II.2

Closing the door behind him, Shinjiro let himself slump against it with a satisfied sigh. Nearly an hour after school had ended, he finally made it home.

It was a... long day.

And finally making it home forced him to realize something. He didn't dislike it. In fact, he was looking forward to going to school tomorrow.

Yet, why was that?

Earlier, he was annoyed that upon learning magic existed that he'd be forced to still attend boring and basic school. And getting stronger being his goal, it made sense that just sitting around a bunch of kids his age would be a waste of time.

But... it wasn't like that at all.

The souls of others constantly buzzed at him, forcing him to be aware at all times. The people were odd, sometimes baffling, and spoke to him at length without his prompting. And while he didn't do much of schoolwork since it was the first day, he was sure it would be somewhat difficult.

So... was that it? Highschool was simply more difficult than he thought it would be and he relished the challenge?

No.

As much as he'd like to convince himself he was an unfeeling megalomaniac, it simply wasn't true.

Experiencing an incalculable amount of time in the void was bound to clash with his fifteen years as a human. In one state, he was a seemingly permanent passive observer. In the other... he had choice.

The difference was like watching movies your entire life, only to suddenly be thrust into the body of one of the characters. Complete with all the urges, desires, and feelings that came with it. That came with living.

And that, there, was the crux of it. He enjoyed having a life, not just being alive.

For some reason, Rias had decided he was going to be the person she clung onto. She babbled almost incoherently to him after lunch.

And in between classes, where she almost got carried away.

And after school she did get carried away, blabbing at him for nearly a full hour before realizing what time it was.

It wasn't like he disliked her. In fact, if it weren't for the unsettling sound of her friend's soul ringing in the background, he probably would've kept talking to her about nothing.

She was his first... friend. Even if he didn't understand why she seemed so enamored by his every word.

It was too bad he had to lie to her about himself, but hey, better to be safe than sorry.

Being safe was his number one priority. It was the whole reason he wanted to become strong in the first place. Strength meant safety. And with safety, he could continue to live his life smoothly.

So after reviewing his schoolwork, he was going to hit up whatever gym was nearby.

Rather than focusing on increasing his level, he should probably just do the same thing everyone else his age was doing. Improve his basics.

With a strong foundation, even the weakest of supernatural abilities would be extremely useful. Therefore, building up his skillset and simply improving before a single level up was paramount.

And what better way to do that than hitting up the gym?

Though, I've never been to the gym...

Maybe he could take those wristbands and ankle wraps his family left him?

--[+]--

A little over an hour later, Shinjiro sat in front a gym he'd found relatively nearby, a familiar screen flickering in front of him.

▽

Shinjiro

Level: 0

Rank: Mortal - T0

Class: [--]

Progress to next level: 0%

Strength: 1 (Suppression = 0.97)

Dexterity: 2 (Suppression = 1.94)

Toughness: 1 (Suppression = 0.97)

Chi: 3

Mana: 1

Faith: 7

△

He tilted his head slightly, watching as the screen flickered each time he took off the black wristbands and put them back on.

I... think I see the point?

Each time he wore one of the wrist bands, all of his physical stats would be decreased by 3%. If he wore both, they would be decreased by 9%.

Following that thought process, if he wore both the wrist bands and the ankle wraps together, their effectiveness would stack resulting in a decrease of 81%.

Shaking his head, he put them in his back and kept them there. For now, they wouldn't be useful.

There were two uses he could think of foe something like this. One would be to suppress himself for future sparring partners if he became too strong. That way, he could still learn from humans even if he was much stronger than them.

The other use would be to improve his training speed. As he trained, his growth speed would eventually plateau the higher and higher his stats became. With this, he theoretically should be able to keep a linear growth speed for a decent amount of time.

It was a useful tool that he was extremely grateful his family left him.

Though, he still wasn't sure what the silved rosary was for. Maybe they were just religious?

In any case, he didn't have much time in the day. He wanted to get started on magic right after this, as he was almost halfway through the first part of the mana book.

Besides, awkwardly staring into the air was getting him some weird looks from people walking by. Only he could see his system, after all.

Stepping inside, he let out a pleased hum at the crisp air conditioning and walked up to the counter. Across from him was a man who clearly lived and breathed the gym, as was evident by his muscles damn near rippling out of his shirt.

It was sort of funny how this giant of a man was trying to type on such a small computer.

At this close proximity, the sound of the man's soul was pretty 'clear'. So far, it sounded pretty normal, if a bit loud.

After being exposed to so many souls, he was pretty sure the sound of it was evident of one's personality at least somewhat. That, and he could hear their... thoughts? Feelings? He wasn't sure yet.

In any case, he didn't know what having a 'loud' soul meant, but it couldn't be anything too bad.

"Yo," Shinjiro waved at the man apprehensively. He wasn't exactly nervous, but there was always going to be a certain lack of confidence when one was in an unknown enviornment.

"Hm?" The man grunted, not taking his eyes off the computer. "Need something?"

His tone was gruff, but the sound of his soul barely changed. So... not intentionally rude, just not paying attention?

"I was wondering if I could become a member...?" Pretty sure that's how this works, anyway.

The man raised an eyebrow, the sound of his soul changing as he finally wrenched his eyes off the computer.

After giving him a good look over up and down, he snorted.

"Yeah, I could get you set you up with a subscription spot. Not like anyone even comes in here, anyway." He grumbled that last part under his breath.

"You eighteen?" The man continued, back to typing on the computer.

"Nah, Fifteen." Shinjiro answered succinctly.

"Oh? You trying to get in shape for a school sports team or something like that?" Both of his eyebrows rose even higher than before.

Shinjiro opened his mouth to answer instinctively before quickly closing it. Answering that he wanted to 'surpass god' would probably be the wrong thing to say.

Though, it would be amusing to see the man's reaction.

"Nope. Just thought I'd better start early if I was gonna take care of my body." Shinjiro took a moment to think on the question some more. "I don't know if my school even has a sports team." He answered honestly.

"Already treating your body like a temple at your age? Wish I was like that when I was your age." The man said absentmindedly, still typing at the computer.

He paused. "Wait, you wouldn't happen to be from that expensive school a few blocks down? The one that just recently became coed?"

Now it was Shinjiro's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Kuoh? Yeah, I'm from there."

"Ah, shite," The man cursed, the sound of his soul spiking in volume. "Uh, no offense, my daughter goes there actually. I'm just legally obligated to give students from there a discount."

Shinjiro chuckled in response. "Thats actually perfect. I don't have much money to spare, actually."

The man paused, giving him all of his attention with furrowed brows.

"Your parents can get you into a school like that, but can't spare a couple bucks for your health?" If anything, he sounded almost offended.

"Orphan," Shinjiro corrected. "That's actually why I don't have much money. I only got in with a scholarship."

The man whistled, his expression softening. "Damn, kid. A sharp mind and an independent drive for a healthy body? You're gonna be a force to be reckoned with in a few years."

Shinjiro chuckled again for a different reason. You have no idea.

"Well, you know what they say. A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body." He quoted, rephrasing the description of his only real skill.

"Hm... I like that." He hummed, nodding to himself. "Well no point wasting daylight. We'll see where you're at and what you need to work on and go from there."

With that, the man stood and simply began walking away deeper into the gym.

Shinjiro smiled, following after him.

If this was the owner, he didn't seem too bad. A bit rough around the edges, but who wasn't?