48 Determination?

After Tohru was finished resetting everyone's memories and altering them, she returned to repair Meru's apartment. Finished with restoring everything back to normal, while lamenting on her reckless actions, Tohru returned by Kyle's side and held him tightly again, though this time it was by the sides and she was resting her head on his shoulders, still trembling every now and then from remembering today's happenings; she was seeking comfort from Kyle and his touch, she was also establishing her dependence on him. Kyle, even though a bit awkward at Tohru's behavior in front of Meru, still indulged her with his care by patting her hair and horns and comforting her, that the same Meru had confessed to him minutes ago and was now pouting at him while looking at their public display of affection didn't help with the awkwardness. Kyle just sighed and gazed at Meru, he started explaining to her about the dragon of chaos' origins and about his own identity of being a God. He trusted her and she deserved to know about it after what had transpired moments ago with her being in the center of it.

There was however another reason, a selfish one, for Kyle to explain his and Tohru's story to Meru. He wanted her to know a bit about himself, and by knowing he hoped that she would give up on him. His hope was crushed though as he found out that it had the opposite effect of his expectations. Meru, now informed of his identity, was even more determined to be in a relationship with him! Kyle was simply stupefied at her upcoming reply.

"Wow! You know, that character background info dump is something that only happens in a fantasy novel plot, it's truly unbelievable and amazing! To think the first person I fell in love with is a God? As expected of me, I knew that I had good taste in men, how about it Kyle or should I be saying Mr. Oh so mighty God Of Delivery!?"

"Screw that f*cked up title, just call me like you usually do Meru."

"Alright, then~ but Kyle I'm serious about my confession, even more so now than before. Just think about it from my perspective will you? Conquering a God's heart, huh? Isn't it exciting?! Honestly, at this point I don't care if I'm your 2nd, 3rd of even 100th girl! It's totally understandable given your identity as a God, I wouldn't find it strange even if you made a harem or two." She exclaimed with a knowing smile.

Tohru was peeved at Meru's slanderous prattling but she reigned her anger in. She didn't like the idea but she wasn't as averse to it as she had been before. If it was the Tohru before this incident she would've killed Meru for just uttering those hateful words. But after the incident she, in all honesty, didn't know what to do. Whenever she thought of someone in Kyle's arms excluding her, her whole being seethed in unrestrained wrath, but what followed after it was the memory of Kyle's lifeless emotionless gaze which made her shiver in fright and anxiety, almost choking the life out of her. Tohru was still against all of this harem plan that Meru was spitting out, but she didn't downright reject the idea anymore and chose to remain silent, pondering inwardly about it more carefully. She weighed the pros and cons but still couldn't come to a conclusion. What she knew was that she wanted Kyle to be happy, because that's what made her happy and she never wanted to be looked at by that gaze of his again. It would take a lot more time for her to accept this idea, and even bigger to cope up with it, of sharing her beloved with others but she would still consider it, if Kyle wanted it that is.

Kyle stared at her with a deadpan expression, his voice was dry and reproachful as he responded. "What the hell are you talking about? That's not going to happen."

Meru just shrugged at his reply, even if he didn't want to, he didn't have a choice. She, for a fact knew that there were at least one other girl besides her and Tohru who was interested in him and knowing his charm there should be far more down the line, women's intuition was a scary thing. Even Kyōka, someone who she thought had no romantic bone in her body only that of reckless savagery was interested in him, being the other girl she thought of, let alone anyone else. Speaking of Kyōka. 'I should probably tell her about this harem plan.'

If it was impossible, she would make it possible and normalize it. That's how stubborn she was, that's who Hatenko Meru was. If she decided on something she would see it through by hook or crook.

"So will you guys be staying? You can sleep in any room you like, there's like tons here."

"Nah, we're going home. Now, I expect to see you at school tomorrow, got that?"

"Of course!" She immediately nodded with a smile, even if Kyle didn't say anything she would still go to school, after all she had to enact her harem plan as soon as possible. (I seriously think Meru has an NTR fetish with this line)

"Alright, we'll be going now."

"Wait, I'll open the door for you."

"No need, Tohru if you may?"

She nodded in understanding, she flicked her wrist and a portal to their mansion was opened in Meru's living room. This was a very convenient ability of Tohru's. As long as she had visited a place before, she could open a space bridge to it, creating a portal from anywhere she liked and anytime she wanted to the said destination. She was simply the definition of overpowered.

'If this skill could be learned I would definitely like to learn it! Sadly, this is a unique skill of the dragons, at least the method by which she does it is impossible to accomplish without being a dragon, I'd need a human mage's lessons to accomplish something anywhere near that feat…'

Kyle bade Meru farewell and entered the portal with Tohru in hand, still clinging onto his right arm like her life depended on it. As soon as they went inside, the portal instantly disappeared from Meru's sight, she just kept looking at where the portal was blankly, speechless for some time before she exclaimed in excitement. "Holy sh*t! Is that the famed teleportation portal?! Gosh I want to experience teleporting once too!"

---

Next day, Morning, Nango-Kuren High School :-

Everything again returned to its normal pace, with some extra tidbits here and there, he had yet another girl chasing after him rounding up the girls who were interested in him to four, at least by his estimates. He still didn't understand why the hell half of them even acted like that. What he noticed though was that he was actually somewhat popular with girls; as he came to that conjecture, he also started perceiving the gazes of interest and slight adoration most of his classmates, which was 100% girls, had directed towards him, which also came as no amount of shock to him. But Kyle, ever the adaptive man, decided to just accept it. He was by some unknown reason popular with girls, they were attracted to him, the end, case closed, mystery solved. He was even doubting if he had a harem protagonist aura around him or not, but shot it down as soon as it came. Now he only had one confusion, he more or less understood why Esdeath and Tohru were in love with him, what he didn't was why Meru loved him, or even why she was so keen on this harem plan, it didn't make sense; Kyōka's interest in him also deluded him, but he could make some conjectures for her that were more believable than Meru's. Kyōka was a believer of strength and being defeated by him repeatedly along with his overbearing power and sense of personality had attracted her towards him. She was still only interested and was not in love with him, that he was sure about. This, to him, seemed to be the most likely case. Now back to Meru.

He didn't want to think any further about it, he knew it would only be troublesome for his sane consciousness. So he stopped thinking about that issue. Girls, he could never understand them, his conjecture being, not even Almighty Himself might be aware of these creatures thoughts. Truly they were frightening beings of existence.

It was lunchtime at-present and as always he didn't bring any bento to school. He couldn't, because any bento he would've brought would've been made by Tohru and he absolutely had no desire to eat it. Don't get him wrong, he didn't hate Tohru's cooking, if anything he absolutely loved it. Tohru was a top class chef, so there was no way he would hate her cooking.

It's just that, whenever she made a bento she would, in one way or another, add her tail in it. And Kyle, as much as he liked the bubbly maid couldn't bring himself to eat her tail and fulfill this long cherished desire of hers, it was a taboo to him, and he had no intention of breaking it. Now speaking of the blonde gamer loli, she did come to school again as he ordered her, he was glad that his rehabilitation plan was successful. There was however a slight problem he perceived...why in the name of Gaia was she bringing Kyōka along with her?

But as usual Kyle paid no heed to it, this boy's laziness was in itself a mythical tier status, something that would come and bite him on his ass sooner or later as it always did. He went to the cafeteria to buy something for himself to eat. Entering, he looked over the shelf where the dishes were placed and got himself some tastier looking ones regardless of their price, it was evident he really didn't care for money anymore, though he wasn't overbearing with it, he just didn't hold back on his desires any longer, at least not the ones, moral ones, that was related to monetary means.

Besides, It's not like they were priced at a million each, but it wasn't far off from a million either. Because there was a dish here that cost 100,000 yen. That was stupidly expensive. It was simply crazy if you thought of it, but contrary to his thoughts he saw plenty of students buying it on a regular basis, they didn't even blink as they paid for it and then just gulped it down the next second, just like that 100,000 yen was gone. This was simply stupendous.

Damn rich Ojou-samas, well it's not like he wasn't rich either, but this was a recent development and he was yet to get used to such costly spending, he was however trying to not get too bothered by it gradually, this was the life of the rich and if he didn't get used to it he would become an outlaw soon enough. After having a satisfying meal, absolutely the most satisfying one he had in this school, he got up from his bench and wandered around a bit.

There was still some time before the next class and he decided to explore the school a bit in the meantime. He was of course a student of this school, and he had been continuously attending it for a little over a month but he still hadn't found the opportunity to fully explore it, partly because of his busy schedule before and after school and the other part because this school was simply humongous, so much so that he would at least need an entire day to thoroughly explore it.

Half an hour of exploration and wandering later, he found himself arriving at the school gym, a literal one, not the one that was meant for the school's gym activity. It was a fully customized building filled with all types of equipment someone would need to do any and all types of exercises their heart desired. This was something straight out of a bodybuilder's wet dreams. Kyle was also curious about it and since he had come here already he decided to go inside and look around.

After wandering in the building for a full minute he found out that he wasn't really the only one currently inside the building at this hour. To be precise there were three more individuals other than him present here.

Though ironically he was the only male present at the moment, that aside, the sight that greeted him as he approached the trio of girls had astonished and stupefied him to his core, it was Ayane, with her friends, and she was doing push ups. Push ups that were delegated to her as a task by Kyle himself, yesterday! A task he thought of to be impossible for her to do..

"99,899!"

"99,900!"

"99,901!"

..

..

..

Her entire body was drenched with sweat, so was the floor around her creating a giant puddle of sweat that reeked, droplets kept pouring out of her arms, her legs, her head, she was just soaked from top to bottom, her clothes were also clinging to her body, perfectly outlining it, it was a really erotic sight, but Kyle wasn't in the mood to admire or leer at her body, his gaze was locked onto Ayane's face. Her hair was disheveled and also soaked in her sweat, sticking to half of her face and the dried up bits became rough. But in between them peeked out her eyes which were the target of Kyle's attention, because they reflected stubborn determination, a gaze so determined that it was able to mesmerize anyone who looked at them. There was just that certain appeal a head strong determined girl could bring out which was impossible by others.

Ayane's friends were worriedly looking at her, and one of them unable to bear the poor sight of her friend any longer spoke. "Ayane stop this already! You've been doing this non-stop since yesterday! Why are you even doing this!? What is wrong with you, please don't torture yourself!!"

Keiko was worried about her, she didn't understand why she was doing this but, this was just too much, she couldn't bear this sight any longer, she had been continuously doing push-ups since yesterday, she didn't even sleep nor did she eat, she just kept on doing those push ups over and over and over again. She was fancying the thought that this muscle head might've even gone mad.

"That's right Ayane, what's the point of doing this?! Are you going crazy?"

Makoto was the other friend of Ayane who was as equally worried as Keiko, she couldn't understand Ayane's goal for doing non-stop push-ups like this, for subjecting herself to this torturous endeavor.

Ayane however replied to them with a determined smile, a smile that was quivering because of the effort she had to give with her dead tired body to even do the minisculest of movements, including expressions and moving her jaws to talk, that wasn't push ups. Her voice was a whispering stutter as she spoke. "T-thank you,... f-for w-wworrying about me... b-but I'm almost done! And..and... after this.. I-ii can finally become his DISCIPLE!" she shouted the last words. Her lungs were on fire, hurting to even utter those few words. She was tired beyond belief.

Ayane continued doing push-ups relentlessly, she didn't give two cents to her friends' advice, she didn't want to, not when she was so close. Was she tired you ask? She f*cking was!!! She was dying of exhaustion.

Did her muscles hurt? It did! It f*cking did!!! It hurt so much that she wanted to groan and whimper from the pain and subsequent numbness of her body. Was she hungry? Of course she was! She was so damn hungry she could empty the entire cafeteria with her food intake. She felt that she would faint any second now!!

But she had to persevere. She was on her last stretch, if she stopped now, all her effort would be in vain, so she pushed forward solely on her absolutely bottomless willpower!

Kyle, being witnessed to such a scene, could only smile bitterly, helpless. He was feeling guilty right now. He had joked with her, trying to pull a prank on this unruly annoyance of a girl. Who knew that she would stubbornly push on like this!? It was painful to even see her doing this. She was truly stubborn down to her very bone.

This however, made him respect her, her determination, her stubborn integrity. He was unsure, if he had the same strength as Ayane did, would he really be able to do what she was doing now!? Would he have the resolve to? It was very simple for Kyle to do it now, in his present condition. But he could only imagine what kind of effort she had to give to do it with her meager might. It was no wonder she was a Ryū, truly she was worthy of that title.

He didn't stop her, if he did he would be insulting her, her will and her determination and struggle.

In his heart however, he was already determined to accept her as his disciple, no matter the result. She was worthy of his teachings, worthy of the breathing technique that Shinobu had given to him. He was sure that she would be even able to create her own style with enough training. And he was sure she would be able to do it rapidly. Her relentless determination and willpower would surely help her in this endeavor.

So, Kyle simply waited for her to stop or to finish in her goal. He however had no doubt that it would be the latter which would become reality.

---

A few minutes later, Ayane was already at her last 5 push-ups!

"99,995!"

"..99, 996!"

"...99,997!"

"....99,998!"

"...99,999…!!"

Her muscles were already exhausted so much that she had lost the feeling in them, they were already numb, she couldn't move them on her own for a time now and was simply going on muscle memory, momentum and her determination. In a miraculous effort of relentless willpower she did the last push up and achieved her goal.

"100,000!" As soon as she said that, she let her body collapse on the ground, she couldn't move anymore, no part of her could. It had become rigid and unmoving. She couldn't even feel anything. Even breathing hurt. But she was satisfied. She could finally learn under him. She could finally become his disciple!

As she collapsed both Keiko and Makoto voiced their worry. "Ayane!"

Ayane was panting heavily, she stutteringly replied. "I-i did it...I'm so exhausted, I can't feel anything anymore...but I did it…"

Abrupt clapping sounds echoed in the silent room, the girls shifted their gazes to the origin of those sounds and found a boy clapping at them, his clear and deep voice echoing in the room along with his claps. "Good job I didn't think you'd actually finish it. I apologise, I've underestimated you. You truly are amazing."

That boy was naturally Kyle, Ayane's pained face morphed into an excited smile as she saw him, although he looked a bit blurry, she was blacking out. "Master..?"

"Yes, it's me congratulations, you have succeeded in my trial. Now...go to the sweet lands of dream, my dear disciple." Hearing his voice Ayane closed her eyes and fainted, entering a state of deep sleep. But as she did, her face was adorned with a beautiful and enchanting smile; a contented smile that spoke of the fulfilment she felt as she went on her journey to the land of dreams.

( `END` )

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