Power Couple 5

"You know, I've said it before, but I have to comment on it again," Zane mused aloud from where he stood looking down atop Yarden from above, "But the rate of your growth is absurd." he said, crossing his bare arms, the toned definition of his biceps being easily noticeable since he was only wearing a plain dark blue singlet.

"You just gotta…!" Yarden grunted out as he pushed up, the long straight barbell in his hands, weighing a total of five hundred and thirty pounds raising up for the forth time since he started, "Believe in the heart of the grind!" he finished, the bar raising up, before slowly lowering back down to be slowly brought back up again.

"What, is your name Muscle Moto now?" Zane rolled his eyes, he was standing at the ready to help him in case he failed his reps, but the chances were slim, "It's not that what you're doing is impossible, very impressive, but not impossible, it's the fact that you've reached this point so quickly that's odd, your body is weird."

"Nope!" Yarden smirked even as a vein pulsed on his forehead and he completed the fifth rep of his sixth set at five hundred and thirty pounds, setting it on the handles and sitting up, "You just don't believe in the heart of the grind enough." he pressed his previous point while rubbing at his biceps. They hurt like shit, but the burn felt so good.

After all, that pain was weakness leaving his muscles and being replaced by strength.

"You're not as funny as you think you are," Zane rolled his eyes, even as he unlocked the stopper on the bars and began to slide some of the weights of, "Your turn to spot me now." the older teen added

"Sure." Yarden nodded, standing up from the bench and helping him. Together, they removed more than half the current weight on it, bringing the total weight down to two hundred and thirty pounds, taking a full three hundred off.

They traded positions then, with Zane getting on the bench and Yarden standing behind the bench ready to help him if anything went wrong like he had with him before.

With a grunt of his own, Zane lifted the weighted bar up off of the handles and slowly lowered it down to his chest, before raising it up high.

"Let's see if you can catch up with me." Yarden grinned down at him.

Zane didn't reply, instead, he merely paused for a moment at the ascent of one rep and looked into the Scottish teen's eyes, before narrowing them and lowering the bar.

Yarden's grin widened.

It wasn't going to happen. He didn't doubt that Zane could reach the same weight as him in time, but by time he did, Yarden would have reached way beyond that weight.

When he started, this body could barely bench what amounted to less than a hundred pounds. Just the straight barbell alone without any weights added on was a struggle.

He'd been here nearly three months now, and that had changed quickly. Even without relying on his power enhancing his body, at base, he'd already reached the point where he could comfortably bench five hundred and thirty pounds.

That was just one of the benefits of being a spiritually enhanced badass thanks to his Ba. His innate recovery rate had been massively enhanced, where it would take people days, even weeks for a muscle to properly heal after lifting these kind of weights and improve, he was now capable of healing that damage and recovering in only a few hours at most, so he was capable of making full on gains, at least twice a day. On top of that, his body's general abilities had been massively enhanced, including his metabolism, so he could eat more and bulk quicker, and this was added on to the fact that the 'potential' of his body had been enhanced way beyond normal human limits for each Ba he'd gained.

While other humans had basically a cap of how strong they could get physically, and he did too, the difference was, his own cap was much higher than others now.

If he drew on his power to enhance his physical abilities fully, he could probably lift a full on ton at this point.

…Maybe.

He'd have to check that out somehow.

"So, how's things been with Alexis?" Zane asked as he finished a rep, breaking Yarden from his thoughts.

"Pretty good, nothing to complain about." Yarden shrugged. Alexis wasn't exactly your typical girlfriend and wasn't really interested in the whole going out thing a lot.

Granted, neither was he, going out to dinner wasn't really his thing.

But it had been a good few weeks now since they started dating, and a good decent while since that big blow out with Jasmine, and their relationship hadn't changed all that much. Their dynamic was more or less the same, just with a little more added in, being more touchy feely, kissing in general and she spent a lot of time in his room.

…The absolute loathing glares he got all day every day had increased massively in intensity though ever since it became public that he was dating Alexis.

'Well I probably brought a lot of it on myself.' he snorted. He was a petty fuck and liked to rub the fact he was dating the Obelisk's beloved 'queen' in their faces. So he tended to hold her hand a lot in public, share some lovely public kisses and even have her sit in his lap in full view of her simps.

Actually, did this count as a form of bullying?

Well, it also wasn't all great. Mainly in the fact that while she still hung around and talked to them, Jasmine was keeping her distance from him and Alexis, and Mindy hung around with her a lot more to make sure she wasn't feeling too bad about the whole thing.

So he'd not been hanging around with those two as much the past little while. But she'd come around in time.

Hopefully.

Well, once a full month was over he'd be sure to have a talk with her.

"Well, you're definitely getting a lot of…enemies out of it," Zane huffed, moving through another rep, "Alexis' popularity is quite absurd, granted I slightly understand their dissatisfaction, she is like a little sister to me, but even I found my eye wandering a few times on instinct, she is indeed that beautiful."

"What are they gonna do, cry about it some more?" Yarden rolled his eyes, unfazed. That was really all they could do. They couldn't beat him in a duel, and he'd had a mass of challengers since his new relationship came out, a bunch of them trying to make him bet Alexis on the duel, the weirdo's, he never did and just mopped them up. They couldn't do shit to him physically, he'd waste them and they knew it, he didn't care about shit they said, or their feeble glares and they definitely couldn't put him in his place by duelling.

"Apparently yes," Zane replied, making Yarden pause, "There is now an official 'Yarden Hate' club. It has over fifty members as of its creation five days ago."

Yarden blinked, "….What?" he said blankly.

Seriously?

"It was created by Harrington and Tony, and is an Obelisk Blue exclusive club," Zane was happy to inform, "They actually invited me to join and offered to let me become president for whatever reason."

Who the fuck was Tony?

"Wonder if I can join?" Yarden couldn't help but chuckle. God, actually, now that he thought about it.

That was utterly amazing.

He loved it.

"Somehow I doubt it," Zane noted dryly, as he finished his set and sat up for a bit, "Still, I have to admit, you're quite comfortable in your position, you don't seem threatened at all."

"Should I be?" Yarden asked with a shrug.

"The vast majority of the males on this island are infatuated and lusting after your girlfriend," Zane pointed out, "On top of that, she's been spending an awful lot of time with Syrus and his friends Jaden and Chumley lately."

"Not really anything to be threatened by," Yarden shrugged again, "Alexis is weird date wise, none of the clowns around here have what it takes to win her over, and no offense but I don't really see any of those three as a threat to my relationship even if Syrus has a crush on her as well."

The little guy wasn't exactly the greatest at hiding it. And she'd been spending a lot of time with them lately, because she was helping them out. What, with the 'duel giant' and then over the weekend just there the 'eggwich thief'.

She'd told him all about it and even offered to let him tag along, but he just didn't give a crap about the events and gave a hard pass.

There was really only two threats at all to his relationship with Alexis. The first being Jaden, he was who she would originally fall for, but he doubted it would come to that, besides, Jaden was his bro, he'd never fuck Yarden over like that even if the slightest possibility of it coming to pass did come from somewhere.

…The second threat was someone challenging her to a duel and making it an ante duel, where she would have to go out with them or fuck them if they beat her.

Alexis as intelligent as she was, still was all taken in by the duel customs around here.

But it wouldn't come to that either. Because if anybody tried, Hoshiningen would tell him, and then he'd break their fucking necks and then have his spirits dispose of the body, no duel involved.

So yes, he didn't feel threatened at all.

"Syrus does have quite a ways to go," Zane nodded in agreement, though a small smile spread across his face, "He actually approached me not long ago, he asked me to help him begin working out, it seems he wants to follow your example a bit."

Huh, that was interesting.

"Good on him, I'm a pretty great role model to choose," Yarden smirked and cross his arms, "Jealous?" he teased.

"Not especially, I believe he is mainly following your example because you're both quite short." Zane shrugged and smirked back at him.

"I'm five-six...and a half!" Yarden snapped back on instinct, before growling as he realised Zane won their little game there and got the rise out of him.

He'd grown half an inch since he'd gotten into this body. And his growth wasn't anywhere close to finished yet, he would totally hit six foot!

"It's fine, you just keep it up, you might catch up to me if you keep growing for another twenty years." Zane's smirk grew and he lay back down on the bench.

"It ain't just my body that's weird, you're freakishly tall for a Japanese guy." Yarden huffed. The guy was six foot one. Not even just him, Jasmine, Mindy and Alexis were all Japanese as well, and Jasmine and Mindy were five foot seven while Alexis was five foot eight.

They were way above the general height for Japanese girls.

"You're freakishly short for a Scotsman, rumours I heard of your country growing up painted you all as orange haired behemoth barbarians of pure muscle," Zane fired back, "I suppose you at least have the muscle."

"What kind of Jap has crazy blue hair?" Yarden sniped.

"The best ones." Zane shrugged and reached up to grasp the straight barbell again and grunted as he lifted it up once more, "Speaking of crazy hair, have you heard? Yugi's deck is going on tour."

Yarden paused, "…It is?" he asked.

That was now? He knew of course it was coming, but not how long until then.

"Yeah," Zane replied as he worked through his reps, "Should arrive by tomorrow, tickets will go on sale as well tomorrow at the card shop, so you'll have to get some if you wanna go see, might be a good place to take Alexis for a date."

That would be like taking a girl to a museum for a date. Not really a good move…normally, but with Alexis, yeah, he could see his point.

"How'd you know already?" Yarden asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm still the king here kid, one loss doesn't disqualify me from the top dog spot," Zane smirked up at him, "Professor Crowler called me to his office earlier to let me know and gave me a ticket in advance."

"Big talk for someone still not ready to take me on again." Yarden rolled his eyes. Still, this was all good to know. Because things would be picking up soon from here.

It wouldn't be long until the school duel, maybe a month, and then things would really rev up because the shadow riders would begin making their move. It was right after the school duel that the key holders were chosen.

With his undefeated streak and him taking down Zane, Titan and the Paradox Brothers and then confronting Shepard and throwing his hat in the ring, he'd secured himself a spot as a key holder.

And Yugi's deck itself would make for a good test for his newest spirits.

"Patience, my deck is ever growing in strength, I'll make sure to make you eat a loss to me soon." Zane promised.

Heh.