Gains

Ichiro spoke to a few others at the gym as he continued to lift weights.

"Can you believe this guy?" one said to another, exasperated. "He's been coming here for a few weeks and he's so ripped already!"

"Hey man," the other gym patron started, "what's your secret?"

"Secret?" Ichiro questioned in between reps.

"Yea," the man continued, "I remember when you first came in here, you were scrawny. Now you're lifting more than I can and I've been coming here for years."

"Oh," Ichiro responded and grunted slightly as he continued to lift weights. "I had a trainer. She taught me how to get stronger. I'm just doing what she taught me."

"I don't think he can lift more than you Ren" the first man said in disbelief.

"Then you haven't been watching him as closely as I have Minato." Ren quipped. "I would like to know how much he can lift though." Ren turned back toward Ichiro, "would you care to have a friendly competition?"

Ichiro placed the weights on the floor, sat up, and asked, "what kind of competition do you have in mind?"

It was then that the pair got a good look at Ichiro.

Minato chimed in with, "Ah, red eyes." which was followed by Ren grunting and nodding in agreement.

"Is that a problem?" Ichiro questioned expecting trouble considering what he'd heard from others.

"What?" Ren questioned before realizing how what Minato said came across. "Oh, no! Sorry! We don't care in the slightest. We were just taking note of it."

Minato then chimed in, "If you learned some secret technique in another world, we would appreciate if you would share it with us. You see, we really only care about lifting."

"Ah," Ichiro uttered and sighed in relief. "I see."

"But before that," Ren cheerily exclaimed, "we have a lifting competition to get to. What do you say we deadlift to see what we're capable of?"

"What is deadlifting?" Ichiro questioned of the pair.

"You don't know deadlifting?" Minato asked. "Well, let me give you a good example!" the young brute said as he walked over and deadlifted ninety kilograms."

As Minato dropped the weights, Ren cheered and high-fived him before they flexed their muscles together.

Ichiro chuckled out loud, "Fantastic! I was about to move on to an exercise similar to that! Let's see who can lift the most!"

The group moved together to the weights and began preparing for their friendly competition.

"WE WILL NOW CONDUCT THE MEGA ULTIMATE SUPER LIFTING COMPETITION OF THE AGES!" Minato maniacally cheered for the gym to hear.

"Please excuse my friend," Ren calmly said to Ichiro.

Ichiro bellowed a laugh, "BRING ALL COMPETITORS! I SHALL NOT BE DEFEATED!"

All the members of the gym moved over to watch the spectacle. Continuing at ninety kilograms, Ren and Ichiro both easily deadlifted the weights. The trio continued taking turns adding ten kilograms to each cycle. Once they reached a hundred and fifty kilograms, Minato couldn't continue on. Instead, he cheered on Ren as the pair continued on with their competition. Ichiro continued to match Ren time and time again, but before long and just shy of two hundred kilograms, Ren couldn't carry on. The gym erupted in cheers and support as they hoisted Ichiro into the air over and over.

After some celebrating, Ren praised, "That was fantastic my friend! You'll definitely have to show us how you became so strong!"

Then, Minato chimed in with, "You said this was similar to an exercise you were going to do."

Ichiro chuckled slightly and replied, "That's right, but my exercise required just a bit more."

"Eehhh?" Ren inquired. "How much more can you do?"

Ichiro smiled and said, "let me show you." then raised the total weight on the bar to two hundred and fifty kilograms. "The exercise I do is similar to what you do." he said as he deadlifted the weight, "but then I do a bit more." Ichiro then did a bicep curl with the bar which completely took everyone by surprise.

"That's..." Minato barely muttered while everyone else was at a loss for words.

Ren let out a massive, deep laugh and said, "I never had a chance in our competition. See Minato, I watched him closer and knew he was holding something back."

"I've never seen strength like that before." Minato responded.

After Ichiro let out a chuckle, Ren seized the opportunity and asked, "Will you teach us how to lift like that?"

"Eh?" Ichiro uttered. "Oh, well, I don't think I do that much different from what you do. I think I just have to follow a couple more steps that wouldn't really be good to teach others."

"So, you won't teach us?" Ren was let down by Ichiro's unwillingness.

"I'm sorry my new friends." Ichiro lamented. "I fear that if I were to teach you, it may be too much for you."

"How would it be too much?" Minato stepped forward and asked.

Ichiro considered the best way to respond before saying, "The only reason I believe I can do it is because I already have. Were you to do what I do, I'm not sure you would know how to respond to how everything felt. You might push yourself too far or not far enough. If you can't do it correctly then the damage you do to yourself may well be irreparable."

The group grew solemn before a familiar voice rang out from the back of the room asking, "What kind of damage would they endure Ichiro? It's important that you tell them or else they might be tempted to simply watch you while you're in here and follow along with what you do."

Ichiro looked past the crowd of gym goers that surrounded him to see Haruki standing at the back of the room. He had entered during the competition and took the opportunity to watch.

"I spent a long time in another world." Ichiro nodded toward Haruki before he continued his explanation. "Since I spent so much time there, I didn't have much else to do but learn the limits of my body and make myself get stronger."

"But, I think I know my limits as well." Ren said anxiously in hopes of learning Ichiro's practices.

"No," Ichiro uttered thinking back to his past. "I wasn't the only one that learned from my teacher. I was just the only successful one. I've seen people whose body failed them in the training, and if not their body then their minds. They too thought they could handle it."

Haruki walked over to the group that had gathered around.

"How long did it take you to get this strong before?" Haruki asked pointedly in hopes that Ichiro would elaborate more for the sake of the others.

"To reach this level of strength?" Ichiro paused while he tried to think back to a time so long ago. "I can't be sure because I don't quite remember, but it must have taken several decades of hard training. My teacher was no slouch so she was hard on me. I feel like I wasn't very strong when she died. It's possible I wasn't even as strong as I am now."

"You see," Haruki started explaining to the others at the gym. "While each of us might have been able to live our twenty or thirty years here so far, Ichiro has lived another full life already. With that, he has all the knowledge and experience and memories from that other life so he already knew what to do."

Just then, a random person in the group called out, "Isn't that cheating? Just like the red eyes, they either cheat or lie. He says decades like that's realistic."

Minato snapped at the man, "What? You obviously have no idea what you're talking about. Do you even think about what you're saying before the stupidity falls out of your mouth?"

"There's no proof that anyone was taken to another world or parallel dimension or another planet or anything. It's just stories." The man professed.

Ren placed his hand on Minato's shoulder to calm him down before looking at the man and stating, "Imagine you were in that position. Imagine if someone or something snatched you up and dropped you on another planet. Does that sound like something you'd want to do?"

The random man calmed and thought for a moment before responding, "That sounds terrible actually. I never thought of it like that."

"None of those that were taken went willingly." Haruki said to the much calmer man. "But, having seen how much they've changed and what they can do, I have to believe them. Being a police officer I have to see them for what they are." Haruki paused before muttering, "Victims."

"Haruki." Ichiro uttered understanding more of how Haruki viewed not only him, but the others in the support group including his own sister. "With the exception of me, the others weren't just victims. They were heroes too. From what I've heard of their tales, they struggled against near impossible odds and made it back."

"Of course you're right Ichiro." Haruki sighed again. "Come on my friend, I've come to bring you to dinner with Inori and myself."

Ichiro and Haruki began to move through the group together toward the door. As they passed, the stranger hung his head in shame.

"Come with us." Ren and Minato said to the man. "Now isn't the time to feel sorry, it's time to get stronger." The pair walked the man toward the bench press table before calling out to Haruki and Ichiro with "I hope we haven't discouraged you from coming back."

"Oh I'll be back." Ichiro called out to the group. "We'll have to have more competitions!"

Ichiro flexed showing off his muscles before Ren chuckled slightly and flexed in response.