6 Another Life and P.E

In this life, this me was born to be a soldier. Not by accident or chance or luck but on purpose. He was made with the intent of making a soldier. He wasn't unique or special in this regard, however. He was among many, many newborns made with the sole purpose of being soldiers.

Why was this the case? The world on which he was born had been in civil war for many, many millennia. It was not food or places and space for people to live that was in demand but instead, the resource most in demand...was people. People who could become soldiers. This entire world was at war with itself and the fighting saw no end in sight.

A world that was composed of irradiated desert battlefields and vast jungles filled with deadly fauna and flora. A world with inhabitants not just at war with themselves but also with the planet and nature itself.

Hence, why this me was born a soldier. Because of necessity. Or perceived necessity.

He was trained from the moment he could walk and form memories. Trained to handle all sorts of gun. Trained in all sorts of warfare. Broken and remade stronger, again and again and again. By the age of 12 he was already deployed into the world civil war. Most of his fellow trainees died and those that didn't die were crippled. But this 12-year-old survived and fought. His natural abilities and skill were above his fellow comrades and it showed in both his kill count and the effectiveness of missions he was deployed on.

Whether it be in the irradiated deserts or the vast jungles filled with fauna and flora specifically designed to kill humans...he continued onward. Always with his trusty rifle and always killing whatever tried to kill him.

By the time he was an adult, he'd killed more men than I could count and he'd racked up more injuries than anyone could count. His body was a picture of mismatched scars criss-crossing all over his body. But he was still alive and he was still fighting. Perfecting the art of war and killing. That was his life and that's all he ever knew.

And I watched it all. I watched every victory, every defeat, every time he fought to defend the rear of a retreat. I saw it all and I learnt from it.

I continued watching up until he became such a good soldier that he could be considered a one-man army, capable of turning the tides of an entire battle just by being there. He grew to be one of the most influential soldiers and on such a world, that practically made him a Messiah to the ordinary soldiers. I continued watching up until he even led the last battle of the war and his faction won. Even then the fighting never stopped. The fauna in the jungles and the jungles themselves pushed their territory further across the world every day.

The fighting never stops. War is the motor of progress and blood in the lubricant that turns the wheels of the motor. That's what the man thought when he died on his death bed at the age of 83.

Another natural death. Another ultimate survivor. The ultimate soldier.

Then, just like last time, the 'movie' I was watching faded to black and I slowly started waking up.

Upon waking up, I looked to the clock and saw that it was oddly early in the morning. Much earlier than when I woke up last time, 'It's about 5:30 AM...but why? Maybe my stronger body helped me accept the changes quicker?' thinking this, I turned my attention back to reality and looked down at the book to see what I'd gained.

[You have earned 10,000 fighting and survival experience.]

[You have earned: 'Gun Mastery', 'Warfare Mastery', 'Mental Fortitude', 'Enhanced Calculation', 'Enhanced Surviveability' and 'Enhanced Precision'.]

Unlike before when I needed to ask for it, this time the book quickly showed what each of the skills did and I looked through it. Most, if not all, of them were self-explanatory but it didn't help to know exactly what I was getting.

[Gun Mastery - You have gained a mastery in many different types of guns and therefore your mastery have been compiled into one skill. This allows you to use and maintain firearms with a degree of understanding though further training will help make full use of the experience gained.]

[Warfare Mastery - You have gained a mastery in many different types of warfare and your mastery in each of them has reached a level where your mastery is synonymous not with those different types of warfare but a mastery of warfare itself. This allows you to enact different types of warfare strategies including stealth, guerilla, frontal assault and many others will a degree of understanding not seen in most soldiers.]

[Mental Fortitude - Through facing warzone after warzone and bloody battle after bloody battle, you have gained mental fortitude equivalent to a fortress. Through your will alone, you can face great physical pain and psychological trauma and still refuse to surrender no matter how much the odds are stacked against you, possibly up to the point of cheating death and pushing yourself past their own limitations.]

This skill made me pause for a second, '...I don't really feel any different. Maybe it's the type of skill to only really show how good it is when it's in use?' I wondered for a few seconds before moving on to the next skill.

[Enhanced Calculation - Through the war you were forced to push not only your physical abilities to the maximum but also your mental abilities. Calculation the most because of it's direct links to shooting and leading a force. After all this, you're now flawlessly skilled at calculating things, ranging from performing most mathematical calculations with ease, predicting events and guessing where an object may be, to performing multiple calculations within an instant.]

[Enhanced Surviveability - You can survive things that average members of your species cannot, allowing you to overcome things that would be detrimental to your life with relative ease. This skill also includes the ability to heal from these damages and recover from them better and faster than other members of your species possibly could.]

'So like Battle Continuation from Fate? What a useful skill. Especially that add-on of healing,' I mused before looking at the last skill I gained.

[Enhanced Precision - You can achieve complete and utter precision on close targets, with the activity in your brain center for precision drastically improved. For instance, you can slice, cut, stab, and so on flawlessly and at the most opportune moments in all the targeted areas of their target. This can also extend to improving your precision and accuracy with throwing weapons incredibly.]

Looking through the skills and adding them to my skills I'd gained from the Murim assassin, I came to the conclusion that I truly was a monstrous individual right now. Not the strongest, sure, but I was well beyond what any normal human could ever achieve.

Just give me a pistol and a simple combat knife and I'm sure I could fight an army.

Looking down at my hands, I smiled before thinking to myself, 'Who would've guessed I'd hold so much power after only a few days...and I still have more points to spend as well. Though not right now, I guess. Gotta get to school otherwise who knows what Korosensei will do - I don't fancy walking into class only to have him play a multitude of pranks on me...God, that'd be annoying as hell,' I thought before getting up from my desk and just lying down on my bed.

I had a chance to get a little extra sleep before school...who wouldn't take up that offer?

. . .

Walking through the school gates with my backpack slung over one of my shoulders, I yawned, 'Man...it always feels like I can't get enough sleep. I just wanna sleep more the more I sleep. Like a vicious cycle' I rubbed my eyes of the remaining sleep before I felt someone standing in front of me.

Stopping, I cracked an eye open while still rubbing the other, "...Kawakami-san. You seem to be waiting for me?" I asked looking at the girl not so much shorter than me. Her red eyes flicked up and down my frame before she smirked.

"Yeah, I was gathering capable people to take a shot at Korosensei...I'd like that money sooner rather than later, you know," she said before flicking her black hair back over her shoulder.

"I'll pass," I said before going to walk passed her but not before I added another thing, "I'd suggest you stop underestimating our teacher. He'll make a fool out of you if you recklessly attack him. I'd rather avoid being a part of that and I'd like to collect more information on him before I make another attack," I finished and carried on. I heard her click her tongue as I left and I wondered if this was the Momoyo Kawakami from the series or if she'd been nerfed. The original, if she took off her seal, could easily go at light speed...but the fact she's going out of her way to get help tells me she's definitely not as strong as the original.

'I'm kinda relieved...' I let out a sigh of relief before I continued along the school pathway up toward the old school building. Along the way, I saw someone getting scolded by a teacher. Someone from my class. One of the unlucky few who was dragged into the class to make up the numbers for it.

But other than that, I knew who he was anyway. Just his dead fish-eyes are enough to tell me that.

Hachiman Hikigaya. He was about average height which was 5'8" and his build was average if not a little above average - he looked like he was physically active to a decent extent. His hair was the common black of Japan and his eyes were the same color as well. He was currently being chewed out by a teacher I also knew:

Shizuka Hiratsuka.

'She's a real beauty, huh? Shame she's a teacher,' I mused before continuing my walk, inadvertently getting nearer to the two of them.

Hachiman caught me coming past from the corner of his eye and turned and just looked at me for a second before tentatively nodding. I returned the greeting, knowing he wasn't the most social and I was already surprised by him doing this small greeting. I guess my display yesterday left an impression.

Though I've got to say I'm surprised he's not bitter about it. I remember him being quite hateful of people who stood out. To the point of often trying to find a chink in their armor...but then again, he didn't deal with people like me or Korosensei in his original series either.

'He'll be a useful asset for assassination attempts in the future...he's quite the good planner. Plus, him and Nagisa are quite good at reading people so maybe they can work together to figure out Korosensei's weaknesses,' I thought before walking past Hachiman and returning him back to Shizuka-sensei complaining about some form of action he'd done. Probably mentioned her age or something.

Surprisingly enough, however, Hachiman seemed to have a decent relationship with Shizuka-sensei still despite not having any classes with her because all our classes are handled by Korosensei.

Thinking about it though, I'd say he just had her for classes last year and got close to her. Or rather she worked to get close to him so she could help him get out of his loner prone ways. Shame the service club probably won't come into existence in this world. I wouldn't have minded helping out purely for the experience. Literally.

Either way, I looked ahead and wondered if anything fun would happen in P.E today. We'd been told we had training aka P.E today by Korosensei, so I wondered if I could get him to train me a little. Would definitely speed things up a bit.

That or I could spar with the other strong people in the class.

Smiling widely, I thought, 'Should be fun, right?' before I picked up my pace into a fast walk, excited about letting loose with my new skills.