Chapter 19

Beep beep beep.

In a hospital room, only the beeping of the apparatus could be heard. Lying in bed, a frail-looking boy was wearing a breathing mask. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face, although asleep, showed fatigue.

In that state was Shiki Makunouchi, captain of the 2nd division of Yggdrasil, and Yuji's friend.

Outside the room, Yuji was sitting on a chair, his forehead resting on his hands, the boy with his eyes closed and a thoughtful, tired expression on his face.

Two days had passed since the war, Yggdrasil coming out as victorious, but at a great cost. In the attempt to capture Kisaki, Shiki ended up being shot in the chest. As luck would have it, the bullet did not hit his heart, but did damage to his rib cage, which left him in a serious condition. By the time Yuji reached the alley, Kisaki had already fled, but he was quick to act by stealing the motorcycle of one of the Valhalla offenders to take Shiki to the hospital.

"Your actions saved Shiki's life," was what the doctor said, but that didn't lessen the weight the boy felt on his shoulders.

He wanted to find Kisaki and punch his face until his nose sank into his skull, for all that he had done. But now that he was on the run from the police, that would be difficult. Fortunately, one thing was certain.

Kisaki would not cause trouble for long.

His aunt, who heard what had happened, bowed down before Shiki's parents to ask for forgiveness. Fortunately, the boy's parents were understanding, and did not blame Yuji for what had happened, especially after learning what Kisaki was responsible for. To them, Kisaki was the real culprit of everything.

But of course, this did not save Yuji from receiving the biggest beating of his life. Not even with his new ability was he able to dodge Shisumi's punches. This led Yuji to believe that his aunt really was no ordinary person.

Every day he would visit Shiki in the hospital. The boy's parents appreciated this, and treated Yuji in a friendly manner, which Yuji believed he didn't deserve, even more so when he was the one responsible for taking their son into that war.

"But you're here for him, that's what matters."

That was the response he received as he raised such a point to the two adults. Yuji was initially shocked, wondering if the couple were hipsters or something, but he soon came to appreciate the way they both treated him. This lessened the weight on his shoulders, but until Shiki was 100%, he would not forgive himself for his attitudes.

With Yggdrasil, the gang was doing well. With Akira and Osanai running the gym, the profits were only increasing, even more so when they were able to hire a boxing instructor. This attracted even more people, and in addition to weight training, the gym now offered boxing classes to those who frequented the place.

Everything was going well, even Shiki's situation was stable.

In the end, with everything going the right way, Yuji now had a problem on his hands that he had preferred to ignore for the past few days...

[To use the "Observe" skill, you must say or think the word while looking at something. This will show the information of the object or individual].

In his gym, Yuji stared at the text floating in front of his eyes with a bored expression.

'Whatever sent me into this world is really out to have fun.

With a sigh, Yuji relaxed on the bench he was sitting on and looked up at the ceiling. He didn't know what to think about the system. For many people, having a system was a dream, but for Yuji, he really didn't care about it. Sure, the system would help him, especially to get stronger, but in a world where there are no powers or anything like that, there wasn't that much use for something so broken.

He moved his gaze until it landed on Akira and Osanai, the two of them talking while the bigger one practiced shadow boxing. Curious, Yuji thought "Watch," two screens appearing in front of his eyes.

. . .

Name: Osanai Nobutaka

Age: 18

Strength: B

Durability: C+

Stamina: C

Speed: B

Intelligence: E

Potential: B

. . .

Name: Akira Suekichi

Age: 16

Strength: B+

Durability: C++

Stamina: B

Speed: C

Intelligence: S

Potential: A+

. . .

'Osanai surpasses Akira only in speed... Well, it makes sense, after all, one practices Jiujitsu and the other Boxing... And he's very dumb.'

Osanai suddenly sneezed, the blond man scratching his nose as he looked around.

"Did you catch a cold from the festival rain?" Akira asked.

Osanai turned his attention back to the punching bag. "No, I just sneezed suddenly. I felt like someone was thinking something bad of me."

"Wouldn't that be common?"

"Huh?! What does that mean?!"

.

.

.

Walking through the city, Yuji looked around with thoughtful eyes. The people around him, sensed that there was something special about the boy, but they didn't pay attention to him for long. For ordinary people, they would not see it, but for fighters, an aura around the teenager was noticeable in their outlook.

The teenager, who had no idea that he was emanating this kind of aura, didn't even notice when, at some point, someone approached him, stopping in front of him and causing him to interrupt his walk.

'Uh? I didn't even see this guy coming.' He thought, his eyes lifting to see a young-looking man, probably in his early 20s, staring down at him. The stranger was tall, at least taller than he was.

The figure's hair was dark, long, and messy, like seaweed. His face showed indifference, but to Yuji, the confidence in those eyes was perceptible. He felt like he knew the figure from somewhere, but he didn't think much of it, and just decided to find out what he wanted.

"Uh? Are you going to stare at me? Just say what you want." Yuji asked with annoyance.

The figure, which seemed to react, suddenly opened its mouth.

"Let's fight." He spoke, his black eyes staring at Yuji with intensity, and the boy immediately realized that the man in front of him would not take no for an answer.

With a sigh, Yuji turned into an alley and walked toward him. There was no need for an exchange of words in that situation. The boy immediately realized that the person in front of him was someone strong, at least stronger than Mikey, but he didn't care. With all the recent events, he wouldn't mind if he suddenly found himself face to face with Yujiro Hanma himself.

Already in the alley, Yuji stared at the wall for a few seconds, and turned to face his opponent, who was warming himself with small jumps while stretching his shoulders. The teenager didn't bother to warm up, he would try to end the thing in a few moves.

"I won't ask your motives, I don't care about them one bit, but if you pull a knife when you are losing, I will end your face." Yuji spoke as he took a stance, this drawing a small smile from the figure, who also put on a stance.

"So you think you will win?" The man asked with debauchery, but his words didn't even reach Yuji, the boy ignoring them completely.

Staring at each other for a few seconds, it was obvious that they were waiting, their eyes analyzing each other as if they were face to face with a dangerous predator, and their lives depended on his next move.

"!"

Without any warning, the two advanced, Yuji throwing a punch while his opponent sent him a low kick, the blow connecting with the boy's thigh and causing him to flinch. Seeing this as an opportunity, the man grabbed Yuji's fist and pulled him into a knee strike, the blow hitting him hard and causing him to pull away while clutching his abdomen.

'He's good... It's obvious that not only is he stronger than Mikey, but he also has more technique. I can't fight this guy without going all in from the start.'

Yuji frowned, his posture opening as his legs parted even further, his hands ajar as he began to bounce. This caused the man to raise an eyebrow.

"!"

In the blink of an eye, Yuji swept the distance between the two, him launching two jabs towards the man, the blows glancing past him as he stepped back. With a smile on his lips, the man returned the intent and also attacked Yuji, his blows being parried by the boy with difficulty as he countered. Starting an exchange of blows, Yuji found himself overwhelmed as a greater amount of blows connected on his body, the attacks with enough force to do him a huge amount of damage.

'Shit!' Being forced to defend himself as the man began punishing him with consecutive punches, Yuji watched the man's movements with difficulty. 'He's too fast!'

With a direct advancing against his face, Yuji threw his torso forward at the last second, evading the blow and giving him the freedom to grab his opponent's body. 'I can't face him standing up, so let's go to the ground!' he shouted in his mind and put his arms around the man's body. The other party seeing this, made no attempt to free himself from the grab, a smile appearing on his lips as he grabbed Yuji's body and returned his intention to start a ground fight.

Yuji, who was about to take the man to the ground, suddenly stopped, sweat beading down his forehead as he dared not move.

"What- What the fuck?!"

Clinging to his opponent's body, Yuji felt his opponent's body soften, as if he was trying to cling to a body completely formed of water. The feeling was that the man was melting into the boy's arms, and this scared Yuji deeply. What should he do in a situation like that? He had never dealt with a martial art like this, and he didn't even know if it was really a martial art! In that situation, Yuji froze completely, his mind trying to understand what the hell was going on.

But while this was going on in his mind, his opponent didn't wait, and in the blink of an eye, he came up behind the boy, where in one simple, smooth motion, he threw the teenager's body to the ground with tremendous force, this taking all the air out of Yuji's lung.

"Fuck!" He cursed, his body completely bruised from the previous attack, his vision blurred from the impact against the ground.

"Looks like you lost, kid." The man spoke, and with a proud smile on his lips, he headed out of the alley, without even wasting saliva on parting words.

Frowning, Yuji looked at the man's back with difficulty. Even with blurred vision, he was able to differentiate the figure, and then in a last expenditure of energy, he thought [Observe].

. . .

Name: Ohma Tokita

Age: 26

Strength: S++

Durability: S+++

Stamina: S+++

Speed: SS

Intelligence: S

Potential: SSS

. . .

'Son of a bitch...'

With this last thought, Yuji closed his eyes, the darkness overtaking him and putting him into a state of unconsciousness.