Chapter 8: Chapter 8

Aiden did go back to that fitness center in the days after. It was the perfect place to workout and he’d be able to save some money by not having to buy his own equipment so there was no reason not to go. Speaking of money, he’d made a killing selling Yuuji’s old stuff. There were rare limited editions all over his collection and those buyers he’d lined up all wanted them. They made a small auction house in that apartment of his. After that, Aiden was several thousand dollars richer. He hadn’t been able to get rid of everything, but those numerous rare items really did sell very well

Luckily Naoko and Rumi went to the center too so he was always able to catch a ride with them. Otherwise he’d have to get a bus ride. They were more in the outskirts of the city, apparently, in a residential district, which did mean there was a bit of a ride you had to take to get to the inner city. It was a vast area, the city, as large as any from his previous world if not larger. 

 

That wasn’t all. The city he entered was quite normal. Yeah. Normal. That is, until you looked up.. He hadn’t noticed before because there was apparently some sort of barrier placed around it, but high above alongside the birds, higher than the highest skyscraper, so high and elusive that you’d see it peeking out of the clouds only rarely...was a goddamn whole other fucking city. 

 

That’s right. A second city. In the motherfucking sky. Now, he feigned a calm. He pretended sanity. And sure, he’d reincarnated into another world. Had been killed by some schmuck riding a giant sword chasing after a one-eyed unicorn-pegasus abomination and then woken up in his bed right after as if it never happened. 

 

But you don’t just see a floating city straight out of some basic bitch fantasy novel and just go, “HUh. Neat.” No, you start questioning things. Aiden, he started seriously wondering what kind of crazy world he’d come to. Like seriously, what the fuck? Not that he didn’t question his predicament before that point. But there’s a limit to how much fantastical bullshit he can handle, and a floating city was just the last straw. 

 

He did not want to even stop to think about how the hell a regular guy like him was expected to live in a world like this. No wonder the average person was so strong. They had to be. Actually, why the hell was Yuuji so weak? He should know better. The boy must have been sheltered as hell or something, because there is no way he would have survived as long as he had otherwise in a reality where people flew on swords. 

 

It’s what prompted him to actually look up some history of the planet. Rationally he knew it should’ve been one of the first things he did, but lamenting his unusual circumstances had taken precedence back then. And to be honest? He didn’t want to know more about this place. It’s like the more he knew the more real it became, and deep down he didn’t like that. So he avoided it. He can’t do that anymore. 

 

This meant he researched via the miracle of the world wide web. What he discovered? 

 

For starters, it looked like sometime during the medieval period where fantasty stories from Aiden’s old world would usually take place, in this world those stories were actually history. Great and mystical creatures had suddenly appeared and wrought havoc, destroying many villages and cities and causing general pandemonium. During this time, however, other strange things happened. People became stronger, faster. Not by much, but enough to be noticed. Then they started attaining abilities. 

 

Shooting fire from your hands, water, lightning, manipulating the wind. These were now categorized as “external” abilities due to them being active powers that one could release outside the body. Because these powers were normally elemental in nature, people had come to name these individuals elementalists.  Other powers were more strange and hard to define, not always useful and able to be understood. 

 

Some people could make objects bind to each other,  or prevent food from spoiling. In the modern era after the invention of the microscope and a deeper understanding of the physical world, these kinds of abilities could be signs of being able to magnetize, or to command microorganisms which is what would allow for the prevention of decay. 

 

The second type became “enchanting” while the third type of ability was called  “summoning.”  Enchanters were those who’s powers only worked on other objects or people, and summoners would altogether create a certain “something” that was how they performed whatever their power allowed for. This was often called an external ability as well as there was an overlap by way of it being an outside ability you release, but summoners and elementalists were not categorized in the same group.

 

There were then internal abilities. “Enhancements” they were known as. This, as one would imagine, was where people’s strength truly transcended common sense and pushed them to be far stronger than even the new average of the world. They were given a kind of energy to control, an energy that made them just as resilient and tough as any of the beasts that invaded their world.  

 

The ways of utilizing this energy aside, it also was the kind of ability that changed things even further, and together with the summoning category, was what actually allowed the people of the world to know that these creatures and empowered individuals had existed since the first civilizations of man. Supposedly, just like in his previous world, they also had “epics” of powerful heroes and creatures in the far past that were believed to be nothing more than myth before those myths became all too real. 

 

Enhancers were special. The more feats they acquired the more powerful they became. And upon their death, they had a chance to become what people of this era call “Heroic Spirits.” Born from the adoration of the people, from legends told about their various feats. And their power would change, morphing into a kind of authority, a domain all their own that came from the interpretation and ideals of man. These beings, he’d read, could then be called upon and used. Only an equally special type of summoner could do so, however, and that was how people discovered this sort of hidden history. Because the Heroic Spirits who came had told them, had taught them. Not just about the history of the planet in those nearly forgotten times, but also of the creatures that arrived and how to combat them effectively.

 

That was the first turning point of mankind. 

 

….Then came the cultivators. 

 

And that’s where he stopped for the moment, because everything up to then already threatened to overwhelm him. It was just too much. He needed a moment to process. More than a moment. Fuck

 

Anyway, yeah. The history of this world was certainly insane and the various abilities of the populace were something he could hardly fathom.

 

That said, the ground city was apparently considered relatively safe and those who used their powers to commit crimes were of course kept in line, but come on. Aiden died his first week here. Maybe that was partly just bad luck, sure. Still though. The very second time Aiden went with Naoko and Rumi to the fitness center, for example, he’d seen a street fight where the people were shooting beams of...something...from their hands before a pair of officers in robes descended from the sky and put them down. 

 

Perhaps you could say this was not very common since he hadn’t seen anything like that the day before. But no. Aiden had become keenly aware of the fact that someone like Yuuji was a newborn babe in a dark cave full of sleeping wolves that could be woken at any moment. One wrong move and he’d have been dinner, 

 

As for why he thought so, it was due to the difference in treatment between cultivators, summoners, and elementalists.

 

Elementalists and summoners in general were not very high in status in this world so they along with those without powers were less kept in check. Which meant street fights like what  he saw, while not very common either, wasn’t that rare. 

 

They were not at all equal to people who could use Heroic Spirits or those who were cultivators. It was a kind of a checks and balances system, but on average elementalists and normal summoners were not very strong in comparison to the Heroic Spirits and cultivators. In fact cultivators could use spells that could do the same things as most external ability users anyway since, again, they were limited to elemental abilities often enough. And regular fire, water and ice just wasn’t enough.

 

Someone who could shoot balls of fire from their hand could meet any random cultivator who could usually do the same. Things like affinity were involved, alongside technique, but yes. Elementalists and summoners were not considered very strong powers here so most people who had them were left alone as they were just considered only slightly more advantaged than their regular non-powered peers even if that may not be the case. 

 

He said “may” since some people did have much stronger powers. Two people who could use the same element may not be equal themselves. Like cultivators who relied on technique to change the properties of their attacks, there were people born who could use an element with a special trait. Those anomalies were the ones who held up the rest of their kind, in fact, as some of them were true freaks.

 

Then obviously you had the more rare summoner who could use Heroic Spirits. They weren’t even called summoners then, instead they were referred to as Heroes themselves. 

 

Weird, though. How did he die so easily that first time? He’s supposedly the fallen young master of some family, and Naoko may very well be someone sent to protect him. Yet he got away just like that. No one else watching him. Not Rumi, not her mother, no one. He just walked to the nearest convenience store where any random asshole could come and shank him if they wanted.

 

Maybe the area he lived at was designated a safe area, so no one really looked after him? And from Yuuji’s ifestyle previously he rarely left his home anyway, so that made Naoko or whoever may be watching him even more lax?. Maybe that explained it. In fact, he sorta bet on it. Which means...

 

Yeah….I have bad luck. Fuck me.

 

Since his sudden accident and subsequent change in personality, though, he did expect Naoko to pay more close attention, Actually, he was already feeling it. The woman watched him like a hawk and was on him like butter on toast.

 

Like today, for instance.

 

“Yuuji, do you need help stretching?”

“Jesus, woman.” Aiden cursed, his hackles rising as the woman appeared from out of thin air. “Would it kill you to make a sound?”

“Hm?” She tilted her head. “Does it bother you that you can’t notice me coming? But why? Yuu-kun wouldn’t happen to be despairing over the possibility that I may catch you doing something you shouldn’t, would you?”

The question caught him offguard. “Hah?” 

 

She gave a light, teasing laugh. “You know,  since if I can sneak up on you you wouldn’t be able to hide anything from me in time.”

 

“Like what, for example?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to wait and see, I suppose.”

“...Right. Okay. Look, I just don’t like having a small heart attack every time you pop in from out of the ether. I scare easily, alright?” He lied. He didn’t scare easy at all. But somehow she did. The woman is hot, but creepy. He wouldn’t mind normally, but he’d seen her using a dumbbell with the number 200 on it. A dumbbell.

 

Suffice it to say, he was cautious around her. Not that he was scared of everyone else too. He wasn’t stupid enough to outright pick a fight with someone now that he’d seen the average weight these people were lifting here, but no one else here gave off the same chill she did.

 

In short, she was special. In a bad way. In fact, she motivated him the most to get stronger. Just so that he could more quickly feel like he wouldn’t be manhandled by some soncon. Because that’s what she felt like, honestly. It didn’t feel like she wanted him sexually, but it did feel like she had a very overbearing sense of protection directed at him. She thought of him as family, that’s for sure.

 

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He’s seen mothers like her before. They were all normal with other people, but once their kids were involved they became certifiably insane, Aiden wanted nothing to do with that, but unfortunately the person in question was him and he still needed her. After seeing a bit more of the world’s own insane nature he realized he had to get not just “strong” but “powerful”. Enough to protect himself.  Just how he would do so was still up in the air, but it should be possible. Especially with this “system” Cade and his comrade gave him. 

 

The spiritual power stat or whatever it was called made him certain his body held some kind of secret that would allow him to protect himself at least decently well if only he could find out how to unlock it. But that’s for later. For now he just had to focus on his overall physique and lay low. Only after that would Aiden feel like he had a good foundation for trying to do what he’d seen and read others do.

 

He shouldn’t try to run before he could walk. He wasn’t even at the same level as the average person in this world. Until he was he shouldn’t even think about trying for more. Hell, he barely passed as a child with his current strength. Supposedly, the 20 and 30 pound weights he couldn’t even lift more than two times yet? They were used by 5-9 year olds. 

 

He worked harder as soon as that was pointed out by one of the instructors, wondering why he was using something meant for children. No wonder no one used them! They’d been put off in a neglected corner. Aiden completely didn’t notice the numbers on the other weights the first time he’d come, but the average weights everyone else used were in the 50s for the dumbbells and in the mid hundreds for the other equipment while some of the more muscular people could pench press in the thousands. Barely. But still. Aiden definitely would’ve gotten injured if he’d tried to use the other equipment that day, for sure. 

 

He really has to start paying more attention to things. Obviously he underestimated the people of this world. He could only imagine the monstrous strength of those who lived on the city above.  Fortunately that kid from the other day mistook him as someone far stronger than he actually was. Physical strength may not even be very important to people like that boy for all Aiden knew. 

 

Either that kid could fold Aiden into a pretzel if he hadn’t been so terrified, or his power laid in a direction different from someone like Naoko and the people on the ground and he saw something similar in Aiden. From the direction of the conversation, and how the only odd or notable stat was his spiritual power...it’s likely that was the case. That the boy had seen a great amount of spiritual power in Yuuji’s body and mistakenly thought he was some overpowered cultivator.

 

Perhaps he wasn’t all that tough in body, that brat? He hadn’t thrown off Aiden’s grip, after all. But then again he couldn’t recall if the kid even tried. He didn’t know if cultivators shared the same physique as those of this world since they were basically aliens, so maybe they weren’t tough physically...but he couldn’t be sure, he hadn’t read anything about that yet at least.

 

Whatever. 

 

Aiden finished up his reps and wiped the sweat from his brow before taking a sip from his water bottle. From the corner of his eye he saw Naoko being stealthily oogled at. Since arriving here that was common for her. She turned the heads of even the women. Her natural beauty was, after all, devastating. And those tight-fitting pants that showed off an ass thicker than a bowl of oatmeal? Yeah. It was just something to be expected. There were boners in the crowd for sure.

 

In fact, each of the male instructors came up to her  at one point or another to offer her their help in stretching her. Which from what he’d seen them do with the other female clients, was just an excuse to rub up on them. And those female clients did seem to enjoy that, mind you. There were female instructors who did the same, not that any approached Aiden. It was obviously a part of how this place makes it’s money. Anyway, Naoko never accepted their offers even once. Instead she’d make Aiden do it, much to the envy of everyone present. 

 

Aiden, as someone who did have more self control than a teenager going through puberty--unlike the rest of these guys, apparently--didn’t have any trouble. He couldn’t claim perfect control, but unless his mind wandered he was usually safe. His unease around her may have helped, though. 

 

“Are you done, Yuuji?” The woman, ever mindful of his every move, immediately stopped the leg presses she was doing and called to him from across the room.

 

“I’m going to take a shower.” He nodded. “I’ll be in the cafeteria. You can keep g--”

 

“I’m done too, let’s go.”

What a surprise, Aiden thought mildly. It was a pattern now. She’d never stay here if he didn’t, he knew. She’d go off on her own when they first arrive, but not ten minutes would pass before she wound up in te same place he’d be in. Every time. He tested it out, too. He entered a pilates class once. Didn’t even do anything and just waited by the door. Sure enough, she’d come. He’d then left her there saying, “You can go ahead, I don’t think I’m interested actually.” And she’d nod and pretend to take a position. 

 

He then entered the tennis court. Same thing. He did this several times more and each time she’d come with the words, “It wasn’t for me after all.” 

 

Yeah. Because he wasn’t there. That’s the only reason. He chose to not mind it in the end but it was just like he thought. On his ass like butter on toast, no doubt about it.

 

About twenty minutes later and Aiden walked out of the shower, blessfully stink free. His shouldered his new backpack--for his clothes, of course--and departed. As he left, he saw the manager of the weight room giving him a faintly disgusted look as he passed the open door. He couldn’t even be bothered to remember her name. She was pretty enough but a total bitch. Didn’t even try to hide her dislike for him. That could be due to his less than stellar first impression, sure, but he wasn’t concerned for her.

 

It seemed as if her dislike escalated when he started showing up with Naoko, funnily enough. 

 

What he means is, the whole thing was hilarious from start to finish.

 

“A flower in pig shit,” She’d once muttered as they walked by the other day. Which Naoko heard. and slapped the fuck out of her for. 

 

“Oh my,” She feigned concern. “It seems that my hand slipped. I’m terribly sorry. It’s just something that happens whenever I detect the presence of raging bitch, you see.”

 

This didn’t stop there, of course. The woman had taken the matter directly to the head manager and demanded an apology. They were all called into her office and the woman had raised a big fuss about it to the point where Naoko just asked, “Tell me, does your ass ever get jealous of all the shit that comes out of your mouth?” which nearly caused a brawl to break out.

 

Once everything was explained the matter was quickly resolved and nothing happened except the woman...again he didn’t bother to rememeber her name…being given a warning about badmouthing members of the center. It seemed like she wouldn’t have cared if Naoko hadn’t been involved, judging from the other woman’s surprise and indignation, however. 

 

From that point on, yeah. Her resentment towards Yuuji in particular had increased and she’d seem to gnash her teeth each time she saw him, but she stayed away so it didn’t matter a single fuck to him. 

 

The male instructor he’d met that first day appeared to carry a hint of resent for him too, now that he thought of it. Being told off by Naoko after just a single attempt at trying to “help” her must’ve rubbed his ego the wrong way.

 

“...What on Earth could’ve possibly given you the confidence to talk to me?” Was all she said before promptly turning her head and forgetting his existence. 

 

 Yup. He’d be feeling that one for a while. Especially when he then saw how easily she accepted Aiden instead.

 

“Yuuji, come on, you can go a bit rougher, you know? I can take it.” He was only helping her stretch her legs while she lied on her back, but those words combined with the positioning? Seeing someone like Aiden so “intimate” with the person who rejected him? The guy’s face was like a storm.

 

Between Naoko and those two pricks, let’s just say Aiden was certainly kept entertained. 

 

***

Within the grandest palace, atop the highest mountain peak of the largest sky island in this world, was a man.

 

He spoke once. 

 

“The impurity. Find it.”

His voice shook her to the core of her being and made her feel like it alone would be enough to erase her soul.

 

“Yes, grandfather.” She bowed, departing immediately.

Old Bai did not acknowledge her reply. He simply closed his eyes and reconnected with the universe. 

 

At any other time he would have moved himself to investigate such a strange and mysterious matter. But not now, not as he was. There could be no distractions, no disturbances. He was close. So impossibly close. 

 

Soon, he thought. Soon…

 

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