2 Remake Birth of the Average

I remade this chapter because well it's genuinely bad. Kind of made the MC act like a brat who thinks he knows everything which is my fault.

It's a remake so none of the bad stuff is in there. Hopefully...

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At an unknown location and time, two people were having a conversation under a pink tree. They had a table in front of them while drinking the tea. Their appearance unnoticeable as the shadow from the tree made it impossible to distinguish any traits.

"Let me ask you this." One of them placed down their cup. Their voice was hoarse and old yet held an unknown amount of wisdom. "What do you think is humanity's greatest strength?"

This questioned intrigued his companion as he placed down his cup of tea. Pondering the question, his friend answered. "Greed." This voice sounded younger but more serious than the other.

The old man chuckled a bit. "An interesting answer. Then what makes it so that humans can develop this sin? The Sin of Greed."

"Hmm... the mind. One needs to be able to think to have these materialistic desires. Even animals have minds of their own, though it isn't as refined and developed as us humans."

"But what do humans have related to the mind that the animals you speak of, don't?"

This question was not easy yet one answer popped in his mind. "Knowledge."

The old man shook his index finger at him. "Wrong. That only applies to when a human is old enough to gain that knowledge. Is a baby more knowledgeable than a wolf that knows how to survive, hunt and protect its pack? I personally don't think so. A baby is still human. Then that answer doesn't work, does it?"

This explanation certainly confused him. If that wasn't the answer than what was. "Then what answer can you give me. What is the right answer to this question?"

The old man posture lowered making his smile visible as the sun shined on him. His teeth were white yet they somehow looked inhuman. Its shape was odd as it looked like an infinite number of teeth were visible.

"'Imagination'. It's the key. The key to change reality itself."

["^_(9^ 1§{€2£¥7$}8%->4@*#'6~'...\!?04@*#'6~'...\!?0]

April 17th, 1990.

A boy by the name of Isao Arai was born that day.

This boy was born with a normal family. His childhood tale could be found everywhere, he wasn't special in any way.

That is until he began growing up. This boy began seeing weird creatures, creatures creeping up in the shadows of the city. They walked and lived as if part of this world, they didn't feel unnatural at all.

Yet that's what so unnatural, the fact that monsters suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The boy who was now a grade-schooler told his parents about this weird phenomenon. But the reaction he received wasn't something he thought would happen.

"Arai, they're not real. Just think of them as air, they don't exist."

"That's right, take a deep breath and calm down. They'll soon disappear."

Advices like that kept being said to him yet he could still see them.

Why could he see them while others couldn't?

Arai's thoughts became in disarray as he couldn't differentiate the real and the 'fake' world.

But he soon began understanding as something else happened, he began having powers.

A power coursing through his veins.

He had unlocked a newfound power called 'Curse Energy' though at the time he was unaware of the name.

With this power, he realized that he could exorcise these curse spirits.

Arai grew up with the knowledge nobody had. A hidden world where monsters roamed around.

Spirits that can kill and have physical contact with the human world.

Being born with the ability to see curses was a curse in itself. A curse that isolates yourself from others.

It was hard to relate to normal people but he still managed to have friends.

But due to an event, he was now alone. With no one to talk to, he could only turn to other forms of entertainment. Anime, mangas and the likes.

This did appease him a bit as his sole hobby.

But nothing can fill the void in his heart, the loneliness of being different, or so he thought-

["^_(9^ 1§{€2£¥7$}8%->4@*#'6~'...\!?04@*#'6~'...\!?0]

Walking back home was a young high-schooler, one would say he was good looking though he had a gloomy face and was walking with his back hunched. It seemed that it was a habit of his.

The high-schooler had dark blue hair that were brighter on the end, his eyes were green which was unusual since it looked out of place because it glowed a bit.

The boy, Arai Isao, sighed as he looked at the dark clouds. "You better not rain." And it rained as he was now soaking wet. "Guess God hates me today." A chuckle escaped his mouth. But then, at the side of the road, he noticed something.

A yellow small creature that was giggling with a high pitched voice. It had round eyes and angelic wings on its back. A fly head. A weak spirit. A shadow loomed over its body as it looked back.

Only to see a foot filled with blue curse energy stomp on it. Killing it immediately. "I've been seeing these little guys a bit too often now. How annoying." Arai seemed indifferent as he continued walking. They were too weak for him to bother putting effort.

Though that may seem arrogant, these spirits weren't threatening to him or anyone else. Though the problem was when they'd grow stronger. That was when Arai saw them as a threat. Throughout his life, he had only encountered one grade 2 curse spirit.

At that time, he had been only 11 years old and seeing a monster like that feasting on corpses had terrified him. It had scarred him seeing something like that. Seeing its powerful energy that was emanating made him know that he was so weak. He only had a fraction of its power.

That was when he realized that he shouldn't be so careless. The monsters he encountered now were maybe weak but there were stronger ones. So to not make them appear, you'd have to take them down from the roots.

But anyways, Arai came back to his house. He was just about to unlock the door but he felt something wrong. An ominous miasma was spreading and his senses were warning him like bells hitting his head.

Arai immediately let go of the doorknob and took cover as something burst through. It was a curse spirit! One more powerful than the one he encountered when he was 11 years old. 'Not again!' His fear from that first event hit him but he quickly put it away.

The curse spirit looked like a green spider with 10 legs. Its head looked like that of a bull and yellow stripes were present all over its body. It certainly wasn't something pleasant to see.

"I want... to eat legs." It said with a distorted voice.

He immediately tried to run away knowing that he can't beat this. He wasn't arrogant enough to try to fight these beings. Though he had trained all his life, he never had a teacher so all he did was from his own ideas.

Which is also the reason why he was always tired as he barely slept which often made him into a foul mood which in turn made his curse energy grow. A tireless training that he developed himself.

The curse spirit looked at him with ferocious eyes as it without hesitation attacked him with its sharp legs. Arai held on to the balcony and jumped to the rooftop evading the blow. 'Why is a spirit that strong so close to my house?! I'll have to bring this somewhere else so that nobody sees me and to not injure anyone.'

Arai ran away as he looked back to see the curse spirit chasing him. 'It's faster than me. Dammit! Why wasn't I born with a cool ability?' He had a bit of fear seeing it chasing him. Even the way it moved was creepy. Running at him with 10 legs with a crazed smile definitely wasn't something he would ask for.

But being lost in his thoughts within a battle was not the best decision. Arai looked back to see the spirit gone. Seeing a shadow now looming over him, he made the decision to flip to the side. The spirit had now landed at the spot he was and it wasn't done.

Looking at Arai who stumbled backwards, it attacked with its legs at him. He barely dodged them as he slid underneath it kicking it in the abdomen. It winced in pain but Arai wasn't finished. A karate chop to the legs with curse energy made it stumble.

'It's more fragile than I thought. I can do this!' A new hope was discovered only for it to shatter as the spider spit out string at him. It was at an incredible speed as he barely dodged the attack but not before it cut his abdomen that was now bleeding.

The cut wasn't too deep but this showed the difference in power.

'Damn it hurts! It hurts so bad!'

Pain assaulted his mind as tears dropped. He had never felt this much pain. Though exorcising these creatures was a task only he could do. Arai had never actually felt like he was in danger.

After all, they were weak monsters that he could kill. The worst that happened was a couple of scratches. That is until 4 years ago when the cursed spirit he faced attacked his family without hesitation.

Arai had tried to warn them but it was too fast. Killing his parents instantly. And worse, the only reason he survived was because his parents corpse were the snacks the spirit looked for. That day scarred him more than anything.

But it wasn't over. When the police got here, they had no idea, no reasonable explanation as to what happened. A couple of weird people got here to examine the scene and they left. Arai knew he couldn't say what really happened.

They wouldn't believe him.

And he was right, they didn't. Saying that stress and fear turned his perception upside down. That he was at the age where he was thinking of chuunibyou things. That he was watching too much anime.

The report written by them stated that an animal had probably killed them and escaped through the forest. A worthless report.

A lie.

To make matters worst, some of his classmates who heard about their deaths began spreading the rumor that he had in fact killed his parents. Though most thought of it as fake, it still aggravated Arai. It angered him so much that it made him use curse energy on a normal human for the first time.

They didn't die nor get any real disability. But this event isolated himself from others even more, the little group of friends he had left him, seeing him as a monster. The teachers avoided him, seeing him as a troublemaker with a bad temper.

He truly was alone in this world. No one was there for him.

But all of these events only reinforced one thing in his mind.

Power was needed.

He needed more power.

He wanted power, enough power to never feel sad nor anger.

He knew he was born special, the fact that he could see and use this strange power was proof of that.

So he trained, day and night, until he was so exhausted that he would faint. Every single day. But through this training, he realized how weak he really was.

No amount of training can replace talent, only miniscule amount of growth happened. Arai was so pathetically weak that he began laughing at himself.

A laugh not of joy, but of anger. Anger that he now channeled through his fist. Regaining his balance he glared at the curse spirit with all his rage.

That original blue energy now turned red. As he screamed out with rage and struck the enemy.

"RAAAHHH!!"

Only for the spirit to break his attack as it giggled. To that curse, this was a game.

It really did... and it found its toy.

Arai looked down to see his shirt now dyed with blood. The spirit had stabbed him through the chest with its two legs. He coughed out blood and found his body unresponsive. No amount of adrenaline can help him.

His body began falling, his eyes were lifeless. Inside his mind, he began to think. To think of how everything went wrong.

He never grew. He was as weak as the little boy who ran after seeing his parents being eaten alive.

He never grew stronger because he was so afraid. Despite all the rage and anger he had again these monsters, he felt more fear than anything.

His thoughts were interrupted as the spirit brought its head forward and struck Arai's head with it.

The bull head then struck his own head. It disoriented him as a ringing sound kept hitting the back of his ears.

His skull cracked as blood spilled out. His consciousness was fading as Arai had one last thought.

Cursing his foolish and weak power.

If Arai had stayed conscious for a few more seconds, he would see that two men landing on the roof he was at.

"Huh... a grade 2 curse spirit at this place, and a kid that barely has any curse energy. Isn't that weird?" The voice came from a young man as he had a mocking tone.

"Don't be so rude to a newbie. The kid did great." Another voice this one felt more genuine and reasonable.

"Besides, why are you calling him kid? Bet he's only a year or two younger than us." The same young man ignored the passing comment as his two hands grasped each other. The monster who was about to feast on Arai seemed to have had its limbs warped and broken apart. Purple blood spilled everywhere.

"You gonna eat that or kill it." The irritating man said.

The other person ignored the passing comment as he walked towards the monster and touched it. The monster's body began turning black liquid as it gathered toward the hands of the man who then gulped it down.

"Tsk. Disgusting as always. I would never eat it even if it made me stronger." The same young man said while showing a disgusted face.

"Let's bring the kid back to Ieiri or he might die." Both agreed and the latter picked Arai and placed him on his back.

The immature man began realizing that he forgot something. "Did we put up a veil?" Both looked at each other as the realization dawned on them.

"Yaga-sensei will be so mad at us...."