrated. Don't people usually get cheats when they transmigrate? Then again, I'm probably part of the rare few who aren't reborn with talent or a cheat. I read a few stories and fanfics with those type of main characters...Well, at least I have a good-looking face.

'I mean, I wouldn't say I don't have my advantages either--'

*BANG!*

--As I was thinking about my only advantage in this life, I was reminded of a pretty big disadvantage I have:

Bad Luck.

The bang? Lightning striking a tree. Where was the tree? Right next to me. Which way was one of the split halves falling? Toward me, obviously.

Now, any other 11-year-old would've dived out of the way. I mean, what else can they do? Stop the falling tree? That'd be insane. 'Well, actually, I heard from gramps that some Devil kids are pretty superhuman from birth--Ah, right, falling tree,' I came out of my thinking just as the tree was about to hit me but that was as far as it'd get.

Swinging my fist up, I slammed an uppercut into the tree, absolutely obliterating the wood as it practically exploded. The force traveled throughout the tree and it fell apart. Anything that was about to hit me with crushed into nothing more than harmless pieces of wood that bounced off me--

I was stopped in my internal bragging when a sizeable chunk of the tree slapped me right in the face and my head snapped back as I felt something snap.

'Definitely a broken nose,' I thought, not exactly having the proper response to such an injury. Nor the one I'd gained in my fist, wrist and arm from punching that tree, 'Broken hand, wrist and forearm...Better than I expected,' I figured my body was getting stronger from the repetitive breaks.

Looking down at my arm that was looking considerably broken, I guessed I'd have to wait for later to have a bath. Lifting my unbroken arm, I brought it to my face and set my nose with an audible click from the bone being pushed back into place. Blowing some blood out of my nose, I picked up into a jog again as I changed my course from the bath house to the medical part of the compound.

Why didn't I just dodge the tree? Well, uh, I guess I thought I could take it. But even if there was a chance I knew I couldn't take it, I needed to get used to my strength sooner or later. Dodging heavy objects all the time wouldn't allow me to do that. Only by forcing my body to adapt could I get used to my strength. A barbaric way of thinking, for sure...but my name does use the characters for 'Barbarian' so I guess it's fitting, right?

Smiling to myself, I continued jogging while trying to set the bones broken in my right arm. This wasn't the first time they'd been broken because of my strength, and it definitely wouldn't be the last.

But through all this bone breaking, I've gained two things:

1) My pain tolerance is through the roof.

2) I have rudimentary knowledge on how to set bones and deal with internal injuries. I'm even getting more tutoring from the compounds doctor and monks.

Why do my muscles hurt me by breaking my bones? Pretty simple and easy answer. They're simply too strong for my bones to withstand their contractions. Even the muscles themselves snap and tear sometimes, not even able to handle their own force. This is all because I've been born with a unique physiology asides from the one that means I can use or store mana.

You see, most people have a limit on their muscular strength. For two reasons: One, energy. Two, safety. For example, if you were always running on 100% muscle power, you'd require a hell of a lot more calories than usual. It's also a lot more inefficient to run something at 100% power when you only need 20 or 30% to get the job done. And evolution works on efficiency. Practically thrives on it. Evolution is all about finding efficiency and solutions to the inefficiency of a lifeform. So, because it'd be more efficient to work on 20-30% muscle power evolution capped our (humanities) muscle power and makes it so we can only use it when hopped up on adrenaline and when we really need it. Like a mom lifting some inhuman weight to save her baby or whatever.

But this isn't always the case. Sometimes, when evolution finds something good, it'll say a big 'fuck you' to efficiency and see where this good something can lead to. But it won't see where it'll lead if it's unsafe.

And using 100% of your muscular potential isn't safe. It's wears the old meat suit out and leads to damage after a while. It'll eventually lead to the ligaments, tendons and bones being worn out.

Luckily I'm in an anime world and they don't follow logic, huh? Otherwise I'd eventually become a cripple. Even the fact I'm able to walk and function with dexterity after the amount of bones I've broken in the past...is an affront to most sources of medicine in my past world. Breaking bones can make them stronger, sure, but breaking them again and again and again within a short enough time-span...just weakens them. Weakens them a lot.

But for me...it makes me stronger. More durable.

This is my advantage. Strong muscles and a body that can heal and heal and heal. It goes against logic...but at the same time I couldn't give a rat's ass. The world I'm currently in means I need every advantage I can get. I'm not even sure the ones I have are even enough.

Which is why I train every second I possibly can. Every minute of every hour of every day. All year, for the past seven years.

According to gramps not only do I have no limit on my muscles, I seem to have particularly well-endowed muscles. You see, anyone can train their muscles to a certain level. However, it takes a certain quality to get past that level. That's what separated weak muscles with low potential and strong muscles with high potential. Apparently my muscles are hyper-strong with super high potential. Gramps speaks about how I'm blessed to have the muscles I do...or whatever. Personally, I'm just grateful I'm not completely talentless in this aspect of my life otherwise I'd pretty much have nothing left.

And by hyper-strong, I don't mean that I've trained them to this level. No, my baseline was hyper-strong. Which makes my potential for growth all the more higher.

Anyway...

Highschool DxD. That's the anime world I'm in right now. Devils, Angels, Fallen Angels, Yokai, Dragons, Evil Dragons--There's no end to the supernatural races out there that start off naturally at a higher baseline than humans.

Humans have Sacred Gears, sure, but with my luck...I really wouldn't count on me having one.

Plus, it's stupid to think about 'if I have this power' because if you don't have it, what's the point in planning a future around it? I have strong muscles with durability that will eventually catch up to them. That's my advantage. So that's what I'm focusing on right now and in the future. I can't even rely on Senjutsu in the orthodox sense. Not when I can't project Ki out of my body.

I can only try my best to draw in Ki from the surrounding and raise my control to the point where I can achieve Touki. Either that or I train my body to the point where I can control my own life force because of how vigorous it'll be because of my strong body.

Or at least that's what I expect is gonna happen. The original canon didn't really go that into detail about how Touki works other than the fact it enhances their body's physical prowess.

But it doesn't really matter much to me. Why? Because with muscles like mine, who needs magic?

Smiling to myself, I burst through the door leading to the doctor's 'office' - more like a room with a flimsy desk, a chair and a bed in it - and saw the monk shoot awake and look toward me with a grumpy look, "Hello, Ban...I was wondering when you'd show up with your daily injuries," he said in an overall grump voice but it was obvious that he was worried when he saw the broken arm I was nursing then his eyes landed on my nose, "...How did you break your nose? Sneeze too hard or something?" he asked, probably thinking my muscles had caused this as well and wondering how they'd done it.

"A tree nearly fell on me and when I punched it a piece flew and smacked me in the face, breaking my nose," I got out, my voice sounding a bit like I had a blocked nose. Which I guess I did.

"...Huh," the old monk I knew as Kyo said before he got off his deck chair and gestured to the bed, "Then take a seat, Ban. I'm sure I'll have you fixed up in no time."

I happily obliged him as I wanted to go and have a bath before I had martial arts lessons with gramps.

...I'd no doubt be visiting old Kyo later tonight after those lessons as well.

'Oh well,' I thought as I sat down, 'Not like I didn't ask gramps to teach me in the first place anyway. I need strength and I don't exactly have a lot of options on how I get to gain it, do I? Defective physique for mana...defective physique for Ki that won't like me project it outside my body...I guess I was bound for the path of muscles and martial arts from the beginning of this life, huh?'