4 Physical Tests

"Are you ready, kid?" I heard the calm voice of Iwao through the speakers surrounding me and I looked toward him, Misato, and Kureo who were all seemingly eager to see my performance in this test, with the latter being the most eager-looking.

Making eye contact with Iwao I nodded my head before turning toward the hole-ridden wall in front of me.

{Test Start in 3...2...1...START!"} a mechanical voice said this and before I knew it something came flying out of one of the many holes in front of me, on a collision course with my head.

My enhanced reflexes kicked in and I whipped my neck to the side, letting the rubber ball blister past me, grazing my skin slightly. It hurt.

Ignoring the pain, I heard the sound of a rubber ball being fired at me from behind and instantly threw myself to the side. Another rubber ball flew past me but before I could relax two rubber balls flew at me from two different directions.

Knowing what had to be done, I swung my leg up and let the other follow it's momentum before I did a back-flip, the two balls, one aimed at my head and the other aimed at my lower leg, flew past me without even grazing me. Unluckily for me, I'd made myself an easy target by being in mid-air, so a single rubber ball was shot at me, but this time its speed seemed to have increased by more than two times.

Seeing the ball, I quickly told my body what to do and my Sensorimotor Synchrony perk did its job and my body followed my command without delay.

As I was coming out of my flip, I put my hand out to catch myself before holding myself in a handstand-like position but with my legs in a perfect split. The stretching hurt a little but my Dexterity was more than enough for it to not be too much of a pain. Though when the rubber ball passed right over my groin...I had to suppress the urge to let out a scream.

That was too close.

Suddenly I felt a pain in my lower back, a grimace spreading over my face and before I could let out a scream, I brought my other hand down and flipped myself up before I rolled out of my original position just in time to see it get bombarded by rubber pellets. Hearing Kureo's laughter, I suppressed a scowl before continuing to dodge the pellets with acrobatic moves.

Some worked, some didn't. But the constant was that I was learning. Improving. Becoming better.

My Enhanced Kinetic Vision and Visual Acuity, along with Sensorimotor Synchrony and Enhanced Kinesthesia all worked together perfectly and my Abnormal Strength perk allowed me to pull off the moves that required some physicality to properly perform. By the time the test came to an end, I was like a well-oiled machine. It also showed me something:

Despite being granted perks and higher stats, I still needed to practice with my better physique to properly use it.

If I had any complaints, however, it would be that my stamina is too low.

...I will need to train intensely in the future otherwise it might mean my death if I'm too tired to move.

Heaving as the test came to an end, I was too tired to even stand up straight. Acrobatic moves and evasion skills come at a cost that equals their effectiveness, it would seem.

Clapping.

I looked up to see Misato looking at me with a wide smile and her hands clapping in front of her. It seems my performance was good, or at least enjoyable to watch. Soon enough, Iwao and Kureo also joined in and clapped for me and I was too tired to wave them off and tell them to stop.

I just didn't want to get hit by rubber pellets. That's not something worthy of clapping. Right?

Finally, I'd recovered my energy and I got up before walking over to the three of them. I went to speak but I was interrupted, rudely might I add, by Misato.

"Midori-kun, that was amazing! How did you learn how to do that?!" her voice was gushing with...pride? Awe? Both of those things? I don't know but she was seemingly very enthusiastic as her eyebrows raised and her mouth split into a wide smile.

Shrugging I gave her the truthful answer, "I didn't learn it anywhere. I just did what I had to do in order to not get hit by those pellets. They hurt," I saw Kureo's face break into a smile at my answer, while Misato's smile got even wider. Iwao was in the background just looking shocked. Misato, out of nowhere just brought me into a hug, squealing about how talented I am.

She seems to have become attached to me.

"The brat has such potential! And we haven't even checked out his strength yet!--Let's go do it!" Kureo stated while watching me get squashed in Misato's embrace. But what Kureo said seemed to knock Iwao out of his shock as he quickly collected the results before putting them in a file that had my name on it - I would assume this file is what he's going to be sending to the Academy.

After he'd done that we were on our way to the next testing zone. Though there was one problem.

"Misato-nee...can't you put me down now?" I said with a slightly frustrated voice but it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears as Misato just ignored me. Oh yeah, before we did the tests, Iwao and Misato gave me proper introductions of themselves. I just stuck to calling Misato "Misato-nee" and Iwao "Kuroiwa-jiisan" despite his protests about him only being 31.

I just blankly stared at Misato for ignoring me and it seemed to have shown her how to feel some shame as she looked back at me with a slight grin.

"I'm just helping you save some energy. You really tuckered yourself out in that last test - just let Onee-san support you, for now, Kiro-chan!" she lifted her one arm up and flexed it, showing her well-toned, athletic arm, though I didn't react apart from a twitching eyebrow.

I feel a headache coming on when dealing with Misato-nee. Especially when she keeps calling me with the '-chan' honorific.

Currently, she'd lost her investigator attire, having just a top on with some sweatpants. Iwao was wearing the same thing. They'd gotten a bit...dirty, shall we say, when they hugged and picked me up at my house, so they needed to change when they got back to CCG Headquarters.

Anyway, I knew that I couldn't win and that I did need to recharge some more stamina, so I just humored Misato. It totally wasn't because hugging her like this felt nice. No way it could be that. Nope.

Before long we arrived at the next room and Misato put me down, albeit reluctantly and after Iwao and Kureo pretty much ordered her to do so.

The room was simple. Simply put, it was a gym.

We walked over to a bench and I lay down on it while Kureo put on some weights for me. I guess they decided to start it off easy because he only put 5kg on either side.

I easily did the press which didn't surprise any of them because they knew how I'd flipped that metal table earlier. But I guess they wanted to take it slow and build up to it. Kureo added 5kg to each side every time and it took until I was benching 80kg that I was starting to really feel the strain.

"Amazing..." Iwao let out a low whisper as I did the rep before letting the bar rest on the bench. Kureo nodded in agreement as I looked over at him and motioned for him to put another 10kg on the bar.

Misato looked at me with a worried face before voicing her worries, "Are you sure you should push any further, Kiro-chan? You've already proven that you have enough strength to be above the average human, you shouldn't push yourself too far!"

Smiling at her worry, I shook my head at her.

"It's not about proving anything, Misato-nee, I'm just trying to learn the extent of my strength. I won't hurt myself, so don't worry."

The tests continued and I stopped after I hit 100kg. It wasn't anywhere near the limit of a human but it was still a stunning amount of weight for a 9-year-old to be able to lift. You could tell that purely off of the expressions of Iwao, Kureo, and Misato's faces.

Kureo came up to me and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder before speaking in his usual manic-type of speech.

"You've not disappointed me, brat! With these test results alone we've garnered enough evidence that you're a real gem! You've got everything a Ghoul Investigator needs! Speed, reflexes, flexibility, balance, strength, stamina--All of it! All we need to do now is have a doctor look you over and do a few medical tests and we can get you off to the academy by late tomorrow evening!" his voice was filled with wonder and awe as he shook my shoulder in his excitement.

I just smiled and let him carry on until he was stopped by an angry Misato.

"Get your paws off Kiro-chan! Can't you see that he's worn out!?" she glared at the shorter man before sweeping me off my feet and holding me once again.

...She's a slightly clingy Onee-san, isn't she?

Kureo backed off away from the 'tigress' in front of him, smiling and chuckling at her antics along with Iwao. They decided that it would be best if I got some rest, so I headed with Misato who said I could stay with her for tonight. Iwao and Kureo were quite reluctant to let me go with her because of her young age but she convinced them by saying her mother and aunt would be at the house to help her.

...Great.